Digital Social Hour - How I Built 3 Eight-Figure Brands After Rock Bottom | Nick Koumalatsos DSH #914

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

From rock bottom to building three 8-figure brands - former Special Operations Marine Nick Koumalatsos shares his raw, unfiltered story of transformation. 🚀 After battling severe mental health challenges and hormone imbalances following his military service, Nick discovered the power of optimization and personal growth that changed everything. In this powerful conversation, Nick opens up about his journey from contemplating suicide to becoming a successful entrepreneur and leader. Learn how addressing his testosterone levels (which had dropped to a shocking 91) became the catalyst for both his personal and professional transformation. Discover the truth about American manufacturing through Johnny Slicks, Nick's organic men's care brand that's challenging industry norms and creating quality jobs. Plus, get insider insights on hormone optimization, the real impact of TRT, and why focusing on your health could be the missing piece in your entrepreneurial journey. Whether you're an entrepreneur looking to scale, a veteran navigating civilian life, or someone interested in optimizing their health, this episode delivers game-changing insights on building successful businesses while maintaining your values. 💪 #Entrepreneurship #Veterans #AmericanManufacturing #MensHealth #BusinessGrowth #Success #Optimization #testosteronereplacementtherapy #testosterone #trt #lowtestosteronetreatment #lowtestosterone CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:43 - Starting Johnny Slicks 05:02 - USDA’s 10% Rule 08:00 - Replicating Success 10:24 - Mental Health in Military 13:36 - Overcoming Dark Times 14:57 - Core Medical Group 17:30 - Low Testosterone Epidemic 20:00 - Chicken or Egg Dilemma 22:10 - Testosterone and Aging 23:45 - Understanding Testosterone Scores 25:49 - TRT vs. Steroids 27:53 - Women's Estrogen Issues 30:40 - TRT Frequency 35:17 - Military for Kids 36:50 - Public School System Insights 39:30 - Asking Questions 39:56 - The Classical Academy 40:50 - Finding Johnny Slicks and Nick APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Nick Koumalatsos https://www.instagram.com/nickkoumalatsos/ https://nickkoumalatsos.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@AlwaysForwardPodcast LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At Desjardins, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear off about transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardins Business, we speak the same language you do, business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us, and contact Desjardins today. We'd love to talk business.

This is an ad by BetterHelp. What comes to mind when you hear the word gratitude? Maybe it's a daily practice, or maybe it feels hard to be grateful right now. Don't forget to give yourself some thanks by investing in your well-being. BetterHelp is the largest online therapy provider in the world, connecting you to qualified professionals via phone, video, or message chat. Let the gratitude flow. Visit betterhelp.com to learn more and save 10% on your first month.

That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com. We have a guy who is on the couch, he's overweight, lethargic, and he just has no drive to go to the gym. He has no drive to do things. If he does go to the gym, he's like, dude, I went one training session and I'm sore for three weeks, never going back to the gym. Like, how are we ever going to get that guy moving? But if I can get him, if I can do a blood test and get him moving, dude, he's not going to be able to sit on the couch. He's going to be like, I have to go do something. Even though he's not doing it naturally up front, it's giving him the motivation, it's giving him the drive to go take care of himself. All right guys, Nick Kumalatsos here today.

Entrepreneur, philanthropist, producer, creator, and father, thanks for coming on, man. Thanks, Sean, thanks for having me. You brought the Johnny Slicks, right? Johnny Slicks, yeah, careful with that, it's dangerous. creator, and father. Thanks for coming on, man. Thanks, Sean. Thanks for having me. You brought the Johnny Slicks, right? Johnny Slicks, yeah. Careful with that, it's dangerous. Yeah, organic shampoo. Yeah, your wife will like it.

Body wash, hair stuff. Oh, it does everything. We got it all. Nice. This is the black label. Okay. Why'd you decide to go the organic route? I've never seen that in a...

So my business partner was John, my business partner. He was 22, and he was kind of in the barber community. So like, you know, pompadour, like really, like style haircuts, and he was using a bunch of product, and his hair actually started falling out at like 22 years old. And he was like, what the hell? And then he was still in the Marine Corps at the time,

and he realized, he goes, dude, what is going on? So anyways, he realized that it was the product, he looked at the ingredients of the product, and it was like, you know, you've seen products where it's like a paragraph of ingredients that you can't read. He started doing research. He's like, oh dude, this stuff

is making people's hair fall out. So he's like, okay. Anyways, we went down the road and figured out an organic solution and it took a couple years. And then we launched the business, him and I partnered and we launched the business in 2018. and we were real we're real big on American manufacturing and American jobs yeah so not only are we like really want to go down the

organic road because the reality is there's corporations that are poisoning people right and then profiting on the back end of that of that poison so I double-dip in, so it's interesting. There's several videos that if you look at, for instance, you look at shampoo conditioners or hair gel or anything like that, those products are actually causing problems. And then the same company is also selling, you know,

hams and Rogaine and all this stuff to like fix it. Evil empire type of stuff. So we're just a small company, you know, that's trying to like fix it. Evil Empire type of stuff. So we're just a small company you know that's uh that's trying to help people out and that like I said the big thing for us is American made, American manufactured, like we're manufacturing our own products, we're fulfilling our own products, our marketing team, we're completely vertically integrated and that because everybody's pushed us to go outsource, outsource, outsource, outsource, you'll make

more money. Yeah we would but that means we couldn't we couldn't give people really good paying jobs like our we start employees at above at above the national average Wow and We wouldn't be able to do that. So if you look back into like all the way back to the 20s Where the America had the boom is in? Manufacturing yeah over the years. we've been outsourcing at China, but where are all those damn jobs going? Where are these neighborhoods going? And if we constantly keep doing that,

it's just gonna, you know, degrade America, if you will. Absolutely. So companies like us, companies like Origin, you know, Fuel Hunt that are pushing back and really trying to manufacture things back in the United States, because the quality is just superb. And you know, anybody that uses this knows that like this is like really good stuff the manufacturing is key

So I just found out if you go to the grocery store and you go to the meat section That says made in the USA doesn't mean it's from the USA. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, it's packaged Yeah, yeah, so all they do is ship it here and if it's packaged in the US they could say made in the US Yeah, it's it, that's sleazy. That's disgusting. So who knows where we're eating the meat? Yeah, and what's great about our company is, if you look up, well, who is Johnny Slicks?

Who's running Johnny Slicks? Like, you see every employee, you know, we do interviews with them. It's kind of like, it's funny, we do some videos that are almost like office space, because we want the customer to know, like, hey, this stuff is being made by us and it's, like we care.

We care about your family, we care about your health, and we want you to freaking look and smell good. That's it. Yeah, yeah, there's very few brands that are doing this, to be honest. When you go to like Target or Walmart and you go to the shampoo section. I have this app called Yuca, have you seen this?

No. So you scan the barcode and gives you a health Score out of a hundred. No kidding. So we're gonna have to play with that Yeah, a hobby of mine is I'll just go to Target for fun. Check it out while I'm shopping I'll scan the whole beauty aisle almost everything's a zero dude. It's like no kidding because they put these what about the natural stuff? And those are better. I've seen like 80s and 90s on this but even some of those like native has a couple ingredients I'm not trying to call them out that are kind of questionable Yeah

So what happened what's crazy is you can say all natural like we have some competitors in our space that are they're heavily watching us Then they say all natural but you know from outer hides all natural asbestos is natural Wow you mean technically, you know A&W is now serving pre-organic coffee and you can get a $1 small coffee a $2 small latte or like me a technically, you know. win, breakaway, pick six, three-point shot, underdog win, buzzer beater, shootout, walk off, and absolutely every play in between is amazing. From football to basketball and hockey to baseball, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 or older, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling visit connectsontario.ca So you can they can and the USDA the USDA? Has a limit on chemicals so you can say you can say USDA organic approved

Mm-hmm, and it's up to like 10% of an outside chemical that they still approve. This is call it organic. Yeah Yeah, so organic doesn't mean no organic doesn't called organic. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. So organic doesn't even mean. Organic doesn't even mean organic. What? Yeah. So it's hard, man. This is a freaking hard business to be in.

Like one, the American made, just the supply chain alone to be, you gotta think, this year we'll be an eight figure company. So we're having to manufacture that many products. And you're talking about that amount of coconut oil, beeswax, you know, organ oil, all these different ingredients that we use to cook products. And then there's not even manufacturing equipment

in the states to manufacture cosmetics. We have to like build our own machines and we're talking huge vats, damn, you know. So it's- You can't even rent a machine, you have to build- You basically have to go customize and get For the way that we cook products and make these different products We have to customize and build our own things now there there are different companies that use them for different things

And we have to fabricate them and change them so that we can make cosmetics Wow yeah, that sounds intense Yeah, cuz in China you could probably get it for a third of the price that and then they've already they're already mass producing, you know, shampoos, conditioners and different things, but it's not really happening here. But now they're seeing that these supplement companies are in bed with pharma. Yeah, they're finding heavy metals. They're finding all these huge class action lawsuit on several big name brands that had lead in their products. Yeah. Yeah,

scary, man. Yeah. Like you think you're taking these supplements to get healthier. And it's actually making you worse making you worse. Yeah. Like, you's scary, man. Like you think you're taking these supplements to get healthier and it's actually making you worse. Making you worse, yeah. Like you really gotta be careful these days. You gotta pay attention to what you're doing. Absolutely. And the thing is, is like, yeah, could we make more money at what cost?

Now, I mean, we have families that work for us. We literally have multiple people that are husband and wife working for our company and even their kids. We have one couple that they're teenage boys working for us. Wow. So that's what more we're about. We're more about America, we're more about community. And so when you buy Johnny Slicks, one, your money stays here.

It's going to some family that's in the United States and you're taking care of your family. Are you in any retail yet? So we're on Amazon and we are in talks with a retail company, a large retail company. Does that really change the game once you get some of those retail locations? Yeah, it does.

But it's a big scary thing. Like you can't mess up your first going to market with, you know. Yeah, cause Jake Paul just did it with his brand. Did you see that? The Prime? No, that's Logan Paul. Oh, okay.

So Jake Paul started a competitor to you. Really? Yeah, I forget the name of it. But yeah, he just got in Walmart. Oh, yeah. So like you cannot mess up that first launch. So we're being very cautious of what that manufacturing is going to look like what the lead times are, you know what the contracts can look like, but we are in talks with a pretty large many fat, a large retail unit. Nice. Exciting. Yeah, that's super exciting. And this is your third eight figure company now. So how do you think you've been able to replicate success in different industries? Cause the other industries you're in are totally different. Yeah, I had a lot, I think that I found 10,000 ways not to do something. You know, cause I started my entrepreneurial career

in 2013 and dude, I struggled. I struggled for probably five, six years. Wow. Yeah. Cause you didn't have a mentor. You nailed it. You nailed it. That's what I struggled with my five, six years. Wow. Yeah. Cause you didn't have a mentor. You nailed it. You nailed it. That's what I struggled with my first five years.

I didn't get any mentors. I didn't get any coaching. And that's when I got coaching and mentors. That's when everything turned around. Right. Actually we were talking about B. B was one of my first big coaches. I paid him and that's when things started

to kind of turn around. 100% same thing with me. Which B get on the show. Yeah, no, shout out to you for that. But so you hired him and that was the catalyst to? That was one of the catalysts. Obviously I started small. I started, you know what the other thing was?

I started really working on myself and my own personal growth. I was real focused on these businesses, but I wasn't focused on myself and my own, and you gotta remember, I was in special operations I had a tremendous transition out of the military into civilian life I served from 2000 2012 very heavily involved in combat and deploying a lot and so I underestimated the whole identity crisis of leaving special operations and be turning into just me right and so once I navigated that, I was really just, and while I was navigating that, I was

really just focused on the business. And I realized through the years that it was, I was the asset. I need to get healthy. I need to learn. I need to grow. And when I started focusing on me being the best version of myself, both physically, mentally, spiritually, that's when things started to turn around. And so anyways, that's really where it came from.

And then I started seeking growth. And as I seeked growth, people think like, how do you find these type of people? Or how do they find you, etc. I'm like, well, you're not going to find them doing nothing. You got to go walk the yellow brick road. You got to go on the journey, and as you go. As a Fizz member, you can look forward to free data, big savings on plans, and having your unused data

roll over to the following month, every month. At Fizz, you always get more for your money. Terms and conditions for our different programs and policies apply, details at fizz.ca. Go on the journey, you'll just come across people. Right? You'll just, oh, you meet a new person. You're like, I like that dude.

I vibe with him. He's got something I don't, I want to learn from him. And that's when, that's when like, you know, you 10x your life. Yeah, a hundred percent. And that's why I go to events and conferences. Yeah. Cause you'll meet at least one at every one.

Your network is your net worth. Yeah, a hundred percent. How was your mental health when you were serving Marines? Decent. I mean, I was OK when I was serving. That was fine. I was very, you got to think I'm in my 20s, right? Yeah.

I'm in my 40s now. So during the time, I was very hyper focused on that job of what I did as a force recon Marine or Marine Raider. Very focused on that. I didn't really even, I guess you could say I really didn't even believe in mental health. Oh yeah?

Yeah. Wow. It pains me to say this, but I straight up told people that had, like if you have PTSD, you're just weak minded and not meant for this job. Wow. I said that out of my mouth. A Marine.

Yes. Wow. Yes, I was a team leader in in and you know in force recon and I said that damn and then come and then You know karma's a bitch Because I get out and the next thing you know I'm dealing with a whole bunch of stuff that happened six years ago that I had no idea affected me and it Well, so an incident from six years ago resurfaced. Yeah when I got out, and you gotta understand

the reason why. So I wrote a book called Excommunicated Warrior, The Seven Stages of Transition. You gotta understand that when you're in that job you're moving 300 miles an hour. So it's like the analogy that you think you use is like you're on a train going 300 miles an hour. As you go through your life, and this is with anybody, a train going 300 miles an hour as you go through your life and

This is with anybody. It's not just the military as you go through your life. You are collecting Train cars of baggage right right well when you get out you go from 300 miles an hour to 10 miles an hour mm-hmm Guess what all that baggage still going 300 miles an hour Bam right in the back of the head and that's what I was doing I was out running because it was always the next deployment, the next thing, the next workup, the next training thing. So if somebody got hurt, died, whatever, something bad happened, I got hurt, it was, you just...

You kept it moving. You just kept moving. You got to keep moving. It's the next mission. Right. You have no time to reflect. No, you have no time to deal with it, no time to reflect. You say your bye and then it's the next mission. And then it's not until you stop and you're like, what the hell? And then it comes all hitting you, it was weird. I remember about six months after I got out,

I called a friend because we lost a brother and he passed away in combat. And I started seeing him in like groups of people. Whoa. And it was my subconscious like bringing this up, right? So I would see him, I would be driving down the road or walking through a mall or something.

I'd see a group of people and I would see him on the side of the road or see him in the group of people. And it was like one of those double takes, you know. You're just like, but you're not looking for him. So it's your subconscious is like bringing this person back up. And you know, I just started to have a lot of guilt about that and so I called a friend who had gotten out

after that deployment. I said, hey man, this is gonna sound really weird but I'm seeing these people, you know, I'm like reminiscing on Gary and Dustin and he's like, dude, he he's like welcome to the club, like everybody had dealt with that when they got out. You know, you just put it on pause for a while. And so there's some things I had to work through.

I just took some stuff. So it took a deep psychological toll. Yeah, it definitely did. What do you think helped get you out of that? Kind of like the same thing. So it culminated on a, in the book I tell the story, but it culminated at a point to where I'm on the beach in North Carolina with a gun and ready to call it. Whoa. Yeah.

Ready to write it in my life. And thank God that that I didn't go through with it, that I found some strength right there to figure it out. Now granted, I didn't have any tools. So I like I went back to my house, walked in the door, and then just went right to the bottle and started drinking again. And because I knew that something had to change, I just didn't know how to change it. But that's when I really leaned into like, okay, something's not right. I need to address it. And that's where the work began. It didn't get solved overnight, but it was just like, I'm gonna do the deep personal work. So you're talking about EMDR therapy, brain clinics, I had multiple TBIs,

so I went to a two week inpatient brain clinic. I started working with different people. And I just became real vulnerable and open and said, screw it, I'm just going to use myself as a test on me and go through all this stuff to figure out how I can fix it. And time collapsed this healing. And as I did that more and more, things just got drastically better. One of the biggest things in there is my work with Core Medical Group. And the

reason why for that is, is I had a friend that said, hey Nick, I'm not trying to overstep. He was a civilian. But he goes, a lot of these things you're having, man, do you ever had a blood test and check your hormones? And I was like, no. And he's like, I think you might have some low testosterone issues. Come to find out, I think I'm 30 or 31 years old

with a testosterone level of 91. Holy crap, that's the lowest I've ever heard. And I mean, no wonder I was like, wanting to kill myself. You know what I'm saying? You know what I mean? So now my work, so now I work, no wonder I was like wanting to kill myself. You know what I'm saying? You know what I mean? So now my work, so now I work, I'm a managing partner of Core Medical Group

that services, they service everybody, the national clinic, and heavily in the veteran population as well. And man, I can't even tell you how many people don't even know how bad they feel until they feel good. So we get them on and do this really in depth 28 panel blood test, and then get them with a doc and build out a specific customized protocol

based off of their symptoms and their needs. And then, bam. And then, I mean, dude, you're getting messages from them, their wife, like, thank you for giving my husband back Thank you for giving my and the dudes just like on fire Yeah again, and that was what happened to me as soon as I I Figured that out and I went and and got on TRT and brought my levels back to normal Dude, it was like my brain day right my brain was on fire is like I knew I had a clear direction

No more brain fog. I was sleeping better. I lost all the weight. I mean I literally Sean when I when I got out I'm like 240 10% body fat. Yeah Huge like I'm 210 now at 10% I was 240 at 10 Yeah, 240 at 10% and then I went if there's pictures of me that I love posting them there's pictures of me and like I think 2016 and I'm 240 and like 28% of all the time. Holy crap. There's never-

You're chubby. Yeah, man. And that's not me. Yeah, so that's when you were 91 to Sazerun? Yeah. And I was, and I'm looking at, I'm looking at me picture, a picture of me on the beach in Greece with my kids,

and I'm just like, who is this dude? And that's when things started to turn around. Wow, 91, dude, that's so low. But again, like I'm, you know, brain fog, can't sleep, can't recover. I mean, I'm just a wreck. And as soon as I fixed that, I was like, I knew exactly what I needed to do with my business.

I knew exactly the direction. I had the time, energy, I was sleeping good, recovering in the gym. I mean, it was just life turned around. And I wish there's so much bad stigma about TRT. A lot. A lot. And it's all bullshit.

It's all bullshit. My stance on it is, cause I took a blood test and I was at 520, which is kind of like whatever. How old are you though? I was 26. 26? So it's a little low. Lifestyle issues maybe?

Could have been, yeah. I wasn't exercising, working out. But no, as soon as I raised it, which here's my take on the TRT, I think you should try to raise it naturally at first, if possible. I got something on that, but go ahead. Yeah, and then I'm not opposed to taking it

if you can't do it naturally. But yeah, I raised it like 150 points and I felt way better. Way better, what'd you do? Tongue-caught, out, vitamin D, magnesium, all the natural supplements. And you're in your 20s. Yeah.

And a lot of that stuff can be fixed by like weight loss, sun exposure, sleep, sauna, things like that, real good diet. Like a lot of the things that we're consuming have Xenoestrogens in them. So they're actually caused, I don't know if you guys know this, but the perineum,

what you call it the taint, is actually shrinking in men and young boys. Oh really? Yeah. So the space between the anus and your ball sac is actually shrinking because of the Xenoestrogens and things that parents or mothers are consuming and they're passing that to their children. So what does that mean? It means that boys are growing up with more estrogenic properties, less testosterone,

and you can see that in their bone structure, you can see that in their physical capabilities. And we really do have a low testosterone epidemic because of our quality of life, our foods, the poisonous foods that we're consuming, the red dyes that they're feeding kids, sugar, et cetera. So it's good that you did that, but post 30 with

no trauma post 30 with no trauma you are your testosterone is going down part of the aging process there's nothing you can do about it even naturally there's nothing that's going down now yeah if you're fat and you eat like shit yeah can you improve it a little bit? Sure. Like you lose weight and you start eating good, start sleeping better, it will improve. But only to a point because that 30 is the aging process

of when that's on the decline. One percent a year, right? Something like that, yeah. So now you add in brain trauma, you add in trauma to your gonads adrenals Lifestyle whatever food and it's even getting worse. Okay, so it's not coming back up after 30 Like other than doing a couple little things you're still not gonna get a nine You're not gonna get an optimal score, you know at whatever that is now

So yeah, I'm glad you say you should do it naturally before going on TRT, because I have one caveat to that. And it's the whole what comes first, the chicken or the egg. So if we have a guy who is on the couch, he's overweight, lethargic, and he just has no drive to go to the gym,

he has no drive to do things. He's like me, 91, he's got testosterone score 91, and he just can't do it. If he does go to the gym, he's sore for three weeks. And he's like, dude, I went one training session and I'm like sore for three weeks, can't even go back to the gym. Like how are we ever gonna get that guy moving?

But if I can get him, if I can do a blood test and get him moving, dude, he's not gonna be able to sit on the couch. He's gonna be like, I have to go do something. I have to go execute. I gotta go better my life because your brain's firing better. Everything in your body is functioning better.

So even though he's not doing it naturally upfront, it's giving him the motivation. It's giving him the drive to go take care of himself. Interesting. Do you know what I mean? So it spikes it that quickly where it will give them. Like dude, your brain will be on fire. You're know what I mean? So it spikes it that quickly. Yeah. Where it will give them. Like dude, your brain will be on fire.

You're like, I can't sit here. I gotta go do something. I gotta go start a business. I gotta go start working. I gotta change my life. That's a good take. I've never heard that take. You see what I'm saying though?

So it really is, it's a case by case basis. But if a guy is so bad in a bad situation that he can't even execute on his own, well why not give him a leg up and get, you know, he's 35 years old, 50 pounds overweight, like get him moving. And then watch what everything, and then it only improves from there.

But if you're young and you're playing video games too much and you're eating shit and drinking surger all the time, yeah, you need to look at your, reevaluate your life and your priorities. So what did you raise yours to from 91? So I'm right around the range of 900. Holy crap, 10x. Yeah, so we, over the years, and I've been a managing partner of core for six years now, I think.

So we have found that men operate the best at around nine nine hundred to eleven hundred So I got to raise mine even more than I think I think you got yeah, I'm at 650 Yeah, I like that line like there's a rookie numbers We need to boost those numbers up. I don't think I've ever been that high though, so I don't know how I'd feel Yo, you've definitely been you think I oh yeah over the year I mean it depends on your lifestyle and say you were like 18 years old so you're not the best I was a PC gaming nerd. Oh really? So then probably not.

But if you were into weightlifting, maybe playing some sports, soccer, whatever, I mean, you're tall basketball, you know what I mean? Then you probably were running around, you know, there's some kids out there in the like late teens, early twenties, like pushing like 1500. Damn. Yeah.

Do you think it gives you a big edge in sports to have high testosterone? Absolutely. I mean, that's the reason why people like, you know, them. Mmm. Yeah your recovery your ability to just work out your muscle mass your density all of it Wow, yeah, you got and you got to look at it as The reason why we die That is part of that It's our hormones because as you start as your testosterone starts as your hormone starts to decline, your bone density, your muscle density,

it all becomes smaller, it all becomes weaker, and then eventually your organs start to shut down and fail, and that's just part of the aging process. We've got guys with core who are 85 years old, still having sex. What? Yes, like good sex, still having sex. 85, still having sex, ice climbing,

like I don't even ice climb, that shit's crazy. That's intense Yeah, 85 years old ice climbing surfing living life rock climbing doing all kinds of stuff 85. That's exciting Like if I'm 85, that's the kind of life that I want to be I don't want to be a decrepit old man, you know And that's the reality is what they're doing is they're just optimizing their health to a point to where they have a really high quality of life I'll say this just for everybody listening. It's not all about your testosterone score There's a lot of other things to go into your blood work that because you could have say you have a 600 testosterone score

You're like, okay, that's okay. It's good. It's better than 91, right? But you still feel like shit you sleep like shit, whatever Well, that's not all that that number doesn't mean everything because your sex binding hormone goblin which nobody ever talks about or checks could be through the roof. And what happens then when your SHPG is through the roof, what happens is it's like you, say you're a Ferrari. So you've got a high testosterone score, you're young, you got a high testosterone score, you're a freaking Ferrari

but you have four flat tires. So you have a great car, great score, but guess what? You can't use it, because you have four flats. That's what that is. So I've got to fix that so you have access to your free testosterone, and you can kind of go from there. That's why a lot of these online TRT mills that you never ever talk to a human being,

it's a cookie cutter program, TRT mills that you never ever talk to a human being. It's a cookie cutter program. And that's what they do, like a finger prick test. And then they're like, oh, your testosterone is this. And it's like, you test four things. That's not it. And you can just get on TRT from that test? Yeah, but the problem is it's not customized to you. It's just like a stamp, here you go.

Right. And so with us, the CEO, Sydney Gordon, has really always been, it's just been a requirement that we scale human beings. So as the company grows, we bring on more people to be patient coordinators so that you have a human being connection. Because you gotta think, man,

like when somebody's dealing with this stuff, you're dealing with people's emotions, you're dealing with their lives, and they have symptoms where maybe they're having sexual dysfunction, they're depressed. I mean, this is a very personable human being problem. Last thing I wanna do is just like put that in some form. Like I wanna talk to a person that cares about me.

And they do, they like genuinely care about your wellbeing. Agreed. And that's the reason why I think we've won over the years. I love that we continue to do Yeah, so it's TRT a steroid so TRT so this is a great thing the difference between TRT I actually made a video about this on my channel the TRT the difference between TRT and steroids. So steroids is I mean Yes in laymanest terms it is, but it's a hormone that's already

being produced by your body. Now, when you get into abusing steroids, like when you're talking about Trend and D-ball and Equipoise and all these, those are steroids. Those are not things that are naturally created in your body, right? Primo, Mastron, all this kind of stuff. Those are things that are not produced naturally.

Got it. What we're focusing on is your testosterone and your estrogen and then your overall quality of life. We might be having to give you vitamin D, we might be needing to give you some peptides, B12, et cetera. But these are all things that are already in your body that we test on a blood test

and we can see where your levels are and then we can optimize around that. Make sense. Yeah. I didn't know that. That's good to know though. Yeah. I guess my thing is, is it considered natural then? It's what your body's already making it naturally

but you are giving a synthetic version of it. Got it. But here's the deal. Like I said before, after 30, buddy, it ain't coming back. Like you can do all the things in the world, it's not coming back. Yeah. Like it's part of being, it's part of getting older so you just have to, you have to decide, you have to decide what quality, what kind of quality of life that I want.

Does that make sense? Yeah. I can see why you said woman like it because at 90 tests you're not having sex. No, you're not. So like with me personally, like I can speak from personal experience, everything, my equipment worked, but my interest in it was not there.

Right, like she had to pursue you. Yeah, and even then I was like, eh. Yeah, because 90 is super low. Yeah, it's super low for a man. You know, like we see women that are operating best somewhere between 120 and 150, maybe even 175. So women were higher than you. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. That's crazy, right? Are you seeing issues with women with estrogen levels? Yeah, so women are complicated. I mean, women are complicated in general, but when it comes to hormones,

women are very complicated, and thank God that we have the professionals to Do that, but yeah, they have a lot more Balancing of progesterone and estrogen plus they have a cycle that they have to deal with that also as that month goes on that Cycle is also changing the progesterone testosterone estrogen So we have some really really smart On the medical staff that takes care of women as well. My wife's on it. So they manage my wife as well.

She's 39. Nice. What my mother-in-law is on it, what's amazing is, obviously menopause for women is what makes them turn into basically old women, right? Well, as you're getting into pre-menopause, if you go on hormone replacement therapy, you can actually stop menopause.

No way. Yeah, so my mother-in-law's in her 60s, she probably hates me saying this, hopefully she doesn't see this, but she still has a period. What? Yeah. I thought that stops at like 40.

If they go through menopause. Damn. So that doctor was like, hey listen, technically, you guys gotta be careful, because technically you could get pregnant. You know what I mean? But that shows the vitality of their health, right? If you're still having a period in your early 60s,

it just shows. But you can kind of stave off menopause by going on HRT. That's interesting. I didn't know they started aging heavily once that ended. That's really when, and that's the same thing with men, when that testosterone starts to dip, that's when our aging process starts to really, really kick in.

You see guys look really old and frail. Same thing with women. Their hair starts to thin, their bone density starts to weaken. They're just less physically fit. That's interesting. I'm sure if they did a study on old men that are active, their testosterone would be pretty high.

It's higher, yeah, absolutely. It's gonna be higher. And what they've actually done, they've done studies on the muscle density and the size of muscle, which is why, as you age, it's important that you lift weights to strengthen your bone density and muscle mass. Cause it's gonna keep you young.

Damn, so I gotta lift on. You gotta lift, man. I don't lift. You gotta lift. Is it that important, you think? It's that important. And I'm not saying you got to be a bodybuilder But if you lift weights if you do squat bench deadlift

With some accessory stuff three times a week if you go lift for 45 minutes three times a week you will add You know years and quality of life to your life. Whoa years years. Holy shit Yeah, you put it like that just like three three days and I. And I'm not, like I said, I'm not saying, I'm not saying you gotta be some fitness influencer, like it looked a certain way, but just three days a week, 45 minutes of lifting will drastically change your life over a very long period of time.

So we're talking consistency, long period of time. Yeah. How often do you have to take the TRT once you're on it? So again, you know, once you're on TRT, you're on it. Now you can get off of it, but you're just gonna go back to what you were. It's not a fix because your body is what it is. Your aging process is going down.

So it is what it is. And then, you know. But is it like a weekly thing or is it monthly? Yeah, it's weekly. Yeah, so it depends. So like when I first started, I did one shot a week. As I got three years into it, and I got to know more about it,

I started splitting my dose because there's a half-life cycle. So I just wanted to be more balanced. So now it's like every three days, I'll take another shot. So as testosterone and cypanate is starting to decline, I'm taking another shot to keep it more level. Some people even do three shots a week subcutaneous.

They use insulin needles. That's a little much for me, but so I just do two. I was never a fan of the needle part of it. You get you really used to it. Yeah. Yeah, you get really used to it. You do it like in your ass, right? Ass, you can do it in your ass. You can do it in your thighs.

The easiest way for you to self-administer, this is my opinion, easiest way is you just sit down. Sit down? Sit down and you just go at an angle at the top part of your thigh and you just go right there. Okay. Thighs relax, you're sitting down, everything's cool, boom, done.

You don't feel it at all? No, doesn't take much. Shot, you've had a shot before. Yeah, I regret getting most vaccines these days though. That's a whole nother podcast. That's a different, we'll leave that to another one. Nah, but now you're super active. I saw you just climbed the mountain, Mount Rainier.

That was a few years ago. How tall is that? I'll say, man, listen, I was in special operations. I've done some things in my life. That was a kick in the pants. Really? Yes, and I'm a hundred percent transparent on it. That was a really, really kick in the pants for me, man.

I had to go to a dark place right there. Holy shit. Yeah. It was that tough? It was tough. How many days? It was tough. We were on the mountain for four days.

Holy crap. Well, cause you have to go to base camp and then you gotta out, you gotta, you gotta climatize and then it's a weather call from there. But yeah, there's a, there's a YouTube video called journey to the top. It's on my YouTube channel that documents the whole process. I gotta check that out.

So you're not climbing Everest anytime soon? No, I think my mountain climbing days are over. Maybe some small fun stuff. It sounds fun when you say it. So I was actually very interested after that to go climb Everest and I was younger and I was in the process of doing that and that's when the icefall had an avalanche

and all those people died. Icefall? Yeah, so Is that at Everest or different? It was it was at Everest in the ice in the eye They called the icefall, but yeah, there is a actually there's a documentary on they were there filming a show about Sherpas Or document about Sherpas and they happened while they were there So they pivoted in this and they filmed the documentary about about the avalanche. Holy crap Lot of people died.

It was a really sad situation. That's a terrible way to go about it. This actually is from a Sherpa from Nepal that was there when that happened. And this was given to a friend of mine and he gave it to me because inadvertently I saved his life through my book. So he gave this to me and that's why I wear it

because it's a reminder of you might be, me doing what I do. I could be saving somebody's life and I'll never know about it Mmm, so with all the bullshit and all the negativity and all the stuff that I do. I wear this to remind myself to Stay on the path Wow, that's you never you never know who you might be affecting. I love that I doing what you're doing Yeah, I'm sure your book has saved lives. You'll never even meet those people. Yeah, and I say that book saved his life. He was a former FBI undercover agent overseas, got out and didn't know testosterone was low,

he didn't know. Yeah. Body, body bag, went to a hotel in Bethesda, ran a hotel, was gonna put the body bag in the bath, did put the body bag in the bath did put the body bag in the bathtub, and was going to basically kill himself like zip it up and then kill himself. So it was like, easy cleanup. Yeah. And when you go get a coffee, randomly found my book at a

coffee shop, read it cover to cover and didn't do it. No way got with core med, got his testosterone checked. It was super low, got a fix saved his life. Now he's, his name's Amphibious Spartan on Instagram and he swims to raise money for charities now. Incredible. Yeah. And that was impacted by you. Yeah, and I didn't find out for like three years later.

And then I had, I found it through, found out through Cormed. He's like, hey, do you know this guy? I'm like, no, I have no idea. He told me this story. I was like, dude, why wouldn't he ever reach out to me? So I had him on my podcast and he told the whole story about him being undercover and everything that he did,

which was a wild story. And then he gave me this and I was like, that's a reminder I need to remind. That's incredible, man. So having been through everything you've gone through and if your kid approached you wanting to join the military, what would you say? Ooh, that's a hard one, dude

I Don't know I'd have to really talk about why I have to really really talk about why I Because I kind of know what's going on and it would really be based off of why he wants to join the military What he wants to do and at the end of day here is that if he's 18 He's got to make his own decisions, right? You know what I mean? I can say listen. I don't want you to do this Or I do want you to do it. It really is up to him. It's my role at that point to guide him, not dictate his future.

But as far as my own desires, that would be hard, Sean. That would be hard because, and it really depends on the administration, right? I don't think I'd really want him serving under this administration. I heard terrible things about this one from Marines. Yeah, the whole Abbey Gate thing and the withdrawal of Afghanistan makes me sick.

And the 13 that died is a completely unnecessary death. So it was young guys and women. It was just a tragedy. That would not have happened under a different administration. So that's hard to stomach for me, especially with much time as I spend in Afghanistan and fighting that fight. But-

Did you join because of 9-11? No, I joined before 9-11. Oh, before, wow. Yeah, I joined before 9-11. Obviously 9-11 was a pivotal point of the change in my life forever, but yeah, that'd be hard. That would be hard, but again, it'd have to be his decision and it'd be my decision

to guide him based off of what he was doing. Yeah. Yeah, it'd be tough. be his decision and it'd be my decision to guide him based off of what he was doing. Yeah. Yeah, it'd be tough. I don't even have kids yet, but I think of these things. Like public school and like how I'm gonna raise them and everything. Yeah, so I got a 22 year old, an 18 year old, and then I hit the reset button,

I got a four year old boy. Yeah. I'm trying for one more. I'm trying to squeeze out one more kid with my wife, obviously. And, but yeah, he'll never see the inside of a public classroom. Hell no.

No. It's changed too much. No, it's not the same. I mean, it was bad when I was a kid based off the structure, but it's even worse now. So bad now, like you could be a cat. Yeah, I give it, I'll give a shout out to Matt Bardew and the Appogee Academy

Those guys are really doing something with school. They're flipping. They're flipping school upside down. Nice. It's a different. What are they doing? It's a it's more it's true education so It's more and you have to you have to look it up because I'm not as educated as Matt is on the subject but it really more is about giving, like for instance, kids, I think it's, yeah, Norway, somewhere over there,

not Sweden, Finland maybe. The kids don't start school until seven or eight. What? That's late, right? That's late. Because we started at five. Even preschool at four. Right.

So they don't start as kids till seven or eight because kids are not even in a mode to learn by then. They're still playing. So kids just need to play. There's some smart Norwegians, man. The best chess player in the world is from Norway. Right. So we have all this schooling in America.

How smart are our kids? Not that smart. No. They're being taught to memorize facts. Memorize facts that the public school system want them to know. You know, you take a kid out of high school. Does he know anything about credit?

Nope. Mortgage processes, investing, a P&L, anything that's actually gonna benefit his life. He can't even remember the stuff that he was supposed to memorize for a test. It's in and out, done. Yeah. They have nothing.

That's a tragedy. It's really bad., done. They have nothing. That's a tragedy. It's really bad. But if you take a kid from one of those different classes or a different country at 18, they know some shit. They're smart. They're educated, truly educated, not schooled, educated. And I think that's the difference. So what they're doing is they're really giving

these youth the space to learn. What are you interested in? Because when you're interested in something, you will freaking dive in deep. 100%. And you're like, I want to know this because I'm excited about learning this stuff. Yeah, learning should be fun.

Learning's supposed to be fun. But for us, it wasn't. Why are you forcing this kid to learn about something that he's never gonna use and he's not interested in? All the other stuff comps. We overcomplicate the process. It's funny on the podcast I have with Matt Bardew talking about this subject,

we were all so programmed in the public school system that it was hard for me to ask questions. Really? Yeah, because I was like, I didn't know what questions to ask. I was like, trying to think. And I was getting stumped and he was laughing. He's like, it's hard, right? He goes, yeah, because you're so programmed.

He's like, well, what about writing and arithmetic? You know what I mean? Or what about math? And he's just laughing. He's like, it's all- History class. Yeah, you know? And so what they do is very much more project-based

and giving the kids room to learn and teach. So like, so say a second grader and giving the kids room to learn and teach. So like, so say a second grader might be teaching or helping, mentoring a first grader. Wow, that's cool. Or if you're in ninth grade, you're teaching the eighth grade. That's more relatable though, because you're not gonna listen to a six year old. And what's, anybody who knows anything about education

is if you can teach it, you actually know it. If you really wanna learn something, teach it to someone. Go get educated on it and then have to create a lesson plan somewhat or educate someone else on it. You know when you can teach a subject that's when you really know it. Absolutely. We'll link it below are they everywhere in the country or just certain states right now? So they first started with one with Tim Kennedy in Texas and then they slowly started to open up branches all over the United States. Nice.

Yeah, so it's growing. It's growing. Dude, it's been a blast. Where can people get the product and learn more about you, man? JohnnySlicks.com. Go ahead and you can use my code Nick, get yourself a discount. And then for me, it's social media,

Nick Cumalanzos on anything. We'll link it below. Thanks for coming on, Nick. Yeah, thanks, Sean. Yup, thanks for watching, guys.lances on anything. We'll link below, thanks for coming on Nick. Yeah, thanks Sean. Yup, thanks for watching guys, see you next time. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.