← Digital Social Hour
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- [00:00]
A
Now, what if I told you that if you could technically quantify and measure ambient humidity in the room, the exact amount of force that was put on that object, the amount of friction that was caused by all of those individual skittles touching each other as they fell, the wind pressures, would you be able to predict technically where every single one of those things landed?
- [00:17]
B
When you put it that way, yeah.
- [00:19]
A
So then what's chaotic versus what's actually always organized?
- [00:28]
B
Okay, guys, here with Christian at Conscious Life Expo. His booth was popping, so I had to invite him over today.
- [00:32]
A
Yeah, it was popping. We were doing really well, man.
- [00:34]
B
Non stop.
- [00:35]
A
Really well.
- [00:35]
B
Why do you think it's resonating with so many people here?
- [00:37]
A
You know, I think that a lot of people resonate with the story. A lot of people have been around from the genesis of when I first launched my first brand, and they've kind of seen the shift, and the evolution of it has been very organic. It's been one that's been built out of, honestly, blood, sweat and tears, and just. Honestly, a lot of just being very consistent, overcoming adversity. And as you and I kind of said right before, you know, it's almost like the evolution of a diamond. Right? We turn something from trash into something that is essentially one of the most resilient, most durable, and the most fortified minerals on the planet. Diamond. Yeah. How do we do that? Pressure, friction, and heat. And so overcoming adversity is a natural part of growth. And it's something that I think if it's more embraced, that a lot of people can really see that the potential that they're seeking is not some external construct, but it's something that they could just find line just through digging deep and pushing through the resistance.
- [01:26]
B
I love that, man.
- [01:27]
A
Yeah.
- [01:27]
B
And the way we met was crazy because even though someone connected us, you were walking around the conference handing out samples to everyone.
- [01:33]
A
I'm sorry. Yeah, you gave me one.
- [01:34]
B
I didn't even know who I was.
- [01:36]
A
No idea. Yeah, so. And that's kind of. And honestly, I'm terrible with names. You know, I'm like. I joke around, like, you know, sometimes I feel like I'll end up at someone's wedding and not even know their name. I'm the best man. I'm like, how'd I get here again? You know, but, you know, and that's. And that's. I. I'm really trying to stay in my own lane. You know, I came from really humble roots. As a matter of fact, I grew up very much of a knucklehead Terrible at team sports, thinking my shit didn't stink. Very selfish, manipulative, you name it. Across the board, someone who did not really care about anyone but myself was spoiled rotten. Both with lots of love and also with, you know, the material things. And it evolved into me kind of. And I was also a gamer. Played lots of video games growing up, which I think actually ironically has helped me excel in business really. You know, Runescape.
- [02:23]
B
I played Runescape.
- [02:24]
A
There we go. Maple Store. Yeah. Maple Story, World of Warcraft. You know, started off learning how to scam. Yeah.
- [02:31]
B
I was a scammer too.
- [02:31]
A
I was a scammer.
- [02:32]
B
Scheming kids.
- [02:33]
A
But, you know, let's be real, most CEOs are kind of scammers.
- [02:35]
B
Yeah.
- [02:36]
A
You know, and. Or former drug dealers. Or former drug dealers. Or still are drug dealers.
- [02:40]
B
That's how I got by in college. Cannabis.
- [02:42]
A
Yeah. Mushrooms for me.
- [02:43]
B
You sell mushrooms?
- [02:44]
A
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Mushrooms.
- [02:46]
B
How you do them? Legally.
- [02:47]
A
Yeah, exactly. So, you know, but we're, you know what, you know, I was actually on this conversation and you know, CEOs are people that, you know, cannot be told what to do. And as a matter. It's an interesting dichotomy because you know, as a society we, you know, we try to inspire the youth and inspire people to become more like a CEO, become more of a king or more of a queen. Yet as a whole, other CEOs don't want there to be too many other CEOs because CEOs don't listen to anyone has to say. And they're random and they defy the predictability that allows for us to conduct business in a way that's actually predictable predicting. Predictable. You know, for me, I'm an extreme sports athlete.
- [03:23]
B
Yeah.
- [03:23]
A
So my other side is I own the fastest motorcycles in the world on The Kawasaki Ninja H2R. It's not street legal. 326 horsepower. Wow. I've taken that thing. 210 on the 5 freeway.
- [03:35]
B
Holy crap.
- [03:36]
A
I also am a. I also base jump, skydive, paraglide. And the reason why I can do the sports that I do and have, in my opinion, our predictable outcomes. I mean I can still, you know, know, be here, speak on my product, speak with you is because I can anticipate that there are people that operate like sheep. I know that the vast majority of people are going to adhere to the street to the speed limit. I know that a vast majority of people are going to most likely everything's likelihoods and probabilities. And this is. And I'll Kind of lean into that in a second here. Most likely people are not going to shift switch lanes without their turn signals. But I also factor into my equation the fact that there are the few that may actually change lanes unpredictably. So. So as I'm riding, I'm looking for subtle shifts and movements in the wheels. I'm trying to see are they staying in their lane for extended periods of time, do they do anything erratic, things of that nature? There are unpredictable unpredictabilities, but I think that, you know, the more conscious, the more aware we become, the more able we are to actually predict the otherwise unpredictable. So you ever drop something, let's say, hypothetically, it's like a jar full of. Of what? Let's say like skittles. Right. You drop it, it shatters on the floor. How would you describe that? She described that as organized or chaotic or probably chaotic.
- [04:53]
B
Right. Because you dropped it. Didn't expect it.
- [04:55]
A
Didn't expect it. Okay, now, what if I told you that if you could technically quantify and measure the ambient humidity in the room, the exact amount of force that was put on that object, the amount of friction that was caused by all of those individual skittles touching each other as they fell, the wind pressures, we can go on and on and on. Would you be able to predict technically where every single one of those things landed?
- [05:22]
B
When you put it that way, yeah.
- [05:24]
A
Okay, so then what's chaotic versus what's actually always organized? So that's where we become more conscious of our reality. And as creators, in the moment that we take responsibility and become more aware of our actions, we actually predict the otherwise unpredictable, this universe, as Albert Einstein predicted. And as all these other theoretical physicists, they say that God doesn't play dice with the universe. Right. That's a. That's a quote from Albert Einstein. And there is a predictability element to this construct that actually makes it almost irrefutable, the fact that there's not some intelligent design to this whole matrix.
- [06:02]
B
So you don't believe in coincidences?
- [06:03]
A
Never. I believe that coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. Right. But it's also an illusion. It paints this picture that we are on. It paints a picture that things happen without our control. Yeah, but that's actually just us not being in full control of our own lives. And so that's been my story. That's been the evolution of me from a kid. And starting off as a knucklehead and getting burnt repeatedly, I came across this random quote on Instagram. I thought it was sick. It was. You don't know how much chaos it took for me to get this calm, like straight up. Eventually you just get sick of burning yourself, like over and over and over again. And the faster that you could learn your lesson and the faster you only make a mistake once, the faster you just go straight. God mode.
- [06:44]
B
Yeah. And what is a. Was it a specific moment for you where it's like a switch, or was it cumulative?
- [06:49]
A
Yeah. So I spent three years in prison. That's something I'm starting to become more comfortable sharing. I was very intimidated about that story for a while because I just felt like people would judge me.
- [06:58]
B
A lot of shame, right?
- [06:59]
A
Not necessarily a lot of shame. It was me caring too much of what other people felt about me. I felt that other people's opinions of me actually mattered. I felt that I was that the validation that I either had or did not have actually corresponded or correlated to my potential success. And that was because I felt. I felt that I needed other people for my own survival. And until I started realizing that actually the sooner that I became conscious of the things I'm not good at was the sooner that I actually started to level the upper was actually the sooner I realized I didn't need anyone but myself. As I started to grow and cultivate and become a more conscious person and started to elevate both in business and in my. In my physical life and also my relationships. That level of independence, I used to call it you energy. I. I turn it around. So I used to think I needed everyone. You know, I was kind of programmed from an early age. So my mom, my mother was like, you're gonna go to college, you're gonna get a job, make sure you're dressing a certain way. You need to cut your hair, you need to do this. And it was always to appease other people. And what I realized was, is actually like, manners is actually one of like, you know, of course you want to be mindful of other people's space, which is just a level of self respect. As a matter of fact, the golden rule comes into play here. You treat other people that we want to be treated. As long as you adhere to that, there are no such thing as manners. Just be mindful of the fact that you wouldn't want to be treated a certain way. And as organically, you will treat people exactly the way they would want to be treated. Right. But other than that, the conditioning, the programming that goes into these idea of manners saying thank you, this, and that actually steals your divinity. Wow. And the Idea is for us to, to tap back into our inner divine and to have that self realization and to have that self recognition once again that we are actually the gods and everything else that people have been worshiping and speaking of throughout all of antiquity and throughout history.
- [08:38]
B
That's a fascinating take. I haven't heard that angle before. On manners. Yeah. We are taught that at a very young age.
- [08:43]
A
Yeah. And it's conditioning. And so you have to, if you want to level the fuck up, you have to literally take everything you knew and you have to dump it and relearn all of the rules. Explore new ways of communicating. Because you know what the most aggressive constructs are, the most limiting of them? Language. And if you don't have the ability to communicate yourself, guess what happens? The propensity for violence. You have no way of dissipating this energy and you're bottled up, you're uncomfortably being poked. And guess what happens? You give this kid an AK47, he's gonna go and just do it. Exactly what he needs to do. He's just trying to, he's trying to, he's trying to solve an inner problem and, and he has no other way of expressing it or doesn't have any, or doesn't have given, not even given opportunity to express himself in any way. And now you, you create a situation where there could be something explosive that could be like violence. This is where you see in third world countries. Now we're jumping around different subjects here, but you go to third world countries and there's the likelihood that you see there's a lot of violence, civil wars, there's a lot of, there's, you know, mass, mass control and you know, again leading back into violence. You, you have people that don't even understand the base of their own religions and belief systems because they're being spoon fed it and they're still experiencing the adversity of life and hunger and all these things. And you give them a weapon and what do you expect to happen? So come around full circle. The more effective we become at communicating, the more effective we become at gaining awareness of our actions. The more effective we are at recognizing when we are doing things that are out of integrity within ourselves. Is the sooner that we actually get to propel ourselves towards the goals that we ultimately want or the dreams that we aspire to have, or the ambition that we have that burns deeper deeply from our hearts. For me, as mentioned, it was prison. You know, it was before I went to prison. I was, you know, I was already on a I was already on like a decent, you know, positive inclination in my journey. I was already kind of starting to tap back, tap into this level of self awareness. Started realizing that the very. That the rules and the constructs that I had grown up adhering to and learning from and thinking were very standard and static and concrete, were actually literally just made of sand. And when that happened, I started to. My rebellious nature started to honestly even grow further. And I started getting deep into comparative religious studies and studying a lot of these ancient more in occult and esoteric teachings. And then I started, started realizing that a lot of the experiences that these people that were ultimately sharing these insights to the world were having were actually ones that are fairly intuitive. And actually you don't have to read a single book at all to actually come across and stumble across some of the greatest realizations of people study implicitly in a lot of these ancient texts. And when I started to have my own intuitive discernings and intuitive understandings of life, I started coming across the same exact realization I was having were actually being shared by like some of the greatest mathematicians and minds on the planet. And that's when I first started realizing that there's a level of insight and a level of creativity and there is something that we are all intimately connected with and that the information that we're all seeking to obtain to ultimately further our lives is actually something that is actually always present within ourselves. And this isn't just a metaphysical. This is like you remove the blockages and the stream just starts to flow.
- [11:45]
B
Wow.
- [11:47]
A
And that is ultimately what led up to meet my first brand as a matter of fact. And actually my first business come full circle. So I was basically. I got in trouble for the sales of LSD and dmt. Funny thing was, is that I actually wasn't distributing either. I was going, I was skating down the street and I got pulled over and for running a stop sign on my skateboard. I was living in Laguna beach, which is, you know, a very small town. And I was a kid in a knucklehead and the cops were just like, they're just gonna write me a ticket.
- [12:15]
B
Yeah, I've never heard of that. On a skateboard.
- [12:16]
A
Literally running a stop sign on a skateboard. As I was going down the hill, there was a car accident at the bottom of the hill and I had. I was at terminal velocity because I was bombing a hill. I'd gone down the same hill every single day. And there was like a really. It was like the only way that car accident could have happened is if two people were texting at the same time. Because it was in like a residential neighborhood, a very quiet street. And I literally couldn't jump off my board, you know, safely. And so I went through the car accident. The cops told me to stop. I ended up jumping off. I wasn't like, trying to evade by any means. It was like I. I came across the corner. Car accident, cops, what the. Boom, boom, boom. I jump off. And anyways, they were like, upset that I didn't jump off immediately. When I'm going, I don't even know, like, I don't know. 25 miles per hour.
- [12:52]
B
That's fast on a skateboard.
- [12:53]
A
I mean, I'm. I'm going on the higher end, you know, it was at a speed that, like, too fast to like jump and run, you know, right at the very end of the hill. And I sit down, no issues, while I was on probation. And I didn't tell the guy I was on probation. And so by default they searched me. And I had a sheet of LSD in my wallet and also a gram of dmt.
- [13:12]
B
Damn.
- [13:13]
A
And they. It was too much LSD for them to. To suggest that it was just for personal use, even though that was part of my own personal. That was what I was doing at the time. I was using LSD and I would study and I'd. You know, I was on if you can die. And that was just what. That was my practice. Do I recommend other people do that? Not necessarily, but everyone's on their own vision.
- [13:31]
B
I believe you were microdosing or.
- [13:32]
A
I was microdosing, yeah. I recommend everyone does exactly what they feel inspired to do, as long as it doesn't hurt other people. That's my belief system. And this goes back to the golden rule, you know. But anyways, that's what happened. And I had already kind of had a little bit of a, you know, a little. A little bit of a record. And so when that happened, they just threw the book at me like, oh, this little.
- [13:55]
B
Could you afford a good lawyer?
- [13:56]
A
Eight and a half.
- [13:57]
B
Oh, you got eight and a half.
- [13:59]
A
Eight and a half years.
- [14:00]
B
Jeez.
- [14:01]
A
And then I got sheet of lsd. Well, a couple with like, me being in and out and being a little knucklehead. And so that was. That was a point where my. The good lawyer couldn't save me anymore. Mama couldn't save me anymore. And when I went in, that's what I was anticipating. I'd get bailed out. It'd be a. I'd be fine. Nope, they hit me with $100,000 bail.
- [14:20]
B
Damn.
- [14:21]
A
And they guaranteed I couldn't get out. And so I actually almost did. And actually, my first mature decision was finally that I couldn't hurt my mother anymore, who was always unconditionally supportive, always has been. And I said, fuck it. I'm going to. This is. This is me. I'm on a slow journey. And that's when my journey started in that place. And I didn't get out for three years, three months after that day.
- [14:43]
B
Jeez.
- [14:43]
A
And it was. I was in. It was. Extremely violent environment. I weighed 140 pounds, barely exercised at all. Was fairly academic growing up, but I'd never been. You know, I was a. Definitely a black sheep in my family. No one in my family went to prison or jail. None of my friends. I grew up in a very good area, Pacific Palisades. A lot of people looked at me, and a lot of people's awareness of me shifted. So I was already kind of in my own little world. And now I was ostracized because I was totally in an anomaly compared to all my friends and the trajectory everyone else was on. Going to college and successful businesses and families. And that's where I went to school for, like. It was like Spartan training, basically. I ran with the white boys. Didn't know any of that meant they said when they walked in, they were like, southsider woods this. That. I was like, woods, you know, and
- [15:33]
B
so you look white enough for them.
- [15:34]
A
No, actually, I'm not. As a matter of fact, you know, I would have. If anything. You would have. I would have went other. Which is. Cause I'm Brazilian and I'm more of a mutt. But culturally, I'm more of like. I grew up in the west, you know, I grew up like a surf beach town. And so, like, I couldn't really align with the South Siders. They're all gang bangers and stuff. I couldn't really. So the white boys were just like, by default. They just happened to be a minority. And I didn't know any of this. So I'm in buildings where there's literally, you know, 60 South Siders, literal gang bangers, like, not a joke, like, from every gang you could think of, all stuck together. And then there's like 10 white boys. And then like. And then like, there's the paisanos, which are Mexicans, like, from Mexico that go to jail. Long story short, dude, when riots happen, it's like 20 versus like 60 fools that are, like, training every day are already doing gang banging. Stuff. And when I realized the severity of like, this is not a joke. Like, this is like actually something you have to be really mindful of because you're like, life is in danger. I started exercising every day, like just out of like literal fear.
- [16:30]
B
Yeah.
- [16:30]
A
And you know, a couple riots happen and things. I always got really lucky and I just started. And I started training every day and. And I experienced a full transformation in myself. I went full animal at one point when I started getting size and I realized that I was actually capable and strong. I started becoming like more of an aggressor. And I was like, all right, cool. If I can show up and show these guys that like, yeah, like we don't fuck with Christian. Which my name was in there was Buddha.
- [16:54]
B
Yeah. They'd be like, what a name.
- [16:56]
A
Yeah, I know. And that's. It's not something you give yourself. Other people give you that name. It's because I was reading the Dhammapada, I was reading the Tibetan Book of the Dead, I was reading the Upanishads, and I was really immersing myself in Eastern philosophy through the books. And so people just made that association started calling me Buddha. But long story short, they. It was. I was in Theo Lacey for some reason. Orange county, in spite of the fact it's one of like the nicest areas in California. It has the worst jails.
- [17:20]
B
Really.
- [17:20]
A
Even comparative to la, when you go up to prison, you have all of the like the main gang bangers and whatever are from Orange County.
- [17:26]
B
Wow.
- [17:26]
A
It's. It's, it's interesting. So I, you know, I was in a big riot. Scared the out of me. And after that I went on like a big solo mission in there. I started, I was continuing my education. One thing I didn't mention is I said naturopathic medicine. About 10 years. I continue my education there. I have journals about this thick. Studied every. Everything from quantum field theory to theory of relativity. I went through the entire evolution of mathematics from Euclidean geometry all the way up to like M Theory and really loves science. I got sacred geometry, love my body. I had had really very profound experiences using DMT and things of that nature that really, that were not ones that like there was nothing anyone could say to me after my. Some of my experiences that would ever shatter the things that I had first independently experienced that like, I'm talking like actually infinite consciousness.
- [18:18]
B
Holy.
- [18:19]
A
Like I had a DMT journey where I literally experienced a complete like unplugging and replugging like unplugging from the ego and Tapping into the entire collective consciousness to where like every idea that I had was intuitively like, like I had a question answered. Answered, answered. Wow. So after I'd experienced I was able to actually answer three questions. And this is like, I don't really care what I'm. This was my experience and this is what. And after that experience, I knew that there was way more to this existence than I could ever imagine. I was very airy fairy. This was like a very deep in the philosophy poetry because of these experiences I was having, because that GMC experience and I was unable to really ground it into me actually making progress here in the physical. But that's what prison had for me. Prison made me. Prison was like a battle of like spiritual energy versus physical because I had to be super physical. I like in there. People don't admire intellect. People don't give a if what you know. It comes down to how unpredictable you are. If you're highly hyper, hyper reactive. Males in there are the ones that are respected the most really. Like if you're just someone who'll just like take off on someone for no reason, you're going to be someone who's like. Because people are like, whoa. Because in there you're in boy school, there's no women.
- [19:31]
B
Yeah.
- [19:31]
A
Imagine a hundreds and hundreds of men all locked in a building. It's like literally. Have you heard of the Lord of Lord of Flies?
- [19:37]
B
I've read that book.
- [19:38]
A
All right, imagine that on with grown men that stopped aging at the age of 16. You're with 56 year old men that are literally acting like 16 year olds because they don't know anything else. They've been in prisons and jails their whole life. And everyone in there, it's dog eat dog. Like the only thing that matters is how much commissary you have, meaning how much money you have, Currency is food. And also to how physical, how physically strong you are and how unpredictable you are.
- [19:58]
B
Right.
- [19:58]
A
If you're unpredictable, you're strong and you have some money, you're. You're king in there.
- [20:02]
B
Did the money help you get by?
- [20:04]
A
Not well, I wasn't. I. I stopped using substances, like hard substances, but in there, like methamphetamine and all that was very, very common. And so I didn't have to buy or like do anything to necessarily. But what helped me get by was just staying in my lane fitness and ultimately just focusing on really mattered, which is personal development. And that's a great opportunity for a lot of people that they miss. And so I don't feel bad for anyone who goes to jail and they come out losers, that's on you. Then go fuck themselves. That's their problem.
- [20:28]
B
You got a lot of time to
- [20:29]
A
read books and you have so much time to do exactly what you want to do and what you think you should be, even if it's incorrect. You have so much time to develop. If you come out and you're still getting the same problems, that's your problem. Yeah, I honestly don't really have a lot of respect for homeless people that I see panhandling. I don't. I believe if there was like a mental health, mental health illness or something, it's hard to differentiate unfortunately because a lot of homeless people are, have self induced mental health issues because they're using substances. Their problem. I believe that men have a responsibility to take care of themselves. And I believe firmly the divine masculine is dying because the divine masculine is being watered the down. Women are having to fill the role of men and women by default are losing their femininity which is actually another major issue for society 100%. Because the divine feminine is the point of inspiration in the point of intuit, is the point of intuition. It's actually the point of creativity. And when women are having to fill those jobs of men and men are becoming like more feminine and not to mention the diets and all these things are corresponding to these hormonal imbalances that are starting at young ages. Our genetic, I'm not, you know, I don't sound like a freaking like a Nazi over here but like our genetic pool is becoming contaminated with genes that should never even existing to begin with in our like blindness, down syndrome, things of that nature which it happens organically and everyone has the opportunity to thrive and to survive and to do their thing. But let's be honest here, some of these genetics should not be like they would have already. They the way that the nature has been, has, is designed is that if these genes are favored and they're unfavorable in an environment you die off. That doesn't happen anymore. As a matter of fact, a lot of these really weak inherent genes that are unfavorable towards like for survival are being favored nowadays. And so I don't want to go down the rabble because it's very controversial. But the long story short, there's a watering down of society and it comes down to people like us. And there's different ways of expressing masculinity. It doesn't have to be through violence, doesn't have to be through Strength doesn't have to be through control, doesn't have to be through breaking things. But there's ways of expressing a healthy masculinity and being inspiration to others that can really ignite and reignite creativity. Because like the ancient philosophers said, you have. Like the. For example, you have like the twin torches of Mithras, you have the twin pillars of Hercules, you have the alchemist stones, you have the black and the white, you have the sword and the shield. What. What are these? Allegorical Metamorph. Metam. Metamorph.
- [22:59]
B
I don't. Metamorphical.
- [23:00]
A
Yeah, metamorphical representations of the divine, the masculine and the femininity in unison. Is the. Is creates the embodied being, which is the God, man or woman. Right. It's the philosopher king. It's the sword and the shield. Like that is the highest level of embodiment is the philosopher king. That's like the Marcus Aurelius, for example.
- [23:18]
B
Right. So is your goal with the company to kind of help females find their femininity and males find their masculine.
- [23:24]
A
100%. It is to unify through synergy. So synergizing the. Both the masculine, the feminine understanding that synergy and relationships create the essence of the material universe, both from a quantum standpoint, all the way through the physical universe. In our relationships that subatomic particles have with one another, that create the elementary building blocks that give rise to atoms, the relationships the various atomic structures and nuclei have with one another give rise to the formation of molecules. The formation of molecules in different configurations give rise to the elements. Take it back to the molecular structures. Different molecules, different configurations create the basis of cells and organic life. These things structure in different configurations and expressions create different organs and tissues. And going up in these different scales all the way up until where we are, where we're these embodied beings of divinity. But we are the manifestations of really complex relationships. Now, there are relationships that could be constructive and there could be relationships that could be destructive, which actually, funny enough, there are two different. There are two principles in the universe that are always prevalent, the constructive and destructive principles. There is no in between. There's no such thing as. As. As idle.
- [24:33]
B
You can have both.
- [24:35]
A
Both is the essence of life. The question is, where are the balances of the scales leaning towards? You can overcome the trajectory of karma, which is the. The essentially the law of cause and effect.
- [24:49]
B
You can overcome that, you said easily.
- [24:51]
A
Yeah, you can.
- [24:52]
B
Even past life, karma, it's.
- [24:53]
A
Well, it's possible. Yeah. It's called. It's called transmuting.
- [24:55]
B
You're hacking the matrix.
- [24:57]
A
I mean, but we all have the ability. So we're all gods, right? Yeah. And so we're all embodiments of mind. And mind is eternal and infinite. And the only limitations is we put upon ourselves. And it's not just some bullshit that we get to talk about. And it sounds good on paper. This is something that, if applied in practice, could actually lead you up. And give it to where someone like me, who had no money, completely broke, fucking basically homeless. Thank God my mom supported me. I had a criminal record. People looked at me like I was total piece of shit. Don't blame them. Was able to start a company selling juices door to door during COVID and was able to scale it using food stamp money and be able to independently fund all my own ideas. And I have two brands. One of them is a baby. The other one's extremely successful and very well known. And I have now amazing relationships Sitting here at a podcast with you, and people contacted me, want to do this and do that, and now I get to actually become finally the architect of my own life.
- [25:45]
B
Wow. What a star, man. So you were door to door during
- [25:48]
A
COVID Yeah, that's how I started. So basically I got out, I had $200 worth of gate money, and they also put me on food stamps. And I went on this app called Nextdoor. Heard of it. Next door is basically a way that you can go and connect with your community. You put in. You basically put in your zip code, and they'll send you a letter in the mail. And that's how you could basically get onto this platform because they want to keep it like, zip code specific. And you put in your little, you know, login the little code they put in. And next, you know, you're like, tapped in your community. While I was in Laguna Beach, I noticed that these trees, you know, so you move into a house, there's a fucking, you know, blood orange tree. The first year, maybe two, you know, you're picking it like crazy. And eventually it's like the tree is there. You're not juicing as much. All of a sudden they start falling and all of a sudden become a nuisance. You got blood oranges laying in your car all over. Rats are coming in, eating the shit. A lot of people are like, dude, this fucking citrus trees are fucking pain in the ass. And I noticed that there were trees around Laguna that were just untouched. Citrus just happened to be one of the most expensive items in the grocery store. And I needed citrus for my juices, especially the green drinks I was using my food stamp money to buy, like kale, because kale is actually very inexpensive. You can like a dollar, two dollars for a head of kale, but kale is disgusting unless you pair it with citrus. Also, from what my studies have taught me, that if you do not introduce a vitamin C component, the actual nutrients that are rich in these leafy greens are not bioavailable.
- [27:12]
B
Wow, thanks for clarifying that, because people think kale's a superfood.
- [27:15]
A
Kale can be a superfood if it's paired correctly with other things. Just like all other things, these relationships matter. So Hermetica, for example, my new brand, is a company that was built off of the foundation of synergy relationships. It's about understanding the dynamics between various plant medicines and combining them in an intentional, constructive way so that you could use less of the active and get an increase in bioavailability. A perfect example of this is black pepper in turmeric. Okay. If you are using turmeric therapeutically without black pepper, you are losing literally about 400% of the potential that you could be. It's.
- [27:54]
B
Damn, look at this morning for inflammation.
- [27:57]
A
Look at these. Look at the number of how much turmeric is more bioavailable. When you add a literal pinch of black pepper, it is substantial.
- [28:07]
B
Wow.
- [28:07]
A
It's not. It's. It's not. It's not like, oh, maybe 1 or 2%. It's hundreds of percent. The 400% was an estimation that I made. It's. It's. It's more than 200% of an increase. Let me just start by there. When I learned that, I asked myself, what other things do that? I used to smoke splits all the time when I was a kid. He's like, bong rips of tobacco and weed. If you smoke a bong rip of weed by itself, it's kind of clear. Can it be baked? Yeah, you had a little bit of tobacco. It's a whole nother fucking world. And it's. And you can't even experience that just with tobacco either, right?
- [28:39]
B
Yeah. So, yeah, I used to smoke backwards.
- [28:42]
A
There we go. You know, you smoke a blunt versus just a joint, It's a total different dynamic. You get hit with this, like, really, like, lethargic feeling, but then it comes out very euphoric. And then after that, you're stoned.
- [28:51]
B
Yeah.
- [28:52]
A
Versus it's just by itself. Right. So that's really the drug dealer. And all this kind of comes together. So I'm learning. I'm just. And I'm just. I really. What it comes down to is pattern recognition. I'm just seeing the patterns and I'm just understanding things. And I'm ultimately doing this all for me. That selfishness I was telling you about manifested as me becoming probably one of the most. Probably healed more people than I even realized. I'm talking from being selfish, being very selfish. You know what I call it? Being selflessly selfish.
- [29:14]
B
Wow.
- [29:14]
A
So if you're selflessly selfish, then you could do whatever the fuck you want. But as long as you're not hurting other people in the process, you're probably going to be a major point of inspiration that's can probably change more people's lives than you could even imagine.
- [29:25]
B
Wow, that's an interesting take. Because people demonize being selfish, you just
- [29:29]
A
can't hurt people in the process.
- [29:30]
B
Right? That's the difference.
- [29:31]
A
Yeah, it's the only. That's the only prerequisite. Back to that golden rule.
- [29:34]
B
So if you're just selfish, but no one's being harmed, that could be used. Could be used for good.
- [29:38]
A
Deep down, man, the people that are more critical are people that wish they embody the same things that you had.
- [29:43]
B
Yeah.
- [29:43]
A
That's all it comes down to. So come full circle. So Hermetica basically implements synergy. I literally and for personal reasons, I use a tenth of the amount of Actives that all these other brands are doing.
- [29:54]
B
Wow. That's it. Even in these.
- [29:57]
A
Even in these.
- [29:58]
B
One tenth and same effect.
- [30:00]
A
More. Geez, I'm saving money. My packaging looks insane because I get to boast all these superfoods, but I'm saving money. Introduce having a greater effect on the outcome. And people are super impressed by the formulations, but they're actually very intuitive and very easy. So in the west, we are not taught anything about naturopathic medicine at all. Yeah, we're not. As a matter of fact, in the west, we're talking about symptom relieving. That's it. Including doctors.
- [30:26]
B
Yeah.
- [30:26]
A
They go to school. A large percentage of their curriculum is around pharmacopia. Understanding how different chemicals and whatnot actually influence one another, just so that there's not any chemical reactions in the body that can kill someone when they prescribe them some medication.
- [30:38]
B
Right.
- [30:39]
A
From my understanding, it's like what, a semester of nutrition or something?
- [30:43]
B
If that.
- [30:43]
A
Yeah, it's pretty pathetic. So the likelihood of someone born and raised in the United States with the standard Western curriculum leaving college and starting a superfood company is very unlikely. That's why it's a Very uncompetitive space. There's not a lot of people like me running around because it's just uncommon. You have to be born in the east or if you even make it here, you know, then have the amount of money to start your own company marketing and this and that. The likelihood is is that there's not that many people that are be doing this. That's why you don't see a lot of in the. And the people that do have enough money to get in the industry are in the health and wellness space, which is massive. 95% of people, by the way, selfish oil, including a lot of people here. This, A lot of people, they. They won't even get the opportunity to fully experience the full potential of what they could create. Because why? Because their products suck.
- [31:33]
B
Yeah.
- [31:34]
A
And so this is what I was telling you when we come up the stairs. My business model right now is give to receive. Right. For very selfish reasons, I give my product out for free. Why? Because my products are fire. They, you do, you have them and you will experience something tangible and something noticeable.
- [31:51]
B
It speaks for itself.
- [31:52]
A
It speaks for itself. If your product sucks, do not gift it for free.
- [31:55]
B
Yup. Product and services goes for both. You need to deliver value or else there's no point. It's going to be impossible to market. Your costs are going to be way higher.
- [32:04]
A
Way higher. It's going to take a lot longer. And not to mention too, the potential for. To experience more resistance and adversity is even heightened. So, you know, but and also on top of that too, I think a lot of people, when they get into business, they are stuck with many partners. A lot of people don't even have the full creative freedom to operate their own business the way that they like to. And I think there's a lot of good business owners out there that honestly really want to do something and make an impact in a constructive way. But they're watered down or they're completely muted by 100. They only care about margins.
- [32:33]
B
That was my issue for a while. Now I just stay solo, which is hard.
- [32:37]
A
You know, there's a. There's identity crisis that comes along with that.
- [32:39]
B
Oh yeah.
- [32:40]
A
But then there's a remembrance that comes on the back end.
- [32:42]
B
Yeah, yeah. It's a, it's a lonely journ.
- [32:44]
A
Entrepreneurship, it's a lonely journey, but it doesn't need to be.
- [32:47]
B
Yeah, well, these days there's more access to information, I think. But when we were starting, it was kind of like short, like hard to find people to relate with if that Makes sense, you know.
- [32:56]
A
Yeah. And then you start to second guess yourself.
- [32:58]
B
Yeah. Because it wasn't cool to start companies 10 years ago.
- [33:01]
A
No. If anything, you're exactly the opposite. People wanted you to become an employee.
- [33:05]
B
Yeah.
- [33:05]
A
And if you weren't on that prerogative because everyone else was. I think it's still like that today, bro. I think that there's just more power to the people right now. And this is a great opportunity for everyone, both men and women, to put themselves in a position to level the up, try things that are different. If I were to give any suggestions. Start exercising every single day. Does not matter what you do, does not matter where you are. You do not have to go to a gym. Start to train every single day for 20 minutes. Do something. Because doesn't matter if you're fat, doesn't matter if you're, if you're lazy. All those conditions are going to organically dissipate. Don't compare yourself to anyone else and just strive to level the up 100.
- [33:42]
B
Christian. Where can people get the products, man?
- [33:45]
A
So you could find all of my Hermetica products@hermetica superfoods.com we have some amazing, amazing, amazing things coming. I've done things with some of the more exotic superfoods that no one has ever done before. I really strive to really provide the end consumer and unprecedented experience at my expense. I do not have any partners, I am privately funded and so I don't have to fucking listen to anyone else to say and I'm choosing to make sure the end consumer wins. Why? For selfish reasons. I'm selling a retail good and I my products, they're high quality products. I get. My margins are great and in my opinion, if your margins are great and you're still milking the end consumer, you're just a piece of shit. And not to mention too, I have plenty of ample margins to be able to actually provide the end consumer an amazing experience because they exist.
- [34:32]
B
Right.
- [34:33]
A
And so, and I don't have to take any considerations or insights from anyone. So I double down on having high quality packaging. I double down on using the most exotic ingredients I could find. I travel all over the world as a matter of fact, sourcing greetings from Bali to South Africa to Nepal, Brazil, Peru. And at the end of the day, cream rises to the top. So just like you said, you saw me out here passing out samples. I'll do that all day, you know, and there's actually me giving someone a sticker to me makes me more excitement and more joy because I know what the what it takes to build a brand and it's this subtle drip and it's this non stop thing. So if your CEO out there and you're not passing out samples, step your game up. You know what I mean?
- [35:10]
B
You're the only one here doing that, by the way. You're walking around, founder of a huge company just handing out samples. Yeah, that's cool, man. Thanks for coming on. Awesome. Check them out guys. We'll link the stuff below. Thanks for watching all the way to the end, guys. It means a lot. Please click here if you want to watch the next episode and please subscribe to the show. It helps us get more guests and helps grow the brand.