Mark Bell's Power Project - MBPP EP. 725 - Sean Lake & TJ Ferrara: Who Was Glen Bub Doherty & Habits That Lead to Fitness Longevity

Episode Date: May 4, 2022

Today’s guests are Sean Lake and TJ Ferrara. Sean is a former professional snowboarder who went on to join Burton Snowboards, work as Shaun White’s Team Manager. Sean co-founded BUBS Naturals with TJ which is named after Sean’s childhood best friend Glen “BUB” Doherty, a Navy SEAL who was killed in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11 in 2012. Follow Bubs Naturals on IG: https://www.instagram.com/bubsnaturals/ Follow Sean on IG: https://www.instagram.com/slakeo/ Use promo code POWERPROJECT at www.bubsnaturals.com to save 20% off your entire order! Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the new Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw Special perks for our listeners below! ➢https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off Vivo Barefoot shoes! ➢https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off site wide including Within You supplements! ➢https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://eatlegendary.com Use Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next order! ➢https://verticaldiet.com/ Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% off your first order! ➢https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori! ➢https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep! ➢https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS at Marek Health! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Power Project Family, how's it going? Now on this podcast, Mark, Andrew and I, we talk about fasting a lot. We talk about the ketogenic diet and a lot of different types of diets, but Bubz Naturals has a product. They have the collagen protein, which is amazing. They have these apple cider vinegar gummies,

which are like crack, but they have- That's what they are. Yeah, they have these MCT oil powder packets that I've never used to do this, but in the morning I'll wake up and I'll put it in coffee. And the smoothness, number one, in terms of the mixing is amazing. But the consistency of my energy through the day because of the MCT oil powder is peak. Andrew, how's your experience?

Yeah, no, that's exactly it. It's like the best way to start the day. You're satiated, you're energized, and you're just ready to crush the day. So if you guys want to get in on this MCT2 oil powder head over to bubsnaturals.com and at checkout enter promo code power project to save 20 off your entire order again bubs naturals promo code power project to save 20 off links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes like you mean like on it like this yeah we can stay this close too well no no i meant i meant to the mic your face to the microphone not

yeah so you guys all four you share one microphone get really close like a boston concert don't know the reference but sure boston concert boston like massachusetts boston like the is that a band it's a band oh okay i almost knew we're learning things here oh andrew his mic isn't on okay there we go. I forgot there's four people now. Okay, there you go. Now you're on, sir. Sorry.

Hi. Just turn the CEO's mics off. Turn his mic on. That's the one person we don't need to hear from. It's true. It's true. Just going to sit here and smile. Dog, but real talk.

When you told me you were 51, I was so because like people think that like white people age like raisins this man right here like you are defying age it's amazing right right it's actually really crazy you're doing awesome man this is purely the byproduct of having a wife who is 14 years younger than there you go i gotta work for that shit very true she's keeping me young keeping me young nice what's going on with some of this tracking stuff you were saying you like to track a lot of your training and all that stuff so i didn't know that i was a geek on metrics and and maybe i was in college i'm like i can drink 12 beers like i like keeping track of those kinds of numbers i didn't think of it like in later in years, but TJ turned me on to whoop in 2019. And he's like, Hey, like check this out. Now he's the King of numbers. Like it's all numbers with

him all day long. I think he sees in the matrix, like it's all binary shit, zeros and ones. And I'm like, I'm going to wear this bracelet and it's going to tell me what my heart rate is, but I can just go like this and count for 10 seconds and I can find out what my heart rate is. He's like, no, no, no. It's just way better than that. And in 2019, I don't think America in general was really talking about sleep and sleep quality and recovery. It was in the culture and space that we operate in, you know, in, in, when you're in kind of around the world of fitness, it's hammer time, go, how hard did you put out? Did you put out hard enough? No, you didn't get out, you know, get more out of it. Like it's, it's always in that dialogue. And this took a totally different approach to that conversation. I was like, Oh, what is this

HRV you speak of? And I had to learn, I was like, I'm kind of geeked on this. Like, I know there's a heart rate. I didn't know there's a heart rate variability. And then I was like, well, what is your stress response? And then it became a competition. Like anything, and especially in a small business like what we have. Look how recovered I am. Yeah, well, here's the downside.

Dude's HRV is like naturally 125, and mine is in the floor. What does that mean? Can you explain that to some people that maybe have no idea what we're talking about? No. I'll do my best. So obviously heart rate is the hit, right? Measuring the hit, how many times your heart's beating a minute. The variability is the gap between those beats.

So you're lowest and you're highest. Yeah, and it's an indicator of your body's stress, your body's recovery, whether or not you're, you know, you have an immune response, whether or not you've been working out too hard, whether you've been sleeping poorly in the whoop case. And I think it's no secret whether or not you've been drinking because they're very anti-booze for the most part. It's a teetotalers operation. It is a hundred percent but all that being said is you know it's another indicator of performance life performance what about if you get high uh you know yeah i'll run that um and actually no honestly whoop actually came out uh whoops like we're all

for it man you're recovered emails email came out like maybe three or four weeks ago but they did a full blind case study on people that reported marijuana use and how it affected sleep and recovery what did they zero no effect yeah zero effect yep oh you have no idea i have no reason to be pumped obviously but i'm just yeah yeah but just in case just in case so so i i got super geeked on that i'm like i'm like, I've got an HRV. Beats your HRV. Whatever, nerd. And you get competitive about that. And it's like, oh, I only slept for five hours, but I got 90% recovery. And you're geeked on that stuff.

Then that kind of like fades out. But there's also an accountability to it. So we talked about the alcohol thing or weed or whatever your thing is. You have this diary built into the platform. It was there from the very beginning. And I would ask myself in my head sometimes about healthy eating habits or different healthy habits you can apply, right? But if the accountability is not there, how long are you going to last? So this journaling that it has, it runs a 90-day for like you got three months of data that it keeps right on the screen and every morning you can customize what questions it will ask you so hey you you're awake now you go into your whoop before it tells you what your recovery is kind of

holds that behind a screen it says for me these me, these are the questions I have it asked. Did you drink last night? I'm like, oh, this is great. Whether you had one glass of wine with dinner or you drank 12, you can answer yes or no, and then you can optionally – Or sliding scale. Or sliding scale. I had 15 margaritas. Like whatever your thing is.

Yeah, yeah. Then it's, you know, did you use CBD? Did you read? Did you read on a device? So the whole blue light thing is 100% in there. Did you have sex last night? Did you like, you know, knock boots? Like whatever, you can go through and customize that.

Did you have prescription sleep medication? And then there's a whole COVID thing in there as well. Like were you sick? Was it this? So I love that because all of a sudden I realized, like, oh, I went on vacation in 2019, like, three months in a row. And my alcohol intake bumped to 50%, which means every other day I'm having to drink. And I'm like, man, that's kind of a lot. I think I'm going to change that.

So all of a sudden I'm like, I'm going to make a new rule for myself. I'm going to drink kind of a lot. I think I'm going to change that. So all of a sudden I'm like, I'm going to make a new rule for myself. I'm going to drink one day a week. And all of a sudden your non-drinking days hits 65, 70%. And you're like, oh, look at this. I've created a habit. Now is it sustainable? Well, you've got 90 days worth of data.

Most studies would show that after 90 days, you're in it, man. Like you've now established a pattern. And now here we are, what, three years later? Three years in, yeah, with all the data. And we don't use any of it. Only on Friday nights. Right.

And we only ignore it on Friday nights. Why is it that your HRV was always really good? What have you noticed about your habits that your HRV is always solid or pretty much solid? You know, I've always looked at HRV as a stress response. So I'm like, okay, how do I deal with problems? How do I deal with shit that comes at you?

Like the unknowns, the unknowables. And I never really thought about it. Like compared to say TJ's stress response. Yeah. But we've gone through some stress. Like as business owners, like personally,

professionally, we've been through it. And our reactions to those could not be more opposite really captain red line over here i'm out of control oh yeah i mean we how much time we got on this thing i mean september like quite frankly september i was completely redlined and he texted me and i straight up said fuck off and i shut off my phone for two weeks i disappeared for two weeks in September. Whoa. Because all the stress built up. And I mean, the whoop wasn't lying. Like it was in the, it was in the tank. But before we get into the qualify for everybody

listening, everybody's HRV is different baseline, top and bottom. So his base is, you know, 115 or something like that. His high ends, 160, my base might be 22 and my high end might be 65. So it's always within the range. But obviously your personal response to that stress is very different. He responds way different to stress than I do in all the situations. But it's also it's how like so he flamed out in September. Like he redlined and he needed literally like a two-week window to decompress. And it was like all the stress that had been building in our business for almost eight months right it was like it was a long pile up and we can talk about that

but there was just thing after thing after thing just kept happening it was like the ultimate challenge it's like okay how are you going to respond to that and i'll ask myself that question like oh i just got hit with an fda recall that's about as shitty of a thing as you can have happen as a business if you're in the dietary supplement space or you're in the nutrition space. That's the one thing you don't want to have happen. Yeah. Okay. Well, my first reaction on the inside might be, fuck, motherfucker,

pick a swear word. But then the second one's got to be, how do I want to respond to this? How do I want to deal with this? What's the best path forward? Now my outside voice is going to come in. Whereas he has already issued five F-bombs in a row and his red line and something's going to get thrown against the wall. And I'm like,

that doesn't solve it. There's really wonderful opportunities to advertise your brand even further. Say, Hey, listen, the FDA, they pulled this. We have,

look at all this product I have. You video it, you pulled this. We have, look at all this product I have. You video it. You show it. You say, I have all this product. We were going to serve you guys a lot of these special things that we have in the works. We've been working on this for a long time. It takes a long time to do X, Y, and Z. This got recalled. So this kind of stinks, but we're going to move in this other direction and we're excited about that. You can kind of show people like a little bit of behind the scenes of, you can turn something that kind of seems negative into something that's much more positive. For myself, there's a particular powerlifting federation

that in order to get your stuff approved, it's basically just pay to play kind of thing. And so I was just like, all right well you know how much is it to pay and you got to pay like x amount per item yeah it just started to really tally up and i'm like holy okay it's 250 000 to play this game by the time the whole portfolio is in there you're like that sounds worthy enough to shoot a video and make it rain and like talk trash a little bit about like how this is this is part of power lifting, but also I'm willing to pay this cause I want to provide my products to you.

And it went off with a bang. You know, at first it was kind of frustrating cause it's like, well, why is this approved? That approved? And it's just, people just need to pay for it.

So, um, it's interesting. You can turn some of these things that happen, uh, into, I mean, sometimes you just got to eat some shit,

right? Sometimes... We've been down that road. He's lost $100,000 today. That's wonderful. That's amazing. I have a friend of mine, this guy named Jason. Jason talked to... He's in the flower business. He sells sunflowers all over the United States. If you buy sunflowers at a grocery

store, at your local Raley's, whatever you go, you're buying his brand. And Jason's just a buddy. Like, he's like, drink some tequila with him. I know him from like just being in the same neighborhood. And I'm like, so have you learned like, what would you say like your best business lesson was you've learned? Like totally broad, you know, open-ended question. He's like, yeah.

I learned that when you eat shit, don nibble and i was like wow okay now this is before the recall so when that happened and when we had you know basically just to let everyone know we have an mct oil powder which is a a non-dairy creamer it says non-dairy dairy-free all over the packaging and um yeah that's beautiful it's like you knew and so this this product got it popped for dairy like how the fuck did that happen like that should not have happened comes from coconuts it comes from coconut there's tapioca starch and coconut and you put them together and that's it ingredients. Where'd the dairy come from? So that happens.

We get alerted. We got to call the attorneys, call the FDA, and it was like, well, how do we deal with this thing? I've never dealt with anything like this in my life. Tell everyone. Tell everyone. Page one Google search. Do everything as an e-commerce business

you don't want to have happen. Get right in front of it. Write an email, a personal email that I spent hours on to inform every single customer of what happened and then answer every single one of their emails personally to address the issue while we're trying to fix it. And that's 100% true. I mean, like when we sent them out, it wasn't from InfoAd, it was from TJ or SeanAd, and

people responded to us and we gave the individual. But that's how you scale. You scale a business by scaling the unscalable, right? So if we got to answer 4,500, hey, what the hell questions, so be it. But we've retained those people and they still believe in the product, which is good. Well, and my HRV took a hit. Yeah, your HRV went down. Oddly, it went down.

I'm in like 90. You guys ever consider alternatives? Because you mentioned the alcohol making your thing drop, but marijuana not necessarily. Have you guys ever tried Kratom? Have not. Let's try somewhere else. Funny you should mention that. We've got some mind bullet right here.

So my buddy Danny Way was in the office. Claiming the Kratom. Take the whole thing down? Is that what's happening? Take the whole thing down. I'll do two capsules back here. I don't have to drive. It's really great.

If you do have to drive, you'll just drive right off a cliff. It says potion, and it tastes like a potion. Come on, it's Ema. For three. Nailed it. There it is. Every time. Don't try.

Does the camera? No, no. I'm not that obsessed. As far as you're concerned, it might have made it. Oh! Holy shit! Mutombo. Bummer.

Shit. Bummer. That was 100% on film. That was so bad. And like that, we remove his title. No longer the CEO. That was 100% on film. That was so bad. And like that, we remove his title. No longer the CEO. That was great. Watch him drain it, boys.

But then we get off the show, and he'll be like, no, I did that on purpose for comedy, guys. I hit the schemiest pole over there. That had to have been on purpose. Our guy's playing chess, not checkers. Exactly. Totally. Sorry, guys. Don't get the joke.

Our guy's playing chess, not checkers. Exactly. Totally. Sorry, you guys don't get the joke. So like, honestly, though, instead of alcohol, have you guys messed with like THC or like, I think a lot of folks just, I'm not promoting that people like get involved in like taking a lot of different things that they might get addicted to. But alcohol is just like a really interesting one. It's just so social, right?

It's part of this. We've had it for hundreds and thousands of years. Yeah. There are a lot of other options out there. If you want to get like, if you want to escape reality a little bit without maybe having some of the same negative side effects. So, so we went to, when we launched the business in 2018, now, now we'll probably talk about this a little bit, but I was very, very unknowledgeable

about the general nutrition space. I was kind of like, I would do whatever my wife told me to do. So collagen, I didn't know anything about collagen in 2017. My wife said, you're going to start taking this. I'm like, oh, okay. I'll do this because you're telling me to. We launched the business in 2018. We go to the Paleo FX trade show in Austin, Texas. And we're like, this is our coming out party. We're going to introduce ourselves to all of these gnarly nutrition experts. And we are really happy with our product and what we're going to put in front of them. We are not peacocking because we're too nervous to, but we definitely feel good about what we have and we're there for about two hours and tj kind of looks at me he's like do you realize that

almost everyone in here is micro dosing i'm like micro whatting and he's like everyone in here's like running around popping mushrooms like in little gel caps and i'm like wait like mushrooms like you're gonna go out and pet the trees mushrooms is yeah but not enough it's called microdosing so that was like kind of like i don't do that since again there's kind of that moment in your 20s where you're like all right this is great i'm getting all fucked up and then you kind of move past that phase or some people don't but i did and now it's back i'm like but it's back with really fit people like these are healthy strong people all microdosing and i have a very different story

and it's completely backwards from this i think some people you know i think some of their experience with those things um maybe was from a long time ago and maybe was from uh like really taking a large dose and really getting jacked up from it and maybe having a really bad experience. Maybe they had a bad trip and then they think like, oh, these things are not things that I should ever really mess with. But for me

personally, I've enjoyed doing a little bit of it here and there. So show of hands, how many of you, and I'm going to call it the 20s, but pick whatever generation like drank too much. Oh, I did. I definitely did.

I never got 100% did. Thank you for being honest. Yeah. I didn't drink until I was 23. Like I seriously, I have a very backwards life. I didn't drink until I was 23. I smoked weed for the first time at like 32.

You need to get Michael Niddle in here. A guy who really knows how to party. But yeah, he's a grandparent now. I'll play the spectrum now. That's the thing. I understand alcohol is not great for me personally. I have ulcerative colitis. I have a bunch of issues,

and it just makes gut distress, and it doesn't make my week feel good. My sleep's bad, and then I'm in the middle of a workout and trying to squeeze my ass because I'm like, uh-oh, I got to run to the bathroom. Holy shit, what's going on?

A bunch of problems. So I dump alcohol, but I like to de-stress-ish and have fun. Where can I go to do that? Meditation, cool, that works. I have the Calm app. I can do all these different things. Okay, are there things I can take that help this too? And I'm fully in the camp that anything including products that we make, whether it's hydration, collagen, whatever, everything you put in your body has a positive effect and an equal negative effect, whether or

not you know it. So be careful with what you're putting in your body and make sure you're controlling variables when you're doing it. So that way you elicit the right response, but you're also aware of the negatives that may come back after that. Like, just don't go into it blindly wanting the rage. And I think that's where everybody kind of falls off right now. It's like, yeah, we'll microdose, but that's six grams kind of falls off right now. It's like, yeah, well, microdose. But that's six grams. No, it's not. It's a half a gram.

Tony. When you were mentioning what happened at that Paleo FX thing, what were you about to mention? Oh, so yeah, that was it. It was just a completely different story. I didn't have any experience with that stuff. I was at that particular event just off a breakup, anxiety through the roof, losing my mind. And one of our good friends, Danielle, came up to me and she was like, put this in your coffee. You'll be fine.

Was that microdose? Yeah, yeah, totally. She gave me like five grams or a half a gram of psilocybin. Yeah, yeah, half a gram. Sorry, not five, 0.5. That explains why you disappeared for two days. Drinking coffee was totally good. And we grabbed a couple of ripping workouts.

We ran like five miles and did a bunch of like half Cindy or something like that in the backyard. And I was totally good and we we grabbed a couple ripping workouts we ran like five miles and did a bunch of like half cindy or something like that in the backyard and i was totally functional i was like oh my god two more days on that and i was like oh the anxiety's gone and i can function in public and this isn't bad okay cool i'm gonna keep this in my back pocket in case it happens again and and that notion like like so the whole microdosing, that was 2018. Yeah. Go back to Encinitas, go back to our little bubble. And now my oldest son is in kindergarten and my wife comes home from school and like some after school function. She's like, hey, all these moms are all microdosing. I'm like, wait, what?

This is good shit. Wow. Yeah. It went from Pinot Grigio with a straw in it to now, hey, you got a half a gram? Yeah. Like cool little corksicle. Like there's no way that's just water in there into everyone's microdosing. Yeah.

I'm like, okay. Honestly, I'm a fan. I think it's better. I think it's better than alcohol too. I think it's way better. Yeah. Well, you're definitely not poisoning yourself to the same degree. I mean, look at this.

Yeah, alcohol is, yeah, very poisonous, yeah. And it doesn't get any better. It's like when you're 30 or 40 or 50, it's not like alcohol is somehow kinder in the recovery process. It just beats the shit out of you. Now, some of the drinks taste good, like a really good bourbon or a really good anejo on a tequila. Sip that.

It's delicious. But you don't need six. Or the bottle. I don't know anything about that. Right. So yeah, like now that gummies, of course, like we're in California, so you can pretty much just call MedMen and they'll be there in 30 minutes and you got all that supply. I just, I never got into that.

Yeah. I overdid it in my 20s and then pulled back from all of that and then was like okay cool i was drinking right like the drinking is the socially acceptable one and now i'm just now sort of kind of to your point like paying attention to that going like hey there's other options out there you don't just need to drink a scotch or drink a you know bottle of cab. You can actually not drink at all, be completely socially relaxed, have great conversations, be in good engaging company or do nothing and just chill out on the couch. You got options.

TJ, what do you think is in your past that maybe makes it more difficult for you to interpret stuff a particular way without getting so wound up. And what do you think might be in your past? That is something that allows you to look at stuff, uh, and interpret it maybe more to your favor rather than have you redline. Ooh, my dad was 82nd military.

And I mean, I would say it wasn't, it wasn't a hard upbringing by any stretch. Very great parents. Love them to death. Hi, mom. But I would say having a component, and we get into the driven stuff. Genetically, and you guys will read this in one of those books that Michael suggested, Driven, which is really good.

But genetically, there are humans that have two gene alleles. One is DRD2 and one is DRD4. They stem off the alcoholism gene. They started discovering these with functional MRIs in the mid-90s. And I'm probably butchering some of this, but somebody will come correct me at some point. All that being said, one is greater horizons and one is boredom. I've grasped greener pastures on the other side and one is I'm chasing a rabbit. Oh my God, there's another rabbit. Oh my God, there's another rabbit. We have both of those alleles as does, I would say everybody in this room, probably to an extent and a degree, the balance of them is different though. He's way more D4. I'm way more D2. I'm running my head through a wall. Like you want a power lift? Let's go. Let's rip it off the ground. It's calculated

on that side, but it makes a really good balance for the business i think historically in my life i grew up doing taekwondo combat sport type stuff and then i went into endurance but it was always about beating myself down like for whatever reason i'm sure we can get into subconscious stuff but i really hated myself so it was like okay let's just destroy this body that i'm in as hard as i can to suffer as much as I can to get performance to either get recognition or to get the pat on the back from somebody or whatever it is. I didn't have that capacity to take one step back. Like it's six years of therapy and I can still take a half a step back, maybe recognize it and then go back into it. But I'm not perfect.

I mean, no way. I will redline all the time. I mean, I just can't help it. But also I use it as fuel. So it's good, right? You get in, get the smelling salts, and you're going to rip an extra 200 pounds. That rage is good for some things.

That's powerful. Sometimes he doesn't have that. So on the opposite side, when I'm like, yo, dude, time to hit the gas, let's go, he can come around and say, oh, okay, yeah, this is the time to do that. It's very rare that that happens, but we have that balance, which I think is really good. And there is that, like, I definitely find myself kind of thinking further down the line. So if he's thinking five steps ahead and

I'm thinking a mile down the road, there's a good balance there. And it's funny because I always have to remind him, like, hey, it's not that I'm not having those feelings, like whether it's like, you know, response to a negative situation with, you know, some sort of anger, some sort of fuel that fire, like it's there. I'm just not putting it right out in front of me. I'm holding it down in here, making some decisions about it, and then we're going to act. And I'm going to act thinking about where we got to get to. If there's a wall right in front of us, want to smash through it i want to scale over it or go around it or use the door it's right there um or use the hole that you created yeah right

so but he can't see me from the other side right sorry took it right home. Lay me up. For you, is that something that came with maturity or have you just been that way your whole life? No, no, that definitely came with age and with training. Kids being the training?

No, no, honestly, I'm going to go to Mark Devine, Seal Fit in those years. So in my 20s, so I mean, I grew up in a little suburb in Massachusetts and I had parents that divorced at a young age. Dad, who was an alcoholic, he sobered up. At that point, I had moved out. Me and my older brother and younger sister, we moved to a little suburb right outside of Boston. And so I was raised in therapy. You're going to talk about things.

Now, this is in the early 80s. Yeah. And that wasn't done. But mom was like, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to let you be raised and not talk about what we just left. Like, that's going to be discussed. The whole dad gets drunk and can't stand up

or punches something or there's yelling and fighting. Like, we're going to explore that. And I fucking hated it. But I did it because I didn't have a choice because mom drove me there. And that kind of analysis, like you're going to share your thoughts, you're going to share what you're going through,

kind of was defining. So I guess something in there was unlocked, whether I tried to repress it or not. And then the sports that I got into were very much individual-based. I didn't like the team sports. I didn't want to be playing football or playing lacrosse or doing the other sports that everyone's doing. I wanted the solo stuff.

And I did it because I just kind of had to do it. I didn't get really turned on to sport until I discovered skateboarding. really turned on to sport until I discovered skateboarding. And skateboarding to me unlocked a lot of kind of long-term problem solving because you don't just jump on a skateboard and you're good at it. You don't jump on a skateboard and learn how to ollie. It takes months and months to gain confidence, to gain awareness, to gain body control, and I fucking loved it i loved every bit about it but that's all long game stuff and so i didn't i didn't see it for what it was then i had

to reflect back on it when i got into my 30s and i at that point i'd gone through an entire career as a professional snowboarder like i had this awesome run in my 20s where i was getting paid to ride a snowboard and travel the world. It's like, this is amazing. That was this blend of adrenaline and action and problem solving. I'm at the top of a mountain and I want to get down there and I want to do it in this mitigated risk fashion to challenge and scare the living God out of myself as much as possible, but live through it and successfully navigate a line that would be considered dancing the line between high risk and totally attainable. Flow state addiction. And I loved it, and I did it for years.

Hell, it paid for college. It was a really neat experience, but again, more longer term. When I got out of that, I fell out of that for a while and so in my 30s i definitely struggled more with that to where i was more impulsive like ready to get angry like i could solve a problem but it just took me out of my game because i was suddenly on the desk job and i was on it was in a different space i discovered training and i was really bad at something again and i had to learn to get good at it like just training in the gym lifting weights and stuff yeah so i didn't i didn't train in my 20s oh so when i when you right this is snowboarding snowboarding in the 90s was like

it was built on adrenaline and it was built on something else. But no one was like lifting weights. And my best buddy that whole time, this guy Glenn Doherty, Glenn Bub Doherty, he was my ski bum buddy. He was my roommate. We were like best friends since middle school and high school. Like we both grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts together. And we moved to Utah together. So I would shadow him because he was always fit. He was a high school wrestler. And we moved out to the mountains.

And there's a lot of athletic things you do. Like you have to hike up the mountain sometimes to get down the mountain. Well, you can't just do that at 9,000, 10,000 feet. It takes practice. That athleticness of your 20s does diminish. So you go and take that desk job and all of a sudden you're not snowboarding 120 days a year, you kind of lose it. So at 34, 35,

I kind of had a little punch and I was like, ew, I don't like this. And Glenn, at that point he had dropped out of ski bombing. He had joined the Navy and become a Navy SEAL. So talk about a diesel rip like you know

yoked out bro who knows a ton about working out and i didn't really know much of anything so he just started feeding me these little programs and that led me to crossfit which was for me was like unlocking a ton of potential because i didn't know anything about a barbell i didn't know anything about a kettlebell i kind of knew how to do a bicep curl and I knew how to run, but like putting all of these hundreds of different movements together was like, it was like a playground. So my,

it turned on this again, like my, my problem solving skills, like all those, those ideas of long gaming, something was like, Oh, Oh,

I'm going to suck at this for a long time. Oh, I'm back to skateboarding all over again. And it's going to help me skateboard better. So it was like this win-win situation. And I guess that kind of unlocked me to rediscovering that. And then I think after you get to a certain age, you can then apply those lessons from younger and be like, oh, yeah, that's why I like that.

Now I see it. So now at 51, I'm looking at my 40s and I'm looking at my 30s and my 20s. I'm kind of taking a little bit more stock when someone asks the right questions. Yeah. You mentioned the flow state thing, the flow state addiction.

And I'm curious now in your 50s, lifting, and you too, TJ, do you do anything? Are there any physical activities, things that you do that you feel that you can end up tapping into a flow state? And I ask this because it's like I feel that with jujitsu, but I'll never feel that with lifting. I can get like if I'm lifting something heavy, maybe I can just focus in on it. But it's not a flow state type feeling like doing something like snowboarding down a mountain and you have to relax and you have to do what your body knows how to do. So you're not thinking of all the bad things that can happen. I personally never felt

that from lifting either. Yeah. Right. But I felt, I know what that feels like since I do jujitsu. So do you have anything that allows you to feel that? And you too, TJ, do you have anything that allows you to feel that? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I was, uh, I was a competitive cyclist prior to finding CrossFit fitness, lifting weights. That explains those legs. So here's the funny thing. Dude, the tendons and the shape of your legs and shit was fucking wild. He's like doing the belt squat. Ah, okay. So I was doing that for a while.

I actually didn't squat until I was 33. That was the first time I got underweight. Whoa. Swear. The first time I lifted anything, touched a barbell, was 33 years old. Yeah, jacked for doing it. Never. Hey, you people listening listening this is actually a very

cool thing because a lot of people are like ah i'm starting the gym too late and they don't think they can there's never jacked but what i'll say is in terms of the flow state thing i never got it under a barbell but learning complex movements it was learning a clean or a snatch maybe i got a little bit learning through that process for sure as you're getting heavy and you're scaling weight and stuff that's all out the window. You're just trying to survive. But definitely from like gymnastics type movements, bar muscle-ups, muscle-ups, handstand push-ups, and trying to figure out your body awareness in that, I definitely found it in the gym. But do I unlock it elsewhere?

110 percent. Mountain biking currently was my jam. was my jam. Prior to that, I was skydiving, a grip of skydiving, which was great, and it was also out of control for a while. I was jumping 14, 15 times a weekend. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was bad.

So I actually just listed my rig. I decided I was going to tap out of that for a while, and I just listed it and put it up for sale. Look at this mature move. I like this. I can pull back on that life insurance policy. Exactly right. Fucking skyd mature move. I like this. I can pull back on that life insurance policy. Fucking skydiving. If I pile in, take the company. That's basically

what was written on the whiteboard for a while. We wrote a little note. If I die, take all my shit and do something cool with it. Wow. And you, I'm guessing you still skateboard? Is that? So I still skate. You know, it's funny. I've got a six-year-old son, so I'm kind of waiting for him

to come on board with that. But I still snowboard as much as I can and get up in the mountains. And it has not changed. Like in my head, I'm still 25. And in my body and how I'm moving, you know, barring any kind of injury, like

I love getting into a good big mountain situation and I'm still looking at the mountain the same way. And I'm maybe picking one less cliff to jump off, but I'm still about navigating, getting top, getting to the bottom and doing it as I would say tastefully as possible. But you know,

if I think I need 10 turns, try and get eight, go a little faster, go push yourself a little bit, like within that range of comfort. And I still want to scare the shit out of myself. I still want that experience. And then oddly enough, it's not from a coordination standpoint,

but I can hit a good mental state, not from the snowboard. Snowboarding is flow state. Running, like I can just clear my head. I can get in a zone. And when I lock it down, I find myself pushing it, get a little bit faster, get a little bit faster. And there's something about that that I find definitely just cleans the slate, makes me feel really good. It's a totally different experience than I get from a high-intensity workout. We just worked out with Kalipa, right? And you got to

think along a lot of some of these movements. So when I'm thinking too much, I can't get there. I have to focus on what I'm doing, task priority, move to the next thing. But if I'm snowboarding or if I'm running, I can kind of clear that head and you're just sort of, your body's doing what it knows what to do. You've trained it to do. I've never seen, he's a different human, like straight up face structure, everything. He's a chameleon when he's on a board. It is the raddest thing. And I'm not just saying it cause I'm next to me, but business partner, but like I've snowboarded with a lot of people and, you know,

in pros and stuff and I can hold my own. I'm not a professional, but I can ride with people. And New Year's Eve, we took off to Baldy. There was a little bit of a powder hit on Baldy and I was backseat driving. I was like, dude,

this is, this is your deal. I'm following you. You tell me where to go. It was the raddest fucking thing. Like it'll bring me to tears if I think backseat driving. I was like, dude, this is your deal. I'm following you. You tell me where to go. It was the raddest fucking thing. Like, it'll bring me to tears if I think about it enough. Like, different human. And just how he reacts to problem solving.

Long lens. Hey, we're going to hit this, and then we're going to go over here. But we can't do this until 3 p.m. because the sun's over here, and it's not melting the snow yet. And it is, like, full snow calculus. And I'm like, cool like cool man but a different human the attitude is different body position is different he is a chameleon it's so rad to watch and you can i think you can see that with a lot of people that can really tap into that that have you watch people roll you know you watch black belts roll and you're just like oh yeah you've

been doing this for 35 years that's that's in your body now and they unlock that and you can just watch him go through it it's the same thing with him on a board. I'm just like, dude, I just want to watch this on video for like a long time. It's so cool. What's the metrics that you guys get from some of these devices if you're like running versus lifting versus like is there any negative feedback from like snowboarding and stuff like that too? So after you answer that question, why does it hate black people? I don't know. That's what I'm trying to figure out.

Wait, snowboarding or the whoop? The whoop. It just hates darker people for some reason. Snowboarding took a turn, man. Virgil was on snow. People will know why I said that afterwards, but yeah. Well, I mean, on the whoop front, snowboarding is funny. It will pick it up like it's hiking because your heart rate might peak. Like

there's definitely those adrenaline moments where you're like, all right, I'm at the top of something. This is real. I got to navigate through some rocks or some trees or whatever. But mostly if you're using your body efficiently, you're keeping your heart rate. It's not getting too crazy, like 120, 130 BPMs. If you're hiking, totally different story. Whoop loves their endurance athletes. Hates the guys lifting weights. Like you will never – you could do the biggest workout of your week and it might not even register it. But if I go on a good ruck with a little weight and it's going to pick it up all day long. I go on a 5K run on a Whoop will give me some giant strain number.

I can go rip out that couple hundred burpee workout we were talking about. Is that because it's mainly through heart rate? Is that why? Yeah. Because like your heart rate's not – I mean when you lift weights, obviously your heart rate's going up, but it's not staying maybe elevated for some people. Yeah, but it's not fair, right?

Because the power output is just – I see. It's different. So it's not a fair comparable. I think it's something they're probably working on. But yeah, it favors the runner. It favors the endurance athlete all day long. Do they maybe lean more on calories burned or something like that?

I think it's heart rate. I mean, because lifting, you end up talking about mitochondrial response, right? And do we have to take muscle samples? Central nervous system and shit like that. Totally. And we can't read that with a green sensor. And it's not a red sensor, which is why it doesn't work through darker skin tones and that's that's a true i mean the sensor operations are different they change the 3.0 the 4.0 so the 4.0 might be a little different but what i found out from a different

doctor daniel during this whole thing he was exploring wearable attack one of our buddies and he was like yeah i can't do the whoop because it doesn't read darker skin or or tattoos never believed it i was like whatever man i'm fine i'm italian this is pretty dark shut up um but now i get my wife a whoop she puts it on she's fully sleeved out and it's not reading change it to the other wrist it reads fine same thing with her apple watch it reads on the right list won't read on her left wrist and i'm like oh that's odd and then i'd start doing a little bit deeper research a little bit deeper research yeah and it's just like they excluded a lot of people for whatever reason but i mean like the sensors yeah because i mean i've used woop before

i was using woop because it was the only tracking device that had a wearable on the arm that i could do jujitsu while wearing it so i used it for months and it was great but does that mean my sensor readings were off in a certain way when I was doing it? Probably. I think she's down. Whoop. Hey, I have nothing to do with these guys. I have nothing to do with just relax. I think there's a chance the readings might be skewed.

I don't know. I'll have to weigh in on that. But yeah, it's, it's harder to read through darker skin tones and tattoos and things like that. So interesting. You know what though? I'm going to go aura ring.

I'm going to say, I'm going to say that's going to be your jam. Oh, can you use the aura ring? Is it something that like, say that's gonna be your jam oh can you use um the aura ring is it something that like uh is it hard or is it like it's hard it's a hard ring yep so you're not gonna probably roll with it if you're worried about like getting twisted up with someone i wouldn't i wouldn't actually trip about rolling with an aura ring on i don't think that'd be you don't need it you don't need it for lifting yeah because it doesn't track any lifting anyway

yeah but when you do physical activity because i I heard the Oura Ring is mainly for sleep, right? Well, it's marketed. Kind of their go-to-market was like all about your recovery. But they've got all the same metrics to measure your activity. And it gives you a daily goal to aim towards. So it's like, hey, we want to get you to a 500 today. You slept great, so you can do more today. Hey, you slept in the tank, so maybe do a little bit less.

And it's also tracking that. But it's very, to a degree, it's manual input, but it picks it up. Like it picks up if you went running, like it's, you know, the motion sensor on it and just like, again, it's picking up heart rate, heart rate variability. Have you guys ever seen 8Sleep and some of those devices? Because those bed tops. I want to explore that stuff so bad. Yeah.

Do you guys love it? It's amazing. Oh, they're incredible. And it gives you, it gives you all the metrics as well. No kidding. Along with HRV heart rate. Oh, wow. But like it'll track all that.

But the HRV is the one that cools the bed, correct? Correct. Awesome. And it cools or warms it kind of depending on how people like their temperature or whatever. But it's interesting because it's without a wearable. So it's like, how is it giving us this accurate information? But we had the CEO on the back that we're in actually does heart rate out of the side.

Absolutely. It's cool. Yeah, the CEO was like, he seemed like the Elon Musk of sleep. I mean, that guy knew his shit. No kidding. Seems to be working on some really cool stuff. That's awesome. We're finding a lot of use for it and it helped us a lot.

So this is like one mattress topper, like one for each side of the bed? Yes. Like your wife gets one, you get one. No, but it's actually just one topper. You can have it set so it tracks two different people, but the topper is just one. You don't have to do like – Oh, cool. I think there's another company that does something, but they have to have one.

The split. Temperatures can be different. So your wife could have whatever her temperature is and you can have whatever temperature you want. Yeah. It's unbelievable. Sign me up. But it turns you into a big baby though

because once you don't have that and you go sleep somewhere else. Sleep at a hotel and you're bummed. Oh my God. I've been screwed for the past couple of days. Yeah, it's bad. But the other cool thing that I like is that it has like an alarm inside of it,

but it doesn't make any sound. It just starts vibrating around your head. Oh, cool. And so you just wake up and you don't wake up like your baby or anything., but it doesn't make any sound. It just starts vibrating around your head. Oh, cool. And so you just wake up and you don't wake up like your baby or anything. Do you guys all use one? Yeah. What's the chosen temperature for everybody? Do you guys sleep cooler than your room typically?

Yeah, I have mine pretty much as cold. Mine's on the coldest. Mine's negative eight. So I got two more levels to go. Yeah. The cool thing is that depending on how you sleep and it tracks your heart rate and a bunch of things it'll like set an algorithmic temperature for how you sleep over time so it'll like go for just yeah it adjusts it'll go from like negative 10 through the middle of the night it'll be at like negative 6 and as i'm getting closer to

waking it'll move up to negative 2 because yeah i'm getting ready yeah i'm sure you guys have noticed this just from sleeping is that when you go to sleep, sometimes you're like, man, it's kind of warm in here. You have the blankets kind of off, and then you wake up two hours later, and you're like, yeah, you're really cold. So it will adjust for all that as well if you want it to mimic something different to change

because your body temperature is supposed to come down, I think, like a half a degree or something like that before bed. It really helps to kind of calm you down so you can set the bed to kind of calm you down. So you can set the bed to be cooler when you first go to sleep and it can warm up just a bit, you know, a couple of temperature points as you're sleeping. Cool. I'm a hundred percent tracking on that because like we're, you know, Hey, open the window,

right? Cool it down. Not very scientific on that one. And you wake up freezing your ass off maybe four hours like i gotta close that window um i i'm checking that one out yeah i definitely want to take a look at that yeah and then over time you know like they're explaining like it'll tell you like like oh your house is actually a little bit warmer so we're gonna adjust your temperature and it's like what the hell awesome yeah so like mine i have it at negative eight my wife has it i think like plus

two when we go to bed it's like like her side's like, holy shit, I don't know how you sleep over there. And then she's like, holy shit, I don't know how you sleep over there. But like, it doesn't, we don't bother each other. It's fucking phenomenal. I mean, I'm pretty much at 39 years of managing. I only sleep poorly.

So I'm just going to turn it over to somebody else now at this point, why not? When it comes to like the technology that like, you know, when we had the CEO on, you know, with the wearable, it's this big, right? Yes. Here's a whole fucking platform. And it tracks how many times you get up and how many movements and shit that you have.

It's fucking dope. I'm into it. Yep. I'll be getting one. That's awesome. Yeah. And it has a diary thing, too. So similar to the Whoop, you can input things when you wake up or when you go to sleep.

Yeah. Late meal, alcohol, all that stuff. Oh, nice. Pat Rodger, family. How's it going? We talk about sleep all the time on this podcast. That, late meal, alcohol, all that stuff. Oh, nice. Pat, Roger, family, how's it going? We talk about sleep all the time on this podcast. That's why we partnered with Eight Sleep Mattresses. Now, this mattress is the Tesla of sleep. It's the Tesla of beds. Its technology tracks your heart rate, your heart rate variability. It changes its own temperature based off the way you sleep so that you get better sleep every single night. It is quite literally insane. Check them out. Andrew, how do they get it? Yes, and before I do that,

I wanted to let you guys know that you can actually set the bed to wake you up silently. I know that sounds weird, but actually the bed starts vibrating around your head and it doesn't wake up the entire household the way my phone used to do back in the day. So now I just kind of have the bed wake me up silently and it's amazing.

You guys got to head over to 8sleep.com slash powerproject. That's E-I-G-H-T, sleep.com slash power power project. When you guys go there, you'll see a banner across the top saying that you're going to receive $150 off automatically. So again, that's 8sleep.com slash power project to receive $150 off your pod pro cover or your pod pro cover and mattress combo. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Let's get back to the podcast. Tell us more about your friend, Bubz. Yeah, so kind of the whole thing that kind of pulled us all together, also tied to that whole fitness. Oh, here we go. Oh, my God. Did you know this existed, Lake?

Give us the fucking story here, man. There's a goddamn movie on this guy, right? Yeah, I'll pull the movie up next. I just want to see them getting... Oh, boy. Yeah. So that's actually at a pull-up challenge. So that's Seal Fit.

That's the gym that Glenn and I taught at. So, again, we... This is great. He's about seven beers in at this point. Seven and a half right now. I like this guy already. Yeah. So you guys know Mark Devine really well then, right? Mark was at this point. Seven and a half right now. I like this guy already. So you guys know Mark Devine really well then, right? Mark was at my wedding.

Mark and I go way back. I admire him very much. I never met him. But he seems like an amazing guy. I will plug for him to be a guest on here one day. I would love that. He's an awesome, awesome human. So the reason that Kershaw banner is up there, I still have that knife.

Glenn did not win this challenge he ended up getting i think second so he got a really cool kershaw knife um as as the consolation prize but yeah he's uh he's got some thickness to him yeah oh he's he's a thick dude he was not he was real thin in high school but apparently going through buds and doing the Navy thing, um, turns into a thick human. Cause he came out of that like 30 pounds heavier and just ready to lift a house. Um,

so anyways, he's my best buddy growing up. Like, you know, TJ mentioned the whole D two D four thing in a lot of ways. Like there's this adrenaline seeking quality or there's this like, I don't know call it like restless leg syndrome for life where like i'm just looking at things a little bit differently than maybe a lot of my

peers were and glenn was simpatico with that we always used to joke it was because we're middle what's that word mean simpatico like we're in alignment okay yeah i don't think i've ever heard it we see it uh together i think i made it up. Well, it sounds great. It's French. It sounds real. So Glenn and I, we go off to college because we're supposed to go to college. And Glenn's like, I'm going to be an airline pilot. Like, what?

You're like the one guy in our entire high school who decides that's his career path. And I'm like, I want to go be a pro snowboarder. That's a pretty unlikely career path as well. So we both take off to college and again, we're seeing things the same way. We come back after our freshman year in college and we're both like, you know...

Working on jeans and sipping a beer in between sets of push-ups. Still going to shake it out. Is that taco? I think I'm still thirsty. I'm assuming this guy had no problem with the ladies. No problem. He doesn't seem to give a flying fuck.

No, which works really well in the dating scene. Yeah, right. Switched hands to take a drink. He's like Zootlander. He can go both directions. It was amazing. So, Glenn, I can't talk about him and watch this. This is epic.

So Glenn was that guy. He's like, yeah, we should drop out of college and go move to the mountains. I'm like, that's a great idea. He's like, I want to become a professional skier. I'm like, I want to do the professional snowboarder. Like, let's go. We're 18, 19 years old. Where are your parents at this point?

Wildly disappointed in us. Wildly. Let's go to the mountains and drop out of college. It's going to be awesome. Everybody's really thinking fully supported, but that wasn't the case. No, not in the least bit. It was like, are you effing kidding me? So yeah, mom knew that I was struggling in college.

She was like, you're not applying yourself. You're barely getting by here. What's it going to be? And I'm like, I will go to the mountains and I will become a professional snowboarder. And she's like, just go take a semester off and like figure it out. And I remember telling my dad that plan.

I'm like, dad, this is my plan. He's like, literally gave me the caddyshack speech. He's like, the world needs ditch diggers too. Your dad's like, great, my son's gay.

Yeah. Snowboarding. Couldn't even ski like a normal person. And that was it. So I was like, I'm going. It's on. Like now he just lit the fire. Now I'm going to make it because I can't fail.

Like I got to prove that shit wrong. I might dig a couple of ditches along the way to pay for it. And so we moved out to Snowbird, Utah and rented some shitty little apartment, got jobs like washing dishes. Like we're talking bottom rung. And we met a bunch of other teenagers that all had the exact same dreams.

And we became like the workforce of this ski resort. And we were all super passionate about just getting our butts on the snow every single day no matter what from november until may like when the resort closed it was like that's we just lived it yeah and glenn and i were just wired that same way and that spilled into you know four great years of living in mountain culture and you know like you have all these adventures with really eclectic people. We were drinking from a fountain of knowledge from all these different walks of life. And it was like, it was what college was for a lot of people. Our college was the mountains.

And I wouldn't change a thing about it. He helped push that. He was the instigator. He was like, if he was here in this room we wouldn't have any room to talk because he'd be just telling stories and probably having a beer to you know stay animated and he was just this life of the party we're turning 25 and all of our friends from high school this is Winchester Massachusetts have all graduated college half of them are married they They all have real jobs. Real jobs.

Real jobs. Glenn and I are waiting tables at a restaurant. I'm getting some free snowboards now. Like I'm sponsored. And Glenn's like, you know, I haven't made it as a pro skier yet. If I haven't made it by the time I turn 25, I'm going to join the Navy and become a Navy SEAL.

Now, keep in mind, this is in 1995, right? So 94 into 95. The only thing we knew about Navy SEALs back then was a Charlie Sheen movie that we rented on VHS to watch just to learn about what this career path was. But this was Glenn. It was the next big adventure. I want to see what I'm made of.

I want to see what this next challenge can be and i'm like all right well i'm gonna go back to college like that's what was my big challenge i was like well i i kind of made it like i'm getting paid to snowboard i'm getting all this free stuff like i'm living the dream that we came out here to live glenn was an incredibly talented skier but it just it didn't line up like you know it wasn't there but he's like yeah you know i met these navy seals he was in costa rica on a surf trip in between the ski season like on one summer he went down there for a little while he's like i met these guys and you know they kind of got in my head and they told me i got what it takes i'm like all right you serious about this he's like yeah don't tell anyone

like ski bomb culture is very different than like a lot of different cultures like everyone's stoned everyone's stone and if you're not stoned you're going to get stoned or you're you know you're it's just a very party forward you know love the outdoors lifestyle and he's like yeah man they won't get it like like all right well tell me when you're ready i drove him down to the recruiter walked in there with him signed all his paperwork like okay like you tell me when you're gone he's like leaving in two months and that was it boom he like told everyone had a big going away party for him and what 10 months later i'm going to his buds graduation wow and like that's the kind of guy he was like he would set his mind to this goal and he would

accomplish it long-term goal did all the work leading up to it right he started doing all the push-ups started doing all the training all that all that stuff like that he could know to do but there was no internet there wasn't even dial-up back then it was just i rented this movie i met these guys and i want to do that and i served 10 years at seal team three and every time he wasn't deployed he would come back out to Utah. So I was there for a couple more years. And then we just, every chance we got, it was like getting the band back together. Like, you know, it was my brother, really. And when I got done snowboarding for a living, like I was like 29, I was winding it down.

And I just graduated from school. And I was like, okay, I got to take this next chapter. You know, I might join the State Department. I think that sounds like a fun job. I can still travel. I can do all these adventurous things. And Glenn's off in Iraq right now or doing some crazy shit. And at that point, 9-11 had happened.

So there's this big pivot in our nation's history. I had gotten a degree in political science. So I was like, snowboarding was great for me. But I'm ready to do something totally different. Like what's this next challenge. And my best buddy lives in San Diego is down to seal team three lives in Coronado. And I ended up getting a job.

I got recruited by Burton snowboards. So I thought I was going to the state department and I ended up getting a phone call from a buddy and he's like, Hey, you know, a Burton is a new team manager and you've been in snowboarding for a long time. I'm like, you know how to, you know how to do this. And I'm like, I don't know, man.

Like I've made up my mind, but I'll interview for it. Sure. Like, let's find out. So I end up going through the interview and I think your best interviews are the ones when you don't really give a fuck. Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can just kind of say it like it is like, well, this is what I would do and I would do this. And, you know, like, I don't care if you don't like give a fuck. Yeah. Yeah, you can just kind of say it like it is.

Like, well, this is what I would do, and I would do this. And I'm like, I don't care if you don't like it, because I know I'm right. And there's a certain amount of probably cockiness in that, and they end up giving me a job offer. And it wasn't just like a job offer. It was like paid twice as much as what the State Department was going to make.

Like a career. And I was like, oh, well, this is different. Amazing. And I'm like, well, I already know this world. It's right there. And I'm going to travel. Travel was kind of key to me. Like I wanted to keep having these life adventures

and snowboarding brought that to me. And I was able to go to Europe and Alaska and like New Zealand and all these places that I would never have been able to go to if it wasn't for the sport. I was like, I can keep doing that. And someone else is going to pay for it. And I'm going to make more money

than I ever thought humanly possible. So the job was to move to Encinitas, California, and work with a young teenage kid named Sean White. Holy shit. I'm like, holy shit. Dude, layers to this game. Wow. Layers.

So I'm like, all right. So next thing you know, my best buddy is down in Coronado. So I already knew people from him. All of his SEAL buddies are my buddies. So we all would hang out on the weekends. And it was like, all right, cool. I got to take this kid, Sean, around and make sure he does his homework. He's like 14 or 15, maybe.

Yeah, it was like 15, 16, 17. So he hadn't gotten his license at the beginning, but I think he had it right at the very end. He didn't want to drive. He was scared shitless to drive. Hell, I have fun. That sounds really interesting yeah yeah so sean was awesome like i got to work with him and kathy and the raj and like i'm still on that he was scared with what he does he was fucking scared to drive didn't want to drive didn't want to drive wow okay can't explain it okay but chuck himself off a mountain all day long so it was it was phenomenal because then

all of a sudden now i am going to the X Games and I'm going to these huge snowboard competitions. They're nationally televised, and I'm the guy standing behind the athlete rubbing the shoulders being like, you got this. This is going to be great. And then Glenn's down at SEAL Team 3, and he's like, I saw you on ESPN last night. That was amazing.

I'm like, yeah, we called them BGPs back then. Background props. You want to be seen on TV and see like, you know, which of your friends noticed you, but you're literally just wallpaper. You're just there to make sure the kid like straps in his bindings, goes down and does his thing. But it was amazing. It was like grad school for snowboarding. I mean, I learned so much from my time at Burton that, I mean, quite frankly, I think I still apply parts of it today. It's been 20 years, 20 years ago. So working with Sean then, seeing him now was just, it's awesome. Like this kind of watching that whole career arc.

And we talked about it. Like I remember when he was 16, I was like, hey, what do you want to do? Like you don't want to be in competitions forever. Like you want to go ride powder. You want to go like explore the mountains. And he's like, yeah, I want to be in competitions forever like you want to go ride powder you want to go like explore the mountains and he's like yeah i want to win every single contest so i can do whatever the fuck i want and i was like lethal good and he's had that energy with him his entire career um so it's super cool and then like i mean i'll never forget in 2002 or 2003 we had a christmas dinner at my house uh my mom had rented a house in Utah.

Glenn flew out. He was between deployments. So it's like Navy SEAL at the dinner table. I'm at the dinner table. My mom's at the dinner table. And Sean and his older brother Jesse were in Park City, and they had nowhere to go for Christmas dinner. And I'm like, well, that's not cool.

Like, come on over for Christmas dinner. So Jesse drove Sean. Sean wasn't driving. And they come over for Christmas dinner. And now to this day, my mom's like, remember when Sean White had Christmas dinner. So, you know, Jesse drove Sean, but Sean wasn't driving. And they come over for Christmas dinner. And now to this day, my mom's like, remember when Sean White had Christmas dinner with us? I'm like, yes, mom, I do. He was so sweet. He was such a nice little boy.

So, I mean, those were just, that was kind of the world that I was, I kind of fell into after snowboarding was this mashup of my best buddies in Navy SEAL. So there's this militant like, you know, side of things. And then it's all action sports athletes. So I went from Burton and then I worked for ESPN's X Games for a number of years. And then from that, I worked briefly with Tony Hawk. I managed one of his

skate park tours. And then I ended up rolling up at DC Shoes, which is Quicksilver. And I manage their surf, snow, moto, BMX program. So I was just kind of in this action sports world for over a decade. And all the while, my best buddies deploying overseas, coming back. And it was cool. We were able to just kind of keep the band together, this tight knit crew. And Glenn was always the epicenter of it. So like that gym crew and Glenn was always the epicenter of it. So like that gym setting right there, that was at a gym called seal fit. So I'm by Mark divine and Glenn and I rolled into that gym in 2008.

Glenn had discovered this new sport called the CrossFit and he was, he was overseas on, well understand 14 years ago, if you were into CrossFit in 2006, 2007, 2008, you're an old dog in that sport. And I remember we were trying to do CrossFit at the Encinitas YMCA. This is the YMCA that's famous because it's got a vert ramp where Tony Hawk was learning how to do the 900. It's that spot.

And we're in there in the gym trying to learn how to do kipping pull-ups, which is basically like watching two grown men have an epileptic seizure on a pull-up bar. And like, that was us like these kids be watching. I was like, what are these two doing? And cheating on those pull-ups.

You're not wrong. Are they even doing pull-ups? Yeah. It's cheating. No, they're just wiggling around like a couple of worms over there. So we're, we're doing this in this family gym, the family YMCA. And then one day Glenn's like, hey, there's a gym in town that's owned by a Navy SEAL.

His name's Mark. Mark needs us to work out at his gym. And I'm like, okay, whatever. So he's like, we're going there and like now glenn's animated he's fired up glenn also never liked to pay retail for anything so glenn rolls right up to the seal fit gym walks in like like everyone should know who he is he's like hey i'm glenn i'm a navy seal you need me to work out at your gym i make your gym valid because i'm a Navy SEAL. You need me to work out at your gym. I make your gym valid because I'm a Navy SEAL. And I'm like, yeah, I'm friends with the Navy SEAL.

You need me here too. And literally, Mark's like, this is awesome. I do need a Navy SEAL here. And next thing you know, Glenn's coaching class is at the gym, and I just kind of slid under the radar. And a year goes by, and I'm not getting Navy SEAL here. And next thing you know, Glenn's coaching class is at the gym. And I just kind of slid under the radar. And a year goes by, and I'm not getting charged to work out there. And the CrossFit gym memberships, they're expensive, right? I got my day job.

I'm the marketing director at DC Shoes. So I'm kind of like wearing two different hats. I'm like my secret gym life at 6 o'clock in the morning. And then I go in and do the whole marketing gig. And the more I did it and the more i liked it the more just i was just into it and there was a culture behind it it was kind of the mark divine seal fit mental toughness model and it was just sort of creeping in it was just sort of chipping in and the more i got into it the more i liked it and i realized like i was learning more about Glenn during those experiences,

like 2008, 2009. And, you know, at that point we're roommates, we're two guys, we'd both gotten married, we'd both gotten divorced. And now we're two dudes turning 40, running around with all these young bucks. And I remember Mark Devine one day finally comes up to me. He's like, hey man, look it, You've been working out here for over a year. You got to go get your certification or something. Can you just go do something? I need you to coach a class here just to justify it. He's like, I don't want to charge

you. I mean, in hindsight, I'm like, that's a horrible business model, but it worked out great for me. So I did. And Mark also, kind of likeenn like when you're around someone that does you know they carry an intense fire inside of them when they ask you to do something they're not really asking you they're just telling you to and so i'm like okay mark i'll go get my level one crossfit certification and this is where things get a little stupid for me and there's a couple of names to drop in here because i didn't know any of this at the time i was just doing what i was told but i go to do my level one crossfit certification and there's this guy you know rory mccernan is there who's a big tv

personality in crossfit rory had coached at the u.s crossfit gym small world and then there's this guy greg glassman there and dave castro and a couple of the people that were all part of the ownership team or the original ownership of CrossFit. And I meet them all as the marketing director of the Skateshoe brand, which they thought was really cool. And I was just like, I think you get what you guys do really cool. I can't even relate to it, but I'm going to learn how to do the different movements and so i can coach classes because that's what i'm supposed to do and a couple months goes by i get my level one cert now i'm a proud teacher and i'm coaching like you know one class a week glenn's around when he's not deployed that was kind of his deal he was in for three months out for three months and the whole CrossFit thing just became a culture to us.

Like it became this, like our, our second group of friends. I was like, man, all my friends are snowboarders. All my friends are, are mountain bums and like,

you know, surfers. And like, that's the, that's the culture I identify with. If you're not wearing a pair of Vans shoes, like I don't, I don't really get you or DCs at the time.

Yeah. Um, I had to say that. So, so all of a sudden there's this whole gym life and I'm like, I'm really fucking loving it because I'm figuring stuff out. I'm learning all over again. Like we were talking about earlier,

like I, this kettlebell swing, like there's so many different ways to do it that are incredibly inefficient or efficient. Wow. I want, like I want to learn that flow. I want to figure out like how to,

how to do that. Oh, and as a byproduct, I'm snowboarding better than I have in years. My stamina, the physicality of the sport, I'm not trying as hard as I was before. Whoa, there's a couple things getting unlocked at the same time.

And hell, look good naked. The whole package is in there. So Glenn and I are now now like this is our life like we're fitness in the morning chugging beers in the afternoon like you saw in that video and just loving it and he was that central force in all that so you know i i wouldn't take anything back from that because that helped forge a path with mark divine with untapping into like what you're made of mentally. And if we hadn't found that gym or we weren't in Encinitas,

that maybe that wouldn't have happened. I'd argue to say this company wouldn't be started. Yeah. Hands down. Hands down. That gym was straight up the conduit to he and I reconnecting a couple of times. My first foray in the meeting, Sean,

not to hijack your story was I was in a, an upper loft of a retail store and he popped up as the DC shoe guy. What year was this? Oh, God. 2012? I mean, if you really want to rewind like super weird stuff, we've been in the same room since I was like 14 years old,

like multiple times through our history. I was buying for a surf shop. We'd be shoulder to shoulder at a concert, had no idea. Recap that when we started the company. I was like, wait a minute. You were here? So was I. Oh, my God.

Look it. I got this from that party or whatever. Like, yeah, weird stuff. The ski industry trade show. It was called the SIA, Snow Sports Industry of America. It has an annual trade show where everyone pours out all their new equipment for the next year. So you're unveiling your entire equipment line. It's like K2 and Rossignol, DC, Bird.

Like all the giant companies from the ski and snowboard world. It's where they unveil everything. And then all the buyers from all the stores at, you know, REI to, you know, your little mom and pop snowboard shop, it's where they all do their buying. So it's a really important show. And then every night there's some giant party where, you know, all of these different like social distortions going to play one night or like just big bands would always play one night or like just

big bands would always play and i'm like oh did you go to that social d show in 05 and he's like fuck yeah i was there and you know he was like yeah i was 15 i got snuck in the back door or whatever it was meant to be straight up right really weird but all that saying like i met i met sean as i was working at a retail store basically doing some e-com stuff he was working at dc and he was the weird guy in encinitas at the time putting on fatigues and a white shirt and going to work out with the seal freight crew and i was just like oh those dudes carry logs down the down the 101 i'm i'm out don't want to talk about this stuff and you know and then i find fitness six seven years

later because that was probably when i was like 25 26 just moved out to california find fitness a little bit later after cycling and stuff and And then we reconnect actually in a gym, not too far down the road from where SealFit was and hanging out with him. And I was like, hey man, how you doing? Remember you coached that one camp I was in? Like hang out and let's work out. And that's what happened. We literally met in the gym, rekindled in the gym and kept going. And Bubz pretty much started in one of three gyms probably in encinitas yeah i mean the seal fit thing the the amount of stress you put your body through in different workouts so you guys already know this but like what mark was creating was these

weekend long events he called them kakoros um and he did a couple different versions of but the real meat and potatoes was you're training up to put yourself through between 50 and say 55 hours of consecutive training to simulate that Navy SEAL hell week. And he built a business around these camps and he would do one or two of them a year and he would bring in a bunch of former Navy SEALs. Glenn was one of the early coaches there and he would basically mimic what a Hell Week experience was. Total confusion, mass overload, team building,

build you up, tear you down, build you up, tear you down. No sleep. Zero sleep. Didn't know that going into it. It's just another story. And so that was Mark's kind of centerpiece. And you've got a bunch of 18 to 25-year-old kids that are testing themselves.

They're paying a couple thousand dollars to go through this experience to teach them what they're made of. So it's like a self-development type thing. It's not meant to just get in shape. It's like, are you enough for this? Are you mad enough for this? Yeah. It's more mental than physical. You're going to do 5,000 push-ups whether you like it or not.

Your weekend is going to be total hell, and you're going to be in an ice bath. You're going to have a hose sprayed in your face. You're going to have sand covered all over your body. You are going to get into the ocean and freeze and you're going to just do it or you're going to quit and you don't get a refund. No refunds. I wonder what that would look like with a whoop band on, you know? Red line. A lot of red line. Full strength. Have you sleep deprived on purpose too, right?

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. 100%. It's all part of it. So I coached at the SEAL. So I was doing like those 6 a.m. classes and I'm working my day job at DC. And Glenn and the rest of the SEAL fit crew, this is like 2010, are like, hey, you got to go through the Kokoro. You got to do that. I'm like, no, I don't.

I'm not going into the military. I don't need to do any of that shit. Fuck you for even suggesting it, quite frankly. And then a month goes by and they keep chipping away at me, keep chipping away at me, keep chipping away at me, and finally one day I'm like, sure, I'll do it. Let's go. Like, fine. Anything to get you guys to shut up.

And they're like, like oh sean's doing it we're doing the camp so me and my my really good friend danny miller are like we're doing this thing together and dan is like now at this point i think he's like the head coach at seal fit and he's just a little mean badger little bastard and danny miller and i go through this whole weekend camp. So the day of, the morning of the SEAL Fit camp, I'm looking around, and I'm like, so where do we sleep? And everyone's kind of looking at me like, right up there.

See where that apartment is? Yeah, you sleep up there. I'm like, oh, okay. Huh, when do we sleep? And I had no idea. I didn't do any of the research. I coached a fitness, okay. Huh. When do we sleep? And I had no idea. Like I didn't do any of the research. I coached a fitness class at the gym. I did the seal fit operator workouts.

I wore the camis. We carried the logs. We did all those things as part of a functional fitness programming. But those lasted like two hours. It was like a big two hours, but it was two hours. Whoop, through the roof. And then you go home and go to sleep so i was woefully unprepared for that experience um but all of a sudden like you're just in it and

next thing you know there's a hose in my face and someone's fucking screaming at you and you're getting barked at next thing you know like you know shit's flying everywhere and then it's two hours later and then it's four hours later than Like, okay, cool, now you're going to do MRF, which is this big historic workout, and you have to do it under this time clock. But you've already been working for six hours. And then you're going to go climb a mountain. And not like a little mountain.

It's like 20-something miles. But you're going to go rock right up it. And that's going to take you about, I don't know, say nine. Eleven hours, yeah. I'll get to eat, drink drink stuff a little bit right yeah a little bit yeah i mean i i've shot out to mark like he's always had good medical around to keep people in line because i mean at that point like you do have a lot of people that prepared and unprepared and put a lot of people through seven eight hours of that it's not a marathon anymore

you're going we really got to make sure people are hydrated we really got to make sure people are fed like there's going to be people that are falling apart, like wheels fully blown off real quick in six, seven hours. So to clarify, this is a 55 hour thing. Yeah. It's about 55. It starts Friday. It started Friday at like, say, you know, 1 PM and it ended Sunday late afternoon. So, so I go through this thing and I mean, I'm, I was curious about it enough and mostly just get my friends to shut up. Then I'm in it. And then I'm like, I'm going to quit.

I don't need this. What the hell am I doing this for? Uber's right outside. And all of a sudden, you get your buddy next to you, and you're like, no, no, no, man, you're not quitting. I'm like, you talked me into this. And then all of a sudden, you're like, all right, I can make it another hour. And then all of a sudden, my best buddy who talked to me, Danny Miller,

is like, yo, man, I'm out. I'm done. This is stupid. And I'm like, fuck you. We're in it. And that's it. All of a sudden, I'm like, he wants to leave. I want to leave.

But there are different times. All of a sudden, you're pulling yourselves together. And all of a sudden, there's some other guy over there that you don't even really know. He's got his name stenciled across him. He's having a hard time. And all of a sudden there's some other guy over there that you don't even really know he's got his name stenciled across him he's having a hard time and all of a sudden you're helping him out and all of a sudden this little glue starts to form through all this adversity all this stress i'm like oh i kind of getting this feel for what glenn went through and it's actually like pulling me a little bit closer to what what he's experienced. And at least he was getting paid to do it.

But, you know, like I go through the whole weekend. I make it through the other side. Like I make it through the whole 55 hours and I'm just like, man, whoa. And I've been unpacking it for years. Like those different moments, those different moments of weakness, strength, where do you get it from? How do you work as a team? How do you develop that?

So it all kind of comes back to that much earlier question but like those are all things i've learned along the way and then you develop them and you you realize those moments when you should be just going one foot in front of the other one evolution in front of the other just make it one little bit make it one little bit don't quit don't fucking quit whatever you do don't quit and and that's not like that's not stupidity talking that's determination that's resiliency that's tapping into things that we all have inside of us and and applying it i remember like getting to the other side of the camp and just being like i was so relieved on one level i slept amazingly yeah And I've been using those lessons ever since. And I remember like I got an email from Glenn like a week later.

He was deployed. He wasn't even around. He was in Iraq or somewhere. And he writes an email like, hey, man, like I talked to Mark. I heard you guys made it through. And to me and Danny Miller. And he's just like, I'm so fucking proud of you guys. Like now you've got a little window into what it's like,

what it's like to be on my side of things and our side of things he's like you guys would have been great at this job if you'd ever chosen to do so like i'm so glad to have you guys through that and it's just like ultimate awesome bonding stuff to pull from and you pull from that time and time again so tj glossed over an important part for him tj signed up to go through the Kokoro camp. Now I went through mine in 2010 and then I was an instructor. So I actually was one of the, Danny Miller and I were like the only two civilian instructors working arm and arm with a bunch of former Navy SEALs. So that was a big honor to me. It was like, hey, I can come in and they're granting me these evolutions to coach these guys through it. And I'm like, I'm not even qualified. Like you guys have done the real shit.

I'm just some weekend warrior, like just trying to be fit. And it was really, it was an awesome experience. TJ comes through it. So that same guy that introduced us, our buddy Tim Swart, shoots me a note and he's like, hey, you're going to see this name Ferrara stenciled across one of those chests. Make sure you give him an extra special good time.

And I'm like, okay. They paid it for it. they paid it for it so yeah i hammered him all that weekend so you did huh so when we got reconnected at the gym a year later he's like oh you don't remember me i remember you yeah yeah i got i got preferential treatment it was uh it was a great experience. Yeah. But you do. You learn a lot from those experiences. Glenn, you know, again, lightning rod around all of us, best storytelling, like life of the party. And he served 10 years in the SEALs. When he got out, he started contracting.

Very common line of work. You know, you've been active duty, and now you're sort of looking for that what's next thing yeah so like for me in snowboarding when i got done snowboarding i i had options and i felt like i knew like hey i'm leaving this career path behind me i can't do that job anymore snowboarding was awesome i'm gonna go work in the industry okay like it was enough of a transition that it felt natural and i was able to figure it out. But a lot of these active duty guys don't, and they don't have a great support network. There wasn't that job waiting for them right on the back end that really kind of scratched the itch that that specific line of

service, you know, hits on pretty good. So Glenn started contracting for the Central Intelligence Agency, and he was part of the GRS team, and he was providing security all over the world. So he'd be in Afghanistan. He would be in Iraq. He was in Mexico City. He'd be in Beirut. And every deployment was different, and the pay was like three times what he was getting

while he was active duty. So all of a sudden, he's not broke anymore. Because remember, he got a divorce in the middle of all that and that's not cheap. And so when we were roommates, he'd leave and he'd be like, now I'm going to make like $150,000 this year. I made 50 when I was active duty.

And I'm like, that's really hard to say. No, that's kryptonite money. Like you get stuck in that mode. Well, the job kept getting harder and Glenn kept getting older. So all of a sudden, like I said,

we're two guys turning 40. We're both going through this whole like great, you know, fitness world where we're trying to be the best versions of ourselves in the gym and like just have that energy. But those are still 18 hour days in full combat gear,

running around, doing the job. And in September of 2012, we had this big talk right before what was supposed to be his last deployment. He's like, man, I got a plan. I know what I'm going to do. This is after five, six years of maybe I'll go back and become a pilot.

Maybe I'll go and become a firefighter. Maybe I'll do this. There was all different ideas and none of them stuck. And it's like, okay, I'm going to become a firefighter. Maybe I'll do this. Like there was all different ideas and none of them stuck. And it's like, okay, I'm going to become a physician's assistant. I'm going to go to school at the University of Utah and move back to Salt Lake.

It's going to be really tight. I'm going to just budget tight and I'm going to get my degree. This will be my last deployment. And he was stationed in Tripoli. So Tripoli in 2012, it was right after the fall of Gaddafi, and U.S. forces weren't allowed in.

So they had to navigate a bunch of paperwork with the CIA, and next thing you know, he's stationed in Tripoli. And this is like September 6th, 7th. It was right after Labor Day. We had a big shindig thrown away. And I'd sent Glenn off to the airport, I don't know how many times, like a dozen.

And in all of those times, this was the one that felt different. And I can't get all woo-woo on it other than to say it just was different. And I just remember talking to him about it all the way right out the door. Like, hey, man, be careful over there. Be careful. He touches base with me right while he's over there,

writing emails back and forth. Like, hey, don't kill my fucking plants. And make sure you keep everything going in the house. And all of a sudden, it's 9-11. And it's 11 years after the 9-11. it's 9-11. And it's 11 years after the 9-11. It's 9-11. And something pops up on the news right before bed. And it's like, oh, a terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya is happening.

And I'm like, all right, this is like the last thing I'm seeing on the news. I fired Glenn off a quick email. I still have it. It's like, hey, Glenn, man, be careful over there. Like some weird stuff's going down. And I think I Google mapped it or something to look at. I'm like, oh, Benghazi is like three hours away from Tripoli. Glenn's not anywhere.

And there's water in between. It's fine. Yeah. He's ways away from that. I wake up the next morning and it's all over the news. Like terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. There's a US ambassador. Chris Stevens is, you know,

no one knows where he is. And everything is kind of unknown. You know what it's like in those real-life news cycles. You're just getting fed little inches of information. And I go to the gym. Go to Danny Miller's gym down in Del Mar. And go get a workout in.

And I'm leaving the gym. And, you know, like I'd gotten a phone call that morning from one of Glenn's old teammates. This guy, Brandon Webb and Brandon's like, yo man, like, you know,

there's some weird stuff's going on, but don't worry. Like Glenn's in Tripoli. Like he's way far away from it, but I'm like, yeah, it's pinging your radar. It's pinging my radar. Like,

okay. And I'm leaving the gym and my phone rings and it's a phone number I don't recognize. It's a local area code, but it's not a number. Normally nine times out of 10, I don't answer that call.

That's what voicemail is for. You haven't figured out to be in my address book. I'm not answering it. And some little voice just said, answer this one. So I answered the phone and I was like,

is this Sean Lake? Yes. I need you to return to your home at 165 Rodney immediately and I'm like okay and I hung up the phone I'm sure there were other details I don't remember those I just remember driving home and I'm like absolutely white knuckled and I'm like oh fuck okay not drawing any conclusions yet Glenn's hours away from there, man. Like no negative talk, any of that shit. No, we're good.

I pull up to my house and there's two black SUVs parked directly in front of my house. This is straight out of the movie shit. And both all the doors pop open and a half dozen CIA operatives in black suits, black ties, like the whole thing are standing out front. And I'm like, how bad is it? And they're like, let's go in and sit down and

talk. And they just broke it down. They're like, this is what we can tell you. Glenn responded to the attacks in Benghazi. He made it from Tripoli. It was a three-hour flight down to Benghazi. And Glenn was killed saving all those lives. I'm like, how? He died from a mortar attack on the rooftop. We're still getting details in. We're still very fresh. And so what I've learned since then,

and anyone who's seen the movie 13 Hours, or you might remember when Hillary Clinton got in a boatload of trouble for that and those you know all those congressional hearings was that yeah there's there's well that i mean that's definitely the hollywood take on it i'd like to say it was that beautiful over there but none of the photos i saw were um but yeah i mean glenn glenn was stationed in tripoli the cia annex in benghazi was you know a small little outpost they were all there to like you know i think trying to mitigate shoulder fire missiles or something like that from getting in the wrong hands because it was such an unstable government and when the attacks happened at the state department consulate state department

consulate in benghazi called the CIA annex in Benghazi and were like, yeah, we're under fire. We need some help. So that was the start of it. CIA annex says, well, we've got to call up to Tripoli and let the big bosses know that's where Glenn was. Glenn was up in Tripoli and the whole stand down order thing came through. And that's largely true.

There was definitely that, like, Hey, don't jump in and do anything yet. That doesn't really work with a bunch of war fighters. So for Glenn's side, he's like beating his head against the wall. And this is one of my favorite parts of this,

which wouldn't be in a movie or that was Glenn's efforts to get from Tripoli down to Benghazi. Keep in mind, it's a three hour plane ride. So it's not like you're just hopping in the car and rolling down there, was that he was trying to call his bank in the United States to pull out all of his money

and wire it to a local sheik in Tripoli to rent his plane, tens of thousands of dollars, to hop into that plane to fly it down to Benghazi. Like bananas. That's Glenn right there. That gesture of running to help his friends at all costs is my best friend. And his bosses eventually relented. They found a plane.

Glenn didn't have to dip into a savings account to do it. He jumps in there with some Delta Force guys and some other special operators, and he flies from Tripoli down to Benghazi. annex just long enough to apply first aid and help a bunch of guys out that were all banged up from the from the other annex get them healed up jump up on that rooftop and start giving it to the bad guys before they eventually got him and you know that i'm not going to watch that but that part of it the fact that he went into the fight that that he chose, he pulled everything that he could to go in there and stand by his friends, his teammates, and save all those lives. It's a fire that still lights me up today. I'm like, no matter what I'm going through, how bad can it be? And you have this example that brought so many people light. Glenn was this lighthearted, loving individual,

but he would move mountains to help you out. If you needed something, he's there. And man, we could all use that in a best friend, right? So yeah, now we have a company that we get to remember him by and hopefully inspire others to just do something beyond themselves, live a better life, just push yourself a little bit farther, go enjoy the great outdoors, go, you know, go use this body for what it was meant to.

So, yeah, that was my buddy Glenn. Do you have any, like, family that was? Yeah, and I should say, actually, to tie that back in, his call sign in the Navy was Bub. Okay. So that's why we call the company Bub's Naturals. It's a tribute to Glenn and the things that he stood for. And so when Glenn died, I was the executor of his estate.

I was in charge of all of his legal affairs, the power of attorney, all that stuff, which is a little uncommon. Normally, if he was married, it would have been his wife, but he wasn't. If he was married, it would have been his wife, but he wasn't. So we had had this big ceremonial exchange of like, hey, man, when I die, you get all my debt. You get all my crap. All right, well, same for you. And so we both, we made our wills out to each other,

and my wife was actually the witness to sign off on that stuff back then. It was all very lighthearted, but Glenn, he didn't choose to say, I want all my belongings to go to my – he had an older brother and a younger sister just like my family was set up and his mom and dad were both still alive yeah he's like no i want you to take all my stuff and i want you to throw the most amazing party ever i mean go send it and then anything that's left over, I want you to use it to take our friends surfing and skiing and take them on epic adventures. So to this day, I've worked with the same financial advisor. I took Glenn's – after Glenn passed, we settled the estate and did all that. And I pray no one ever has to go through that experience of dealing with the red tape like debt and reconciling credit cards and bank

accounts and all that crap but i got through it and i said okay i know what glenn asked me to do but it doesn't sit right with me like i don't need glenn's money to like do this sort of thing i said i think glenn's family could use that as a way to remember him by. So we took the money and we divided it by four. Gave his mom, his brother, and his sister. Each got three quarters of what was left over in Glenn's estate. It wasn't much. We're talking like a couple thousand dollars here. And then I'm going to take the rest of it and I'm going to invest it.

And I'm going to use our – Glenn and I share the same financial advisor. This guy, Tim Payne out of Utah. And I'm like, Tim, you got to grow this money. And we're going to go have epic adventures with this money. And to this day, we're almost 10 years since Benghazi now. I challenge him every year. I'm like, if you can get this account over this amount of money, I'll take you heli-skiing.

Better do your job. Mike might be vying for this one. Mike Niddle now. He's listening in. But it was, you know, I mean, it was a unique thing to not have his family involved, but they're still involved. Kate, Glenn's little sister, it was her idea to start the Glenn Doherty Memorial Foundation. So keeping Glenn's memory alive was something that was very, very important to us. Like we didn't want to lose his memory.

He was too bright in the room, man. He was too much of that, like that influence for all of us. So foundation made sense, right? Like people die, you start a foundation. And we're like, well, what was the problem that Glenn couldn't solve for? And this is where Kate was like, she just, she nailed it. She's like, well, he never figured out what he was going to do next. So why don't we put a tool in the tool chest to help special operators and their families figure that out?

Fill gaps in the GI Bill. Help pile it on with scholarships so that they can actually get that transition out, educate themselves, and reenter the workforce. So it's one small foundation out there that are just trying to do good things. And his family can be a part of that and celebrate that. small foundation out there that are just trying to do good things. And, you know, like his family can be a part of that and celebrate that. And they get to celebrate it by seeing scholarship recipients, get that money, go to flight school, go get your MBA, go do whatever that thing is.

And then go on with it and know that you're playing a small role in helping someone achieve a better result. It's kind of like coaching, right? Like I learned something from you today and I relish those opportunities to learn. And I know as a teacher, when I get to share things once in a while, I love those. Like it's so satiating in a way that I never knew was possible

until I started practicing it. What was the initiation of like starting the actual company? So my wife's a little bit younger than I am. My wife, Heather, is 14 years younger than I am. And in 2017, we had a one-year-old and she was pregnant with our second. And she's a newscaster. So she is an on-air personality

with Fox News down in San Diego. And she came home from one of her segments and she said, hey, I just discovered collagen protein. And you're going to start taking this because your knees sound like wrinkled up newspaper when you walk up a flight of stairs. And you're not getting any younger. And I need to preserve your old ass. And it was true. Like I was 44, 45 years old.

I was slowing down in the gym. I was having a lot of aches and pains. He was broken. No, it's true. He just wants to add that in. No, no, I'll call it. I was slowing down in the gym. I was having a lot of aches and pains. He was broken. No, it's true. He just wants to add that in. No, no, I'll call it because we were working out together and it was like, okay, let's get some Penley Rose or something and 135 and it's just shattering. And I'm like, oh, dude, you got spine issues.

There's something going on here. And then just, you know, work stress. We were kind of work dating before with a different project and it was just compounding and I could just,'m like oh yeah dude you're this is the midlife that i don't want to live that sucks like you look like you're hurting right now it wasn't hurting just straight hurting like somebody was really uncomfortable lifting you're like you don't want to just stop doing that but but that's not going to happen when it's two dudes in a garage right it's like no keep going you're doing fine so well college and turned them

around so yeah i mean we we've been working on a couple of projects and heather just you know i i do what my wife says okay successful rule to marriage maybe just listen to your wife um but she's like no i heard this is supposed to be great for your joints i'm like college i'm like that's the stuff that like porn stars inject into their lips like that's what i think of yep yep thank you so i'm like okay apparently now it comes in a powder form and this was all new to me and she said look at i did some reading it's heat tolerant just put it in your coffee in the morning i drink coffee every day no problem so i throw in my coffee dissolves in drink it week goes by drink it i'm just doing it

every day i will burn through this jar and to me as a supplement skeptic, it will not work. So I don't really care, but I'll do your little experiment and it'll be cute. And I go three weeks into it and I'm like, where are the nail clippers? And why am I asking where the nail clippers are? What the hell's happening? But I had a data point and I was like, this is interesting. Now, I wasn't doing anything else diet wise. There wasn't any other change. Like we eat very similar style, kind of paleo Mediterranean style foods. There wasn't any like wild extra supplementation going on. So you're already like pretty healthy at like, as far as your nutrition, all that stuff at this point. Yes. Yeah. So, so that part I dialed in like after 40. So the beer

chugging pull-up contest was awesome, but we balanced that with a pretty good, healthy diet. And Heather is certainly a huge proponent of just good eating habits. Like, it's not like we didn't have pizza, you know, on the beach with friends. Like there's always those, you know, those moments where, Hey, like, like this is fun too, but nine meals out of 10, yeah, you're eating pretty, pretty squared away. So this was the big change was adding this collagen into my diet so three weeks in fingernails are growing like crazy and i noticed that like this is weird then about a week later i needed a haircut and i just got in a haircut but i'm like i need another haircut okay and it was at the two month mark was like and i had an absolutely

epiphanal whole shit experience where we had to pack up my one-year-old my pregnant wife and fly from san diego to boston coach class in the back i'm six foot three my knees are practically up in my chest and i am fumble fucking around with all the accessories you need for a small child and i mean like i can't believe how much crap you got to bring to keep this small human alive and And I get off the airplane and I'm walking out and I'm like, oh my God, I feel great. And Heather's like, that's nice, dear. I'm like, no, no, no, you don't understand. Like, I feel amazing right now.

Yeah. What is in that collagen? And she's like, collagen? I'm like, my knees don't hurt at all. Like, I feel awesome. So for me, it felt very instantaneous. But the fact is it took two months for me, you know, of taking this product consistently every single day. And right then I knew I was in for life. So a couple more months goes by, I feel better and better and better. I'm running, I'm squatting, I'm throwing

up some weight around again, you know, for me. And I'm like, oh my God, like this is, I feel better and better and better. I'm running. I'm squatting. I'm throwing up some weight around again for me. And I'm like, oh my God, this is, I feel like I just got 10 years back in my life. That's when TJ comes over to the house. Mr. Money over here, just thinking in a completely different fashion than where I am, rolls over to the house and he's like, oh, you take that college and stuff, huh?

I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It's amazing. I just, I start gushing about how great I feel. He's like, cool, you take that college and stuff, huh? I'm like, oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's amazing. I just, I start gushing about how great I feel. He's like, cool. We should start a company. I'm like, I got a one-year-old in diapers crawling around behind me and you want to start a company right now? I don't think so, man.

Meanwhile, in the back of my head, I'm like, no, dude, you got a fat Rolodex. I'm going to leverage that whole thing. But he, I mean, full disclosure, I was, I've been in e-commerce my entire life, 25 years, just selling stuff online. I just know how to make a register ring on the computer. About three years prior, as collagen was starting to come up in terms of, hey, there's a new supplement on the market. What's it do? Apple cider vinegar gummies, same thing. We watched a big ramp up with that. Well, collagen, we were kind of in the middle of that ramp up. And I happened to be doing an Amazon arbitrage business at the time out of my garage with another collagen and MCT brand. And I was doing really good, like really

good, very lucrative. And all of a sudden I was like, wait a minute. Oh, he's into that. We were already work dating, pitching 20 projects. We had a bunch of consulting stuff up and literally it was like one of those days where you're like, man, if all of these hit, we're going to have a great year and this is going to be super fun. None of them hit.

Like one day happened and they all shut down, like 30 projects at once. They're just like, nope, can't afford it. Nope, not going to do it. Changing a different direction, whatever. And I was just like, oh God. So the next morning, walk over to his like, nope, can't afford it. Nope, not going to do it. Change in a different direction, whatever. And I was just like, oh God. So the next morning,

walk over to his house, Scott Collagen on the table. Cool, let's start a company. Me knowing, oh yeah, we can really ramp this thing up and it's going to be fine. Never did a CPG business before.

I was always reselling. So from there, it was just like a learning curve, trial by fire. It was like, okay, cool. I know how to run online. We know a little bit

about manufacturing. Let's go. It was, yeah, I mean, it was full okay cool i know how to run online we know a little bit about manufacturing let's go it was yeah i mean it was full learn like in that moment like i was there was no way i was starting the company yeah and i'm like well all right but let's game it out right we're sitting here sipping coffee we're just talking about all the crappy contracts we're not going to get what would a company look like and we both look at each other and said at the exact same time, and this was like the defining lightning bolt moment, well, whatever we do, we have to do something cool for charity. Opening line. Both said it.

Totally different reasons. Something cool for charity was said together out of both of our mouths at once. And it was like, all right, that's it. We're doing something, whatever it is. That was it. So I just lit up like a Christmas tree. I'm like, well, I know the charity. It's got to be Glenn's charity.

And this is exactly the kind of product that Glenn would have taken when he was alive. Like if collagen existed back then, he would have been all over it. Glenn was this guy that stood for self-improvement, reading books, college degree, fitness in the gym, you name it. He was always leveling up. Yeah. And Glenn was always leveling up. Yeah. And Glenn was always helping others. So we started a company called Bubz Naturals as a tribute to Glenn and his way of life. Every product we make will stand for self-improvement

and we'll give 10% of all profits to Glenn's charity and charity in Glenn's name. Sound like a good idea? We had no idea. But we're like, you know, the one thing we we knew was like the world didn't need another collagen brand like there was already the giant nestle brands that were running around out there there was already kardashians talking about it like super model wafi shit we had a completely different like thought process on what it could be used for and quite frankly should be used for and just felt right so i called up glenn's sister called his mom i called a couple of glenn's former teammates and i was like hey guys like what do you think about this and they all came back with

the exact same response glenn would kick your ass if you didn't do this you gotta go and we're like okay we gotta learn we gotta learn industry. I don't know anything about it. Let's go. Yeah. Um, so that's it. Yeah. We, we just started, started rocking. Yeah. And you know, the interesting thing we were talking earlier about collagen, um, and collagen proteins, like it's one of those things that takes a while to build up. You know what I mean? Like people take pre-workout, you feel it immediately. People take stimulants, feel immediately. As you were talking to me about like some of the individuals, you know, that like they had collagens like something they swear by. It was like after a few months.

And even yourself, it's like, oh, wow, by 60 days, I'm feeling way different. Like you had these little things like your nails, your hair, et cetera. But your joints, it took a while for that. So you need a level of consistency with taking this to be able to reap those results. So, I mean, I will ask you this question, Mark, you you've had our product now, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon introduced us. Like, I feel like it was right when the pandemic was started. It was like two, two years ago. And she's like, Sean, just send, send Mark some stuff. And I knew who you were. And I sent some stuff up. And how often do you use it?

Like how often in your, say, per week? I use it almost every day. Almost every day. How about you and Seema? The collagen protein? Yes. The collagen protein, maybe once or twice a week. Got it. And as far as the MC2, I'll use the MC2 every day.

But for me, as far as the collagen is concerned, I didn't realize that it was one of those things Got it. I know people who have reaped benefits from it. It's just I haven't been super consistent. But that's one of those problems with me and some supplements every now and then. Like electrolytes I use every day because I perform every single day. Collagen I do perform every day. But since I don't feel it, I'm one of those people like, fuck, I need to have a reminder to continue to take this because I know it's going to reap benefits. So you need to be consistent with that. I frame it kind of as a gas tank thing, right?

You got a 240-gallon gas tank, so to speak, right? And at 25, your tank topped off and then just started to deplete. So where are you at at 35? Do you have half a tank? Do you have three-quarters of a tank? Like what does it look like? And also, because you have a 240-gallon gas tank, a big body of strong shit that you got to fuel, 10 grams ain't going to do it. 20 grams, 30. Consistently.

Like, I can't fill another 35 gallons just by doing one 10-gram scoop three times a week. I'm going to have to do four scoops a day consistently to get the tank back up. And once it's back up, you're good to go. You're in maintenance mode. So that's it. It's the idea of maintenance of maintenance mode like you haven't had the same kind of breakdown that i've had and and i hope you never do but i feel shit like i feel certain things where i'm just like oh shit like i just like that's why i do a lot of stuff in the gym to try to make sure i'm feeling better but that would actually work that's not that's the mc2 l apparently

like i should be taking that collagen much more often than i do yeah i That's not, that's the MC2. I'll be like, I should be taking that college and much more often than I do. Yeah. I'm going to start. Well, that's, so that's the chance. So I sense a challenge. We're going to do a 60 day challenge.

If you're up for a challenge, I'm down. All right. I would challenge Mark on this one, but Mark's already hit it. This is a seven day a week. You don't skip a day. It's every single day,

no matter what. Now, from my side, I promise you'll have plenty of travel packets and tubs. You will not be for want on that. Thank you. 60 days. Pay attention.

See what's happening along the way. And then whether, you know, just like, just write it down. Like, oh yeah, I noticed my fingernails are growing. Like that's a physical change happening in your body. It'd be cool if you guys recovered my hairline. Well, I think there's a half row. Maybe they can come up with row maybe that's funny so so and mark kind of same for you it's like it's the consistency 20 grams a day 30 grams a day you know eat for your your body mass but do it every single day

and see if that doesn't make a difference because i went on it and went off it and like went back on i was like all right is this just this just placebo effect? I noticed this happened. I know the hair happened, but what happens when I stop? And it wasn't pretty. Now that's me, and I got a lot of years on you, but the fact is for me, knowing that it works, having done the research behind it just reinforces that. Like, hey, if you take it every day like you take a multivitamin,

if you're going to drink water every day, you can take collagen. if you're going to drink water every day, you can take collagen. If you're going to drink coffee every day, you can take your collagen. It's just going to make it a part of your daily routine. Just work it in. Now, MCT oil, you know, functional creamer world over here. I love that shit. That's for sure an everyday thing. Yeah.

That's awesome. So that one, you know, those are immediate benefits, right? If you're in tune with it, like caffeine, right? Spike up. thing yeah that's awesome so so that one you know that's those are immediate benefits right if you're in tune with it like caffeine right spike up and then in the afternoon oh fuck i need another cup of coffee um mct is that energy playthrough you just get the energy in the morning you're you have those healthy fats in your system and it just stays all of a sudden there's no afternoon coffee you just save five bucks a day on that afternoon coffee. You don't need it anymore.

And then the mental focus, I don't know where you guys kind of weigh in on that in terms of cognitive function. I swear, I think just a little bit clearer, which is helpful. I'm hanging around with Big Brain over here. But that one is immediate. So MCT, you can go on it.

You can go off it it's you're only going to feel those positive effects the day of collagen is a lifetime game like this is long game stuff this is

I want to be in the gym in my 70s I want to snowboard well as long as I can this is one tool that's going to help me get there all the stuff we talked about

in the gym today is also going to help me stay doing those things I want to go ride my mountain I can mob downhill sometime. And I don't want to not have the body that can do that. You know? And again, like I say that now at 51, but at 61, I don't imagine my brain is going to be thinking like a 61 year old. It's going to still be 25. Yeah. Still want to go and do some dumb shit. And I want to be able to have fun doing it. So it works.

So 60-day challenge. Every single day, a couple scoops a day. And shoot me a text with a picture of your fingernails. I'm going to do it. Because I like the way you think in terms of the longevity aspect of things. It's like we do a lot of athletic stuff. I mean, I go to jujitsu. I come back home.

My wrists are fucking kind of just sore for a few days, even though I keep doing it. It's just the more things that I can add into it, that's going to keep me good in the long run, I'm fucking down for. And also maybe not take a whole lot of extra time. And not take a whole lot of extra time. Exactly.

Right in your kashi. For me, three, but exactly. But it works right in. And same thing for you. I'm eating your protein. And when I'm eating your protein, my protein goes right into your protein. And I'm just adding to it for different purposes. And they work.

They're peas and carrots, man. They work right next to each other. So for everyone out there who's like, yo, I just want to get bigger and get yoked, that's awesome. Like all of your stuff works great for that. I'm just here to compliment it. So everyone who's thinking about their various protein sources, this is your add-on. This is just your extra that's just going to help you recover better, help with those joints.

What it's going to do for your gut health, you don't even know until you get on that. Game over. You are going to have the best poops of your life in two months from now. Oh, that shit's been happening. Because we eat jars of those gummies. Those gummies. Apple cider vinegar. Some people That shit's been happening. Because we eat jars of those gummies. Those gummies. Those gummies.

I'll do it, right? Apple cider vinegar. Some people, there's some evidence, but there's not a lot at the moment, but there's some evidence that collagen might work as almost like a fiber. You hear so many people talk about fiber and gut health, and it's a little bit almost controversial because a lot of the carnivore people have kind of shown that maybe we don't need fiber as much as we thought. But maybe traditionally people used to get fibrous-like substances through stuff like collagen when other types of food were like more scarce. So it's interesting.

It would be kind of interesting to see how that plays out. But my own personal experience is it feels great. It feels like it is something that is helping heal the gut. And I've had a lot of different experiences with many different things other than just going from a time period where I didn't have any milk to a time period where I did have milk. So there's been other factors that have played into it, but I can drink milk now and not have any ill effects that I used to have um from lactose i think i kind of almost made myself lactose intolerant at a certain point because when i

was young i drank milk as i got older i got away from it i was like i don't really need the sugar i like whole milk so i was like that's a lot of calories so i departed ways with with things that have a lot of lactose in it like milk but. But just the other day, I bought some raw milk. I was able to slam it. I had no problems, no issues. At least I hope not. It's a splatter. Yeah.

And so I think that things like that are playing into helping to heal my gut. Yeah. You know, the idea of connective tissue health, like collagen at the end of the day is a connective tissue protein. So you've got more collagen in your body than any other protein. Your large and small intestines. So all those gut bacteria that live in your large intestine, they kind of don't have a roof without collagen. So there's a little like membrous layer,

there's bacteria exposed. So you go out and you have, whether it's a big night of drinking or eating like nightshade vegetables or eating the wrong type of foods, you know it because you're going to destroy, you're going to Jackson Pollock a toilet the next day. It's not going to be pretty.

And those bacteria are being ripped apart and they have to rebuild. Collagen is like putting a little roof over their head. They just got a little weathering from the storm that you're going to put your body through and they're going to do their job better. So that's kind of like the gut health benefits way. I always talk about, I'm like, yeah,

you just put a little roof over their head so that they can keep doing the job that they're there to do. Process your foods, get the most nutrients out of it, get rid of the bad stuff you don't need. And like, we have a running joke at the office. I call it the ghost wipe.

And I'm like, if I can go sit down on the toilet and get up and just walk away clean, that's a ghost wipe day I call that an ace because you know there's no return on it when you serve it up tapered shits that's awesome when's the last time you guys had a ghost wipe

because I'm trying to think I take pretty large shits and I I mean partial plug but yeah when we were downing those bottles of the apple cider vinegar gummies like i was like dropping some awesome loads with those yeah so so quick story time guys they sent us like 30 of those and like like we're children so like we'll eat one and they taste so fucking good that like you, they, you guys say on the bottle too, as a serving,

no one does that. You know it. No, like they go through half the, don't act like, yeah, you guys know exactly what the fuck you're doing. Making those things taste like that.

So we finished all 30 within like, uh, I don't know, 30 days. It was less than two months. That's awesome. Hey, well,

yeah, I mean, like I got a text from Mark. You said, literally, don't send this to my house anymore. Just stop. They're so good. Yeah, and then you sent a whole giant box of them. And then you give them to us.

We enjoyed it. I was like, I can't handle these. I keep eating them. I'm just here to test you. This is just one big test. That's great. They're fucking delicious. Power Project Family, how's it going now?

We've partnered with Bubz Naturals and they're an amazing brand. They have this just wonderful MCT oil powder that I put in my coffee in the morning and they have this collagen protein.

Most people don't get the amount of collagen that they need in. All mix well in anything, coffee, water, whatever. It's also Whole30

approved. But the thing I want to talk to you guys about real quick, these apple cider vinegar gummies. Now, if you go on Google and you type in apple cider vinegar, there's tons of benefits.

Immune support. Digestion. Digestion. Digestion. But one thing you'll also come across is apple cider vinegar tastes like shit. It's bad. It's really bad. That's why they came out with these crack gummies.

The reason why I call them crack gummies the reason why i call them crack gummies and it's an empty uh empty little package of them because uh we can't not eat a lot of them at once they're really good for you don't get me wrong but they also taste really good and it's hard to only eat two at once and the serving size is two so you guys should get this you should only have two uh good luck good luck but the benefits of apple cider vinegar actually from these gummies i noticed that my honestly it's helped my digestion a lot so a ton yeah yeah it definitely has helped me uh you know hit the bathroom a lot more consistently uh mark always talks about you know may your be tapered and i guarantee you with those, they will be.

But just, yeah, please don't eat the entire bottle the way we do. But they're that good. And, you know, I have tried apple cider vinegar and all that stuff. And it made me sick. I just felt real bloated. And I couldn't be consistent with this. It's very easy to stay consistent. We're too consistent.

A little bit too consistent. Yeah. But head over to BubzNaturals.com and make sure you guys enter promo code POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your entire order. Again, bubsnaturals.com, promo code POWERPROJECT to save 20% off. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. I want to shift gears a little bit because I feel that CJ over here knows. TJ. TJ.

My bad. It's all good. TJ over here. It's TJ, my bad. It's all good. Don't worry about it. He knows a lot of really interesting stuff. Cause you've touched upon a bunch of little interesting things here and there. And I'm like, this guy knows weird shit. I love sharing weird shit with people on this show.

Look at how happy he is. I know that's it. He was like, you got to be on this. You know, the weird shit. And I'm like, I don't know the word shit,

but I can try. So we were talking to the gym a little bit about Tony. Is it Blowers? Yeah. I know. He was like, you got to be on this. You know the weird shit. And I'm like, I don't know the weird shit, but I can try. So we were talking in the gym a little bit about Tony. Is it Blauer? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Tony Blauer shares a lot of information about like the hands and stuff. Can you go into the Taekwondo background? Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is stuff that you know.

Well, I mean, not much. I was put into martial arts at a very young age to curb probably attitude issues for my parents. But I excelled at it pretty quick. And I was like one of the youngest black belts when I was like 12 or 13 or something like that. It does absolutely nothing right now. Like we go roll, you destroy me. Like trust me, being in a fight with a performance artist basically, like I'm never going to kick you. That shit's going to end on the ground.

We know where combat sports actually end, right? So it doesn't do anything in terms of my credibility. I just happen to be good at something for a hot minute. However, the Blower stuff I think is he's on to something. That dude has backgrounds in four or five different styles. He's a black belt all over the place. He was head of CrossFit defense for a while. He was doing clinics and stuff.

But one of the things that we were talking about in the gym is his system is always splayed hands for defense because that's like startle response, right? Something comes up, airbag comes up. You want to be like this, you know? So his whole defense system is you're interacting with somebody, you're coming off splayed hands. But one of the connections on that is always to keep your neck up because as you're going neutral, next neutral and just in line with your spine, because as you're going out and somebody is trying to break this and get out of your engagement, second your neck goes away all of this engagement goes away and your

arms will break super fast yeah is that kalipa no his arms will break as in like bend yeah they'll be able to be moved yeah so your ability to you know put your arm out and have somebody break at the elbow exacerbates as your head goes up and down so there's all this connective stuff that kind of goes into it that I always find like little nuances and pockets. I'm like, wait, Oh,

that's cool. And I bet you that can be applied in 30 different areas. It's interesting. You bring up the hands. Cause I was saying like, if you heard like a gunshot, you would, you know,

you would be automatically your hands. You know, I don't think the go-to is to squeeze your hands together. Yeah. And it's just, he's controlling, controlling his aggressors movement basically by keeping his fingers out everything tight and just controlling outside around the neck and that's

all it is he's he that's another that's another guy you should have on here i mean his story's wild wildly incredible like yeah just a captivating dude and he's got depending how deep he goes in his history he's got some really really rad stuff we got some hitters guys yeah huge we got a few people for you there tony blower danny way there's a couple folks i think you guys have a blast talking to yeah and you were there early days of crossfit and stuff did you uh get way deep into crossfit as well i did so i was uh i mentioned i was a competitive cyclist for a while my endurance background was really really big, which is incredibly dangerous when you get somebody that doesn't know how to move weights to move weights really fast. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So the injuries just went through the roof. Swinging a 70-pound kettlebell, I'm like, wait, I think my thoracic just herniated. This is not good. And it was months and months of that before I actually built core strength, true core strength. I went into a CrossFit gym. I couldn't do one pull-up. I'm not good. And it was months and months of that before I actually built core strength, true core strength. I went into a CrossFit gym. I couldn't do one pull-up. I'm not kidding. Like straight up, I could not pull myself from a dead hang up. I was a cyclist and it was waist down and everything else. I wouldn't even bring groceries into the house. It was like, my mental was like, nope,

I'll build muscle. I'm not doing, I'll eat a pint of blueberries for dinner and that'll be it. So also within cycling, it's like a thing where they don't want to build muscle or at the time. Yeah. Yeah. At the time. And I think now it's changed a little bit depending on the discipline. Like there, there's a lot of people cross training and stuff. And I think after kind of the whole Lance movement went, went through and he came back in the action unretired three or four times, like people started realizing, Hey, we should probably concentrate on a three 60 holistic version of fitness opposed to just you're riding for 18 hours, just keep going. So it had exposure along, along the way. And you know, again, my endurance engine was good. So when somebody gave me lightweight or body weight and said, send it, no problem.

Like I'll, I'll be at the top of the gym. Not a big deal. When it came to heavyweight, shattered me. So that was the challenge for me. It was like, Oh wait a minute. I just want to be stronger now. I, my endurance is still good. I'll have no problem with me. It was like, oh, wait a minute. I just want to be stronger now. My endurance is still good. I'll have no problem with this. I won't lose it. And if you arguably train for a true endurance sport and like peak you time and time again, year and year again, you understand what your window's like to get that peak fitness back. And with age, it might be extended a little bit, but when you're within range, you're four to six weeks away from being lethal for the most part at all times. And by the way,

you're like 41, right? Uh, 39. Yeah. You're 39. Yeah. I was curious for,

for both of you guys. And actually you too, Mark, I don't know if you're feeling this, but like, what are you guys noticing? Like older athletes, athletes that are in like their late thirties,

forties, fifties. Cause like, it's interesting that you guys got into lifting a bit late, but you know, we just did this workout with Jason jason kaliba both y'all are pretty fucking shredded strong and this isn't like i've been lifting and stuff since i was 13 i'm 29 now like you've been lifting since you were super young your experience is very interesting since you guys didn't start doing that until later so what are some things things that you're noticing with a lot of individuals you talk to

are hurdles for older athletes? I'm not saying you're old, but... No, no. I mean, I would say the friend circle is wide. It's not just the fitness crowd. We have people kind of all over the map. But one of the things that I'll say is truly is mobility is the limiting factor.

And that's what goes first for most people. And that is, I would argue to say, is's what goes first for most people and and that is i would argue to say is probably the biggest issue with most people getting into a lifting you know putting their body in a good position naturally and being able to get to hey we're not even say a full depth squat but you'd be able to sit down on a toilet on your own without having to use the counter to get up and stuff like that i watch a lot of those patterns go away really fast with my friends, like my parents. Oh,

I want to get into sport again. I'm like, dad, you know, you quarter squat. That's it. Like we're going to have to work around a lot of these things. So I watch mobility generally go away faster,

which I think is why we see this paradigm shift in fitness in general of people really exacerbating these over toes, full mobility in your shoulders and everything like that. And it's like, Hey, we don't have to lift super heavy. We need to go for longevity. Now there's a performance aspect to all of this and I respect the hell out of it.

And I love training for a goal, but if the goal is life, let's figure that out. And that's a long goal. Like I want to be able to play with kids that I may have one day, you know, and that's it. You know, think back, what are some of the reasons why maybe you don't have to work on mobility when you're young it's because you run and you jump and you do you know and as we get older we might go years and years and years and in some cases decades without getting into like a full squat position without doing hardly any kind of jumping without doing any kind of throwing like there's some age that you get to and you go to throw a ball to a kid and

you go, Holy fuck, that really hurt. Like, when did that happen? Cause you don't remember that as a kid. Yeah. Remember as a kid,

you could throw shit as hard as you wanted. And then as you get older and your son or somebody says, Hey, throw a bomb to me. And you go throw it. And you're like, not only could I not throw it nearly as far as I used to, but that actually fucking hurt a lot.

You're like, when did this happen? So that touch point there, he said mobility as a limiting factor. I say mental. Like when I look at it and what I'm seeing is more like I don't want to do that. That might hurt. And it's a totally – Yeah, pain is at the center of it all. Yeah.

Absolutely. And so the mobility is one side, but there's a mental barrier there. And the longer you wait, the more that barrier builds up. Like, you just don't see a lot of women lace up for the first time

in their 40s and say, I'm going to run a marathon. And when you do, it's super inspiring and everyone's really can rally around that and get motivated by it.

But go pick up a barbell when you don't know what a barbell does and figure it out. Like, so yeah, I was, you know, what was I 37 when I walked into a CrossFit gym and I guess I was like, yeah, right. 36 when I started like tapping back into fitness, like when Glenn got me started, but all he had me doing was running, riding a bike, doing some pushups.

That was it. And then when i discovered the barbell it was intimidating as all hell like i didn't just jump on and be like i'm gonna learn how to snatch i was like i don't know what a snatch is i don't know what a power clean is i don't know what a squat is i know how to squat i guess but like the guy the instructor literally had to like put a door frame in front of me like the door is like right down my body and he's like you're not going to touch this door and you're going to drop till your knees are below parallel. I'm like parallel to what?

Like, I didn't know any of that stuff. I was probably coach's worst nightmare. And then I'm like doing the squat, you know, and I'm like, no, my nose is like dragging down the door to like figure out where my chest

should be and all that stuff. I had no idea, no idea what that was. That's intimidating. I also just, I had no idea. No idea what that was. That's intimidating. I also just, I had the right friend, Glenn, to help motivate me. TJ had the right motivation in him to want to learn to do something different. And that's not common. I don't think, or not as common as I wish it was. Not as common as it should be. So I think those two things can definitely work against you. But if you tap into the right mindset, make it work for you.

Get curious. Because longevity is what I'm all about now. I still want to get after it with Kalipa. If he says he's doing 17 burpees on the minute, you can bet your ass I'm doing 17 until I can't. But that's in my brain like that's the kid in me that's like he said there's a challenge i will do that challenge i'll be that way till i'm you know rolling into the grave yeah and and it's fun but you know i i love

the idea that i can learn more like what you taught me uh about the jefferson squats uh jefferson curl curl thank you see i'm already fucking it up. But no, that's amazing to me. I like that knowledge, but that same thirst for knowledge can also be a barrier. Like, no, no, I was a kid. I don't do that anymore. I'm not as mobile as I used to be. I can't touch my toes anymore, so I'm not going to do that.

It's like, no, that's an opportunity. Tap into that opportunity to relearn some skills or learn brand new skills. So everyone I think should possess the ability to do some of the stuff that they did when they were kids. Yeah. It's pretty, it's like a, that might be hard to get yourself back to that, but that should be a goal of a lot of people just in terms of like, um, being able to live a life that, uh, doesn't have a lot of pain. Like eventually your pains are going to be so annoying and they're going to be in your way so much. I mean I've seen this happen in the gym time and time again where somebody is like, oh, you know, the flat bench kind of hurts my shoulder. And then it's not too long until the incline bench hurts your shoulder. Then it's not too long until the dumbbell bench press hurts your shoulder.

Before you know it, you're not doing any exercises that involve the shoulder. Next thing you know, you can barely get your arm overhead. And you just kind of run into all these things. But like I see that happening in regular folks too. They're like, oh, what's the big deal? Like it's a little painful for me to get in and out of the car. Not a huge deal. It's only when I'm on the passenger side.

It's not that bad because I'm normally driving my car. You know, it's not that huge of a deal. But then it just keeps trickling down. Oh, it kind of only hurts when I go downstairs. Then it starts to hurt when you go upstairs. Oh, I'll just driving my car. It's not that huge of a deal. But then it just keeps trickling down. Oh, it kind of only hurts when I go downstairs. Then it starts to hurt when you go upstairs. Oh, I'll just use the elevator. It just keeps piling on. And it's like I understand that leaning into it is going to hurt,

much like getting your shoes off. And we did a barefoot workout today. You're seeing more and more people pile shit underneath their feet because my feet need more cushions. That must be the problem because my feet normally hurt. So let me just pile up a bunch of stuff underneath my foot and I should be good. You got to admit those hokas are so nice. They're so cushy. They can feel good, right? Yeah. But then people are having problems standing in their own kitchen. Right. And that's not normal. So how can somebody run through a forest and run on the grass and run in a field with no problem while another person can barely stand in their own kitchen, which has like a hardwood floor?

So try to examine these things and try to think about it and try to pay attention to, I wonder what this is meaning. Like should I maybe just just try it just wake up tomorrow morning and do something fucking walk outside and walk on your grass the grass will have some dew on it it'll be a little cold walk outside barefoot look at the sun for a couple minutes you won't die it's okay totally and just see how it feels if you're out there and you're like holy fuck my feet my feet hurt. This is really uncomfortable. My feet are cold. Then that means you're a pussy.

Thank you. It just means that you have to explore it a bit. And it took a decade for somebody to unwind that fitness that they had. And it's not going to come back in a day, but the body is so miraculous that it will come back 10 times faster than you lost it. It'll come back fast. Way fast. is so miraculous that it will come back 10 times faster than you lost it. It'll come back fast.

Way fast. It's unreal how quick you can get back some sort of semblance of fitness for the most part if you try. And if you've never done it, two, three weeks later, there's going to be a change, but it's not going to be, I'm taking the pre-workout change. You're not going to notice it instantly. You unwound something for 10 years, give it at least a year. And I think that's like the mental limiting factor for a lot of folks that are, nope, it hurts. I'm not going to do it. And it's going to take way too long. I've been unwind in this my entire life. I don't want to get back into it. And it's like,

no, actually you're going to get it back a lot quicker and you're going to be able to do a lot more things and your body's going to feel a hundred times better. You're going to sleep better. Your family's going to like your relationships are going to be better. Just do something a little bit more for yourself. You know, I'm really curious. What do both of your habits look like for just staying in shape? Do you guys feel like staying in shape for you is something you really have to focus on? Or what habits for both of you do you think are the big things that allow you to look the way you do without having to be super, you know, crazy about it?

You want to go first? I mean, I can. Well, I'm just kind of curious because I never see you do a goddamn thing. It's very true. No, my nutrition has always been pretty – it's been down the middle. I'll give it that. I won't flame myself completely out. But nutrition has always been down the middle.

I'll eat kind of what I want when I want. I've been on RP and I've done five different other diets and all that stuff. And I've tried keto and I've done levels and I've managed glucose. I'm more of like an explorer on things than anything. My stomach is super sensitive though for the most part, like ulcerative colitis, IBS, the whole nine yards. So I'm very careful about what upsets this because I can't get after it the next day if this is terrible. So nutrition has kind of always been down the middle. I don't get too far from the general center of like a good macro blend.

I have carbs. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I love white rice. I love protein. Fats here and there, but like that's usually the majority of it. And I've played the bulk up game. I was – a year ago, I was 230, 232 I would say. Too some to do something. there but like that's usually the majority of it um and i've played the bulk up game you know i was a year ago i was 230 232 whoa i would say and i do something to do something yeah that was that

was the that was the rule during the pandemic got to be too some to do something so it was so yeah so it was bulk up as much as i can and just eat a bunch of shit and see what happened and i felt you know i was lifting big numbers felt good and one one day I started feeling really uncomfortable. And I was like, okay, cool. Let's reassess where I'm at. I've kind of played ultra skinny. I've played big. I want to be down the middle right now.

And that's just kind of how my goals shift. So now it's, okay, let's concentrate on longevity, I would say. It's kind of where it's at for the most part. I don't have a fitness goal. I don't have an event goal. I would say is it's kind of where it's at for the most part. I don't have a fitness goal. I don't have an event goal.

Um, you know, I came off a huge year of trying to basically survive with this company and it was like, okay, cool. Let's put it in neutral a little bit, tone it back. So it's meditation, sauna in the morning and ice bath.

Like it is all personal longevity stuff. And then the workout is like any type of semblance of fitness is probably seventh or eighth down the priority chart. I still do it. I still want to get after it every day. I'm mad because yesterday I ruined like a 32 day streak of like being just active every day and sweating every day. And there's really no goal at the end though. The goal is, okay, let's, let's do some kettlebell swings and open up your shoulders. Let's make sure your lats are good. Let's make sure every workout makes you feel better afterwards. That's what I want. And it's,

yeah, it's a lot of may swings right now. I like what you said. I think there's a lot of utility in what you said. You're like actual workout being like seventh or eighth on your list of shit to do. Yeah. For some people that maybe haven't gotten to a pattern of ever,

you know, finding fitness, it might have to move up the priority list for a long time before they kind of have that habit. But I think that's a very healthy connection between you and fitness. If it's mind right and gut right, then I'll get after it. If those two things are ruined, then I know I'm just burying myself and I'm digging a hole. Like why keep going? Let's level set. I need to be gentle with myself and literally take a moment and go, okay, cool. I don't need to bury myself today. It's all right.

Go swing a kettlebell for 20 minutes. We're still getting fitness in. It's okay. Do you walk quite a bit or do you – I actually do. I actually do. I'm sedentary, but I do – I try to clock in about two miles a day walking just in general. I have a little dog, so I mean that's like one mile around the neighborhood with the dog

and then my wife will go or something like that. I try to get at least two miles walking in every day. But yeah, nothing super high intensity, at least for the last month or so. The only thing that's back to the endurance stuff, I found a knack for rowing. So I was like, I know you wanted it. But I have a decent 5K time.

So that's like the only thing. Don't let... You have a decent 5K time? It's world qualifying right now so so make no mistakes when tj decides to rabbit hole into something on fitness like say cycling he took it to a very strong elite level like there's youtube videos of him riding bikes out there yeah that he will never ever talk about so into the pandemic, we bought the suite of Concept2 machinery. We bought the e-bike, we bought the SkiErg, and we bought the rower. And we put them in TJ's garage because you couldn't go to any gyms.

And we literally ordered this equipment right before the shutdown. So it was like perfect timing. And we call his garage Rancho Relaxo because he's got the ice tub in there and the sauna and then these pieces of equipment. And then I threw like a 70-pound kettlebell. So we put that in the corner too. It's a recovery suite for the most part, like for most people. Like you'd go in the gym and be like, okay, cool. What are we doing today to recover?

Yeah. But you still get a hell of a workout with that stuff. Absolutely. For sure. But for the most part, it's LSD. It's long, slow distance. Just get in there and grind it out. Nice.

Nice acronym there. I like that. That's a new one for me too. So he starts rowing and I'm like, hey, man. Again, got a little bit of visibility here. We don't train together much at all anymore. It's just the way the work stuff has been. We stopped doing that kind of mid-pandemic and it's like are you getting yours yeah are you getting

yours yeah um but he started rowing and then rowing a little faster and rowing a little faster and it's like that carrot dangles he's like oh i can do this i can break this time i can break this time so he's literally qualifying for i think it's rowing masters or world masters. If I submit the time, yeah, it's indoor worlds. I'll just put it out there because I'm sure somebody on the podcast in the comments is going to flame this. 1738 is my 5k time, which is

pretty respectable. I thought going sub 20 was respectable. Again, I have an engine. I'm genetically gifted to an engine. Blood work says it all. So thanks mom. What about your blood work says that actually?

Uh, yeah. Hematocrit levels is basically where it's at. So if you look at like most of the endurance sports, track and field cycling, that type of stuff, even soccer, there is a ceiling on hematocrit.

It's 50 is, is what your, your read has to be. Otherwise you have to have what's called a biological passport. My hematocrit tests over 50, is what your your read has to be otherwise you have to have what's called a biological passport my hematocrit tests over 50 any any draw of the week um 55 to 57 which people take drugs for they take epo to boost their hematocrit and get into endurance races and stuff like high red blood cell count yeah and and i've just been my mom and my dad gifted me with it i don't do anything for it not a thing like honestly not a thing and i can i can buffer lactic acid pretty well my vo2s all right but impact how much iron

your body has as well great question i haven't noticed any difference in the blood work in the iron i've never been on iron supplements but i'll double check yeah that could be could be interesting to look at how about you and your habits yeah and i'm curious about your diet actually um me just being like a slender guy my whole life you know i look up to dudes like todd abrams or ron penna you know they're they're tallish and they're they're not like super wide but they're fucking jacked and then you pop your shirt off and i'm like oh shit like that's just like a body type that i would like to achieve so So I'm like, what does this guy eat? You know, I'm just really curious, like on like, and so wouldn't see my ass,

your habits, especially the diet side. Yeah, I mean, I'll start there. So I'm definitely, I can attribute diet to my wife predominantly. Like she kind of dictates, hey, these are the, this is what I want to do. And she does that for a variety of reasons. She's very curious about like,

hey, what, you know, she was a triathlete.e so she did an iron man she had nine marathons under her belt when we started dating like one's not enough you need nine um like we ran the boston marathon together in 2014 as part of our premarital counseling we're like hey we can run a marathon together we can probably get married so all the training runs all that shit i would be like crossfit four days a week and one really long run but diet came in you know glenn started the idea of it like hey this is crossfit thing and everyone's prescribing to zone dieting well zone was never going to happen because i like to eat volumes of food and i do have a higher metabolism so i so I can get away with making some bad decisions. But along the way, because of Heather, I started getting

more curious about different types of diets. Like, okay, like lean meats, proteins, like what are the different things I can do? So somewhere along the way, maybe a decade ago, I learned about eating for your blood type. So I'm an O positive. I am really well suited for a paleo based diet. Like just strip out a lot of any kind of, you know, the pastas and those types of foods and just shelve those and eat from the perimeter of your store. Like,

okay, I can certainly play around with that. Then I kind of morph that into little dabs of the Mediterranean diet because I don't believe that the potatoes and evil plantage should be enjoyed. So I've kind of landed

somewhere in that world. So it's like today's lunch was probably a great example. There was a little bit of rice on there, a little bit of beans, but it was predominantly lettuce, chicken, and a bunch of good salsa, no cheese. And no guac because that was extra i just want to put it on a budget we're on a budget um no so so so the diet stuff is follow that i don't naturally have a sweet tooth so i don't fall victim to the i gotta eat a pint of ice cream every night like that's just i don't think that way i'll take it if it's there, but I don't strive for it.

How are you getting through life without thinking that you need a pint of ice cream? I can't make it through one day. Dude shows up to the office with a spinach smoothie every morning like clockwork, and I'm like, if you want to hold accountability and habits, that's one he'll take with him until the end of the day. Does your wife make that for you?

No. Here's the downside of being married to a newscaster who's on the morning news. She leaves the house at 3 a.m. Wow. Dang. So I get the kids until, you know, I've got to get them off to school. And we have some great help who comes in around 7.30. But, you know, anything could happen between the hours of 3 a.m. and, say, 8 a.m.

Hey, I need to see a video of this woman. Can we pull her up? What station and all that stuff? Heather Lake. Is this someone at one of these really hot weather women type things? Fox. She is.

Fox 5 San Diego. I'm over here in Starlight. I'm like, yeah, she's hot right now. I like that. Sorry. We were talking about something. So she, I definitely attribute that. Just tell me which one's good if I can pull up. I mean, there's-

I'll just go right at the top. That first one's good. Yeah, right at the top. Right there. EMS. Whole Body Fitness. Right there. Who are we plugging right now?

There we are. That's her. That's Heather Lake. There we go. You're Heather Lake. There we go. You're winning. Hell yeah. Yep. All right.

Tell us how this worked out. Tell us about your habits. It's still working out. I'm waiting for a knot any day of the week. I'm like, how are you going to fuck this up, Sean? And you guys have two kids? We have two kids. We have a six-year-old son, a four-year-old daughter.

We met at Seal Fit. She interviewed me for a news story at Seal Fit, and I was like this goofy dude there. And I'm like, you want to go out for coffee sometime? And yeah, two kids later, here we are. There we go. So she is the accountability partner. She is like, look, if I can get up at 3 o'clock in the morning

and leave the house, we're doing some good shit here. So again, on the health tip, right? Like I found that a whole fat yogurt works well for me. Like there's good natural, you know, natural goodness in that. And I, we grow, we have a garden. So like I grow kale in the garden and I just go out and rip a bunch of leaves off the kale plant. I think you just lost 90% of the listeners.

You're not wrong. You're not wrong. No. So like, like we have a garden because we got little kids and kids like to grow shit and like you can't cover it up dude you got a garden i got a garden okay glenn had a garden okay here we go fucking navy seal he had a garden gardens are hardcore bring gardens back yeah gardens you got to be a patient patient human to run that that's not easy so so i will you know daily habits i wake up in the morning and and you are the nutrition's kind of baked in like i got curious about it in my 30s yeah and i just started paying more attention to it so yeah i had blood drawn i learned that i do well with a paleo based diet and that if i shifted into a little bit of a meta training diet i'm still doing well. And now I've got a whoop that's going to tell me the other

things. So if I'm eating really poorly, it's probably going to affect this. So I just pay attention to that. I'm kind of naturally curious. That's kind of like the whole barbell thing. It was intimidating, but it made me curious. So with diet, it's a similar thing. So I would say, find out what your blood type is, Andrew, and learn about that and then start just picking. So the way I approach diet is you get three meals a day. And if you're out eating, say you have to, you have a job where you travel a lot or whatever, you got three chances a day, every single day, that's 21 meals per week to make a good decision. Well, maybe right now you're

making no good decisions, right? Like every meal, there's a cheat element thrown in there. What if you challenge yourself to one meal a day? One meal, pick it. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. And that one meal, you make a really good healthy choice for, again, for your blood type, for your body type, just you know what to eat that's going to be clean and healthy. You just changed a third of your life. You literally just changed one third of your life by doing that. Well, all of a sudden you do that for a couple of months. Like, well, what would happen if you did it one of the other meals? All of a sudden you're at 67% because I round up and you changed two-thirds of your life by doing that. You're having more good hours and more good days than you weren't.

Right. And so I started noticing that because beforehand it was like kitchen sink. Bowl of Froot Loops in the morning, no problem. Giant sub sandwich, extra fries. Like you can do all those things. Pizza for dinner, like I don't care. Just shove it in. I'm going to go do CrossFit tomorrow.

I'm immortal. I can do whatever I things, pizza for dinner. Like I don't care. Just shove it in. I'm going to go do CrossFit tomorrow. I'm immortal. I can do whatever I want. And not true. But in and out, I'll catch up to you. But I would start to like, I would just start to pay more attention. So I just kept slowly dialing it up in my 40s. And all of a sudden, I'm like, I got three meals a day. If I have three great meals in a day, I have a 100% good diet.

Well, I also want to go have some fun, so not every meal is going to count. But hey, always keep it in that ratio. Can you get almost all three a day or every other day? And I use math on my side for that. When it comes to daily habits, I got a specific set of things that I do, which I didn't do growing up, which I've sort of learned myself into, and they just feel right. And one of them is I wake up in the up, which I've sort of learned myself into, and they just feel right. And one of them is I wake up in the morning,

I make my bed. And I'm a big fan of that whole McRaven, make your bed thing. It's like you're just putting some points on the board. It's a simple layup, but you do that. I meditate every morning. And I'm a big fan of meditation. We talked a little bit about Dr. Doug Brackman

and his book Driven. And that Driven book talks a lot about a very of meditation. We talked a little bit about Dr. Doug Brackman and his book Driven. And that Driven book talks a lot about a very active meditation. TJ actually turned me on to it. Did you guys mention the Calm app? Is that what you said you used? Yeah, I've used Calm before, Headspace. They're all good. Meditation, I mean, it's sitting there, but it is probably the hardest thing that you'll do.

Straight up. Go sit on a pillow for 20 minutes every day. Good luck. You will find a reason not to sit on that pillow. 20 minutes every day good luck you will find a reason not to sit on that pillow you will every single time you will find a reason and that resistance is kind of what what we want to play with we want to explore oh why don't i want to sit on the pillow it's just sitting what's the problem so one of the for the drd2 the drd4 the highly driven the people that don't like gardens because you're not a farmer you're a hunter right so those

people us require a different style of meditation most people sit eyes closed get really calm and comfortable it's cool active style meditation which sean's talking about is is called zazen meditation it was it was made for the samurai warriors basically so soto meditation for the farmers samurai warriors get zazen it's open eye your eyes are at a 45 degree to the floor and you're staring and burning a hole in the floor with your eyes open because as hunters we're occipitally dominant we're always looking for the next thing so closing your eyes inherently probably for you it definitely does for me makes me feel wildly uncomfortable if i'm sitting in a room and i'm just closing my eyes but i'm not sleeping like you start to get the oh shit what's

happening where's the threat what's this thing around me so keeping your eyes open allow you to kind of calm down the cns a little bit and actually be there in your practice so we both practice zaza meditation yeah what's going on up there when you're doing it well trying for nothing yeah exactly so so i it's a hamster wheel like i'm constantly spitting out ideas and thinking of things like, what do I got to do next? What is going on over here? This, this, this.

And that's not uncommon, like having a company and trying to solve for all the things that go on there, plus a family, plus whatever else is going on, other personal things. It's bombardment nonstop. This, much like running, much like some forms of physical activity, wipe that clean. And it's a five-minute to 10-minute deposit. I can't do 20 minutes.

I don't even try. But that's also because I got the kids and they're going to come in and attack me. They love nothing more than dad on the meditation pillow trying to do my thing and just pile on top of me. But for those 10 minutes, like I got it in this morning before, you know, before the flight up here, the goal is nothing. The goal is not to think. So I might think, do I have enough time to do this before I have to catch my flight? Of course I did.

I knew that before I sat down in this pillow, shut up. And then the next thought comes in and you're just sort of gently batting those away and you're doing it very visually. So like I'm literally staring down at a fixed spot down here, which is preventing me from seeing everything that's going on around here, but I can kind of tell what's going on. So you're breathing in, you're focusing laser focusing here, you're breathing out, you're kind of taking a little periphery,

and you're giving yourself a little exercise to go through with your breath, which allows you to get to that kind of zero state. Well, all you're doing is wiping the chalkboard clean, right? You're wiping off the grease board so the rest of the day you can fill it back up again. But you're cleaning it out. If you don't have that and you just hit the ground running every day, you're just not all 100% hitting your stride. So it's just a tool.

And I treat it. I don't get all woo-woo about it. I just want to hit that zero state for a couple of seconds and then let's go i'm up i'm on to the next thing i drink warm lemon water every morning so balances your ph right so you drink a warm glass of lemon water not scalding hot not tap cold heat a kettle cut a lemon in half squeeze it into a glass and let it rip. And then once I've ticked those things off, it's game on.

So, you know, it's, then the kids are on, then it's all the habit stuff. But, you know, the food thing, like it's funny that to have a garden, like I'm the last fucking gardener in the world. Yet somehow it's like gotten into the family thing that we're growing our own vegetables and all the kids think it's cool. So, but just make those good decisions.

And then again, I know I'm going to open up an email and some crap's going to happen. Like, you know, but Hey, I'm, I'm better. I'm prepared for it. When you guys, yeah. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. No, just, just that. Just like those little things you can do at the start your day.

That's all before, you know, six, 7 o'clock in the morning, then go let it rip. Because whatever else you're going to do, you've got some points in the bank. Do you guys have any typical responses to stress, like hard stressors? Like when you're fucked and you're kind of just tired, what is it that you guys usually do return to?

Let's go a little bit deeper. What do you mean by hard stressors? Just something that really, let's just say you're going through What do you mean by hard stressors? Just something that really like, let's just say you're going through a day, something like maybe you're tired. Yeah. Right. Just exhausted. Just exhausted.

And you're like, ah, and maybe you're, you're, you're dealing with something. Yeah. A lot of people, they turn to food.

A lot of people, that's what they do. Right. So for you guys, having been owning businesses, doing all the things that you do, you probably have something that you do or a stress response. Like a release. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. A coping mechanism. Like what do you guys do? I stress eat straight up. Love it. Okay. And it's not a volume thing. Yeah.

But I love tortilla chips and hummus. Okay. For some reason. It's just a thing. I will walk right out of the office after a hard call, grab a handful, dip it in hummus. That's pretty much the only thing I'll eat for the next 12 hours, strangely enough. I mean, I'm obviously not overeating. But love that.

That's response number one. And that's like had a hard Zoom, had to write a shitty email, whatever. Response number two is the day was really bad. I'm rowing because rowing is the great equalizer rowing got me through a divorce they got him through a divorce like okay rowing rowing is the biggest piece of punishment that i can put on myself however i will say this much as of kind of call it february ish as i was resetting this now it's now it's a pause and i really have a conversation with myself. Is this the smart move? Am I going to be gentle with myself? Or am I going to be a

dickhead to myself and go in deep? And there's a right decision on both sides. I can be gentle with myself. That's a good decision. I can sit down and take a 15-minute nap. Nobody's dying. It's okay. We're all right. It's really hard for me to embody that and feel that I'm okay, though. I sit down on the couch and I want to jump. I want to jump. The opposite end though is like, okay, we're doing a hard workout. I don't know what it is, but it's going to suck for a long time. But after that workout, you feel pretty fucking good.

Yeah, I feel great. Absolutely. So I mean there's bonuses on both sides. But yeah, it's definitely been a little bit of shift I think recently in terms of feathering the throttle and the brake and kind of understanding that that momentum a hundred percent I'm again we've been arm and arm you know for this thing for damn near five years now from concept to where we are you know standing here today and I have seen the change in him it's been wild because like during that time I've been somewhat consistent with my response to that like the shitty things happen i gotta go for a run it could be a row it's but it's going to be something because kind of like how meditation

you're wiping off the grease board and like you're resetting yourself i see fitness that way like i can re-approach and re-engage so whatever that thing is whatever crap went wrong if i can go run for 30 minutes 45 minutes wipe it clean if clean. If I go, you know, gym time permitting, whatever, the less I think though, the better. Rowing, you don't have to think. Running, you don't have to think. So my better response is in doing one of those activities. If I got to think about complex movements and I'm still thinking and I'm trying to turn all that off, then I can kind of re-engage. You get done with the running, you stretch it out, you unlace your shoes, and you're like, okay, now I can solve some problems.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I ask that just because it's like we talk to so many people on the show, and one thing that you notice is that, like, number one, when you look at somebody who's in really good shape and they're not thinking about it, they usually have pretty good habits that just allow them to maintain that. That's why I'm always curious about the things that, that people do,

because if we can aggregate the biggest habits and share that with people, if they can just build those habits, everything can get easier. And then the stress response is huge because I'm lucky enough that I was put in sports when I was young. Cause I learned that if I'm mad or if I'm angry, just go fucking run it out or lift it out. Right.

But for a lot of people it's like, fuck, it's bingey. And that's the worst type of response. So it's, it's pretty cool understanding that for both of you two. It's a pretty similar thing. Yeah. It's, it's, I mean, it helps, right? It's all about longevity, right? Stress kills people. So how are we mitigating that? And the further we get along in life and the more stress we have, the worse it's going to be so i better figure it out right now because i've already done 39 years of fucking it up yeah we i mean we had a crucible year last year like that was the gnarliest professional

experience that we've ever been through in our lives period and i mean nothing that i've gone through has compared from recessions to layoffs to firing people. Like there's nothing that compared to what we went through with the whole MCT stuff. Coming out of that, having solved for that and like solving that problem for not just for the business, but I think like for ourselves, it's helped shift perspective too. Like there were definitely times last year where it was like, we could not catch a break. It was just like punch after punch after punch. And we're just like,

what, why are we doing this? Like all the hard questions are pouring in all the self doubt, all of those things. But we'd built some of those tools to fall back on. And yeah, maybe at the beginning of it, he was more red line.

Like we talked about earlier, right? Like he was more hammer time. I still got there. I still can turn it on. And yeah, maybe at the beginning of it, he was more redline like we talked about earlier, right? Yeah, for sure. He was more hammer time. I still got that. I still can turn it on. Oh, it's there. But it's there and you can be more selective about it.

And I mean, every one of us here has had hardships. Everyone here has had hard times. Every listener is going to be able to look at it, whether it was death in the family, illness, injury, professional things, like shit happens out there. It is not a kind fuzzy world how do you deal with it yeah and yeah bag of chips is there

there's a lot of other so is the rower so is the rower and he's not wrong like you know hell it got me through a divorce i mean i had a lot of dark thoughts there where i was like i could have gone to drinking like that yep and instead my my buddy Glenn taught me about a little rowing challenge. How fast can you row eight kilometers? Turns out you can row it in under 30 minutes pretty regularly if you get mad enough. That helps a lot. Yep. So yeah.

100%. And I mean, you guys know this because you guys, we've all dealt with it. And it's just, it's how do you want to deal with it i'm lucky that i've got a supportive wife who also will remind me of those things be like hey you know like how are we fueling ourselves how are we doing this like you know and so it's it's it's nice having those accountability partners too yeah take us on out here andrew sure thing all right thank you everybody for checking out today's episode sincerely appreciate it uh make sure you guys check the links down below. Bubznaturals.com. Everything we talked about

today, you can get for 20% off using promo code PowerProject. Don't miss out on that shit. And make sure you guys like and comment something down below on today's episode and subscribe. If you guys are not subscribed already, follow the podcast at MBPowerProject on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. My Instagram, TikTok, Twitter is at IamAndrewZ. And Simo, where are you at? Obviously go to the Discord because we almost have 1,000 of you guys in there. It's at 975, so we should probably be at 1,000. But go to Discord, check us out.

We'll be in there talking with y'all. And Simo on Instagram and YouTube. And Simo on TikTok and Twitter. Sean, TJ, where can they find you and all the things that y'all are doing? So at Bubz Naturals across all of our social platforms. So that's B-U-B-S-N-A-T-U-R-A- doing. So at Bubz Naturals across all of our social platforms. So that's B-U-B-S-N-A-T-U-R-A-L-S, Bubz Naturals. And I believe we do the TikToks.

Facebook. We do the TikToks. We do the TikToks. We have the Facebooks. We got the Snapchats. Yeah, we're all over the interwebs. And they want to stalk you guys individually because they probably do.

So yeah, you're not going to find him on there. He's a ghost. He's the puppeteer behind the scenes. This is the balance. I live and breathe that on the ad side all day long. I don't need it on the personal side. Chefs don't go home and make three-star meals. Just cook it at the restaurant.

So you can follow me by following my wife probably better. Dangerous ask. Yeah, right? So Slakeo, S-L-A-K-E-O right so Slakeo S-L-A-K-E-O at Slakeo on all my social media stuff too so

okay thank you guys so much for your time today and thank you so much for your patience because I know we had we had Tom Segura in the house today

so that was a big deal yeah what the fuck we're all huge fans that was really awesome having him in here but I kind of got sidetracked with working with him and training with him

but it was great to get a workout with you guys and with uh fucking jason kalipa crossfit champion yeah we got jason kalipa tom segura like my day's full i literally i literally can we have every work day like this because this is real fun it was getting a little weird in here for a little bit it's cool yeah just just another monday for you guys i'm sure it does happen it does happen that's awesome strength is never a weakness. Just another Monday for you guys, I'm sure. It does happen. It does happen. That's awesome. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Catch you guys later.

Thanks.