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Speaker 1: Another week, another pod. What's going on, guys? You're listening

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Speaker 1: to episode forty two of Hurdle, a podcast that talks

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Speaker 1: to everyone from top CEOs and entrepreneurs to athletes about

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Speaker 1: how they got through took times, hurdles of sorts by

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Speaker 1: leaning into wellness. My name's Emily A Body and today

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Speaker 1: I'm chatting with GT Dave. He's the founder of GT's

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Speaker 1: Living Foods. Want to give a shout out to my sponsor, Athleticgreens,

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Speaker 1: containing twelve servings of fruits and vegetables. The greenspowder tastes

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Speaker 1: every single day off right. They're offering a special deal

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Speaker 1: to Hurdle listeners. It's twenty travel packs a ninety nine

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Speaker 1: dollars value for free, absolutely free with your first purchase.

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Speaker 1: Just head on over to Athleticgreens dot com slash Hurdle

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Speaker 1: to claim it. No code necessary again, that's Athleticgreens dot

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Speaker 1: com slash Hurdle. I recorded this episode with Gtdave when

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Speaker 1: I was in LA last month, and listening back to

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Speaker 1: it this week, I realized just how jam packed it

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Speaker 1: is with info on it, everything from gut Health to

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Speaker 1: just finding your own path and trusting the process. In

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Speaker 1: today's episode of Hurdle, GT tells me that in late

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, his mom, Loraine, was diagnosed with a

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Speaker 1: highly aggressive form of breast cancer. When she healed, his

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Speaker 1: mom shared with doctors that she had been drinking a

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Speaker 1: very pungent homemade tea, and that tea was Gd's kombucha. Now,

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Speaker 1: before we continue here, a little bit on what kombucha is.

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Speaker 1: It's essentially a concoction of bacteria and tea and sugar, which,

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Speaker 1: when I say that sounds kind of questionable, but it

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Speaker 1: dates back about two thousand years ago to ancient China

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Speaker 1: when it was regularly consumed there as a treatment for inflammation,

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Speaker 1: and it was at the time, thoughts a word of cancer.

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Speaker 1: So anyway, inspired by his mom's experience in his Hurdle moment,

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Speaker 1: it became Gd's mission to make kombucha accessible for everyone everywhere.

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Speaker 1: At just fifteen, he began bottling his brew in the

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Speaker 1: kitchen of his parents' house, and then he really became

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Speaker 1: one of the first people to mass market kombucha. Now,

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Speaker 1: in my experience, kamuchi can be very pooring. You either

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Speaker 1: love it or you hate it, and we talk about

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Speaker 1: that in today's episode, But just to shed a little

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Speaker 1: bit of light of how widespread kombucha drinking is. According

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Speaker 1: to Ink, in twenty fifteen, consumers bought six hundred million

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Speaker 1: dollars worth of kombucha and more than half of that

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Speaker 1: was gts. And now you can buy it everywhere from

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Speaker 1: Airwon Market in Venice, California, to the shelves of Walmart

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Speaker 1: and Target. I'm pretty sure on the bodega downstairs where

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Speaker 1: my apartment sells it. It's absolutely everywhere. And to hear

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Speaker 1: about the beginning of such a massive brand in today's

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Speaker 1: market in this episode, it's it's really really interesting. As always,

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Speaker 1: hit me up Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at Hurdle Podcast. If

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Speaker 1: you're listening and you like what you hear, make sure

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Speaker 1: to share it on your Instagram story. I'll make sure

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Speaker 1: to post it from the Hurdle account. Also, please pretty

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Speaker 1: please head on into the iTunes store, rate and review Hurdle,

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Speaker 1: Highlighting this week a review from Zach. He says the

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Speaker 1: podcast is incredibly helpful. I'm on the road for work

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Speaker 1: and anytime I feel uncentered, especially on a travel day,

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Speaker 1: I pop in my headphones and just listen. Emily's created

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Speaker 1: a conversation combining mental health, wellness, and nutrition to help

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Speaker 1: navigate through the twist and turns life has to offer.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for this, Thank you for listening to that. Also,

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Speaker 1: if you have a hurdle moment of your own or

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Speaker 1: just want to say hi, feel free to shoot me

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Speaker 1: an email. It's Emily at Hurdle dot us. And I

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Speaker 1: think that's it. I'll stop rambling now let's get to

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Speaker 1: hurdling today. I'm sitting here with GT.

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Speaker 2: Dave.

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Speaker 1: He's the founder and CEO of GT's Living Food. I've

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Speaker 1: got to be honest with you. One of the first

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Speaker 1: things I did when I got to Los Angeles this

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Speaker 1: week was go to Arawon Market and buy a Gt' kombucha.

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Speaker 2: That's amazing. I love you for that.

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Speaker 1: Why don't you tell me a little bit about your company,

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Speaker 1: because I know that people probably know you mostly for kombucha,

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Speaker 1: and we'll get into exactly what kombucha is and all

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Speaker 1: the things, but tell me a little bit about Gg's

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Speaker 1: Loving Food.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely well. First of all, we started off as Millennium Products,

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Speaker 2: which was the company that I started in nineteen ninety five.

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Speaker 2: You just mentioned air one Airwin was actually my first

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Speaker 2: health food store that I ever sold into. They sold

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Speaker 2: my first bottle. This is the air One on Beverly Boulevard,

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Speaker 2: And it was really them that took a chance on

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Speaker 2: me because at the time I was just fifteen years old,

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Speaker 2: I was making kombucha out of my parents' kitchen. I

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Speaker 2: had started drinking it because my parents, who were two

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Speaker 2: very holistic people, started to make it and drink it

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Speaker 2: in the household for the last two years, and I

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Speaker 2: was observing their affinity for it and how they started

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Speaker 2: to notice changes in their body. That and my mother's

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Speaker 2: kind of battle with breast cancer where the doctor suggested

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Speaker 2: that kombucha helped keep her body strong. Those two things

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Speaker 2: really inspired me, and so I started to not only

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Speaker 2: drink it, I started to make it and then subsequently

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Speaker 2: started to bottle it and sell it at the local

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Speaker 2: health food stores, air One being the first.

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Speaker 1: Okay, And that was in late nineteen ninety four when

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Speaker 1: your mother had breast cancer.

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Speaker 2: It was actually nineteen ninety three when she was first diagnosed,

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Speaker 2: so it was a two year journey of drinking it

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Speaker 2: and then she was diagnosed a little bit before I

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Speaker 2: had my kind of revelation that kombucha needed to be

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Speaker 2: shared with the world.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how did you start getting into that at home?

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Speaker 2: We know it's interesting. So my parents raised me vegetarian.

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Speaker 2: So I was raised vegetarian literally in my mother's womb,

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Speaker 2: and then certainly afterwards my parents remained me on a

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Speaker 2: plant based diet. So my parents were very progressive, right

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Speaker 2: They not only you know, I was baptized Catholic as

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Speaker 2: a kid, so I certainly had a religious background and

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Speaker 2: went to Catholic school for eight years of my first

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Speaker 2: eight years of my life. But they were also very spiritual.

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Speaker 2: And what that meant is they, you know, made a

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Speaker 2: conscious effort to seek additional knowledge and insight of you know,

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Speaker 2: what does this world mean, what does our life mean,

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Speaker 2: what's our purpose? All of that? So in doing so,

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Speaker 2: they took me to India and I stayed there many

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Speaker 2: times with them as a young child. The first trip

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Speaker 2: was when I was three years old and stayed in

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Speaker 2: an astrom And the reason why that is important is

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Speaker 2: that I believe it kind of slowly molded and shaped

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Speaker 2: me into a kind of a unique person where I

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Speaker 2: have a Western perspective, but certainly an Eastern philosophy. And

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Speaker 2: that together, I think culminates to become you know, this

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Speaker 2: high value of food and how it can be your

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Speaker 2: medicine as well as your poison, and how you're very

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Speaker 2: sensitive to the things that not only you put inside yourself,

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Speaker 2: but certainly what you surround.

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Speaker 1: Yourself with, right, Right.

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Speaker 2: And so kimbucha kind of embodied all of that. Right.

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Speaker 2: It's this nature crafted, organic, living, breathing elixir, if you will,

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Speaker 2: that to make it you really have to pour your

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Speaker 2: heart and soul into it. It's not something that's mass produced,

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Speaker 2: it's not something that you know comes out of a lab.

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Speaker 2: It's really something that's, as I said, crafted by nature,

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Speaker 2: and its purpose is to restore balance. And I believe

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Speaker 2: balance not only in your body and your gut, but

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Speaker 2: also balance in your life is essential to good health.

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Speaker 1: Of course. Okay, talk to me a little bit specifically,

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Speaker 1: Like break it down for someone who's never heard of

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Speaker 1: kombucha before. What's kombucha?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? To put it simply, kombucha is essentially a tea

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Speaker 2: based version of a yogurt or a kifer. And what

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Speaker 2: I mean by that is there's a wonderful world of

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Speaker 2: these fermented products, right, but unfortunately here in the US,

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Speaker 2: we're really only familiar with yogurt, keifer maybe like sour

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Speaker 2: kraut and kimchi, and that's pretty much it. But there's

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Speaker 2: a variety of stuff. But the similarity of all these

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Speaker 2: fermented foods is they all start with a base, and

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Speaker 2: that base typically has some kind of nutrient and or

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Speaker 2: carbohydrate source. So for milk, it's the sugars in the milk,

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Speaker 2: For keifer, it's the sugars in the liquid base. For

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Speaker 2: sour kraut or kimchi, it's the sugars in the vegetables.

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Speaker 2: All these are carbohydrates that these active cultures then start

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Speaker 2: to feed on and create this fermented result. So for

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Speaker 2: kimbucha essentially starts off as an organic tea base that

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Speaker 2: sweetened with or sugar fruits, usee agave, honey, you name it,

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Speaker 2: and the culture then feeds off of the carbohydrates of

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Speaker 2: what we call fermnteen agent and transforms the tea into

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Speaker 2: this like tangy, effervescent, really crisp and bright result that

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Speaker 2: when you ingest, it helps balance your body's acid alkaline,

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Speaker 2: helps detoxified liver, replenishes good bacteria into your gut. So

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Speaker 2: it really does act kind of like an adaptogenic, which

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Speaker 2: means it treats the body holistically and helps the body

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Speaker 2: heal itself.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so you are making much at home with your parents, Yes,

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Speaker 1: and you grew up doing that. Yes, that's like not

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Speaker 1: something that a lot of people can say, right.

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Speaker 2: Believe me, At the time, it didn't feel like such

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Speaker 2: a cool thing because growing up vegan and vegetarian in

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Speaker 2: like the nineties was I mean, like, imagine just opening

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Speaker 2: up your lunch box and you're playing out like tofu

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Speaker 2: and you know all these things, and your friends are

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Speaker 2: eating like all chicken sandwiches. Yeah, and came cartons of milk,

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Speaker 2: and my parents would let me touch dairy. So there

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Speaker 2: was a time, probably for a good several years, where

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Speaker 2: I was embarrassed of how I was raised, and I

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Speaker 2: would stop eating in front of my friends. I would,

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Speaker 2: you know, just say I'm not hungry when we would

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Speaker 2: go out, because I really did feel like the black sheet.

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Speaker 2: It's kind of ironic that now being vegetarian, being plant

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Speaker 2: based is such a thing. It's such a thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and I love it because I think the world needs

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Speaker 2: more of it. There's certainly a variety of reasons why

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Speaker 2: being plant based is good, but it's just kind of

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Speaker 2: ironic that I wish I grew up today twenty years

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Speaker 2: ago because of a very different world. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I mean, just down the street in La I feel

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Speaker 1: like you can walk by four different markets that exclusively

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Speaker 1: sell plant based things and it's normal, and everyone that's

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Speaker 1: going in there, they're not following a plant based diet.

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Speaker 1: But there it's more readily accessible. Now it's just everywhere

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Speaker 1: you go.

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Speaker 2: It's an option, it really is. And the amount of

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Speaker 2: options that you have today versus twenty years ago is

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Speaker 2: night and day. Yeah, I mean I remember growing up,

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Speaker 2: the closest we could get to plant base was a

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Speaker 2: Chinese restaurant. Oh my god, yeah, because then you could

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Speaker 2: have like the Buddhist feasts, ramen noodles and the fried rice,

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Speaker 2: which obviously is not healthy, but to us it was

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Speaker 2: better than you know, the alternative totally.

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Speaker 1: So what kinds of things or stables in your diet

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Speaker 1: in addition obviously to the things that you guys make

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Speaker 1: at your company, but I mean for protein for instance,

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Speaker 1: Like where are you getting your protein from if you're

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Speaker 1: eating a plant based diet?

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Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I mean I'm not the type

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Speaker 2: of guy that focuses on my protein intake, and I'm

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Speaker 2: certainly not counting grams. So my philosophy with food is

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Speaker 2: the first of all, always make sure that it resembles

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Speaker 2: as much of its original source or its original form, right,

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Speaker 2: So that means all fruits, whole nuts, all vegetables. I

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Speaker 2: try to avoid anything that comes out of a box,

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Speaker 2: a bag, or a can. So that's first of all,

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Speaker 2: really really important criteria. Now as far as far as

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Speaker 2: protein is concerned, again, because I don't really count grams,

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Speaker 2: I'm just making sure that everything I eat is balanced,

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Speaker 2: meaning I'm not eating too much starch or too much fat,

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Speaker 2: or even too much protein. I mean you can certainly

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Speaker 2: overdo it essentially, or especially in a plant based diet

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Speaker 2: where you just default to like a lot of tofu,

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Speaker 2: a lot of tempe, all of that, which again, yes

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Speaker 2: that's plant based, but then you have a different problem

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Speaker 2: in your hands because you have a lot of soy, right,

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Speaker 2: So I mean I try to be creative with what

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Speaker 2: I consume. I do do like an oatmeal that instead

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Speaker 2: of using like milk or water, I'll use actually or

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Speaker 2: the vegan version of or Gain, which is again a

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Speaker 2: plant based protein shake that resembles a lot like milk,

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Speaker 2: and it's flavor and texture, So I'll use that in

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Speaker 2: my oatmeal. So I'm getting now my carbohydrates and fiber

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Speaker 2: from the oatmeal, but I'm also getting protein.

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Speaker 1: Got it.

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Speaker 2: I love smoothies, so I do, like you know, pea

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Speaker 2: protein or hemp protein and stuff like that. And then

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Speaker 2: whole grains, whole lagoons not so those are also great

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Speaker 2: sources of protein. Got it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So let's rewind back again. You're making gumboo at

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Speaker 1: home with your parents. You're eating plant based and vegetarian

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Speaker 1: and vegan as well. Yes, And I can only imagine

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Speaker 1: how difficult it's got to be to see someone that

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Speaker 1: you care about so much struggling, like your mother was struggling.

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Speaker 1: How is that like for you?

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Speaker 2: Well, my mother's situation was really interesting because she had

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Speaker 2: been drinking kombucha for two years, looked great, felt great,

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Speaker 2: everything was great. Right. It wasn't until she thought she

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Speaker 2: was pregnant that she went to go see the doctors.

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Speaker 2: And so she saw the doctor and he was like, well,

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Speaker 2: you're not pregnant, however, there is something growing inside you.

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Speaker 2: And they said it's a very large tumor. We believe

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Speaker 2: it's cancers. It's in your right breast, and it's about

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Speaker 2: the size of a golf ball.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow.

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Speaker 2: So that was the first time where things took a

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Speaker 2: turn for the worst. Now that's why my call it,

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Speaker 2: my calling to make kimbucha felt so strong. Is that

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Speaker 2: you know again, up to that point, my parents were

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Speaker 2: drinking kombucha somewhat reck creationally. They did believe it was

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Speaker 2: healthy for him, for them, but they didn't really understand

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Speaker 2: how extensively. It wasn't until two weeks after my mother's

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Speaker 2: initial diagnosis that the doctors themselves brought my mom in

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Speaker 2: and essentially inquired on what she was doing different in

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Speaker 2: her diet, because although she did have breast cancer, the

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Speaker 2: tumor that they eventually diagnosed was primarily pre cancerous and

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Speaker 2: hadn't spread to her lymph nodes. So that was really

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Speaker 2: impressive to them, especially because they believed that she had

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Speaker 2: already had the cancer for about four years.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So that was that moment that was like, all right, something,

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Speaker 2: something's up right. And that's when kombucha kind of came

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Speaker 2: to the forefront of is this uniquely tasting and smelling

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Speaker 2: tea playing a positive role and keeping mom healthy. So

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Speaker 2: to be honest, from my mother's so, the initial diagnosis

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Speaker 2: was very gloomin do him as I said, because they

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Speaker 2: thought the cancer was very large. They thought she had

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Speaker 2: it for a very large long time. They were convinced

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Speaker 2: it had spread to her bone, marrow, blah blah blah.

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Speaker 2: But then two weeks later they found out that wasn't

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Speaker 2: the case. So that's when things actually got better. So

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Speaker 2: my mom's battle wasn't as grim as most people are,

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Speaker 2: to be honest, what changed me was, ironically, about a

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Speaker 2: year and a half after my mother's success beating breast

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Speaker 2: cancer was when my brother, who was only twenty two

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Speaker 2: years old, was also diagnosed with cancer. So that's the

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Speaker 2: weird part because again with my mom, in my mind,

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Speaker 2: you're seeing both sides of the spectrum, because my mom

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Speaker 2: was this cancer patient that you had a bad story,

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Speaker 2: and then it turned positive and the outcome was wonderful.

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Speaker 2: She overcame it. She was healthy, she was fit, lessons

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Speaker 2: learned on how to process stress and all of that.

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Speaker 2: My brother, on the other hand, was diagnosed and it

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Speaker 2: was only bad from there. And the reason why this

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Speaker 2: is important is my brother was in the household and

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Speaker 2: I was now making my kombucha. So we were a

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Speaker 2: big family, right There was three boys, my mother, and

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Speaker 2: my father, and we all lived there. And so I

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Speaker 2: was making the bucha in the household where everybody lived.

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Speaker 2: And shortly after I started making it, my brother was

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Speaker 2: then diagnosed, but he didn't survive. He died six months later.

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Speaker 2: So from the time of his diagnosis to the final

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Speaker 2: day that he passed, I was able to first hand

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Speaker 2: witness his death process while I'm making kombucha, because it

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Speaker 2: was all happening in the same household. So you had

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Speaker 2: imagined this. You have this beautiful experience of this young kid,

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Speaker 2: because I was only about sixteen years old, maybe seventeen

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Speaker 2: at the time, giving birth to this beautiful idea that

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Speaker 2: he felt helped his mom, could help others, and was

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Speaker 2: really really excited by it. But twenty feet on the

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Speaker 2: other side of the house, you have someone who's similar

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Speaker 2: in age twenty two, who is actually having the life

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Speaker 2: pulled out of him and just really just wants to

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Speaker 2: live and survive. And you to see that that just

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Speaker 2: the position of those two things was really ingrained in me,

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Speaker 2: like it left a very strong imprint on me then

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Speaker 2: and remains now of just like understand the meaning of life,

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Speaker 2: as cheesy as that sounds, yeah, and making sure every

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Speaker 2: day we live we live to the fullest. So it

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Speaker 2: certainly inspired me again to continue to do something with

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Speaker 2: kombucha because it very much felt like my purpose.

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Speaker 1: That must have been really tough to lose your brother.

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Speaker 2: It was, and as odd as it sounds, it was

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Speaker 2: kind of a blessing and a curse. Right. So the

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Speaker 2: curse is obviously losing a loved one of any kind

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Speaker 2: is very very hard, right, But the reason why I

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Speaker 2: like to also interpret it as a blessing is that

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, the greatest challenge I think a

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Speaker 2: lot of people face is that they don't understand their mortality.

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Speaker 2: And what I mean by that is especially when you're young.

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Speaker 2: And I'll define young as even forty and younger or

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Speaker 2: thirty and younger. It doesn't have to be like five

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Speaker 2: or ten years old, right, right, But basically, in my mind,

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Speaker 2: I noticed a lot of people feel that they don't

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Speaker 2: need to be urgent with the things that they do.

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Speaker 2: They don't have to have a sense of urgency. They

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Speaker 2: feel the time is on their side. They want to

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Speaker 2: live life. You know, you hear those sayings like you

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Speaker 2: only live once, live it up, you know all that stuff. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and I certainly used to hear that a lot when

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Speaker 2: I was a kid. But when you see somebody your

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Speaker 2: own age die and die so quickly and so unexpectedly,

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Speaker 2: it completely changes your point of view. Like you literally

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Speaker 2: see every minute, every hour, and certainly every day as

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Speaker 2: a gift.

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Speaker 1: Was it frustrating for you to know that kombucha, as

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Speaker 1: according to the doctors, probably played a really good role

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Speaker 1: in your mother's success and then not being able to

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Speaker 1: help your brother in the same way.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually found it ironic but yet insightful at

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Speaker 2: the same time. Right, And what I mean by that

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Speaker 2: is there's no one thing in this world that you

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Speaker 2: can do and it will be your saving grace. You know,

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Speaker 2: whether it's kimbucha or something else that is healthy, it

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Speaker 2: has to be part of an overall healthy diet. So

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Speaker 2: to be honest, my brother didn't drink kombucha, and in fact,

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Speaker 2: he did the like my mom was athletic, plant based

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Speaker 2: all of that. My brother actually kind of fell off

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Speaker 2: the vegetarian wagon early on, so he was eating meat. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and he was, I mean I remember to this day

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Speaker 2: he consumed a heavy diet of like microwaved frozen food.

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Speaker 2: And the reason why earth that kind of stands out

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Speaker 2: in my mind is I remember I'd be making kombucha

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Speaker 2: and I'd have my batches lined up in the kitchen,

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Speaker 2: getting ready to kind of put them to bed. And

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Speaker 2: what does that mean? Well, that means you're going to

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00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:18,399
Speaker 2: start the fermentation. So you've made your base tea, you

364
00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:20,879
Speaker 2: put your culture in it, you're covering it, which is

365
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Speaker 2: kind of like tucking it in, and then you put

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Speaker 2: it in a nice, quiet, warm spot for from mine

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Speaker 2: for thirty days, but some people will do it for

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Speaker 2: like ten or fourteen. Got it So anyway, so I

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Speaker 2: was getting ready to do that, and then my brother

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Speaker 2: would come in and start microwaving his food, and what

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Speaker 2: I would notice is all my cultures that were floating

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Speaker 2: nice and happily at the top of the tea all sank.

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Speaker 1: Interesting.

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Speaker 2: And what it is is I believe the radiation, right,

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Speaker 2: radiation in the microwave not only radiates you know, several

376
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Speaker 2: feet around the actual microwave, but also it radiates your food.

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Speaker 2: So I believe that my brother one of the many

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Speaker 2: things that I think he had an issue was is

379
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Speaker 2: a high diet and call it radiated food. Like I said,

380
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Speaker 2: he didn't drinkombucha, he was eating meat. He was kind

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Speaker 2: of on a somewhat self destructive path, and honestly, I

382
00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:09,359
Speaker 2: think that's why the universe gave him cancer, as it

383
00:19:09,359 --> 00:19:12,560
Speaker 2: really was a wake up call. Not to bore you

384
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Speaker 2: with the details, but I think the happy ending to

385
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Speaker 2: my brother's passing is those six months of his life

386
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Speaker 2: where he was stripped of everything that at the time

387
00:19:20,119 --> 00:19:25,320
Speaker 2: he felt was important money, girls, cars, parties. Instead, he

388
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:28,760
Speaker 2: was stripped of all that and just became a very humble,

389
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Speaker 2: grateful soul. And as silly as it sounds, I think

390
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Speaker 2: he burned through a lot of karma and perhaps you know,

391
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Speaker 2: depending on what you believe in, let's just say I

392
00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:39,639
Speaker 2: believe is after the afterlife for him is going to

393
00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:41,359
Speaker 2: be more good than bad. Yeah.

394
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Speaker 1: Wow, what an interesting a perspective to have on all

395
00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:47,679
Speaker 1: of it. When does this shift from just something you

396
00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:50,560
Speaker 1: were doing at home to something that you thought you

397
00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:52,600
Speaker 1: should start sharing with more and more people.

398
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Speaker 2: You know what's funny is when I started to drink

399
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Speaker 2: Kombucha's when I first noticed that it needed to be shared.

400
00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:02,080
Speaker 2: People need to have it in their lives. At the

401
00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:04,879
Speaker 2: same time, I was noticing that the way kombucha at

402
00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:08,960
Speaker 2: the time was getting shared was, Hey, here's a culture,

403
00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:12,600
Speaker 2: here's the recipe. Good luck. Yeah, right, that was basically it.

404
00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:14,639
Speaker 1: Or does one even get a culture.

405
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:17,600
Speaker 2: You typically get it from a friend. It's almost like this,

406
00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:19,600
Speaker 2: and that's what that's the beauty of kombucha. And that's

407
00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:21,640
Speaker 2: why it's been held so sacred for so long as

408
00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:25,639
Speaker 2: it was never this thing of commerce or commercial trade.

409
00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:29,080
Speaker 2: It was really like, Hey, this is my little pet

410
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Speaker 2: that just had a baby, and I'm going to give

411
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:32,360
Speaker 2: you a baby, and I'm going to tell you how

412
00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:34,040
Speaker 2: to take care of the baby, so then you will

413
00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:37,320
Speaker 2: have your own family, right, And so I mean essentially

414
00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:40,800
Speaker 2: it gets passed from household a household, generation generation, friend,

415
00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:44,120
Speaker 2: a friend, lover to lover fill in the blank. So

416
00:20:44,119 --> 00:20:46,679
Speaker 2: that's how you learn about kombucha. And so you know,

417
00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:50,240
Speaker 2: my parents certainly virtually immediately fell in love with kombucha

418
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:53,320
Speaker 2: and started to talk to everybody about how it made

419
00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:54,800
Speaker 2: them feel and all of that, and they would give

420
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:56,879
Speaker 2: away cultures. And so I would notice this, and this

421
00:20:56,920 --> 00:20:58,760
Speaker 2: is even before I started drinking kombucha.

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Speaker 1: Right.

423
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Speaker 2: What I also noticed is that nine out of ten

424
00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:04,639
Speaker 2: times people would come back and be like, oh, yeah,

425
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Speaker 2: my batch didn't come out good, and my baby my

426
00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:11,440
Speaker 2: mother culture didn't have a baby culture, or my batch

427
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:15,000
Speaker 2: got moldy or it turned it tasted weird or whatever.

428
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,320
Speaker 2: And so to me, that was an early cueue that

429
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:22,200
Speaker 2: these relatively sophisticated people didn't understand fermentation interesting, and that's

430
00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:24,520
Speaker 2: when I've been was compelled to put it in a

431
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:27,040
Speaker 2: ready to drink form so people could bypass the make

432
00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:30,160
Speaker 2: it yourself step and just enjoy it and be healthy.

433
00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:34,000
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about, uh, it being a

434
00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:37,360
Speaker 1: live beverage, because I think that people get really confused

435
00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:40,880
Speaker 1: by that. So when someone picked like, what does that mean?

436
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:42,399
Speaker 1: Tell tell me what that means.

437
00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:46,000
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So, you know, and that's a great question, and

438
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:48,040
Speaker 2: thank you for asking it. So, first of all, when

439
00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,840
Speaker 2: I started making kombucha, kombucho was very much like raw

440
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:55,720
Speaker 2: applesider vinegar. You know, it was supposed it's supposed to

441
00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:59,760
Speaker 2: have a very bright and bold flavor. Whether you call

442
00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:02,320
Speaker 2: it hanging, whether you call it sour, whether you call

443
00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:04,320
Speaker 2: it vinegary, fill in the blank. But it's supposed to

444
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:07,399
Speaker 2: have that bright flavor because that's actually an indication of

445
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:10,480
Speaker 2: the fermentation and the organic acids, which is one of

446
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:13,119
Speaker 2: the many things that makes it so healthy. In addition,

447
00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:15,960
Speaker 2: it's supposed to have these visible cultures a lot like

448
00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:18,960
Speaker 2: the mother culture in raw apple's head of vinegar. And

449
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:22,159
Speaker 2: last but not least, it has a naturally occurring efforvescence,

450
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:24,520
Speaker 2: which means sometimes you can have a bottle that's flat,

451
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:27,679
Speaker 2: sometimes you can have a bottle that's lightly fizzy or

452
00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:30,879
Speaker 2: mildly fizzy, and then something that's very, very fizzy, And

453
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:34,680
Speaker 2: that's honestly the beauty of kombucha. Now cut to today,

454
00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:38,159
Speaker 2: what you're seeing, unfortunately, is what we call the bastardization

455
00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:42,120
Speaker 2: of kombucha. And what's happening is companies are taking essentially

456
00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:44,919
Speaker 2: a vinegar that they've likely pasteurized, and they throw it

457
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:48,119
Speaker 2: in a water base with maybe a tea flavor or

458
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:50,440
Speaker 2: some juice, and then they artificially carbonate it, throw on

459
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:53,600
Speaker 2: some probiotics, and slap on a label and call it kombucha.

460
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:56,359
Speaker 2: And that's a problem because for people who truly are

461
00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,880
Speaker 2: seeking authentic kombucha and certainly deserve authentic kombucha, more often

462
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:03,520
Speaker 2: than not aren't getting it right. And so that's really

463
00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:05,720
Speaker 2: my mission. As you know, I've said before that I

464
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:08,400
Speaker 2: spent the last twenty years of my career kind of

465
00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,600
Speaker 2: discovering kombucha and sharing it with others, and the next

466
00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 2: twenty years is going to be kind of protecting it.

467
00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:15,160
Speaker 2: Got it?

468
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:17,399
Speaker 1: So you know that you want to share this with people?

469
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:17,840
Speaker 2: Yes?

470
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:20,680
Speaker 1: When does that I want to share this with people

471
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:25,159
Speaker 1: turn into I'm going to start bottling this to sell it?

472
00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:30,639
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah. Honestly, it was a very simple called discussion

473
00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:35,040
Speaker 2: that happened. So I'd say shortly after my mother got

474
00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:38,760
Speaker 2: the good news that from her doctors that kombucha potentially

475
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:41,439
Speaker 2: helped her. I didn't cure her, but helped her throughout

476
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:45,679
Speaker 2: her battle with breast cancer. I noticed my friends and

477
00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:48,320
Speaker 2: family members also fell in love with kombucha, and then

478
00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:51,120
Speaker 2: I subsequently fell in love with kombucha. So that kind

479
00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:56,040
Speaker 2: of trio of events is what then forced me essentially

480
00:23:56,080 --> 00:23:59,159
Speaker 2: to go to my parents and said, mom, Dad, kombucha's

481
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 2: very special. You guys need to do something with it.

482
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:05,000
Speaker 2: And that's when my parents turned that idea back on

483
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:08,200
Speaker 2: me and said, son, that's a big deal. We don't

484
00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 2: have the time. Why don't you do it? Yeah, And

485
00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:13,480
Speaker 2: honestly they were half serious, yeah, but I took it

486
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:16,040
Speaker 2: as full serious. And I was at a very unique

487
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 2: point in my life. I was just fifteen years old,

488
00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:19,879
Speaker 2: I dropped out of Beverly Hills High School. There's a

489
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:21,760
Speaker 2: whole story there that I won't bore you with, but

490
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:25,280
Speaker 2: long story short, I was just in a very unique

491
00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:28,440
Speaker 2: position to take on risk but without it feeling like risk,

492
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,359
Speaker 2: and leading with my heart and pursuing it and so

493
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:35,359
Speaker 2: literally that next day I started making it, and I

494
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:38,160
Speaker 2: started bottling it, and I approached erewon the local health

495
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:40,600
Speaker 2: food store, and that was it. There was no like

496
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:43,199
Speaker 2: I'm going to map out a business plan, you know,

497
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:46,359
Speaker 2: here's my three to five year goals or whatever. It

498
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:49,160
Speaker 2: was just like, I love this, I can make it.

499
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:51,320
Speaker 2: I'm going to bottle it and see who else loves it.

500
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,240
Speaker 1: Okay, So then talk to me about when the other

501
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:56,520
Speaker 1: things kind of come into play that are obviously so

502
00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 1: important to bottling and distributing the like this. I mean,

503
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:04,359
Speaker 1: you obviously needed to think about labeling, about how it

504
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:07,520
Speaker 1: looked on the shelf, about eventually, I mean getting to

505
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:11,159
Speaker 1: a size that it would be everywhere, Like you know,

506
00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:13,480
Speaker 1: there's a lot, there's a lot to take into consideration here,

507
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:14,359
Speaker 1: It's true.

508
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:17,639
Speaker 2: And you know what, in retrospect, I think what I

509
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:22,159
Speaker 2: was doing was somewhat kind of naive and foolish. But

510
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:24,440
Speaker 2: having said that, it also protected me because what happened

511
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:27,480
Speaker 2: was is I was too young to be preoccupied with

512
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:30,159
Speaker 2: the call it the pressure of the stress of like

513
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:32,399
Speaker 2: my label has to be like the best ever, or

514
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:34,880
Speaker 2: my marketing asked me the best ever. I didn't really

515
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 2: even understand those terms. So where I was coming from,

516
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:42,239
Speaker 2: is this kombucha help my mom? I love it. I

517
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:46,399
Speaker 2: want to just essentially bottle that experience and put it

518
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:48,679
Speaker 2: in the hands of others and then what will be

519
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 2: will be. And that's exactly what I did. And in

520
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:56,520
Speaker 2: addition to that, I grew my eventual business and continue

521
00:25:56,520 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 2: to very delicately, thoughtfully and certainly very organic.

522
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:03,240
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, now you have more than is it

523
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:06,960
Speaker 1: thirty flavors? Yeah, more than three more than thirty flavors. Yeah,

524
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 1: that's a lot.

525
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,639
Speaker 2: It is a lot. And believe me, when I first started,

526
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:12,040
Speaker 2: I mean there was a good three years where I

527
00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:13,120
Speaker 2: had like two flavors.

528
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:14,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, what were that?

529
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:17,960
Speaker 2: It was original and lemonade and the ginger aid was

530
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 2: my third and today it's our best seller. And it

531
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,199
Speaker 2: was that moment of like where you feel like you

532
00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:26,240
Speaker 2: just kind of strike gold. You have the perfect balance

533
00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:29,040
Speaker 2: of you know, the health benefits of kombucha and they

534
00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 2: also the health benefits of ginger, and when you marry

535
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:34,560
Speaker 2: those two you had this like magical experience. And that

536
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:36,200
Speaker 2: was case in point of if you put a lot

537
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:40,040
Speaker 2: of thought into how you call it, curate, a beverage

538
00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:43,560
Speaker 2: or curate even any kind of offering, it really excites

539
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:45,399
Speaker 2: people and then they flip for it.

540
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:49,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. So you mentioned the health benefits of kombucha, Yes,

541
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 1: let's talk about those absolutely.

542
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:53,879
Speaker 2: So. The beauty of kombucha, as I said earlier, is

543
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 2: it's very similar to an adaptogenic and what that means

544
00:26:57,040 --> 00:26:59,680
Speaker 2: is unlike a drug or something like that where they say,

545
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:03,119
Speaker 2: hey take this, you'll feel that kimbuch is more like,

546
00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 2: hey take this, and through it working with your body

547
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 2: to detoxify and more store balance, you'll notice overall improvement

548
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:15,439
Speaker 2: in your well being and that can translate into more energy,

549
00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 2: better sleeping, clearer skin, clearer eyes, brighter hair, you know,

550
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:24,920
Speaker 2: stronger nails, certainly a better digestion. That's what a lot

551
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 2: of people say, I think in this world that's probably

552
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:29,720
Speaker 2: the most important right now, because our bodies are so

553
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:33,280
Speaker 2: bombarded with antibiotics and pesticides and just call it stress.

554
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:36,680
Speaker 2: That everything starts in the gut, and if you don't

555
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 2: have a good digestive system or you know, microbiome, you

556
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:42,920
Speaker 2: could be in trouble. So kimbucha really focuses on that.

557
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:47,120
Speaker 2: And then what happens is and this is kind of

558
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:49,320
Speaker 2: the romantic story that we like to tell, is it

559
00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:52,159
Speaker 2: in a way kimbucha kind of changes the way you

560
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:55,520
Speaker 2: see food, right, we joke half joking and say it

561
00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:57,520
Speaker 2: kind of opens up your third eye. And what I

562
00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:00,400
Speaker 2: mean by that is, you know, when you consume kombuchaly,

563
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 2: for most people, it tastes very vinegreen, It tastes very

564
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:05,280
Speaker 2: kind of harsh. But if you can stick with it

565
00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:08,040
Speaker 2: and even just get through your first bottle, you notice

566
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 2: that the next time you reach for it, it tastes sweeter,

567
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 2: and the next time that you go reach for a

568
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:18,760
Speaker 2: soda or something really processed that actually tastes gross. Yeah,

569
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:20,479
Speaker 2: So what we mean by that is it kind of

570
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:25,000
Speaker 2: remakes your palate and it opens up the dialogue between

571
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:27,760
Speaker 2: you and your body and you start to hear your

572
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,560
Speaker 2: body say hey, I don't want that. Hey, that doesn't

573
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:33,159
Speaker 2: make me feel good. So we notice more often than

574
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,800
Speaker 2: not with people who start drinking kombucha, and of course

575
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:39,120
Speaker 2: specifically ours, is that they say, hey, this has changed

576
00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 2: my life, like I'm eating different, I'm drinking different, I'm

577
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 2: living differently. Yeah, and it's it's as silly as it sounds,

578
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 2: kind of like an awakening.

579
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,320
Speaker 1: Like I'm sure when people that were either close to you,

580
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,400
Speaker 1: close to you or fans of GTS, when they picked

581
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 1: up their first bottle, they didn't instantly feel like a

582
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:57,480
Speaker 1: completely different human.

583
00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:00,680
Speaker 2: Of course, that's some people had to run to the bathroom. Yeah, yeah,

584
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 2: some people, you know, they spit it out. I mean,

585
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 2: not every first experience with kombucha is a positive one. However,

586
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 2: every experience with kombucha at least is a memorable one,

587
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 2: and that means that, like you really can tell it's

588
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:17,680
Speaker 2: something different. Yeah and so yeah, so I think a

589
00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:19,440
Speaker 2: lot of people that's one of the reasons why they

590
00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:22,200
Speaker 2: resonate with it. But to your point, absolutely, I mean,

591
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 2: when I started making kombucha, I became enamored with this

592
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:28,840
Speaker 2: wonderful world and not only fermented foods, but also these raw,

593
00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:32,680
Speaker 2: living plant based foods. So call it from year one

594
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:35,239
Speaker 2: to year probably four and even five, I was on

595
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:39,479
Speaker 2: this intense, intense health diet and I was raw, I

596
00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 2: was vegan, I was all this stuff, and I was

597
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 2: amazed with how deep you can go in health and wellness.

598
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 2: But of course certain extreme behaviors aren't good. I mean

599
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:53,360
Speaker 2: I noticed when I was raw and vegan, it was

600
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:55,800
Speaker 2: great for the summer because it's warm, and my body

601
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:58,320
Speaker 2: loved like the cool fresh vegetables and the cool fresh fruit.

602
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:01,760
Speaker 2: But as soon as winter came, like I got cold, yeah,

603
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 2: and my body was craving warm food things that were

604
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 2: big things that were you know, sauteed whatever. And so

605
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:10,560
Speaker 2: the point that I'm saying is is that I don't

606
00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:13,280
Speaker 2: think there's any singular approach to anyone thing, Like what

607
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:15,400
Speaker 2: works for you may not work for me. And that's

608
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:17,800
Speaker 2: in many ways what I think kombucha is so special

609
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 2: as it kind of tells you to hate listen, listen

610
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,080
Speaker 2: to your body even when you drink kombucha, Like if

611
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 2: I drink a bottle, you may only have to drink

612
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:27,920
Speaker 2: four or eight ounces and get the same result. Yeah.

613
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:31,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you mentioned eating raw that has that. I

614
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:36,160
Speaker 1: tried that once. It was hard. It's hard, it is

615
00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:39,000
Speaker 1: it's really you don't really I feel like you were

616
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 1: very I was very I did not know how many

617
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,920
Speaker 1: things I was consuming that were not raw until I

618
00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: tried to eat only raw. I sat down with this

619
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 1: guy who has a big name, uh with raw foods,

620
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:54,240
Speaker 1: spread bushi. He's based in Saten Island, and all the

621
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 1: things he was telling me that I should eat like,

622
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:58,120
Speaker 1: I tried to eat them and I wasn't into it.

623
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:00,400
Speaker 1: And I was wrapping things in colored cream and it

624
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 1: just wasn't my jam. And yeah, it was a lot.

625
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 2: No, it's a lot, it's a lot.

626
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:07,560
Speaker 1: I feel like you've tried a lot of stuff, though,

627
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:09,520
Speaker 1: what would you say has been kind of one of

628
00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:12,840
Speaker 1: the whacky I actually I asked Hayden Slater this. I

629
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,560
Speaker 1: asked him what was one of the craziest health trends

630
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: he's tried, or like help anything he's tried in the

631
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:20,280
Speaker 1: last few years. I'm not going to tell you his

632
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 1: answer until you tell me what your answer. What's your answer,

633
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:25,520
Speaker 1: I'm curious to hear his, So mine is.

634
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, my parents raised me on stay away

635
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:31,960
Speaker 2: from anything that's a fad, right, So I actually never

636
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:36,960
Speaker 2: got on the Atkins or Ketosi's bandwagon. I've never really

637
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:42,080
Speaker 2: subscribed to a fully extreme diet. However, I think perhaps

638
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:44,360
Speaker 2: what's the exception to that statement is you and I

639
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 2: actually talked about this previously. Is there was a time

640
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 2: where I was like counting calories. Yeah, like a stick

641
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:53,360
Speaker 2: of gum. I recount the calories. And I think what

642
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:55,680
Speaker 2: happened was is, and this is what I'm saying about

643
00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:58,719
Speaker 2: extreme behavior, is it all started off with like fully

644
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 2: obsessing about what I put in my body, and then

645
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 2: over to the point where I was overthinking it, where

646
00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:06,920
Speaker 2: every single thing that went in my mouth had needed

647
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,640
Speaker 2: to have a purpose, and that for some reason translated

648
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 2: into like calorie counting. And so what happened was I

649
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:16,120
Speaker 2: noticed that I became so obsessed with calorie intake that

650
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:19,560
Speaker 2: I started to consciously or unconsciously reduce my calorie intake.

651
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 2: And so I started using a lot of artificial sweeteners,

652
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:25,280
Speaker 2: a lot of diet soda and diet drinks. And because

653
00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 2: of that nature, and I thought I was being healthy

654
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:30,600
Speaker 2: because to be honest, sometimes I was mixing it with

655
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:33,720
Speaker 2: health food, like I was making like a pumpkin sou

656
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:36,280
Speaker 2: fle that I read pumpkins a very rich and bring

657
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 2: the caroteene. But I wanted to emulate like a pumpkin pie,

658
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:41,320
Speaker 2: but I didn't want the sugar. So I used like

659
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 2: a ton of superlose or aspartame, and I thought, hey,

660
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:46,720
Speaker 2: as long as I need more of the pumpkin, it

661
00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:49,240
Speaker 2: should not only wash itself out, but it should still

662
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 2: be healthy. No. I noticed within the short period of time,

663
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:55,600
Speaker 2: like my body completely changed, Like I would wake up

664
00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 2: in the morning, in the middle of the night with

665
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 2: like a severe food craving, sugar craving. I would binge

666
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 2: eat it was it was like, honestly, there was like

667
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:07,240
Speaker 2: a fat boy inside me now that was trying to

668
00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:10,520
Speaker 2: get out, when previously I had never felt that before, right, right,

669
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 2: And what that was an interesting reminder was is that

670
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:16,800
Speaker 2: I just needed to pay more attention to kombucha and

671
00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:19,120
Speaker 2: allow it to do to me what it used to

672
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,400
Speaker 2: do and not be so obsessed with this other stuff.

673
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,520
Speaker 2: So kombucha helped kind of put that in balance and

674
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:27,040
Speaker 2: helped fix those cravings. And now I'm pleased to say,

675
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:28,840
Speaker 2: like I'd never have felt that way again.

676
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:31,880
Speaker 1: Okay, So Hayden's answer is a lot more obscure than

677
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 1: were Hayden tried leech therapy. I'm talking like tresh Oh, okay,

678
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 1: because you live in Beverly Hills, people do weird things here.

679
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:43,040
Speaker 2: Yeah that's true. I mean I haven't. You know, it's

680
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 2: so funny. I think because my work schedule, I haven't.

681
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 2: Like my I have friends that do cupping.

682
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's pretty PG.

683
00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:52,560
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean I have friends that do like the

684
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:54,560
Speaker 2: p r P stuff, or they have their blood pulled

685
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 2: out and it's like spawn and then like the plasma

686
00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:00,600
Speaker 2: which is almost like your stem cell created, and then

687
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 2: they like rub that on your face or they ingest

688
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:06,920
Speaker 2: it in you. All that stuff. I mean, I listen,

689
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,359
Speaker 2: I grew up in Bellar, Beverly Hills. Yeah, pretty much

690
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:11,719
Speaker 2: seen it all. Yeah. I've seen people put you know,

691
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:15,759
Speaker 2: plit sensa from all their babies into their veins. Oh,

692
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 2: I mean I've seen all of that. I just haven't

693
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:19,000
Speaker 2: done it.

694
00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:19,399
Speaker 1: Yeah.

695
00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:22,000
Speaker 2: No, I mean to be honest, because like I'm a

696
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:25,360
Speaker 2: big believer in prevention. Prevention with things that nature is

697
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,439
Speaker 2: kind of offering, you know, injecting someone's placenta, you could

698
00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 2: you could argue that that's natural but it's not natural

699
00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:31,560
Speaker 2: to you.

700
00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 1: It feels so weird.

701
00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:36,319
Speaker 2: Yeah. I just like to take a lot of water, exercise,

702
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:37,840
Speaker 2: and eat really clean food.

703
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 1: That's good. Yeah. Now, I sat down with Colleen quickly,

704
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 1: she's a Sepule chaser. When she had a bad hamstring injury.

705
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 1: She was telling me about how they spun her blood

706
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:49,640
Speaker 1: and then would put it back into her leg and

707
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:51,759
Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, that's how you know you're an

708
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:54,719
Speaker 1: elite level athlete if someone's going to just spin your

709
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:56,759
Speaker 1: blood and put it back in your body to make

710
00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,080
Speaker 1: you better, even faster. Yeah, it's crazy.

711
00:34:59,160 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 2: No, it is crazy.

712
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:01,960
Speaker 1: How does it feel to be known as the king

713
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 1: of krom Butucha?

714
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:07,080
Speaker 2: I mean it feels great. It's a heavy crown to wear.

715
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,400
Speaker 2: And what I mean by that is, I think because

716
00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:14,040
Speaker 2: health and wellness has become such a trend and a

717
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 2: fad lately that I think everybody consciously or unconsciously sees

718
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:22,880
Speaker 2: all these products are somewhat new, right, And you know,

719
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 2: I have people that you know, have been drinking kombucha

720
00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:28,919
Speaker 2: that have only known about it for a couple of years.

721
00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:31,399
Speaker 2: And what that creates, though, is you know, I've been

722
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:34,400
Speaker 2: doing this for over twenty three years. And you know,

723
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:37,759
Speaker 2: when I created my product and when I put it

724
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:41,680
Speaker 2: on the shelves, the landscape of the marketplace was very different.

725
00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 2: You know. At the time, what was considered cunning enje

726
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 2: was tofu, what was considered a health beverage was so

727
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,919
Speaker 2: be invited and water. So the point that I'm trying

728
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:53,080
Speaker 2: to make is that you know, I've been given the

729
00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:56,839
Speaker 2: title category creator, king of kombucha, all of that, which

730
00:35:56,880 --> 00:35:59,040
Speaker 2: honestly I don't take for granted, and I'm honored it

731
00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:02,600
Speaker 2: to get anything like that type of title. But I'd

732
00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:05,400
Speaker 2: like to be more of a humble guy. But I

733
00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:07,759
Speaker 2: think right now, in this day and age, especially with millennials,

734
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:12,240
Speaker 2: anything that's considered big or old, they kind of resist

735
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:14,880
Speaker 2: and they like the new, sparkly things, and so at

736
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:19,680
Speaker 2: times we're rather pigeonholed, as you know, the monopoly of kombucha,

737
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:22,480
Speaker 2: the Goliath of kombucha, and then therefore people just default

738
00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:24,760
Speaker 2: to the smaller brands just because they're kind of anti

739
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:28,960
Speaker 2: big company, or people don't really understand our history, right

740
00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:31,080
Speaker 2: right they think most people, as I said, have only

741
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:35,319
Speaker 2: heard kombucha a't the longest for five years. They don't

742
00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 2: understand for us there's nineteen more years before that, right,

743
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:40,880
Speaker 2: and there there was a day and age where there

744
00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:43,120
Speaker 2: wasn't a Whole Foods. You know, when I started in

745
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:45,960
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, Whole Foods didn't exist. You know, there

746
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 2: was a time where you know, right now, you can

747
00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:49,759
Speaker 2: buy kombucha in seven to eleven, You can buy it

748
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:51,440
Speaker 2: at Costco. As you just said, you can buy it

749
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:53,799
Speaker 2: and trade to Joe's. There was a time where I

750
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:56,320
Speaker 2: was trying to get in those stores and they slammed

751
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:58,279
Speaker 2: the door on my face. And not only did they

752
00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:01,360
Speaker 2: do that, but they also said, hey, what you're making

753
00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:04,560
Speaker 2: is disgusting, and what you're making will get people sick

754
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:10,839
Speaker 2: because it's fermented, and fermentation is synonymous with rot and spoilage.

755
00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:13,480
Speaker 2: And so you know, at the time, I only really

756
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:16,759
Speaker 2: had two options, give up or just put my head

757
00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:20,640
Speaker 2: down and continue to pave this call it slow and

758
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:25,520
Speaker 2: steady path. Today, products that have kombucha on the label

759
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:27,640
Speaker 2: get in the store just because of that. So it's

760
00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:30,200
Speaker 2: a very different world. So I can't say that I

761
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:33,520
Speaker 2: love that, because I think working hard and paying your

762
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:36,720
Speaker 2: dues creates character. I think a lot of the products

763
00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:38,520
Speaker 2: this isn't even just in the kombucha space. I think

764
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:40,719
Speaker 2: a lot of the products in the marketplace right now

765
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,640
Speaker 2: really lack that integrity because they're all just kind of

766
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:46,040
Speaker 2: me too. They're jumping on the bandwagon and they're putting

767
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 2: you know, vegan, plant based, gluten free kombucha whatever on

768
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:52,680
Speaker 2: the label, and it just they have success because that's

769
00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:55,439
Speaker 2: the world we're living in right now. But I think

770
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:58,359
Speaker 2: it also brings in kind of bad players, right people

771
00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:00,600
Speaker 2: who come in just to sell their company. I mean

772
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:03,480
Speaker 2: there's a lot of kombucha's in my space unfortunately that

773
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:08,360
Speaker 2: have Pepsi money, coke money, Nestli money, pize coffee and

774
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:10,160
Speaker 2: tea money, and not that that's a bad thing, but

775
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:13,239
Speaker 2: it's slowly changing the industry. Yeah, we're proud to say

776
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:15,399
Speaker 2: we're independent. We're still family owned. We don't have any

777
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:18,040
Speaker 2: big food money in our pockets and we plan on

778
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:20,920
Speaker 2: not changing that, right. We just hope that by others

779
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:23,920
Speaker 2: engaging in that behavior that it doesn't change the category

780
00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:24,600
Speaker 2: for the worst.

781
00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:35,160
Speaker 1: Quick break from today's episode to give my sponsor Athletic

782
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783
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784
00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:43,640
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785
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786
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787
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788
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789
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790
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791
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792
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793
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794
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795
00:39:15,719 --> 00:39:19,840
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796
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797
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Speaker 1: com slash hurdle. Let's get back to it. I'm back

798
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,719
Speaker 1: here sitting with GT Dave. He's the founder and CEO

799
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:41,320
Speaker 1: of GT's Living Food. When does your company really start

800
00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:45,520
Speaker 1: to upswig? Yeah, I mean take off. I mean when

801
00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:48,080
Speaker 1: did you When did you move outside of your parent kitchen?

802
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:51,360
Speaker 2: Yeah? I would say, I mean almost every two to

803
00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 2: three years was a big growth spurt, and so certainly

804
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:58,080
Speaker 2: when I first started making kombuchos in my parents' kitchen

805
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:01,279
Speaker 2: for about two years. Be honest, what was the genesis

806
00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:03,120
Speaker 2: or the impetus of me moving out. It was my

807
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:05,520
Speaker 2: parents were splitting up, and that was after the death

808
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:07,719
Speaker 2: of my brother that definitely shook up their marriage and

809
00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:11,160
Speaker 2: certainly the household. So it was their breakup, if you will,

810
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:13,720
Speaker 2: that forced me and my business out of the house.

811
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:17,600
Speaker 2: So that's when I got my first commercial facility in Guardina, California.

812
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:22,400
Speaker 2: I was in that facility for gosh, probably about five years,

813
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:26,759
Speaker 2: maybe even six, and every two or three years I'd

814
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:29,319
Speaker 2: have to take over the unit next door. So just

815
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:31,239
Speaker 2: to back up, when I first moved into my first

816
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:33,600
Speaker 2: commercial facility, it was an industrial complex. There was a

817
00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:36,319
Speaker 2: lot of these like little units back to back to back,

818
00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:39,120
Speaker 2: and I occupied one, and then two to three years

819
00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:40,759
Speaker 2: later I needed to cut a hole in the wall

820
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:43,360
Speaker 2: and occupy the second, and then the third, and then

821
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:46,520
Speaker 2: the fourth, and so I was growing rapidly again almost

822
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:49,880
Speaker 2: every two to three years. It wasn't until two thousand

823
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:53,360
Speaker 2: and five, so a good ten years later after I

824
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:57,520
Speaker 2: started where we went nationwide. I moved into a giant

825
00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:01,000
Speaker 2: facility which at the time fell giant, and that's when

826
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:04,239
Speaker 2: like people were really getting it. That's when people were

827
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:08,319
Speaker 2: traveling from California to New York and going crazy for

828
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:11,439
Speaker 2: trying to get kombucha in Manhattan. And that was again

829
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:14,680
Speaker 2: the impetus from me becoming nationwidek So that was a

830
00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:20,080
Speaker 2: huge moment. Ironically, then it took another ten years for kombucha,

831
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:23,920
Speaker 2: in my opinion, to hit critical acclaim and mass appeal,

832
00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:26,600
Speaker 2: and that's twenty fifteen is when you started to see

833
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:31,080
Speaker 2: the adoption of kombucha in more mainstream markets, the Kroger's,

834
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:33,600
Speaker 2: which Jones, Ralph's here in Los Angeles. The safe way

835
00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:37,800
Speaker 2: is the costcos, the Trader Joe's, and ironically the targets

836
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:40,480
Speaker 2: and the Walmarts. I mean when I first started, first

837
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:42,360
Speaker 2: of all, I've only been in Walmart like twice in

838
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:46,520
Speaker 2: my life. So yeah, Walmart here somewhere here, I mean

839
00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:52,680
Speaker 2: not like in Beverly Hills are right now, not currently,

840
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:57,360
Speaker 2: So that's the thing. So it never in my wildest

841
00:41:57,440 --> 00:41:59,360
Speaker 2: dreams did I ever think that my product would be

842
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:01,120
Speaker 2: sold in a Walmart, aren't ye? Because I always saw

843
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:03,320
Speaker 2: Walmart as an area that more for the cokes and

844
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:05,360
Speaker 2: the pepsis of the world, right, But the fact that

845
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:07,640
Speaker 2: my kombucha is sold into Walmart is a case in

846
00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:09,600
Speaker 2: point that the world as we know it is changing.

847
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:12,759
Speaker 2: It has changed for the better in many ways. So

848
00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:17,480
Speaker 2: that's very exciting. And again, twenty fifteen is when I

849
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:21,000
Speaker 2: think from two thousand and five to twenty fifteen, kombucha

850
00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:22,960
Speaker 2: became a household name in the natural world.

851
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:23,319
Speaker 1: Right.

852
00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:26,160
Speaker 2: From twenty fifteen to now, it's slowly becoming a household

853
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:29,200
Speaker 2: name in everyone's world right, Right. You're still far from

854
00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:33,160
Speaker 2: like it being synonymous like coconut water or things of

855
00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 2: that nature, where everybody's drinking it, because kombucha has more

856
00:42:35,520 --> 00:42:38,440
Speaker 2: of a polarizing effect. But each day I think more

857
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:40,520
Speaker 2: and more people are understanding it and seeking it out.

858
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:43,760
Speaker 1: Where's the money coming from? Like when you're starting out

859
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 1: and you're knocking down walls and you're slowly taking over

860
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:50,000
Speaker 1: and over and over, like where are you? Are you

861
00:42:50,080 --> 00:42:51,720
Speaker 1: selling enough? Are you making a profit?

862
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:54,759
Speaker 2: Yeah? So I would say where the money comes from

863
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:57,319
Speaker 2: is blood, sweat and tears. And what I mean by

864
00:42:57,320 --> 00:42:59,920
Speaker 2: that is, you know, for the first five years I

865
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:04,239
Speaker 2: I didn't pay myself, right, so I was fortunate to

866
00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:06,600
Speaker 2: start my company so young that you know, I had

867
00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 2: something called mom and dad that you know, and I

868
00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:11,680
Speaker 2: think the law that they had to take care of

869
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:14,560
Speaker 2: me at least until I was eighteen, So I had

870
00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:19,359
Speaker 2: that relief. And you know, even afterwards, like again your

871
00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:22,800
Speaker 2: four year five, it was just being very, very frugal,

872
00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:24,960
Speaker 2: and you know, there's times, and I think this is

873
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:28,600
Speaker 2: common in most startups, is that everybody has a definition

874
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:30,720
Speaker 2: of like I made it, and sometimes I made it. It's

875
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:34,080
Speaker 2: just I have a ten thousand dollars order. And what

876
00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:36,640
Speaker 2: I've noticed and did experience when I was much younger,

877
00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:39,400
Speaker 2: is you sometimes have that success then you want to

878
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:44,560
Speaker 2: like celebrate. But I recognize luckily early enough that hey,

879
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 2: like just because you got that big win, tuck it

880
00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:50,960
Speaker 2: away and keep going, like, don't celebrate it, don't spend it.

881
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:53,200
Speaker 2: Don't think that alsoiden you're king of the world, because

882
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:55,280
Speaker 2: that's where I think a lot of business owners make mistakes.

883
00:43:56,080 --> 00:43:57,719
Speaker 2: To answer your question, I just saved a lot.

884
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:01,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. And then what about like your first hire.

885
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 2: My first hire felt more like a date than an interview.

886
00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:08,759
Speaker 2: I was like, so what's your sign? You know, like,

887
00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:11,080
Speaker 2: what do you do for fun? What's your diet?

888
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:11,239
Speaker 1: Like?

889
00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:13,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know kids, or what are your parents like?

890
00:44:13,840 --> 00:44:15,799
Speaker 2: Because you know, I was really raised to be very

891
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:19,120
Speaker 2: very thoughtful and very intimate. And yeah, when you connect

892
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:23,120
Speaker 2: with somebody, like genuinely connected them, like understand what makes

893
00:44:23,160 --> 00:44:26,160
Speaker 2: them tick and again, and this is primarily because of

894
00:44:26,239 --> 00:44:29,879
Speaker 2: my mother. My mom is very big into astrology and

895
00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:32,920
Speaker 2: she sees that as at times people's kind of blueprint

896
00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 2: of their soul. And so, to answer your question, so

897
00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:38,279
Speaker 2: when that first candidate came into the door, I mean

898
00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:40,279
Speaker 2: I sat down with him and it was like we

899
00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:43,320
Speaker 2: were getting married. I mean I was just everything about yourself,

900
00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:46,400
Speaker 2: your host streams, your wishes, what position were you hiring for?

901
00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:49,320
Speaker 2: It was a brewer, so he was just going to

902
00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:52,520
Speaker 2: come in and brew the tea, add the culture to

903
00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 2: the small batch, and then just let it ferment, and

904
00:44:55,160 --> 00:44:57,319
Speaker 2: then he would help me bottle it afterwards. Got it

905
00:44:57,360 --> 00:44:59,640
Speaker 2: the bottling I did primarily because in my mind that

906
00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:03,560
Speaker 2: was where is the culmination of everything, the raw kombucha

907
00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:06,120
Speaker 2: with the raw juice. Yeah, and the recipe is kind

908
00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:08,840
Speaker 2: of somewhere there, but yeah, so he helped me do

909
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:12,399
Speaker 2: that and it was great. And Employe number two three, four,

910
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:15,000
Speaker 2: and beyond all become that way where it's really you're

911
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:15,840
Speaker 2: trying to create.

912
00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:19,239
Speaker 1: This family, right right, Okay, So the other thing about

913
00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:22,600
Speaker 1: kombucha I would say is that it is pretty polarizing.

914
00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:27,359
Speaker 1: I definitely followed the path that you mentioned earlier, which

915
00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:30,200
Speaker 1: was you drink it at first and you're like, then

916
00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:31,960
Speaker 1: you drink it again, you're like hmm, and then you

917
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:33,520
Speaker 1: drink it the third time you're like, I'm going to

918
00:45:33,560 --> 00:45:35,720
Speaker 1: go get some of this next week, Like you're into it. Yeah,

919
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:38,640
Speaker 1: But some people never get to like the step four.

920
00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:42,759
Speaker 1: What is your sticking point for the person that's like,

921
00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:45,880
Speaker 1: kombucha is not really my thing? Like, what's the first

922
00:45:45,880 --> 00:45:47,400
Speaker 1: thing you tell kombucha skeptic?

923
00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:50,719
Speaker 2: Why tell them listen, give it a chance? Because first

924
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:53,480
Speaker 2: of all, just stop and think things that we consider normal.

925
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:57,200
Speaker 2: If you take a step back, perhaps isn't that normal

926
00:45:57,239 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 2: and would be just as repulsive. So like the example

927
00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:02,000
Speaker 2: I give, because some people are like, oh, I can't

928
00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:04,239
Speaker 2: drink kombucha because that thing that's floating in it is

929
00:46:04,280 --> 00:46:07,399
Speaker 2: so disgusting, And then I say do you eat meat?

930
00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 2: And then I say, uh, you know, did you ever

931
00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:12,600
Speaker 2: stop and think that? There's times where you're just eating

932
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:15,680
Speaker 2: into the carcass of another living thing. I said that

933
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:20,360
Speaker 2: to me, that is so gross. That's what I say, like,

934
00:46:20,400 --> 00:46:22,840
Speaker 2: I think everything is perspective, and you have to say, like,

935
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:25,200
Speaker 2: do you think drinking the breast milk of a cow

936
00:46:25,920 --> 00:46:28,759
Speaker 2: is normal? And so then you just have to kind

937
00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:32,719
Speaker 2: of give people perspective. And so that's how I overcome

938
00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:37,520
Speaker 2: that it's weirdy hurdle the flavor aspect. I just say, hey, listen,

939
00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:39,719
Speaker 2: if you first of all, we have other flavors that

940
00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:44,520
Speaker 2: are more call it palatable, like our mango and our guava.

941
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:47,240
Speaker 1: Yes, so I'm a sucker for the guava.

942
00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:49,880
Speaker 2: Thank you. And so we try to steer people in

943
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:53,080
Speaker 2: that direction, yeah, if we can. But if not, let's

944
00:46:53,080 --> 00:46:56,040
Speaker 2: just say they have playing kombucha or there's more polarizing

945
00:46:56,080 --> 00:46:58,719
Speaker 2: flavors at their fingertips. Would just say, hey, just start

946
00:46:58,719 --> 00:47:01,920
Speaker 2: with two ounces, hold your nose, start with two ounces,

947
00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:05,360
Speaker 2: and start it every day and just listen, like, notice

948
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:07,200
Speaker 2: that if maybe your stomach gets a little bit better,

949
00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:10,040
Speaker 2: your headaches get a little bit better or whatever. And

950
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:11,920
Speaker 2: nine out of ten times, if not ten out of

951
00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:14,560
Speaker 2: ten times, people go from two ounces to four ounces

952
00:47:14,600 --> 00:47:17,000
Speaker 2: to eight ounces to a bottle to maybe a bottle

953
00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:19,480
Speaker 2: or more a day. And that's honestly what happened to

954
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:22,080
Speaker 2: me when I first started drinking kombusha. I did not

955
00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:24,239
Speaker 2: love it, Yeah, and it was one of those things

956
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:26,200
Speaker 2: where I did have to pinch my nose and drink it.

957
00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:29,279
Speaker 2: But then my stomach ache would go away or not

958
00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:31,960
Speaker 2: to get graphic, my regularity would get better. Yeah, all

959
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:34,640
Speaker 2: these things that we don't really talk about but we

960
00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:37,840
Speaker 2: do personally notice and personally value start to improve. And

961
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:39,400
Speaker 2: I think that's really the selling pitch.

962
00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:41,200
Speaker 1: How much are you drinking now?

963
00:47:42,239 --> 00:47:45,760
Speaker 2: Well, I wouldn't recommend that people follow my intake because

964
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:51,880
Speaker 2: I'm a professional kombucha consumer. And what that means is

965
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:53,719
Speaker 2: I drink about a gallon into a gallon and a

966
00:47:53,719 --> 00:47:56,359
Speaker 2: half a day, So I put that in bottles. That's

967
00:47:56,400 --> 00:47:59,480
Speaker 2: like eight to twelve sixty ounce bottles a day.

968
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 1: How much water do you drink every day?

969
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:03,239
Speaker 2: Luckily I drink a lot of water, So I drink.

970
00:48:04,239 --> 00:48:05,960
Speaker 1: How is your whole day not spend.

971
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:09,839
Speaker 2: It in the bathroom? I mean, honestly, it is like

972
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:12,839
Speaker 2: every I I when I have meetings at work. If

973
00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:15,719
Speaker 2: a meeting runs longer than an hour, like I grow

974
00:48:15,800 --> 00:48:19,239
Speaker 2: horns and a tail, like I become so demonic because

975
00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:20,760
Speaker 2: I have to go to the bathroom so badly.

976
00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:26,840
Speaker 1: So good thing we're winding down, Yes, point making is

977
00:48:26,880 --> 00:48:27,359
Speaker 1: rapid up.

978
00:48:28,560 --> 00:48:28,920
Speaker 2: Wow.

979
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:30,320
Speaker 1: A gallon and a half?

980
00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:32,759
Speaker 2: Yeah so yeah, So that's a gallon and a half

981
00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:34,720
Speaker 2: of kombucha and a gallon and a half of water.

982
00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:37,439
Speaker 1: Do you mix up the flavor situation? Do you drink

983
00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:38,000
Speaker 1: one flavor?

984
00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:40,480
Speaker 2: Well, I actually drink them all. So just to give

985
00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:43,160
Speaker 2: you a little sneak peek into my daily life at work,

986
00:48:43,239 --> 00:48:45,279
Speaker 2: is that you know, I come in and my first

987
00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:47,160
Speaker 2: thing you do is I taste all the raw batches.

988
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:49,880
Speaker 2: So these are the batches that just got harvested, just

989
00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:54,480
Speaker 2: had the culture removed, or essentially this effervescent tangy tea,

990
00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:56,759
Speaker 2: and I taste that and a lot. The way I

991
00:48:56,840 --> 00:48:59,480
Speaker 2: compare it is a lot like a two in a winery.

992
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 2: How your seeing the different harvests of the wines, because

993
00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:05,680
Speaker 2: each and everyone is a different personnelity, right, and then

994
00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:09,160
Speaker 2: from there we create a blend. So every batch is different,

995
00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:12,560
Speaker 2: even though they may come from the same master batch,

996
00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:15,759
Speaker 2: but every small vessel has a different personality, very much

997
00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:18,000
Speaker 2: like you could have an orange tree and the oranges

998
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:19,680
Speaker 2: at the top of the tree taste different than the

999
00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:21,759
Speaker 2: oranges at the bottom of the tree. It's still the

1000
00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:25,759
Speaker 2: same tree though exactly so from there, so I taste that.

1001
00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:28,160
Speaker 2: And then when we start adding the fresh press juice

1002
00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:30,239
Speaker 2: and all of that, I taste them right after they've

1003
00:49:30,280 --> 00:49:33,520
Speaker 2: involved to make sure that they're crisp, they're bright, they're balanced,

1004
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:35,799
Speaker 2: all of that. So through the math, you know, we

1005
00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:39,319
Speaker 2: have over thirty flavors. We run many many batches a day,

1006
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:42,640
Speaker 2: so I'm taste tasting throughout the day. And the great

1007
00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:45,120
Speaker 2: news and this is kind of my testament to when

1008
00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:47,279
Speaker 2: people say, hey, can you drink too much? Like, I've

1009
00:49:47,280 --> 00:49:50,799
Speaker 2: been drinking this much for decades, right, and it's never

1010
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:53,359
Speaker 2: turned on me. It's never made me feel sick. And

1011
00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 2: if anything, it's one of the reasons why I'm able

1012
00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:57,719
Speaker 2: to work so hard, because it really does power me

1013
00:49:57,760 --> 00:50:00,439
Speaker 2: through my day. Now I recommend, you know, I don't

1014
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:02,759
Speaker 2: recommend that people drink that much. I always tell people, hey,

1015
00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:05,359
Speaker 2: keep it cap it at three bottles a day, because

1016
00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:07,160
Speaker 2: you're drinking more than three, like you should probably be

1017
00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:10,560
Speaker 2: looking into other things, maybe more water or stuff like that.

1018
00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:13,839
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean kombucha is a pretty miraculous thing.

1019
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:16,319
Speaker 1: Yeah, And as we as we start to wind down here,

1020
00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:18,479
Speaker 1: I do want to just touch on quickly. We talked

1021
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:21,120
Speaker 1: a little bit about gut health before, and I think

1022
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:24,200
Speaker 1: that's something that a lot of people don't really understand

1023
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:27,920
Speaker 1: or know much about. What has being involved in this

1024
00:50:28,080 --> 00:50:31,840
Speaker 1: industry and this specific product and all of these live cultures.

1025
00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:35,280
Speaker 1: What has it taught you about the importance of gut health.

1026
00:50:36,080 --> 00:50:39,760
Speaker 2: Well, several things it's taught me that you know. Again,

1027
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:44,080
Speaker 2: the secret to a healthy gut is minimizing the processing

1028
00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:47,239
Speaker 2: that goes into your food. And the reason why fermented

1029
00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:49,640
Speaker 2: foods are so healthy on the gut is not just

1030
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:54,160
Speaker 2: because they contain probiotics which assist in replenishing the gut

1031
00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:58,720
Speaker 2: health and the microbiome, but also fermented foods are considered

1032
00:50:58,840 --> 00:51:02,120
Speaker 2: pre digested. And what that means is like, for instance,

1033
00:51:02,520 --> 00:51:05,759
Speaker 2: a bowl of sour craft, which is essentially fermented vegetables,

1034
00:51:06,120 --> 00:51:09,000
Speaker 2: is easier to digest than a bowl of those exact

1035
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:12,879
Speaker 2: same vegetables before they were fermented. And the reason is

1036
00:51:12,880 --> 00:51:16,600
Speaker 2: is that enzymes in fermentation break down things that sometimes

1037
00:51:16,680 --> 00:51:19,799
Speaker 2: can be hard on our bodies and sometimes impair our

1038
00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:24,680
Speaker 2: ability to absorb certain nutrients. So fermentation is almost like

1039
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:29,120
Speaker 2: a predigestive state or stage that helps us and our

1040
00:51:29,120 --> 00:51:34,200
Speaker 2: bodies assimilate those nutrients. So that's step one. I mean, again,

1041
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:38,560
Speaker 2: when you understand the honestly the lack of focus that

1042
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:41,120
Speaker 2: in the modern world we put on our gut, I mean,

1043
00:51:41,120 --> 00:51:43,880
Speaker 2: there's so many things that we ingest that are not

1044
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:48,880
Speaker 2: only not helping us, but are doing severe damage. Antibiotics, pesticides,

1045
00:51:49,280 --> 00:51:53,000
Speaker 2: things that have preservatives. I mean, what also is very

1046
00:51:53,120 --> 00:51:56,080
Speaker 2: enlightening is not just what I learned when making kombucha,

1047
00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:59,200
Speaker 2: but it's also what I learned when formulating a beverage.

1048
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:02,400
Speaker 2: I mean, it's pretty remarkable that things at other companies,

1049
00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:05,680
Speaker 2: and not certainly suggesting kombucha companies, but just call it

1050
00:52:05,880 --> 00:52:10,160
Speaker 2: food and beverage companies, they'll add things to their products

1051
00:52:10,200 --> 00:52:14,000
Speaker 2: that seem clean, but have you know, weird words like

1052
00:52:14,040 --> 00:52:19,560
Speaker 2: emulsifier or whatever, which are coming from a very process source,

1053
00:52:19,760 --> 00:52:23,120
Speaker 2: and they're being used to make sure things don't settle,

1054
00:52:23,520 --> 00:52:26,680
Speaker 2: make sure the color doesn't change, make sure the flavor stays.

1055
00:52:26,960 --> 00:52:29,520
Speaker 2: But what happens is it's still very, very refined, and

1056
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:33,160
Speaker 2: in my opinion, that's hurting your gut. Yeah. So that's

1057
00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:34,800
Speaker 2: just something that I think that we all need to

1058
00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:38,240
Speaker 2: pay more attention to, which is why I think staying

1059
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:42,400
Speaker 2: on a very strict regimen of fermented foods is definitely essential.

1060
00:52:42,680 --> 00:52:48,080
Speaker 1: Interesting Okay, fermented foods, yes, yes, end of them all. Right. So, now,

1061
00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:50,880
Speaker 1: like I said, more than thirty flavors of kombucha in

1062
00:52:50,920 --> 00:52:54,120
Speaker 1: the portfolio as well as other foods.

1063
00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:54,520
Speaker 2: Yes.

1064
00:52:54,920 --> 00:52:58,719
Speaker 1: You look back on your career right now, what would

1065
00:52:58,760 --> 00:53:01,000
Speaker 1: you say has been one of the vast pieces of

1066
00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:02,560
Speaker 1: advice that's been offered to you?

1067
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:09,000
Speaker 2: Wow? I mean I remember early on when I was starting,

1068
00:53:09,560 --> 00:53:12,319
Speaker 2: you know, as I said, I was starting to make

1069
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:15,880
Speaker 2: and sell kombucha in a world where people didn't understand

1070
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:18,160
Speaker 2: it and certainly didn't care for it.

1071
00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:19,520
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1072
00:53:19,600 --> 00:53:21,040
Speaker 2: So the advice that I was given early on is

1073
00:53:21,040 --> 00:53:23,759
Speaker 2: just follow your heart, right, follow what is meaningful to you,

1074
00:53:24,680 --> 00:53:29,160
Speaker 2: and follow what excites you. And you know, fortunately, what

1075
00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:33,480
Speaker 2: I learned excited me more than money and monetary success

1076
00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:36,359
Speaker 2: was the ability to be creative and put my heart

1077
00:53:36,360 --> 00:53:38,480
Speaker 2: and soul into something, to share it with somebody and

1078
00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:41,919
Speaker 2: hopefully see them enjoy it. So that it has been

1079
00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:45,440
Speaker 2: call it my north star is making sure that you

1080
00:53:45,520 --> 00:53:48,640
Speaker 2: put value in the things that are truly meaningful and

1081
00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:52,560
Speaker 2: make sure that that's not money. I love it.

1082
00:53:52,600 --> 00:53:53,160
Speaker 1: I love it.

1083
00:53:53,239 --> 00:53:56,880
Speaker 2: So that's number one. The other is don't listen to

1084
00:53:57,280 --> 00:54:00,439
Speaker 2: what people think or what people say. You know said

1085
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:02,760
Speaker 2: early on, and I know this is a cliche statement,

1086
00:54:02,800 --> 00:54:07,200
Speaker 2: but everybody has opinions, and most of them stink. That's

1087
00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:11,719
Speaker 2: the PG version of that statement. But it's true that

1088
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:14,880
Speaker 2: when you're doing something different, you can't expect people to

1089
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:18,600
Speaker 2: understand because people don't understand things that are foreigned to them,

1090
00:54:18,600 --> 00:54:21,279
Speaker 2: and a lot of times people don't embrace things that

1091
00:54:21,360 --> 00:54:25,880
Speaker 2: are unique. But if you want to be a trail blazer,

1092
00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:28,759
Speaker 2: you have to kind of plug your ears, put your

1093
00:54:28,800 --> 00:54:30,560
Speaker 2: head down and do what you're doing. And as long

1094
00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:33,319
Speaker 2: as you're following the path, as I said, following your heart,

1095
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:38,560
Speaker 2: but more importantly following you know, integrity and good intentions

1096
00:54:38,600 --> 00:54:41,200
Speaker 2: like you're genuinely trying to, as cheesy as it sounds,

1097
00:54:41,239 --> 00:54:43,600
Speaker 2: make the world a better place. Only good will come

1098
00:54:43,640 --> 00:54:43,960
Speaker 2: your way.

1099
00:54:44,480 --> 00:54:48,400
Speaker 1: Love that. Okay, you have an opportunity right now, looking

1100
00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:52,040
Speaker 1: back on your fifteen year old self, to offer yourself

1101
00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:56,319
Speaker 1: one piece of advice. Looking back on that tough time

1102
00:54:56,360 --> 00:54:58,680
Speaker 1: when your mother is you know, coming out of breast

1103
00:54:58,680 --> 00:55:02,160
Speaker 1: cancer and maybe around the time your brother passes away,

1104
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:04,960
Speaker 1: you have an opportunity to offer him one piece of advice.

1105
00:55:05,520 --> 00:55:06,359
Speaker 1: What do you tell him?

1106
00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:10,319
Speaker 2: Offer my brother? Not for you offer me. Hang in there.

1107
00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:14,960
Speaker 2: You're going to have some high highs and some really

1108
00:55:15,040 --> 00:55:18,680
Speaker 2: low lows. But as long as you stay true to yourself,

1109
00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:22,200
Speaker 2: you will weather this storm. Love that and never let

1110
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:25,680
Speaker 2: anything or anyone take your happiness.

1111
00:55:26,080 --> 00:55:29,320
Speaker 1: Amazing GG, thanks so much for sitting down with me today.

1112
00:55:29,440 --> 00:55:30,319
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.

1113
00:55:30,400 --> 00:55:32,799
Speaker 1: This is awesome. Please take a moment to leave a

1114
00:55:32,840 --> 00:55:35,279
Speaker 1: quick review by clicking the link with the description to

1115
00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:38,719
Speaker 1: this episode. We all face multiple hurdles in life. I

1116
00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:40,799
Speaker 1: want to hear about yours. Reach out to me at

1117
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:43,839
Speaker 1: Emily at Hurdle dot us. Connect with the pod on

1118
00:55:43,880 --> 00:55:47,200
Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at Hurdle Podcast GT. Where do they

1119
00:55:47,239 --> 00:55:50,600
Speaker 1: find you? Where do they find all of the all

1120
00:55:50,680 --> 00:55:51,200
Speaker 1: the things?

1121
00:55:51,520 --> 00:55:53,920
Speaker 2: Well, you can find us at a click of a

1122
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:56,320
Speaker 2: mouse or a press of a button. So our website

1123
00:55:56,360 --> 00:56:00,640
Speaker 2: is Gtslivingfoods dot com. You can go to our Instagram,

1124
00:56:00,640 --> 00:56:04,040
Speaker 2: which is GT's Kombucha. You can find our products in

1125
00:56:04,080 --> 00:56:08,240
Speaker 2: virtually every store from grocery store to Natural Store to Walmart.

1126
00:56:08,920 --> 00:56:11,680
Speaker 2: It's in the refrigerated section, typically by the juices or

1127
00:56:11,680 --> 00:56:15,080
Speaker 2: the produce. And we have two brands, GTS Kombucha and Synergy,

1128
00:56:15,080 --> 00:56:18,040
Speaker 2: which you'll find everywhere, as well as some other new

1129
00:56:18,040 --> 00:56:19,200
Speaker 2: products in certain areas.

1130
00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:24,719
Speaker 1: Awesome, I am at Emily Abadi. Another hurdle conquered. Catch

1131
00:56:24,800 --> 00:56:25,600
Speaker 1: you guys next time.