Digital Social Hour - Why Ketones Are the Next Big Thing in Human Optimization | Michael Brandt DSH #1226

Episode Date: March 8, 2025

🔥 Michael Brandt on Ketone-IQ, Biohacking & The Future of Energy 🚀 In this high-performance episode, we sit down with Michael Brandt, co-founder of Ketone-IQ, to discuss how ketones are revolutionizing energy, brain health, and athletic performance. Topics Covered: ✅ How ketones fuel the brain & body for peak performance ✅ The science behind Ketone-IQ & why it’s a game changer ✅ The downside of caffeine & why ketones are a better alternative ✅ How the military, UFC fighters, and top athletes are using ketones ✅ The future of energy drinks & the rise of biohacking This episode is packed with insights on biohacking, longevity, and the next evolution of human performance! 📲 Follow Ketone-IQ & Michael Brandt 🔗 Ketone-IQ Website: https://hvmn.com 🔗 Instagram: @KetoneIQ 🔗 Michael Brandt Instagram: @MichaelDBrandt ⏱ CHAPTERS ⏳ 00:00 – How Ketones Fuel the Brain & Body ⏳ 03:15 – What is Ketone-IQ & How It Works ⏳ 07:30 – The Science Behind Ketones & Athletic Performance ⏳ 12:10 – Why Ketones Are a Better Energy Source Than Caffeine ⏳ 15:45 – How Ketones Help with Brain Health & Concussions ⏳ 20:20 – The Future of Energy Drinks & the Downside of Sugar & Caffeine ⏳ 24:10 – How the Military, UFC Fighters, & Elite Athletes Use Ketones ⏳ 28:40 – The Rise of Biohacking & Performance Optimization ⏳ 32:15 – Michael Brandt’s Experience with a 7-Day Fast ⏳ 35:00 – The Future of Ketones in Sports & Everyday Life 🎙 Sponsored by Ketone-IQ Unlock better energy, focus, and performance with Ketone-IQ – the cleanest fuel for your brain and body. Used by athletes, military, and biohackers worldwide! 💪 Get yours now at https://hvmn.com and experience the future of energy! 🚀 🔥 Apply to Be on the Podcast & Business Inquiries: 🎙 APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application 📩 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail]

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But ketones rescue a lot of what would otherwise be an energy deficit. They just get in your brain really easily. And so people have been trying different ketogenic diet, or what if I have a bunch of MCT oil that your body can kind of convert MCT oil into ketones. People tried a lot of stuff like in and around what we're doing with ketone IQ. If we do our jobs right then every single one of those blue tents on the side of NFL sidelines will be pouring out ketones every time someone gets hit. Like I think brain health is I think going to be the next frontier for just everyone in the next like five years. Yeah.

frontier for just everyone in the next like five years. Yeah. All right guys, we got Michael from ketone here today. Cheers brother. Cheers bro. Tastes good man. So what did we just take? Can you explain what's going on here? We just took a shot of pure ketones

and ketones are something your body already makes. A lot of people know about the ketogenic diet, right? Where if you don't eat any carbs, you force your body to make a lot of ketones. The truth is we all already have ketones flowing around our body. And there's really powerful metabolic source of fuel that your brain especially loves. We were the first ever to figure out how to make it in a shot. We ferment it, make it in a shot, and it's just super fuels, high performance energy. Yeah. You're going to disrupt the space because a lot of energy shots and drinks don't use the highest quality ingredients, right? Yeah, they don't a lot of it just you know caffeine plus sucralose or sugar just like photocopy

And then to that point a lot of times it's got a lot of a lot of other weird stuff I guess you cracked out right we're all about I'm a marathon runner. I'm run 10 miles a day I care a lot about high performance and so I I wanted to make the best, healthiest energy. Yeah. I don't know what it is with coffee, but sometimes I get anxiety on it. Yeah. Weird.

Like my heart will start racing. Yeah, I think caffeine is going through a moment right now, kind of a negative moment, where people are realizing it's not just this wonder drug. You can't just have more and more and more and more caffeine. For a lot of people, it actually has some drawbacks. It can be anxiety inducing. It interferes with your sleep. A lot of people are wearing some drawbacks. It's it can be anxiety inducing it interferes with your sleep

a lot of people are wearing, you know, 50 million Americans have a aura or a whoop or a Apple watch and 50 million 50 million and they're and they're measuring their sleep score and they're saying hey caffeine Messes me up. And so I think caffeine got this like pass basically for the last it's having been around for all the human history and It's gotten this passive like okay Well, it's the go-to of human history. And it's gotten this passive, like, OK, well, it's the go-to thing to keep you focused and dialed. But a lot of people want a better boost, smarter form of energy, returning to different kinds of mushrooms.

Obviously, what we're doing with ketone IQ, different ways to get a better boost that are maybe more better for your long-term energy optimization than caffeine. So no caffeine in the shot, right? No caffeine in the shot. We have a version where we stack ketones and caffeine if you want a little bit caffeine, it's not too cracked out It's just a hundred milligrams of caffeine on top of the ketones, but our main our biggest seller is honestly just the straight ketone

Yeah, it's so easy to just take a shot and you're good for how long on average Yeah, a few hours if you're doing something active you're running you're gonna burn it off sooner A lot of people have it just at their desk and it yeah a few hours I'm big on mental performance, so I'll take this like before I film and I kind of noticed it I don't know if it's placebo or not, but yeah, I definitely feel like there's something It's got this nice like dial-in feel people have done intermittent fasting or a keto diet You get this like mental sharpness and it's just yeah I mean for me as a podcast or that's important you want to be on top of your game, right?

You don't be feeling like shit when you're going into an episode Yeah And there's a ton of people who see their body that way like mental athletes people They see their bodies an asset to optimize. Yeah, that's that's our people I mean, yeah, I play chess too and something like this could give you that little 1% edge, you know Yeah, yeah, did you see that Magnus interview? Oh, I loved that one. I was nerding out on that one on Rogan Yeah, cuz he doesn't do pods. No, that was his like first big podcast Yeah, super interesting. Yeah, as people think of him is he is He said about himself that he's like has a reputation for being like quote-unquote lazy, but he's the goat I know it's not it's actually really inspiring

I think the biggest takeaway from me from that one was like that obsession beats discipline Yes, he talked about all these other people that were like more disciplined than he was but he was just obsessed So he didn't need to be told to do his homework or whatever. Do you like check his chest? He's just like think why he's like Joe is I'm talking to you right now. I'm playing out chess moves in my head He's just like yeah sass and obsession. I think he's disciplined for lunch any day Yeah, that one felt like a throwback rogues an episode to me like classic. Yeah. Yeah instant classic. Shout out to Magnus, man He is the best player in the world at chess for people that don't know. Do you play any chess? I'm not that good. To me, it's one of those things where it's slippery slope.

I start getting into it, chess.com, and then I'm just not doing my job job. I played a lot of games as a kid, Starcraft, Civilization, Counter-Strike, all that stuff. And once I started becoming an adult, to me, my Shopify store is my video game. I love that. Because I'm just trying to click on stuff and like make the number go up. And so every time I start getting in a chess or any other game, it's like...

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or someone close to you, please contact CONNECTS Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario It starts peeling my attention away so action if I were you know Whatever get a few money and retire and all that maybe I'll get into chess But for me right now, I just turn all my calories into like the main video game, which is Shop my store. All right. Shout out to today's sponsor ketone IQ

Shop my store. All right, shout out to today's sponsor, Ketone IQ. Ketone IQ is a clean energy shot that boosts mental and physical performance. It helps your body access ketones without needing a strict keto diet. There's no sugar, no caffeine, no crashes or jitters, and it supports recovery. It aids in reducing inflammation

and accelerating muscle recovery after workouts, which is great for me as a basketball player. Also, it keeps me mentally sharp. I feel energized with no crash when I take this. I take this when I'm filming podcasts. As you guys know, I film a ton of podcasts back to back. This product's an absolute game changer and I love that it's all natural.

Shout out to Ketone IQ. I actually had to delete the Chess.com app a few days ago. Because I, like you, I'm too addicted. Because the thing is, if you lose, you don't want to end on a loss. So you gotta keep playing till you win. And sometimes you lose like seven straight. That's how chess is. It's a brutal sport. It's so funny. It's like a mind virus.

And it takes years to actually get good at it. I'm two years in and I'm only like a 1400, which is like still pretty bad. You know? Magnus is like 2800. Crazy, dude. Um, you mentioned fasting earlier. So you did a seven day fast, which is the longest I've heard in a while. Yeah. Yeah.

I did a seven day fast early on when I was starting the company. I was, I've always been really interested in performance optimization. I'm an engineer, studied engineering at Stanford. And when I got out, I was just really curious about the human body as a platform. We got all these devices and sensors that are more accessible than ever before. We were able to actually see what's going on in our body. And so I just started trying out a lot of stuff. Like, OK, what happens if you go and run 10 miles a day?

What happens if you fast for seven days? What happens if you take this new Tropic, that thing? And I just started looking at myself as an N of 1 biohacker, tester, trying these different things out fasting for seven days was Honestly, it was one of those things like it was hard But it didn't get harder like you kind of hit this wall at day like two was day to the hardest It was hard the hardest and then and then you just kind of like Like if you ever been on like a long hike where like you get tired

But then like you still got to keep hiking but like doesn't necessarily get harder. It just stays at a seven out of ten. It's like, there's no point where I was like, oh my god, shoot me. Like, this sucks. Right, you were on autopilot. Yeah, I got seven. Sometimes it was swinging. Actually, you just felt completely fine.

Like, zero pain. Damn. You just feel based. You just feel like, I kept thinking about how, like, Plato would have his students fast, because it made them mentally sharper, and they could memorize more of the scripts and stuff they were working on. I felt like this really based level focus mode when I was fasting. And that was part of what actually inspired the idea of making a pure

ketone. Because one of the things that happens when you fast is that your body starts making a lot of ketones. And so I started saying, okay, well, what if you could get access to this magical molecule without having to fast for seven days or do a keto diet or put butter in your coffee and hope that that turns into ketones? And so it was really informative to me just as an entrepreneur. Like right now it's all obvious in hindsight, but early days I was just trying stuff out and it's like, okay, what could be interesting here? And then now it's like... Well, you solved a major problem because you said no one was able to get it in liquid form before right yeah no one had

done this like this level like purity at this cost the abilities directly you drink this you're in ketosis in 15 minutes Wow it's that quick yeah holy crap because if you fast how long would that take to get to ketosis like two three days Wow Wow and that's the reason people fast basically right is to get to that point yeah yeah to get to that point. Yeah. Yeah. To get the ketones flowing and you just feel really locked in.

And it's cool. Like the energy drink market is huge. Like $85 billion market. And I don't know if you saw Alani new just got bought by Celsius for like $1.8 million dollars and ghost got bought in Vegas. Yeah. Ghost got bought by a Kirk. Dr. Pepper bought them up for another 400. Right. Or what's it more?

I think they bought like a chunk of the company for like 400 or 600 mil, but the implied value of the whole company was billions. Damn. So it's a beefy market. Everyone wants energy. It's the most important problem on the face of the planet. Cause if you can help people with better energy,

you help them solve all the other problems in their life. 100%. Most people wake up feeling like terrible, right? Oh yeah. Yeah. And most people don't feel good. We're all trying to optimize our energy. Cause yeah, once you can optimize your energy is like, oh you can be better at your job You can be a better parent. You can be better this that better grades. So energy is the most important thing

It's a massive like super lucrative market and it's growing and I'm just stoked. We're here bringing something. Yeah, we do the market I'm just as an entrepreneur. I'm fired up. It's very There's a lot of ways to make money as an entrepreneur Like some people make you know make the Jonas Brothers popcorn flavor. And I don't want to like knock anyone. There's a lot of ways to make money in the world. But for me, it was really important that it really invents something.

I think America needs more actual inventors, like making a new thing that didn't already exist, not just like a different flavor of what already did exist. So to me, I've just been stoked. And it's really hard in the early days because in the early, early days, no one knew what I already did exist. So to me, I've just been stoked. And it gets, it's really hard in the early days, because in the early, early days, no one knew what a ketone was. And now, we're working with John Jones,

we're working with the US military, we're working with some big names. Crazy. And so it's interesting, because I spent a few years, honestly, dude, this felt like a science fair project. Damn. I was just in the dark,

just me and my co-founders grind, grind, grind. And now it's like, cool, now it's like, yo, I got flown off to France last year, I was at like in the dark, just me and my co-founders like grind, grind, grind. And now it's like, cool. Now it's like, yo, I was, I got flown off to France last year. I was at the Tour de France because a lot of the, one of the best teams in the Tour de France is big into ketone IQ. Like it's gotten really fun. If I had any message to share with entrepreneurs out there, it's like, if you're in the dark for like several years, you might actually be on the right track. You just got to really believe in what you're doing. And then at some point you see it kind of flip over and then it's like, Oh wow, you're in the dark for like several years, you might actually be on the right track. You just gotta really believe in what you're doing. And then at some point you see it kind of flip over and then it's like, oh wow,

you're that person that invented that thing. Yeah, the education caught up. I feel like that's with mushrooms, that's gonna be the next thing once that's legal. If you were there for years before, same with AI, right? People that were doing AI for years. Dude, people bought Nvidia like five years ago,

look mad smart right now. Yeah, they're geniuses. So this thing didn't take off right away. Yeah, a few things do, right? As you always hear that, like seven year overnight success, like some things do for sure. Like some things you just hit lighten up and a pan and boom go. But yeah, we've been working on this and just the early days and in 2019, the way I really knew that we were onto something was in 2019, we got a six million dollar

contract with the Department of Defense To do the biggest ever R&D on ketones as high-performance energy for special operators And we had to go and actually like spend that money on R&D It wasn't like I went and bought a freaking Porsche We got the money and it was like all right now you got to do six million dollars worth of research So we did all this stuff with like hypoxia Which is like, you know like the in Batman Bane, like that mask, like you see people exercising with one of those. We did a ton of research on that and like low oxygen, measuring different biomarkers,

seeing how people perform at stress. And then, okay, what if you give them ketones versus what if you give them up to SIBO? And so we were able to really see some amazing results. And that was, that was what kicked this all off. And there was still a lot of grinding for several years, and really brought the technology out in 2022. So for a little while, it was really just research, kind of hypothesis, and early signals. It's always really good as an entrepreneur, if special forces are buying.

And at the time, it cost $30. You've got special forces buying your stuff for $30. Like you might be on to something. Damn one shot was 30. One shot was 30 bucks. You gotta figure it out. It's probably not gonna go mainstream if it's $30 a shot. But like, if you can get it going,

it's always just get it going. Like the first computer was like the size of, you've seen those photos. Yeah, yeah, it's the size of a room. Yeah, it's the size of a room, it's the size of a U-Haul. And then like, now you got that much in your pocket. So early innovations often start too big, too expensive, too hard to use, all that stuff.

But if you can find a market for that and then slowly sand down the friction on it, then you will probably have something that's going to be really good and broader means 100%. I love that. How did you get that contract? Was it luck, or did you really pursue that? I mean, you know how it is like luck hard work It's like everything right? I think the harder you work in life the more lotto tickets you get

Yeah, and you can't determine your success on any one lotto ticket, but like If you work hard and get more lotto tickets, you're like Bonda. It's bound to click So yeah, we had Andreessen Horowitz, you know, like Marc Andreessen. Yes. He's one of the smartest guys in Silicon Valley He's one of our early investors I had some connectivity into Department of Defense We had just a few different like lines in through our networks and through some investors and yeah You got some interesting investors I saw on the site Jake Paul, right? Joe Montana Joe Montana's investor got some really cool people on the table

That's smart that you just didn't take money. You took strategic money. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of just, you know, it sounds crazy to say, because a lot of people are tight for cash. But there's actually a lot of money in the world. There's a lot of capital out there. There's a lot of rich people who want to put their money into something that's going to multiply.

And what's actually rare in the world is good businesses, good assets that you can put a million dollars into and see it return is two million. Or put a hundred million and see it coming out as too much. Super rare. Yeah. So I would say for any entrepreneurs out there, if you actually have a good idea, there's actually a lot of capital out there if you have something real, meaningful, legit.

And then if you're really good as an entrepreneur, you should be choosy about who you bring in. Because yeah, any old person can write a big check, but you want people that are actually into your brand, who aren't just looking at you as an asset that's going to double their money, but someone who can be actually helping to popularize it. So it's like a cool stamp of approval, intros to other cool people, intros to retailers.

You want someone who can actually help carry the water with you. Absolutely. Yeah. I heard the VC space is struggling right now, actually. Yeah. I mean, it's a tough market. It's tough to find good companies.

A lot of people got burned because there was that big bubble in the middle of COVID. Right. The tech bubble, right? Yeah. Crypto and all these crypto enablement platforms. Yeah. Web3 flopped. Yeah.

So a lot of people, they raised a whole ass fund, invested into a bunch of Web3 stuff at peak. It all cratered. And now a lot of those people they raised a whole ass fund Invested into a bunch of web 3 stuff at like peak it all cratered. Yeah, and now a lot of those people are like Wrecked or open sea got like a 5 billion valuation or something crazy. Yeah, and I don't think they're back anywhere near that No, NFTs kind of tank, you know Yeah, and cryptos down batter now crypto is so volatile though Yeah, here's been a head scratcher for me because it's like I own some yeah, I think most people At this point do it. Yeah, and it's been weird to me because I thought it was supposed to be more like of a hedge Against the economy, but it really seems like it goes up and down the economy. So it's like what's the point?

Yeah, but you know, it's also hold but it's like If you're looking at it daily, it's not a fun thing to hold. No How important is cardio dude cardio is so important cardio is the longevity drug And I think anyone who's not doing cardio is honestly just coping like cardio is so freaking important There is this study published in the New England Journal of Medicine where they showed that they measured vo2 max Which is the measure of basically how good your cardio is? It's like that how much oxygen you can take at your maximum which is a mark for basically how good your cardio is. It's like how much oxygen you can take at your maximum, which is a mark for how healthy is your heart,

how healthy is your lungs, how healthy are your blood vessels. Basically, they said in the top third of cardio fitness people versus the bottom third, you're 45% less likely to die from all-cause mortality if you're in the top third of VO2 max. Damn. And so literally cardio is the longevity drug. It's really funny, Sean, because you see a lot of different influencer types out there that are doing like, oh, I'm measuring my nighttime boners and biomarker.

It's like you're just inventing something. Like VO2 max is what scientists have been looking at for 50 plus years as the marker for cardiovascular health and that's the thing to actually optimize for. You can optimize that. That is the longevity drug. All these other things like, dude, okay, you can measure your overnight boners and then take some Cialis to optimize your nighttime boners.

You're optimizing the wrong thing. Having a better nighttime boner isn It's like you're optimizing the wrong thing. Like having a better nighttime boner isn't what makes you live longer. It's like it correlates, because yeah, if you have better blood flow and better functioning overall body system, you're gonna have better nighttime boners. But it's like you can't optimize for,

it's like if you see like a bunch of fast cars and they're all red and then you go paint your car red, it's like that's not what actually makes your car red. I think there's been this interesting pendulum swing away from cardio. It's the obvious longevity drug. I think the reason more people don't do more cardio is it's just hard. Yeah, people are lazy. People want to pill.

People want to just maybe lift and then go in the sauna. Yeah, cardio is huge, man I took a vo2 max test and my results were terrible. Oh, yeah Yeah, my chronological age was higher than my biological age. So I was like damn you know, do you run at all? No, I started running more playing basketball more and saw nine more But yeah, I've heard from reputable people that vo2 max test is one of the most important metrics for health Yeah, it's how much oxygen can your body take in at its maximum level of exertion? And so it just means, you know, how healthy is your whole system, your heart,

your lungs, your blood vessels, all that stuff. And that correlates with overall just whole body health. Yeah. Now you're out here running marathons though. Yeah. You're taking it extreme. Yeah. I run 10 miles a day.

I try to run fast for a marathon too. I'm not just trying to like finish it. 240 is really extreme. Yeah, I run 10 miles a day. I try to run faster marathon, too I'm not just trying to like 240 is really fast. Yeah. Yeah, it's like six. Oh something from per mile still eight That's crazy. I'm trying to get under six. I'm trying to really get like even faster and Yeah, it's fun. I don't think you know, I gotta do my level of cardio to be like normal fit person But I just really love it. It's like a fun game for me. I'm addicted to it. It's like really fun But I do think in general a lot of people over like cardio a lot of people like when we think about fitness It's like okay. You want to be really like jacked, but honestly I think I mean a couple things on that I think I think like longevity is not the same as being jacked

And I also think a lot of guys like a like super jacked a lot of times It's like as of being for the dude. Oh sure you talked to most women like they they care about fitness up to a point But once you're like Chris Bumstead level like super swole like women don't like that. That's for the dudes No, I know a lot of you know, a lot of these guys I'll ask like, you know, what's the craziest DM? You've gotten from a chick. They're like bro. It's 90% dude It's always dude and no, it's all it's all love like if you're into that like by all means get into that but I would say like for just general fitness and just being like

Who's the like the hottest guy in America right? I was like Timothy Shalome. Yeah Yeah, well ladies love them so like I would say like don't put so much pressure on yourself to have to be like Like super jacked and that's what it takes to be attractive like get some cardio in there, too like it's gonna help you live longer. You'll feel amazing. And yeah, I think there's, I think there's a, let's make running cool again.

Absolutely. Is it true 88% of Americans are unhealthy? Yes. Yeah, Americans are massively metabolically unhealthy. Combination of stagnants, we don't move around enough and we just eat a lot of the wrong stuff. We eat hyper-processed stuff. The more really processed food, especially processed carbohydrates that you eat eat you're just spiking your blood glucose all day long

if you're not moving if you combine that factor with not moving then what your body does when you have a lot of Sugar in your system is you really release a lot of insulin and then you need insulin to process the sugar The insulin stops working if you keep spiking it again and again and again, you keep eating sugar, you go get a slurpee, don't exercise, go get a Kit Kat bar, don't exercise, you keep doing that, your insulin just stops working. And then you just get fat and you have low energy and you're just considered metabolically unhealthy at that point. And so yeah, there's epidemic.

88% of people in America are metabolically unhealthy, they're they're diabetic or pre-diabetic When it's just to connect the concepts there like once your insulin stops working, that's just diabetes. That's insane That's what diabetes is. Wow, that's so crazy man. 88% like that's so hot It's it's crazy ever see those videos from like the 40s 50s where like everyone was super jacked. Yeah on the beach Yeah, yeah Like you watch I saw some video of like when when we went to space and like it was a video of the people watching. Yeah. The spaceship and it's just like normal people having a picnic out in Fort Lauderdale or whatever watching the spaceship and like everyone just looks healthy. Mm-hmm. And like

why? Like what did we lost something? Yeah. Like we lost some like I guess sense of I guess pride or just the way that our society is, or something where we're not in shape. I think that's why a lot of people like RFK, whether they love his policies, or pro-vax, anti-vax, whatever. I think you look at RFK, and you're like, OK, that guy

actually just cares about his body in a way that a lot of Americans used to. I'm more inclined to listen to that person than like a totally out of shape hundred percent like doctor lady I could you go to a doctor that was obese no I remember having gym teachers in school that were fat like what is that yeah why are you teaching him yeah I like do as I say and as I do like what yeah like gym teachers there should be a request a weight requirement for gym teachers yeah you know yeah we got to make that a thing RFK I'm sure he's I mean that's the thing. He's a little crazy

I don't agree with him on a hundred percent stuff But I think directionally he's trying to say yo, let's like just be healthier move around more Eat better. Yeah, that's not just like throw pharmaceuticals down everyone's throat for real. Are you on the methylene blue wave? I'm not on it personally. I think methylene blue is probably reasonable. I think it's like yeah Yeah, have you tried it? I tried it once because I was flying he said it would help because I get sick when I fly sometimes Yeah, so I took it and I didn't get sick. So cool only one experience I don't know if that's a judge all be all but you know, he's drinking it every day. Yeah Biohacking is like you could take it extreme for sure like you could take a hundred supplements a day and I think that's pretty crazy

Yeah, yeah You can definitely there's a diminishing returns for most people But most people don't want to take more than like five five five ten max take some omega-3s take some some Magnesium for sleep. I'm a d3. Yeah. Yeah take a few things and you're good I think most people don't want to be tracking like a bunch of stuff It just get complicated at a certain point like all the metrics and markers and blood tests. It's just data porn Yeah, like you're just getting info but like for the sake of info. What are you actually doing?

I think it's been cool to see the evolving User experience around the wearables where people are really honing in on a few things like sleep score is important Yeah, I have a sleep. Yeah. Yeah, and that tells you your your sleep score and your HRV. Yeah, dude, Matteo There's a gene. He's actually an investor in my oh small world. Yeah, Matteo is super their CEO founder guy He's super sharp They sent over a bunch of mattresses to doge. Oh really apparently all the like, you know I like the whole meme with the doge they sleep right? Yeah, they're three-year-olds like not sleeping I heard there's a teenager now that's reviewing the financial information. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. It's um

I heard there's a teenager now that's reviewing the financial information. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. It's um, he lunch good at finding these young geniuses Yeah, he finds like young and people were being aegis towards these guys. I saw yeah. Yeah a lot of people are like Oh, man, they're like young whiz kids. What do they know? Yeah, it's like well, that's not a good reason in my opinion I don't think I think yeah I think it's a just or ad hominem just to attack someone like strictly on age Yeah, cuz you and I are young founders Yeah, and a lot of what these a lot of what they're doing is database work. It's like you have a bunch of crazy, unstructured, messy data that no one's ever come.

When was the last time you had best-in-class computer science people crunching through the numbers? Yeah, it's a younger job, for sure. Yeah, yeah, and I think people want to conflate a lot. I think there are serious policy questions. I'm not saying I agree with everything going on. I think there's a lot of stuff that, like, I think, just personal policy.

I think foreign aid is a good idea. I think that if you invest more in books versus bombs to spread American influence in the world, that's probably a good thing. So I don't necessarily agree that, like, I think we overcut on some of the aid, just on my personal belief on things. But in general, it's a good idea to have smart number muncher type people running the actual database work so that we even know what's going on so that the people

in charge of policy have an informed way of looking at what's going on. And then just the transparency, the ability to just see. I think we all viscerally know when you go to the post office or the DMV that shit sucks Yes, and you know that like that probably extends to other parts of the government So like like sunlight is the best disinfectant I I'm a believer in like I do think that like government has a role like good government is good Yeah, I'm not a guy that says like okay compress it all down burn it all down like really tiny government is the way I that's not what I believe but I do think you need an effective government. There needs to be accountability. I'm supportive of trimming all the fat,

all the weird waste. I don't think we need to be putting on random, I don't know, it's just some crazy stuff that the doge has surfaced that we were putting our money towards. The transparency has been awesome, because we've never seen where the money goes ever. I think it's so American that that. We just want to know

What's our tax dollars? Yeah, awesome tea party, right? It's like where's our taxes going? Yeah I mean, we're spending you know a lot of money on taxes 40% your state's 50% right California's nuts It's 2% so you're spending more than you make on taxes. Yeah, people got to be I think stomping their feet on like what's it going? Yeah again, I think, stomping their feet on what's it going to do. Again, I think taxes that make society better are good. I think something like public schools, that whether you have a kid or not a kid, a better public school system, probably better for society is my personal belief. I do think taxes are helpful to a degree to help society, and then we all win. Better schools, okay, better, smarter workforce, workforce better GDP China doesn't peel out ahead like

Good thing good thing to do there But like let's make sure it's actually going where we think it's even going facts like even if you are a like Pro, you know common good pro government should do stuff person. You should still want accountability. Yeah Yeah, I'm not opposed to taxes if it was being used correctly. Yes, which it hasn't been. Yeah, that's why people hate taxes You know, but I wouldn't mind if it was going towards great things. Yeah, I want good schools. Yeah, I think we want American exceptionalism we want American Industry to thrive we want to be leaders in the world and yeah We need it

I think it was on a scary course where like if things are plateauing and then like we're just racking up debt And it's not clear where that stuff's going. Hmm. I'd love to see how Cali spends their money The homelessness budget didn't do much. Yeah I look at it honestly is like a California It's just I guess I think the nicest place to live coastal California. So it's by far the nicest weather wise Yeah, yeah, perfect weather year-round super nice It's like just good good place and the networking is great. It's good for business Yeah, it's huge. I lived in in Silicon Valley for a while and I live in LA. I got no complaints on lifestyle

This is awesome. I look at like my co-founder lives in Miami You know plus or minus. I don't know you got some crazy. I got Miami over LA Well, let's say I don't I like not having to evacuate for Hurricanes or like right Miami's just crazy. You just see some like Like Florida in general. It's just like you'll just see an alligator Yeah, you just got some crazy bugs some crazy mosquitoes crazy humidity can't you'll just like walk around the block and get sweaty I'm not trying to yuck my mimeys. It's all good. I just like like California is on its own really like special special place and I think that they kind of

Hmm, I think they kind of take advantage that because like they know that because it's a lot of people consider it the best place To live that like they're willing to pay more taxes But I think a lot of people are upset now because I think we just had these fires Yeah, half of my daughters. I got a daughter my have my daughter school burned down Holy crap in the wildfires like a lot of people are displaced Like I had another friend who he owned his house outright and then the insurance company like in September just pulled his Coverage or like yo, he's too high risk and and the state won't let us raise your insurance rate So we got to be out. Oh, he probably would have said yes to like a little bit more expensive insurance

But the state has some rules where the insurance company can't raise is supposed to protect consumers, but it has the opposite effect He had no insurance. You know insurance. You know when his house outweigh, so it's a real problem real people got affected and I think there's gonna be a reckoning. I Don't ask to be because that's millions of dollars. There's probably like hundreds of families that happen to it, too Yeah, it's bad. So hopefully, hopefully it corrects out in California because it is an awesome place. I know it's got its haters, this is that, but like, it's beautiful.

And I think, I hope it, it- I mean, I'm there once a month because it's so good for business. The food's amazing. Yeah. Like- The food's good, the weather's good, the scene's good. It's like-

Just living there though with the politics for me is tough Yeah, it's it's definitely different place. Yeah, it's different. What's next for a key to mark you anything fun planned? Yeah, we got some big launch that we just launched nationwide into vitamin shop. That's all right We're working on a couple other ones. Let's get you in Costco. Yeah, that'd be huge. I'll be huge Yeah, I love Costco. I'll hit up the big justice guy. You seen that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, he's coming on the podcast. Okay, cool, cool. I feel like they have some pull at Costco these days.

Yeah. They blew them up, right? Yeah, we love you, Kinect. Okay. Yeah, we're kind of some big retailers. You know, we've been doing a lot of work with John Jones. Yeah, it's all up. The C-champ.

So he takes us before Vytes? Yeah, yeah. Wow. He's cool. That's the goat right there. Yeah, no, truly. And he's awesome. He's like, he's kind of spent some good time together. He's like, he's total a gentle giant. Yeah, no, truly. And he's awesome. He's like, I've got to spend some good time together.

He's like, he's total a gentle giant. He's one of the most misunderstood athletes of all time. Once you're around him, he's just like so based. Like he's actually just very wise and like mission-driven and kind. And like, I think he's been through some ups and downs. No doubt.

Like he's been through some of it. I think if you were 19 years old and like goatat at anything like he was actually the UFC heavyweight champ age 19 which is crazy. Yes, crazy. He's held on to that for he's in his 20 years, right? Yeah, like and I don't think you get good at fighting by being by having like a normal upbringing too By the way, I think that you go through some shit and that's what you got that dog in you You need an edge you need an edge and I think but net of all of that like I think that you go through some shit and that's when you got that dog in you. You need an edge. You need an edge. And I think, but net of all of that, like, I think at this point, he's very self-aware of like who he is, what he's been through and what his mission is very like God oriented,

very there for his kids, very much just thinking about, he's still fighting. He still has fights left in him. And he's also thinking about like, you know, what's next? What's it? Cause you look at people like Shaq or Martha Stewart or these people that have had a second, third act in their life. And so he's, I think, really smartly thinking ahead.

He doesn't just want to be one of those former athlete washed up people. He's shooting some movies. We're doing a lot of stuff together. He really thinks seriously about his business career. So it's really cool to see him morphing his goat energy inside the oct into like broader everyday. Yeah, I also don't think he's done with octagon I think he'll have a couple more and I think he'll probably end up making more money outside of the ring Yes, I think he'll invest in the right things and you know, I think he plays his cards, right?

He'll be doing that. And so yeah, we're doing a lot together Would we have a Bunch of research going on. We just submitted a big contract another one have a bunch of research going on. We just submitted a big contract, another one with the Department of Defense with the Navy Health Research Center for ketones and traumatic brain injury. So ketones are really interesting for the brain. A big part of why you already make ketones

is because your brain uses a ton of ketones. And when you have a concussion, when you get hit in the head, you interfere with your brain's ability to do metabolism, to basically generate oxygen, because you have broken blood vessels and stuff. Energy can't get in. The ketones rescue a lot of what would otherwise be an energy deficit.

They just get in your brain really easily. And so people have been trying different ketogenic diet, or what if I have a bunch of MCT oil that your body can kind of convert MCT oil into ketones. People have tried a lot of stuff like in and around what we're doing with ketone IQ. So really, we're really excited to be doing actual ketone IQ after a concussion, after TBI and seeing some of the results there. Not just like for one time, but also for people who've had chronic TBI, seeing how ketones

can help there. So it's an exciting time for sure. That's really exciting. These veterans need something like that, man. Yeah, I'm big on brain health. I think if we do our jobs right, then every single one of those blue tents on the side of NFL sidelines will be pouring out ketones

every time someone gets hit. Like I think brain health is I think gonna be the next frontier for just everyone in the next like five years. Yeah, it's exciting now, cause I think brain health is I think gonna be the next frontier for just everyone in the next like five years Yeah, it's exciting now because I think growing up we thought once you had concussions. It was permanent Yeah, and you couldn't fix it right, but now there's some new stuff coming right? Yeah, that different key tones are helpful people have seen different things with different oxygen oxygen Yeah

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy people have seen different things with different types of mushrooms that you're able to basically stimulate neural activity and redevelop different pathways that Previously people thought were compromised. It's exciting. Yeah, man, cuz some of these fighters seeing them get older Oh, it's tough. It's tough and I think especially in a world where like AI is coming up and all that like you gotta you gotta have an edge like You gotta be able to like Connect the dots because a lot of the like basic level stuff is gonna get taken over by a robot 100% it already started It's already yeah. Yeah, we already I use AI for like a ton of stuff. I use it daily. Yeah constantly

Yeah, whenever I travel I use it for restaurants. Yeah, dude I have I have chat GPT on my like bottom on my dock Oh, you could do that like on my you got a show me to do that like on the you could just search on your homepage Like on the yeah on the bottom I just use it that well on the buck. Oh, yeah. Yeah, like it's just like yeah, so it's one of your four hacks notes Yeah, it's one of my top four. Yeah, my starting starting line up. What do you use it mainly for? Everything I'll use it for like I mean if I want to read something really quickly I'll just like load it into chat GPT and be like, yo, give me the five points. Damn. And I'll use it for making little scripts, little Twitter

threads, this and that, social media scripts. I'll use it for job interviews. Like, I want to assess this candidate. Here's their LinkedIn. Here's what I need to assess them for. Wow. I'll upload their LinkedIn and the job description and be like, OK, give me some questions.

It's never going to do the perfect full job, but it gets you like 70% there. The biggest thing for me is it solves that blank page thing. You don't have that writer's block of, oh gosh, where do I say? You get something decent, then you can immediately, for me, I just immediately am in there, oh, like number three out of four, not that good, let me brush it up.

Makes sense, yeah. It gets the ball rolling in a really positive way. I got an AI thing, it looks at my, you know that thing in Doge, or Elon Musk sent that email, what are the five things you did this week? Yeah, yeah. So I've been doing that at my company for like five years. Oh really?

Yeah, where every Friday we have our All Hands, and we open up a Notion doc, and everyone has their name there, and they got it like right in in what'd you do this week? Yeah, this wasn't controversial at all. We've been doing it forever. Like we're fully remote culture. We're not all in the office together So just every Friday we get together everyone writes in what are the top, you know, three four five things you did this week I actually made a little AI script. There was a little tool called Lindy where basically I pulls from my emails pulls from my calendars and called Lindy, where basically it pulls from my emails, pulls from my calendars, and writes my top things I did this

week. No way. And again, it's not all the way 100% perfect, but it's like I did today. It was like four out of five. Wow. Good. And I just brushed up the other one.

And so I'm starting to see all these areas that it's like, like I want everyone on my team, instead of their next hire, the next hire I want them to think about what AI you could use instead. How do you take whatever problem you're trying to solve and use AI for it? I don't think that people are going to get replaced by AI, but I think people are going to get replaced by people

that can use AI. I see why, yeah. So I think there's job security as long as you're on top of it. If the internet comes and there's email and Excel files and all that, the past generation, whatever happened 20, 30 years ago, if that happened and you were just stuck on fax machines

and handwritten notes, you're gone, you're dead. There's no job. But if you're gonna adopt to the new tools, I think there is job security, you just gotta be plastic with it. You gotta be able to morph around the tools, be able to use the tools. There's I think always going to be the need for that human operator or that stitch things together,

but you got to be like active in that spot. Agreed. Yeah, you got to embrace it. I know a lot of people are opposed, but you should at least learn how to use it. I don't even get that point. Like how do you be opposed? It's like being opposed to the rising tide in the ocean. There's some things that are just like inevitable. Like it doesn't matter your opinion about it. Like the tide is going to rise. Like clearly AI is having a moment. Like it's one of those things. I think I just wonder like what it's not productive to have an opinion. It's like when it's raining out. Like I don't feel mad or sad or happy or anything. It just is. Like wear an umbrella, dance in a puddle, like enjoy it. Like you might as well enjoy, you might as well like take advantage of what objective reality actually is. Like if you

see it right, go buy some Nvidia and go learn some tools. That's the entrepreneur in you. Yeah, just like, like it's not productive to have a strong opinion about it. Just like see that it's happening and do something about it or don't or sit it out but like being anti like what no one kid the universe doesn't care if you don't like AI like it's gonna clearly it's like saying that you don't like freaking Microsoft Excel okay you want to go back to graph paper and paper like that it's inevitable there's gonna be AI girlfriends have you seen that yeah the robots yeah so they're saying 30 to 40 percent of the market will be dating those in like 20 years. Yeah, like that movie her Yeah, that was a good one. Yeah, that was the Megan Fox one, right?

Scarlett Johansson. Oh, is it? Okay. I might be thinking of something else. She never comes on screen it's always just her voice and then it's Yo, Keem, I can never say his name. Yo, Keem Phoenix. Yo, Keem Phoenix is on it. He's and he falls in love with her It's voiced by Scarlett Johansson, but you never see her face because interesting computer Yeah, that's gonna be crazy. What do you think of that? Like that's some black mirror shit, bro. That shit scares me. I Mean, I I think it's still I think what's gonna happen is across the board The premium premium thing is always going to be the human-to-human connection. You could have a robot make your sushi,

or you could go to the five-star restaurant and have an actual inventive human person doing it. I think the same thing with girlfriends, the same thing with everything. You can get the robot version that's probably like 80, 20. It's probably almost as good and way cheaper, but I think you're always going to have, I think what's gonna happen is like

Like the human to human stuff is always gonna be the premium and the stuff that people really really want I think you're gonna be able to go and get like a really nice steak Really nice sushi really nice whatever you want made by a robot in like a few years Maybe sooner than we even think but I think that the like ultra high and I think if you can go pay $500 for a meal. Yeah, that's gonna be human, and that's gonna be part of the premium aspect of it. The aspect of it. And I think just across the whole board,

I think people are still gonna wanna watch sports. I actually think you're still gonna wanna watch, if we're surrounded by robots all day, and robots doing all your shit, it's gonna be such a breath of fresh air to go to an NBA game and see human to human doing stuff. Do you think people would want to watch like robot Teams playing basketball. It's not yet. Not yet. Maybe way in the future

Yeah, and at that point it's just like I guess you're watching you're like a fan of the programmer of the robot Yeah, there are battle bots out here. Have you seen that? That's true. Yeah, they bottle each other. It's kind of cool That's cool. Yeah, I went in it was cool because you get to see like the kind of inventiveness and but it's its own separate thing I don't think that's taking market share from no NBA and humans are inventing those two. Yeah, it has that human feel to it Yeah, yes, I think like the human human stuff is always gonna be there as like the premium I agree aces stuff the most expensive stuff is gonna be the human touch. Yeah for food I prefer human I think because I think there's a spiritual component to making food interesting I think there's like an energy component.

Whoa. Yeah. I don't know if you're spiritual at all, but like when someone you love makes the food it just tastes better, dude. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. There's always something that feels like the vibes aren't totally there when you get takeout. Yeah, no.

It's good. It's not. It's yummy, but it's like... It doesn't taste as good as when you sit in the same restaurant, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because they're making it to go. There's something to that apparently there's like even just right after you cook food if you eat it immediately You get more of the nutrients from it. Really? Yeah, then I feel what is called this Japanese like stone

Grill thing where you like grill it right there and you eat it and Apparently is way better for you and like cavemen used to always just like you grill it at the fire and you eat it Right away, you know, it wasn't like sitting in some uber for 45 minutes. Yeah some star-formed box. Yeah. Yeah As I believe it I think I think having like that per that time to like with the someone that you love and like making a meal together I agree. I think that's still gonna be pretty I think only every gonna be able to replace it I think it'll be replaced like the first oil and like the meal in a bottle. Yeah, I will get better I think like are we gonna be able to replace it. I think it'll be to replace like the first oil and like the meal in a bottle Yeah, we'll get better. I think like the the the cheap

Robot meal will get better and better but I think the premium like best-in-class experience always gonna be like Handmade stuff with people that you have kinship agreed hundred percent Michael. It's been awesome man Where can people find ketone and keep up with you? Yeah, so you can check us out. We're on Instagram at Keytone. I'm at Michael D. Brandt. I love hearing from people. Whether they're entrepreneurs, athletes, just curious people.

I love hearing from people. So yeah, definitely say it. And check out the pod, too. Oh, yeah, I got a podcast. It's called Fast Ones. Yeah. My first guest on that was John Jones. I got Steve-O was on there.

Riley Reed, Adult Entertainer, was on there. We've had some really fun guests on there. We've a bunch of episodes coming out too. It's called fast ones It's a show where we asked 10 questions in 10 minutes and we do it on a treadmill every minute It goes up by one mile an hour. So we start at one We're just walking and every minute it goes up by one. So by the end of 10 minutes We're doing a 10 miles an hour, which is a six minute mile. So we're cooking by the end of it Sean You got to come out. I'll come out. In LA.

Yeah. Come on. I will. I'll try not to throw up like Steve-o. Dude, he was probably the closest to puking out. I love it, man. We'll check it out. We'll link the pod below.

Thanks for watching, guys.