The Bossticks - The Wild & True Life Of A Trauma Victim Turned Versace Model, CEO, & MMA Fighter, Ft. Adam Von Rothfelder

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

#465: On today's episode we are joined by Adam Von Rothfelder is a former professional fighter, 2x Versace model, TV personality, CEO of Strong Coffee Company, & Trainer. Today Adam joins the show to discuss how he was able to overcome extreme trauma and find success purusing his pashions. In one of the wildest life stories we have heard to date on this show, be prepared to be amazed.  To try Strong Coffee Company click HERE and use code SKINNY To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM Produced by Dear Media 

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for 15% off your first purchase. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bost. are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. It was like the motion was trying to get out, which is ultimately what I believe happened. I don't believe it had anything to do with impact.

I don't believe it had anything to do with a suplex. I think I probably could have opened a door that day the wrong way, and my shoulder would have exploded. Like it would have found a way to come out. That's like how powerful it felt. And at that moment, I knew fighting was over. within a matter of seconds, I knew I was done. Every part of me, like had left. And I literally thought to myself, have I just been watching what I've been doing for the last five years? Like, I was just viewing

myself. Welcome back to the skinny confidential him and her show. That clip was from our guest of the show today. Adam Bon Rothfelder, the strong coffee man himself. This episode, it goes all over the place. This is an incredible story. Adam's story is amazing. What if I told you guys, you have somebody here that's suffered a ton of abuse, witnessed a sibling die, later became a professional fighter, who then became a professional model for Versacei. With Gigi Hadid. With Gigi Hadid, who then started a coffee company, then did a million other amazing things. So, like, this is just a wild episode. This is the first time we actually got to sit down with Adam and meet him. And, like, Lauren and I were just blown away. It's fitting, too, because he was recommended to us by our friend Khalil.

And one of my favorite podcast episodes was with Khalil. If you have not listened to part one in part two of his episodes, you're missing out. And he recommended Adam come on the podcast, and boy, did this episode deliver. I love when we can have people on that have a really impactful, captivating story with an ending like he has. It's incredible. He spills some tea. He spills some juice. He goes everywhere. And I do got to say, after meeting Adam, we jumped into his product, strong coffee company. And it is some of the best coffee, especially for people that are of mind that they want to be healthy, fitness-minded. You know, Lauren and I recently traveled back to L.A. And I didn't even order coffee the whole time we're there. I just brought strong coffee and use

this. It's got a little bit of protein. It's got a little bit of the an endine. It's got some adaptogens. And it's packs quite a punch, but you don't have any jitters or come down. And you just feel really good on it. For anybody that wants to try it, it's code skinny 20 at strong coffee company. And like I said, it's an amazing product. You know, that's not sponsored. We just really like it a lot. And he, after coming on the show, wanted to give everybody a discount. So be sure to check it out and stay tuned for this incredible episode. It is, is a wild one guys, buckle up. This is the skinny confidential, him and her.

So you grew up, you said, with a lot of masculine energy. Yeah, yeah, for sure. How'd you grow up? Yeah, I mean, I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I mean, real blue collar. My dad was second generation, or, well, first generation born American, you know, come from a German family. And my dad definitely, you know, was raised with an iron fist and then brought that upon

me. and I don't think it always started like that with him. My brother was such a problem that... Older brother, younger brother. My older brother, 13 years older than me. Found out later on in life, like, after enough deep conversations with my mom, like, trying to just get her to crack at some reality of, like, what I went through, for her to, like, tell me some stuff.

And he would come to bed one night after something my brother did to, you know, my mom and dad before I was, you know, conscious of what was going on. And he was like, I will never let another fucking... kid do that to me. What do you mean? My brother had a massive drug problem. I'm talking like doing coke and stealing cars, you know, breaking into the high school to... From what age? Oh man, probably like 13. Got in trouble with the police for the first time at 14, got his front tooth knocked out by a police officer, getting his head hit against the back of a trunk of a car he stole. You know, it was always something. I mean, I was probably eight years old. You know, he's 13 years old

than me and sitting there drinking some milk, he's drinking some milk or watching a TV show eating burgers. He's sitting on a chair like right to my right of me and he just starts having a seizure and falls on top of me and he's just having like a seizure on top of me. And I didn't touch milk for like six months because I thought it was fucking milk or something. You know, like I had no idea what was going on. I was like traumatized at the idea of, you know, my brother almost dying and falling on top of me being carted away by an ambulance. And this wasn't, you know, the only time. So your childhood was incredibly chaotic.

Super chaotic. I mean, it was, you know, so much avoidance, you know, my mom's part. It took a lot of work for me to understand it so I wouldn't be mad about it. So much avoidance as that was shown, you know, from my mom and both and my dad, you know, where that's all this is going on with my brother at the same time were having like foreign exchange students brought into the house. What was the reasoning just parents wanted to? Oh, culture.

Yeah. I mean, things aren't that bad. I mean, Andy's just on drugs and, you know, like, I mean, my mom still this day, like, I mean, up until two years ago, it took, like, screaming matches of me getting her to realize that this pain is not made, make believe dad beat their shit out of me. Like, right in front of you, and you didn't notice it because you were too busy being on the phone talking to one of your patients because you couldn't disconnect from, you know, these people you help at a hospital enough to put your attention.

into the family, which is just pure avoidance. So the way that your dad dealt with you after dealing with your brother was, your brother traumatized them so much with his addiction that he said, okay, we're going to raise this one differently and not let you get. Yeah, I mean, my mom didn't have any part of it. You know, it was always my, it was just my dad. That was the hard ass. I mean, my mom was like the sweet woman who came home and like rubbed my back for 30 minutes.

And I'd stay up late, watch, you know, You know, until 11 o'clock on a school night just because I could like see her because she worked late nights, you know, as a nurse. And she always put more into it. And as the baby of the family, I was just looking for that like attention because everybody was so much older than me too. How many siblings? You have one sibling, two. How many siblings have? I mean, I have, I had my brother who passed away, Andy. You died when I was 22. I have my sister, you know, she's 10 years older than me. So she's going to be turning 50. And then I have my sister, Gretchen, who is two years older than me. And then I have a little brother who's adopted,

which is all part of the story. You know, I just, mom was a nurse, hospital, little boy, it's paralyzed, no family to love him, you know, and it was like, hey, like this kid's got nobody and, you know, we adopted them. And, you know, 25 years later, you know, he still lives with us. But that same thing, like, that same energy that went into that, could have been put into, you know, doing other things for our direct family at that time. To me, that generation seems like a lot of the way they dealt with things was sweeping it under the rug. Oh, 100%.

I mean, that's how we got here socially and culturally in so many ways that we are today that we could, like, speak of as just the sweeping under the rug. I mean, economics behind America, sweeping under the rug, just keep doing it. Push it aside for the next generation where it's like, no, fuck that. like I've never touched my kid. I don't yell at my kid. You know, it's just like everything comes from a place of,

I'm going to make them stronger with what it is that I had to go through to make sure that they never have to go through that. There's a lot. I feel like we could spend a lot of time here in her childhood. You know, a lot of people come on this show and we start with going, kind of getting to know who the person is. Yeah.

Some people have a quicker, you know, like, what's a child? Oh, good, grew up, but went to school, normal. We can, I feel like just talking to you here for the first five minutes. There's a lot to unpack. that was only five minutes. Yeah.

But I think it's important because I think it plays into obviously who you are now and why you're on the show and the message and what you're building. So talk to me about your older brother a little bit because it sounds like he had a pretty significant impact on your life. One, obviously being your older brother, but two, when he's going through addiction and you're that young, how are you engaging with him and what are you thinking? My brother, you know, to me was the coolest. I mean, he lived in the basement.

He listened to NWA, Beastie Boys. I used to, like, sit next to the speaker and just let it saturate my eardrums, you know, and watch him roll joints or whatever and hop in his El Camino and drive off. What was interesting is that I got older, I didn't realize that I also gained, like, my entrepreneurial spirit from him. He started his own contracting business. He was a remodeler, and he was super talented, you know, so talented that I, like, I saw something in him even when I was younger that I wanted to,

absorb some of this talent and I begged him to let me work for him. I remember I still have the tool belt. He like gave me. I showed up. It was like my first day of work and we go to this hardware store and he buys me a new tool belt, a heart hammer and tape measure. And I worked for my brother every summer until I was 18. So for six years. You guys were close. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We were really close. I was the one that saw the drug use and alcohol go from recreational to addiction. Like I saw because I was working with him. I quit school so I could work for him full time. I stopped going to college.

I quit the soccer team. I left everything. At the time, he was building my parents' house. He, like, ran his car into the lake, called me and was like, I need your help and don't tell mom and dad. While using.

Yeah, and I held on to that for a while, and I, like, realize that I, like, done drug runs for him. You know, and I didn't realize that's really what I was doing. I was putting money in mailbox and grabbing shit. You know, I thought it was for his work, but it was like, hey, on your way to work, grab this mailbox. you know and it's like cool you know and then all of a sudden he's doing drugs at lunchtime and I'm like

that's the bag I picked up you know I'm 18 at this time 19 20 at 22 is when he passed away he had three kids you know I mean he was married he had gone through three stints of rehab came back and at the time I was uh I was living with my girlfriend I got a call at like five in the morning for my sister and Andy was living in my house in the room that I grew up and then he had died you know So I get this call and he had died and they knew he had died. My sister found his body at 5 in the morning going down to wake him up. The amount of guilt that hit because I was supposed to call him like eight hours earlier and I didn't.

You know, I was supposed to call him back. He like left the message at the gym that I was working at and to call him back. And I like left the gym like a little too late. Just kind of lost track of time. My cell phone was dead. Anybody who knows me knows my cell phone is always fucking dead, you know? And it was just, I was like, oh, I'll talk to him. the morning. On the way to the to go see him, I heard an ad on the radio. And this is kind of like

where, you know, being ready, like I was always kind of like my thing, like be ready, stay ready and some mentality of like what I went through as a child with my dad being a certain way. It got me into working out at a young age at 12 years old. I spent all my money on a personal trainer and a gym membership. And then what money did you have? I had a paper out. I was making $2,000 a month. I literally trained with a personal trainer four, five days a week for six, seven, months to learn what I learned and to like get advanced and understand it was to protect myself you know and to feel confident my body because I was always under some version of attack and when my brother passed away and I heard this ad on a radio it was for a kickboxing tournament

it was a no holds barred fight and it was show up to Harley Davidson dealership sign up fight two weeks from here and it was uh it was called the tough man remember those tournaments used to see on ESPN with the double boxing gloves and people just beating their shit out of each other, I was the champion. I won that fight weeks after my brother died. It was the first time I had ever fought in a ring. Do you think that the reason that you were drawn to fighting and beating the shit out of or getting beaten the shit out of is because of your chaotic childhood?

I knew that I was good at violence, right? Like receiving it? I also knew that you were good at receiving. violence. You'd taken pain. I had taken pain. I mean, I've never heard anyone say that. That's like, that's crazy that you, you in your brain thought you were good at receiving

violence. Yeah. Like, I wasn't afraid of violence. Yeah. I wasn't perceptively. It didn't scare me. The idea of getting hit or hitting someone. I'm like, I've gone through that since I was a kid.

Like, what? It was familiar. Yeah. I mean, I had a 6-2-2-60-pound man hit me. Like, break a watch over my fucking face. Like, what is this? what is this 185 pound boy going to do to me? I mean,

at first dude I fought, he felt the wrath of 22 years of pain. It was the first person I had ever hit. I mean, I body slammed my dad one time just to show him at 18 years old, like stop fucking with me. You know, I put him down,

I knocked the wind out of him. He went unconscious for a split second because he hit me three times and I just was like, did you ever repair that relationship with your dad? We can get there. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I did. I mean, as much as I could.

He had a hard time letting his guard down, but we did. To be clear, I'm not a violent person. Like, I fucking hate violence, right? Like, I loathe it. You know, I got out of fighting because violence is what I wanted. What I wanted to, what I wanted is to feel. If you have been listening to this podcast and you have not gotten Sakara's beauty drops and chlorophyll drops, you are missing out. I use these every single morning.

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You get 20% off your first order. Sakara.com slash Skinny. Go check out those drops. Add them to your morning water. From an outside perspective, to me, it seems like your parents put so, like, a huge emphasis on your brother using drops. So they were distracted with that. And then it sounds like they adopted someone who was paralyzed and they put a big, a lot of their attention on that.

And then you were kind of left in the middle floating around and they ended up taking a lot of their stress out on you. Oh yeah. 100% nailed it. Bam. Yeah, I mean, it's what totally. I mean, I was like the kind of the kid forgotten. I was just young enough and out of place and I didn't have enough problems. Like my sister Grutchin, she was like dyslexic and struggled with these issues.

So she had just enough attention on her because she was fucking off in school to be like, Gretchen, you need to fucking, you know, this and this. Like you got to do your home, you know. And like, but me, I'm like on a roll, you know, flying through in the middle of the day, just crying for no reason, not knowing why. So what would you, like, what would you get beat for? What were some of the offenses that would such a bad off? Because it sounds like you weren't too bad of a kid compared to.

No, man. It would be like not cleaning my room. I liked model cars when I was a kid and it'd be like not cleaning up the paint in the middle of the garage floor. You know, even though I like had newspaper, it was like all clean. It's just like I didn't cap the stuff

and like put the paint brushes away right away. You know, maybe it'd been like 20 minutes or something because I was doing something else or washing my hand, you know, whatever. And he had to flip the fuck out. And was it because like, say it with your brother, did your brother get that kind of wrath?

Or was it he was too... No, I mean, yeah. My brother was too old at that point. And my dad, like, I mean... So the frustration got taken out on you. Oh, yeah. I mean, you, you know, bullies, right?

Like, they're not going to pick on the person of their fair size, you know? I also think it sounds like you were looking for your mom's attention and your mom didn't give you the attention. And then she goes and adopts someone who's paralyzed. And then I'm sure a lot of her attention went there. And you were probably like, what the hell? Oh, yeah, totally. I mean, I mean, there was, I could count how many sports events that they showed up for me on one

hand throughout my entire high school career. And I was a standout soccer player and pole voltaire. Like it was, you know, on my own, on my birthday, I turned 18, you know, April 28th, 2000. Year I graduated, I'm running track. I have a track meet on my birthday and nobody shows up to the track meet. You know, it was just like, what the fuck? Did they feel like Adams just got his shit together and like he's fine? Or was it just kind of the lost child because so many of the other kids needed the attention. I don't really know. I think they were just so caught up in their own shit. I mean, like, you know, they were always just so troubled with like money, I think, financially, you know, and just not talking about it. Like, my parents did not have a plan. Like,

thank God I figured out what savings was later on. And I've met some successful people that, you know, have helped me because like, shit, up until a couple years ago, I didn't have any money in savings. Like, and I was like, okay, like, mom, you didn't have any money saved up. Like if it wasn't for X dying or whatever, you know, like you would have been fucked. Like, oh, hell no, that is not going to be me. I mean, my whole family was overweight. I've been 7% body fat and 200 pounds since I was 19 years old. So how did you find fitness?

Like what was the, I mean, it sounds like you found it young, 12, but what was, like, what was the moment where you're like, oh, my God, this is the thing for me? The real moment of fitness is crazy. And this is where it's like these like storybook moments, right? My great uncle Bill died. basically my dad's uncle Chicago go to the funeral have this great party afterwards and this disheveled

attorney comes up to me and I'm 12 years old it was an age it was Donnier came at 12 a lot of things happened at 12 years old my uncle Bill left me a rusty barbell and 85 pounds in metal weights sitting in this broken milk crate

and I was 12 years old I'm like the lawyer said your uncle said you always love WWF. And maybe this will help you become a wrestler one day. So I took that rusty ass barbell home. I stole my sister's Reebok stair stepper. And I started working out. Started like in the way I looked.

Started like in the way I felt. And one of the best things that ever came of Donier, who's my little brother, the one that's paralyzed of him becoming my brother, is not only the relationship that we have and like the things I've been able to help him with that I don't think many other people would have helped him with, you know, knowing people just follow medical

advice. I'm always like buck the system, you know, and I tried things with him when he was young. He said he would never eat again, you know, and it's like he eats with his mouth since he was four years old now. You know, it's like I put food in his mouth and pull it out of his mouth with my finger if he couldn't chew it, you know, and just doing weird stuff. I was like 16 years old playing with things like that. His nurse came up to me at 12 and was like, I see you working out your room all the time. He's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm just trying to get big. And this guy was like a bodybuilder and he was a fireman. He had a carpet cleaning business, an entrepreneur again in my life.

Next day he comes and he drops off the stack of Ironman magazines. It's a big stack from like 87 to like 96 of muscle magazines. I read every single one of them cover to cover like three, four times at the age of 12, like in the matter of like weeks. He just became obsessed. Oh, obsessed is a understatement. I literally said at 12 years old that I was going to be on the cover of a fitness magazine and want to be one of the biggest names of fitness ever.

It sounds like your whole family. was overweight and you went the different direction. So you became the black sheep because you were kind of mirroring them. Oh, yeah. So maybe that's the reason that they took it out on you because you brought up things for them that they didn't want to see in themselves. Yeah, I mean, very much so. I mean, I can't talk about anything health-related.

I mean, like some of the most successful people in the world, people who own PayPal, have sought my advice, you know. I mean, you can't talk about it with them. I can't talk health with them, yet some of the most successful people in the world pay me to help them, and they just won't take what I give them. You know, it's just like, it doesn't matter. It's always offensive or, you know, whatever it is. Oh, let me help you. You know, I'll show up. And I'm fine. It's like, okay, I mean, you're still overweight. I mean, 20 years later, like, it's not me talking shit. Like, I'm doing it out of love here.

Someone told me that the reason that Oprah was so successful is because she never helped anyone. she helped people help other people. And maybe if there's a way for you to help them help other people, you can get it through their brain. Do you know many Midwesterners? I know you. Yeah. Yeah.

Midwesterners are an interesting bunch. Careful. There's a lot of Midwesterners listening. I'm a Midwesterners. So believe me, I get it. I will never stop trying. I will never stop trying. I actually had my sister here.

and I got her to microdose mushrooms. And the same with my mom. My mom has an interest, she's had a lot of crazy surgeries and has a lot of pain. She's like no joint or thumb and shit, right? Her doctor of like 30 years retired. And she got this new doctor. And like in the first doctor meeting,

they like marked her as like pill seeking. So now my mom can't get pain medication. So I was like, well, let's try some alternative methods, mom. So when she was here, I gave her some psilocybin and a nice little microdose. And she was like, I can move my shoulder.

And it's like, yes, yes, you can. So, I mean, the work is never done. I love what I do. My heart is on my sleeve. I mean, I have a tattoo of a heart on my sleeve. The logo of my company is a heart. Like, everything I do comes from the heart. Because really, that's like my always been my biggest driver.

It hasn't been education or anything. It's just been passion. So after your brother passed away, what changed in your life? Like, what kind of clarity did you have with your business and your family? When my brother passed, I mean, I was probably, was a young buck. Before you met your wife. Oh, yeah, way before.

Yeah, yeah. So my brother passed. I did that fight. And somebody came up to me, Horace Kraft, who is like my brother from a, it's like my, it's like my stepdad in a weird way, the sheriff out of Milwaukee, who kind of was like wrongfully accused black guy, you know, shot a white guy in the city, like years, years back, got like taken off the force, just defending himself in the, in this, gunfight and kind of like switched his life to like helping youth,

disadvantaged youth through it, you know, and came up to me and was like, you have real talent, you know, you should train and brought me to this place called Ace Boxing, which is this like dingy hole in the wall, literally blood, soaked mats in the middle of a Milwaukee park that is a historic place that can't be taken down because it's owned by Native Americans.

And we would show up there in box and he would just beat the shit out of me. and he would have like three other dudes that were all like black belts and crazy martial arts like wing chung and all these like martial arts that were just kicking my ass for like three four months at the same time i'm training with tom muller who is you know a very high level jiu jutsu practitioner just one you know a world title so just trying to get a well-rounded understanding of martial arts i i i dove into fighting i mean i basically i went all the way in and i was balancing fighting, training. I had gotten a job as an electrician. And I was just kind of doing the nine to five grind looking for my thing because I knew Milwaukee wasn't my thing. And is this the time when like where is UFC at this time? Is this? Yeah, I mean, people making money yet? Yeah, I mean, people are being paid dog shit. But it's arguably that a lot of them are still being

paid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's a whole other topic. I mean, I'm talking real bad, like real bad. Like I was privy to a lot of these conversations, you know, when I was coming up. So I, I, I thought, that fight. I fought it the next year. I then did Jujitsu for about three months and the, my team talked to me into doing a Naga, which is the North American Grappling Association. It's nine states invited. And I ended up winning, uh, Naga after like only practicing Jiu Jitsu for about four months. So you just came in and were just bottle rage is unleashed on everyone. You're just taking people out. Well, it wasn't just rage. I mean, I think back then, unless you were like the highest level collegiate wrestler, you would never touch somebody like me.

Like, not because of my skill level, but because I had a 500 pound deadlift and could do 35 unbroken pull-ups, run a 40 and a 4-4-5. Like I... And also, let's not discount that at this point. I mean, it's interesting, you meet people that have taken beatings in their life. And it's a whole different thing because a lot of people, you know, they think they're going to act tough in a tough situation. And then it happens and they get, you know, punched once.

Like, oh, my God. If you're somebody that can take more pain than the majority. majority of people, that's a huge advantage. I wouldn't give it. I was ruthless. Like I would stick my chin in somebody's eye socket and just grind away until I could get the position that I wanted. You know, it's like, hey, you're not going to move your arm. I'll make you move your arm. You seem very gentle, though, when I, when I meet you. Yeah, well, I mean, there's a difference between me who wants to win and, and, like, stop somebody from hurting me and winning. And like me who's just like right here.

I mean, Pat, you know, this guy next to me, he refers to me like my puppy, you know, who's like calm and sweet and cute yet barks at everybody. I have a side, but it's like nobody's ever going to see it. Like, you'd have to put me back in a ring if that's ever going to happen. Or somebody needs to threaten my family. Like, I do tactical shooting. Like, I do things like that, you know. I mean, I'm ready for it.

But I think the people who really know it don't have to show it. No, you know. Oh, Michael always says that. Well, we have a friend of ours and he's been on the show, you know, Joe Schilling. Yeah, yeah, of course. Like, I always tell, like, that's not a guy you ever. want to find yourself in a fight with. Right?

It's just like not. There's certain people, but he is one of the nicest, softest people if you're, if you're just with him. Like, he doesn't need, he doesn't need to prove it to anyone. If you put him in a ring,

it's a whole different thing. Well, there's, there's this law that Robert Green writes about that it says that when someone shows hyper masculinity or hyper femininity, there's something that is an insecurity there, that they're not showing. So like if they're so masculine and they have to show everything that's,

so masculine all the time. Like there's something there. If there's guys that coming in agro all the time, there's probably some other issue. Yeah. I mean, that's effectively, I mean,

I ended up fighting for seven more years, right? Hiding from pain, running. I found myself multiple states, dating different women, you know, like all these kinds of things

that's kind of cruising around being this free spirit. And I had got to- What do you mean dating all kinds of women? You mean like hookers? Oh, no, no, no, no, no,

If you have a different woman in every state. No, no. Listen, I have never been with a hooker. Okay. No, I mean, like, do we have girlfriends in different states? Like, what do you mean? No, no, I wasn't a player. I mean, I, my wife's mind will go to like the darkest places when it comes to the

dark. Because it was like fun. Why? Straight to hookers. It does sound fun. What do you mean? It wasn't that exciting. No, looking for acceptance from women because of like the lack of validation and acceptance

from my own mom and my sisters. It's always been like a thing. It's actually a thing that me and my wife. we kind of like talk about and are working on is that if she has friendships with women, you know, that and they're like hanging out, I'll feel like sitting at home on the outside. And it's like it's not because I'm needy or whatever it is. It's because, you know,

that's like where I've been for so long and it hurts to not feel included. Like, hey, I want to go get a fucking facial too. Like it's, you know, like you're my best friend. Like don't exclude me because you're doing a girl thing. Like I don't like that thought process. What if she's getting her vagina steamed? Do you want to come get your ball steamed? I'll steam my asshole any day.

Okay. So you're in for anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm just, yeah. I mean, she's getting a pedicure or do you want to get a pedicure? Totally. Yeah. Well, it's not that she can't have her alone time.

It's basically the idea of like what I'm talking about like with other women. Like so I would be dating a girl and I jumped in the next state. But like I'd have like something already there. It's because like you, I needed like a woman in my life at the time for that validation and self-acceptance. You know, even though I had like all these other great things going for myself, I had not done this like closure work that I needed, you know, through the relationship that I had through my mom where she's like seeing me get smacked and not saying anything about it.

You know, and you're like, when did you have the light bulb moment that you knew that like maybe you needed to seek therapy or you needed to do something about this? Michael was getting a little frisky this morning. Know why? Because I've been taking that sex dust. He didn't know it though. I spiked his coffee with it. Oh, I knew it. I let you do it. I saw you. Here's the move, okay? In the morning, when they're waking up, all you have to do is sprinkle a little smoky cacao-flavored sex dust into their coffee. So what I did specifically is I blended

one teaspoon of sex dust into Michael's morning latte. I gave him two shots of espresso to wake him up in every way, a little bit of almond milk, and then I added the sex dust. And this was the perfect way to start our day. I got my creative juices flowing literally and figuratively. He's drinking his coffee, I got my juices flowing too. Things are happening. I just feel like why not add some sex dust to your coffee? Moon Juice has all the things. They have all different kinds of dusts.

I'm a fan of the sex dust. That's the one. And basically what it is is it has six key adaptogens in it. Okay? I can't pronounce them all, but there's some good ones. They have wildcrafted chelagite in it. A little bit of organic cacao, which stimulates adorfen release. Organic maca, which is known to give you healthy sexual function.

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Spike your partner's coffee and tell me how it is. Honestly, it was when my shoulder separated. I had just signed a strike force contract. I had been fighting for five and a half years. I had done like 13 fights and lost two and won the other. 11. I won a tournament that was for Strike Force. And less than like 18 hours later, I blew my shoulder out.

Never fought again. How did you blow it out? I suplexed Brett Rogers, who's like 295 pounds six foot six fighter. And his arm got like behind my shoulder blade. And I was doing a suplex and my whole shoulder went up and the rest of my body went down because his weight was on me. It was very weird. It was like accidental.

Freak accident. Yeah. I should have rested longer before I've trained again. I had just fought 18 hours previously. But because I beat the dude in like 40 seconds, I was like, I'm fucking fine. You know, but I was super dehydrated, most likely, you know, which is why it happened. My ex-boyfriend did something similar. And isn't there no way to put a cast on it?

you have to just like put it in a sling and let it heal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, that's basically what happened. And unfortunately, when something like that happens, you hope it rips. Oh, you hope it rips. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because then they can reattach it and keep it short. Mine's stretched.

So now I have like what's called like, you know, like a slap and my shoulder a little bit because there's just like slack in it. That makes sense. So you wish that it, I wished it would have ripped because then I could have been like, they would reattach it. And insurance would cover it no fucking problem. versus like overstretching and micro tears and just massive trauma, you know. Was that the most painful thing that's ever happened to you or no?

It wasn't even painful. Oh, okay. No, it wasn't. Oh my God. Yeah, it happened so fast. I was just like, uh, uh, you know, I like look at my shoulder. It's like sitting out here. Oh, fuck.

And I like was kind of like on my like side, you know, and I like rolled over and I went, and it went, fuck. And I was just like, oh, what the fuck? And my coach comes over, he goes, hold on, and he pushes on it just a little harder, and it gets one hard pop. That he was not supposed to do. So I ended up having like some tendon issues because he reset it without having like an MRI. You're supposed to have that shit checked before you reset stuff to make sure tendons are in the right spots, yada, yada, yada.

So every time I do this, there's like a nice little flapping, you know, in my shoulder. It's just like a little, you know, you can feel like the tendon flick over my chromium process is what I speculate is happening. But yeah, I mean, it was, that's what happened. I had this massive conscious awakening. Emotional trauma is held in your fascia, right? So your body holds on to all this. And this is something that I was talking about almost 13 years ago now. And I kind of stumbled upon like Moschfeldin Christ and some other really incredible

authors that kind of like piqued at that idea. But now with even more modern science, we even understand that on a deeper level, how fascia is 99.9. They're still just scratching the surface on all that stuff. For sure. For sure. And when that amount of trauma happened, I remembered in my shoulder, it took me a while until I put it together years later. That shoulder was also the shoulder that I hurt right around the time.

My brother died. I was working for a landscape company and I was pounding these tree posts in. And I ended up partially tearing my rotator cuff on that left side. And all the emotion just kept building into that left side into that shoulder. And when I got hurt, it just went, pah. it was like the motion was trying to get out, which is ultimately what I believe happened. I don't believe it had anything to do with impact.

I don't believe it had anything to do with a suplex. I think I probably could have opened a door that day the wrong way, and my shoulder would have exploded. Like it would have found a way to come out. That's like how powerful it felt. And at that moment, I knew fighting was over. Everybody's like, oh, you can heal. You'll be better.

I'm like, no. Like, I have no inclination to fight within a matter of seconds. You were just done. I knew I was done. Every part of me, like, had left. I, like, woke up and I literally thought to myself, have I just been watching what I've been doing for the last five years? Like, I was just viewing myself doing these things.

Like, I never felt pain. That's called disassociation. It's from trauma. Yeah, 100%. You were, you had dissociated from yourself. It sounds like your brother passed and you went right into this world of violence, you know, that you don't seem like you're actually, like you said, a violent person.

Yeah. You're just in it. Yeah. Totally. No, I at 100%. I was, I disassociated for so long that I basically consciously woke up with my shoulder exploded. I was like, where the fuck am I?

That is wild. This is a real thing, by the way, that people should look into a trauma, a disassociation. It's when you, you almost delusion yourself and you disassociate from everything. Oh, yeah. I struggled with imposter syndrome. I, because every once in a while I'd consciously wake up. in this world that I created

where I was Adam the professional fighter and nobody could hurt me right from like the person that lost so much in his life and all of a sudden when my shoulder exploded I'm like holy fuck like what happened like why did I do this to myself

like even some of my tattoo is I was like huh that's interesting like why did I get that you know I mean it was just it was like silly it was like moment of clarity oh yeah it wasn't like regret either It was kind of like who did this to me. That is wild.

That's actual true dissociation. Has anyone, has a therapist or anything ever told you that? That's like what you're describing. No. Books. You know, books, podcasts, mushrooms. Like, I've done enough psychedelics to do the work and like understand that what I went through. I had a therapist when I was really young because I had ADHD and they tried like, you know,

drugging me all the damn time to keep me calm and shit. My therapist was so cool. shout out to Dr. Crisco if he's still alive. I'm not sure. He's a big listener. Yeah, hey, he was awesome, man. He would do martial arts with me for like an hour and talk about stuff, you know, and that was it. We would just move around and he put on like sparring gear and let me hit him, you know,

and like we like smack each other with foam noodles and stuff and, you know, just, you know, talk. So I kind of, I understood how to deal with my issues. Is it required movement and vocalization, you know, and I just talk about it. people like you podcasts. I mean, effectively, I was lucky enough to make something of like

this tragedy that I've experienced in my life and to have an ability to jump on opportunities, podcasts, to talk about it that not only helps me, but helps other people.

After your whole shoulder incident happened, was there any kind of substance abuse because of everything you'd been through? No, I mean, I've always smoked a lot of weed. Can you abuse weed? Sure, why not? I don't know.

It's a debate now. I feel like there's gray area of everything. I mean, I smoke weed probably like twice a day. So, and I've done so since I was like 18, 19. I mean, listen, I know a lot of people that it works for. I remember reading an article about the guy that started WeWorks and, you know, like with the whole like Ponzi scheme and whatever, you know, they were like talking about it this magazine. And they're like, and the investors were seriously upset when they found out he was smoking weed over international waters. And I was like, damn, his investors would be really pissed off at me.

You know, if they do what I did on international waters. Yeah. So, I mean, no drug use. I have had a couple close calls. I was like, you dumb fucker. Like, do you not know? Like, you know. What do you mean a couple close calls?

New Year's. The first New Year's I was celebrating with my wife after we got married were like, oh, let's do some hippie flips. So mushrooms and molly. Okay. And I was super dehydrated. I was training really hard at the time. I took an Adderall earlier that morning.

I was prescribed it. The Adderall is what fucks everyone. You mix that in with the stuff, huh? I never did that. It wasn't for recreational use. I was never one of those people that's like, oh, I'm going to take an Adderall so I can get a bunch of shit done. It was like I was given Adderall to study and do stuff like I was prescribed it for years.

And I hadn't taken it in a long time. And I took it that day because I had a lot of shit to do for work. And I was like, I got to focus like my brain. I took it at like 9 a.m. Well, like 11 o'clock, we're like. hippie flipping. I'm like one minute I'm drinking orange shoes. The next minute I'm waking up, thinking I'm drowning, laying on the bathroom floor and smacked my head on the toilet so hard. I broke the toilet seat. And earrings, I had like plugs. I used to have like, you know,

plugs in my ears, literally like jumped out of my ears. Like I hit my head so hard. Just from the impact. They said I was like foaming at the mouth and just shaking. So that was pretty wild. So that was an experience enough to realize that, like that are not my friend. I had like another one similar, but it wasn't, you know, like that. You know, I wasn't like, oh, I'm taking multiple drugs. It was like I took one drug and I was dehydrated again, you know, just going too hard, always pushing. People listen to this show and like they've heard us be hard on adderile use. And I think it is disgusting. P.S. Like there's, that's a whole part of my story. And the reason, you know, we've had people like

Dr. Amin on the show say like for the right people, the right prescription, it makes it's a medication. Obviously, it's to be used as such. Personally, Lauren and I have a handful of friends, some that aren't with us anymore, that mixed Adderall with other hard substances, and they didn't even, they didn't think like the two and two were going to affect each other. And it, like you said, it can go the other way fast. Yeah, we also have friends that have taken Adderall with mixed it with a bunch of different shit and they're alive and they have severe brain problems. Now, I think it's like If you need it and you're being supervised for a doctor, it's one thing. I think it becomes a problem when people abuse it.

Well, to your point, though, you took it in the morning. You didn't even think that it would have a connection that far away later in the evening, right? And it definitely does because it stays in your system. And, you know, we've had even a lot of our friends, I remember I went back to me, my buddy, we were going to work in construction one summer. And he had to do drug tests. And he had taken adoril to study. And he came back, tested positive for meth.

And they're like, we're not hiring you. But he wasn't taking math. they were taking an Adderall, which I guess registers on the test. Yeah, methadentatomy. I mean, I mean, it's, it's powerful shit. You said that you had an experience with it. What was your experience like? I mean, I was, man, I was prescribed it.

I was like the founding class of Ritalin. You know, I mean, so first grade, I'd get a, I'd get an announcement over the loudspeaker. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, come to the office to take your pill. I forgot about those announcements. Literally, like, that's what they would say. Come to the office to take your pill.

So then I became like the black sheep in my, school because like the teacher told them that I had to take special pills because I'm hyper. And it's funny, that same year I ended up testing up two grades and they ended up having to put me in like third grade from like first grade. You're so focused. Well, it was like I, you know, I was in challenge and then they like ended up putting me back down. It was kind of interesting. Like I went through some weird stuff in school.

My experiences with Ritalin was at a very young age, I spoke to myself somewhere and was like prescription drugs are not good. right like I knew something was going on inside when I would take them that I did not like the way I felt it was not making me right and I was I knew it was directly prescription medication just like how I knew that it was bad food what foods it was making my parents and my sisters overweight or what foods made me feel a certain way I started having this really strong internal voice around my health right around the 12 year old age when I got that giant stack Iron Man magazines there was a study in there about caffeine and neurotransmitters and And they talked about eltyrosine and altheonine as incredible neurotransmitters to be combined with caffeine. So I have a paper out. And we would always stop and my dad would get me a donut and he would get himself a coffee. And one morning I said, get me a coffee.

And I drank coffee that morning instead of myritalin. It was within about a week, my mom went to like Walgreens and I went and checked and found the nature made brand from Walgreens, found Elthian capsules. and I started dumping Elthenean capsules inside my coffee at 12 years old. Holy shit. That is like a story in how you have this brand. Yeah. Wow.

That is, wow. So you made like nature's adderol. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and that's effectively what it is. I mean, we need, you know, an amphetamine, an upper, right, to stimulate. And then you need dopamine and serotonin to regulate the norepinephrine and the ephedron that your body is creating. so it will effectively give you a very strong focus feeling.

And the other, there's another ingredient in there that supports cognitive function that has actual clinical studies that obviously didn't exist when I was 12 years old, but it was a rudimentary thought process on how I could make myself focused through a natural ingredient and just an amino acid. So did you meet your wife before you launched your company? I did. Yeah. So after fighting, I moved out to L.A. And is this before your own strong or after? So this is before strong. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, so I moved out to L.A. L.A. was like the place for me, it quickly.

It was like in two days, I had like 12 auditions. I was like going from here to here. It was wild. I got a job at Pulse Fitness, which was like the studio in Sherman Oaks. It was like the, it was Pulse or Barry's boot camp. This was like 13 years ago. So, I mean, it was like the place, right? All the actresses are hanging out there.

there and that was my life. I was, you know. Did you hook up with any actresses, don't lie. I mean, yes. What is it rhyme with? What does it rhyme with? I wouldn't say that she's an actress, but she's a fitness celebrity in person. So. Okay. So you guys have to yeah. Yeah. Think hard who was a big fitness celebrity in person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was a character with pink hair one time on a, on a show, if that helps you. Jackie Warner? No, no, no. No. Did you look up with Jackie Warner too? No. So I'm in L.A.

I get a big break. I ended up getting this awesome commercial. First, I had this audition for The Biggest Loser. They were like, we love you. It's just not right. And I, so I'm like, all right, cool. And you were pursuing television opportunities at this time. The whole reason that when I got done fighting, how I justified all the time that I put into it is I was like,

this world's going to take off. Like, this whole, like, looking for tough guys that are good. looking with tattoos is going to be a real thing. Like, because it was a bunch of phonies pretending to be tough. Yeah. And that you could tell when people aren't tough. It's like, oh, that's just a soft-ass dude pretending to be a tough guy, right? Versus like a tough guy who can act and looks like a tough guy.

You know, you can't fake cauliflower ears. You know, like different things like that that you want. What's like that meme again? It's like, what's it's called it? It's like, it's Jack Nicholson smiling and laughing. He's like when I see the guy across the bar picking, getting ready to pick the fight with the guy with the cauliflower here. It's like, oh, fuck. wrong guy dude

wrong guy dude I'm on this set shooting a commercial you know I have all these people interested in me and I get a text message for my sister that my dad

has cancer she's like call me up she's like dad just got back from some tests and his blood his you know T cell counts are you know all off

and blast sites where are you too at this point are you and your dad's a relationship pretending that like he's like Not an asshole and that like I'm okay with them. But like really, I'm only seeing them maybe once every like six months. And I talk to him maybe like once a week when I call when I'd be calling my mom.

And quickly because I forgot to ask we've been going like so far so many places. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When your brother passed, what does that do to your parents? Ever since I can remember, I have liked a pop of shimmer in the inner corners of my eyes. First of all, I feel like it pinches my nose in. And second of all, it brightens the whites in my eyes and my teeth. And I feel like I've been talking about this since I started the Skinny Confidential blog. After stocking tons of different products, I found this thing.

It's called the Brilliant Eye Brightener. And it's a cream to powder highlighter stick. And what I do is I take it and like I said, put it right at the tips of my eye pinching the nose in. It's so major. It's by Thrive Cosmetics. And what it does is it gives you like this look like you've had plenty of sleep. And it also is like the perfect wash of color.

and glow. The color is right. Thrive Cosmetics is a high performance beauty and skincare line that's made with clean skin-loving ingredients. I used to use a shimmer that had a bunch of stuff added, but the one I use now, it has no paraben, no sulfates, and it's also 100% vegan and cruelty-free. What's also cool is it doesn't have a bunch of added shit in it, and every purchase supports organizations that help women thrive. So what's cool is every product you're donating back, and then you're also wearing your champagne pop. And you're the inner lids of the corners of your eyes. It's amazing. Now is a great time to try Thrive Cosmetics for yourself. Right now you can get 15% off your first order when you visit Thrive Cosmetics.com slash Skinny. That's Thrive Cosmetics, C-A-U-S-E-M-E-T-I-C-S-C-S.com slash skinny for 15% off your first order. Get the eye brightener. Trust me. I would say that my mom and dad did a pretty good job of like, like, they were very good there for each other. Yeah, yeah.

I would say that for any parent, you know, whoever has to go through like losing, you know, a kid, if you have other kids, you have to acknowledge the fact that they may be in pain too. And you should really think about how to make sure that they're okay as well while also taking care of yourself.

Because I never got a once, are you okay? You know, and to be only 22 and have your brother die. And for nobody to ever ask you, are you okay with, you know, like, are you good? It sounds like your family didn't ask that,

though your whole childhood too. No, it really wasn't. Like it sounds like no one was checking if you were okay. Yeah, I mean, and they all had like their own shit. Like my sister was overweight and was dealing with like, you know, she had bulimia or anorexia, you know, because she kind of like struggled with some eating disorders here and there.

You know, Grutchin struggled with her, you know, education and like, would she graduate high school kind of stuff? And, you know, it was always a thing and that she got pregnant like when she was like 20 or, you know, 21, something, you know, very young, you know, for her and like where she was in her life. So everybody kind of always had their own. own thing. And when my brother died, they all had their own significant others. I didn't have that. So it was like, they all just like turn their head and their shoulders to their significant

others and cry to them. But like, I didn't have that. You know, I mean, like my own friends miss my brother's funeral, you know, or it'd be like, to this day, they still don't know that I'm pissed off at him for it. But I, he's pissed off. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm pissed off. Yeah, yeah. You don't miss, you don't miss your homies brother's funeral and your dad's and their dad's funeral. I think people are extremely uncomfortable dealing with death. I agree. And I think that it's one of those things that you can't expect someone to understand unless they've been through it. 100%.

You know, and that's, I mean, I guess you have to come from it with empathy. You just have to come and be like empathetic to the fact that they maybe haven't lost someone and they don't understand. Totally. I don't know if you can describe how it feels to lose someone who's close to you. Yeah, 100%. I mean, like, it's interesting. Like, am I pissed that somebody didn't show up for me when I needed it? Yes.

Do I hold it against them? No, because I know everybody has their own issues and their own experiences. Like, some, like, I remember not wanting to watch a movie that my wife really wanted to watch because I did not want to watch a main character deal with alcoholism. Huh. Right? Because, like, I just didn't feel like fucking dealing with that at that moment. I'm sorry. I do not feel like watching whatever, you know, Lady Gaga movie that, whatever the star is born, right?

I didn't feel like watching that movie because he deals with alcohol issues and shit the whole movie. And I'm like, that's just like a trigger I don't feel like playing with, you know, at this moment. People got really like irritated with me in my own life when I, I didn't enjoy that movie. Oh, oh, that was just going to sign up that? I just did it. A little side note. It's good. Soundtracks great. I didn't like the movie either.

I just didn't find it. Fuck that movie. Sorry. I know, listen, the little monsters are going to fucking get me now. But, you know, I just, I was, you're canceled. You're canceled. Oh, that's happened many times. So when your sister calls you and tells you that your father has cancer, one, were you expecting

to hear it from your father? And two, what did what did that bring up from you for your childhood? Full on truth. I finished that photo shoot. I went to my tattoo artist. I said, yo man, I got to go. I'm like, can you do the tattoo tonight? And he's like, fuck, dude.

I'm exhausted. I'm like, I have some Coke. I literally had the smallest amount on me from like a client. I can see why you and Khalil are friends. That's all I'm going to say. Midway through this podcast, I'm going to sit here and acknowledge Kaliol. I can see why you and Kahl are friends.

It's because you guys are absolutely fucking unfiltered. It's a good thing we mention Kaleel again because he's probably listening to almost turn it off without his mind. He just got hard right now. He just turned the volume back up. He just turned it. He's like, oh wait, this has got better. He just turned to Tateleel.

He was like, listen, do you hear that? I love how like in 2020, like everyone or whatever the year is. 22. Everyone's like, Realness, like unfiltered. Like, no, you and Khalil are really unfiltered. I always have been. Okay, I love it. I'm obsessed with it.

Okay, so you tell the tattoo artist, I have some Coke. Yeah, I mean, he was like, I'm exhausted. I'm like, I have some Coke. He's like, let's do this. So in the middle of my tattoo, my car is loaded. I literally, I drive this Toyota Yaris back then, right? And my whole life fit in this bitch. It was hilarious.

Like literally like a bike, like, sticking out the window. So we finish up and we probably did just like a little too much because there was, you know, and I'm like, I'm good. Well, I get this phone call for my buddy and he's like, hey, we're in Vegas. How far is L.A.? I was like close enough to drive. I got in my car, drove to Vegas. It's probably like 10 o'clock at night, drove to Vegas, got to Vegas around like three in the morning, you know, 2.30 in the morning, something like that, partied for 24 hours and then drove the rest of the way home. No hookers. No hookers.

He's up with you in the hookers, longer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. I feel like the reason I can ask him, I feel like he'll tell me the truth. No, no, no, no hookers. No hookers.

I mean, I don't have to pay for sex. I mean, shit. Everyone's Googling you right now. He's married. Yeah, no, no hookers. But it was, it was cool. You know, moved back, surprise my mom and dad at breakfast.

I went and took like a four-hour nap, woke up. And I was like, dad, I'm exhausted. Could you drive me downtown and you need to get a job? You know, I went from making like, 75, 80,000 a year being a union electrician. I had all these great sponsorships with fighting, so I never had to pay for shit.

Now I'm looking at like $12 an hour jobs. I chose between two jobs. Be a manager at the buckle or be a doorman at this high end place and this whiskey spot. And I chose that spot. Two weeks later, I met my wife. I met my first business investor.

I made a name for myself. How'd you meet your wife? She was the hostess with the mostess. Did you like her right away? I was not looking for anything. So no. None of you guys are looking for stuff. We have to, listen.

No guys are looking for stuff until they find the person that is right. Yeah. I, because of what I was going through, I really felt that Milwaukee was just a pit stop. So I didn't want to get connected to anything that, and I know my heart would be. open to that. And you also were getting laid a lot. Well, I mean, I love, guys are so funny. They come on here talking about their heart. You guys,

come on. Come on. Come on. Actually, I will say. You got to read the crowd. You were getting laid a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just came from Vegas on a Coke bender with your tattoo artist. I don't know about your heart. I think there was other things. My heart was closed on at this moment. Maybe I was just dead inside. Yeah, no, you know, I just was not, I was not emotionally fully there. I think it was wild. Like, I, of course saw her and thought she was really pretty. And she was so sweet.

Like, and she had like all these, like, you know, she's got this massive smile, like, very big smile. And I'm a big smile, big nose guy. Like, I like, nose is there bigger. Like, and she's got like a bigger nose, you know? And like, and I was just like, I'm like, oh shit. Like, she's really cute. But like, nothing about me was like, you should appreciate. that. One, because I work there. And I'm like, I try to follow some form of professionalism. And two,

I just wasn't emotionally there. Well, I think within like a couple of weeks, she like came up to me. She like went up to the nightclub upstairs and came down drunk and was like, you're an idiot. And I'm like, oh, really, do tell. You're like, marry me. And she's like, she's like, I fucking like you. And she's like, you don't even pay attention. And I'm like, well, I'm paying attention right now. You know, and I told her I was cleaning downstairs. You want to come downstairs and hang out with me while I clean for a little bit? And we ended up kissing. That's it.

But two weeks later, we hooked up for the first time. And like three months later, we were married. You were like, she had a massive, I thought you were going to say boobs. Then you're like, smile and a big nose. I was like, thought you were going to say big tips. And not a big nose. Yeah, she's listening. I bet her nose is perfect.

It is perfect. Yeah. When I saw Lauren, she had massive tips. And I thought to myself, you know, this is true. You thought I was a substitute teacher. And I was like, all right, here we go. I did have massive tits at 12 when you want me to say, you know what, though, you have a daughter now. So be careful what you wish for, buddy. I know. That's a great equalizer of the daughters. It is. It is. It is. Yeah, I mean, so I met my wife and she was, she was 20. I was 29. That's a great age difference. Yeah, no, it was,

it was great. It's just what not something I was totally expecting. And all within like, months. We got married. We opened up a gym. My gym was voted like the best gym in Milwaukee. It grew, we all grew three spaces. We went from a 1,200 square foot to a 6,000 square foot space in two and a half years. I started in a movie and she was the makeup artist. Yeah. What's the movie? It's called, it's called The Breakout. It was called Blunt Force when it originally was being produced. I got stuck in post-production. I could show you guys like a little clip. It wasn't a star is born. Thank God. No, no, it wasn't a star is born. But it was interesting. It was like, it was fucked up, huh? I hate that movie.

He's like, that's the movie. I pulled my heart and turned it off right before you came home. No, we spent a month. Like, it was a month of our life. And this was like a big life changing month. It was a month of our life. It was all, it was December. It was our second year being married.

My dad was getting, you know, sicker. Like leukemia was just constantly chewing away at him. And me and my dad had really worked on a relationship. Funny enough, I hired him as my maintenance man. And I would break shit just to make him show up and work. so I had a reason to like connect with them. I'd be like, I literally like grab a shelf and be like, I haven't seen my dad in a week. And I'd like break the shelf off the wall and he'd have to come in and like patch the dry wall up.

And I'd be like, yeah, fucking ball hit it. That is a way though to keep, I think older people's brain stimulated is to keep them working. Totally. Yeah. He retired. And with like cancer, he was clearly like feeling helpless in certain ways. So I wanted him to feel, you know, like he had a purpose. They gave him like a year.

He stayed. He was around for, you know, almost three. a half years. And did you ever get to the point with him where he could acknowledge some of the things he did to you when you were a kid? Not really, but he at least could acknowledge the person that I'd become, despite his lack of love in certain areas. He was proud of you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's certain things I did with them. Like, I took last time before he died, I was like maybe like 13. We took me to a baseball game and he got like free tickets from work or something like that. And I jumped up to cheer and my like I jumped up and my elbow hit him in the face.

or the glasses or something like that. And he like pulls me in, pulls my arm down, you know, rips me back in the seat and says if I do it again, he'll fucking kill me. And it's like,

I'm just like trying to cheer out a baseball game. I think it was like maybe like three and a half months before he died. I took him to a brewer's game. And like we went to another baseball game. And I made sure that I didn't hit him in the face

with my elbow. But sometimes I look at like when you're talking about your dad, like I wonder what his dad or parents. Oh, his dad was a piece of shit. Did to him. But it was like a- Because that's learned behavior. Like a massive provider, you know, money, blah, blah, blah.

Certainly like a control freak. Like he, his dad, check this out. His dad thought my mom and dad should only have two kids because that's the perfect number of children. So when my mom had a third kid, he stopped talking to my mom for over 25 years. That's a fucking weird mentality. Very weird. So he died at 96 on my birthday. I say all the time that he died.

my birthday despite me. Like, it was literally like that old of a fuck. And he was living with us at the time. He'd just walk around. It was like a little janitor outfit. And he like, would just like cause chaos around the house. The last like two years of his life that he was alive.

And I remember him chopping down at one of my dad's apple trees in the backyard. And my dad's like, what the fuck are you doing? Like that tree was alive. My grandpa was like, I'm going to take a nap. And then he, that was my birthday.

He didn't wake up. I mean, it's true. This is so cliche to say, but it is true. like hurt people, hurt people. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, my dad was definitely hurt. And that's why, like, in the end, I wasn't mad at him anymore. Because, like, I knew that if I held on to that and I didn't let it go and I didn't try to help him. And my wife helped him so much. Like, I will say, like,

I owe so much to my wife for helping him as much as she did because I couldn't. Because, like, I was still mad at him. Yeah. In certain ways. And I wasn't getting the closure I needed at certain ways and I was also super busy. Like I took on everything. Like I was, I would be bartending till two in the morning Friday through Sunday. I would teach classes at 5 a.m. 6 a.m. 4 p.m. 5 p.m. 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. And my, I got reached out to when, you know, like probably like a year into our relationship with my wife, maybe like six months. Like my cousin, Jeffrey Bresivore. Do you know Milo Manheim, the dancer kid, Disney stuff?

like dances with the stars, all that stuff. So his dad is my cousin. And he, like, reaches out to me. And I never met him before. He's like, you look just like me. How tall are you? He's like, well, I'm like, oh, shit, I'm only 5.11. I'm like, apparently I didn't get the tall jeans, you know.

He's like, I want to introduce you to some people in New York. Within, like, three months, I lost 30 pounds of muscle. And I was shooting in New York with, like, some of the biggest names in New York and fashion modeling. This is when you walk the runway with Gigi Hadid and at Versace. Yeah. So I actually, I didn't walk the runway. I did a seven day photo shoot with her. How was that?

It was incredible. I mean, Gigi was so, so sweet. Professional, right? Huh? Super professional. I have some really funny. I have some funny stories about her. So, I mean, we, so yeah, I mean, I start modeling.

And almost seemingly like some shit popped off like Mark Jacobs, like Amfar, like some cool stuff, made a cover of like a magazine. Harper's Bazaar, like shot me, like all these like really cool things. And then I died out for like two years. nothing happened. Then I can just get this call from Versace. They're like, X a day, X days. I'm always supposed to be there for two. They love me, Bruce Weber loved me so much. Then he ended up keeping me for six days. So they're like, hey, you're the only one that like looks a certain way. We're going to have you paired with Gigi. They're like, you know, can you work with her on punching you in the face?

You know, and I'm like, yeah, sure. Like, we'll get the timing right. You know, and we do this whole photo shoot where like she, her and I are like tussling and she like grabs me by the face and then she kisses me. Hold on. You and her are tessling. Are you married at this point? What's your wife? Is your wife loving that you're tessling with Gigi Heded? Like what the fuck does tessling mean? We're wrestling. We're wrestling. Yeah. So, so so oh my shoulder. It hurts. It hurts. Get off me. No, sit back on me. Just kidding. Canceled. Yeah, again. They're like, hey, work with Gigi.

I'm like, cool. And because I ended up working with Gigi, they ended up extending my days. It was amazing. I mean, Gigi did this whole, we did this whole scene where she like throws one, two. She like kicks at me and I like block it. And then she grabs my face and she kisses me and then looks at me and just throws a hook. Well, the thing was is they really wanted to catch that hook connection. Like they actually wanted her to like hit my face.

So I had like time. the snap right. Well, the thing is, for the last six months, she had been taking boxing lessons. So she actually kind of knew how to turn her hip. Oh, fuck. Which kind of created a problem because she actually connected like three times. So they ended up bringing an acupuncturist in her like acupuncturist. And they ended up doing acupuncture on my face and her hand because she ended up like swelling up her whole hand hitting my temple. And I had like just like a little bruise. Well, Bruce Weber, being the artist he is, sees all these needles out of my face. And it's like, can you put 20 more in his So then they're just taking photos with acupuncture needles just sporadically throughout my whole body in underwear.

And none of them were like actually put in meridians or positive points or anything. So my arms started getting all numb. So you come home to your wife that day and you're like, hey. I was going for five days of New York by myself. GD tried to hit me three times. And then she made out with me. And then afterwards we got naked and put needles all over our body. Yeah, that's about right.

Okay. And we tussled. And I have the photo proof to show it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was pretty cool. I got to shoot with some incredible models there. The coolest thing is that me and Donatella Versace became friends. It's so cool.

I'm actually wearing the underwear she gave me. Can you bring her on the podcast with both of you together? I could reach out to her. Please. That's a tall ask, Lauren. Yeah, that is a tall ass, but I could ask her. Both of them on the podcast together. If you can't get her on the podcast,

Will you just get her to gift me some underwear, please? Yes, I can definitely do that. I'll settle for underwear. I'll see if I can find my photos for you guys of her and I hanging out at lunch. Please do. We'll post it on the Instagram feed when this goes live. Yeah, yeah. So she's absolutely sweet.

Her and I are sitting next to each other, eating at lunch during this photo shoot. And she's like asking me these questions. And it's borderline hitting on me, right? She tells me how good I would look in this suit. And she like brings me in the back. She shows me this suit. Gives me like a $10,000 suit.

Has her guy like fully tailor it to me. I probably won't fit it again until I'm like 70 because like it'll take that long to lose the muscle that I've gained since that photo shoot because I was about eight pounds, nine pounds lighter and there's much thinner in certain areas. Yeah. We're talking and hanging out and she's like, she's like, you're a dad. She's like, that's like, that's wonderful. And she's like, show me a picture of your kid. And first photo I show her, it's me holding my daughter in my hand like this and she would like stand in my hand. She's like, your daughter can just do that. And I'm like, yeah, totally. And she's like, would you like to be the face. of Versace with your daughter. And I'm like, what? And so I'm pulling up this photo. We're like... While you're pulling the photo up, there's a tattoo on your wedding finger

of a wedding ring. Yes. Did your wife do that right after the Gigi? No, no. No. This is actually before I got married. It was kind of like a no-fly list. It was like...

What does that mean? I wasn't looking for any commitment. Got it. It was me committing to myself. Got it. Got it. guy. And then your wife came along. Yeah. So this is me and my daughter shooting Versace. That is so cool. You have to frame this. Is this in your daughter's room? Yeah. We have,

we actually kept like all the clothes that she has. That's just like one of the photos. Actually, I can show you the Gigi'd one too. You are. You are in this picture thinner, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's like I do, like I have workouts that are specifically for when I want to model. You're in trouble with your daughter. I know she's gorgeous. You're in big trouble. You know what's crazy is she's tall too. So my wife is about five, nine. Very pretty. Yeah. And her mom is six two.

So height, there is a height thing. But here's actually me and Gigi Hadid. I'm actually holding ice on my face after she punched me. They had her like sit next to me while I held ice on my face. You've lived an interesting life, man. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's just the, that's just the first couple of years.

We're at the floor play of it all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. During all of this, when does this come into play? Here's the thing. You do enough shows on keeping your gut clean, your microbiome, all of these natural and organic ways to live your life. And your wife's going to go a little crazy. And what she's going to do is she's going to rip out all the cleaning supplies. She's going to throw everything out. She's going to go and just rid the house of everything. But don't worry, she's going to replace it all. And she's going to replace it with better stuff. Grove collaborative changed my life. So what happened was when I got pregnant, I got even more psycho about my products. I wanted to reduce plastics around my home,

and I also wanted to get concentrated cleaners and refillable glass bottles. They're friendlier for the planet. I wanted to micromanage all the formulas in my house. I wanted to keep things safe. I have Zaza, who's tiny running around. I have a new baby, and then I have two chihuahuas that are so close to the floor. And I've learned a lot about little dogs recently, and it's important what you're cleaning your floor with, what you're cleaning your bathroom with, these things that they're breathing in every day. Here's the thing. People are weird. They're weird about brands they grow up with and they got this weird nostalgic feeling for these brands, these chemical brands that aren't doing us any good. And to me, I started thinking about this. I'm like, why am I attached to these old

household names that are doing nothing but causing problems from my microbiome, my gut, my digestion, my kid, my pets? Grove is a no-brainer, right? It's better for the planet. It's plastic-free. And I've learned it could be twice as effective as traditional household brands. If you have kids or dogs that are super close to the floor, breathing it in, this is even more important. You are going to go to grove.com slash skinny today to get a free gift set worth up to $50 with your first order. This is such a fun way to make over everything you use for household cleaner. You should know that the shipping is fast and free. Get started right now at grove.com slash skinny.

That's grove.com slash skinny. So my daughter is born. My first daughter, Azalea. And when I say this for people listening, strong coffee. Strong coffee. Yeah. So my daughter is born and it's probably like one of the greatest, like, I mean, it's one of the greatest, I mean, it's the greatest moment in my life up to this point. I have my first daughter.

I remember when she came out. I just looked at my wife and I was like, she's beautiful. Like it was this, this like moment that I couldn't connect with while she was pregnant, that it was real until it was real. I think that's common for a lot of men. I share that experience. Because you Wait until you have a second kid There's another interesting thing that comes up

You know that I'll explain to you Please explain it But let me tell you one thing Yesterday this motherfucker On the way to the appointment It's not about me This about a motherfucker Six thousand years pregnant

And he goes I can't figure out I'm just feeling slightly fatigued I was I was trying Well I did all this NAD yesterday I was like He's still committed to it I was thinking

Literally no one fucking cares how you feel No one in the room. I've talked to the, I think my cells are going through fission instead of fusion. Oh, I have to hear about his cells. I'm over here building lips and eyebrows and he's talking about like his cell.

Have you done it? Yes. Yeah, okay. So you know, okay. Just shut up. What's the, what's the,

well, let's go off in a tangent for one second before we get into what he just asked you. What's the weird thing about the second? Hmm. Do you want to talk about that now first? Really quick. Yeah, yeah.

So the hardest thing about having a second kid is, is not only are you disconnected from like the rearing of like the child like the like the like the developing it right because you don't have that yeah of course that empathetic connection you how are you ever going to love anything as much as much as much as you love your first kid having this problem let alone let alone still loving this one right like it starts like you start to you have Lauren you have your second kid oh you guys feel overwhelmed no it's not overwhelming. No, it's actually not overwhelming. It's actually guilt. You actually, I feel guilt that I may somehow not like this kid. So he should feel guilt that he's put me through. Lauren, calm down.

This heartburn. Take a deep breath. Well, not a deep breath because Heberman said you have to take a breathe. No, I was saying to her the other day, I was like, it's a weird thing to connect with because you, exactly what you said. I was like, I wonder how I'll love something as much. Because it's almost like you can't fathom that there's an ability to love something more than you already love the first child. Yeah, I mean, that carried through for like the first six months that my second daughter was born. Like, I really didn't like, I didn't like like her in like a weird way.

No one's ever said anything like that. That's a really honest statement. It's, it's, believe me, I love her. But like something about me wasn't connecting with her. And it wasn't until she actually started showing some signs of like a personality

that allowed me to attach to these things that she did that were unique and different. From the other one. From the other one to discern the two and the love that I have for them was actually the same, not more. Because there is not more. And now how old are they? They're seven and eight.

And now it's the same. So Arrow, my seven-year-old, she's my Fortnite buddy. Like, her and I crush. Like, we play video games together. Don't give many ideas. She, like, pounds me. Like, she, like, she thinks I'm the coolest

the other day. She figured out that I was going to die one day and start crying because she didn't know she was going to play video games with. And, like, it broke my damn heart. I was like, I will play video games with you till the day I die. Don't worry about it.

You know, and it's just like these little things. So, you know, that said, everybody has to do their own work and every individual experience as a parent. Like,

you'll have like certain work that will come up that you wouldn't almost expect having a second kid, you know, that you'll be like, oh shit, like this is, you know, this doesn't feel the same.

Like, you know, whatever it is. Yeah. Because it's not new. It's not the first time. The pregnancy that feels different than the first one. He's not in it.

This pregnancy feels super different than the first one. Hint, hint, hint. Uh-oh. No, but I do think this is interesting to talk about because the second go, I mean, the first time, like you said, it's the first time. You've never done it. You don't know what to expect. It's like this, like the second time, a lot of that kind of first time feeling is gone. And then you're also questioning all the things we just talked about. Yeah.

Obviously, every parent that's got more than one kid has gone through this. But, you know, do you feel like you're not as supported on the second time around? I think that this is what I feel. And I think a lot of women can relate to this. In the first pregnancy, you have your partner's, capacity and attention. And men have a little bit trouble. Because they apply their nerves to it in some manner.

Because they're like, oh, I don't know what's going on. So I'm going to try to do as much as I can. And they're focused on you. They apply their nerves. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. And they're like really careful of you. But then when you bring a toddler into the mix, the energy has to be dispersed.

Yeah. Yeah. So like his energy has to go towards the toddler too. So the majority also of my time now as she gets further along is I have to take your kid a lot, which is great. It's fine. This is a therapy session. No, but it's because, you know, she's fully pregnant, right?

And so she's not, you know, she can't lift the kid up and down the stairs as much. You know, there's a lot going on. How old is the other one? She's two, almost two and a half. Oh, yeah. So it's, it's an interesting just a position. And it's just weird to be pregnant the second time when you're used to having full attention the first time. Yeah.

I think it's kind of like the idea is like never like don't wake up with expectations. You know, it's almost like. It's good advice. Yes. I have a list of expectations. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's almost like we almost have to, you know, as you do more, you have to expect less, right, in some manner speaking. And Lauren, in your case, maybe you don't even have to have no expectations, but let's maybe have them, like cut them in a half. Just write a list of them and then rip the list and half. Okay, back to the coffee. Back to the coffee. Because I got to, this is. So yeah, let's talk about it. So what ended up happening was my dad died three months after my daughter was born.

But right around that time, we were in this gym. I grew this gym and it was it was crushing it right in the middle of downtown Milwaukee. and we had this smoothie shop that was in the front of our gym that was upgrading locations. I worked it out with them that they kept, left everything there, and we opened up a coffee shop. It was called Strong Coffee.

In three months, my daughter was born, my dad died, and Strong Coffee ran out of money. And less than a month later, I was casted for the TV show Strong, and I was called about Versace. For the next three years,

I would just be a tornado of things from doing the show, burying my dad, coming back, moving my family to California, shutting down strong coffee within like three months of opening it the first time because I was just overwhelmed, undercapitalized, you know, all these things. Something had to give. We go into this TV show. I mean, I find myself on TMZ.

Like, once the show premieres, it was like, it was kind of wild. I have these people out in L.A. that want to hire me to be their trainer, the founder of Tom's, Blake Mikoski, you know, Yikes. you know, YG, the rapper, like Ray Lewis, Joaquin Noah. I'm like working with all these celebrities and professional athletes. So I move out there. One day, I'm sitting at Sun Life in Malibu. I always had this thing about Sun Life.

Every client I got allowed me one smoothie a week. When I first got there, I only could buy one smoothie a week because I only have one client. Then I got a second client. And I got a third client, you know, and all of a sudden I'm- -Chal's shit's not cheap. No, it's not cheap. Yeah. Right.

And it's also for me, it was like, I'm supporting a wife and two kids. right? Like most people stop stopping at Sun Life are either millionaires or supporting themselves. You know, it's like, I mean, everybody, it's very rare that you meet people at Sun Life that have kids that are, you know, hip and vibe driving around G-Wagons and stuff. Right. So I'm kind of this like, outsider, but like I fit in because of the people I train, you know, but I'm dad as fuck sitting over here like enjoying my one cheapest smoothie I can, you know, with each client. And Cleo comes up to me and he buys me a smoothie. He like pulls out his phone. He goes, I was, looking on Facebook or Instagram.

He's like, what is this? And he shows me the coffee post from like 2013 when I was featured in a food magazine for this like premier coffee creamer that like had never been seen in the in the space before. And I was the first person ever take collagen and MCT powders and put it into a non-dairy coffee protein based creamer in 2013. So it never existed up into that point. I even put altheonine in it. So it managed anxiety.

So it was enzolytic. now I'm talking to Khalil, it's 2018. He's like, you should do this again. And I was like, man, I'm like, I'm doing X as a trainer. Like, I got no fucking time. He's like, yeah, but if you don't do this, you're going to regret it. And I was like, yeah, but like strong coffee company, I doubt the URL even exists anymore. Like somebody has to have snatched it up.

Like, I let it go like three years ago or two years ago. And he's like, oh, check it out. I go on my GoDaddy account. Strong coffee company.com is available. I pay $11.99 for it. I find the Instagram. I started putting prototypes together. At the time, the Fit Expo, which is like the LA Fitness Expo, they're paying me to be their

MC. So I like emcee the whole show. I hop up on stages and I, you know, bring people on stage, introduce, interview, do things like that. And in pay, they could either pay me or I can get a free booth. So I was like, I'll take the free booth. And I would sample my prototype coffees with like little written surveys, no brand, no nothing.

Just grab a free coffee. Tell me what you think about it. In between my emceeing, I'd run to this, you know, run to my, booth and then I'd find like the influencers and Instagram and like walk around and hand them free coffee because they're all exhausted shaking people's hands and meeting people. I was always like a godson. People like, oh my God, God sent. This is coffee. You know, and that's like how I started meet more of these Instagram influencers and the fitness business. And you know, I'm one too, but like I'm not like Mr. Million followers and shit, you know, trainer. You should have just walked around naked

with needles in your arm and your Versacee boxers. You know, I didn't think about that. Yeah. Hello. Hello. With your heart on your sleeve. With my hookers. So, so I'm trying this coffee out. And I get it to a place where people, people really are digging it. It's, I long drive home from San Jose Sunday night for the FedExpo in San Jose. And Monday morning, bright and early, I am training the founder of Upworthy and Good Inc. Ben Goldersh. And, uh, the CEO, now founder.

And, uh, he answers the door in his underwear. And he's like, uh, I'd offer you some coffee, but I don't have any. it's nice to meet you. I was like, hey, I actually happen to have this coffee in my car. Why don't you put on some pants?

I'll go grab this coffee and we can get this training going. You know? It's like, cool. So I make this coffee for me. He's like, holy shit. His wife comes down and she's like,

what's that smell? It's amazing. She's like, I thought we didn't have any coffee. He's like, our trainer brought some coffee. She's like, I want to try it.

Tries it. Likes it. He's like, my wife never loves anything. Claire Hoffman. She's like this very well-known writer for Rolling Stone. owns. And, you know, my wife doesn't love anything. So he calls me, he's like, how do we get more?

I'm like, we don't. That's it. It doesn't exist anymore. I'm like, those are prototypes. I'm like, the next thing I has to be in order. He's like, how much? I'm like, X amount of units. He's like, cool. Let's get this company started. How much was it? How many units? Yeah, I spent $75,000 in product. And then I had $75,000 for payroll and marketing. And he helped you with that in the beginning. He gave me the $150,000 for percentage of my company. So you were just in the right place at the right time with the right product, with the right talent. I said no to not many things in my life, meaning like I always showed up, right? So somebody said, I got this guy, go train him at four in the morning. You figured it out.

I figured it out. I love people like you. Yeah. I love. So it's like right place, right time. Like I think it was inevitable that I was going to be in the right place. I wrote this post one time because I was boxing with YG. And it's, you know, the post was like, I never imagined I'd be here. is a complete fucking lie because everything I've done was to get here. So it's like there's no way I didn't believe I was going to get here. It's a matter of time. It was just a matter of time. I feel the same way.

And it's funny because I do this meditation every day. And it says the frequency that you put out there and the energy and the visualization that you put out there if it all meets together, you know in time, which is why you can be so patient. You know why it's like when they ask successful people, what was the epiphany? And most successful people is there is there is not an epiphany. because you've already envisioned so far, you've already seen yourself there for so long, right?

Like, you don't just like one day be like, I'm going to try something and like luck strikes and then everything works out, right? Like you've thought about this for so long. You put in so many hours that probably even where, even where it is right now, like you haven't actualized the potential of where you see it's going.

Probably didn't surprise you. So it's not surprising when you get there. I think some entrepreneurs, yes, I would agree with you on some. Others, there are people out there that have taken a thousand swings and that's not luck.

That's called you have just fucking kept on trying failure after failure and you somehow kept on having support after support which more than likely you are a privileged individual and have some sense of it, you know.

But there's an argument with those people that most of those things like they're not on the map in a real substantial way, right? Like when I trained the founder of Tom's, I was like, I mean,

I found out like how many businesses failed that nobody knows about gambling online businesses, like all these things that fail. And he goes, he's like, I'm stretching him out and he goes, it was luck. Tom's was luck, right? Like he got a commercial that ended up airing on the Super Bowl. And the next day, every major department store ordered over $2 million in fucking shoes. It's like some people just have that.

Other people show up every day and just grind and grind and grind. and grind and grind, right? Like Blake told me I should bootstrap. It's like, dude, you didn't have to bootstrap. You had a fucking Super Bowl commercial in your first two months of business because you were on a TV show and you would, you know, and like these other things.

Like, you had this opportunity. I'm making this opportunity. Sure. I was told coffee was saturated that I would never compete in coffee. Oh, I hate when people say saturated. By my own fucking investors. I hate when people say saturated.

Three years later. Later, Whole Foods picks me up globally and puts me in my own section in the coffee aisle. Nothing is saturated if you have a unique perspective. A unique perspective and a good product. You know how much shitty products are out there? You know, I literally go broke buying competitive products to mine. And I have not found one that has made me worry. I've never found one that I'm like, oh, shit, we got to figure out what these people are doing.

I'm usually like, how the fuck are these people selling $50 million in garbage? right? Like there are a lot of people out there selling absolute trash and posing as a health company or, you know, that it's an alternative to coffee and it's healthier or whatever it is. And it's like ultimately, this isn't like a product that was made from like me wearing a polo shirt and studying marketing analytics and coming from some tech space that I found a hole on Amazon that if we hit this hole just right, we're going to make $3.2 million in the first six months. No, this was something that I made every morning, started over 12 years ago making this every morning, coffee, started at 12 putting Elthini in it. Then one day I started putting protein in it.

One day I started putting MCTs in it. It was just kind of like an evolution. And then my client's saying, like, I want one. I want one. You know, me making it for them after their training sessions. I also agree with you that the best product, too, is the product that the founder would actually use every single day. I've drinking this every single day for four years. And that's no bullshit.

And when we don't have it, me and my wife will literally not drink coffee. Because like other coffee gives us anxiety. Other coffee does give us jitters. Other coffee doesn't satiate me. Like I'm going to be hungry in two hours. Do people drink it pregnant? Totally. 100%.

We have like this whole empowered mama group through Nikki Rika, incredible like mom that like talks about health and wellness or like well, you know, like birth fit mom, drawing a blank on her name. but we did this whole mom's thing. They had this mom's group and we went and served coffee at this. It's 120 milligrams of caffeine. It's not about a bunch of caffeine. It's about the nutrients and the nutrient pairings to the caffeine like the althianine, the triptophan.

We focus on not dehydrating you. There's hyluronic acid in here, coconut water extract, Himalayan C-cells, so you have electrolytes and minerals. So high-level, explain to people the difference between this and regular coffee and the ingredients and how you use it. So, I mean, one of the biggest things that regular coffee has, as is it kind of like falls short on the promise of like focus and energy right it really gives you a lot of like anxious energy so that comes from a couple of different things noropenephrine adrenaline going

up your dopamine and serotonin not being regulated and your like neurotransmitters have to like stay in some kind of level even keel right if one's super high one super low the disparity between them is what creates the issue right so we raise up serotonin with the adrenaline release that you get from the caffeine. But what we really do is we actually focus as well on the fact that it's mold free. It's toxin free. Right. A lot of people don't realize that when they pack traditional coffee beans, they're roasting them and there's moisture in it. And then they're packing them. So it's your packing hot, moist things in a space. Do you remember like second grade biology? What does that do? Bacteria, right? And mold? Right. So you put warm bread in a plastic bag and you put it away.

What happens? That bread turns moldy real quick. So that's what's the, it starts happening to the coffee beans sitting on your shelf for only a couple of weeks. Right. So our coffee is freeze dried, spray dried, cold-brewed coffee. It's low acidic. But then we look at like the overall health impact that coffee can have on us. 70% of us get our antioxidants from coffee, our majority of our antioxidants from coffee. Coffee is a very rich antioxidant food, right?

What's even richer in antioxidants, a specific antioxidant polyphenols is the coffee berry itself where the bean comes from. That berry has, when extracted, when you extract the coffee berry essence, you actually get a substrate, like an extract that increases BDNF, which is an essential neuroprotein in your brain by almost 200%. That BDNF is brain-derived neurotropic factors. So this neuroprotein is actually what's related to cognitive decline. so people who have low amounts of BDNF have cognitive decline.

Neurodegenerative disease. Dementia. Dementia. Huh. Right. That's super interesting. Super interesting, right? So in India, their BDNF is super high and this is where we get the science.

They have like zero. It's like 6%. Here it's like 40 fucking percent. That is wild. So we're not just looking at productivity. We're looking at longevity. We're looking at the idea of like staying strong, striving to reach our natural greatness. isn't a fucking sprint, it's a marathon, right? I thought I was going to die when I was 35. It's because

my brother died when he was 35. I literally had from the age of 22 to 35. I had the shot clock in the corner of my eye. I literally thought my time was going to be up at any moment, right? Like, I didn't know. You know, I lost my dad when he was 62. I lost my brother when I was 35. It's like, what kind of life do I have. So it's like when I look at what I have, it's like, I want to achieve as much as I can in the shortest period of time. I don't want to waste time. I'm a fan of Seneca. You know, the shortness of time. It's like this coffee takes you 40 seconds to make. It's like you have a delicious latte.

You have breakfast. How many did you have today? Like one? Yeah. Do you only have one? Yeah. You have one and you have enough to like carry you. And do you do it iced or hot?

I do it hot. And you don't add anything to it. I add nothing to it. Water. And if our audience was going to start with one because I don't like to overwhelm people. Like what's the one to start with that you would recommend? Yeah. I mean, if they like something sweet, they wouldn't want to go with the red bag, the morning

fix. I don't like sweet. What would you do you like? Normally drink black. You normally drink black, you would actually go with this instant coffee plus adaptogens. Okay. So this has Rashi-i in it, Ashwaganda. Yeah.

No, this is just black coffee. I put minerals in my coffee every day. Do I have to put minerals in that or is it good? Explain to people what Lthianine. Well, I just want to know if I have to put my minerals in it. Yes. I mean, I would say since you're putting minerals in your water. Just put it in the coffee.

There are minerals in our lattes because of the coconut water extract, the hyleronic acid, the Himalayan sea salt. You are getting electrolytes and minerals. But not as much as like you would find in like a full. mineral like you're probably taking. But you also get hydrated. You have the Ashwan Gonda for the no crash, no jitters.

And there's protein in this too, huh? Yeah. So just to kind of give you it, like our lattes are for the brain and the body. Right? It's proteins. It's healthy fats. It's everything you need for your brain to be super sharp. Focus, cognitive, all on tilt.

Then the black is just the brain. None of the body. None of the protein. None of the fats. This is just going to make you feel super focused. It's got althian, coconut water. It's got a coffee berry, ashwaganda, and rashi. So, Ashwaganda and Rashi-Gonda and Rashi-Ga-Rashy are, what adaptogens are, they've been used for thousands of years in, in, you know, Eastern medicine.

But what we look at, Western medicine, what we look at is, sorry, Eastern. What we look at is the idea that with stress that you combat every day, whether it's working out or work stress, pregnancy, whatever it is, you want to reduce cortisol hormones in your body, right? Because cortisol is like the silent killer of men, right? So it's like if we end this silent killer period, but it really kill stress kills a lot of men, right? Men consume a lot more coffee than women, on average. So when I look at different issues, I'm always looking at as a whole. Like how do I fight stress? How do I give you, you know, things to help you hydrate your skin? How do I give somebody the protein that they need to, you know, give them the nutrition that they have to have

to fuel this body and this brain and all the greatness that they, you know, are striving for? So it's really something for everybody, whether you want a sweet latte, a bold unsweet and latte, we have a honey lavender coming out on Friday that is absolutely delicious. And then because traditional coffee, this is actually something, this is the first time anybody's hearing about this. This is actually just a prototype, which is I brought it for you. You traditionally drink black coffee, right? Yeah, but I was thinking when you were talking, if I worked out in the mornings, I could potentially take this before. Totally. Yeah. And there's actually incredible studies that show how collagen actually does work to increase collagen fibral size.

If you take these before you work out is going to have the greatest benefits to drink one of these lattes 60 minutes before a workout, not because it's a pre-workout. It's coffee. Right? It's a latte. But if I'm having coffee anyway, usually, that's usually all I have. Exactly. I drink coffee in the morning.

I go to the gym. I think pre-workouts are for fucking children. Like, who the fuck's drinking fruit punch at five in the morning? It's asinine to me. I don't have another pre-workout since college. You don't even know what I take. What would you look into it? It looks fruit punching.

No, no, I take some amino sometimes. It's a different thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah. My no explode days are behind me. That was the last time I tried to put that shit in my system was a 2014 and I just threw up everywhere because I did it in college and I like, what are these prototypes? That's vintage.

So these prototypes I brought for you. So like I was talking about, because coffee has mold and toxins, those build up in your liver builds up in your body, right? So, but there's molds in other places. We live in Austin. it's actually like the Indians would call it the land of the sick. It's got some of the highest mold counts and, you know, allergen counts and everything, right? So there are other issues that, you know, coffee can cause from bacteria, like different digestive issues, different things like

that. So we're actually rolling out something called a coffee reset kit. So the coffee reset kit will be 15 days of a reset that will include 15 days of our black coffee and then 15 days of this afternoon complex, and then 15 of these nighttime complex. So the afternoon complex is a restore, revive, and release. It will help you taper off coffee if you're something for a habitual user every day. Exactly. So it actually gets you off of using habitual use of coffee. So this actually replaces your second cup of coffee while actually removing the mold from your body using glutathione, oregano, p3 oil, cinnamon, cilantro, these different things that help pull mold out of the body, right, while also reintroducing probiotics and prebiotics.

So then the nighttime takes what was removed and helps you release it, activated charcoal, zeolite, things that grab the mold and help you poop it out. But then at the same time, also helping you sleep better, Valerian root, a little melatonin, very small amount of melatonin. You shouldn't use more than like 500 micrograms. Everybody overdoses. You can't find a pill at target with less than like 2.5, which is just, stupid. Like nobody needs that much. You're messing with your hormones at that point. So like taking just a

small amount of melatonin, a bunch of other really great ingredients. Rashi, Lyons Main, Chaga, like all these different things to help restore adrenal glands too. So the whole idea is to get you off shitty coffee that has toxins and molds that's frying your adrenal glands because you're drinking three to five glasses of it a day and switch to one cup with the reset and be able to keep drinking our coffee going forward. Done. This is my new travel companion. This is it. This company, I'm going to put it out the frequency out there. This company is going to sell for a lot of money. Yes.

I'm just saying, I can feel it. There's certain founders with certain stories, with certain brands that it just all comes together. It's a very unique formula. You have it. It's very impressive. Do you want to do a code for our audience? Totally. Can we do code skinny?

Code skinny it is. Shop coffee company. What do you want to give them all? off like 20% what do you want to do 20% 20% would be amazing let's do 20% 20% off strong coffee company dot com and then where can everyone follow you on instagram maybe we can do a giveaway too yeah i would love to do one um strong coffee company is our instagram handle um what's yours if people want to go look at you i feel like people are going to want to go look at you after this episode it's von rothfelder my last name v-on roth h f as and frank el d as and david er a little uh i feel like you've done this

you know, we saw you on Joe Rogan. Well, they talked about us. Yeah. Yeah, I wasn't on it. But I would love to be on Joe Rogan. That'd be amazing. Joe, let's put it out into the ether. Another big list,

I mean, honestly, like, the fact that he's not drinking strong coffee is this silly. Silly. You need strong coffee. Yeah. I mean, who drinks regular coffee? It's moldy. No, listen, I'm converted now.

This is it. This is it. And these are great. These are travel packs of the latte. You know what I was thinking. We have to like periodically bounce around. And we're always getting this, I don't want to put the hotels on blast.

We get this shitty. hotel coffee, right? And I'm done with that now. I'm going to have this. Well, and if you're ever traveling, we're in every Whole Foods in travel box and Sun Life and we're at Sun Life. Don't forget Sun Life. Personally, it's another 30 minutes since Khalil's invention. Personally, personally, Sun Life is a great grab. It's so easy. It's, you know, it's, it's right there on the shelf right next to the cash register. Next time you come on, I would love to niche down and pick your brain on health and wellness and fitness because it seems like you know a lot of stuff too. We didn't even get to get into that. Yeah, I would love to. I mean, that's certainly my

passion. When you come on with Donatella. Yes. Yeah, let's do it. You guys can wear your underwear. And we'll interview you about your health and fitness. It's so funny because I really am wearing the underwear she gave me. So it's just funny that we talk about it is this like, because they're kind of like this like good luck charm for me. I probably only wear I'm like once every couple of months. Thank you. Thank you for a little. I got lucky underwear on. Listen, what we like to do is have the person, like, really get to know the background. But then I think the next time, like, obviously, you have an expertise in specific subjects, like niching down on that.

That's what, let's, let's, let's do better. Let's get you guys in a training session with me once or twice. Where are you trained? So I actually train. I actually came out of retirement for a Jasper Weir. He's, uh, the founder of Task Us. And, uh, he has a lot of lower back issues. And that just kind of piqued my interest as I like people.

have issues that I can. What about heartburn? Do you have any stretches for heartburn? I mean, I wouldn't say stretches, but I would say definitely, uh, there is definitely some nutritional things that we could go over that would definitely get rid of heartburn. Okay. I would say stop drinking sparkling water would be a start. She's taken down my three.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sparkling water is one of the worst things for heartburn. You're actually also depleting your body of, uh, oxygen because the carbon dioxide. Okay. Let me give up margaritas, weed mints. I give up walking up the stairs. I'll give up sparkling. Hookers.

Next time you come on, we're going to niche down on health and fitness and diet. Adam, you are so inspiring. Can we do a giveaway of all your favorites from Strong Company? Yeah, let's do it all. Oh, and I got you, we got you those shirts. We could do a shirt giveaway with some product and a bunch of stuff. All you guys have to do is follow at Strong Coffee Company on Instagram and let me know your favorite part of this episode on my Instagram at Lauren Bostic.

Adam, come back on anytime. Maybe you and Khalil can come. on and we can just see you guys. I would just have to listen to them talk for an hour and a half. Fight over the mic. I don't know though. I don't know. I feel like you both are so open. It would be a pretty good episode. It would be a great episode. And I would tell people with the strong coffee company, the company, you're only as strong as the ones you keep, right? So that's why the company is so important for us. You're pretty strong, Michael Bostic. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you, Adam. Thanks, Adam. Pleasure.

Thank you guys. Appreciate you. Don't forget to use code Skinny 20. We left a link for you in the notes. His coffee is amazing. It's insane. I think you're going to love it. And of course, he's doing a giveaway for a bunch of his products. All you have to do is tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram at Lauren Bostic. And make sure you're following at Strong Coffee Company on Instagram. Thanks for listening. All right, this is a product that was actually recommended by you guys. You know I've been on this hair journey trying to grow my hair. I was experiencing a hair postpartum shedding. And you guys DM'd me about this product to add to my routine. It's by, DeVee. I'm sure you've seen this all over social media. It's blowing up because they have these

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