Locked In with Ian Bick - How I Became A Pot King | Big Twig

Episode Date: April 28, 2024

Big Twig reveals how body building leads him into the world of cannabis where he eventually gets caught up with the criminal justice system. Thanks, Cheech & Chong, for sponsoring this episode! Go to https://heycruisechews.com/locked-in/?affid=1&s1=lockedin&s2=&s3=&s4=&s5=&click_id=dd20ac37393c4f32b174ee78a7a3ce25&utm_source=Podcast for 30% off. Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Connect with Big Twig: https://www.instagram.com/bigtwig_/?hl=en https://linktr.ee/bigtwig?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=7dc0ea9e-766f-4472-af6e-bb26e062d639 Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:04:54 - Energy Drink Benefits and Moderation 00:09:31 - Growing Up in New Hartford, Connecticut 00:14:09 - The Importance of Trusting Your Intuition 00:19:13 - From the Basement to Bodybuilding and Fitness 00:24:06 - Life After the Military 00:29:05 - The Drive to Better Myself and Build Something Great 00:34:04 - Changes in Life Goals 00:38:51 - Blinded by Instant Cash 00:43:49 - From Small-time Dealer to Cannabis Business 00:48:51 - A Dark Place 00:53:27 - Confronting a Thief and Seeking Justice 01:02:28 - The Police Investigation and Arrest 01:03:21 - The Arrest and Investigation 01:08:09 - False Charges and Unjust Treatment 01:13:04 - Legalization and the Criminal Justice System Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The problem is I'm Tim Turwilliger. I got a big personality. So I'm in lockup with these three degenerates in a courthouse. Like, yo, you're the pot king? I'm like, what? You're the pot king we heard about? I'm like, I don't know about all that, bro. Apparently that was a reputation I had, right?

Welcome back to the Lockton with the Invict podcast. I have an exciting episode for you today. We have Tim Terwilliger from Connecticut, also known as Big Twig. we find out how he became a pot king in Connecticut and got out of the game before things got too deep. And we also find out how he was able to turn it all around and create a successful business for himself. I want to give a huge thanks to our new sponsor Cheech and Chong's Cruise Chues for supporting Locked in. Go to trycruisechews.com slash locked in for 30% off. that's trycruisechews.com

slash locked in for 30% off. Now sit back, relax, and get ready to lock in with Big Twig. Tim, thank you so much. Shout out to Demons Row for connecting us. And big thanks to you for bringing all these supplements and gifts. He brought us a ton of, well, you brought us merch. This is your own merch from your store. Yeah, so a couple of shirts.

You got to pay homage, man. You're having us on the show. So you can hang that on the wall. You can wear it. whoever I got you. I would do both. Yeah, I love, I don't know if you saw the office, but I have like this wall I'm putting together of like everything.

Yeah, memorabilia. So I got, I got you a variety of different supplement or different energy drinks and then. This is the coolest gift right here. That's only a fraction. This is so cool. Yeah. You know what this reminds me of like the TikTok shop where you see all like the different energy drinks?

You get to try like one of each. Well, not even one of each. There's like a fraction of what we have. But yeah, try some of those. This is so cool. And this is at you. So you have a supplement store. Yeah, so supply stores.

You could see it on my shirt here. I owned that. I started that just from all my years in the fitness industry and supplement industry. It's a retail supplement store that we're growing and we're now franchising. And I figure, what could a guy like Ian use? And I figured energy drinks and focus. I brought you some energy drinks. I brought you two focus supplements.

One of them is very strong. That's in these bottles here. Yeah. And then I brought you a case of liquid death water because who doesn't like liquid death. Yeah. And we were just talking about how. like every podcast studio carries liquid death. But it's pricey.

It's definitely expensive. I'll get you the direct pricing. If you ever want it, let me know. And I'll have them ship it right to your studio. Wait, you get direct pricing for liquid death? Yeah,

because we have, you know, distributors we deal with. So I'll get it. Yeah, I'll connect you with my guy. Energy focus. And,

yeah, so those are focus supplements. So, like, the addermine is, like, ridiculously strong at the two capsule

serving size. I'll give you one capsule. you'll feel really good. The victory is a little less intense. But again, if you want to just jam out with like focus and work, that's your thing. Instead of like an Adderall or something. Yeah, I've never done Adderall. Me neither.

And I don't want to. I've never done drugs other than anabolics. But yeah, those will help you big time for focus. So let me ask you something about energy drinks because I've been like going down this rabbit hole. Sure. What are the actual like health effects and like what's different than another one like Celsius promotes that there a certain way compared to others? Like what's the truth behind that? Yeah, so energy drinks is you're buying into a brand, right?

So, for example, you take ghost. You have really cool packaging, flavors. They do a lot of these co-branding with like Swedish fish and Sour Patch Kids. They get a lot of licensing. So you're more or less buying into that. I hate to say this, but at the end of the day, it's kind of the same thing with a different label and a different taste, right? Now, supplements are a little different, but when it comes to energy drinks, you can't really reinvent the wheel a hundred different times. So it's more or less finding something as far as how much carbonation is in there

and what best suits, you know, your taste buds and kind of sticking with that, I branch out. I like there's an oxy shard in there. Those are pretty good. Only 185 milligrams of caffeine. Now, they will have different levels of caffeine. You'll have 100, 200, 200, 300. I like the oxy shred just because it's only 185, but there's also some die caffeine melis.

When you have caffeine, you have caffeine in hydris, which is the caffeine that hits you all at once. and then you have the die-caffeine mallet, which is the time-release caffeine. So let's just say you have 400 milligrams caffeine total. You get, let's say, 250 of caffeine inhydrous, and the 150th di-cafinellate. You'll have that time release that kind of carries you through and that 250-anhydrous up front where you're like, ooh, this feels good. As opposed to if you had 400 up front, you're like, oh, I got a crackhead. And then it kind of dies down pretty fast.

So there are some differences when it comes to some of the stimulants in there. But at the end of the day, it's more or less just having the, I guess, options to try which one fits you best. And they're not identically the same, but they're very similar. You know, I remember when I was, I don't know, 14, 15, and Monster was a big thing. And I was collecting all my cans. And then I was so mad because my brother, like, kicked over this tower I made, my twin brother.

But my mom was like, oh, my God, you're going to die. The energy's going to kill you. Well, they take the substrat of data that the news plugs in and you get, you know, I don't know, a kid that drinks an entire case, right? What's going to happen? Your heart's going to probably explode. So this is like the negative side of energy drinks or, you know, energy supplements in that aspect is they take the substrata where, you know, a soldier in Iraq took seven scoops of Jack 3D

that had an ingredient, 1-3DMA, 1-3-Domethalomalamine. And all of a sudden, it's so bad for you. It's not. He made a poor decision, right? So anyways, yeah, they're not going to kill you as long as you have them in moderation. and it can be very beneficial for your focus and what you're trying to do and accomplish. But if you don't want to drink,

I brought you the focus pills. So if you drink one a day, you're good. You're good. So when they say these health warnings and whatnot, are they talking about the people that are drinking multiple in a day? I mean, you also have to consider the source.

Who's saying this? If we look at the person who's in charge of health for the United States, what do they look like? Same with Great Britain and all this stuff. nothing against overweight or morbidly obese people, but like, I'm not going to take health advice from you. If you're the standard of what health is,

then we need to redefine what health means, right? So we first have to look at what they're using for criteria as far as what's healthy. These are the same people that, you know, shut down our schools for a year because of COVID, right? Where we can all see now that you treat it like the flu. That's from the CDC. And these kids that were out of school,

school is their safe place. Some of them were in very abusive homes. And that's where they went. And they had these mandatory reporters. And all of a sudden you don't have that. And they're locked up with the same people that are trying to get away from the abuser. So again, what is health?

How do we define that? And when you look at the standard set for health by these people, I digress. I'm going to look at health a little differently than you. But yeah, I don't think they're... It's everything in my... When it comes to anything, alcohol, you know, I've never had to sit about alcohol in my entire life.

But when it comes to anything, it's everything in moderation, right? So same thing with energy drinks. Just don't be, not you, but just don't be an idiot when you consume and you'll be good. Yeah, I mean, like, look at Celsius. All these celebrities are drinking at their major sponsors. If it's that bad for you, I don't think they would actually all be drinking. Like if people are dying, are there any known cases of people dying from an energy drink?

I mean, again, substratum, less than 0.000.1% maybe. Show me data that's actually compelling and I'll stop drinking it. Same with aspartame and artificial. DITES and shit. Show me actual data this stuff causes cancer and I'll buy into it. But until then, I'm good. I'm going to keep living my life accordingly. Now, last question on energy drinks, the crash feeling after.

Because I've been trying, like I was doing 1 Celsius a day and then I stopped and I've been doing coffee. And when I do the coffee, the black coffee, I don't have that feeling of like crash and groginess like midday. Sure. So coffee has just one stimulant caffeine. It's from a coffee bean. So you're not going to get all these other stimulants.

that's paired with the caffeine or vitamins that's paired with the caffeine and make, you know, as a cohesive unit, work a little more effectively for your CNAS, your central nervous system. That being said, no matter what, when it comes to your central nervous system, what goes up eventually has to come down. How and when it comes down depends on what ingredients you pair with it. So when I've formulated pre-workouts for different companies that I worked with are my own in the past, I would put in thio bromine. Theo bromine is not a CNS stimulant.

It's a different type of stimulant where, you know, as your come up, coming down that theobromine in 150 milligrams prevents that crash. So these kids, and I was one of these kids, you know, once, and I feel so old saying that, I'll be 34 in April. But these kids now, they want to get all jacked up on pre-workout. I was that kid at one point. But again, what goes up comes down, you feel like crap the rest of the day. So now I'm like that mediocre, maybe a little high, stimulant, but nothing crazy.

And I always make sure that when I'm looking at a pre-workout, I have something in there that's not a CNS stimulant to kind of bring me down and even me out so I don't crash. Yeah, like C4 used to make me crash. There's a couple other of those pre-workouts like that. We used to smuggle in pre-workout into prison too. Really? Yeah, instead of, yo, let me get a scoop of a coffee. It's like, yo, let me get a scoopier pre-workout.

Yeah, that's awesome. It was so funny. That's awesome. So you live in Connecticut now. You have your shops in Connecticut. Did you grow up always in Connecticut? Yeah, I grew up, born and raised in New Hartford as a sticks. We were typical American family growing up.

I have a twin brother and an older brother, and then I have a half brother and two half sisters. My dad was married twice before my mom. Married to my mom for, I don't know, 36, 37 years now, but grew up. We had 10 acres, quads, dirt bikes, four-wheel, and paintball guns. Typical American family, American dream growing up in New Hartford, Connecticut. And, you know, we fought, we made up,

and we went to church every Sunday, and faith and family. That was it. There was times where it was tough. where we couldn't turn the heat on in the winter. My dad, you know, I get my work ethic from him, but, you know, there was times where we literally had to huddle around the wood stove because, you know, it was either feed your children,

feed your family, or put money in the fuel tank, and obviously you've got to feed your family. So working in construction as a small construction company in Connecticut during the winters, it's tough sometimes. And, you know, we learned the value of hard work when I was 12 years old. My dad's like, oh, you want that KX60? I remember it was so sick, 1999. I almost bought one for my son.

He's a little too young for a 60. He's got, he's got like 10 dirt bikes and quads now. But he's like, you want that 60? He's like, here's a wood splitter. Here's a chainsaw. You're going to cut wood. I'll deliver it for you, but you're going to sell cords of wood. And I did.

I earned it. It was $1,200. And I learned the value of hard work from a very young age, you know. That's awesome. Yeah. How would people describe you if we had like one of your closest friends from back then? I'm crazy. No, I'm not crazy.

I got a big heart. I think my. If you were to ask me the biggest and best thing about me, but also it's a double-edged sword. Also, the worst thing about me is my heart. I care about the bum on the street. You know, I don't... Those who know me know my heart and those who don't know me know my heart.

There's videos of me on YouTube going to New York City on Christmas Eve instead of spending on my family. I worked at a Natural Body Inc. in Queens, 2012 and 13. And we had like 500 expired protein bars. Just expired, but we could have, couldn't sell them. And I took the train. Never get, I think it's the J train, never got on the J train. Supposedly that's the bad train. Actually, that's a different story to the second, but I got on the train and I loaded up two or three big duffel bags and I fed the homeless and I talked to

him. And, you know, there was a guy, this guy, David, he was, you know, panhandling for money. And I stopped. He was right in my, uh, the plaza in my store in Bristol. I'm like, what's your story? Because I don't want to just give you a dollar. I want to know your story. Like, what's going on? How did you get here? You know, I'm not going to judge you. I'm no better than you. Because we all have a story. I've been on the bottom, and I worked my way back up.

And, you know, he was on drugs and lost his house, this out, and the third. And he was a good dude. And, you know, I raised money for him. And we raised over $1,200 for him in a matter of a week. I brought him in the store. I was giving him a meal every day, cut his hair. Kind of like a prisoner hair. Right in the back of the store.

I did cut hair decent. But, yeah, I cut his hair. and we raised money for him, and he was a good dude. And, you know, I prayed with him that first day. I stopped and prayed with him. And I told him I loved him. I hugged him. Like, you got to think, these people, like,

when was the last time that they felt value, you know? So when it comes to, like, who I am, like, I care about the homeless person on the street. I care about the squirrel in the street. You know, I'm not like a tree hugger by any means, but I care about things that I care about people. And unfortunately, I've given that care to too many people who have taken that and used it against me.

And it's taught me. very valuable life lessons and I'm thankful for them. I wouldn't change it. Yeah, I mean, I feel like you get to experience those things in life, but it's kind of like a test to see if it makes you change being that kind and being that given because you don't want it to. There's a couple of always going to be those people that take advantage of you or whatnot, but you don't want it to change who you are ultimately.

No, you just want to have your defenses up and your walls up. Like, I'm very hyper aware now. Like I have certain signs that I can see right through a person. It's like, am I what? I'm telling you, my wife, she, she's a beauty. I've been with her for almost eight years now. She played rugby for Team USA. She's sick.

But she's the best mother and the best woman you can ever meet. But she's, every single person that's crossed me, every person that's stolen money from me, she's always called it before it happened. And I'm like, you don't want to hear it because they're holding your kids, they're in your house. They're sharing in your inner circle, everything about your life. They know things about you that nobody else knows.

And she called to every. every single time and she was right. So now I have a new rule that if my wife says something about someone, I'm like, come, I really don't want this to be. She's saying it's like, man, now I really got to look into this, you know? But yeah, it's definitely a learning lesson and a learning experience. But you learn and you become more hyper-aware, and then you just kind of have your walls up now, you know?

Isn't it crazy how you get those vibes off of someone? Like, I think that's why people tell me all the time, like, I've had success on, like, social media because, like, I just have that vibe to me. like just like this quirky nerdy white kid. Some people, like even just through a camera, they kind of give off like a bad vibe. Yeah, I mean, we have customers that, I mean,

the way of my store is set up in Bristol, well, in all the locations we have, but I'm in Bristol every day because I live in Burlington, but we have a bar environment. So it's basically like a bar for healthy people. You come in, you sit down and get a pre-workout. They come in the store and they're welcome. We've created a safe space and a place for people to fill well.

welcome and that's what we want. But unfortunately, again, it's double-sided. You know, at a bar environment, you're kind of a therapist. So we do get a lot poured on us. And sometimes I won't go into it, but sometimes it doesn't pan out well, you know. But yeah, it's just it's the nature of people. You could start reading these people, even if you don't have these, you know, super intimate relationships or conversations with people, you can kind of just pick up when you've gone,

you've gone through the ringer. I got in trouble for selling drugs. I could spot a drug dealer a mile away. That dude's selling drugs. How do you know? Because it takes one to no one, right? I can tell you from a mile away what that dude is and what he's doing. And it's the same thing with good people and bad people.

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I'll have the direct link in my bio for you guys for easy shopping. Enjoy cruise, choose, and let's get back into my episode with Big Twig. Did you develop a passion for fitness and supplements and everything as a kid? Well, we've always been athletic. I say we and me and my brothers, my other brother is a thousand point score in basketball. My twin brother, Brian, we were really good at soccer and basketball. Well, I was 14. We'd play one-on-one in the drive-vail all the time.

And every single time he would beat me. And it pissed me off because, like, he wouldn't just beat me. He'd beat me. It'd be 14 to 1. And I couldn't score. And I've always been, like, you know, the muscular one. I would get so mad and I couldn't hit him. So I'd take the ball.

I'd kick it as hard as I could. I'd run inside crying. It really pissed me off. But, you know, we were, because we're twins, we were smaller kind of growing up, right? We're fraternal. And sometimes we got picked on. It really pissed me. me off. So I think I used that

and I channeled it where Brian, Brian's a little more quiet and reserved. That's my twin brother. I'm out there. I'm, you know, I'm kind of eccentric and it's just who I am. I got a big personality. And I started working on my parents' basement at 16 years old. And I just, yeah, I got into it. Once I got into, that was my thing. You know, there was a documentary done on me

in 2012 and, you know, they asked my father, they said, you know, do you support what Tim does, like bodybuilding lifting? He was yeah I mean how could I not his brothers had basketball you know my older brother's a rapper he's actually a white kid that's nasty at rapping but you know we all have her own things

my thing has been lifting in fitness and I the one thing about me going back to my heart like I love helping people I if I see your car broken down on the side of the road I'm stopping to help you like it's just who I am so I'm able to use my passion and able to help people and I was talking to Celda

she's only very close friends and does all my videography and media I was talking to sell them the way up here. I had a company on New York recently about a month and a half ago hit me up and, you know, they've been persistently calling me trying to get me to sell sublife, my business. And I, you know, we have buyers ready to buy between 15 and 20 million. I'm like, that's great, you know. Not that that's not a lot of money because it is, but okay, I sell.

What am I going to do with that money? Get a couple of Airbnb, start in our business. But where's my purpose, right? There has to be something beyond money that drives us, right? I don't want to do that. Yeah, if, you know, we're talking a lot more money. Maybe I could reinvent my purpose, but my purpose is helping people. And I'm able to use that through the passion, which is working out in fitness.

So, yeah, I just developed that at a young age, I guess 16 years old. And I just rolled that, but had it for 18 years now. Wow. That's incredible. So did you ever go to college or getting to schooling at all? I graduated high school at 2008 and Northwestern Regional 7. And I went to a semester of college. I'm not doing this.

I was working on Dunkin' Donuts, and I joined the Marine Corps. Dropped out the second semester, March 23rd. I went to boot camp 2009, Paris Island. And the day my platoon graduated in June, I actually got sent home with Merce. It was my 17th time having a staff infection. It was in my nose. Wait, 17? Yeah, man.

For two years, I battled with the out and off. I got it from freaking dirty wrestling match in Hartford. So I had it. There were seven kids that got Empatigo. I got Merce. Go figure. The Empatigo is, you know, they had it and then it was good. Every other month for two years, I had Mercia.

And there was only two or three antibiotics, augmenting. There's one or two more that could treat it. And then your body would get immune to that. That's why it was called the super virus or super bug at the time. It was a bacteria. So it was at bay for like six, seven months. I joined the Marine Corps with a waiver. I'm good.

It got in. It came back on the rifle ran. and I'm like, I'm not, I'm going to hide this. Well, you can only hide it long enough. It took over my whole face. And the journalist was like, yo, I'm like, yes, sir, this recruit is fine, sir. He's like, no, you're not fine. I got sent to recruit separation platoon.

And it was tough, man. I struggled to have for like two or three years. I tried getting back in. I wrote generals. Like, if I want something in life, I'm going to find a way to get it. You're not going to tell me no. And this is where it's been a tug of war between, like, Tim versus God because I'm huge with my faith. So sometimes what Tim will.

wants isn't what God wants in my life. And it's like, I've had this tug of war. So finally, I gave it up. I got married. I was, you know, I have an ex-wife. I got married a young age, 22. And about a year, not even, probably a couple months after I gave up, that hopes, the Marine Corps called me, like, hey, you want to join?

I'm like, dude, you're too late. So I gave that up. But in that process, I went back to Tungis Community College and I got a pointless associate's degree. I think college is the biggest scam, just like insurance, unless you need it for a specific field, like the medical field or something like that, but you do not need college to make it in this life. And, yeah, I don't have a college degree, but I have people with college degrees that work for, I have

an associate's, but I don't have anything beyond that. So why the military? Was it something that you wanted personally, or are you inspired by something? September 11th happened. I remember writing a note, and now we know that our government did that. But at that time, I was super patriotic, and our government used our patriotism against It's kind of funny how that works. But super patriotic, and I wrote a note about when I turn 18, I'm going to join and fight and kill the bad guys.

And I wanted to. I want to go kick doors in and kill everybody, right? That was what I wanted to do. And, you know, I'm glad that it didn't pan out for me because Kyle Carpenter, who, he's a purple heart recipient, he was in the squad bay above mine when I was in boot camp. And he jumped on a grenade. He got all banged up, almost died, saved a bunch of Marines' lives. but looking back on it, you know, I'm still in touch with some of my drone instructors, some of my boys I was in boot camp with, God had a different plan for me,

but my desire was to kill the bad guys. Are they the bad guys or did we create them? I'm not saying they don't do evil things, but like we need to now at 34 focus on our own country. But yeah, I wanted to be in the military, the Marine Corps for four years, get out, become a state trooper, get out, and then work for the DEA. That is ironic My life went the opposite way And it's not good

I'm happy for it You know Kyle's story went like super viral A few years back I think right I remember seeing a story All over social media Who's?

Kyle Carpenter Yeah Yeah yeah Sounds really familiar Yeah no it was It was it was huge And yeah I mean

Think about it You know You get a grenade toss Your way And you're with a bunch Your brothers And what do you Your instinct is to jump on that

like that's not that's instinct that's something that like you don't just it's love man yeah it's it's crazy but yeah he lived and he's a g man that's a definition of a g right there you know yeah absolutely yeah so when you got back and after you got released from the military what were you doing or did you were you feeling like kind of lost yeah for sure i didn't know what my purpose was in life you know um but i started working and i did what i knew how to do i started working three jobs I was working with intellectually disabled people, became an assistant manager at a group home to Orington. I've always helped.

I'm actually a guardian for somebody with intellectual disabilities. Just for those who don't know, intellectual disability is the PR word for mental retardation. I'm not saying that obviously in a negative way, but just so people understand. I've always like, when I was in second grade, I would go to Oak Hill where the kids who had, you know, intellectual disabilities were

and I would volunteer and help. And like, I've always had a heart for the, helpless, right? So I had a job working there. I was bouncing at Sin City, which was absolutely insane. I was also working for, you know, carpenter, carpentry company. So I was working three jobs nonstop. And then at that point, I got an opportunity. I started filming with working out and bodybuilding. And I got an opportunity to get a job in New York for, you know, supplements at a supplement store. And I went there and I moved there and it was awesome. I kind of just took off of my my supplement career there.

I was there for about two years. I got married in that time from, I lived in John Gotti's neighborhood. New Howard, not old Howard, but my landlord, he was a maidman. He was a really funny story. I didn't know he was a made man because there's like less than a thousand,

but, you know, the cops don't even go to Howard Beach, right? It's John Gotti's neighborhood. So the Tuesday, I moved in there on like a Friday. The next Tuesday, I hear like some noises at my mom. What is that? It's just New York, right?

What is that? So I see my landlord, I'm not going to say his name the next day and come to find out. He had a 2006 banshee with no, like, there's never been. It was the last year they made banshees apparently. And there was three guys who like broke in to the back. And New York's different. His house was on a bay. So like there's house, house, house and like fences only separate in small yards.

So apparently they broke in. They got this banshee and they threw it over fences and like, I'm like, oh, that's crazy. So within two days, one of the guys disappeared. Another guy, he moved, I think, to California, never to be seen again. And then another guy, his house coincidentally burned down that week. But yeah, that was a cool experience living there and just kind of seeing what that life was like. And then from there I moved to Georgia, did some manufacturing for supplements. From Georgia, I went to Florida.

And then I got sick of making other people money. and I moved back home married with four wiener dogs. I'm a big wiener dog guy. Wait, like the actual little wiener dogs? Oh, yeah. I had nine at one point. You don't look like a wiener dog type of guy. Well, you know, they say like the big guys have small dogs.

I'm like, dude, I had nine wiener dogs at one point. Like, I'm that guy, you know. I only have two now, but yeah, it's crazy. But I moved back in with my parents married at 24 with four wiener dogs, and I started my business. So, yeah. Oh, that is too funny. Yeah. Why wiener dogs?

I don't know, man. It's just like, it's like, you know, if you would ask me the type of girl, like, I'm a blonde. Like, my wife is like dirty blonde, right? Like, you just have a type. Like, that's just my type. I love dogs in general. If you don't like dogs, I don't know if I trust you, right? But if you're a cat person, it's a little weird, but, you know, we won't talk about that.

But, like, weiner dogs is my thing, dude. I just love weiner dogs, you know? They're annoying. They have problems, but I love, I'm just a weiner dog guy, you know? Are they actually called weiner dogs? Yeah, I got one with a Tommy gun on my arm right here with a hat in like a 1932 Ford. Shout out to all the wiener dogs in the world. Yeah, man, and the weiner dog owner.

A bunch of weirdos, too. So why did you go to Georgia and Florida? Is that just where the supplement career took you? Yeah, better opportunities. And I just, I always want to better myself. Like, I have an entrepreneurial mind as I'm sure you do too with what you're doing here. And, you know, my dad always asked me when it came to, like, lifting. And my mom, like, when's enough enough, like when it comes to lifting?

I don't have an answer. I don't know when I'm going to stop. When God tells me to and I get an injury that prevents me to, or I'm going to keep going until I can't. And it's the same with business. Like, I don't think I'll reach a point where I'm like, okay, I've made it. Like, no matter what's in my bank account, no matter where I'm out, like, I think what drives me is the pursuit of creating something better than what I already have.

Not that I'm not grateful and thankful for it I have. and where I'm at, but, like, it stimulates me to do more and be better and create bigger opportunities for the people I care about and jobs and, you know, the goal and the reason why, which isn't, man, it's a valid reason. I don't care, but the reason why I got into selling weed when I did was to pay my parents' mortgage off. They were nine months behind their mortgage, and I'm not putting this on them, but, like, I vowed to myself at 18 years old, it was tough times sometimes.

And, like, no matter what, I'm going to, I'm going to take care of mom and dad. and thankfully my mom and dad are still here and their mortgage isn't paid off but like that's my next financial goal is to take care of them but it's just that drive to continue to do better to build something good for my kids, my wife and my family.

I want to offer my brothers a job. I want to offer the ones I care about and I love a job and just build something great together. I think that's what stimulates me. So moving to Georgia, moving to Florida, it was just the next step

in, you know, a better opportunity for me, if that makes sense. Yeah. Is the supplement industry lucrative? Or back then? Are you now? What's it like? So if I remember the statistics, in 2016,

it was worth, I think, in the billions, I don't think trillions. I think it was like $67 billion. And they expected it to be double that in 2020. In 2020, it was supposed to be like $127,000. billion or something like that but because COVID like some weird things happened but it blew that out the water I don't even know where it's at today in 2024 um when I was 16 we didn't you know we had some protein powder and that was it but like it's a fad now I mean we have TikTok and social media and

Instagram it's a fad to work out so like I think it's a really good fad like these kids could be doing things that are way worse than that I think it's great but with this uh social media and and being glued to our phones comes this idea of, like, wanting to do and be who your icon is, Chris Bumstead. And, I mean, mine was a little, he's Ronnie Coleman. Yeah, buddy. You know, I want to be the sick jack, you know, ripped nasty, dude. Like, I'll never be Ronnie, obviously.

But, like, that's who you aspire to be. So if Ronnie's telling me, take this pre-work out and do this and do that, I'm going to probably take it, right? Especially if I'm a 16-year-old kid. So I think because of that, it's exploded because of these kids at a very young age are kind of getting into the supplement industry. And obviously, you know, people in the 30s and 40s are taking it. So there's a lot of money in it.

And if you do things right and do things the right way, you can make good money in it, for sure. Did you go outside, like, California and go to, like, Muscle Beach and do all that growing? Yeah, I got pictures. I got pictures of me training at Muscle Beach and, you know, foreign people from, like, different countries stopping. Take a picture. I'm like, I'm a nobody. But, yeah, I started taking a picture with me, bro, you know. But yeah, I went, you know, the Olympia, Arnold's, like, have been all the expos.

And it's cool. It's a weird industry. The reason I stop bodybuilding, if you want to be a professional, number one, you can't just do 20 weeks at a time and prep for a show. It has to be 52 weeks out of the year. And, like, I'm so busy. Like, I don't have 52 weeks, right? That's number one.

Number two, the amount of time and effort you put in, it's a very, very selfish thing. I have a wife. I have kids. I have business. Like, they need my things. time and energy. And like when I competed for my last show, the amateur Olympia in, uh, it was November 1st, 23 was in Florida. I was the only dad there that took their kids, and this isn't a brag or anything, but like, that took their kids trick or treating. And I'm like, that's insane to me. And I get it. It's a

huge show. We've competed, you know, we've prepped for this all, you know, for at least 20 weeks, if not longer. But like, I'm not going to let my kids suffer and miss out just because I'm being selfish. There's that. There's the health aspect. And then when you do become a pro, you have to pay to earn and keep your pro status. Now, if you compete and you win the show, you may win some money or get some sponsors. But like, I'm looking at these people who are pros and I'm like, I'm already doing way better in life. Like, it was a goal for me. And I'm not saying like, you know, it's an easy thing. It's not. It's hard to become an IFPB pro in any aspect. But I just realized that like 33, I'm like, I'm good.

good. This isn't a goal of mine anymore. I mean, when I was 21, I sat down a list of life goals. And the third one on my list was bench press 400 pounds. And I think I accomplished that a few months later. But one of them, I think number six, would become an IFBBB Pro. I'm okay with not achieving that goal because it's a very selfish goal. Yeah, so. Yeah, we just had someone on recently that was into body lifting or something back in the day. And they said there's not much money in that aspect of the business. There's not. You have to pay, like, there's, I'm not going to talk bad about it because, like, it's a, it is like, you know, an elite organization. But, like, you're not going to look at, like, even USA rugby, right?

Like, there's not a lot of money in it, but at least my wife was getting paid to be a professional athlete. You have to pay to be a professional athlete. And you're taking years off your life. You may not see it now, but eventually down the road with the amount of antibiotics you have to run. Like, it's just not worth that. I want to be here for my kids and my grandkids. like I'm good. So like, you know, I'm on a low dose of testosterone now, 200 milligrams a week, TRT with a little bit of HGH.

I feel good. I'm happy. I'm nice and fat. I eat my pizza every day. Wait, you eat pizza every day? Well, I do like five days a week. I love pizza. I actually did a food challenge with a Badlands Booker.

Or, yeah, he chugs. They call him chugs. He's got like four and a half million subscribers. We went to my, my boy's spot in Tuffington, Nana's Pizza Challenge. It was like a big pizza. It's not on YouTube. Anyways, it was like a 30-inch pie. We had 20 minutes or less to eat it.

And it was like right after my bodybuilding show. So I was, dude, I could eat anything. We crushed the challenge. And ever since then, I'm just like, I've always loved pizza. Blake, I can eat pizza any time of the day. I could smash a large and keep going. I love pizza. You eat a whole large by yourself?

I could smash a large, no problem. Easy. What kind of pizza do you get? Well, I eat meat, meat pizza, do cheese? Like, whatever. I just, I love pizza. I don't like seafood, though. So do you feel like?

if you're actively working out, it's okay to eat that kind of stuff. It's relative. You have to make sure your caloric expenditure is equal to or higher than your caloric intake. So it's also not healthy to continually eat like fat, right? It has to be monitored. That's why I say everything in moderation. But I'm pretty healthy. I monitor my health, my blood pressure.

I take my fully, you know, daily dose of vitamins and I stay pretty healthy. So as long as you're monitoring things and everything's in range, you're good. Yeah. So if you're having so much success at that time in the supplement, industry, how does it kind of go south for you? Well, when you're, so I built this something called me, TLM Research in 2014. I had a partner. I'm not going to name him just for out of respect for him.

And it was good, you know, it's, but just like any business, man, it's tough, right? So you go from having two products and two flavors of each product. So we'll call it for excuse. You know what's crazy about business, bro? When you start a business, you would think that all your boys that take, pre-workouts and take supplements, they'd be your first customers lined up. Not one of my friends, not one of my boys supported me. What's up?

Where are you? Because I would give the last shirt on my back to you if you needed it, but you can't support me in my business? I'm good. You're not a friend. You're not my boy. And I learned, you learn a lot who your friends are. But anyways, you know, you have to continue expanding.

So, like, if I could get anybody advice now that wants to start a supplement company, one, I'd say don't do it. It's very competitive. but two, if you're going to do it, go direct to consumer and utilize Amazon. I went wholesale. I called, you know, 100 stores a day, and 97 of them would hang up on me, and I'd fall up with emails and samples. And, you know, three of them would say, okay, send me a product, and I'd land one of them, right?

So it was hard, but I got into over 500 accounts. I was in nine different countries, and I was doing pretty well. But the problem is you have to continue growing new flavors, new products. We had 15 different products, and we're doing good, but I'm a nobody, right? I don't have all this financial backing. I'm just trying to make it. And in the interim, my parents were falling behind on their mortgage, and I made that vow.

So my buddy's like, yo, my cousin's got a farm out west. Like, if you, like, want to sell some weed, like, I can get something to you. I'm like, well, I'm a salesman. I could sell sand to the beach and, you know, glasses to a blind man. I'm good. I can sell anything. Now, I've never smoked wheat. I've been around and maybe one, say, I'm not a criminal.

I don't know how to do any of this stuff, right? That Saturday, I get a package of my porch. I'm like, oh, what is this? I forgot that it was even coming. I'm like, oh, my gosh, what is this? I don't know, indoors, outdoor. I don't know what weeds even supposed to look like or feel like. It took me two months to sell five pounds.

But eventually you kind of get blinded because, you know, year one with the supplements, it was 90,000, you're 250, or 3, 450, or 4, 50, or 4, I think it was 650. And then all of a sudden, but that money, I'm barely paying my bills. That money's going back into the business, right? So I'm like, you know, you have this opportunity to help out your family. I'm going to take it. It's just weed. It's not heroin.

It's not coke. It's not narcotics, right? And weed's kind of starting to get legal across the country. 2000, probably 15, year or two, maybe three years after. I forget when I started. But eventually, you know, five pounds of two months turned into like 400 pounds a month. And, uh... 400.

Yeah. And I was, you know, we were the biggest in the Northwest corner. And that's the other thing. We lived in like, you know, White Hickville, right? Like nothing happened. So when you're driving around in a GTR and, you know, you got a Porsche 9-11, I didn't have the Porsche. My partner did it.

It's like people start looking at you, you know what I mean? And oh, supplements must be doing, yeah, supplements are killing it, bro, you know? So you see the money coming in. But we weren't making like a crazy amount of money because if you're only making $100 on a pound and you're just flipping volume, 10 pounds at a time, You know, it's $1,000. You split it. You each make $500.

It's a decent day. There's days we'd make $500. Days we'd make it $10,000, right? But that would, too, go back into the product. So, you know, you get better discounts when you buy volume. So what happened was you see this money coming in. It's like cash. And it's like, this is easy.

And it's only weed. So then what do you get into? Edibles and cartridges and, you know, all this stuff. So I think the reason why the supplement company stayed stagnant at that point is because, like, now we built this thing but like this is like instant money I'm taking care of my parents bills I'm taking care of my bills

and it's not killing anybody right so yeah it's just the supplements when I had my supplement company that company was great we built that I still have pride in it and what I did with that

but you just kind of get blinded by the instant cash in your face do you think if you put your energy into the supplement company rather than the pop business and stayed on a little longer, it would have actually found success. Yeah. I know a lot of people in the something. I know a lot of people in every industry.

And I'm pretty well respected. I don't say that in like an arrogant way. I just, if you talk to people like in the sub ministry in any, you know, aspect, like my name is pretty good. So I know the right connections. Yeah, eventually. But it's tough when you don't have. Like if you had a million bucks, like there's a company Redcon won.

Aaron Singerman hasn't. Aaron and PJ were partners for Blackstone Labs. They were killing it, making, you know, $30, $40 million a year, killing it with profits. And PJ just got out of prison. They were doing fraud and they were mislabeling some of their products. So, excuse me, anyways. He was in Connecticut, right? Yeah, Danbury, actually.

Yeah, someone connected me. He's in Florida now. Yeah, so. I think he's supposed to come on the show at some point. Yeah. So, funny story. He was in the feds. Yeah.

Me and my ex-wife, we were manufacturing for them a company called Fight Farm, and it was a pro-hormone company. And we came across, when I say manufacturing, it was a room the size of this room we're in with an unfinished basement. We're a C-GMP, you know, good manufacturing processing compliant company. No, we're not. We're freaking making this stuff in a dude's basement. And, you know, we found this sheet.

And on one side of this sheet is what's supposed to be going in there. And on the other side of the sheet was what's actually going in there. I mean, oh, my God. I'm an ethical person, right? I'm like, oh, no. Like, we got to call PJ and tell him. So I call him. He's like, yeah.

He's like, why don't we get everything to Florida? Like move all this, the stuff to Florida. I'm like, okay, PJ. So I drove to Florida. I'd move to Florida. And I drove back nine hours to Georgia. I was living in Georgia. And so, what are we doing?

He's like, let's not tell anybody. I'm like, well, I can go figure a few years later. They get in trouble for the same thing. So anyways, Aaron's father was the CFO of Blackstone. And Aaron, I mean, you know, PJ, actually PJ is one of my idols. There was a picture of him in a, it was like a green like Hulk.

Look at them like, dude is Jackie's from Connecticut. I want to be like him. So he was one of my idols at the time when he was bodybuilding. But, yeah, Aaron kind of screwed PJ. And I, this is probably second or third-hand information, so I'm not going to stamp this as fact. But his dad was, Aaron's dad was a CFO before he passed away of Blackstone Labs. And supposedly the way that Aaron got the money to,

start Redcon 1, which is a now every GNC and a very big brand, was he funneled money out of Blackstone and started a RedCon. And we have RedCon 1 and he's got all this money. It's easy to start a business when you've already had one success with it. And two, you kind of have endless financial backing. Yeah. So I didn't have that with TLM research. I didn't have endless financial.

I'm just a kid from the sticks trying to make it, you know? And what I've gotten there? Sure, maybe, you know, but my life took the course. it took and I made the decisions I made and my focus was on that instant cash and it got just convoluted and I you know it's just where my focus ended up yeah you didn't seem like a flashy person growing up so for you to go buying cars or whatever you bought that was kind of out of your element and it still is I mean I'm wearing $50 shoes and $20 I'm not like a flashy dude man you know I call it my walmarts I'd buy Walmart shoes for 20 bucks like I don't I don't really care

but yeah I wanted a nice I love GTRs and I'm like, I could, you know, I want to buy this. You're not going to tell me no. And I walked in and I'm like, you know, can I get there? So like, oh, I put $20,000 on a table. I'm like, give me this car. Like, okay. They made it work, right?

So anyways, yeah, that was an expensive car. But yeah, I wasn't flashy, but like we had an apartment that we were renting and we moved a half million dollars worth of, you know, drugs, edibles and cartridges and all that stuff, the marijuana. We never dealt with narcotics, which I'm thankful about. little steroids. We moved that into there. You'd probably be in jail right now.

Yeah, yeah. So we had all this stuff in the apartment, but it's kind of like, it's kind of like lower class apartment. And you got like 93 corollas that got a missing headlight. And then you got like a GTR, a port, like. The trap house. Yeah, dude.

You know, we didn't even have any furniture in there. We just had these containers, like 10 containers in there. And then it all came crashing down. It all came crashing down. How much does a pound a pot go for that you were buying? Nowadays, I don't know. Back then, what did you buy it for? So, excuse me, we bought bulk pricing.

We would do probably 200 pounds or so, get a better discount. At one time. Yeah, 250 pounds. We were paying for, like, outdoor stuff, like $7,800, indoor stuff, $11, $1,200, and then we'd flip it. You know, sometimes we'd make $100, sometimes we make, you know, $7,800 on a pound. but like normally it was in volume.

So you could sell a pound for what? What's a retail? Like $1,500 and $2,000? When we first started out, we were buying a pound for $3,000. $3,000? Yeah, we were buying it for $3,000. And we weren't breaking it down. We'd take that, flip it, and we just, it's a business.

You just, you know, get your price down and put that money that you were making back into the business. And we were good at it. You know, we're good at business. And it's funny, when I got in trouble in 2018, October 24th, And before everything was done and cleared with me, I was actually legally selling marijuana products in my store, Delta 9 gummies. It has THC, marijuana, you know, substrants in it.

And I'm like, this is just a crazy world we're living. You can drive a quarter mile down the street in Bristol, Connecticut, and walk into the dispensary and buy marijuana legally because they control it. But like what I did was wrong. But it's the same. I mean, if you and I wanted to start selling cigarettes, well, unless we do it the right way, we're going to get in trouble probably by the ATF

because we're not paying taxes on the tobacco that we're selling to people and we're doing it illegally. So it's about money. It's a system, man. The Delta Nines are how, like, celebrities are able to get away with, like, shipping gummies and whatnot because it's not actual...

It's not weed, but, like, it has weed. And it's illegal limit, like, federally, though. Like, you could sell it federally? Yeah, so, yeah, we have Delta Aides and Nines. Again, I've never done anything where... Like, I've always liked to have a clear mind. I've never had a sabbala. I've never smoked anything, nothing like that.

But these costums come in my store and they love it. And it's apparently they taste good and they work well. You know, have you ever seen like an aggressive pothead? No, they're all like, oh, thanks, man. Yeah, you never see them any angry. Yeah, they're not angry. Yeah, they're all like chill. So, I mean, yeah, it's just crazy world.

What does a brick a pot look like? I've never seen one. I might have pictures on my phone. Is it like saran wrapped? It's triple, yeah. Actually, so it's funny. When I was going through my divorce, there was a, I was living in a, on Connecticut, and I actually have some buddies who are Avon police officers.

But I was cleaning three of my pistols, and I had posted on Instagram the chorus, the lyrics of the chorus of the chorus of Shine Down 45. Now I'm staring down the barrel of a 45, swimming through the acts of another life, right? So this was supposedly a cryptic message for suicide, right? So I posted these lyrics, and I posted picture of the guns. And next thing you know, I mean, like 20 minutes later, I get like, I'm like, what the fricks? So like normally, I mean, I came strapped today.

Me and Selda came strapped. I, I carry my gum. So normally I like, I racked that thing and I'm like, so I'm like, oh, let me just look. So like I peeked my head out. Dude, I'm lit up by 15 different freaking cops, fully kidded red lasers. Like, keep your hands in the air. I'm like, lift your shirt up.

I'm like, don't shoot me. Like, what is happening here? Right. So I'm like, they're like, walk to them. I'm like, okay, like chill. So like, I walk out. They haven't like explained anything to me. like, where's your guns?

I'm like, the freak do you mean? They're like, where are your guns? I'm like, well, you know, I had 15 guns. I'm like, they're here or there, whatever. So they go on my house, they're tearing it apart. These guys, normally the pot comes in vacuum sealed bags and they're like triple vacuum seal so you can't smell them. Now dogs can still pick up on it, but like humans won't be able to smell that.

And they normally come in clear bags. So I needed a quick fill in. So I got it from someone else and they were black. So I'm inside. They're like, well, show us where your guns are. So don't touch anything. I'm like, oh my God. I just realized that that day I had picked up 10 pounds

and I was keeping it in my closet and my ex-wife knew it. And I, you know, I cheated on it. I did her dirty. So I get it. Hell hath no fear like a woman's scorn. I get it. Even though she was eating from it, but whatever.

So I'm like, oh, no. Like, shoot, she knew I had weed in here today, right? So I'm like, oh, shoot, they're going to find it. I had, but then I remember it. I got rid of eight pounds that day. So I'm like, well, at least I only have two pounds. I'm like, here it comes, like there's two pounds in my closet. They opened the closet door.

They picked the pound up. I'm like, I'm screwed. And they moved it. They picked the other one. I moved it. And then they put it back and shut the door. I'm like, are you, are you that dumb? Like, you just picked up two pounds of weed.

And because it was in black vacuum sealed bag. So it feels like popcorn hard and compressed, but it's, you know, it's maybe a foot long, two, three inches wide. Well, don't sound like clothes and T-shirts come in, like, vacuum sealed. kind of black bags or whatever when they ship it to you. Right, right. So then I had an AK-47 and a 12-gauge in my trunk and my BMW. And they're like, well, we're missing these two guns.

I'm like, oh. Well, you could legally register an AK-47. Well, it was a Mac 90. I converted to an AK-so. And that's legal. Not anymore. It's not because Connecticut's a communist state. But back then it was legal.

I legally possessed all my firearms. So they're like, where are these last two guns? And I looked at this dude. He's all tatted up. He's a big boy. I don't know his name. I'm like, bro, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm like, before you go on my trunk, they're in my trunk.

I got a box of like 40 steroids in there. He's like, we're not here for that. I'm like, right. So he went in there, he grabbed the two guns. He picked up the box, looked at it, put it back in it, and shot out. I'm like, he's a real one for that. So anyways, they're like, you're going to go talk to somebody. I'm like, you're going to go talk?

I'm like, well, no, now the ambulance is here. I'm like, yeah, I'm good. They're like, look, you can go in your own or you can go. And I'm like, relax, just stop. So I went and talked to like four doctors to like four in the morning. They're all like, are you going to kill yourself? I'm like, no. Like, I'm good.

I'm Gucci. Like, I don't want to kill myself. And anyways, I was released that morning. I don't know if it was before then or after then. I think it was before then, though. I was actually living in my car for like two or three weeks in the Target parking lot in Torrington. And I had my Glock 19 in my door. And I had that in my mouth a few nights.

I was very dark and, like, I was in a dark place. Like, I felt like there was no hope. And I'm very thankful I didn't actually act on that. But during that time specifically, I was not, that was the only time I was ever, like, suicidal. I haven't been since. I was never before. But I especially wasn't during that time.

But I understand, like, you know, you have to go through because mental health is a real thing. And you never know what somebody's going through. And I think that's why when I see people, everybody's broken. You don't know somebody's story, you know. But, yeah, that happened. And they took my guns away for a year. I got him back here later. I never got in trouble for marijuana or anything then.

And in 2018, it all came crashing down. They could just confiscate your guns for a year? Yeah. Kind of crazy, right? Legally owned him. Oh, yeah, we're going to take him just in case. It's because it's surrounding mental health and stability. Right, but I was talking about my buddies this past week about it.

He's like, bro, he's like, you were released? I'm like, so you weren't committed? No, he's like, then they had your guns illegally for a year. I'm like, what am I going to do? Fight it? I'm like, I got him back, you know? Yeah, but they don't take it away from these wackos that have guns. Yeah, well, you know what on that?

If guns are bad and they kill people, which I'm not saying they don't, we should make guns illegal, but we should also make drugs illegal. Because if that's the mindset and theory behind it, if we make drugs illegal, people will stop using them and buying them and selling them. And if we make murder illegal, people will stop killing people, right? Oh, wait, it doesn't work. We need to find new legislation, but it's not about that. you got to love our lawmakers.

Anyways, that's a different rabbit hole. We won't go down today. So, 2018, what happens? Yeah, so Justin Bagnashi, a rat. Who is that to you? Justin Bagnashio, I was selling two pounds a week to. I had hired him to renovate my parents' house. I got some money, so I want to put some money in their house

and make their family room nice and the Senate. He did a decent job. He messed up some taping on the ceiling. But I came home one day, and I was renting a house. but instead of paying for rent and my parents mortgage, I'm like, let me just move back in. They got a 3,500 square foot house. I'm going to move in and just kind of save some money.

So he was renovating. I come in and I had a cash drawer with like $80,000 in it. And I come in and he was the only one home that day. And he was one of my boys. I mean, he's kind of a scumbag, but he's like one of my boys. He was like, not like one of my inner circles, but like, you know, he had respect for me, right? But he did it.

I come home and I see these dusty footprints walking up to my cash drawer. And I was particular. And I see my drawer pulled out this punch. I'm like, dude, there's no way. I call my mom, call my dad, I call my brothers. Did any of you go in my room? No, no, no, no. So I count, dude, I'm missing four grand.

There's no way. There's no way this rat took four grand from me, bro. So I call him. I'm like, oh, you come to work tomorrow? Yeah. So he comes up to sidewalk. My older brother's there. And he's like kind of there with me because he knows I'm like, I'm going to kill this kid.

This is how a good con man works. talking about somebody who's convicted of a crime I'm talking about a con man I start pressing him I'm like pick up your shoe I'm like that's the same shoe print blah he's like he's like and he starts making me feel bad that I'm accusing him and stealing I'm like geez maybe maybe I maybe I'm wrong like maybe he didn't say like how dare you blah blah I'm like oh man I'm a scumbback I'm accusing this dude for stealing from me he didn't steal from me so then I'm like oh you know what Justin I'm sorry bro he's I'm not working today I'm like I wouldn't either I'm sorry bro

like here's my heart right so i'm like he leaves i'm like ma's like ma's this doesn't seem right i mean so i call home depot because i had given my credit card a couple times me yo can i give her some receipts for this night my name is justin bagnashie yeah i'll email him to you not only did this dude overcharge me and take cash and cards and buy himself about 1200 dollars worth of tools of my dime and tell me it was a certain price he also stole the money oh that's a no no so he's working in berlin my cousin jeremy's working for him. I called Jeremy. I'm like,

where you guys? Oh, we're in Berlin? You were with Justin? Like, yeah, what's up? I go, don't say nothing. I'm coming to see you.

Somebody address. Now, Jeremy was already locked up. Supposedly, I don't know the truth beyond this. He had put an AK in his girlfriend's mouth at the time, who was a stripper. I don't think that's true, but I'm going to claim his innocence on that.

He's like, Timmy, what's wrong? I'm like, stay over there. He's like, what's wrong? I'm like, stay over there. So I pulled up in my G. I pulled up in my GTR. and I'm like, what's up?

He's like, what's up, bro? I grabbed them. I cracked them right in the head with my head, my forehead. And I picked him up, dude, and I got on top of him. I beat the absolute breaks off of him. You say, I'm sorry. He's in a fetal position crying. Mr. gangster tatted up on his head and his neck.

You know, he says the N-word is a white guy, you know, all this and that. I'm beating the brakes off. My cousin's like, Timmy, Timmy, please. I don't talk to me to him. He's like, Timmy, please stop. And I finally, I'm like, I'm like, man, I can't breathe right now. This dude runs to a neighbor's yard, calls the police, I'm like, whatever, I'll take a lick. I've never been in trouble before.

And, you know, next thing I know, the police come. And they go in my trunk, which I thought was weird, bro and PD. I had three bottles steroids and $833 in my bag, gym bag. So I'm like, yeah, just so, you know, like, my cousin's freaking. Like, Timmy, I'm on probation. I'm like, Jerry, you're good. I got this. Like, you're good, bro.

You're nothing to do with it. You were just here. So next thing, you know, I get carded off to Berlin PD, and I'm in, I'm locked up for six hours for an assault charge. You know, what the freak son is not right here? Now, I never been in trouble before, right? Except for a time I let a stink bomb off in high school. Who hasn't? Yeah, right.

It was a good time. So I'm like, what's going on here? Six hours. I get hit with a $50,000 bond for an assault third. A misdemeanor, the smallest assault? I'm like, yo, boy. is happening here. Tim come with me. I'm like, all right. Come in, sit down. I'm in some big, big meeting room with a big long table. You see on like a movie. Hey, what's up, Tim? My name is

Brian Reno. I'm like, okay. I'm sergeant something. I'm like, okay. They're like, yeah, we're a state-wide narcotics. I'm like, and like, you just melt and I'm like, oh, God, like, dude, you can crawl into your skin. I'm like, dude, there's no way. Like, Justin told him everything. He told my warehouse where I keep my wee, told my parents' house, my apartment I had. And I'm like, oh, my God. And they would have found that anyway. So I came and say, you know, Justin, I'm actually thankful. He was part of God's plan in this coming to an end in my life because I don't know how else it would have ended.

But what's weird is two nights before this happened, I had a dream that this would happen and it happened the exact same way. Not the beating up him part, but it was wild, man. So they're like, listen, we've been following you for eight months. I'm like, okay. And I know, don't talk to the cops. Like, don't talk to the cops. I'm like, okay. They're like, we got you on this, this, this, this, this, and this charge.

I'm like, oh, boy. I didn't know cops could lie at the time. But all the charges, they told me they could get me on. They had me. There was a dude. I'm not going to see him, the motorcycle club because I don't want to disrespect them. But I was working with motorcycle club. I was never affiliated or anything.

I had friends in it. And I would serve them this on the other. but there was this dude who was an affiliate he got kicked out i don't know why but he was an affiliate and he wanted to order 50 pounds didn't care the price i told my partner did not do that deal that's sketchy there's another dude this this kid pat from waterbury and pat wanted 50 pounds now we were trying to sell to pat for a minute and he didn't want it his prices were better it's kind of we don't need your business bro it was like an ego thing next thing you know how much bro he wanted 1100 before we were getting at 1100 the stuff he wanted so told him 1350

I'm like, screw you. We're not telling you if you're $1,200. All right, bro. I'm like, why didn't he try and talk us down? So there was two or three big undercover buys that they had on us, along with one more. So anyways, long and story short, I'm like, wow. They're like, we have detectives.

There was, they had a DEA officer attached us. I don't know if it was statewide or federal. We have guys outside your parents' house, outside your warehouse, and outside your apartment. I'm like, okay. Like, wherever the drugs are. whoever's there they're getting arrested sick now I didn't know what's happening because after Justin called the police I called my part I'm like yo move this

move everything I just be Justin up I don't know what's gonna happen I know he's ratin move it so he called his brother he's gonna pick it up in a van and just drive don't answer my phone calls just drive so we don't even know where everything is a hundred and in dude two days we only had like 13 pounds left two days before we re-upped two days before so we had 149 pounds on us crazy 50 pounds of edibles 4,000 THAA cartridges um and we actually just got a shipment of Xanax in him because apparently Xanax was just starting to become big like they were mixing with ethanol so like if we can make a buck and it's control we're actually helping people like it was like our first shipment I had 9,000

zanx bars I'm like oh this is great so luckily we're able to move those that night after I got arrested and, you know, one of my boys who was part of another motorcycle club came and picked them up. He was supposed to square up for him, you know, next week or whatever, but he ended getting locked up and getting arrested for something else that happened. So I never saw that money. I lost a lot of money. That's okay. What was the retail value of all that shit? Half a million dollars. So if I cashed out, if we had cash out, it would have been a half a million our cost. If we did another one or two months, it would have been $1.2 million. My plan was to retire in May, cash out, pay my parents' spouse off to $200,000.

and do something, put my family on. Says every drug dealer in America before they get caught. Right. And then it happens, bro. And you're like, wow, this is literally like the story. So anyways, long story short, they tell me all this thing they have. And somebody go, let me make a call. I have my partner, I have my buddy pick it up.

Buddy. I didn't tell them who my partner was. Well, the police, they get paid six figures to do this full time. They're not dumb. They're two steps ahead of you, you know? And they've been on to me for eight months, apparently. you know, how could they not be? I'm driving a $100,000 car

in a freaking sectionated apartment, you know, I'm an idiot. So long story short, I'm like, yeah, I'll take you to my warehouse, 170 Main Street, New Hartford. So on my way there, I call my partner, I'm like, yo, listen. I'm like, they're like on speaker. I'm like, hey, what's up? So I'm like, you're on speaker. I'm like, just so that you know, that box I told you to grab,

I need you to bring it to me. I appreciate you doing me that favor. don't worry. It says nothing to do with you. Wink, wink, like, you can't really tell them because they're listening. I'm like, but I need you bring everything to the warehouse. So he's like, all right, mind you, we don't know where all the boxes are full of drugs. So we're at the warehouse.

It's me and like 12 detectives. I'm like, this is awkward. Like, this is so freaking weird. So he shows up with this little shoebox of like 10 bottles of steroids. And they're getting pissed now. So he's like, that's all there was. I'm like, yo, I'm telling you, bro, like, you need to go grab the other. Like, you're good.

Like, just go grab it. Like, it's not me. Like, it's mine. I told him what the deal was. I told him you were helping me out. Go grab it. Well, I didn't know that he didn't know where the stuff was. And he told his brother, don't answer the phone.

So we don't know where to. Luckily, we find in a van. They bring the van to the warehouse. We get it. We get all of it. The edibles, the whole nine. I signed on the business. dotted line, a statement that the police wrote, I didn't write anything. Basically says all this

stuff is mine. So my partner at the time, he's good. Well, again, the police aren't stupid. So they do their homework and, you know, he dealt more with the money than I did. I was like the PR guy, right? I'm kind of out in the public eye and whatever. So every time they talk to somebody and they flip somebody because it's easy. If you don't want to get, you know, this sentence, we want the next guy, we want the next guy, right? They got me with that. But I'll get into that in a second. So they flipped all these kids that were flipping five, ten pounds to,

but they never dealt with me. They dealt with my partner, right? So they all said his name, his name, his name. So this kid was fighting with his girlfriend that my partner was serving at the time. And after, since October, I could say this, October 24th, 2018. Since that date, I've never sold a drug.

I've never done anything legal. The only thing illegal I've done is maybe spat on the high way. I've done because I made a vow my now wife was gonna be she we just found out she was pregnant after that I'm not doing this I I got to do what I got to do to get through what I'm going through but I'm not going back to that life and I think they were better than that I would but I didn't so long story short I'm like look we got to stop we're gonna stop he's he told me you know I'm gonna collect we had we had a total of like 150,000 dollars out in fronts so he started collecting people started flipping they came

I was working, still doing a supplement company that I owned at the time. Next thing, you know, he's like, hey, are you an area? We're at the deli shop. We just want to talk to you about, you know, the case and that. We have a possible suspect. I mean, yeah, of course. They come in freaking 15 dudes. I'm like, what the freak is this?

Like, why is there 15 guys here if Brian just wanted to talk to me, Brian Marino? Well, next thing you know, he pulls out my partner's picture, puts on a table, and my heart dropped because I already signed. and they're like, where's the warehouse? I'm going to be talking about. He's like, we know he has 18 cars and this. I'm like, if he has 18 cars, you better get to him before I do because we're supposed to be 50, 50. You know what I mean?

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Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. It's my word versus 15 cops. And somehow that was twisted in me saying, yes, he was my partner. And they somehow wrote that doubt. I never said that. I never rat on him once. What I did was I signed the document, a dotted line saying, I absorb all. This is all my drugs.

Right. Well, it doesn't help his case. When they're flipping this, that. And the third, they're only saying his name, not mine, because he dealt with all the money. they go to his house and they say, hey, we're going to give you the same option we gave Tim, talk to us and we'll see what we'll make of this, or we're going to hem me up. And he said, suck my fat cock. So they arrested him and charged him with four counts of conspiracy, which is very hard to be a conspiracy charge.

So anyways, back to me. I asked him, I said, what do you want for me? I don't know. I never been in trouble before. And they're like, we don't want you. Well, you got me. Who do you want? I'm the guy.

There's nobody above me in this area. Well, they were following. The whole reason this happened. They were following, we had probably four or five farmers that dealt with. They were following two of these farmers. And they were following who they were dropping off to when they were coming around. It's one from Oregon.

And the other one was from, I think, Colorado. So they would drive cross-country and make these deliveries. And we were like their big stop. And then we would stop here or there and break off 20, 30, whatever. But we were their big stop. So they're like, we're not going to name them. We want this guy. We want this guy.

I'm like, I didn't say, I'm like, okay. They're like, well, we know you have a shipment coming in seven days, and we know you have a shipment coming in 10 days. I'm like, wow, this is when I knew. Like, these guys are good. Like, how did they know that, you know? Maybe somebody flipped them. Like, I don't, I'm like, okay.

They're like, so you need to let those come. And if you don't, you're looking at 15 years. And I'm like, oh, my. And these are state agents or federal? Well, they have, so here's what scared me, right? They have a DEA officer assigned to us. So I didn't know if it was statewide. Right now I've been dealing with statewide narcotics.

But I didn't know that every agency has a federal officer, a federal agent assigned to it. And they use their powers. They waped out three bank accounts, got over $200,000 in one day. Now, these don't ever, I have, my brother is a police officer. He's a hero. He's saved lives. He's been a shooting. He's been shot.

He's a G in Tulsa. And I have the utmost respect for police. So I get that they have to do this. a job. But I was lied to, man. I was lied to, oh, we're going to walk you through. You're not going to even get any kind of charge. You'll be good. I got through when they called me in April for the official arrest to turn myself in with a $400,000 bond, a $400,000 bond for selling weed. When I get there at the courthouse, I have dudes that have sex assault one for raping somebody with $20,000. How are you going to come at me with a $400,000 bond for selling weed that your

kids probably smoke? And actually, I'm not even going to get to it. Your kid's smoke. And this kid's getting a $20,000. This dude's getting a $20,000 a bond. But the problem is I'm Tintruller. I got a big personality. So I'm in lockup with these three degenerates in a courthouse. Like, yo, you're the pot king?

I'm like, what? The pot king? You're the pot king we heard about? I'm like, I don't know about all that, bro. Apparently that was a reputation I had, right? So anyways. I love that name. Potting.

Yeah, it was crazy. These degenerate rednecks like, yeah, you're the pot king. do, put your freaking two teeth back in your head and don't talk to me. You know what I mean? So, yeah, $400,000 bond. And what are the charges? I don't even remember them. They were six felonies.

They took all my guns. I voluntarily surrendered them. They still won't give them back to me. Even though I have my pistol permit now, everything got nollied for me. But I have my pistol permit. They still won't give them back to me. The state still has my guns. Even though I can buy and I've bought guns and legally own them.

But one of them was, they're like, oh, just, you know, they'll look better for you if you just give us everything for your, fire. I'm saying, yeah, take it all. I don't know what to do. One of them was a felony of a high capacity magazine, a 30-round magazine for one of my ARs. I'm like, bro, like, I gave this to you. I didn't have to. And then he charged me the felony for it. Like, you guys are scumbags. But I get it because they have to hit me with everything so that if I don't cooperate or it doesn't go, you know, if it goes to trial, they could stick something. In the sense of not cooperating, I'm saying, F you, I'm not letting you use my warehouse. So anyways, I have video footage of when these guys

came, dude, it was like a movie. It was crazy. They had a helicopter for weed, bro. For weed. In a matter of two weeks, these guys got 430 pounds of weed. Wild. Wild. And now you can go buy it at a dispensary. Ooh, weed is so bad. It's crazy. Crazy. Wait, so how do you end

up clearing the case out? How long is it drag out for? Yeah, so five and a half years. I've never had a sip alcohol. I've never done drugs and I get drug tested, a piss tested twice a week for three years. I'm like, this is ridiculous. My partner unfortunately, because of conspiracy and he didn't stop.

I haven't talked to him in probably four years and we don't have any bad blood. He's very successful with his businesses. I'm not going to name his businesses. He's all legitimate as far as I know. I don't think he's done anything. But he got a year sentence and he got out in six months. But that's because everybody who got locked up for the case or arrested, every single one of them said his name because he always dealt with the money.

So no matter what I said, and they tell me, no matter what you say, like, we know you signed and said everything's yours. but we're not dumb. They won the bigger fish. Yeah, we, we, so, uh, he got, uh, he got out in six months, um, but everything got knollied for me. And I can hang my hat high saying that, you know, I got in trouble. I did what I did.

You know, I did it for my family. Did it got out of hand? Yeah, of course it did. But, um, weed's legal now. I think it has very good benefits for people. I'm a libertarian. Do whatever you want. If you're gay, you're straight, you identify as whatever you want.

just don't force it on me, protect your pot plants with your AR-15s, your M-60 machine guns, and don't let the government take it from you, right? But whatever, yeah, you know, my number one priority is my family, my kids and my wife. And, yeah, I just, I'm thankful that, you know, I had that experience. I did a lot of things I'm not proud of when it came to collecting money. There was a kid that owed me money for a long time, 11 months, $1,600 bucks. And I came in his house. He was living in his friend's house.

and I said, everything in here is mine. You have one week to pay me. If you don't pay me, I'm coming back and seeing me bad for you. He didn't pay me. I walked in the next, you know, that day. And I pulled out my 38 snub nose, and I put it right in his mouth. And he started crying. And I said, if I don't have my money by tomorrow, I'm going to have 50.

I'm not going to name the motorcycle club. 50, you know what, come in here and burn this house down. And then he moved. I never seen him again. Never paid you. Never paid me. So we lost $150,000 just on front. The cops took $147,000 out of my safe.

They only reported $94,000. Where did the rest of them? Where did the $40,000 grow? And I can't say anything. Like the cops were pretty cool, man. Like, you know what's crazy about cops? They do the same thing, but in the guise of the law. They have a badge, but they legally buy and sell drugs.

Like, it's the same thing, but they do it with a badge. And I get it. But if we want to end the war on drugs, legalize everything. You're not going to have any crime anymore. It's going to go down. You're not going to have this much violence anymore. It's going to go down. But it's funny because they got over 500 bottles of, no, 1,000 bottles of steroids.

They got 500 bottles of H.E.H. I'm like, look, can I just get like two bottles of tests so I don't crash my levels? No. But they're joking right in front of me about who's getting what with the different, you know, anabolic and Seattle and Viagra. I'm like, yo, this is so messed up. But what am I going to say? You know, it is what it is.

It's part of the game. How much do you think you made over this whole operation? I don't know. It's hard to say. I was living. I was traveling. I was doing whatever I wanted, you know. But the biggest thing, I took care of my family.

And I would help my now wife, whatever she needed. She went to Ireland and flew here and flew there. We were only dating at the time, so I took care of her. And I don't have regrets. I wish I got out before obviously it happened. But my parents are still in their home because of it. You didn't end up in prison. No, I didn't end up in prison.

That's what's crazy about the state versus federal system, because if this was a Fed charge, you would have done minimum five years. Minimum, yeah. And then the states have all these, you know, diversion programs for first-time offenders. Like, it's crazy the disparity. Well, and it's so overpopulated for the dumbest crime.

My wife and I had, we had her Jeep stolen out of our driveway when we were living in Bristol in 2020, and they caught the four kids who stole them, two 16-year-olds and two 17-year-olds. These same kids have been convicted and caught numerous times stealing, you know, automobiles and having guns and drugs on them. Nothing happened.

Nothing happened. That's crazy to me. I don't care if you're 16 or 17. You know, but that's the state of Connecticut. If you're going to get caught selling drugs, Connecticut's one of the best states to do it in. If you're going to get caught doing crime, statewide, not federally,

Jack is one of the best states to do it in, you know. Do you think your mindset has changed regarding money? Yeah. What's your view point on it now? I make probably more money now than I did then, and I don't value, I mean, I value money, but like, it's just a tool. It's just a tool to use that and continue building my business legitimately, which I've done. And I can hang my hat. I'm proud on that.

You got to remember when this happened, dude, I had negative $10,000 in my bank account. I was single, me and my girlfriend, my wife now. were broken up, that I was at rock bottom. So, like, I don't subscribe to this victim mentality of, woe is me, must be nice. I am, woe is me. I just came out on the other side because I refused to accept that, oh, no, I'm down and out and broke. Like, I picked my, just like you, you get out, you pick yourself back up and you make

the best you possibly can out of your life and you keep pushing. Every time you fail and you get knocked down, you get back up and you keep pushing forward. What else is there in life? You got to keep pushing forward. So I don't focus on money. You know, money, it's not like I'm rolling in the dough, but like I don't focus on it. Like it's just like I'll have my good months, my bad months.

It comes and goes. You can always make more money. Right, dude, you know. But like time with my family is the most important thing with me. So like as long as I'm focusing on that and I'm still able to manage everything, that's what I focus on. What's some advice you would have told your teenage self? If you could have the adult version of you now go back in time and sit down with your teenage self. don't get distracted.

I think I was distracted a lot. And it's funny because I say, that's a very, it's a very common question you would ask somebody and I don't think I've ever been asked that. And I would say don't get distracted. Stay focused on your goal and pursue that relentlessly.

And don't let money, don't like girls, don't let anything get in the way. And, you know, the rule of count to five, I could be very, I could have been, I was very impulsive reacting with different decisions and emotions and stuff like that. But take a step back. Is this worth my time and energy?

I'm good now, bro. I'm good. That's how you feel that. Is that what you think I said? That's what you feel about me? Okay, I did. I'm good. You know what I mean?

Like, don't get distracted by all the fuzz that's going to cause you, you know, to divert and go off track. stay focused on what's important what your passion is what you love stay focused on that pursue it relentlessly and stay grounded in your foundation faith family and finances maybe you can throw a fourth F in there

and fitness right but stay focused on what's important in life don't let people or things live rent free in your head well said well Tim thank you so much for coming on the show today it was a pleasure meeting you and talking to you and thank you for all the gifts It's very thoughtful of you

And I appreciate it Yeah, man, I appreciate it If you're ever in Bristol Or Wethersfield or him Then you always have a home at SUPLAF If you ever want to come work out Or shoot guns or get muddy with ATVs Oh yeah, sorry, no shooting guns

I'll do everything else Yeah, muddy ATV and whatever man You're always welcome You don't treat you like family So definitely thank you man Yeah, appreciate it, thank you Thank you