The Rich Roll Podcast - Stephen & David Flynn Are The Happy Pear: Creating a Mainstream Movement to Inspire Healthy Living

Episode Date: June 20, 2016

Prepare yourself for a supernova blast of pure energy, unbridled positivity and infectious enthusiasm certain to inspire you to next level wellness. David & Stephen Flynn are the joined-at-the-hip identical twin brothers behind The Happy Pear. What is the Happy Pear you ask? Take a 30-minute drive south from Dublin to Greystones, a picturesque seaside town nestled along the Irish coast and you'll stumble upon an impossible-to-miss family run natural food store overflowing with local, organic and seasonal produce. It’s also two whole food cafés as well as evening restaurant, where the brothers conduct wildly popular health education courses for the community. But venture beyond the welcoming Happy Pear storefront and you'll quickly discover this isn't just a veg shop — it's an empire in the making. A vast and growing enterprise that encompasses a superfood sprout farm and a 14,000 sq. ft. facility aptly called Pearville where the twins' team of 100 craft and distribute a prodigious line of organic, locally harvested plant-based products like granola, jam, hummus, pesto, fair trade coffees, smoothies, sprouted foods and even kombucha. To put it in perspective, I believe they are currently shipping about 30,000 healthy superfood bars a month. Relentless, selfless servants at the very center of Ireland’s healthy living movement, David & Stephen have synergistically authored two incredible cookbooks – The Happy Pear* (of course) and the recently released World of the Happy Pear*, which is already a runaway, smash bestseller across Ireland the UK. And when the super fit dads aren't making pre-school breakfast picnics on the beach, engaging in impromptu handstand competitions, traveling extensively for public speaking or serving up kitchen duties on Jamie Oliver’s Family Food Tube (the largest foodie community in Europe), they enthusiastically guide a vast and devoted audience of wellness warriors across every social media platform from YouTube to Instagram to Snapchat with an endless stream of highly entertaining, quality nutrition and fitness tips, recipes, and daily slice-of-life vlogs with inspiration for miles. After our Italy retreat, Julie, Trapper & I spent an amazing few days with these boys. We got a spirited peek into their lives and advocacy. I even gave an evening talk at the restaurant, followed by an impromptu 5 am plunge in the chilly Irish Sea that drew over 100 keen participants (many of whom drove hours to attend), which speaks volumes about the brothers' appeal and popularity. Not only are the inseparable David and Stephen Flynn positively the most charismatic and enthusiastic advocates for healthy living I have ever met, they are two guys who have cultivated incredible community and positivity and excitement around their powerful ideas related to living a healthy happy life. So what is The Happy Pear?  The Happy Pear is David & Stephen. It's everything they do and are. But fundamentally, The Happy Pear is a movement. Enjoy! Rich

Hey listeners, this is just a quick word to let you know that the show is now available on Google Play Music. Google Play Music lets you stream music and podcasts directly through the app on all Android devices. So, for all you Android users, and I know there's a lot of you out there, streaming and subscribing to the show just got a lot easier. So if you use an Android device, check out Google Play Music and subscribe. Follow your passions. You know, we all have fears. Every one of us has fears, you know, of certain things and maybe that won't work or maybe I'm going to screw up or maybe I'll do it wrong. But like, I think if you're too afraid, find someone that'll support you and help you do

what you're passionate about because if you follow your passions, you're going to be good at it and you're going to find a way to make it work. That's Stephen Flynn, or maybe it's his twin brother, David. No, I think it's Stephen. It's Stephen Flynn, or maybe it's his twin brother, David. No, I think it's Stephen. It's impossible to tell these two guys apart. And this is the Rich Roll Podcast. I don't show you don't duality, creativity, entrepreneurship, you get the picture. The idea behind this is simple, to help all of us as a community to set a better trajectory for our lives, to unlock and unleash our best, most authentic selves. So thank you so much for joining me today, for sharing the show, for subscribing on either Google Play Music or on iTunes, for leaving a review, that's huge.

And of course, big love and mad shout out to everybody who has made a habit, a practice of always using the Amazon banner ad at richroll.com for all your Amazon purchases. You can find that banner ad on any episode page on my site, or you can type in richroll.com forward slash Amazon. It doesn't cost you a cent extra on your Amazon purchases, but Amazon kicks off some loose commission change, really helps us out a lot. It's just a simple and free way for you guys to support the mission and I greatly appreciate it. So I got a great show for you guys today. Let me set the stage. After our retreat in Italy, Julie and I, along with our boy Trapper, traveled to Greystones, which is this small seaside town in Ireland. It's about 30 minutes south of Dublin. And we did it for the sole purpose of meeting up

with two guys who have really inspired me for quite some time. David and Stephen Flynn are the joined at the hip, identical twin brothers behind The Happy Pair. What is The Happy Pair? Well, The Happy Pair is a lot of things. It's a family-run natural food store that offers local organic and seasonal produce. It's two whole food cafes. It's an evening-run restaurant

where they conduct frequent health education courses, but it's also so much more than that. Beyond this storefront, the twins also run this amazing superfood sprout farm. That's just incredible. They gave us a tour of it, as well as a vast 14,000 square foot facility they call Paraville, where they produce and distribute a wide-ranging line of organic plant-based food products, stuff like hummus and pesto and coffees and home-brewed kombucha. I think they're distributing something like 30,000 healthy bars a month. It's really impressive and incredible. In addition, they're the author of two incredible cookbooks, The Happy Pair, aptly titled, of course,

and the more recent World of the Happy Pair, which was just released at the start of this month. It's already a smash runaway bestseller. David and Stephen are part of Jamie Oliver's FoodTube family on YouTube, which is the largest foodie community in Europe. And they selflessly serve as this like vortex or centerpiece of Ireland's healthy living movement. They travel extensively for public speaking.

They're pretty huge on social media. They got a large and passionate following and a really fun and amazing YouTube channel where they share recipes and lifestyle tips from their test kitchen in Periville, as well as incredibly fun slice of life vlogs, which you should definitely check out. It's just super entertaining and informative, along with their Snapchat channel, at the happy pair, of course, where they post really great and quite voluminous content every single day. I'll put links to those accounts, of course, in the show notes. And there's a few more things I want to say about the boys, but first. All right, so Julie Trapper and I had an amazing few days with these boys.

We got a solid peek into their lives and their advocacy. We toured their facilities. I gave a talk at the restaurant, which was amazing. They even organized a 5 a.m. dawn swim in the chilly Irish Sea one of the mornings we were there. And like 100 people showed up, which was just amazing. They've made a couple of vlogs about it. I have a whole bunch of video footage I'm sitting on top of that I'm going to try to edit together soon that covers

the entire experience. But the point I want to make is that I don't think I've ever met anyone as positive and enthusiastic about the plant-based lifestyle or just healthy living in general than these two guys. These are brothers who are literally inseparable. Not only are they super fit, active dads with an incredible work-life balance, they've cultivated incredible community and positivity and excitement around their powerful ideas related to living a healthy, happy life.

So what is the happy pair? The happy pair is David and Steven. It's everything they do and everything they are. But fundamentally, the happy pair is david and steven it's everything they do and everything they are but fundamentally the happy pair is an idea it's an idea rooted in family and rooted in community to make natural and healthy food mainstream so put on your seat belt and let's go for a ride with David and Steven. I beg to get there, cherry burst. That's right. I kind of wanted to say that line.

It was good. That's pretty good there, Sean. He's so man ready. Rich is going to say his line soon. That's right. Welcome to the Rich Roll Podcast. Do we get to hear it? I do that. No, I do the intro later.

I'll say it for you, though. Just do it there. All right. I'm going to get this. Come on, Rich. Welcome to the Rich Roll Podcast. Oh! I love it. do it there all right get up i'm gonna get this come on rich welcome to the ritual podcast i love it boom it was like we were there was this show that we were on recently called the late late show which is kind of the biggest in irish television get up on the mic but and um

we were it always kind of comes back to and there's one forever in the audience and we were on it there a couple of weeks ago at the book launch and um we were giving them away new product or whatever and your man let us come up and say it and it was so funny when you got to say the line like the famous line yeah really really fun yeah that's cool well thanks so much you guys we had a little uh technical difficulty situation i brought my uh all my podcast gear i've been schlepping it all over europe for two weeks just so i could sit down with you guys i plug in the uh the mixing board and it's the whole thing just started exploding and we're trying to figure out how to jerry rig the audio so hopefully the audio is okay but i appreciate you guys coming up to dublin uh we spent a couple days together down in your neck

of the woods in graystone so we got a really good glimpse of your lifestyle and it was a privilege man it was really cool i think what you guys are doing is amazing and i've been looking forward to this conversation for so long so super groovy totally honored to be here yeah cool so so let's break it down the happy pair you guys are huge in ireland and in the uk there's a lot of uh u.s listeners to this show, so they might not be as familiar with who you guys are. I mean, in the vegan movement, everybody knows you guys.

But tell us a little bit about what the Happy Pair is and your kind of mission statement and then we're going to backtrack from there. Beautiful. What the Happy Pair is, I guess in essence, it's probably a movement.

It's trying to create a happier, healthier world and build community. That'd be it in a nutshell. But to break it down to physical realities we started with a little vegetable shop 12 years ago and a dream of making a happier healthier world uh-huh i think you're succeeding in that i'm happier today it was funny because it wasn't until i actually spent like half a day with you that i actually got it i was like oh the happy pair that the PA I are P a ER you know PE a are alliterate you know like that I was like oh yeah they really are the happy pair like I didn't it didn't connect with me initially and I was like it's not a show you know I've seen your

YouTube videos and you know I've been I've been tapped into your vibe for a while but you never know with people like what they're like when the camera's off or how they're living their life you know outside of that and you guys are 24 7 it's insane the level of energy and enthusiasm and optimism and advocacy that you guys are churning out on a daily basis is like it's so inspiring thank you rich i think one of the reasons like why it's easier for us is because we're twins because there's two of you and you can really support each other and kind of bring the best out in each other remember you spoke in your talk about kind of bringing the best part of you out or being a better you and i think being twins and highly competitive you just

well you tend to hold one another accountable right you hold it's a higher standard there are twins and then there are twins like you guys are like it's almost like you were conjoined twins that were separated at some point but still like are living this symbiotic life like i know i know plenty of twins and sometimes they want to go in completely different directions or if they are competitive like you're always talking about how you guys are competitive with each other that competitiveness can turn you know it can not dark but like it can actually create a divide between you but you guys are competitive with each other, that competitiveness can turn, you know, not dark, but like it can actually create a divide between you. But you guys feed off each other's energy.

I mean, you really do like finish each other's sentences, you know, exactly, you know, where you're in sync in like a really significant way. Yeah, yeah, totally. We were part of some twin study there recently in UCD, University College Dublin. And I think they had 60 sets of twins and we were the most identical out of the

60, which we're pretty proud of. How do they call it? How do they quantify that? A little thing. And they do a Zygote test or I think it was some DNA test or something. And we ended up being 99.99 recurring. Right.

The same human being. Right. That's great. And it's kind of as a twin, your whole life, you've been an identical twin. You're kind of afraid. It was like,

imagine if they tell us we're not identical. My whole life would be built on identity. Whoa, what are we going to do, Steve? Well, you know, it's a little thing, but it's something like that. But it's true. I mean, if you track your life, you can see how you guys are making big life decisions when you're in geographically distinct areas about your life at the same time.

It's really trippy. So let's take it back. Like you guys still live in the town that you grew up yeah yeah we grew up in the shire and graystones pleasantville aka pleasantville it's about 20k south of dublin by the sea you know lovely town very you know quite middle-class you know people are beautiful though really beautiful wonderful but we grew up as a couple of meat-eating um you know absolute jocks you know a couple of cave creatures right uh three other brothers i know two other brothers and us two went to all boys schools catholic as a couple of meat-eating um you know absolute jocks you know a couple of cave creatures right

three other brothers i know two other brothers and us two went to all boys schools catholic ireland and mad into sports would have played a lot of rugby tennis golf baseball hurling any sport right so brothers are younger or older uh two younger brothers two younger right so you guys are the oldest guys so what were your sports uh rugby golf tennis gaelic football hurling we have a lot of energy like so any whatever was going we were up for it like uh-huh so we played baseball and we played baseball for ireland yeah we would have played semi-pro rugby david played david's looking at turning pro at golf we were both pretty handy at the old golf like i think our competitors drove us on to loads of different things but but back like back up until we were 21 it was all about women and uh getting drunk

that was right right that was that was the that was like that was happiness and that was success you know and then finished college or then finished school didn't know what we wanted to do and like kind of we were meatheads it was kind of like i don't know what i want to do dad what you reckon what should i study and dad would have said business is a good starting point so i was like okay great go to business did you guys both go to the same college and then go to business school together i think we tried to we wanted to go to the same one but uh didn't get the marks no mom said we went okay and i didn't get the mark so not that identical hey i love it you were better at maths you were better at right you were kind of all right so you go right, so you go to university in separate places, and then...

A lot of university was spent coming out of an all-boys school. It was like a huge deal to have women in your class. So this was a big thing. So was it like Catholic boys' school? Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty intense, right? Yeah.

Well, we didn't know any different. Irish Catholic boys' school. And good public school, so it was kind of good and rough. It was great. We loved it. Great fun. Right. But not bullies. You're too happy and friendly to be like Catholic bullies. No, we were good public school so it was kind of good and rough. It was great. We loved it. Great fun. Right. But not bullies.

You're too happy and friendly to be athletic bullies. No, we were jocks and there was two of us so if anyone came up to one of you there was two, you know, there was two faces.

You could get him and hit him. There was always someone at the back like there. And playing on the same sports like you're actually on the same team. And we played a lot of rugby

so we were rough. We were well able to hold ourselves. Alright, so college is over and what, you go traveling trying to hunt down girls and party? At least some business We were rough. Uh-huh. We were well able to hold ourselves. All right. So college is over. And what? You go traveling, trying to hunt down girls and party? I guess college is at least some business. You're kind of sold the American dream.

You know, you've got to go out and be an investment banker, make a million, make a few million, and then do what you're interested in. And for us, it was all about being millionaires before we were 30. That was it. It was like, that was the goal. And then, Steve, then we're going to become golf pros. Then we're going to go do what we want to do. Right.

Live your life after you make all your money. Yeah. and that was what it was about you know so it was about you know private islands by the time we're 40 we're going to have helicopters we're going to have a fleet of cars steve and that was what it was about but then uh what is pa what does papa pear do he's an engineer uh-huh yeah yeah yeah he's a cool dude he's wise yeah so he was but he was was he was he like pushing you into business yeah he was very much what's that relationship he's very gentle oh he's cool he's supportive like mom was a tear as a teacher was a teacher and she didn't she kind of stopped as soon as we were all there and kind of really supported us and papa pear was kind of played a

supportive role he always was interested in you know he always gave us enough rope to hang ourselves you know maybe you could learn your own lessons for yourself yeah very much he'd let us go off and do our thing and then he'd rein us in only when we were you know when we were ready to drown or whatever you know that kind of thing interesting well yeah i had a chance to meet him briefly he's a he's very much a proper uh irish gentleman yeah he's cool very cool very wise so all right so the american dream even though you're irish right i guess being the american dream you're kind of finished college and you're sold the American dream. It was kind of like, there's gotta be more to life than this.

And you know, kind of felt unsure about it. And it was back to marathons. We signed up to both of us finished university and mom bought us a present of a trip around Europe inter-island. So train ticket, it was around 500 Euro or something. Thank you, mom. Um, and we went off, we signed up to do it, do a marathon with a friend. He was turning 50 and he said, here, lads, you want to come do a marathon with me? And I was like, cool. And we went off. We signed up to do a marathon with a friend. He was turning 50, and he said,

here, lads, you want to come do a marathon with me? And I was like, cool, I'd love to. Right. And we'd never been into long-distance running. And we said, okay, fuck it. That's, I'm putting on that. Let's train for it. Yeah, let's go for it.

And were you traveling around at that time? Yeah, traveling around, getting drunk around Europe, and it was baking hot. Chasing international women. Yeah, and we didn't really do it. I'm a team here. We were 21 at. Yeah. And we didn't really do it. I'm a team here. We were 21 at the time and we didn't

really, you know, we didn't really train and we were just, you know, we were, we were burning the wick at every end where it was coming. And 35 degrees and

you're running around Prague trying to do 20 miles. It wasn't happening anyway. And we came back and it was a month before the marathon and this

was our friend. This was one of our old family friends and he was turning 50 so we didn't want to let him down. So we decided, okay, came back, it was a month before the marathon. And this was our friend. This was one of our old family friends. And he was turning 50. So we didn't want to let him down. So we decided, okay, came back, right. Dad was ahead of the curve. It was 2001. He had the World Wide Web in the house.

And we kind of heard of this word detox. But, you know, this was back in a time when you used to have to get into the library to get a book on detox. And they had no books on detox. So we went up to Dad. He did dial dial in modem you know 514k um dialed in had a look couldn't really understand it didn't know how it all worked you didn't really get how it all worked you know that way but uh we kind of started simple let's kind of move to brown bread let's instead of having cereal let's have porridge and let's give

up booze yeah big big thing was giving a drink you know because in ireland it's a you know same as i think it's the culture very much if you don't drink you're totally socially excluding yourself you know so so we decided we had an excuse we the marathon we were giving up booze what marathon was it it was dublin city marathon so it was the local marathon and this is like a thousand i think so month out of the marathon month out for the marathons this was a big deal you know it was like right we're focused and this is it we're doing the marathon we're training and uh we didn't win it now but we uh as we had hoped to you know the kenyans beat us by two and a half hours each right but you finished it yeah we finished it and so but this is real i mean the point really you're making is that this was your introduction to like healthy

living and there was no expectation that it was going to go any further than the marathon purely doing it for the marathon right before you go take your job at lehman brothers or golden sacks or whatever i don't think no no i don't think i don't think that was i think i mean were you looking at trying to live that kind of life though still no i think the tide had turned we weren't sure you know that way and kind of felt unsure i would say safely and then like once we finished the marathon then it was kind of like okay let's this feels pretty cool let's try this for another month and let's see what happens and at the end of the month we were men and meet the old school friends knows I can tell that story much better let me have

a punch okay okay so so finished the marathon end of October and it was like okay Christmas let's even keep this going to Christmas I have more money while this drinking stuff must cost us a fortune where's all this money coming from you know I raised it more money and so kept it up up till christmas and at christmas we were meeting all the other lads from school like and we were going getting drunk uh so we went to the pub i think it was just across the road here thunder road cafe all the points were poured this was all the lads you know proper cavemen this is a pack of wolves meeting up again you know and uh first point now in about three months had the point pint, managed about half of it.

And I was totally aware that something had changed. You know, something, the penny had dropped or something. And we both ended up getting the last train home. You know, we got jeered and slagged all night. And it was like, that was it. We'd made a stand for something different. And you guys were on the same page with that. Yeah.

You felt the same way? The twins, you're pretty connected. Yeah. And you tend to support one another. And it's kind of unconscious. Like, Mom used to kind of give out to dave say for something that he'd do and i don't consciously just mom you know it's just it's like a reflect mechanism right right or like the way we're finishing one of the sentences there is two of us here just in case people have you ever guys have you had like a big disagreement over like a fundamental thing

in your life or are you always on the same page i think as adults we're always on the same page because it's enough we tend to share a book yeah that's crazy yeah you don't you just see the world the same you know the way yeah you don't even have to discuss when we shared a shared a wardrobe till we're 30 so there you go yeah well you're kind of still sharing it yeah well no julie told me that that you told her the other day, both of you guys have two kids, two kids each, right? That are like the same ages, basically. And because you are identical twins, it's like each of you is the father to four kids because those children share the same DNA.

Genetically, it's all the same fathers. When you think about that. Yeah, they're all half brothers and half sisters. Right. Yeah, it's gas. Right. All right, so you have this like epiphany moment at the pub where you you stop after a half a pint which is unheard of and yeah they didn't kick you out of the country young 21 year old bloke two of them your friends were like who are you what's going on what's wrong with you are you know it's like and what do you do with that then from there it was kind of like right it's time to go explore. You know, I want to go and understand more about myself.

So it was like, right. I said, I'm buying a one-way ticket to Vancouver and I'm not coming back until I know more who I want to do, who I am and what I want to do. You know, typical. So I bought a one-way ticket to Vancouver, mostly because when we were inter-railing, we met these cool guys in Florence who they were real out there and they weren't they didn't socialize via drink so it was like this is a whole different thing these people can socialize without getting drunk Wow Wow so I bought a one-way ticket to Vancouver and I stayed with Mark Shatford on the floor for about a week and then I bought a ticket up to Whistler which is kind of the ski resort

mostly because I'd seen parties and kind of pretty women I thought yeah you know I'd like that and went up to Whistler and there was a guy from Greystones that said I could sleep on his floor Connor and I was sleeping in his apartment small apartment and there was another guy in the room from Australia called Adrian and he was a surfer and he was kind of older than me and he was kind of cool guy and I was 21 highly impressionable and um you know going to an all-boy school you don't meet vegetarians right if you do they're bullied and they're small you know the way so it was like adrian was cool and he was a vegetarian and for me it was like meeting a different species of human never met a vegetarian before probably a girl but she was into animal rights yeah or

never met an attractive role model yeah it's like wow okay and he was cooking sweet potatoes and coconut milk and i'd never i didn't know what a sweet potato was i didn't know what coconut milk it was like wow what is this stuff because all the way through college we lived at home and ate whatever mom right and being being irish you thought you knew everything about potatoes so i thought this is amazing and for the week i kind of ate what he did we were eating lentils and we were eating millet and also it's a weird foods that i had never met but i thought this is amazing and are you calling your brother saying you got to get up here or i mean this is the first time you guys have been apart for a long time this was like how come you didn't go i ended up going i bought a return ticket i decided i want to be a golf pro so i ended up

flying to cape town it was january and i knew it was gonna be sunny there and i had a friend over there so it was like okay i'm going over there i want to go golf pro i want to give this thing a punt otherwise i'll regret it so i went over there joined stellenbosch golf club and it was like okay i'm gonna go see what it's like being a golf pro practice for about a month uh and ended up selling my clubs you know i ended up just giving the whole thing up right uh he called me up anyway to bring back the story. He called me up after about a week and he says,

Dave, Dave, I'm definitely better than you. I'm a vegetarian. He's like, wow, gee Steve, that's mad. And it was the first time

I was away from mom. You know, we both lived at home and mom was cooking for us. And I don't know why I didn't feel like eating meat. Like I didn't, I never,

didn't buy meat. I didn't, didn't want to eat meat. I don't know why. I didn't understand it meat. Like I didn't, I never, didn't buy meat. I didn't, didn't want to eat meat. I don't know why. I didn't understand it exactly. But he called me up and I was like, Jesus, that's mad, Steve. I decided the same thing this weekend.

I don't know why I decided it, but it was, you know, here we are at different sides of the world. No Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram. No email. You made the same decision at the same time. And just being at Whistler, you were so impressioned by that dude that you just made the decision?

Just straight away, it was like, this is cool, this makes total sense on all levels to me. It's like, yeah, I'm in. Where's the membership form?

Right. Join the club. The cult, you know. And although Whistler was this cool party place and full of beautiful women from all over the world, I was just obsessed with vegetarian cooking. Right.

But you were partying up there, yeah? I had no interest in it. It was. But you were partying up there, yeah? I had no interest in it. It was ski season, though? Yeah, I got a job up in a burger bar up the mountain. I used to snowboard. I got really into snowboarding, and I ended up getting a job as an instructor further on.

But I was just obsessed with vegetarian cooking. Right. It became like an obsession. Wow. That was my mind. I'd be going up to the ski lift going, how do they make that? How can I deconstruct that sauce? You know that type of thing it just became something that

yeah it's wild it's almost like uh a layer got peeled off and you were just discovering this is this is what i'm into like you would have never known no no and also at the time it was almost like it was kind of a yeah almost like a spiritually you know opening it was kind of i was interested in more meditation and kind of asking more questions you know because we would have grown up in irish society you know roman catholic no one practiced this but you kind of you were meant to go to mass walk around feeling guilty oh my god yeah yeah yeah so you spent a lifetime trying to get over that oh yeah we're still working on it but we're getting better uh But we ended up spending the next couple of years traveling separately, you know, both traveling separately.

And it was really trying everything alternative. You know, it really was like we ended up... I went up from Whistler. I went up tree planting in Northern Canada where we used to get helicopters to work every day. And it was with a bunch of Christians, hardcore, beautiful people. They were deeply into JC.

The gorgeous people who were camping and amazing experience and i was the one vegetarian right and it was we'd have magic time it was really i probably planted about 40 000 trees wow and you're just living in a tent all summer up and right kind of up north that's pretty cool it's pretty cool and and where were you at this time i think it was mexico i ended up spending lots of time in Central America. I was in search of truth, Jack Kerouac style. Yeah? I think I bought- You really are like a spiritual walkabout.

Yeah, yeah, totally. I bought a one-way ticket to Mexico, and I wanted to be brave enough to go off and hide my passport and hide my money and see which way life blew me, but I wasn't quite brave enough when it came down to it. I couldn't speak Spanishanish and uh i ended up really it was just all about seeing how far we could push the health thing you know ended up going from experiment with food you know got into from vegetarian to vegan and then wanted to push it you know and then he was doing the same thing it was like okay being competitive twins we were kind of

pushing it on so you're checking in with each other even though yeah checking in one of the scene how we're going how we're feeling you know i mean it meant from there we ended up pushing it to raw food diet you know that scene and at the same time it was it was all running seeing how it affected us in terms of spiritual spiritually you know how you felt and really how you could do physically i was running all the time you know i was um kind of testing yourself seeing if you were becoming a better version of yourself right very much you know it was it was a couple of years doing that like i remember i was living i'd met these people and i was living in a cave behind a waterfall in costa rica as you do and we were living there of course it was up in a cloud forest you know of course i was in search of truth why wouldn't i be and i remember i was i was with the

with one of the guys he was tanasi rama was his name that was his spiritual name he dropped his whatever his normal name was and he dreadlocks and bright super bright blue blue eyes and he was tenacity rama was his name that was his spiritual name he dropped his whatever his normal name was and he had dreadlocks and bright super bright blue blue eyes and he was like 30 something i was 21 he was like he was like god to me he was like wow he he was the first guy to free climb angel falls oh wow so he was you know professional rock climber he's you know he had a track record right so what did you learn from that guy he was big into fasting and cleansing so i ended up he was like hey man you want to, you want to be enlightened? You've got to cleanse yourself. You've got to fast.

I was like, fasting? Okay, yeah, so starve myself. Yeah, okay. Brilliant, brilliant. So I bought a tent and went off to the beach in Costa Rica and starved myself for a week. Wow, how'd that go? Did you reach enlightenment? He came back lighter anyway.

I came back lighter. I came back lighter. You were enlightened. Yeah, I was back lighter. I came back lighter. You were enlightened. I was definitely lighter. I was definitely lighter. And I came back and the next day I signed up to 30 mile road race to see if it gave me superpowers. And once again, I was sure I was going to win it.

And I didn't win it, but I did it. And I finished it. And it was very much like. It was with no training. It was with no training at all. So that was the thing with the whole thing with all this kind of experiment. It was seeing how diet affected us physically, mentally, emotionally.

Spiritually. Yeah, spiritually. Oh yeah, spiritually. Good man, Steve. And then one day out of the blue, Steve calls me... Wait, I want to... I was doing the total Jack Kerouac trip.

I was hitchhiking down to San Diego, met some dudes on the bus that were going to Burning Man. So I was like, cool. I always wanted to go to Burning Man. Went to Burning Man with no ticket found away, no away no tent nothing met all sorts of cool people had the quintessential hippie trip finish there it was like I gotta go I stayed on for a week help me clean up and then it was like I want to go from there and I hitchhiked my way to San

Francisco and then there it was like okay am I they're gonna get into Central American sail around the world work on a boat or else I applied to meditation center and they took applied to a meditation center. And they took me in the meditation center. So I went there and I stayed there a couple of weeks and then met a dude. And we kind of hitchhiked the whole way up middle America, you know, and we were trying to hitchhike in trains. It was a total sleep on the side of the road. Stayed in intentional hippie kind of polyamorous, sustainable, egalitarian community.

Stayed there for a month bitten by spot you know it was a quintessential hippie become you know becoming of age journey it was so much fun you calling your parents and going you'll never guess what i'm doing oh sure i came back like wearing polyester shirts and plaid pants painting your nails black and i would have had a top knot you know i was the one of you guys has a pink fingernail right oh that's because i saw that oh your daughter yeah now it's the daughter it's not it's not brainy self-expression it's more my daughter's means of expressing themselves coming back for more but first all right so how long does this uh this uh vision quest go on for probably a couple years

okay let me go okay i would have next up i would have wanted to go to france and mostly because i wanted okay i got the hang of this traveling thing and i've got the hang of looking after myself was like i want to go to a city where i know no one know nothing kind of barely know the language and just see if i can set up a life and see what sort of life and you know france you tend to kind of romanticize oh the south of france you know beautiful food beautiful weather full of culture you know some beautiful women too so let, full of culture, you know, some beautiful women too. So let's go see what happens. So I bought a one-way ticket to Montpellier and kind of found a little place and set up a little life for myself.

And I just, you know, had a great time. You were working and finding... I ended up working in a bar. I kind of resented the bar, but, you know, it was work. It gave me money. And I was eating a raw food diet and was kind of big into meditation at the time. Right. I was kind of, I call my little place the little sanctuary and it's you know it was pretty spinning

three hours a day world yeah five but myself anyway I mean a lot of people would say that it's I think most people would be too afraid to embark on such a crazy journey but it sounds like I mean were you fearless and doing this or did you just figure out oh it'll work out one way or the other or I'll have a good story or it'll be an adventure it's kind of like let's give it a shot and see what the hell happens. And if worse comes to worse, I can probably call mom or dad, and they can help me. You know, the way mom and I were really supportive,

and they kind of let us be a bit out there. You know, they probably were a bit afraid, I'm sure, because we were pretty out there. But I think it was very much feeling our way around. Like, I remember hitchhiking from Panama all the way up to Canada. I met you up in Maine or something. I hitchhiked from Panama all the way up to Maine. We went to Y in Maine or something. I hitchhiked from Panama all the way up to Maine. We went to Yurt Center.

Ended up staying at a Yurt Center. You know, we really pushed the boat out there. And it was fun hitchhiking long distances because you're really putting yourself out there to life. Yeah, I mean, were there any dicey, sketchy experiences? No, but I remember one instance. I remember it was Taos, New Mexico. I'd just arrived and a lady picked me up.

It was like 10 a.m. and she was drinking a beer. It was a beer in between her legs. Hey, you want a beer, man? I was like, no, thanks a million. Thanks for the offer. I don't really feel like a beer.

I was like, okay, shit, got to get out of this car quick. Got to get out of this car quick. And it was 10 a.m. She'd just dropped the kids at school, she was telling me. And she was like,

oh, I just got to swing by my house and pick something up, you know, and then I'll bring you to where you want to go. And so she swung by the house and got out of the car and, oh, come on in, I'll make you lunch. Okay, come on in, I'll make you lunch or whatever. And I ended up, you know and then i'll bring you to where you want to go uh and so she swung by the house and got out of the car and oh come on in i'll make you lunch okay come on i'll make you lunch or whatever and i ended up you know i ended up just going with it seeing what was

happening and uh within two days i had the keys to her house i was dropping our kids to school i had a job where the keys to the restaurant uh and it was just so weird like i was dropping the kids to school and after five days i had to leave it was like oh my god this is i have responsibility i have duty this is exactly what i'm trying to i do not want this yeah but it was quite funny you know it's quite funny just letting go of life and seeing where it blows you know right well just saying yes right yeah saying yes and seeing what the hell goes on you know and following your nose you know the way when someone stops to get offer you a lift you can still refuse you can still you can you ask them first where you're going and you immediately vibe it up and feel it like do i feel secure in this person or do i feel afraid if i feel afraid it's like i'm not going there no i'm

going somewhere else but i remember a kind of spanish dude stopped in the pickup somewhere omaha or something i can't remember the name but i remember getting in the car and he didn't really speak english i didn't really speak spanish at the time and we kind of grunted at each other and he kind of said that way and I was like okay that way and then he pulled off the highway it was like oh shit what am I doing this is this is crazy and he drove on a little bit and then he pulled into bar we sat and we had a had a drink it's really and then he dropped me back up but it was really we didn't speak English but it was it was a really weird interesting interesting experience. Right. You know that way?

That's cool. And you kind of just had to go with it. Yeah. Yeah, it's that thing of saying yes. So no, like, getting robbed at gunpoint or anything like that? No. I mean, look, in the United States, it's very much a... Oh, you did?

But it's such a fear culture. You know, like, how could you possibly... I had a lot of police guys. Like, hitchhike from Panama to Maine? Like, are you kidding? How could you possibly do that without something terrible happening to you yeah i went to the police in california stopped me a number of times saying it's illegal to hitchhike in the state of california and then you tell them you're actually go well get into the hotel there and just walk around and ask people it's like so this is like 2002 i think today's something in around

2002 that's sort of right right, right, right. All right, so how does this all like... Okay, so anyway, pans out from our hippie journey. Steve, one day he calls me up and he goes, Dave, Dave, I've got a great idea.

Do you want to start like a health food revolution? And I was like, oh, Steve, you're a genius. I love it. Brilliant idea. Let's do it. And it was like,

I had no idea what he was talking about. It was like health food revolution. Okay, brilliant. So what's that look like, Steve? And he said, you know, that veg shop in Greystones where we grew up, you know, the little veg shop where mom used to buy her vegetables. Do you want to like see if your man will sell his veg shop to us? It was like, we don't have any money, Steve.

And he was like, actually, we figured that bit out. I think I want a platform for a food revolution. And that was what kind of happened. That's how it started. Yeah. A perfect place to start a revolution, a small town small town outside it's a lot easier to do things outside where you grew up you know because people have perceptions about how you should be you know you studied business you played sport what are you doing like you should be wearing a

suit working in dublin city like get married have kids taking over a vegetable shop lads come on i expected more from you you know this was the perception within and when we started many people would in the town not everyone of course there's lots of people who were really yeah when we started first people didn't know what to make of us you know we were i was wearing polyester shirts and plaid pants you know at a top knot you know we right we didn't drink we were vegetarian we used to meditate for two or three hours a day and it was very much i remember you should drive a van oh wait no i want to say something uh we started we we started too bad youtube didn't exist then epic videos i think yeah but uh i remember like he wanted to start

as the charity because it was very much all about this is going to be our platform for changing society it was all about a vehicle for you know for benefit business as a vehicle for social change the original idea for the happy pair well it had a different name right but you wanted it to be like an ngl like this is all gonna be non-profit because it wasn't about like a business you know quote-unquote business it's always been about the movement when we were looking for names one of the names we were we nearly went with was flynn as fruit and veg for social change because we're dave and steven flynn so it was you know but thankfully we didn't uh-huh who talked you out of that i don't know i think that's clever right so so right in your hometown there's a veg shop and you go into talking to the owner and say hey yeah what's

it going to take to get you to sell it can i buy your shop like it was a monday morning i walked in on my hippie clothes and it was gary doodle and a dude i grew up what was it the till like in a second i speak with the manager and he says he's in the back so he go into the back and he was there in the van reading the paper and knocked on the door you know pretty nervous not sure what the hell was gonna happen but it you know let's see what happens and I said can I buy your shop please he went Jesus that's a big question for a Monday morning and we kind of went from there uh-huh and and the chips just fell into place to make it all happen? Like, how did you move forward?

We borrowed money. Ireland was in a huge economic boom. You know, you could get money doing a business plan on the back of an envelope. So we borrowed 100 grand and we had our little vegetable shop. Right, wow. And it was a red van. Used to get up at half four, go into the fruit market, buy a fruit and veg. So excited coming back to the shop, selling, you know, starting this revolution.

For us, this was... And it was funny because we were like, there was two bits to this. One, we used to go to the fruit and veg market, so Dublin Fruit Market, which was full of real men. You know, it was real serious.

You know, it was proper men. Dubs, like they were real men. You know, it was a trade pass from father to son and whatever. And here we were, two lads that had been educated. Flower power, you know. You know, they'd gone to college,

and they weren't, what's right, they've long hair, and they stink of hip, two hippies, you know, and you could hear them, you know, you saw them there standing with their arms crossed.

They go, I give them a month, these feckin' eejits. Who are they? Who do they think they are? And we used to bounce around the market. We'd be bouncing around the fruit market. Steve, look at that broccoli. Whoa!

And it'd be half four in the morning. We'd be so excited, you know. We'd be so excited about the vegetables and uh it's funny yeah we we had a great time but that was a good story okay sorry i'm going off on one here go for it uh so so as the common theme was back previously we were very into women and that was something we used not so much anymore oh wait wait hang on but uh but uh so we used to go to this fruit and veg market and the lads used to kind of, they didn't really warm to us because we were so different or whatever.

And it wasn't until, you know, we were working long hours in the shop and we didn't have much chance to meet girls. So we realized there was a, there was a good au pair market and Grace has lots of au pairs around. So we used to say to them,

have you been to the fruit market yet? And they'd go, no, je ne comprends pas. It's like, you have to trust us it's amazing and you'd pick them up at 4 30 in the morning and you'd bring them into the fruit market and uh the lads would be all over them they'd be they'd be very few women in the fruit there's no

women no women so they'd be giving them strawberries and mangoes and oh listen hang on i'll grab you some flowers and they'd be throwing flowers at them. And our street cred improved by a bit then. Yeah, suddenly you're the most popular guy. Oh, right. We were bringing in different girls. And the girls were getting lots of attention. And it was a total win-win. Also, when you're showing up every week at that hour,

after a while, they got to say. Yeah, we got to go after. You're one of us. Welcome to the club, boys. Yeah, exactly. So how did it start out? I mean, was it in the town, in Greystones? I mean, were people immediately visiting the shop and getting their produce there? boys yeah exactly so how did it start out i mean was it in the town in greystones i mean were

people you know immediately you know visiting the shop and getting their produce there and i think many people weren't sure didn't know what to make of us i didn't know it was like an old school green grocer and when we chose a color we chose mom asked you know we're gonna paint the shop lads what color do you want i was like we want the brightest color yeah they have in the shop i don't know mom mom said i want to say one bit now mom said lads what color do you want i was like we want the brightest color yeah they have in the shop i don't know mom mom said i want to say one bit no mom said lads what color do you want do you want beige or cream what do you want and we were like you were like not the brightest color mom like we we don't want to be quiet about this we want to start a movement and uh she came back and she said lads i've got neon uh fluorescent green which i'm not having or there's bright orange it's like grant bright

orange mom and i guess that's been the team color yeah perfect's bright orange it's like grant bright orange mom and i guess that's been the team color yeah perfect well it's it's inverting that expectation uh or that association that people have with what it means to you know be super veg like oh you know dreadlocks and being a hippie and following the grateful dead but here you come out with a bang bright colors like this is a whole new game you know and make people excited and interested in it like in a different kind of new modern way yeah that's cool i think that was the thing the whole goal was to create a happier healthier world and build community so initially we were straight away can we go you know local schools can go in and talk to kids and try to you know if if coke

can be sexy why that kind of fruit and veg you know the way melons is cucumbers there's lots of like really sexy produce right so it's never really been about the shop the shop is just home base for you guys to go off and and spread this message crusaders yeah and so how would you how do you articulate what that message is there we go i don't know that's again come on boys well i think in essence it was like to create to use food as a vehicle to bring people together to connect humans build community and to help us all kind of be healthier and happier in essence yeah but but i think okay just to break it down like i remember so we started with the idea of a food revolution you know when it was sent a very idealistic and we realized you know once we started was a typical

green grocer small town in ireland main customers were there were older ladies that like cabbages and turnips And there's busy moms and it was like we're not gonna start a revolution with this Steve like the older ladies were too busy Surviving and the moms had their kids. It was like Interested in a revolution there's a fee their kids So we so it was 2004 and there was I think we opened up a juice bar was the first juice and smoothie bar it was like there was any one other one in in dublin so it was it was kind of cutting edge or whatever and soon there was loads of young people coming in it was like they were coming past the cabbages and we were like pinching ourselves going wow what's happening steve it's happening there's young people the vegetables oh my god this is way ahead of the

curve of all the press juice you know kind of revolution that's happened in the last couple years i mean this is like 12 years ago 12 years ago in ireland all the press juice, you know, kind of revolution that's happened in the last couple of years. I mean, this is 12 years ago. In Ireland, it's like it rains, you know, a lot. So, you know, there was a window. Economics weren't really in our favor. Economics weren't that good, you know. We started taking it on the road. We started going to music festivals and that would kind of bring a whole other kind of attractiveness.

You know, I remember at one festival, we had a pretty bad pitch. And, you know, in retail, it's location, location, location. And we had a pretty bad pitch and you know in retail it's location location location and we had a pretty bad location and so it wasn't much of a queue I remember was working with a friend and a friend kind of went I could have an idea so he took off his clothes and put on back his apron so I thought geez that's a great idea Kev so I took off my clothes and put on the apron and people come up and they just see a dude in apron with like a naked dude in an apron. Well, they just see, it's kind of like up to about here. Right, yeah, yeah.

It's a tan dude in an apron or whatever. And they kind of order, kind of, you know, a strawberry sunrise and you go, okay, cool, and turn around and there's just an ass in their face. And it kind of got quite funny

and the queue got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger all weekend and it was rocking, you know, and it was, I guess, just looking at things differently and having a laugh. Mostly it was about having a laugh. Right.

And it wasn't taking it too serious. Right. Was there a, like a tipping point a laugh mostly it was about having a laugh right and it wasn't taking it too serious right was there a like a tipping point in the kind of happy pair uh evolution where you guys knew you were like tapping a major vein or is it just been a slow progression because i think it's still we we still feel like we're only starting like you know this thing we want to make the world a happier healthier place where you know it's this is we're going to be at this till we die like yeah yeah yeah you guys are never going to die

all right so you expand it you you you kind of take over the next shop right and merge it in and kind of grow the space out and and when do you start turning it into like you know a restaurant like a proper restaurant so we took it over and we had no experience with restaurants or cafe. We'd washed pots in the local restaurant and we got fired because we shared the job and so we were the same person. Yeah, of course. It's a common theme. We got fired from a lot of jobs.

But we opened up a cafe and we'd never, and as Total Idea, Dita Steve was like, I don't drink coffee. Coffee's a toxin. We're not selling coffee. We're not selling coffee date and we're not selling cake. People eat way too much cake. We want to sell healthy food. And it was kind of quite fundamentalist to start and like I remember dad go lads it's if you're opening a cafe and you don't sell coffee

come on what's wrong with you lads get a life as dad would say and and so we started you know with coffee and cake and doing healthy food and but all everything's plant-based everything's vegetarian it was all plant-based we kind of didn't lay we were quite sure never to label it as vegetarian because we didn't one of the things we really wanted to make sure was that it was inclusive it never excluded like the term vegetarian or vegan really tends to exclude and divide people we just wanted to be it's just healthy food and it's good price and you know come on in let's have a bit of a laugh this is back in 2005 so there wasn't it wasn't that there was any more vegetarians in the town or anything this was all about just trying to get people to eat healthier get them started and include them and we really

didn't want to give many stones to throw at us you know yeah i mean when you say your mission statement is to use you know food healthy food to bring people together it's a tricky equation to solve because the minute you start talking about veganism or vegetarianism, it becomes exclusionary. To some people, that sounds elitist. And people's defenses get up and you're giving them a reason to say no or walk away or turn their back. And one thing that I've noticed just in observing the content that you guys put out and also just spending some time with you you guys the last couple days is you're you're really not you've really kind of stepped outside of any labels or dogma around any of this right you're just trying to like get people excited about being healthier and a lot you're it's almost like i don't know if this is a conscious thing or an unconscious thing but allowing other people to

make their own definition for themselves about what that means to them right as long as they're excited and maybe they're making one different choice than they did yesterday let's celebrate that as opposed to saying well you can't be part of this group because you're not doing this or you're doing this differently yeah we quickly learned we were doing kind of healthy eating courses and they kind of just came about because we were we i guess we didn't train as chefs but quickly once you're running a restaurant and you realize the highest paid person is the chef it's like and the chef gets sick you got to cook for 100 people too you learn pretty quick so and you do that for a few years and suddenly

your obsession your obsession was always food so you quickly learn how to cook because it's your life you know and it's your livelihood so you become pretty good at it quite quickly and is that when you that's so that's when you started playing around with recipes and trying to come up with a menu right from the start of the cafe it was like i was just intrigued and fascinated and how you can do it on a bigger scale and and first chef we employed was dorian who was this incredible woman who had been teaching and cooking vegetarian for 30 years so she was an incredible ageless timeless beautiful person and she kind of i guess we kind of took it learned from her right kind of like our food mother yeah definitely yeah she's giving birth to our food thank you dory we love you it's funny when you say uh when you say porridge you know i know porridge is like

a big thing in ireland right like you just think of this drab bowl really boring you know but you make the most beautiful delicious porridge i've ever seen it's bursting with color and berries and fruit and textures and flavors and tastes and so you're really modernizing you know these traditions that are rooted in the history of of ireland with like your specific spin on it and it's it's amazing like you guys really you have a gift for for doing it i just love it and with porridge it it was funny when we when we first started the cafe, we didn't sell breakfast. Cause it was like,

we open at nine o'clock. Most people have had their breakfast. Who wants to have porridge at nine o'clock? And we were kind of cooking it for the staff. And then Sally, who was the manager at the time, she said, you know,

lads, maybe we should try selling it. Let's try selling it. It was like, no one's going to pay for porridge. You know, let's try giving away free for a week and see what happens and see, you if people won't take it free they definitely won't pay for it so we gave it away for free for the week and you know it felt pretty cool and people look up and they get a bowl

of porridge they go how much and they go it's free and they go what you know what's the catch it was like no it's free and it was kind of cool and it felt really good at the end of the week sally went what are we charging you know this is pretty cool we're charging three quid two quid what are we charging it was like let's try another week and just see what happens and I guess that other week has been about seven years so the porridge is free

yeah free porridge really every morning so anyone who's listening to this is going to make you're going to get

a line out the door that's crazy I didn't know that that's amazing and so is it it's breakfast lunch and dinner now are you guys closed

you don't do dinner weekends no we do it we're open at the weekend you are for healthy quality fare right and so when does the when does the the idea for a cookbook creep in that kind of came about i guess the cafe kind of got busier and busier over the years and people had started traveling and people kind of regularly ask you know lads have a great idea for you when you do a cookbook or i guess i guess we got sick of people asking for what can i get the recipe for that or i've got a great idea for you why don't you do a book that you got sick of it and then even a few publishers that approached us from london it's like will you do a cookbook and we'd gone through contracts and it got to all the nitty-gritty and

nearly signed it was like i don't know it just doesn't feel right with me i don't know i just i'm so frightened of these legal documents that it was and maybe free then we met penguin the folks from penguin and penguin published Roald Dahl and Enid blight and so it was you know highbrow literary people you know so sitting down with them it felt like sitting at Roald Dahl or something you know old friend whatever way it can it lovely and penguin for whatever reason in her own head was just this beacon of literary genius you know it's like wow we're in good company here yeah well and how long ago was that when that came about three years ago and we kind of sat with them and they were really cool people michael and patricia and we thought yeah we can do something cool together so it's

like yeah let's do this and it started i think it was gonna be a black and white storybook it was gonna be like a book about health and with a few recipes in it and then through the process it ended up being what it was which and patricia kind of said you know traditionally irish chefs who are on tv and kind of well known would sell about 2 000 copies so very few and so they said you know we're going to take a punt on you guys and we'll print 6 000 and that's really ambitious you know that 6 000 is huge you know but your business is going to be open for a long time and you know you sell them over ten years or right and book came out and they kind of said pretty much every book penguin publishes is a bestseller it's kind of like shit I don't let roll down there you know this

is this I loved his books I love the twits yeah so the book came out and within six weeks we'd sell the six thousand copies yeah nice and then it's been like the first year it was the number one best-selling book cookbook hardback non-fiction and then the second year it was still number one and even jamie oliver and um nigella loss and another kind of celebrity chef brought out books in it right it was a little book with healthy recipes like it was a vegetarian cookbook and i ended up out selling all those guys but i think i think one i'd tell them two to one yeah i think i think one of the reasons why it's done so well and has struck a chord is that you were you you did a brilliant job of telling a story you know because you can find recipes for whatever wherever online for free like if you want to figure out how to make x y or z you can figure it out right so what

is the reason to buy this cookbook it's, you know, it's to be told a story about a new way of living that can make you healthier and happier. And people don't just want the recipe, they crave, you know, they crave the connection and the story, you know? And that was really important when we wrote, you know, The Plant Power Way,

and you guys did like an amazing job of letting people into your life, like getting a glimpse of feeling like what it's like to be you guys or, you know, walk in your shoes for a day or a week or a lifetime yeah when you wrote it you said i'm not writing a cookbook i'm writing a philosophy book with recipes yeah yeah that's great yeah i was right you wanted to give something for humans to connect like people to be able to relate to connect with human you know it was very much stories you know it was fun yeah and and this

the second one just came out it came out in the uk two days ago right it's been out in in ireland for a couple weeks yeah it's been in ireland for two weeks i think it's already and it was amazing it's it's number one and the second book now is number three so we have two books in the bestseller so you know we're pretty amazed so the first one is still on the bestseller list yeah yeah it's not like nine or ten it's three so we're you know we're amazed with it we know it's great that it's like a plant-based cookbook like to to carry the message you know to sort of carry the mantle of the movement in that way is really powerful yeah it's amazing like genuinely we the only expectation we had was to sell it in the shop to customers that kept asking so

for this to happen it's been pretty you know we've been pretty amazed what's the difference between the second book and the first book second book is bigger and it's blue uh-huh the first one's yellow the first one's yellow it's funny we're walking around greystones and i don't know who it was was like pointing out like there's the door where they they took the picture for the cover of the first book and here's where they went and did it the second one you know like like it's a famous location like down know, like it went down in history. Yeah, it's great. No, no, the second one was more about how to make it more applicable to people and try and make it more, you know, make it easy for people at home.

The first one was very much recipes that we cooked in the cafe and the restaurant. So they were kind of like translating recipes for 200 people down to six people. Whereas the second one, you know, we learned so much from the first one. It was all about how to make it applicable to people. And we talked about like, we call it the world of the happy pair

because it's all about our lifestyle and... And about the community. We talk about protein, calcium. We talk about how we feed our kids. We talk about dad

and his whole, you know, his whole experience of us becoming vegetarian and how his kind of journey through the whole thing. You know, we talked about a bigger,

bigger picture, you know. Right. Where is your dad with the whole thing now? Oh, he's totally on board we talked about a bigger, bigger picture, you know. Right. Where is your dad with the whole thing now? Oh, he's totally on board. When we started first, I remember, you know, an Irish mother coming back and she cooked, you know, a big roast.

And to not accept her food is like not accepting her love. She was like, lads, I would have preferred. What kind of man are you? What's wrong with this? Like all this stuff. You're a fit. You're a what? You're a what?

Go away out of that. You'll just have a bit of beef. Go on, you'll have a bit of beef. I didn't get it. Like, you know, would regularly, you know, would you have a bit of chicken? You're rejecting her. You're a what? You're a what? Go away out of that. You'll just have a bit of beef. Go on, you'll have a bit of beef. I didn't get it. Like, you know, would regularly, you know, would you have a bit of chicken? You're rejecting her.

It's totally, it's totally rejecting her love. But I guess, you know, we've been eating this way for pretty much 15 years now and she's been probably a vegetarian for about five, I'd say.

Oh, that's great. Just by osmosis. It kind of started out, I guess, she kind of saw us and was kind of mildly curious and then we were cooking interesting stuff and, you know, she didn't really like to cook and she'd get stuff from the shop and it was

easier for her and then dad read the china study dad's an engineer and very kind of logical and rational and you know clever man he read the china study thought wow there's a lot of data in here this is pretty convincing and then he slowly started buying it for his friends and kind of was interested what's what's that lentil thing you're cooking stuff over there you know and uh yeah and he's largely plant-based diet that's amazing yeah i think that you know one of the questions that i get all the time i'm sure you do too is is how do you navigate you know these family relationships or social you know situations where you want to be plant-based or you want to make the right choice but you also don't want to ruffle feathers or you don't want to uh be off-putting to you know your host or or or whatnot so what is the advice that that you give when people want to talk about that

so i i would think once you're cool about it yourself you'll be cool about it with others but if you're kind of awkward and unsure about it yourself you'll be awkward and unsure i think probably for the first few years it was very much the center of most meals you know the conversations when you're having dinner with someone it was like you and your food choices were always a big topic and it was it was kind of painful but then once you start to own it more become more comfortable with it maybe not maybe don't use the you maybe use the i okay well i'm a wee i've always been a wee so i'm the The Irish royal wee. You can take it right out of mind.

Okay, but even down to a more practical level, like I'd say, you know, if you're concerned, try not to go to dinner hungry. You know, bring a dish maybe and, you know, offer to eat the dish too. You know, that's kind of simple things or try to eat around the plate.

You know, be clear and be comfortable in yourself and try not to be righteous. If you're righteous, you're just going to bring on, you know first what is it the first sign of attack is defense in it or the first whatever that one yeah yeah i think it's something like that yeah something like that right i'm not saying it right but there's something clever you were nearly very clever though well yeah because people have a preconception of what this vegan person is going to be like and they feel like they're going to get proselytized to or preached to or whatever and all of that, right?

So you take a low key, like I always try to just deflate it and make it cool for everybody. Like I don't want it to be, it doesn't have to be the topic of conversation. It doesn't have to be a big deal. I don't want anyone else to feel uncomfortable. It's cool.

I own it. It's fine. If you want to talk to me about it, I'm happy to talk to you about it, but I'm not going to impose any of this upon you totally yeah i think we usually turn it in its head and make it funny or take you know just take the piss out of yourself you know right and and then it's immediately you know it's you've talked about it and and generally they'll come back with a certain curiosity if you're if you're cool about it and like the just the term to take

the piss means to make a joke of it it's what i was expressing yeah sorry yeah yeah well now everybody knows like this is who you guys are and it's similar for me like every you know so it's it's generally not an issue anymore because they see it coming but for people that are new to it and they're trying to figure this out for the first time there is a little there's a level of discomfort or trying to figure out you know how to approach that the first what's what's comfortable for that person for, you know, for you in trying to, you know, articulate your perspective and still, you know, maintain your friendships and your relationships. Yeah, I think that's a big one.

And I think to be dismissive of that is not right. Like, it is tricky, you know what I mean? Like, it can be hard because it is very emotional. There's nothing more emotional, you know, with the exception of perhaps, you know, politics or religion than food. Food can almost hard because it is it is very emotional there's nothing more emotional you know with the exception of perhaps you know politics or religion than food food can almost get into it but food can connect like nothing else you know you break bread with someone and irrespective of their creed their religion you're sharing something and there's a huge opportunity to connect and i think once you're comfortable with your dietary choices yourself there's no battle or no need to you know and i end it and i think one

thing which we've enjoyed so much because defense is the first sign of attack yeah there you go oh you're so clever now thanks well done you're healthier than that denial anger acceptance something like that but i i always find it so life-affirming is when people would come into the cafe and they'd be eating there for a few weeks and they'd go i never realized it was vegetarian you know like but they wouldn't actually know or they'd come in and they'd you know you'd get people coming in and they just have coffee and cake and they'd have they'd think they did a healthy meal and it was more the environment and the atmosphere that is healthy you know if it's a health people come in regularly and they order the chicken curry and

it's like it's a chickpea curry but they just see the chicken curry and they eat it and it's gorgeous yeah yeah yeah right so what is how is it different for you now than it was you know perhaps 10 years ago like 10 years ago you're you know vegan you're active you're fit you're doing you know a lot of the same things that you're doing now but you know how as you kind of have carried this mantle for the last decade has your perspective on food and you know the environment community all these things has that evolved has it changed well i think our perspective has changed but i think the wind has shifted like the wind shifted completely where it's like at our back now where i feel like

we've come over the hump of the hill and it's like this there's a movement like i really feel like there's something we started first most of the customers were kind of hippies and you know the vegetarian they were brand rice they were you know they were total they were part of the club you know whereas sandal brigade whereas now it's there's so much energy and movement in it there really isn't so much appetite that it's it's so affirming and really and supportive like even kind of older people or traditional people are even curious and interested and what's that happy hard course you run, lads? I hear a friend of mine lowered his cholesterol and came off those pills.

That's so cool. Yeah. I mean, I live in a bubble a little bit because I hang out with the people that are like-minded. And I live in California. And these ideas are just a little bit more mainstream. So in Ireland overall, basically, you're saying, or perhaps the UKireland overall basically you're saying or perhaps the uk or europe overall you're saying it's growing and people are into it a lot more interest and i guess when they see results they kind of look at you and you're looking pretty healthy and you're not a

little skinny twig preachy vegetarian guy yeah you know they kind of go okay cool that's you know i'm curious maybe i'll try this lentil thing and so tell me about the course that that you guys do okay so this one was interesting it It was, we were doing cooking courses upstairs in the shop. No, it wasn't. Okay, I'm going to bring this right back. This is a good story. Okay, I like this story.

Okay, so we used to work in the veg shop all the time, trade and selling. Or cook. I'd probably be cooking. You'd be the till. We'd be selling cabbages to grannies and doing our thing or whatever. Giving away all your food for free.

Giving away our food for free, starting our movement. Anyway, and a friend more, she came to the shop one day and she said, lads, listen, come on,

I'm sick of this. You can do better than this. You're the most passionate people I know about healthy eating. You're brilliant chefs. You've got to come share your message. It's like,

right, brilliant, Maura, brilliant idea. And she said, right, you're coming to my house and you're doing a cooking demo

this Friday and I'm going to invite five of my friends. And Maura worked for Accenture and she was pretty serious, you know, and we didn't want to let her down. So we went down to her big house down the road in the Burnaby, and we did our cooking demo.

And it was good crack, and we realized, geez, Maura was super passionate about this. So we started doing cooking courses and healthy eating courses upstairs in the shop. And they were fun, they were pretty well attended, and people would come have a laugh, they'd taste new food, but they wouldn't make changes. So we kind of put our heads together and we kind of started if people can quantify the improvement to their diet in some form of metric they could go wow it actually

improved this is measurable yeah my health improved by 20 you know this this actually works right so we started looking you know we started looking to read in articles research and whatever and we came across you know ornish and Esselstyn and all these guys we said wow this stuff seems interesting you know people can reverse heart disease by simply eating a plant-based diet let's give this a punk like cholesterol okay so we decided okay we want to want to run an experiment called it the happy heart course and it was kind of like you know these doctors in the states are doing clinical trials why can't two hippies above a veg shop in Wicklow do the same let's see if this works let's see if this works you know so we went down to the local GP that's the doctor and uh

knocked on the nurse's door there was Angela Angela oh it's you you're the nurse how are you listen we want to run an experiment we need a nurse to measure people's cholesterol weight and blood pressure would you give us a hand and she said that's of course I will uh so we put signs up around the shop and we of course the signs were like groundbreaking research underway please sign up free be a better version of yourself you know whatever this was what the signs were we of course the signs were like groundbreaking research underway please sign up free be a better version of yourself you know whatever this was what the signs were we got 20 people signed up and uh they came along the first night we'd our experiment and they came along first night these 20 guinea pigs and to measure their cholesterol weight and blood pressure and

they came upstairs to us and we totally created and i guess it kind of just came about like we weren't doctors we're chefs so food is our thing and i guess it was the practical application of leading science so it's literally you know most people have lentils at home and they're purely decorative they're in jars and they're there to look pretty and i was to tell people you can cook these this is how you cook they never actually cook them so it's ireland it was it was very much a food course so people would come along and we'd give them tasters and rest these are meal plans it was very much about the food and then we'd put on clips of doctors or whatever

and they came once a week for four weeks and it came to the last night and I remember it came to the last night and me and Steve we could barely talk like we were so nervous

we felt if this didn't work we're going to have to go get a job in the bank or we're going to have to go set up a butcher shop or something if you get their blood tested again

and there's no change there's no change like this is like, or bet and everything. Maybe we've been living a lie. You know the way. Yeah. Maybe we've been living a lie.

Like we've been fooling ourselves. Delusional. Yeah. Totally. And thankfully there was an average drop of cholesterol at 20%. There was a. Blood pressure came down. Many people lost a lot of weight.

There was two blind people down the back and they were able to see like it was. Yeah. It was total. In four weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Just in four weeks. The blind thing was a four weeks so blind thing was a joke blinding was a joke but uh uh but they actually did it they actually not only did they attend you know once a week for four weeks they actually took

your advice and put it yeah yeah and subsequently we've had thousands of people through the course five or six thousand people and we built an online course and it's been and it always gets results provided people stick to it so like and it's really amazing when you get people the first night you know closed arms like say we were doing a thing for tv recently and people have come up and they have their arms closed and they kind of go no i'm not into this the lads the lads are fucking mad and you know the food's right and then they kind of do it for four weeks mostly because their wife or their partner wants them to do it and they come back four weeks later and they go yeah my cholesterol came down 20 yeah i lost a lot of weight yeah yeah i loved the pressure came back and the food's pretty nice the lad's actually pretty cool and it's amazing when you just see

that change and when they actually experience it and they go wow there's a lot of truth in this this is pretty and i guess the course is all about it's not theory it's food it's like what do you eat for breakfast what are you eating for lunch and what are you cooking for dinner it's like food it's practical it's not theory right yeah and that's what we've realized it doesn't matter what your opinion is we do talk about the why because you have to talk about the why that's the lever that's the strongest lever but the thing is if you do this it doesn't matter what your opinion is about it you can measure the results yeah yeah yeah same way you jump out the window we're all gonna fall some will fall quicker than others right you right it's the same way with the food if you eat the right food your cholesterol will fall and i guess you know you've got people where they'll say i've had this rash on my back for the

last 15 years i don't know what it's been since the last three weeks it's cleared up or i haven't had a good night's sleep in 20 years and i don't know what's going on sleeping like a baby you know and you you've heard these things for so many years that it's just so reaffirming that vegetables, the vegetables, the vegetables, no, yes,

there's something in these vegetables. So you're still doing it, you do it above the shop? No, now we do them in Dublin and we do them, you know,

we do them to bigger audiences now because there's more and more people wanting to do it. It's kind of too, like this kind of demand has exceeded supply. Right. But it's great fun,

really fun, we love doing it and on an entrepreneurial kind of note you're continuing to share the message and expand through all this other crazy stuff that you're doing i had no idea it was as expansive as it is until you took us to perville you know so tell us perville sounds like a theme park it's not a theme park but it's kind of a bigger space utopian it will be a theme yeah it's a it's a theme park i want to start doing tours at some point i want to start doing tours transparency it's it's all about that yeah yeah totally but uh so we took over this place it's's like a 14,000 square foot building on three acres.

And it was an old egg factory that people... So originally we were going to call it the egg factory. And then it started as the pear factory. And then it went to... It's not just a factory. There's so much more to it. So we called it Pearville. So we have a fermentation kitchen.

We'd have a studio for filming and kind of test kitchen. It's a playroom, really. We've got a coffee roastery. We've got... And then we've got the bits that actually pay all the bills we've got the kitchens where we produce lots of stuff we wanted to try and get our food out to more people healthy food out to more people so we've teamed up with super value which is the main supermarket in ireland and we distribute lots of healthy food through them to probably about 300 stores yeah just to try and get healthy food you know if we

can get on the same shelves against coke or against whatever it is and try to make it easy for people to make healthier choices so that's what we're the sprout farm where we grow wheatgrass pea shoots alfalfa you know fennel fenugreek many different type of sprouts right wheatgrass you didn't get to see that yeah I know over there you have all these containers where you're you're doing all the the fermentation and the sprouting right yeah yeah the products are you got bars you got uh all kinds of hummus we've got salads we've got soups we've got mains you know we've got granolas yeah yeah so what are you energy bars is it is it available out only in ireland or else for the moment yeah but i think

you know where this rocket ship is we're let we're piling up like you're shipping how many bars this week 30 000 going this week easy which is amazing and amazing just to try to work out how you produce them and how you foil right how you set up a bar factory you know i guess that's alongside alongside a pesto factory alongside a main kitchen you know amongst a team of people who have similar ideals of themselves there are lots of professionals and all that but we're all you know we're in it for there's about a hundred on our team now and it's going to grow and every right you were saying like oh there's so there's a couple people i don't even i haven't even met them yet yeah yeah you feel embarrassed in the context

of your story like these two crazy guys that just have this epiphany and decide they're going to open up a vet shop to employing all these people and having this 14 000 square foot facility and and everything that you're doing to put the message out the online courses the in-person courses i mean that's amazing right like that really is a revolution that is a movement um and it's a it's a business entrepreneurial success right so if somebody's listening to this and they're maybe they're stuck in their life path or they're looking to do something entrepreneurial or get outside their comfort zone and try something new like how do you message that person like what is it what is the advice or the inspiration your passion you know we all have fears every one of us has fears you know of certain things and maybe that won't work

or maybe i'm gonna screw up or maybe i'll do it wrong but like i think if you're too afraid find someone that'll support you and help you do what you're passionate about because if all your passions you're going to be good at it and you're going to find a way to make it work yeah i think the main thing with you guys is you didn't set out to create a success a financially successful business you were passionate about an idea right creating this movement changing people's hearts and minds and everything has flowed from that yeah can i can i say one i just want to say one thing just one thing you're doing well but i'll let you know the point there uh but if you told us at 19 that we were going to load from that yeah can i can i say one i just want to say one thing just one thing you're doing well but i'll let you know the point now uh but if you told us at 19 that we were going to be

you know five years later we were going to be like hippie vegan guys with a vegetable shop in greystones we would in our hometown we would have gone no way we're going to be in new york we're going to be wearing suits we're going to be like ruling the world like that was what it was about so it like life just we just went with life and you know went with where the wind was so when you reflect on that like how do you think that happened like do you feel like there was some kind of i think divine inspiration like how does this think we more tapped into ourselves like i think you know you're the product of your environment until you go outside your environment and you see your social conditioning and you start to realize okay actually my interests are in other things i was just too afraid to express them so for us i think

traveling was a huge vehicle for us to try and push the boundaries and see where do i fit in society what do i want to do what am i interested in because you know you you've done what your parents told you should do or what society told you to do you played rugby you played golf you did all these things you know most people don't know they don't know what their passion is you know yeah because they don't go outside of their comfort zone long enough to try different things. And the formal education system doesn't teach you that. It teaches you how to pass exams. It's not who's rich role and what's his passion.

You know, the way I came out not knowing what I was into. Yeah, I was able to pass an exam and I could get good grades. But it's like, I don't know who I am or what I'm interested in. I'm a bit of a jock and I kind of, I think I should make lots of money, you know, because then I'm interested in. I'm a bit of a jock and I kind of, I think I should make lots of money, you know, because then I'll be successful. So it was only through traveling that I found out, geez, I'm obsessed with food. I love and I love community and I love the idea of-

Bringing people together, you know, about a common ideal and a dream and making the world a better place. You know, that was very much right from the start. I would say one of our greatest skills is that we're not afraid to make mistakes. I think we're experts at making mistakes. I think we're really good at it. as einstein says explain that a little bit as

einstein says you know an expert is someone who's explored all possible mistakes in a small narrow field so and it's only true making mistakes do you realize what works and why why not to do that and even with the shop initially when we opened the first i had spent a lot of time in kind of intentional communities or kind of all sorts of different political systems or different environments and i was kind of intrigued with the idea of um anarchy so for the when we first we probably employed two or three people and i was kind of like i want to try anarchy and dad says no that's stupid like that doesn't work it was like i don't care if you tell me that doesn't work i want to prove that it doesn't work so we're

going to do it. So we did it for, you know, probably a good few months. It was like, I'm not going to tell anyone what to do. Like, they can come into work when they feel like it. No, no, they come to work. There's your hours. But it's like, when you're here, you've got to bring your own creative input. I'm not going to tell you anything what to do. It didn't work.

But, you know, it didn't work. There's a seed of wisdom in that though which is the the intention to empower people to yeah to make them uh sort of take control of like take ownership of it and i think that's what we're really focused on now recently now that we're up to just about 100 people we've realized that empowering people autonomy inspiring them about engaging them at work we've realized that's what we're going to change the world with if we really empower our team i think we can change the world much quicker because i think our one of our best assets is our wonderful team we've amazing people that we work with and so many of them are really close friends and you want to kind of really create a happy

healthier world for them and if we want to create a happier healthy world it has to start with us and the workplace you know so that's the bit that we're exploring now is kind of organizational structures and kind of making it more democratic and more autonomy and it's fun it's really ownership and it's quite exciting one of the things that i've learned from you guys from hanging out the last couple days is is that in addition to like you know failing frequently and failing fast and all of that you're just not afraid you're always moving forward there's like a momentum and a propulsion behind everything that you're doing like you're never sitting still it's just plowing forward and you know i think that applied in the early days you didn't know how to do any of this stuff you just started doing it and moving forward

realizing oh i'm going to make a mistake but we're just we're just constantly we've got a lot of motion we need to gain momentum yeah and and and packed into that is letting go of this idea that things need to be perfect or ideal. And we had a conversation about that because that's one of the things that gets me caught up, whether it's the podcast or putting up a video. Like, I want it to be, you know, I get very precious about things. And this is not serving me, you know. And when we made all those videos the other day, we were just, like, banging them out. Oh, we made seven videos.

And you're just moving forward. There's no, like, oh, well, maybe we should do that again or that wasn't exactly i didn't say it exactly the way that i wanted to like you're just no we're on to the next thing now like moving on you know we had three hours to do the video over there we'll get them edited and up and like you know we're just now we're doing another video you know the level of output um and productivity is really inspiring so like i've been thinking a lot about that, thinking when I go home, I need to figure out a system or a way to be able to be more productive and less precious so that overall the output will be higher.

And you'll learn more quicker. And the attachment to perfection. There's some things where I think they really merit putting perfection, trying to do them perfect, but in most cases you know do your best have a punt at it and move on any artist it's normally the first take is the best one it's normally the first take is the best so get in there have you know it's raw you know well we we're only doing one take on this podcast but it came up because like my my equipment didn't work and i'm like oh man it's not going to be the way that i want you know i get attached to that i get

hung up on that kind of stuff and you guys are cool you're like what we're going to do it it's going to be great whatever you know let go of that let's move forward yeah yeah and and the second thing that that i that i observe that i think is really powerful about you guys is that aside from uh the fact that you know you're not preaching this lifestyle you're just you're you're you're putting out you know helpful content and inspiring content, but it's really how you live your life. I think when people see you jumping into the Irish Sea at 4.45 in the morning, which is something we did the other morning, and serving porridge up on the beach and serving your kids smoothies really early in the morning and all the kind of just ways that you live your life on a daily basis, just an extrapolation of your personalities that speaks more about this movement and this lifestyle than anything that can come out of your mouth. Right.

Because you're living in 110% every day. So, so how do you, how do you, like, what do you think is, what do you think are the biggest kind of barriers right now or impediments to getting this message out to the broader population? Like, you know, where's the work that still needs to get done to try to connect people?

I think education, schools. I think schools is the first place. And I think it's somewhere we're going to focus on over the next while is really young, you know, because I think, and as as we were talking today kind of underprivileged people who don't come from supportive environments where they can afford it tends to be educated it tends to be educated people that are kind of of a certain income are interested in this type of food whereas it's more and it's only accessible i mean in the united states it's an elite it can be considered an elite and i think it's not an expensive thing like it's not it can be you know rice and beans are not expensive you know it can be peasant food like it's peasant food it can be the cheapest food like if you look at most people's soup you know

it's it's meat and dairy and fish those most expensive things so it's not that it's an expensive thing and it's really to get this message out to a bigger audience and i don't mean underprivileged in that sense it's more like people that haven't had the opportunity or the education that to try and convince them that you know they they're bombarded day in day out from coke from you know all these big massive multinationals that are not they're trying to sell them a certain way of life but it's not necessarily about their health so i think it's to really try and create a message that really resonates with them that you can really educate them and inspire them and i think it probably we're gonna have to start grassroots with this and start going into schools

and going into certain areas and start trying to actually start going out this way yeah i mean it might be time to get back in the van yeah i love it we're good in vans when we were offered reno offered us a new car each um asked if we want to be brand ambassadors. And I was like, no, I like driving a van. I like my van. I want a new car. And then we said we'd take one. And then one felt nice. I was like, I might take another one.

Yeah. But I still love driving vans. I feel most comfortable. No, but you guys should be on the road, public speaking all the time. Yeah, I think we just need to get a bit, we need to refine our messaging. We do lots of business and we do theater talks. We did theater talks to about a thousand people last year. It was pretty amazing.

You know, you come out on stage and it's like, we're going to play all our number ones. It's like, okay, we're going to cook dhal. And we're going to talk and we're going to tell our story. Have you done public speaking gigs in the US? No, no. I got to help you change that. You got to come over to the States.

Yeah, you guys you you'll kill it over there i'm gonna i'm gonna hook you up with some places yeah yeah you gotta come over and and spread the love sounds great yeah so when does uh you guys have done i think a really interesting you know aspect of your story is the entrepreneurial journey that you've been on and it extends beyond the shop the restaurant the, the cafe, the courses, the products, to the messaging that you've dialed in with the way that you guys really leverage social media to get, you know, to kind of amplify the movement. Whether it's YouTube or Snapchat. I mean, your Snapchat is insane. You put out like 25 minutes of Snapchat story like every single day.

Like I can't even keep up with it. I know. Between the two of you, like hanging out out with you guys someone's got a camera going all the time snapchatting the other one's vlogging we got shawnee over here is doing the editing you got a whole production facility going on 24 7 and you're just pumping out like insane amounts of content every day the instagram photos are are beautiful. Like, it really is, you know, inspiring. So, what is, you know, what was the considerations or what is the thought that has gone into creating, like, is it a conscious strategy or is this just,

hey, let's, you know, is it like, let's just do this. Did it just happen spontaneously or how does that work? I think when we started the shop, we felt we had a really strong message that we wanted to share with as many people as possible. And even when mom asked us, what color paint do you want?

We chose orange because it was like, we want to attract attention because we feel we have something we want to share with the world. Yeah, well, you're not introverted. No, definitely not in that sense. And like, even if it was back in old days,

we would have been in the town square up in a soapbox trying to find the biggest soapbox. Here ye, here ye, eat the vegetables. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah but I guess for that reason we always felt

very comfortable in social media we weren't kind of like buy two carrots two for one this week it was like no we want to like add value

we want to create a happier healthier world and if you're in for it come join us so I think it started at first we were playing around on Facebook

and it was only you were pushing Elsie around to sleep one morning I think it was my first daughter I was pushing around to sleep you know six month old I was pushing around at half four in the morning. Sun was coming up, took a photo, started putting up on Facebook, you know, sunrises.

And I realized people are really into this. So we started realizing it's not just about food. It's a lifestyle. So we started adding value through. And then we started, then we did, we were kind of doing catering at Dublin Web Summit. And we were kind of catering for the founders. So we were kind of catering for, we were doing juices and smoothies for like Jack Dorsey the founder of Twitter we were doing for like the what's the head of Netflix whatever his name was

and also all sorts of kind of serious dudes um and we were kind of it was amazing the conversations you can have when making someone a juice and you can just ask them like so what do you know you can really get to it was like speed dating with these super engaged people so i guess we realized okay geez this twitter thing is interesting let's give this a punk like you know so we started this is kind of sexy it's like maybe we can use this to make our fruit and vegetables a little sexier so it was like i'm gonna get the hang of this twitter thing four or five years ago so it kind of got really into twitter and then from there it was like okay let's start instagram and then from there we started playing and we it was something we wanted to do was play video because we we kind of we're very comfortable in a camera

and we enjoy we like cameras like where's the camera yeah hey and then cameras on you guys are out of a blue we got an email from jamie oliver's team to see if we'd come join his network and shoot videos as part of his channel so part of food tube yeah part of food tube so we so we go over to london once a month and we shoot videos with them and we channel. Part of FoodTube. Yeah, part of FoodTube. So we go over to London once a month and we shoot videos with them. We have access to his team and his crazy world and see how that is. That's pretty cool.

Yeah, so that's been really fun as chef. And amazing to see him and meet him and see how he does things and just to see inside the machine, to see behind the veil. What do people not realize about Jamie Oliver? He works way harder than most people. Way, way, way harder.

He's a grafter. This did not happen by chance. Right. Grafter is a word you've been using the last couple of days. He's a hustler. Hustler. Yeah, yeah, grafter. He's a wonderfully inspiring guy and, you know, very talented.

And extremely hardworking. And I think it's more he walks his talk. I think that was the thing. Very genuine. You know, you look someone in the eye, you shake his hands. It's like, this is the man of substance man of substance right you know i'd follow you into battle yeah that's a vibe that i get i mean i've never met him but just observing you know from 10 000 miles away like what he's been able to accomplish and what he's doing it's like he has

so much going on but yet he always comes across like really grounded and like he's got his head screwed on straight i can't imagine how many people are working underneath them or alongside him it must be apas and i think it's like 5 000 people like he's up to like that many people working right yeah he's interesting it's great to work with him yeah yeah so he's taking an interest in what you guys are doing yeah yeah i think he's very much he's moved his message he's realized that the appetite for healthy food has really changed so he would have been a kind of very much meat and two veg and that type of thing but he's even shift moving his dial slowly where he's moving and i guess getting us and other people that are into in part of the health movement he's realized that this is a really important audience that yeah like looking at millennials

they're they're so much more receptive to health you know they're so much more open for an interest in it so i think from a commercial, it could be from a commercial sense or what, but he's certainly moved his dial and he's into it. And I think in a personal sense, he's changed his own. I think so too.

He's lost weight. He's, even in his own eating, he's training and he's changing his own lifestyle as well. He's hanging out with Tim Sheaf. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tim's working on him.

Tim's a great vegan preacher. The vegan preacher. He is, yeah. I mean, he, listen, you know, it takes all voices, right? Absolutely. Tim has a very powerful voice. I. The vegan preacher. He is, yeah. I mean, he, listen, you know, it takes all voices, right? Absolutely. Tim has a very powerful voice.

I absolutely love that guy. He's a beautiful soul and just an amazing individual. But the way that he communicates through YouTube and his various channels is very different from you guys, but each finds its own, you know, balance in terms of, you know, the audience Tim says we're getting people from all sides. He said he's the preacher. We're in the middle, kind of saying, eat more veg. And Jamie's over the other side kind of sneaking it right so between the

three yeah three styles we're coming at bringing people together who else is is moving and shaking in in Ireland or in the UK in general in this movement quite a few people that tends to be I think there's not that many males in the movement it tends to be led by a lot of females so I guess like deliciously Ella Ella's huge yeah yeah she's huge you know there's a lot hamsy and hamsier you know there's lots of these people who are doing fantastic you know that way yeah but i guess i don't don't really know you know i guess we're not really looking to others we're kind of just doing our you're doing our dance you don't have time to consume any anyone else's content just watching your own Snapchat story alone is a full time job what are you not doing right now

that you wish you were doing or that you're working towards like what's what's like next or what's on the horizon I think we're working my biggest thing

is organizational structure that's my biggest thing at the moment I'm fascinated with it you know how can we inspire our team more how can we engage them more how can we

create a happier healthier space for them and where they can run the company more how can we create a happier healthier space for them and where they can run the company more where it's not about because our role has changed significantly me and dave we're doing everything making all decisions and right in the front line and now we've realized you know we're not really good at managing you know i'm not really into like you're 10 minutes late why are you late well that's not what you should be doing anyway you guys should be you know where they're kind of traveling around and communicating and being the front for this thing i think yeah we love

an audience and we love a camera so i think i think i would say that it's more tv shows i think that's what we're kind of working on you guys i can't believe you don't have a television show already you guys are built for it i think we've shot a lot of stuff and we've done a lot of pilots but for some reason it hasn't quite but the thing is you have total control over your youtube channel you can communicate exactly the way that you want to and just double down and focus on that the minute you start doing television other people get involved it gets diluted different from it's not you're controlled the gift is you guys being you you know what i mean you got to protect that against everything yeah but what's really cool is that you know for people that are

listening i mean you guys live in a small town you're not in dublin you're not in london you're not you know you're in this tiny little town you walk down the street with you guys you guys know absolutely everybody that lives in this town it's hello this person hello that person uh you know getting everyone to show up and and swim the other morning was so great like there was like how many people came at 100 people 100 people kind of put it up in social media 45 to go jump into the irish sea you know as the sun came up it was just so cool pretty cool yeah yeah i love the things like that are you know nearly lucid you're kind of like is this real or and i think i think one of the benefits of living in the small town where you grew up is you're always held accountable like you never think you're bigger than your boots

in any sense because you know it's the same people you've grown up with the whole time. So it's very grounding. I mean, no one would have put it past you if you said, we're going to move to London now or we're going to move to New York and we're going to set up a studio and we're going to do this. We're going to go with this or we're doing that. It speaks volumes that you guys have stayed in that town. I mean, the house is literally 30 feet from the shop.

You know, it's like you don't need to drive. You have your own little blue zone going on, you know? It's very, it's like living in the shower. It's pleasant. It's, you know, we're pretty fortunate. Even today, we had two swims in the sea. We did yoga in the garden. And we did some work, but that was.

It's called a day's work. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a good lifestyle. So, for people that are listening that are, you you know inspired by your message or they're kind of tiptoeing around the outer edges of this whole plant-based idea or it's new to them or maybe they're scared or intimidated like how do you um you know what what is it that you say to people that are just trying to dip their toe in and get started i would think it's go one step at a time like it's really not an all or nothing type thing it's not like you eat a piece of chicken

and you're off the team it's like make simple little changes and it's not an it really isn't an all or nothing type i would say be kind to yourself be gentle have a laugh you know this is a long journey let's enjoy it and i got a good one in that one there's no destination in terms of health like because i think we really tried that we really pushed it out we went really raw food it's got into fasting cleansing it's like enemas colonic all this like really really went neurotic on it became like where it was like we were trying to seek enlightenment true food like it was really see how does this stuff you make you happier but we found it just made you kind of more neurotic or whatever so we found that there's no destination

in terms of health it's like what works for you yeah there's a point where you've kind of like you're but but i guess no one can argue with, you know, eat more veg. Yeah, our message has always been eat more veg. Eat more veg always works. Eat more veg. And by veg, it's like fruit, veg, beans, legumes, and whole grains. You can get obsessive, though. You see that with people when they get... I mean, they step into their lifestyle and it works so well for them.

They become such an evangelist and they want to, you know, talk about it all the time. But it can become almost like a mental health issue if people get too stuck on that and they're not living their life outside of that, right? And you guys seem to do a really good job of being really balanced. Yeah, and I guess it comes from making mistakes. What's the biggest mistake?

I've been living in a small town and being a bit righteous and kind of realizing that people don't really like that. They're not going to allow it. People don't like it, so you quickly adapt and you kind of go, Oh, actually it feels a lot better when I just tell people, you know, try to eat more chips or try to eat more vegetables, you know, to be just a bit gentler and more supportive and encouraging

and inclusive rather than that must be a vegetarian like me. Cause I'm better than you. Right. Or you're going to, you're going to suffer and, and live this life of deprivation, but it's going to be worth it because you're going to lose a little weight. And I think that's one thing that I've recently realized, or I've read stuff on, where with the kind of religion kind of in one sense having less of a hold in Ireland anyway, in Catholic Ireland, that people are looking to other things. Like they're realizing that food, they're getting obsessive with it

and getting, I even saw a phrase where they were calling it orthorexia. I was reading about that recently, and it's like, in our experience, we've realized that it's just part of the solution. Food is one part of it, and I guess there's a greater lifestyle in terms of community, exercise, and how kind you are to yourself. They're just as important as the food. So it really is a whole package, and I guess that's why we don't focus exclusively on the food.

It's very much eat more veg and move, you know? Yeah, I mean, one of the things that we were talking about the other night at the event that you hosted for us was the idea of health beyond the plate, right? Yeah. So you could eat a raw vegan diet. You can do everything perfectly but if you're you know if your relationships are all screwed up if you're impossible to be around if you know you're just you can't hold down a job or you hate your whatever all of that stuff is you know equally if not more important than the broccoli and the veg on your plate right and and when i when i said earlier you guys have set up your

own little blue zone like i mean that seriously like you don't drive a car. You walk down to the beach in the morning. You're doing yoga in the yard. You're saying hi to everybody. You know everybody in the town. You're eating at the Happy Pear. I mean, your whole, your world is very much about community. You're living it on a daily basis. And community is something that,

it's a term that we throw around a lot. We all know that we need it more. I mean, I live in Los Angeles. Everybody's in their car or at their job or at their house. community is very difficult there. Everyone's very much spread out and it's hard to connect. It's hard to connect. And it's only when, you know, we travel and we go to a small town like yours and I'm like, oh yeah, it can be like this. You know, I think that's so important in terms of your overall lifestyle equation. So, you know, if somebody is living in New York City or Los Angeles, they don't live in graystones, you know if somebody is living in new york city or

los angeles they don't live in graystones you know they don't live how do you help foster and cultivate say hello to the i think i was even saying i was even saying that it can't be that simple i was saying i was saying it to the camera this morning vlogging i was saying one of the things i love most is walking down the street saying hi to me even if i don't know them oh hello good morning you know hello and even when we're in London and the chew I always find a fun saying hello to people striking up conversations and it's like sometimes people blanket but sometimes you have these really wonderful little conversations where people you see them

like their face lifts from a friend into oh there's a human in there oh hello how are you you know and I think that's I think it's simply just acknowledging other people you know and I can start's i think it's simply just acknowledging other people you know and it can start with even just saying hello to one person a day you know maybe and i think i think mom always drilled it in just give a smile get a smile and it's like you know you gotta give to get like so it's like go say hi to people yeah yeah i think it's better share the love dudes where do you see yourselves in 10 years, 20 years? I don't know. Nobody knows. But I reckon we'll do this food. You're in the moment.

Oh, we love it. We're having so much fun. And it's like... But I want to live on the edge and keep pushing things as far as it's going to go. But education and energy are things I definitely want to get into. I think we want to play the food game and really push this out there and really get the food message out there. And I think when that takes hold, I think I want to get into education and really focus

on that. And then energy, local energy. Because I think that's the root of it all like how is uh how is um school lunch in the school system here for kids even public schools it's the people don't bring your own they bring their own lunch so it's not the same and cheese sandwiches and whatever you know it's still very much that but i think it's really just education food education not not nutrition but very much practical what they eat and i think true kids i think that's where we can change hospitals is something that i want to go after right so we're not we're not setting our you know we're going for it all how are the doctors uh are the doctors receptive to the plant-based message here for many years like we've tried to get the irish heart foundation to be on board with our happy heart

course and they've always it's a it's a charity so it's they need it's donation based and a lot of businesses back them and although we were the only one of the few people getting actual proper results shown that we're reversing that we're halting we are reversing you know cardiovascular disease they wouldn't endorse us um but recently we were invited by a GP to the Royal College of Surgeons to give a talk to 80 doctors as part of their curriculum. And I remember Dave was so nervous

going in that day. He kind of, he was getting real flustered and you were uptight. I was really uptight. I went for two runs. I jumped in the seat. I was like, these doctors, they're going to grill us

like we're two hippie dudes. They definitely know more than us. They're definitely going to like slate us. And Steve was like, Dave, Dave, they they're just people they eat just like everyone else like let's just go there's no perfect knowledge people relate to people let's just go in there and tell our story and we went in there and we just told our story as usual brought loads of food as tasters and they were the one of the most receptive audience we've ever had they were so it's so many questions they were and they were genuinely intrigued it was like this actually works and it actually tastes nice wow wow and you know they all there was it

was really fun it was really interesting so this ripples coming out of the back of that yeah that's cool you guys don't seem like guys that uh hold uh carry around a lot of regrets for stuff you've done in the past but if you could go back and and give yourself some advice when you were 20 i mean what would you say i had uh there was two two girls we went swimming recently the two kates they're 22 and they just finished college and they said now what would you do if you were in my shoes and i was like i wouldn't be afraid of anything i'd put myself out there and i'd go for it i'd say yes to everything that's what i would do that's pretty good advice yeah i was like i wouldn't i really wouldn't say no to anything i'd just go for it all yeah i'd try

every shoe and i'd try to not just not be afraid just to go for it you know go try to find out why you're if you don't know what you're passionate go travel go do something that even something that interests you and try to uncover what it is you're passionate about once you find that you're going to be more exciting to be around you're going to attract different people what it is you're passionate about. And once you find that, you're going to be more exciting to be around. You're going to attract different people around you, and you're going to have a better life. This idea that you're supposed to know what you want to do with your life at age 18 or 19 is insane.

It's moment to moment. Who made that decision, you know, culturally? What are you going to do for the rest of your life, son? You're going to go to college, and you've got to declare a major, and you're supposed to be on this path. And if you even admit publicly that you don't know, let alone it then there's something wrong with you and that's just that's wrong and that that creates a lot of fear and i think it drives people into careers and pathways and decisions that should never be made they do a purity for security as opposed to what they're

actually or social you know do what's socially acceptable or what their parents expect etc right i think we've been really fortunate because there's two of us that we tend to reaffirm one of these crazy ideas so we've looked into you're not afraid to do this yeah thing yeah like go jump in the hole but that tells you don't jump in the hole it's gonna hurt us like i'm going straight in that hole but it's it is amazing like you guys have each other in such a profound way like i don't know how anyone else could even get involved in that equation you know what i mean like you guys know that you have each other's back right and that's a really special gift most people don't have that or at least when they're younger they don't um how does that impact like other relationships that you try to have in the world

well i think it's you've always had what most people are looking for you've always kind of had that uh the other half or the cellmate or that kind of thing because you were you've always had someone that's understood you and and it's probably closer than any relationship ever because even if like a marriage you like it's a lot of love is conditional whereas with a twin it's 100 unconditional you don't you know you love no matter what they do you know yeah or it's kind of almost like there's no other it's a bit weird you know people kind of think you're a bit weird or whatever and you've never you're a bit weird or whatever you know and you've never had like a big row

where you're like I need to be away from you for no geez no even your holidays you call once or twice what are you up to

what's going on you know whatever you know so no it's a really unique relationship it's very fun very fortunate and I think I don't get it when other twins say

that they never talk to their twin anymore they don't you know I just can't relate it because to us it's like. There's a great synergy. It's kind of like one and one makes three. I think one and one makes five or something. You know, I think it compounds hugely.

It's definitely more than two with you guys. Yeah, yeah. I think, well, we have a lot of fun anyway in our own little world. We still feel like two little boys playing soldiers. So, it's like, I think experimenting and living in the edge i think that's where i want to keep pushing things out and not really believe in what people tell me so how can somebody who's listening to this uh contribute to the movement start eating vegetables doing your love that would be my thing do you love you know try one thing you know try and do

something that makes you a little bit happier i would think that's it you know be nice to yourself you know say hi to someone there's so many different things maybe it's jumping the scene maybe it's go to the gym i don't know everyone is their own difference you know it doesn't necessarily have to be all this kind of clean living simple little things and just do you're probably going to feel better from it and i think it's almost like a self-fulfilling cycle that tends to compound and like a snowball just get the snowball started and before you know it you can end up somewhere you never thought you'd ever be a 23 year old long-haired hippie starting up a vegetable shop yeah yeah from a meathead jock caveman 19 year olds you know what is the biggest uh misunderstanding about

you guys like for people that watch you on youtube but don't really know you i mean you're pretty transparent i mean you guys are in real life are pretty much how you appear at least in my opinion you know online uh but is there is there something that that people are not getting or some record you'd like to correct no i think at this stage i'm very comfortable people not liking you either it's like you know do you get a lot of hate do you get some haters no no but there's bound to be plenty out there you know they just maybe don't voice themselves as. So I think we've become very comfortable with just being ourselves. And it's like, I'm really comfortable with who I am. And I really don't mind if you don't like me. I'm sure we can relate to another somewhere.

How do you think you got to that place of being so comfortable with who you are? I think putting yourself out there enough. I think really exploring who you are and what you're interested in. And getting bruised and realizing they heal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think mistakes and push putting yourself out there public speaking is a fun one as well because you're right there i think terrifying once you're very comfortable with that i think then it's like i'm really comfortable with who i am like throw rocks you know and i'm i'm well able to take them well if you can get up in front of all those doctors

right preach the message right and come out and come out all sunshine on the other side that's got to be empowering right yeah i felt that was a little win you can okay make them yes so uh so what's on the horizon for you guys this year like what are you looking at through the summer this year i think i think we really want to get this cultural thing and this staff cultural thing really get them inspired and engaged and interested we're working a tv thing who are the who are your sorry to interrupt but like who are your entrepreneurial like mentors when you're looking at trying to create um culture like culture is everything with you guys right so how do you instill this culture create these ideals of community in your

business organization right that's what you're trying to do yeah so who are the who are the people that you're looking to? We've got this cool guy. He's like Gandalf. He's like, he's leading the way. Hugh McCann, really kind of wise guy that used to be a tax advisor to Steve Jobs, but he happens to kind of be really into what motivation.

Human motivation and group dynamics and whatnot. And our dad happened to go to college with him. So it's quite handy. So he's good friends with dad and he's- He's been helping us out, which is wonderful. He's brilliant. And at the same time... And what's his core message?

His core message is really, he said, it's a process and there's no, it's no destination. It's a constant work in progress, but it's really all about listening to people, listening to your team and really feel, letting them feel that they can actually have an impact in the destination of the company. So it's genuinely, it's like a relationship. relationship everything is just a relationship they're all just and what we kind of want to do is instead of creating a traditional hierarchical organizational structure it's to kind of keep a much flatter structure where it's much more like a bacteria where decisions are made at the coalface as opposed to further it's not more flexible right so so it's like almost like a hive

mind like everyone's your twin there we go I know it's all hairy and fuzzy but it's it's I figure if we can really you know the average person that goes to work probably gives 40% of themselves they're not that engaged but if we can really opt out where people are inspired and engaged and they're giving 80% to set themselves to something we're gonna really change the world you know and it's not just in food it can be about everything so we feel if we can get this right people can follow their passion you know the more the people on the team if they can be doing what they love rather than they'll just give more and they'll be harness their own

creativity and their own kind of skills because everyone brings something else to the plate they might not have the confidence yet but just to try and cultivate it and engage that and it's a really interesting process we don't know where it's going to lead us but we've got a the local university ucd we went in there and did a pitch with other 15 other companies and we great fun we did we did a good pitch and we ended up getting five free people to help us research so it's fun we'll get to the bottom of this thing that's cool and attracting the right people to begin with right yeah hiring's got to be tough yeah it's kind of cool like we put a post up there for a social media job and you had 100 applicants so it was kind of cool like we put a post up there for a social media job and you had a hundred applicants so it was kind of tough going through them it was quite

fun and even interviewing people you know you can interview in five people and you really kind of how they connect do they get it do they get it do they get that this isn't about money that this is much greater yeah very I don't think think Branson's thing of what was it higher for something trains for higher for fit or higher for yeah hire for he had a good thing he used to say something like hire for fit and hire for attitude hire for attitude and then figure out where to put them like yeah so i think it's more the fit i think jamie oliver's thing was always that if you could sit in a 10-hour flight with someone but then if you wanted

to sit in a 10-hour flight with them well then you could probably work with them you know but if you think you couldn't well then you probably don't want to be working with them right someone you want to hang out with because you're going to spend lots of time with them yeah it's a community it's a family it's a bigger family and yeah i think we've looked to companies like john lewis and semco in brazil these are really interesting companies that have grown hugely and have really focused on democratizing the workplace and making it more engaged and autonomous but not anarchy no not anarchy no no but But I think looking at things different, and I think it's the same in all aspects of life.

It's as I listened to Casey Neistat when he did a podcast with you, and he said it was only when he was 40 he realized that no one knows anything. It's all a game, and it's like the rules have been made up by different people, and it's like, go for it.

Right. You can swear. I know you wanted to. I nearly did. I was like like oh i think casey was a lot younger than 40 when he realized that i think i was the one who said i didn't get that until i was 40 i think he was probably like 14 when he figured that out but yeah it's a it's a brilliant message and you know it's only after you've kind of you know tread the path of life for a while that you begin to realize like, why was I so afraid of that?

Like, why didn't I take that leap? Like, why didn't I, you know, travel when I was, you know, your age instead of, you know, taking the job because I thought that's what I needed to do. You know, I think that the journey to finding your passion starts within. You got to connect with your heart. And sometimes that means jumping in the IRC

at 4.45 in the morning. Sometimes it means getting a url pass whatever it is but you've got to connect with your heart in a way to unlock whatever got locked down to help that messaging come through so that you can understand yourself better and make those decisions to come to that place like the each person's version of your epiphany of saying you know i want to start a food movement for somebody else it might be it's going to be something different but the way that you got to that was really this you know this this it is a vision quest you know you went on this like walkabout to kind of come to that place had you not done that you know maybe you would be in new york as a banker and unhappy and you know

girding yourself with material possessions that are just you know fueling you know desperation and depression but instead you're doing this thing and it's because you put in that work that didn't seem to make sense to anybody but you at the time and you kind of believed in it i think that's something that people often forget it's like oh i'll do it next week and you tend to put it off but it's every moment we have a choice and it's just remembering that you actually do have a choice in every moment everything is a choice it's hard to remember that oh we all struggle it's a practice that's why they call it a practice that's a good one yeah i should that sounds very wise but it's like i must remember that one and i think at the root of all the healthy eating and the lifestyle things it's really we all just want to be happy we all

want to feel loved and i think it's it's made up of simple little choices each day and i think our relationships and community and food and exercise and these the simple little things in life they're the things that are the big things you know and it's the same like that's a message that everyone's heard a thousand times but we kind of need to be reminded i don't know so many times a day many times a day yeah but i think that's a beautiful place to lock it down i can't i can't think of a better end note to the conversation. Well, you guys are amazing. It's been an honor and a privilege to hang out with you the last couple days. Likewise.

You're looking in the mirror. You're looking in the mirror. Right back at you. I found hope inspired by your example and I can't wait to see how this continues to grow and blossom and I am at your service. If there's anything I can do

to help stoke your flame, I would like to be able to do that. Brilliant. So thanks, man. Love it. Peace, you guys. Love you guys. Love you too, Rich.

If you're digging on these guys, which of course you are because you're still listening and what's not to love, check out their books. Two of them, The Happy Pair. What's the difference in the titles?

The second one's The World. The Happy Pair. The yellow one. One's the yellow one, one's the blue one. The yellow one and the blue one. The other one's called The Happy Pair or something and the second one's the world yeah what's the yellow one's the blue one no the yellow one in the blue one yeah it's called the happy pair or something in the second one the first 10 years it's called stories and adventures from the first 10 years or recipes i think it's just the first one's called the happy pair and second it's called the world of happy you think so okay

you can get them on amazon right like anywhere on amazon and uh of course you guys are ubiquitous on the internet the happy pair on YouTube the happy pair on Instagram the happy pair I mean Snapchat the happy pair so the main thing is the YouTube channel

maybe second to that Snapchat then Instagram is that how you guys or it's just all whatever you're into whatever you like whatever you're into yourself

right you know so get on the program woo alright you guys we did it how do you feel that was great i hope it recorded

it's good man it was a fun time yeah it was hilarious all right man thanks you guys i wasn't sure it was like good good good is it still recording yeah Yeah, good. Just like, you know, I fade it out. That's cool. Like a breath of fresh Irish air, right? I just love those guys. Please check out their various channels. Start with their YouTube and follow them daily on Snapchat. It's super entertaining and informative.

Links to those accounts in the show notes. And on the note of show notes, please check out all the references that I've included on the episode page for this show. Incredible resources to take your edification and your infotainment beyond the earbuds. If you haven't already subscribed to my YouTube channel, youtube.com forward slash richroll. I've been rolling out some new vlogs lately, having a lot of fun there and people seem to be enjoying them. So please check that out and subscribe. Also, for all your plant-powered schwag and merch needs, go to richroll.com. I got signed copies of Finding Ultra, signed copies of the Plant Power Way. We got cool plant-powered t-shirts. We got tech tees. We got sticker packs, those plant-based license plate

stickers that everybody loves. Lots of cool merch. You can follow me online, at Rich Roll, on Twitter and Instagram. And on Snapchat, I am Rich Roll. I am Rich Roll. I want to thank everybody who helped put on the show today. Jason Camiolo for audio engineering and production. Thank you so much. He's doing a great job. Sean Patterson for help on the graphics.

Chris Swan for production assistance. He's the one who helps compile the show notes as well and creates those cool Instagram clips. Thank you so much, Chris. And I got a final thought for you. Perhaps the most interesting thing about David and Stephen to me is how they have fostered community in their business, in their town, across Ireland, and on the internet. It's powerful, and it's personally inspiring to me because change doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens with leadership and inclusion. So what can you do in your community, at your job, in your home, or in your town to foster community around positive lifestyle change? Maybe you can host an open house potluck in your home. You can arrange a screening of an impactful documentary or just simply sharing an idea with a friend or a colleague. These are things, even little things,

that we can all do to promote change. David and Stephen inspire me to up my game on this front, and I hope they do the same for you guys. See you back here soon. Peace. And of course, plants.