135. Lauryn & Michael Bosstick: The Unfiltered Truth About Running a Business With Your Spouse

Building a business is hard. Building it with your spouse is supposedly impossible. Yet, Lauryn and Michael Bosstick turned their 12-year-old playground romance into a successful digital media empire, The Skinny Confidential, that proves love and business can be a winning combination. In this episode, this power couple shares the unfiltered truth about working together, and how they have carried on their shared vision not only to their audiences, but also to their children. What could you build if you stopped seeing your relationship as a business liability, and started seeing it as your secret weapon? Join Gary Brecka’s FREE 3-Day Morning Routine Challenge! 🗓️ LIVE February 19-21 👉 Sign up now: https://bit.ly/4gaZ8DK Gain exclusive access to Gary Brecka’s proven wellness protocols: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Connect with Lauryn & Michael Bosstick: Get Lauryn Bosstick’s book, “The Skinny Confidential: A Babe’s Sexy, Sassy Fitness and Lifestyle Guide”: https://amzn.to/3EeTceG Listen to "The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast" on all your favorite platforms! Spotify: https://bit.ly/4h6HKjQ Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/4hdzwq6 Website: https://bit.ly/40xOwrU YouTube: https://bit.ly/40rf9Pa Instagram: https://bit.ly/40Ny4Fk TikTok: https://bit.ly/3CoKPwG Facebook: https://bit.ly/40CjEGy X.com: https://bit.ly/4hAbPIf LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4gfesOO Thank you to our partners: BODY HEALTH - USE CODE “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV BAJA GOLD - USE CODE "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa EIGHT SLEEP - SAVE $350 ON THE POD 4 ULTRA WITH CODE “GARY”: https://bit.ly/3WkLd6E STRENGTH TRAINING EQUIPMENT - THE ULTIMATE HUMAN: https://bit.ly/3zYwtSl COLD LIFE - THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp WHOOP - GET 1 FREE MONTH WHEN YOU JOIN!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW MASA CHIPS - GET 20% OFF YOUR FIRST $50+ ORDER: https://bit.ly/40LVY4y PARKER PASTURES - PREMIUM GRASS-FED MEATS: https://bit.ly/4hHcbhc AION - USE CODE “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD VANDY - USE CODE “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: https://bit.ly/49Qr7WE HAPBEE - FEEL BETTER & PERFORM AT YOUR BEST: https://bit.ly/4a6glfo Connect with Gary Brecka: Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo X.com: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps: 00:00 Intro of Show 02:44 Working Together as a Couple 06:03 Lauryn and Michael’s Back Story 09:20 How The Skinny Confidential Started 13:35 Pursuing the Podcast and Having Micro-Mentors Despite the Naysayers 20:27 How to Build a Genuine Community 23:03 Providing Value, Not Marketing 28:00 Practical Wellness Tips 31:42 Working with the Big Names in the Industry Takes Persistence and Patience 34:05 Having a Shared Vision Without Competing 43:30 Gary and Sage Meeting the King of Bahrain 47:05 Business and Podcast Morphing into the Health and Wellness Field 56:23 Influencing Their Children with Being Healthy 1:04:59 Advice for Couples Starting a Business 1:11:50 Final Question: What does it mean to you to be an “Ultimate Human?” Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice. It is not intended for diagnosing or treating any health condition. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making health or wellness decisions. Gary Brecka is the owner of Ultimate Human, LLC which operates The Ultimate Human podcast and promotes certain third-party products used by Gary Brecka in his personal health and wellness protocols and daily life and for which Ultimate Human LLC and / or Gary Brecka directly or indirectly holds an economic interest or receives compensation. Accordingly, statements made by Gary Brecka and others (including on The Ultimate Human podcast) may be considered promotional in nature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Michael and I have extreme clarity on what we stand for and what you can expect from our show is it is for people who want to be the best version of themselves.

• 0:09Speaker 01

  We're lucky to get the information. We're learning the same way that people listening are learning.

• 0:13Gary Brecka?

  You guys have become major influencers in the wellness space. I feel like you guys have given a lot of practical advice.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  I'm not a human biologist and because I'm not a doctor, I should stop talking because I don't have the credentials.

• 0:23Gary Brecka?

  I mean, look, I don't have the credentials either. I'm not a physician. That's the biggest attack that I get.

• 0:27Speaker 00

  I would say you have the credentials. We have a lot of different health professionals on and having you on was really interesting. The nutrient deficient part is not talked about enough and I've never had someone come on the show and talk about it like you. That's my next layer of what I'm doing. What nutrients am I missing and how can I figure that out?

• 0:46Gary Brecka?

  Your journey didn't start as a health and wellness journey. A large part of it has morphed into a health and wellness journey. What were some of the tipping points for you?

• 0:53Speaker 01

  One, we want to be an example to each other, but two, for our kids. There's a journey where we realize we are not the healthiest versions of ourselves. We're not doing the things that we should be doing. And we have access to people like yourself and others that are sharing this information. Why not implement it at a greater level and be an example? Stop being the tugboat and be the lighthouse.

• 1:12Gary Brecka?

  You guys met when you were like 12?

• 1:14Speaker 00

  12.

• 1:14Gary Brecka?

  Your advice to couples starting a business and going into business together?

• 1:19Speaker 01

  You want to have bad health problems and bad financial outcomes? Pick the wrong woman. If you run a business with anyone.

• 1:37Gary Brecka?

  Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecka, where we go down the road of everything anti-aging, longevity, biohacking, and everything in between. And as you just heard, I have some very special guests on the podcast today. Actually, I'm very special guest on their podcast, which has turned into my podcast.

• 1:55Speaker 00

  That's perfect. The next time I expect to be in your hyperbaric chamber though.

• 1:58Gary Brecka?

  Oh, I can't wait.

• 1:59Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:59Gary Brecka?

  So, welcome to the podcast, Lauren and Michael Bosstick.

• 2:02Speaker 01

  Thank you for doing this, making the trip.

• 2:04Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, I'm really pumped that we came here, man. And like, the energy is so good in here and you guys have a great studio. And I'm so psyched. I'm sad because my wife Sage should have been with me because she was actually the one that turned me on to you guys.

• 2:18Speaker 01

  Hi Sage.

• 2:18Gary Brecka?

  She, hi Sage.

• 2:19Speaker 00

  Hi Sage. We want you and Sage to come back on our show and do a him and her situation.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  We'll do another one. We'll do another one.

• 2:26Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, we totally would love to do that because, because she's like, see babe, they're, they're building a business together too. And they talk about the real shit. Like, right? And, and you know, we, we, we built a business together. We, she was a real estate agent. I was a human biologist and we decided we'd start this longevity clinic. And we don't find a lot of couples that, and you guys met when you were like 12.

• 2:49Speaker 00

  12.

• 2:50Gary Brecka?

  Right? And we don't find a lot of couples, first of all, that met when they're 12 and that have started and built businesses together that are just very real and authentic and visceral about that journey as a couple.

• 3:04Speaker 00

  It's the most challenging thing ever. And you really have to know what you're signing up for. But I always say this, it's the most rewarding thing at the same time. And I think it can be simultaneously two things, but it is challenging.

• 3:16Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, I agree with you. It's like if you said, would you do it all over again? I kind of have to like, think about it, right?

• 3:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, give me a few nights.

• 3:25Gary Brecka?

  If you said, are you happy that you did it? I'm like, I'm absolutely happy that we did it.

• 3:30Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 3:31Speaker 01

  You know what I find like to be more problematic in a relationship is sometimes like you'll go to dinner with couples will say like, I don't want to talk about business at this specific time, or these are the times when you can approach me with these things or not. I think both of our personalities are so type A, like we, we want to be able to talk about all of it, all the time. Like, you know, sometimes we're not talking about the business, obviously, but I would find it to be very restrictive to not talk about something we're so passionate about, like all the time with our significant other. You know what I mean?

• 3:57Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, I agree. But you know, there's a notion that you can separate business from your personal life. And we found that to be completely false, right? I mean, if you have a great day at the office, you have a great day at home. If you have a really crappy day at the office.

• 4:08Speaker 00

  I think though, with what all three of us do, and I would imagine Sage is like this too, I think. With everything we do, we're constantly working in wellness and relationship. It's like even, even in the morning, when you're doing your morning routine, you integrate work into it by meditating on the work. Like it kind of all never shuts off. When you're an entrepreneur, you kind of learn to meld it together. And you said on our show, you said, when I am traveling, I still bring the breath work. I still, you still bring certain tools.

• 4:39Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 4:40Speaker 00

  With you, and I think you do that with, we kind of mix all the things together and make it all work for us throughout the day.

• 4:46Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, because you, you come from not very similar backgrounds. I mean, I saw, I saw you guys on Ed Mylett's podcast. I know he's been on yours a bunch of times.

• 4:54Speaker 00

  He is amazing.

• 4:54Gary Brecka?

  Huge fan of Ed Mylett.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  Love him.

• 4:56Gary Brecka?

  Um, there was a story that he told, uh, from stage one time, and it just resonated so much with me. It was about his father, that was, that was an alcoholic. And, and the question he kept asking him as a child, and he kept asking his dad if he was ever gonna, ever gonna drink again. And his dad said, I don't know, son, but I know I'm not gonna drink for one more day. And of all the stories he's told, that one stuck with me the most because it's such a metaphor for life to start thinking about things. And in just, I think too, too often we think way too far down the road. Like where is this gonna end up? And like, you know, we're way too far down the road. Instead of just thinking about what's, what's right in front of us and just trying to, trying to get through the day. And I know that like health is just a sequence of habits and being consistent.

• 5:39Gary Brecka?

  But people that are really obese think, I'm never gonna look like that guy, so I'm not gonna try. Well, you might not look like that tomorrow, but if you did these small things every day, you could, you could get there. But what was interesting about the podcast that he, he, uh, that I thought, um, when he was interviewing you guys was not only that you guys met at such a young age. But you were a bartender, um, you were kind of a serial entrepreneur. And now you have this amazing podcast and I would call you, you know, um, very impactful influencers. I mean, I sometimes I don't like to use the term influencer, but I think you guys have built an amazing community. And can you talk a little bit about the journey from, for, for my audience that doesn't know you?

• 6:24Gary Brecka?

  From bartender to really building this community, not just being an influencer, but the community you guys built together.

• 6:30Speaker 00

  Michael and I met when we were 12 on the playground.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  I thought she was a substitute teacher. She came in fully developed and I said.

• 6:37Gary Brecka?

  She was fully developed and you were small, right?

• 6:39Speaker 00

  He was tiny.

• 6:39Speaker 01

  I was 12 years old, Gary. I was, I hadn't even hit puberty, I don't think.

• 6:44Speaker 00

  And we, we sort of like had this like chemistry at 12 years old, which is wild to look back on. It was really intense chemistry, not just romance, but also just friendship. And we dated from 12 to 15 and separated, went our separate ways, but always kept in touch and kind of maintained that chemistry.

• 7:03Speaker 01

  It could be one of those things in high school where, you know, we were never together and we would always like, we'd be with other people. But then there'd be like that one random night at a high school party, we'd both be at the same place and then

• 7:12Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 7:13Speaker 01

  Something would happen again and then we'd not see each other for a while.

• 7:15Speaker 00

  It was always a string of connection.

• 7:17Gary Brecka?

  But I mean, the chances that you guys didn't go to different towns, that you were like.

• 7:20Speaker 00

  We did, we left.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  I went to Arizona for a while.

• 7:23Speaker 00

  No, I left his ass. I made him chase me for like nine years.

• 7:25Gary Brecka?

  Good for you.

• 7:27Speaker 00

  No, no, no. He had to, he had to work for it.

• 7:29Speaker 01

  I went to the Harvard of the desert, the University of Arizona.

• 7:33Speaker 00

  He studied biology.

• 7:35Gary Brecka?

  Right on.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  I was a human biologist. I studied anatomy.

• 7:40Speaker 00

  He did, no, he's joking.

• 7:41Gary Brecka?

  Okay, he's joking.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  I was, uh, yeah, I was joking. It was a.

• 7:44Gary Brecka?

  No, but I, we went and. I was getting really excited.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  And partied and ran around and then, um, somehow reconnected over, you know, I don't know, mutual friend's birthday party or something. And then ever since then, we've been together. So it was just like this weird connection that we had since we were kids. And I would always tell her that she was the love of my life and all that, as cheesy as it sounds, but.

• 8:04Speaker 00

  Like since he was 12.

• 8:05Speaker 01

  But for whatever reason. Yeah.

• 8:07Speaker 00

  So, so we got back together and we, I was a bartender and Michael was, like you said, doing all different kinds of endeavors.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  I was just, I was one of, I, I've always worked for myself and I was trying all these different things.

• 8:21Gary Brecka?

  See real entrepreneur.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was like in aviation at one point. I was in real estate at one point. I had an agency. I was just always trying different things. Some successful, some not successful, but always working for myself.

• 8:32Speaker 00

  Started bartending, decided to launch the blog, The Skinny Confidential, while I was going to San Diego State. I, there was always something missing for me and what I've realized now is I was missing the entrepreneur piece.

• 8:44Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 8:44Speaker 00

  No one, like, there wasn't like a class or something at this time. There was nothing that could tell me like, you're an entrepreneur.

• 8:50Gary Brecka?

  But you felt it.

• 8:51Speaker 00

  I felt it, but I didn't know what it was. I didn't know how to articulate it. Cause there's this before Instagram. I had no idea. And so I was like, what if I took what these sororities are doing and put it online? Because they're charging $800 a month. What if I could do this online? And what if I could do it for free? And what if I didn't just make it about me? What if I made it about other people's morning routines and tips and tricks?

• 9:12Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 9:12Speaker 00

  14 years ago, I launched the blog. Again, no Instagram. This didn't exist.

• 9:16Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, that's just blogs. That's all you had.

• 9:18Speaker 00

  Just blogs. And it launched as like a resource, Skinny Confidential. And now 14 years later.

• 9:24Gary Brecka?

  How did it get out there?

• 9:26Speaker 00

  Um, I think that it was-

• 9:27Gary Brecka?

  How did people start following it?

• 9:28Speaker 00

  I think that it was different. I think that it was disruptive. I started talking about botox and boob implants and health and wellness and supermodels and all these different things. Whereas at the time, it was just one person blogging about their nail polish or their dress they were wearing. It was like a different perspective.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  I, I think it was very honest and in your face. And it wasn't afraid to tell the truth on topics that people found to be taboo.

• 9:56Speaker 00

  This is botox at this time, no one was even like, they weren't even touching it. Now, I mean, everyone talks about it.

• 10:02Speaker 01

  Right. The internet was very, like, a lot of the creators at the time, they called them bloggers at the time. This is before. It was, it was very safe.

• 10:09Speaker 00

  Sterile.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  I would say vanilla in a lot of ways.

• 10:12Speaker 00

  Boring.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  And so I think she came in and also it was-

• 10:14Gary Brecka?

  Like the shock jock you heard.

• 10:16Speaker 00

  It was just like, yeah, it was like very like honest and what, seven years in, he was like, hey, we should start a podcast.

• 10:22Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 10:23Speaker 00

  And I was like, let's literally take exactly what I'm doing and talk on a mic. And that's sort of where the him and her show came. And through that, he saw space, he saw white space and started Dear Media.

• 10:36Speaker 01

  And so we produce about 100 shows outside of ours. We have ours, but that's-

• 10:39Gary Brecka?

  So you're managing that many?

• 10:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So what we, I mean, what I would say is the Trojan horse into media for us was audio, but really I just call them shows now. They're audio, they're video, they're live. We invest in commerce businesses and run them through the platform that we've built.

• 10:55Gary Brecka?

  Is that what's going on in this other room?

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:57Gary Brecka?

  There's a lot of people out there that seem very busy.

• 10:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, this is the Texas office. About half the company's out here. Then we have some in LA, another office there, and then some in New York as well.

• 11:06Gary Brecka?

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• 11:48Gary Brecka?

  and support for your gut health by feeding beneficial bacteria. In my opinion, hydrogen water is by far the best water you can drink. And with the Echo Go Plus, you can take it anywhere. Visit ecowater.com, that's ecowater.com, and enter the code ULTIMATE10 for a special discount and elevate your hydration game. Now, let's get back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. I want to back up for a second because you told a really interesting story on Ed's podcast, or maybe it was a different podcast you were on, but you talked about a night when you were bartending, and an older, very successful gentleman came in. And I think he was sort of passing some judgment on you. And he's like, hey, what are you going to do with your life? And you brought up the fact that you wanted to start this blog.

• 12:33Gary Brecka?

  And he laughed in your face and told you you could never make any money doing that. And at the time, you know, as a bartender, you got this real... I forget the business that you said he started, but he was a very successful guy, a very prominent guy.

• 12:45Speaker 00

  The inventor, one of the inventors of the airbag.

• 12:48Gary Brecka?

  Okay, so the inventor of the airbag, right? So you couldn't have had a lot of people around you saying, this is how you do it. This is the path that you take. Like, you didn't have mentors, like, sort of laying out the pathway for you, like a lot of people do now. And I think, especially for women, I mean, and then you bring your idea up and you share it with somebody who you know, you know, you probably respect because he's successful, he's an older guy. And he actually just trashes your idea. And I want to go back to that moment because you didn't start with a lot of mentorship or a lot of guidance. It's not like you had a parent that was, you know, braised the trail for you with their business and you took this business over.

• 13:31Gary Brecka?

  You sort of just saw this opportunity, you went out and took it. And I want to get back to where you grew it into the podcast and when you started to come together as a couple. But I want to talk a little bit about why you decided not to quit at that time, why you didn't take that advice.

• 13:46Speaker 00

  It's funny, I look back on, on the bartending and I, I remember using it to my advantage. Meaning I was in this bar where it was all these very rich, successful men. And I used it as a moment to multitask. So yes, I was making money and building my blog on the side. But I also was using all of these guys in the bar as like, I'd get advice from this guy. And then this guy, I had another guy friend that was there that was like, you can't lead with your looks. You need to have like an actual tangible business. And then I had this airbag guy giving me his advice. And I sort of, when you say I didn't have mentors, weirdly enough, looking back, I had all these little micro mentors.

• 14:29Speaker 00

  And then I also, at the same time, was like learning to multitask, make drinks, be on stage. When you're a bartender, you're on stage. You better bet your ass that if you're giving the guy at the end, not enough attention, he's not going to tip as well. So I'm learning how to manage all these men that are successful and make sure I'm getting the tips I need to get while also picking up experience from them and advice. And so I think if you're in a spot right now, like I was when I was bartending, instead of thinking, I have nothing and I don't, I don't know what I can do, use the environment to your advantage and see how you can work it. Because truly I learned more bartending and being on stage as a bartender than I learned in college.

• 15:10Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 15:11Speaker 00

  And I can honestly say that I went for four years and I learned so many skills, multitasking. Learning about different people, listening. That's a good one.

• 15:20Gary Brecka?

  Reading people's energy.

• 15:21Speaker 00

  Reading people's energy. What do they need? And I just think that, that, the mentors is in the micro moments. And so that moment right there to me with that guy who told me I'm never gonna make money blogging, was a moment that actually is pivotal because it propelled me to sort of almost prove him wrong. Not just him, but like the, that energy wrong.

• 15:43Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 15:44Speaker 00

  And I think that, that I, I knew that I needed to find a way out of there and make my own money and forge independence. So the bar, the bartending to me, I always say this to people, it's a great way to build a business. Because I would go at night and then during the day I would build the business. So when people are like, I can't, I work nine to five, my advice is stop working nine to five. Go get a bartending job and do what you want to do on the side and do your side hustle and work towards that. There's a lot of ways to get creative. I think a really important way to be when you're starting a business is to be resourceful.

• 16:16Speaker 01

  She's also not being so forthright in the sense that she had a day job teaching pier bar and Pilates. She would bartend at night, she would go to school and then you would blog until like two in the morning. And I watched her do this for years at a time when people said, what the hell's a blog? How are you gonna make money? The term influencer and podcast, all this, this didn't even exist. And it was at a time, like now fast forward, people make a huge living doing this kind of thing. And obviously we built a business on it, but this was also at a time when a lot of brands were like, why would I pay? How do I pay? What do I, like they, there was not money in the space, right? Like you were lucky to get a banner ad for a month on your website, which you know now.

• 16:55Speaker 00

  But Gary, you know this, and this is, this is talking, being talked about more and more. You have to create value before you ask for money.

• 17:01Gary Brecka?

  I totally agree with that.

• 17:02Speaker 00

  If you could do that and you're listening and you have an idea, create the value before you ask for the money. It's same with if you're an employer at a job. People who are like, I want a raise, I deserve a raise. That's not the way to go about it. Create the value, build the value, then ask for the raise.

• 17:18Speaker 01

  Well, and we, I say, the reason I bring that up is I think if you look at the platform now, and obviously you just came on the show and be able to speak to people like yourself and others. Sometimes people will come to us and say like, oh, I can't believe you had so and so on. I'm like, yeah, but did you see it was episode 748?

• 17:35Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, it wasn't the overnight success. People say that to us all the time. You blew up overnight. And like, wow, it took 22 years and then I blew up.

• 17:43Speaker 01

  And the brand, The Skinny Confidential, was started in 2009. And the podcast that we produced was started in 2016. And we didn't pull a single dollar out of that podcast until 2018. And then it was slow. So the reason I mention this is because for what we do and the people we speak to in the communities that we're building, I think sometimes people see the end result of something, I'm sure with you as well. And they're like, how do I do that quick? What's the hack? Like, what was the moment? I'm like, well, it's just a lot of repetition, slow and steady over long periods of time with consistency. And honestly, like, no way around it, a lot of hard work.

• 18:16Speaker 00

  It's similar to a health journey, right?

• 18:18Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, I mean, and you also have to love it. Like, you have to have a passion for it because, or else you're just not going to stick with it. I totally agree. I mean, if you don't have a passion and a purpose for it, you really need to find something else. Like, I feel like I would otherwise do what I do for free. I just somehow monetized it, which is like the greatest blessing.

• 18:35Speaker 00

  You could tell that you're so passionate about it. You could tell you wake up with a pep in your step, you love it.

• 18:39Speaker 01

  But it's funny because...

• 18:40Gary Brecka?

  I really do.

• 18:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, I can see it.

• 18:42Speaker 01

  If I put like the Dear Media executive hat on, the moments when my eyes glaze over and I like tune out of a conversation, someone will come to me like, I'm going to be the next Joe Rogan and tell me how I make money doing this and then I'll think about doing it. I'm like, first of all, if your first question is, I need to make money before I do it and you're going to be someone who's at the top of the heap, I'm like, let's rewind. This is very competitive, it's hard and it's going to take a long time likely before you see anything. And I think when people come to the realization like, oh, this is not just like easy and I can't just create a post or do a podcast or create a YouTube video and make millions of dollars. It's like, no, you got, it's a lot of, it's a lot of repetitions.

• 19:19Gary Brecka?

  I totally agree. And I think, you know, from my perspective, and I don't purport to know anywhere near... As much as you guys do about the market, but I sort of see the days of the just straight influencer are kind of numbered. I feel like the people that are out there building communities, you know, of like-minded interests where they actually feed their community. You've got to give without the expectation of receipt.

• 19:42Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 19:43Gary Brecka?

  And then some of your community is like, well, they'll buy a product or a service that you're endorsing and that's enough to keep the lights on and make a good living. But if you're not providing, you know, that value, then your audience is going to go somewhere else.

• 19:56Speaker 00

  Absolutely.

• 19:57Gary Brecka?

  And it's not easy to create a community. So for, so for people that are, you know, building businesses, whether or not it's a blog or, you know, a social media empire, what, how did you guys go about creating the community that you've done? You come together. Skinny Confidential has been around for over a decade, but now you guys have turned this into a business and you've built a true community. What's that transition like? Cause I've heard you talk about how you correct people all the time and say, I'm not an influencer. Like, don't just give me an affiliate link and I'm just going to push your product and ding it for money. I have to believe in it. It has to serve my community. I mean, what are some of those values? What are some of the steps that people can do?

• 20:39Gary Brecka?

  Maybe outside of social media, if they're just building a business, what have you learned on this trajectory to say? How does a community just come about?

• 20:47Speaker 00

  I think the first step to a community is that you have to stop focusing on what you don't have. So if you have 10 followers, you need to serve those 10 followers. Like there's 100,000 of them. And they will go out and they will tell 10 people each. So now let's say you have 100 followers. Then you need to serve the 100. Where people make a mistake right now is everyone wants more, more, more. You need to focus on what you have and tend to that. That's the really big fundamental difference that I see. I also think you need to stay really true to who and what you stand for. Michael and I have extreme clarity on what we stand for.

• 21:29Speaker 00

  And what you can expect from our show is it is for people who want to be the best version of themselves. So if you're gonna come make fun of like someone's morning routine, this isn't the show for you. We don't have a community that's, you know, trolling. That's not the community we have. We have people who are genuinely there to better their own lives, not to be me, not to be Michael, not to be Gary, to better their own life, little habits and takeaways. So we're very clear on who the audience is. I remember when I started the blog, I actually did a poster board. I named the girl that was reading the blog. I put how old she was. I put her nail polish color, what she's listening to on the way to work.

• 22:11Speaker 00

  I'm very in tune with who is listening. And I think how you can do that is you can get in your DMs, you can talk to people, you can engage, do a lot of live events, do things where you're really listening to the consumer. When I meet someone who is following along, I don't talk. I don't, I don't need to talk. They've heard me on a mic. I, I listen, I, I ask questions. I think it's really just trying to serve them in a really like organic way.

• 22:45Speaker 01

  The, the way that we think about everything is, you know, if you look at any of our businesses, especially like we're sitting in the Dear Media office, I don't, we don't have a marketing department. There is no marketing team. We don't spend money on marketing. There's no like head of, you know, there's a CMO or there's nothing that like that. The way that we've always thought about everything is if you serve an audience or a community with stuff that they find valuable, that then they can share to enhance other people's lives in their circles, that they will do the marketing in the word of mouth for you. And that is to me, the most powerful form of, of marketing to begin with. And so I think people building a business, they've spent all this time and energy trying to figure out how to market something to build, you know, to, to build more sales or more revenue. And it's like, if you just continue to serve your customer and your audience and make sure that they feel valued

• 23:30Speaker 01

  time and time again, and they're okay knowing that you're building a business and you're financially gainful, but that you're also putting their interests first. And then the rest of the stuff kind of takes care of itself. And I think, you know, Lauren and I are very self-aware, knowing like we're not for everybody. We don't try to be for everybody. You may, you know, Jillian Michaels came on our show, I'm sure you've, you've met, I know. And she said something that I thought was so profound, like you love her or hate her, you know exactly who she is.

• 23:54Gary Brecka?

  Yes.

• 23:54Speaker 01

  And that's how we try to do everything. It's like, we know that some people are going to tune in first time and say, why are these people talking like this? Why are they cussing? Why are they talking about these guys? And they're going to tune out and write a bad review and never come back. We're not trying to win that person over. We're trying to, not only win, but keep the people that were, that are there and resonate with the message that are being served with the, you know, the content or the information that we're providing and enhancing their lives and coming in and leaving as a better version of themselves. And I think that's what's, you know, over the years, built the businesses.

• 24:25Speaker 00

  I think another thing, just to add to that, that I think is so important is with, with the person who's listening to me, they're the hero. I'm not the hero. I'm the guide. That's a very big difference.

• 24:39Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 24:39Speaker 00

  So what I want is I want Sally in Virginia to go on our Mel Robbins page. We shared, we shared Mel Robbins podcast today. And I want her sending Mel Robbins podcast to all the friends. She's the influencer. I'm not the influencer. She's influencing her friends and family. She's the hero sharing the content. So why create content where the person who's receiving it feels like they're empowered to go tell all their friends and family? And that's a really big difference than making Lauren Bosstick the hero. I can only talk about myself for so long. You can only hear my morning routine for so long before it, there has to be something bigger than the person behind it.

• 25:22Speaker 00

  I think that's a really important thing, or there's not longevity.

• 25:25Speaker 01

  I mean, you just did our show and, you know, I'm sure at times, sometimes people, some of the guests will be like, why are these guys getting so? You know, we asked you, what, what's your routine? What is your brand? Which, because we want, we want to be the conduit. When Gary Brecker comes on the show, our audience is getting the specific things that make Gary Brecker's life, you know, great. Or the specific things you're, it's. Of course, Lauren and I are gonna

• 25:47Gary Brecka?

  I noticed that, I mean, and I appreciated that. It's like, almost like, I was almost talking to your audience, like, talking through you to the audience.

• 25:55Speaker 01

  That's exactly what we want.

• 25:56Gary Brecka?

  You could tell you were thinking, like, if somebody's watching this, what do they want to know?

• 25:59Speaker 01

  That's exactly what we want.

• 26:00Speaker 00

  That's amazing.

• 26:01Gary Brecka?

  And what brand, and what link?

• 26:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, they want to know. They want to know. They want to know what it is. They want to know the details. And I'm there, I'm there as a conduit to get what they need.

• 26:10Speaker 01

  I could have brought you on, and I could have selfishly just spent an hour talking about my back, and you for sure would have given me all this great advice, but

• 26:17Speaker 00

  I saved that for off air.

• 26:19Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, we did go off air on it.

• 26:21Speaker 00

  That was strategic.

• 26:21Speaker 01

  But, to me, I think hosts of these kind of properties make a mistake when they make it too much about, of course, there's going to be some selfish questions that are self-serving that also we hope the audience gets value from. But, the whole idea is what you highlighted, which is, we're the conduits for you to talk through us to the audience, so that they can extract whatever value they can from the show, and then

• 26:40Speaker 00

  It's also not a gossip show. You're not going to get, like, the latest gossip. That's not what the show is. So I think just being really aligned with who your consumer is is so important.

• 26:49Gary Brecka?

  And so, I mean, obviously, you're living busy lives, and people ask me all the time, like, what's your morning routine? And what are your, what are your top health tips? And you guys have become major influencers in the wellness space. I mean, I see your content everywhere. It's on the same platforms that I'm on. I'm more of the scientist, you know, talking about methylation. And I feel like your advice is very, very practical, because you're a couple, you're married, you're young, you're building a business, you also have a busy schedule. And a lot of times, people's big excuse is, I don't actually have time to either work out or do the things that I need to do to extend my lifespan, or I don't have the money to do it. And I feel like you guys have given a lot of practical advice. But for my audience that might not be familiar with you,

• 27:31Gary Brecka?

  because a lot of my audience is like the hyper-scientific, you know, community that

• 27:35Speaker 00

  Uh-oh, they've already turned to gossip.

• 27:37Gary Brecka?

  They want to know, they want to know how, like, the mitochondria

• 27:41Speaker 01

  Where's my reading glasses? Yeah, yeah.

• 27:43Gary Brecka?

  Well, you don't wear readers, right?

• 27:44Speaker 01

  No, because I use the red light now.

• 27:46Gary Brecka?

  Because he uses the red light, see?

• 27:47Speaker 01

  But if I, do you know what? Here's the problem. Because I'm not a human biologist and because I'm not a doctor, I will say things like, hey, I went in the red light bed and healed my eyes. And people are like, you're a kook. You're giving false, you know what I mean? Like, I'm like, no, it actually worked. But maybe I should stop talking because I don't have the credentials.

• 28:02Gary Brecka?

  It does work. I mean, look, I don't have the credentials either. You know, I'm not a physician. That's the biggest attack that I get. But I'm very vocal about saying I'm not a doctor.

• 28:08Speaker 00

  I would say you have the credentials. I'm going to say you have the credentials. I think you have the credentials.

• 28:12Speaker 01

  I would also say.

• 28:13Gary Brecka?

  You guys are very good for my guys. She's very, she's very complimentary today.

• 28:16Speaker 01

  I would also say it's fair to say that maybe you can't trust every doctor's credentials these days.

• 28:21Speaker 00

  Oh, wow. How about that?

• 28:23Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, how about that?

• 28:25Speaker 00

  You don't say.

• 28:27Gary Brecka?

  But for red light, I mean, it really is. And look, you don't need to go out and buy a $100,000 red light bed. You can, there are tons of clinics all over the country. You can Google red light therapy. And there is probably a clinic within three miles of where you're sitting, unless you're rural, then it's 10 miles of where you're sitting. And you can go in and use these things on a membership basis.

• 28:45Speaker 00

  Or if you, if you can't do it this moment, there's, go outside first thing in the morning and look out as far as you can. Like you said, there's, there's ways. My thing with everything is there's ways to get creative. If you're sitting around making excuses of why you can't execute on something, you have to go around it. You have to find another way in. I just think when people are like, I don't have time, it's, then it's not maybe a priority.

• 29:07Speaker 01

  Well, I'll, I'll pick on us.

• 29:08Gary Brecka?

  That's a good point.

• 29:08Speaker 01

  For a minute, I think, yeah, when people say they don't have time, and we're not the first people to say this, is we, we believe that just means it's not a priority to you. But if you look at our show specifically over the course of roughly nine years, we did not have the resources or success that we have now in the beginning. And it's been an exploration of speaking to people like yourself and figuring out what we could do cost effectively at each stage of our life to enhance and improve. So of course now maybe you get access to a better cold plunge or a red light bed. But in the early days, I remember

• 29:38Speaker 00

  I would cold shower.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  We would be in our condo in a cold shower or we'd be upstairs, you know, on the balcony trying to get some sunlight. Like, or we'd be, you know, in a gym. Like, there's a lot of things that we did. And, and again, this goes back to the now. It's like, it's not the end product. But we're further along and people say easy for you to say, but I'm like, no, go back to the early stuff.

• 29:56Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 29:57Speaker 01

  Had none of this stuff.

• 29:57Gary Brecka?

  I tell people to just take Tupperware containers and fill them full of water and put them in their freezer and then take them out in the morning. And just drop them in your, in your, um, in your bathtub because then you're not even spending 20 bucks on ice at 7-Eleven three days a week.

• 30:10Speaker 00

  That's so smart.

• 30:10Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, just, just take a Tupperware container, fill it with water.

• 30:14Speaker 01

  We talked about breathwork on your show. I remember putting on Wim Hof's three minute free YouTube video and doing that. Like I would do that for years.

• 30:20Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, I tell people breathwork, grounding, sunlight and a cold plunge, which you can make with Tupperware ice. The nice thing about these big blocks of ice too, and I know I'm supposed to be asking you the questions, but these big blocks of ice is that they last forever. So if you're not using your tub every day, it will literally last for three days. You can have a cold plunge for three days.

• 30:40Speaker 00

  What?

• 30:40Gary Brecka?

  And it costs you nothing. It will just stay in there.

• 30:42Speaker 00

  That's amazing.

• 30:43Gary Brecka?

  These big blocks of ice will melt very slow. It'll put it right in the low 50s and you can get in there every day. And, and by the way, while that one's melting, you just fill it up and put it back in your freezer.

• 30:51Speaker 00

  Too bad you can't patent that, like Gary, Gary Brecka's ice cube set.

• 30:55Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna patent like the Tupperware to make the ice.

• 30:59Speaker 00

  Oh my God, I know. That's so smart.

• 31:01Gary Brecka?

  We'll do a collab on it.

• 31:02Speaker 00

  Oh my God, that's smart. We could do it in pink.

• 31:04Speaker 01

  This is something for your younger audience. I'm sure you've got young guys and girls that listen. What I would say is when you feel like you, when you're, when you don't have as many resources and you, and you don't have as much time, but when you're younger, you have way more, like now that we, we're married and we have kids and we have businesses, like it's even more compressed and we're squeezing in more.

• 31:23Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 31:24Speaker 01

  And so again, I think you, you just have to be smart with how you utilize your time and the things that you make a priority where, you know, in the early days when we were more resource dropped, we had so much more time, but we weren't as efficient with our time, if that makes sense.

• 31:35Gary Brecka?

  Well, I remember you talked a lot about how in the beginning, you know, you want, of course, everybody wants, you know, the celebrities and the big names and the, and, and, and the influencer on their podcast to help them grow their platform, but you're not, when you're starting out, you're not getting those people. But you said, I would literally message a thousand people a day.

• 31:51Speaker 00

  Literally.

• 31:52Gary Brecka?

  Five would say yes.

• 31:53Speaker 00

  And then you take the five and then you get another five off those five and then you take the 10 and you get another, it's, it's literally reps at the gym, like weights. And anyone can do it. I am not special. Anyone at home can, can put in the work. It just requires a lot of patience, discipline and time.

• 32:11Speaker 01

  We're having a guest on tomorrow that we've been messaging for nine years.

• 32:17Gary Brecka?

  No.

• 32:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, nine years.

• 32:20Gary Brecka?

  You've got to tell me.

• 32:21Speaker 00

  You, wait, honestly, honestly, I actually.

• 32:24Gary Brecka?

  Or I will air this after that guest.

• 32:26Speaker 00

  I want to see when I message you.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  For two or three years.

• 32:28Gary Brecka?

  You did, yeah.

• 32:30Speaker 00

  Let me see when I message you. I want to see.

• 32:31Speaker 01

  I think this is so important to talk about. Because we have a bigger platform now.

• 32:35Speaker 00

  Two years.

• 32:36Gary Brecka?

  But I wasn't like ignoring you guys, just for the record, I was.

• 32:39Speaker 00

  We, we understand, we understand. There's schedules, there's this, there's that. We totally understand. The point is, is you have to be persistent.

• 32:47Gary Brecka?

  That.

• 32:47Speaker 01

  But the point.

• 32:48Speaker 00

  I am a pest. I'm a pest. I will literally be like, the book's coming out. Time to come on.

• 32:54Speaker 01

  But by the way.

• 32:55Speaker 00

  You never give up.

• 32:56Speaker 01

  To be honest, this particular guest, like, I understand why you have to work for it. And I understand why it took time. And I understand why this person's thoughtful about what properties they would go on. And they, and they've earned that right based on the things that they've accomplished in life. And so we don't take that as, oh, we're offended, or we're defeated, or we're going to give up. It's like, okay, not the right time. Like, we'll get them one day.

• 33:16Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 33:17Speaker 01

  And I, and I think for anyone, whether it's a business, or they're pursuing, you know, a love interest or whatever. It's like, you have to have that kind of tenacity and that, that patience to go after something like that. Because a lot of people will take that no, or take that naysay, and they'll just be completely defeated.

• 33:31Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 33:32Speaker 01

  And, you know, that doesn't serve you.

• 33:33Gary Brecka?

  And, and, and as a couple, when you guys began to, because you, you probably have very different ways of building a business.

• 33:40Speaker 00

  Completely different.

• 33:41Gary Brecka?

  Although you both sound like grinders.

• 33:43Speaker 00

  We are grinders. That is true.

• 33:45Gary Brecka?

  I can just tell a serial entrepreneur is not afraid of hard work. And someone that was a bartender and told no, and there was a female starting a blog when there was no internet, is also a grinder. Um, so those two have to sometimes, um, come to a head, but you still have to keep the, the business going forward. Is it because of a shared, common vision? Is it a shared purpose? Because I'll tell you what works for my wife and I, but I'm always curious when I talk to other, and I would consider you guys a power couple. Um, you're obviously both very fit. Ed Mylett called you the most attractive couple on, on.

• 34:16Speaker 01

  He's too kind.

• 34:16Gary Brecka?

  On the internet.

• 34:18Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 34:19Gary Brecka?

  He did, right to your face. I actually watched a podcast. He's like, this is the most attractive couple in social media. And he said it a bunch of times, which you guys are a very attractive couple.

• 34:29Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 34:31Gary Brecka?

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• 35:16Gary Brecka?

  That's 8sleep.com/gary. And use the code GARY, G-A-R-Y, for your discount. Transform your nights and elevate your sleep. Now, let's get back to the Ultimate Human Podcast. So, how does that, how does that dynamic work with both of you being alphas? And you actually having a really successful business? Because I think sometimes the more successful the business, the more there is to fight over. And like, the more, the more there's to potentially... I'll let you go first. Here she goes. We're gonna get good dirt now.

• 35:46Speaker 00

  I think the common denominator, and after interviewing tons of different people with Michael and I, and I don't think I've ever told you this, is that we both expect a lot out of life. A lot. We expect a lot. And that common denominator has been pivotal as we gain success and momentum, because we're both on the same treadmill. And even though I'm this side of the brain and he's that side of the brain, we know to stay in our own lanes, but we're still on the same treadmill. And that has been something that I think is unique. I think a lot of, and Michael says this all the time, one wants to build a mom and pop cafe down the street, and the other wants to build an empire. It's misaligned.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  I say one person, like, you know, you both want to do an ice cream shop. One person wants to franchise them across the country. One person wants to have the community ice cream shop.

• 36:37Speaker 00

  And by the way, not one is better than the other. We just both have the same... Same expectation for ourselves out of life. We're constantly striving to be better, fitter, faster, quicker. Without competing with anything, just in our own lives, the best version. But as, as far as like working together, I think that we've really defined our lanes.

• 37:00Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 37:00Speaker 00

  How do you and your wife work together?

• 37:02Gary Brecka?

  Same, same thing. You know, there was actually a, um, a book called Rocket Fuel.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  It's a great book.

• 37:06Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. And, and that book.

• 37:09Speaker 01

  Orange cover?

• 37:09Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, orange cover. And I forget the author's name, but he deserves credit, but he, he wrote another book too. But Rocket Fuel came in at a time in our business evolution and our, and our relationship evolution where it could not have been more perfect. Because I was the visionary and she was what the book refers to as the integrator. And as the visionary, um, you know, to my own detriment, you know, and, and, and just to be self loathing here for a second. I, I just thought it's all because of me. I'm bringing, you know, everybody's coming in the door because of me. I mean, I'm the voice. I'm the one that's bringing in the revenue. I should be able to decide what the direction is the company, you know, it should be my vision. It should be, you know, it should be my choice.

• 37:52Gary Brecka?

  And she's like, you have 15 ideas a week. One of them works and I make sure that it works and I make sure that we don't go broke and that we pay our bills on time. And that we don't show up to the office and it's locked.

• 38:05Speaker 00

  What's a bill?

• 38:05Gary Brecka?

  Right. And I'm like, I said, I never, never really thought about that. She's like, you ever know what? You, the key works every day when you get to the office. That's because I make sure that the lease is paid on time.

• 38:16Speaker 00

  I forgot the keys at home. So he's driving me the keys.

• 38:19Gary Brecka?

  I'm, I'm terrible. Like I've driven to work without pants before. Like I'm.

• 38:22Speaker 01

  She drives without a license and without a credit card.

• 38:24Speaker 00

  And I run out of gas five times. I'm you.

• 38:27Gary Brecka?

  I run out of gas twice in the same day.

• 38:29Speaker 00

  See?

• 38:30Gary Brecka?

  I was, I was so furious at Sage one day.

• 38:33Speaker 00

  With my vision. I'm distracted. How much capacity do you have? I can't be filling the car with gas.

• 38:40Gary Brecka?

  Exactly. Dude, I, I, true story. I, I, I got so upset in the office one day. I was like, you know what? I'm leaving. I'm just gonna fly up and spend the weekend with my parents. And I storm out of the office. I get in the car and I'm on my way to the airport. And I literally run out of gas in the middle of an intersection.

• 38:58Speaker 00

  We would be fucked.

• 38:59Gary Brecka?

  Which of course I also blamed on my wife. And then, um, so I, I, I walked to this gas station. I get a gallon of gas. I get back to the car. I fill the car with one gallon of gas, but I forget that I've only put a gallon of gas in it.

• 39:11Speaker 00

  This is me. This is literally me. I've never met someone like this is me.

• 39:14Gary Brecka?

  So then I'm driving back to the office and on the way to the office, I run out of gas again. And so I call Sage and she's just laughing at me, which just totally exploded my head.

• 39:27Speaker 00

  Do you know?

• 39:27Gary Brecka?

  But I literally ran out of gas twice.

• 39:28Speaker 00

  At least you go and get the gas at the gas station. I call Michael to bring me the gas. And then I say, why wouldn't you fill the car with gas?

• 39:35Speaker 01

  She blames me like it's my fault that she drove a car with no gas.

• 39:38Speaker 00

  You get like that with your vision. You get so into it and it's like so romantic and like,

• 39:42Speaker 01

  You know?

• 39:43Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 39:43Speaker 00

  You just can't, you don't have the capacity to even like do anything.

• 39:46Speaker 01

  Here's, here's my honest.

• 39:48Speaker 00

  I get it.

• 39:48Gary Brecka?

  But that book was a good one.

• 39:50Speaker 00

  Okay, I gotta read it.

• 39:51Speaker 01

  My honest response about this is, and you picked up on it, we're both very type A. We're both used to running our own business. I think a common misconception is we do the show together. I run Dear Media. She runs her business and then we come together and do the show, but we have completely separate teams and separate roles.

• 40:06Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  But again, we're like all partnered and everything. So it gets a little messy, obviously, because it's this, we're married and everything's equal parts. But I am personally someone that needs to be held to account and needs to be checked. And if not, it could very quickly become the Michael Show. And so she is like, it's, it would not be good for me to date or be married to somebody who is more submissive. It was like, yeah, whatever you want. Because again, I'll run off the rails. And then I'm like, it's, again, there's a million ideas. And it's like, well, what are you focusing on? And I think we kind of hold each other to that account. And then also when Lauren says we don't compete, we don't externally compete with outside people. Like we're very focused in our own world, but. We both expect a lot from each other and want to be better versions of ourselves tomorrow than we were today.

• 40:52Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 40:52Speaker 01

  And so it's like, you know, the work is, and it's kind of like a masochistic way, it's never done and we're never satisfied. And it's not because there's a certain number.

• 41:00Speaker 00

  I love Ed Mylett says blissfully dissatisfied.

• 41:03Gary Brecka?

  Yeah blissfully dissatisfied, that's so true.

• 41:05Speaker 01

  You get one shot at life and I think we both want to see how far we can push it. Not in a way where you're sacrificing health or family or a relationship.

• 41:13Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 41:14Speaker 01

  Or doing things out of integrity, but like, you know, let's not settle, let's figure out how much further. And I think sometimes a lot of Couples will get in a situation where one of the partners wants the other one to settle or stop pursuing something. And I don't think, I actually don't think that's healthy.

• 41:29Speaker 00

  You see one wants to lose weight and they start lifting and da da da and the other one doesn't. That's a misalignment.

• 41:35Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, so true.

• 41:36Speaker 01

  So we check each other.

• 41:37Gary Brecka?

  That book, that Rocket Fuel book was like the, you know, the visionary and the integrator. And basically when I was done reading it, I realized It's, you're so right. Like, all of these ideas and all of this dust that I'm stirring up is actually useless. Unless it gets practically put in, you know.

• 41:54Speaker 00

  I need to read that book immediately.

• 41:56Gary Brecka?

  It's, it's so good. It will change the way that you look at him and he looks at you. Potentially the way.

• 42:01Speaker 01

  But on the flip side.

• 42:02Gary Brecka?

  It literally changed everything for us.

• 42:04Speaker 01

  You know, I'm more like maybe logistics ops based. But if you don't have the big vision and the person that wants to do all these creative things, then what are you, what are you doing? So, you know, I.

• 42:14Gary Brecka?

  No, she felt the same way.

• 42:16Speaker 00

  It's a balance.

• 42:16Gary Brecka?

  It made her realize how important it was, like, because if you have a business, people have to walk through the door, the phone's got to ring, right? And I can make that happen, but, but behind the scenes, I mean, bills have to get paid and payroll's got to be made and lease has got to be done and, and And they, you know.

• 42:33Speaker 00

  Gas has got to get filled.

• 42:35Gary Brecka?

  Gas has got to go in the tank. And the integrator doesn't get the, the credit, the visionary gets the credit because they're the one that's, that's, that's out there. And then I started to actually empathize. And you know, when we sold our business, one of the interesting things where they, they did this Dun & Bradstreet on us. And I remember when the report came back, they said. We have like Fortune 500 companies that have been in business for 25 years that do not have the credit that you have. Every single reference, you're from your landlord to your vendors, to every account that that you had 30, 60, 90 day rotating credit on, you pay them all off.

• 43:07Speaker 00

  That's amazing, and that's your wife.

• 43:09Gary Brecka?

  And that's my wife. That is all my wife. That is just sage.

• 43:12Speaker 00

  And you were like, what? Who's that? Who's landlord?

• 43:15Gary Brecka?

  I didn't even know we had.

• 43:16Speaker 00

  By the way, I drove here, didn't even look at my ga- I didn't even look at the gas today. I have no idea if we have gas in the car. Didn't even look.

• 43:22Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, that's me too. You'll find out when you're on the road home, I guess. We flew to Bahrain last week and I went, we went to meet with the king of Bahrain.

• 43:32Speaker 00

  Where's Bahrain?

• 43:33Gary Brecka?

  It's off the coast of Saudi Arabia. So we flew to London and then we-

• 43:38Speaker 00

  Geography's not my strong suit.

• 43:39Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, so it's, it's in the Middle East. And so we're going to meet the king of Bahrain, but we arrive at 12:30 in the morning and we're meeting with him at 8:30 in the morning. It's totally true story. And at 8:30 in the morning, the desk calls and says, hey, you know, the, his majesty's car is here to pick you up. And I'm like, great. So I've got my shirt on, which I was pressed and I had my suit coat on and socks. And then I went to my suitcase to get pants and I was like, I forgot to pack pants. And, and she's like, you forgot to pack pants?

• 44:09Speaker 00

  Well, what did you wear on the flight?

• 44:11Gary Brecka?

  Sweatpants, the ultimate human sweatpants. And I was like, babe, I am not going to meet the king of Bahrain in ultimate human sweatpants. And so I was like, what are we gonna do? Cause we have to be at the palace in less than 30 minutes and his driver's downstairs. So I ran downstairs to the, we were at the Four Seasons in Bahrain. And I was like, is there a bin stored like anywhere that I can get a pair of pants? And they said, yeah, there's one 15 minutes away, but it doesn't open until 10 o'clock in the morning. It's 8:30. So I ran into the spa and found like a men's bathing suit cover up. And it was these linen, fully see-through pants, like very see-through. And I had black underwear on and I had black compression socks up to my knees. So I went and met the king of Bahrain and in see-through white-

• 44:54Speaker 00

  Gary, you, you would be so surprised how well I understand this story. This is- Actually, it's very helpful for me because I like, I'm like, am I oblivious? People have called me oblivious, distracted.

• 45:07Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 45:08Speaker 00

  I'm just focused on what I have to do in this world and I can't worry about pants. I get it. I get it. I can't worry about pants. I'm sorry.

• 45:17Speaker 01

  I bet the king looked and was like, Gary's got a pretty cool outfit going on. Like, let's see if I can get someone.

• 45:22Gary Brecka?

  Oh, if you look at the, if you look on my Instagram and you look at the pictures, I have like a very nice black jacket and a black button up shirt on. And then I have.

• 45:30Speaker 00

  You should talk to the story. You should write it down. Write this on Instagram. Put the post up again and say, I just want to give you the contact.

• 45:37Gary Brecka?

  I just didn't want the king of Bahrain to read it.

• 45:40Speaker 00

  The king was probably like, I love your pants. Where'd you get your pants?

• 45:43Gary Brecka?

  They're, they're very wrinkly.

• 45:44Speaker 00

  What was the king wearing? Was he wearing like a?

• 45:47Gary Brecka?

  Well, the, um, uh, his, his, his son, the crown prince, which who drove us there was in the traditional candora. Um, but he was super casual, like he was just in like, you know, shirt and regular pair of pants. Super easy to talk to. Amazing human and actually very funny. Um, you know, I think there's a lot of misconceptions, not, not to derail the show, but a lot of misconception about what goes on in the Middle East, that it's based on oppression and it's really based on respect. And, um, I've spent a lot of time there and really learned to just love those people. There's a quorum over there and, uh, their level of education. Everybody speaks English. I mean, it's just an unbelievable part of the world. And, and, and we better pay attention to what's going on over there because they're going to sprint by us. I mean, they are investing.

• 46:29Speaker 01

  There's a lot of innovation happening.

• 46:30Gary Brecka?

  Innovation, technology, artificial intelligence. They want the best of healthcare. They want, they want, they want the biggest, brightest minds, you know, um, they're, they're, they're way more forward thinking than you, you might think. And there's something to be said about dictatorships when they truly have the best interests of their people at heart. Like these, these monarchies, these, these families truly deeply care about their people.

• 46:53Speaker 00

  So when he flies you over there, are you guys talking health?

• 46:56Gary Brecka?

  Yes.

• 46:57Speaker 00

  So he wants to know how to be healthier, faster, stronger?

• 47:00Gary Brecka?

  He wants to, he wants to know everything about longevity, anti-aging, bio-optimization.

• 47:05Speaker 00

  How do you recommend supplements over there? Like?

• 47:08Gary Brecka?

  They have a, um, they have a whole team of doctors and they, they came to the, they came to the meeting.

• 47:13Speaker 00

  So you just said what you needed and they helped get it.

• 47:16Gary Brecka?

  They, they do their, you know, they pull the blood work. They look at the genes that I like to look at. And then I sit down with them and say, First of all, they know I'm not a physician, but I meet with his team of physicians and we go through everything and he puts them on that protocol.

• 47:28Speaker 00

  That is so cool.

• 47:28Gary Brecka?

  I did it for his son and now his son's a two-time world champion in this really difficult horse race. His name's Shake Nasser.

• 47:35Speaker 00

  That is so cool.

• 47:36Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 47:37Speaker 00

  We need to do our cheek swap.

• 47:38Gary Brecka?

  And like all these young chicks are crazy athletes over there, ultra triathloners, you know, ultra distance marathoners.

• 47:44Speaker 00

  Driven.

• 47:44Gary Brecka?

  Cycling, super driven.

• 47:46Speaker 00

  I want to do my cheek swap.

• 47:48Gary Brecka?

  We're gonna do the cheek swap.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  Well, one of the things that we're, you know, again, we are not, we're not the experts. We bring on the experts, but I think one thing that we've tried to do with our show for years is ignite the interest of health in this country. Like we, and I'm excited because of what's going on now.

• 48:03Gary Brecka?

  And I really want to touch on that.

• 48:04Speaker 01

  I mean, like, I think conversations that were happening in small niche communities are becoming wider now and broader and things that people would look at you like you were crazy for saying in the past.

• 48:15Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 48:16Speaker 01

  You know, like you're doing a cold plunge, you're doing a sauna, you're in red light, you're doing this, but people are like, what? Like these fringe things that you would kind of like call pseudoscience, I think is now being taken very seriously. So, you know, we're super excited about some of the stuff that's happening finally here because to your point, like there's been serious issues in this country.

• 48:31Gary Brecka?

  Oh, totally. I mean, I think the Maha movement is going to be the greatest thing to ever happen to this country because for the first time, some of these influencers can really affect public policy. You know, I had Kelly Means on, on my podcast and he's, I don't fanboy over a lot of people, but I mean, he and Casey, I mean, I just.

• 48:48Speaker 00

  So cool.

• 48:49Gary Brecka?

  Stanford trained surgeon, you know, Harvard educated lobbyist and both sort of had this kind of epiphany around the same time. And I just think, you know, Tucker Carlson said it too, he's like, those, these people are going to change the world and I believe that and I'm so excited to be with them on this, you know, Maha movement. But I want to talk a little bit about that too, because it didn't, your, your, your journey didn't start as a health and wellness journey per se, right?

• 49:15Speaker 00

  No.

• 49:16Gary Brecka?

  But I believe that a large part of it has morphed into a health and wellness journey. What are some of the things, what were some of the tipping points for you along that journey? Like you eat a bowl of steak.

• 49:25Speaker 00

  I eat a bowl, a bowl of ground beef every day. It's actually a ground liver.

• 49:31Gary Brecka?

  Oh, it's the organ blend.

• 49:33Speaker 00

  It's the ancestral blend from force of nature and it grew my hair because I'm so into beauty.

• 49:37Gary Brecka?

  I believe that.

• 49:38Speaker 00

  It grew my hair. My hair was up to here. It completely grew my hair. I, I gained 60 pounds with my first pregnancy. I had a whole insulin resistance journey, which I helped, which weightlifting helped so much. I lost 60 pounds. I got pregnant again. I gained 60 pounds. And the thing that got it off was weightlifting and eating so much meat and eggs and raw milk. And I just started eating this bowl of like, all these different organs online and people were like, wait, what? And I'm like, wait, my nails have never been thicker, my hair has never been longer, I've never had more energy, I'm satisfied, I'm losing weight. The aminos in it are just so incredible.

• 50:22Speaker 00

  And so I just started talking about these organs.

• 50:25Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 50:26Speaker 00

  And people were like, at first it was like, almost they couldn't believe it. But if you try the ancestral blend from force of nature.

• 50:34Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 50:34Speaker 00

  You can't taste it.

• 50:35Gary Brecka?

  And the ancestral blend is they blend the ground beef with the organ meats. Cause the straight organ meats, I can't do either.

• 50:40Speaker 00

  I could do anything. You want to make me a liver right now, I'll eat it.

• 50:43Gary Brecka?

  Really? Cause you know, carnivore MD comes to my house all the time. I love Paul, by the way. And he spends a lot of time with me when he's in Miami, but, and he, and he makes me take the, the raw liver and I'll just throw it to the back of my mouth and, but it tastes very metallic. I, I will do it because I know about the benefits, but I just don't think that I would, if I had a choice, I would be like, can I just get a bowl of liver?

• 51:02Speaker 00

  You literally can't, I make like an In-N-Out bowl where I'll do like, a, a special sauce and I'll put like chopped tomato and, and lettuce and I'll make that bowl. And then the next day I'll do raw cheese with raw honey on top. And the next day I'll do, uh, like a Fiesta bowl with like, little bit of like, siakte chips. Like, you can make the bowl really interesting and that really helped me lose so much weight.

• 51:24Gary Brecka?

  So amazing.

• 51:25Speaker 00

  It's a huge bowl of meat. And so that's been something that's really life-changing. Weightlifting, upping my protein. And then like the little tools, like the cold plunge, the sauna, the red light.

• 51:35Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 51:35Speaker 00

  All those things have been morning sunlight.

• 51:38Speaker 01

  You touched on it on, on our show, it's like, We don't want to be talking about all these things with all these great people on the show and then not practicing what we preach.

• 51:46Gary Brecka?

  Yes.

• 51:47Speaker 01

  Right? And like there was, there's a journey where we realize right around the time we had our first kids, like we are not the healthiest versions of ourselves. We're not doing the things that we should be doing. And we have access to people like yourself and others that are sharing this information. Why not implement it at a greater level and also not just do ourselves, but be an example. And we had this guy, this great guy come on the podcast and he said, stop being the tugboat and be the lighthouse. He's like, stop trying to tell people what to do and drag them along. I'm just go do it and you'll inspire other people to. So I think like, one, we want to be an example to each other, but two, for our kids and our families and then the other people. And we also don't want to be phonies where, we're having all these great voices on and then, you know, eating like shit and not taking care of ourselves and not sleeping right. Like we, we always say,

• 52:30Speaker 01

  we're lucky to get the information, maybe a little bit before the audience, but we're also getting it kind of at the same time. We just, we record the episode and release it later, but we're learning the same way that people listening are learning.

• 52:41Speaker 00

  I will tell you though, we have a lot of different health professionals on and you know, it's a lot of the same information. Having you on was really interesting because I realized the puzzle piece that's missing for me now and why I want to have you on like a hundred times is that the nutrient deficient part is not talked about enough. And I've never had someone come on the show and talk about it like you.

• 53:04Gary Brecka?

  Really? Wow.

• 53:04Speaker 00

  So that's my next, that's my next layer of what I'm doing. I'm interested in like what nutrients am I missing and how can I?

• 53:12Gary Brecka?

  Well, we should do the test and we should come back on and go through it on, on, on your show.

• 53:16Speaker 00

  Love it.

• 53:16Speaker 01

  Well, why I think it's so important what you're doing is if you just pull the data set of call it like 700 episodes. And we're saying, this is the first time someone's coming on, talking about nutrient deficiency.

• 53:27Speaker 00

  It's important.

• 53:27Speaker 01

  And I'm just talking about like the spectrum of conversations and you know how important that information is to people. And you could get all of these people talking about weights and mead and, you know, cold plunges. But if you don't have that piece of it, I think that's where a lot of frustration is happening with people. They're like, well, I'm doing all the things. I'm cold plunging. I'm eating. I'm sobbing. Like, why am I not getting the results I want?

• 53:46Gary Brecka?

  Right. Why am I not having the results that these, these people are having? And I think you're, you're right. I mean, people miss the foundation, you know? Like we talked about the things that are essential, right? And I mean, the word essential means necessary for life. Essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, essential nutrients. Um, you know, it's funny. I spoke at a, um, An osteostrong conference not too long ago, which osteostrong is a franchise that's basically centered around increasing bone density.

• 54:15Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 54:16Gary Brecka?

  And they're the centers that you can go and you can apply loads to your bone and actually take you from being osteopenic or osteoporotic to actually having normal bone density.

• 54:23Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 54:24Gary Brecka?

  It's a phenomenal concept. But I was so shocked at how many people in that sphere were still on just a pure calcium bandwagon, like, you know, people are deficient in calcium. Like, listen, nursing homes all over the country are just full of elderly men and women that have been taking calcium supplements for 25 years, and they're still osteopenic and osteoporotic.

• 54:44Speaker 00

  Why?

• 54:45Gary Brecka?

  Because bones are not calcium. Bones are, calcium combines with phosphorus to make hydroxyapatite. Bones are hydroxyapatite. And in order for calcium and phosphorus to combine and make hydroxyapatite, you need 12 minerals. You need boron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, silica.

• 55:03Speaker 00

  Is that in the salt you told me about?

• 55:04Gary Brecka?

  That's in the salt that I told you about.

• 55:05Speaker 00

  Ah.

• 55:06Gary Brecka?

  So you deplete those nutrients, you can't form bone, and now you have weak bone. And somebody tells you you have osteopenia or osteoporosis. No, you don't. You have a nutrient deficiency in these 12 minerals. What if you could wake up each morning full of energy, focused, and ready to conquer anything life throws at you? It's not just a dream, guys. It's the reality waiting for you in the Ultimate Morning Challenge. I'm inviting you to join my live, three-day, free-guided challenge to reprogram your mornings for peak performance. It's completely free, and over these three days, I'll show you how to harness simple, science-backed rituals like hydration, grounding, breathwork, and more that are going to transform your mornings and truly transform your life.

• 55:49Gary Brecka?

  These are the exact methods I've used to help CEOs, pro athletes, and thousands of others reclaim their energy, their focus, and their momentum. The challenge kicks off February 19th, and it's completely free, like all of my challenges. I'm inviting some of my top celebrity guests on. You'll have direct communication with them. So join now at morning.theultimatehuman.com. That's morning.theultimatehuman.com, and let's change our lives together. Now, let's get back to the Ultimate Human Podcast.

• 56:19Speaker 00

  My four-year-old daughter asks me every morning for minerals.

• 56:22Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 56:23Speaker 00

  She, because I started giving her.

• 56:24Gary Brecka?

  Inherently, she.

• 56:25Speaker 00

  She knows.

• 56:26Gary Brecka?

  That's so good. I love that.

• 56:27Speaker 00

  She asks me for Quinton minerals every morning. She goes, Mom, minerals.

• 56:30Gary Brecka?

  Quinton is amazing.

• 56:30Speaker 00

  Can you believe she, at four years old, she's like, goes like this, ready for me to give it to her. She must intuitively know.

• 56:38Gary Brecka?

  She knows how her body feels. That's great.

• 56:39Speaker 00

  She puts salt under her tongue.

• 56:40Gary Brecka?

  Does she really? Good for her. I want to talk a little bit about your, your kids' health journey too. Because there, I mean, so many parents, I have a lot of parents that watch my show too. One of the best episodes I ever had, I had my, my seven and 10-year-old nieces on.

• 56:57Speaker 00

  So cute.

• 56:57Gary Brecka?

  And we, I did a show with them and it just exploded because they talked about their, their food choices. So how do you influence this in your kids' life? Like, what's a typical day for you as a mom feeding your, your, your kids?

• 57:11Speaker 00

  I get so.

• 57:12Gary Brecka?

  Or you feeding the kids?

• 57:13Speaker 00

  Yeah, both, both of us. Both, we both do. We get very, very, very creative. So I'll give you an example. We were feeding our kids eggs, like three eggs every morning with a little bit of like sourdough, super minimal ingredients. There's no.

• 57:28Gary Brecka?

  Sourdough is amazing.

• 57:28Speaker 00

  There's no enriched, da-da-da-da-da.

• 57:30Gary Brecka?

  Fortified or enriched, yeah. Sourdough is alive.

• 57:33Speaker 00

  Sourdough is alive. And so we were doing that with like grass-fed butter and I noticed they were getting fatigued on that. But you've got to get really creative with kids.

• 57:41Gary Brecka?

  Yes.

• 57:41Speaker 00

  So I started doing, um, this, this recipe's changed my life. Three eggs, one banana, mixed with a little bit of oatmeal. It has to be like the oatmeal that has no pesticides, like organic, plain, nothing else added oatmeal. You mix it together and make pancakes. So they're getting protein, the little sweetness is from the banana, and they are eating these pancakes all the time. What I've realized with kids is like, you, you have to rebrand everything. So like, I'll say, okay, we're gonna have chocolate with strawberries. But what it actually is, is strawberries with a little bit of longevity mushrooms from Symbiotica.

• 58:23Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 58:23Speaker 00

  Like, everything is a constant moment to rebrand. Like, I'll be like, okay, we're gonna have chocolate milk and it's raw milk with cacao.

• 58:31Speaker 01

  Or like at night, we'll say, we're having vitamin water and it's like thorn magnesium.

• 58:35Speaker 00

  And we give them thorn magnesium. So everything is like. They have cookie water. Cookie water is electrolyte water. That has no sugar in it. It's like coconut water.

• 58:45Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 58:46Speaker 00

  Everything is a rebrand with kids.

• 58:48Gary Brecka?

  I do that with the Doritos and the masa chips.

• 58:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, you just do a little lie.

• 58:51Gary Brecka?

  You ever take the masa chips?

• 58:52Speaker 00

  You switch them, you can even switch bags. You want to get really creative, switch bags.

• 58:57Gary Brecka?

  Oh, wow.

• 58:57Speaker 00

  Give him the Doritos.

• 58:58Gary Brecka?

  That's creative.

• 58:59Speaker 01

  Have you tried the Vandy chips?

• 59:00Gary Brecka?

  Dump the masas into the Dorito bag?

• 59:02Speaker 00

  Put the Vandy's in the laze. Oh, yeah.

• 59:05Speaker 01

  Have you tried the Vandy chips?

• 59:07Gary Brecka?

  Yes, they're so good. I have both flavors.

• 59:09Speaker 01

  Those are dangerous.

• 59:10Speaker 00

  I think a little lie is fine for kids.

• 59:12Gary Brecka?

  A little lie is fine.

• 59:14Speaker 00

  You know what I'm gonna do? I've already thought about it in my head. I'm gonna go home and go, who wants lemonade? Perfect aminos lemon lime.

• 59:20Gary Brecka?

  Who wants Doritos?

• 59:22Speaker 00

  Lemon lime, perfect aminos.

• 59:23Gary Brecka?

  Here they are, the masas.

• 59:24Speaker 00

  The aminos they're gonna drink is lemonade.

• 59:26Speaker 01

  What's funny, though, about kids, and you know this, like, if you don't have junk in the house, they don't want the junk. You know what I mean? Like, we'll have, if it's chips, it's masa chips. If it, you know, we have, if it's a healthier alternative, there's no junk food around.

• 59:40Gary Brecka?

  Right.

• 59:41Speaker 00

  We're not perfect, though. We're not perfect.

• 59:42Gary Brecka?

  No, no parent is. I'm not perfect either.

• 59:44Speaker 00

  My kids have had sugar before, like, lots of sugar, and it's a fucking nightmare.

• 59:48Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 59:48Speaker 00

  They act like a completely different child.

• 59:51Gary Brecka?

  Oh, yeah.

• 59:51Speaker 00

  I can tell you right now, on Christmas morning, we had cinnamon buns, we had whatever. It was like dealing with a different body in my house. I can't believe it.

• 59:59Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:00Speaker 00

  So I just try to do my best. It's, I'm not perfect. I just try to modify constantly.

• 1:00:04Gary Brecka?

  And I think most moms and dads want to hear that, right? I mean, and also, like, optimal health for your kids is not the total absence of the bad.

• 1:00:12Speaker 00

  Right.

• 1:00:13Gary Brecka?

  But it's just the presence of the good. Right? That's the other thing. I mean, like, I walked into my room today at the Four Seasons, and there was a Norman Love chocolate on a little thing with the thank you note. I ate the Norman Love chocolate.

• 1:00:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:23Gary Brecka?

  People were like, what? You eat the Norman Love chocolate? You like the biggest bar? Yeah, I ate the Norman Love chocolate. It was like, it was this big, and it was delicious, by the way.

• 1:00:30Speaker 00

  But then you had your brownie protein bar.

• 1:00:32Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, but I'll have a brownie protein bar and a Crestwood steak, and I don't eat chocolate all the time, and I'm not shoveling, you know, I'm not shoveling junk in. And if I'm at my five-year-old niece's birthday party, I'm not the guy that's like, I'm not eating that piece of cake, you know?

• 1:00:45Speaker 00

  We're the same.

• 1:00:45Gary Brecka?

  I'll eat a piece of cake.

• 1:00:46Speaker 01

  I love Paul, he's mutual friend, so, you know? I'm not gonna be that militant.

• 1:00:51Gary Brecka?

  Oh, he's militant.

• 1:00:52Speaker 00

  But I respect it.

• 1:00:52Gary Brecka?

  He was at my Thanksgiving dinner.

• 1:00:53Speaker 00

  I respect it. What did he do at Thanksgiving? I can't wait to hear.

• 1:00:57Gary Brecka?

  Three pieces of turkey.

• 1:00:58Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:00:59Gary Brecka?

  And, and apple slices.

• 1:01:02Speaker 00

  What about no honey?

• 1:01:03Gary Brecka?

  And he was, and he, no, he didn't have any honey. And he was very kind enough to eat them very slowly. So like he wouldn't, and Paul, if you're watching this, I love you, brother.

• 1:01:10Speaker 01

  No, we love him too. He's great.

• 1:01:11Gary Brecka?

  I love him. But like, the funny thing was, the second time he stayed with me, um, so when he comes to Miami, he stays with me and I, and I absolutely love having him over. We're like, we see eye to eye on so many things. And, um, so my whole family's at the, at the dinner table and it was, it was Sage's birthday, right? Yeah, it was my wife's birthday. And of all, so she loves carrot cake. So we had a carrot cake in the kitchen and they put the candles in it. And my whole family's sitting at the table and they're coming out with the carrot cake singing happy birthday. And he gets off the elevator, comes into my unit, my son sees him and he goes, dude, I ran smack dab into Paul Saladino carrying a carrot cake.

• 1:01:50Speaker 00

  He's fine though. He doesn't care.

• 1:01:51Gary Brecka?

  Oh, he's totally fine.

• 1:01:52Speaker 01

  But you know, I think-

• 1:01:52Speaker 00

  That's another way to get organ. It's by his, um, meat sticks. I eat those every day. 60 grams of protein.

• 1:01:58Gary Brecka?

  I eat his meat sticks. Dude, we meet in the kitchen every morning at my house and we make a, a raw buffalo milk with, and I'll tell you what, it's delicious. We break his capsules open, we'll put them in the, in the raw buffalo milk. We'll stir it up with a little bit of, uh, um, honey or sometimes some raw maple syrup. That's as good as Ben, any Ben and Jerry's you've ever had.

• 1:02:17Speaker 00

  Where are you getting raw buffalo milk?

• 1:02:18Gary Brecka?

  Um, I get it from a place called Southwest Ranches in Miami. Um,

• 1:02:22Speaker 01

  You gotta get your buffalo milk guy.

• 1:02:23Gary Brecka?

  So I get raw buffalo milk. I get raw kefir.

• 1:02:26Speaker 00

  I don't have a buffalo dealer.

• 1:02:27Gary Brecka?

  Uh, it is so-

• 1:02:29Speaker 00

  That sounds amazing.

• 1:02:30Gary Brecka?

  Dude, raw buffalo milk and, and a really good, um, espresso mixed together. Dude, that's your new crack. Like it is the most delicious coffee you'll ever have in your life.

• 1:02:40Speaker 00

  I want an invite from Paul and Gary and Sage to have a buffalo milk, raw-

• 1:02:45Gary Brecka?

  Buffalo milk lattes.

• 1:02:46Speaker 00

  Honey espresso.

• 1:02:47Gary Brecka?

  At my place.

• 1:02:48Speaker 01

  But you know, like, so, you know, we'll do these shows-

• 1:02:51Gary Brecka?

  He actually makes me fresh orange juice every day.

• 1:02:52Speaker 00

  That sounds delicious.

• 1:02:52Speaker 01

  We'll meet a lot of these characters and I love many of them. But what I say all the time, especially to the audience, like, I don't want to hear about EMFs and the headphones from somebody if they're not doing-

• 1:03:02Speaker 00

  You just bought an EMF cord, this headphone.

• 1:03:04Speaker 01

  If they're not doing, like, if, if you're not going to the gym and you're not eating Whole Foods and you're not sleeping right, and you're not doing the basics and you're telling me about my EMFs, I'm like-

• 1:03:12Gary Brecka?

  It was like the morbidly obese people with the mask, you know, driving in the car by themselves. And you're like, seriously, like the least of your worries is COVID, my friend.

• 1:03:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, if you can't do like 20 pushups, I don't want to hear about EMFs.

• 1:03:23Gary Brecka?

  Right. Exactly. I think that is a really, yes, it's a really, like they say, never trust a skinny chef. Right? I mean,

• 1:03:32Speaker 00

  Paul lives it, eats it, breathes it.

• 1:03:34Speaker 01

  No, Paul is, he's the real deal.

• 1:03:36Gary Brecka?

  I will say Paul is as legit as it gets.

• 1:03:38Speaker 00

  We love you, Paul.

• 1:03:39Gary Brecka?

  We love you.

• 1:03:39Speaker 00

  Where's my buffalo milk?

• 1:03:40Gary Brecka?

  Where's my buffalo milk?

• 1:03:41Speaker 01

  But that's a criteria. You can move on to like the fringe things. Once you've satisfied the bases.

• 1:03:47Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:47Speaker 01

  But until then, I'm like, okay, I gotta, I gotta maybe be a little hesitant on some of the advice.

• 1:03:51Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. If you're telling me the EMFs are going to kill me, but you're, yeah, I've had, I've had, I've had a few of those interviews.

• 1:03:56Speaker 00

  You did get those headphones though.

• 1:03:58Speaker 01

  No, but I'll have some people sometimes come on the show and they pick these obscure subjects. And I'm like, listen, if you can't bicep curl a 15 pound weight, like I don't, I don't want to hear about any of these.

• 1:04:09Speaker 00

  He used to put his iPad on his penis with his headphones on. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no.

• 1:04:14Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:15Speaker 00

  We can't put the iPad on the penis.

• 1:04:16Gary Brecka?

  I still have intentions for that.

• 1:04:17Speaker 00

  We can't, we gotta get an EMF protector blanket and you gotta.

• 1:04:21Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. You can get the, you can get the, uh, what is it? Lambs makes the underwear.

• 1:04:27Speaker 00

  Lambs underwear. I'm buying you some of that.

• 1:04:28Speaker 01

  I'm just kidding.

• 1:04:29Gary Brecka?

  It's not the shaft.

• 1:04:29Speaker 01

  Who wears condoms?

• 1:04:30Gary Brecka?

  It's the balls that you need to protect. It's the sperms and the balls.

• 1:04:35Gary Brecka?

  We really just took a trick of nose dive. We took a nose dive like 15 seconds into your post podcast too. What it was.

• 1:04:41Speaker 00

  Bowels.

• 1:04:41Gary Brecka?

  Bowels. Like, all right, we're 15 seconds in.

• 1:04:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I like to lure the men and I'll be like, wait, what did that guy just say?

• 1:04:47Gary Brecka?

  No, but this is amazing. So your advice, um, you know, quick advice to couples starting a business. And, and going into business together.

• 1:04:58Speaker 00

  My advice would be define your roles, define expectation, define one year, five year, 10 year. What does it look like? Where you want to, where you want to be headed and make sure you're pushing the same boulder up the same hill. That's important.

• 1:05:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. I would say like the, the high level is align on the ultimate vision. And I, again, I give that example of like, one person wants to build the ice cream shop. One person wants to build the ice cream shop that. Franchises to across the country. I think sometimes people say they want to do a business and they don't agree on the scale. And then in addition to that, I would say, you know, you have to kind of, I, I don't believe that you can have an equal decision-making process in any bit like, meaning I don't like when there's co-CEOs and there's like, there's got to be one person that kind of owns one specifically. And so in our, in our world, when it comes to the business finances, I'll typically have the kind of final say, just because maybe I'm more skilled at numbers. When it comes to the creative vision, packaging.

• 1:05:53Speaker 00

  Who tried to get involved in the cover art yesterday? I was like, don't get out.

• 1:05:58Speaker 01

  Like, I think, I think we, we really like, kind of say, okay, when it comes to like, who needs to be the final decision maker on this? And especially for the team too, if you're looking to when it comes to this specific lane, we define that.

• 1:06:09Speaker 00

  Don't talk about, uh, QuickBooks during sex.

• 1:06:11Speaker 01

  The other thing I think I would, uh, don't talk about QuickBooks.

• 1:06:15Speaker 00

  He has talked about QuickBooks in the bedroom.

• 1:06:17Speaker 01

  The last thing I would say.

• 1:06:19Speaker 00

  No, I'm, I'm doing my red light therapy.

• 1:06:22Speaker 01

  Can you shut the hell up?

• 1:06:27Speaker 01

  No, but I think the last thing is that you have to understand that it is a lot of turmoil. And if you're not okay with that, and you want it to be roses all the time, when you're trying to, if you run a business with anyone.

• 1:06:41Speaker 00

  There's chaos.

• 1:06:41Speaker 01

  There's chaos.

• 1:06:42Gary Brecka?

  Yes.

• 1:06:42Speaker 01

  It, it like, whether it's your partner or your coworkers, like it's, running a business is hard. It's not easy. And so there's going to be moments and you want somebody that's going to be there in the trenches with you when it gets hard.

• 1:06:52Gary Brecka?

  Yep.

• 1:06:52Speaker 01

  And you can't, you can't do this thing where couples like, I don't want it to affect the relationship. Like it's going to affect the relationship. You just have to agree that you're going to work through it together.

• 1:07:01Gary Brecka?

  Yes.

• 1:07:01Speaker 01

  There's no way that it's like, it's never going, it, it.

• 1:07:04Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:04Speaker 01

  It's, it's hard. It's difficult.

• 1:07:06Gary Brecka?

  My wife and I have this, this saying, uh, no light between us. And you know, at the end of the day, we, we, we always put the relationship first. And since we, since we've done that, not allowing any light between us, because you know, you, you find that sometimes people, partners, projects will start to come between you. Um, like, and, and, and, and even people in your sphere will start to notice they kind of have your ear, but don't have her ear. And they'll try to create some distance here, or they have her ear and they don't have yours. And they'll start to try to put a little divide, um, between you.

• 1:07:39Speaker 00

  You're right.

• 1:07:40Gary Brecka?

  We have this, and it's, and some people are a lot more effective at it than others, right? Um, and you know, There's been times in the past where one of us has really bought in to a partner or person. And, and that person caused a lot of friction and, and, and damage. And when we realized, you know what? They had their own interests at heart, not ours. And so we, we developed the same, no light between us and such. We've done that. We, we really have been militant about making decisions together.

• 1:08:08Speaker 00

  I think that's beautiful. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, when you're, you know, 90 years old, you want to be holding hands with her and that like,

• 1:08:16Gary Brecka?

  So true.

• 1:08:17Speaker 00

  Well, if you really look at that, it's not worth it to disrupt that.

• 1:08:21Gary Brecka?

  Your spouse is your rider.

• 1:08:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:08:23Speaker 01

  We always say like, listen, we're very motivated to, to build these ventures together and, you know, build big things. But we kind of already feel like we're playing with house money in the sense that we're very happy in our relationship and with our family. And if you were to strip everything away and still it was just us with our kids and each other.

• 1:08:41Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:42Speaker 01

  Like, I already feel like it's, we've already won, right?

• 1:08:44Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:44Speaker 01

  And so the rest of the stuff, it's like, you wouldn't, when you're, when you go to a casino, we say playing with house money, like, you don't, you don't risk what's already, you don't risk the winning or the, the base.

• 1:08:53Gary Brecka?

  Right. What you came with, right?

• 1:08:54Speaker 01

  What you came with. Like it's already been built upon. Yeah. And so like, if it ever starts to get to a place where the business is toxic to our family and our wellbeing and our relationship, it's not worth it.

• 1:09:04Speaker 00

  I would like you to go date someone for a few months that's submissive to see how that goes.

• 1:09:08Speaker 01

  Bullshit.

• 1:09:08Speaker 00

  Just go see. Just go see. Just to like, have a little compare and contrast therapy.

• 1:09:13Gary Brecka?

  Compare and contrast therapy.

• 1:09:15Speaker 00

  A little Cold Pledge Sona.

• 1:09:18Speaker 01

  But that's the other thing. I say all the time, I'm like, listen, you find another guy that can deal.

• 1:09:21Speaker 00

  I would want to like, go see what it's like out there on the streets.

• 1:09:24Speaker 01

  Another guy to deal with your bullshit off.

• 1:09:27Speaker 00

  I don't think they exist.

• 1:09:29Speaker 01

  She always says like, oh, what happened? I'm like, listen, you find that guy, God bless him.

• 1:09:32Speaker 00

  Any takers?

• 1:09:33Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. You know, it's crazy.

• 1:09:35Speaker 00

  At Lauren Vostick on Instagram.

• 1:09:38Gary Brecka?

  Oh, boy, there they come.

• 1:09:41Speaker 01

  The DMs are open.

• 1:09:44Gary Brecka?

  Yeah, the, our greatest moments together, like, we just had the greatest Christmas and, and, and, and last night, we actually had my mom's 79th birthday. And the last thing my wife and I said when we went to bed with each other was like, we've had, like, the last three of the greatest nights of our life have just been exactly that. Just us and the, and the family. We all put on wigs and did stupid shit around the house.

• 1:10:11Gary Brecka?

  And our greatest moments are in a one-bedroom log cabin in, in Colorado, in a really small town in Colorado, with a wood burning stove, no electricity. It's just a solar fed electricity, completely off the grid. And we have this big, beautiful, fancy, you know, place in Miami with all of this stuff. And it's just like, when we unplug and it's, it's just us, that's when it's, it's the best.

• 1:10:35Speaker 00

  I'd like a Colorado house like that.

• 1:10:37Speaker 01

  Okay, but to be, to be, to be, sure, sure. But to be like, a little bit sappy for a moment, and I think, you know, doing what we all do for a living, you can kind of sometimes get lost thinking that that's all real. You know, going to these places and meeting these incredible people and having these big conversations and all of that. And I think we are good at coming back to each other and saying like, it's, we're just living a normal life with our family and our kids in a normal relationship, nothing too, you know, we met when we were 12, like, all these things. And, you know, you gotta be able to separate some of that. I think sometimes people build big businesses or big brands or big personalities and they get, they get drunk on that and they get drunk on the press clippings and they, and, and

• 1:11:22Speaker 01

  that, and they think that there's now this new version of themselves.

• 1:11:25Gary Brecka?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:26Speaker 01

  And we really try to kind of stay away from that and acknowledge that we're fortunate to be in some of those situations and around some of those people and conversations. But at the end of it, it's like, this is the core and that's what we protect.

• 1:11:38Gary Brecka?

  Amen. That's so good. Well, I wind down every podcast by asking my guests the same question. I'm gonna ask each of you guys this question. There's no right or wrong answer, by the way. And that's, what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human?

• 1:11:51Speaker 01

  I think to be an ultimate human, you're actualizing your real full potential every single day and you're not settling and that you're becoming a better version of yourself every day and that you're doing things to not only to help yourself, but to help others and to so they can be the best versions of themselves. And I think if anything, take financial success or business out of it, if you're adding value to the world and you're improving yourself, to me, that's the ultimate human. And that could be in any lane, it could be the best parent, it could be the best husband, it could be the best whatever. But like to me, that is the definition of a successful life.

• 1:12:26Speaker 00

  That's exactly my exact answer. I think you might have pulled that answer that was mine from a different podcast. I actually think, go pull the clip, Lewis Howes, School of Greatness asked a similar question and that's how I answered it.

• 1:12:41Gary Brecka?

  We're gonna go pull that tape and compare.

• 1:12:43Speaker 00

  And then he just, he just rebranded it.

• 1:12:45Gary Brecka?

  Cause that could be spousal plagiarism.

• 1:12:48Speaker 01

  We did that episode in maybe 2020. If you go back to 2016, I think you pulled that clip from the thing that I said.

• 1:12:54Gary Brecka?

  You guys sound just like Sage. I wish Sage was here. She's gotta come and be on the podcast.

• 1:13:00Speaker 00

  She can come on the podcast next time.

• 1:13:02Gary Brecka?

  So now you've gotta say something different though. Now the pressure's like really on you.

• 1:13:05Speaker 00

  My, my thing is like, stop, expect the most that you can expect out of life. Squeeze the orange to the fullest and you are the creator of your life. You have the power to create your own life. Your thoughts predict your future. And I just think when you understand that no one else is gonna do it for you, it's really empowering. And so that's sort of my message. It's like, how do I be the best version of myself that Michael copied? And inspire other people to do that.

• 1:13:35Gary Brecka?

  That was amazing. Whether the answer was plagiarized or not, I thought it was actually very good. And I thought your

• 1:13:41Speaker 00

  Thanks.

• 1:13:42Gary Brecka?

  Original answer was very good too.

• 1:13:44Speaker 01

  But Gary, don't you feel like it really just comes down, it's, it's the simple things?

• 1:13:50Gary Brecka?

  It's so true.

• 1:13:51Speaker 01

  It's, you know, we overcomplicate everything.

• 1:13:53Gary Brecka?

  Yes.

• 1:13:54Speaker 01

  And even like going back to the conversation we had, it's the essentials. It's like, if you, even if you take the, the essentials of life, you know, like, I think we're living in a time where there's so much information and people are so confused and they're getting caught in the clouds and they're not just grounding on the simple things.

• 1:14:09Gary Brecka?

  Yeah. You know what is amazing? You know, we talked earlier on your podcast about how sometimes I get imported into these really complicated cases. And in the most complicated of all these cases, the first thing I do is I start to eliminate things. I try to get as much out as I can possibly get out. And then you usually find the one thing that's causing everything. Instead of the everything went wrong at the same time. And I think this is like a metaphor for life almost. I mean, usually people's relationships don't fall apart for 15 things. They fall apart because of one thing and which caused 15 outcomes, you know?

• 1:14:53Gary Brecka?

  And it's the same with people's health, you know? I mean, simple deficiencies causing multiple things to go wrong. But I think we have very similar messages. I really deeply appreciate and admire you guys. I mean, you just built such an amazing brand. You're incredible people. You're incredible humans. I really feel a special kinship with you guys. I really do. I feel like I've known you guys all my life.

• 1:15:17Speaker 00

  You literally can come on.

• 1:15:18Gary Brecka?

  I'm sad. I don't want to go home.

• 1:15:21Speaker 00

  Anytime you and Sage want to come back on our show, or you can come back every time you're in Austin, we'd love it.

• 1:15:26Speaker 01

  Well, that's the other thing too. Simple thing for the young guys that listen to you. You want to have bad health problems and bad financial outcomes, pick the wrong woman.

• 1:15:34Gary Brecka?

  Ooh.

• 1:15:35Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? Like that, like I talk about this all the time. Like it's so simple to screw up your life by just picking the wrong partner, men and women, or you know, whatever relationship you're in. Yeah, I mean, there's like just a lot, again, it's just simple things. And I think a lot of people just get off track with so much optionality.

• 1:15:53Gary Brecka?

  I agree. That's what social media does to us. Well, guys, I hope you enjoyed this podcast as much as I did. I know it's going to resonate with my audience. I hope you guys will come back on The Ultimate Human. I certainly would love to come back on The Skinny Confidential. And until next time, that's just science.