Unpopular Opinions On Religion, Politics, & Business #TheOnePercent

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Hey, a quick note for you Amazon sellers and brands who are who want to be on Amazon and haven't made it a priority yet. I am often asked about changes with reviews or changes with Amazon terms of service or changes with what's working with ranking and all of that kind of jazz. And I'm proud that I have partnered with one of our backroom members. His name is Jeff. He runs an agency that specializes specifically in optimizing your Amazon presence. So if you're a brand that is neglecting Amazon and you've heard me talking about it and you're like, we know we got to get this together, or if you're an Amazon seller and you know you need to turn your attention to audience building and funnels and the stuff that is really going to grow your company, I would recommend that you give a quick shout to my boy Jeff at Turnkey Product management. They're@TurnKeyProductManagement.com and as I said, they're in the back room. They work with my team and the rest of the big companies and equity groups that are involved in our little circle. And they're usually ahead of everybody else in terms of what's working, what's compliant, what review strategies are cool and kosher and are actually effective. And they're not out there hawking a bunch of info products, they're out there actually doing it. So they're an implementation agency that just handles it for people and they run their own businesses, some of which they have built and sold, kind of like yours truly. So I feel really good about partnering with them and recommending the big companies and the brands that I work with to outsource their Amazon management over to Jeff and his team. So if you're looking to add some automation into your arsenal, I would recommend the good folks@TurnKeyProductManagement.com and Jeff and I are on speed dial with each other and are collaborating on what's working. So you're always getting what's the latest and greatest in the Amazon world. So contact those guys if you're looking to outsource, automate and optimize your Amazon presence@turnkeyproductmanagement.com hey, capitalists.

Ryan here. I was recently interviewed on a podcast with Brooks Brees and and I really enjoyed this time so much that I wanted to share it with you here on capitalism.com this was really fun for me and you're going to really enjoy it because Brooks did a great job of digging into some areas that I don't often talk about, including religion, politics and some of the business related ideas that I don't talk about nearly as often. And I really enjoy talking about these things because I think there's a lot of value for those of you who are on a journey and on a journey to become more, to create more, to do more. And I think I often forget to talk about the journey which I think is so important. And I'm getting better, I'm practicing. But Brooks did a great job of pulling this out and I wanted to share it with you. So I hope you enjoy this interview on religion, politics and business.

Hey everyone, Brooks Briz here from Simple Health Club. Welcome back to the podcast. I've got my good friend, soon to be your good friend, Ryan Daniel Moran. He's on the line, man. Let me tell you a little bit about Ryan. He's originally from the Cleveland, Ohio area, went to school out in Indiana. He's currently in Austin, Texas where all sorts of great stuff is going on, especially if you're an entrepreneur. He's the founder of Capcom or the Capitalism Conference. Some of the biggest and brightest minds in the world go there. I mean we're talking Gary Vaynerchuk, Damon John from Shark Tank, Kimball Musk, he's. I don't, his older brothers, this guy Elon, something like that. You got Stephanie McMahon from WWE, Russell Brunson, Frickin, the man from Clickfunnels. So many more. I just, I could go on talking all day about the amazing people that he attracts. He's gotten to enjoy quite a few now eight figure exits. And man, he's always got his hands in so many different things. And now he's an active investor and Advisor over@Capitalism.com. you can also find out a lot more about what he has going on. He's got an amazing podcast, the capitalism.com podcast. Make sure that you track that down in his free time, if there is such a thing as free time. Ryan's always traveling, he's working out. He loves reading, tasting wine, cooking and spending time with his daughter above everything else. So I want to jump right into it. So Ryan, thanks so much for being here. Dude, I just want to get into your upbringing. I know that you and I both grew up in really conservative and religious households. And how do you think, you know, looking back on it, how has that helped shape your worldview as a whole?

That's an interesting question of how it shaped my worldview, because I'm very thankful for it. But I have left it. You know, I did leave the religious upbringing. I think what it has done to shape me is when you're okay giving up your attachment to what you believe is the purpose of your life, what you believe to be the reason you're here, your community, your really reason for being alive, when you're okay letting that go, you're also okay questioning other norms, and that gives you a strategic advantage. At the same time, I wouldn't want to go through the pain of leaving my faith ever again. It was one of the most difficult transitions in my life. But once you're okay questioning one belief, it's okay to question all beliefs. This is why I love to talk politics, because I don't have ego in if I'm right or wrong. It's why I love to talk talk religion. Because if there is something that points me closer to the truth, I want to know it. And yet I think today that's a. That's a rare trait because most people are just so identified with what they believe to be true, so they have no flexibility in finding out what is actually true. And so when you're letting. When you're okay letting the walls kind of crumble on one belief, it gives you the flexibility to take a step closer to what is really true.

Yeah. What's. I mean, was there a particular instance or something in particular that made you really begin to question everything that you had had been instilled in you, these hard beliefs that. And maybe had confirmation bias. Oh, well, if this happens, therefore, I believe this in hindsight because it matches the mo. The thing that I've always been told. But was there anything in particular that kind of disconstructed or deconstructed that and you made you think, holy cow, like, maybe I've just taken this all at face value. Not really challenged my belief system ever. Yeah.

Yeah, Good question. So the thing that did it was I grew up in the Baptist church. This is bigger than North American Baptist Church. Me too. Okay, cool. So the Baptist church is particularly dogmatic in their interpretation of scripture. So most things default to Scripture. Scripture is the source of truth, whereas something like the Catholic Church, you have more tradition. So tradition is more of the default source of truth. In the Baptist Church, it is simply your interpretation of scripture which causes Some challenges if you interpret a piece differently than your peers and you either get into a lively, respectful debate or you split off into your own version of the Baptist church, which has happened many, many times. It's why you have so many evangelical denominations. Anywho, I just started to question the authority of Scripture on whether I thought it was literally true. That was the primary question that ultimately led me out of Christianity was, do I really believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God? I concluded that it was not, and therefore it sent me into. Well, I no longer had the Baptist or the Protestant church. Where do I go? And that has sent me to. Well, today, I suppose answering that question is the lifelong journey. The sad part, I think, is I kind of think that's the point. I think the point of even Christianity is to be a lifelong journey of pursuing truth. So I like the quotes that says, listen to the man who pursues truth and flee from he who claims to have found it. And I think the challenge with most churches is that they claim to have found truth rather than being in pursuit of truth.

Interesting. If you look at. Are you familiar with. I always look at baseline Christian apologetics, of which I am one and a very passionate one, which you know. And I'm also from the D.C. area.

Right.

Where you. You have to be. Your viewpoints are constantly challenged. Obviously, it's where democracy was born and where it's from. So it's like, if you didn't have all of your viewpoints on religion and politics, like, quickly dialed in, man, it's like hyenas, people freaking tear you apart. So. Right. But when I. When I think about what you just said, it's like, if I look at baseline apologetics. So let me take something like Lee Strobel's the Case for Christ. Are you familiar?

Yes.

Right. So. Well, because truth, to me, I mean, that's where it lies. Me personally, is that. Is it something like. If you look at that baseline, given the conclusion that if Jesus Christ died and rose again, does that, in your mind, does that supersede some of, like, you know, these sort of, like, legalistic, all these different issues that if that actually happened, do you think that the rest of the Bible, like, word for word, being accurate and being the word of God, does that really matter to you?

I don't think it does, no. So I look at them as separate arguments.

Right. I see what you mean.

Is the Bible the word of God? And then there's a separate argument of did Jesus of Nazareth die and rise again? And I think we have an independent discussion about those two things. The challenge is that most people are unable to separate those as interesting conversations.

There's also the temptation of people who say, I think you can make a rational argument for Jesus raising from the dead. So I think what most people say is they build this bridge then of if they believe that Jesus rose from the dead, therefore scripture is true. And that's a leap in logic I'm not willing to make.

Yep, yep, makes complete sense.

Let's parlay that into. Well, of course we have a separation of church and state here in the United States of America, which is a great thing. If you look at Ben Shapiro, one of my favorite conservative commentators, I like to look at both sides and kind of disseminate what shaded gray is it because it's not completely black and it's not completely white. But he says, if you bring the Bible or the Torah to the table as your articles of authority, and I don't share that viewpoint, then it's not valid. You can't make that point, which is so beautiful about government. And so for guys out there that have never seen Brian's shirt before, I knew I should have put mine on, but I dirtied it running yesterday. But it says Democrats line through it, Republican line through it, capitalist. Can you tell me how you came up with that shirt idea and just kind of what inspired it?

Well, what inspired it was we had our first conference in 2015 and so we were developing a shirt to give out to our attendees and we were just starting to gear up for the next election. We were just gearing up. Actually did not know that it was going to be the.

Way that it went. I didn't even know. I guess the nominees might have been chosen at that point.

This is 16 you're talking about.

We had the event in 2015.

Oh, that's right. Okay, gotcha.

Yeah, so we were just gearing up for the election and we had just acquired the domain name capitalism.com and that led to that phrase on the shirt and it was a bigger hit than we expected, which is.

It's very iconic. Dude, I freaking love that shirt. And every single time I wear it out, I gotta post this more in the groups, but I always get comments about it every single time I go out.

That's good.

Down here in Florida in a swing state.

So I'm glad to hear that.

It's really cool. So your vantage point, man, how is this, Is this two party system completely inefficient to you? What do we do about this? Like what Needs to change.

You stumps me. What do I think needs to change?

I don't know that it matters what I think needs to change because A, it doesn't change anything and number two, it doesn't accelerate anything. I think we're already seeing the acceleration of the end of the two party system or at least a change in the two party system.

I think so. Let's look at the landscape of things right now. The last Republican election had 17 people on the debate stage. Seventeen people who qualified for the debate. One of them got enough attention concentrated around him that made him the central part of the debate. He's a master at this. His timing was great. His message was on point. I have never seen a better marketer than Donald Trump. Now fast forward four years. You have Democrats running 20 candidates who qualify for the debate. Crazy. There are more who did not.

Now, it's my opinion, I think that history will prove me right on this, that it does not matter who the Democrats put up. Donald Trump. There has never been a president with a higher chance of reelection than Donald Trump and he will win. He'll win in a landslide and there will be four more years of Donald Trump. So we will be coming off of back to back elections with 17 or more candidates who are running for certain parties. You can't tell me Mike Pence is the incumbent. He is not. Those shoes are impossible to fill, especially by Mike Pence.

No one wants Mike Pence to be president, especially after the charismatic leadership of Donald Trump. You have a leaderless party on the left as well. So in theory, you could have 25 candidates for the Republicans, 25 candidates for the Democrats, and you could have more than 50 people running for president in 2024. Brooks so what does that mean? What that means is that you have no clear front runner across the board in any party. No one knows what is gonna happen. Which means that is the time that you will start to see people running as independents because you'll be able to get more attention running as an independent. This is probably also the time that if you looked at the last election, this was the first time CNN brought the people running for the Libertarian nomination and did town hall debates with them.

Yeah, Johnson, right, Gary Johnson.

You had Johnson and Bill Weld on CNN multiple times. They had Jill Stein do a town hall.

Yeah, she did.

So if you have that in 2016, in 2024, when there's more spread out media attention, you have more of a democratized election available because of the rise of podcasts. Hell, Andrew Yang is only on the debate stage because he got on podcast.

So he's got like 2%. I think he's pulling at now.

Last time I saw him, he was at three.

He's in three. Good for him.

So I can't. So I like the guy, hate his policies. But ubi. Yeah, but anywho. So what you're going to see, I think, is that in 2024, you finally have the opportunity for independents and third parties to get attention. Does that mean that one will win? I do not know. I think it will depend on which parties Dwayne Johnson and Ivanka Trump decide to run in, because those will be the two. Those will be the two front runners should they run. I think Ivanka has a better chance of winning if she runs as a Democrat. And I think that Dwayne Johnson would have the best chance if he ran as an independent. So if that's the case, then you can have multiple parties running and from there it's anyone's race. So I don't know that there's anything that I have to do or have to believe to change anything, because it doesn't. And I think we're already starting to see the cracks of that.

Change.

Basically, we're seeing Mike Judge's idiocracy come to life.

Is what you're telling me.

That is possible? Yes.

That's awesome. Let's talk sports here for a minute. I'm from the D.C. baltimore area. We've got terrible sports. You're from the Cleveland area. Diehard Cleveland sports fan. Didn't have a whole lot of success up until what, that was two, three years ago when you came back in the warriors series. But so right now, I mean, the Indians are red hot in baseball and you're a huge Indians fan. I mean, do you think that that's a byproduct of the culture and the ownership that's been built there, or why are they so successful right now?

Yeah. So check this out, brooks. In around June 1, the Indians were 28 and 29. Wow. 28 wins, 29 losses. I said punts, the season, trade the stars. It's time to rebuild. We have no shot. We were 11 games behind Minnesota. We were like five games behind in the wild card. There was no chance we were going to resurrect this season on June 1st. From June 1st until the time of this recording, we have gone 38 and 16. We're the best team in baseball.

No kidding.

So what happens on June 1st? What in the world changed for a team to go from 28 and 29 to then go 38 and 16. Well, I can tell you the Cy Young Award winning pitcher, Corey Kluber gets hurt. Our second best pitcher, Mike Clevenger, gets hurt. We have no outfielders. Our starting center fielder goes down and gets released. We had, like, our best hitter, Jose Ramirez is hitting like a minor leaguer. So what changed? We got worse on paper.

Yeah.

Well, what changed on paper? Nothing changed on paper. What happened was that on June 1, they called a meeting and it was announced that our starting pitcher, Carlos Carrasco, was diagnosed with leukemia and was no longer able to play. So we now had no starting rotation. Three of our starters are hurt. We have nobody playing well in the field. But every single person there said, now I'm playing for Cookie. Carlos nickname on the team is Cookie. Everybody said, we're playing for Cookie. And so they had a reason why. That's the only thing that changed. The team didn't get better. They didn't make any acquisitions. They didn't. A bunch of people didn't come back from injury. They had a reason why they were playing for Cookie. And since then, they have the best record in baseball. They're two games out of first. They're sitting at the top of the wild card spot. The season ends today. They're the top wild card seed. Mean, I think they're gonna overtake the division and win because they have a reason why they're playing for Cookie Man. Is that not a metaphor for life? You have all the wrong ingredients, all the raw ingredients. You can have all the talents. If you don't have a reason why, it all gets left on the sidelines. If you're not playing for something, you don't go all in. And I wish I had, like, a lever I could pull to give me a reason why. I have spent so much time over the years in my head trying to figure out how to find my why. I don't know how you manufacture that. And it was funny. I do a debate once in a while with my buddy Billy Jean. We did a series called Black man versus White Man.

That's funny.

He leans left, I lean right. And we both can point to when we found out we were going to be fathers about when our careers really started to take off, because now we were applying for something else.

Wow.

And I would never recommend to someone that they become a father to get an extra reason why. At the same time, if I don't have that shift in my life, my career never takes off. So is there a way to manufacture that? I don't Know, I don't know. But I can tell you that the same thing is true in life as has happened with the Indians. The minute you got a reason why everything change.

Wow. But don't the Indians just seem to be successful year after year? I didn't is. And that's incredible about this season. I didn't know that. Do you think that there's anything in particular about the culture of that team that makes them successful as well and gives them.

Yeah, well, first they, they focus on team, not individuals. So they have very New England Patriots mentality of building. Building the team, not the person.

The second is they operate within constraints of payroll, so their constraints force them to be creative. So if every man doesn't play, if it's not next man up, then.

You'Ve got nothing. If you're dependent on one person, you've got nothing. And then the third is Tito Francona. Tito Francona has just encouraged a culture. We are always going to be competitive. We always play full out. And he has single handedly initiated that culture.

That's awesome. How would you compare the Indians to like the Cavs or the Browns in.

Town as far as like the reception goes or.

No, no, like just their, their organizational excellence. Like how you just, you mentioned a star and it shouldn't be contingent upon any one player. But it's like, look at where Cleveland was at before and after LeBron came back. It's just like Dan and then Dan Gilbert. Remember he wrote that.

Comic Sans.

Yeah. Jesus, Flip. Like, why is it, do you think that. And the Browns, for example, like year after year after year, I, they, they remind me a lot of the Redskins. It's like, hey, now, maybe this year's different. When you got Baker, you got two, two those LSU receivers, like Jeso flipping in that backfield. Maybe it'll be a different season. But I just, I was curious if like, maybe what their reputation was, the culture. It's like when you lose that often and it's like LeBron was like your one shining star. And I'm talking about like those two franchises in particular. Just like they lose year after year. Like, why is that? Why can they never get over the hump?

It seems. Well, well, the Browns have had an expectation of losing for a long time.

Right.

And that's, and that's a top down thing. Yeah. That seems to have been adjusted in the last year. They now expect to win, I hope, man. And there's momentum there. So we as human beings care more about the direction of things than we do the reality of things.

So we project what is going to happen in the future versus looking at what is real. So there's much more optimism around the Browns because of momentum. The Indians, actually, though, since the hiring of tito Francona in 2013, we're the winningest team in the American League.

I didn't know that. Excellent.

So the Indians have had their turnaround and were competitive at the same time the Cavs were. So the Indians have been a winning team year after year after year under that leadership, and they just expect that.

The Cavs were a single person franchise, which is why you see them the way they are today.

Yeah. Interesting, man. It certainly is a mindset. I mean, so I coach high school varsity lacrosse in my free time and we went 241 this year, lost one damn game to the Georgia state champions, but we just went into. We ended up taking home our state championship out of, I don't know, like 213 teams, something like that in Florida, which is unfair, by the way, because we're a public school team and we play against all the charter schools and the private schools have no limitations. They can take kids from all over the state, if not the country, and then offer them scholarships on top of it. But we beat them all. And I'm telling you, our kids just have this. They focus on what's important now, what's my role, whether I'm the last guy on the bench or I'm the starter on the field. What can I control at this moment? And just having the expectation to grind and to win every single game and it makes all the difference, dude. Yep.

Oversunder.

Yeah, that's cool. And also you mentioning like this expectation of winning, this mindset. I think Jordan Peterson made a comment about that. It's something like the last six or seven presidential elections. The winner always has something in the future. Like we're going here. It's this type of demonstrable change and people gravitate towards that. And the presidential winner has had that type of slogan every single day.

Time.

Yeah.

I can usually tell who's going to win when people are voting against someone.

Right.

So if you are voting against. If there are people saying, I'm voting for other person because I don't want X, X is going to win. Right.

Because.

Because focus on X though, at the end of the day.

Correct. You're focused on X, you're resisting X, you're. You're giving energy to X. And you are. And there is no momentum or leadership behind the other person. So I have been skeptical about Joe Biden as A candidate since he announced. Even before he announced. But I knew he was toast when they asked him what his singular focus was. And he said beating Donald Trump.

Is that what he said? Oh, no, dude. No.

Joe Biden will not be the nominee. Joe Biden will not be president. He can't. When your singular focus is beating another person, you're focused on the other person.

But the whole. Isn't the whole caucus kind of focused on that, though? They're like anything but Trump. And it's just like, oh, man.

The number one issue among the Democrats right now, if you look at even before climate change, is electing someone who can beat Donald Trump. So they will lose. That is now, if they ran a. That's why probably the only person, the only people who would have a shot if they got nominated would be Yang and Tulsi got. Because they're running on real. They're running on real issues.

Yeah.

I don't like the solutions. Yeah. But they're running an issues campaign.

Interesting. So.

So as a result, if you. If you elect, I think Warren might be competitive, but if the singular focus is Bill is. Is beating Donald Trump, you lose just.

Her against the Donald in a debate, man.

You would feel bad for. Absolutely.

Which, I mean, come on, dude. In 2016, when you woke up that next morning, I don't know if you stayed up. I did not. But were you kind of shocked that he had won?

Oh, I stayed up.

Oh, did you?

Oh, yeah. I watched it happen now. Now, Brooks.

I try not to put ego into it, so I try not to identify myself in the race. It lets me just find entertainment, whatever's happening. When Barack Obama won and we had a Republican or we had a Democratic House in the Democratic Senate, my mom thinks the world is going to end. I'm super excited because this is about to get really interesting. I wake up and Donald Trump is president and there's a Republican House and a Republican Senate. I'm excited. Cause things are about to get really interesting. So either way, I just think it is the most entertaining theater.

And if you can take your own identity out of it, it's just. There's no greater show on earth.

Yeah, right.

It's the most fun thing to watch.

I think it was comedian Bill Burr was on Conan. He's like. He's like, come on. Everyone's acting like this is the end of the world. He's like, what, did Barack Obama come to your house and make you a sandw dinner with you? He's like, it's not going to change that much I promise you. It's not the end of the world. Take care of yourself, take care of your family. You'll be okay. If you're worried about the President of the United States, and I think Gary Vee is the one who said he's like, if you worry about that, you're an effing loser.

That is right.

Love that. Which kind of transitions us into what the country's founded on, of course, free market capitalism. And this kind of takes a libertarian sort of perspective. I wanted to see what you thought. You know, if we have limited restrictions on trade and in order, if we're, if we're to perform some sort of transaction, if I want money from you in order to, like, have a home and like, do cool stuff like wear pants, I've got to perform some sort of service or give you a product. So if we have this type of free market with limited restriction, am I allowed to, as a consumer to buy anything and everything that I want, even if it's destructive to me and my health, for example.

So let me flip the question on you, Brooks.

Sure, sure.

Should I have the rights to buy anything or consume anything that is destructive to me, I would say the opposite of that question is, does someone have the right to prevent you from doing something?

Oh, good. Yeah, good point.

So we could have an interesting debate around whether you should or should not be allowed to do something. Does someone else have the right to be able to do or do something that prevents you from doing what you want?

Right.

That's a more clear answer for me. And the answer to that question for me is no. No one should prevent you from doing something that you want. That is only to you. And we do it every day. Because there is no committee voting on whether or not you eat French fries. Yeah, right. There is no committee analyzing what you put into your body and how much you work out, how much we sit all day. If we're doing that by committee, then we have no freedom of choice.

So to answer your question directly, yes, you have the right to do that only because no one else has the right to prevent you from doing something that they perceive to be healthy or not healthy or destructive or not destructive.

But. And can anyone dictate whether I'm a threat to anyone outside of me?

So let's.

Let's go into drugs or alcohol, for example. Should there be limitations there?

If you're going. So this now I'm putting on my opinion hat.

Yeah, yeah.

If you're going to. If you are going to have restrictions on that having it on the individual is kind of a false cause. You can have the policies on producers, on suppliers, on.

But you can't have on individuals. It's just a worthless cause to try and prevent individuals from doing things in their own homes. But you can try and police the market to prevent certain goods from being in the market, knowing that by doing so you will probably still have a black market. So.

I am incomplete.

In my beliefs around drug policy. But to punish the individual I think.

Is an endless game within conservative D.C. circles. By the way, we think that that's what Trump's gonna do for the next election is might be nationwide legalization and that's gonna be his huge platform. We'll see though.

Of marijuana or something else.

Yeah, marijuana.

You know what's interesting, Brooks, is.

I legitimately don't know what his platform is going to be because he's accomplished everything that he set out to accomplish at this point.

So aside from a wall. Yeah, he's got, he's got quite a couple feathers in his cap.

But you have to realize that the wall was always a false policy.

It was symbolic.

I think it was always a marketing strategy because he knew he wasn't going to get.

Was an anchor, it was a negotiation tool. It was the. But both the thing that got a lot of attention and also the thing that he knew that three and a half years later he could say there's still not a wall, we still got work to do, we have this, don't let them take it away from us. We're gonna build a wall. And what I think will happen, wall wise, if you will, is you will end up having some pieces built because there already are pieces built. There were pieces before Donald Trump. There were places that had wall. And then you have some technology that is border security and he'll call it a wall, he'll call it a success. But there will never be a sea to shining sea wall across the southern border. Not gonna happen. We don't need to have it happen. It's a marketing ploy.

Interesting man.

A very effective one.

Yeah, it's interesting.

Your estimation. We were just talking about free market capitalism. Obviously you talked about not upon my rights, which we're 100% on the same page there. But what is your estimation? Because we basically seemingly have this unlimited capacity for consumerism, especially in America. How do you limit yourself to make the right decisions? Does that come from self control? Is that discipline? Is that your. Why is that a spiritual reason? How do most people, do you think, make those types of decisions? That are best for them and their families when it comes to the American marketplace.

I mean, I think most people are making those decisions out of ego and looking better than other people keeping up with the Joneses. I think most people are operating out of fear. I only know from personal experience. And so when you realize it in yourself, you can realize it in other people as well. I think most people are operating from fear. Fear of loss, fear of not being enough, fear of. Of running out of money, fear of not keeping up with their peers. And so they make their decisions to create a false facade. I think that is why we have endless consumerism. When you're happy, you don't have endless consumerism. When you are at peace, you do not have endless consumerism. And those two things are related. If you don't have endless consumerism, you also can have peace.

Right?

We consume into a black hole of trying to fill a need that can't be met with consumerism. So I think that's why we do it. I think that's why mental health is the next conversation that we have as a society.

That and marriage, those are the two things that we're going to be debating over the next 25 years.

And I think that's the more dialed in I am to meditation therapy, my own personal development, the better decisions I make. And just as like a quick hack, if you will, I have. This is my journal. I keep it on me everywhere. I journal voraciously. And one journal entry, I brought it down to like, okay, what is this singular habit or the singular thing that determines my overall development? Happiness, peace of mind, decision making. And it's sleep.

If I sleep like a rock star, I'm a better person. I make better decisions. I think longer term, my workouts are better. I'm more at peace. My meditations are better. If I sleep like crap, there is no fixing. There's no amount of coffee and modafinil that can fix that. But sleep, is it like that one thing that makes everything else easier or unnecessary? And so that's the thing that I prioritize in the habitual things that I do in order to ensure that I stay on track.

Wow. So what's your goal? Just in terms of deep REM hours, that sort of thing? What are you trying to shoot for and how do you monitor it?

I mean, what I'm monitoring is, am I up late at night working because I'm stressed about something, or am I zonked out?

Nice.

That's what I'm measuring. I say, and I know if by 9 o', clock, I want to binge eat. It means I'm probably not sleeping enough and that I need to close the fridge and I need to go to bed.

Are you. I mean, do you sleep pretty soundly? Do you need any sort of like. Do you ever use any types of aids or like, you're good, you're in there, good to go out?

We use AIDS when the rest of our sleep ritual is not optimized or part of our body is not optimized.

Right.

So I don't. I don't use any aids because that's just a reflection of something else being off in the system.

Yeah. Right. Interesting. Have you ever. Have you ever gone through a phase like that or experienced anything like it, though, where you just couldn't?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, there was a. I've gone through periods of insomnia when I'm stressed about business and I'm stressed about. About a decision I made or I'm stressed about something in my personal life.

Yeah.

And unfortunately, the only way to solve that is to stop, is to pull the plug, is to disconnect. And I wish there was something more I could do to get back on track, but we have to do less. We are always trying to optimize everything.

Yeah.

And we burn out. And so the solution is to unplug and do less. And that's how we get back on track.

Is that necessarily what you've done in the past, or did you discover that by trial and error?

I mean, I discovered by trial and error because at some point I burn out and I have to do less. Right now I can be a little bit choosier on being ahead of the curve there.

You feel like, again, that all comes down to balance. Are there particular times or instances where you feel like you're a little bit off kilter? Whether that be physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, whatever. Is there, like a predictive sort of element that happens that, you know, might throw you off in different areas? Like take travel, for example. Does that throw you off?

Travel will absolutely throw me off. There's more symptoms that I'm looking at in my life that I'm paying attention to. How much coffee am I drinking? I have one in the morning because I enjoy it. Or am I having four cups because it's a distraction while I work? Am I eating healthy throughout the day and then binging at night? Or am I wrapping up and going to bed?

Am I feeling like I have more time or less? These are just the indicators of if my body is on track versus if I'm. If something's off and that's when I need to go. 6.

What's. I mean, obviously you're really well versed just in terms of using your body as a science experiment and being part of health and wellness and the supplement industries. If there was one thing that you think you could boil down, perhaps like your most controversial opinion about health and wellness, what do you think it is and why?

You know, I have come full circle on prescription drugs.

Interesting.

Yeah. I used to be very, very anti prescription drug.

And I think what changed it was.

Really positive effects from Modafinil.

No kidding? Yeah.

I think that's what did it for me. I've started to change my opinion. And the reason there was I noticed that when I took Modafinil, I made better dietary decisions. I was kinder to other people. And this is. I'm making a. I'm making broad generalizations here. It's not like this is every day. If I'm. If I'm sleeping well and already have good habits and I take Modafinil, my life gets a little bit better.

And this is not a recommendation for Modafinil, please. Because all brains are different. And my brain, like I actually had brain mapping done that showed that I would do well on something like that. And the result is that my net positive, like I can see the net positive overall of me being better to other people, me thinking long term, me making better dietary decisions. If you. And then there's something like metformin. Metformin has side effects. Metformin is also really big in the biohacking community. My doctor looked me in the eye and was like, yes, it has side effects. And the net benefit, like the net result is positive in his opinion.

Interesting.

So I take metformin. I am not diabetic, but I take.

It because.

Based on my research, which looks a lot like trusting a few people, the long term net is a positive. Yeah. So I've come full circle on prescription drugs, but from more of a preventative and optimization stamp. The place where I think prescription drugs get hairy is when we're seeing them as the solution to the cure.

Yeah.

Once again, I say the longer term you can think, the better decisions you will make. So if you are working something like prescription drugs into a optimization or preventative holistic care, I think it's a different conversation than I've got a problem and I need to fix it. So it's kind of the same thing with depression. For example, if you are meditating and have a great social life and you sleep well and your diet is on point. Your chance of depression goes down a lot. And I know people, this is not me, but I know people who do that and take small amounts of SSRIs because they find that it gives them that net benefit. So in that case, I shrug my shoulders, go. Whereas somebody else who is living a crappy lifestyle and then using SSRIs to fix their life, I think that's a different conversation. So I have changed my thesis on prescription drugs. And that's probably my most controversial opinion.

Yeah, man, we could talk about that all day. And obviously the over prescription and the abuse of opioids, it's terrible. It's ruining the country and losing friends to it and losing kids that are coached, man, it's freaking horrible. It's because they always, a lot of them go through. It's just a slippery slope. It turns into, you know, whatever, it's ecstasy, cocaine turns into prescription drugs, turns into heroin. They go into rehab, they come back, they do one fentanyl patch and they're done.

Happens all the time. It's an epidemic we're facing. Yeah, man. Don't like speaking at those funeral. Funerals. It's no fun. So let's talk real fast. We're coming to the end of the time. Want to be respectful of our days. So if there was one thing, and I think you've kind of mentioned that, you might have a different answer to it. But everyone that's listening, the audience should do that they should do today to demonstrably improve their holistic health. And again, that can be spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, vocational, whatever. One thing that they could do, baseline and see results. What would it be and what would you recommend?

Spend the time to identify your most traumatic experiences in your life.

Oh yeah.

And just see what comes up.

Have you gone through Ian's workshop? Ian Stanley?

I have, yeah.

Interesting. Was that helpful?

Yes, yes, it was.

This was Lionheart.

Yeah. It's sadly no longer around.

But I.

Think you've done a ton of stuff on your own as well, though, with.

I'm a very self aware person, I think. And yet I'm still shocked at how much I find is in there from traumatic experiences. Dr. Gabor Mate says.

That the work is longer and harder than he ever expected. And it's worth it because it is the human experience.

Give an example of something that you dug really deep and extrapolated and had no idea how it dictated your behavior, your thoughts and actions.

Today my parents divorce.

Really huh.

Yeah. So just something that I didn't think was a big deal anymore.

Yeah.

But that my parents divorce is like the top layer of lot of underpinnings of who your parents are, what they fought about, what happens when they divorce, how did they treat your change during the divorce? What stories did you learn about yourself during that process? These are all things that still affect us. I mean, they basically make up our personalities. Our personalities are basically made up by the traumatic experiences and what we learned during those times. And so if you want to change something, the seed of the change usually started there. So I would encourage everyone to do the hard work of finding out what those are and what they meant to you.

Yeah. So what should they do? I mean, like, should they start journaling? Should they go to a psychiatrist? Or what do you recommend? How do they make that progression?

I mean, I'm very involved in therapy.

There's a bunch of different therapeutic modalities. But I think it can probably start by doing a lot of journaling about what were the hardest times in my life. Let's just start there. What were the hardest times in your life? And if you start thinking at 25, meaning age 25, it means you're very unaware of what happened from 0 to 25.

Good point. Huh? And that'll set you down the rabbit hole. Just start there.

Boy, is it a rabbit hole, my friend.

What's next on the horizon for you? What are you hoping to accomplish next and why?

Less.

Yeah, I knew you were going to say that.

My goal right now is cleaning up the neurotic decisions that I've made over the last several years, doing less and expressing more from more of a true or holistic place, because I believe that will lead me to the next stage of my success and happiness.

Love it, dude. That's great.

What types of folks are you looking to connect with and where can they find out more about you?

Yeah, I mean, right now my focus is on team. It's on building my network and my team as far as clients go. I help people who have audiences build brands around those audiences, and I help small businesses doing at least a million dollars in revenue scale to eight figures and prepare for sale. My website's capitalism.com, my podcast is capitalism.com. i'm Ryan Daniel Moran on Instagram. I'm not very hard to find.

Love it, dude. Well, excellent. I learned a ton. I know everyone else will have as well. Can't thank you enough for your time. And, dude, just looking forward to seeing you do bigger and better. Things, supporting you in every way that I can. And thanks for being here.

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