John & Sammy Shahidi: The Brothers Behind Happy Dad & Full Send Podcast | TUH #023

A lot of people do it for the money, and we did it for something we wanted.

You have the Nelk Boys. You have a YouTube channel. You got a podcast, you got a Seltzer.

If you have a great product, the job is easy.

You got like 10,000 of these cases. Day one, this is going to fly, right? Absolutely impossible. Day one, everything sold out.

We have the UFC and Dana.

Even the Snoop partnership was incredible because this year we'll do about 3 million cases. We've done over 450 of them.

450 meetups.

Yeah.

Wolsang gets 3 to 4 million listens a month when we make a product. What would Gary say? Can we drink this with Gary? I think one of the best things you say is.

Hey, guys, welcome back to the ultimate human podcast, where we go down the road of everything. Anti aging, longevity, biohacking, and everything in between. I'm so pumped for today. I'm actually still laughing from the pre podcast before. Before the cameras started rolling. I've got two of closest friends and just amazing human beings on the podcast today. The Shahidi brothers, co founders of the Shot Shots podcast network, the Nelk Boys, the very popular YouTube channel, the Nelk Boys, and maybe most importantly, Happy Dad Seltzer. These guys are just icons in the industry. They're. They're great human beings. Have gotten to know themselves and their families pretty intimately over the last two and a half years. We. We've had an amazing journey together, health journey together, which I'd love to go into. They built some iconic brands and they're. They are social media icons and e commerce experts. And I want to go down the road of e commerce and social media today with these guys, as well as health and wellness. But welcome to the podcast.

Thank you.

Oh, thank you, thank you.

I mean, we're in the Beautiful.

And you don't do podcasts.

I've only done one.

You've only done one? So this is the second one.

The second one.

And this is maybe your.

I do maybe two or three a year. I try to be selective and know. But I think this one, of course, like, congratulations on everything. And I think Patrick bet David I'm going to be doing something with him pretty soon.

Oh, you are? I love Patrick B. Yeah, dude, I love that guy.

He should come on here.

Yeah. Patrick, if you're listening, you're welcome. On my podcast. I'd love to be on yours too. You're an ultimate human, so I'd love.

To interview before we get started. Let's get Patrick B. David locked in oh, that's what I. Because that's what I love to do. I love to book guests.

I love these guys. No. No grass growing under their food at all. Let's just get on the phone. You know, he was. I don't know if he was always everywhere or if I just started seeing him, but, dude, that guy is so viral right now.

I watch him. I watch him every day before I go to bed, when I go. When I leave work, I go. Because he. He has so many different formats.

Yeah. So, like, I was actually just watching him on Brad. Is. Is he on there?

Pat?

All right, John.

All right, Pat. I gotta introduce you to someone real quick. And you got. You guys got to get to know each other, go on each other's podcasts. One sec.

Yo, Patrick. Bet. David. How are you, brother? How are you, man? Great, man.

How are you? You're everywhere.

I. I was just saying that on the podcast about you. I'm like, this guy's everywhere. I love your content, man. I love your perspective, love your message. I look forward to us breaking bread here soon together. Maybe we'll do a podcast together. Oh, amen. I'm in Miami, so anytime you're in Miami, we'll get together. We'll. We can shoot there or. Where are you out of? Oh, Fort Lauderdale. Too far from each other. If you're ever out there, we'll show.

You our entire operations, everything.

We'll do something together. Love it, brother. Love your content, man. Keep up the great work. Thank you. Thank you. Take care, guys.

All right, love you, bro. Bye. Bye.

Okay, how many other people are we gonna talk about? Yeah, let's get Dana White on the phone.

Well, that's what I do.

I do. You know, I think obviously we wear a mini hats, but I think the. One of the most fun things I do is help book guests on podcasts. You know, I think that's what our network is pretty, you know, our network's pretty, you know, fun and powerful. But yeah, you know, I think of the amount of guests that come through. Full send. You know, a safe place pivot.

Yeah.

One night with Steiny. Like, it's like.

I've had nights with Steiny. I almost had a night with you guys last night, but I did. I bailed on you at about 1:30 in the morning.

Sage kept up with us. I live Las Vegas.

I know.

By the way, how beautiful is this hotel? Down blue Las Vegas. Jeff Sofa sofer to Brad Muffson. Dave Grutman.

Dave Grutman, everybody. Dude, they really pulled it off. I mean, so we went to poppy steak. We've been to Komodo. You know, I just finished my, My, my fingers are still white. If you can see those from the cold plunge this morning. They got amazing spa.

Yeah, the spa's insane. The gym's crazy.

Incredible gym. Like, it's, it's, it's really over the top. And I, I mean, the, the, the grand opening. Justin Timberlake was amazing, guys. Excellent job, man. Jeff's over.

Yeah, well, actually, what's crazy is Jeff and Dave and all them. The found blue Miami was the first, like we call on premise in the alcohol industry. It's like a grocery store versus, like a property. They were the first account to carry Happy down Florida when we launched wow.

Seltzer.

Yeah, happy to.

So let's talk a little bit about that. I mean, for those, you know, for, for the folks on my podcast that are not familiar with these guys, I mean, there's an iconic Seltzer brand. I mean, they've broken into so many industries. You know, your merch is, is. Is killing it. Talk a little bit about, like the genesis of the company. I know you came from the entertainment and talent management industry. I mean, you guys have managed some massive talent. Justin Bieber, we work with him.

He was, he was a. Justin was more of a partner of ours and he's actually a partner in the shots Podcast network.

Oh, right on.

Yeah. Yeah. Since 2000, it's been.

Yeah, yeah, it's been a while. I think, you know, the one thing that we've done and, and we're really happy that you're doing this and we're always happy to help you is I think the important thing we've done is we built this network on YouTube and we've been not dependent on advertisers.

Amen.

You know, being out depend on advertising. You're seeing it with a lot of different things. And I think there's been some hot topics when Theo and had Dana White on and obviously Elon Musk talking about advertisers on X. Oh, God, the Odana.

White podcast was hilarious. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah.

Yeah, Please watch that.

If you haven't watched it, you gotta go back. You gotta go back and watch it. Yeah. To the best people on the planet together, my mind blow up.

But I think it's one thing that we've learned is like, you know, advertisers are not loyal. Advertisers are not going to pay you. What? You won't ever understand your words. Very, you know, very few advertisers have vision and we've seen that, you know, for a long time. You know, we saw that a long time ago when we work with Mayweather, we've worked with Floyd Mayweather and he had a hard time getting endorsements as one of the greatest boxers and.

Yeah, I mean, he had a hard time getting endorsements.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wow.

I mean, there would, he would, you know, I mean, you know, we'd be talking about like massive fights with, versus Miguel Cotto and you know, all these other fights, even up to leading up to Manny Pacquiao and it's like, you know, he would get like six figure offers and, and people just didn't really understand. They would see that, you know, the bad side and the negative side of things and not necessarily the positive and get stuck on one tweet or one Instagram post. So that's when we, we actually built the money team brand with him.

How did you get around that?

We just built our own company with a. Wow. We just went in and we built our own company and that's, I think now what's led to what we have today is building our own brands around our podcast, starting with Nelk. And full send is we built Happy dad together with them. Because advertisers have always been terrified of working with Nelk.

Right.

There's a select few, really, because it's controversial. Controversial they want to control. Right? It's like, you know, you saw Dana and Theo talking about. It's like they tell you, hey, take this part out, the content, take this, don't say this, don't say that, don't hang with Trump, take this person off.

Your, you know, Instagram. And, and I have to, I have to actually give you a major shout out because I have no social media experience. I have no, I didn't have any podcast experience before I started the podcast. I just wanted to get the message out and I was so passionate about the message and so intentional about the message and, and so I started this podcast platform, you know, by the grace of God. It did, you know, shot to the top of the charts on the health and wellness space. And, and at the same time I, I hired these people to help me, you know, build this TikTok channel and the content really starts going viral. And all of a sudden I realized I kind of sold my soul to the devil. You know, I had a media partner and all of a sudden they were like, hey, you have to do this ad read for this energy drink. You got to do this ad read for this multivitamin you have to do this ad read for this new cbd, Gummy. I go, I don't believe in any of these things. It's got cyanocobalamin in it. It's got 300 milligrams of caffeine. It's got, you know, folic acid. You know, the cd, Meaty Gummy is majorly has no research behind it. It's got, you know, it's all. It's all sugar. I was like, I don't want their money. Send their money back. Oh, no, no, you. You got a contract. You have to sign this. And I said, you know, I'm not going to take 25 years of, of, like, research and, and experience and get to the top of the mountain and then just become a prostitute, you know what I mean? And just sell out to any brand that would sponsor me. And you were super instrumental in helping me get back my Tick Tock channel and get back my podcast. Take 100 ownership of it back so that now I got Hammerheads. By the way, it looks like a nice guy.

I was copying all the emails.

I was like, whoa.

Every, every, like, couple times a year, John comes in hard and I'm like, oh, it's coming, it's coming.

John's like, what this? Pardon my friends, we'll cut that out. But he was like, this, man, we're going to help you get this back. And it's such a blessing now because, you know, I have. I will not do an ad read on a podcast for a product or service that I do not personally use in my life on a daily basis or that I have personal experience. You know, I've tested it. I would back it. So not for any price. Right? You cannot pay your way on onto my platform because I. I loathe the people that have gone out and built this massive amount of trust and confidence in their audience, and then they flip the script and they just become a feeder. For who? For the highest bidder.

Yeah, I think so. It's funny because even going back to happy, that when we started, we met Kyle, we had dinner the first night, and we're like, hey, let's go do a product together, right? And build something together. And this is before merch, before anything, before all that. Yeah, this is.

Where's merch? But it was those that get the.

Full send merch going on. But what was important for us, and this is like, you see how much we love the brand, right? We drink it all the time, but we will never, ever release anything that we all of us, me, John, Kyle, Steve, all of us love. So flavor, right? A product and everything. It's. It's so real.

We, We.

I mean, you see, we. Everybody did.

You guys are. We're everywhere all of a sudden, especially a happy dad. And that's not an easy industry to, like, break.

No, it's the hardest industry on the planet. It's. It is. We have prohibition laws and stuff that we have to follow in states, and it's very complicated business. But at the end of the day, we are obsessed with the brand, and we will never release anything that we don't like. So we have a. With every flavor we've had, the four of us, me, John, Kyle, Steve, all have to love it, right?

Has to be 10 out of 10 out of 10.

Yeah. All that stuff. A lot of people do it for the money. We did it for something we wanted.

Right, right.

And we wanted that. And, you know, listen, we all drink alcohol, so why don't we make the best version for us and then eventually, you know, gets out to everybody else.

But, you know, I was with Shahab from Symbiotica and love that brand, by the way. Yeah, yeah, I've got something.

I don't just endorse my own brand. If I see good people doing good things with real ingredients, I'm happy to give them a shout out, support their brands. I mean, so, yeah, Symbiotica is a. You know, I don't travel without this.

This is literally my. Renee, like, yeah, Renee will pack these for me. And so, like, hey, just make sure you have a little bit of everything. So I got glutathione.

Oh, yeah. I take these every day.

I'm fire one of those up right now.

But, but, but, but where I'm getting at with this is I said this to Shahab and it just clicked with me yesterday. And I think with what you have built, what we have built, what he has built, what Dana White has built, if you have a great product, the job is easy.

I agree.

It's really easy to market a great product. It's really easy.

Like, but, you know, I think the challenge in the marketplace for the consumer is how do I discern between a great product and really good marketing? Because there's some really products that have great marketing behind them. You know, they don't last, though.

I think. I think I don't want to name.

A couple, but there's some greater products out there.

I think it's the realness and honesty. I think people are smart enough that hopefully that they could catch on to. So if you look at Dana, you, us, even the way even Kyle does things, like, right. People can tell that we genuinely care.

Yes.

We want it. Right.

Yeah.

And.

And right now, I think in the world, there's so much noise that they see us. Yeah, yeah. And. And. And. And, you know, it takes time.

Right.

I mean, I'm 40 now.

Yeah.

A lot of people talk about, like, wow, like, how do you do this? I was like, you know, how that. What's the thing? Like, 10,000 hours, you get really good at something.

Yeah.

I was like, I got like, 25,000. And then we just finally hit our mode. But at the end of the day, it's about, like, being honest and. And caring. And you see that. Like, even, like, Dana's press conferences.

Like, yeah, well, Dana was the most loyal human being on the planet ever. I mean, I can't even.

I got a funniest story I heard the other day. I met this artist, and he was telling me that. I don't know, this is so funny to me. He told me that he. He was. He had painted Trump as a picture and. And Dana got wind of it or something and commissioned the artist. And the artist actually knew Trump somehow. So he went to Mar a Lago and he said, hey, Dana White commissioned me for this painting. Do you mind signing it? And he looks at him, he goes, you're not going to charge him more just because I signed it, are you?

Donald Trump would say, yeah, but it's.

Like, that's how sharp the man is.

You know why? Because I think Trump is as loyal to Dana's. He is to him. I mean, Dana's been insanely loyal to me. You know, he gets accused a lot of times of getting scammed or, you know, me having paid him. I'm like, do you guys understand how much money I would have to pay him to move?

And he does not care about money at all.

None. And. And he's very real, very loyal. Like, sometimes I wake up in the morning and I. I open my Instagram, and Dana White's been on my Instagram hammering trolls all night. You juice monkey. You better take that post down. Where are your results? Break us the realest guy. And I. I just so deeply appreciate him. He's done more for my career than probably.

Yeah, we're very, very grateful. Like, that's like God to your happy.

Dad tells you if you.

If you. If you.

Wikipedia loyalty is probably Dana White's photo on there.

There's a flip side to that, too, though. You get on the other side of them.

Oh, no, no. You don't ever want to go outside now.

So, you know, I always, like, since this is a, you know, health and wellness longevity anti aging podcast, I always like to bring the health component into it. I mean, because what you guys have done is so iconic. But we've had a journey for the last two years behind the scenes, and if you don't mind, I've got some. No, I'd love data here, because I think, you know, we started when you were 39 and you were 40. Now you're 42.

When I saw you, Sam was, like, 37.

It was, like, two and a half years.

Yeah.

I think that's interesting one, because it was before everything exploded on everybody. And. Yep, I had covet twice in one year. Strep throat. My. My system was shot.

Yep.

And I met Madison.

He even had shoulder issues.

No.

Yeah. So I. I had torn rotator cuffs on both of my shoulders from old injuries from triathlons and rugby and all that stuff. But I never want to do surgery. I was like, I don't want. I don't want to get cut. I knew. So I just live with it. It was just. I couldn't even turn a light bulb, you know, Like, I was just. It was. I was almost like having, like, a dead shoulder.

Right.

So whatever.

I just kind of gave up on that. Obviously, my system was completely shot. And then met Madison through Matt Warner. Yeah. Like. Yeah, it was just an IV in Miami, and I was like. And she was just explaining, like, insane things. I was like, wait a minute. I didn't meet the. I didn't meet your dad.

Yeah. Yeah.

And then. And then. And then. I mean, I'd love for you to just break down the blood work, because it was wild. Yeah.

And feel free to tear me up, because I know it was probably. Probably the worst results. I was probably. I mean, just. Yeah, I was probably.

Well, I think, you know, there's so many people that are listening that were. Or are where you were.

Yeah.

And, you know, part of what I really like to do, you know, I want to get information out there that. That inspires people to make a transformation. Because, you know, I'm partnered with, you know, Grant Cardone and 10X Health, and I remember that he. He told me one day, he's like, if you don't. If. If people don't make a transformation, like, if they don't take action, you really haven't done anything. You've entertained them, you've educated them, but if you actually don't cause them to actually take action, to do something about it. You really haven't, you haven't helped anybody. And so just getting your message out there isn't good enough. You have to get a message out there that inspires people to take action. And so, you know, by, by having people on the podcast and having them just viscerally talk about their journey and where was I, where am I now? And like, how's, how has my health change impacted all of the other aspects of my life? Like, you know, what's going on, my relationships, what's going on, my company, what's going on in my, you know, with my sleep, how do I feel about myself, my own self image? And I mean, what. Let's just start with you, John. I mean, when we, when we met.

Well, Murray, you got to tell him the pass out story.

Oh, he will. I'm sure he will. I'm sure he will.

Yeah, we, we, we went to, it was your place in Newport beach and he came over with his, his parents and Dr. Sarda and I were there and my daughter and, and we just ran a simple, what's called a Myers cocktail, which is a cocktail of vitamins, vitamin C, B complex, A, B12, you know, some, some magnesium, some, some vitamin C, some calcium gluconate. Just a basic hydration detox we get when you're. Nutrition.

Hungover. Yeah, just like the most basic thing.

On the planet, basic IV. And so Dr. Sarda, you know, starts this IV and I mean, it hit your bloodstream and a minute later you were passed out face down in a trash can.

Yeah, I was, I was, I was.

So happy, like, who are these people you brought here? I was like, I don't know, I'm like, listen, I've never seen this in my life happen.

Yeah, Dr. Sarter was like, she was so calm. She was like, this is just a vasovagal. It happens all the time. He'll be fine.

I thought I was, I thought it was dead. I was like, this is death.

This is.

Yeah, yeah, I thought.

But why, why, why, why did he pass out?

It just shows you how, you know. Well, first of all, you have something called a vasovagal, right? Which was, which is where, you know, just from getting a needle stick. Even sometimes before you get the needle stick, you get, you know, you can get nauseous and like real quick.

Can I explain to the audience my life at the time. My life at the time was zero gym, Diet Coke every single day, red meat six days a week, stress eating, stress Eating cookies, four or five meals a day.

Sugar, alcohol.

Alcohol, cigars, a lot of cigars, which is fine, don't judge. But all the other stuff, like Diet Coke, like red meat. I didn't care about organic foods. My right wife, Renee, is always expressing organs. Like, dude, same. You know, all that stuff, like, that was my life. And then working seven days a week every, you know, every day, zero exercise. Like, zero. Like, checking the mail was my exercise at the time. Like, that was it. So just want context when we started too, this time. I think what we're talking about right now is like, end of 2021, I think it was somewhere between 270 to 280 pounds today, pre this Vegas trip. I was 207.

That's amazing.

Yeah. So this one, yeah, that's amazing. But that was my life at the time, during this, for context.

And that, that, you know, that nutrient IV hit your bloodstream and it made you violently ill. And, you know, you throw it up in the trash can. And, you know, so that was the point where we said, hey, listen, let's, let's take a deep dive here into what's going on in the blood and let's get some data. And that's another thing I'm big on is we need data to make a change. Right? I mean, and, and a lot of times I'll, I'll, I'll bring young entrepreneurs, like, up, up on a stage with me, and I'll, and I'll ask them questions about their business. I'll say, you know, how much money did you make last month? Oh, $622,000.

Great.

I mean, what was your net income last month? $144,000. How many employees do you have? 17. What's your revenue per employee? 71,000. What's your hemoglobin A1C? Where are your hormone levels? You know, what's your insulin? They have absolutely no ideas. Do you know where your triglyceride levels are? And they, so they know more about their income statement, their balance sheet, their P and L, than they know about their own temple. And the temple is way more important than the balance sheet. And I think that's the shift that happened in you guys is you guys said, listen, I'm, you know, my late 30s or early 40s, I'm at the prime of my life. Shit's blowing up for you guys. And yet, you know, their health had taken a backseat. And so many entrepreneurs are in that position where they don't put self care before that.

Also, they, you know, it's, it's, you're hearing a lot more people like, oh, the guy had a heart attack at 37 right there, you know, a lot more people getting cancer, a lot of things. And I mean we talked about like, I want the last half of my life to be my healthiest part of my life.

So, so, so look, we went, you know, we went into the blood work, you know, a couple of things that were, that jumped right out of the blood work where, you know, your testosterone level, which should be in the 600 to 900 range, you know, for a 40 year old male at the time was 224. 224. You could quadruple your testosterone and still be in the normal range. Interestingly, we did not put you on hormone therapy, Dr. Sarda, put you on raw materials to help the body make its own hormone. You were clinically deficient in vitamin D3, the most important nutrient in the human body. You were clinically deficient in dhea, another precursor to make hormones. So the first thing we did was put those two raw materials back into the human body. We used a peptide to stimulate your own testosterone production. And, and then your levels shot into the 7, 800 range. But at the same time you, you're pre diabetic and this is like a silent, you know, this thing lurks in silence inside our bodies, right? You're two points away from being an insulin dependent diabetic, you're insulin resistant.

What does insulin level, diabetic mean?

So mean, meaning at, at, at a certain level, you know, you have diabetes when your hemoglobin A1C is 6.4. When you're hemoglobin A1C gets to 7.0, you require insulin, meaning you can no longer control your blood sugar and you need to take insulin.

You know, is that when like people.

Take the insulin shots, insulin shots. So we were heading that direction. Vitamin D3 level was at 26. The body was just so deficient in the raw materials it needed to do its job. So the first thing we did was we said, all right, let's take this gene test, let's take this blood test, let's start supplementing for deficiency. We put what's called methylated vitamins into your bloodstream. We, we used peptides to increase your testosterone. We use raw materials like vitamin D3 with K2DHEA. And then all of a sudden as these levels start to rise, you got that energy level back and you had that positive aggression towards life again, then that positive aggression towards working out again. And I Remember when we went to your wedding, I was like, holy cow, man. You're completely different human being. Yeah. Than the day that we met.

Yeah. And it's even better now. I mean, that was, you know, I mean, even wedding time during this phase, I was 270, 280, I think wedding time, I dropped down about 250. And now. Now it's still going.

Yeah, but how much better do you feel like? How is it affecting your business? How is it affecting your relationships? How it's affecting the way that you just operate?

Well, I think the most important thing it's affected is couple most, you know, important relationships. I have, obviously, first and foremost, relationship with God. You know, I think it's, you know, really, like, amen. You know, it's always been, you know, and I'm Catholic, so I, you know, going to church Sunday and, you know, just actually getting up and going and, you know, and doing all the different stuff with my wife and I. So I think it's, like, built a better relationship with God because I opened up my eyes so much more to life. You know, I'm not sin because one of the things we're talking about is, like, all the toxins. Remember? Like, my body's like, yeah, I couldn't hold a pen, you know, I couldn't write. Like, I couldn't sign a check.

Yeah, he would always know you were.

So inflamed, but, yeah, he was so inflamed.

Like, we're going to meetings, and he'd just be like. Like, my hand is.

I would be that guy that was texting like this because I couldn't use. I couldn't use my thumb, so I was, like, texting like that. So. So I think that, you know, I think that. I think, you know, my relationship with my family, my relationship with my brother, you know, we used to fight seven days a week. You two, seven days a week.

Who won a week? Let's not over there.

But, you know, who won the fight? My mom. My mom did. She's like. She always calls, like, hey, we gotta have dinner.

I love your mom, but my. Yeah, my mom loves you. I don't think she knows we're doing this. She's gonna be surprised when this podcast goes live. But. But. And then my relationship with my wife, like, it's so, like, I love my wife so much. And there was a time that I would before go to bed at night, I would pray to God that I would wake up the next morning and she wouldn't find me dead in my sleep. You Know, I would literally, that would be my prayers at night. Please make sure I wake up tomorrow morning. I don't want my wife to find me dead.

Wow.

And that was the biggest thing for me was like we just got married. I love her. We've been together five years. Like, I'm not gonna do that. Yeah. So that was my big, that was my biggest thing. That was my biggest, biggest, biggest thing.

You know, when you, when you're that unhealthy, like insecure is anxiety. All the mental things that go right. Like it's, it's. He was pretty damn wild, like in a bad way where, you know, he was just so anxious. Yeah, right. It just. And like.

Well, that anxiousness and that anxiety comes from a. Very often from nutrient deficiencies. I mean a lot of people, if you're listening to this podcast, you suffer from anxiety, you suffer from anxiousness, poor sleep, poor focus and concentration. Very often this is just simple missing raw materials in the human body. You don't have generalized anxiety. You don't have a disease, a mental illness, a pathology. My message is a lot about we are not as sick and broken as we think we are. We are usually a few nutrients away from being optimal. And then obviously you, you flicked the switch in the diet and the exercise. I mean, so the majority of your turnaround was on you. It wasn't on me. I just gave you the pathway to.

Do that, you know, and it wasn't expensive. That's the really important thing is a lot of people. Because ever since you've, you've grown so much is all my friends. Because everybody's always like, you know Sam, like how are you doing this?

Right?

Because like for my life.

Yeah.

Was I, I just pulled up. I've flown over 150000 miles domestically in the U. S this year.

Wow.

And a bunch of other stuff that goes on. I wake up 4:30 in the morning, sometimes I'm at a bar.

Well, I was with you till 2 o' clock this morning, so.

Yeah, yeah.

But everybody. But the thing, the most common thing is people I have, a lot of my friends are like, man, I want to do what Gary's preaching, but I just don't have the money for that. I was like, it's not, it's not a forty thousand dollar thing.

Yeah, yeah.

Six hundred blood work. Six hundred.

Yeah. And six hundred gene test. And that's gene test. You do once in your lifetime. And I say all the time, we're not the only people that do gene testing. There's A lot of great gene testing companies, but just make sure you look at the genes of methylation. You know, how the body is converting raw materials. And I think everybody should be on a methylated multivitamin. I'm also not the only one that makes a good methylated multivitamin. I make one, but I'm not the only one. You can get these off of Amazon and just make sure your body has the basics right. Optimal health is more about the presence of the good than it is the absence of the bad. Meaning, can you have a diet soda once in a while? Can you have a little alcohol? And how is your body going to handle that? Well, if you're nutrient deficient and most of your diet is seed oils and, and fried foods and, and you're, and you're not exercising, then the impact of that bad is going to be way worse. Yep. Right. But if you're eating, you know, a whole food diet, whether you're a vegan, vegetarian, carnivore, keto paleo, if you're eating whole foods and you're moving, I mean, you're 70% of the way there. Right. You can get some data on your body, put the nutrients back into the body, get your hormones balanced, get your sugars under control and go on about your life.

I think one of the best things you say, and it always sits in my head outside of first light. First light is very important. I'd love to talk about that.

Yeah.

Because that's a thing that we have now so important. But is sitting is the new smoking?

It is.

You know, and I think that's such an important thing because we all, like, you know, we're all working, we're driving to work, we're commuting, we're flying, we're, you know, like it's so important to get that movement, get those steps in. I've got a goal a day, every single day. It's a couple goals I have every day. Part of this new, you know, there's a lot of goals and we'll go down, you know, sprinkle them through this episode. But there's two that come to mind. One is minimum have to hit 10,000 steps. You know, it's not, it's not the greatest, you know, I think 15,000 or 20,000, a lot better. But don't do less than 10 because I think by default, just sitting around you, you're going to hit maybe 2,500. If you're just sitting around, not really putting effort with some effort, a couple hikes, come walk around the blocks. Get on. You know what I do now is if I have a conference call, I'm doing on a walk instead of sitting behind a desk, unless I have to do a zoom video and presentation.

But I do some of those too. Just walk on a treadmill.

Just walk. Just walk, treadmill around the block. If you live in a quiet neighborhood or a quiet, you know, business park, you know, the business park where we're staying is pretty quiet, so it's not in a lot of traffic. But I think that's one. And the other thing I do is this sounds funny is hydration is so important.

I'm a big believer in hydrogen water.

Hydrogen water.

Hey guys, I think the most important website you may ever go to is theultimate human.com that's theultimatehuman.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 entire 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, 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, theultimate human.com I promise you that information will help change the trajectory of your life. And now back to the ultimate human podcast.

And you know, I think the electrolytes. The electrolytes is kind of this hack as well because it tastes. I don't drink that soda anymore, you know, and you're talking to someone that was drinking Diet Coke with breakfast. Like I was having a Diet Coke with my eggs in the morning. Like that's how sick I was.

Right?

And now it's, you know, adding an electric like stick. I mean, I know, you know, Dana, we should actually talk on fasting as well. Yeah, that's an important.

Well, I got 50, 000 people got entering a fast tomorrow or Tuesday.

Does that start?

Oh, that's. I'm doing this Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Yeah.

Well, this week. Yeah. So December 18th, was this 19th, 2020. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

But the ultima that Dana was talking about, like that thing putting a scoop of ultima in water or any kind of, you know, zero calorie.

Yeah. No.

Artificial sweetener. Electrolyte. I think that's become my new soda. That's become that new.

It.

It takes away the sweet tooth. So now my other goal is 10 to 12 peas a day every day. If I pee less than 10, 12 peas a day. You have now? As a matter of fact, yes. Like 10, 10 to 12 peas a day, every single day is an, is an important goal as well. But it's important.

Well, you have it, guys. You heard it here first. But you know, the transition to now is incredible, right? You mean your, your sugars have normalized? This 3 month average of your sugars, your, your Testosterone now pushing 700. What was cholesterol therapy? Cholesterol was close to 300. All right, now it's 119. LDL cholesterol. Triglycerides were close to close to 300. They're now 65. If you know anything about that. I mean, that's the amount of blood fat and the fat in your blood, your D3 was below the lowest measurable end of the range. Now it's in the 60 to 80 range.

You were gonna get prescribed cholesterol, prescriptions, medication. Medication. And then.

Which you do not need anymore.

And then, and then you just, you never did that and you switched over to diet.

Is eggs, you know, whole foods. Yeah, Whole organic. Everything I'm saying is organic. Organic eggs. However many eggs I, I eat, cut half the yolk. So if I eat four eggs, take out the yolk out of two. If I eat two eggs, take out yolk out of one. That's what I do in the morning, okay? Snack throughout the day. Celery sticks.

Right on.

You know, negative caloric food right there. And, and organic celery sticks. Of course, if I have a, you know, if I want a little bit more flavor, dip into some organic hummus. Lunch is shredded chicken, man. Got this crock pot we make. We throw some organic chicken there. I, I pack the. When I go to the office, I pack. But, you know, this is all at home. But, but I do pack lunch at the office or else it's doordash cheeseburgers, you know, so, you know, Chinese food. But. But I stay away from all that Worse and worser. Yeah. So organic chicken. I'll do that. You know, made in broth, add some pepper, usually with mustard.

Yeah.

And then dinner, I'll. And then, and then if I want another snack throughout the day, I got an air fryer and I just throw in spinach and have it like, kind of sauteed in olive oil. Throw in the air fryer and you get this like. Yeah. And then. Or, or zucchini slices, and it's like, it kind of feels like you're eating chips.

See, this is what I mean. Like that you, you know, these are relatively simple changes. They make a huge impact.

But everything I name is so delicious. And at night, I, I usually stick with the fish. So we'll do either sushi. If I do sushi, I'll ask the, the chef to wrap the rice with cucumber. Most places I do that. Yeah, yeah.

I'll either get the sashimi or get the. Yeah, get it wrapped in.

That's pretty much been my diet, you know, and I think it's dropped the cholesterol, it's helped me drop a lot.

Of weight, drop the cholesterols, dropped your insulins, dropped your sugars. It's, you know, the other thing you had was you were hypothyroid, according to the labs. Right. It's called your T. Your. So the thyroid makes two hormones, T4 and T3. And one of those hormones, T3, was low. And little known fact about the thyroid is that it only makes 20 of the T3 in your blood. The rest of the T3 hormone is converted from thyroid hormone, T4 in your liver and your gut and your periphery. And so you actually didn't have a thyroid problem yet, a nutrient problem. And we started supplementing for thyroid support. Your thyroid completely normalized. And remember, the thyroid is what's regulating your metabolism, your body temperature. For, for women, it regulates menstrual cycle. For men, it controls our testosterone level. It, you know, I mean, not controls our testosterone, controls our metabolic rate. So the thyroid has such a big impact, and unfortunately, we accuse it of crimes it doesn't commit all the time. You had a very similar scenario. You know, your thyroid hormones were. Were off. You were also pre diabetic.

I mean, well, what's crazy is, I mean, I'm not like a big guy, right?

So this, you know, it hides inside of.

Yeah, so I'm not a big guy, but I'm pre diabetic.

Yeah.

And what was that? I was eating McDonald's. I was, I was eating fast food all the time. Yeah, I was like 204.

Drinking pretty heavy.

Yeah. I haven't stopped that, though. Yeah, but.

Little truth bomb on there.

Yeah. So. But my adjustments, though, because I'm very different than him. I'm never home. I'm on the road six days a week. So where all I have is airports are like my number one place I could eat at.

Right.

Fast food deliveries, all that. Huh?

Airplanes, airplanes, all that.

So what I. What changed for me diet wise, was I stopped saying. I started saying no to things. So. Yeah, I don't eat on an airplane ever anymore.

Yeah, good. That's one of my things. I fast on airplanes. Yeah. Unless it's an international flight. Right. If you give them 15 hours to dog, I just.

I'll take some snacks that I bought. Maybe like a. Like a. A bar. Yeah, something like that and be like beef jerky or whatever. But, but so what I did was I started not eating late night food. So after I'm drinking, I'm drunk, I don't go and get a late night pizza. That's completely out of my life. That right there is probably like 15 pounds.

That's.

Yeah, that's 15 pounds, right? Major airplane food done. When I doordash ubereats and all that, I try just eat something healthy. I'll get like a soup. Yeah, yeah, all that.

But that was. It was a major transition for you too. I mean, just. I mean, like, John's was a major transition. And then there was a kind of a funny little bump in the road that we did. I remember I told you I was going to throw you under the bus on the podcast. Here it comes. So Sammy has this major turnaround, like, dramatic turnaround. And I remember we got on the phone, we were going through his labs with our clinical team, and he. And I was like, dude, I cannot believe your labs are literally perfect. You know, your sugars, your thyroids, like, everything is so perfect. And he's like, that's freaking awesome. And. And then we didn't talk for like.

A few, like three months.

Three months. And we got labs again. And you went off a cliff. And I go, what the hell happened? You were like, I just wanted to see what would happen if I stopped taking everything. And I ate, like, and started drinking again.

Yeah. And. And so what I did was, who.

Freaking does that, dude? And they went to complete.

I was like, now you've done. Listen, I had, I had to challenge you. I had a challenge challenge you.

But, but because I wanted to check.

And my vitamins are very simple. Like, I take multivitamin to 10x.

Our 10x multi.

Yeah. And I do that. Was it D12?

D3.

D3.

Yep.

D3 fatty acids.

Yep.

Yes.

And then.

And then I do the symbiotica.

Nm, nmn.

Nmn.

Yeah.

Can you talk about that? Because you. You brought me into Eminem a while ago.

Yeah. It's hard not to say M&MS, but.

It'S an M. Really hard to say. But when you see it, it's like.

Nancy, Mary Nancy.

Can you. Can you see Mary Nancy?

That helps. Can you explain? Because that's been helpful for me, but I'd love for you to explain what that is.

You know, there's a, you know, there's a compound, bioactive compound in the human body, you know, B vitamin called nad. If you actually look at nad, it's actually NAD plus. It's the reduced form. And this is paramount to healthy mitochondrial function. Right. In fact, you can. You can actually chart the. The decline in NAD levels with age. Right? So biological age and NAD levels follow one another very closely. Dr. David Sinclair from Harvard's probably the biggest, most vocal proponent of these precursors. But you can't take any D orally, right? You can do it by injection, do by iv. There are some sublinguals. So you have to take the precursors to have your body make it on its own. And those are either nicotinamide riboside, nicotinic acid, or nmn, nicotinamide mononucleotide. I'm big fans of these because, you know, again, these are. These are compounds we put into the human body that cause the human body to do its job on its own. And that's. That's, you know, my big message is, why don't we give the body the resources it needs to do its job and then get the hell out of its way, right? Because most of us are not thriving, not because of. Of a sickness or an illness or disease or pathology. We're not thriving because our bodies are nutrient deficient. So NMN is a, you know, precursor for nadh.

And what's kind of the end result of, like, being on NMN for a while?

Better energy, better focus, better concentration at a cellular level. When you give a cell more energy, it has more resources to accomplish its functions like waste elimination, repair, detoxification, you know, regeneration, and, you know, I mean, every single cell in your body is. Is like a mini Fortune 500 company, right? It's got a CEO, it's got the DNA, it's got a bunch of minions running around in the cells making proteins, throwing waste out, pulling nutrients in. You know, it's got this phospholipid bilayer, this sort of barrier that protects it from the outside environment. And. And it needs raw materials, including nad, to do its job, you know, in order. In order to function. And. And. And. And so I'm. I'm a big fan of.

You'd be. You'd be proud. But our. Our break room at the office, at the Happy Diet office. You know, we have coffee, we have fridge, we have snacks.

Who loves popcorn?

Yeah.

Oh, I saw the protein popcorn. I sat right next to that guy at the UFC last night.

Oh, he's awesome.

He was like, I wish the fight would move over a little bit so they could see my logo.

But.

But then we have, like, unlimited bottles of nmn. Like, we were, like, encouraged, like. Like our executives, the whole staff.

Yeah, yeah.

So we have that.

But. But, Gary, I think with my lab work is I drink. Right, We've established that. Yeah. And so, you know, I do spend a lot of time with, like, you. You say take a lot of glutathione?

Yep. Yeah. I have a sublingual glutathione. That's a. That's another oral.

Yeah, that's like, symbiotic glutathione that I take every day.

Yeah.

Why. Why do you tell me to take.

Well, glutathione is the most prevalent antioxidant in the human body. Right. It's. There's not a single cell in your entire body that does not contain glutathione. Not one. There are even tests that you can do to tell how long a cell is going to live by its level of glutathione. And it's. It's the biggest antioxidant that nobody knows about. Right. It's manufactured by the liver. The liver actually makes glutathione. It's also one of the biggest consumers of glutathione. I mean, this. The body is this fascinating chemical factory. It's like, you know, one of the reasons why being a scientist is actually deep in my faith is because no one will ever convince me that this thing was made by, you know, to. To, you know, bacteria banging in a mud puddle. Right. And then they crawled out and became a lizard, and then that became a monkey, and that became human. Right. I mean, I. You know, this thing was assembled by God because it's the level of intelligence, right? It. It cleans itself. It recycles trash from one transaction and puts it into another transaction, you know, the body has this process called autophagy, where it actually eats cells that are no longer doing their job and turns them into proteins and energy for the rest of the body. It's. It's extremely efficient. And glutathione is the most prevalent antioxidant. It's contained in every cell in the body and made by the liver. And when we put the liver under stress, like in your case, I. I originally put you on our sublingual glutathione because your liver enzymes were high. Right. When the liver gets inflamed, it stops filtering the blood, and then this poison level called alkaline phosphatase starts to rise, and you have all these other. All these other issues. So that's one. I'm another big fan of glutathione.

And then when I did my lab work and Madison did, like, a scan on me, I remember she called me. She's like, I don't understand how your liver and everything is, like, perfect.

Yeah. I'm like, it's standing on. Yeah.

And like, all that stress I put on my body and everything and all that, but it's. It's. I don't work out. Yeah, I know. You've been kicking my ass for two.

And a half years. He doesn't work out anything.

Both of these. His Christmas present is going to be a trainer package. That's what I'm getting him fired. Yeah. He's getting nothing else, like, you know good, though, man.

I do. Because I say no to the bad things.

Yeah.

Right. The. The. Pretty much all the white stuff. The flour. Yeah, that was even last night. Yeah, I like. And I. I mean, I'm. I'm. I have to be gluten free.

Yep.

Right. And I remember, like, one of the first tests because you're like, hey, every time you eat something like white, like a burger or a wrap or whatever, you're like. You're like, do you feel foggy? I go, yeah, my whole day goes to, like, I just can't think straight and all that. And I still, sometimes, I mean, I'll have a cheat day here and there with like an in out burger once a month or something like that.

But you can get those with lettuce, too.

Yeah. It's not as good.

It is pretty good, you know? You know what I do. I'm telling you right now, it's as good it. No matter what anyone says, I get it with lettuce and I replace their secret sauce with mustard.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. But he's a big, like, Lettuce wrap guy.

I. I like let. Yeah, obviously I like my greens. I like.

Sounds good.

But. But I just did such simple things. Right. I'm not doing some crazy, fascinating stuff like multivitamins, NMN glutathione packs.

Yep.

Just. I'm obsessed with electrolytes and water.

Yep. You got me body health.

It's the best.

You got me hooked on in the mornings, the Himalayan salt.

And do you guys have the hydrogen water?

No.

So I need that.

I want to talk on that because I've been. The last few years, I've been. So maybe about four years ago, I switched to alkaline and I was drinking, buying alkaline bottles, you know, all the different brands of alkaline. If it had alkaline from 8.5 up, I would.

That biggest marketing myth ever sold.

Yeah, I want to hear about that. I want to hear about it because I want to. I've heard that you've kind of talked about that. I want to learn more. So then this past year, we switch to all spring water. So I will almost drink, you know, mostly spring waters if I get my hands on spring.

Yeah. If I can't get a hold of heights.

Yeah.

Actually, we get mountain values. Yeah.

We get a 5 gallons delivered to our house.

Yeah.

But we get those delivered every Wednesday to our house, so that's that. And then now I'm hearing about hydrogen, and I would love to hear about that more and why.

Well, before you go, I started drinking hydrogen water like 2 and a half weeks ago. I can't drink any other water since.

I want to hear why drinking hydro water? Because we have a whole class of bacteria in our gut called hydrophiles which need. Which need hydrogen. There's high amounts of hydrogen in running waters and rivers and streams and lakes and. And where. Where river is actually passing over rocks. I mean, where water is passing over rocks are coming down from a glacier. So it's. It's a very natural, you know, a gas that's in water. Obviously, water is H2O. You know, adding extra hydrogen to the water adds electrons that actually can neutralize free radicals. They actually help you absorb supplements. They help you digest your foods. Hydrogen is very consumed in enzymatic activity. So like digestion, breaking down foods, emulsifying foods, the process that bacteria go through in your gut. So I'm a huge fan of hydrogen water. You know, if people can't. Don't want to spring for, you know, a hydrogen water filtration bottle or for their house or this portable one that I Use then.

But the portable one's the simplest thing because when I first heard about the.

Portable one's called Echo, there's a lot of Chinese knockoffs out there, so be careful, you know, don't go save a buck by finding that Chinese one. It's called Echo.

Yeah, but.

But what? I think when I, when you were explaining me hydro water back in day, I was like, I don't know if I can invest three grand into this. Whatever.

Right, right.

But then I bought one of these guys.

Yeah, that's 230 or 240.

Yeah, but how much money do you spend on bottled water in a year? Whatever. So we just get whatever the water pour it in. I mean, I, I've traveled with it now.

Never.

I, I actually. Yeah, it's like my wallet and that thing is like it. I get upset when I have to drink ball water and other things. Yeah, but it tastes so good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I think, I mean, I feel better and.

Well, think about it. I mean, you know, we're 85. Somewhere between 75 and 85% water. We use water in every transaction or our mitochondria, voracious consumers of water. It takes.

I refill my drink.

You got the suggestion, the power of suggestion, you know. But so you know, I want to transition a little bit. I mean, I, I love the health journey that we're on. You guys both look amazing. It's, you know, where we started. By the way, I'll finish up your story because it end very well. You were like, oh yeah. Okay. So I got back on the supplements, I got back on the protocol, and now your labs are back, you know, almost perfect. Yeah.

And you got to remember on our side too, we have 100, 102 employees. Now when we first met.

You have 102 employees. Full time employees in what full send Happy Dad.

Just Happy Dad Loan.

Just Happy dad.

Happy.

What are 102 people doing?

We have a sales team that goes into stores and make sure everything's merchandise. We. It's mostly cell seems like I think we're at 68, as it say sales teams and then I mean the alcohol.

Regional managers, direct chain managers. Like someone that just calls on Walmart, someone calls on 7 11.

Wow. Now did you guys raise money for Happy Dad? Just yourself?

No. So. So we investors, we self funded it the first four months ourselves and exploded. It's funny story because when we first started, we had no alcohol experience other than drinking alcohol.

Right.

And. But our idea was, you know, I like beer, but beer makes me made My body feel like crap. Terrible for it and it sucks because I wish it wasn't.

Yeah.

So we wanted to obviously make something that was best. So what we did was one. We wanted it to feel like a beer. So that's why our cans In a regular 12 ounce campers is skinny can. So we have like a whole saying like no skinny can and all that because we just make it feel like a beer. And we get friends all the time like saying oh man, I love your beer. I'm like, no, it's a seltzer.

Yeah.

We lower the carbonation by 30% so it doesn't give you that acid reflex. And wow.

You guys really thought about it.

Yeah. And the flavor is really low. So it's one gram of sugar because we didn't want to drink a lot of sugar.

Gluten free.

Gluten free. As electrolytes in it.

Okay.

So you and electrolytes were inspired by you. When you used to tell me like the Himalayan salt.

Yeah.

Putting in in the mornings.

Yeah. So it's another way great way to get minerals. I mean tell people all that all the time. Celtic salt, you know, pink Himalayan sea salt. You know I've been reading some studies lately about the you know, amount of heavy metals sometimes and pink hell main sea sales. I like Baja salt. I like Celtic salt. And those are dirt cheap ways to get basically.

Yeah. So we. So we made the best version.

Yeah.

Alcohol is not the best for you but you know we want to make the best version for us and everything. So we did that. We made the branding. The happy dad whole story was we wanted. We knew we could market to you know, 21 plus young adults. But. But we wanted the dads and everybody to all.

I mean I think I. I think the brand's got such a cultish following. But I'm interested to know. So you raised a little bit of money?

We raised a little bit.

Self funded it yourself.

Self funded it. We raised. So what happened was we're trying. So in alcohol you have to get a distributor. It's a law. It's called a three tier system. So you have to be in con. We can't sell to Walmart directly.

Okay.

We have to have a state distributor or county. We sell to them and they sell. They put on a shelf.

Okay.

That's the U. S. Compliance taxes. Right. So when we started, you know, nobody wanted those salsas were exploding and nobody wanted to partner with us because we had no experience. We had a bunch of crazy guys on YouTube.

You know, we were a trending category, A trendy category in Seltzers. Right There was because. Oversaturated. Very oversaturated. We're a trendy category in a celebrity brand. You know, it's like, okay, okay, here's another celebrity brand. Nine out of 10 of them fail. More than that, 99 out of 100 fail. And you know, and, and seltzer, same thing. 99 out of 100 fail. So it's like, wait a minute, you're a seltzer and you're a celebrity brand. Like, we're good.

So. So what's crazy is I remember I called Dave Grutman. So I called Dave and I was like, dave, we, we have this awesome product and I need to, we need a distributor to kind of support us. And then we got connected with Gopuff.

Oh, those guys are great. Yeah, they're great.

Rap.

So but we didn't have a distributor. So then Dave connected us with David Booth. We just met in Chris Carlos and they're like, I remember I just made a super connector and I met with them and they're like, hey, how much, how much sales are you gonna do this year? And I just made up a number because I had no idea. I had no clue what we're doing.

We didn't know what number was good.

Yeah, we didn't know.

I was like.

And we're like, hey, listen, we're gonna do a hundred thousand cases. The cases 212x. We're do a hundred thousand cases this year.

America.

Chris Carl's like, If you do 100,000 cases, you guys are gonna be on rocket ship. So then FMO GoPuff comes in, which is they own. They have like 160 plus stores in California and Arizona we're interested in. Yeah, yeah, because they have many just in California. Yeah, because they purchased, they took out.

BevMo, which is like one of the largest chains in California.

Okay.

Yeah. So they just bought, they acquired that chain like maybe like six months before or so they become our partner to launch the brand.

Well, they give us a chance, right? So I called Raph, I said, hey listen, I've got a drink. And he, he also said like, don't tell me it's a seltzer.

Don't tell me it's a seltzer.

I'm a celebrity brand. Like, please do me a favor. Give us a chance. Give us a chance. Put us in the stores. Like, I promise you it's going to do well. This is not going to be all other celebrity brands. It's not going to be all other seltzers. So I'll go. He's like, okay, I got you. He's like, you know, he's friend and he's like, he's doing this favor. Yeah, yeah, sweetest man.

Now, now that once he did that, did you guys parachute into town and then try to drive?

So we, so it was funny, we were talking to one of the, the, the person I was organizing the stores and I remember the really nice lady, she was like, hey listen, so we're going to send like, you know, a couple 12 packs to a couple stores and everything. Try it out. I was like, oh no, no, no, no. You got to put like 5, 10,000 of these cases. Day one, this is going to fly. Like that's impossible. Absolutely impossible. No chance whatever. So we launched a brand the day one, everything sold it. They put it in.

They're like 5 to 10, 000amongst all stores.

Yeah. So they have pallets of Happy diary.

Wow.

Everything sold out for say it just flies. It gets crazy. We're selling like masks and everybody's like, what the hell is this?

And is this you guys are standing on it on social media and you.

Push on social media pop ups.

Well, it really comes down, you know, with, with, with, you know, going back to what I was saying earlier is when you have a great product, the marketing is easy. And I think for us, marketing has always been easy because we've always made great products, great podcasts, great, great alcohol, great merch, you know, all that. You know, and I think, you know, what happened was, you know, the marketing was really easy. So we, we did what we did best. We're like, all right, cool. You know, our partners helped us make a great product. We're going to do what the Shahidis do best, which is marketing.

Yeah.

So we went and market it and it just blew up. And I remember what Sam's talking about. It was we launched on, I believe it was a Tuesday. Those stores all got wiped out. And Wednesday Bedmos biggest competitor calls me, hey, why don't we have Happy Dad?

Wow.

Thursday, the other biggest competitor calls me, why don't we have Happy Dad? It just became so that 100,000 that he was talking about that in a year. He said if you guys hit that, you're going to be going, what are we going to do this year?

This year we'll do about 3 million cases. In that six month period, we were only in five states. We did 349,000 cases. We did a hundred thousand the first month. And then we like ran out of cans. Like we had a supply chain issue and all that stuff.

Right.

Fix that.

But that's a high class problem.

Yeah.

And.

And so. But I mean, we could have. We could have easily done a million cases within that six month period, but we just didn't have product. Right. Whatever. It's fine. But going to fast forward, you know, it's pretty crazy because we've gone from not knowing that you had to get a distributor, not know anything. I could tell you every single law by every single state now. We're such experts in it. But we love what it is. And, and what's really important too is like our partnership having good partners is so important.

Oh, my God.

Like the way my brother, myself, Kyle and Steve work. We have so much trust with each other.

Yeah.

And now we have Sugar Sean in the mix, who's a whole sole partner now. And he's been. He's on a different level.

Is he. Is he on the happy dad side?

Yeah. Yeah. He's been one of the greatest partners. Him. Justin Gay Sheet, though. The two of them have joined. Who else? Snoop Dogg.

The Snoop Dogg stories are one of our favorite ones. Yeah. So he invested.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is so what our favorite thing is. No. You know, the alcohol industry is such an old school boys club.

Right.

And we just went. We just. We do it what we think is best for us and our customers. Right. So.

And is this kind of what you would recommend to. Because I know a lot of people are listening to this. It's not like a business building podcast. It's a health and wellness podcast. But a lot of people have. They're entrepreneurs and they're building a business.

I do want to talk about that because one thing that's really important for us has been. So one thing that was really. And this is, this is what's so stupid about the alcohol industry. So I hate this. I actually had a dream that I took this to the Supreme Court. We cannot talk about how healthy of a product it is. So I'm not saying it's healthy because I can't say it right. So do your own homework. But we. There's laws that we cannot do that. So really. But when we make a product, we don't say it's healthy, but we think. And Kyle and Steve think, what would Gary say? What would Gary say? Can we drink this with Gary?

Yeah.

It's literally not. Not. Is this healthy? Can we drink this with Gary especially?

Like, there's so many other. Like, there's like tons of Vodkas that are like gluten free and there's ones that aren't. There's so many things that you can't even put on packaging to like, tell people what that is because there's. Everybody's always scared against suits.

And so, you know, one, one thing, and we've talked about this recently too, is we're getting into other products as well. Probably not other alcohol products. There'll be other variations of Happy Dad. But another alcohol. But we're getting into other products and every single one is. What does Gary think? What does Gary think?

Wow, thank you.

And you know, even, even Steve will say, like, hey, listen, this one ingredient, I don't think it's scary. Approved. So, you know, I mean, he will.

Sell me, tell me that once in a while.

So, like, we have this.

So one of one thing that's important to us right now is snacks, right? Because snacks, like I said, I have celery sticks, fried air, fried spinach. Yeah. But you know, most snacks out there are so bad for you.

Oh, my God.

Protein bars are bad for you. You know, you think it's good because it has the word protein, but it's not good for you kids. You know, we know what their snacks are. M M Snickers, you know, ice cream skit. Yeah. Everyone else, which by the way, a.

Lot of those food dies, are getting banned. Yes.

So, yeah, we said, all right, so how do we make unhealthy snack, you know, and how do we make something that hits the protein? People who need the protein, whether they're gyms or kids. And this is a product that we have coming up.

Check it out. Board jerky. So 15 grams of protein.

Steve will do it. I haven't ran this by you, but I ran it by Steve and I said, what do you think Gary's gonna think? He said, I think he's gonna like it. So I want you to double check before we go live with this.

Okay.

And let us know.

I'll take a deep dive.

Yeah.

Into this. We can get a grass fed grass finished source. I mean, I do eat beef jerky. The grass fed grass finished sources of beef jerky. How many brands can we put on here at one time? We got the Data Weight Contender series. We got the ultimate human. We got Happy Dad Seltzer.

Power Slap is coming in February, guys.

This is Power Slap. Yeah, The Monster Energy Truck Show.

But I think the important thing here is, like, I think with our world is we're never going to get into a product that's legit.

It's super good.

That is legit.

I know. I had to stop eating because I ate too much of it. It's so good.

I'm gonna take this on my trout.

Are the sodium levels okay?

Yeah, yeah. Contrary to popular belief. I mean, the source of sodium is a big deal, but also, sodium is not as dehydrating as we think. Okay. In fact, most people that are suffering from migraines or are clinically dehydrated are very often clinically dehydrated because they don't have enough sodium in their water.

All right. Yeah. I just want to make sure, because we're supposed to go live with this soon, and I haven't had a chance because I know you've been really busy the last few months. I don't want to bother you.

We're just doing it live on the podcast. I literally had one.

I brought, like, 10 bags to Vegas.

Here's a product I need.

Yeah, yeah. So two birds, one stone. I got this approved to go live, and. And we got promo on the greatest podcast, actually.

Really good, man.

Yeah, no, it tastes great. I just want to make sure that macros and everything were okay because we. We really want not. We're not going to get behind. I'm going to tell you guys right now, we're not going to ever get behind anything that's not healthy for you. We're not going to do it. You know, even recently, you know, Kyle had a massive offer from a vape company and. Massive offer. Like, probably could have made tens of millions of dollars a year. And he was like, I can't do it. Like, I'm not doing it.

I'm the same way.

I'm not doing it. There's nothing you can do. And I think we can. Like, we. I think. I believe now with our flavoring team that we have built within our company, we can make products that are great, that actually tastes good, but are actually. Are healthy for you. I think Symbiotic has done that. I think. I think, you know, we've done it with Happy Dad. We're gonna do it with jerky. And I think those. That that's what we want to start doing moving forward.

Is that kind of the direction of Happy Dad. So it's. I mean, it's obviously known as the seltzer, but is Happy dad going to expand? Yeah.

Well, I'll say it now. So we're. We are launching a hard iced tea. It's like the number one hard iced tea company right now, has 21.9 grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving, or one gram.

And what's crazy, 12 ounce. But they're 24 ounces, the popular one. So you're getting two extra.

Yeah, yeah. So those little, like, sugar.

Those little sugar packs that people are. Sugar.

I think the sugar packs that you put in your coffee is like 2.6 grams of sugar. Something at 2.6 or 2.8.

So does about 52, 54.

So this little 12 ounce can has 21.6. This is. This brand that is our competition is the biggest brand on the planet.

We're not going to say their name, but. And what's crazy is we're gluten free. Yeah, we're gluten free. But what's crazy about this other brand. One last thing I'm gonna say is they're the demographic that drinks them, usually kids in their mid-20s. They're putting down, like, four or five of them. You know, like, it's not like they're having one quick one. It's like, all right, whatever. We'll look the other way. They're putting out four or five of them.

Wow.

So the Hard Sea, we're going there and. And we're launching that in February. So. But in general, like, we're just growing the seltzer business. Like, it's a big, big business, you know, like us doing almost3.3 million cases next to the UFC and Dana, and we have that. I mean, and. And even the Snoop partnership was incredible because, well, with Death Row Records is, you know, we grew up in la, so we grew up with Death Row Records, which is, like, the most iconic brand.

Yes, It's. You know, I grew up with that, too. I know every word.

I know Dr. Dre, you know, Snoop. And it was original record label that Snoop had. So.

Snoop.

Yeah, my generation's big on that.

So Snoop bought Death Row Records, became a CEO and call my brother, and they were talking about, you know, just doing stuff. We've done stuff with Snoop in the past. We're the best freaking partner on the planet. And we're like, let's. Let's make a. Let's do a flavor together. And. And he brought up grape. And. And. But we're like, let's do a Death Row logo. So this is where the story gets crazy. So we do this. We have a grape. We go out to the market, we tell all of our partners, and everybody, hey, we're launching this thing. Death Row grape. Grape, Right? Yeah. And it's going to be massive. And, you know, sales guys, everything.

Grape, everything.

Death Row grape every, you know, and everybody always says their product's gonna be big.

Right.

That's just a thing. John comes in is like we gotta do minimum orders on like it has to be crazy numbers. Everybody was like, there's no way we're gonna order this much product. That's crazy.

Well, they were like, we're gonna test a few couple thousand cases. I was like, no, you don't, you don't tell us what you're testing. We'll tell you what you're testing.

Isn't that crazy how the script has flipped and we're like bended, need like please take our product.

We always over promise and we over deliver.

Yeah.

So we knew what it was. So we come out, boom, this thing explodes out the gate. We can't even keep in stock.

Really?

Yeah, we can't even keep.

It's our second behind a variety pack. It's the second, the largest skew right now we have.

But you know what? It's one thing the flavor profile of it. I'm not a grape drinker.

They are good. I mean I'm not a seltzer drinker, but they are good.

Well, I'm not a grape drinker at all.

We had a couple last night together.

We did.

So as a non grape drinker. It's my favorite flavor. So I was able to convert myself that doesn't like that type of flavor profile. Whatever. So we explode, crushing it. We just got into 3017 Walmarts.

3017 Walmarts. That's crazy.

Starting like March 1st. They're bringing grape everywhere. This thing is a phenomenon now, right?

It's so cool.

But what's important about it was the partnership because you could pay any celebrity anything in most cases and they'll do whatever, right?

Yep.

But we hit so many demographics and cultures and we converted people that weren't drinking seltzers into a seltzer drinker.

We brought. That's what Walmart told us. And we knew this, but Walmart even validated this. We had a meeting with them a few months ago. Like you just brought a whole different category of people or a demographic of people into the category. You brought a whole new, like we've never seen this customer profile walk down a selfie section.

Just so important for the audience to hear though, because you trailblazed in, in a highly competitive, you know, highly saturated market. And, and, and let's face it, I mean some of your very deep pockets and, and, and obviously has dirty distribution.

They're dirty too.

Oh yeah. No, they're dirty. And tell me a little bit about how having all of these different facets to your brand, like the Nelk Boys, the. The podcast enterprise, the Happy Dad Seltzer, like, and, and the fact that you're growing other people's podcasts, like, what sort of synergies exist between what seems like very different industries, right? You got a podcast, you got a seltzer. You know, you have the Nelk Boys, you have a YouTube channel. Like, how are, how are you playing this? Like a symphony. How do you put these together?

Because the core of the foundation, like when you go on a whiteboard and you draw everything we're doing, the core of the foundation is the media company. So we brought out the media company.

So you got the media company. The media company which you control and you own.

Like, you know, we've made a lot of our top podcast. I learned that partner in it. We. Yeah, we don't do this third party stuff at all. That's why when I got wind of that, that you were part of that, you know, back to what we're talking about.

And I've never really. Thank you for that. It was a blessing that you came in and helped me get the podcast back and help me get.

I think it's very, very. Because you're sold. Podcasters are sold on the dream, right? They're sold on, like, you know, hey, look what Rogan did with Spotify. You can do that. You're so, you know, this, this, that I know so. And so I'm friends with this guy and I could book this person for you, your podcast, you know, all the stuff, you're gonna be sold the dream. And. And the reality is, if you're going to be dependent on other people, you're never gonna get there because the authenticity of your podcast goes away. And that's why I was so overprotective. You're probably, like, wondering, like, John, why are you.

So you came in like the hammer.

I was like, damn. Because I'm so protective of your brand because you're so protective of us as humans. And I'm protective of you and your kids too, which I love you. I love. So. So I think it's so important for a podcaster to. I talked to Theo Vaughn about this all the time.

Theo Vaughan? Yeah.

Because, you know what's so special about Theo Vaughan?

I talked about him last night and.

Yeah, but I tell him, you know, what's so special about Theo Von is Theo Vaughn. What's crazy is he's a top five Podcast on Spotify. Spotify won't tell you. You go on the charts that aren't hand selected. You'll see him. But when you go to their curated, you know, top podcast, he's not on there, which is mind blowing. But whatever. I told him, who cares? You are massive. We couldn't walk two feet with him last night, right?

I saw that.

We couldn't walk two feet with him, right? It was crazy. It was crazy. Like, so where I'm going at with this, but Theo is special and Theo is massive. Everyone loves Theo. You can't walk two feet with Theo because Theo Vaughn is a three person army.

Really?

Three person. His whole entire team is three people. He has no massive podcast network. He's not signed to our podcast or anyone assumes because we're friends and we help him. He's not signed to us and nor do I want him because I want to help him. I want him to remain as a three. Same with you. I could have approached you, said, join our network, want you to stay where you are, keep the authenticity of this podcast.

Yeah.

Help make the world better. Which deal's doing that? Right? You're doing it with, you know, I think internal health. He's doing with laughter, you know, which is also a great medicine. So you guys are kind of doing the same thing, just in different ways. And I think that's what's important because what happens is, you know, you know when I called you, when I called you is when I saw the podcast hit the top of the Spotify charts, right? I said, these sharks are going to come after Gary. I know it, I know. I was like, this is when they, those sharks just look down those Spotify charts and they start telemarketing you. You know, I could do this, I could do that, I could do this brand, sell this, sell that. You know, I mean, it cost us.

A lot of money to get out of it.

So that's when I, you know, had to come in and I was like, all right, time to build a great wall of China around Gary. You know, just like I've helped build around Theo. And I think that's what's so important with a podcaster is don't be sold or convinced by these other people. Do your thing, grow organically. Some will have overnight success, be lucky, some won't. Theo Vaughn's podcast is, I think, like five years old. Theo's been doing this.

What's his big feeders? He is he, I mean, he's a comedian. So is it, is it, is his stage presence and then. And then, you know, that feeds the podcast. And I also do want to get back to this media company because I think it's important how you guys are driving this brand. You. You started with the media company, and then this feeds the.

So, yeah, so I'm sorry, I got off track. But I do want podcasters to be careful and don't fall for the sharks. You could always message me if you're not sure. Yeah, I'll help anybody. You could have five subscribers on YouTube. Message me, I'll help you. So we have the media company. It's kind of like, all right, and going back to what do we do? One of the things that we have out there is brand sales team.

So that's like the hub, and now there's the spokes of the wheel coming off.

Yeah. So there's brand sales team, there's creating products, there's merch. We used to have, like, film tv, and we've done a couple stuff in film tv. We sold shows to Netflix and a couple Amazon, a couple other people. We kind of X that part out. That part was too much of a headache. And now the one that's been the most fun. Control. It gives the most control and actually made us most money is the build products. Happy dad side. So I said, all right, let's actually do less brands. We have a couple of great partnerships, Price Picks is a great partner, a couple other guys. But the building brands part, all right, we've nailed that. So now how do we create more brands? What are. But then what.

More brands or expand the Happy dad brand?

Well, the Happy dad is like. Like, that's my role. That's 90% of my.

That's what Sam does. Sam's the CEO. Everyone reports to Sam at Happy dad.

Right.

Sam is the beast when it comes to that. So Happy Dad's become his. My role is create other brands, like.

Take care of and also take care of you and all that. But I think on our side, though, the 102 employees, I've interviewed every single person, really, we will never hire a single person without. Go through me. I don't care if we get to 2,000 employees.

Wow.

They need to know how special of something. We have. Also something that we've done really great is we've. We do everything internally. So for example, we just added 14,000. We have 14,000 square feet with our merchandise. We.

We.

We grew the merch so much. We wanted to control the.

Right now.

This is the new Happy dad ufc.

Oh, Happy dad ufc.

Yeah.

It's Got a little UFC logo inside.

Yeah.

Does it?

Yeah, right there.

Oh, like that's a big deal for you.

Not available for sale yet, but we'll hopefully early next year.

All right, there we go.

So.

So we have, we had a 14,000 square feet. And that right there is just to fulfill our merchandise and ship it and, and we built all that. Normally you get a third party partner stuff was like, we're doing this all in house because we want to control our customers experience and have the best customer experience. But you know, the challenge I think for entrepreneurs as a whole, those again, as a CEO, you have to be hands on with everybody. You're going to get people telling you. Yeah. You know, you're like, you want to hire great people. So as I've hired some incredible managers, you know, all these people that we brought on board, it's pretty crazy because my brother and I were so hands on in the business right now. There's all these things that we used to always like, like be obsessed over trying to fix. We hired to A Plus guys to come from Anheuser Busch, Dr. Pepper, all these things. So I don't even know what's going on there. Because they're so good that you trust them. Yeah, I trust them and they fill me in. They give me 15 minutes a week. I go, hey, fill me in.

Because there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of dynamics going on in your business too. Like you got the family dynamic.

Yep.

I mean, you got this outlier. Steve will do it. Yeah. It was like, you know, amazing. Out of his mind.

Yeah.

You know, and so you have like this craziness. I'm sure you can't have it get too crazy and damage the brand and then.

Which is a constant. That is, that is, that's a constant thing.

You know, I love Steve, man.

Yeah.

He's like, you don't want to change him. But then you're like, you know what?

Steve will never change.

Yeah.

No, no, no, no. This is what I tell everybody.

Such a good human.

I tell everybody this about Steve. Steve will never change. That is, Steve will do it. That's who he is. You just gotta ride the wave, you know, can't get upset. Like, you know, last time he asked, hey, can I come to this thing or do I need to come to say? I go, no, you don't need to. But you know what? Steve and Kyle have done something really big about our brand. So we do these meetups, right. We go to grocery stores, liquor stores, whatever, and we have all our fans come? Like, Yesterday we did one Lee's Liquor in Las Vegas. We had 300 people show up.

Right.

Just signings all that. We've done over 450 of them.

450 meetups.

Yeah.

That. A minimum of three or, sorry, a minimum of 30 minutes. Minimum, 30 minutes. But we're always 45 to an hour and 15 that we're in there signing.

Really? Okay.

That's how many we've done.

So, I mean, that's.

We've never stopped.

Nobody else, you know, gets to touch a brand like that. I mean, these are kind of some of the things I. I like to expose on the podcast because, like, these are great tidbits, you know, really viscerally bringing your brand down to your audience. Like, now they know you or they feel like they know you. It's incredible. I definitely try to do. And we.

We call like, like. Let's call them like secondary cities. So, like, yes, Dallas, Texas is cool for us to visit, but Waco, Texas, El Paso. Yeah, like those. Those. Yeah. Like, there's San Marcos, Texas. That's, like on my list. Right. It's Texas Estates there. But the reason why is. It's what we've done with the brand, and it will never change because we're obsessed with this is we love going to places that nobody else wants to go. So I can't tell you how many stores we've gone to where I'm like, hey, have you ever had a celebrity like. No.

Yeah.

No one's ever shown up here. Yeah, no one's ever coming down.

Wichita, Wisconsin.

Yeah, they're going to Vegas, they're going to Miami. They're going. We're going Nashville.

We remember when we. When we launched Texas. Remember, we started in Houston and we drove.

Drove. Road trip.

Road trip. Houston, Texas. College Station, Waco. Bunch of little stores. I mean, we've. We visited 32 stores in five days.

Is that a big happy dad.

Truck.

Truck. There's like a truck. No, we just saw one that was like a.

That follows us sometimes.

Yeah, that follows us sometimes. But no, we were just in SUVs because you drive faster. Right. It's more like.

Right.

Like logistically efficient.

Yeah.

So we.

Yes. John calling on John over supplementing.

Oh, tell me about that. Because this is what happened. One day. One day I got. I got a giant package from Symbiotica to my house, and I took a picture on Instagram. My DMs were filled. You should be listening to Gary Brecker and hear about. Over Supplementing.

Yeah, yeah.

Now I want a message back like, like, don't tell me to listen to Gary. But I was like, all right, so I do want to hear because I've had like five of these and it made me think of when.

So, you know, over supplementing is the thing that I'm, I'm very conscious about too, because most people are supplementing for the sake of supplementing. They're not supplementing for deficiency. That's why I'm so big on data. You know, we spend so much money getting data on our business, right? And data on our market, data on our revenues, data on our net operating costs, you know, and we don't get data on our bodies. And I always preach about the genetic test. Yes, I am trying to sell a genetic test. We're telling people they need to get a genetic test. But this tells you what your body's deficient in, right? So you start with the basics. Methylated multivitamin. I personally believe that everybody should be on a methylated multivitamin. Our food supply is way too nutrient deficient right now and we have so many excess toxins coming into the body that we actually need additional support. Most of us. I'm not talking to the super woke biohacker. I'm talking to the every man and every woman, right? And I want my audience. I mean, I love the super woke biohackers. I mean these, some of these guys are my idols have been Greenfield's, the, the, you know, the Hubermans. But you know, getting online and trying to impress each other with how smart we are is much different than trying to get a message to the masses. And the message that I have for the masses is stop supplementing for the sake of supplementing. Start supplementing for deficiency. And yes, you can add glutathione, extra detoxification support. Yes, you need a methylated multivitamin because our food supply is just so stripped of nutrients. Unless you are that ultra woke biohacker that's getting everything organic and, and eating grass fed grass, finished meats and you know, bringing their own foods to events and things like that. But that's not the audience that I'm trying to help. They're already helping themselves. The audience that I'm trying to help is the guy that's like, where do I start? And so over supplementing is a huge issue. When I open most people's supplement cabinets. It's like Sal Palmetto, St. John's Wort, Ashwagandha CoQ10 multivitamin D3NMN you know, nicotinamide, rhapside. It's like, whoa, what are you taking all this stuff for? And the question is, does your body need it?

Right?

And I'm a huge fan of brands and that build supplement lines like, like, like mine and some of these other brands that build supplement lines. So then when people have deficiencies, they have a quality supplement there to answer that deficiency, but not just shoveling them all in, hoping that you hit the mark. And that's why I say the basics are, you know, human beings need 91, 91 essential nutrients, right? These are minerals, okay? And then, and you know, I prefer you get these things from like Celtic sea salt or Baja sea salt or, you know, one of these kinds of supplements. Then we need nine essential amino acids, we need three essential fatty acids. The source of those is important. And then beyond that, we should be really judicious. Like, for example, there's no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. So we should be very judicious with our carbohydrate choices. I'm not saying you can't have carbohydrates or shouldn't have carbohydrates, but those should be some of the cleanest fuel sources, like organic, non fortified, non enriched white rice, you know, sweet potatoes, fruits that end in berry, you know, BlackBerry, blueberry, raspberry, you know, natural honeys, like a Manuka honey or, or natural maple syrup. Those things are carbohydrate sources that are clean, they're rich in carbohydrates, but they're healthy, you know, sources of carbohydrates. Most of us get our carbohydrates from bleached white flour, enriched white flour, pasta, pastas, you know, other, other white flowers, breads, cereals, grains, which are terrible sources of, of carbohydrates. And most of them are gmo. They're genetically modified. And so this is what sucks the life out of you, destroys your mood, reduces your emotional state, jacks up your gut, takes away your energy. I have a simple philosophy kind of about food in general, that I look at food and I say, are you going to serve me or are you going to steal from me? If you're going to steal from me, you don't get to come into the temple. And because if we protect the temple, this is our vehicle, right? So we have two choices. We can either filter things before they come into our bodies, or we can allow our bodies to be the filter. You know, I did a simple demo on, on, on Instagram the other day. It Went really viral. I'll probably do a podcast on it. I took two glasses of tap water, right? And I had, I had Max, my cameraman was actually the guinea pig. And I said, take four of your fingers and put them in one of these glasses of tap water and hold it there for 30 seconds. He puts four fingers in the tap water and then he takes his fingers out. And then I test both glasses of tap water for chlorine. The one he did not put his fingers in was full of chlorine. It turns bright yellow. The one he did put his fingers in had no chlorine. It tested zero. The reason was the chlorine left the fluid and entered his body. That's how quickly we absorbed that's crazy chlorine. And it was like I could feel the tada moment for people. Like, okay, I understand that. Wait a second. He put his fingers in for 30 seconds and sucked the chlorine right out of that glass. Yes. Along with the fluoride, the microplastics, and the, you know, and maybe heavy metals that were in there. Or even pharmaceuticals. Micro pharmaceuticals that were in there. So. So it just brings home the notion that we have to be diligent about filtering things before they come into our body. And it seems like a lot of fear mongering, but we're not trying to fear monger. We're trying to just get people back to the basics. Because the majority of what's wrong with our food is not the food itself. It's the distance from the food to the table. Glyphosates, preservatives, insecticides, pesticides, preservatives, you know, all the nonsense that we put into our, our water. And if we're a little diligent about filtering the environment around us, then we take a lot of the pressure off our bodies. And so I'm a huge believer in supplementing. I do not think that we can get the raw materials the body needs to function properly without some basic supplements like a methylated multivitamin. Glutathione is another, you know, amazing one.

So, so, Gary, if you had to choose, what's like the simplest but the healthiest breakfast for someone.

Well, again, I'm a big fan of whole foods. Eggs, avocados, you know, meats, grass fed grass, finished pasture, raised meats, pasture, raised eggs. It's, it's, it's sad that we have to be so diligent about label reading, but all we're really trying to do is navigate around the industrial processing and get to the whole food.

Yeah.

Right. So a lot of the labeling organic is not really as beneficial as it used to be. Now, you know, I preach a lot about not eating GMO foods, but now they're taking the word GMO off the labeling and they're changing it to bioengineered. And bioengineered maybe doesn't sound as bad as genetically modified, but it's still the same process, Right?

Sounds pretty bad. It's bad engineered. I don't want engineered. My food maybe in a building, but engineers look at.

Yeah, exactly. One engineer. You're building, not your food. You know, we genetically modified foods to make seeds resistant to glyphosate, a poison, you know, insecticide. It's in Roundup. And we didn't genetically modify it to increase the yield. We didn't genetically modify it to increase the nutritional content. We genetically modified it so it wouldn't be killed by a poison. So now this means that the foods that are genetically modified are likely being exposed to that poison by virtue of the fact that you're genetically modified to be resistant to it. And now we're eating these foods that are not even really foods. Sometimes when we genetically modify them, we, we actually make them non digestible. We make them unrecognizable to the body. Right. And so, you know, we think that we're doing the right thing because it's wheat or it's bulgur or it's quinoa or it's kale, but it's, you know, and once we understand that a lot of these products, soy, corn, are genetically modified, we look for those things on the label and try to get back to the whole food.

So are there any foods that you're not sitting here worrying about the label, but you're like, you know what? That food is fine. Like, you know, you're not like, like kale, for example.

I'm not, not a big fan of kale for a whole host of other.

Reasons, but.

I don't know what killed.

You, but to the rabbits, but, you know, I'm not.

But like.

Yeah.

Is there certain things where you're not sitting there trying to look at all this package and see if it's.

Yeah. And once you get to the organic section, you know, I, I tell people, shop the perimeter of the grocery store. Not, you know, the more, the less you go down the aisles, the more likely you are to be getting whole foods. Most of the things that are perishable are on the perimeter. And if they're perishable, that means that they're either Live or they're, you know, they're a whole food because, you know, whole foods go bad. So if you kind of shop the perimeter of the grocery store first, do as much as you're shopping there and then go down the aisles as little as possible. That's better. As soon as you actually start to make some money in your life, you should invest in organic foods. You should go out of your way to have a water filtration system. You should go out of your way to not eat genetically modified foods, because you're allowing your body to get back to the basics, to things it recognizes called metabolites that it can actually draw nutrients from and can eliminate the waste from the breakdown of those nutrients. And as simple as that seems, it's harder and harder to eat healthy now because of. I mean, the other day we were. I forget, we were watching a football game or basketball game, and just for shits and giggles, we, we. We really paid attention to the commercials. It is all food and candy and processed food commercials, all of it.

And then fast food and then. And then Ozempic and Mounjaro and then.

Ozempica, Manjaro, you know, which is another thing which you do a whole podcast on Ozpic and Mounjaro. I mean, I'm, I'm. I'm not necessarily anti Ozempic, just.

But it's just funny that they target you right after food.

Yeah.

That person who's eating junk food, it's.

Like, hey, yeah, they're like XYZ pizza and Skittles and then Manjaro.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, we're one of only two countries in the world that allows big Pharma to, To advertise.

That's Ryan blowing. I've heard that. Directly to New Zealand, I think it was.

Yeah.

New Zealand.

Yeah, it's New Zealand.

It's a really awesome. I mean, yeah, it's really.

And you know, we're spending $4 trillion on healthcare. We're ranked 52nd in the world for healthcare delivery. We're ranked 38th in the world overall for life expectancy. So we know that money doesn't correlate to outcomes. Right. Because we're, We're. By a factor of like 10. We're spending more money than any other country. $4 trillion. We're one of the sickest nations on the planet. And a lot of this has to do with our food supply and being nutrient deficient. So just to, you know, round out your question about over supplementing, I mean, first we have to supplement for the basics, and then we can target supplement for other things we want to support your body.

Yeah. Just so you know, what I've taken is either something you've told me I need to take, or maybe I'll just add like a basic thing, like a multivitamin. Vitamin C. I think those are. Yeah, I do take it. Nmn. Which you did tell me about you.

Yeah. And you guys are both on my multivitamin.

Yeah.

But I'm not the only one who makes a good multivitamin. Right. There are other great brands out there.

I mean, there's a lot of bad ones too, though.

We want to give credit some people to. Let's not give credit to like, not just anything, you know.

Yeah. I mean, the ones that don't have folic acid, that don't have cyanocobalamin, that don't have non organic binders and fillers, you know, they're doing probiotics that are actually protected from stomach acid. So there's bacteria don't die in the stomach on their way to the, to the gut. You know, going that extra mile to make sure that what. Not only we're representing what's in the capsule or the. The tablet, but we're making sure that once it goes into the body, the body can actually, you know, use it. Yeah.

Yeah. That's one thing I've learned about some of the. Some of the tablets right now is, you know, I've noticed like a lot of tablets I've gotten recently says taking three, and I thought they were trying to scam me, like, why take three that you should be taking one? But now I realize it's actually because that one was filled with so many bad fillers.

Yeah.

That now the three has been split up into like three without the fillers. So I think the fillers is something very important as well.

Super.

Pay attention.

Super important. Ingredients matter.

Yeah.

Especially in human beings. Ingredients matter. And, you know, we were. We were. I was talking about this at the fights last night. The fights were awesome, by the way. Yeah. You know, it was crazy last night.

Yeah.

I think that went more viral than the fight itself.

Yeah, I love the guy.

When did you become a UFC fan?

How long?

How many years?

Gosh, I've been a UFC for fan for a long time. Years ago, I owned a nightclub and I was a partner in a nightclub in Miami called Mint Lounge, and we sponsored a fighter called Diego the Nightmare Sanchez. Do you remember him?

No.

Diego the Nightmare. See, this is going like way back. And I've always been a fan of the ufc because, you know, I, I'm a fan of jiu jitsu. I'm not a. No jujitsu skills at all, but I just thought of it as like a real thinking man sport. Right. It takes a lot of skill and you need to be physically fit and all of that. But it's, it's like one of those sports where the guy that's two or three or four moves ahead is probably the one that, that's going to come out on top. It's a. And. And it's also kind of a metaphor for life, like being calm under stress.

Yeah. And that's why the fighters and I know, we both know a lot of fighters personally.

Yeah.

They're are the kindest.

They are the kindest guys. Yeah. Like most of us have a very difficult time meeting our protein needs. And certain protein sources like whey protein and others can be as little as 20% absorbable. This is 99 absorbable and it has all of the essential amino acids that the body needs to build lean muscle to recover, to improve our exercise performance, and most importantly, to repair after we have intense exercise. So this is called perfect amino by Body Health. It's like I said, 99 absorbable. It only has 2 calories. Eventually the caloric intake has virtually no caloric intake. It will not break a fast. It tastes amazing. You mix it in water. I take this literally every single morning. If you're working out in a fasted state, you have to take a full spectrum amino acid prior to your workout to preserve your lean muscle and make sure that you're recovering properly. And again, it will not break your fast. So the caloric impact is virtually zero. You get all of the full spectrum amino acids. It tastes wonderful. I use it every single day. You can go to bodyhealth.com ultimate that's bodyhealth.com ultimate. And look for the perfect aminos. They actually come in capsules if you're on the go, or it becomes in several flavors that they make in a powder, which I love. It's flavored with natural means of flavoring. So there's no artificial sweeteners in here. So this is one of my absolute favorite products. Give it a try. If you're working out at all, you need a full spectrum amino acid. Go to bodyhealth.com ultimate. That's bodyhealth.com ultimate. I love their lab tested products. You can actually see the absorption rate for all of their products. They've got great electrolyte protein combinations. My favorite is the perfect Aminos bodyhealth.com forward slash, ultimate. And now back to the Ultimate Human podcast.

You know, obviously we're friends with Sean o'.

Malley.

Justin Gates.

I love Sean. Yeah.

Jorge Masvidal. Like, all these guys are like, that come, like, Malott. Like, these guys are like the kindest guys. I was with Gilbert Burns last night. Like, the nicest, nicest, nicest guys. Like, I. I just.

Well, you're heading to a podcast after this with.

Yeah, we gotta go, actually. I mean, I don't want to wrap this, so we gotta keep going because this is important.

But is it with Sean Strick?

Sean Strickland. He's. He's headed. You know, like I was saying before, I love booking guests, sometimes a pain in the ass, but Sean Strickland's coming on the Theo Von podcast, so.

Oh, he is.

Oh, we should go together.

I'll go together.

You should meet Sean.

Sean is great. Speaking of hard times. Nicest guy on the planet.

Sean.

Sean Strickland is. You know, he's.

When.

When you're not on X, reading his posts on X or watching his videos on. On social media, Sean Strickland is one of the sweetest guys. He's really such a good Emmy's.

Real. Oh, he's a real deal.

He's a real, real guy. I personally, I know there's a lot of people have opinions about. My opinion about Sean Strickland is. I love the guy. Like, so.

Yeah.

Yeah, we should go. I want him to get to know you as well.

All right. Sean, I'm coming to watch your podcast.

Yeah, yeah. And come on here, too.

Yeah.

I don't think he likes to do a lot of podcasts, but he has a big fight coming out in January, so maybe he will, but.

Who's he fighting in January?

The guy that he fought yesterday.

Yes. I didn't. I. I saw the highlight reel of it. Who got the better of that fight?

Well, yeah, it got broken up pretty fast, though.

Did they?

Yeah, it was like split up within, like a minute. Right? Like, it was like. It was like a 30 second was.

It just said, like, they start mouthing off to each other and then just, Sean, I don't know.

We gotta go there and find out what happened.

You know what happened? You know how I found out? So we. Between one of the fights, we went into the back room and. And I knew Sean was there because, you know, I was talking to Sean before now, and Sean didn't want to come. Actually, I kind of feel guilty a little bit. Sean didn't want to come. A week ago, he and I were talking. I was like, hey, listen, Trump's coming. I think it should be a good, you know, you know, chance to come meet Trump. So. So we're in between one of the fights. I didn't know this had already happened, fighting the crowd, but I didn't know. I wasn't really on my phone. So I was like, oh, Strickland's here. But we're not sitting next to each other. He's sitting with all the fighters. We're sitting with Dana, you, everybody, you know, in different section. So. So I texted Strickland. I was like, hey, where you at? So I could come bring you to Trump. And he writes back, are you not at the fight? I was like, no, I am. And then instantly, everyone's like, yo, Sean, Strickland got in a fight.

Oh, shit.

And that's how I found out. I had no idea it happened. I'm like, texting him, like, where are you at? So I could bring you to Trump. I don't know if he got kicked out. I don't know what happened, but. But it's all over social media, man.

I mean, when I was coming back in to get my wife last night, there was a guy on that was actually handcuffed, strapped to a wheelchair and hog tied at his feet, and his face was a little busted up. So I don't think it was the guy that Sean fought. Maybe it was another guy that got him fighting around me. He was just mouthing.

I mean, that thing. But that thing went viral next.

Yeah, but, yeah, it went viral everywhere.

Best platform.

X is the best platform. We got to get.

You got. Yeah, yeah, we gotta get the ultimate.

Yeah, we gotta. We gotta. I think there's a few things. I think, you know, one of the things, I think it's awesome that you interview people and that, you know, obviously, it's worked for a lot of people. It's worked for Logan, it's worked for full send, it's working for Theo. But also my favorite thing that you do is when you do the one on one looking at the camera, right? I think it's the thing I share the most. I always. If I haven't sent it to Renee, she's already sent it to me. If I haven't already sent to Sam, he's already sending me. It's the most shared thing and short form cost. You know, the YouTube algorithm, which I know in and out. We.

We.

That's our business. We know in and out. It likes two things and two things. Only extremely short content or extremely long content.

Extremely short or extremely long.

Extremely short or extremely long. Okay, extremely long. Kind of depends. It changes all the time. We can't tell. I mean, if you ask me, I haven't looked recently, but most recently it was something around 42 to 48 minutes. And up is extremely long. So the 20 minute mark, I know they're trying to change it up a little bit to get it down to 20 to 30 minutes because there's so many.

I try to keep them under 20. Yeah.

Because I think what's happening, the landscape of podcast has changed so much is, you know, hundreds of thousands of podcasts have launched in the last. In 2023.

Right.

So, you know, it's like, all right, am I going to give Gary an hour of my time or am I going to give it to Theo? Am I giving it to Rogan? Am I giving it to Nelson? Am I giving to Yachty? Am I giving to this? You know, so now. But people want to listen, they want to hear. Because you're different than Theo. Theo is different. Nelk is different than Rogan. So I think now cutting them up shorter is what YouTube's trying to wreck them. But. But if you do a 20 minute episode, it's not going to do as well. Or 30 minute episodes, I do as well. So you're not doing it. You're going that 42 to minute and up.

Right.

Because it does well. But that's not what the consumer wants. So you. YouTube is learning that right now and they're going to make some adjustments.

So one thing though, but because the. Your format, 20, 30 minutes is nice because that's how long a normal person takes to drive to work.

Ah, okay.

Yeah.

So this is, this is like a big help. See, I'm just, I'm new to this, so I want the information to get.

Like an average, average time. If someone goes to work, let's say it's like 30 minutes, right in the subway or whatever and all that.

It's actually not. It's 40. 45.

It's actually.

Yeah, well, okay, I'm going back to.

Six years ago, 45 minutes. Now the average commute to work, 45 minutes is the average gym time as well. You know, some people go to gym, you know, I'm in there for an hour, 15, hour, 30. But some people just go into. But 45 minutes. So listen to a podcast, 45 minutes to an hour. And that's why that's always been the sweet spot. 45 to an hour of podcast, it's that's pretty much how long someone's been over. Or if it's 20 minutes, it's okay. I'm gonna list halfway to work, halfway home. Yeah.

That's why, you know, I try to, on, on Tuesdays, I, I launch a full length podcast. Like, this will be a Tuesday launch for us. And then on Thursdays, I do a short and I try to, to really keep it under 20 minutes. I'm shooting for under 15. And I want to take a topic that people are interested in and give them some, a real practical step that they could take to change the trajectory of their life by, by implementing whatever. You know, like last week I did vitamin D3, I did a 20 minute short on water fasting. You know, getting GMO foods out of your life, getting tap water out of your life. You know, how do we, how do we avoid seed oils? And then here's what a seed oil is. Here's why you don't want to have it in your life. Here's how you get it out of your life.

You know, what we gotta do is we gotta get you on Snapchat because the, the consumption of alcohol for young kids is actually declining.

Is it really?

Yeah. I just read a report the other day.

Oh, wow.

It's declining because people want to live healthier.

Yeah.

Do you think it's because they want to live healthier because they're vaping or because there's something else going on?

I think, I think. No, I think, I think it's.

That's great.

Generation wants to be in control.

Okay.

You know, they don't want to lose that control. So, so they're still drink. Like they're drinking seltzer now.

I'm talking like, are you guys millennials? I'm, I'm last year. Millennial.

Okay. Last year.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Now we're Gen Z. Yeah.

So Gen Z. Gen Z.

And then I don't, I don't know, I go by years, but, but.

I.

Think they want to be in control. They don't want, you know, they, you know, this actually goes to health as well as they want to look good on social media. That's something that people want to look good. Like, they want to naturally look good when they're posting that selfie. They want to post that selfie.

Right.

If a random friend takes a picture and posts it without their approval real quick. Well, one is the only one saying, don't post that picture. I don't look good. They want to be fine with it. It's like Oh, I look great. Yeah, don't even ask. I look great. And I think that's what the thing. Because there's only two ways to look good on social media. Being healthy, being in shape, or adding 50 filters.

Right, yeah, I understand that. Yeah.

You know, it's sadly, you know, situation with some people. But I think that's, that's a couple of things we're learning from social media. We're also learning from COVID as well. Like one thing I've, I've learned two things from COVID Be healthy and make money.

Yeah. Those are the people who be healthy and make money and use your money to drive your health.

Those are two people didn't make it. Yeah, like, you know, unhealthy didn't make it. And those who weren't making money then. Yeah, that whole middle class has been.

Wiped, you know, so, so true.

So I think those are the things. But, but going back to Snap, I think where Sam's talking is about is, you know, the thing with short form content, which there's IG reels, there's TikTok, Snapchat, there's YouTube shorts, is, you know, that short form content is great, they're so shareable, but it ultimately becomes a trailer for the mothership, the episode. Right? It becomes a trailer. And the beauty is like a lot of these platforms, YouTube, Snap especially, tick tock some, they'll pay you too. So it's like, you know, we think about a movie, an hour, hour and a half, two hour movie will make a two to three minute trailer. Spend all this money on making the trailer, spend all this money on advertising the trailer. Where you're. Other way around, you take a two to three minute clip, you know, max, and you put it out and you actually make money off that. And then that person's like, hey, I gotta watch this full episode.

And that's really what I'm trying to do is I realize how short the attention span is on social media in general, whatever platform you're on. So I have a short period of time to educate somebody, hopefully inspire them, which, you know, ideally leads to a transformation. Right. And so the one thing that I get attacked by, by, you know, some, some of my haters is that, you know, they'll, they'll watch a three hour podcast and take one little snippet and try to go, gotcha. You know, aha, this. And I'm gonna pull that snippet out and I'm gonna make, you know, I'm gonna publicize it and try to shine a Bright light on it. And, and, but the majority of the time I'm just trying to get as truthful and accurate information as I can in the shortest period of time possible because I want people to identify with it. Oh my gosh. My feet are sore and achy when I get out of bed first thing in the morning to go to the bathroom and take my first piss. Oh, my libido is off. I have brain fog. I, I have that same waking mind that Gary talks about. So that little bit of education and then the longer video designed to inspire them to say, listen, there's so many people.

There's also. When was last time someone shared you an hour and a half video? Be like, hey man, you should check this out.

Yeah, exactly. It's always like 13, three hour video.

Yeah, it's always like, like 8 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds.

Yeah.

There's an active though. I mean I, I watch a lot of hour, hour and a half videos. It's usually I. You know, if you're a YouTube Premium member, you can save, download to your device, you can listen to it on the flight. So yeah, that's good thing to do. Yeah. You know, I think a lot of people don't know about YouTube Premium, but that's the best I do think, you know, a bit of advice on podcasts. I think the future of podcasts, I've been saying this for a while, it's actually happening now. So it's not necessarily future podcast. It's the present state of podcast is video. Podcasts are important and the two best, the two best places for video are.

YouTube and X. YouTube and X. Not Spotify.

Spotify video is there. It's just, it's not a, it's not a behavior that someone's used to on Spotify. You know, they're, they're used to. And that's why I think YouTube music didn't do well. Because it's not a behavior to just listen on YouTube and not watch. And I think Spotify has the same challenge where, you know, I'm used to listening on Spotify, not watching on Spotify. So it's not a, it's a 10 plus. You know, Spotify has been around in the US for almost over 10 years now. 10 year behavior that you're trying to break, you know, so it is a feature that's available.

Watch platform. YouTube obviously. Big watch platform.

Yeah, those are the two less. Yeah, yeah. Spotify, I think that they're trying and you know, I mean they've got Rogan to change that Behavior. I think it'll take a while for that to happen, but at least they have that right. Like, you know, and some of their other originals are doing it too, I think Call Her Daddy and a couple others. But. Yeah, but you know, it's. But no one's really watching, even if it's available on Spotify, but they're watching on YouTube, they're watching on X. And I think, I think those are the important ones people want to see. You know, I think people want to see the interactions.

Yeah.

You know, a lot of podcasts, they pull up the video and it's like you're. If you're listening, like what video they're watching.

Right.

Reacting videos. There's that thing as a podcast they're going back to building products is, you know, you know, how else are you going to see the product? No, I mean, look at Happy dad all over the full cent podcast.

It's right.

They really talk about Happy that. But they have it discuss displayed there. So now when you're walking down the aisle at Walmart, you're like, I've seen that 12 pack somewhere. Yeah, it was on the podcast that has tens of million, hundreds, billions of impressions all over social media.

Okay.

So, so I think it's like from a business side it makes. Makes sense. From a user experience side, it makes sense. And it's the direction that listeners are going. Podcasts are no longer just audio, they're video. So I think that's an important thing. So, you know, video podcast is important. So what do you do then? Because then I think the first, first episode that you launched, I called you, I said focus on one platform to send your traffic.

Yeah, you did. I remember I just landed in la. You're like, hey, first of all, congratulations. Second of all, yeah, focus on focus for now.

For now.

We've been really taking that advice.

Yeah, they'll find you other places. They'll find. If they're listening on Spotify, they'll find you there. If they're listening to you on Apple, they'll find you. There is even a small audience on like iHeart and these other smaller audio platforms and they'll find you there. But focus on one because, you know, that's, I mean, sadly, that's, that's the currencies. Like, you know, when, when we're booking someone for someone's podcast, we're like, hey, come on, this podcast, it gets X amount of views. Oh, okay, I'm in.

Right? Or we're ranked X on Spotify.

Yeah, we're right. X on Spotify. So, you know, you know, or you know, eventually, when you're big enough, you say, collectively, you know, we're big everywhere. Which is like what full Send is like full sends. I can share Folson's audio numbers. They're not public, but, like, Folson is not a top 100 podcasts on Spotify. But because of the catalog of full Send, Wholeson gets, you know, 3 to 4 million listens a month on Spotify.

Wow.

Because of the catalog, because people are going back and listening to an old Trump episode, an old Elon episode, old. The Ovon episode, Mr. Beast.

I mean, guest wise, you can kill it. You know, guess wise. And I'm. Yeah, Well, I mean, and most of those people that have had a personal.

Journey, I was blown away.

Stephen A. Smith. I mean, Dana White. Those are some of my favorites.

Yeah, well, Dana. Dana's. You know, obviously, everyone knows how we feel about Dana, but Steve Harvey, like that. You know how many hours I've spent watching Family Feud.

Yeah.

I mean, how many times he's made me laugh.

Such a great human. And his story about getting in the cold punch is a comedy show in and of itself. Just that snippet of him. And. And the same with Stephen A. Smith. I mean, and those two are really good friends. And they. They were going back and forth behind the scenes about get. Getting into the cold plunge. It was hilarious.

I've never done it.

Yeah. Never done the cold punch.

I've never done it. What I've done.

I've done 30 seconds.

How did I have you on my podcast and you've never.

I've never want to tell you.

I can't this morning. Hey, can I have time for a cold punch? I'm like, take out.

Picking up the podcast time. You're like. I'm like, great. We moved in a half an hour. See, I got. I got time to get in the Coldplay.

You notice I didn't even reply.

Yeah, you were just busy.

I can't go in my hot tub if it's under 90 degrees.

Wow.

So I. I don't know what it is. I'll get there one day. I know, I know.

The air. The episode of John Jiti getting in cold punch. Because I had Gabe and Kyle on last time for my congrats to both.

Of them about their health journey.

Oh, dude, they're. They're doing amazing. Gabe just got 50 grand for his big. I feel like I'm 15.2, 0.735% responsible, so I should.

No, I Asked. I asked him for a commission.

Gabe, we should be getting.

And then.

And then he said, well, I wore a happy dad hat or shirt.

I wore the happy.

That shirt on my, my after post, I was like, oh, he's awesome, man.

He's got a little. He's got a little sharp, though. He was like, yeah, they end up posting me with happy dad. How much do I get from you guys?

Yeah, we didn't post you with the ultimate Human, so I need my 15, Gabe, if you're listening. Well, look, guys, I mean, this has been amazing. I know we got a podcast to run off to, but I. I try to end every podcast the same way by asking the same question, and there's no right or wrong answer. But what does it mean to you guys to be an ultimate human?

I think being an ultimate human, you know, I think you got to get your order of priorities in life straight. Obviously, we all believe. Not we all. But here, I hope many of you believe God is why we're all here. But outside of that, you know, I kind of had my life reorganized unorganized a little bit, my priorities unorganized. Before I used to always say family first. I used to be family first, work second, health third. Before I met you. Now it's health first, family second. Because if I'm not healthy, going back to what I was saying about fear of waking up dead and my wife seeing me with dead.

Yeah, health first.

Because with your health's not there, your family's going to suffer. Health first, family second, business third.

Amen.

Yeah, I think if you, if you end up being an ultimate human, you're going to also make a lot of other people better if you're not healthy. And if you're not, you know, in a good spot. Spot. And that's what I do right now. I mean, employees, everything. And I'm the first one up. I'm the last one to go to sleep and everything. But I make everybody else better as well. But if you're the example, you're the example. So if you're the example, then you know it's going to make your parents happy. Hopefully you, you know, Steve will do was one of them. We were, we were the same was when we started becoming healthy. Then we converted our parents into being healthy.

Right.

And that's the most important thing is like, you know, you want your parents to live and not suffer and all that stuff and everything. And. And then eventually, if you have kids, you also don't want to be, you know, that. That old grandpa or Never even see your grandkids because you weren't healthy. So you gotta focus on yourself first, and then everything else comes in and it becomes a beautiful thing.

Dude, I love it, man. Guys, this has been amazing, man. Thank you so much for the insights. Business, health, family, faith, all the things that make you guys tick. I hope that the listeners got as much out of it as I did. And as always, if you have any questions about or you have, you'd like to submit a question to the podcast or you'd like any information on any of the products or services that we talked about on the podcast today, you can go to theultimatehuman.com you can sign up for my free monthly or free weekly newsletter. You can go to theultimatehuman.com and find links to any of the products or services we talked about on the podcast. And as always, that's just science. Foreign.

Serving or 1 gram.

And what's crazy, 12 ounce. But they're 24 ounces, the popular one. So you're getting 2x.

Yeah, yeah. So those little, like, sugar, those little sugar packs have grams of sugar. I think the sugar packs that you put in your coffee is like 2.6 grams of sugar, something like 2.6 or 2.8.

Soda's about 52, 54.

So this little 12 ounce can has 21.6. This, this brand that are. Is our competition is the biggest brand on the planet.

We're not going to say their name, but. And what's crazy is we're gluten free. Yeah, we're gluten free. But what's crazy about this other brand. One last thing I'm saying is they're the, the demographic that drinks them, usually kids in their mid-20s. They're putting down like four or five of them. You know, like, it's not like they're having one quick one. It's like, all right, whatever. We'll look the other way. They're putting out four or five of them.

Wow.

So the hard tea, we're going there and, and we're launching that in February, so. But in general, like, we're just growing the seltzer business. Like, it's a big, big business. You know, like us doing almost 3,3 million cases next year.

UFC and Dana, we have that.

I mean, and. And even the Snoop partnership was incredible because, well, with Death Row Records is, you know, we grew up in la, so we grew up with Death Row Records, which is like the most iconic brand.

Yes, it's. You know, I grew up with that too. I knew every word.

I know Dr. Dre, you know, Snoop. And it was original record label that Snoop had. So Snoop.

Yeah, my generation's big on that.

So Snoop bought Death Row Records, became a CEO and call my brother. And they were talking about, you know, just doing. So we've done stuff with Snoop in the past. We the best freaking partner on the planet. And we're like, let's. Let's make a do a flavor together. And he brought up grape and, and. But we're like, let's do a Death Row logo. So this is where the story gets crazy. So we do this. We have a grape. We go out to the market, we tell all of our partners and everybody, hey, we're launching this thing, Death Row grape crepe, right? Yeah. And it's going to be massive. And you know, sales guys, everything's great. Everything's made Death Row great. Every, you know, and everybody always says their products gonna be big, right? That's just the thing. John comes in is like, we gotta do minimum orders on like it has to be crazy numbers. Everybody was like, there's no way we're gonna order this much product. That's crazy.

Well, they were like, we're gonna test a few. Couple thousand cases. I was like, no, you don't, you don't tell us what you're testing. We'll tell you what you're.

Isn't that crazy how the script has flipped and we're like bended knee like, yeah, please take our product.

We always over promise and we over deliver.

Yeah.

So we knew what it was. So we come out, boom. This thing explodes out the gate. We can't even keep it in stock, right? Yeah, we can't even keep.

It's our second be behind a variety pack. It's the second largest skew right now we have.

But you know what? It's one thing the flavor profile of it. I'm not, I'm not. I'm not a grape drinker.

They are good. I mean, I'm not a seltz drinker, but they are good.

Well, I'm not a grape drinker at all.

We got. We had a couple last night together.

We did.

We did. So as a non grape drinker is my favorite flavor. So I was able to convert myself that doesn't like that type of flavor profile and whatever. So we explode, crushing it. We just got into 3017 Walmarts.

3017 Walmarts.

Like that's crazy. Starting like March 1st. They're bringing grape everywhere. This thing is a phenomenon. Now, Right?

It's so cool.

But what's important about it was the partnership, because you could pay any celebrity anything in most cases, and they do whatever, right?

Yep.

But we had so many demographics and cultures and we converted people that weren't drinking seltzers into a seltzer drinker.

Right.

We brought. That's what Walmart told us. And we knew this, but Walmart even validated this. We had a meeting with them a few months ago. Like, you just brought a whole different category of people or a demographic of people into the category. You brought a whole new, like, we've never seen this customer profile walk down a selfie section.

Just so important for the audience to hear, though, because you trailblazed in, in a highly competitive, you know, highly saturated market. And, and, and let's face it, I mean, some of your hardest, very deep pockets and, and, and obviously distribution.

They're dirty too.

Oh, yeah, no, they're dirty. And tell me a little bit about how having all of these different facets to your brand, like the Nelk Boys, the podcast enterprise, the Happy Dad Seltzer, like, and the fact that you're growing other people's podcasts. Like, what sort of synergies exist between what seems like very different industries, right? You got a podcast, you got a seltzer, you have the Nelk Boys, you have a YouTube channel. How are you playing this? Like a symphony. How do you put these together?

Because the core of the foundation, like when you go on a whiteboard and you draw everything we're doing, the product core of the foundation is the media company. So we pride out the media company.

So you got the media company. The media company which you, you control and you own.

Like, you know, we've made a lot of our top podcasts partner in it. We, yeah, we don't do this third party stuff at all. That's why when I got wind of that, that you were part of that, you know, going back to what we're talking about, and I've never really thanked.

You for, man, it was a blessing that you came in and helped me get the podcast back and help me get.

I think it's very, very. Cuz you're sold. Podcasters are sold on the dream, right? They're sold on like, you know, hey, look what Rogan did with Spotify. You can do that. You're so, you know, this, this, that I know so and so I'm friends with this guy and I could book this person for you, your podcast, you know, all the stuff you're going to Be sold the dream. And, and the reality is, if you're going to be dependent on other people, you're never going to get there because the authenticity of your podcast goes away. And that's why I was so overprotective. You're probably like, wondering, like, John, why are you.

So you came in like the hammer.

I was like, damn. Because I'm so protective of your brand because you're so protective of us as humans. And I'm protective of you and your kids too, which I love you. I love. So. So I think it's so important for a podcaster to. I talked to Theo Vaughn about this all the time.

The ovon.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because, you know, what's so special about Theo Von?

I talked to him last night and.

Yeah, but I tell him, you know, what's so special about Theo Von is Theo Vaughn. What's crazy is he's a top five podcast on Spotify. Spotify won't tell you. You go on the charts that aren't hand selected, you'll see him. But when you go to their curated, you know, top podcast, he's not on there, which is mind blowing. But whatever. I told him, who cares? You are massive. We couldn't walk two feet with him last night.

Right? I. I saw that.

We couldn't walk two feet with him.

Right.

It was crazy. It was crazy. Like, so where I'm going at with this, but Theo is special and Theo is massive. Everyone loves Theo. You can't walk two feet with Theo because Theo Vaughn is a three person army.

Really?

Three person. His whole entire team is three people. He has no massive podcast network. He's not signed to our podcast. Now everyone assumes, because we're friends and we help him, he's not signed to us and nor do I want him because I want to help him. I want him to remain as the three. Same with you. I could have approached you, said, join our network, want you to stay where you are, keep the authenticity of this podcast.

Yeah.

Help make the world better. Which deal's doing that? Right. You're doing it with, you know, I think internal health. He's doing with laughter, you know, which is also a great Madison medicine. So you guys are kind of doing the same thing, just in different ways. And I think that's what's important because what happens is, you know, you know when I called you, when I called you is when I said, saw the podcast hit the top of the Spotify charts and I said, these sharks are going to come after Gary. I know it. I know. I was like, this is when they. Those sharks just look down those Spotify charts and they start telemarketing you. You know, I could do this, I could do that. I could do this brand, sell this, sell that. Huge promise.

You know, I mean, it cost us a lot of money to get out of it.

So that's when I, you know, had to come in, and I was like, all right, time to build a great wall of China around Gary. You know, just like I've helped build around Theo. And I think that's what's so important with a podcaster, is don't be sold or convinced by these other people. Do your thing, grow organically. Some will have overnight success. Be lucky. Some won't. Theo Vaughn's podcast is, I think, like, five years old. Theo's been doing this.

What's his big feeders. He is he. I mean, he's a comedian. So is it. Is it. Is his stage presence? And then. And then, you know, that feeds the podcast. And I also do want to get back to this media company because I think it's important how you guys are driving this brand. You. You started with the media company, and then this feeds the. The brain.

So, yeah, so I'm sorry, I got off track. But I do want podcasters to be careful and don't fall for the sharks. You could always message me if you're not sure. Yeah, I'll help anybody. You could have five subscribers on YouTube. Message me, I'll help you. So we have the media company, and it's kind of like, all right, and going back to what do we do? One of the things that we have out there is brand sales team.

So that's like the hub, and now there's the spokes of the wheel coming off of that.

Yeah. So there's brand sales team, there's creating products, there's merch. We used to have, like, film tv, and we've done a couple stuff in film tv. We sold shows to Netflix and a couple Amazon, a couple other people. We kind of X that part out. That part was too much of a headache. And now the one that's been the most fun. Control. It gives us the most control and actually made us most money is build products. Happy dad side. So we said, all right, let's actually do less brands. We have a couple great partnerships, Price picks is a great partner, a couple other guys. But the building brands part, all right, we've nailed that. So now how do we create more brands? What are. But then what?

More brands or expand the Happy dad brand?

Well, the Happy dad is like. Like, that's my role. That's 90 of mine.

That's what Sam does. Sam's the CEO. Everyone reports to Sam at Happy dad.

Right.

Sam is the beast when it comes to that. So Happy Dad's become his. My role is create other brands like.

Take care of and I also take care of you and all that. But I think on our side, though, the 102 employees, I've interviewed every single person, really, we will never hire a single person without. Go through me. I don't care if we get to 2,000 employees.

Wow.

They need to know how special of something. We have. Also something that we've done really great is we've. We do everything internally. So for example, we just added 14,000. We have 14,000 square feet with our merchandise.

Yes. We.

We.

We.

We grew the merch so much, we wanted to control the.

Right now.

This is the new Happy dad ufc.

Oh, see?

Yeah. It's got a little UFC logo inside. Yeah.

Does it?