29. Kyle Forgeard of Nelk Boys | Optimizing His Health, and Staying Disciplined to Build His Brand Empire

I think just this summer, I kind of honestly just hit, like, a breaking point. I gotta make a change in my life.

Yeah.

Or I'm not gonna last. Like, everything I'm doing is gonna be for nothing if I don't have my physical health. I go hard on this transformation in the gym. Cause I've said I'm gonna do this so many times. It was so much partying. And, like, after one weekend, I put it on my Instagram, called it the legendary Toronto vendor. And you're not thinking, you're just go, go, go, go. We're selling merch, we're getting big videos and stuff. So now I gotta do what I gotta do. All right. Gary's got my back. Every week I'm gonna earn the send. Living, like, an extremely unhealthy lifestyle.

Yeah.

Your enzymes in your liver show no inflammation, no irritation. Your poison levels, the alkaline phosphatase is way down. The filtering rate of your kidneys is through the roof. Your triglycerides are perfect. Your cholesterol is in a great range.

Yeah. It just makes you better at everything you do. Right. When you're mentally focused and clear and you learn to apply it to all other areas of your life, you got to put in that physical work. It's a grind business. You can't take your foot off the gas. Don't come to us with 100k. Don't come to us with a million dollars a year. I'm not doing anything. That' going to be a billion dollar play. We would get like 300,000 people on the site at the time of a drop. Our biggest one was $13 million in, like 22 minutes. I have to be an ultimate human to be, like, the best leader I could be.

Ultimate. Hey, guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecker, where we go down the road of everything. Anti aging, longevity, biohacking, and everything in between. This is a really awesome day for me, you know, because I have a friend, someone who's been a client of mine for a number of years. I actually just found out that you've been a client for almost two years now. He is an icon in the social media world, in the brand building world. You're going to know who this guest is. He is the founder of the Nelk Boys, Someone that I'm really happy to call a personal friend. Welcome to the podcast, Kyle. Forgot.

Thank you, bro.

What's going on, bro?

Thanks for having me. Appreciate you.

We did a little biohacking before I know we did.

Yeah, we just did the full sun podcast and then we did what? Cold plunge steam room. I don't know what that hydrogen tub was.

Yeah, we did cold plunge.

My neck was just fucked up 20 minutes ago. And now it's good. So.

Is it?

Yeah, it feels a lot better.

Yeah, it's amazing. Put him in a nano bubbles of hydrogen. Right? I mean, it looks like something out of a sci fi novel.

Yeah.

Wait till people see the pictures of you with the goggles on. And the.

Every time we come here, it's just fun. We get to do the whole biohacking setup. This setup's crazy. So.

Yeah, no, I. I love it. And I love that you guys are so into it, you know, and we're going to talk about a little bit about our health journey. Kyle's agreed to, like, be fully transparent with it, which I love. So we're going to talk about where his labs were and. And where his labs have gone. Because, you know, one of my main themes is I just think people need to get data on their bodies 100%. But I want to talk about your journey too, because it's. It's. You know, I have a deep level of respect for you guys. Just as human beings have gotten to know you and your family and your partners, and you guys are just great humans. We've got a lot of great relationships in common. But you founded the nopo. You originally started in Canada.

Yeah, right. We started in Canada. I'm from just outside Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario. So I think I made the channel in 2010.

So. So this is. And when you say made the channel on YouTube.

YouTube. The YouTube channel. Yeah. It was called actually Nelk films with like a Zed. When I made it, just wait, I didn't.

Now, you know he's from Canada with the Zed. Yeah, he just gave it away.

Yeah. But no, I just made it, like, not thinking anything, just making a channel even to, like, comment on other people's shit or, like, other people's videos, subscribe to them and then. Yeah, I've always just been making videos since I was like a kid, like, just for fun. And then I'd put them on Facebook, like, funny videos, messing around. And then in high school, I got, like, really good at, like, the directing. Directing and like, editing side of stuff.

Okay.

So like, when I was in, like, high school, I wanted to be, like, a director.

Oh, wow.

That's what I wanted to do. So I was like, I was shooting short films, like, even serious shit, like, not pranks.

Really?

We were doing both. We'd shoot, like, serious shit. We'd shoot, like, sketch comedy, and then we'd go fuck around and do a prank. Like, we were doing everything, really. And we were. But for the short films, I was, like, winning awards and stuff, and we.

You were trying to put together an actual film, Like a real story?

Yeah, like, short movie. Yeah, like, short films. Yeah. Like, we would enter the competitions in school and stuff, and we would win. I would win every single year. So then my parents obviously wanted me to go to university, like, get a degree and stuff, too, right? And so I applied to this film program that it was like, you get the college, like, you know, real world film experience, but you also get a degree. So that was, like, the program I really wanted to get into. I got into that. I was like, all right, this is sick. Like, this is the directing program I want to be in, you know? Then we were still doing YouTube on the side, and our YouTube started to, like, pick up. You know, we'd get, like, 10,000 views and then 15,000 views, and then, like, one video would hit, like, 200,000 views.

Wow.

Yeah. So then. And I was in school, and I was just like, you're in high school? No, I was in, like, university, like, first semester in university when the YouTube started to, like, take off. I think we're at, like, 30,000 subscribers.

Okay.

And I was just in the school, and I was just like, I don't feel like I'm actually, like, learning anything that's actually going to help me make it, you know? You weren't passionate about, like, when you're getting a degree too. Like, you're not just doing film. Like, I had to take, like, an art class where I'm, like, drawing shit and I can't draw for shit. Or I had to take, like.

I can't either.

I had to take, like, art history, just, like. You know what I mean? Like, you're just sitting there. And then when it. When it did come to the film classes, not to, like, shit on university teachers, but you're kind of learning from someone that didn't really, like, make it at the end of the day, right? But obviously you can learn a lot of stuff, but you know what I mean? Like, I just didn't feel like they were focused on, like, the business of film. Like, everyone there would, like, say, like, their favorite movie was, like, some Japanese art film I've never heard of. And I was like, how are you guys gonna make, like, a living doing this? You know? Like, I like, just watching Like, Hollywood movies. And I wanted to, like, do that, you know? So then I decided to drop out, and I told my parents. I was just like, listen, if I wanna be a director or be my own, like, businessman, be my own boss, I feel like this YouTube route is the way to go. Cause, like, I could build my own platform. I could build my own.

That was early in YouTube, too, man.

Early. Yeah, yeah. It was something called the YouTube Partner Program, and it was where you could make money off YouTube. They had, like, almost just introduced it.

Okay.

And I was watching all the YouTubers and they were getting, like, millions of views, and they were in the YouTube Partner Program. And I was like, there's no way you can, like, make a living off doing YouTube.

Yeah.

Like, I was like, that sounds like the fucking dream.

This was before anybody who knew what an influencer was.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, there were no influencers.

This was like, 20. Yeah, 2012. Yeah, around there. 2012, 2013.

Free influencer.

It was totally different, you know? And, yeah, I saw all those YouTubers doing it, and they're making money and they're like, you know, getting rich off YouTube, too. Like, they were balling. And I was like, damn. Like, that would be the dream. So once we got that little bit of traction, we started making, like, a thousand dollars a month. Like, I remember our first check from Google was like. Like, you got it in the mail?

Yeah.

Like, I was so pumped to, like, I kept checking the mailbox every single day. I was like, when's this coming? Because you got the email, like, all right, you're being sent, like, $530. And then, like, I went in the.

Mailbox and checked this, because people watching your videos and they're throwing ads on.

Yeah, they're throwing ads on it. So, yeah, I remember we got that first check. It was like, yeah, 500 bucks or 250 bucks, something like that. But I was like, this is, like, sick.

This is legit. I got a business.

Yeah. And then we would. You know, we were making enough money to kind of just sustain the operation. Like, we weren't, like, making pocketing money, you know, but we made enough to, like, start traveling or whether we had to buy props or, you know, you got to buy new SD cards or the camera breaks. Just enough to kind of fun that.

What would you like, focusing on? Were you Pranks mainly We were doing.

Like, skits, like, short sketches. But then, yeah, the pranks is what. Really. That's when it started to, like, kind of take off. Yeah, yeah.

Because Jackass was Kind of big ish around that era.

Yeah.

And so was it, like, kind of.

Like there was like a whole group of pranks was like a huge trend on YouTube that everyone was doing. And I think we were trying them out and we were getting traction on it, but I think everyone was kind of trying to copy that typical prank formula since everyone else was doing it. But when we got big was when we really just kind of started being ourselves and drinking beers, making cocaine jokes, just saying shit that no one else was saying on YouTube. I think everyone was very PG. So when we, like, we would go to like, an LA party and, like, shotgun a beer and, like, people would look at us like we're aliens.

Well, I remember your trip to Mexico that. Oh, what you guys did that whole. That was a couple of years later, but that was pretty intense.

Yeah. Which. Yeah, I think we did.

I only went to a winery and wine all over yourselves and.

Yeah, that's one of our funny ones. We did the wine tour.

We'll go the wine tour.

Basically ruin a wine tour.

We'll have to run some B roll of that into the. Into the podcast because it's pretty. Pretty hilarious.

Yeah.

So you're making all. So you're. You're doing pranks, you're in your. And you're doing it on YouTube and you're starting to make money. And what's gaining traction is just you guys being yourselves and you just. Who. Who's making up the. Who's making up the scenarios that you're doing? Would you guys sit down and plan this shit?

Probably all. Yeah. All of us just brainstorming whether you're in the car, just chilling. Like, you're always. My mind's always going.

Yeah.

Like, I'm thinking on planes. Like, I'll wake up to take a piss in the middle of the night. And I might honestly think of an idea that we use. Like, I feel like my mind never shuts off.

Yeah.

So it's always been like that.

Yeah.

It's a good thing. I mean, like, it's good. There's something called consummate overachiever profile where people, they hold themselves to a really high standard in whatever they're doing. Right. It could be vlogging, pranks, Instagram, YouTube, football. It could be professional. Professional sports. We actually looked at your. Your genetic profile, and you have this consummate overachiever profile, which is where you. Your mind is just constantly running. Right. And you're never satisfied with the status quo.

No.

And that's why a lot of people get to a certain position in life and you look at them and you go, why is this guy still going? Right? I mean, doesn't he have everything he wants? And so theoretically, you could throw it in neutral right now. But what was the transition from doing these videos and gaining eyeballs on YouTube? You started to turn it into a real company, like, real products, I think.

On the business side and the financial side. And we started, like, when we would travel, we would stay at fans houses because we couldn't even afford to, like, stay in hotels because how much we were traveling. So, yeah, we literally started, like, pretty much just broke, like I said. So, yeah, we would put on Snapchat and we would say, like, hey, who's. We're in Dallas. Like, who wants.

Who can we crash?

Who can we crash at? And then I would go on Snap and I'd like, kind of vet them, talk to them for a sec and. And then I'd FaceTime them and I could just kind of get a gauge after that if they were, like, weird or not.

Yeah.

And no one was ever weird. We probably stayed at, like, 30 different fans houses, really crash on their couch or wherever they do.

Those fans nowadays are like, do that on my couch.

Yeah, we still tap in with, like, a lot of them and stuff.

Really?

Yeah. Yeah.

That's kind of. That's kind of cool because they were part of a, you know, like the early. The early chapter.

But when we started to, like, make it more of on the business side, what really kind of made we do like, an odd brand deal. But our whole thing was that YouTube stopped paying us because we were too, like, R rated.

Controversial.

Yeah.

So I didn't cancel you, though.

They didn't cancel us. Almost they did, but, yeah, they stopped paying us. So we weren't making any money off YouTube. Like, that 500 check was like, we made more back then than, like, when it came to, like, 2015, 2016. We weren't making anything.

Wow.

So we're like. And that was just because we were R rated. We were making those type of jokes. YouTube didn't want to monetize our videos, so. But it was honestly a blessing in disguise because it kind of forced us to get smart. And it's like, okay, now if YouTube's not paying us, how do we build, like, businesses around our audience? So what we did was we launched, like, merch.

So that's like a real tipping point.

It was. Yeah, it was huge. I mean, it was like, we got.

To have entrepreneurs do that.

Yeah. And it was a blessing in disguise. Because all these other YouTubers that kind of like they're making hundreds of thousands a month.

Yeah.

And we're just watching. We're like, like, we're not. We're not making that so.

Right.

But I think it was. Yeah, it was a blessing in disguise because, like, those people didn't really have to build anything long term.

Right.

They were just getting that quick money. But I hope they saved it because now they have. They don't have anything long term, you know, and we were forced to build like a brand that, you know, so we launched merch and then we would do it where.

And were you still in Canada at this time?

No, we were. We were going back and forth, but we were probably in la.

Okay.

Yeah, back.

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Canada, L.A. and now Miami. But so you're in LA, you're still getting eyeballs on YouTube, but then the eyeballs aren't monetizing it. So you're like, how do we build a product around this?

Yeah. So we just decided to do merch and that. And what we would do for that is we tried to go like, more like high end quote unquote with. It was kind of more like a clothing line. And we coined the term full send.

Okay.

So we heard like. I think I heard one of my buddies say it.

Yeah.

And then we just started saying it in videos. Full send. And it just became like, you know, it's a house that terms like bigger than us. Like, you don't need to know nelk to know the name. Like full send.

No, it's so true.

So we started putting it on shirts and stuff and we would do it limited, so we'd only make like 2000. Once it sells out, it sells out. We never restock that design. So it kind of became like the supreme of, like YouTuber merch.

It did. Like, I actually have confession to make and a little bit of a bone to pick you with you. Because my son was like, youngest son Dylan was adamantly following you guys. And he would be like, dad, can. Can I use your credit card? I want to. There's. There's a merch drop this way. I'm like, what do you mean, a merch? What? Like, first of all, what's a merch drop? He's like, oh, dude, that, you know, full send's doing a merch drop. And I was like, he's like, yeah, I want to get a lanyard. So I'm like, yeah, here. I swear to God, I think I still have it. And I want my 52 bucks back, by the way. He paid $52 for a lanyard. So he takes my Amex and he buys this thing and it comes to. And I was like, what is this? And it was like a little lanyard, said full send on it. Had a little club like, you paid 52 bucks for this thing. Who are these guys? Right?

That's crazy. So 52 bucks.

It was $52. You guys reminded me of the reseller. Like you may drop stuff would get.

Reselled and then it would.

Yeah, and then it would sell out. And he was like, I had to get it on a third party website. Yeah, that's it. Can you throw me that thing? Let me, let me show you guys what I've paid $52 for.

Yeah, I think we were selling them for 10 bucks.

Okay, well, my son paid 52 on a resell, so can I, can I keep this now?

Yeah, right.

It's my full sin.

A bottle opener?

Yeah, it's a bottle opener too. See, he's trying, he's trying to build value in it. That's a, that's an entrepreneur right there. It's not just a lanyard, it's also a bottle opener. But I mean, you know, hats off to you guys because I know I could not have been the only parent that was like funding this. And he was cultishly addicted to it because I remember he kept talking about these merch drops. So these are. These merch drops.

Yeah. It was crazy. Well, and it was, it was kind of crazy because like our fans were the ones. That's literally how we were making our money. Like we were not doing any brand deals. Like no brands wanted to fuck with us either. Like YouTube didn't want to pay us if there was a brand deal. It was minimal money. It wasn't worth our time. No big brands wanted to touch us. So the only way we were making money is off these merch. Like, like we would make videos for our fans. They were buying merch and it just kept growing and growing and growing and growing and we do bigger and bigger drops and like, wow. I don't know. I don't, I don't know if anyone's really.

Yeah.

And what we've done with merch in like that space.

Can we talk about the numbers you comfortable talking about?

Yes.

Like what are we.

I mean at the height of it, it was like we would get like 300,000 people on the site at the time of a drop.

Wow. So you would like. So you using YouTube to tease this?

YouTube, Instagram, all our socials build up the hype. We'd say the date and we'd plan like a whole trip. We kind of see when our merch drop was gonna be. So it's like, alright, we want to do a trip. We're gonna like. We went to Europe for eight weeks and we shot and edited and uploaded a video every single week.

Every week.

So we'd go to Germany, shoot the video, like, shoot for four days. Then the editors would be there. They'd get the footage, they'd edit it. They'd have three days to edit it. We'd post it. Boom. It's live. And in that video, we'd announce, all right, guys, in two months, we have. We have a full sun drop. It's gonna be the summer drop.

Okay?

And then we'd upload every single week.

And then you constantly build the height scarce, right? Like, so.

Yeah.

So things would always sell.

We'd always. We'd always make it scarce to where. And they were. They were selling out in like, five minutes.

Wow.

But, yeah, we would. We would always show how many people we had on the site. And yeah, I think at the height, it was like 300 and, like 5,000 people.

That's insane.

Our biggest one was like, $13 million and, like, 22 minutes. No gross revenue.

Yeah, $13 million in 22 minutes. Now you guys know you're on to something.

Yeah. I mean, it was insane.

Wow.

It was. It was crazy.

So then where does it go from there? Because now, now the merch is a part of the journey, and people are like, I mean, dude, I see it everywhere now. I mean, we'll. We'll get to that. Ufc. Happy, dad. Full send. I mean, you guys have just done incredible, especially in what I consider to be a really kind of super competitive space. There's so much noise out on social media. You know, I often think about, how do you break through all that noise? And. And so you got merch drops, you're traveling, you're doing these. You're continuing to use videos. The YouTube channel, I assume, is blowing up at this point too. Did they ever come back and start monetizing YouTube?

No, we still don't get monetized, even on the Nelk channel right now. We don't really. The podcast is a little more brand safe and YouTube likes podcasts, but we don't even care about the ad money. Like, and then you also. Now you can't use copyright music.

No.

So we just. We rather use like a 50 Cent song and a montage than use some royalty free shit.

Right, right, exactly.

Yeah.

I mean, so you start dropping the merch and then it continues to evolve. Right. Where do, like, the Shahidis and brothers come in and.

Yeah. So, yeah, merch is killing it. We're just like, you know, we're doing our thing and then. Yeah, I Was always just kind of like, obviously we were living in LA at the time too, at this. Now we're full time la and I always just wanna. Yeah, I was always looking for the right people to come in and just kind of help me like legitimize the business, you know, because, like, I was pretty good at what I did too. But I'm also like a creative mind too. Like, I don't have real life business experience. So, you know, we'd meet different people and I was always keeping my eye out. I know we needed someone to come in and kind of run the business side of things properly if we want to really build like a billion dollar brand.

Yeah.

So I would meet like some people and we honestly even partnered with like, like bad apples. Like we got close to like, holy. We would not be here if we partnered with those type of people.

But yeah, and you know, I think every entrepreneur goes through that, of course.

And yeah, you got to be careful. Don't partner with. Be very careful. I'm sure you know about choosing your partners.

God, it's like choosing your spouse.

Yeah, it is. You got to be very careful. But yeah, I met John and Sam. I think that. I think. I think John had DM'd me, but he was out to dinner with. He told me the story. He. He was out to dinner with Justin Bieber and we were at the same restaurant and, and we had talked online, me and John. But then I think like in la. Yeah, Justin had like. He's from Canada too, so he'd seen our shit.

Yeah.

And I think he'd like fucked with the videos. So he, he asked John if we could go say hi to like, come up to us. So like they, like, they came up to our table. I was like, holy fuck.

Yeah.

This is just.

I've looked up to him, like growing up in Canada, just what he was able to achieve. And then we met that way and I met John that night and then we, I think we grabbed dinner, me and John and Sam, like literally the next night. And we kind of just talked and like they said, listen, like, no, they.

Were, they were talent managers, right? I mean, yeah, I mean Bieber, Kenita, like, yeah, they were.

They're managing talent. And then Bieber invested in their company, the shot. Like the shots company. Yeah. So they're working with like, I was, I would see John, like through Bieber stuff too. So I was kind of like, aware of them, but I didn't really know exactly what they did. But yeah, when we met at dinner, we just honestly Kind of, like, instantly clicked.

Yeah.

Even just as, like, friends, like, we just vibe. Yeah, they're the best. And then they kind of just said, like, yo, how can we help? Yeah, like, we'd love to do something with you guys. Like, we know they're like, we know the merch is already kind of killing it. We don't want to step on any toes there. But they're like, how can we help? And I was like, listen, if you guys want a project managing something. If you guys want to project, manage something. I was like, I want to start a fucking alcohol.

Wow.

Yeah. And I was like, if you guys want to take that project on and you guys project manage that. I was like, let's do it, because.

So that's the genesis of Happy Dad.

What I kind of didn't say too, is that in all those videos we were doing, we were drinking like fucking fish.

Yeah.

Every. Every fucking video. Like, yeah, we were drinking Coronas and we repped. We. We would say Rona Season.

Ah.

So. And we were selling Corona wouldn't pay us too. Like, we kind of tried to contact them, but they didn't want to touch us.

Right.

Because we're, like, drinking in public at that point and, like, doing crazy shit. I kind of understand it now that I'm in the alcohol space, but we were selling Rona Season shirts. I kid you not. We sold 20,000 in 24 hours.

No, that you said, Rona, Rona Season. So I was like, was that doing for their brand?

And I would go. Then I'd pull up to frats, and we'd pull up to parties, and everyone's drinking Corona and everyone's in real life saying, Rona Season. Rona Season. And I'm like, when I saw that, I was like, okay, we have a influence on this. Like, we have a real influence. And when I saw what we did with Corona, I was like, I'm not doing anything in alcohol that's not going to be a billion dollar play. I was like, don't come to us with 100k. Don't come to us with a million dollars a year. Like, other alcohol companies would come to us and be like, hey, want, like, between all of Nelk, you guys want like 10 of this alcohol company? And I was like, get the hell out of here. Yeah, this. This play is going to be a billion dollar play. So when I met them, that's why I said, I want to start alcohol.

Wow.

So after that, we kind of. We just did it.

But did you guys go through a whole bunch of Iterations. Should we do tea? Should we do vodka? Should we do a seltzer?

Yeah. I think we knew at that point that I wanted to do a seltzer because we had started drinking seltzers at that point, and even back then, we were. Everyone was starting. We were hitting the gym, and we knew seltzers were, like, slightly more healthy. Alcohol is not healthy.

Right.

You can't say it's healthy, but, yeah, beers, like, you know, they bloat you high in carbs and stuff, like we were talking about.

Yeah, we talked about.

So we knew we wanted to start a seltzer, and then they brought in the Bhutau brothers, who are our partners as well. They have, like, a long history in the alcohol industry. And we kind of started from a point of this, like, seltzer, and then we tasted it. We said, change this, this, this, this. But it was completely from scratch.

Wow.

So crowded space, too. I mean, this space is crowded.

It was more. Yeah, it was. Crowd. It's more crowded, I think, over the last two years than it was then. But, yeah, it took us probably, like a year and a half between the different taste tests to get the flavor to where we.

Before you launch it.

Yeah. Because we would try it, say, all right, change this. This one needs less sweetener. This one needs more. This one's too carbonated, like, flavor wise.

Right.

And then it would take another month to get the sample back, and it's like, almost there. Changes. Change that.

Wow.

Took us like, yeah, like 80.

They are pretty good, man. I don't rep alcohol, but they are good, I think.

I mean, I. I think it's the best seltzer out there for sure.

It is. It's. It's. It's freaking delicious. But you're. You're breaking into, you know, kind of a. I don't want to say bratty brand in a. In a negative way, but this is. You don't have, like, the icon of Budweiser or, you know, big established brands, and you're breaking into a crowded space. How did you get distribution? I mean, how do you get. How do you get Southern wine and spirits and shelf space if, you know, you don't have.

So that. So that was kind of like. That's what I kind of looked for from John and Sam, and they. Honestly, they are doing a insane.

I know. I talk to Sammy sometimes, John, too, and they just blow my mind with their business acumen.

Yeah.

Like, where'd these guys come from? They're like business.

That's what I mean about Choosing good partners is that, like, I knew that what Nelk brought to the table. I think when you're choosing a partner, you gotta realize like, what you bring to the table and what the other people are gonna bring to the table. And like, each person has to play their role properly, you know?

Right.

That's why, like, we're not gonna be able to build Happy dad by ourselves. Like, I'm aware of our influence. I'm aware of like what we can do to make people buy it. But I don't wanna know about trucks and fucking what shipments are going, like, what. So you gotta know when to like, let go of like what you're, what you're good at and what you're not good at, you know?

Right.

So that's what like Sammy and John are doing. Like the business side of Happy dad, they're absolutely crushing it.

No, they're.

But yeah, but what John did was, yeah, the Gopuff founders, like Raf and yeah, they're some to believe in us and they got us in BevMo, which is the biggest chain in California.

Okay.

So.

And Grotman too, is he.

Grupman's been like an amazing. Yeah. He helps us out like crazy. He got it into all his restaurants and obviously he's connected us with so many different people.

Yeah, same with me, David Booth at rndc.

So just like, yeah, that's how it kind of started. And then we just used our, our sales data to, you know, once it started selling in BevMo, which is the biggest chain in California, then Total Wine calls, then, then eventually we can pitch it to Publix.

And it's just a domino effect, organically building the brand. Right. I mean, like the same way we did.

It's like, it's in the videos. It's on Instagram now when we're shooting videos, it's like, yo, how are we going to integrate Happy dad into the videos? Yeah, right.

And then you're, but you're, you know, you got the YouTube channel, you're integrating it into the videos. But then you're also doing. You, you go to destinations and you do pop ups and you do other things.

Well, the alcohol industry is such an old school business, right? So it's, it's really a shaking hands business that you got to put in that physical work. And it's like, it's a grind business. You can't take your foot off the gas. So we're also aware, like, yeah, if we pull up, like, I think next week we got to go to like South Carolina. And we're going to, like, couple, like.

And what do you do? You parachute into South Carolina and you hit a pull up.

We'll pull up to liquor stores, announce we're gonna be there.

Yeah.

Go meet the liquor store owners, thank them. Like, thank them for carrying us, like, supporting us as well. And yeah, we'll draw a crowd there. Probably like 300 people or whatever. Like, some are bigger than others.

Right.

We'll sell the shit out of the product. But then we'll also kind of drop like a local bomb when we go there because we'll hit the small towns, right? We're not going to, like, just like Dallas, Louisiana. New York, Miami, like, we're going to, like. But nowhere. South Carolina. We'll go. We'll go anywhere. Yeah, we like hitting the small town.

Dude, I love that.

Where there's nothing going on. So then everyone, like, hears about it, like, who are these guys that are here?

Yeah.

Oh, they have this seltzer Happy dad, like. And then next thing you know, everyone's trying.

Does it still shock you that, like, you get on site and. And so many people in a bumble middle of nowhere town know you.

It's crazy. And what's crazy now is that, like I said, I made the channel in 2010, and, like, I think we started selling merch. Like, yeah, 2014.

Wow.

At these meetups, people will pull up in merch that we sold. Like, no lie. Nine years ago.

Wow. And you're still rocking.

Rocking it. And they're like, I've been watching you for nine years, like 10 years.

So awesome.

Which is crazy.

So that's such a cool journey, man.

But yeah, no, Happy Dad's just.

Just.

It's. It's crushing it.

And that's.

It's exactly the way that I wanted to do it.

Was there ever a time that you maybe thought that you weren't gonna make it in that? I mean, in Happy dad or just in Happy Dad? No, Happy Dad. Did it just kind of.

No, the initial, I. I knew it was gonna. I knew if we had distribution, it was gonna sell.

Yeah.

The only tough part, I knew note could push it. I knew we could get that initial spike. I knew if we had distribution. That's why I looked to John and Sam and I knew, like, all right, these guys are the right people. They're connected. They're smart. They know how to run a business. If they can get distribution and we can. Cause, you know, the initial hype. This is going to be a home run.

Dude, that's so awesome.

Yeah.

So fast forwarding a little bit. You know, I. I meet you in 2022, and it. We started a health journey together with you. And. And it was cool because I think Grutman introduced us. Yeah, yeah. And. And you were like, I just. I want to get dialed in. I'm traveling. I'm not sleeping. You know, I want to get some info. And, you know, so we. We decided, you know, we decided we were going to work together. And I got some numbers here because these are astounding. And, you know, I always like to. Because this is a health and wellness podcast, I always like to talk about what impact has it made on you to have just gotten a hold of your health, like, when to just improve your sleep and to just start getting some data on your body so that you can better operate your business. And then I want to go into some of the numbers because people are always interested, like, well, what exactly did you do?

I think it's everything, man. I think that, like, you know, like I said, I've been doing this for a while, so I've been traveling, like, staying at fan's houses. And then just like, you're partying, you're drinking. Like, I did that for like, God, we're just kind of. We're still not. We're still not slowed down. We're still not slowed down, but now we're better at. I'm older now, turning 30 next year. So, like, the hangovers hit me way harder. But, yeah, you know, back then, when you're like, 21. When you're 21, to, like, even 25.

Makes up for everything.

You don't feel shit. So, like, dude, we're traveling, we're drinking. Almost like, I don't know, every day. Every, like, other day. And you're not thinking. You're just, go, go, go, go. We're selling merch. We're, like, doing. Getting big videos and stuff. So I definitely was living, like, an extremely unhealthy lifestyle.

Yeah.

And it didn't really affect me, but then the older I got, it really started to. To hit.

You started to notice it.

Yeah, it started to affect me mentally, especially the last. I mean, honestly, as recently as, like, probably this summer, that's when it really, like, I was like, yo, I gotta make a change in my life.

Yeah.

Or I'm not gonna last. Like, everything I'm doing is. Is gonna be for nothing if I don't have my mental health right. And my physical health.

And what was the biggest things that were, like, bringing that to your attention?

I Think it was just. It was just like, just the way I felt after. Like, you know, like, I'll still go. I'm still going out. I'm not like sober or anything, but it's just about balance. Right.

And I think tomorrow morning.

Want to space. Tomorrow morning. Yeah.

Dude. I love this tactic, though. Go to bed at, like, a regular, normal hour.

Yeah.

Then get up at 5 in the morning.

That's just going to be a funny video.

That's going to be awesome. But I thought that was hilarious because you guys are like, we're going to space. I'm like, oh, that's freaking hardcore.

Yeah.

No, we're actually going to go to bed and then get up and then go to space.

Yeah. But no, just adding up. It was just like all those years of drinking and partying and then the benders. Like, if you do three days in a row of partying, you're fucking done. Like, I'm done now.

Yeah.

So I think I've kind of done that in my life already now. And, like, I've partied with every celebrity I've met, everybody I've been. I've experienced so much cool shit that now I'm just kind of just like, it's, it's harder to get me out of the. It's. It's harder to convince me to come out and party.

Yeah.

To be honest, you know, like, I'll go out if it's something dope. Like we went to, what, the Fontainebleau opening?

Yeah.

That was sick.

Like, those are times where it's like cool shit like that, you know? But, yeah, if it's not anything like.

Just to go out and party.

Yeah. Just to go out and party. It's just like, yeah.

Not worth.

It's whatever now.

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Well, I mean when, when we met, you know, we, we decided we would take a deep dive and get some data. So we, we did a gene test.

And 2022 is probably fucking. That was almost two years ago. So that was like.

Oh yeah, that was probably really bad. You want to hear the numbers?

Sure.

I mean, I know you know these, but you might have forgotten them. So some of the things that we looked at were, you know, how's the, how's the liver doing? Like, I mean.

Oh, that was probably down in the dumps.

Oh, it was, it was taking quite the beating.

Was it?

Yeah, it was taking quite the beating.

So what was it on like a scale of 1 to 10, like on the rankings?

Like a 2 if 10. 10 is really good. And 1 is like 2 out of 10. Liver function, it's like 2 out of 10.

Pretty dope.

3 out of 10. So there's a measure of like the enzymes, the amount of inflammation, the amount of irritation in the liver. These were triple digit in some cases.

So you know, I wasn't lying.

Oh, you definitely weren't lying.

Yeah. Okay.

These, if you want to know if he was really partying, I can prove that he was partying right here. So when the, you know what happens in the liver is like when you, when it gets inflamed or irritated, it slows down its filtration rate so the poison levels rise. Something called alkaline phosphatase. The enzymes rise ast, alt. So these are, these are through the roof. Your cholesterol level for at the time, 27 year old male was through the roof. You have virtually no vitamin D3 in your bloodstream. Very high levels of sugar in the blood, your hemoglobin, A1C, like the, the three month average of your blood sugar. And for a 27 year old male here, testosterone was in the mid-300s. Right. So you can see that the body is not performing like a 27 year old male because the liver's inflamed, the kidneys are a little irritated. You know, testosterone's down. You know, your, your blood fat's high, you know, kind of hormones are off, your sugars are really high. You're on your way to being pre diabetic. And the reason why I put this message out there, and I appreciate you allowing yourself to be vulnerable, is that there's a lot of 27 year olds running around right now that don't think they can be killed by a bullet. Right? Like they're, they're still living their best life and not maybe realizing, you know, maybe now is the time to make the shift. And you fast forward to today. I mean, I think most people are familiar with your change. You know, we have a lot of overlapping, you know, followers out there. But it is astounding what you've done physically. But internally, I mean, your liver function is through the roof now. Now no information, there's no inflammation.

So I got a 10.

What is it now, like a 9.5. Whoa, almost a 10. You know, your, your enzymes in your liver show no inflammation, no irritation. Your poison levels, the alkaline phosphatase is way down. The filtering rate of your kidneys is through the roof. It's gone from in the 70s to like 117, which for anybody that knows what that number is. EGFR tells me how quickly is blood moving through your kidneys? So the more inflamed they get, the slower the blood goes through. The slower the blood goes through, the more the poison levels. Blood, urea, nitrogen, creatinine. So these things start, you know, creeping up. Your sugars are Perfect. Your hemoglobin A1C, the three month average of your blood sugar. You're no longer insulin resistant. Your triglycerides are perfect. Your cholesterol is in a great range. Your Testosterone's in the 860, almost 900 range. Right? And you're not, I want to just make it known you're not on testosterone. Right. You know, our clinical team did not put you on, on, on hormones. And so aside from getting the testing and taking some multivitamins and getting on the, on the program, like, what are some of the changes you made? Lifestyle wise, exercise wise, sleep wise. Because these are major, major.

I think even when I met you, when we did our first initial test, I was always just in and out of the gym.

Okay.

So I'd be consistent for like a month. And then I would travel, which I had to do for work, and, you know, film, and then we'd be Partying, and then I'd kind of fall off, and then when I'd come back home, I'd try to pick it up again.

Yeah.

But I think in my mind, I was. I kind of was just making a mental excuse. I think that I was, like, kind of whenever I traveled, I was like, oh, it's going to be impossible. Like, I was like, there's no way. Like, I'm going to just take three days. I'm going to be in a different city every three days. Like, it's. I'm not going to get access to good food. So I think I was just creating that mental excuse in my mind. So, you know, when I was. When you're home, it's definitely 10 times easier, right. On the road, it's definitely a challenge to find good food. And, like, you know, you might be in the airport, you might be hungry, and there's only, like, sandwiches and pizza and shit. So. Does make it tough. But there's definitely ways to get it done. And I think that. Yeah. I think just this summer, I kind of honestly just hit, like, a breaking point. Like, it was so much partying, and, like, I just. After one weekend, I put it on my Instagram, called it the Legendary Toronto Bender.

Yeah.

And it was just three days just partying with my hometown boys. Just went crazy. I want to write a book about it one day or make a movie. Yeah. But after that, I was just like, yo, Like, I got to make a change.

Yeah.

Like, I seriously have to.

I remember the call.

Yeah.

And you were like, I'm ready, dude. Yeah, I want to go.

And it just clicked.

All in, balls out. So I want to be specific about what we did. So first we put you on a methylated multivitamin called 10X Optimize. And what this was designed to do was to give you all the nutrients you're deficient in. Methylfolate, B complex, the specific B vitamins like methylcobalamin. These are just vitamins and amino acids that are already in your bloodstream, but we just dose them properly for you. Because the liver was irritated and inflamed, we use something called glutathione.

And.

And glutathione is the most prevalent antioxidant in the human body. It's actually made by the liver. Every single cell in your body contains glutathione. So we started you on a glutathione supplement. You could see your liver enzymes that, you know, liver just calming down, like, the efficiency of it coming back. And then we did simple things like IVs, you know, nutrient IVs. I know you're a big fan of those. We started to make sure that you were hydrating. You're on the hydrogen water bandwagon now. And. And then you made electrolytes.

You told every morning.

Yeah, yeah, electrolytes. Every morning. Because you. You were working out, I think, before you were eating. So electrolytes and amino acids in the morning before workouts, and then you really put in the work. I mean, when you take the toxic load off the body and then you give it the raw materials it needs to do its job. Glutathione, methylated, multivitamins, sodium in your water in the morning. And now today, I was pretty impressed because you've been here all day, and you had your food delivered not from UberEats, but you actually had the chef that made your stuff. And, you know, I'm super impressed by that. And what are like, once you feel the way you feel now, how hard is it to stay on the program?

It's. It's easy because. Yeah, like you said, it's just like. What I basically said was, like, listen, I still like going out. I like having fun, obviously. So I was like, I'm just gonna keep it to once a week. Yeah, once a week. Every week, I'm gonna earn the send. That's what I called it.

Earn the send.

Earn the send. Monday to Monday to Saturday morning. Like, Saturday morning, I'd still hit a lift, maybe even a two a day before the send. Saturday night, go back and run some cardio. Yes. Every. Every Saturday was ascend.

Okay.

And then Sunday's a rest day. Like, Saturday, you go out, you have fun Sunday, probably maybe do some cardio. Maybe a little cheat meal Sunday, too.

Okay.

And then back to work Monday. So I did that, and I said, I'm gonna do this for 120 days. And I found the best way that I. I just had to put some mental pressure on myself, too. So once I got you on board and I knew, all right, Gary's got my back. Now I got to do what I got to do.

Right?

And I just posted it, and I said, like, yo, I'm doing this. And I just wanted to put pressure on yourself. Yeah. Because I knew the fans would roast me if I didn't do it right. So I was like, I'm gonna put pressure on myself. I'm gonna do this. And then I just stuck to that. One send a week, 120 days, and I was on the road for two months.

Wow.

At one point, yeah.

And you never. Two months and you never miss it. What's like a typical day for you?

If I was at a day on the road, if I was at, like. And sometimes I'd have to go to three, like, three bars a week. So I would just, like, I would. I would go in and I would just have like three happy dads and chill.

Right.

And I wouldn't, like, if there was chicks at the bar, let's say one wanted to come back or something. Like, I was like, no. Like, I'm going to bed, I'm waking up, I'm working out. Like, right? There's just. There's so many temptations, right? And everyone's always trying to drag you out. Yo, come out to this. Come out to this. I'm like, unless it was my night to party, I did not go. I didn't care who it was. I don't care what it was. I was like, this is what I.

Have to do, dude, I love that because I. I always talk. I talk a lot about, like, keeping small promises to yourself. Like, simple things. Like, I'm gonna go to bed at 10 o' clock tonight and then go to bed.

The structure is important.

Yeah.

Now what I have.

Structure is important. Keeping that. Keeping that structure for yourself. Because, like, yeah, you promised the fans, but also internally, you promised yourself.

I promised myself? Yeah. That was more for me. And yeah, I was just like, you offend a lot of people as well, too, because no one really understands. And I think for us too, like, everyone's always trying to box you into, like, a certain category. Right. So they're always boxing me and it's like, what do you mean? Like, you're the party or you're the drinker? Like.

Right.

So it's like, you do offend, I think some people. And they're like, what do you mean? You don't want to come out? Like, Right. Like, they think it's because of them. And it's like, dude, I'm just trying to. Like, I'm on this mission for myself.

Right?

You have to. You might offend some people to get where you want to be. Right?

Yeah.

So what is a typical day? Like, on. Especially on the road?

During that.

Yeah, during that, I would.

So for the first 60 days, I pretty much kind of did like, keto.

Okay.

I cut grains.

Yeah.

So.

So no rice, no bread, just. Yeah. Like high fats, high protein.

So good. You. You instantly feel.

Yeah. And then just. I was just eating meat and cucumbers pretty much.

Really?

For 60 days. Yeah. And, like, Avocado, like fats, healthy fats.

Okay.

So kind of keto variant, I guess. Carnivore.

When you're on the road, it was.

More of a mental thing because we're always eating at restaurants. Right. So I think in my head, if I was like, all right, I'm allowed to have healthy carbs, then when that bread comes to the table, you're kind of like, okay, well, I can have like a, a piece of white bread, but if it's no carbs, it's like, yo, I can't, I can't eat that bread. I can't have carbs.

Right.

So it's more of a mental thing, I think, just cutting, cutting grains and like bread. Totally. It helped me sustain it on the road.

And how much, how soon did you start to feel better? Like, how quickly did it kick in? And you were like, okay, I'm on.

Something, like, pretty quickly.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, it was tough at first to cut those grains.

Yeah.

But after like a month, I really saw, you know, I was losing fat, I was burning fat. And then, yeah, I would do. I'd pretty much do a lift every morning and then I would do conditioning after the lift, like a hit circuit style workout for like 30 minutes.

And were you just like, fucking.

No, because I was always, I was always like in and out of the gym. So I wasn't totally like, physic performance wise. I wasn't totally, like out of shape. It was definitely hard. The hit shit's hard.

Yeah.

Like burpees and circuit stuff. Yeah, I would do that. And then at night, I would also do 45 minutes of steady state.

Wow.

So I would do it two a day, six days a week. Maybe. If it was legs, I would not do conditioning that day.

Yeah.

But I did.

That mirror starts responding fast too. You're like, you go to brush your teeth and you're like, whoa.

And the other thing actually to keep myself accountable is I. I said that during the process, I'm gonna post a weekly photo.

Yeah.

Every single Friday to. On. On Instagram. And the reason I did that was because. Second. Yeah. Keep myself accountable. Accountability was really key.

Yeah.

It's like, if it's like in high school, like, some teachers didn't check your homework and some did. You know what I mean? Like, and if you, the teachers that didn't check your homework, like, you probably didn't do it.

Yeah.

You need to have that, you need to have that, like, constant. There needs to be a concept, you know, so whenever there was a temptation on the Road or something. I always thought like, okay, like there's this one party tonight. Like this does sound dope. Like, but I'm like, I gotta post a photo in three days and if.

Yeah.

And if it looks like I'm gonna get roasted.

Yeah.

So I was like, okay, that I'm going to bed.

All right. Did you ever like miss one of those or were you like really focused on. By the way, I like those bites.

I don't think, I don't think I cracked. The only reason I would ever do it, if it was happy dad related, business related. Like where if I had to go out to like a bar. But if it wasn't my night to party, I just kept it. Like I would just chill, have some casuals, not go like crazy.

Right.

The key was going to bed at a good time to where I could get enough sleep because I'd have to wake up like on the road. We'd have to leave sometimes at like 9:30, 9:30am the next day. So I would have to be driving.

To most of these places where you flying kind of a combo.

Yeah. Maybe it was catching a flight at 10am so if you have to have a flight at 10am you got to be there at 9. So I'd have to get enough sleep to be able to wake up, hit a lift, eat.

Yeah.

Get in that car to get to the airport.

Yeah.

So it's all about just time management and.

Yeah.

I mean now you know too.

Right?

You got. That's the most important.

Yeah. I mean it's about just getting to bed.

Yeah.

Not just getting to bed and staying on your phone for three hours because.

That can get to bed, get that sleep. Because I'm also doing a two a day.

Yeah.

So it's like if I'm not sleeping then I'm.

But you know, I think, I think when you start doing two a days, it actually helps you sleep because you get that. So kind of tired. Like right now, right around 10:30, if I'm not in bed, my body starts powering me.

I'm out by like.

Because I'm. Yeah. I'm up at 5:36. But, but, but even, even being up at 9, your body out by 9.

Oh, you're out by like 9, like 9:30. Like. Yeah.

What time are you in the gym in the mornings?

Seven.

Yeah.

So you know, when you, when you know, like I say, everybody sees what, what happens on the outside. I mean what, what's happening on the inside is, is the real magic. Because you know, I, I love that that you're setting short term goals and you. The mirror is kind of giving you this feedback that you're on the right.

But I feel. Physically, I feel amazing too, but internally.

You'Re like, feel like you're thinking more clearly and like, your short term memories more and you're contributing to your business.

So just happier going.

Yeah. And just happier.

Way happier.

Yeah.

I mean, like, sick, fat, tired people are not building empires, you know?

Yeah.

But so back to the business. I mean, now you got your health in check. You know, you're partying one day a week. You know, you're feeling better. Like, what kind of impact is it having on the business? What's going on with full send Happy Dad? Like, where is this machine going?

Yeah. I think the impact it's had on me is like. Yeah. It just makes you better at everything you do. Right. When you're mentally focused and clear and you create that, like, accountability for yourself, you learn to apply it to all other areas of your life. Right?

Yeah.

Like. Yeah. When we're waking up and you're hitting a lift and then you're doing a cold plunge in the morning. Morning, bro. You're ready.

Yeah.

You're ready. You're ready to take on the day after that, like, nothing.

Every time we get in the steam room, he's like, man, I love this steam room, dude. This is about figuring out insane here.

That's so dope.

Yeah, I love it.

I love coming here. I'm like, you think we're gonna be able to do recovery too? Yeah, yeah.

No, we always.

We always try to sneak into that room. And you're like, yeah, get in there.

Yeah.

I can't wait to show the thing with you. The goggles with the hydrogen, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the red light. Then we did steam, cold plunge, hydrogen baths. It's awesome. When you start getting into that kind of thing, you just. You realize how good it makes you feel, and then those become your drugs.

I love when. Yeah. The drug of choice thing is like, every. Not just the cold plunge, but. Yeah. The workouts, the whole. That's my. I'm addicted to it. Yeah, that's. And that's what feels so good now.

Yeah.

Is that I'm not like, trying to do something anymore. Like, I physically can't not do it.

Yeah.

Like, I'm actually. It is like a drug.

Yeah.

Like, in the way he posted the other day, he said cold plunge addict or something in Bali, and he was having these people build a cold plunge there. You know, he ships them to hotels, to yachts, to wherever he's going.

It's like fun too.

Yeah, it's fun to figure it out. And like, it's funny. I was, I was at the makeshift ones. Yeah. And, and I was, I was leaving in the, in the morning to go downstairs to the gym and I saw this dude coming down the hallway with a huge pillowcase full of ice. I was like, you doing a cold plunge? He's like, yeah, man, I follow your shit, dude. You got me into it. And he was walking in the hallway with it, but he had gone down to the ice machine with like. And got a pillowcase full.

That's awesome.

To dump it. Dump it into the top. But that's, that's so awesome.

But so with Happy Dad. Yeah. Yeah, Happy Dad. Happy Dad's our main. Happy dad is our main business venture that we're focused on.

Okay.

We, like, we have a few other things that we're doing too, but Happy dad is that minimum billion dollar play for us for sure. And yeah, we just, I mean, the.

Traction you guys have, Snoop Dogg, you know, Dana White in the ufc, I mean, just, you know, where. The associations I see with your brand now, when you think of where you came from and building it organically from, you know, a non paid YouTube channel to where it is now. And you hear about these certain tipping points, choosing the right partners, making a choice in your health, you know, switching to, you know, merch from trying to just monetize YouTube. And these are really important decisions, I think. Really important tipping points on the, on the journey.

Yeah.

And now, so what? Happy dad now is on its way.

To 2024, is going to be huge for year for us. Yeah. And like I said with the partners, like, Sammy's an absolute robot, that guy. Like, he's, he's the CEO of Happy dad.

He.

He's running the operation and that guy does not stop. He's the hardest worker. Yeah, I know. By far. He does not stop.

Yeah, he's.

Do you think the mullet has anything to do with it? It must, because he, because he just recently got the mullet. I just wonder if that.

Yeah, it must be the mullet. I don't know what it is, but yeah, he'll go out, like, he'll be at the club with us and then like, he'll like be doing emails, like two hours later. Like, he's always on his laptop. He's always doing emails. He's. He's just like, he's dialed. He's the definition of dials. And Then John is obviously just like a genius, too. Like, in every way. Another one of the hardest workers I know. Yeah.

Super hard.

He killed his health journey, too.

Yeah.

Yeah. I've been on an amazing health journey with him. You know, before his wedding, you know, he really wanted to flick the switch. And even on the podcast, he was like, I used to wake up in the morning and I used to pray that my wife would not find me dead in bed. And I was like, wow. Wow, that's. That's intense. And that's a gripping moment when you know you've got a business venture that's taking off and you're engaged and you're getting married and, you know, you have those kind of thoughts on your mind. But he has been. And Sammy both have been incredibly generous to me, too. I mean, they. They reached out to me when I first started the podcast, and they're like, dude, we want to get behind this. We want to help you. I don't own a bit of it, but I want to treat it like it's my own. I mean, they. They plugged us into Spotify. I mean, John's done.

Yeah, John just likes to see people that he cares about.

He really does, man.

It's such a. I think he likes just helping. He likes helping, like, if he sees potential in you and he knows what, like, you could do, he likes to help and get you to that.

Yeah, he does. And. And he. And he does a lot of giving without the expectation of receipt. So he deserves a massive shout out.

Hey, guys, I think the most important website you may ever go to is theultimate human dot com. That's the ultimate human dot com. Because on this website, we can directly interact with one another. You can give me suggestions for podcast guests and topics that you'd like to see me cover. You can ask me any question that you'd like. More importantly, you can sign up for my entirely free newsletter. It comes out every single week. I write this so I can get the information to the masses on how to live a healthier, happier, longer, chemical free life. You can also sign up for a pre order of my book. And if you'd like to take the genetic test that I talk about all the time, it's available there too. And lastly, you can even see all of the products that I use in my daily life for a chemical free, healthy living style. A lot of people ask me, you know, what do you use in your daily life, Gary? What do you brush your teeth with and clean your countertops with? Well, it's all there. If you'd like to see it and you can again ask me any question that you'd like and get my free newsletter, theultimatehuman.com I promise you that information will help change the trajectory of your life.

And now back to the ultimate human podcast.

But. But with Happy Dad. Yeah. We're launching. We're launching Canada in February.

Oh, wow. So we're launching the U.S. now.

Only in the U.S. yeah. So we're pretty much launching an entirely new country, which is going to be. That's where I started. So it's going to be insane.

Like, Canada.

Yeah, it's going to be now Canada.

Kind of like the US Is it? I mean, obviously alcohol is regulated, but.

Yeah. Well, yeah, it's in Ontario, which is Toronto. Ontario is a population of like 15 million people. Yeah. Toronto is the third biggest city in North America out of, like, I think it's like L. A New York, Toronto or Chicago.

Okay.

Third or fourth. So Toronto is like a mass.

And there's a lot of big American brands up there you're competing with, too.

Yeah, it's the same brands.

Yeah.

So it's the same thing. But we're going to. Just. Because that's where we started. The fans that I told you about that wear merch from, like, nine years ago.

Yeah.

That's our, like, base.

Yeah.

So they're going to go crazy for that. And then I know Sammy announced it on your pod, but yeah, Happy Dad's not just going to be like a seltzer.

Yeah.

Company. I personally think that any alcohol that tastes good, that's like a good product with the Happy dad name, I think it could live on. So we're launching a hard tea.

Hard T. I know.

Sammy announced it on your part.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I don't know. Yeah, we weren't supposed to. Sammy just jumped the gun. Sammy jumped the gun without announcement. So you Sammy that out, Max. Yeah. Sammy's like, don't. Sammy's like, don't announce that anywhere. And I watched it. He'd announced it. Yeah, but we're not.

Word. Except on the Ultimate Human.

We're launching a hard tea, which is going to be. I think it could be even bigger than the seltzer. It is so good.

Really.

If you look at other brands, like, all the beer categories obviously going down, like, on the data. Beer categories going down. Seltzer is even dipping as well, just because it had such a big spike. Happy Dad's growing. We're one of the only seltzers that are growing. In our category.

Wow.

But the tea category is. Is absolutely booming.

Wow.

Yeah. So we kind of got, like, lucky. We started it over a year ago, too. It took us same thing. A long time to taste test. But, yeah, other brands have, like. Like I said, like, 26 grams of sugar.

Yeah. That's insane. Pop.

Yeah.

Ours is gonna. And again, it's not healthy, but ours has one gram of sugar.

Yeah.

That's awesome. I mean, the worst thing is combining sugar and alcohol.

And when we came up with that concept to make a lower sugar one, I was like, all right, well, it's going to taste a lot worse, probably.

Yeah.

But then when I tried ours, I was taste. Holy shit. This is fucking gold. So too.

That's so awesome.

I know. I feel like I'm just getting too excited about it, but it tastes. It tastes so good. I can't wait till you guys know.

I can't wait, though. I'm. I'm fired.

That's going to be a bomb for us. I think we're going to announce a pretty crazy signing. Like, someone, like, out of this world.

Really.

Like one of the most famous people on the planet.

Really?

Yeah.

That's amazing. When you guys have had. I mean, the podcast especially. I mean, you guys have had some insane guests on your podcast. Who? I. I mean, it's hard to answer that. I mean, I get asked it all the time, too. Like, who are. I would say some of your favorite guests. Elon Musk, Donald Trump.

Yeah.

I think Daniel White. I mean, it's hard.

I think I have to say Trump. Trump is, like, just my personal favorite. I like the first time and the way it went down, you know, Dana got him. Yes, obviously.

Oh, he did.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. When you did it in Atlanta. Right.

We did it. Where did we do the first one?

Because you've been on Air Force One.

We did it at Mar a Lago. The first one.

Wow.

Yeah. But we went on Air Force One with. Again with Dana.

Yeah.

So, like, yeah, Steve. Me? Steve Saleem. No, Saleem.

This leave's been on Air Force One, and I haven't been on here, and.

I'm Canadian, too, so truly, I'm not even American.

You're not even American. I want to go on Air Force.

But no, Dana knew we were Trump fans, right?

Yeah.

So then he called us. He's like, are you guys, like, actually Trump fans? We're like, yeah. And then he's like, we went to fight week in the COVID bubble in Abu Dhabi, and that's the first time we met. Dana. And then two weeks later, he's like.

Yo, how did you connect with Dana? Like, what was that connection?

His son was a fan. Dana Jr. Dana Jr. With our videos. And he put Dana on to the videos.

Yeah.

And then Dana thought they were, like, funny, I guess.

Yeah.

And I think he's. Yeah, he probably saw the value of, like, you know, we could maybe help with the ufc, too. And I think he just. With us and. Yeah, we. When we met, though, we just became friends and. Same. Yeah, just hit it off.

Yeah.

And, like, I personally, like, I've. I've been watching UFC since, like, high school. I, like, I've looked up now.

You go to the VIP area, it's all happy, dad.

But, like, as an entrepreneur, like, I've followed Dana White story since, like, the beginning. Yeah, like what? Like, it's crazy that I'm even able to call him a friend. Like, I've literally. He's someone I looked up to, and, like, he inspired me. Like, the way they built the ufc, and, like, everyone just sees what it is now.

Yeah.

Him and the, like, dude, the ufc.

The hurdles and, like, the battles of every state they had to go through. Like, dude, Dana White is literally the goat. So, like, yeah, I literally said, if. If we ever did something with the ufc, it'd be a dream come true. And now that I can actually call him a friend is like, yeah, what is life crazy? You know what I mean?

So he reached out to you, and he was like, you want to go on Air Force One? And you were like, are you fucking serious?

Yeah, I think. I think that. I mean, our goal is to kind of help, I guess, Trump with, like, the young vote, I guess. Right? Or, like, the younger vote. Sammy's calling me.

You throw him on speakerphone. Be like, hey, we're on a podcast, dude.

Yo, Sammy, I'm just on. I'm doing Ultimate Human right now.

We're shooting a podcast right now. You're live on the podcast, buddy.

Awesome.

I. I doubled. I doubled down on your hard tea announcement since you jumped the gun and announced it on Ultimate Human. Don't think I didn't see that. And you don't think I didn't see that, and you said, don't announce hard tea.

I mean, Gary.

Gary put me on the spot.

Yeah, I put him on the spot. All right, hit me up later. I.

Call me about Canada. Okay. All right, Peace.

See, he's working. Yeah, dude, shout out to Sammy. But. So he calls you, and he's like. Because obviously, you can help get to the Younger vote, but. And we were supposed to interview him.

We were supposed to interview him then, actually. So we were supposed to. This was before the last election.

Okay.

2016. 2020.

Okay.

Yeah. And we were supposed to interview him then. So we went on Air Force One. We were going to do the interview. We're all ready to do it. And then last minute, they got cold feet. I think Trump got cold feet or someone on his team did. And they're just like, hey, listen, like, this is really tight right now. We just don't want to take chances with anything going on. Like, they, they probably didn't trust us too, you know, why would I surprise?

We're like, we don't even have people on Air Force.

I know. We don't even know why we're on the plane. Like, we're just like, yeah, we honestly get it. Like, you shouldn't, you shouldn't trust it.

But we don't know why we're here either.

But we just met him and they said, you can come in his office. Office. You can film them. But, like, we're just gonna keep it chill. We're not gonna do an interview. So. Yeah, we walked into his office on Air Force One with Dana and it was just crazy, man. And he was just like, exactly like he is on tv. Like, the exact same.

Yeah, I met him.

A number soaks up all the energy in the room and just. Yeah, he's complimenting us, calling us good looking and.

Yeah.

You don't know. And how old is he? 70? Like.

Yeah, he's on. He's.

Talk about an ultimate human.

Yeah.

How does that guy. I wonder that, like, how at that age are you able to like, like, they must not sleep much.

They must dress that.

He's. The stress.

I mean. Yeah. So in any case, you get, you get on Air Force One. When did you actually do the interview with him?

We did the interview. I don't even know exactly what the date was, to be honest. It was like a year, year and a half ago.

Yeah.

It was when down on a podcast.

It was when the Russia, the Russia, Ukraine war just broke out.

Okay.

So we thought that would be kind of a good time to reach out to them and say, hey, we want to get you on the pod. So we asked Dana and Dana's like, let me call him.

Yeah.

So Dana just calls. Yeah, Let me call 24 hours. Fucking calls me. He's like, I think he said, like, who's your fucking daddy? Or something. Like something like that. Or like something like that.

Yeah.

And I was like, what? He's like, trump's in.

No.

I was like, were you like, we.

Freaked the fuck out.

Yeah.

He's like, yep, someone from the. Someone from his team's gonna be reaching out to you shortly.

And then you went there.

He's like, love you, buddy.

And he just sat down. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Sat down and just ripped that interview.

Yeah. And then we just pulled up, we did it, and it went super viral. It got 7 million views in 24 hours.

Wow.

And he literally said on the pod, he's like, YouTube's gonna delete this.

He did.

He did. Yeah.

And they did.

He said, YouTube's gonna take this down. And I was like, no, they're not. Because I thought they. I thought YouTube wouldn't be that obvious to take it down. I was like, that'd be too obvious if they took it down. But Trump's like, no, they're gonna take it down. It's like, all right. 7 million views, 24 hours deleted.

No.

Yeah.

No. What did they cite?

They said because their policy was, you can't talk about election fraud.

Oh.

But they actually reversed that policy, like, two months ago. So now you can talk like. It's actually. They sent the notice like, hey, these are our new changes. Like, you're allowed to talk about election fraud now, which is weird. So they should honestly reinstate that pod.

But I wonder if you could throw.

We should try. Yeah, actually, that's a good idea.

Yeah.

But I get 15% of that, whatever.

The answer.

Yeah, well, you're not making.

Yeah, there's no money on that one for sure.

All right, so I get rich quick.

Yeah. And. But it kind of. Again, when something, like, bad happens, it kind of works out in your favor, too, because it made it so big.

Yeah.

And then, like, that night, Trump went on Fox, and he's, like, shouting us out on Fox. Just did an interview with the milk boys.

Wow.

Fine. Fine, gentlemen. Like, fine. You know what I mean? And then he was, like, shouting us out at rallies.

Really?

Yeah. Like, he's like, I just did interview, like, you know, the Trump rallies.

Yeah, yeah, of course.

Oh. Just did an interview with the nut boys, like, and we're like, what the Is going on?

Crazy. So did you redistribute it other places?

Yeah, we threw it up on, like, Twitter, I think, and we put it on Spotify.

Okay. You probably throw it on Rumble.

Yeah, we. I think we put it on Rumble, too.

Okay, that's. That's awesome.

Yeah. He's my favorite, for sure.

Yeah.

Elon was obviously legendary, too.

Yeah.

Elon's. Listen.

But I just. Trump's just such a beauty. Like, he's just so funny.

Yeah, he's so. I. I like Elon because he's so, like, philosophically intelligent, the way that he speaks, whether you like him or love him. And I know he's getting a lot of hate right now, but, like, he. I saw him talking about the. The appearance of doing good versus the actions of doing good and how he loathes the fact that people out of one side of their mouth, you know, talk about, espouse all these good things that they're doing, but their actions are really evil. And he. And he just. And he just calls it out and he may lose tens of billions of dollars on.

Yeah.

Twitter, you know, on that acquisition.

It was cool.

Yeah.

He sat with us for, like, four hours too.

Yeah.

Crushed like six or seven happy dads.

Did he really?

Yeah.

Well, he's gonna tweet on Joe Rogan.

Yeah, he can. He could crush him. He can slam him.

He's a big dude, isn't he?

Yeah, he's big.

Yeah. Yeah, he's really cool, too.

He's sick.

That's awesome. So getting back to the health journey because I. I want to really drive home, like, the impact that it's had. So talk a little bit about the mental aspect. Like, what's happened to your, like, mentally, how much better off? I mean, obviously you look a lot better. You look amazing. You're feeling better, you're sleeping better. But, like, how's the mental game? Like, what are some things you've noticed?

Like I said, I think it just. Yeah, it falls into everything else, every aspect of business. You know, I just feel like I'm less lazy. I'm more. Yeah, like, less lazy, definitely. I think is a huge one. Like, not making as many excuses. Like, if I have to do, whether it's like researching a podcast or just any task I have to do in the day, I feel like I'm a lot less mentally lazy, if that makes any sense. I'm not creating as many excuses in my mind. Yeah, I think it's just. You're just more dialed, like, in every way. I don't know how to explain it.

Yeah, that's so. That's so awesome. It's. It's short term recall. It's. It's your. It's your. It's your memory, it's your cognitive function. It's that clean, clear waking energy that you have confidence. It's the confidence there that's so awesome.

Well, and then physically, obviously just, you just feel great.

Yeah, I mean, you know, you feel, you feel great and when you feel great, you're, you're more available for your business. I mean, I always say it's like, it's like the, the, the hub of the wheel. You know, it touches every single spoke of the wheel. Right. And it touches your relationships, it touches your, touches your business, your partnerships. I mean, just at your self esteem, your self image. You know, I love how you talked about just keeping those small promises to yourself, putting some fencing around yourself. So you said, I'm gonna post this thing every Friday. I'm gonna do two a days. You know, I, I mean it's.

And I think just for like even, just like if, like, you know, like I think everyone will get anxiety. Like I would get anxiety sometimes too. And it's just like we actually talked about that.

Yeah.

Yeah, like I would get, I would get anxiety sometimes. Especially after long benders.

Yeah.

Anxiety.

No dopamine.

Yeah, just.

Yeah.

Anxiety, like depression days where you're just feeling down and stuff like that too. So I think this provides, you know, everything I've done with YouTube, it just provides like a consistent like base for all that stuff to kind of go away. We're like very severely limited.

Yeah.

You know, if I'm getting anxiety or I'm feeling depressed, it's because I'm fucking up on my, on my shit for sure.

Yeah.

Or I'm doing stuff that I shouldn't be doing. Like it's such a, all this stuff is such a natural cure.

Yeah.

All that stuff.

So it is like, it's crazy.

Like I would never say, I wish.

People could feel that high because they wouldn't chase anything else.

100%.

That's why I always use the term drug of choice.

Yeah.

The cold plunge is my drug of choice because nothing.

I look forward to it honestly. Like, it's just. I love waking up early. Yeah. When you set your alarm for 5:30.

Yeah.

And you wake up and it's just so it's dark in the morning, it's peaceful. I love that you wake up and. Yeah. Do your routine. Hit your workout.

Yeah.

Do a plunge and sauna.

Yeah.

Like, but most days, like by the time I make it down my hallway and out onto the balcony and the first, it's first light and it's just coming on and it's before like all the police sirens and all the construction noise and it's just like this low hum.

It's the best part of your Day in the city.

Yeah.

And the water's so calm and the sun's coming up. It's. I don't know, man. I think it's. It's hard to not have.

And it's hard to explain it to people, I find, too, because even after my. When I did my transformation, a lot of people hit me up and they're like, like, how'd you do it? And. But it's always the most simple shit you're telling them, right? It's like, dude, just get in there. Like, be consistent. Like. But I think it clicks. It clicks for everyone at a certain time.

Yeah.

It's hard to convince people. I think everyone hits that point themselves.

Yeah.

And until you hit it yourself, you're never going to be really consistent, you know, you gotta. It's gotta click in your own mind.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. Well, dude, this has been amazing. Yeah, this is. This has been a long time coming, and I'm glad we got to really chop it up like this, but.

And I appreciate you taking me on. I know you got a lot of huge A listers and stuff, so I appreciate you always.

Like, I'm dead serious, and I'm like, I'll go on this journey with you. But I was like, I don't like to fail, and I want to. You know, you convinced me that you were committed and you were, man, you flicked that switch. And, I mean, the transformation proves it. The la. I always say, labs don't lie. You. You can't hide from the data, so the data proves it. And nothing makes me happier than being a part of this, part of people's journey and then watching them crush it in other areas of their life, because we've been able to just get their health right.

Right.

So I wind down every podcast by asking every podcast guest the same question, and there's no right or wrong answer about it. But I always like to know, what do you think? What does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

I think everybody's different, and I think it's just. It probably simmers down to just, like, being the best. Being the best in, like, what you do in your field. I think, you know, everyone has a different job and everyone has different roles, but I think just being the best. Being the best performing. I don't even know, actually, like, the.

Best version of yourself.

Best version of yourself. Yeah.

Yeah.

And being able to do, like, what you're supposed to do at. At the highest performance.

Do you feel like at 30, you're now the best version of yourself. Do you feel like you're a better person?

I think so. I think it's like, yeah, like, as I'm kind of like a leader in this group that I'm in, you know, So I think, yeah, me, I have to be an ultimate human to be, like, the best leader I could be. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

That's awesome, man.

Yeah.

Well, brother, thank you, man.

I appreciate you coming on. Congrats on the pod.

It's amazing. So thank you so much.

Appreciate you.

Hey, guys. I hope that you guys enjoyed the podcast. Kyle Forgard. I will put links below to Happy dad and everything that we talked about on the podcast today. Give these guys, you know, a follow. And if you haven't had a Happy Dad Seltzer. We actually had them back here on the shelf.

I don't.

Someone crashed them.

Yeah, there was a lot of them back there. I did not drink them, but as always, that's just science.