← What Are You Made Of?
What Are You Made Of?
Clean Energy, Clear Faith, and Building Organic Muscle with James Benefico
00:31:06
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- [00:01]
A
James Benefico, welcome to the what do youo Made Of Show. What's happening, brother?
- [00:05]
B
Oh, so good to be here. Thanks for having me, Mike.
- [00:08]
A
Yeah, my pleasure. And I just want to welcome the audience. Whether you're listening or watching, however you're consuming this content, we're glad to have you here. And we're going to kick this conversation off first with the question. It's an esoteric question. You can answer this however you'd like. What are you made of, James?
- [00:22]
B
Oh, I like to get esoteric. Well, I think I'm just in terms of metaphysics, I'm just consciousness. I think every human being, we're really consciousness, having this human physical experience. So I am consciousness, but I also have this physical body, this vessel. And I really think that what I've dedicated my life to is the health of your body allows kind of the light of God to shine through. Because when you're fat and sick and depressed and unconfident, all that stuff, you can't really. Are you really as conscious as one? You're fully vibrant and healthy. So my work has a lot to do with the relationship between the body and the spirit. So I would say that I am spirit, but my body plays a role in that.
- [01:12]
A
Yeah, yeah, It's a vehicle, right? It's kind of like your vehicle. Yeah, I love that. And so a couple things, I don't hear this talked about in church enough, if at all. But you know, one thing, I stopped drinking alcohol. I was only doing like one to three drinks a week, just at dinner or something. It wasn't like a problem except for the fact that I felt anxiety the next day, even if I had one drink. I'm just like, why am I doing that? And then I started to just think about this for a second and what you're talking about, how you take care of your, your vehicle, it clears up your, your. Your communication and your light. But you're. I was thinking about a communication line to God, right? And I'm thinking about, you know, we used to have dial up and then we used to have. And then we have. Now we have, you know, high speed Internet, all this. But like, when we drink, it basically puts us back to dial up with intermittent service and you can't hear the clear message, if at all. And so why would you do that? And then. Same thing with diet analogy. Yeah, same thing with diet. Taking care of your body. If you have too much excess fat, you have disease, you have stress. All this, it's. All it is, is messing up the Communication line. So you can't get the right information to live a great life.
- [02:19]
B
Exactly. And the way I look at it, we're here to develop our characters and to be of service to others. So drinking and being unhealthy, being overweight, it makes it more difficult to build your character and be of service. It slows you down. And then I just noticed I haven't drank in a couple years. And I noticed with alcohol, what it would do is just kill my momentum. Even just having a few drinks, I would notice the days after my mind was clouded. It was like I had to start pushing the rock downhill from scratch again, as opposed to building on the momentum I was already building. Right. So best decision I ever made to stop drinking. And if you look into early Christianity, the disciples, James the just who was Jesus's brother, who could talk about a lot. It's a big part of our podcast. He was the first leader of the Jerusalem Church for 30 years, and he was a total teetotaler. And we see this pattern a lot in the early Christian communities where they would. Many would reject the consumption of alcohol.
- [03:22]
A
Yeah, well. And they talk about drinking wine a lot. And I'm sure the wine was cleaner back then. In Italy, the wine is cleaner. It might have alcohol in it, but it's cleaner.
- [03:31]
B
Yeah.
- [03:32]
A
And, you know, when Jesus turned the water into wine, is there anything that you found that said that that was an alcoholic wine?
- [03:40]
B
Well, if you look at the early church fathers, many of them talking, talk about the disciples not drinking alcohol. So there's different ways to look at it. I don't know for sure. I wasn't there. But. Yeah, just. Just from your interpretation, there was different types of wine, potentially that. That it was potentially a grape juice of some sort, but I don't know for sure.
- [04:01]
A
Yeah.
- [04:01]
B
But I do know that today, if I look at the righteous people, I know they. They don't drink or they drink minimally. So I think there's something there.
- [04:10]
A
Yeah. I can tell you that right now. If you don't drink, then you're not going to. It's not going to hurt you. You know what I mean?
- [04:16]
B
Like, do something stupid.
- [04:17]
A
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So, all right, so where, where, like, first of all, let's focus on what you're doing now. And then I want to talk about how you got into doing this. So can you explain to, you know, what you're focused on now?
- [04:30]
B
So I'm the CEO of a company called Organic Muscle. We came out with the first ever organic certified Pre workout about 11 years ago now. And that was precipitated by me almost having a heart attack, drinking conventional pre workout. And a lot of people I know have had horror stories with energy drinks and pre workouts with the jitters and heart palpitations. So that happened to me and I went looking for a clean, healthy, nutritious pre workout and nonexisted. So I became obsessed and created my own. And that's the origin story of organic muscle. Now we're in Vitamin Shop nationwide. We got many thousands of reviews on Amazon. Thousands of customers. Just clean, healthy, nutritious energy.
- [05:12]
A
How long ago was that that you started?
- [05:14]
B
11 years ago.
- [05:15]
A
Okay. 11 years ago. Okay.
- [05:17]
B
So I was like, I was a young gun when I started.
- [05:19]
A
And what, what kind of, what kind of ingredients do you have in it now that are the healthy ones that, that, you know, that the old, even the old ones that you did before still had in it, you know, because the other ones have some additives, let's say. So. Yeah. Which ones are you still using in the new product that they have in the old ones? You follow?
- [05:38]
B
So we take, we take a holistic approach, but the main base ingredients are organic beetroot and organic pomegranate, which are just the most amazing ingredients found in nature for pomegranate juice. Look at that. See, you know what's up. It's the most. Nature gave us everything we need for circulation, blood flow and what you'll find like with the pomegranate. If you drank just that pomegranate juice and you go to the gym, you'll be able to work out longer and have more sustained energy as opposed to burning out quickly. So beetroot pomegranate, a blend of mushrooms, clean sources of caffeine like yerba mate, a collection of herbs like ashwagandha and rhodiola rosea. It's just a real nice synergistic blend. Everything works together.
- [06:25]
A
Yeah. Yeah, I like it. And, and what you didn't mention is the nitric oxide and.
- [06:30]
B
Right, exactly.
- [06:31]
A
That's the key. Like I can tell when I go to the gym and I have my nitric oxide is on. I have these incredible pumps. Like, it's just, you know, vascularity. It's amazing what it does for you.
- [06:42]
B
It's incredible. Yeah, it works like a charm.
- [06:45]
A
Yeah. One of the friends and of ours and, and clients is Dr. Nathan Bryan. Have you ever heard of Dr. Nathan Bryan?
- [06:51]
B
Yeah. That's ringing the bell.
- [06:52]
A
Yeah. He's a nitric oxide expert pretty much of the world. He's this amazing guy, too. I love him, but. But he, you know, he really turned me on to this. And what about citrulline?
- [07:01]
B
We don't use citrulline. I think citrulline is good. Some of our customers add the citrulline in. But as a organic certified company, that basically means that you need to use ingredients that are grown in the earth. Okay. So that citrulline, it's more processed. It's like. I'd also love to launch a creatine, but we can't do it because of how it's processed. Even though you get creatine, very clean. But we're unable to do the organic certified, and all of our products have that badge. Yeah.
- [07:30]
A
That way you got to stay in your lane. Right. It'd be great to do other, other things, but just staying in your lane's probably what works best for you guys, so.
- [07:36]
B
Makes sense, Right?
- [07:37]
A
Okay. And then so. So prior to that, like, when did you start out on your fitness journey? How old were you? Were you an athlete when you're younger?
- [07:44]
B
Yeah, I played football. I played college football for a year before getting injured. But, you know, I. After college, I started getting pretty fat. And I was drinking a lot of beer, eating a lot of barbecue, eating a lot of pizza. You know, Italian American family. I was just always carbs and cheese and just, you know, just loading up. And I got up almost 280 dag. And I had gynecomastia. Do you know what that is? Yeah.
- [08:11]
A
Estradiol is probably too high.
- [08:13]
B
Yeah. Some serious man boobs going on. And, you know, I just. I just felt terrible. I felt embarrassed. I had a girlfriend. I would never take off my shirt around her.
- [08:24]
A
And so you were the guy when.
- [08:25]
B
You go to the beach or the.
- [08:25]
A
Pool, you keep a T shirt on.
- [08:27]
B
I was that guy for about a year.
- [08:29]
A
I get it.
- [08:29]
B
I was that guy.
- [08:30]
A
Yeah.
- [08:31]
B
And I was looking for a catalyst to lose weight, but I was kind of floating along until my mom got cancer. And that kind of really rattled me. She had stage four cancer, and it was very serious. The doctors gave her a couple months to live. And I remember being in the hospital with her, and she's getting radiation and chemo, and the nurse comes in and brings her a hamburger and chips and soda to eat. And I didn't know a whole lot about nutrition at that time, but it intuitively pissed me off. And I asked the doctor when he came in, who was a very obese, unhealthy guy. I asked him, hey, can we feed My mom something healthier. She needs all the help she could get. And he scoffed at me, kind of hand waved me off. And he was like, it doesn't matter what they eat. Like, she was a dog or something.
- [09:20]
A
What an idiot.
- [09:21]
B
Yeah. Pissed me off, man. And that really sent me on this trail of learning everything. I realized that this was not right, that there was corruption in the system, and it led me down this path to learn about nutrition. And then I started losing my weight myself, fasting, started eating, cleaning up my diet, dialed back the drinking, and I lost 75 pounds about.
- [09:47]
A
That's amazing. Yeah, I got. Had my fat moment too, after I played college football, too. And, man, I got. I'm. I'm five seven. I got up to 235 and I didn't have a whole lot of muscle at the time, you know, so.
- [09:59]
B
And now it's a rite of initiation.
- [10:01]
A
Yeah, yeah, it is really, I guess. But I. I wish I didn't do that, of course. And. But I, you know, now I'm sitting around 210, 211, a lot more muscle, and I have abs that, you know, so it's a. It's a different. Different. Totally different composition, you know, but. Yeah. So. All right, so then from there. Oh, by the way, where did you play football?
- [10:24]
B
I played at this little Division 3 school called Muhlenberg. It's in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
- [10:29]
A
Yeah, I played at Salisbury, where it was Division 3. Yeah.
- [10:32]
B
Oh, okay, cool. Yeah, Yeah, I remember Salisbury. I played there for a year. I tore my hip flexor, which is a. Not a fun injury. And then I transferred to UConn for the remainder of college.
- [10:43]
A
Gotcha. Yeah, we used to go to UConn's women's basketball games when we lived up there.
- [10:47]
B
Oh, nice.
- [10:48]
A
Yeah, I went to the. There was always a big rivalry of Tennessee because Pat. Pat. I forget her last name, but she was the coach of the Tennessee Volunteer women's basketball. And then Gino, of course, was the coach.
- [11:00]
B
Yeah. Legend.
- [11:01]
A
Yeah. So it was. It was awesome to see that. All right, so then you get going and you get this thing where you're like, you're working out and you're doing your thing, but you weren't doing it organically then. You were just getting back in shape and losing weight with.
- [11:12]
B
Yeah, I was just getting in the swing of things, kind of building some momentum. And then I had that pre workout experience where I've just. I almost called 911 on myself. I was so sick. So that kind of was the catalyst for me to come up with this idea. And I talked to a bunch of people and a lot of people told me, friends, family, that they would like to use a healthier pre workout. So I consulted with some naturopathic doctors and nutritionists. And, you know, I was a young kid. I had no idea what I was doing, but I really cared about the idea and was passionate about it. And I think for a young entrepreneur, that's what it takes. You kind of have to be obsessed. So what I lacked in wisdom, I made up for with enthusiasm. And I made it happen. Found one of the few organic certified supplement manufacturers in the country, convinced them to partner with me, and I still work with them to this day.
- [12:08]
A
Yeah, look here, I put something out here. You don't need the how. You gotta commit. And commitment will develop the how. Because if you're not committed and you had the how right in front of you, number one, you wouldn't even see it if you did see it, if it got tough or you didn't feel like doing it, you wouldn't do it at those moments because you're not committed. So commitment comes first. When you get that commitment, it always figures. So if people aren't moving as fast as they like to move, or they're not getting the results they need to always. First step, check commitment. What's my commitment level? What am I committed to? Because we're committed to something at all times. The same thing of like you're serving a God. You're, you're serving a big God with a capital G, or you're serving a little God and you should, you need to check what you're serving. Right. So we're, we're always committed to something. It's just, what are we committed to? And then if you check that and realign that, then you're going to find out the how. It's, it's just amazing how it works. But, and, but, you know. Yeah. And then, and then of course, faith goes along with it as well. Because when you commit to something, you don't know how to do it. There's very, you know, a whole lot of uncertainty.
- [13:08]
B
Oh, my goodness.
- [13:09]
A
Right. And how do you overcome uncertainty? Faith.
- [13:13]
B
It's the only way. Yeah. If you want to develop your faith, entrepreneurship's a great way because it's turbulent, it's challenging. Diamonds are made under pressure. And I've had this company for 11 years and every problem, issue, setback you can imagine. But through that process, you cultivate character and willpower and faith. And there's been so many Times where I didn't know the answer and I had no choice but either to give up or, and, and self implode or to put my faith in a higher power that somehow this is, is going to work out. So it I tell people, if you don't know the answer to something, that's okay, just ask God for help. And I promise the answer will come often in a form that you don't expect.
- [13:59]
A
Yeah, it's undefeated that process. That process is undefeated. I always have a saying, man. Everything always works out for me. Everything always works out for me. And it does. I mean it really does. So like why, why people don't think that and see that and say that. But you know, did you bootstrap this company or did you have to raise capital or.
- [14:16]
B
I raised some capital. I also raised debt and yeah, bootstrapped. I still own the, the majority of the company. Yeah, total bootstrap job. But yeah, this, this year we launched in the vitamin shop nationwide. So our first major retail deal and the sky's the limit from here.
- [14:34]
A
How did you raise capital? Never doing it before. Like what did you do to figure that out? And then did you get.
- [14:40]
B
I don't know. I think God did it. I don't, I didn't really do it.
- [14:43]
A
Of course, but we, we take the actions. Right.
- [14:45]
B
So like yeah, yeah, I, I had some friends who were, well, my family contributed like $10,000 to kind of get the ball rolling and I had a friend who became an angel investor and that kind of got us the momentum to where I built a little bit of confidence then was re able to raise some small to medium sized checks from other people.
- [15:06]
A
Gotcha. So it was, it was through network and relationship network.
- [15:09]
B
Yeah, 100%.
- [15:10]
A
Yeah. And then talking to the first investor. Right. Like you did you, did you have to hop on a call with them? How did that work?
- [15:18]
B
Yeah, I hopped on a call and I mean I've spoken with a bunch of people, but I found that you need to vibe with, you want to vibe with the investor. You don't want it strictly to be like this business financial arrangement. You want to have similar principles. And I think that will take you a lot further because the moment there's friction and there's bound to be some types of friction in a business relationship if you have different thoughts on where to take the business. So that's why your principles and values have to be aligned in my opinion for a successful business partnership. So I spoke with different people and eventually I found people that I felt really aligned with. Almost on a spiritual. In a spiritual sense. Like, we really wanted to do this to try and help make the world a better place as opposed to just being about money or whatever.
- [16:10]
A
And the first one that said yes, when they said yes, what went through your mind?
- [16:14]
B
Oh, my goodness, this is awesome.
- [16:16]
A
Yeah. Like, did you. What did you just say? Did you say yes? Yeah, I remember, like, when I was in sales and the first time I would make a First. My first sale, it felt like that I was like, you just said yes. Really?
- [16:29]
B
Yeah.
- [16:29]
A
You know, it's. It's. You need that. You need that vote of confidence in a way. And then. Okay, so then let's talk about how you, you know, have interjected God into everything now and have an understanding of this. Like, where did the. You know, what's your testimony? I guess we can start with there.
- [16:45]
B
Sure. So I've. It's. It's been an interesting path for me. You know, I've always been really interested in spirituality and philosophy, but I. I guess I struggled with my faith for many years, and I struggled with having a positive mindset. And I think that all stems from a lack of faith, because anxiety is basically worshiping the devil in a way, because peace, joy, confidence, these are fruits of the Holy Spirit, whereas anxiety and fear are the opposite. So while I was very interested in spirituality, I found I had a lack of embodiment. And that all changed a few years ago, actually, based on a tragedy in my life where my best friend took his own life. And it was a very, very painful experience and totally unexpected and just kind of broke me as a person and led me into a really dark chapter of life. But it was through that process where I found God and a few miraculous experiences. I don't like to hang my hat on these, but I did have some supernatural experiences as well. And just an amazing peace come over me in the most difficult period of my life that totally affirmed my faith in God that there is a God, God is good, God loves us. And that all of this pain we experience in this life is for a purpose. It's to help cultivate our character and help us understand that God is love. But we understand that through this duality in this realm that there's good and evil here. And we get to choose a side which one we want to align with. And it's almost like this grand cosmic test or game that we're a part of. But the true reality, this is not the true reality. The true reality is God, the eternal realm, which is a pure love beyond our imagination. So I had these mystical experiences. I dove into these. I became obsessed with studying early Christianity along with some of my closest friends. And that was another one of the catalysts, just learning everything we could about ancient Judaism, these different groups, the history of the first Christians and their lifestyle.
- [19:07]
A
So okay, and how long ago was that?
- [19:10]
B
This was three years ago. Okay, three and a half, three years ago.
- [19:13]
A
Gotcha. And then when did you switch from plant to, or meat to plants?
- [19:18]
B
Around then. So I was a hardcore animal based, I was carnivore for years, a proponent of a animal based diet. And I never, I thought vegans and vegetarians were the most annoying cocky people on earth. You know, I didn't, I wasn't a fan. But it was honestly through studying the early Christians and we just kept seeing these patterns like huh, James the just vegetarian. Matthew vegetarian. John the Baptist. We just kept seeing it over and over. And then we started reading into the philosophy of why and it really changed our heart. And I actually made the shift because of my study of early Christianity and the philosophy that it was all about the embodiment of the golden rule, treating others with compassion. And we could get more into the philosophy of it. But that was basically the catalyst for me to transition.
- [20:16]
A
Yeah, well, does others include animals?
- [20:20]
B
That's the question. Yeah, that's the question.
- [20:22]
A
Yeah, yeah, because I have this question a lot because, you know, I remember one verse talks about, I think it's in Genesis. But look, by the way, the Old Testament, there are some things, a new covenant was a was resurrected, we'll say in the New Testament. So some of the things in the Old Testament don't need to be abide, abided by anymore.
- [20:47]
B
Right.
- [20:47]
A
So if we look at it both. But I remember in Genesis there's something about every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I think it says. And so every moving thing would include animals. So that's in Genesis. Now, unless there's something else later on that talks about that. So when you're studying that, like by the way, when we look at the Bible, we have a confirmation bias as well. So we look at it, we're like looking for things to justify what we believe at the time. Right. So I always, I always check myself on that. I'm like, wait a minute, is it, you know, so what are your thoughts on that?
- [21:18]
B
Yeah, totally. I mean if you look at the Old Testament and the New Testament, there's certainly numerous passages one can use to support the eating of meat, there's no doubt about that. But there was also very Interesting passages that support a vegetarian diet. But the way we look at it is we look at the ideal, God's ideal, and God's very clear in the Garden of Eden that a plant based diet is prescribed in Eden. As this is paradise, this is God's ideal, right? And there's no violence in the Garden of Eden. And God gives dominion, right? Dominion over animals. And then in the very next verse prescribes basically a fruit and plant diet. So dominion has to be understood in that context. Now throughout the Bible we see humanity fall into sin and fall into darkness. And the conventional Christian wisdom is that the devil becomes the God of the world when we fall into sin. So this is when we see the introduction of flesh consumption. The human lifespan goes from a thousand with Methuselah down to like 70 that we have now. But again we look at the ideal in Isaiah. It's very clear what the ideal is. When they prophesy about the future kingdom of heaven. The wolf will lay with the lamb, the lion shall eat straw like a bull. A child shall lay with a serpent. There's no predation, there's no violence. So all we're doing is trying to live in accordance with God's highest ideal of what the kingdom of heaven is. Because of course there's no slaughterhouses in heaven. Like heaven is pure peace and love and compassion between all beings. So I think the early Christians felt that if we're to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth, we have to act like it's the kingdom of heaven. Now Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So it's almost latent. It's here right now. We just have to think and act like it.
- [23:22]
A
Yeah, I can see your point with that. But then I think about Jesus and I think they had these feasts, these Jewish feasts, right? And as part of the like, I think Passover and things, they would eat lamb, fish. Obviously a lot of people were fishermen. Peter was a fisherman, his brother. So what about like, didn't Jesus eat meat?
- [23:48]
B
Great question. Yeah. So there's the fish stories. It never says he, he eats the Passover lamb, people, it's implied. I think people assume he ate the Passover lamb because that's Jewish custom. But one of the things that's so to understand about all of this is that there was different types of Jews back in that time. There was different groups.
- [24:10]
A
Sex. Yeah. Different sects, different sex.
- [24:12]
B
I mean we have Republicans, Democrats, libertarians. We have different philosophies. Right. They did back then too. And we are very convinced that Jesus came from this lineage called the Essenes, not that he wasn't Essene, but it was a different philosophy. So you had the Pharisees and Sadducees who really believed in the second Temple and animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, which modern Judaism are descendants from the Pharisees. Right. This was a different philosophy where they rejected the Temple. They said, this is like. Because we know Jesus was calling these people out constantly, called them a den of vipers, and he was basically saying, animal sacrifice doesn't forgive your sins. John the Baptist and Jesus were preaching repentance and turning your heart to God and actually trying to live a better life. So first of all, the Essenes did not partake in the Passover lamb. So that's why I don't think he ate the Passover lamb. But regarding the fish stories, first of all, I totally understand. If people accept the fish stories in the Bible, it's a reasonable position. I would say to them, if these guys ate fish a couple times a month, does that mean that it's moral for us to support the enslavement and wholesale slaughter of 80 billion land mammals, sentient land mammals like cows per year? I think those are two different things. And I think Jesus would probably be horrified by our factory farming system that we have today.
- [25:46]
A
Second point, before the second point, make sure you don't forget that. But not only that, but. But also a lot of the things that go on in the world and you in the U.S. like, Jesus wouldn't be okay with, like, oh, yeah, you know, it's, it's, it's wild how we have this secular nation that was under God, created under God, and now we have a secular nation. And if you're not for God, then you can't be in the middle. It's against him. So, like this. I just can't wrap my head around that. It's just like, I think. I feel like. I feel like that they don't want to go to a degree where people get controlled by religion, religious leaders, like, the wrong way. So because they're afraid of that, they don't want to live the right way. They live wrong, wronger because they're worried about this. It's just, it's just wild, man.
- [26:38]
B
Well, it's, it's why we see so much degeneration in America and there's so much corruption. Because if you truly believe in God and God's laws, then you're going to live a moral, righteous life. But on the flip side, you know, we can see how Religious institutions can become very corrupted and become a vehicle for tyranny and enslavement and all that, too. So it really is this middle path, I think, between religion and freedom, like where we. It's a personal relationship. I'm skeptical of relying on religious institutions just because they've become so corrupted. I come from a Catholic background on my dad's side, and I was at the Vatican, and I just see gold everywhere. There's so much wealth. There's so much riches everywhere. And I'm thinking back to Jesus and the early church. They were all about just feeding the poor, helping the poor, helping the needy. And I'm like, you could end world hunger just from this building if you sell all the gold in here.
- [27:44]
A
Here.
- [27:44]
B
Yeah. So.
- [27:45]
A
Well, and I lost credibility in the. In, honestly, in the Catholic Church because of the way that the leadership covered up what was going on with the priests and. And children and like, how, like, you're supposed to be living. Demonstration of how we're supposed to live as Christians now. I'm not judging them. I just lost faith in them as. As like something. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I'm with you.
- [28:07]
B
It's. It's totally reasonable because this is supposed to be our. They're supposed to be the epitome of morality, you know, God's morality incarnate in the world today through the Church. So they lost my trust, too, and millions of others.
- [28:25]
A
Yeah. And the church is not a building somewhere. It's not. You know what I mean? That's where another misconception comes in. So. Yeah, so. All right, thank you for explaining that. What was the second point? Do you remember what you're going to say? I'm sorry. Yeah.
- [28:38]
B
The second point was about the fish stories. It's really interesting if you look into. We study the early patristics, the church fathers, and they would write long commentaries on the Bible in, like, the second century, the third century. And when you read those, when they talk about these fish stories, like the miracle of multiplying the loaves and the fishes, for whatever reason, they never mentioned the fishes. They only mentioned the multiplication of the loaves. So that leads us to believe that it's possibly a later interpolation to include the fish when it wasn't in the original documents. And I think they did this because the Gospel was spreading around the world, and they probably thought it was a roadblock to bringing in groups of people to spreading this message. They're like, hey, if eating fish or eating meat isn't a part of it, it makes it less likely for people to hear you out. Just like if you say people got to get circumcised, they're probably not going to listen. Right. So I think it was more like a marketing thing where they added it in to make it more palatable to the Europeans.
- [29:44]
A
Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're up against the clock. I just want to know from here going forward, what's the vision from here for you?
- [29:51]
B
Vision for here is to continue spreading this message, to grow organic muscle, to grow the podcast, and to really help. Our main goal is to help people heal their relationship with God because we find that a lot of people have been traumatized out of religion, but we need God, and it's the. The path to healing for us individually and as a nation. So we're looking to give people a pathway to God without some of the more toxic elements of dogma and, you know, the. The religious powers, I guess you could say.
- [30:31]
A
Yeah. Yeah, I love it, man. Well, listen, anyway, I can support you. I'm here. We're friends now, so keep doing your thing and appreciate all the work that you're doing in this. This mission, James.
- [30:43]
B
Thanks, Mike. I really appreciate you. Great shot, man.
- [30:45]
A
All right, thank you. My pleasure. Hang tight while I wrap this up, folks. Thank you so much for being here on the Woody Made Up Show. It's your boy, C Rock signing off for now. But before I go, I want to remind you to hit the follow or subscribe button at the top of your favorite podcast platform and keep coming back and listening to our amazing guests, James Benefico sharing what he's made of. Until next time, be that one.