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2:16

Hey everybody, Chris Kresser here. Welcome to another episode

2:18

of Revolution Health Radio. Over

2:21

the 12 plus years I've been podcasting,

2:23

I've enjoyed having a wide range of guests on

2:25

the show, from scientists

2:27

to physicians, to entrepreneurs,

2:31

to athletes, and to

2:33

people that are just really engaged in

2:35

whatever it is that they're doing and that I'm interested

2:37

in talking with. And today's guest

2:40

doesn't really fall neatly into one

2:42

of those categories. He spans a number of them.

2:45

His name is Sean Lake, and he

2:47

was a professional snowboarder, one

2:49

of the first actually, who

2:52

later eventually became a nutrition

2:54

entrepreneur and started Bob's Naturals,

2:57

which is a phenomenal supplement

2:59

line focused on cow's coffee

3:01

and coconut. So collagen proteins,

3:04

coconut MCT products, and

3:07

most recently coffee. And

3:09

I talk with Sean about his unconventional

3:12

career path from professional snowboarder

3:14

to entrepreneur, how he was

3:16

inspired by his close

3:18

friendship with Glenn Doherty, a

3:20

Navy SEAL who was killed in Benghazi, and

3:23

who was really the inspiration for starting Bob's

3:25

Naturals in the first place, how

3:27

to really get into your fitness groove in

3:29

your 40s and 50s, which is why

3:32

Sean ended up starting Bob's Naturals,

3:35

the importance of mindset and

3:37

turning tragedy into celebrating a legacy,

3:40

the role of collagen

3:43

in our health and wellbeing, and

3:47

many other topics that I think will be really interesting

3:49

for all of you listeners. It

3:52

was a very different type of show, and

3:55

I really enjoyed this conversation with Sean and hope you do too.

3:57

Let's dive in.

4:00

Sean Lake, pleasure to have you on the show, my

4:02

friend. Been looking forward to this.

4:05

Chris, thanks so much for having me, man. This is fantastic

4:07

to connect.

4:08

So I'm looking forward to the show because

4:11

it's a little bit different than some of the other

4:13

shows I do. You know, I run the gamut.

4:15

We've had lots of different guests from lots of different walks

4:18

of life. And sometimes we go deep

4:20

into the science and geek out. And

4:23

other times, I like to

4:25

just talk to people with interesting backgrounds

4:27

that are doing cool stuff. In

4:30

the health and wellness industry, and

4:33

that have their own personal story, you know, about

4:36

what led them into the health and wellness world,

4:39

and why are they so passionate about

4:41

it. And for the listeners,

4:43

Sean and I met in a group that we're

4:45

both in, and we connected, and

4:48

just thought it'd be fun to have you on the show. And chat

4:50

a little bit about your rather unconventional

4:53

career path from professional

4:56

snowboarder to nutrition

4:59

and wellness entrepreneur, and all

5:01

the steps in between. I also know that you

5:03

were inspired by the passing

5:06

of your childhood best friend, Glen, who

5:08

is a Navy SEAL. And we'll talk a little

5:10

bit about that as well, and how that kind

5:12

of shaped your journey. But

5:14

let's start with snowboarding because, as

5:17

you know, I'm an avid mountain

5:19

person, you know, skier

5:22

in my case, former snowboarder, trader.

5:25

What, wait, what? You went to

5:27

the dark side? I didn't know that about you.

5:30

You were waiting till this moment to dine

5:32

that out, huh? I grew up, I

5:35

skied growing up, you know, not a lot,

5:37

because I grew up in Manhattan, in Southern California,

5:40

and beach, not a lot of skiing there. Big Bear doesn't

5:42

really count. Mountain High, actually, I learned

5:44

to ski, night ski at Mountain High, that

5:46

was my first experience. And then

5:49

when snowboarding came on the scene as a lifelong

5:51

surfer, it was like, yeah, of course,

5:54

I'm on a snowboard. You have to, yeah.

5:57

I did that for all the

5:59

way up until...

5:59

four years ago and I

6:02

was I actually took my my

6:04

daughter to Utah for a father daughter

6:07

our first father-daughter

6:09

trip I was more like five years ago or six

6:11

years ago time flies I think

6:13

she was four okay

6:15

now it's so you are

6:17

you were doing pizza and french fries with

6:19

her the whole time no no no so

6:22

I took her to to Utah

6:24

we actually went to solitude and I

6:27

was out there on my snowboard first

6:29

run of

6:30

the morning it was

6:32

super fast icy conditions

6:34

and the visibility was low and I just

6:37

launched off of this feature

6:40

that I couldn't really see flew through

6:42

the air landed on my rib

6:45

cage broke three ribs and

6:49

then after that was like hmm

6:51

maybe I'll try skiing again I think I

6:54

have two more edges and a little bit more control

6:57

and just felt like it was time to do

6:59

that so I went back to skiing but I did snowboard

7:02

for 20 years so I'm curious

7:04

about your path and how you yeah like

7:07

tell me about your your history as a professional

7:10

snowboarder and then what led you

7:12

into the world of nutrition

7:14

yeah um one

7:16

I have a five-year-old daughter and

7:19

I just got back from Squaw

7:21

Valley I guess I'm sorry palisades

7:23

with its new names it's and

7:26

I spent one entire

7:28

day on the magic carpet with

7:31

her and for any parents who are listening

7:34

watching your kids unlock a

7:36

little piece of their potential right

7:38

in front of your eyes you know is a magical

7:41

moment and I was

7:42

snowboarding and my children

7:45

have both decided at a very young age to revolt

7:47

against me and ski

7:49

and I I sort of had

7:51

to do this whole run down with her

7:54

for half a day where I'm holding her hand

7:56

on a snowboard which is a bit of a balancing act

7:59

yeah and And by halfway through

8:01

the day, she let go of my hand and said, I don't

8:03

need to hold your hand. And

8:05

it was pizza and French fries for the rest of the

8:07

day. And I could not be prouder. So

8:11

for those of you who are non skiers, that's

8:13

the wedge shape that skiers who are

8:16

learning get into in order

8:18

to not get go too fast

8:21

and fall down. So yeah,

8:22

very key for the five year old. You want to make sure

8:24

they're very, very good with their

8:26

pizza. They're very apt to French fry it,

8:29

which means they're going to turn into rocket ships down

8:31

the hill. Um, so, so I

8:33

grew up back East.

8:35

Um, I'm from a little suburb outside

8:38

of Boston, Massachusetts. I was born

8:40

in Gloucester. It's a little fishing town

8:42

and my parents divorced when

8:45

I was young and

8:47

my mom moved our

8:49

family to Winchester, Massachusetts. And

8:51

Winchester for me was

8:54

this, you know,

8:57

this place that in fourth, fifth, sixth grade,

8:59

they were just filled with uncertainties. Like your

9:01

whole life has been torn apart.

9:03

And my mom knew that.

9:05

And one of the things that she introduced my

9:07

brother, older brother and younger sister and

9:09

myself to was skiing.

9:12

And it was a way to fill the weekends,

9:14

to create activity, to give us something to look

9:16

forward to. Um, and it was like

9:18

the most perfect distraction and our whole family

9:20

have become life-lapse. Long skiers and big

9:23

mountain enthusiasts as a result of that.

9:26

And my mom really invested during

9:29

those transitional years into us spending

9:31

time in the outdoors. And

9:34

you know, for anyone who knows where Winchester is, you know, it's

9:36

just outside of Boston. So there's, there's not a ton

9:38

of outdoors

9:39

there a little bit, but

9:42

going up to the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont

9:44

and learning how to ski was just, it

9:47

was all I looked forward to. And

9:49

into my early teenage years, I just

9:52

loved skiing. It was all I wanted

9:54

to do. Um, when, you

9:56

know, when the winter season came around

9:59

and. Right around that same time, I was

10:01

discovering skateboarding. Um,

10:04

I was that little rebellious kid. I kind of had that

10:06

little black sheep element to me. I was the middle

10:08

child. Um, and

10:10

I just, you know, I discovered punk rock music

10:13

and all the things that horrify your parents were

10:15

the things that I just kind of gravitated towards.

10:18

And so

10:19

skateboarding became like

10:21

the thing I just wanted to do. And I was like 17 years

10:24

old. I was a junior

10:27

in high school turning, going

10:29

into my senior year. And I remember, uh,

10:32

seeing a skateboard magazine that had

10:34

a picture of snowboarding in it, and this

10:36

is like 1987 or something. And I

10:38

was like, Oh my God, I have to do that. Like

10:40

I have to figure that out.

10:42

And it was really hard to find the equipment,

10:45

but I figured it out. And

10:47

I started snowboarding in high

10:49

school and I just absolutely fell

10:51

in love with it. Whatever skiing was, was

10:54

immediately forgotten and replaced by

10:56

this new, incredibly hard sport

10:59

to figure out on two edges. And

11:01

that was it. Like I, I was absolutely

11:04

locked in on snowboarding.

11:06

And I think anyone who finds a passion

11:08

for something to do, it could be baseball. It could

11:10

be basketball. It could be hunting. I mean, you

11:13

name it,

11:14

you figure that thing out.

11:16

You will do all of your schoolwork.

11:18

You will do all of your chores to find

11:21

a way to get out and do that thing. And

11:24

I just had that kind of one track mind.

11:26

So, you know, when it came to applying

11:28

to college, I was like, where can I go out

11:30

West where there's bigger mountains? And

11:32

I

11:33

tried college for one year

11:36

and I came home with a really

11:39

grim, uh, GPA. I, my,

11:41

my grade point average was just horrible. And

11:44

I

11:45

had hatched a plan over that

11:47

summer with my best friend, a guy

11:49

named Glen Doherty to drop out

11:51

of college

11:53

and go and ski bum for

11:55

a year. And Glen was like, you know,

11:57

I'm a pretty good skier. I think I can become a professional skier.

11:59

And I was like, yeah, I want to be a pro snowboarder. Like

12:02

what a great career path.

12:05

This is a 1991. Like there was no Olympics. There

12:07

was no real professional sports

12:11

in like career path and like people were really making

12:13

a living. They weren't sponsored

12:16

or maybe a few people were, but it was not. Yeah,

12:19

you weren't, it wasn't a career path at per

12:21

se.

12:22

No, no. I mean, it was the

12:24

wild West. And so

12:26

at 19, you know, I, I left college.

12:29

I moved to snowboard Utah with

12:31

my best buddy, Glenn and my older brother

12:34

guy.

12:35

And we became friends

12:37

with this whole Motley crew of other people,

12:40

our age, who had the same ideas.

12:42

And all of a sudden this little tribe

12:45

of, you know, kind of skiers and

12:47

snowboarders and misfits all banded

12:49

together. And we were the dishwashers

12:52

and the prep cooks

12:53

and the lift operators for, you

12:56

know, all these families coming

12:58

out to snowboard to have these vacations while

13:00

we were trying to hone our craft. And

13:03

it was like, what are the new tricks? What are

13:05

the biggest cliffs you can jump? Hey,

13:07

it's going to snow a foot and it's going to

13:09

be great powder. And we

13:11

lived for those moments. And

13:13

it's funny cause you know, here I am 30 years

13:16

later and I still

13:17

live for those moments and I know you can relate

13:19

to that, Chris. I

13:22

definitely can, but I have a, I have a joke for

13:24

you.

13:25

Oh, what's

13:27

the difference between a snowboard and a

13:29

vacuum cleaner? What

13:33

is it? Where you attach the dirt bag.

13:39

All right. I'm going to match that with one

13:41

of my own. Um, this

13:43

is actually a joke we learned from Brad Holmes, who

13:45

was an old pro bumps skier,

13:47

um, why do skiers use

13:50

poles? Why? So

13:52

they can prop themselves up at the bar and tell

13:54

you how great they are. Yeah.

13:57

I love it. I love the rivalry, especially

13:59

cause I.

13:59

I don't care about it at all.

14:02

And I used to snowboarded for

14:04

as long or longer than I've skied and love it. And

14:06

we still get out there on

14:08

the board occasionally. So. It's

14:10

great. I actually, I enjoy

14:12

that. I always, when the rivalry

14:15

was there, and for anyone who doesn't know, there was that whole

14:17

skiing, not liking snowboarding,

14:19

because there were a bunch of rebel kids,

14:22

but really it was a

14:24

mutual appreciation for being outdoors

14:26

and being in the mountains and enjoying

14:28

all that it had to offer. And I think

14:29

that's a super valuable experience

14:32

for anyone.

14:33

Absolutely. And I grew up, you know,

14:35

full dogtown and Z-boys, generation,

14:38

you know, skiing and, or excuse me, surfing

14:40

and skateboarding in Southern California.

14:42

So I was already on team

14:45

dirt bag. Oh yeah, you are. And

14:48

so even though I'm skiing

14:50

now, I have an affinity for

14:54

that whole scene. It

14:56

definitely reminds me of my childhood and I, yeah,

14:59

I think you're right. It's like, I mean, bringing this

15:01

back into the world of health and wellness,

15:04

I have always had

15:06

a

15:07

deep passion for the outdoors. And,

15:09

you know, growing up on, in Southern California,

15:11

that was the ocean and the beach and surfing

15:14

and spending as much time as I possibly could

15:17

in the water and

15:19

being outside and being physically active and

15:22

now living away from the ocean, you

15:25

know, that manifests in mountains

15:28

and hiking and spending lots of time in

15:30

the back country and kayaking and paddle boarding

15:32

and mountain biking and all

15:35

kinds of different activities and, you know,

15:37

surfing when I travel and stuff. But

15:40

now that you're older, so, you

15:42

know, I'm skipping forward a little bit here. Like,

15:45

Yeah, it was a good decade. I enjoyed

15:48

the mountains. When you were hucking off 30 foot

15:51

or 50 foot cliffs and falling

15:54

occasionally,

15:54

you know, when you're 20, you

15:57

just get up and keep going, right?

15:59

Yep. When you're in your 40s and

16:01

50s,

16:03

it's maybe not quite as easy to do

16:05

that anymore. Or you require

16:08

a little bit of extra attention. So

16:10

like, what was it for you? For

16:12

some people, it's an injury. For

16:14

other people, it could be an illness. Or other

16:17

people, it's just noticing that they're not recovering

16:19

in

16:20

the same way as

16:23

they were when they were really 10, 20 years younger.

16:26

So what was it that got you interested

16:29

in health and nutrition?

16:32

You know, it was a couple of things that happened kind

16:34

of concurrently. So I hung up the

16:36

snowboarding thing right at the age of 30. I

16:39

used the money from snowboarding that I made

16:42

and I paid for college. So I went

16:44

to the University of Utah.

16:45

I knocked out a degree and I

16:48

ended up getting recruited into working

16:50

in the snowboard industry. So I didn't have any intention

16:53

of working in snowboarding. Snowboarding

16:55

was this thing I loved, but then there

16:57

was an opportunity to work in the industry.

17:00

And I did that with a handful

17:02

of brands

17:03

working in marketing. So I worked at Burton Snowboards.

17:06

I got to work with a young athlete named

17:08

Sean White who has gone on to become

17:10

a household name. I

17:13

worked with a bunch of really

17:15

amazing athletes that were this next

17:17

generation. And what

17:19

I found in my 30s was,

17:22

boy, I need to train

17:24

a little bit to keep up with these kids. Or

17:26

I need to work my body a little bit harder.

17:28

So the first nod to me was,

17:31

I'm not getting any younger and I still love doing

17:33

this. So if I'm gonna keep

17:35

up with these kids and working

17:38

a marketing job with them and be on the mountains, I

17:41

still wanna be able to hang. And there's a little

17:43

bit of ego involved in that as well.

17:45

And then the injury recovery

17:48

timeline, like I would fall, you're

17:50

absolutely right. Like I would not land a cliff

17:52

and all of a sudden you're like, ooh,

17:54

that left a mark. It

17:57

started not with diet, but with training. So

17:59

I... It was kind of early in on the

18:01

whole CrossFit scene. My

18:04

best buddy who I had moved out to Utah with,

18:07

he had actually dropped out of ski bombing at 25

18:10

and totally took a hard left-hand

18:12

turn and decided to join the Navy,

18:15

radical career move and

18:17

become a Navy SEAL. And

18:19

Glenn served 10 years with

18:22

SEAL Team 3 out here in the West Coast. And

18:25

we got to reconnect because when I

18:27

took my job at Burton, they

18:29

moved me to San Diego. So I got to reconnect

18:32

with my best buddy. And he started sharing

18:34

with me these gym routines and these fitness routines.

18:36

And I just kind

18:37

of was paying attention to him because I

18:40

still wanted to surf and

18:42

snowboard and mountain bike and be

18:45

in the outdoors as much as possible.

18:47

That kind of led me to a

18:49

little bit of a journey around diet. Hey,

18:51

if you drink a little bit less, you're

18:54

gonna feel better in the morning. Like that's a real basic

18:56

one. Anyone can pick up on that. But then

18:58

you start paying attention to like your cognitive function

19:01

and

19:01

you're like, oh man, I'm just a little bit more alert.

19:04

What happens if I'm gonna

19:06

be doing CrossFit if I add

19:08

in different proteins? How

19:10

does my body react to that? And it just, it

19:13

became a little bit of a point of curiosity and

19:15

then what is my best buddy doing? Because he had already done

19:17

the research. I didn't have to pay much attention

19:19

to it. And

19:22

after working out and training with

19:24

him

19:24

for a few years, I just got more and more curious about

19:27

it. And then when I turned 40,

19:29

that was definitely that

19:31

body change. You don't recover

19:34

as well, so you better be prepared. Stretching,

19:36

good fitness routine,

19:39

and all of a sudden diet really kicked

19:41

in. And that was at a time when the paleo

19:44

diet was having a pretty big

19:46

presence around CrossFit. So

19:49

I just started paying attention

19:51

to it. I'll say, oh, well,

19:53

if I just eat protein and

19:56

vegetables and some fruits and

19:59

limited grains. or following

20:01

the general protocol around paleo, then, well,

20:04

then I can do whatever the hell I want to do. I'll

20:06

just be invincible. And it wasn't quite

20:09

as simple as that, but

20:10

it was a good path to just start the journey.

20:13

And then from a supplement standpoint,

20:15

I'm a bit of what you would call a supplement

20:18

skeptic. Glenn

20:20

had introduced me to some products like creatine

20:23

and whey proteins and these kind of like get big

20:26

supplements. And I'm kind of like you, Chris, like

20:29

I'm built Wiry. I'm never

20:31

going to be huge. That's just

20:33

not, it's not in the cards for me. I will never be 200

20:35

something pounds

20:37

Jack and steel, but

20:40

with the right diet and application,

20:42

you can be competent around a gym, but

20:44

more importantly, competent in the sports and

20:46

activities you love doing.

20:48

And that just started me getting

20:50

curious about nutrition and how it

20:52

can feed into just

20:54

being more productive, having more

20:56

energy. And it's amazing what

20:59

you can unlock with some really simple

21:01

changes, but also, you know, with the right amount

21:03

of discipline.

21:05

Absolutely. Yeah. It's, I love

21:07

what you said about, you know,

21:10

being able to participate in the activities you love.

21:12

Cause I think that's, that's the main

21:14

goal. And that's what is

21:17

not happening for many people in

21:19

the U S and elsewhere in the industrialized

21:21

world is that aging has

21:24

become a slow or even rapid

21:26

in some cases decline into

21:28

debility. Like many

21:31

people stop being able to do

21:33

the things that they were able to do. And it brought them

21:36

joy

21:37

earlier in their life and

21:40

nutrition for me, like my

21:43

goal is to stay act, stay active

21:45

all the way up until the day I die.

21:47

And I might not be surfing

21:49

triple overhead, waves

21:52

at a G land at that point or

21:56

hucking off cliffs. But if,

21:58

as long as I'm able to still,

22:01

really do most of the things, many of

22:03

the things that I want to do, I'll

22:05

count that as a huge win. And I think

22:07

it's possible with even

22:09

with no further advancements in longevity

22:13

medicine, things like that,

22:15

just with currently available technology,

22:19

if you will, or knowledge. I think that's

22:22

entirely possible to do. So

22:24

I

22:25

want to talk a little bit more about that and what that looks

22:27

like for you. But before we

22:29

do that, I want to step back and talk a little

22:31

bit more about Glenn because I know

22:33

he

22:35

was a major inspiration for you and

22:37

for Bob's

22:39

your supplement line that you launched in nutrition

22:42

company. His nickname

22:44

was Bob, I believe. So you named it after

22:46

him. So yeah, tell us a little

22:48

bit more about the role that that played

22:51

in your path. Yeah.

22:54

So Glenn and I met in middle

22:56

school

22:57

and in high school, you know, you're really establishing

23:00

your tribe and who your people are.

23:02

And Glenn was

23:05

just simpatica. We just we

23:07

just saw the world really similarly. We were

23:10

both middle children, divorced

23:12

parents, older brother, younger

23:14

sister. And

23:15

we both have that little kind of eye

23:18

for, you know, a little bit of mischief.

23:20

And Glenn was, you know, he was kind

23:22

of like that, that that person who can just light

23:24

up a room. So being

23:27

around him and being around that group of friends,

23:29

like it all kind of centered around his

23:31

house. And, you

23:33

know, the friendships that were born

23:36

from that era are some of my closest

23:38

friends to this day. And

23:40

at 52, I, my go to people that

23:43

talk to you about, you know, life and adventure and friends

23:46

are

23:46

some of the friends that I made at 15 years

23:49

old. And Glenn was a centerpiece in all of

23:51

that. In our 20s, we

23:54

ski bummed together and we had countless mountain

23:56

adventures. And Glenn was a really eclectic

23:59

person back in the day. in those days. I mean, you know,

24:02

high school wrestling to playing

24:04

hacky sack and touring with the

24:06

Grateful Dead were those

24:08

were average activities for him. So he would,

24:11

you know, have these adventures and

24:14

literally put his thumb out and hitchhike

24:16

around part of the country to tour

24:18

with the Grateful Dead selling peanut butter sandwiches

24:20

in the parking lot to fund his ticket.

24:23

And then he would come back

24:25

and pick up a paintbrush and work in the off season

24:28

to make enough money to buy, you

24:31

know, to buy a season pass. And it

24:33

just, he always had a great work ethic. He

24:35

always had great stories and he

24:37

was just that energetic force in a

24:39

room.

24:41

When we were ski bombing together, he

24:43

was that same force. So

24:45

all of a sudden that, that band of misfits

24:47

around Utah became,

24:49

you know, really key friends with

24:51

Glenn. Glenn was that centerpiece between everyone.

24:54

And, you know, when he decided, Hey,

24:57

I'm not going to make it as a pro skier. I'm going to

24:59

go join the Navy.

25:00

It was part, you

25:02

know, patriotism. And it was part,

25:06

it was also part just challenge,

25:08

right? Like, what am I made of? What

25:10

can I do here? What, what are the things that I

25:12

can do in and see, see

25:14

what those challenges are all about.

25:17

He was really curious about his limitations

25:20

and

25:21

proven that he could do more. And that was

25:23

really infectious. Like that was inspiring

25:25

to be around. So, Hey, he

25:27

didn't make it as a pro skier in the nineties. Guess

25:30

what? Almost no one did. It was a really

25:32

hard time to be in that sport,

25:34

but then he joined the Navy and, you know, eight

25:37

months later I'm going to his buds graduation.

25:39

And that was, that was wild

25:42

to see him in this completely

25:44

different light. Like here's this, my buddy,

25:46

we used to play hacky sack with, and

25:48

we had all these powder days to go to dead shows. And

25:51

then the dead shows. And all of

25:53

a sudden he serves 10 years,

25:56

you know, with the seal teams.

25:58

And. It was really,

26:01

it was an awesome thing

26:03

to see and to be around. And he never

26:05

lost that personality.

26:07

He never lost his infectious ability

26:09

to tell a story and

26:10

to light up a room and make you laugh

26:13

and probably more important than that.

26:15

Glenn was the kind of guy that would never forget you.

26:18

So Chris, you would tell a story about

26:21

surf and G land. And

26:23

years later, you bump into Glenn and

26:25

he'll ask you how you were doing or have you been

26:27

on any more surf trips? And you might be like, wow,

26:30

how did you remember that detail? But

26:33

that was Glenn. And, you

26:36

know, you got to carry a little piece

26:38

of that around. And of course, on one level,

26:40

it was incredibly obnoxious to have a best friend

26:43

who was fitter than you are, who

26:45

can, you know, run you around as a Navy SEAL,

26:49

but it also is infectious

26:52

and he just brought the best out of everyone around

26:54

him. So Glenn and I

26:56

became roommates again in our thirties. You

26:58

know, two guys living in the same house

27:00

in Encinitas. We were both training

27:03

out of the same CrossFit gym and Glenn had gotten

27:05

out of the Navy and he was

27:07

kind of figuring out what that next step was

27:09

in life. I had my whole

27:12

career in action sports. I was doing the

27:14

whole marketing director thing and

27:18

Glenn was deploying. He was doing government

27:20

contract work for the central intelligence agency.

27:22

So he'd come home. We'd

27:25

hang out high five, go to the gym, go surfing.

27:28

And then he'd go dip out and spend two months

27:30

or three months in Afghanistan or down

27:32

in Mexico or, you know, going

27:34

to different areas of conflict.

27:36

And it was a high stress, high caliber

27:39

lifestyle. And he was doing this in his forties.

27:41

And that really takes

27:44

a toll on the body. And

27:46

we used to have these great conversations around

27:48

nutrition. What can we do

27:50

to stay in the game? What

27:53

can we do to stay active longer? And

27:55

for him, it was quite literally part

27:57

of his job. He had to be able to perform.

28:00

14, 16, 18 hours a day in high risk places. I

28:06

just wanted to look good and be

28:08

able to surf. And

28:12

in the fall of 2012, Glenn deployed to Tripoli.

28:17

It was right after the fall of the Gaddafi

28:19

regime and Glenn was going there

28:21

as one of the first

28:22

American security operatives with

28:25

the embassy over there. Well, the embassy wasn't really

28:28

set. The whole government was absolutely

28:30

in flux in Libya. And

28:33

I think most people listening to this will probably

28:35

remember the terror attacks on 9-11

28:38

and then the second terror attacks on 9-11

28:40

in 2012,

28:41

the terror attacks

28:43

in Benghazi.

28:45

So Glenn was one

28:47

of the Navy SEALs that was killed saving

28:49

all those Americans in Benghazi.

28:52

I was the executor of Glenn's estate.

28:55

I was his listed next of kin on all

28:57

of his government paperwork.

29:00

And all of a sudden I went from having

29:02

a fairly freewheeling fun lifestyle

29:05

to a very serious national event.

29:07

There were congressional hearings.

29:09

Hillary Clinton got in a whole bunch of trouble.

29:12

There was like

29:13

politics involved and

29:15

it was all revolving around the

29:18

Americans killed over there, including my

29:20

best friend.

29:21

So, you know, life

29:24

changes and you change your focus

29:26

on what's really important. All

29:28

those friends, those hundreds of people, whether

29:30

they were Navy SEALs or our friends in San

29:33

Diego, the Utah,

29:35

you know, ski bum crew or the high

29:37

school friends, everyone really banded

29:40

together. And there was one common thing from

29:43

everyone was that everyone wanted to keep Glenn's

29:45

memory alive. We wanted him

29:47

to have a seat at the table. And he

29:49

wasn't with us anymore, but how could we keep

29:51

him inspiring us and

29:54

keep us feeling

29:56

inspired to act on his behalf

29:58

and being inspired by him.

29:59

And, you know, at first we started

30:02

a foundation. There's the Glen Doherty Memorial

30:04

Foundation. I'm really proud to say that it's 10

30:07

years strong,

30:08

with over 100 scholarships issued to

30:12

transitioning members of the military, filling

30:14

gaps in the GI Bill.

30:16

And it's given a lot of people

30:18

purpose and pride, a way

30:20

to channel grief in a positive

30:23

light and a way to share Glen's story

30:25

with others.

30:28

If you've listened to this show for a while, you

30:30

know that I'm a super active guy. Depending

30:32

on the time of year, I'm either skiing, mountain biking,

30:35

hiking, backpacking, surfing, or

30:37

lifting weights on most days of the week. I

30:39

also live in a really dry climate at high

30:41

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30:44

pay a lot of attention to hydration.

30:46

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30:49

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30:51

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30:53

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30:56

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30:58

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31:17

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31:18

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31:20

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31:23

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33:14

After the foundation had been up and running for a

33:16

few years, I was kind of looking

33:18

at the charitable space and realized

33:20

that

33:21

fundraising and charitable giving

33:23

is a very unique space to be in.

33:25

It's very emotional, and it very

33:28

much has different moments of captivity,

33:30

and

33:31

it's tough to slog it out there.

33:34

And I was thinking about how to institutionalize

33:36

that. Like, how do you bake charitable giving into

33:38

people's, you know, like kind

33:40

of economic life cycle, like purchasing

33:42

products, like engaging at checkout,

33:45

just thoughts I was having that didn't really

33:47

have a home.

33:48

Around that same time in 2017, completely

33:52

separately of that,

33:53

my wife bought me a jar of collagen peptides,

33:56

collagen protein, you know, it's known by both names.

33:59

And Chris,

34:01

I'm a Luddite.

34:02

My wife bought me this, and I didn't know what

34:04

to do with it.

34:06

But I looked at her in a totally

34:08

crass way. I said,

34:10

collagen? Isn't that the stuff that

34:12

porn stars inject into their lips? What

34:14

is this stuff? My wife's just

34:16

shaking her head at me. She's like, look, you're not getting

34:19

any younger, and I need to preserve you in your

34:21

old age.

34:22

And we had a one-year-old, and she

34:24

was pregnant with our second.

34:26

And she said, it's supposed to be really good for

34:28

your joints. And you sound like

34:30

crinkled up newspaper when you're walking up a flight

34:32

of stairs.

34:34

So I start

34:36

taking it, and she

34:38

says, look, you drink coffee. You're supposed to be

34:40

able to put it in your coffee, so just do that. And

34:43

so I start doing that, and I

34:45

just drink coffee every morning, so I put a scoop in my coffee.

34:48

And after about three weeks,

34:50

and keep in mind, this is me, the supplement

34:52

skeptic. I don't take anything. I've tried the creatine

34:55

and the whey proteins and

34:57

the branched-chain aminos. And I never

34:59

really felt anything from

35:01

those. But three weeks into taking collagen,

35:05

I absolutely noticed that my fingernails

35:07

were growing like crazy.

35:09

I felt like I was the Wolverine.

35:11

I'm like, OK, something's

35:13

happening here. And then about

35:15

two weeks later, I needed a haircut. And

35:18

I'd just gotten a haircut. And I was like, all

35:20

right, there's something else happening here.

35:22

And I start reading the label, and I'm like, so what are

35:24

amino acids? I mean, literally, I'm that dumb

35:27

on the subject that I knew what an

35:29

amino acid was, but I didn't understand

35:32

what it really did.

35:33

So I start reading about it. And

35:36

I'm getting more curious, and I'm taking the product

35:38

every day. And right around the two-month

35:40

mark, I had this really

35:42

epiphanal, like, oh, wow

35:45

moment. And I got

35:47

up out of bed,

35:49

and we had to fly to Boston from San

35:51

Diego.

35:52

I packed up all of our stuff. I grabbed my wife.

35:54

We'd go to the airport. We'd fly across country. Now,

35:57

I'm 6 foot 2. I'm sitting in coach.

35:59

My knees are These are cramped up and

36:02

my expectation is that I'm going to get off an airplane

36:05

and feel absolutely smashed.

36:07

Like I'm going to feel so achy and destroyed.

36:10

It's going to take me a while before my

36:12

legs feel normal.

36:13

And I got up off the airplane,

36:15

grabbed all our stuff and you know what it's like traveling with

36:18

a kid.

36:18

You have a lot of stuff. And I remember

36:21

walking off the airplane and looking

36:23

at my wife and saying, Oh my God, Heather,

36:27

I, I feel great. Like nothing

36:29

hurts. And she's like, Oh, that's nice, dear. I'm like, no,

36:31

you don't understand. My knees

36:34

don't hurt. This is unheard

36:36

of like this is crazy. And

36:38

I knew it was the collagen. So

36:41

I doubled down and I started taking two

36:43

scoops a day and it just got better

36:46

and better and better. And I learned

36:48

about glycine and how it produces synovial

36:50

fluid

36:51

and how it also can help in recovery and sleep

36:54

patterns. And

36:56

I just fell in love with the product. I

36:58

was the guy who would almost stop you on the street and

37:00

be like, do you take collagen? You really should. It

37:02

works wonders.

37:03

And you know, I

37:05

just, I believed in it.

37:08

Fast forward a couple of months and

37:10

TJ, my, my business partner

37:12

comes over to the house. He was just a friend at the time,

37:15

but he's got a big e-commerce background.

37:18

You know, you've met TJ briefly

37:20

and

37:21

he sees the jar of collagen on my

37:23

counter and we're just strike up conversations, sipping

37:26

a cup of coffee. And he says, Oh, you take that stuff.

37:29

And I just start raving about it. I'm like, Oh, it's the best

37:31

ever. I can squat again. I'm running again. I

37:33

feel so good. And he says, well, let's

37:35

start a company.

37:37

And I said, you got to be kidding me. Like

37:40

I've got a one year old behind me. There's no

37:42

version of my life that I start a company right now.

37:45

And he says, well, like, what would

37:47

it look like? I said, okay, let's, let's sit down and napkin

37:49

math this thing out. And

37:52

we talked to each other. Well, what

37:55

would a company look like? What would we do that

37:57

is different? Cause it has to be different.

37:59

And we both looked at each other and we said, well,

38:02

whatever we do, we have to do

38:04

something cool for charity.

38:07

Opening line, both said at the exact same time.

38:09

And it was just a lightning bulb moment. And

38:11

I looked at him and I said,

38:14

well, I know the charity.

38:16

It would have to be Glenn's charity. And

38:19

Glenn's call sign in the Navy was

38:21

Bub. And this is exactly

38:24

the kind of product that Glenn would have taken if he

38:26

were alive. So we'll name the company

38:28

Bub's Naturals as a tribute to

38:30

Glenn and his way of life.

38:34

And we'll give 10% of all

38:36

profits to Glenn's foundation

38:38

and charitable causes in Glenn's name. And

38:41

we just kind of stopped and looked at each other and

38:43

said like, is this, can we even

38:45

do this? And I called his mom.

38:48

I called some of his teammates in the seals,

38:51

called his sister. And I was like, what do you guys think? Is this

38:53

crazy?

38:54

And the collective response was,

38:57

Glenn would kick your ass if you don't do this.

38:59

So you have to. And,

39:02

you know, that was it. The journey

39:05

was started. I started the path

39:07

of learning about, you know,

39:10

natural supplementation in

39:12

a deeper, more meaningful way. How

39:14

do I find this product? If I'm going to put

39:16

Glenn's name on the jar of

39:19

a product that you can buy, it absolutely

39:22

has to be the best. I have to look

39:24

at

39:24

sourcing and standards and all that. And Glenn,

39:27

he's been a North star in

39:30

my life. And now he's the

39:32

North star for this brand. Like he guides

39:34

the actions

39:35

of what we do and how we approach,

39:37

you know, product and partnerships

39:40

and inspiration and people. And he just, he sort

39:43

of lives right behind the surface guiding

39:45

our actions. And it's,

39:46

it's the greatest gift that I could have

39:49

being in the position that we're in.

39:51

Nice. Yeah. Such a powerful story. And

39:53

I love

39:55

the circular nature of it and how it

39:57

just sort of.

39:59

comes back around in different ways,

40:02

at different points in your life, and all

40:04

the different ways that he touched

40:07

and inspired you along the way. I

40:09

wanna talk a little bit more about collagen, because

40:12

there's more to it than

40:15

helping with joint pain, which it absolutely

40:17

does, and that's probably the thing that

40:19

it is best known for, and rightly so.

40:22

That can be a game-changing

40:24

difference. Going back to what

40:26

we were talking about earlier, just the ability

40:29

to allow you to keep participating

40:31

in activities that you might not be able to participate

40:34

in.

40:35

If you got a lot of joint pain, and

40:37

you're not able to move, or

40:40

you feel a ton of pain after

40:42

you move, then you're gonna be a lot less likely

40:44

to keep moving. That's as

40:47

simple as it gets. But

40:49

there's a ton of other benefits of

40:51

collagen. What are some of the most

40:54

notable ones that you think about?

40:57

When I think about it in that sort of like, hey, what

40:59

do you see when you see on the

41:01

packaging? You look at hair,

41:03

skin, nails.

41:05

You see occasionally something around bone

41:07

density, gut health, but

41:09

I guess pulling back to the 10,000-foot view and

41:12

the way I kind of learned about it and explaining

41:14

it is like, collagen's a protein

41:16

in the body. It's the most abundant protein

41:19

floating around the body, and it's a structural

41:21

protein, so it's sort of holding your body together.

41:24

The reference I always see on websites

41:26

is like, it's a glue. It's a glue holding

41:29

everything together. So

41:31

when it comes to your skin, think tighter, fuller

41:33

skin, stronger nails.

41:36

Your bones have a thicker

41:39

density to them, and the

41:40

joints

41:42

of course get that little bit of cushioning. There

41:45

is benefits around gut health and how

41:47

you process your foods.

41:50

I always go to

41:52

glycine because that's me. I'm not interested

41:54

in the more vanity-driven metrics

41:56

around collagen, although I think it's fantastic for

41:58

those. Then you think,

41:59

about, you know, things like proline

42:02

and there's a bunch of it in, in our

42:05

product and like, boy, like

42:09

if you look at the different amino

42:12

acids that are in there, there's the sort of like

42:14

all your essential aminos. And then

42:16

there's aminos that

42:19

they're totally missing from it. Cause it's

42:21

not a, this isn't a protein that's going to build

42:23

muscle mass, but it's more around the recovery

42:26

elements of it. And like, Hey, if you want to, if you're worried

42:28

about hair growth, like there's, there's amino

42:31

acids in there for you, but I love,

42:33

I love

42:35

that it can do so much for the

42:37

body. And again, I sort of paint

42:40

in really broad strokes around

42:43

what these amino acids can do for you in terms of like,

42:45

Hey, do you have joint pain? Cool. This is something

42:47

that can help with that. It's not the only thing.

42:50

And I'm always quick to, to explain that to people, like don't

42:52

just take this and don't do anything else. You

42:54

should have a holistic approach to your health.

42:56

Like don't think just because you

42:59

know, you're going to benefit your hair growth

43:01

that you're going to have stellar hair, like there's, there's way

43:03

more to the equation or if you're

43:05

sore from the recovery activities or

43:07

you're having, you know, inflammation issues, you should

43:10

address that

43:11

holistically. This is just one

43:13

tool in the tool chest. So

43:17

to me,

43:18

you know, you're not getting enough college and naturally

43:21

in your diet.

43:21

I would say that as a general statement around

43:24

America, no one's eating enough chicken

43:26

feed and cartilage and connective

43:28

tissue of the animals to really benefit

43:30

them to where you don't need to supplement

43:33

with collagen.

43:34

If you're over the age of 25, your

43:36

body's not producing naturally and dodgously

43:39

the right amount of collagen.

43:41

So you need to get it from your diet. You

43:43

need to get it from external sources.

43:46

Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I think

43:49

this is an

43:51

artifact of our modern lifestyle,

43:54

right? Like if you look at traditional populations

43:57

and even the diet of Americans,

43:59

a hundred

43:59

years ago,

44:01

there was a lot more nose to tail eating

44:04

and a lot more collagen rich

44:06

foods were in the diet. Ox tail,

44:09

shank, chuck roast, brisket,

44:12

chicken feet, chip, you know, homemade

44:15

chicken broth with chicken feet

44:17

and chicken heads and a whole,

44:21

whole, you know, fish, fish eye

44:23

soup, like all of these traditional

44:26

culture, all of traditional cultures

44:28

had collagen rich diets

44:31

or maybe not all but most. And

44:34

then came the low fat craze

44:37

in, you know, the second half of

44:39

the 20th century and particularly

44:41

ramping up in the 80s and 90s. We, you know, you and I,

44:43

Sean, were

44:46

in the generation

44:48

that was subjected to boneless, skinless

44:51

chicken breast and broccoli and

44:53

egg, egg white omelets and steamed

44:56

broccoli with nothing on it and egg white omelets

44:58

and that whole thing. Like that was

45:02

really what was considered to be a healthy

45:04

diet and still in, in, you know,

45:06

a large part of the dominant mainstream

45:09

culture in the US still, still is considered

45:12

to be healthy, you know, nonfat milk, et

45:14

cetera. Yeah. It's stunning.

45:16

It literally, the nonfat milk thing drives

45:18

me crazy. And it was one of the few things

45:20

that Glenn actually drank just

45:22

gallons of was nonfat milk. It's

45:25

just a bunch of sugar in this thing. It's just

45:27

stripped out. Like where are those good fats in there?

45:29

They take out any of the redeeming qualities

45:32

of milk when you do that, right?

45:35

The beneficial fatty acids, et cetera.

45:38

But

45:39

it's really like, it was

45:41

a thing where that

45:42

change was made without understanding

45:44

what the long-term consequences of it would be.

45:47

Because as you mentioned, the collagen

45:49

and the other things

45:52

that you get when you eat nose to tail,

45:54

particularly organs,

45:56

are extremely important

45:59

for our physical. Physiology and if you eat

46:01

too much

46:02

lean protein with not enough

46:05

collagen or organs

46:07

or the types of things

46:09

you get when you expand your diet like that

46:11

I Act, I believe

46:13

and I think there's research that supports this that

46:16

you increase your risk of cancer

46:18

over the long term Because

46:20

you're you have a very methionine

46:23

rich diet, but not enough glycine

46:25

or You know B12

46:28

B6 and things that lower homocysteine

46:31

and this isn't talked about a lot In

46:33

the context of collagen and you

46:35

certainly can't talk about it on your website Because

46:39

now I'll talk about leucine and

46:42

like

46:42

in great skin and bone

46:45

and but I'm gonna shy away from hey You

46:47

might just kick up your HGH growth. Yeah

46:49

Yeah Yeah,

46:52

I mean and of course I have a supplement

46:54

line as well and there you know We

46:56

have to be cautious about

46:59

claims and I think that's a good that's actually a good

47:01

thing and a good good Regulation

47:03

there but here on this podcast We

47:07

can talk a little bit more just about the

47:09

science, you know behind Collagen

47:12

and I

47:12

always like to expand the conversation

47:14

there because it's not just something that

47:17

helps you join so though it is that it

47:19

is

47:20

You know, it has a broad range of effects

47:23

on the body and I think of it mostly

47:26

as balance Like yeah,

47:29

if you eat too much

47:31

Protein and or too much

47:33

lean protein and not enough collagen

47:35

You're gonna throw your body out of balance and then that's

47:38

gonna manifest in a number of different ways

47:41

Yeah, hands down. I mean if you when

47:43

you when you look at Again,

47:46

I just talked about Lucene briefly or

47:48

like look at the back panel on

47:50

your your typical amino acid profile

47:52

in a collagen And you see where it's loaded

47:55

up and you ask yourself. Am I getting that naturally and

47:57

in one of those individuals

48:00

amino acid is going to do for me. And

48:02

the fact is like you

48:05

probably aren't getting them naturally in your diet. One

48:07

of my favorite

48:09

kind of like natural diet

48:11

practitioners is Ashley Van

48:13

Hooten. She kind of goes by this handle, the muscle maven,

48:15

and she wrote a cookbook around

48:18

eating tip to tail.

48:20

And she's like, I know this

48:22

is going to be niche. And I know that this isn't for everyone, but

48:24

I want to give people the access to recognize

48:26

that there is so much value

48:29

in those organ meats,

48:30

in what is on that tip of the animal and what's

48:32

at the tail.

48:34

And then for generations, this was, this

48:36

is where you got your nutrition.

48:38

And 100%, like, yes. And, you

48:40

know, if you're not going to be

48:43

eating a bunch of oxtail all the time, and you're probably not,

48:45

or, you know, fish eye soup, and

48:48

the idea of being able to still get access

48:50

to those, you know, valuable

48:52

components of the diet through supplementation,

48:56

do it. You know, like what's preventing

48:59

you from taking a step to feeling a little bit better

49:01

or, or, or, or being healthier.

49:03

And yeah, I usually talk about it through the lens

49:05

of activity.

49:07

At 52, I still want to be lacing

49:10

up my running shoes and feeling really good or throwing

49:12

some weight around or surfing and,

49:14

you know, getting out in the mountains with you

49:16

and your whole approach to diet. And that goes

49:19

beyond

49:20

just the collagen world and what we found kind

49:23

of selfishly at Bubs anyways, is that

49:25

we keep introducing products that are

49:27

completely baked into my daily life

49:30

and routine. And,

49:32

you know, it feels good because we're, we're,

49:35

we're getting behind and practicing what we

49:37

preach when it comes to, you

49:40

know, whether it's our MCT oil,

49:42

our creamer line, whether

49:44

it's, you know, electrolytes and hydration now,

49:47

whether it's, it's our approach on coffee. It's just,

49:49

hey, if you're going to be

49:51

putting these products in your body and you're going to be, you

49:53

know,

49:54

you know, having them as a part of your daily routine,

49:57

seek out to have some of the best stuff that you can.

50:00

And that doesn't have to break the bank, but it does

50:02

mean like, Hey, look at

50:03

the integrity of some of the ingredients

50:05

that you're, you're, you're, you're,

50:08

you want to interact with. Um, I know

50:10

when I go to my, you know, the vitamin cabinet and I'm

50:12

thinking about things that I want to take,

50:15

I lean on you for that. I go to adapt

50:17

for that. And that's,

50:18

that's a great home for me because there's trust

50:21

built into that. And there's a knowledge base

50:23

on things and areas of my supplementation

50:26

and nutrition that like, I, I want

50:28

to dine at the top. I don't want to just

50:30

go for some bottom feeding brand on Amazon because

50:33

it's on sale. I'm willing to spend a couple

50:35

extra dollars if needed to know that

50:37

I'm going to get the results that I hope for.

50:40

Yeah. I think you take the same

50:42

approach in coffee. Look at, if you drink

50:44

coffee, grab

50:46

a specialty coffee. It doesn't have to be

50:48

Bub's brew, just grab anything, but

50:50

make sure you're, you're grabbing anything that's good

50:54

and you're

50:54

just going to have a better experience with it. Um,

50:57

you know, same thing on, I think any of those products.

50:59

Life's too short to drink bad

51:02

coffee. There, there is

51:04

a meme out there. There is indeed.

51:06

Um, but yeah,

51:08

you know, like we, we started with collagen

51:10

and you know, one of the things circling back on

51:12

that is how do you

51:15

make collagen really adaptable? I mean, you can

51:17

go on Amazon and buy any collagen.

51:19

I mean, there's literally 50 brands waiting to

51:22

take your money,

51:23

but what is their amino acid profile? Yeah.

51:26

How many milligrams are you actually getting

51:28

of those of that? You know, whether it's leucine,

51:30

whether it's, you know, glycine, you

51:33

just take a look. Are you getting enough out of

51:35

it? Cause there's

51:37

some that are just kind of mediocre. What's

51:39

the flavor like? Does

51:41

it clump? Is it soluble? There's performance

51:43

elements that are preventative in having

51:46

anyone take

51:48

something from trial to true habit

51:50

forming and true lifestyle adoption.

51:53

And if you have a bad tasting product

51:56

and it clumps up and it doesn't blend well,

51:59

you're not going to come back.

51:59

You're not going to, you know, to adapt that to

52:02

a, to a good routine. And I think that's something

52:04

you and I can both relate to is like, we want

52:07

these things to work for us and you got to

52:10

go for the

52:10

quality. Yeah.

52:12

No, I love that about Bob's and

52:14

it's, I think a lot

52:17

of people just have the idea that, oh, it's college. And

52:19

if you've seen one, you've seen it wall, they're all,

52:21

you know, they're the same that

52:23

it's a commodity product down in a lot of ways,

52:26

like in people's minds, but

52:28

there really is a huge difference

52:31

from, you know, the quality

52:33

of a product like Bob's and just

52:36

the cheapest thing that you can buy at Costco

52:38

or on Amazon, and I'm glad

52:41

we're having this conversation because I don't,

52:42

I don't know that a lot of people understand

52:45

that it, it, there is a real

52:47

difference. There's a difference in the amino acid

52:49

profile, most importantly,

52:51

because that's what's giving you the benefit, right?

52:54

That's, that's what's actually making the impact

52:56

on your health. There's also then

52:58

a difference in the usability, which you mentioned

53:01

of like, if it clumps and doesn't taste

53:03

good or it smells bad, you're not

53:05

going to use it. And then of course you're not going to get the benefit

53:07

if you're not using it, but, um,

53:10

making sure that it's actually doing what

53:12

it's supposed to do is, is the

53:14

most important and, um, you

53:17

know, I, Bob's is amazing product

53:19

and I think it's, you know,

53:21

it stands out among this. I

53:23

mean, how many are there now? Hundreds,

53:26

if not thousands of college and.

53:28

Yeah, there's, there's, there's so many. And,

53:31

you know, I mean, when you're on the industry

53:33

side, you sort of look around and you see

53:35

all the different, you know, countries of origin and where

53:38

it's coming from and, you

53:40

know, I, I really, really stress

53:43

to our team, like, okay, we, we've bought our

53:45

college and from one source from day one

53:47

and we have a long standing relationship with,

53:51

you know, this group out of Uruguay and Southern

53:53

Brazil, and that's

53:55

important to me from an environmental

53:57

standpoint. I don't want to be paired with any.

54:00

supplier that's anywhere near the Amazon

54:02

rainforest.

54:03

I don't want to contribute in a negative

54:05

capacity to deforestation. I

54:08

want to work off of an agrarian farm

54:10

system.

54:11

And that's important to us as a brand

54:13

because happy

54:14

cows are out in a pasture

54:17

and they are eating grass and they

54:19

are living off the land. And the

54:21

idea of that and getting, you

54:23

know, feed statements, talking about, Hey,

54:25

this is grass fed. These cows live out there.

54:28

That means a lot to me as,

54:31

you know, as someone who's considering that

54:33

life cycle and,

54:35

you know, collagen is an upcycled

54:38

component in the cattle industry, and I think this

54:40

is really important for, for folks to understand

54:42

is that like

54:44

collagen has been around for a while, but collagen

54:46

in its present form, like as a powder

54:49

on the store shelf at whole foods,

54:51

that's newer. And, you know,

54:54

this was a literally a throwaway

54:56

component in the tanneries. In,

54:59

in South America, like this was part

55:01

of the animal that was not being

55:03

used. Cause all, you know, all collagen is

55:05

at its core is ground up cow powder.

55:08

But what part of the cow it's, it's the inner part of that

55:10

high, that fascia, that connective tissue

55:13

that is so rich

55:15

in those amino acids, it's, it's the glue holding

55:17

the cow together. So it makes sense that

55:19

just like gelatin comes from

55:21

the bone and hoofs are used

55:24

for glue that this

55:26

part of the animal should find

55:28

a home. And it was being thrown away a decade ago.

55:31

This part of the animal was going into a landfill. It

55:33

was being chucked and you know,

55:35

a couple of smart folks figured out like, Hey, if we scraped

55:38

all this stuff up

55:39

and instead of throwing it out,

55:41

we, we, you know, we treat it with some enzymes.

55:44

Wow. Look what happens.

55:46

Like we really bolster those amino acids

55:49

and they really, you

55:50

know, come up. And then, you know,

55:52

we can basically grind it up into a powder

55:55

and, and here we are. And there's, there's a little bit more

55:57

to the flow chart on producing

55:59

collagen, but it's.

55:59

a fairly clean process of

56:02

taking this throw away

56:04

part of the animal and giving it a whole new life,

56:07

which in turn is giving us a whole lot

56:09

more life. Absolutely.

56:12

Yeah. It's, you

56:14

know, as you said, like

56:16

this was being tossed out as

56:18

a waste product, which it goes

56:21

back to what we were talking about, like how much

56:23

the diet has changed in the last 50 years.

56:25

Because before this was a key part

56:27

of traditional diets all

56:30

around the world. So it's full circle and,

56:32

you know, fortunately we came to

56:35

our senses and now we're starting

56:37

to incorporate this back into the

56:39

diet. Tell us, we've

56:42

just have a few more minutes left, but I,

56:44

you, your products are cows,

56:47

coffee, and coconuts. I love that. It's easy

56:49

to follow cows being the college and coconut

56:52

MCT stuff. And then coffee is the

56:54

most recent. So what

56:57

inspired you to do that? I mean, talk

56:59

about a

57:00

product that there's a lot of out

57:02

there. Um, yup. You

57:04

know, and then one that obviously is a,

57:07

you mentioned it's an integral part of your life

57:09

and get the sense that you like coffee. So,

57:12

um, other than that, what

57:14

was your inspiration to

57:16

make coffee and how are you guys doing that

57:18

differently?

57:20

So coffee was an interesting journey

57:22

for us. The, the

57:24

starter was, you know,

57:26

it was part of Glen's in my morning routine. Like, you

57:28

know, have a couple of coffees start the day, have

57:30

that, that first hopefully enriching conversation

57:33

about making the world a better place or, or

57:35

just talking crap on Boston sports

57:37

teams, whatever the case may be.

57:40

When we were probably three years

57:42

into Bubs, we sent an email

57:45

out to all of our customers. So this

57:47

was about two years ago and we asked

57:49

a bunch of questions of them. We got this incredibly

57:52

high

57:53

return rate from those emails. And

57:55

one of the questions that I loved in there was, Hey,

57:57

what do you want to see from us? Like, what would you.

57:59

And I love to see next from Bob's

58:02

and it was a multiple choice. Like

58:04

we put down whey protein and, you know,

58:06

green formulas and, you know, all the different

58:09

trends that we were seeing

58:11

out in the kind of nutrition space.

58:14

And the number one thing that

58:16

people asked us to make was coffee. Bob's

58:20

should make coffee.

58:22

And, you know, I

58:24

sort of like I looked at that and I said, oh, yeah,

58:26

we should make, you know, Bob's brew.

58:28

And that was sort of the name just stuck.

58:30

Oh, Bob's brew. We should

58:32

make coffee. Well, we shelved the idea

58:35

during the pandemic. We really doubled down

58:37

on the college and the creamer. Like we were all in

58:39

to our MCT and the college and said, like, let's just

58:41

make sure we do that really well,

58:43

then. About

58:46

just a little over a year ago, TJ

58:49

and I were riding a chairlift together and we

58:51

revisited the conversation. We said, hey, we know that

58:53

people want to see this from us. What

58:56

does it look like? And I said, well,

58:58

you know, if we were to make a

59:00

coffee line, I think we should do it based

59:03

on.

59:04

Places that Glenn had served

59:06

and let that guide us.

59:08

So Glenn went to Costa Rica

59:11

in his early mid 20s. That's

59:13

when he discovered that he wanted to become a Navy SEAL.

59:15

He met a couple off duty Navy SEALs in Costa

59:17

Rica on a surf trip, of course,

59:20

and they they kind

59:22

of built it up that he had what it took. And he

59:24

should go and figure that out. So

59:27

he came home from that surf trip.

59:28

I said, so we should do our first coffee roast

59:31

as a Central American blend

59:33

and we'll call it the origin because

59:35

it's the origin of Glenn's journey

59:37

into the Navy. I said, but.

59:40

I don't want to just roast a coffee, then we're just like everybody

59:42

else.

59:43

What can we do with this coffee? Like, I'm

59:45

a big fan of third party

59:48

accreditations and I

59:50

said, well, we can definitely source organic

59:52

coffee. And

59:55

we can also source fair trade

59:57

coffee. I said, but we're also.

1:00:00

of friends with Melissa Urban and

1:00:02

we're friends with the folks over at the whole 30 approved

1:00:05

and we work with them already. Our, our creamer

1:00:07

line is whole 30 approved. Our college in

1:00:09

his whole 30 approved.

1:00:12

They don't have any coffee partners.

1:00:14

Let's talk to them about clean sourcing and coffee.

1:00:17

And so we had a conversation and they thought it was a

1:00:19

great idea. And they said, well,

1:00:21

like, let's talk about the criteria around that

1:00:23

and organic and fair trade, we're at the foundation

1:00:26

of that. I said, well, I think we can level

1:00:28

that up

1:00:29

with some lab testing. And,

1:00:31

you know, if you really source good

1:00:34

quality beans, if you are really going

1:00:36

to specialty coffee, it

1:00:38

should be mold free, aflatoxin

1:00:41

tested free.

1:00:42

So why don't we just put that right on the

1:00:44

packaging and test every roast that

1:00:47

we introduce and make sure that it's, you know,

1:00:49

that you're getting a truly clean coffee,

1:00:52

then what

1:00:52

do we like about coffee? We like fresh coffee.

1:00:55

So let's not macro roast.

1:00:58

No matter how we scale, let's

1:01:00

get on a roasting schedule. So we're roasting

1:01:02

every other week.

1:01:03

And then we can scale that into roasting coffee

1:01:06

every week so that you're never getting five,

1:01:09

six month old stale coffee. You're always

1:01:11

getting a good experience in the cup.

1:01:13

You're getting mold free. You're

1:01:15

getting the world's first whole 30 approved

1:01:18

coffee because it meets these

1:01:20

good quality criteria.

1:01:22

And I mean, again, I'm putting Bub's name on

1:01:24

it. I'm putting Glenn's name right on the bag.

1:01:27

It's got to Stanford at that best in quality.

1:01:29

And,

1:01:30

you know, there's a lot of great coffees out there.

1:01:33

We wanted to meet

1:01:34

at the top of that and just say, Hey, look at, go

1:01:36

have a great cup of coffee and know that

1:01:38

you're, you're getting a really clean bean in the process.

1:01:41

You're getting it fresh roasted to you and,

1:01:43

uh, and let it rip. So that

1:01:46

was our first roast.

1:01:47

Then Glenn did a really challenging

1:01:49

deployment in Mexico. So we did a Mexican

1:01:52

single origin, uh, as our second

1:01:54

roast, and we call that one the challenger.

1:01:57

So every roast that we have is

1:01:59

tied to.

1:01:59

an area of Glenn's service.

1:02:02

Um, the next roast we're introducing is called the

1:02:04

wanted. And it's in reference

1:02:06

to a very short lived television show,

1:02:09

uh, where Glenn was hired to consult hunting

1:02:11

terrorists in Africa. So

1:02:14

we're introducing an Ethiopian, um,

1:02:17

coffee in about a month and that'll be called the

1:02:19

wanted. So again, there are all these great little

1:02:21

tie-ins to, to his points of service

1:02:24

that circle back to the brand and

1:02:26

just feel like the right way to approach it.

1:02:30

Cool. That's such a great story. And,

1:02:32

uh, thanks Sean for having this

1:02:35

conversation. I really enjoyed it. I love what

1:02:37

you're doing with Bob's and just hearing

1:02:39

about your, the whole trajectory of how you got

1:02:41

here and all of the steps

1:02:44

you've taken to ensure

1:02:46

that the quality of the products

1:02:49

are in alignment

1:02:51

with your values and, and the,

1:02:54

the way that Glenn inspired you throughout over

1:02:56

the years. I think that's an amazing story.

1:02:59

Thank

1:02:59

you. Thanks for having me on to be able to talk to you about

1:03:01

that. And of course,

1:03:02

you know, having, having you on the bat phone

1:03:04

when I have nutrition questions is a

1:03:06

pretty, pretty amazing. So thank you for

1:03:08

that. Cool.

1:03:09

Well tell, tell people where they can find

1:03:11

out more about Bob's products.

1:03:14

Yeah. So our website, pretty straightforward.

1:03:17

Bubbs, naturals.com that's B

1:03:20

U B S a N A T U R A

1:03:22

L S.com. Um, for those

1:03:24

folks that love Amazon, we're right there.

1:03:26

We're actually Amazon's choice for a number

1:03:29

of the products, which is pretty neat. I don't know how you

1:03:31

get that widget, but

1:03:32

I'll take it. Um, but our website,

1:03:35

you can learn more about the brand. Uh, all our social

1:03:37

media handles are Bubbs naturals.

1:03:39

So at Bubbs naturals and ask

1:03:41

us questions. Um, we don't automate

1:03:44

anything in, you know, in our customer service.

1:03:46

So if you want to dive deeper, reach out,

1:03:49

uh, I'm always like one person away and I'm, I'm

1:03:51

happy to answer any questions and yeah, share

1:03:54

a little bit of, uh, some Glennisms

1:03:56

out there with the world.

1:03:58

Nice. Well, thanks again. And thanks

1:04:00

everyone for listening. Keep sending your questions

1:04:02

to chriskresser.com

1:04:04

slash podcast questions. We'll see you next

1:04:06

time.

1:04:09

That's the end of this episode of Revolution Health

1:04:11

Radio. If you appreciate

1:04:13

the show and wanna help me create a healthier and

1:04:15

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1:04:18

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1:04:20

do make a difference.

1:04:22

If you'd like to ask a question for me to answer

1:04:24

on a future episode, you can do that at

1:04:26

chriskresser.com slash podcast

1:04:28

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