The Blonde files Podcast
JW joins The Blonde files Podcast to talk about a plant-based, alcohol alternative, that can help with productivity, enhanced focus, and can help with occasional stress.
Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 The following podcast is a dear media production.
Speaker 1 00:00:03 Hey, welcome to the Blonde Files Podcast. I'm your host, Ariel Laurie, and I'm here to talk all things wellness from how to achieve optimal health and wellbeing to the best beauty tips and everything in between. No topic is off limits, and I'm bringing it to you real and unfiltered. I know there is so much information out there, so I'm here to help you navigate it all. Thanks for listening. Let's get into it.
Speaker 1 00:00:37 Hi everybody. Welcome to the show. Today's episode is brought to you by Feel Free Botanic Tonics. I have talked about this before. It's a plant-based, basically alcohol alternative, so it can help with productivity, enhanced focus, and can help with stress. And I'm talking to j w Ross, who is the founder of Feel Free Botanic Tonics. So he has a really interesting story because he has a background in the oil industry. He struggled with alcohol, alcoholism, he got sober, and then he kind of went on this mission to find something that he could use that is safe and alcohol free, but that produces that feeling of freedom and connection and openness. And that was how Feel Free Botanic Tonics came to fruition. So he talks all about how he came up with the formula, and we talk a lot about addiction and sobriety, and I always enjoy talking to other people who have been through the struggle and hear about the path that they're on.
Speaker 1 00:01:47 And everybody's path is different, but a lot of the feelings are the same. So I will say, I know a lot of people who love Feel Free Botanic tos. It is popular at the <laugh> Dear Media Offices. And if you guys want to try it, they are offering 40% off on your first purchase. So you can just go to botanic tonics.com and use the promo code blonde at checkout. So again, that's 40% off@botanictonics.com and the code is blonde. And I hope you guys enjoy the episode. All right. Welcome to the show. I'm really looking forward to talking to you today.
Speaker 3 00:02:27 Well, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 00:02:29 We were just talking offline a little bit because we are both sober and I was saying how I love connecting with other people who have gone through, you know, struggle with alcohol, drugs, whatever it is, because I feel like it forms this bond that you don't really have with a lot of other people. It's kind of a comradery, and I love hearing other people's stories about just overcoming that adversity. So why don't we start there and just kind of rewind and tell us about who you are and are and what you do, but also your life before.
Speaker 3 00:03:01 Okay. So I started out in the oil and gas business in Texas. And um, my mentors that I looked up to were all, you know, while older gentlemen that have been, you know, in the oil gas visits for a long time, all of 'em pretty much fit the same mold. They worked really hard, but they played even harder. You know, now looking back, I, I understand and appreciate they were all, you know, functioning alcoholics. So, you know, from an early, early age, that's what I thought success looked like. And you know, I grew up in a family that really wasn't close, close family at all. You know, none of this I love you or any of that. And I never really, I don't think developed great social skills to the point that I didn't really feel comfortable in social settings and feel comfortable modern skin.
Speaker 3 00:03:56 And when I was, was 14 or 15 years old, I had my first drink of alcohol and it was just like a, you know, a love story, <laugh> love, love at first sight. I went from not feeling comfortable with my own skin to feeling like I was alive at the party, whether I was or was. And, you know, that has, I continued to build, you know, one company after another. I had the level of success that, you know, way, way beyond anything I ever dreamed of. And with that came, you know, the houses, the cars, the boats, the planes, you know, all of that stuff. But also with that, the alcohol kept escalating. And I haven't been, you know, younger. I've been doing, you know, other drugs too. But alcohol seemed to be my drug of choice. And, um, when I was about 40, this was 42, 43, it all came to kind of a, you know, it was happening over time. Stuff's really bad stuff started happening, you know, car crashes and DUIs and, you know, lost relationships and various other things. But I finally just gotta the point where, you know, I couldn't sustain. Fortunately, I had some friends that, you know, kind of did an intervention on me and wound up going to inpatient treatment for 90 days in, in Atlanta, and haven't had a drink since then. That was, uh, 12 years ago.
Speaker 1 00:05:32 I can relate to so much of what you said, and I think it's important for people to hear. I I have a lot of people in my audience and I noticed it more over Covid v d I think Covid kind of forced people to maybe look at their habits and their relationship with alcohol. I know a lot of people were drinking more when things kind of shut down. And I do often get questions from people about like, how I knew I had a drinking problem and, and what it was like. So I think this is really important for people to hear because there is still this stigma around alcoholics, I think mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that they can't look like you and they can't look like me and they can't be successful. And I think that people are learning more and becoming more open to that. But yeah,
Speaker 3 00:06:18 There's, there's that, but there's also, and, and I've just really got the appreciation of this since launching, you know, Botanics mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there's this much larger wedge of population that they're not crashing cars or not losing their jobs mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, but they, they are starting to feel like something's not quite right. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, I went out last night and I wish I hadn't said that, or, you know, something like that. And they're, they still want to feel good. They still want that social lubrication mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but they don't want to wake up feeling bad. They don't want to wake up the next day and go, you know, maybe I shouldn't have said that. Or, or to the point of I don't really remember exactly what I said. And that wedge is, you know, based on the feedback I'm getting from, you know, thousands and thousands of people is I think much, much larger.
Speaker 3 00:07:15 You know, in my research phase of coming up with Feel Free, uh, I came to the realization that of the handful of social lubricating substances that people have been using for thousands of years around the world, alcohol is the out only, it's the outlier. And it's an outlier because it's highly processed. And all these other substances that people, different cultures have been using are used in their native form. And because it's highly processed, it's really hard on your body physically. You're able to get way too much of it in it's hard to regulate mm-hmm. <affirmative> that fine line, and you don't see the social and physical issues with these other substances that you do with alcohol. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I, I, it's, it's interesting to me because I'll talk to people that are, you know, healthy and they talk about, well, I don't eat junk food and I to work out every day and they've gotta drink sitting in front of them. I'm like mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that's junk food. That's, that's as, as processed as anything else that you could put in your body. Plus it's loaded with sugar mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And you're sitting here telling me how clean you are.
Speaker 1 00:08:28 Yeah. Yeah. It's so widely accepted and I kind of joke about it now, but that's how I was, I mean, before I got sober, I, you know, wouldn't eat gluten or dairy, but I would snort whatever you put in front of <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:08:43 Well, I think it's, I think specific to alcohol, it's so ingrained into our society. Yeah. It's, it's, it weddings, it's, you know, in your holiday, it's, it's with food, you know, fine dining. It's, it's so a part of who we are mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 00:09:01 <affirmative> that
Speaker 3 00:09:02 People will look past what it really is.
Speaker 1 00:09:07 Yep.
Speaker 3 00:09:07 And it, and it, you know, I'll admit it's very effective. I mean, it, it really works great as a social lubricant, but it's, it's physically hard on you and it is extremely hard to regulate
Speaker 1 00:09:21 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>
Speaker 3 00:09:22 For a lot of people.
Speaker 1 00:09:24 Yeah. Yeah. And I wanna get to feel free and how that came to be and all of that, but I'm just, you know, for the, the sake of the listeners, if they do think that they have a problem or what was the progression like for you that got to the point where you needed to go to inpatient treatment? And then what was it, do you think? Cause I know I've heard you in other interviews where you said like, you were one and done, you went to treatment and that was it. And that's not the case for so many. Surprising. Yeah. <laugh>,
Speaker 3 00:09:53 The progression, I mean, the counselors told me anyway, the progression of this was, or my specific, I was at binge drinker, so I was able to function very well at a high level most of the time. Cause I would go for, you know, a period of time, not, you know, and, and only have a drink here, there, but out nowhere. I would start like, like on a Friday evening or something and I'd go through for two or three days and, and usually that ended in some kind of carnage and to begin with, you know, it was kinda laughed off. But as I got older and it started happening a little more frequently and it got, it got progressively worse, which they tell you that it does, it started creating, you know, issues. I couldn't hide and, you know, I was either gonna kill myself and or somebody else and something had to be done.
Speaker 1 00:10:46 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,
Speaker 3 00:10:48 I got, I was fortunate I went to, went to a treatment center in Atlanta that specializes in doctors and, and airplane pilots, airplane. It's all the commercial airlines and their pilots there. And it was good for me because, you know, these are, you know, professional people that seem to be very successful. And to hear them say, no, I can't control this. Cause that's what I always told myself. I can control everything else. I can figure out how control is. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, and hearing the stories of some of the stuff that they did or didn't do while at work. I mean, just incredible stories. Yeah. It really woke me up to how insane this really is. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 00:11:36 <affirmative>, um, and the treatment itself, you know, the classes and all that, individual therapy, the group exercises, all of that to me just kind of for me set the stage. But I've shared this on another podcast, but it, you know, I, I was living with three doctors in a condo right there in the complex and we were watching TV one night. And this movie, A beautiful mine came on with Russell Crow about Robert Nash, the math genius. And, you know, he's psychotic and at the end though he's doing better, he's walking along on campus with his arch nemesis and he goes, do you still see them? And he looks over and they're walking along beside him, kind of waving at him and he looks back at him and smiles and he goes, of course I still see them. I've just learned not to engage with them. And it dawned on me that I'm no different than he is.
Speaker 3 00:12:36 He may see something, but I hear it, I hear this voice in my head going, it's gonna be different this time. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you're gonna figure out how to do this <laugh>. And I've been doing this for decades and it's clear that I can't, but this voice keeps telling me that I can. And I keep listening to it and it's not real. Yeah. And I think that then made me think about my life and a whole, and I think I had lived, I had lived at that point believing everything I thought. Mm-hmm. I mean, everything that came up in my head, I believed it and I acted on a lot of it. And what I came to the realization was that the majority of that stuff is just bs. It's just noise. And I don't need to act on it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I don't need to, you know, act out.
Speaker 3 00:13:28 I don't, you know, I don't need to believe what all my mind is telling me because it's, it's not real. Mm. And that really changed my life dramatically. And I came out and, you know, I was, you know, I was dry, but I still didn't feel comfortable in social settings. So I really kind of isolated myself to, you know, I that saying, I, you know, I turned into a pumpkin at five o'clock and I, I've made sure that I didn't go out, you know, in settings where, you know, cause I just didn't feel, it wasn't that I was worried about drinking, I just didn't feel comfortable being around people and interacting with people other than people very close to me.
Speaker 1 00:14:09 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, I could relate so much to what you were saying in the beginning about why you started drinking. Because I remember that first drink that I had so, well, it was a spiritual experience for me because I never knew that I could feel comfortable until that moment that I had that drink. And I didn't realize how uncomfortable I had been leading up to that. And that was what kind of like set me off. And, you know, you, you get sober and you realize that the drinking was like the, just the tip of the iceberg. And then there's all that stuff under the iceberg. I heard somebody say like, it's the stuff under the tip that sunk the Titanic and that's the shit that you have to deal with when you get out. So how did you deal with that? I know that, you know, feel free and all of that played a huge role
Speaker 3 00:14:53 In that. Well, you know, I, I've been, like I said, my life was hundreds of percent better than what it was before. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Cause I didn't have all these, this crap going on, but I still didn't feel right. I didn't feel, and I, I wanted to feel good. I wanted to feel like I felt when I had that first break of alcohol mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I didn't want all the bullshit. So I went on a quest of trying to figure out what can I, what can I consume that will get me what I want. So I went out and, and looked at and tried pretty much every euphoric or anything else, mine alter anything you could get both legal and illegal. And what I found was that the legal stuff didn't do anything for me.
Speaker 1 00:15:42 What were the legal ones and what were the illegal ones? If you can say,
Speaker 3 00:15:45 Yeah, I, I don't want to pick on specific brands, but what I can tell you is that Okay, anything out there that, that claims to be u euphoric performs or, or alcohol substitute. I tried them and they didn't really do anything for me. And then I tried, you know, all of the illegal stuff and most of that did way too much. I wanted to be able to do it during the day and you know, I wanted to be able to do it before a workout if I wanted to. You know, I wanted to be able to do it and, and not only have life, but maybe enhance my life. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I couldn't find it. So I decided then to, on a research fanatic, I decided to start spending. And I spent two years doing research. And I came up with all the plants around the world that people have consumed over the last 3000 years for social lubrication or something around that.
Speaker 3 00:16:45 And I ordered different strains in and I started trying them. I set up a little informal lab in my house. My wife thought I'd lost my mind <laugh>. And none of those actually did what I wanted. They do kinda pieces of it. And then I was sitting around one afternoon and I thought, well what the hell? And it's just try mixing some of this stuff together, which, you know, a lot of this stuff no one had ever mixed together before. Cuz it comes from completely different, you know, places in the world mm-hmm. <affirmative> and took me two years of trying, I kept detailed logs, different strains, different plants, different percentages. And I finally figured it out. And I remember the first time that I had, which is the formula that's in bill free. I had it. And uh, it felt like the first time I had that sip of alcohol even better.
Speaker 3 00:17:40 I didn't feel like I needed more. And it lasted for hours. And I woke up the next day and I remember everything. I didn't have a, a hangover. And I then, so I was doing this not for commercialization, I was just doing it for myself, but I started sharing it then with friends and family mm-hmm. <affirmative> and everyone says, man, this stuff is incredible. You need to, you need to sell it. So that's how feel free got our botanic tonics and feel free got started. We launched, it was about two years ago, LA May of 2020.
Speaker 1 00:18:12 And so the main plant ingredients in that, that produce this effect are kava Andum, right?
Speaker 3 00:18:19 Yes. It's,
Speaker 1 00:18:20 Uh, you can break those down.
Speaker 3 00:18:21 It's mainly kava. Okay. It's 10 to one CVA over Crate. Okay. CVA is the root of a pepper plant from the Pacific Islands. And it's interesting because I'd actually had an experience with Kava even back in my drinking days, probably close to 30 years ago, and did a kava ceremony and it's used, they didn't have alcohol in that area. It was used as we use alcohol and celebrations, you know, around food and what have you. And then I was, I launched a FinTech company in Southeast Asia. I actually lived there for a couple years. And while I was there I introduced Toum. And so I had that kind of, you know, tucked in. And so those were Twilio plants that I used when I did this full, full study.
Speaker 1 00:19:07 What was Crao used for? If Cabo was kind of an alcohol
Speaker 3 00:19:10 Is, uh, used for endurance and productivity enhancement. It's, it's the leaf of a tree that grows throughout Southeast Asia and it's in the coffee family. So it's, it's, it's doesn't use caffeine, it uses OIDs, but it's, to me it's like coffee on steroids. And the workers there, you know, work very long days, seven days a week out in the fields. And they use it not only to endure the work, but also to actually have a good time while doing it. I mean, you'll travel throughout rural, you know, southeast Asia and you'll, they drink it as a tea. They drink it throughout the day and they're out there, you know, smiling and, you know, and having, you know, a good time doing some pretty mm-hmm. <affirmative> monotonous
Speaker 1 00:19:55 Labor. You were in Vietnam, right?
Speaker 3 00:19:57 Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:19:58 I went there a few years ago and I did kind of notice that, I mean, in general the people there were wonderful, but I, I noticed that a little bit and we were kind of in the countryside. Like we went from north to south mm-hmm. <affirmative> and we went to way and can't remember the names of all the other places, but they did seem to have a good attitude.
Speaker 3 00:20:17 <laugh>. Yeah. Very. The people there are wonderful.
Speaker 1 00:20:20 Yes.
Speaker 3 00:20:20 Very
Speaker 1 00:20:21 Happy, good
Speaker 3 00:20:22 Places. So that's, that's how we, how I came up with feel free. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 00:20:27 <affirmative>. So I'm curious how this, do you take feel free every day? Or how do, how do you incorporate it into your life? Ok.
Speaker 3 00:20:34 Yeah, I do, I've been doing it now for over three years mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so, and I, I consume it in smaller amounts, but throughout the day I've found that, you know, an example, like today I got up, first thing I do is I have like a third of a bottle and then I go work out or I go do yoga. I come back, you know, by mid-morning I'll do another, you know, like a half. And I do through a span of a day. On average I do two bottles, but I'm, you know, I'm 60 years old now and I can go, I start at about 4, 4 30 in the morning and I'll go till, you know, I put in, you know, 12, 13 hour days and just sail through them.
Speaker 1 00:21:15 Wow. That's impressive. So is it a little bit dependent on the person? Like if you are like, I'm assuming I'm smaller than you, I'm five five, a hundred and fifteen pounds or something, would I start with less or how should people start to incorporate it?
Speaker 3 00:21:31 Yeah, definitely tell people to start with a smaller amount. Cause some people are more sensitive to it than others. And it's unlike, like I said earlier, a lot of these other euphoric out there, this actually really does something <laugh>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's strong. So less is better. I'd start out with no more than like a third of a bottle and just kinda see, you know, what it feels like. I mean, we have people that are doing a full bottle at a time and I'll still, on rare occasion, like on a Saturday night or something, if I really wanna, you know, feel good mm-hmm. <affirmative> really good, I'll do a whole bottle and it's, you know, it's, it's not linear the more you take, it's, it has, it's, you know, much, much larger effect
Speaker 1 00:22:14 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it doesn't make it so that you have insomnia or you can't fall asleep if you were to do it, say on a Saturday night. That's,
Speaker 3 00:22:21 That's what's great about it. As long as I don't, I I will not do it within three hours of, of going to sleep. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> it, I actually sleep deeper than I've ever slept in my life. And I have incredibly vivid dreams. And it's not just me. I mean, I talk to thousands of people now. They're doing, we're we're, people are consuming, you know, close to million bottles of month now, people that, you know, share with me and I'm hearing that over and over, they get better sleep and they have vivid dreams.
Speaker 1 00:22:54 So I'm curious if you can say this, like who is your biggest consumer right now? I know that you guys are the official tonic of several schools, right? U usc.
Speaker 3 00:23:04 Usc, yeah. University of Texas and Florida State University. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> official tonic of their athletic mm-hmm. <affirmative> departments.
Speaker 1 00:23:10 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And do you find that people who gravitate towards this are people who are either sober or trying to stop drinking or they are athletic or I mean, who, who's your biggest customer? It,
Speaker 3 00:23:22 It's, the demographics are all over the place, but the purpose that, you know, it may be a 85 year old grandmother, it might be, you know, a student in, in school using it to help study or an athlete using it to help perform. But the, the things that they're using it for are for an alcohol and caffeine replacement. So they're using it for productivity enhancement during the day and feeling good. And then they're using it to let their hair down and really feel good when they wanna mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and I know that sounds like two totally separate things, but you have to consider that you're mixing two plants together that do two separate things. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So they had the ability to, I think of it as, as, um, you know, they have the ability to try to balance you. So if you're, you know, if you're depressed or if you have anxiety or something, it's trying to bring you back into to balance. Those two plants are trying to work together to, to do that. It's just a, you know, it really, and I know it's, it's my product, but <laugh>, you know, I hear it every day from, you know, tons and tons of people. It's, it's just a, it's a different experience.
Speaker 1 00:24:33 Well, it sounds like my former two favorite things, which were <laugh> cocaine for the focus and the energy and alcohol for that chill kind of, but it's obviously a safer alternative.
Speaker 3 00:24:45 I've mentioned the other drugs there. That was my other drug of choice too, was cocaine. Okay. The problem with cocaine with me was that in that I was avenger that that didn't, I didn't, I wasn't allowed to to do that as long
Speaker 1 00:24:57 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. <laugh>. That's so funny. Well, I don't know if this is too personal, but I mean, after you've been sober for 12 years Yes. Or not, not drinking for 12 years and the kind of issues that you felt like you still had after you got sober initially, do you feel like you're in a completely different place now? Like all of that has been addressed and you feel comfortable and, and all of that now? You
Speaker 3 00:25:25 Know, I, I, I learned a lot of things, you know, the meditation, breathing exercises, but mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the main one that's really helped me the most is yoga. Mm-hmm. And yoga for me is beyond the physical part of it, it's the, it just does something to me. I mean, like this morning I get up and I go to Palisade Park over here and mm-hmm. <affirmative>, look out over the ocean and do my, you know, yoga with, with my yogi and, you know, my whole day is just, you know, it's, it's different. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> it kinda grounds me or settles me. And I think the, the thing that I found with alcohol was, yes, it made me feel great, but it, it didn't allow me to progress it. It's like I've, I stopped growing mm-hmm. <affirmative> when I started drinking it. And I, you know, I was 40 some years old, but I was still a kid in, in a lot of respects, you know, emotionally, you know, it, it's, it has ability to, I don't know, it, it, it it is pulls you into yourself versus opening you up to other people.
Speaker 3 00:26:29 Yeah. And that's the other thing that, you know, that we, I've heard from a lot of people is, and I heard it first from a health guru down in San Diego called Paul Czech. Oh yeah. Took, took it down there to him and, and cuz people said, you need to go see this guy and see what he thinks about it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I took it to him and, you know, he's a very interesting character on his compound down there. And I, I shared it with him and he, in about 20 minutes, he goes, I said, what do you think? And he goes, it's a heart opener. And I remember cringing going, oh yeah, it's kinda a hippy dippy term <laugh>. And what I've come to realize now is that, you know, from talking to people and talking about how it's helping in their relationships with their spouse or their children or whatever else, what it's doing is it's turning off all that noise inside your head that causes you to focus on yourself, and then it allows you then to open up and be closer to whoever you're with. And his description of a heart opener is probably pretty accurate. And then that allows you to get outta yourself, focus on others. It also allows you to focus on, you know, growing, focusing on you know, yourself and being grandiose and all that.
Speaker 1 00:27:47 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. That's so interesting. I think that there is kind of this misconception, at least if you're abusing alcohol or you're depending on alcohol where you think that it's helping you connect to other people, which is ultimately what you might be using it for. And really it's cutting you off and your world is getting smaller, so it's a little woowoo, but I like that, that hard opener. Yeah. <laugh>, I mean, I, that's great. Yeah. Well that's so interesting. Where can everybody find more about Botanic tonics and feel free and all of that?
Speaker 3 00:28:15 So our website, it's botanic tonics.com, so it's available through e-comm there. And the product itself is named Feel Free, little Blue Bottle, two ounce Shop. And then also we're in about 6,000 stores now across the us. It's actually what Nelson is saying, it's one of the fastest growing products in the US right now. We're about 600 stores a month. And you can go on the store locator on our website full of, and it'll show you the closest doors to
Speaker 1 00:28:44 You. Amazing. Well, we will link that here too. And congratulations on your success and everything. Well, thank you. Thank you. It was nice talking to you.
Speaker 3 00:28:53 Nice talking to you.
Speaker 1 00:29:03 I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked it. And if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review and subscribe. It goes a long way and it's actually the best way to support the show. Also, if you want to see more about each episode, you can head over to the Blonde Files Podcast on Instagram. I'm always posting about each episode there or over on my personal page at Area Laurie.
Speaker 4 00:30:04 Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services. Referred to in this episode.
