The Skinny Confidential Podcast

JW joins The Skinny Confidential Podcast to talk about how he recovered from alcohol addiction and found wellness in the form of plant medicine.


Episode Transcript


Speaker 0 00:00:00 The following podcast is a dear media production.

Speaker 1 00:00:04 She's

Speaker 2 00:00:04 A lifestyle blogger extraordinaire, fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur, a very smart cookie. And now Lauren Evers and Michael Bostick are bringing you along for the ride.

Speaker 3 00:00:15 Get ready for some major realness.

Speaker 2 00:00:17 Welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her

Speaker 1 00:00:21 Aha.

Speaker 4 00:00:24 You have to think about, there's no way in the world that you would, you would get enough in your body of those two alkaloids if you consume the entire leaf, because they're just, you're concentrating. And at the same time, you're removing other components that your body is using kind of to balance. And when you start messing with Mother Nature and pushing more in than what is supposed to be there, and you're also, you know, taking out pieces, it becomes way more addictive.

Speaker 5 00:00:57 Welcome back everybody. Welcome back to the Skinny Confidential Himm and her show. That clip was from our guest of the show today, j w Ross. And today we have a wellness focus episode. This has been a wellness focus year for me. As some of you may know, I have recently really curved alcohol, and one of the tools I've used among many tools is something we're gonna be talking about today on the show. It is a creation of our friend j w Ross, and it involves kava and Creto. And guys, let me tell you, this is a game changer. If you have not heard of this breakthrough product from Botanic tonics called they feel Free shot, then this one's gonna blow your mind. If you're somebody like myself who is looking to curb alcohol and you want an alternative, this may be the alternative. If you wanna focus and you're sick of five hour energies and Red Bull and things that make you feel like shit that include caffeine, this might be your answer.

Speaker 5 00:01:47 This stuff that we're gonna be talking about today called the Feel Free Shot from Botanic Tonics from our friend JW Ross, is a game changer. Lauren and I were introduced to the product from our friend Khalil, who many of you know from this show, the owner and founder of Sunlight Organics. He started carrying this stuff and we went on a walk with him one day and he is like, Hey, you gotta try this stuff called Feel Free. And we did, and it blew our minds. It's all natural, it's plant-based, it's got kava root and cram leaf, which is game-changing stuff. And listen guys, we're gonna get into it on this episode, but more importantly, we're gonna also hear a story today from our friend j w a former Texas Oilman, who had a ton of success in the oil industry, but really kind of in his words, let the wheels fall off partying, getting caught up with addiction, alcohol, all sorts of things.

Speaker 5 00:02:32 And then getting sober, rediscovering himself and going on this mission of wellness where he discovered these plants and ultimately ended up creating this amazing product. So this is an incredible story. It's an, it's a story of entrepreneurship. It's a story of redemption, it's a story of recovery and ultimately also a story of discovery. For those of you that want to try this product, the Botanic Tonics, we have a massive discount code because JW is a super nice guy and he decided, Hey, let's extend this big code to our listeners. And that code is Skinny 40. So again, listen to the episode, but keep in mind, after you listen to this episode, we do have this code Skinny 40 for 40% off the product. So be sure to check that out with that jw. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her show.

Speaker 6 00:03:11 This

Speaker 2 00:03:12 Is the skinny Confidential, him and her.

Speaker 5 00:03:17 So, um, JW and I basically already did a podcast while you were late, Lauren. Yeah, yeah, we already, we already got the whole thing done, but now that you're joining us, we'll do, we'll do part two.

Speaker 6 00:03:24 I don't feel bad for anyone in this room because I can't drink a feel free shot cuz I'm pregnant. So you guys have been all hopped up on feel free and I can't do that, so I

Speaker 4 00:03:32 Don't feel bad. Yeah, we got a good start on you. Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 6 00:03:34 That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Did you take any, I

Speaker 5 00:03:36 Just did. Oh,

Speaker 6 00:03:37 Oh, we got a good start

Speaker 5 00:03:38 To get, start to give some context. Um, because I think that this conversation's gonna go all over the place. Let's get a little bit more reference back on you. Where did you grow up? How did you even come into this

Speaker 4 00:03:48 Space? Like we discussed before? It's been a really interesting journey because I wouldn't have thought that this is where I would've, you know, wound up doing this type of business. Originally from Dallas, was in the oil and gas business, which a lot of people are in Texas did. That was very successful in it. And along with that success, it's my mentors that I looked up to, uh, growing up were work hard and party harder. <laugh>, Uhhuh, <affirmative>. And uh, it's a tough business. Yeah, it's a tough business. It's very cyclical, feast and famine, basically. A lot of stress.

Speaker 5 00:04:19 Was it a family business?

Speaker 4 00:04:20 Uh, it was not, it was not well, but, but all the, pretty much all the people that I grew up with, their families were in it. And I just started, started basically at the bottom working in the fields and very early on had the idea of just trying to do it on my own based on what I was seeing. And had some incredible success right off the bat to the point of, at the time of what I thought success was times a hundred. Like

Speaker 6 00:04:45 What specifically

Speaker 4 00:04:46 Living, you know, in a 15,000 square foot house, planes and cars and you know, boats and all this stuff. And,

Speaker 5 00:04:54 And how different was that from your upbringing?

Speaker 4 00:04:56 Very, very different.

Speaker 5 00:04:58 And what did that

Speaker 4 00:04:59 Look like? But it was all what I thought success was,

Speaker 5 00:05:02 The material stuff,

Speaker 4 00:05:03 And it, as all that kept adding all this stuff. And, and also at the same time my parting continued to escalate alcohol being my major drug of choice. It all kind of come to a crash.

Speaker 5 00:05:16 Obviously, we're gonna get into your story and I know it looks like at, at some point you cut alcohol completely. I did. But how long were you running and, and and gunning there before you? Well,

Speaker 4 00:05:26 It started when I was 14, 15. Oh. And, uh, ran until I was in my late thirties.

Speaker 6 00:05:32 Okay. And what was the epiphany?

Speaker 5 00:05:34 It sounds like it was a good run. It

Speaker 6 00:05:36 Was a good run. I see, I see that you had an aha moment watching a beautiful Mind.

Speaker 4 00:05:39 That was actually when I was in treatment. Okay. So that was, uh, I think the aha moment started. We were having a, a fundraiser at the house, actually it was for Obama. And there was three or 400 people there. And I remember sitting in, in the bedroom by myself and thinking, you know, I've got everything I could imagine making all this money. And I was just completely miserable. And what was making me miserable was the fact that I was just abusing alcohol and I was destroying all the relationships around me. And I just, I wasn't a good person. It's the bottom line, strictly out for using people and for, for money and, and for what I wanted. Didn't really think that much about anybody

Speaker 5 00:06:23 Else. And how much do you think that was the alcohol and how much do you think that was Just the line of work or just like the success?

Speaker 4 00:06:28 I, I think that it started really early on because my family was very distant. We weren't a real touchy-feely lovey family. And I left home pretty early. Um,

Speaker 5 00:06:38 Meaning your your your parents? Yeah, my

Speaker 4 00:06:40 Parents. Okay. Yeah. And, um, I just never really, I never really developed a feeling of personal relationships, <laugh>. And, and I never really felt comfortable in social situations. Felt a little bit awkward. And I think that when I had my first drink of alcohol, it was like a magical moment. All of a sudden I felt social. All of a sudden I felt comfortable, my own skin. And for the longest time it did wonderful things for me.

Speaker 6 00:07:11 So what was the moment that you hit rock bottom? Do you remember that? Was there one moment or was it just like, drips of water, Chinese torture?

Speaker 4 00:07:18 It was Chinese torture for the longest time, but then it got to the point where basically it was intervention. By then it had gotten so bad I was starting to lose things. I was getting ready to, to lose my family and everything else. And I went to, uh, treatment, did a 90 day inpatient treatment in, uh, Atlanta, Georgia. Interesting experience because

Speaker 5 00:07:40 It's a long

Speaker 4 00:07:41 Time. It is a long time. Yeah. But it was, it was what I, you know, needed mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I'm one of, I guess the minority that, uh, one time was enough. But the facility itself is interesting because it treats, it specializes in airplane pilots and doctors. So I was living in a condo with three, three doctors. And my thing with alcohol was I kept thinking that I can control it because I was controlling everything else in life.

Speaker 5 00:08:10 Meaning like, you, like everything else on paper was working well.

Speaker 4 00:08:12 Yeah, everything else on paper and pretty much everybody around me because, you know, I was, everybody was taking care of, yeah. I was basically buying 'em off mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I kept thinking with alcohol that I can control that. And I kept trying different methods, you know, and it just was kicking my ass more and more.

Speaker 6 00:08:28 What do you mean different methods? Like you were experimenting on yourself?

Speaker 4 00:08:31 Yeah, you know, I would try, let's just do three days a week. Let's do, you know, let's just do wine, let's do just vodka. Let's, you know, every,

Speaker 5 00:08:40 You were like systemizing

Speaker 4 00:08:41 It, everything, you know, I could think of to control it. And it, I was the kind of the binge drinker. So I would could go for periods of time and be fine, but then I wouldn't know when it's gonna happen. And I would start and just go completely off the rails.

Speaker 5 00:08:56 I have kind of a, a sidebar question here, but it just peaked my curiosity. What is the correlation between pilots and doctors and why did this facility decide to specialize in those two professions?

Speaker 4 00:09:07 I think it's, these are professionals that are very successful mm-hmm. <affirmative> and they're the hardest to treat, especially doctors

Speaker 6 00:09:14 Because maybe sometimes the doctor thinks that he, he or she already has all the tools.

Speaker 4 00:09:19 That's what, and, and I don't know how I wound up there, but it was the right place for me. The treatment itself was great. I mean, we've, we had a lot of interesting classes and different exercises and stuff, but the one moment that I remember where it all clicked for me was we were watching, um, a beautiful mine, Russell Crow at towards the end he's walking along on the campus with his arch nemesis and the guy goes, do you still see them? You know, referring to his psychotic friends that he sees? And he, he looks over and they're walking along beside him and he says, yeah, I still see 'em, but I just have learned not to engage with them. And it just dawned on me that it's, I'm no different than he is. He may have a more extreme version of it because he's actually seeing them <laugh>, but I'm hearing them. And what I'm hearing is, is that you can control this and I can't control it. So this is my mind telling me that, and I'm believing what my mind. And then it, it really dawned on me that I had lived to that point in my life, believing everything. I thought.

Speaker 5 00:10:26 That's interesting. Elaborate

Speaker 4 00:10:27 There. If I thought something, I I believed it.

Speaker 6 00:10:30 Wow. That, that's so crazy that you say this because I'm really studying Joe Dispenza right now. And he, everything that you're saying, he, he says, he says like, you have to monitor your thoughts else as an outside person, cuz not everything you think is true.

Speaker 4 00:10:47 Yeah. And you have all kinds of crazy thoughts, right? I mean, the average person walking around has an unbelievable array of thoughts going on. They just don't act on them. Uh, you know, there's people out there that do, and those people are labeled as, you know, criminally insane or psychotic. But, you know, that's some minor version of that was what I had lived my entire life. Is it just, if I thought it, I thought, well, I could go do it.

Speaker 5 00:11:13 I have a nuanced question here because I, like, we were talking earlier online or offline, and I said, there's a lot of millennial listeners and I think you listen to a lot of these guys, the, these self-help guys, and they're saying like, you know, you gotta have vision and you gotta have ambition and you gotta like chase these things. And I think a lot of that is framed up, probably propelled you to success. It's probably in some ways propelled us to any kind of success we've had where it's like, you're chasing this thing. And a lot of times that thing is a, you know, material life or you know, the big house, the car, the jewelry. Right? And I always, I always think about how do you keep that ambition, but you keep a healthy ambition, meaning, yes, you want to strive and build and get better and hit your goals, but also you, you want to have a healthy relationship so that you're not chasing the wrong thing. So I think a lot of people would look at your previous life and your previous career and be like, that is the dream. That is the life. Right,

Speaker 4 00:12:01 Right. For me, it was important that I go through that, the journey to enlightenment is because I realized after I had all that stuff, I think even if I hadn't had the issues with alcohol, I realized that, you know, this really isn't, you know, having all these people to, you know, the Japanese gardeners and all, you know, all these things to take care of is they're really kind of like chains. And when I got back, I just pretty much wiped the slate clean and, and got rid of about everything and just started over again. That was probably one of the most liberating experiences I've ever had in my life.

Speaker 5 00:12:38 Do you think it's something that somebody can learn without experiencing meaning? Like, if you are driven by some of those things, right? You're chasing material, wealth and dollars and you know, you want the big house and the fancy car, like

Speaker 4 00:12:50 I think a lot of people can because they've listened to others and they, they see others, you know, what happens to them. I wasn't one of those

Speaker 5 00:12:57 <laugh>. Yeah.

Speaker 4 00:12:58 I had to experience it myself.

Speaker 5 00:13:05 Keeping with the wellness theme, I want to talk to you guys about a product that I use literally every day now. I started taking athletic greens because like many, and especially if you're like me, I had a miserable time getting vegetables in. I've always struggled with salads and greens. I don't know why I'm a carnivore. I eat a lot of meats and a lot of carbs and a lot of stuff, but I just struggle with vegetables. And every test that I've been doing since I've basically gone on this wellness kick has said, Hey, you need to get your gut health in check. You need to get more vegetables, you need to up more greens. And I'm just not good at it. I'm always on the go. I feel like salads take forever to eat. I hate making them. I don't like the texture. When I discovered Athletic Greens, it was a game changer for me because I literally wake up every morning now, take this stuff and my health and my energy and my focus has skyrocketed.

Speaker 5 00:13:50 Even if you're somebody that gets a good amount of greens, it's, it can never hurt to add more. And here's why I love Athletic Greens. It's got 75 quality vitamins, minerals, whole food source, super foods, probiotics and adaptogens to help you start your day. Right? And you can start taking this, when I, what we do is I take it in the morning right when I wake up, but we also take it when we travel, especially when you're on the go and you have bad hotel food or if bad plain food, you just bring these little to-go packets and drop it in your water and boom, you got your vegetable serving. I'm sure I'm not the first person that's talked to you about Athletic Greens. It has over 7,005 star reviews online. It's recommended by professionals and athletes all over the world. And it's got an incredible founder's story.

Speaker 5 00:14:28 The founder had, you know, a gut health issue just like I have. And he was really struggling and how to take all these supplements and just was looking for one thing to really, that he could take and really get the bang for his buck. So right now it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition. To make it easy. Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one year supply of immune supporting D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic athletic greens.com/skinny. Again, that is athletic greens.com/skinny to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. So again, athletic greens.com/skinny. Enjoy.

Speaker 6 00:15:08 When you got out of rehab, did you have a more straightened aero path there or did you relapse? What did that look

Speaker 4 00:15:15 Like? No, I, um, it's been 12 years now.

Speaker 6 00:15:18 Wow. Congratulations.

Speaker 4 00:15:19 I've never, never had a drink after that. Still hadn't today.

Speaker 6 00:15:22 So was there a point that you started experimenting with plant medicine or had you never even like thought of that?

Speaker 4 00:15:27 Well, I, I had, alcohol was my drug of choice, but I did a lot of other drugs too and

Speaker 5 00:15:34 I ate a good run

Speaker 4 00:15:35 <laugh> a really good run. Yeah. And I, some people say, you know, they have guilt about, you know, I really don't because I had a lot of fun and doing that and I learned a lot. I wouldn't be who I am today if it wasn't for that and I wouldn't be here with this Sure. By any means. But, uh, specific to what you were saying, I had taken a trip to Vanuatu, which is a group of guys way earlier on, and we went to Tana, which is a very, very remote island there. It's like stepping back in time a couple hundred years. And, and we got invited to the village chief, uh, had a ceremony of kava ceremony and we stayed up with him and about 12 other guys in a little hut all night drinking. What year was this drinking kava? This would've been, God, it was about 35 years ago. Wow, okay. Long time ago. Yeah. And we stayed in there all night drinking kava and woke up howling at the sun. And it was an interesting experience. It was the first time I'd really ever felt that kind of like that without using alcohol. And it's not like I came back and kept doing it, but I kept that memory. And then after I got back from rehab, I got out of the oil and gas business because I felt that was a trigger for me. You just,

Speaker 5 00:16:49 You just were just like, I need to

Speaker 4 00:16:50 Be. Yeah. I mean, everybody was in my group was pretty much doing the same thing and I just, they said you gotta get different places, different people, all that. So I listened to what they said and totally restarted. And I, I took a sabbatical for a period of about almost a year just trying to figure out what I was gonna do with my life. And I had been exposed to a lot of migrant labor and had just listened to the issues they have of sending money back home. And I decided to get into, uh, FinTech financial technology and develop some banking software for the underbanked and, and unbanked and actually went to, um, Asia and launched that. So I lived in, uh, Southeast Asia for almost three years, about two and a half years based out of, uh, Vietnam and, and Hanoi. While I was there I was introduced to Uhum, uh, which has grown throughout Southeast Asia and, and started kind of, you know, know, experimenting with that. The one thing that I could say is when I got back it was a much better life, but I missed that feeling <laugh> that I described earlier when I drank that first drink of alcohol. Cuz I still felt socially awkward. I didn't feel comfortable in crowds and in personal relationships. I was healthier, but I, I didn't feel mentally comfortable

Speaker 5 00:18:14 To, to, for a technical question as we're cuz as we're, this is maybe a little technical here, kava and crao. Can you explain technically, you know, for somebody that's unfamiliar with both of these? Yeah.

Speaker 4 00:18:23 So this is a really interesting part to me. This is where I kind of geek out on plants, but you have kava, which is the root of pepper plant that was, you know, used in the Pacific Islands. You have Kana in South Africa and then you haveum, which is the leaf of a, uh, tree that grows in southeast a Asia that's in the coffee family. You have COA in central and South America, a coca leaves that make cocaine and then you have alcohol. And all of these started three, 4,000 years ago. The interesting thing about it, and they're all used in their, in their specific societies were kind of the same things. The only one of 'em that's highly processed, at least the way that natives are using it, is alcohol. And alcohol is the one that is the hardest on your body. You know, people say, well, cocaine's bad for you. Yeah, it is bad for you. But cocaine is highly processed. They take coase.

Speaker 5 00:19:22 Yep. So when it's not processed, it's

Speaker 4 00:19:24 Not, yeah, they 53 alkaloids and they extract using gasoline. They take and extract two out of it. And that's what, you know, you're using, you have people in central and South America, they'll start, you know, in their teens chewing coca leaves and chew 'em every day their entire life and live in their eighties and never have any health issues and have a great life. The same thing in these other societies, kava, orum or whatever, they use 'em in their natural form, they don't process them. So I was studying that and I thought it was really interesting that, and I really had started studying health and more in general and realizing that processed foods are are hard on you, I can create issues. And I decided that maybe there's something cuz neither one of 'em by themselves, neither the cop or the create 'em by themselves gave me a feeling.

Speaker 4 00:20:13 I was, after I did for, for some reason, I was sitting around and just decided to try to mix it after I realized that, you know, they were used for the same things to different societies, I decided to try to mix the two and some other things too. I was experimenting with other types of plants and I spent about two years experimenting on myself. I set up a lab at my house. My wife had thought I'd totally lost my mind and basically I would just try different ratios and different, they're like, it's like cannabis. There's different strains and they're, you know, and I just keep experimenting with it until I found the two that would produce the feeling that I was looking for.

Speaker 6 00:20:57 I have just a couple of little questions. Yeah. If alcohol isn't processed, can you still drink it? That might be a stupid question. I'm just wondering does it have to be processed for you to drink it?

Speaker 4 00:21:07 No, it's in order to create alcohol. Yeah. It's a, there's a process to it. Got it. You're not just, it's just not naturally, it's not natural form in, in, uh, in nature.

Speaker 6 00:21:18 Okay. That makes sense. And then can you get addicted to kava and crao? And you mentioned another one, you said one more

Speaker 4 00:21:27 In, in their native forms it's, they're, they're no more addictive than caffeine is. Got it. And, and the difference again is, is that you have to think about, there's no way in the world that you would, you would get enough in your body of those two alkaloids if you consume the entire leaf because they're just, you're, you're concentrating and at the same time you're removing other components that your body is using kind of to balance. When you start messing with mother nature and pushing more in than what is supposed to be there and you're also, you know, taking out pieces, it becomes way more addictive.

Speaker 6 00:22:07 Like

Speaker 4 00:22:08 Alcohol. Like alcohol.

Speaker 6 00:22:09 Okay. So when did you have this aha moment in your kitchen with your wife where you mixed the right concoction and made this magical feel free potion?

Speaker 4 00:22:17 It took about two years. Okay. I mean, and, and, and the reason she was concerned is this, that a lot of times it would either just kind of whack me out or it would knock me out or, so I'm just going all over the place and she's concerned that, you know, I'm going off the deep end again. So

Speaker 5 00:22:33 What would not, what

Speaker 6 00:22:34 Would <laugh> Yeah, what's whack you out? Are you like high, like breaking bad or

Speaker 4 00:22:37 Are you like really, really high? Yeah, really high or just talkative? Yeah. Or just real jittery or just in an almost like a almost a paranoia feeling. Or there were some that I mix that just within 30 minutes just out just knock you, knock you out.

Speaker 5 00:22:52 And so you're looking, you're you're going through all these different plants for two years. Yep. And then finally you find this concoction and, and you find the right ratio and you're like, okay, this is the, this is the

Speaker 4 00:23:02 One, this is the one. And then I, um, several of my friends knew what I was doing and they're, they kind of experiment with things like this too. And yeah,

Speaker 6 00:23:09 You opened the door and all your friends are lined

Speaker 4 00:23:11 Up. So yeah, they, they started, you know, uh, cuz they were sharing stuff at same

Speaker 5 00:23:15 Time. That's all JW doing down there.

Speaker 4 00:23:16 <laugh>. Yeah. So I started sharing it with them and they're like, oh my gosh. They said, this is, you know, amazing. Yeah,

Speaker 5 00:23:22 Well, I mean, like I told you, so this was back in November or October, September, October, I forget when, but when they were cutting alcohol and our friend Khal, who people know from the show, we were down at SunLife and he is like, Hey, you gotta try one of these feel free. And I was like, okay. Like, it just, and to me, you know, and with all due respect at the time I was like, oh, it's another energy drink because that's what it looked like. And then he, I took the full one and we went on this whole walk through, through, uh, you know, by here, by Lady Bird Lake in Austin and like in the forest. And I was like, holy shit, what the hell is going on here? But like you said, it wasn't, it's not like an alcohol feeling, but it's all, but it's definitely like, it opens you up, you start, you feel really good.

Speaker 4 00:23:58 Yeah, I remember, uh, energy. Yeah. The, one of the first times that I, I gave it to Paul check, okay, uh, who's kind of a, a, you know, health guru old school. And he took it and I said, well, what do you think? He goes, well, it's a heart opener. And I remember at the time thinking, I don't know that I, like, it's kind of a hippy-dippy term and I didn't really understand what he was saying. But since then I've, I've come to understand that that's actually a very accurate description of it, of what it's doing. And that's because I did something that was, the people in the consumer package goods said, you shouldn't do this. I put my number on everything so that people could actually just call me. And I put my email address and, and I literally started getting, you know, hundreds of people contacting me Oh, Jesus.

Speaker 4 00:24:47 And telling me, you know, what their experiences with it. And in an example was just here in Austin, there was a lady that said, you know, I, I ordered this online. She said, I started taking it. She goes, I like it. But she said, what I'm calling you about is she said, I gave son to my husband. I didn't tell him what it was. And she said, you know, when he came home and she said about 30, 45 minutes later, she said, the two little her two little girls said, come in and said, what's what's wrong with daddy? And she said, what are you talking about? And they said, well, he's in there, he is not on his phone. He's playing, he's giggling. He's, you know, he's actually, you know, interacting, having fun with us. And she said, I want you to know you brought my husband back. And she said, you know, he had turned into this workaholic kind of a, he's basically an asshole. And she said he's, he's back to who he was when I met him.

Speaker 6 00:25:32 Come here, gimme, gimme one of those. Feel free and open your mouth and plug your nose. I'm gonna pour like 10 down you

Speaker 5 00:25:36 Tonight <laugh>. No, I think, um,

Speaker 6 00:25:37 Valentine's day's

Speaker 4 00:25:38 Coming up and then I just, I I started getting more and more of those stories. Now I got had a guy just last night that, uh, he's a professional, uh, musician and he had got the point where he kind of separated from his music and he said, I took that. And he goes back full stream into my music again.

Speaker 6 00:25:55 Is this after one, one? I'm gonna call it a tincture. Is that what you

Speaker 4 00:25:59 Call it? After a half a shot? Yeah.

Speaker 6 00:26:01 So after a half a shot, he already felt more open towards his music.

Speaker 4 00:26:04 Yeah. He said, I, I'm totally back into it now. And he said, you know, it's not just that it, it's also athletes. I mean we have Olympic athletes both former and present that are music. A lot of professional, you know, golfers, football players. It's kind of back to what you're saying, it's not inebriating <laugh>.

Speaker 5 00:26:22 Yeah. No

Speaker 4 00:26:23 It's not. And that's really what I wanted. I wanted something that wasn't limiting

Speaker 5 00:26:26 Your judgment still there. Yeah, actually it's

Speaker 4 00:26:29 Sharper. It's, it's sharper. Yep. But you feel good and you feel connected to, you know, people around you. And for me what it did is it turned off a lot of that noise in my head that and it just garbage. And I think that's what it's doing is when it turns that off, it allows you then to really focus on who's around you or whatever you're doing. And really just deeply get into it.

Speaker 6 00:26:58 Since we're on the topic of immunity and wellness, I thought I would tell you about the cough syrup that I used recently. I got so sick I could not get outta bed for like three days. If you heard my voice on Instagram story, it was like the most ta and the only thing that was working so weirdly was those nasal strips that you put on your nose. Ginger tea and beekeepers, naturals coughs are up. I hadn't tried it yet cause I haven't been sick in a long time and I was like, oh, I really wanna give this a try. I talk about beekeepers liquid Adderall all the time. They're bee shots, they're amazing. I take them every day. I'm like, there's no way that natural coughs are up. It's gonna be amazing you guys. First of all, it tastes so good. And second of all, it was the only thing that was coding my throat and making me feel better.

Speaker 6 00:27:51 I seriously went on the website and bought six bottles of it with my code. It's that good. A bunch of my friends were getting sick, even some people on my team and they were texting me, I was sending them bottles of this coughs syrup. It is absolutely insane. It's filled with things like be propolis, extract, elderberry, fruit extract, chaga mushroom and GrapeSEED extract. I think it helped me get over my cold way quicker too. I could not live without this. I will never be sick again without having this in my medicine cabinet. And I feel like I can give it to Zaza. It's keto, paleo, gluten free and natural. No GMOs. Of course. Today Beekeepers Naturals is offering you an exclusive offer. You are gonna go to beekeepers naturals.com/skinny or inner code skinny to get 25% off your first order. That's b e e k e e P E R S N A t u r A l s.com/skinny or inner code Skinny Beekeepers Naturals products are also available at Target. Whole Foods Sprouts, Ewan and GNC start feeling better every day Today my friend and I Weston went for a walk for like three hours around the lake and we both took a whole tinture of it. And is everybody

Speaker 5 00:29:07 Around the lake just on feel free? Oh

Speaker 6 00:29:08 Yeah. <laugh>. No, we were, we were feeling free. We were having all these creative ideas, brainstorm for our brands. Like it was so crazy. And one of the first things that I was bummed about when I got pregnant <laugh>, I had a pros and cons list. There are lots of pros, but there's also cons was that I couldn't have my spicy margarita in my feel free shot. So why can people not take this shot? Or who should not take this? Like can someone who's breastfeeding take it?

Speaker 4 00:29:35 You know, it. There's nothing out there, no research, there's not been a lot of research done on any of these, these plants up until recently that that's starting to change as the west is starting to embrace Eastern medicine. Uh, which is a wonderful thing, but we just don't know. And I think I've always taken the route, you know, if you don't know, just take the, you know, it's better to be safe until we can find out for sure. We're actually doing, we started doing a lot of research with the University of Florida and we're setting up to do the first classic clinical studies this year for these types of plants. I think we're just scratching the surface on ultimately what they can wind up doing. But you know, until we, until we know it's just better to be safe.


30 minute Mark


Speaker 5 00:30:17 Touching on this. And Lauren, before you got here, jwi, we're talking about, there's a lot of information we have about, you know, some of the things in the far pharmaceutical industry, right? And like, you know, some of these pain meds in particular. And now it's a lot of these documentaries, like you said are coming out in books and kind of highlighting some of the dangers here. But for a period of time, I don't want to be somebody that's skeptic about medical journals or FDA clearance or all that cuz I think there's a, a time and a place and an appropriate use for some of these. But yeah, it's clear now that a lot of this stuff has been abused. So when I start looking at things like plant medicine that's been around for thousands and thousands of years that have, that people have used for that long, like I'm much more open to those ideas than some of the other things that are out there.

Speaker 4 00:30:54 Yeah, I mean you look at it, and again, in the nav Native society, they've been using this, these things for thousands of years and they don't have any issues. They don't have near the health issues that until we introduced our western diet to them, they didn't have near the health issues. We had either, they didn't have had very low rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, virtually, you know, didn't exist. And they were using these plants the way that, you know, mother Nature provided them and they were feeling good and happy. And we just got off on a different track starting with alcohol and then synthetic drugs and, and the whole purpose of synthetic drugs in my opinion is, is that you can't patent plants so you can't build a mode around it. Whereas if you develop something synthetic, you can patent it and you can keep, you know, the process to yourself and you can produce it and you can make higher margins.

Speaker 4 00:31:49 And the, the issue that I have with that is, is that what they're doing I think is they're creating people with lifestyle diseases that then have to take these drugs the rest of their life and then they start stacking 'em on top of each other. And like we talked before, there's no studies done on what happens when you start stacking these things together. And, and fortunately the opioid crisis exposed a lot of this. This is, it was a very tipping point that, that I see in people realizing that maybe synthetics aren't the answer all the time. I'm not saying that we definitely need them, but let's not just jump to the conclusion that, you know, I need to do that first. There may be other things that I can do that actually ultimately will be better for me

Speaker 5 00:32:38 Long term. Yeah, I mean I like, this is just like a, a minor shirt, but I had a tooth pulled maybe like two years ago. Lauren doesn't like if I talk about this kinda stuff, but I did and they wanted to prescribe me like some very heavy synthetics and some I'm like, listen, like yeah, I'm not comfortable. I probably won't be comfortable in a day or two, but like, do I really need that? I'll just like, I'll deal with the discomfort a little, but I feel like they're so quick to just,

Speaker 4 00:32:56 Well that's what they're, that's what they're trained to do.

Speaker 6 00:32:59 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I think though it's also the consumer's responsibility to question and do their own research.

Speaker 5 00:33:04 I mean it was hard with the doctors telling you this is, you know, a lot of people don't question their doctors.

Speaker 6 00:33:08 Yeah. No, I think that it's important though if someone's prescribing you something, at least you know, what I like to do is I like to be my own guru and be like, okay, I understand they're prescribing me this, but I wanna look into it more. And I also wanna see other holistic ways to deal with it. I think just blindly being like, okay, I'll take it and shaking my head. Like I always try to question things and be

Speaker 4 00:33:30 Curious. I think that that's starting to happen more and more, uh, again, and I think because it's being exposed that there are these problems and issues, but I think five, 10 years ago, people just kind of blindly believe what the doctor told them.

Speaker 6 00:33:44 Well, even with pregnancy, I think what I've realized after my first birth is like your first, my first pregnancy, you're put on the schedule. Like you have to go in every three weeks and you have to get an ultrasound, all the radiation and all these different things and you have to do this, this, this and this. And then I started really talking with the doula that I was working with and realizing that there can be a happy medium. Meaning people have been giving birth forever. Right. There's, it's a natural thing. And so this pregnancy I've worked with my doctor to, to back up a little bit. I don't need to go to the doctor so much and that's my, my own choice. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's, it's a natural thing my body's doing and I feel very comfortable with that. I think we've almost gotten to this point in society where we're having to question our natural human body. It's, it's, it's a weird Yeah.

Speaker 4 00:34:38 And it's, but it's good that we're, we're we're doing that. Yeah. And we're starting to, you know, we're starting to realize we have choices. Yes. I think before that you just didn't really think you had choices.

Speaker 6 00:34:48 Yeah. I would love to know because it seems like there's a big difference between your intention, what your intention was when you were in making so much money and in the oil industry and what your intention is now. Because it seems like now you're just really passionate about helping people and opening people up more.

Speaker 4 00:35:06 That was the sabbatical that I took, was trying to figure out why I achieved everything that I wanted to achieve times a hundred. But I wasn't happy <laugh>. And I'm like, what's wrong? Why, why is this not filling this hole that I have that's keeping me from being happy and fulfilled? And I realized that the root cause of it was because I never really, um, developed personal feelings or relationships with other people. You know, I looked as people as kind of resources versus looking at 'em as, you know, someone to have, you know, a personal relationship with. And I decided that for me what I needed to focus on was, was that and what little bit of it I had done. And cuz some of the exercises and treatment are, are just that, you know, they get you to open up with each other and say things you probably never said before to somebody else and then listen to them. And, and I found that pleasant experience. I, I I felt good, you know, doing that. And then I just started building on that.

Speaker 5 00:36:11 And you think that a lot of that stems maybe from your childhood from maybe just not having that example as a, as

Speaker 4 00:36:16 A kid? Yeah, I would, so definitely. So

Speaker 5 00:36:18 And what, and remind me, what did your, what did your dad do?

Speaker 4 00:36:20 My dad was, uh, an entrepreneur also. He did a lot of different businesses. He retired very, very young, but he, he was an avid outdoorsman and he just basically was gone all the time. So from, you know, he would take, you know, extended, uh, these trips and be gone for, you know, months at a time and Wow. You know, wouldn't hear from him.

Speaker 5 00:36:45 You just go in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. Wow.

Speaker 6 00:36:48 I have a question that this may be described on the outside of the bottle, but is this plant medicine, like mushrooms or ayahuasca, is plant medicine or is it different?

Speaker 4 00:37:01 It's the same indifferent at the same time. So

Speaker 6 00:37:03 Can you describe that?

Speaker 4 00:37:05 I've had some people describe the feeling like they're microdosing mushrooms or something. Again, it's, it's not something that you're gonna trip on <laugh>, so it's not, you can't, you can't drive or you don't feel comfortable going to work or whatever. I mean, you even have, I guess the best examples of that. You have professional athletes that are performing, but at the same time you feel good. So you, it it's like you're getting just a little bit of that <laugh>. It's changing, altering the way that you, that you feel and think, but it's not doing it to the point that you're limited in what you can do. In fact, it it does just the opposite because it's turning off noise and distraction. It's allowing you to really, whatever you're doing, it allows you, like you talked about walking. It allows you to really to focus in on what you're doing.

Speaker 6 00:37:55 And are you someone who also likes to experiment with aasa shrooms

Speaker 4 00:38:01 Medicine? I've, I've done everything that you can imagine

Speaker 6 00:38:04 <laugh> and w out of all those experiences, do you have one that went really well or went really bad? We would love to hear that.

Speaker 4 00:38:10 You know, very early on when I was basically in high school, I did several acid trips and I had a couple of 'em that were just unbelievably good <laugh>. They truly altered my thinking for life going forward, thinking that I could do things that I probably wouldn't have thought that I could do before. But then I had a couple of 'em that were really scary too. What's

Speaker 6 00:38:35 The difference between good and scary for someone who's never done acid?

Speaker 4 00:38:38 The one that, that, the last one I did is I had a, I don't know if it was real or not, but I had a, a death experience.

Speaker 5 00:38:46 What do you mean? You dunno if it was real or not? Like

Speaker 4 00:38:48 Well, I, I, I did it and uh, was at a party out in the, in a field and I remember the last thing I really remember is I knew that I was going the wrong way and I got in the car and locked the car and laid down. And then I had this experience of, you know, seeing myself from above. Oh wow. And basically looking at a, you know, a dead body and realizing that you better try to, you better try to reconnect or this, you know, you're gonna die. Wow. And I, and I, it probably wasn't real. I mean, it, it wasn't, I wasn't actually dying, but it was a death experience real

Speaker 5 00:39:30 Enough in the mind. Yeah.

Speaker 4 00:39:31 Yeah.

Speaker 6 00:39:32 And what about the good, good trips? What did you realize? What did you piece together through those?

Speaker 4 00:39:36 Oh, the good trips were just, again, going outside and getting in nature and just realizing everything's vibrating, everything's alive, everything's connected. And just really connecting with, with, with the earth. I mean, you know, it's hard to describe for someone that's never done it before, but it, it, it really, it really makes you realize how connected everything is and how the plants and everything are actually communicating and is just a wonderful experience.

Speaker 6 00:40:17 I have been screaming from the rooftops about the beauty benefits of a humidifier. You can go back on the blog like way back and I was talking about using a humidifier for your skin, like a cheap one off Amazon. Obviously as you know, I launched a Canopy Times skinny confidential humidifier. It's pink, it's cute, it's dreamy. It looks gorgeous on your bedside because I felt like there was space in the market to upgrade a typical eyesore humidifier. It has clean moisture that combats dryness, sensitivity, dullness fine lines and wrinkles while you're sleeping. And it promotes a healthy skin barrier and actually increases the efficiency of your skincare products. What is better? The thing that I like about Canopy Humidifier and why I decided to do a co-brand with them is they have an antimicrobial filter that catches irritating minerals, bacterias and other nasty stuff from the water before it's even evaporated into your room.

Speaker 6 00:41:11 If you Google humidifier and molds, it's crazy and disgusting what shows up. But Canopy humidifiers don't mold. So that was something where I was like, oh my gosh, we have to do this skinny confidential style. I just wanted to make one that was pretty for you. My team and I picked three aromas. We took our time with this. We wanted to make sure it was perfect. Before I go, I also wanna tell you that they recently launched a diffuser. It's like the same, it's completely waterless. It's just like the humidifier. It's missed free. You never have to worry about annoying cleaning or mold from Canopy. You're gonna go to get canopy.co to save $25 on your Canopy Humidifier purchase today with Canopy's filter subscriptions, you gotta check out the skinny confidential one. Plus you'll receive a free aroma kit to be used with canopies built-in Aroma Diffuser. Even better use code skinny 10 at checkout to save an additional 10% off your Canopy purchase. Your skin Will. Thank you. We were talking a little bit offline about women and alcohol and I don't think that this is talked about enough. I think that especially with the pandemic, I've talked to a lot of women via dms and emails and some of them are struggling with alcohol. And you told me that a lot of women have come to you and said that feel free has helped maybe back off alcohol

Speaker 4 00:42:26 A little bit. Yeah, I think part of it is, is because, you know, I've done a few podcasts in my story, it's still surprising to me that someone that you don't know will take the time to reach out to you and, and basically share with you, you know, what they're struggling with and then, you know, share the positive experience that they had with, with Feel Free. I mean, it it's not, I'm not talking about just a few, I'm talking about hundreds. And what you realize is that when you and I start talking to them is it's a lot of them, it's an internal struggle. It's not like they've lost their job or they're, they're not to that point, but they, they feel it coming <laugh> or they're just not happy. You know, they, they're going out and they're getting sloppy or slammed or whatever and they wake up the next day and they're like, don't remember I, I wish I hadn't said that.

Speaker 4 00:43:14 Or I shouldn't, they don't remember exactly what it did. Or, you know, something that, you know, is not quite imbalance in their life. And they're like, and they're going through that same exercise that I was, they're like, well I'm gonna drink just wine and I'm gonna go Uhhuh <affirmative>, which is these friends and <laugh> and different things. And, and that goes on for years in a lot of cases cuz they're, they're going through that same thing I was as trying to, you know, and they're looking for something, you know. And fortunately, you know that a lot of 'em now are finding this and they're like, now I, I drink this before I go out with my friends. I may have a glass of wine I don't really want anymore and I feel great.

Speaker 5 00:43:52 Yeah, I

Speaker 4 00:43:53 Can socialize and, you know,

Speaker 5 00:43:54 I share that sentiment. I think like for me, the epiphany and I told you I've kind of just like, I, I maybe was, could have potentially gotten close, but at the same time, like I was not a frequent drinker, but when I would drink, I, I started counting the drink the next day. I'm like, shit, that was a lot of fucking drinks. Like, that was kind of strange that my body can have them. And I started noticing that I would start to remember less meaning like mm-hmm. <affirmative> when I was younger I could drink and I'd kind of recall. And then I was, I got a little bit older. I'm like, yeah. And then like, even when I didn't even get that drunk anymore, like have that many drinks, people would tell me I either said something or did say, I'm like, I have no recollection of that. And it kind of scared me. Right. Yeah. I was like, okay. At some point as I continued age and, and keep going like this, it's,

Speaker 4 00:44:29 I mean alcohol is, is an extremely effective substance. The problem of it is, it's, it's extremely hard to regulate <laugh>. Yes. I mean there's that tipping point. You get to a point where it's, it's working wonderful, but it's so easy. It's fast acting. It's also short in life. So you keep another one and another one and another one. The chasing that feeling and it's really easy to go over the, over the edge. Yeah. And, and I think the reason for that is, to me it's no different than cocaine. And cocaine is the same way. You want another line, another line, another line. You're chasing that feeling and next thing you know, you're, you're too far. It's because you've messed with the what mother nature provided and you're amplifying something, you know, and your body's like, you know, going, woo, you know, how do I process this? Whereas with these natural plants, you can't do that. You don't, you, you, you can't ingest enough of it. You're <laugh> and a and your body's slower processing it and it, it's just a whole different

Speaker 5 00:45:31 Experience. Explain that a little bit, meaning like, you know, if I sat here and drank four feel freeze, what would happen?

Speaker 4 00:45:36 You would get, you would get really buzzed, but the thing of it is you won't drink four feel freeze. Yeah. Because you don't want to <laugh>. Yeah. Your

Speaker 5 00:45:42 Body would be like, this is it,

Speaker 4 00:45:43 It would just because they, it lasts as you know, it lasts for most people it's between two and five hours. Myself, I've been doing it now for three years and I still only do a half a shot at a time.

Speaker 6 00:45:56 Do you do it every day?

Speaker 4 00:45:57 I do,

Speaker 6 00:45:57 Yeah. What are some words that come to mind that people have described after they take feel free? I know you said open, uh, more open-hearted, but what are some other words?

Speaker 4 00:46:05 A lot of people talk about really productivity enhancement and focus. We have a lot of people, you know, that talk about, you know, that they have attention deficit. Uh, one of the girls in the office example, she's said, I, you know, check my phone every 30 seconds and she's a writer. And um, she said, you know, the first time I took it, she said, I realized it'd been riding for 30 minutes and I hadn't looked at my phone. And she said, I just, you know, I was in the zone. She said, you know, it's just, she goes, I hadn't done that in a long time.

Speaker 6 00:46:38 Is this one of those things that's like alcohol where it's progressive where if you have half, like 10 years later you have to have a full, or 10 months later you have to have two.

Speaker 4 00:46:48 That's, you know what I mean? That's what's interesting. There's no clinical work around it, but there's several papers about that. Kava has a reverse tolerance, huh. And which is the only substance I know of on Earth that anybody's claiming that about. And that the longer you take it, the better your body gets it, processing it and you actually don't need as much

Speaker 6 00:47:11 Interest. And in this That's interesting. You also have vitamin C, potassium and iron. And just so the audience knows, I, I would do a half shot when I wasn't pregnant and it kind of tastes coconuty and pineappley it ta I think it tastes really good.

Speaker 4 00:47:26 Most people don't describe it as tasting. Really

Speaker 6 00:47:28 Good <laugh>. I I know I I have a very, like Michael thinks I'm crazy. I have a very strong taste. People don't like it. Yeah.

Speaker 4 00:47:35 Peop most people think that it has a very strong taste.

Speaker 6 00:47:37 I like, I I I like things. It's not a bad taste though. I like intense it

Speaker 4 00:47:41 It's intense. Yeah, it's

Speaker 6 00:47:42 Intense. It is intense. It is intense. It's your tongue tingle a little bit. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's another thing. Talk to us about how it makes your tongue tingle. It's kinda like cocaine, like that

Speaker 4 00:47:50 <laugh>, that's, that's the kava. Okay. That's the kaba Locktons in the cva. They, they have the same type of Novocaine effect as as, um, uh, cocaine does. So the, the minute that it hits your, um, taste buds, it starts to work. And that's really what's starting to set the whole process up in your brain and everything. One thing I can say about this versus, and I'd tried pretty much all the other euphoric in the market out there, and none of it really seemed to do much for me. One thing I can say about this is we have very, very few people report that once they take it, that they don't feel something very, very quickly.

Speaker 6 00:48:30 You feel it right away. Yeah. I mean especially I think if you're sensitive.

Speaker 4 00:48:35 If you're sensitive, yes. That's why, you know, I would, like you said, I would not start out with more than a half. And for people that that know that they're sensitive, I would do even less than that.

Speaker 6 00:48:45 And for people who you

Speaker 4 00:48:47 Can always stairstep up

Speaker 6 00:48:47 Who don't drink or do drugs or anything, this is something that is acceptable in sober communities.

Speaker 4 00:48:53 The the great thing about it is, is that, uh, I mean we have a lot of doctors that are using it, a lot of the professional athletes that are using it, that get tested for everything, firemen, policemen, because it, you, there's no drug test for it.

Speaker 6 00:49:08 Really. Cool. What is the next step for you? What, what do you wanna do next? Or do you just wanna continue to bring, feel free to everyone in the world. So we're all have our heart open.

Speaker 4 00:49:16 You know, right now we're focused on really distributing this, you know, building this. It's growing exponentially right now. It's crazy. But I do have a couple other formulations that I came up with during that process. Michael

Speaker 6 00:49:30 Wants to be the Guinea pig <laugh>. You can test him on Michael that, uh, ready to your lab. Let's

Speaker 4 00:49:34 See what happens that I, I want to release, maybe I'm one of 'em, I'll probably release later this year.

Speaker 6 00:49:39 I do have to say in the Austin community, it's very popular with some very, very highly successful people. And I don't just mean business-wise, I mean successful people in life. Yeah. I, I've noticed it with Khalil Cal I see a lot of people drinking it at Sun Life every single time I go. So

Speaker 4 00:49:55 I mean, we have several of the professional football, co-head football coaches are on subscription. I mean, it just, it amazes me when I look through there sometimes. Some of the people that I see that are, you know, they're consuming it now, but it, you know, you think about it, especially people in those situations, athletes and stuff, they're, there's not much they can do. And they still have the same personal things going on as anybody else does. But they can't, they can't do anything about it because they'll, they'll test positive and all hell breaks loose. So when they can, can find something that can make them perform better and feel good, they're all over it.

Speaker 5 00:50:32 If you were a gambling man, which I assume you are, <laugh>, where do you see all of this plant medicine going over the next, you know, half century And that's a long window, but you know, like I feel like we lost a lot of this stuff for a very long period of time and a lot of it's coming back really strong. Yeah. A lot of new research going into Where do you, where do you see this kind of going?

Speaker 6 00:50:55 All right, the other day my friend and I were eating Chick-fil-A and afterwards I pulled a ray outta my purse and we each had two herbal capsules. It was perfect. After Chick-fil-A, you know how you like regret fast food sometimes and you're like, Ugh, why did I eat that? That is why I carry a ray, especially being pregnant. I am below ti and this is amazing cuz it's all natural and it optimizes digestion. So they have five herbs and a fruit-based plant digestive enzyme. It's like peppermint, brolin, ginger root, everything. You want to just feel your best, especially after you feel like you ate too much. Sometimes I'll eat pasta at night, in bed with the lights off watching Real Housewives and I'll just take two of their bloat capsules and I swear to God it makes such a difference. So this isn't something that makes you like run to the bathroom either.

Speaker 6 00:51:45 This is not like a laxative. Okay. These are herbs, so if you just wanna feel less discomfort, gas or bloating after, these are perfect for you. You've seen them all over Instagram. Every single wellness person that I know is obsessed, I found out about them through Melissa Wood Health. I'm a huge fan of the brand and right now they're giving you a real steal. You were gonna go to ray.com, that's a r r a e.com. Use code skinny at checkout for 10% off of one time purchases or 25% off your first month's subscription. I like the subscription cause it's straight to my door. I'm a huge fan of the brand. A r r a e.com use code skinny at checkout for 10% off of one time purchases. Enjoy.

Speaker 4 00:52:29 I see. Um, you know, I I think living in Southeast Asia and experiencing full bore Easter medicine, I don't agree with that <laugh>. I mean there's some pretty crazy stuff, but I also don't agree with full bore synthetic. I think that there's a balance in between and I think that's where it's going. I think that doctors will start being more open and trained in both types of medication. The pivoting point is that there's starting to be a lot of research done by major universities. I mean, even with psychedelics you've got millions of millions of dollars being spent by some of the best universities in the country on working with psychedelics. And there's no doubt in my mind, based on my experiences and what I've seen with others, that if you use correctly, they can be life altering.

Speaker 5 00:53:16 And, and educate me a little bit, why did a lot of this research stop? Because obviously we've known about these for a long time, but there, there was a reason that we actually stopped researching. Was that an, an FDA thing or regulation

Speaker 4 00:53:26 Thing? I think it's, it's a couple things. One is there was no money in it. Back to what I said before, you can't patent plant and then big pharma started getting more and more control and the synthetic route was the commercial route. That's where people made money and it just, we just kind of, we got off balance. I don't think any, I don't think it was, uh, I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything like that. I don't think it was someone, some evil person up in a tower or something. I think it just, it made sense in a, a capitalistic society mm-hmm. <affirmative> to go that way. And then once it started, it just, it got outta hand.

Speaker 6 00:54:04 Also, I think with everything that, that we've gone through with Covid, I think people are now, um, opening their eyes to other forms of medicine and healing.

Speaker 4 00:54:15 Yeah. I I think that's another part of it too. I mean, people are questioning, do I, can they mandate what I do? <laugh>? Yeah. Can they mandate that I take this shot and take this drug and do all, you know, is that really, especially in cases where they've not had adequate time to fully test that they don't know. I think that people are looking for alternatives.

Speaker 6 00:54:34 Well I know that that's true cuz when my husband is listening to Hertz Frequency music at night and I could never have gotten him to listen to that two years ago. Uh,

Speaker 5 00:54:44 The, I wasn't a Hertz frequency guy for a long

Speaker 6 00:54:46 Time. That energy is changing. We have a code for our audience code Skinny 40 for 40% off, which is super generous. That's one of our most generous codes we've ever given. I recommend trying this, try one for me since I can't take it right now. I'll be in the delivery room with a glass of champagne and a half a shot of Feel free. There you go. <laugh>, where can everyone find, feel free to buy and your Instagram account.

Speaker 4 00:55:11 So it's botanic tonics.com. It's a site you can order on there. And then we're also, we're in about 2,500 stores across the country now and we're adding about 500 stores a month. Wow. It's very growing very fast. And there's a store locator at the bottom of the website that you can open it up and it'll show you the closest places to you where you can find it.

Speaker 5 00:55:34 What I love and the last thing I'll say, I mean there's a million things I love about this product, but just one of the things you touched on is like these being in a, being accessible and being in a bunch of places like seven-eleven. Exactly. And having people that, people that have been taking Five Hour Energy or Red Bull for all these years, or monster drinks, whatever, they're jumpings.

Speaker 6 00:55:49 Remember those little pills that are at the checkout stand when I was little, my dad would get 'em their like caffeine pills.

Speaker 4 00:55:54 That's, that's what I like is that it's not just people like we described before, professional athletes. It's also, you know, um, in the 7-eleven s it's, it's construction workers and these are guys that were pounding four or five monsters or red bulls a day and no telling, you know, and smoking and everything else to get the energy to get through the day. And now they're not doing that. They're doing, you know, they're drinking one or two of these a day and, and half sips and and they're floating through the day and, and feel great. You know, one thing I can say is that one of the things that that was concerning to me early on was that since no one had mixed these things together before, I wanted to be sure that I wasn't creating something that was gonna create a problem later on. So I did very, very high levels of it for an extended period of time and I did full blood panel analysis versus my annual blood.

Speaker 4 00:56:45 I saw no changes in, you know, blood chemistry, li elevated liver enzymes, any of that. I had several friends do the same thing. And since then I've had several of these professional athletes that, uh, a couple of the Olympian athletes, uh, have done some pretty intense work with it and nobody's seeing anything. Um, I did that same exercise with some of the high concentration extraction synthetics out there and I I saw immediate Oh yeah. Changes in elevated liver enzymes. So it helped prove to me that, um, don't mess with mother nature. The other thing you know, people will ask is, you know about the, is it addictive? And I, my thought is, it's just my personal thought is that anything that makes you feel good is addictive. You know, whether that's sugar, caffeine, cheese, whatever, blowjobs, you know what, what, what, whatever it

Speaker 1 00:57:36 Is. <laugh> earning money. Yeah.

Speaker 4 00:57:38 The thing of it is, that's not the question you should be asking yourself. The question to be asking yourself is, if I do this on a regular basis, is it gonna hurt me? And that's what I wanted to know for sure before because I'm doing it myself on a daily basis. Is that the case? And I don't see any, any indication of that

Speaker 6 00:57:56 Jw Feel free. Use code skinny forty@botanictos.com. Thank you for coming on. I can't wait to see what you do next. I'm sure it'll be major.

Speaker 4 00:58:06 Thanks for having me. Thank you buddy.

Speaker 6 00:58:07 Thank you. Don't forget to use Code Skinny 40 for 40% off of Feel free. Buy a box for me cuz I am missing my Feel free. I was doing them like three times a week and loving it before I got pregnant. And if you wanna win a case of feel free, all you have to do is tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram at Lauren Bostick. Thank you guys for reviewing and rating the podcast and have a beautiful productive Monday.


End of Transcript


Next
Next

The Blonde files Podcast