Change Your Brain Every Day - Changing The Way We Think About Fish with Jeff Tedmori

Episode Date: June 28, 2021

Dr Daniel and Tana Amen sit down with founder of E-Fish, Jeff Tedmori to discuss the correlations between a healthy brain and a healthy fish-filled diet.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Hey, everybody. We are so excited for this week. I mean, I suppose it's going to be a fishy week because I think by now, people who've listened to the Brain Warriors Way podcast know that fish are brain food. Right. We love fish. And fish are good for your brain. And we just couldn't think of anybody better to come on and talk about it than a fisherman who is a graduate of MIT, who grew up loving fishing and has made a significant business doing this. So Jeff Ted Mori is with us. Hey, Jeff.

Now, in full disclosure, Jeff is my nephew. And yes, people go, you guys look lovely. It was a little obvious. If you didn't say that, it really wouldn't be fishy. Yeah, that's super interesting because he's always grown up fishing. And this kid is super smart, obviously goes to MIT and then makes a business out of doing the thing he loves most, which is fishing. So that's just super cool. So welcome, Jeff. Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. Good to see you both. So tell us your journey. You know, I think in this first episode, let's let people get

to know you. So obviously you grew up in our family, which is large and a bit insane. It's an amazing family. Your dad is an incredible cook. He grew up in Lebanon. And I remember one of the stories from your dad. He didn't do well in school. And he said out of 45 kids, they didn't give you grades. They ranked you on how you were in the class. Instead of the 45 kids, I was 44. And his dad got mad at him because, well, if you're going to be the worst, why don't you be the worst? But you did really well in school. So that's super interesting. No, I love that. So talk to us about growing up fishing and how you ended up at MIT. Yeah. So for me, I grew up in a family that

really wasn't a huge fan of the ocean. So it's kind of weird that I wound up with this insane passion for something where really my dad, my mom, all of my siblings, none of them had a deep passion for fishing or the ocean, but I always recall. Your dad didn't. No, no. So my dad, my dad would always go fishing with me because my mom wouldn't let me go on a boat with a bunch of like old guys going fishing without him. And so what was amazing was that he would go on all of these fishing trips with me purely because he just wanted to spend time with me. And so for me, from a very early age, it started with scuba diving when we would go on family vacations.

Uh, right. I was, I was the kid that was going up to the scuba diving instructor and having to convince him that I was old enough and that my asthma is not really that much. Right. Like nobody would let a 13 year old go scuba diving who has asthma. But I was able to convince my way and purely because I was extremely passionate about it and wanted to make it happen. So that passion turned into a deep passion for fishing, which turned into a deep passion for sailing where I was a high school and collegiate sailor, which turned into a deep passion for sailing where I was a high school and collegiate sailor, which turned into a passion for surf and say that like, I'm truly an ocean hobbyist.

And my whole life, I've always viewed the ocean as this place where I can just mentally reset, relax, and like all worries go away when I'm in the ocean. And so I, what, what I quickly found is that if I'm going to be doing something for the rest of my life, why not find a way to connect that passion that I have for the ocean with what I do for a career and what I do for a living. And so ultimately I left the job that I had prior, went to business school at MIT with the true like mission to use business to preserve our world's oceans.

And ultimately it's because I saw the profound impact it had had on my life. And I had seen, you know, kind of the degradation and destruction that we've seen in the ocean, whether it's through pollution, through overfishing, through, you know, so many different means that I wanted to make sure that future generations had that same environment to grow up in, like I had. And it was at MIT that I quickly learned that, you know, that there were some issues within the seafood supply chain that could be fixed,

and that's where I connected the dots that I could do whatever my job is and could connect it with that passion for the ocean I have. It's amazing. I'm listening to Jeff Bezos' book, Invent and Wonder, which I highly recommend. It's really a good book. And Amazon has bought many companies. And he says when he talks to the founders, he's looking to see if they're missionaries or mercenaries.

And he only buys companies where the founders are missionaries. And he says, oh, by the way, missionaries make more money because they're in it because they love it. And they want to protect the business and make it grow as opposed to being in it just for money. And clearly at Amen Clinics, we're missionaries and have loved it for a long time. What did your family think about you going into this business? Did it just sort of make sense to them given your love and your passion? Although you had a good job, you were working at Patagonia before you went to MIT and they loved you there. They wanted to keep you.

Yeah, no, I mean, it wasn't an easy decision, right? I had an amazing job at an incredible company surrounded by amazing people where I was sitting alongside one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, sitting right next to me, the founder of Patagonia. And I would have conversations with him about his excursions going fishing or diving growing up in Southern California. And I was sitting on their corporate investment arm. So I would vet early stage mission-driven startups. And a lot of them are related to the oceans or the apparel supply chain and sustainability. But what I found was that talking with entrepreneurs on a daily basis

made me envious of that side of the table. I had this deep hunger and it's in my blood to be an entrepreneur. My grandfather, your dad, Daniel, right, started his own thing, right? And that's, that's just inherent in who I am. And that's, that's ultimately why I left was because I knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I wanted to take that risk. Although never in a million years would I think I would end up in the same industry that my that like my family comes from, right? Because growing up, the question was that my, that like my family comes from. Right. Cause all growing up, um, the question was always, are you going to join the family business?

And it was always no, right. There's no way I'm going to join. Um, and what's so funny is that, um, you know, growing up in a family of grocers, they've always been feeding people. And now I'm doing that exact same thing, but with a very specific product that I, that I know and love really well. You know, I've had conversations with you and what I, what I really discovered when I first heard you were doing fishing, I'm like, oh, that makes sense. He loves fishing. But I really realized for you, it was about way more than that. Um, you, when I've, when I've talked to you about this, it's like, you have a deep passion for the fishermen. You have a deep passion for the ocean, for sustainability. And for you,

like, I realized you were trying to bring all of that together. Like you were really trying to take care of these guys and the ocean. And, um, and that was really cool. Like you, you, your passion runs deep and really it's comprehensive. And I like that. Yeah. And it's one of those things where the fishing community has just been pushed aside in a way, right? They take their products as commodities. They pay them the lowest price as possible. And that's it, right? And we've lost a lot of that love in the food that we eat. Yeah, a little like farmers, right?

Would you compare it to farming? Absolutely, absolutely. And so having that deep connection with your fishermen is largely lost. And so I really wanted to set out on this mission where we could actually pay fishermen a living wage, pay them more than anybody else is willing to pay them and prove out the hypothesis that if you do that, they'll take better care of the product. And our customers are going to get a higher quality product at the end of the day. And, you know, I strongly believe that, you know, if you, if you treat people right and with respect and you take care of them,

then, then they'll do right and ultimately put out a better product at the end of the day. Well, it's that passion for your customers. Your customers are both fishermen and then the people who consume it. When we come back, let's talk about eFish. So if people want to learn about how to get this really high quality, sustainable fish, they go to eFish.com. Is that your website? That's correct. e-fish.com. So there's a hyphen in between. And you can use the discount code AIMIN10 for 10% off your first purchase of fresh American sustainable seafood. Awesome. Stay with us. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll always know when there's a new episode.

And while you're at it, feel free to give us a review or five-star rating as that helps others find the podcast. If you're interested in coming to Amen Clinics, use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.