Habits and Hustle - Episode 457: Jeff Byers: The Former NFL Player Exposing the $200 Billion Supplement Scam

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

Are you taking supplements that contain nothing but expensive powder? In this episode of the Habits and Hustle podcast, I sit down with Jeff Byers, co-founder and CEO of Momentous, who reveals the sho...cking truth about supplement quality. We explore how Jeff went from NFL offensive lineman to building a $100+ million supplement empire, why chocolate protein powder naturally contains lead, and the eye-opening moment when Momentous threw away an entire production run because it failed testing. We also discuss the "Momentous Three" foundation supplements and the real cost of third-party certifications that most brands avoid. Momentous is a premium supplement company doing over $100 million in annual revenue. A former USC football captain and NFL player for the Seahawks, Broncos, and Panthers, Jeff merged his sports performance background with rigorous scientific standards to create one of the most trusted supplement brands used by professional teams worldwide. What We Discuss:  (04:47) Journey From Athlete to Founder (14:59) Lessons in Consistency and Leadership (20:47) Building a Strong Co-Founder Relationship (31:35) Navigating the Supplement Industry Noise (39:37) Challenges of Building a Supplement Company (53:15) The Importance of Supplement Selection (01:01:38) Merger of Human Performance Brands (01:10:49) Omega-3s and Fuel in Athletic Performance (01:21:48) Managing Inflammation and Sleep Support (01:28:22) Natural Testosterone Support and Hormones (01:37:04) Supplement Selection and Community Impact …and more! Thank you to our sponsors: Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off  TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Bio.me: Link to daily prebiotic fiber here, code Jennifer20 for 20% off.  David: Buy 4, get the 5th free at davidprotein.com/habitsandhustle.   Find more from Jen:  Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen   Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Find more from Jeff Byers/Momentous: Website: https://www.livemomentous.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffbyersceo/ 

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it! Before we dive into today's episode, I first want to thank our sponsor, Therassage. Their Tri-Lite panel has become my favorite biohacking thing for healing my body. It's a portable red light panel that I simply cannot live without. I literally bring it with me everywhere I go. And I personally use their Red Light Therapy to help reduce inflammations in places in my body where honestly I have pain.
Starting point is 00:00:32 You can use it on a sore back, stomach cramps, shoulder, ankle. Red Light Therapy is my go-to. Plus, it also has amazing anti-aging benefits, including reducing signs of fine lines and wrinkles on your face, which I also use it for. I personally use Therisage Trilite everywhere and all the time. It's small, it's affordable, it's portable, and it's really effective.
Starting point is 00:01:00 Head over to Therisage.com right now and use code BEBOLD for 15% off. This code will work site-wide. Again, head over to Therisage.com and use code BEBOLD for 15% off any of their products. Guys, we have Jeff Byers who's on the podcast today. Jeff is the co-founder and CEO of Momentous, which is my favorite supplement line. And I'm not just saying that because he's sitting across from me. I'm saying this because they are one of the top dogs for good reason. They are super, super diligent. They're very stringent on their certifications for their products.
Starting point is 00:01:54 I trust them. I trust you. And so we're going to have a whole conversation here on supplements, optimization, human performance, all the good stuff. So anyway, Jeff, thanks for being on the show. Yeah, super excited. I mean, this has been a long time coming. I think this has been like a year and a half or something that we're like, hey, why don't you come on the podcast?
Starting point is 00:02:11 Yeah. And finally, well, here you are. You need the stars to align with scheduling and the craziness that is life. I know. I'm glad I'm here. Well, you don't live here. Like you don't live here at all,
Starting point is 00:02:21 but how often do you come to LA? A lot. A lot. A lot. But it's just like I've had a couple bigger gaps than I normally have. I wasn't a priority. It's okay. It's okay. I'm not offended.
Starting point is 00:02:33 I understand. You have a company to run, a big one. Yeah. And it's grown. How big is it now? We'll do 100 plus million this year in revenue. Wow. Okay.
Starting point is 00:02:44 We're going to get into all of this stuff because you guys are, I think, just doing everything right. I want, before we just kind of go into that, can you just kind of give like a backstory of who you are? How did you kind of get into the supplement space? Because your story is pretty phenomenal, in my opinion. That's when we met, you told me your whole backstory. So can you just give my audience a little bit of like
Starting point is 00:03:04 who you are and why you kind of are doing this? Yeah, well first I never wanted to be a supplement company CEO, that was not my dream, was not on my bingo card, which is what all the cool kids are saying now. But like my background, I went to school at USC here in LA, but really uniquely, I was one of the top recruited high school athletes.
Starting point is 00:03:24 I played football. I was a two-time captain during USC's heyday. I was an offensive lineman many, many pounds ago, but I had a really unique journey in college. My true freshman year, I started as a freshman on a national championship team. And the last game of the season, I just destroyed my hip. And I ended up having two hip surgeries post that and was told I was never going to really play football again or it was going to be a big struggle. And every athlete has some transition point in their career of like, aha moment. And it's really hard, right? It's hard to transition out of athletics or elite military service or whatever that may be. I just had that thrust on me when I was 19 and like started mentally planning for it.
Starting point is 00:04:03 So I missed my entire second year because of two hip surgeries, but I ended up getting in track to graduate undergrad in three years. I was fought to come back my third year, I had two back surgeries, right? So I missed my second and third year because of injury. And I was just like,
Starting point is 00:04:20 the hardest part about transitioning out of sport or military is you let sport define you, right? Because it's everything to you. And you have to realize when you transition out of sport, it's like the sport never defined me. It was a part of me. I define me. I get to choose who I am. And that's a hard process. I got to do it when I was super young and it actually came back. Football came back to me. So I ended up playing my last three years at USC. I was a two-time captain.
Starting point is 00:04:46 I got my master's in business. And then I- Well, that's also very unique, right? Like usually if you're an athlete, not to be like, not to like paint everybody with the same brush, but the fact that you got like an NBA from a very hard school, plus you were the athlete.
Starting point is 00:05:01 But I would never have done it if I didn't get hurt, right? I had this, I had this aha moment, this inflection point in my life that was like, football defines me and what I'm gonna do without it. And then it was like, you know, lucky, I'm very blessed to have a great family. My dad was like, nobody feels sorry for you. You're getting a free scholarship, right?
Starting point is 00:05:20 To go to a top figure it out, right? I love that. My thought, your dad was also, he's also pretty pretty, very successful. I don't remember what he does though. My dad's been in the meat industry. Most of his career, he's worked for Hormel and a company called JBS and he's retired.
Starting point is 00:05:36 But like really successful leader has managed big, big companies, way big. It's so funny, like everybody's like, oh, your dad must have great advice. I'm like, my dad managed like 100,000 people, right? And like an $18 billion P&L, where I'm like, I'm rubbing pennies together. Right, but you still would think,
Starting point is 00:05:54 that's so funny you say that, because one of my, I would always, my question was gonna be like, you must have learned some type of leadership, going into now being a CEO of a company that's, by the way, $100 million plus. Like, did you get any leadership advice? Oh, yes. My dad and Pete Carroll have been the most influential people
Starting point is 00:06:12 in my life. Okay. From the leadership, management, how you hand to people, vision and all of that. It's just, it's not always like, when I think about leadership and I think about what I saw from Pete Carroll as like one of the best NFL and college coaches of all time, It's not always like, when I think about leadership and I think about what I saw from Pete Carroll
Starting point is 00:06:25 as like one of the best NFL and college coaches of all time, it's not apples to apples to momentous. But there's so many similarities. You're in the same category, but it's just not everything applies. Like how you manage athletes and hold them accountable is actually, can't do that in a real workforce because a locker room culture,
Starting point is 00:06:47 when you sleep together, eat together, play together, work together, you have different bonds and you can challenge people and have different conversations more bluntly than you can with a director of sales or marketing or ops or whatever it is. Well, especially in today's time right now, right? It's become much more difficult to do.
Starting point is 00:07:07 You gotta be much more mindful and PC. I think that's correct, which is hard for me at times. Yeah, I know me too. So anyways, so I went to USC, graduated with my, got my MBA and had a really cool opportunity playing the NFL. I played four years in NFL. I call it, I practiced for the Seahawks and the Broncos,
Starting point is 00:07:27 and then I played for the Panthers. I also practiced a lot for the Panthers. But I really got to start a handful of games for the Panthers and it was a backup offensive lineman. And it was a ton of fun. I, like many kids, dreamt of being a professional. Whether you wanted to be a musician, an actor, or an athlete, I dreamt it, and
Starting point is 00:07:46 I'm one of the very few and I realize how lucky I am to like have the ability because there is some genetics at play. Like, yes, like, I had to be 6'4 and 3'10. Like, if I wasn't 6'4 or 3'10, I could have never have played in the NFL. If I was 5'5, 3'10, I would never have played in the NFL. So I was five foot five, 310, I would never have played in the NFL. So lots of stars aligned. How much would you say is genetics versus work ethic and practice and all the other things? You have to be in the zone from a genetic standpoint. There's no shape or form. You
Starting point is 00:08:21 can't get out of it. In any sport, right? Not in any sport. For like every position, for example, every position you have to be in a zone, right? Like you have to have some unique characteristics. Right. There's a lot of people that fall into those unique characteristics, right?
Starting point is 00:08:36 And then you have to be lucky enough to have grown up in a household or in an environment that allows you to play and succeed and that can fuel that passion. And then number two is you have to be lucky enough to not have major injuries or whatever, right? Like, I mean, if you back up, like that household is about social economics and it's about opportunity and it's about gear,
Starting point is 00:08:57 it's about the right location, high school, all those things, right? Number three is like, you just don't get hurt in the wrong times. And the number four is like, you just don't get hurt in the wrong times. And the number four is like, if you do not work your ass off and you are not mentally tough, you will never be great. You will never make it to the NFL. You will likely never make it to a collegiate level because you get punched in the face, air quote, every
Starting point is 00:09:20 single single day you get challenged. get like it is really really hard and you have to like one of my favorite quotes from a coach is like you have to learn to love to be uncomfortable because you suffer and you suffer and you suffer and Sports unique is because you have this really grueling high pressure of stakes that right a lot of people depend on you But also like the fatigue and the injury rate is like you just play hurt. You like you just learn like you're like pain normal, right? And you just learn to go through things that most people can't imagine. So there's a lot of mindset and effort at play. And like if you don't work hard, you do not get there. There are some freaks, some massive
Starting point is 00:10:01 freaks that, you know, might not have to work as hard as others, but they're very, very, very few far in between. And when you have like genetics, opportunity, and hard work, all and everything kind of goes right. That's the Hall of Famer. That's 100%. You know, it's so I'm so glad that you mentioned something because you don't hear that so often, which is such a big piece of it, which is the opportunity within your family. Because people are not taking sometimes into account the gear is expensive, right? Having someone to like take you from practice to practice, like getting there. Having like a supportive family, the socioeconomic piece to a lot of these athletes that I know even,
Starting point is 00:10:43 they were able to even like self-actualize to be who they are because they had a family that allowed them to do that. 100%. And people don't think about that. The other thing that you said was very interesting, and when I found out, when I met you and you were like, someone was saying, oh yeah, he was a professional athlete, blah, blah, blah, now he's the founder.
Starting point is 00:11:01 It didn't surprise me because part of what I do is I talk to some of the most successful, you know, CEOs, founders, people in the world. And one thing, the through line that I always hear from people, like, on the show, off, even much more even off the show, is what they look for in an employee or someone to work with is somebody who played sports seriously, like, played, like, D-level sports or played, like,
Starting point is 00:11:24 played something like you because you already are halfway there which is like the mental mindset of you know a not just a team building and all that but like grinding, practice, long hours, hard work, like consistency, like having to go on and on and on like those things like when you are an athlete, like you were, like you were, those are fundamental life skills that will serve you so well in profession.
Starting point is 00:11:51 And you have to be coachable. And coachable. And that coachability in business, like I, it's like coachable curiosity. It's like, you have to be willing to seek discomfort and seek advice to go further. Right? It's like, and it's hard to get outside.
Starting point is 00:12:10 I mean, I do like sports, music, like, like the arts have some of that in there too. Cause like, you can't be great at music if you aren't coachable, right? If you're not curious on how do you push your limits? And there's a lot of times when it's like, I mean, some of my extended family are incredible musicians. Like, there's a lot of times you get to make a choice. Do I play an instrument? Do I practice? Or do I go hang out with my friends?
Starting point is 00:12:35 100%. Right? And to make hard decisions on to be great, right? It's not fun. That's not fun. Right? Like, not fun in that moment. But when you think about where you could derive joy and what matters, anyways, it's- No, that's a hundred percent. Like life's choices, right? Like if you wanna be a great or a success, you have to be making those choices that like,
Starting point is 00:12:59 it's not instant gratification, it's delayed gratification. Well, it's like that, like that's so powerful because that's one of the things that I learned in sport is to be great at anything. Like it's bone crushing consistency, right? It's like what we did in the NFL was not crazy. They're like, and how you got there was just like consistent approach time after time after time.
Starting point is 00:13:19 And when you do consistency builds and that's when greatness happens. Health is not a today thing. It's not a tomorrow thing. It's an everyday thing. Look at Tom Brady. He wasn't even considered a great player, right? But he was so committed and such a hard worker
Starting point is 00:13:36 and so consistent and stayed on path. And now look, you know? And he just did the same things, right? The boring, mundane. The boring, mundane. The boring, mundane. When I think about like training as a professional athlete, like you could do everything, but you did the most important things
Starting point is 00:13:52 over and over and over and over again. Exactly. And that's how you got great. That's what health, that's what performance for life, that's with whatever you wanna do. You wanna be a great leader, do the same things over and over and over again, right? Show up for your team. You can't do it one day. Do it every day.
Starting point is 00:14:07 A hundred percent. Right? And over years and years, you become a great leader. Was that how, so did you take these types of like number one skills that you did, you fostered these by just doing the consistent, mundane, boring things and very like over and over again. But you also said that your dad and Pete, like, Carol, like you learned a couple of things even by watching what they did. What was the what was a one takeaway from Pete Carol that you take now into your business and from your dad? I would say from Pete, it's show up the same every day, right? Be predictable about how your energy is
Starting point is 00:14:48 and how you show up to your team, right? And the thing that I saw from Pete is whether you win, lost, good, bad, Pete showed up the same. Really passionate, high energy, right? You never questioned if Pete loved what he was doing today. I guarantee you Pete had a lot of shit days where he had to change, right?
Starting point is 00:15:07 And he had to be like, I get to choose how I show up. I'm gonna show up differently. So Pete to me really showed me the power of if you show up consistently and you show up with the ability to galvanize and bring passion and purpose to what you do, people rally, right? But if you do it, sometimes people don't buy in.
Starting point is 00:15:26 I played for coaches that sometimes they have high energy, sometimes they MF you, and sometimes they do this, and sometimes they do that, and you're like, what am I going to get? I don't know. It's really hard to perform for those people. But when you know this person truly cares, they're really passionate about what we're doing, they love it, they're in all the time. It's not like, they in are they out? Are they pissed? Are they not pissed? Anyways, that was really powerful from Pete.
Starting point is 00:15:49 Predictability. Predictability as a leader and as like as the head coach from my dad, I mean, I've learned like my dad is really really influential on me like from my dad is like People are your greatest asset But also the hardest thing you do every day, right? me like from my dad is like, people are your greatest asset, but also the hardest thing you do every day. Right? Because we're all humans, right? You have to make hard decisions, but you have to do them with compassion as well. And I'll say the other thing like my dad, like so the people stuff I work a lot with
Starting point is 00:16:18 my dad on. Like, because we're all really unique and crazy and weird in our own ways. And difficult. And difficult. But at the end of the day, like every decision I make potentially has an impact on that person. And if I have an impact on that person, it probably has an impact on somebody else and somebody else. Right.
Starting point is 00:16:38 The ripple effect. The ripple. And those things, you can't take them lightly, but you also have to make the right decisions. So the other thing with my dad is like, my dad's ability to just work, right? And like effort, effort makes sense. And it's like, it's not a choice, right? Never a choice. It's like you always work hard. And that was like, I have a lot of stories about my dad, but like I remember I was in
Starting point is 00:17:02 seventh or eighth grade and I was an offensive I was in seventh or eighth grade and I was an offensive lineman in seventh or eighth grade too. And I was like peewee football and I was, you know, running down and I kept like making my block and looking back, right? Because I was done. And he was like, you're never done. Like you always go to the whistle blows regardless of if you did your job or not. Right. And I think like that effort, that repeated effort of like, doesn't matter where the guy, the running back is behind you, doesn't matter. Like just go always bust your butt, always work, whistle blows, take a break, figure out what you did right.
Starting point is 00:17:36 Figure out what you did wrong. Do it again. Right. And those, those types of lessons are really unique to me because how do you relate them? How do I relate them to business? Like a lot of things relate to business. Like to me, it just, they're, you just have to like, okay,
Starting point is 00:17:53 like one of the examples I give of her on like growth stage or entrepreneurship is like the ball always gets snapped. In football, the ball always gets snapped. Doesn't wait for you, doesn't care about you, right? And it doesn't remember if you got beat the last play or you had the best play in the world, the ball gets snapped. And so as a leader, you have to be ready to go at all times. You also have to have a really short memory,
Starting point is 00:18:16 but you have to be able to learn from your past mistakes because that's what the ball is gonna get snapped. Time is moving forward. You're gonna have to make a decision and you don't have time to think about it because the ball gets snapped. It's like a sense of urgency. See, it is a sense of urgency. It's a sense of urgency. But the short memory, like you just like, you got to forget it. Like how many like as a business leader, good and bad happens every single day. And I leave a conversation where I'm like, man, that did not go good. Right?
Starting point is 00:18:44 Literally in like three seconds, I have another meeting that I'm like, man, that did not go good. Right? Literally in like three seconds, I have another meeting that I have to show up differently to. And I can't worry about that being like having a board member that wasn't happy. Right? That's the worst part. Ball gets snapped. Clear and go. Right? And like that to me is like a really, like it's such an easy one-to-one of business to sport. And- Is that like compartmentalizing? How long is compartmentalizing?
Starting point is 00:19:09 It's just knowing that there's always another play. And the most important thing to do is win the next play. Yeah. Because you can't control what happened in the past, but you have to learn, quickly analyze what happened, move on. Yeah. Because if you got beat and you let the same thing happen again,
Starting point is 00:19:26 and again, and again, you lose your job as an athlete. Right? You get fired. Same in business. If you like, like my board doesn't care if I make mistakes. What they don't wanna see is mistakes be made the same over and over and over again. Mistakes are expected, right?
Starting point is 00:19:44 Because we're trying to do it better than it's ever been done before in our business. And you get some right, you get some wrong. And I also have never done this before. And it's like, I'm trying to break the mold. And it's like, hey, we're okay, make a mistake. But if you make a mistake and you do it again and do it again, or if you make a mistake and be like,
Starting point is 00:20:00 oh my gosh, I made a mistake, what am I gonna do? It's like, make another decision, move forward. And you have a partner as well, right? gosh, I made a mistake. What am I going to do? It's like make another decision, move forward. And you have a partner as well, right? Yeah, I have a co-founder and like, this is we're on year seven together, technically year 10. We worked at a biotech together for three years and she is like, there is no chance that I that momentous is what it is. And I am what I am without her. And we've had a really pretty tight relationship of like, we are equals, we'll always be equals
Starting point is 00:20:27 from representation on the board, from equity, from compensation. We have different roles in the business, very different roles. She's the president, I'm the CEO, we call it the visionary integrator. And she comes from a very different background than I do. We're both pros. She came from a kinsing company. Oh, wow. So she's like super academic. Yeah. Okay.os. She came from a Kinsey and company. Oh wow. So she's like super academic.
Starting point is 00:20:45 Yeah. Okay. She must be great with operations. She's a, she is like integrator versus visionary. Like I get to sell, I get to build, right? The stoke, lead the people. She's awesome at managing people, awesome at process, right? Strategy, I've yet to sit down with somebody
Starting point is 00:21:04 who's better than strategy than her. And I've sat down with some really smart people. Yeah, she must be so smart. And like, she's also awesome at hiring. Awesome at hiring because she's able to, I think Mackenzie trains you to hire really well, but like how she interviews and pull people out. Like I am a cultural hire.
Starting point is 00:21:20 Like I can take that, but it's like, how do you get to technical skills and all that? Just like masterful how she can unpeel people. That's amazing. And so what we've always said, we started the business based upon our principles. And anyways, we're at this biotech together. We didn't work super closely together early on.
Starting point is 00:21:40 And then what we realized is we really had similar values and we cared about things the same of like we really were entrepreneurial. We wanted to like, this was the biotech was a jumping off point for both of us. We cared about performance, but we cared about integrity deeply. We cared about like being inclusively doing it the right way
Starting point is 00:21:58 no matter what, like money would come later. And we really, really believed in candor and conflict. Like coming from the NFL, it's like you never questioned where you sat at the end of the day. You know if you had a good day or bad day. Because somebody told you. And if you didn't know yourself.
Starting point is 00:22:16 And like that amount of direct feedback and having conflict. And she came from McKinsey, which is a like a pro, like it's like pro sports business. Yeah. Where there's a lot of conflict and you never were confused. And so we've been able to turn candor and conflict
Starting point is 00:22:35 into our greatest, like our greatest strength together because we come at problems so differently. Like just the visionary integrator mindsets are different, how we operate, our personalities are opposite, but we always have the same goal in mind. And we come at problems very differently and we butt heads and we have some conflict and we speak candidly. And the next thing you know, my idea and her idea
Starting point is 00:22:58 come together and it's a different idea. That's the best idea. It happens on people. It's really unique, but the one thing we've always like, we are able to like check your ego, like, right? Like, hey, like, you know, and like go back and be like, man, I didn't like how I showed up there. Like my ego got my way.
Starting point is 00:23:14 And it's like, that's really unique in founder relationships. And you call each other out basically, and keep you keep each other honest, I think is that way to put it. Where when people see it for the first time, their minds are blown. They're like, what's going on? And then like three seconds later, it's like we're back on the whiteboard
Starting point is 00:23:30 figuring out how to solve the problem. That's amazing. But it's because we've worked together for so long. And I would say it's also because like, Erica's like one of my great friends, but we don't hang out. Like it's really weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I get it.
Starting point is 00:23:43 It's like we work together like 60 hours a week. And it's like, anyways, we had an offsite down in Southern Utah and her and I drove back together and we were in the car for like five hours. It was like the first time in a really long time that we like talked about non-business stuff for more than 10 minutes. Wow.
Starting point is 00:24:03 Right, like, because it's just like, because when we're together, we're solving problems. We're dealing with team stuff. Because there's always a problem. There's always a personnel. There's always a new hire. There's always some challenge. Totally.
Starting point is 00:24:15 And so it's like, you know, like her husband's a big mountain skier and travels the world. And like, I've got three boys. And like, you know, like, what is Bethany up to? What is Solosol doing? And it's like, we just like talked. And I was like, holy cow. Like we what is Bethany up to? What is so-and-so doing? And it's like, we just like talked and I was like, holy cow, like we haven't talked about our personal lives
Starting point is 00:24:28 this much in a really long time. And it was like really kind of nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But unless we were trapped in a car with me driving, right? And no cell service because we're in Southern Utah, like she would have been working, I would have been working, you know, it's like we sit on airplanes together all the time
Starting point is 00:24:43 and we just work. And you just work. Yeah. Well, yeah, but it works though, right?, it's like we sit on airplanes together all the time and we just work. You just work. Yeah. Well, yeah, but it works though, right? Because you guys like yin and yang, right? You guys have like different skill sets. So okay, so then now you're at the biotech and now you guys, how did you guys say, okay, now I'm going to start a supplement company that has like really like at the highest level
Starting point is 00:25:04 in terms of quality and like how did that happen? So I never, Eric and I never dreamt of being supplement company, founders, CEOs, whatever we are. In 2018, we spun out of this biotech and we spun a technology out of it. So we spent three years together with biotech and what the biotech was developing was a transdermal drug delivery technology. So how do you get drugs through the skin? And one of the reasons why they brought me on as employee four was because they had an idea to use it in sport. Right? And deliver non-drugs through the skin. And that was really interesting. Was it like patches and stuff? No, it's like a lotion cream. Oh, okay. Anyways, in early 2018,
Starting point is 00:25:45 they were starting to face two clinical trials on a couple of medical products. And we had this really cool product that was starting to get a little traction. We had early data on, but we were working with two of the France champions, Marathon World record holders, the Department of Defense, pro football teams.
Starting point is 00:26:00 So we, the biotech technology was able to deliver sodium bicarbonate. Bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate is baking soda, but bicarbonate is a buffer. Green means helps control acidity. And in our bodies, when we train really, really hard or really, really long, you produce acid, hydrogen ions. So lactic acid is what we typically refer to it as.
Starting point is 00:26:21 When those hydrogen ions build up in your muscle, it's your limiting factor to go harder or to go longer, right? Because our body's natural ability to buffer is not there. So anyways, by being able to change and regulate the pH of the muscle, you can actually push a little harder and push a little longer, right? Which has really awesome support implications, like, and really awesome special forces implications and all these other things. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:44 Right. So it got really crazy traction in those spaces. like, and really awesome special forces implications and all these other things. Yeah. Right? So it got really crazy traction in those spaces. But we were at this biotech that was starting FDA clinical trials, phase two to like, not the same. Consumer, like we were like a consumer biotech. We had this cool product. We were doing clinical research. We were like running and gunning,
Starting point is 00:27:01 working with the craziest places I could ever imagine, you know, from my past life. And the biotech was like, we're going to clinical trials. Like totally two different mentalities. And so the biotech started to slow down, right? In the right ways, how it normally does. And I was doing this really cool passion project in here within the biotech. And Erica was like, I wanna help you with this.
Starting point is 00:27:28 This is fast and this is fun. And, but we were at this crossroads. What do we do with this product? This like unique application of it. I was like, well, can't live within the biotech because we're starting to like, building inventory does not relate to a biotech company, right? That's pre-commercial, that's in phase two clinical trials, or a marketing team or any of that.
Starting point is 00:27:50 Can't really sell it because we didn't have enough sales traction or enough data. And I was like, maybe we spin it out. And so Eric and I basically just negotiated with our employers, she was employee two, I was employee four, to spin out the rights to that technology and create a company around it. So in middle of 2018, we started the underlying entity behind Momentus, which is called AmpHuman. And what's super cool with that is we weren't a supplement company, right? That's why we are in the unique place that we're in. And we wanted to create, you know, like the first pitch deck was like the next
Starting point is 00:28:25 great high performance company was literally what was like. So that was kind of that was what you wanted to do. You want to create the next best high performance company. Like who? Like give me an example of who you were looking at to emulate if you had to pick one. I don't know. Okay. Right.
Starting point is 00:28:41 Sounded really cool. Yeah, it just sounded good. Right. But what we were doing with PR lotion had never been done before. And we were doing clinical research, and we were in all these unique places. And what I saw at the time was like,
Starting point is 00:28:53 we have all this crazy access. We're doing something really unique. What if we brought other technologies and other products in? Because we have the access. And then we could bring them to the consumer space and like think high performance and consumer, which was really interesting. Didn't know what the hell I was doing
Starting point is 00:29:10 or I was talking about other than we had a really cool product. And it thrust us into these unique places. And so we always, but from day one, we knew that AMP Human, AMP HP was not just this one product. We thought the product was gonna be really big. Turns out it's incredibly niche
Starting point is 00:29:29 because how you work out and how I work out, maybe once or twice a month, maybe, do we work out hard enough or long enough where PR lotion can actually have an impact? And it's not really pretty, it's kinda nasty, like you gotta be hardcore. And it's not really pretty. It's kind of nasty. Like you got to be hardcore and it's still product in our portfolio. Really? Yeah. And it's like Navy SEALs use it or? We had some really cool traction in some of those unique places. And so our first funding
Starting point is 00:29:56 was from venture capital and the Department of Defense. So we won a $1.6 million innovation contract with the DOD through special forces. For that one product. For that product. And then what happened? We did a lot more clinical research and it helped get us going, right? And the product built ultimately into about a $3 million SKU, $3 million product. But throughout that time, we tried to acquire new technologies or where else do we go?
Starting point is 00:30:24 But we had this scientific advisory board because P.R. Lawson was doing something really unique. We had like the best sports scientists and all these crazy people involved of like, oh, what if we could do X? What if we could do Y? What if we could do Z? But that really high performance space is so out of reach for most people of what we learned. So then what was like, so then you thought, okay, let me just be more for the people, right? Well, my board was like, you should go do sports nutrition.
Starting point is 00:30:54 And I was like, hell no. Really? Yo, I fought it. We fought it so hard. I remember sitting at a board meeting, we had a board meeting in San Francisco, and it was like on the roadmap of what's possible, it was like 50th supplements, right?
Starting point is 00:31:09 And they're like, well, what about this? This is awesome, like this is fast, big market. I was like, we are a consumer biotech company, we do clinical research, we're funded by the federal government. I am not launching a protein, like never. Right? Like, and part of it, like I go back
Starting point is 00:31:26 and ultimately I had a mentor friend challenge me and like made me realize the board is right. But it was this, the industry is so messy, so dirty, unregulated. My ego said, you don't wanna be a supplement company. You don't look up to anybody. You're not like, I wanna be that person. I wanna be a different, I wanna be a supplement company. You don't look up to anybody. You're not like, I want to be that person. I want to be a disrupter, do it better than it's ever been done before.
Starting point is 00:31:51 I wanted a challenge and all that. And what I saw in supplements was marketing, marketing, marketing, not brands that I loved and not great products. That's the scary thing, actually, that people don't recognize. A lot of the brands that do the best is because they have really good branding and really good marketing, but their actual products are really terrible. It's not built on the fundamental base quality or doing what's right for the customer, the consumer. And so for me, I just like, I use a lot of supplements and sports nutrition. Like I probably had a million dollars purchased for me, I just like, I use a lot of supplements and sports nutrition. Like I probably had a million dollars purchased for me
Starting point is 00:32:27 or on my behalf over my sports career. Like you just do like, since high school I've been taking protein shakes and weight gainer and creatine and you name it, right? Like- What brands were you using back then? Back in the day, Metrix. Metrix, right.
Starting point is 00:32:40 I mean, like there wasn't many. I'm trying to think of like, what was the weight gainer I used to take? Oh man, it was bad. But like there's just so many things out there. It's like, you know, Gatorade's a supplement, like it supports nutrition. Yeah, I guess so. Right. Like it's not used like that anymore. It's now like, which is part of its problem. And like, we can get into that whole unhealthiness of America. But I realized that there are really, really high quality, there are companies that make high quality products, super high quality products.
Starting point is 00:33:15 They aren't brands, they're companies. When I think of a brand, a brand inspires you, they motivate you, you put a hat on of that brand. Because you feel something for them. The really great product companies felt like Amgen or Pfizer. They felt so far removed. And they weren't here to help me be better. But those are the companies I used
Starting point is 00:33:41 because those are the companies that got recommended to me when I was in the NFL, because of the quality. But I didn't like, it's not a brand. It's not like, a brand evokes an emotional response. And like, yeah, they might have a brand name, but they're not really a brand. So you wanted to like do it better than anybody else. So I wanted to bring quality and brand together.
Starting point is 00:34:05 Right. And I wanted to do it differently because ultimately, I don't believe supplements are the fix. Like our company doesn't. Like, so when I look at the market, it's so noisy. Like, what do I take? Why do I take it? How do I take it? All that BS. And then it's like, is it actually good? Right? Don't know. And are they helping me?
Starting point is 00:34:30 That's right. Nobody really knows. And so it's like this. There's a quality. So how do we build the best, highest quality products we can? How do we bring knowledge and help educate people and be their partner on their journey for performance? Right. For life. Not performance for just sport, performance for life. And then how do we actually create a really, really highly curated product portfolio that gets people in the right products at the right time, but also not have the wrong products
Starting point is 00:35:00 in there. And so like that's super important to me, like the curated portfolio, the knowledge and the quality all together create a really differentiated brand that can create and drive impact. Well, how do you even know when a because because you just said it, it's such a noisy space like the supplement space is a trillion dollar industry now. It's getting bigger by the day. I mean, and you know, if you're watching social media, every second video is about a product, you know, like a supplement of some kind. People don't know what to take or why, and the other major is if it's even a quality supplement. That's the problem.
Starting point is 00:35:45 I think you're exactly right. We're bombarded with noise, right? Like everybody's got something. Why? Because there's no barriers to entry in our category. You and I could start a supplement company tomorrow. Now, I know. And we could put like baking soda in it.
Starting point is 00:35:58 Do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want, right? Which is scary. So this is part of why I didn't wanna to be a supplement company. So we started to think about building it ourselves. Once I realized like, oh, there's opportunity here to do better than it's been done before. What was your first product? Well, we started building a protein powder. We started
Starting point is 00:36:18 building hydration product, a fuel product and a recovery product. We started building that. Right. And that was what was it? The hydration one was what was it called? It was called hydrate. We don't have it. We started building that. Right. And that was what? What was it? The hydration one was, what was it called? It was called hydrate. We don't have it. We don't have it anymore. So we'll get, we'll get, this will get fun. What I realized was it was really easy to build a supplement company. Really? Really hard to do it. Right. Like, actually, like, from a money perspective, really expensive.
Starting point is 00:36:49 It takes a lot of time from a sourcing perspective. And it's like, the industry is almost set up to not allow new brands to do quality and to do certifications, because it's so cost prohibitive, right? To find those things out. Like example, like we use NSF Certified for Sport. It's the top, I believe it's the top certification that you can possibly get, because it not only tests for all banned substances, AKA bad shit, it also does label claim accuracy, right?
Starting point is 00:37:19 So everything that's on the label, if it says 20 grams of protein, it has to test within spec. If it says 40 milligrams of sodium, it has to have 40 milligrams of sodium. If it doesn't, you fail, can't go to market. So number one, failure of productions happen in my business. And when they fail, they never go to market. Right? That is one challenge. Like when you're a young company, and you don't have product, it's real hard to make money, and it's real hard to dumpster one. It's also really hard to tell a manufacturer, hey, if we fail, that's on you, you're gonna eat it. When you have no leg to stand on.
Starting point is 00:37:52 Leverage. Number two is we pay per production run on NSF, and the cost doesn't matter if you're big, small, and when you're early on, you say, hey, we're doing a production run of a thousand units. And a thousand units back in the day was a lot of money for us. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:09 Right? And the cost of NSF on a thousand versus a hundred thousand is the same. To put it in perspective, today- How much would it cost? Today, we spend, last year we spent about 1.6% of our top line revenue, of our revenue, total revenue, on post-production certifications.
Starting point is 00:38:27 Wow. And that number used to be double, triple, quadruple that. And that just takes straight out the bottom line. Because guess what? If you don't, like we could, we could have had a certification that cost us $100. So basically most companies might have those certifications. There are great companies out there that certify NSF, Certify for Sport, InformSport is a great one, ESP. Wait, wait, wait. So the ones that people should be looking for is this NSF number one.
Starting point is 00:38:57 To me, my belief is NSF Certified for Sport, right? And I hate the name, but it's the, because sport implies it's only for athletes, but it's the highest testing that NSF does, because it's like every other test, you have to pass every other one of their qualifications to get certified for sport. Really? So that's the top. That is the top, in my opinion.
Starting point is 00:39:21 USP does a nice one where it does label claim accuracy on that, but it's not testing like NSF certified for sport is the only thing that professional teams can give their athletes. If it doesn't have that logo, they will not give it to their athletes because the risk of cross contamination is too high or what they say what is on the label is not actually in it is also practical. Like nobody wants to have a label is not actually in it, is also practical. Nobody wants to have a label that says 20 grams of something and have 12. That happens in our industry quite often.
Starting point is 00:39:51 A lot probably. Yep. And then wait, so you're saying there's times when you paid for this NSF certification for a run of a thousand, and it came back and it wasn't accurate or it wasn't good, and then- We call it failing NSF. I mean, so there's lots of points that our standards are such that you can fail inbound specs of ingredients
Starting point is 00:40:13 where they don't meet potency or cleanliness or they have too high of a heavy metal that won't fall into our specs. Our specs and our standards are super high. So an example, we have a product called Brain Drive. It's a nootropic. We failed spec of it. And we could have gone like no law against
Starting point is 00:40:31 continuing to produce it, nothing, right? Because we failed spec, we are now gonna go out of stock because the most recent production run doesn't meet our standards, right? And because of that, we just took it off the website. We have 14 days left to serve our subscribers And because of that, we just took it off the website. We have 14 days left to serve our subscribers of the product that passed back the last production run.
Starting point is 00:40:51 And now we have to start production all over. We have to source all new ingredients. We have to make sure they pass back. And we're gonna be out of stock for two and a half, three months, which will cost our business a couple hundred thousand dollars, right? But we don't require it. We do that because that's our standards. And we don't require, like,
Starting point is 00:41:08 we don't tell those stories, but that's my goal, right? That's my goal is how do we tell those stories better? Because I believe, like, again, our industry is 200 billion dollars. So are you saying that like most companies, like they would come back, let's just say some people, we don't know who, we're not mentioning names, and nobody really knows, right? It could be a brand that someone's used and a batch comes back and they failed whatever inspection, and most companies will maybe just be like, okay, anyway, we have all these orders to fulfill, we're going to sell it anyway. There is no laws, no rules.
Starting point is 00:41:43 It's not like you're going to die from it. It's not poison. It's just not giving you what you bought. What you expect. Likely. I would also say not very many, like the amount of manufacturers that comply with NSF certification are pretty tight because their standards are so tight. NSF does audits in the facility. They require certain separation of ingredients and all these things. So cross contaminant, they require certain cleaning mechanisms. So some people wouldn't even apply for it. Most people don't even do it, right? Because A, it's expensive,
Starting point is 00:42:12 and from a manufacturing perspective, it's just another cost for them. And so I would say people wouldn't even know, like our standards, a lot of people would never even know their products out of spec, because they don't do the testing that we do, both inbound and post. And so an example, like an NSF, like last,
Starting point is 00:42:33 was it last year, in 2023, we failed a production on a vitamin D, right? From NSF. It had, it was, it somewhere got cross contaminated, whether it was in the supply chain, whether it was in the warehouse, we don't had, it was, it somewhere got cross contaminated, whether it was in the supply chain, whether it was in the warehouse, we don't know where it was. It failed NSF, right? And so that product completed in its packaging,
Starting point is 00:42:55 waiting to clear quarantine, forklifts go in, pick that packaging up, drop it in a dumpster. Because it failed NSF, it failed, it failed because it had banned substance, cross-contamination. What did it have? What could it have been? Anything, right? Again, when you think about- Give me an example, what could be- DHEA is a banned substance, right? It's like testosterone, growth hormone, et cetera. So what did it fail in? It failed in banned substances. One of the ingredients, it had enough amounts where we couldn't like, NSF wouldn't pass
Starting point is 00:43:27 it. Nothing to say you can't have that in your product, but we can't like, we... But it couldn't pass it because it was like, the ingredient was bad, it was not enough, it was too, it could be anything. Vitamin D is Vitamin D, right? So somewhere along the supply chain, right? Something went awry. Something went aw D, right? So somewhere along the supply chain, right? Something went awry. Something went awry, right?
Starting point is 00:43:49 And you don't know what it is. We don't know what it is. It doesn't, honestly doesn't matter. But what we did is like, you put tighter parameters on the supply chain. Okay, you're not allowed to store our products next to anything on this list. You're not allowed to ship with anything on this list.
Starting point is 00:44:03 You're not allowed to like, right? So we just like, we caught that and now like, guess what? But that there... How much of that like, did it cost you to throw that away? The only good thing is vitamin D is not super expensive. I don't know, some dollars. Some dollars with commas in them. And that happens often? We fail every once in a while.
Starting point is 00:44:23 But it doesn't matter to the consumer because you're not going to be giving it to them anyway. But that's the purpose. Yeah. Wow. You should fail. You should fail spec. And so then there's other things where it's corrective action.
Starting point is 00:44:36 So for a protein, if we fall out of spec of the sodium on the protein, we technically fail NSF. What's required for us to do is to change the label to like, if it says 40 grams, 40 milligrams of sodium and we had 60, we have to change the label to 60, right? And so it requires transparency, which is really important. Again, if we didn't do NSF certification post, we would, you would never know.
Starting point is 00:45:04 Is this what is that? Cause you know, you're known certification post, you would never know. Is this what is that? Cause you're known as like you have third party. Third party certified. Third party certification. That is NSF. Is that NSF? That is NSF. So NSF is one, Informed Sports another, USP is another.
Starting point is 00:45:18 All really good. All have their differences. I've backed the boat up to NSF. It's also the most expensive with it, which hurts my soul. Like how much more expensive? Like give me an example. 4X. Wow, that's a lot more for a company to spend.
Starting point is 00:45:32 Wow. Which is right. But it's the most comprehensive. And if you have standards, price doesn't matter. Okay, but listen, let me ask you, thank you for saying that. Chocolate whey protein. Because there's a lot of controversy over chocolate having a lot more lead in it than vanilla.
Starting point is 00:45:50 Is that true? 1000%. Why is that? Because cocoa naturally has lead in it. So- It's just like plant protein has a lot more heavy metals than non-plant protein. Because when you take a bunch of plants
Starting point is 00:46:03 and you consolidate them down, plants have heavy metals in them, right? And it just naturally, it has more heavy metal, right? So then you should be very, very, very stringent on, I mean, people like a consumer like me who like chocolate, like to me, that's why I would use Momentus over another brand because automatically I know that chocolate probably has way more lead. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:25 So you'd want to have a company that you know would be stringent on their... 100%. On their... 100%. The standard. NSF, you have to fall below thresholds on all heavy metal tests, on all that. So it's like really important. But like essentially you think like any chocolate, anything with cocoa in it is going to have heavy metals.
Starting point is 00:46:48 It just is what it is more than non-chocolate. Um, and then plant proteins are always going to have more heavy metals, just naturally like unavoidable. So cause I, I have your, I use your chocolate, your whey protein. Do you even have a plant protein? Oh, I didn't even know. We have a rice pea really, really, really good. Like we just redid it all. And honestly, like it was a hard project
Starting point is 00:47:10 to like make it better. It's really good. Really? Yeah. What is your hero product? Like what's the most popular product you guys have? That's a great question. Our hero, this is where our business is super unique.
Starting point is 00:47:24 We have no product that makes up more than 10% of sales. Really? Yeah. And what you see from our consumers is carts, right? We sell carts. And so like, if I would say like, this is one of the things that makes me most happy, is we have, I have this philosophy called the Momentous 3.
Starting point is 00:47:44 It's like the three most important products that have the most clinical research, that have the biggest impact on performance today and performance tomorrow, forever, right? They're called Momentous 3. It's creatine, omegas, and protein, top three skews, right? Right. Right, and it's like, they're not sexy.
Starting point is 00:47:59 They really aren't. But over, like, back to this bone crushing consistency. You consume enough protein, you're consistent with your omegas and you take creatine. What the science says is it's going to have long-term implications for lean muscle mass, long-term implications for brain health and connective health and other functions. Like those things matter. Of all those products on the market, the only other product that has as much research as those things in our category is caffeine. Right. Nothing else.
Starting point is 00:48:31 Magnesium doesn't even have that much. Magnesium has great research. Not as much as creatine. No, but when you but also when you back up, it's like not everybody like it. A lot of people are deficient in magnesium, but you should get tested, right? Before you just start randomly taking a magnesium. Really? Even for that? It's easy.
Starting point is 00:48:48 It's easy to get tested. And like, I don't know. I also had to draw the line. Like how I got to the Momentus 3 was, everybody asked me, what should I take? And early days, I was like, this is what I take. Yeah. And I was like, that's not right.
Starting point is 00:49:04 That's not helping get people in the right products at the right time. And how did I figure out what I should take? I talked to really smart people and asked them and they said, what are your challenges? What do you care about? What are you worried about? All of these things. That's how I got to my stack. What is your stack? Let's get in there. Not right now. Like let's sit down this path. We're on the momentous three and it's important to me. Okay, but you'll tell me. I will, I will a thousand percent will tell you.
Starting point is 00:49:27 So I went and I asked all these people, anybody came up and talked to you that was performance driven, right? Meaning like they care about health, fitness, like they're training, they're not like, just like I need to get healthy, right? Right, right. What are the, what are the-
Starting point is 00:49:44 Performance. I call it to get healthy, right? Right, right, right. What are the, what are the, I said- Performance. What are the, I call it performance for life, right? Like, how do you do the things you love for longer, right? Over really long periods of time, right? Like me in 20 years, I'm gonna have the same mindset, performance, I wanna be able to do things I love for longer. So I would say what are the top five things you give people?
Starting point is 00:50:00 What are the top five supplements you recommend people? Supplements or sports or nutrition or however you wanna take it. Everybody always had three of the same are the top five supplements you recommend people, supplements or sports nutrition or whatever, however you want to take it. Everybody always had three of the same in the top five. And really most of them had another two, the same as well. Every single one of them said protein, omegas and creatine. And I was like, why they're like 10s, 10 plus thousand papers, clinically public papers.
Starting point is 00:50:24 They have really good short-term and long-term evidence, zero cross-relactivity, and they're really actually hard to get from your daily diet. You can, like if you eat salmon every day, you're pretty good on omega-3s, right? Protein, you can also get from your diet, and even like some of these people are like, well, protein is not a supplement.
Starting point is 00:50:41 Protein is just protein. Like, that's a macro. That's what I was gonna say to you. It doesn't classify in that category. Anyways, I've gone down that rabbit hole with people. I was gonna say it's a macro. You gotta give me three. I have to get three things that we do.
Starting point is 00:50:53 And so those are the three. Magnesium was in there and vit D was in there. But what was the last one? Vitamin D. Oh, vitamin D. It's like, I believe three is a powerful number. Tell somebody three, master that, and then add on, right? Figure out what your use case is.
Starting point is 00:51:10 You have connective tissue health. Are you worried about brain health? Are you worried about focus and or stress or cortisol, hormone? Then you start winding down, right? Down the list of like what's important. But like, if you haven't built your foundation and you don't continue to care for your foundation, which I consider this is a momentous three,
Starting point is 00:51:30 you can't build a strong house or a strong anything on top of it, right? It all starts with the building blocks, right? Like if you're taking, right? If you're really worried about connective tissue health and you want to take collagen about connective tissue health and you want to take collagen for connective tissue health, but you're not hitting your protein goals,
Starting point is 00:51:50 it actually doesn't really matter. Hit your protein goals and then add on top. Right? Because protein is a fundamental building block of everything in our body. Collagen has really cool implications for connective tissue health. But again, if you're not like,
Starting point is 00:52:03 if you're hitting your protein goals, protein turns into collagen peptides. Well, I was gonna ask you about collagen peptides because there's a lot of, again, there's a lot of back and forth about this supplement, right? Yeah. Because some people say that you can't really get collagen from a supplement.
Starting point is 00:52:18 You have to, you know, it's really hard to, what is your, because you do so much research. Yeah. What is the research that you guys found on taking like a collagen supplement? Collagen has incredible implications around connective tissue health, joints, ligaments, tendons. Not if you take it for three weeks, not if you take it for a month.
Starting point is 00:52:40 It's like three months minimum. Really? Right, on it. Consistent, right? So collagen peptides is essentially like a peptide is just a string of amino acids, right? Protein is a massive string of amino acids. Right. I mean, collagen is a protein, but right, it like our skin, hair, nails, joints, ligaments, tendons, collagen. All things, yeah. Made of collagen, right? And as we age, our ability,
Starting point is 00:53:09 right, to naturally produce collagen actually declines in our body. Yeah. So it makes sense that you would supplement it if you have connective tissue health injuries or questions, or if you're doing something that has massive connect, like if you're a triathlete and you're doing a lot of triathletes, you probably should be taking collagen because you're putting a ton, a ton of wear and tear on your body. So I'll go back. Collagen has good research on it.
Starting point is 00:53:30 It does. Is it like protein research? Is it like creatine research? No, but it has, if you're thinking about connective tissue health, and that is a challenge for you as a human, collagen's a pretty good option on there, but you got to take it consistently. And then there's some really unique things out there. Has to have vitamin C in it,
Starting point is 00:53:51 doesn't have vitamin C in it, not really effective. Really, why? Vitamin C is a co-factor, my science guy's gonna crush me. It basically helps get it to the right places. Vitamin C does. So you have to have it with vitamin C. You have to take out for your joint, for your connective tissue off. You have to take it before you load your body.
Starting point is 00:54:14 So pre-workout is like optimal time because our joints, tendon, tendons and ligaments don't have a ton of blood flow except for when we're training. Right? So even if you're going for a walk, like you need to have collagen on before that so it can get delivered because you need to increase blood flow to deliver the nutrients. And number three is there's some data that says collagen and caffeine don't go too well together.
Starting point is 00:54:35 Really? Because I drink coffee in the morning. With your collagen. Is that not a good thing? So optimal would be always have it with vitamin C, take it 60 minutes before you load, workout, train, whatever it is, whatever we want to call it, and never take it with caffeine. Worst thing to do is not take it at all. So if you want to take it with caffeine, if you want to take it post-workout, it's better than not taking it. But to maximize it,
Starting point is 00:55:04 there are some tricks. Right. Like that, right? The literature points to. Do you make a vitamin C, like a liposomal vitamin C? No, but we have vitamin C in both our collagen products. Yeah, I was going to say, because you actually, you put the vitamin C in the collagen peptides,
Starting point is 00:55:18 which is unique, I think. Most people don't. Yeah, most people don't. There are a lot of people that do, but a lot of people that don't. A lot of people, right. That's the whole point, right? The reason why I wanted to even have you on this podcast is to kind of give people the awareness, make them cognizant of the fact that they should be checking their supplements,
Starting point is 00:55:37 what supplements they're using. Not just for the efficacy, but for the overall... All these things we're talking about, the certifications, people could be buying air and they have no idea. No idea. Right. Which is really scary. Yeah. So we actually never finished the story about momentous, how we got to momentous. So we started building it ourselves. This is all I love flowing like this. We started building ourselves and I realized it's really easy, but really hard. And then I was like, we're gonna be so disingenuous
Starting point is 00:56:08 to our ecosystem, like of military, of pro and college sports. Like if we just launch another me too pro team. Yeah, right. Right? And everything that I've done in my philosophy was be at the forefront of high performance, be at the forefront of high performance,
Starting point is 00:56:22 which means do it better than it's ever been done before, work with the best, only have the best products, right? Be a challenger and know what you know and know what you don't know. Anyways, so we're like starting to produce these products, like getting down that and I'm just like, we're doing this wrong. We're doing this wrong. And there's this brand, Momentous, and they were built in NFL and MLB locker rooms by the top dietitians. And they're like, let's build the best sports nutrition
Starting point is 00:56:50 brand that we all wish we had, all these dietitians. And they built it with this guy, Matt Wan, who's awesome entrepreneur, right? And like built a really cool business. But like my business, Amp Human, Momentus was kind of stuck in this elite performance space. And both brands are struggling to get out. Like they were trying to build
Starting point is 00:57:14 a really good sports nutrition brand. I was trying to build a high performance company, right? And we had these, both these really unique ecosystems. And I knew one of the board members at Momentus. And I was like, hey, we're gonna go into space, got any recommendations? He's like, dude, you should buy us. And I was like, okay, right? And it was like, then I started thinking, it's like, they've figured out sourcing, they figured out manufacturing, they figured out certifications, and they already sell and are trusted by all of our customers for
Starting point is 00:57:45 PR lotion. This is a pretty authentic fit. They have a huge TAM, right? We are disruptors and we have this like crazy network. Like people want to work with us because we're doing it so differently. Like that was part of the draw. And so what if we smash the two together? Could we create that was part of the draw. And so what if we smash the two together? Could we create a human performance company, which is a shift from high performance? So the goal became, how do you democratize high performance and turn it into human performance?
Starting point is 00:58:14 Because high performance is what happens in the NFL, human performance is what you and I do every day. We're forming a team. Anyway, so. No, I didn't even think about that. You're right, like high performance to human performance, because we're doing something very different than like the NFL. And when you seek high performance, it's really interesting.
Starting point is 00:58:34 High performers sacrifice health. As a football player to be great at football. True. Well. Right. To be honestly, to be really great great at anything like to be a great executive you have to sacrifice things that are really good for you long term. You just do like that's to be great. You have to there's a cost. There's a session cost, right to be very. Anyway, so
Starting point is 00:59:00 you know, that is so true. Like, I want to just think about that. Because people automatically assume, like if you think high performance, that they're like hitting every stride perfectly because they're a high performer. But the truth is, if you really think about it, to be a high performer, you are sacrificing a lot of things, like sleep, eating, like because you don't have like...
Starting point is 00:59:23 Yeah, I hit my head for a living. Guess what? I know that's terrible. Exactly. To be the best football player, you're going to have to do some really bad things to yourself. So that's interesting how you went from the high performance to the human performance. So different, but so accurate. But it's how do you democratize the best things that are happening here and bringing them to consumers. So anyways, we smashed these two companies together. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, still in my life. Most challenging, I went through crazy investor dynamics
Starting point is 00:59:51 and board dynamics of like, we did an all equity deal, right, two different companies, two different cultures, and it was really hard. How much did you raise? We didn't raise it, we did all equity deal. All equity deal. So we just, like all their shareholders got shares in my business.
Starting point is 01:00:06 Wow. And it was pretty close to a merger of equals. Like, and that was, that was part of the challenge too. It was like everybody like, oh, our way was the best. No, our way was the best. And I'm like, both ways are bullshit. We're doing something different, right? Like it took me about nine months to like actually meet
Starting point is 01:00:24 for me and Erica to be like, hey, we're trying to blend two companies together into cultures and all this. And it's like, bullshit, put a stake in the ground. We get to make the decision. And that was part of our challenge is like, because we let it like young leaders in a business, like we like had really great boards on both sides
Starting point is 01:00:42 and powerful people involved. And we let the tail wag us a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And therefore they're like, no, this is how it should be done. No, this is how it should be done. And ultimately in like nine months, Eric and I were like, we're doing it our way now.
Starting point is 01:00:57 This is the way, if you try to blend two cultures, you have no culture. If you try to be two things, you have nothing, right? It's like, this is the way forward. And it was hard as a leader to realize like, how I done it before didn't matter. How they want to do it doesn't matter, right? Be definitive in what you do
Starting point is 01:01:15 because that's ultimately what matters. People crave direction. I don't need to please everybody. What I'm doing is not for everybody. My team and my culture, Erica and my team and my culture is not for everybody. My team and my culture, Erica and my team and my culture is not for everybody and that's okay. Right?
Starting point is 01:01:28 It's hard to realize that, right? And it's also really hard when you take two companies and merge them together and you're really small still to be like, how can we live without a person? Do we like, we really need that person. That person is good, right? Right. It's like, we really need that person. That person's good, right? Right. It's like, we only have 11 spots on the team
Starting point is 01:01:47 and if you lose one, that's almost 10%. Like, do we have, now we're in a different place where it's like, you can make decisions like that because we have 55, 60 people now. Yeah. Right? Anyways, so we acquired- No, I love that.
Starting point is 01:02:00 That's actually a good story. I love that. We acquired this brand, right? And that's how we became Momentous. We originally wanted to keep our original name, Amp Human. Turns out we had some trademark challenges. Mountain Dew owns the trademark for Amp. Oh, really?
Starting point is 01:02:15 In like all energy drinks, sports drinks, all of that category. And then GNC had a product line called Amped, like comma D. Oh, really? And it was like, well, we don't get to be AmpHuman anymore. We are now Momentus. And it was 100% the right move. I'm glad trademark attorney forced our hand
Starting point is 01:02:36 because we probably would have made the wrong decision. Right. Momentus is aspirational, means something, right? Like it can be built upon. It was like AmpHuman was just a stupid name that I picked, that something, right? Like it can be built upon. I was like, Ampume was just a stupid name that I picked that I, right? Whatever. So we smashed those two companies together,
Starting point is 01:02:51 basically post that, we're about a $5 million combined business. Before that, it was like 3 million and 2 million. And we were that same size for about 12 months afterwards. And then we just, what we did was important. Let me share my daily routine game changer with you. It's the Momentous 3. I've been using their protein, their creatine and omega-3 combo for months now, and the results are undeniable. These nutrients are key for long-term health and performance, but hard to get enough of through diet alone.
Starting point is 01:03:31 The Crea Pure creatine boosts both physical and your mental performance. The grass-fed whey tastes great with no weird aftertaste, and their omega-3 is a must for recovery. Since adding these these my energy, my recovery, and my overall well-being has really improved. So if you want better performance, this is the way to go. Visit livemomentous.com and use my code Jen for 35% off your first subscription. That's livemomentous.com code Jen for 35% off your first subscription. Trust me, you'll be happy you did.
Starting point is 01:04:16 What was the first product though? Oh, the first product. The hydrate, you said the hydrate. The first product that AMP Human was building. So Momentus had protein, they had plant and whey, they had collagen, they had creatine, they had just launched an Omega, a brain drive and a product called the Elite Sleep. But you also had, so the hydrate product. So the AMP Human was working on three products before we bought them. And all three of those products were too far in production when we made the acquisition.
Starting point is 01:04:55 So we had a recovery product that we never launched. Yeah, you didn't like that one? Well, they just had a better product. The Momentus brand had a better product. Yeah, good. Okay. You're very honest, very self-aware. You have no shame about saying these things, which is so great for transparency, right? Because people trust you. Yeah, it's hard. I learned as an athlete, if you can't be open with yourself on how you did, it's really hard to grow. Yeah, I agree.
Starting point is 01:05:22 Right? Anyways, thank you for saying that. So we had this recovery where there is one human being that uses recovery in this world, amp-human recovery. I've got three things left of the entire production. I've, over the last four years, have been using the entire production run because I'm just like, there's nothing wrong with it. We spent a lot of money on it, write it off the books, all consuming. Okay, so what is it you said, the recovery? So it's recovery that I'm almost done with.
Starting point is 01:05:51 I never have to use again on it. And it's just like protein and carbs. It's a good product, but it's not a great product. So you're just gonna keep on using it. That's hilarious. I'm almost done. I'm like three months away from never having to do it again. Consume it again.
Starting point is 01:06:04 And it's on like this disgusting looking packaging. That's hilarious. And people on the team were like, I was like, didn't let it pay for it. I paid for it. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not our consumer product. Okay.
Starting point is 01:06:17 Right? So then we had a hydrate product, which was just electrolytes. Kind of like, what's that thing? Liquid ID, the element, all of those things. was just electrolytes. Like, so- Kind of like, what's that thing? Liquid ID, the element, all of those things. So a non-sugar, a non-sugar. And then we had a fuel, which is an intro workout,
Starting point is 01:06:33 carbohydrate and electrolytes. We still have fuel. Fuel's the only one- But why not the electrolyte? That's like super popular right now. It's coming, we're relaunching. Oh, okay. So we had hydrate and we had Fuel.
Starting point is 01:06:45 And part of the challenge that we had when we put the two businesses together is we had working capital challenges, we had like skew management, team and all of that. And we just had to like make some decisions. And it was like Hydrate sales were whatever, they weren't great, they weren't bad. I was like, easy kill.
Starting point is 01:07:10 So we just did one production run and just moved on on that. And now we're in product development again to build a similar product but better. But fuel, the fuel product is the same product we launched with. And that one was what? Fuel is Carbohydrates and Electrolytes. Electrolytes. Oh, okay. So we designed hydrate to be Carbohydrates and electrolytes. So think of it, so we designed hydrate to be everyday hydration or 60 minutes or less of exercise. So if you're training for 60 minutes or less, likelihood is you're not burning through your glycogen stores.
Starting point is 01:07:38 And when you, but when you train for 60 minutes or more, your glycogen stores get depleted and you have to replenish those with glucose, sugar. Right, and so for 60 minute plus long bouts of exercise, hiking, you name it, you need to onboard carbohydrates, just normal, endurance athletes, et cetera. If you don't, you end up bonking or you have to be keto adapted,
Starting point is 01:08:02 which means you can convert fat and protein into glycogen pretty effectively. Right. Those are all clumped. Those are like still there, and you're now doing this hydrate again. Yeah, so Fuel is there. Fuel is one of our best kept secrets in the portfolio, one of our top sellers in pro and college sports. Like, it's really cool. Really? It's really well designed.
Starting point is 01:08:23 Think of it as like Gatorade that's designed with today's science. Yeah, really. Okay, but wait, let's go back to your stack. I want to know what... Okay, my stack. Because you don't take a lot of stuff. I don't take a ton of stuff.
Starting point is 01:08:37 I am religious, religious about the momentous three. And there's a big reason why. Two things in the momentous three, omegas and creatine are very tied to brain house. So if I take a step back and say, okay, what I've done and where am I going? I'm really concerned about brain health. I just-
Starting point is 01:08:55 Because of your background. Because of my background, right? And family history, right? In there, so like I played a contact sport. I had thousands upon thousands upon thousands of micro concussive hits, sub concussive events. And right, I have a family history of dementia and Alzheimer's. So I need to stack the deck as much as I can. Creatine and omegas have awesome data around long term brain health. Awesome. Does it matter where you're getting your omega 3 source from?
Starting point is 01:09:23 Because to me, that's very important too. And that's why to me, there's certain things that you have to be diligent on the brand that you use. So protein's super interesting. It's like protein is kind of protein. There are different levels of protein, et cetera, but it's a fundamental macro. And like, if you're buying 20 grams of whey protein,
Starting point is 01:09:40 you're getting roughly 20 grams of protein. Omega-3s, right, the difference in the category is as wide as the Grand Canyon and as deep as the Grand Canyon. It is insane, right? So number one is about one and a half grams of EPA-DHA, which are the two omega-3s that matter, is about the clinically efficacious dose a day,
Starting point is 01:09:59 which is a lot of omega-3s, which is a lot of that, right? Now fish, I'm not saying fish oil, because fish oil is not the same as Omega-3. Fish oil does have Omega-3 in it, but you can buy a fish oil that has very little Omega-3 in it that has a lot of grams of fish oil, which is just oil from fish. And then where you source Omega-3s from, what types of fish you get it from matter. Fish carry heavy metals. So what do you want?
Starting point is 01:10:24 Super low on the food chain. Also how you process it. High heat kills a lot of stuff. Not so good. Our capsules are amberish. Why? Because if they're clear and opaque, it allows for oxidation, which means they can go fancy. So there's all these things in fish oil. There are some really great omega-3 companies out there. Really great. I'll put our omega-3 up against any omega-3 that's on the market. We've decided to be great.
Starting point is 01:10:53 We know what port in Norway it comes from. Really? We know exactly what port it comes from. Like, right, fish. Do you have high EPA and DHA in them? Yep, we have 800 milligrams of both in one serving. So in two capsules, we have 1.6 grams of Omega-3s in a 1.6 gram capsule. So listen, that's interesting. So people who are listening to this, so if you're buying
Starting point is 01:11:19 a fish oil, you have to make sure you have the right, you have a high DHA and an EPA. EPA, yep. And, cause otherwise it could just be oil from a fish. Which does nothing for you, right? So that's interesting. And so- A lot of things you'll say, oh, you'll see fish oil, 1.5 grams.
Starting point is 01:11:37 You'll see omega threes, right? 500 milligrams. You'll say, see DHA or you say omegas, because there's omega sixes and omega threes. And like, because like you could have the third omega three. Yeah. Right, which we don't need. We don't need.
Starting point is 01:11:54 Right, on there. So like it's super important. It's a wild west and always sourced from small fish. Always sourced from small, sardines, mackerels, right? Like the bigger fish, the problem. And if they don't say where it's sourced from small sardines, mackerels, right? Like the bigger fish, the problem. And if they don't say where it's sourced from, you should ask. How about algae?
Starting point is 01:12:10 I heard that's also a very good source. Algae is super interesting. So we are launching a vegan omega-3 based on algae. It's really expensive for the record and it's hard to get. So we're launching the most DHA, EPA potent, vegan omega-3 that's on the market. When does that come out? Oh, yeah, end of June. Really?
Starting point is 01:12:31 Yep. Okay, because why is that more expensive than doing it the fish way? Like the non-vegan way. Omega-3 is from fish, like it's a byproduct. It's easy to get. Right, it's not that hard. But algae, you gotta like take it,
Starting point is 01:12:44 you gotta extract it. And there's not a big. But algae, you've got to take it and extract it. You've got to grow it. And there's not a big market for, when you think about collagen. Collagen is a byproduct of meat processing. Yeah. Tons of it. And when you can get a byproduct in a huge market, readily accessible demand. Whereas algae, you've got to grow the algae.
Starting point is 01:13:00 It's got to be a special type of algae. You've got to like, how you process it. It's just different on there. So manufacturing and demand is low. Like if demand is, if supply is really high and demand is really high, like, right? Or if supply is really ready, like you can get things for cheap, like Omega-3s, right?
Starting point is 01:13:15 Quality matters, but you can get them fair. But like a vegan Omega to like meet the standards we had of like EPA and DHA and the combo of one-to-one like was hard. Yeah. We had like, had to work pretty hard with manufacturing on that. What about beef tallow? That's another big-
Starting point is 01:13:31 Beef tallow is like another interesting one. Yeah. It just, yeah. It's very popular right now. I'm hearing a lot about beef tallow. People are sending me a lot of stuff with beef tallow. Should be fat. It's just beef fat, right?
Starting point is 01:13:42 I mean, at the end of the day, like you fat, natural fat sources from animals, from whatever, are better than synthetic fat sources. Yes. Always. And the more you have to process a fat, probably not better, not for you, maybe slightly worse, right? Like there's a lot of talk about seed oils
Starting point is 01:14:01 and I don't have a stance on that. I just like, hey, you should be eating more whole foods, less processed foods, which means less seed oils, like all of it builds up. But also, you know what? Sugar is not great if you're sedentary, but like having carbohydrates is not the devil if you train hard. Right. I think it's a lot about common sense and not extreme, right?
Starting point is 01:14:21 Yeah. Like even the fact that here you are, you're a founder of a major supplement company and you're like, listen, take your creatine and take your omega-3 and your protein, which I think is still a nutrient, but nevertheless, and you'll be good. It is a nutrient. It's a nutrient, but I'm saying like,
Starting point is 01:14:36 all these other products are as a great supplement, like it's a great add-on, but if you don't have the foundation, who cares? So then go back to your stack. My stack, so I have that. I'm pretty consistent on collagen because I played pro football. I'm a big man and I like to push myself on that.
Starting point is 01:14:55 And then- How do you do it, do you shake? We have a collagen shot that's really easy that I just take before I work out. I train mostly in the morning, right? It's like a little gel shot and you just hit it, which is super cool. We actually won a government innovation contract, an $800,000 contract to help develop that product.
Starting point is 01:15:12 And we have another cool product that we're working on that was part of that grant, which is cool. Anyways, in that realm of like connective tissue health. I am very religious about turmeric and some people will be like, oh, no, turmeric. But inflammation is real in my life. Again, right? Right, so you're taking turmeric for your inflammation.
Starting point is 01:15:32 For my inflammation. Yeah. And it's super interesting. You talk to some of the pro sports dieticians and they're like, oh, we won't use turmeric. Do you know why? Why? Because it's too good.
Starting point is 01:15:42 Because the inflammation response is really important when you think about adaptation, right? And so when you train really hard, if you don't, you create an inflammation response in your muscles. And that inflammation response is what ultimately is creating the adaptation for your muscles to build back stronger and faster. Interesting. And so they don't give their athletes
Starting point is 01:16:01 turmeric unless they're injured or have some challenge, right? For me, I don't give two shits about adaptation, right? Like I'm not trying to run faster. I'm not trying to get stronger. I actually would like to get less strong, right? Like it's like- You wanna be less strong? If I lift weights, I just get like,
Starting point is 01:16:18 part of me being a genetic mutant, being an NFL player, I just lift a little bit of weights and I'm just like, brrr. It's true. Right, like it's what made me able to be a great NFL player, I just lift a little bit of weight, so I'm just like, brrrrr. It's true. It's what made me able to be a great NFL player. It's like, hey, let's start squatting a little bit. And it's like, Jeff, you don't fit in your pants anymore. You've been squatting for three weeks.
Starting point is 01:16:34 I'm like, it's my problem. It's my curse. Right? But anyways. I love that. So funny. So that's why I take turmeric. Inflammation and management inflammation is super important to me.
Starting point is 01:16:47 I take our multivitamin and I do that because I'm on the road a ton and it's a very comprehensive multivitamin that is powerful to me. I take the multivitamin too and I wasn't sure why because there's so much again controversy over like, do you need a multivitamin? Blah, blah, blah. I think you need to be careful on multivitamins because at the end of the day, the right amount of things matter in things. Right.
Starting point is 01:17:14 So be sure to get your blood tested. Blood tested, but also like, if it's a compressed capsule, really hard to digest. Like we have, our multi is a four caps, or like it's not small, it's four big caps. And why? To get the right doses of the things that we cared about. It had to be four capsules.
Starting point is 01:17:32 And we didn't want to do a compressed tablet because the efficacy on compressed tablets are lower, et cetera, or gummy that does, has nothing in it. So it's like, we just made the Rolls Royce of a multivitamin, right? Right? And a multivitamin to me, right? I travel a ton.
Starting point is 01:17:49 It just is my, it's my cover, my basis. I would not recommend it. A lot of people take multivitamin, but it's not where I would start. I'm pretty, pretty, I'm very religious about Vidi because I always test low. Really? On Vidi.
Starting point is 01:18:05 Talk about that. I wanted to talk to you about like hormones and testosterone and all these things. Yeah. Isn't that the product that you got? Isn't that that product? Vitamin D. Oh, vitamin D.
Starting point is 01:18:16 Vidi, yeah. Oh, okay, because you have another product, vitamin D, of course, everybody always takes. Vitamin D is like, kind of like become like the, like it's very- A lot of people are deficient. Everyone's deficient and like kind of like become like the, like it's very- A lot of people are deficient. Everyone's deficient and they kind of feel like everyone now just takes vitamin D, but now to access,
Starting point is 01:18:32 like if now when I got my blood tested, I'm now too high in vitamin D, but you call it, what do you call it? Viti, I just thought Viti. Okay, that's why I'm like, what are you talking about? I'm just abbreviating, you're good. But now, but the problem is a lot of people are taking it too much now.
Starting point is 01:18:46 Yeah, 100%, right? Because you can take a lot. Like it's easy to take 20,000 micrograms. Even if you're taking 5,000 a day, which I think the norm. If you're taking that every single day for a very long period of time, you could- Test, right?
Starting point is 01:19:04 That's again, like you can just test for it. It's not that hard. Test every six. That's why you support it. Because people are now taking like even people say I was I was low in vitamin B. So I started taking vitamin B and now I'm too low in vitamin and now I'm too high in vitamin B. It's very important to be very on top of getting your blood tested because then you could be taking too much of something which is also hazard. 100%. So always like that's the thing with a lot of these other things you should just test. Yeah. Right like vit D, magnesium like most people are deficient in magnesium but it's easy to test for it again like it's not that like you take magnesium too. I don't I don't take magnesium
Starting point is 01:19:41 very often so and then it's then then I go into like, what do I take occasionally? Our sleep pack, I take when I travel. Why? Because I sleep really good at home. I don't have any challenges sleeping at home. But when you travel, you sleep badly. Different environments. I also, when I travel, I don't have the same environment
Starting point is 01:20:02 that sets me up to be successful. Yeah, I know, I get it. Right, I got it. I think a lot of people are like that. When I travel, like last night, slept in a hotel, I worked to the second I went to, that I started to go to sleep, which was like 9.30, which is not optimal.
Starting point is 01:20:16 When I'm at home, I get to talk to my wife and we get to relax, we get to sauna, we get to do whatever we want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like much more of a process and a routine. And you have, the same place I worked for the last three hours is three feet from my bed. I know.
Starting point is 01:20:31 So it's like, okay, I need to help down-regulate which is what Sleep Pack does. And I need to increase the quality of sleep. L-theanine, apigenin, and mag-3-anate. And so L-theanine and apigenin, apigenin is just like, it's what's found in chamomile tea or grapefruit, and it helps you downregulate, right?
Starting point is 01:20:48 Same with L-theanine, downregulate, found in tea as well. To like, how do you like, everything we do upregulates us, work, TV, screens, upregulate. How do we downregulate so that we can get to sleep and have higher quality sleep? The magnesium threonate is one of the only, it is the only form of magnesium
Starting point is 01:21:08 that can cross the blood brain barrier. And magnesium can help, right, increase your quality of sleep but also just at night, a lot of really cool things happen to your brain, right? And having magnesium on board appears to be very beneficial to that. So I take that when I travel. And it works? It works. And I take that when I travel. And it works?
Starting point is 01:21:25 It works. And I take when I jump time zones, so not when I come to LA, when I'm going to like New York or something, or I take our product called Elite Sleep. And Elite Sleep was designed in correlation with an MLB team that helped them jump time zones. And so Elite Sleep has melatonin in it and Tart-Cherry.
Starting point is 01:21:46 And I'm not like, I do not believe melatonin should be taken regularly. I think it should be taken very infrequently. Melatonin helps you reset your circadian rhythm, right? And so when you jump a time zone or multiple time zones, it's like, that's what it's built for. That's what our body naturally does. And so it helps switch that time zone
Starting point is 01:22:08 so that you can get on that time. How long can you take it for? Oh, if I might go into New York and I'm in New York Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I take it Tuesday night and Wednesday night. Oh, you do take it, okay. And then I like, but if- Could your body get adapted to these things?
Starting point is 01:22:23 Like the sleep one or- Sleep pack, no. That's what's really cool about sleep pack and why it is what it is, is it's all natural, non-habit forming. Like people have an impact on it. Melatonin, a thousand percent is habit forming. Yeah, yeah, I'm not a big melatonin person at all.
Starting point is 01:22:40 The more you take it, the more you need, right? And then it becomes really hard because melatonin is just a hormone in our body, essentially. And then you need it and your body stops producing it. Right? So, I take that spotty. I also take our adaptogens, rhodiola and ashwagandha. I love rhodiola.
Starting point is 01:23:00 It's kind of like the Adderall that's natural, isn't it? That's kind of like a natural adderall. It helps you regulate cortisol and stress essentially. Oh, I also think it gets you focused. Yeah, that's part of it, right? But I use it as when I'm in crazy heavy training blocks or when I'm in really, really stressful times because it helps you in those moments
Starting point is 01:23:26 Yeah, and so like that's how I use adaptions. I probably use Five times a month. I use that stack right? Oh really? So you're not using it every single day I personally don't like because I don't I don't find I need it every day, right? The ones you take every day is the creatine, the omegas, protein. I take like five scoops of protein. Collagen, multivitamin D. Yeah, vitamin D. You call it vit D. Yeah, vit D.
Starting point is 01:23:53 Okay. Can we talk about the whole testosterone thing for a second and hormones? Because you had a product, I thought, that was like a natural... We have Tongat Ali. That's right. I can never pronounce it. Yeah, nobody can. What's it We have Tongat Ali. That's right, I can never pronounce it. Yeah, yeah, nobody can. What's it called? Tongat Ali, it's T-O-N-G-K-A-T,
Starting point is 01:24:10 and it has like six words posted that, like, it's a root of a... of an herb, plant, shrub. And does it work? The data suggests it does, from a testosterone perspective. Like, it has really cool implications around testosterone. And for us, we built that product with Dr. Huberman,
Starting point is 01:24:31 but hormones and testosterone plays such an important role. And testosterone levels are a real challenge. And when we think about our product philosophy, it's like the 80-20 rule. Let's have the 20% that drives 80% of the value. And if people are thinking about, oh, I need to help my hormones, my testosterone levels, how do you give them something that's not testosterone replacement therapy, TRT or whatever? Right.
Starting point is 01:24:57 Okay, there's an herb that's been around for a long time, tested. There's not a crap ton of research on it, but there's enough to say, Hey, this has some cool testosterone implications and people will use it, see cool testosterone results. But again, it's still progressing. We had another product on the market called Fadoja, right? That had early data around testosterone, but the data stopped progressing and we pulled it from the market last year because it wasn't up to our snuff in terms of efficacy. Really? So the testosterone, like the reason why I'm asking about hormones is because we
Starting point is 01:25:34 talk about a lot on this podcast and off the podcast with my friends, and there's been such an incline in people who are now taking testosterone, very young, like in their like thirties. And once you're on that train, you're on that train. You're on that train. You know? And so what's other, I mean, yes, we all know like, oh, you lift heavy weights and you do this,
Starting point is 01:25:56 it helps, you know, boost your testosterone, but not that much, let's be honest. Yeah. It's not gonna like get you from, like as a man, it's not gonna get you from 200 to 800, not, it's not going to get you from 200 to 800. Yeah. Not happening. But so like, would you say if they started taking like this natural testosterone, it would be helpful or what are other things that you've seen in the market that... There's a lot of hormone crap out there.
Starting point is 01:26:18 That's exact. And it's the biggest market right now. It's really big. And it's really, it's, you know, hormones was a tough one for me to go in because it's not something I naturally see I'm naturally super low in tea. Oh Partially has to do with brain injury. Really? Yeah. So there's a kid. There's a correlation. Yeah, so the Right a lot of guys in the NFL are low in tea because of brain injury the brain controls everything everything Right like not it's not shock like when you cut it kind, anyways. Yeah, I guess that's true. So I guess the, your brain is in control of everything. Yeah. And testosterone is like the main hormone in males.
Starting point is 01:26:53 Right? It's really interesting because as a football player, you would never think that these guys would be low in testosterone, but they are. Yeah, they are. A lot of guys get prescribed tea. Yeah. Right? On there. Anyway, so to me, nothing like Fadoja, a lot of people believe, do a lot of great things for testosterone. The clinical data that we've seen, to me, does not warrant it to be in our product portfolio, which means it does not have a big enough impact to do it. Currently, Tonga Ali does. There are 20 other things that you could do. Zinc is really good for hormone health on there. Anyway, so there's a lot of zinc. Zinc has a lot of implications around testosterone, men and women on there. So I believe a lot of hormone health has to do with lifestyle,
Starting point is 01:27:45 behaviors, diet, right? Like you got to stack them in the right, but like a hundred percent should be thinking about natural things before you go to TRT. TRT should be like the very, very last resort. A hundred percent. Right, and that's to me is like, so I have low T, like I'm not ready to get on that train.
Starting point is 01:28:04 Good, don't get on that. So I used to take it. I used to, I turned 40 this year. Yeah, you're still young though. Yeah, I'm still just a babe. Yeah, don't be taking it at 40, please. If I, my stack normally includes don't get, so I get to test on myself, right? I do blood work almost every three months.
Starting point is 01:28:24 Good for you. I can, right? Like, because we know the. I do blood work almost every three months. Good for you. I can, right? Like because we know the companies that do that. Yeah. Right. And everybody like, I'm just like constantly, let's add something that's removed something like what's happening. Right. So you're on top of it, which is so good.
Starting point is 01:28:37 It's cool. It's fun. Like it's part of the perk of running a high performance company. Yeah, exactly. Or human performance company. So what did you see your numbers go from? So I was on it. I saw my numbers go up, but I changed a lot. So what I'm testing is keeping a lot of things similar.
Starting point is 01:28:52 All I did was remove Donkat. And my next test should be next month. And I wanna see what my IT numbers look like. Wow. Right? And then, right? Cause I like, during that time when I started taking it, I saw my numbers increase, but a lot changed. Like I was in a crazy stressful time in my life.
Starting point is 01:29:11 I wasn't training as much as I wanted to and all that when I started taking it. So like, I started from like being, like not doing anything right to like, I just like made a big shift and a lot of things changed in my life at the right time to allow me to focus on the things that I know drive testosterone.
Starting point is 01:29:29 And so I'm like, okay, what, like I made a significant job, like a big job. Yeah. Right, and so I'm like, okay, let's take a step back, let's pull it out. And see what happens. And see what happens and then let's add it back in. Because not also a lot of the things,
Starting point is 01:29:42 not everything works for everybody, right? Our bodies process things different. We have different like, and we're all little ends of ones for the most part. And there's also like, you could have started taking Tongat and everything else went south. And it's like, well, you maintain and it's like,
Starting point is 01:29:59 well, you should have fallen. Or you could have taken Tongat and it went up and you did everything right. And it was nothing had to do with Tongat and it went up and you did everything right, and nothing had to do with Tongat, right? Yeah, I totally agree. I think it's not like a one, not everything fits, like one size fits all, right? By the way, you're like moving around,
Starting point is 01:30:15 but I am too, because we've been sitting here for like over two hours. It's so uncomfortable. I mean, because it's like you sit so long, you're like, oh my God, my legs fall asleep. And okay, so we're gonna wrap this. So Jeff, thank you for being on the show, by the way. I love your story about Momentus and I'm not just saying this because you're here, but I do, I really love your products. I think that they are so high quality. You do everything right,
Starting point is 01:30:38 your company, you guys do. And like I said, I just wanted the people to be mindful of like what they're getting because supplements are so massively popular. And so if they don't wanna buy Momentous and they think it's not great, they're crazy. But there's other great brands. There's other great brands. But I'm just saying, of course, I'm just saying like, you know what, just make sure that these, like what you're using is actually getting
Starting point is 01:31:03 what you're buying and that they're doing safe things. I think that's the biggest thing, right? Yep, 100%. And so for me, if you don't know why you take something, you shouldn't have taken it. Yeah, totally. Right?
Starting point is 01:31:15 And the process that when people come in, I'm like, write down the most important things for you. Yeah, so true. Long-term health. If you can't point to what you're taking and doing to those things, then you should probably stop doing those things. Totally. And you should reassess like, hey, go back to the basics, go back to the foundation and master those. That's so important. So anyways, and most of us, I get the luxury to take
Starting point is 01:31:43 creatine, omegas, protein, as much protein as I want, collagen, all these things. It's because I have, like, if I had a hundred bucks to spend a month or 200 bucks to spend a month on this category, I wouldn't, I would rethink what I do, right? I also could take everything. And you don't though.
Starting point is 01:32:01 And I don't because, A, it's not sustainable. Like if I try to take everything, I'll take nothing. Like, it'd be like, oh, whatever. I think there's people who are taking like handfuls. I look at Brian Johnson, he's taking like 75 pills every hour on the hour. And it's just like, you know, he wants to live to 175 or whatever.
Starting point is 01:32:20 I mean, watch him drop dead at like at 60. I mean, I'm just saying that as, you know, but I think you can only do so much. Like these are all supplemental to your daily habits. You have to be happy. You're like, you can't change your life around supplements or whatever. Like the whole goal of living a long healthy life
Starting point is 01:32:43 is to be happy, right? And have more joy and have a bigger impact in the world. If all you do is like meticulously counting pills on the minute, right? Like, oh, I can't go out and have fun with my friends every once in a while because it's, I need to be in bed by nine o'clock. And it's like, well, guess what?
Starting point is 01:32:59 Like a third of the equation, it's like, you know, fitness, fitness and sleep, diet and supplements. And then there's this community piece. That's the biggest piece. And like all the researchers shown that community piece having friends will keep you alive way longer than any supplement on the planet. Yeah. And so if you're not taking care of the most, that to me is the most basic fundamental. That's why we exist as humans. To be community beings. We overlook it. So it's like, if you're doing, you have to do fitness. Like for me, what I love about fitness is I can make it community. Yeah, you can work out with your friends, you can do activity. And that's how
Starting point is 01:33:41 the world is changing now. It used to be like, right? They're doing all these things like run clubs, it's an easy one, but they're doing these things where you're doing fitness activities or becoming the running man of the world and all the things. But no, but thank you. And I- You're very welcome. And well, everyone go by Momentous.
Starting point is 01:34:01 Bye. Yeah. go by Momentous. Bye.

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