Loading summary
Transcript184 lines
- [00:00]
Mickey Agarwal
911 happened. I was supposed to be there underneath two wheelchair at 9 11. And it was the only single day in my life that I slept through my alarm clock. 700 people in my girlfriend's office died. Two people in my office died. It was one of the craziest days of my life where I woke up and I was like late for work and I was just like, I was like trying to get a car service to take me to my office and all the lines were busy and I was so confused. I didn't know what was happening. It was just like, wow, like all these people went to work and 3,000 people never left.
- [00:28]
Host
A month ago I get convinced to go on this, like, and I take whatever the fuck a full bloom is. I don't know what a full bloom is. Full cup and laying down blindfolded and I swear it's just talking to me. And it's not telling me to do anything or be anything or anything else. It's just asking me questions like, hey, well, do you believe that life is a gift from God? Yeah. Well, isn't death a part of life for every living being? Doesn't every living being die? And I'm like, well, yeah, well, his soul maybe doesn't. But then if that's the case, if you really fear death, then you worship life, not God. Where's your wisdom? All right guys, welcome back to Problem to Profit. So in the podcasting space, you generally do like several episodes a day if you can get them in, because you kind of want to create a podcast bank and have those episodes, you do your weekly releases. And my team likes to like over schedule me. So they're like over scheduling me for this day when my voice is already, and I'm already like out of breath and, and they're like, hey, you know, like we got one more guest. And and they're so smart. They put this guest last cuz they know I would have said no. They know I wanted to go home to my kids and like hang out with my wife and like do all the fun that I, I, I'm missing surfing for this guest and it's so worth it. Like, I was like, hey guys, I don't want to do a third show. When I see it pop up on my calendar, I'd rather do two a day cuz I'm bougie and I'm spoiled and I'm rich and I'm allowed to be. I'm privileged, I earned it. Leave me alone, right? And they're like, she invented tushy. And I'm like, what? She invented a brand of bidets. I was like, oh, my God. I literally put bidets in every fucking house I build so that people have less shitty problems. We have a, we have a fucking theme in our world. Like, like, we have a sign out front. We reserve the right to refuse service to assholes. That's in front of every model home. And then when you get the tour, you realize it's just dirty. And I was like, tushy. A bidet manufacturer, she's got to be amazing. But, like, that wasn't even all. Like, she's like, invented an American made bidet product. She's also found a way to maybe save the world, which we're going to get into in a minute. Because, like, there's a way that she's working on breaking down plastics with a new company called Hero, which is awesome. She created a product that I'm far less interested in. Like, I could care less, but I'm sure my wife would think it was awesome. It's like a type of panties.
- [02:45]
Mickey Agarwal
Underwear.
- [02:45]
Host
Underwear that, like, you, you know, if you're on your cycle. I've never had this, but I'm. I'm trying to speak for women. Sorry. Beautiful. And, you know you can just bleed into them. Right like that. Did I say great? I'm doing good. Okay. Am I advertising?
- [02:58]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah. Millions have been sold. It's. It's changed the whole conversation for women. Yeah.
- [03:03]
Host
But on top of that, she's a leader. She's a thought leader. She's a social entrepreneur. She's, she's, she's innovative. Like, even, like when she walks into a room and like, she walked in on the phone, I'm hearing her conversation. She's innovating something new. She's just, like, got this, like, natural creativity about her. It was so kind of like, all right, I'm going to stay late. I'm going to do this episode. If I got to pay for more time at the studio, fuck it. Let's go. Like, I'm totally inspired to meet this girl. Mickey Agarwal. Welcome to Problems to Profit. I am so excited to have you on. Like, just so you know, like, in my life, if I say I'm more interested in hanging out with you than surfing, like, you're like, you're like, top five.
- [03:38]
Mickey Agarwal
Listen, I get it. I so get it. I also was just like, all right, I'm here to meet this guy. I could have gone home to my kid, too, but I was like, I want to meet this guy too also.
- [03:50]
Host
When crazy people meet Namaskar, you know.
- [03:54]
Mickey Agarwal
You live here in Austin.
- [03:55]
Host
We have a house in New Braunfels. Like, our businesses and all that are in El Paso.
- [04:00]
Mickey Agarwal
Okay. Oh, cool.
- [04:01]
Host
Now with the podcast taking off, I guess I'm everywhere.
- [04:04]
Mickey Agarwal
Like, you should come to my house at some point with the fam. We'll feed you a meal.
- [04:08]
Host
That sounds. So you said you're half Indian and half Japanese, right? Like, is that the cooking theme too?
- [04:15]
Mickey Agarwal
Like, oh, my God, sushi.
- [04:17]
Host
That fusion sounds amazing.
- [04:19]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah. Oh, yeah, It's a thing.
- [04:21]
Host
Oh, my God. Can we, like, fuck the show?
- [04:23]
Mickey Agarwal
I know we can make it happen.
- [04:24]
Host
Let's go.
- [04:25]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah. Down.
- [04:27]
Host
I'm so glad you came on.
- [04:29]
Mickey Agarwal
Same.
- [04:29]
Host
So I don't know what Theresa told you about the show, because I know she's your friend. She's my friend. She's kind of that mutual friend that helps me meet all the guests. But we are not PC. We want to dive way deep into you and just kind of figure out how did you get to multi bestselling authority launching companies and exiting companies, like, creating socially conscious companies that, like, might just change the world and, like, save people for generations. Like, you. You just started there. You were born with all this, and everything has been perfect the whole time. No, right?
- [05:05]
Mickey Agarwal
Oh, no.
- [05:06]
Host
Take us kind of from, like, it's. It's fun to, like, see the story, like, at the ending and judge it and be like, okay, well, you know what? She's this beautiful lady with a really cool style, and she's done all this cool. And then, like, people watch it and they're like, I hate her. Like, so, like, take us to the kind of.
- [05:19]
Mickey Agarwal
The beginning. That's. That's why I clean the shit, because I've been through it.
- [05:25]
Host
I love the bidet references.
- [05:26]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah.
- [05:27]
Host
So punny.
- [05:27]
Mickey Agarwal
I know. No, literally, I have. I actually also have podcasts. I'll bring you on at some point. I just did it. It was a podcast test, but it's called Edge of My Seat. And the idea of it was like, you know, it's like going from the shittiest, darkest moment of your life to cleaning it up. Kind of like a bidet metaphor, you know, so it's really. What did you do to clean up the shit? It's kind of. Yeah, So I get it. I love it. Yeah. I mean, I grew up half Japanese, half Indian, and my mom came from Japan with, like, a very heavy, hello, I'm from Japan accent. And my dad came from India and, you know, very, you know, Indian accent, you know, came with $5 in his pocket and really built the American dream for us. But I think what was so special was that, you know, both cultures came, both sides. My parents, my mom and dad came here. No family, so they had three of us. And our unit was like the single family household. And I think what was so powerful about growing up was we just got to debate all the time. It was never one perspective that was right. There was a Japanese perspective. There was an Indian perspective. There was a French Canadian perspective. There was the American perspective. So we got to. There was no, like, this is the way it is. We got to really argue and, you know, and learn how to argue constructively. And so I think as we became entrepreneurs, it was sort of like, oh, this doesn't feel like it's. Come on. Wiping your ass with dry paper and killing 15 million trees per year and just smearing around and sitting on fecal matter. Is that really the best way? There's got to be a better way. Like, bleeding everywhere into a thick pad or putting a white thing in your body that you then have to discard of and ends up in a landfill that takes hundreds of years to break down. Like, ridiculous. You know, babies going through millions of diapers. Like, you know, like, 18 million diapers end up in landfills every year. I mean, like, these things are like, there's gotta be a better way. And so I think I just grew up with parents basically allowing us to, like, dream of better ways.
- [07:26]
Host
I love that. And. And just the filter that. That comes through of, like, this culture. This culture. This culture, this culture. I mean, like, all the different frames that you're able to kind of perspect on this from, like. And it creates an openness where you can really ideate in a different way. Like, yeah, what an interesting cultural blend to kind of bring in the entrepreneurial spirit. I love that. So growing up, like, when. When. When did the entrepreneurial bug hit? Like, I mean, I love the adventure of, okay, well, like, we're first generation. We're coming here. I'm marrying somebody outside of my culture, which I think for both Japanese and certainly Indian is a huge. No, no.
- [08:06]
Mickey Agarwal
1974, there was, like, no interracial marriages, let alone any Japanese. My mom's parents disowned her when she married the Indian man. My dad's side, an arranged marriage set for him, which would have set up his family, but he chose to marry this woman for love. I mean, it was a lot of, like, crazy disruption that they were disruptors in and of them, you know, themselves in the in the 70s to make it happen.
- [08:29]
Host
I mean, I know better than most. Like, I mean, look, so my favorite food, like, full disclosure, Indian food, Japanese food is also awesome. But Indian food is like the spice.
- [08:38]
Mickey Agarwal
The.
- [08:39]
Host
Yeah. And I didn't know that until I was dating this lovely Indian doctor. And we, we, we had like. She is not who I wound up marrying. Probably because of this story. Sorry, lady, I won't mention your name. I don't want to embarrass you, but like, one day, like, everything's going swimmingly. Like, I mean, great food, great person, great everything. Hey, my mom's visiting. You need to like, you know, pretend you live downstairs in the other bedroom. I told her you're my gay friend. And I'm like, you said what? I'm what? Yeah, you could stay, but you're my gay friend. So if she asks, you're gay and we're not dating. And I was like, oh, hell no. Like, and, and, and I, I was like American through and through. Like, I know I didn't understand anything cultural. And then she starts explaining like this arranged marriage thing that's like up to.
- [09:29]
Mickey Agarwal
She was like from India.
- [09:30]
Host
Like, she was first gen. Wow. Like, and you know, she was really young when they came over. But like, I had no idea. And like to, it's, it's as a young man who's like, I get it. Not used to that you, you don't even know how to be respectful of that. I did my best, but the relationship didn't last after that because being the gay friend was not on my list of things to do that day. But it was, it was so profound that this like forward thinking, brilliant woman, I mean she had come here and self made and become a doctor and everything. Like she's, she'd found a way to break through everything but the cultural barriers to like, who she was allowed to date in another city. And as soon as it was like she was going to get known for it by her family.
- [10:12]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah.
- [10:12]
Host
I went with her when her mom was in town because I was morbidly curious. And what was the guy's name? Like there was this like professor at UTEP who her mom had interacted with. She didn't know about it. And I was going house hunting since I was a real estate agent at the time and helping them look with the guy that the professor guy wanted her to marry his kid and her mom and her. And they don't know I'm fucking her when they're not there. And I'm like, this is the weirdest shit ever. So your parents were already pioneering as hell. Like if they, they're breaking the marriage game outside of traditions at an extreme level and they're going to a new country.
- [10:54]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah.
- [10:54]
Host
With its own crazy forward thinking way.
- [10:56]
Mickey Agarwal
Totally super insightful. Those are very real truths. And individually were no small feat. Just. But then all those extra layers of just finding each other, marrying each other in a different country, staying in Canada, not even speaking French, being in Montreal, it was a, it was a lot of, of things of bra. A lot of bravery on both their parts. And so, yeah, I definitely forged a, you know, unique path. And, and you know, I went to Monday to Friday French school, Saturday Japanese school and Sunday Hindi school. My parents tricked us into believing that we went, every kid went to school seven days a week. And so we thought like that was normal, but certainly wasn't. But yeah, it definitely informed us to become entrepreneurs. And I think one of the things that, you know, convinced both my, my twin sister and myself to become entrepreneurs is that, you know, you're like, you're not my Indian father. Don't tell me what to do. I'm sure you're the same, unemployable, you're probably not a very good employee. And so it's sort of like, you know, like I was very bad at taking orders, especially from people who I didn't respect. And so it was very, very challenging for me. And so I just, like, I just couldn't. I. It was like the only option was to become an entrepreneur. To be honest.
- [12:08]
Host
Yeah, I think I resemble that remark. But my, you know, I had a little criminal record. Like I, I got out of the air force for punching a cop.
- [12:17]
Mickey Agarwal
Oh.
- [12:17]
Host
And so, you know, you do that once and it's, it's not great for your job prospects. So like I had like waiter, contractor or entrepreneur. So I mean I tried all three and I did waiter and the money sucked. Or maybe I sucked at it. I don't know, maybe both. And then I did the contractor and I found out shingles were really heavy. Yeah, I don't have broad shoulders. And, and so now I'm a, I'm an entrepreneur that does construction.
- [12:41]
Mickey Agarwal
That's cool.
- [12:42]
Host
And just a merger.
- [12:43]
Mickey Agarwal
Right? That's great.
- [12:44]
Host
With a problem with authority, obviously.
- [12:46]
Mickey Agarwal
Well, you know, it's like what Steve Jobs said. You can't connect the dots looking for, but you can connect them looking back. So like waiting is like really understanding service. Then you became real estate broker. You got into the home business. That requires a deep amount of like understanding how to serve others. And so it feels like that connection led you to, you know, where you are today in a beautiful way.
- [13:06]
Host
Absolutely.
- [13:07]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah.
- [13:08]
Host
It all seems like a tragedy sometimes at the moment. And then you get. And you're like, oh, that's an amazing ingredient.
- [13:13]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah.
- [13:15]
Host
So we've got mom and dad coming from completely different walks. We've got young Mickey, problem with authority, realizing that this openness and this ability to perspect in a multicultural way with a bunch of very intelligent human beings holding her to a very high standard, and then kind of getting a little disgusted by all the regular normal people that were living in their stupid robot mode is what I call it. And they're just not. They don't have the level of common sense or perspective that you have even at a younger age. And you don't know how to respect or follow that leadership. And you're like, well, fuck this. I have to be an entrepreneur. How old are you at this point?
- [13:54]
Mickey Agarwal
24. 23? Yeah, 23. 24. When I kind of started working, I basically. So I worked in investment banking. When I graduated from college, I went to Cornell and I graduated. And in 2000, I worked investment banking. My subway stop was 2 World Trade center, and 911 happened. I was supposed to be there underneath 2 World Trade center at 9 11. And it was the only single day in my life that I slept through my alarm clock. 700 people in girlfriend's office died. Two people in my office died. It was one of the craziest days of my life where I woke up and I was, like, late for work. And I was just like. I was trying to get a car service to take me to the office and all the lines were busy, and I was so confused. I didn't know what was happening. And so I finally was, like, calling this car service coming to pick me up. And then it just kept. Finally someone picked up. And then I just was like, I need a car to go to my office. And the guy was like, what? Turn your TV on? Click. And so then I was like, what? You know, out of context, you're like, we have no idea. And so I finally was like, well, no one's picking up. All the lines are busy. I turned my TV on and I saw the two towers, like, on fire. And I was just like, holy shit. And it was like in that moment that I realized that the mystery of life is you never know when it's gonna end. Like, the time was absolutely in that moment to make every breath count. And, like, I could have been one of those People jumping off the two World trade going to work like a normal day and people were jumping off the building just to save themselves from getting burned alive. And it was just like, just one of those crazy moments. And I actually was the only one who volunteered from Deutsche bank to go into my building while it was still kind of smoldering with a Marine with a gas mask, two moon suits, goggles and a face mask and a flashlight to go and retrieve critical documents for the group. And me and Marine went in. I was a D1 athlete, so I could basically I was like, I'm small, I'm, I'm wire. I can like 20. I can go in and retrieve all the do I just want to see with my own eyes. I had a bit of like, you know, like whatever guilt, you know, for, for not being there. And so I want to be there and at least help in any way that I could. And it was a crazy wait.
- [15:53]
Host
You felt guilt in that moment?
- [15:56]
Mickey Agarwal
Well, just for like not being. I was just like, whoa, like, you know, survivor's guilt for a little like, you know.
- [16:01]
Host
Yeah, that's why I'm asking. I mean it's just.
- [16:03]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah. There was just like, wow, like all these people went to work and 3,000 people never left and it was like. And they were just going to work and it really wild and I felt like helpless at the time. So I was like, I was the only volunteer to go in to volunteer. I was the only. I was like out of the entire bank somehow. And so I had to go to asbestos training physical fitness test. I had to do mass fitting class. I do a whole training to go in with a Marine, meet them at base camp and go in to the building. I had nine pages of critical documents from the bank to go and retrieve these critical documents for the bank, for the multi billion dollar bank. It was pretty crazy. Yeah. I got a Colnago bicycle as a gift and I sold it and then bought myself a MacBook laptop. And that's when I quit. And I then became a professional. I went to play for the New York Magic soccer team and tried out and made the team, made a starting lineup and then subsequently had a couple of ACL tears. And then. And then worked in the film business. Kind of lots of different, you know, again you can connect the dots looking back. You can't connect them looking forward. But then I, I was working in the film business. I really was curious about storytelling. And then from that point I was eating shitty craft service food on the table at the, you know, different productions and I would eat pizza was free and whatever, paying off student loans. I was just eating free food and kept having stomachaches, going home, eating pizza all the time. And then I just looked it up and was like, oh my God. Pizza is a $32 billion industry. Americans eat a hundred acres of pizza every single day. And yet it was made with bleach, flour, processed cheese, like all this stuff. And so I just was like, I'm gonna create New York City's alternative pizza concept. And that was my first business in 25. This year is gonna be our 20 year anniversary, November of this year of having my restaurants be open. It's called wild. Check out eatdrinkwild.com and go to wild eat drinkdrinkwild on Instagram and it's eatdrinkwild.com yeah. Or @ordrinkwild on Instagram is better. You can see the food porn there. And we're the New York City's first gluten free restaurant. We specialize in gluten free pizza. We're the first gluten, 100% gluten free restaura pretty much in New York City. And. And then that was like the foray in entrepreneurship. And so I did that for seven years. I learned about people, learned about service, learned about stood outside my restaurants handing out little bites of pizza, trying to ab test lines and of what would people come and make people take a bite. And it was just like so much of my entrepreneurial learning happened just standing outside my restaurant handing out free pizzas to people. And then I went to start, and I started then after I started Thinx, which then.
- [18:38]
Host
Hold on, I have a, I have a question. Not, not just for you, because I'm loving your story. Like, this is just such a delicious story. I mean, talk about wow moments and the ups and downs. I don't know if I've had time to recover from some of the roller coaster moments. Like, I'm still a little bit on the 911 thing, but like, wow. Yeah, awesome. You had this like education at Cornell. You're literally, I mean, you're coming from an Asian family. And at least like, like the perspective on the Asian family. Like most Asian families, like, they're like, go be a doctor, go be a lawyer. Like, you know, go be an engineer. Like, but there's a very kind of rigid follow the path. You and your sister wind up in the entrepreneurship realm, even though you, you went through some of the standardized, like, like accepted paths of being highly trained to be an employee. And then Almost as if. And, and you know, I call it God. I don't know. Anybody else can call it whatever they want. But like, God's like, you're not going to be an employee. You're going to sleep to your alarm clock and I'm going to end this opportunity for you to work here this way.
- [19:32]
Mickey Agarwal
That's it.
- [19:33]
Host
And then you tried to go play soccer. You're like, fine, I'll be an employee athlete. No, you won't. Here's your ACL hurting.
- [19:39]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah.
- [19:41]
Host
And, and, and then you just have this like, pizza's like, the industry's this big and it's shit. Yeah, I could do something better. And you've had a restaurant for 20 years now. Yeah, but you literally, you went to school to be an employee. You were taught to be an employee. You were, you were engineered to think unlike an employee by your family and this mix of cultural, like, patterns and ways to look at things. But then it's almost like you went to school to follow this path and then you unschooled yourself with pizza. That's so awesome.
- [20:16]
Mickey Agarwal
So funny. It's like the sticky thing. Yeah, it's great.
- [20:20]
Host
I mean, I love pizza. So like, this is like a perfect journey.
- [20:23]
Mickey Agarwal
No, no, it's like gluten free. It's like cauliflower crust, crunchy thin crust with like the best sauces that's sweetened by carrots and onions, not sweetened by sugar, which pretty much every pizza shop puts tons of sugar to cut the acid of the sauce. We use fresh carrots and fresh cut onions to slow caramelize the sauce and sweeten it. And then, and then put our tomatoes in there. And then our cheese comes from literally organic farms, local. And then all of our toppings are organic, local, seasonal. And it's like, you know, pizza's considered a thalamus food, a brain food. And if you actually like, the reason why people crave it is because it has all the food groups if done right. But if you're putting bleach, flour, processed cheese, sugar filled sauces, processed toppings, all this trash in your body, it's like counterproductive to what your actually body wants. But you think you want it, but then it's full of and then just creates inflammation and whatever. And so it's sort of like, can you create America's favorite pastime that people love so much, but make it the best possible version of it? And this is, by the way, in 2005 when people were like eating Subway sandwich, no one was thinking about gluten free farm table Local seasonal. That was like not a conversation. People are like, yuck, pizza. That's gluten. I'm never gonna eat that. Yeah.
- [21:29]
Host
You're very early adopter to kind of the health food industry.
- [21:32]
Mickey Agarwal
Yes. And across all I think one, you know, like I would say a gift would be like seeing around the corner before. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a thing. And I think you know, for, for thanks and for Tushy and for now Hero. You know, like being able to see around the corner before has been like, sort of like, you know, tuning in.
- [21:52]
Host
You know, there's a gift and a curse in that because like and, and.
- [21:55]
Mickey Agarwal
I think first you can also fail. You know, for sure.
- [21:58]
Host
You, you seem to have the wisdom and the perspective to see around the corner, but not too far around the corner. Like there's probably things I bet if we dove into it that you're actually waiting on, you know, because there's just times where it's not the right time there yet. You don't want to be necessarily always the first. It's. You want to be on time faster than everybody else.
- [22:18]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah.
- [22:18]
Host
But not necessarily first.
- [22:21]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah. Unless you like, unless you make it cool, you know. And I think like, you know like I, I, yeah, I think like health foods, the thought of health foods was a thing in the 70s, 80s. It was still like 90s. It was still early. But it's like, how do you like. This is where I built my thesis around how to change culture. I helped. I had a thesis that I started with my restaurants. And then it built with Thinx and then with Tushy, now with Hiro. It's like, how do you change culture? The first is there's three prongs to changing culture. The first is having a truly best in class product. It can't be like, eh, pretty good. It has to be like the, the best tasting pizza. An underwear that feels so sexy in your body that you feel so good wearing it even when you're not on your period. A bidet that works so well, it takes 10 minutes to install. It's the most beautiful, seamless product that when you turn the spray it feels like a most precise shower for your bottom. That's like the right amount of spray. It's not too like intense, but it's like it's controlled. It doesn't matter what the pressure of the building is. It's like that has the right amount of temperature and pressure control. And then like, like you know, a Diaper that's truly the best in class diaper that's like the best for your baby. Like, and that works perfectly, that prevents blowouts. That's like, actually amazing. So each one of the things has to be truly best in class. So best in class product is prong one, Prong two has to be artful across every touch point of your brand. So if you actually go to herodiapers.com h I r o diapers.com you'll see the artfulness of how we delivered a diaper. People are like, the diaper brands are so ugly, they're so disgusting. They're so, like, just thoughtlessly done. Whereas you go to herodiapers.com, you'll see, like, it looks like a flower petal. It looks like the most beautiful art, artful, like, design that you're like, wait, this is the diaper company. When we started Thinx, like, we made it so artful. They were like, like construction workers with hard hats. Be like, yo, that's beautiful. Oh, my God. Talking about periods, I gotta take a photo of it, show it to my girl. Like, it was that cool, that, like, every type of person thought it was beautiful. And same thing with Tushy Tushy. If you go to our website, it's beautiful. It's not device appliance company that looks like just like, whatever. Just an appliance company. It looks like a beautiful question on.
- [24:34]
Host
Artful, because, like, I, I love this. Like, I mean, I actually teach people the five foundations of culture and I think there's some alignment here. Like, like, but on Artful, like, for a comparison, in case somebody hasn't seen your brands, I'm gonna go research all your brands after this. But in case somebody hasn't seen your brands, I would. And correct me if I'm wrong here, for me, not a caring consumer that's like, worried about anything. I'm very productive. I'm very masculine. I want my shit. I want to get the fuck out of the store. I'm done. Walmart's fine. My wife, if she can choose, will always pick Target because there's an artistic way that they've done their store. They have the room, they have the branding. Like, would, would you consider Target more artful even though they do Target than Walmart?
- [25:18]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah, for sure.
- [25:18]
Host
Than Walmart. Yeah, of course. So, like, just for a broad comparison and.
- [25:22]
Mickey Agarwal
Absolutely. And, and, and I'll get, let me get to the third so I can explain, like, why it's, why it's so important. So it's the, the. The first is best in class product. The second is artful across every touch point of the brand. And the third is accessible relatable language. Like you're texting your best friend. Like if we're sometimes we're often too heady, too technical, too clinical, too medical, too academic. When we're presenting something new to the world that it's like over people's head they're trying to be. When I'm talking about, you know, when you hear like, like technical nerds talking about their products, you're like, I understand anything you said, I'm out. You know, if it's too heady, too whatever, it's like I'm out. So there's this, there's this tension between artfulness and like relatable funny, like self deprecating silly language that we like. Like you're tech. When you text your friend, you're like funny. You're make fun of yourself. You're not too cool, you're not too trying hard. You're just totally authentic. You're funny, you're just yourself. And so how do you text your best friend while being artful? There's a tension that, that creates and so you know, that tension is what creates that culture shift, makes people be like, oh my God, that's so artfully beautiful. And oh my God, they're like making me laugh. It just brings your guard down every time. It's like this product is excellent. It just brought my guard down. It's so artful. I'm talking about periods, but it's so beautiful. It brings my guard down. Oh my God, you're text. You're talking to me like I feel like I can relate to you. You're bringing my guard down all of a sudden. My heart is now open to be down to being changed.
- [26:51]
Host
So.
- [26:51]
Mickey Agarwal
And you call that accessible, relatable language. Accessible, relatable language. And so relatable is like you're texting your best friend. Like how do you, when you, when you text your best friend, it's so authentic. And so it's like. And again the words authenticity, like you can't fake it. It's like what's truly what your gut wants to say. Say it with delight and say it with funny and say it like not so like I wonder what the customer's wanting to say. It's like what do you want to say? Say it it. And so like it's this, it's this three prong thesis that has worked across every industry that has changed the period products now Every target, every CVS has period proof underwear. Not just things, other competitors. It was like a whole Victoria Secret has period proof underwear. Now Fruit of the Loom is period now. Every major brand has period proof underwear now which is so cool. Bidet tushy. We were one of the first American market. Now there's like hundreds of competitors and because we made it cool and they're trying to copy us. We've had so many seasons. This is, we've had whatever hero. We're the most beautiful brand. We're now working on our voice. We're now like elevate. We just launched after four and a half years of developing this, this fungi that can break down the diaper plastics. We'll talk more about it. But really developing the best in class diaper first. That like truly is the first unbleached diaper made with 80% less plastics. It's made of unbleached cotton, unbleached wood pulp. It's like the best like healthy, truly pure diaper for your baby. It is truly best for the parent because it prevents blowouts. It has 12 hour leak, you know, leak production. It's like truly the best diaper for parents to feel good. Like no diaper rash which keeps moms up, whatever. And it returns the earth or fungi. It's the best. There's no other diaper in the market that returns the earth with our fungi with any fung. No one has ever done that before. So best in class product. It's art. When you go to herodipers.com you're like, wow, this is like, like gorgeous. And now we're working on our language. It's still like very matter of fact. It's very like matter of fact told. But we're now going to elevate our language to being much more accessible and relatable to like the parents like full spectrum experience, which I'm so excited about.
- [28:53]
Host
That's such a beautiful like and, and such a simple way of, of explaining something that I think is like absolutely radically profound. And now it's a simple evolutionary thing if you're thinking about it in a linear way. But it'll have revolutionary and radical effects on any business. And you dropped it in three simple points. And like for anybody who's listening, not watching, it's so awesome to watch her describe with the passion of her business. Like I love little tells. Like I love poker. So you know, I go to Vegas and I tend to take too much money from people that are unsuspecting. But like her, like the way she like, she just took a bite out of a big perfectly tasting pizza every time she describes any of her products. Like, she, like, it's, you have this passion like for something and it's like enjoying it while you're talking. It's so cool. So cool.
- [29:39]
Mickey Agarwal
I really appreciate your, really like you, you, you, you have a really beautiful interpretation of, of, of. It's what makes someone a good, a good people person is someone who can take the stuff and then translate it in a way that it's like, oh yeah, it's, it's interesting. Like even the way you're just like, oh, like you know, the, the parents from Japan, like how that, how challenging that is like to be able to interpret all the blah, blah, blah into like these coherent thoughts. So I just want to also commend you. Thank you.
- [30:13]
Host
Yeah, I, you know, I, I think problems are our gifts and our guides. And, and it's interesting like I love patterns. Like businesses are just patterns. People when they're authentic and them, there's no pattern. Like, but when they're in some kind of robotic hypnosis, which most people are at most times of the day.
- [30:34]
Mickey Agarwal
I watch every TED talk about every book and this and that. And then you're like, I'm just gonna regurgitate.
- [30:37]
Host
Yeah. And it's all patterns and significant emotional events create significant emotional vents. And the vents can be a style or they can be you. Now if they're your style, then you're beautifully authentic. With vents are like the clothing you're wearing. Like, but if they're you, you don't get to be you. And you experience all the stupid emotions like anger and fear and frustration and stress that nobody would ever choose. Like, like you ask him and you're like, when's the last time you were angry? Oh, ten minutes ago. Well, why? Well, he made me angry.
- [31:11]
Mickey Agarwal
I'm like, no, you made yourself angry.
- [31:12]
Host
How, how do you do that? What, what, what did he do? Like, I need to understand like why you chose this. But like I, I, I, I obsess over people's like vents and how they wear em, because it's, to me it's interesting to see like, especially the most amazing people. You never know what you're gonna learn, but sometimes it's from what they tell you and most of the time it's from what they show you. So we've got Best in class artful across every touchpoint, which like I, I mean I, I love this three point hack. I think it's so brilliant and accessible. Relatable language, like you're texting your best friend. Yeah, yeah. I mean, honestly, it brings to mind an issue I had when my home building company, when I bought it, I say I bought it, I didn't buy it, I took it. And I made the seller pay me 50 grand to take it because it was in that bad of shape.
- [32:09]
Mickey Agarwal
Wow.
- [32:09]
Host
I assumed 300 grand worth of debt. Where the seller was a great guy, but like he had this manager that was not doing a good job. May or may not have been embezzling. I don't know, I get it. But like everything was wrong and there was like 300 grand that they owed to their trades, right? So like I was like, well, you give me 50 grand and I'll take the risk. I gave it back later. But the brand was so bad when we took over this company like that I didn't know what to do. And so at one point, like I wind up, up effectively, like getting drunk, sitting in a river, like just drinking trulies. I like, I like meditate and sit in water. Hey, trulies are less carbs. And I'm like writing down, like, how do I get people to come into my home? Because the realtors would walk past my home, they dragged their clients past my home. Like, how do I get them to come into my home? Like, I just want them to come inside my house. Like, I want them to come see the house. Anybody that does buys the fucking house. And I was fucked. I'd started 70 houses, I was a millionaire. And I was about to be a negative millionaire. I had three months worth of burn rate cash. I knew it was bankrupt. I was like, that could cause any number of other things. Things. I'm like, what the fuck do I do? And so like all of these points, like, our product was best in class. We'd redesigned everything. We'd put the best amenities, like we had put love into the fucking product. Okay, like when, when you're looking about artful across every touch point, like, the design was there, the morals were there, the values were there. We had inherited a brand that we were not allowed to change the name because we were in a landlocked market. And so to buy from the developers we were buying from, we had to maintain the name, which had a horrible brand, horrible reviews, horrible this, but we couldn't change it. So I was forced into this bad boy, kind of shitty brand.
- [33:53]
Mickey Agarwal
Weird that they wouldn't let you change the name.
- [33:56]
Host
It was ill advised. It would have disrupted a lot position where I could buy lots from all these developers and all that, right? And so I'm three months from out and I got a girl in a pretty red dress. And this is so fucking classless. But it worked. And I don't recommend this for anybody, but accessible, relatable language. I am politically incorrect. I think poly means multiple tics means blood sucking arachnids. And I'm like it. I want them to come inside the home. I invented a marketing grading sale, sitting there getting drunk. Controversy, current events, sex appeal, human emotions. And Brandon call to action. And if you hit these five points, you can make anything go viral. And so I did. I got a gorgeous gal in a pretty red dress during the time with Jeffrey Epstein was all over the news. And I put her in front of an A frame side in front of one of my houses. The sign said come inside me. And like we spelled come right? It was C O, M E. Okay. We pissed off everyone. This is exactly what I would have texted one of my friends, by the way. And we pissed off everyone who was sexually repressed. And all the people that weren't laughed their asses off came into all the homes. We sold six houses the next day. We are now El Paso's number one builder. But I just did the three things you said.
- [35:05]
Mickey Agarwal
Wow, it's so funny because we're. I love it. So tomorrow we're about to shoot a series, a first series called Hot Dads Talking Diapers. And it's gonna be. Because it's all like. It's basically for. It's like for. From. For mom content because moms are the ones really buying the diapers. But we have a whole series where we're gonna have dads, like, their shirt slowly coming unbuttoned as they're talking about like, this diaper's on bleach. And this might. So it's just gonna be like, like similar. It's like sex appeal. And it's true. Like, we made period sexy, we made pooping sexy, and we've made diapers, like actually like beautiful. And we're gonna make it fun and playful and make dads and moms sexy in the process, you know, and so it's gonna be so fun. It's so human. It's what creates the attraction. It's the tension. And it's like, what is it? What? How can you create tension? Sex appeal is tension. And people are like you said, it's the repression that makes people feel uncomfortable and want to reject until they. They realize, like, wow. Like, it. There's. It's. It's all a becoming and it's all this. Hopefully what we're creating in the world can create some level of personal like aha. Moments which can then open themselves up. And so for me, with tushy, with things, with, with hero, I've entered these taboo spaces, periods, poop, pee, like, whatever. And it, it comes with so much stigma, so much taboo, so much weirdness. But the second we, we harness like these taboo subjects through a product, it creates this like, what else can I disrupt in my life? Oh my God. I just, I can now talk about poop. I'm like, try my tushy, try. Oh my God. We've had so many people literally throw dinner parties so people can literally bring their friends into their bathrooms to show them the bidets and then they have conversations throughout poop, whatever. Because it's like liberation. And all of a sudden it's a gateway into like opening themselves up to having all the other harder conversations. And I find that to be so interesting. How do you do it through products, through, you know, through design. Like, how do you create this like just a little toad crack in to then have all of the taboo conversation that you can have, including sex talk, including anything but through a product is interesting. It's an interesting doorway into breaking taboos across your life. Life.
- [37:18]
Host
Well, and a compliment I would give you because like my skill is bringing efficiency to wildly established boring industries. Like, like house building is not like the sexiest industry where everybody's like, oh wow, like I'm gonna go in there and pioneer something new. Like, but I know how to go in and get efficient and get that. Like, it's so well established. There's so much data. It's easy.
- [37:43]
Mickey Agarwal
There's a lot of pioneering whole building. But it's, but anyways. But yeah, but yeah, correct.
- [37:48]
Host
But it's not looked at that way where, where I'm complimenting is like you're going into like niche spots with way less data than you're gonna get. Like in America there's not a huge bidet data. Like in Japan, maybe not in America.
- [38:05]
Mickey Agarwal
But everybody poops, everybody does poop. And every woman has a period. Everyone has period and every baby needs a diaper, you know, but your, your.
- [38:12]
Host
Your way of like looking at this and saying, saying hey, I'm gonna go in here and articulately use this little three step process and dive into this industry that nobody else is going into. Like, I admire that. I think that's fascinating. Super high risk. But you don't, you don't seem like a Person that's like, stressed out with tons of risk.
- [38:31]
Mickey Agarwal
I mean, we're all gonna die. You know what I mean? It's like, we're all gonna die. Like, fuck it. Like, people are like, have this like, shame, guilt. What if I fail? Energy. And it's like, so then you're gonna die too. And it's like, I don't really, like, like, you know, it's like, for me, can we make the world a better place? Can we elevate people on the planet harnessing, like, creativity? Yeah. And if you don't succeed, like, what is success? Do trees and animals be like, I failed? They're like, what? That isn't even the construct. And so, like, I don't even. In my book, Disruptor, I talk about replacing the word failure with revelation. What has been revealed to me as I'm on the adventure that I'm on? Like, I talk about the scout. The scout is someone who enters a fe. Like enters a forest to take a group of people to the other side. There's no path. There's no, like, like pre, pre. There's no manual. You just, you just, you just find your way and you hit a dead end. You come back, you hit a ravine, you come back, you hit a bear chasing you. You hit people trying to throw at you. You come back and then you, you try a different route. And, and every one of those are adventures. And it's like, I don't understand the culture of, like, shame. And like, what if I fail? What will people say? You know, the good news is, like, I have my own inner strength. I've got my family, I've got my friends, I've got, I've built, I've spent so much time building, been taken down. I've had experiences, people trying to, attempting to take me down. I've had people, like, people trying to take my businesses and fail and whatever. I've had so much of this shit being thrown at me, and I know who I am. I know, my friends who know me know who I am. I don't. Like, so fucking what if something bad, like, everything is going to be okay?
- [40:11]
Host
You know, you might be psychic because I was like, really hoping you were going in exactly that direction. Yeah, like, did, did you know exactly where I wanted you to go? Like, we did not fucking slip notes here. Like, I, I, I was complimenting that. Cause I wanted to hear and I was gonna. Normally with guests, I have to like, send like five questions to dig people into. Like, oh, go this way. And you're like, you're like spot on. You're like fucking straight to the direction. Oh, you wanna go there? Let's go there. I'm like, how did you, that's awesome. Yeah, I wanted people to hear that. Where did you come up with and, or develop or at what stage or time did you develop dyslexia? Like we're all going to die. I, I have a very similar belief but like I think so many people need to hear that.
- [40:54]
Mickey Agarwal
My, my wasbin, my ex husband and I, we, we, we, we're still homies and we, we co parent really beautifully together. He and I with 30 friends did this ceremony. It was a, it was a psilocybin NDMA ceremony like held by this ethnomusicologist that was a very well practiced therapist as well. MDMA assisted therap this session in a musical session where he led us on this like ethnomusicology like type of like spiritual experience into, through music. And it was like an eight hour blindfolded like journey of just being. And like what actually came through was holy shit, we're alive. And it's like, and then we, so we've made this art project called Holy Shit, We're Alive. And you'll probably see stickers everywhere and people are wearing these stickers and there's like stickers on water bottles and you'll start see, seeing the sticker everywhere and hats, and people have hats and notebooks and stuff like that and says holy shit, we're alive. I have a notebook here actually and, and it's just like holy shit. Like we get, we get to be alive, like we get to wake up, we get to have this human experience. And you know, there's this like famous quote that says like, you know this by this, by this philosopher and he says like I want to skid to death's door sideways not in a well preserved body thoroughly used up, loudly proclaiming, wow, what a life. You know, and it's like I don't want to just live in this safe. Like I, I, I wasn't shamed and I wasn't, I didn't get hurt and I didn't get bloody and I didn't get all fucked up. Like I want to skid. I was just gonna be thoroughly used up. And just like I wanna feel like I have experienced the depths of betrayal. I know what that feels like and I can taste it now. I have dealt with like the depths of sadness and what it feels like to be misunderstood. Like I know what that feels like to the bones And I like to level of like. Like being pregnant and on the ground naked, screaming in sadness of feeling misunderstood. I know what that feels like. In this one short and precious. I got to feel that. You know, there was this, like, moment where I was like, in my bed having, like a bunch of people and crazy stuff being said about me while I was pregnant in my bed, naked. And I was just sitting there, like, crying, being like, why is this happening? Like, what the fuck? And then I had this. This like, out of body experience where I. I became this, like, being, observing myself, like, crying in my pillow in, like, sadness and. And just, like in just despair. And. And then I just had this realization, like, oh, my God, like, I get to feel these feelings in this one short and precious life. I get to expand my emotional capacity and feel truly everything. Fucking how lucky am I? And then I started crying, laughing in my pillow like a psycho. And it was like this liberating moment. And so, like now, even going through my divorce, like, going through, like, challenging experiences in my life, like, nothing. It's just like I. I'm. It's. It's a. I get to. It's not like I fuck, it's like I get to. And it's a. It's a beautiful feeling. And I know on the other side of it is we're gonna be. We're gonna all die and we're gonna be okay. Okay. You know?
- [44:18]
Host
Yeah, you know, that's. It's. It's. It's super awesome and also super weird. And like, right before you told the psilocybin story, you've mentioned death a few times, like, in. In the episode.
- [44:31]
Mickey Agarwal
And.
- [44:31]
Host
And like, I've had a really interesting relationship with death. And I was like, hmm, should I bring that story up? And I was like, no, no, but involves plant medicine. Probably shouldn't say it on the podcast. Then you go right into the psilocybin story. And I'm like, she is psychic. I think I just said psychic. Super weird, crazy synchronicity. Like, I lost my dad in 2019, right. My son is the same age relative to me that I was to my dad. So, I mean, sent me on, like, health journey, did a lot of good things, but also, like, framed me around, you know, thinking about death too much and, like, and it was a whole story. Like, delegated all the daddy energy to Tony Robbins, like, joined his fucking lions group, then started my own mastermind. Tony got triggered. They sued us. That worked against him and made us really popular. And everybody joined our mastermind and, like, I mean, then it all ended, like, literally. I got the fucking David and Goliath story, only I didn't have to kill my giant. It was like, fucking weird. But no bullshit. One month ago, like, I've not, not thought about death since that time. Like dozens of times a day a month ago, I get convinced to go on the, like, ayahuasca ceremony and I take whatever the fuck a full bloom is. I don't know what a full bloom is. Yeah, I don't know. And laying down blindfolded, and I swear it's just talking to me. And it's not telling me to do anything or be anything or anything else. It's just asking me questions like, hey, well, do you believe that life is a gift from God? Yeah. Well, isn't death a part of life for every living being? Doesn't every living being die? And I'm like, well, yeah, yeah, well.
- [46:05]
Mickey Agarwal
The soul maybe doesn't.
- [46:06]
Host
But then, you know, like, if that's the case, if you really fear death, then you worship life, not God. Where's your wisdom? And it's sitting there saying shit like that to me and I'm like, no bullshit, no fear of death since that time. That's one month ago. Like, I refused to live in fear of death before that. So it was always a fight. And then a month ago, like, I just, like, like, if it's my time, it's my time. I don't give a fuck. And now I'm just having fun. Like, now it's from a state of play, not from a state of fear. But since 2019, it was fear and like month ago, bunch of ayahuasca and like that journey. And you know, normally I would not say, hey, let's go on a podcast and talk about plant medicine and what's probably like drugs that I'm sure the government would not approve of us doing. That is like life changing. But yeah, then you brought up psilocybin and yeah, you know, I'm like so much alignment. You are so cool.
- [46:59]
Mickey Agarwal
Yes. Yeah, I did, I did. I went to the Amazon rainforest entering into New Year's 2024 and so for New Year's Eve, and went into the 88 million acres of sacred headwaters of the Amazon rainforest with Lind Twist from Pachamama alliance. And we flew over these 88 million acres and these little prop planes, six person planes, we got dropped off in the middle of the forest and these little prop planes left and we were there for 12 days. And no roads, no cars, no not. And you're in the middle of 88 million acres, we met with the Amazon tribe, the Achuar people, and the Sapara nation people. And they've never been to the modern world ever. They literally like cut the wood in the canoes and that's how they float down the rivers. And the grandmothers there make the ayahuasca. And we got to do a sacred ceremony entering New Year's with truly the grandmothers of the Amazon rainforest. Serving, making and serving, while the spiritual teachers and the indigenous leaders led us into the ceremony. And it was the most sacred experience.
- [48:18]
Host
And yeah, that sounds profound and magical.
- [48:22]
Mickey Agarwal
And what came through was similar. Just words over and over and over and over again. And for me, the words that came through over and over again was, move slowly and you get to meet the moment. Move slowly and you get to meet the moment. Because when you move so quickly, you miss the moments. I've had, like, you know, we've all. It sounds like we've all had like multiple lifetimes in this one life and we oftentimes like, forget to meet the moment. And, you know, it's interesting. I went into a dark cave. I did the Darkness retreat for five nights where I sat in a dark cave underground. Like black, pitch black, where you can't see anything. In the cave for five nights, pitch black. Like, truly underground. And, you know, your eyes are open and it's pure blackness. And in that moment, it was just like, wow. Like, we have so many experiences in this life and they just happen so quickly. And when you're in this pitch black cave alone with nothing to do for five nights, it feels like five years, by the way. So much just happens where you're just like, wow. Like one of my ACL surgeries, it was so traumatic and I didn't even process it. Cause I was onto the. I was like onto healing and onto moving to company. And then the next thing, and then I had a C section and I almost died giving birth. And then I had to go on to feeding my baby and then becoming a mom and then writing my books and starting my companies. So I didn't actually. So in the darkness I sat there and all of that shit that lives inside of our bodies because the body keeps a score. And it's all in our programming. But it's just, we just. We just don't spend any time tuning in to be like, body, like, you're safe, like you're good, like knees. Thank you. Like, fuck yeah. Like, you took me on this journey of life so far and thank you for the no pain even through the trauma you've been through. Wow. And like I got to like resafe like like all the parts of my body that was so. Had so much trauma over the years that we just move so quickly that we miss the moments and then we're just living. And that's where cancer comes and that's where all the shit comes up is when we're not actually tuning into the emotional body of the. Of all the shit that we've been through. And so there's times where it's so important to actually sit in silence for days to resafe and to retune in and to basically, basically take care of the emotional body that then will get appear as a physical body if we don't take care of it.
- [51:06]
Host
I've read about the Darkness Retreats and it's something that sounds so interesting and so terrifying that I.
- [51:13]
Mickey Agarwal
It's the scariest thing I've ever done in my life.
- [51:14]
Host
Really. Okay, that was gonna be my question.
- [51:17]
Mickey Agarwal
It was the hardest and scariest fucking thing I've ever done in my life. I was in like low grade anxiety the entire time. It was so hard. And some people were like, this was so I, for me I was like, I had to learn to not try and like move through the feelings and like fucking try and just like bypass or just like, like be okay with it. Like I couldn't do. I had to learn how to just be with the feeling that came up. Like I couldn't try and outmaneuver or manage them or like talk to the. There was just nothing I could do. I just couldn't do anything except for just like experience the pain or experience the feeling or experience the thing. And it was like it was a deep initiation. I'll tell you what.
- [52:15]
Host
So this, this is interesting. I, I, I love talking about business as a spiritual game and I love talking about business leaders or not about with business leaders and thought leaders who are making it a spiritual game. And our conversation has conveniently turned very spiritual, which is super awesome. I would love to ask you the question on identity. What do you see as your framework? It's just an interesting kind of open ended question that I love asking asking high level entrepreneurs that are doing epic things. Most people I've met, they never sit down and think about who they are. You triggered me on that with the Darkness Retreat because it feels like you might have.
- [53:02]
Mickey Agarwal
No, no, I should for sure. I mean honestly. And this sounds again, it sounds so spiritually trite and whatever and I've Done the Hoffman process, which I also cannot recommend enough to anyone listening because there is multiple versions of our, the body, there's the mind and then there's the spirit. There really is. And there's a spiritual that can start to like take over the body and the mind. There is this version of ourselves that we get to tune into and there are different ways to get there, which one's through meditation, one's through spiritual experiences. I do feel like drugs are a bit of a bypassing way because it's better to actually practice it and tune in and do in the deep and the day in, day out practice and the moment to moment practice of learning how to tune in instead of of like the getting there as fast as possible through. It's almost like, you know, my partner and I were talking about like it's like taking a flower that's not bloomed yet and prying it open versus like, like allowing the flower to open and giving it space and time. And so, and that requires the daily sober practice from my perspective. And so what, what is identity for me? I think it's like when we really, really tune into like the root of everything thing. It's love actually. You know, and I, and I, you know, when I started Hero, one of the things I'm most excited about this project is we are truly braiding with nature. Like we are tuning with the mycelial network we are built in. Our bodies have a microbiome, we have a mushroom biome inside of us. Besides a microbiome, there is a microbiome inside of us. We are breathing in fungi, we are eating fungi as medicine, we are drinking fungi to help us actualize, we are drinking it as adaptogens. Now we understand all of its medicinal properties and yet we haven't fully tuned in and braided with it in a way that is so like how it's the oldest being on earth, it's billion, it's, it's. It's 2.4 billion years old. Fungi have been come to the planet.
- [55:05]
Host
I identify as a fungi.
- [55:07]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah, you're a fun guy. It's truly. Yeah. And yet like so, so way the way I wanted to launch this, this or steward this project is by launching this project as a, as a prayer. Like so we actually brought in indigenous leaders around the world. We brought in spiritual, spiritual teachers in the banks of the Ganga River, Mayan grandmothers. We brought in like top of the spiritual leadership and created and launched like we actually had a launch prayer where they tuned in to nature and it sounds so out there. But the indigenous people have been doing this since the beginning of time, has been tuning into nature and the goddess and the gods. And it's like. And then, and, and so like how do we harness this new, this new way? It's not this old trauma scaling old paradigm of like trauma scale at all cost. Hard power versus this soft power braiding with nature. How do you tune in in a way that's so primal and so harnessing billion year old technology and it sounds again hokey, but it's not. And how do we do it in a way that's effortless? Because nature grows and flourishes effortlessly. So for me, this practice is we launch as a prayer. We build this tuning in with nature. Can we build it effortlessly? Where the right people come through the right nature, the right magic happens. This is really like. So Harvard Business School did a case study on things my previous company. So now all these students are. HBS are studying my company, which is so cool, you know, and how we built things. I want HBS to study the way we built Hero. Not about that we built a big company, whatever. It's the way we built it. From a prayer, from an inception of a pure practice, from a pure hearted place. From pure love, which is what we are, the God consciousness, which is love. Can we actually launch with the God consciousness of love and actually build it from that place in an effortless way through a feminine leadership of nature? Like can we do it? This is the moment most the deepest curiosity I have, which is what I'm most excited about launching this company.
- [57:11]
Host
Can, can we talk like, like just reframe? Because I know you mentioned earlier, but reframe a little bit about what this company does as well. Just real quick.
- [57:18]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. So Hero basically is looking at the global plastic crisis. And so this is like a quick story is, you know, when I gave birth to my son Hero, I didn't realize how much freaking waste you have. You know you have children, right? It's like the amount of waste that comes with having a child. Like every B through up to 6,000 diapers in their lifetime. Every diaper takes up to 400 years to break. 4 to 500 years to break down squeeze packs. All the stuff and more stuff. You have to buy diapers, the number one household plastic waste item. Number three waste item in landfill. It is truly 18 billion end up in landfill every year. It's crazy. And so you. That's just the diaper crisis. You zoom out once one rung further. The global plastic crisis. 91% of plastic is not being in, is not being recycled. It's being incinerated, put in our landfill, put in our oceans. Now it's in our bodies to the tune of one credit card a week. It's in fucking up our endocrine system, our reproductive organs. It's in our brains, in our bloodstream, it is truly now in us. And we have to do something, otherwise it's gonna kill us. And so, you know, we have looked to nature, you know, nature has been solving this, you know, solving problems for billions of years and evolving and evolving. And we look to nature and it turns out when trees, back in the day, trees came to the planet, you know, 390 million years ago. And they grew this carbon backbone. And so this carbon backbone is called lignin. And when these, these trees grew and then they died, fungi didn't, couldn't break them down yet. So these trees grew and they would just be strewn around like plastic. Okay, And I'm giving a little bit of a story and I'll get to what I'm creating. So these trees grew, they strewn around like plastic. It took fungi 100 million years to figure out how to take these carbon backbone of these trees and break them down and return them back to the earth into soil. Cut to today, plastic crisis. Right now nothing can break down plastic except for fungi because there's enzymes as well. But fungi really can create a true scalable, lasting solution. Fungi have been breaking down trees. Trees have the same carbon backbone as plastic. Okay? The carbon backbone of trees are very similar to carbon backbone of plastic because plastic comes from organic oil, oil comes from trees. Anyways, so we have created the world's first scalable and, and shelf stable plastic eating fungi. Which means that fungi have been discovered in labs, had been discovered in landfills like 20 years ago, but, and, and brought to labs to study. Can you break down plastics with fungi? The answer is yes, it's been studied. There are hundreds of species that can now break down plastics. No one has been able to take out of a lab now until now. So over the last four and a half years, we've built the ocean's 11 of PhDs in mycology, micro remediation, biology, biochemistry, you know, the top of the pops, Ocean's eleven team and built a lab here in Austin. And we've been working quietly over the last four and a half years. We've then built our first micro refinery that's making all these plastic eating fungi in our warehouse right now. We've built these two places in Austin, Texas. And we just launched our first product, which is hero diapers. Herodiapers.com so basically, the whole vision is when the baby poops into the diaper, the baby poop will then fertilize these dormant fungi.
- [60:47]
Host
And if you're watching the episode, which I highly recommend, we have some right here that you can see.
- [60:51]
Mickey Agarwal
Yes. And so if you basically are changing the diaper off the baby, if this is the diaper, you're changing the diaper off the baby, you just drop one of these pouches inside and you close it and you throw in the trash. You don't have to recycle. You don't have to put in your compost. You only throw in the trash. In a couple of weeks, this diaper. Diaper inoculated by this fungi will end up in a landfill. And the fungi fertilized by your baby's poop will start to wake up and start to grow and then eat the diaper in a fraction of the time in the 400 years it takes to break down. And then the whole vision is, not only will it break down this diaper, but it'll start breaking down all the other plastics in landfills, too. That's the whole vision of harnessing our baby's poop coming from the breast milk of the mama to solve the global plastic crisis. And then we'll, of course, start with diapers, then we'll do all kinds of other plastic products thereafter.
- [61:40]
Host
My least favorite thing about diapers is baby.
- [61:44]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah.
- [61:45]
Host
Because it just smells exactly like normal.
- [61:47]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah.
- [61:47]
Host
And I don't generally, like, in general. And you found a way to maybe make save the world.
- [61:52]
Mickey Agarwal
Yes. Baby poops, baby poop, save the world. Our tagline's Baby save the world.
- [61:56]
Host
I love that. I love that. So, I mean, so, like, for those that can't use your tushy bidet because they're just not old enough or mature enough.
- [62:04]
Mickey Agarwal
Yes.
- [62:05]
Host
You've got a way to make their shit save the world. Young or old.
- [62:09]
Mickey Agarwal
That's right. Yeah. So tushy, you know, I mean, tushy, really, just so people know, it's like the. It's the bidet that you attach your existing toilet, turns any toilet into a bidet in less than 10 minutes. And literally it goes from you wiping shit around and sitting on fecal matter all day to then all of a sudden clean butt. And so this is like kind of like the next level. It's like it starts with a diaper, and then the baby can graduate to your using a tushy, which My, my baby, starting at age 3, is like obsessed with tushy. He's like, he calls it tushy time and he bends over and then we wash his butt. And now he has a clean butt, so I don't have to even wipe his butt anymore. It's so amazing.
- [62:44]
Host
Yeah, I went, I was telling you a little bit of this before the show. Like, I went to the Maldives with that, that travel group I'd created. And like, we go there and like every toilet is a bidet. And I mean, I'd never seen, seen a bidet.
- [62:57]
Mickey Agarwal
Like, I, no way.
- [62:58]
Host
No, I'd never seen a bidet. Like, I mean, I don't know if that's true. Like, I saw one in a, in a home that was built in Hawaii when I'd visited one time, but I didn't use it. There was no, it was like a brand new home. There was no toilet paper there. Like, I walked in, the thing like, opens, lifts the lid to meet me. I was like, well, that's fucking awesome. If there was toilet paper, I would have introduced myself and taken a shit just to get to know this guy, right? Because it was cool when it like, lifted and met me. But I'd never used one. Never seen one. Like, my hotel has one. And it was like an epiphany moment, like, coming from, like, at that point in time, the COVID world where, like, we are America, we make monster trucks and jet airplanes for fun, yet we still have to wipe our ass archaic with toilet paper. But somewhere in the middle of the ocean, like hundreds of miles south of India, where people are struggling to get, you know, like, food and, and, and the bidet wipes your ass for you with a gentle stream of water, or not so gentle, depending on the bidet. And like, you're, you're, it was like, it was like a miracle. I, I, I immediately like, started buying bidets. I put them in every fucking house I build because I don't want people to deal with their shit. I want the toilet to deal with their shit.
- [64:07]
Mickey Agarwal
It just, it's like so obvious, you know, when you actually use it. Like, once you go bidet, you can't go back. Like, our 2.6 million customers, like, literally were like, there's life before tushy and life after tushy. It takes 10 minutes to install and your life is changed forever. It is so, so hard to find products that you can say that about. Like, there's life before and life after. It just, it is.
- [64:28]
Host
We look for hotels with bidets. We We, We.
- [64:33]
Mickey Agarwal
I'm telling you.
- [64:34]
Host
And, and I don't like, it could.
- [64:35]
Mickey Agarwal
Be five star hotel and if it doesn't have a bidet, it might as well be a hovel, right? Like, it might as well be disgusting piece of shit hotel because it doesn't have a bidet. I have to literally wipe my ass like a savage. Like it makes no sense.
- [64:46]
Host
Yeah, no, I would go to Motel 6 with a bidet before a Four Seasons.
- [64:50]
Mickey Agarwal
100% like.
- [64:52]
Host
And I have a travel.
- [64:53]
Mickey Agarwal
By the way, we have a travel tushy that you can take with you. I wish I had brought one with me, but I'll send you one. We have one where I take with me to all my hotel rooms and you just fill it up with water and you just spray your, spray your butt.
- [65:03]
Host
Really?
- [65:03]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah. It's a travel tushy. So now anywhere I go, I, it's in my car. But I have a travel tushy.
- [65:08]
Host
Yeah, no, well, I'll, I'll order one for sure. Like it, I mean, travel's actually gotten more difficult. Like we went to Egypt and like literally my mother in law's dream trip and we spent like two weeks in Egypt. Spent way too much money.
- [65:19]
Mickey Agarwal
Egypt.
- [65:19]
Host
Like, and it was there, it was, it was awesome. And, and some of the places did have the little like dialed bidets, right? No, no one had the electronic bidets.
- [65:27]
Mickey Agarwal
They have, they have the bum gun ones which are kind of weird too.
- [65:29]
Host
Yeah, those are. I don't, I'm not a, I'm not.
- [65:30]
Mickey Agarwal
A fan either, but I have a, the tushy travel. I'll send you one. It's just a squeeze bottle, but it's dope.
- [65:35]
Host
I mean it, it changes your life.
- [65:37]
Mickey Agarwal
It changes your life.
- [65:37]
Host
You can't travel with disgusting, like being annoyed that the hotels. My wife and I's biggest complaint on travel is like, do we really leave the baby?
- [65:46]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah, like, no, no. It's literally like one of our, one of our favorite customer lines. We have so many. They're like, you know, I went on trip, didn't miss my wife, mes. Miss my tushy.
- [65:58]
Host
I don't know if I should post that review.
- [66:00]
Mickey Agarwal
No, no, no.
- [66:00]
Host
It was. Your wife reads it, you will be in trouble.
- [66:02]
Mickey Agarwal
It was just funny. It was just funny.
- [66:04]
Host
I love it.
- [66:05]
Mickey Agarwal
I love it.
- [66:06]
Host
Oh, it's so good. Oh my gosh. This is like, this is so much fun.
- [66:12]
Mickey Agarwal
So much kismet. I love it. Yeah. Yeah.
- [66:14]
Host
You know, like, this show did not disappoint. Like, this show, like I, I, I. Before I heard like, she's the tushy lady, she like invented a bidet. And I was like, okay, I'll stay late, let's do that. And like I was like, I have no idea what I'm gonna get. And like you walk in and you're a blast. And like we're going into like plant medicine stories. We're talking business, we're talking about ways to change the world. Like I mean, talk about problems to profit in, in, in so many epic ways. I mean Mickey, where can people get like a daily dose of you? Where can people find a little bit of you on a daily.
- [66:51]
Mickey Agarwal
For me it's like from problems to outsized impact and outsize returns. Like can you do both? I believe the answer is yes. Like that's what it's about. Like outsize impact and outsize returns. Like to me they go hand in hand. You can't go from, for, just for me, from my perspective, like when people are just going for the profit without the purpose, it ends up like it becomes a slog. But when you're like so like jazzed by like the impact that you're creating and the profits just come like there's a stat, like I said on the board of conscious Capitalism, John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods, he's my son's godfather, he's like one of my besties. And he, you know, and I, we, we, you know, he, he wrote the book Conscious Capitalism essay the and board for the last four, four and a half years. And they talk about conscious businesses outperforming pure shareholder led businesses by a factor of 10.5 to 1 over a 15 year period. So a conscious business that basically supports stakeholders versus just a shareholders outperforms 10 to 1 than a pure shareholder led business. So if and, and a stakeholder model is not just the shareholder, there isn't, they're an important stakeholder shareholders, shareholders, stakeholders, customers, employees, suppliers and the planet. If every single stakeholder wins, the company performs 10 times better than a just a pure shareholder led company. That's number one. Duh. Obvious. You want to build a conscious business. The second piece is the soft power. The soft power framework that I've created over the last couple of years which is this framework around attuning from yourself to each other, to company, to community and to the world as this deep attunement to self, all the way to nature. If you can attune, that's an additional 10x. I think you can 100x your impact and your profit. If you build a Conscious business through the lens of soft power. I'm gonna drop the mic from there.
- [68:43]
Host
Oh, no. Well, that's perfect. Mic drop. And the problems to profit. Yes, there's profitability, but right now, you're the prophet that's preaching to all of us. Thank you so much for being on the show today.
- [68:56]
Mickey Agarwal
Thank you.
- [68:57]
Host
This is such an honor to have you and I'm so excited to connect you and Viviana to, like, hopefully start replacing those totos with tushies.
- [69:05]
Mickey Agarwal
Obviously Brooklyn based. Hello.
- [69:06]
Host
Hell yeah.
- [69:07]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah. Go to HelloTushy.com, do not go to Tushy.com, it's a very graphic anal porn site. Go to HelloTushy dot com hello t u s h y com. It is our investors. We're like, no, like it. Please don't.
- [69:21]
Host
Oh, man.
- [69:22]
Mickey Agarwal
That cookie will follow you. HelloToshi.com and then Hirodipers.com, h I R O Diapers.com, if you follow our Instagram and message us and you have a baby, we will send you a 40% off code to be one of the first, you know, to use our hero diapers. So go to heroerodipers on Instagram and send us a DM and we will send you a code.
- [69:45]
Host
And then can we plug your books as well? Can we mention that?
- [69:48]
Mickey Agarwal
Yes, please. Yes. Check out Disrupther. And it's a manifesto that can literally disrupt every area of your life, from money to relationships, to friendships, to. To career. Like, it literally looks at all the major areas in your life and disrupts them one by one to give you the most agency empowerment you possibly can have and then do cool shit. Which is the tagline is quit your day job, start your own business and live happily ever after. And it's for entrepreneurs. Yeah, I love it.
- [70:15]
Host
So much for soul line. Like I always say, you can't have a breakthrough without something breaking. Yeah, disrupt her, some shit's gonna break, but what's on the other side is way better.
- [70:23]
Mickey Agarwal
Yeah, babe, that's it. Yeah. And then Mickey at Mickey Agarol on Instagram, if you want to follow me. That's where I post most of my stuff is on Instagram.
- [70:30]
Host
I will be following you immediately right after the show.
- [70:33]
Mickey Agarwal
Same. Likewise. Yeah.
- [70:36]
Host
All right, family, if your mind's not blown, just so you know, you're already dead. Dig a hole, lay down, it's over. If your mind is blown like the rest of us, us, we will have you back. If you'll come back and put you on our show for a second episode, because there is not enough time in an hour and a half to get all of the Mickey Agarwal that we want. Thank you, guys. Have an amazing day on purpose. Follow Mickey.
- [70:59]
Mickey Agarwal
Thank you.
- [71:00]
Host
Buy her books. And for God's sakes like tushy and diapers that save the world. Hero. Guys, have an amazing day on purpose.