The Meat Mafia Podcast

 Sol, welcome to the Meet Mafia Podcast, brother. It's good to be here. Thanks, gents. It's been a long time coming, right? Yeah, it has. Am I part of the Mafia now? You might be the Don, honestly. You're definitely one of the OGs, for sure. Yeah. Great. How is the, uh, how's the Austin trip been for you so far? Uh, it's an incredible place, obviously.

Uh, you guys were so hospitable. And, uh, met a bunch of people. People I knew before, from online. Uh, meeting in real life. It seems to be a bit of a hot spot for the movement that, uh, we are contributing towards. Thanks. So, uh, it's great. And I brought the sun with me. So, uh, it's been awesome. Yeah, you might have to stay.

As soon as you came to town, the weather was perfect. So, yeah, might have to keep you here. How's, uh, how's the States for you in general? Just coming and getting to bounce around a bit and see people that have followed you for years. Yeah, just actually getting to interact with them. Yeah. Well the States, obviously I'm from Australia.

Grew up there and the States has always been Somewhere that I've naturally been drawn towards. And then since building out Solbra, uh, the vast majority, over half of my audience is from the States. Yeah. Uh, it's where I sell most of my stuff and, uh, the connections mostly have been, uh, in the United States.

So I always loved being here. Uh, the last two and a half years spent a lot of time there, uh, West coast. I was in New York initially, Miami. Uh, they're the main spots. So there's just a tangible energy to the United States in general, which I really, really resonate with. Uh, the freedom, the entrepreneurship, like all of that stuff, which are, and just the variation you can get within the, the different states it's so cool and so amazing and fingers crossed I'll be able to get a longterm visa, uh, to stay longer.

But for now, being able to go from place to place, friends in each city, I am so blessed and grateful to be able to do that. Yeah, we'll definitely say some prayers on that visa, but I think we're pretty confident it'll happen for sure. And one of the things that we always say too with social media, even though it is the ultimate double edged sword, I think the goal is to, create these amazing online connections and turn them into real personal relationships and friendships.

Like some of our best friends have come from people on Twitter. I know it's the same thing for you too, right? And I'm sure it's, it's probably pretty special and also humbling actually connecting with people in person that have followed you for years and really understanding the impact that you've had on so many people through your creation, right?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you get the, the DMs from people that say, Hey, thanks for your content. It's really changed my life. And I have a bunch saved that I screenshot and, um, occasionally look at it and it's just like, it really reinforces why I'm doing it. Uh, and then the next level is to hear that in person from people and like look them in the eye and be like, dude, you literally changed my life.

Yeah. You don't realize when I'm just, you know, writing stuff out about mindset or whatever it is, health. But, uh, especially with Ryan yesterday, um, I was like, I was in tears a little bit, uh, whereas he was like recounting his life over the last couple of years and how I helped him, uh, in my way with that is really, uh, it hits the soul and, uh, it makes it all worth it.

Like all the, I don't think that I, Like the hate that I get or whatever. It's a very small part of it all. But it makes the effort and it makes the hate received like so much more worth it to do all this stuff and to put the hours in and grind or whatever when you get that response from people. Like that's what makes it worth it.

Yeah, the hate becomes irrelevant when you have someone that's confidently looking you in the eyes and saying that you saved my life through like the darkest cloud that I'd ever experienced. And he said that to us multiple times about you too, which is so special. Yeah. Do you feel like people have a real appreciation for the amount of work that you actually put into it?

Because I know, like Brett and myself, after having been in this arena for two years, like there's a lot of work that people don't see. Yeah. I imagine for you it's like the same thing. There's so much that gets put out there, but the little things that, like responding to DMs and getting back to people and actually like doing the little things that a lot of people don't see must also like sit there and I'm sure there's parts that people just don't really appreciate or understand.

Yeah, until you do it, like you guys do it, you understand, like you may spend an hour and a half just tweaking some small graphic for a story that you throw up and it's there for a day and then it's gone, but you want to make sure that everything looks right. It's designed. Oh, I forgot the link here. Like all of that little stuff, which.

maybe it's not a huge needle mover, but it does move the needle over time compounded. But I don't view it as like this work that I have to put in. It's just the actions that I have to take that I enjoy all parts of it in order to live the life that I do. So like, why would I ever have, like, there's resistance and feeling of like having to work and like it has to be done, um, to, Create something at the level that I'm proud of and the quality that I want to put out So I'll just do it and I'll enjoy it and it enables me to like the work that I do like I'm sitting in the sun Doing it.

I'm at the beach doing it It's like really there's there's no level of what I do that. I really feel like really putting in the hours Yeah, and the scenes and stuff like I'm just so extraordinarily blessed To be able to have the capacity to do that work and live the life that I do that It doesn't really feel like a grind to me.

Hmm. Yeah, I remember um, I was listening to your pod with Ryan, I'll the interview he did with you in Miami. It was unbelievable interview, but I really listen to it We listened to like half of it to just prep for this a little bit. And I think I told you we went to college with his older brother, too. We played baseball with his older brother.

So it's like a very cool connection to see him getting in the space and interviewing you. And one of the things that I was just thinking about is just the impact that you've had on so many creators. I think I put a tweet out about this a few months just thinking through like, not just the economy, but the followers and the lifestyle that you've enabled for so many creators.

And what I mean by that is, When we first started creating content online, I think I maybe had like a hundred followers and Harry and I both joined soul club and you were the one that was retweeting and promoting a lot of our stuff early that gave us that proof of concept to get followers of that allowed us to say, look, we can actually do this.

We can actually build a, build a brand on here and it kind of makes my mind boggle a little bit thinking about. All the other creators in this like your brand is so much more than individual creator I feel like you really embody this entire movement in this ethos in general And I know for you you're very conscious of the fact that I think people showed you love in the beginning and helped to support You too So whenever you see new brands or people that are doing things the right way you really try and pay it forward and promote So I would love to talk about that a little bit.

Yeah, sure. Well I'm in the position I am now with an audience and What does it really cost for me to retweet someone? Nothing, but what does it give them? Literally a career sometimes if they choose to you know capitalize on that exposure as you guys have done so well So I'm like, why would I not do it?

Like some people have this, um, limited mindset, uh, scarcity mindset that like they want to keep their followers to them. I try not to do that because several ways how I live my life, one of which is whatever you put out is what you're going to get back. If I'm always trying to promote other people, then, you know, fingers crossed they do the same for me, uh, in whatever way that they can.

And like you said. Big Accounts did it for me when I was just starting, so, and I know the impact that it had on me, and like, it's such a small act, relatively, that can give someone such a big change in their life. So of course I'm gonna do that, when it is something that I can see is done the right way, for a good cause, and aligns with the values that I put out.

Uh, SoulClub was really born out of. Was a structured way for people to come in and network and there have been friendships, businesses, everything created from that group. Uh, which I'm so happy to see and again, moving it from online to real life, uh, all over the U. S. I've met up with workouts and, uh, dinners and things with people that are in that group in SoulClub.

And it's just like, if we want to have a real meaningful effect on the world, then we have to do that kind of thing. And online is great and online will change the opinions of many people who are consuming content that can just blast out to the millions. Uh, but then real world connections, shaking hands, building trust and doing things in real life is how the needle gets moved even further.

Uh, so SoulClub is a way to, you know, crystallize that and there's still so much to go and so much you need to build with that. But, um, yeah, in terms of. promoting other people, increasing the level of goodwill and success for others in whatever way that I can, uh, is going to mean that I have a resonant, like even, I always say, If you're very, very selfish, and you want to succeed as much as possible, then the most selfish thing you can do is to promote other people.

Because then they're gonna want to like, and I'm not doing it from a selfish, obviously I want to succeed, and I want to do what I want to do. There may, is in no world where it's better for you as a selfish person, if you were, to like, not make the connections, not promote other people, you know? Even if you were that guy, it makes sense to promote others.

And then if you're a non selfish guy, you want to see other people win, then of course you're going to do that. So that's how I choose to live. You guys are making me think about, I was brushing my teeth this morning. I was thinking about this exact thought in the context of Luke, who's a mutual friend of ours and someone who works with us, just like the ability to validate other people's gifts.

Like Luke was like just starting writing on Twitter, how to, or, and he had reached out to us in the DM saying like, Hey, can I work for you guys? And I was like, he had done two episodes of his podcast. I was like, keep doing the podcast, keep writing. And like, we'll, we'll check in in a month. And then like a month later, I saw one of his threads, retweeted it, it went viral.

And I see this kid who's like actually putting in the work and his gifts are then being shown and actually rewarded. Like people were engaging with his tweet, loved it. And it's just interesting to see, like, the level of change that can happen with one person, one young guy who's just looking for the path forward.

Once he sees his gifts be validated by other people, it's like, Oh wow, I'm actually good at this writing thing. Like, he didn't even know that he could write. And it's like, other people started rewarding him in ways of, you know, commenting and liking on his stuff. And lo and behold, he actually has a gift for writing, and he's making a huge impact now.

So it's like, these little things that we don't really think about can have a massive effect. Some people Literally just need one person to believe in them and they've never had that in their life Which is obviously incredibly sad for most people like most people are stuck in this mentality of not wanting to see other people do better than them or not wanting to Support others in case that they do better than them and their ego is upset about it But just one person like a lot of people have teachers at school They were the one person that believed in them And it's so easy.

It's so easy to compliment someone, encourage someone. Um, I intuitively sometimes get these feelings with people online or in person, uh, to just message them, Hey, you're doing a great job. Keep it up. This is really cool. Never talked to them before. But when I do, I've done that, uh, for people in salt club or just randoms online.

And they'd be like, dude, you don't know like how much that helped me, like several months later or years later. They'll say that was the point that I was like, oh dang, I can really like do this or whatever. And again, it's such a small way to encourage someone. But if imagine if everyone did that, everyone was encouraging to each other and said you can do that.

Of course you can do that, and it just removes this doubt, and doubt is like the worst thing that can destroy people's dreams, it's like self doubt, self limitation, and if we can be the person that dissolves that for others, maybe they've been thinking about it for so long, when it comes from someone else, it can really shatter those, those beliefs that maybe they got from their family and friends, or, that's what's so incredible about Twitter, I've had so many people say, if it wasn't for Twitter, I wouldn't have had any other exposure to these ideas which have changed my life, Yeah.

No, 100%. And that's, I mean, that's what you did for us. And you have to imagine from, um, a consumer that was consuming your content. Basically religiously for two years to then have you notice the content that they're putting out and believe in them And it's like this is the person that's taught me everything about health mindset spirituality, etc And they believe in me, of course, I can do this thing.

It's such a huge impact that you have I was thinking prior to this conversation. I think part of what makes you really successful and powerful is there's kind of two sides to your coin. There's the health, there's obviously the health side, and then there's also the mindset side. And what I mean by that is when I first came, I think I came across your con, your content, maybe January of 2021 for the first time, and why it stuck out to me is I was working at the time on healing my ulcerative colitis, so like very heavy meat based diet.

And I felt when I was working a corporate sales job, I almost felt like I needed to hide this from people because it was such a unique thing. It was so contrarian compared to what everyone else was doing. And I think part of what makes you really powerful is you've almost made it cool and accepted to live this incredibly healthy lifestyle.

So I think there's this health side of it. But then there's also this mindset side of it too, where I feel like in some ways you really are like this mental alchemist. So what hooked me to you was first the health content, but then what kept me coming back was a lot of your tweets and your content around mindset, which made me believe that I really could shape my own reality and I'm the master of my own domain and all the things that you talk about.

So I guess my, my question is, do you feel like, do you need to first build a really strong, Health based that then leads to you having some of these realization and mental shifts, or do you think it's mindset first and then health? I know it's kind of like a chicken or the egg type question, but I'm just curious how you feel about those two things.

Yeah, it's it's a chicken or the egg, and then it's also a self fulfilling cycle on both ends. The healthier you are, the better thoughts you're gonna have. The better thoughts that you have and the higher consciousness and awareness you have, the better your health is gonna be and then boom boom boom and it flows into each other.

I would say if I had to pick one, the mentality is always going to be first, because nothing happens without a mentality, a willingness to change, or even just the awareness and consciousness that something is wrong. People don't realize that maybe something isn't right with their health or they think it's just normal because everyone around them has poor health of some kind.

So in terms of believing you can do something, believing that your health is, it's even possible to change because people have helplessness and people externalize their power. And if you give it over to, for example, the medical complex to heal your ulcerative colitis, it's never going to happen. You know, so.

Yeah. Taking back control and power of your own force in everything in every part of your life is super super important and It's it's what everything else flows from that. Hmm. How important do you think environment is? Playing like kind of the foundation between both those worlds because I know for myself like working the corporate job You're surrounded by people who aren't necessarily doing the same sort of things They're not as ambitious when it comes to their health or building out a resilient mentality Yeah, but then when you find yourself In maybe a different city or different location where those things are more popularized You can see change happen without you really even having to do any of the work.

Like you're just around the right people, you're in a sun, an environment where the sun is accessible, where you're near the water, and it's just like effortless. Yeah. I feel like a lot of people miss that key component where it's like the environment, your environment is gonna actually do so much in terms of that, that work and that coding without you really even having to put the effort forward.

Exactly, and that's the, probably the biggest thing. If you have to fight in the middle of New York City For every part of your health, then it's going to be so much more draining than if you were by the coast and getting sun. Like, I was in New York City for, uh, the winter of 2021, I think, uh, and with everything that I knew.

That's a tough time to be in New York. Yeah, yeah. You know, everything that I knew. and the health that I was committed to and still it was just like a real battle because it was freezing outside, sun wasn't out, EMFs, pollution, noise, just general bad energy. It's gonna drain you. But if you're on the beaches of Costa Rica And having tropical fresh fruit from next door, and watching the sunrise and sunset, you're going to be naturally healthy.

And you don't have to put forth any energy, really, to do so. And I understand that not everyone can move to Costa Rica, but most people can move somewhere that's going to be a lot better than if they're in these really, you know, harsh, developed cities. And then also, who you're around is going to affect your mentality.

And if you're only interaction is with people that are limited, negative, not abundant or anything, then that's going to weigh you down also. And that's why the kind of first thing that you have to do when you want to make some changes is cut off those people that are like that. Like, that's just the way that it is.

You can have a resilient mindset and a strong enough energy to repel their beliefs and the things that they try to put onto you. But it is so much easier if you just, okay, I'm not gonna tolerate that in my life anymore. That's just the reality. And I'm gonna seek out the relationships where people build me up or they're at least not a net negative.

Mm-Hmm, . Uh, and you can have relationships with your family past that. But there are relationships from my past that didn't really serve me to the level that I want be at and people that are gonna support me more. And so I sought that out. And the more you do that, it's kind of exponential to the degree that you can elevate yourself.

So, yeah, a change of environment where you're no longer having to battle uphill is super, super important. If you were speaking to a client or a friend, say that they need to be in a metropolitan city like a New York or a Chicago for work or a family commitment or something, and they just need to be there for a year or a definite period of time, what kind of practices or modalities or would you recommend to them to still try and be as healthy as possible, knowing that you probably won't be as healthy as a Costa Rica, but I'm sure there are things that you could do to still maximize your vitality.

Yeah, I mean, the biggest rocks are to, uh, clean up your diet, don't get sucked into the go go go city stress mentality taking stimulants all the time in order to type in your spreadsheet better you know you can still be productive. without living that lifestyle, without going out every single weekend, a lot of people will drink alcohol and take drugs because that offers them a period of time where they're no longer stressed about the rest of their week.

But it only increases the stress that you have during the rest of the week after that weekend. So it's kind of like, you know, you don't want to be doing that. So cutting out those times of your life and the substances that you're putting in is pretty key. Cleaning up your diet, sleep, Whatever you can do within your home environment to cut out the blue light, once the sun has gone down.

I know a lot of people that even when the sun is out and they have an office job, they won't, just through a nature of habit, they won't even go outside during the day. And everyone has a lunch break, you know. You can have your lunch at your desk, or even eat lunch outside or go walking outside, just like really, Being focused on being disciplined on those little things like an hour of sunlight a day where you're outside On your lunch break is going to be a game changer compared to the person that stays indoors all day And while you think you're in a city like there are parks in cities as well Yeah, go and take your shirt off take your shoes and socks off and Just go, be as close to nature as you possibly can and do the best you can with what you have.

That's all we can do at the end of the day, is not get disheartened by where you are and your current circumstances. Fuck it, you know, like, I'm not, I'm not on the jungle, in the jungle in Costa Rica, therefore I'm not even going to try, but there's a park nearby. That you've never been to in the year that you've lived in that area, uh, and then maybe you're vaping as well because everyone else does, smoke breaks, all the rest of it.

Uh, I know a lot of people that I have done consulting with that even those small changes can really, really make a large impact on what they're doing. Um, getting away from ordering food. It's a big one. Uh, cooking your own food at home. Again, these very simple things that maybe people think I'm repeating myself a lot, but I repeat it because they are the most important things.

What do you have control over? Your diet, uh, what you choose to do, what light environment you are in, uh, what time you go to bed and how you consciously use technology and other things so that you're not, uh, Blasting blue light into your eyes until 11pm, and then going to sleep late and then you're tired the next day so you need stimulants to stay awake and all things like that.

Um, what else? Whatever else you're putting into your body and wearing on your body. Getting rid of the synthetic fibers. Uh, stop putting toxic shampoos and soaps and things like that onto your body every single day. Deodorants, perfumes. The toxic load of whatever you're using to clean things in your house.

Like, all of these things add up and they may seem like small insignificant changes, but when you do all of them and you're getting this 40 percent 50 percent boost in your energy and how you feel each day, then you have the resiliency and the health to really take that brunt of wherever you are in the city and, and make the, the better choices overall.

Yeah. I can't help but think about how cities are just designed in a certain way to like disrupt our circadian rhythm. And, um, How challenging it actually is when you, if you are in these bigger cities surrounded by people who are reverting you to the mean of what everyone else is doing, it's like, Even if you have the best intentions, it can be really challenging to actually implement some of these things.

But I know for myself, like when I was living in Boston, the biggest needle movers for me were just getting outside and being intentional about getting a really long walk in every day. Just because that was like a low steady state form of cardio and also getting sunlight. So like that two birds with one stone mentality.

Yeah, and like I went from feeling like, oh, like I'm in this job, overstimulated with coffee, Like, doing a lot of work late into the night, not getting nearly enough sunlight, to feeling totally recharged just by adding a walk in, I was probably getting less sleep, too. Like, I was sleeping way better with fewer hours.

So, there's definitely ways to break it, but you need to be, like, so mindful of those, like, one or two big habits that can have that cascade effect. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I feel like there's I could see someone that misinterprets your content almost thinking that there's like this rigidity to your routine and like a lot of deprivation and almost being a slave to all these different things that you do.

And the more time that we've gotten to spend with you this week, it just seems like there's this general fun and enjoyment around every single aspect of the way that you live your life. Yeah. So I'd love for you to talk about that too. Cause we were, we were talking about that a little bit at the coffee shop outside, how You don't feel like you're depriving yourself of anything at all.

You love every single aspect of your routine. There's like incredible energy and vitality around the foods that you eat and the way that you choose to live your life. And I think that's a really important concept that this stuff should be fun. There's no sense of deprivation at all. Yeah, it's uh, yeah, it's interesting because people have this concept of a diet being limiting.

And I think part of that is because they don't necessarily know the quote unquote correct way to eat And they don't have any cooking skills So they think you have to eat bland food in order to be healthy and that's just not true the way that nature is designed Is that the most rich, nutritious, nutrient dense foods are the most delicious.

Like, that's how nature works. It's like, what your body needs is gonna signal to be like, Wow, that was incredible, we need more of that. You put maple syrup in raw milk, that's like the most delicious thing you can drink. And you're getting incredible nutrients from that. So, whatever I do is stuff that, makes me feel good in the moment.

Not that you should chase feeling good all the time, but that's what it does. Sitting in the sun for 20 minutes is obviously gonna, like, everyone knows how that feels. So why wouldn't I do the things that are gonna make me feel good and then also contribute to health? And then going back to what you can control versus what you can't control.

Don't be upset. Don't worry about the things that you don't have control over. And that mentality is going to be so much more resilient, uh, bring your energy up to a higher level and enable you to put the effort in, put the time into everything else. You know, like, feel better when I'm wearing cotton and linen versus tight polyester.

And it's not that I'm scared of these things. It's not that I'm scared of fluoride toothpaste. It's just once I understand that, okay, that affects my health negatively. I'm going to cut that out and then boom, I feel better. So why wouldn't I do that thing? You know, and everything that I test and everything that I change and everything that I dedicate myself to inevitably makes me feel better, has high energy.

And then you're generally pursuing the things that as nature intended, the things that feel the best are the best for you. And really, that's how I live my life. And it's, it's never like, Just live a little bro. Just have chick fil a once in a while. Like it tastes like shit. Yeah, I'm not depriving myself of poison Don't reward yourself with poisons.

That's another big thing is like, yeah, I'll just kick back order some fast food and again, it goes back to people don't really know how to prepare things that are delicious, but Sometimes when I have people over I'll cook things and they go dude, this is incredible I'm like, yeah, this is how you can eat and tell you should eat because the the Again, the most delicious things are the most nutritious.

So, with having fun with everything as well, Um, if you can make things cool, have fun with it, then more people are going to be open to it, rather than this harsh mentality of like, you've got to be disciplined, deny yourself. Uh, that's not how the world works. That's not how nature works. So I try to embody that.

Uh, in everything that I do. Yeah. I would love to get your just practical perspective on how we should be thinking about nutrition. And the reason why I say that, we were talking about this a little bit the other night at dinner. You know, tools like Carnivore I think can be amazing just for taking autonomy over the food you've been putting into your body.

Especially if you've been on a processed foods diet for the entirety of your life. Just eating straight animal products for a month. You develop this incredible intuition. But I think as Harry and I are changing our perspectives. I think what we're realizing is that most people that are on something like carnivore long term just have severe food addiction or they just have severe autoimmune disease or chronic disease where they have to stick to this.

But I think there are a lot of people that fall into the negative camp of thinking that, you know, sugars, carbohydrates, things like that actually are poison and that's not something that we agree with anymore. Um, So I would just kind of love to get your perspective on how we should be thinking about nutrition because there's, there's so much polarizing content out there and I think it's tough for the average person that wants to turn their health around that maybe wants to lose 20 pounds and feel great.

They don't really know where to start because there's so much conflicting information out there. Yeah. So at a, at a broad level, um, as close as you can get to nature, the better, obviously the less processing that goes into your foods, the better. If something has an ingredients list. I don't really eat it.

You know, it's your food should be ingredients. Like you look at meat. Uh, that is meat. There's nothing else. There's no labeling Uh, eggs, fruit, all these things, uh, that I eat on a daily basis. They are plucked out of nature. There's nothing done to them as such for the most part, unless you're talking about fermenting, which again is like letting the bacteria, uh, digest it a little bit before we then eat it.

And there's, there's no, like, things put into it, no chemicals, no preservatives, flavorings, all of these things, which are humans trying to control and manipulate the, as God created them. And the closer we can have, we can get to that, the better it's going to be for your body. For me personally, I have plant foods, I have animal foods, and I intuitively listen to my body as when and where I use these different tools.

Because if I feel sick, I'll, I'll probably, you Not that I feel sick often, but your body will tell you what it needs more of, whether you should fast or not. Carbohydrates feel incredible to have pre and post workout, and when we're doing more physical activity, so align it to your body. You're physical activity levels.

You're not going to be slamming raw milk and maple syrup if you're just sitting on the couch. Uh, but if you're outside and walking around and lifting weights for two hours, yeah, have as much raw milk as you want. And, when you have just this whole foods mentality, There's no real point where you're going to be able to overeat eggs.

Like, it just doesn't happen. The relationship with hunger and nutrition is like this. Your body requires nutrients and energy in order to do everything that it needs to do. To energize itself, repair, get rid of toxins, all of that. And if you listen to that, then it'll tell you what you need at certain times and certain points.

And, uh, the more that I. Listen to my body and when and where to eat just like it makes sense to me It makes me feel the best when you're in different climates. Do you feel your? dietary like Intuition changing like if say if you're in Costa Rica, maybe more local fruit Say you go further north like north of New York, maybe like a little bit more of like a meat based diet I just, I think there's a really interesting thread to pull on there that we haven't really fully tapped into like the scientific world hasn't really tapped into where, you know, there's certain longitudinal, uh, aspects to nutrition where like, where food is abundant.

So like by the equator, lots of fruit, maybe you should be eating a little bit more fruit. Yeah. So with our global supply chains. Uh, which are great and enable us to have foods that kings of old would never have been able to have from the other side of the world available each day. Does it make much sense to have pineapples and mangoes if you're in the dark and cold in the very, very north?

from Mexico or something. That doesn't really add up to me. And there's some level of literally quantum light information encoded into food that will tell your body and your cells what to do and signal certain things and turn certain genes on or off. Therefore, if you are in one area, like This goes back to as local as possible, uh, from local farmers, as much as possible, shopping at your local farmer's market, wherever I travel, I try to find a farmer's market, um, that is going to be the best because things like potatoes that grow in the winter, they're going to signal your body to retain more fat and things like that, which is good for the winter, you know, eating seasonally is eating to deal with whatever environment you're in.

Uh, and with traveling and things. There is a bit of nuance there and if you're dealing with certain health things where having papaya might be really great for you then, you know, I've done that as well even if I was in somewhere that was a bit cold. But in general, on a regular basis. Eating according to where you are, there's so much more than just the calories and even more than the nutrients themselves that can't really quantify.

But that's gonna be the wisdom of nature embodied in the food that you're eating that's gonna tell your body how to best exist in that environment. Yeah, we had um, we had a guy on the podcast, I think it was episode 30, Mark Schatzker, he wrote a book called The Dorito Effect. And he talks about nutritional wisdom, just like the innate intelligence of the tongue and how So, our tongues are designed to tell us what we should and shouldn't be eating, um, based on all the taste buds that we have.

And I think it's a really interesting frame because a lot of people's tongues are being totally hijacked by the processed foods that we eat. So they don't even, I don't even think they would hear what you're saying and be able to relate to it. Because They've just gotten on this merry go round of, you know, maybe they'll eat good for like a week or two, lose a little bit of weight, like the objective of eating well was to lose weight, and not to actually develop some intuition and some relationship with their food where they start to actually understand like the unique intelligence of each piece of food that they're putting in their body.

Like there's something I think that we're missing with the distance that we have created within the food system where we have You know berries being flown in from mexico Or you know beef being shipped in from overseas where we don't actually have that true connection with the local food Yeah, and I actually I I believe our bodies are designed to have that understanding but processed foods just do such a great job of Interrupting that frequency.

Yeah, and that's why I have this Complete discipline total just like don't eat that stuff. It's not food That's what you got to realize at the end of the day is is they are these Frankenstein creations That are meant to mimic food their food products, but they don't even deserve the name food They're like made in a lab made in a big warehouse where they're putting these random chemicals and things together And then yeah, people are putting them into their body But that's not food, like it's this weird approximation of food and going back to the, uh, the satiation thing you can eat a bunch of those foods and part of the health world, uh, and things like protein shakes and protein bars and protein everything, protein chips, drinks, whatever.

That's not food also. And because you go to the gym and they're sold in the vending machine, they're protein cookies. You're like, yeah, okay, I'm getting my protein. Then you look at the ingredients again. It's this huge list of things like that's not food and you're not it says 20 grams of protein per cookie on there You're not absorbing that that's not real protein and just because they have some Approximation of yeah, these are the macros within there it doesn't necessarily mean that you're getting that first of all and I kind of disagree with Macros on the whole because one you can read a nutritional info List and see yeah, this is XYZ calories You They're not necessarily accurate and you have to have this relative understanding, this intuitive understanding that okay, if I keep on putting weight, but these calories say this and then the macros of that, it's like, well, just kind of relate it to how you were last week and what you were eating then.

And then if you want to put on weight, eat a bit more compared to that rather than just looking at these things and these isolated macros and because the protein cookie says, Oh yeah, this many calories and that much protein. And then I want 180 grams of protein a day. I'm going to eat nine protein cookies like that's not going to work.

Yeah. Um, the satiation, our body signals hunger because it needs nutrients. If you eat something that doesn't have nutrients. That you need at the moment, you're going to remain hungry and you're going to eat things that have calories, but because you're not getting the nutrients, your body's like, yep, keep eating.

Come on. Uh, and then you overeat and you get fat because you have an excess of these garbage Frankenstein calories, but no actual nutrients from whole foods. And you can eat less whole foods, especially if you eat them raw and uncooked, um, animal products particularly, and you can eat much smaller amounts.

But the nutrients themselves, the micronutrients and the calories are going to be adapted in a way that your body can absorb, and then you're not hungry. And that's really how I eat now, it's like just, I'm not measuring calories, I haven't really counted calories. There is some level of understanding calories and how much you're eating, because maybe you just don't understand, but like I said, you're not going to have a plate of eggs.

and overeat to the point where you get fat because the nutrients of whole foods are so dense compared to the garbage that your body just stops. Okay, we're good. We don't need nutrients and that you'll get hungrier the more activity you do and you won't need to eat as much the less activity you do.

Like that makes sense to me. Yeah, it's like this mental model of the fact that the body truly is the most amazing piece of machinery. You have to give it the right inputs, though, to be able to access all the amazing aspects of that machinery. Yeah. So if you're just feeding it these frankenfoods, it doesn't, it's not able to single leptin or any of these hunger signals.

So you'll crush a whole bag of Doritos and you'll be starving because your body's like, Holy shit, you didn't give me any of the nutrients that I actually want. Yeah. And I think that's what a lot of people notice when they, when they follow Agenis diet, which I know you've been big into the last year plus.

Yeah. Of. Hey, when I cook a steak or cook ground beef, I could probably eat around a pound, but you're getting so many nutrients from beef and it's raw form. Like a lot of times I would just eat half a pound of ground beef and I would be totally good. Yeah. I almost felt this sense of like my body was no longer saying, what are the maximum amount of calories that I need to feel really good?

It was more of like, what are the minimum inputs that I need? Because I'm just flooding the body with nutrients. Yeah. And, uh, I still make the mistake sometimes of like cutting up an entire ribeye and I'm like, yeah, that's what I used to eat. I used to cook it and then eat it and that would make me satiate it.

Now I'll get through half of it and I'm good. Good to go. Refueled. Yes. Uh, and the calories is not really even a part of it because like obviously you're you're eating calories But sometimes we can feel hungry because the body wants nutrients But if you just have a glass of water with minerals in it, salt, um, shilajit, other things, some teas that are very high in vitamins and minerals, and that will satiate you because your body needed the minerals to keep going and enzymes as well, some supplements.

Uh, for instance, I'll have bison liver supplements, uh, that I sell. Just, it's just capsules of dried liver. So that gives my body the nutrients that it needs to continue on. Uh, maybe if I'm traveling or something and I have no access to good food if I'm on the plane or in the airport, but I'll have some liver capsules.

And that gives my body nutrients without this huge dose of calories. Not that I'm against calories, but then I can just keep on going. The hunger is satiated. And I think people make the mistake of if I'm hungry, I need a huge meal, but it's not necessarily always the case. It's just that your body is requiring certain minerals, which happen to be in food.

And the raw food is so, so impactful. And it's why I talk about it now. Um, in general, the concept of when we cook, the heat is going to, just like anything, you put anything in a fire, eventually it's going to break down and burn and become charcoal and become, you know, dead matter. The same principle is even if you're cooking a little bit or chargrilling, charcoaling a steak, the outside of that, and to some degree, depending on how much you cook it, is also going to be on the way towards that dead charcoal material.

So the enzymes, vitamins, minerals, water soluble, uh, vitamins and minerals that are in meat, Which then, obviously, you're cooking something, the water leaves out of the steak. If you've ever had an overcooked steak, it's dry and sits in your stomach like, Oh, man, I just need to lie down. That doesn't happen when you have raw foods.

And, um, don't take that as to, I need raw kale smoothies, because that's not what you want. Also, what I eat, you know, I'm, I'm having raw animal foods predominantly, fruits, which obviously you don't cook, but they're the foods that our bodies are, they work the best with. And having them raw means that you're going, you know, raw milk, obviously, rather than pasteurized.

Pasteurization is a method of cooking, a method of heating it up. The bacteria dies, the enzymes break apart, uh, the proteins denature. Uh, and having this raw mentality for everything that I eat now enables me to one, you save time cooking less dishes, which is great. Uh, and then you're eating less. You're, I'm staying like muscular.

It's not like I'm fading away because the nutrients are there, uh, without the cooking process. Yeah. Has your perspective on digestion, uh, you kind of hit it on this, but has your perspective on digestion changed as you started incorporating more raw foods? Like you were saying like I found that I don't get like that full feeling But I feel satiated when I have some raw food in the diet Yeah And I like my digestion is way better Like I don't get that like any sort of like bloating or kickbacks from eating more raw foods Yeah, digestion is really number one, um, I think it was Hippocrates, all disease starts in the gut and that starts with the mouth, um, but if you feel like an upset stomach, like everyone knows how that feels, it's probably common in the vast majority of people to have bloating, um, Indigestion, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Ulcerative Colitis is what these names are given to the response of the body to frankenfoods and garbage and yeah, of course, it's gonna be Inflamed but to call it this like disease that we have.

It's just the body's natural response to what you're putting in. It's either The worst thing which is the processed foods, the sedols and everything and then the next It's like you may be eating really good foods, but if you're cooking them all, then your body is not able to have the enzymes or digest it and you get this like heaviness.

When you're having raw animal foods, you don't get that. You should be able to eat when your digestion is optimal. Uh, and some, even some cooked foods are like that as well, depending on how you prepare it. Some plant foods that breaking them down through cooking is a little bit better. You should be able to eat and then go for a run.

You shouldn't have to eat. And then be like, oh man, I need to lie down for a while. Like, that's a signal that your body is not processing what you're putting in efficiently. And using that digestive, uh, feedback loop to see what foods agree with you. And that can change for different people. If what I say is something is healthy for you, and then you try it, but you feel bad every time you have it, your digestion is poor, then, okay, that's a signal to, to stop eating.

And that's also, like, if you feel really good having more carbohydrates, But someone that's unkind of all is like, Carbohydrates are terrible for you. Trust your body more so than their particular experience which may be uh, really specific to their situation which is helping them and they should listen to their body and you know, talk about that.

But your body is going to be unique. There are these general principles that obviously I'm giving out that are generally true for most people about less cooking and all the rest of it. But there are certain things that maybe your body doesn't tolerate that someone else would and that can go back to where your genetics are from, where your family has hailed for, you know, generations and generations.

Your body is going to be adapted more so to that. way of eating than if you're eating something from the other side of the world and maybe you do better with higher fat content and someone would do better with more carbohydrates all other things equal. This is the experimentation and the personal responsibility and discipline that comes into forming what you feel the best eating.

Yeah, the aversion to raw foods is really, I just deduced it down to it being a mental psyop. I remember, um, after listening to your podcast with Josh Rainer, Gold, it's maybe 2000, 2022. I convinced myself, I was like, you know what, I'm going to try a raw meat diet for a month in San Diego. So I was going to the local farmer's market, connected with perennial pastures.

And I remember staring at like, at like a piece of chopped up ribeye, regenerative. I melted some grass fed butter on top of it, balsamic, sea salt. And I remember thinking like, am I going to die after I eat this? And I had like half of it and I. There's very few foods where you actually feel this pulsation of energy after you eat it and this vitality and my, my gut felt amazing.

My stomach felt flat after I ate it and I just wanted to go for a walk and work out afterwards. And so I did that for a month straight and I would post about it and I had a lot of friends from back home that would be like, Dude, are you, you're a little, you're crazy. Like you're literally going to die eating this.

I remember thinking to myself, like you have no problem going to a sushi restaurant. And getting sashimi and eating raw salmon and tart all these other things and you eat tartar but the concept of me eating a raw steak makes you crazy. Like I, I just remember thinking like this has to just be a mental psyop that's just been imprinted into us by Western society.

Yeah, it's, it's a very strange, uh, mental block that people have and contextually, like you said, Beef tartare is a thing, uh, sushi is raw fish, uh, because we haven't contextually eaten it in the western world in that way, like, even a very, very rare steak, where you're cooking the outside and then both sides, like, briefly, what's the inside?

Oh, it's, it's raw meat. Yeah. But people accept that and eat it at the restaurant. But I'm just cooking it 15 percent less on the outside and then eating the same thing and then it's like well that is out of order. Yeah. It doesn't make any sense and then exactly you try it and you feel incredible. And everyone's like, that, mate, you're a bacteria, parasites, it's like, no, it's, it's literally the opposite.

But I think it comes back to, you know, in our world, it's accepted, raw milk's great. You know, the good bacteria help you process it more, but even that, most people are like, raw milk, mate, you're gonna die. Yeah. It's like, well, if I'm gonna die, then, like, I've been doing it for years, like, when is it gonna happen?

Yeah. You know? Um, but I think that it comes back to the, really the larger scientific knowledge and the pharmaceutical perspective of all bacteria is bad, you have to kill bacteria, anti bacterial hands, um, you know, put a mask on so you're not breathing in it, you know, people that have never set foot on a farm.

It's like, yeah, there's bacteria everywhere and that's fine. And if it's a healthy, natural microbiome of nature in the dirt and in the soil, that's good for you. But because they've, they've only ever got their meat from a store in a plastic packaging, uh, and cooked everything and that's just what they grew up with.

They're just unconscious and unaware of that. And I think slowly opening yourself up to that is, is really important. Um, it becomes very empowering and understanding and like bringing yourself closer to nature as you know. You're not fighting against your body, you're not fighting against nature. And there's a lot of this fear dissolves and it's, it's primarily fear based.

Like you're scared of what the raw meat is and raw milk is going to do to you and make you sick. And even if you, if you, if you really believe in that stuff too much. Then you can manifest those symptoms of, you know, if you do try it one day and you're like, Oh, this is gonna make me sick. This is gonna make me sick.

And then you feel sick. Yeah. But that's not the case for most people that try it. They go, like, I'm fine. Yeah. Like, I feel even better. Yeah. And so that is just evidence that we've been lied to in a lot of ways about food. Primarily because they want to, you know, keep people sick. They want to monopolize, uh, You can only have food that's gone through an FDA approved facility.

Otherwise, like You know, and then they create these legal barriers and these regulations to stop you from just going to your local farmer and buying their beef. No, it has to go through our processing facility. There's profit involved in that. And there's a lot of mechanisms like that that just mean We're going to be cut off from our natural way of living.

I think food is such an amazing lens to pull back the veil that like social programming can have on us because it gives you that immediate feedback loop of like, am I feeling the way I'm feeling yes or no? And is it the same as the way that this societal, um, pressure or societal norm is like thinking that I should be feeling.

So the self experimentation around food, I think. is a great gateway for a lot of people to actually start to, like, push back against some of these, um, social designs that make us think, like, what's normal and what's not. And I'm, I'm curious for you, was there a moment or have there been moments for you where you've started to pull back the social veil even more and start to see the world just differently?

Um, over the past, you know, I'm sure there have over the past several years, but where's your changing, or where's your thing changed the most over the past several years? so much. Yeah, so I think there, I've been lucky to have a personal social constitution that enables me to not really care what other people think of me.

And so I'll try things, you know, what comes to mind is going to college pre drinks parties and I would bring my Tupperware, glass Tupperware of, uh, it was a bro diet at the time, like chicken and rice and broccoli or whatever. But and people be like, what are you doing? Like bring your own food. Like there's Doritos right there to eat.

Yeah, like no, I'm good. I'd still drink alcohol after but I Always innately had that real like discipline like don't really care. I know this is better for me I want to fuel my body and all the rest of it and it's just been like an experimentation of I learned about something I know that they lied to me about this.

I'm gonna try this. I feel better. I do better with that I don't really care, I'm gonna take my shirt off at the park. Like, uh, but people even look at you weird for that. Yeah. Like, these days, and it's crazy, but it's so, like, Normal for me that you have to have some level of not giving a fuck about other people like judging you for Trying to improve your health and that goes for trying business and everything like what are you what are you doing that for bro?

Like it's kind of cringe posting videos It's just you know, you can never blame other people for that. It's just a level of unconsciousness Um, but the food itself, when you actually do some level of independent research about, okay, why do they think bacteria is all bad and why do they have to pasteurize things, you research it and you go, oh, it was actually a really rich guy that convinced the government that we should pasteurize milk.

Um, you know, and what are the actual numbers in terms of the bacterial outbreaks of salmonella and things. And then you go speak to people or read other stuff of people that actually make raw milk. And then the outbreaks that they think they had, there's more in pasteurized milk. Why is that? Like they never tell you that, but it's whatever the media focuses on.

And so you innately develop this kind of distrust in the media. Everything that the mainstream says so therefore I was just challenging things like okay, they lied to me about that They're probably lying about this some things are right Some things are wrong, but testing it my own life and then whatever works well for me sharing that and that's how I've kind of Approached all of this stuff.

So it's almost like doing your own research helps build your personal constitution That's something that I've thought a lot about is um You know people that would try like in my corporate job to shit on me for eating a carnivore diet I'm like, well, you're an engineer. You went to Harvard. You're 60 pounds overweight You bring a cookie in for lunch and a Mountain Dew and you think I'm crazy Yeah, and it's like a lot of the things they're a version of saturated fat.

I'm like, they've never actually done that Done the time to do the research that you're talking about to understand, um, you know, outbreaks of pasteurized milk versus raw milk. So when you've done your own research, you can then say to this person, like, I know that you've just heard snippets of articles that have been distilled over like the last 50 years of outdated science.

Whereas I've actually done the research, so I have confidence in that and that I feel like builds your personal constitution. Yeah, when you know your shit and you can say to someone like confidently, Uh, well, do you actually know, like, why that is? Cause I do. Yeah. I've done the research. And when you have that, you realize most people are just parroting other people's beliefs and like, everything that I say, go do your own research to challenge it and try and prove me wrong.

And if I am wrong, message me and tell me, Hey, do you actually know this? And I'll be like, you know, fair enough. Most of the time, people just take what the approved narrative is about anything really. And because they're busy or they just don't have the. understanding of like science in general. Like there are scientific narratives that were are accepted today that don't.

Line up with how a scientific experiment should actually be and you have the control and you have here It's like a bunch of assumptions It's a bunch of links that haven't been proven or there's this one guy and it just happened to be that he had a medical Institution and funding behind him that then permeated that this and there's a lot of things like that that happened that Education is always the key to dispel Uh, these myths that can keep us under control.

Definitely. I'd love to shift gears a bit and talk about, along the lens of like just the potential of man in general. And the reason why I'm saying this is I've been, I've been spending a lot of time just thinking about Jordan Peterson's quote that man has an obligation to be exceptional. I think it's an amazing quote.

And I think back to, uh, A podcast that you did around two years ago, and I'll let you explain it, but the, the concept is stuck in my mind for the last two years and you were basically saying that when you're a man in your early 20s, society kind of views you almost like this piece of clay that could be molded and you have this incredible potential around you and then as you start to reach your like mid to late 20s into your early 30s, that potential goes away and people view you more as like a fuck up, which I think is actually, it's a good mindset to have.

Yep. Yeah. And it sounds like maybe you had that realization in your early to mid twenties that you weren't on the path that God had ultimately destined you to be and you could be so much more. So I'd love for you to just explain that story for yourself and maybe expand on that mindset a little bit too because it's so powerful.

For sure. Uh, so growing up as a quote unquote gifted child, uh, with, uh, you know, did well at school and, you know, did my best in all of the academic endeavors that. That reinforces feeling good about yourself, and you're like cool I'm doing well and getting older and you go through the school system, and then later on the college system, and oh, what are you doing?

Solbra, oh yeah, I'm going to college. I'm studying this great job. You know that's the societal narrative Uh, when really what I was doing in college, I was getting good marks but I, I knew I wasn't studying the most that I could, uh, and then there was just this innate feeling like okay, I'm, I'm doing these exams but what am I actually really developing and, um, creating in the world?

And that wasn't anything, you know, that's the university system at the moment. There a You know, you have to learn some things like mechanical engineering. Yeah, that's good to go do in maths and understand that. And physics and university is a great tool for learning the scientific rigors of things if you're in a good program.

And I'm not against that. But a lot of the stuff that I was doing, maybe, you know, I studied finance. I did study human anatomy and biology as well. But the finance, I just felt like, okay, what's really happening here? What are we, what is everyone doing really? It's like spreadsheets where you just, you didn't get the result you wanted.

So you just change like an interest rate here and then you get a better result. And then that's the basis of your project. And then they go A plus and I'm like, what's really happening? So there was a bunch of that in my studies. And then after that you get the degree and you're like, I'm gonna work as a consultant, you know I didn't really know what else I wanted to do.

So I applied for these jobs And I didn't get them, you know Maybe a couple of interviews and I had this feeling of like you have this potential as a gifted kid Where you're working through all these things and you're applying yourself And then as you get older, you can't rely on your potential as a validation anymore.

It slowly shifts, okay, what could you do, to what have you done? And if you haven't done anything meaningful, you feel like shit. And I felt like shit about myself at the time, and I knew. What are you doing? It's like you're pretending. to want to achieve. And I remember like talking to my parents, like, Oh, how did so and so go?

And it's like, yeah, I got this interview and can see the go. Yeah. Great job. And I felt like, ah, and then that never transpired to anything. So I felt like a failure because I was technically failing at what I thought I should do. On some level, I think I didn't achieve those things because it wasn't what I was here to do.

And, uh, for people that did go into that world and did really well and they really enjoy it, I'm not shitting on that, but it wasn't for me. And I, through that whole process, as you get older, you start to think about, okay, what is my career actually going to be? I was working as a security guard, uh, in nightclubs and all the rest of it.

And that's not technically a career where you can see, Oh, I'm going to be a nightclub at the best. Uh, nightclubs in the world are going to be a bouncer at the best nightclubs in the world. And that's going to be my trajectory is kind of like you see these people who are 50, 60, even sometimes and all they ever amounted to, I'm sure they had great families or whatever, but like they were still just a bouncer.

And I knew that that wasn't what I wanted for my life. And that wasn't, didn't resonate well with me. So, this creeping fear comes into you and my, my greatest fear my entire life has always been not amounting to anything, being mediocre. There's one thing I was like, I cannot let that happen. And for a while that was validated by doing well at college.

But past then, these financial consultant positions didn't materialize. I was working at these relatively dead end jobs, getting income or whatever. And that fear really motivated me to. Actually do something and it slowly transitioned to I knew I wanted to do something online. I saw the potential of Youtubers, you know ten years ago and I saw where that could go and I why couldn't I do that?

And it took me so long. There was another aspect of just being scared to Put out content even such a silly thing, but I'd be like, yeah, I'm gonna do that one day Never did it for years and years so I lost all of this time of Momentum that I could have been building and obviously it happened the way that it had to happen and all of that Transpired into the person that I am today I don't regret the path that I went to and how long it took me But really as a guy if you're not doing something that's truly aligned with your purpose and working towards that Like, even if you haven't achieved anything on the external, if you truly know that you're putting in the time and making steps and maybe you do have to work a dead end job in security while you were doing the thing and building the thing that you know is gonna like really be the vehicle for your, uh, transformation and your achievements in life, that's okay and you'll sleep well at the end of the night.

But when you're not working towards that and then you're also working a dead end job and then you're also aging year by year. You go to bed and you're like, I really need to make some changes. So that feeling shifted for me and really motivated me and lit a fire under my ass to Start putting out content whatever it was and then I finally saw like this golden light at the end of that tunnel I go.

Oh, okay Like I don't know what it is yet but something is here and it felt good to pursue that and I could just go to bed happy at night because even though it Wasn't materialized hadn't materialized yet Um, I could finally get on that path and obviously like everything's worked out the way it has and it's incredible to be here in this position because I initially was so fearful of that other potential path and what something, what, what a lot of people let get to them is that discouragement or the fears just becomes the only thing that I feel because they never had the courage to break out of that and do something.

And you know, as a guy, especially we are judged and valued by our achievements just the way that it is. And, uh, yeah, if you feel that feeling, then you have to make changes soon, otherwise it'll just get worse and worse the longer that you, that you let it go out that way. Yeah, I think we all probably have a similar relationship with that fear of, um, just not reaching your potential.

I know Brett and I have had that conversation many times, just, The feeling of getting to the end of the day and really, like, struggling with the fact that you didn't do all the things that you wanted to do in this life, and you didn't actually strive for anything that was greater than yourself, and, like, it sounds like you had a pretty similar experience.

I'm wondering, like, it seems like so many of these fears that we have are just contrived in the mind, and that once you actually start taking action, you realize just how stupid those fears were, like, you should have just, you know, like, started and not held those beliefs. Um, how would you speak? Into like the 24 or 25 year old version of soul brah and convince him to overcome some of those fears I know like a lot of your content does that anyways but how would you speak to that version of yourself and actually get them out of the The fog of just being laden with fear and not actually acting on anything Well action removes fear Because you're no longer

Thinking about things. And when you're just sitting there thinking about things, you have time for your mind to create bullshit that you become scared of. But if you're, you know, hammers and nails and like actually creating things, then suddenly, whenever you're not thinking about them, because you're in action, you're in motion, it disappears, it ceases to exist.

What happens to your fears when you're no longer thinking about them? They're gone, you know, like you're in the present moment. And anxiety is worrying about the past, regret worrying about the future. Sorry, other way around. You get what I'm saying? But whenever you take yourself out of the present moment, either forward or backwards, that's the only state that fear can exist in.

So if you're in the present moment, because you're taking action, then they cease to exist. And the more that you can do that, uh, as well as, you know, my spirituality kind of coming into that and pursuing the path that God has laid out for me, like that, the faith gets rid of a lot of the fear, like, how is this going to work out?

I don't necessarily know, but what I can do today is what I'm guided to do today. And taking action really just, that's what I would say, that's what it took for me to shift from being fearful to now just like, wow, this is all incredible. I have put in the work, I have done what I need to do each day and then you can actually enjoy your life.

I wasn't grinding 24 hours a day, I was still working out, I was still going to the beach, still getting sun. But because you've also dedicated a few hours at least each day to changing your life and building whatever it is, Then you can actually be in the present moment when you're relaxing and chilling out.

That's, it's not just about work your entire life. It is about friends and family as well. So the issue lies when we don't do the work, we don't go to the gym. And then we are relaxing, or do other things that we would want to do, ideally. But when we're relaxing, we're thinking about the work that we didn't do.

Whereas if you did the work, you can relax properly. And so that enabled me to, like, okay, I've done the work, I've built whatever I could that day, created in some shape or form. Uh, but I can still enjoy the rest of my life. It's not just about grinding and there are seasons where one will be much more than the other and I think that's good, especially when you're just starting.

But um, yeah, action is always going to be the way that you dispel fear. Yeah. It's funny, Jeff Bezos has a very similar. I've heard him say before that anxiety literally goes away when you do the things deep down that you know that you're supposed to be doing, which is exactly what you're talking about.

It's funny, I think about this version of you in your early twenties and you have this epiphany of realizing what the next 10 years of your life could potentially look like if you just continue to stay in that, that job as a bouncer. And I wish more men thought about that. It's like, we're so fixated on worrying about the risk of going for it.

When the risk of you staying stagnant is way scarier, that's the highest risk possible. Yeah. And thinking about this amazing life that you've built for yourself and arguably more important than that, all of the men and women that you've had a positive impact on, including all of us in this room right here, that literally would have never happened if you didn't create that.

Like think about all the people that you would be depriving of those gifts. Yeah. And that's the thing is like when you don't follow the innate curiosity and intuition, then you're not fulfilling your destiny. And Jordan Peterson's thing about if you're not exceptional, then you're not actualizing the highest version of yourself.

When you do that and you pursue whatever your personal success is, you have a high level of energy. You have more resources. You have more connections to be in the position where I can retweet something and give someone else a career. Like would that, that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't also I strive to make myself exceptional in whatever way that I, you know, am doing so.

And so you have a responsibility to other people to Maybe say no to not going to that party every single weekend so that you can work on yourself because later down the line other people are gonna rely on you and it's not a selfish thing because now you have the capacity and the resources to help others and whatever action you take to Magnify that is going to be the least selfish thing you can do and it's a responsibility that we all have.

Are there, are there any big early wins that stick out that almost gave you the proof of concept that you can do this? Because obviously for us, like when you retweeted that first thread that I wrote about the healing journey, And, you know, I think he got, you know, maybe 500, 000 impressions, you know, grew like by a thousand followers.

For me, that was my proof of concept moment of, okay, I can do this. Like I don't need to just consume content. I can actually be, have skin in the game and be a creator. Are there any moments that really stick out for you? Yeah, for sure. Two were, you know, when I got a retweet on my physique picture, you know, at the time when it was more just posting and having a bit of fun with it.

Uh, and people then, you know, messaging me more, uh, constructively about, okay, how could I also achieve that? And then I thought, okay, you know, this doesn't have to just be a fun little project that I'm doing, like, how can I, that's the essence of coaching. You're just telling other people how to do what you did and advising them how to get to where you've got.

Pretty simple teaching. And so I thought, okay, have a couple thousand followers. This can become more than just a little bit of fun. And then another point was when. I got my first initial like coaching clients where we were like eight weeks and I got about 10 dudes and it was entire life coaching like physique.

I did all their routines, diet plans, mental stuff, weekly check ins, all that kind of thing. And that was the first amount of money that enabled me to quit my office job. And when I got that, Uh, direct deposit. I was like, I quit. Because you're the richest man alive at that point, right? The dopamine from that, like the first major, uh, money that you make online.

It's like, okay, well I'm all in now. Like, I'd never had any fear of like, oh, if I quit my job, am I going to make this work? Because you literally just did make it work. Okay, well then it's possible. So you just got to repeat that, grow bigger, and then you're good. And man, the freedom that you get from quitting that job and just like taking your destiny into your own hands.

That's the most electrifying feeling I have had. And you know, it remains the same today. But that was really like, okay, You validated the thing by paying the rent, uh, through this thing, and then you're good. Did you start to see different opportunities when you went all in? Because from my perspective, you basically look through like a totally different optical lens once you're fully committed to something.

Like even if you're like 99 percent in, like totally out on this job, but you're still working the job, you still don't really see All the potential of what could be out there if you're just like back against the wall like ride or die I'm just doing this no matter what Yeah Was there a shift for you where you started to see different opportunities pop up like that were there the whole time you just didn't Really see them because you weren't fully all in at that moment.

Yeah, so Just by nature of me no longer having to go to that nine to five You have more hours in the day to own your craft and so that's naturally gonna make your content better Make your ability to help your coaching clients better because you no longer have this other energy drain And I had a fairly chill job and sometimes I was writing while I was working at that job But of course you can have more time more energy to think about the thing like our mental energy You can imagine watering, uh, it being a watering can in a garden.

Whatever you spend more time thinking about, that's going to grow. And so if you get rid of the stuff that you don't want to grow, and think about the things you do want to, Of course, it's going to grow and it's going to become more fruitful and multiply, so that's what I, I saw happen for me. I think a lot about, too, as you get more successful, you just get more thrown on your plate, right?

With you now, you know, you just came out with this incredible book, Supplement Company, Men's Retreats, growing the YouTube, growing the podcast, growing the Twitter, the Instagram. There's so many different buckets to what you do, but I feel like everything, Like the engine to everything is the content and the thoughts that you have in your head putting pen on paper and putting that out onto your Twitter account.

How do you still just make time to create and write the best content that you possibly can knowing that you're going to just keep getting busier and busier? Well I'm very lucky to have great people that I work with. It's not a one man show and people that have come into my life In order to fulfill the areas that I like I didn't make the art for the book You know and just bringing people in and like hey join me for this thing.

Can you help me with that? That's a major part of it I'm very lucky to have met the people that I have or even if it's just online But as far as making the time for the things that I want to do, it's like You It just, it kind of flows. Uh, I, I obviously for years before I was where I'm at now, it was every day I would sit down and I would try to write and the more I did that, the more the writing would flow to me.

That plus living life in a way that's kind of open and walking around and still doing the things that I love and I'm called to do creates a lifestyle, which you can create content around. And it's amazing. It's way easier to document doing cool things and live the life and then just document that rather than like, how can I create content?

Like, it's kind of like I'll be just living my life, see a tree and be like, I should do some pull ups. And I'll just set my camera up and then do it. And then that's like me creating content, but it's actually just me. Like, come along for the ride of me doing the thing and, uh, you know, traveling really helps for that.

Uh, so I find that it kind of naturally flows. And then it's also sometimes for the book, locking myself in a room, not really going out much and, you know, really knocking out this project. So there are like bursts of doing that video editing, uh, and I enjoy all of it. This is what, like, I'm so blessed to experience that doesn't feel like I have to block time away to grind.

It's just. What am I doing? I'm getting some sun, might as well tap away on my phone. Like, I have a high screen time from that. Uh, but I do it in a way that's either outside and I do have times where I'm, I'm not. The thing with creativity is that you need time not working in order to have your mind blank and free to think about, allow thoughts to come to you.

And this is the other thing, what I do and what I create, it's not necessarily from me, it's from God. And he's. Working through me, and as much as I can kind of remove my mental machinations and allow those thoughts and creations to come through me, then I just execute. Mm. And There's no real conscious plan for that, other than dedicating time throughout my life to be open and also have that, you know, other side of it which is sitting down to work.

And, a lot of the content I do is reading stuff that I've put out recently, adding to it, um, systematically. You can look at a tweet, see how you can change that into Instagram posts. There are like, ways to maximize the content that you've already created. And that's more process oriented than just allowing the creation to come through.

But a lot of my best Twitter threads have just been from walking in a park. And then I'll like look at something. Maybe the birds are moving in a certain way, or I feel something from a tree and be like, You know, comment on that, have some observation that flows through me. So, that's how I approach my creation.

It seems like the magic that you've mastered has been making it so that the creative energy and the actual output that you're putting out into the world is fun the whole time. Like, you've made it so that everything you're doing is something that you actually genuinely enjoy doing. Yeah. Which, I think for a lot of people they run into moments, and this is true for us, like, where some of the work starts to feel not as fun.

Um, have you encountered that at all as over the past few years? I'm sure you have, but just like there's, there's obviously so much that goes into building where sometimes you get pointed in a little bit of the wrong direction and then it starts becoming less and less fun. So I, I do believe that like the compass of like enjoying what you do is actually truly a great compass.

Yeah. Because you'll put the best work out there. You'll want to excel at it. Yeah. And whatever energy, you're exhibiting while creating something is the energy that someone will receive when they get it and these real, um, conscious thoughts to, I'm going to think up an idea of how to make it real today.

It'll do okay. It'll do all right. And sometimes you need those bits of content for them to wait for the next thing in order to be consistent until the next like real creative just pure essence comes through. Like, it's both. It's both. But um, in anything in life, when it begins to feel like it's not right, that's usually some indication that it isn't right and you should shift gears somewhat.

And uh, if you're always finding that you're fighting against life, sometimes That's God trying to redirect you to something else like just because you did something here for a while Doesn't mean it's forever and just because the job you had for a couple years served you at that point now you've evolved and now it's time for the next stage and Rejection is divine redirection It's the same kind of concept with if something's just really not working and you just bang your head against the wall And it feels like shit Okay, try something else.

Go for a walk rather than trying to ride a bit more. Uh, flowing and allowing that energy to come through you is really the best indication of what you should be working on at that time. What do you struggle with?

Uh, I would say being too hard on myself for feelings of perfection or like not doing enough. Yeah. Um, that's just been my whole life. Like, oh, you could have done more. I, I don't know. Sometimes downplay my achievements and things because like people view it from the outside Oh, you must have worked so hard and I was like, I'm not really which is true but also I think Yeah, I just I maybe I don't feel like I'm working as hard as I could have On things so there's like that ever present feeling which can sometimes rear its head and just feel like a little bit bad that I'm not doing enough.

I would say like, I don't necessarily, and this is like years of practice to get rid of other things that I used to struggle with, but it's like that same mediocrity feeling like, okay, don't become mediocre. Don't rest on your laurels. Uh, and that's good. Cause it's energizing in a lot of ways. Um, but I find that the more I lean into faith, and pursuing what I really, really feel good doing, I struggle with things less and less and less.

What have you found to be the anecdote of that, that thinking, that, you know, mediocrity? Because like, clearly from anyone from the outside looking at it, it's like you're doing a ton, right? Like, you're doing a lot of amazing work. Um, but I get that, where it's like, you make so much progress, and you know, sometimes there's those moments where you're like, oh, I'm like, not doing nearly enough, but this is like, not really the reality for other people.

Yeah, you, you, the thing is, you can't compare yourself to other people. Both good and bad. You see someone doing better than you, that doesn't mean what you're doing is worse. But You cannot look at the average person and go I'm doing better than them. Therefore. I'm good. It's like how are you comparing to yesterday?

Yesterday's version of yourself and I find that that's always the best compass for these things. Mm hmm Yeah I appreciate the willingness to open up about the things that you struggle with because I think we both relate to that It's funny. We had um Mark Sisson on the podcast probably six months ago, and I think I, we would all agree that if there was a 70-year-old to model your life after, he's probably at the top of that list.

Chad, absolutely Chad. And um, great Twitter game. Great Twitter game. And one of the things that he talked about is he was very negative on this monk mode programming that I think whether we block it out or not, I think there probably is some of that in our subconscious mind with just how much we are on Twitter.

And so there's, I think there probably. It might be this thought process of, Oh, I could have put in more hours. I could do more. When, to your point of what you said before, it's actually like the creativity, the willingness to go outside and, you know, be at the beach and observe what's going on. That's actually what allows you to get those creative lightning bolts of inspiration that create those banger content pieces that have allowed you to have the business that you've had too.

Yeah. I mean, my daily routine really, and when I've had just the best day is when I'll wake up. Um, you know, bit of movement, beach swim, usually. sit down for right and do three hours of like, you know, laptop work, um, have lunch, work out. And then the kind of early afternoon to early evening is just open.

And I have my phone with me and I'm, I'm walking around and I'm just living life serendipitous walk in whatever area that I'm in. And that inevitably I come home at the end of that. And I have 10 to 15 bits of thoughts or observations or pictures or videos of just living life that enable me to take all that stuff and then expand on them the next morning where I sit down and do the writing.

So there's a quote, can't remember who it was, but, uh, a man that works all day has no time to get rich. Yeah. And not that it's about getting rich, but it's about that if you're working or preoccupied with nonsense all day, or like you're just doing email responses all day, you never have any time for these real.

powerful Creative thoughts to flow through and even though you think you're being busy and productive You're not Allowing these like 10x 100x thoughts to come into your life and like really change the game Which is like the best bits of content that come through I love this topic because there's um There's a infographic of I think it's like a bunch of these like guys who we all view as geniuses like albert einstein ben franklin And it shows how they would actually go about using their time throughout the day.

And it shocked me the first time I saw it. I'm like, you're telling me these guys actually sit down for like an hour and do work. And like the rest of their time is basically spent like napping outside in nature, like doing things that they like. And then they sit there for, you know, 60, 60 to 90 minutes and do work.

But it's like, 10x the productivity as Jack would say. Yeah, and it's like, you know, that's I mean, that's where the magic happens But for my Western brain, I see that I'm like, how can you possibly be productive if you're only working an hour a day? And part of that is the culture of where our schooling system comes from, the factory worker, which certain people ingrained in our school is like the schooling system was set up so that people would be brainwashed into accepting bell rings, go here, start in the morning, sit down at your desk, do the thing, writing, listening to someone telling you an approved narrative, whatever.

Uh, and you're not developing life skills. You're not developing these like broader mental models, which are actually the things that you need to learn in order to excel. But you're training this learned response of like, sit down, do what you're told, don't question things. And that's what we get brought up with in the Western world.

And so that flows into the work that we do in the office, you get a nine to five, school is the same hours, uh, and that's where that kind of grind mentality comes from. But it's actually not the best model if you want to do the best work and just feel your best in general. Are there any books or just general content pieces that have had the biggest impact on you developing those mental models that you really embody?

Yeah, there's a couple of books. Um, one that was very pivotal was Choose Yourself by James Al Tucha. Um, that one really kind of ingrained in me the entrepreneurial mindset of like choosing yourself because you're the only one that can create the business. And like there's actual, uh, examples of how to creatively do things in that.

So I recommend anyone that wants to shift to that, uh, read that book. Reality Transurfing by Vadim Zeland is really more esoteric. It's less like, you know, about the entrepreneurial stuff. That was a big one, um, in changing my entire perspective of life and aligning your mind to these different timelines in order to effectively direct the energy into the reality that you want.

Um, yeah, there's a bunch that I can send, uh, that have been pivotable. Like, the more that you read. Yeah. Uh, because the more perspectives and mental models that you're exposed to, you can take the best bits from here. Uh, the surrender experiment, uh, is another massive book, which was, it's like a detailed example of how this guy built his entire life and a billion dollar software company by allowing God to work through him and surrendering to whatever kind of comes his way and not trying to control everything.

Already had the kind of stoic mindset of not controlling things You can't do anything with and really focusing on your part of the world your garden, but that was really understanding the mechanism of how God works through you and That's obviously opened up my life to incredible things the last couple years specifically Are there any people who have been big sources of inspiration for you?

Yeah I think I guess initially Ben Greenfield was the guy that I looked up to the most in the health space when I was just initially Uh, looking to fitness and health, that's where I started with, um, you know, much respect to him and really like the stuff that he consistently puts out, um, and the way he lives his life, I think it's a good balance of everything.

Um, otherwise, I would say, you know, Not people that are living the same time as me, but uh, you know, ancient Roman emperors and leaders like that who have written books I'll read them and be like wow, that was awesome. They obviously have a massive effect on me But even though they're not living so I look up to I think more so mythological heroes as well that They communicate these ideals of the perfect man, or the perfect idealization of some quality.

And then if you can aspire to that, and embody that, and less like, I'm just a man, or whatever. Like, yes you are. But the heroic ideals Tapping into them and thinking about them. They energize you and they they give you some thing. That's like Fantastical and not just the norm and the nine to five boxed in kind of thing What did this hero do and like taking inspiration from that is has really been how I?

Gain inspiration old school Arnie to for you, right? Oh, yeah all the Golden Age bodybuilders Yeah, sure. My favorite bodybuilders Dave Draper. Mm hmm. The Blonde Bomber. Hmm I don't know if you've ever seen I haven't seen him his philosophy on life Is, is Frank Zane, um, Tom Platts, like all those guys, if you don't actually delve into what they think about, you think, Oh, just a bro bodybuilder, right?

But these guys are very, very spiritual. And just like me, they saw physical training as a way to dive into the spiritual and test the mind and go into these states of consciousness, which everything else, you know, you deep in a heavy squat set, like nothing else matters other than that. And How much pain are you willing to tolerate?

Pain's not exactly pain, but how much of that can you tolerate in order to maximize the results uh, in life that you get through your body? But then that is the key which you can use to unlock other parts of your life as well. And you listen to those guys talk, it's very, very spiritual, like. Tom Platt's talking in gyms, but it's like a priest giving a sermon.

Yes. So I encourage like all of those guys that attain success, especially in that era, it wasn't just about bodybuilding, it was about the lifestyle and living life as well, which I definitely, especially towards the start of my journey, definitely idolize those guys. Yeah, I don't think it's a coincidence that a lot of those guys that have the best physiques of all time also seem to have the best mindset of all time too.

Yeah, because it's all mentality. The amount of focus and consciousness that you can have Thinking about the muscles you want to develop like that's meditation Muscular meditation is how I call like the the intensity of energy that you can direct to visualize and put yourself Into your body the more that you do that you may not realize it but then you can go and Study something or try to create something and you have that same ability to direct and intensify the force of energy that you can create Uh, put forth through the, your mind and your focus and your attention and it's the same thing.

It's just applied in a different realm and I think that's why bodybuilding or training intensely in any sport is, is a very powerful tool to start with. Like it's, it's less intellectual, uh, even though it is intellectual, it's just like visible tangible results. And you can just really dive into that.

Yeah, even with Platts too, he's so interesting because he knew, even though he was competing at the highest level, because of his genetics, he was never going to win a Mr. Olympia. But he still pushed himself, potentially harder than anyone pushed themselves at the time. Like, there's learning in that, in just that alone, that mindset.

Yeah, it's like genetics is one of those things that people say, Oh, you have great chest genetics, for example, but would I have the same looking chest if I hadn't done thousands and thousands of incline press and dips over my life? Like, so what, what role is genetics there? Other than yes, I have a big frame and blessed and everything like that.

But the genetics one is kind of like a, again, an externalization of, uh, responsibility. My genes mean I have this. My genes, my genetics, I have a bad gut. Uh, it's just one of those tools, uh, one of those things that we can dissolve our responsibility through, which is definitely to be avoided. Yeah. The, um, the gym, you were just, you guys were making me think of this, like the gym, just the ability to like, focus and take things layers deeper, like when you first get to the gym, everything's like very much superficial in the sense of, or surface level, in the sense that you like show up and are just kind of like, They're not really understanding how to push yourself but then You can actually get inside of your own muscles and start to develop a focus where you actually can feel every single fiber Like moving a weight and that level of focus is like something that I think people who don't really appreciate the gym or just Scoff at like gym bros.

Yeah, um, they don't appreciate that and like that is actually a level of consciousness and like mental strength where you're learning how to Use your body in a way that you can squeeze and focus on certain aspects That's like really unparalleled like you you can train your your body and mind at the same time I just think about these layers of training where you know Sometimes you go to the gym and you just kind of going through the motions But if you show up every single time and you're trying to like feel the tension feel Everything firing like those are the best workouts.

Those are workouts. I walk away from my going I actually like Took a huge leap, not just physically, but in the sense of like, I'm in control of every single aspect of my body. And I'm developing this, this thing that I can take outside of the gym. Not just showing up and doing, you know, curls just to do curls.

You're actually controlling the weight and developing that control that can be moved into other areas. Yeah, it's, it's spiritual in every sense of the world. There's a ritual of going to the Iron Temple, uh, and, you know, spiritually developing yourself, because maybe you're getting under a heavy bar, which scares, scares you.

And you're like, well, okay, I'm going to feel that fear and just go for it anyway and maybe I hurt myself or maybe something goes wrong, but whatever, I'm going to try it anyway. And when you have that, if you don't have that in any other area of your life, it's just like a really incredible way to express that part of you and your soul.

Uh, to spiritually develop as well as physically develop. Like it's mind, body, spirit, it's all the same. No matter what way that you, uh, develop it. Yeah. We need a manifest, a collab, a lift, you and Arnie at the Mecca in LA. You're going out to LA, we gotta make this happen. Yeah, I mean I'd rather lift with Tom Platts.

Arnie's gone a little bit. Woke. Yeah. Woke, unfortunately. Screw your freedom. Is COVID? Dude. Not good. It's such a shame. Especially when you watch those Netflix documentaries. It's so inspiring just the way that he manifested this life when he was in Austria and like, he really had to figure it out at such a young age, so it's sad to see someone captured like that.

Yeah. Unfortunate, but. Platts, you could definitely, I'm sure Platts, yeah he's around, I'm pretty sure he trains there still. Dude, that would be an epic YouTube You can just like call him up and have a podcast, I think. Are they both in California? Uh, I think so. Dude, let's make that happen for you. Sure, let's run it.

What uh, what motivates you the most right now? The more That I can push myself and the more that I can do and achieve and the success that I can have increases the Impact that I have on other people and as I consciously Choose the direction of that impact the better off other people can be because of what I do so That's what motivates me is knowing that The less suffering primarily to do with health, but also just mentally the more that I can develop myself You The more that I can learn, that the more people are going to be better off because of that.

Well, it's been fun having you in Austin, man. I said this before, but we've got to get you back here and do some more, uh, stakes and, uh, just hanging out because it's been fun and tons of people have come through and gotten to hang out with you and see the way that you live and it's just inspiring.

You've helped Brett and I a bunch. Brett mentioned the retweets like early on. You really elevated our message. So, appreciate you. Appreciate everything that you're doing. And, uh, where should we send people? Towards the book or? I don't know. Yeah, grab the book. That's, that's the hot topic at the moment. Uh, that's The Soul Way by me.

It's on Amazon. Uh, so go check that out. Otherwise, Soulbrah. com and Soulbrah on all social medias. Thanks for inviting me here. Thanks for having me on the show. Austin is a great place right now and, you know, partially because of you guys doing what you do, so. Thank you. Thank you, brother. Well, you've added so much free value to so many people's lives So if they want to support you definitely go to Amazon, Solway, leave a five star review as well.

Yes, please That's the best but we appreciate you man. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks all