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This episode is sponsored by InsideTracker.

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And what makes me smile is before I even started my podcast seven years ago,

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when listening to other wellness conversations, InsideTracker

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was always the company they recommended for comprehensive blood work.

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Well, now in 2024, they have begun to offer a brand new first responder panel,

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which will cover nine biomarkers hitting several of the pillars of health

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that affect us in uniform.

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Stress, heart health, metabolism and gut health.

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Now, after a very simple intake form, a blood draw,

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you will get the results sent to your computer, smartwatch, phone,

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not only detailing where you are on the scale from poor to optimized,

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but also tips on how you can improve each of these markers.

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Now, this panel is usually three hundred and ten dollars,

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but they are also offering first responders 30 percent off

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any of their blood panels.

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So that brings this specific panel down to only two hundred and seventeen dollars.

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Now, I myself went through their ultimate, which is their comprehensive blood work,

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which also includes micronutrients, hormones and other areas of overall health.

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And I have to say, I was absolutely amazed at firstly, how easy it was.

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But secondly, the comprehensive information I got

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and the actionable information on how to improve each of my own biomarkers.

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Now, as with all my sponsors, if you want to hear more

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about inside tracker, you can hear my conversation with senior sales

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executive Jonathan Levitt on episode eight hundred and eighty seven

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of the Behind the Shield podcast.

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So to sign up or simply learn more, go to inside tracker dot com.

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And for the first responder panel, the easiest way is to Google

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inside tracker first responder panel.

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This episode is sponsored by a company I've used for well over a decade,

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and that is five eleven.

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I wore their uniforms back in Anaheim, California,

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and I've used their products ever since.

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From their incredibly strong, yet light footwear to their cut uniforms

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for both male and female responders.

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I found them hands down the best workwear in all the departments that I've worked for.

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Outside of the fire service, I use their luggage for everything

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and I travel a lot, and they are also now sponsoring the seven X team

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as we embark around the world on the human performance project.

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We have Murph coming up in May.

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And again, I bought their plate carrier.

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I ended up buying real ballistic plates rather than the fake weight plates.

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And that has been my ride or die through Murph the last few years as well.

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But one area I want to talk about that I haven't in previous sponsorship

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spots is their brick and mortar element.

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They were predominantly an online company up till more recently,

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but now they are approaching 100 stores all over the U.S.

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My local store is here in Gainesville, Florida,

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and I've been multiple times.

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And the discounts you see online are applied also in the stores.

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So as I mentioned, 511 is offering you 15% off every purchase that you make.

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But I do want to say more often than not, they have an even deeper discount,

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especially around holiday times.

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But if you use the code SHIELD15, that's S-H-I-E-L-D-1-5,

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you will get 15% off your order or in the stores

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every time you make a purchase.

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And if you want to hear more about 511, who they stand for and who works with them,

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listen to episode 580 of Behind the Shield podcast with 511 Regional Director Will Ayers.

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This episode is brought to you by Thorn, and I have some incredible news

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for any of you that are in the military, first responder or medical professions.

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In an effort to give back, Thorn is now offering you an ongoing

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35% off each and every one of your purchases of their incredible nutritional solutions.

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Now, Thorn is the official supplement of CrossFit, the UFC, the Mayo Clinic,

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the Human Performance Project and multiple special operations organizations.

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I myself have used them for several years, and that is why I brought them on as a sponsor.

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Some of my favorite products they have are their Multivitamin Elite, their Whey Protein,

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the Super EPA and then most recently, Cynaquil.

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As a firefighter, a stuntman and a martial artist,

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I've had my share of brain trauma and sleep deprivation,

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and Cynaquil is their latest brain health supplement.

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Now, to qualify for the 35% off, go to thorn.com, T-H-O-R-N-E.com.

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Click on sign in and then create a new account.

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You will see the opportunity to register as a first responder or member of military.

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When you click on that, it will take you through verification with GovX.

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You'll simply choose a profession, provide one piece of documentation

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and then you are verified for life.

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From that point onwards, you will continue to receive 35% off through Thorn.

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Now, for those of you who don't qualify, there is still the 10% off using the code BTS10,

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behind the shield 10, for a one time purchase.

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Now, to learn more about Thorn, go to episode 323 of the behind the shield podcast

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with Joel Titoro and Wes Barnett.

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Welcome to the behind the shield podcast.

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As always, my name is James Gearing and this week is my absolute honor to welcome on the show

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athlete, podcaster and the senior sales executive from inside tracker, Jonathan Levitt.

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So in this conversation, we discuss a host of topics from the world of youth athletics,

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his role as a camp counselor, the importance of blood work, optimization versus disease,

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their brand new first responder blood panel, the importance of sleep, wearables, hormones,

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and so much more.

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Now, before we get to this incredible conversation, as I say every week,

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please just take a moment, go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show,

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leave feedback and leave a rating.

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Every single five star rating truly does elevate this podcast,

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therefore making it easier for others to find.

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And this is a free library of almost 900 episodes now.

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So all I ask in return is that you help share these incredible men and women stories

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so I can get them to every single person on planet Earth who needs to hear them.

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So with that being said, I introduce to you, Jonathan Levitt.

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Enjoy.

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Music.

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Well, John, I want to start by saying firstly, I want to thank you for reaching out.

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I mean, this this relationship came from you approaching me.

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And the reason why I was so blown away is I knew full well the company that you were representing.

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So I want to thank you for reaching out initially.

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And also welcome.

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Excuse me.

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I want to welcome you to the Behind the Shield podcast today.

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Yeah, James, I appreciate it.

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I'm excited to chat.

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I'm excited.

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We've been able to connect.

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Thank you for everything you've done in your 14 year career as a firefighter and everything you've done since then.

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For me, as a regular citizen who sits on my computer and sends emails for a living,

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my girlfriend is a nurse and seeing the work that first responders do and people in the medical and

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police and fire space, just a selfless, I imagine somewhat thankless job.

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So thank you for everything you've done and all the listeners.

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I imagine you're also similar.

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You guys are amazing.

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And yeah, I can't wait to dive into this conversation with you.

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Yeah.

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Well, the transition from wearing the uniform to not involve the wellness of our first responders.

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So I'm excited to hear your thoughts, your knowledge, and then obviously we'll

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present some of the tools that are available to them now.

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I want to start at the very beginning, though.

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So very firstly, where are we finding you on planet Earth today?

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Where are we finding me on planet Earth?

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It's ironically in there or surprisingly in the same place where my furniture lives,

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which is Boulder, Colorado.

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I am staring at mountains and it is a wonderful place for health and wellness

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with just a culture of the outdoors and taking advantage of the space we have around us.

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I know Boulder is not a tiny little town, but I know it's not huge as well.

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Have you ever come across the Movement Collective or Matthew Bernstein?

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I haven't, no.

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OK, so he studied Ido Portal's movement practice.

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He was a firefighter, had a fall, ended up having a TBI

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and found these movement practices really helped kind of get his movement back.

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Basically, he stayed out the fire service, but he ultimately became a movement teacher

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and now has a studio in Boulder.

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He had an old one.

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I think he's moved to a new one now, but it's an amazing guy.

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OptiConnect.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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All right.

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Well, then start at the beginning of your actual life journey.

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Tell me where you were born and tell me a little bit about your family dynamic,

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what your parents did, how many siblings.

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Yeah, so I was born outside of Boston, Massachusetts.

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I have a younger sister named Rachel.

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She's two and a half years younger and my parents are both entrepreneurs

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in various capacities that's been handed down to me as a genetic trait or flaw,

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however you choose to interpret.

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And my dad in particular has been, has always been into health and wellness.

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He was riding a bike and playing hockey almost before he could walk.

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And he's 63 now and he's been a cyclist for, I don't know,

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60 years and just got into running about five years ago.

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And yeah, so just the dynamic has been health and nutrition.

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You know, we ate a lot of meals together at home growing up and that was always,

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it was always important to our family.

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And as years went on, I saw my dad riding bikes and I got into it and,

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yeah, I got into baseball and hockey and fitness at a young age.

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With your dad going to a higher impact sport like running, how are his joints fared?

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And the reason I asked that, I had an athlete on Ken Rideout who's a world renowned ultra runner

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and I mean, just an insane human being, but he got into running very, very late

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and he made an interesting observation.

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He said, I don't have decades of wear and tear on my legs.

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I don't have decades of wear and tear on my joints.

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So as a master's athlete, I feel like I'm able to grind it out a lot more than some of my peers.

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What has been your father's perspective being in his 60s now?

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Yeah, well, first, Ken is a fascinating athlete, 52 years old with a 228 marathon

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or 228 marathon is impressive if you're 23, let alone 52.

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He has this tenacity of, I don't have any traits besides the ability to work harder

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than anybody else as I'm sure you talked about in that conversation.

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I had him on my podcast as well and we had a wonderful chat about why does he do this,

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that kind of stuff.

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My dad's been great.

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He's not had injuries.

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He's for the most part, he's got almost six decades of cycling behind him.

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My parents lived like a quarter mile from 50 miles of conservation land trails on Cape Cod.

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He spends most of his time out in the woods running around doing three to eight miles at a time

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in these Cape Cod trails, which are mostly just flat single track and stunning in the spring,

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summer and fall and full of leaves in the winter.

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But yeah, he hasn't really had challenges with joints or whatnot.

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Beautiful.

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Now, what about you when you were school age?

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What were you playing and doing then?

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Baseball and hockey.

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So like a good New Englander, I grew up playing hockey and so I never got into skiing,

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which bothers people out here in Colorado quite a lot.

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I wasn't very good at baseball and I started playing hockey in like fifth or sixth grade,

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which is really late.

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A lot of people started in kindergarten or first grade or even before.

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And so my experience as a youth athlete was a distractible outfielder or somebody who was just

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constantly skating up and down the rink, but never getting the puck.

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What about career aspirations?

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What were you dreaming of becoming back then?

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I thought I wanted to work for a professional sports team.

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And my sophomore year, going into junior year of college, I interned for the Boston Bruins and that

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told me I didn't want to work for a sports team.

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It was a great experience.

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The Bruins won the Stanley Cup that summer or that spring summer.

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And the Stanley Cup was in the office quite a bit.

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Sometimes it had beer in it.

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Sometimes that beer found its way onto the computers of the interns.

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But it was an interesting experience.

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And I learned that I wanted to work on in sports, but not with a sports property or not with a team.

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The hours were long and we'd work a day or two a week.

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We'd work nine to five and then there'd be an event.

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And so we'd be there until 10 p.m.

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And I was like, this isn't the balance I'm looking for.

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So it was a good experience.

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I was there for a few months that summer, but I learned pretty quickly that that wasn't

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where I wanted to go.

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After I graduated what was community college back then, I went to a major in sports.

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I went to college back then, I went to America for six summers doing summer camps.

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So I was a camp counselor and ultimately a water sport, excuse me, waterfront director.

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So I was teaching martial arts, doing water sports and overseeing all the lifeguards.

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Amazing, life changing part of my life.

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I noticed looking at your LinkedIn that you were a counselor too.

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Talk to me about that experience.

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Yeah.

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So I went to camp also on the later side.

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I was a camper for two years and then I went on our CIT counselor and training program,

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which was six weeks in Israel over the summer.

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And then we came back and we were counselors and training for two and a half weeks.

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And then the following two or three, maybe four summers, I was a counselor.

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And so I had the youngest kids for two years and then I had the oldest kids for two years.

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So I guess it was four years of being a counselor.

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And it was really cool.

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It was like a fun way to be in it and be immersed in this community.

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With the younger kids, it was, okay, let's not stick our fingers in the outlets.

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Okay, you peed your bed last night.

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We've got to fix this.

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That kind of stuff.

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And with the older kids, I was only four years older than them.

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So it was a fun dynamic.

234
00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:18,200
And I was actually my cousin's counselor for that last summer,

235
00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:19,720
which was really cool.

236
00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:23,640
And he just got married two weekends ago.

237
00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:29,480
And I'm like, Josh, I still remember when you were a camper and I was your counselor.

238
00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:35,320
And that was, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago.

239
00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:37,400
The math is off, but it was a while ago.

240
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:43,080
And it's crazy how time flies, but that was a really fun period of life

241
00:16:44,200 --> 00:16:46,360
in between college summers.

242
00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:51,320
Just really like, I mean, I was in the athletics department,

243
00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:52,520
so I was getting into running.

244
00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:57,800
I was doing basketball and yeah, it was a lot of fun.

245
00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,400
Really great memories and relationships from that.

246
00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:02,840
Yeah.

247
00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:05,880
I mean, I still am in contact with kids that I taught the very first year,

248
00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:07,000
which was 1994.

249
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:08,120
We're going back a long way.

250
00:17:08,120 --> 00:17:12,760
And that point I was 20 because I remember coming from the UK being allowed to drink

251
00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:15,640
for several years and then getting carded in a beer in a bar.

252
00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:16,840
In a beer, in a pub.

253
00:17:18,360 --> 00:17:24,360
But it was also a Jewish camp and it was quite a lot of wealthy people.

254
00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:28,360
I think one of the Ralph Loren family members was a camper there.

255
00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:31,640
I think after I left, Bruce Willis's kids went there.

256
00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:36,600
So it wasn't like devout Judaism.

257
00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:39,000
I mean, we had bacon served in the morning, for example.

258
00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:43,480
So clearly there was some part-time elements going on there.

259
00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:47,480
But it was an interesting perspective because coming from southwest of England,

260
00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:49,800
I wasn't really exposed to the Jewish culture.

261
00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:52,360
So it kind of really immersed me in that.

262
00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:59,320
Is the camp in America something that a lot of Jewish communities do send their kids to then?

263
00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:00,840
Yeah, definitely.

264
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:06,040
We were part of three camps, part of the Cohen Camp Foundation.

265
00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:11,240
So two of them were in New Hampshire and one was in Massachusetts towards the Cape.

266
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:15,640
And yeah, it's like most of my Jewish friends went to summer camp growing up.

267
00:18:16,680 --> 00:18:18,440
I don't know why it was a Jewish thing.

268
00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:21,480
Jewish people love community and congregating.

269
00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:25,560
And I think it's a great excuse for that.

270
00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:29,880
And then, yeah, we had that leadership program where we spent six weeks in Israel,

271
00:18:29,880 --> 00:18:31,880
which was a really cool experience.

272
00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:36,520
And yeah, we were a little more on the...

273
00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:44,200
We didn't have bacon on a regular basis at camp, but we certainly went to Wendy's around the corner

274
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:45,400
when we were let off at night.

275
00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:53,720
And that was the Junior Bacon Cheeseburger was the treat for the campers.

276
00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:57,400
And don't tell my boss at the time,

277
00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:01,240
but we purchased a lot of Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers for the kids over the years.

278
00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:03,000
The good kids.

279
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:05,960
What was cool about this one, it was a performing arts camp.

280
00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:11,160
And there was some phenomenal musicians and singers and dancers that were there,

281
00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:13,640
mixed amongst kids that were doing it for the first time.

282
00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:17,080
But I had the, like I said, the water sports and I taught like a karate lesson

283
00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:18,840
and they used to make fun of the way I said karate.

284
00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:24,360
But it was really, it was an amazing kind of place for them to decompress

285
00:19:24,360 --> 00:19:31,000
because they had all these rehearsals on lines and they were very proud of their performances.

286
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:34,040
At times they were really on these kids so they could come down the waterfront

287
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:38,600
and just kind of be kids and learn how to water ski or be in the back of a jet ski or something.

288
00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:42,680
So it was kind of cool being one of the cool kids in this camp

289
00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:45,640
where they would kind of sneak off and decompress too a little bit.

290
00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:46,680
Yeah.

291
00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:49,480
It's like the fun aspect of play.

292
00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:50,760
Was the camp in California?

293
00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:51,560
Where was it?

294
00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:54,920
No, this was upstate New York, almost to the Canadian borders,

295
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:56,920
deep in upstate New York, out of Rolex.

296
00:19:58,280 --> 00:19:58,440
Yeah.

297
00:19:58,440 --> 00:19:59,480
What was the name of it?

298
00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:01,480
It was called Long Lake Camp for the Arts.

299
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:05,640
I'm meaning to take my son there one day just to show him before he was too old.

300
00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:07,320
But I mean, it's just grown and grown and grown.

301
00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:08,120
They did circus.

302
00:20:08,120 --> 00:20:12,120
I did trapeze there and one of the circus guys got hurt one time.

303
00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:16,280
So I ended up in a leotard helping hand balancing a kid on a performance.

304
00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:18,440
So it was amazing.

305
00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:23,640
I mean, truly transition from boy to man, being a mentor and being forced to be, as you know,

306
00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:29,080
everything from big brother to parent to coach to counselor,

307
00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:31,000
mental health counselor, all the things.

308
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:32,920
So it's a really unique perspective.

309
00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:35,800
Yeah, it's cool stuff.

310
00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:37,880
It's such a unique thing.

311
00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:39,880
I talk about it now and people are like, you did what?

312
00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:40,360
Growing up?

313
00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:44,280
I slept in a cabin with 20 other people in the summer.

314
00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:45,960
Yeah.

315
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:46,200
Yeah.

316
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:49,560
An interesting getting young boys, because I had the,

317
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,440
mine were eight to 10 most of the years until I went to the management position,

318
00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:58,360
and introducing them to housework and teamwork when they have maids at home.

319
00:20:58,360 --> 00:20:58,840
You know what I mean?

320
00:20:58,840 --> 00:20:59,960
Because these were wealthy kids.

321
00:20:59,960 --> 00:21:02,680
So yeah, but then again, you know, these parents had all these money.

322
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:04,440
A lot of them, I don't know if you've observed this,

323
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,480
a lot of them had their children later in life.

324
00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:11,480
So some of these children, they would be in a boarding school

325
00:21:12,120 --> 00:21:13,880
and then they'd go to summer camp.

326
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:17,000
And so they had all the money in the world and have care packages every day,

327
00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:21,320
but there was an absence of presence from their actual parents.

328
00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:21,880
You know what I mean?

329
00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:26,200
So you got to see that the inner city kids and their struggles and some of these rich kids,

330
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:28,520
the struggles were actually the same.

331
00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:30,760
The homes may look different, but the struggles were the same.

332
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:32,360
Yeah.

333
00:21:32,360 --> 00:21:34,600
We had a bit of a different dynamic.

334
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:39,480
It was, I mean, summer camp in and of itself is not cheap.

335
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:45,720
I think it was like five grand a month or 10 grand for the summer or something like that.

336
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:50,680
So not accessible to everyone, but it wasn't, you know, it wasn't outrageous.

337
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:57,560
I don't think at least certainly a nice break for many of the parents.

338
00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:01,640
I think they both loved it and hated it at the same time.

339
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:03,720
But yeah, a lot.

340
00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:07,000
I mean, there in anything like that, there were a handful of like,

341
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:11,080
oh, you got that that kid like they tip well and you know,

342
00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:15,080
you knew you were going to get $250 cash or $500 cash at the end of the month

343
00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:17,720
from that from that parent.

344
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:23,560
But yeah, that was fairly, fairly normal as as I guess, as normal as it could be.

345
00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:26,920
Our camp, the whole time I was there all six years,

346
00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:31,240
they basically said to the parents, you are not allowed to tip

347
00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:32,920
and we were not allowed to receive tips.

348
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:36,200
And I remember now, now in retrospect, you know, someone brings you a pizza

349
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:38,840
that you pay a pizza delivery for and they expect a tip.

350
00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:41,000
Someone makes you a coffee and they expect a tip,

351
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:44,600
but someone raises their children for nine weeks and you tell them home tip.

352
00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:45,480
Like, come on, bro.

353
00:22:46,360 --> 00:22:46,600
Yeah.

354
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:48,280
Well, it's like I saw a meme that was like,

355
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:54,120
tipping culture is so out of control these days that pilots land planes and you get a,

356
00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:57,880
you know, would you like to tip 20, 30, 40 percent on the on the screen?

357
00:22:59,240 --> 00:22:59,720
I saw one.

358
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:02,920
I see it was an EMT, you know, paramedic, you know, just on the medical report.

359
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:03,800
Then they turn it around.

360
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:06,120
You know, I just saved your life.

361
00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:06,680
20 percent.

362
00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:08,360
What's it worth?

363
00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:10,360
All right.

364
00:23:10,360 --> 00:23:14,600
So you get, you know, you go through the camp, the counseling element, camp counselor,

365
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:18,840
kind of walk me through how you get back into the kind of entrepreneurial space yourself.

366
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:20,200
Yeah.

367
00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:24,360
So throughout my years in college, I was running a baseball league

368
00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:30,600
because I was just wanting to play baseball and I was a sport management and marketing major.

369
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:34,040
And so I thought that running a baseball league with a couple of friends

370
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:42,520
would not only enable me to play baseball, but also have some really cool life experiences

371
00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:45,560
that might be useful one day on a resume or whatnot.

372
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:46,440
Turns out that was true.

373
00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:50,600
And so we brokered a sponsorship with the local burrito shop.

374
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:58,680
The burrito shop was called Buena Rizano, good and good and healthy, I believe is what that means.

375
00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:02,840
And we called it Buena Ball.

376
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:09,240
And so we had this league where it was being bankrolled by a burrito shop.

377
00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:14,680
And so my entrepreneurial, actually, that wasn't the start of my entrepreneurial tendencies.

378
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:19,240
Freshman year, I got connected with this guy who sells t-shirts.

379
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:24,760
And so I would buy t-shirts for $5 and sell them for $10.

380
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:32,600
And I made a lot of money, you know, just like going door to door in the dorms of UMass.

381
00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:37,160
And so some of the dorms that UMass are like 25 story towers.

382
00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:42,360
So I would take my backpack and, you know, 30 shirts and I'd sell them.

383
00:24:42,360 --> 00:24:48,440
And I'd make $150 in 25, 30 minutes.

384
00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:51,080
And it was awesome.

385
00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:54,040
And it paid for beer for college.

386
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:57,000
And so that's really where it started.

387
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:03,800
And then leaving college, I joined a company that was selling spirulina and chlorella algae

388
00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:08,680
positioned as a health product or an energy related product.

389
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:11,720
At the time, it was probably 10 years too early.

390
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:15,640
Right now, it's just becoming a trendy thing to consume.

391
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:21,160
But it set me up to basically, I grew a brain ambassador program there

392
00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:25,000
before brain ambassador programs were like a thing.

393
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:28,040
And that was in 2012 and 2013.

394
00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:36,360
Then I landed, then I found myself at an event called Executive Athletes that my dad invited me to.

395
00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:39,880
He still says to this day, that's the best $20 he's ever spent.

396
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:49,560
And I met the founder and CEO of InsideTracker at that event.

397
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:52,440
And two weeks later, I had myself a new job.

398
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:58,200
And I was the first business hire in 2014 outside of CEO.

399
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:02,360
And that was nine, almost 10 years ago.

400
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:08,040
And so ever since then, entrepreneurship has been an aspect of my life

401
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:16,040
in varying capacities to be, I'm in sales, and sales is risky and entrepreneurship driven.

402
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:18,920
And then five years ago, I launched a podcast.

403
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:23,480
And now I have six people that work on that podcast with me

404
00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:28,920
in a variety of different aspects of content creation and event partnership

405
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:35,880
and basically doing all the execution of brand partnerships and whatnot.

406
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:40,520
But I really just like to talk to people and whether it's in sales related to InsideTracker

407
00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:44,120
or on a podcast with you or with my own podcast.

408
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:47,880
I'm a curious person and I like helping other people.

409
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:57,960
And that's why I think it's been, I've followed the path that I've been on the last 10, 20, 30 years.

410
00:26:58,680 --> 00:26:59,240
Amazing.

411
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:05,480
Well, when I first got into podcasts, I was listening to Joe Rogan, Tim Ferriss,

412
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:11,480
who obviously is very ingrained, not only in the business side, but the wellness side as well.

413
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:13,480
There was the original Barbell Shrugged.

414
00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:15,480
I don't know if you remember those guys.

415
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:20,280
And then there was another one, actually, I'll give a shout out to him, Squadroom, Garrett Slaughter,

416
00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:22,280
who's a police podcast.

417
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,040
And over and over again, I remember when people talked about Bloodwork,

418
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:27,880
it was InsideTracker, InsideTracker.

419
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:33,400
So like I said, it's amazing that we're having this conversation now years later.

420
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:36,120
Talk to me about the origin story of InsideTracker.

421
00:27:36,120 --> 00:27:39,240
I know it's quite a unique and powerful story.

422
00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:45,400
So Dr. Gail Blander, the founder of InsideTracker, had a death in the family when he was nine years old.

423
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:47,240
And he said, I don't like that.

424
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:48,200
I want to live forever.

425
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:54,760
And he said, I'm going to do everything I possibly can to live as long as I possibly can.

426
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:58,920
And so he devoted his life to the anti-aging process.

427
00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:02,280
And he's 147 years old, so he's doing great.

428
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:11,720
So fast forward a few years, he finds himself in a couple of the best research labs in the world,

429
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:23,720
the Weisman Institute of Israel and MIT's anti-aging research labs in Cambridge, Mass, again, at MIT.

430
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:28,840
And he's like, OK, well, I could publish some papers that a bunch of scientists will see

431
00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:34,600
and have an impact on science, or I could create a company that has the ability to impact

432
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:36,840
hundreds of millions and potentially billions of people.

433
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,760
And so when I joined the company, I said to Gail, what's your goal?

434
00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:41,720
What's your end game?

435
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:45,640
And he said, I want to improve the life of every single human on this planet.

436
00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:50,840
And as time has gone on, I am realizing that that wasn't hyperbole.

437
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:57,640
And that's like, yeah, he's fully believing that that's going to be what happens.

438
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:00,200
But that is what will happen.

439
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:03,240
And as time has gone on, I'm like, OK, yeah, actually, I believe you.

440
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:10,840
This is, I see the path to making that happen, whether it's influencing the food we eat and the

441
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:19,000
cattle, like the animals we consume and their diet, or whether it's impacting health insurers

442
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:28,760
and how they influence people to improve their health or whether it's working with whoever it is.

443
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,160
It's really going to happen and it's happening.

444
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:40,440
And the pandemic did more for the ability to speak to a human and say,

445
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:45,160
you should probably control your health than any smart marketing person could.

446
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:51,880
The psyche or the way people think about health today is totally different than

447
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:54,680
how we thought about it in 2019.

448
00:29:55,320 --> 00:30:02,840
There's this concept that you can actually control the outcome of your own health.

449
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:11,320
And whether it's through people like Andrew Huberman or Peter Atiyah or just like the

450
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:17,720
the hundreds and hundreds of health focused podcasts, people's minds have been

451
00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:25,960
turned into having the belief that self agency and improvement is possible.

452
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:32,520
And so, like I said, we've been around since 2009, launched commercially in 2013.

453
00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:34,520
I've been with the company since 2014.

454
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:37,800
We were growing steadily for the first handful of years.

455
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:38,920
It was very slow.

456
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:43,320
And then it was this like, here we are, InstaTracker is now everywhere

457
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:45,080
because everybody is thinking this way.

458
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:46,520
And I say everybody is thinking this way.

459
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:51,400
It's a bit of an echo chamber in the health and fitness space.

460
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:58,680
But at the same time, I'm hearing conversations from people I would never have expected it

461
00:30:59,960 --> 00:31:01,720
from these days.

462
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:10,280
And I'm talking to police captains and fire chiefs who have been in service for 20, 30, 40 years.

463
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:11,960
And they're like, yeah, it's time to make a change.

464
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:16,360
And we're done doing things the way that things have been done for the last 100 years,

465
00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:18,040
just because that's how they've been done.

466
00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:24,280
And so it's becoming like popular and trendy to think about your health.

467
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:30,840
And so we're sitting here with a 10 year head start on everybody else who's jumping on this trend.

468
00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:37,480
We've got 100,000 customers and our ability to drive better health outcomes is second to none.

469
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:37,960
Right?

470
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:43,160
If our data is very strong, we have, like I said, 100,000 users.

471
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:48,760
Many of them have done baseline follow-up and repeat follow-up tests that suggest that if you do this,

472
00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:49,160
you improve.

473
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:51,320
And the more you do this, the more you improve.

474
00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:55,720
And we've worked in pro sports.

475
00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:57,560
We've worked in the military.

476
00:31:57,560 --> 00:31:59,560
We've worked with special forces.

477
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:01,160
Getting into corporate wellness.

478
00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:06,920
And the piece that's been the most interesting surprise, but perhaps I shouldn't be surprised,

479
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:10,120
is the work that's being done in the first responder space.

480
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:20,920
And so we have departments of a thousand, two thousand plus officers or linemen who their chief is thinking about,

481
00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:26,360
okay, it costs my department more than half a million dollars.

482
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:30,440
If somebody has a heart attack and that's just the financial impact.

483
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:31,480
What about the human?

484
00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:35,480
What about the family and all this stuff?

485
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:43,880
And so if we have the ability to influence people, so we started in endurance sport or we started in pro sports with the Red Sox.

486
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:45,240
They won the world series that year.

487
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:46,040
It was a great story.

488
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:51,000
And I joined and I was like, oh, runners could probably use this.

489
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:52,760
So we got our started running.

490
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:55,480
And then as time has gone on, we've got to get started.

491
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:59,240
And as time has gone on, it's been become a little bit more mainstream.

492
00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:04,920
And now it's not just for people who are running three hour marathons.

493
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:07,400
It's for anybody who wants to feel better.

494
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:13,160
But along that road, the concept of health span has come about.

495
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:17,000
So lifespan is 79 years, the average American.

496
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:25,640
And health span is the duration at which you are living to your potential or living in a way that is enjoyable.

497
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:26,120
Right.

498
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:28,440
63 years.

499
00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:39,000
So what happens in that almost 20 year gap between the end of health span and the beginning and end of life?

500
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:44,840
16, 17, 18 years, depending on what metrics you look at.

501
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:49,800
Our goal is to delay that as long as possible.

502
00:33:49,800 --> 00:34:06,680
And for those listening who have either read or listened to Outlive by Peter Atiyah or listen to Huberman talk about this, the goal is instead of this long and steady decline, it's delaying the decline as long as possible and then falling off a cliff, basically.

503
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:13,000
Not literally, but like you decline and then that's it versus a decline over 20 years.

504
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:22,280
I watched both of my grandfather's decline due to Parkinson's and it was horrible and it lasted almost five years for both of them.

505
00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:35,080
And so to watch somebody who used to carry me along, carry me around on their shoulders or play sports with me or ride bikes, not be able to swallow and eat food and talk.

506
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:41,960
My grandfather was this hotshot lawyer who worked with presidents on the Supreme Court.

507
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:53,000
And the Supreme Court and he was representing countries and like all this, he used his mouth and he used his brain for decades, many decades.

508
00:34:53,000 --> 00:35:02,680
He couldn't talk and he couldn't use words and he couldn't eat and it was horrible.

509
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:05,640
And so our mission is to delay that.

510
00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:18,360
And so when I saw him decline again, this is a second grandfather and I watched do this exact same thing, but in a spectacularly different and longer way than the first one.

511
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:27,400
I was like, this is the epitome of why InsideTracker exists and why this concept of healthspan has to permeate society.

512
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:36,600
And we have to think this way because it's disgusting that a human gets trapped in their own body.

513
00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:41,320
And it's horrible to think that.

514
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:47,880
I mean, when he died, our family was relieved because he had just not been living.

515
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:55,560
And that's that exact example of, well, he was 80 something years old, but the last five years didn't really count.

516
00:35:55,560 --> 00:36:04,520
Because all he was living for was when we'd walk in the door and just sitting and listening to us talk, he couldn't even participate.

517
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:23,800
And so again, the goal is to delay that as long as possible and to give yourself the best chance to live healthier longer and do what you love for longer, whether it's running, whether it's playing hockey, whether it's karate or however you pronounce it.

518
00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:25,160
Karate.

519
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:28,920
Exactly.

520
00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:31,480
That's it. That's what it's all about. Right.

521
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:37,640
Absolutely. And it's a conversation that I think is, as you said, is becoming more prevalent.

522
00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:42,440
And even it's funny, I was listening to a lecture on Parkinson's literally two days ago.

523
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:46,600
I've got a guy from UF that I want to get on. He's written several books on it.

524
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:56,840
Because, again, when they present, whether it's Alzheimer's and you hear that it's now being referred to as type three diabetes or Parkinson's, they're focusing a lot on the chemicals in our air and our food.

525
00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,400
These are preventable elements.

526
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:09,880
But he had a chart and I want to ask him about it because what I've had some people tell me on the show is they look back, oh, we're only living to 40, 150 years ago.

527
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:18,760
But actually, if I'm understanding it right, the infant mortality death was skewing the statistics and pulling the median down lower than it actually should have been.

528
00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:23,000
So people that made it through childhood were actually living older than that.

529
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:24,920
But it's the quality of life.

530
00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:31,640
And I had a great video I shared on Instagram a few months ago, and it was a guy from Haiti, 83, I think he was.

531
00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:33,880
Could easily have been on the front cover of Muscle Fitness.

532
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:41,800
This guy was jacked and he was talking about he could retire, but he didn't want to be a burden on his grandparent, his grandchildren, excuse me.

533
00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:44,360
That is a health span.

534
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:49,000
That man has lived up to 83 years old as a paramedic.

535
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:58,520
And a lot of people listening when we visit these people, if they haven't already died in our arms at 50 something years old, they're in these homes.

536
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:04,120
You know, they're having to carry around oxygen tanks and they're in motorized wheelchairs.

537
00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:05,320
And it's heartbreaking.

538
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:24,040
It's absolutely heartbreaking because you, when you come from the exercise physiology world, the coaching world, you know the potential of the human body and the fact that that's been normalized to be overweight, to have your spine completely deformed, to have osteoporosis, you know, and have your brain degenerating.

539
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:30,280
That is, I mean, it's completely unethical that we've allowed that to be a normality.

540
00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:33,160
And then, oh, by the way, we've got all kinds of drugs for you to treat that.

541
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,640
Just, you know, send your money our way.

542
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:38,520
Yeah, exactly.

543
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:39,160
Yeah.

544
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:49,800
And now that there's so much evidence that you can delay this or you can avoid this, you can't avoid it forever, but you can delay it.

545
00:38:49,800 --> 00:39:00,360
And we've had these conversations with states and cities and they're like literally running out of money because diabetes is so expensive for us.

546
00:39:00,360 --> 00:39:07,080
The state of Delaware has a million residents and they spend $1.1 billion on diabetes alone.

547
00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:09,720
And that increases by $50 million every year.

548
00:39:09,720 --> 00:39:11,160
Oh, you didn't solve this problem this year?

549
00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:13,080
It's $100 million next year.

550
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:14,040
Oh, you didn't solve it again?

551
00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:15,880
It's 150 million.

552
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:17,240
Now it's 200 million.

553
00:39:17,240 --> 00:39:21,240
Now it's a quarter million after five years.

554
00:39:21,240 --> 00:39:24,360
So something needs to happen.

555
00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:26,440
Like, we're at a breaking point.

556
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:33,640
And so I'm incredibly excited because we have so much data that shows if you do this, then it works.

557
00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:42,280
So ApoB is the best indicator of heart health and future heart health risk predictor.

558
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:50,360
47% of our population who tests with elevated ApoB in their first test is able to improve.

559
00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:56,520
Half of the people are able to reduce their risk related to heart health.

560
00:39:56,520 --> 00:40:01,720
And so insurance companies are coming to us and saying, we have a problem.

561
00:40:01,720 --> 00:40:03,000
I don't know how to fix it.

562
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:04,520
It seems like you guys might.

563
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:05,960
What should we do?

564
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:11,240
And so like we have conversations with these life insurance companies and these health insurance companies

565
00:40:11,240 --> 00:40:17,320
who are literally running out of money because people are getting sick and living longer.

566
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:24,040
And their calculation is people get sick and then they die, or they don't get sick and they die.

567
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:28,920
And so it's a problem for them that people are getting sick and living longer.

568
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:38,680
And they become a bigger, I don't want to say burden, but line item on the aggregated line item for these insurance companies.

569
00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:49,000
And if they don't fix it, what's interesting is that they're going to fix it out of financial and fiduciary necessity.

570
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:53,720
And it's a shame that that's what it's going to take to create a solution.

571
00:40:53,720 --> 00:40:55,400
But I don't care, right?

572
00:40:55,400 --> 00:41:00,760
If it forces somebody to make a change, it's the same way that we talked to the fire departments

573
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:06,600
where we say, it would be nice for you to spend $1,000 per alignment to help them improve their health

574
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:11,880
and make sure they're more cardiovascularly fit so when they're carrying all this gear and doing all this stuff

575
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:13,640
and they sleep better and all this stuff.

576
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:17,160
But the reality is they're looking at the cost of a heart attack.

577
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:22,360
And if they can reduce the cost, reduce the likelihood of a heart attack happening,

578
00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:23,560
they're going to spend every penny.

579
00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:31,960
I spoke with the police department that has 3,500 or 2,000 officers.

580
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:33,320
I don't remember what the exact number is.

581
00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:40,680
But they're like, yeah, we'll spend to improve the life and health of our officers

582
00:41:40,680 --> 00:41:42,920
because we're having a problem with retention.

583
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:45,720
And we need to help retain and recruit.

584
00:41:45,720 --> 00:41:50,040
And we want to establish that our department is healthier than XYZ.

585
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:55,480
And if we can do that, then we can recruit and we can avoid sending more people through

586
00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:59,880
the academy and spending all this money on the training of new people,

587
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:06,680
just have them become a normal citizen and leave the service.

588
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:14,600
And so they're looking at it as, well, it's really expensive to onboard a new officer.

589
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:20,600
Let's do things to retain them and keep them healthier and keep them in the game for longer.

590
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:29,640
And so I saw the statistic that said that a law enforcement officer is 25 times more likely to end

591
00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:34,840
their career due to heart disease than bullets. That's nuts.

592
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:37,560
That's saying something considering the number of shootings that we have.

593
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:40,280
If you think about it, I mean, we already lose a lot to bullets.

594
00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:43,320
So that says how many we lose to cardiac issues.

595
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:44,920
25 times.

596
00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:51,160
And I was talking with one of our performance experts who I need to connect you with to have

597
00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:57,560
off the record or on the record conversation, but talking about all of the different risks

598
00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:07,160
related to firefighters and cardiac events and all of the places where the stress of adrenaline

599
00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:11,960
and going from zero to 60 and 60 to zero, zero to 60 places on them.

600
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:16,120
And I don't remember the statistics, but I was like, are you kidding me?

601
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:17,560
This is nuts.

602
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:26,120
And so the ability to reduce that risk and ultimately reduce the spend from an agency

603
00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:29,160
is how we're having these conversations.

604
00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:34,760
But I don't necessarily care about the path to the end zone.

605
00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:38,680
I just want to get to the end zone and the end zone is improved health.

606
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:40,440
The end zone is reduction in risk.

607
00:43:40,440 --> 00:43:46,440
The end zone is picking up your kids or your grandkids when you're 80.

608
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:51,720
And as our CEO says, wiping your butt and having sex when you're 85 years old.

609
00:43:51,720 --> 00:43:52,760
Not at the same time.

610
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:54,440
Not at the same time.

611
00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:58,760
And if that's what you're into, whatever, close the door.

612
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:02,920
No, but it's funny because you're literally echoing.

613
00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:09,800
Parts of this podcast are literally like I'm building a case, like your grandfather's work,

614
00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:14,600
simply because I'm coming just to underline what you said a second.

615
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:17,160
I'm coming from a humanitarian point of view.

616
00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:19,720
I hate seeing people suffer.

617
00:44:19,720 --> 00:44:23,240
I hate going to funerals, especially of my brothers and sisters in uniform.

618
00:44:23,240 --> 00:44:24,760
That's what started this podcast.

619
00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:25,880
That's the origin story.

620
00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:31,240
But then when you dive deeper and you realize that there is no downside,

621
00:44:31,240 --> 00:44:37,080
when you invest in your people, not only are you doing what should be ethically done anyway,

622
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:39,000
but you're actually saving money.

623
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:44,120
Wellness programs, what we're talking about here, whether it's screening or optimizing performance,

624
00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:48,920
but even in the work week, most of the country works 56-hour work weeks.

625
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:49,960
That's three days a week.

626
00:44:49,960 --> 00:44:55,880
They're awake 24 hours, awake or half awake, waiting to have the shit scared out of them from a call.

627
00:44:57,880 --> 00:44:59,000
We've devolved.

628
00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:03,720
That's what we did a long time ago when we were literally waiting just for fires in a station,

629
00:45:03,720 --> 00:45:08,920
playing cards, petting the Dalmatian, but that was before EMS and modern society bloomed.

630
00:45:10,440 --> 00:45:14,840
Now, that's the thing that I'm fighting for is to get them more rest and recovery,

631
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:16,520
so an extra 24 hours in between.

632
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:21,800
Again, it's not the empathy and compassion from these leaders that's driving it forward.

633
00:45:21,800 --> 00:45:23,640
They're seeing the brass tacks.

634
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:28,040
They're seeing the financial element, the overtime, and you hit the nail on the head, the retention.

635
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:34,040
I think Marion County, they said to me it was like $14,000 or $16,000 per firefighter recruit.

636
00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:37,480
If you're in a department where people don't stay, you train them,

637
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:40,440
you give them all your money, and then they leave at the back door.

638
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:44,840
Then they leave the experience if you've got more tenured people that are leaving.

639
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:49,400
Again, it makes sense in all these different areas, but I couldn't agree with you more.

640
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:53,240
The compassionate of us want to do it from the human side,

641
00:45:53,240 --> 00:45:58,360
but even if it's coming from a financial side and that's how you got to sell it to your city or your county,

642
00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:00,360
you still get to the end zone.

643
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:03,960
Yeah, so I'm in sales.

644
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:08,520
My job is to get things done and put numbers on the board.

645
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:14,600
I have been on the consumer side of IntiTracker for eight years.

646
00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:19,080
We grew to a point where I was not able to create relationships with our customers

647
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:22,760
because we're having so many customers, which is a fantastic problem to have.

648
00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:27,480
Back in March, I finally got the role I'd been asking for for a couple of years.

649
00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:34,120
In that role, I just started seeing what would stick.

650
00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:38,120
Where are the places where we can have a little bit of a conversation?

651
00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:44,360
I think the first thing is to have a low friction, high impact opportunity.

652
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:51,640
Pro sports, extremely high friction, decently high impact, really hard to get stuff done.

653
00:46:51,640 --> 00:46:54,120
It's really hard to keep people satisfied.

654
00:46:54,120 --> 00:47:03,000
Military, incredibly bureaucratic, huge contracts and really strong ability to have impact.

655
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:07,640
Corporate wellness and police and fire, the desire is there, the budget is there,

656
00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:12,520
low friction and people are satisfied pretty easily because the product works.

657
00:47:12,520 --> 00:47:16,760
If you open your app and you get an action plan, it's going to tell you do these three things.

658
00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:19,000
If you do those three things, you'll improve.

659
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:22,680
It's not rocket science.

660
00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:24,600
It's doing the things that your body needs.

661
00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:33,800
The reason I started this little ramble is because in today's society,

662
00:47:33,800 --> 00:47:37,720
the way you get things done is by motivate people in the right way.

663
00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:45,000
I am motivated to get shit done and I'm chasing results.

664
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:53,880
I am motivated because I'm sitting here having reviewed the data of this specific population

665
00:47:53,880 --> 00:48:00,840
to say way less healthy at baseline, way healthier and improves faster than the general population.

666
00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:06,680
I have a responsibility to share this with the people who can benefit from it the most.

667
00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:14,120
I am motivated to execute against making it happen, which is wonderful.

668
00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:19,800
The feedback loop is great because every time I have a conversation with the department,

669
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:21,320
they're like, yeah, this makes sense. This is great.

670
00:48:21,320 --> 00:48:22,200
You're presenting it well.

671
00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:27,320
Let's send up a pilot or let's talk to me about what it's like for a thousand people.

672
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:32,120
We have this feedback loop of people are interested, they're able to do it,

673
00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:34,760
and they're doing it and then they're improving.

674
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:43,480
I've had conversations with people that are at the IFF and all these very large organizations

675
00:48:43,480 --> 00:48:46,440
where they're like, yeah, our job is to help people improve.

676
00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:52,920
We are responsible for finding stuff like this that is truly impactful and beneficial.

677
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:59,480
Again, the stated mission of Insight Tracker is help people live healthier longer.

678
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:03,480
Everything we do is in the facilitation of that.

679
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:07,960
I think it's pretty essential that our first responders live healthier longer

680
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:15,720
because it's a bit of a selfish thing. If I have a problem, I know that the firefighters down the

681
00:49:15,720 --> 00:49:23,320
street are using Insight Tracker and that they're ready and that they're good and this and that.

682
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:33,240
It feels good. It feels impactful. It feels important to share this with people who it's going

683
00:49:33,240 --> 00:49:40,600
to transform their life. Again, it's not hyperbole. It's truly going to do that.

684
00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:47,400
The data shows that it works. It's not just me sitting up waxing poetic,

685
00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:53,160
but it's remarkable what this data is. Maybe we can link to the white paper we shared

686
00:49:53,720 --> 00:50:00,680
on first responder data, but it's fascinating. Then it's like we have an opportunity to create

687
00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:06,840
an impact and legacy and truly change how health is discussed.

688
00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:12,600
One of the departments we talked with said, pretty crazy that the all-call system rings in every room

689
00:50:12,600 --> 00:50:18,520
after 7 a.m. It doesn't seem essential. What about the guys who came back from a call at 4 a.m. and

690
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:23,800
want to sleep past 7? Shouldn't they sleep past 7 and not be woken up for nuisances?

691
00:50:24,760 --> 00:50:35,160
To evaluate a change like that from an objective biochemical assessment of testosterone and

692
00:50:35,160 --> 00:50:42,200
stress levels and show that it improves and that it works, that should be stamped and repeated

693
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:50,520
everywhere. For some reason, stasis is so hard to overcome. Making an initial change, small or

694
00:50:50,520 --> 00:50:56,600
large, is really hard for a lot of people. A lot of people don't want to be the first one to do it,

695
00:50:56,600 --> 00:51:01,560
but then they see something like that and it works. Maybe we should bring that up and discuss it and

696
00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:07,720
do it. Now you're talking about adding the 24 hours in between shifts. That's a great change.

697
00:51:07,720 --> 00:51:14,840
What's the impact on testosterone levels? Probably 10 to 20% improvement. That improves readiness.

698
00:51:14,840 --> 00:51:20,600
That means that those firefighters are going to perform better in their job. It also means that

699
00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:24,920
their stress levels are going to be lower. It means that they can probably do their job for longer.

700
00:51:24,920 --> 00:51:30,600
It means that they can probably be a better husband, wife, spouse, or husband.

701
00:51:30,600 --> 00:51:37,080
Wife, spouse, partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever. It's not just done in isolation with

702
00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:45,080
any of this stuff. If we improve their ability to bust into a room and save somebody's life,

703
00:51:45,640 --> 00:51:50,280
it's not just that moment that's improved. It's every other interaction that they have.

704
00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:56,840
This is happening at scale. We're super excited to be able to be in the room and having these

705
00:51:56,840 --> 00:52:03,160
conversations because it is so potentially impactful, particularly when done at scale.

706
00:52:04,360 --> 00:52:08,440
Absolutely. I think the challenge in the fire service, if you came across that, is it's very

707
00:52:08,440 --> 00:52:17,960
fragmented. We have certain organizations, unions, etc. that are supposed to be unification.

708
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:22,680
I would just say that that's not always the case. What's beautiful is conversations like this can

709
00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:27,480
be listened to by anyone. They can all access this conversation for free.

710
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:34,600
I want to talk to you about when you first were diving into just blood work in general,

711
00:52:34,600 --> 00:52:39,800
your average physician, and we can even talk about physicians that were working with first responders

712
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:46,600
specifically, what was the average panel? Then contrast that with the first responder panel and

713
00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:51,560
then the comprehensive panel that you offer. Meaning, what was the first panel in terms of

714
00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:56,440
what we offered or what people are normally getting? When you first created these, what was

715
00:52:56,440 --> 00:53:00,680
the average person getting from their GP, their regular physician, when they were going in?

716
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:07,480
I mean, to this day, it's like glucose, cholesterol, and if you're older than 35,

717
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:16,200
maybe your PSA is getting checked. What happens is unless your glucose is above 100

718
00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:21,480
and your A1C is above whatever the threshold for pre-diabetes is, they're going to say,

719
00:53:21,480 --> 00:53:27,240
yeah, you're fine. Come back next year. If you have a glucose level of 98, you're

720
00:53:27,240 --> 00:53:33,800
like within a margin of error of being pre-diabetic, but a traditional doctor would flag that as not an

721
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:37,080
issue. Maybe keep an eye on it. Come back next year if you're still alive.

722
00:53:39,080 --> 00:53:43,800
What we do is we say, we're going to create optimal ranges based on each individual. We're

723
00:53:43,800 --> 00:53:49,640
not interested in you're not sick today. We're interested in creating optimal humans and people

724
00:53:49,640 --> 00:53:57,560
who can live healthier longer. An A1C of – I don't remember what the threshold is for

725
00:53:57,560 --> 00:54:02,440
pre-diabetic, but let's say you're 0.1% below it, it's not going to flag any issue.

726
00:54:03,160 --> 00:54:07,640
But if you're a margin of error on that blood test higher, they'll say you're pre-diabetic.

727
00:54:07,640 --> 00:54:21,720
That's like a remarkably flawed system. We began testing 13 biomarkers in 2013. Then we're at 48 now.

728
00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:28,680
Men get 46. Women get progesterone and estradiol as two extra female hormones.

729
00:54:28,680 --> 00:54:39,720
That ranges from A1C, micronutrients like magnesium, vitamin D, you get inflammation levels,

730
00:54:39,720 --> 00:54:49,160
you got liver enzymes, iron panel, pretty substantial panel when it comes to overall health

731
00:54:49,160 --> 00:54:54,600
and wellness. Your ability to make changes based on that, I think it's like 90% of our users have

732
00:54:54,600 --> 00:54:59,480
five or more values or 80% of our users have five or more values to improve on in their first test.

733
00:55:00,600 --> 00:55:06,600
Just about everybody has room to improve in that comprehensive panel. What happened with

734
00:55:06,600 --> 00:55:14,440
the first responder panel was a police officer heard us on Andrew Huberman or heard Andrew

735
00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:21,240
Huberman talking about us, called in and said, I must have this, but I can't spend $6.99 per

736
00:55:21,240 --> 00:55:28,040
officer. Make me something that helps with heart health. I went to our science team and I said,

737
00:55:28,040 --> 00:55:39,240
what are the metrics? We offer a 30% discount via IDME verification to first responders and

738
00:55:39,240 --> 00:55:49,240
veterans and active duty. I knew that we had some number of those types of answers.

739
00:55:49,240 --> 00:55:57,560
I was like, can we look at that subset of users and see what their most common problem areas are?

740
00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:05,080
It's heart health, stress, inflammation, and metabolism. You should not be surprised

741
00:56:05,080 --> 00:56:11,240
anybody listening to this podcast who knows what has been in this space. I asked the science team

742
00:56:11,240 --> 00:56:18,360
to create a panel that covers those biomarkers at a cost that is low enough that this police

743
00:56:18,360 --> 00:56:25,320
department could do it for 1,100 officers and not spend all of their city's money on it.

744
00:56:26,040 --> 00:56:31,160
We came up with this panel. It retails for $3.10 and with that 30% discount, it's $2.17.

745
00:56:32,280 --> 00:56:38,200
It's nine biomarkers that again, covers heart health, metabolism, inflammation, and stress.

746
00:56:39,240 --> 00:56:44,440
We looked at our data and the hypothesis was that first responders are less healthy at baseline

747
00:56:44,440 --> 00:56:50,120
with those metrics and they improve faster than the general population. Both of those hypotheses

748
00:56:50,120 --> 00:57:01,480
were true with the exception of cortisol and A1C. Cortisol and A1C are, so all seven of the nine

749
00:57:01,480 --> 00:57:07,160
metrics improve faster than the general population from a statistically significant manner. What that

750
00:57:07,160 --> 00:57:11,880
means is that first responders who use InsideTracker and test baseline and follow up,

751
00:57:11,880 --> 00:57:16,680
improve faster than our general population. Probably because they have more room to improve

752
00:57:16,680 --> 00:57:23,320
and a stronger incentive to improve because they're starting from more room to improve. Anyway,

753
00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:31,560
cortisol is your stress hormone and A1C is potentially influenced by sleep and nutrition

754
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:41,000
and lack of activity. Those are two of the biomarkers that unless there's structural change

755
00:57:41,000 --> 00:57:47,080
you as an individual probably don't have much influence as a firefighter or police officer.

756
00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:54,120
So what I say to departments who are talking about this is this is our data and this is a huge

757
00:57:54,120 --> 00:58:01,480
opportunity to create structural change around again, shift at 24 hours in between shifts or

758
00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:09,560
do X, Y, Z or experiment with more days off or I don't know. There's something that

759
00:58:09,560 --> 00:58:14,440
can be improved in the way that the process is right now and the way that the job is right now.

760
00:58:14,440 --> 00:58:18,840
Whoever figures that out is going to be a blueprint for everybody else to copy.

761
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:27,160
So if you're listening to this and you want to be a guinea pig in that, let's supply data science

762
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:37,480
and creating an experience to test and evaluate. But anyway, we create this panel and now police

763
00:58:37,480 --> 00:58:41,320
and fire departments are buying it. We have unions that call in. They're like, yeah, 217, great,

764
00:58:41,320 --> 00:58:48,200
sign me up. And they're providing it for their members. And we're speaking with cities about

765
00:58:49,080 --> 00:58:57,000
providing this for a thousand people twice annually because at 500 bucks a pop, the ability to

766
00:58:57,560 --> 00:59:06,120
flag issues at scale for $500 a pop is phenomenal. Now I'm not saying that this is an enough

767
00:59:06,120 --> 00:59:11,800
to be all situation. There are plenty of other like CT screens, plaque, et cetera. All these things

768
00:59:11,800 --> 00:59:16,840
should be done in tandem with something like Insight Tracker, but Insight Tracker is going to be

769
00:59:16,840 --> 00:59:24,040
extremely actionable from a health and wellness and nutrition and lifestyle standpoint. For fire,

770
00:59:24,600 --> 00:59:32,040
we can add a couple of biomarkers and facilitate the NFPA 1582 requirement at roughly the same

771
00:59:32,040 --> 00:59:38,600
cost that it would be to get it done while also adding an app on top of it, an app and guidance

772
00:59:38,600 --> 00:59:44,520
and a connection to a wearable and insights around sleep and a team of experts that is constantly

773
00:59:44,520 --> 00:59:49,080
putting out content related to this type of information. All of our content is produced by

774
00:59:49,080 --> 00:59:55,000
dietitians or experts in the space. And then with some of the departments, we're bringing our

775
00:59:55,000 --> 00:59:59,160
dietitians in and we're bringing our performance experts in and we're providing them with resources

776
00:59:59,160 --> 01:00:04,760
around how do you improve sleep quality without improving changing the time on your time, your

777
01:00:04,760 --> 01:00:13,880
clock or your alarm clock. We're in this place where we don't have like a 100% dialed structure

778
01:00:13,880 --> 01:00:21,320
and everything is, you know, the last 20% of every deal is custom. And we want to co-create

779
01:00:21,320 --> 01:00:29,240
programs with departments in order to create better outcomes. And we are doing this and we won't be

780
01:00:29,240 --> 01:00:37,560
satisfied until everybody's doing it. And that's going to happen because it simply has to like the

781
01:00:37,560 --> 01:00:46,280
the fact that, you know, the average lifespan of a firefighter is 57 compared to 79 like that's,

782
01:00:46,280 --> 01:00:52,280
that's crazy. And that's got it. That's got to change. And we have to help make that happen.

783
01:00:53,240 --> 01:00:59,240
100% what's so scary and a lot of us, when we look at talk about, you know, the actual lifespan,

784
01:00:59,240 --> 01:01:05,800
for example, people will ask me, Oh, could you send me the research on, for example, the benefits of

785
01:01:05,800 --> 01:01:11,400
adding a 24 between shifts, which is lunacy, because it's just common sense to me, but anyway,

786
01:01:11,400 --> 01:01:16,920
but there are almost no studies when it comes to firefighter health, firefighter cancer gets some

787
01:01:16,920 --> 01:01:23,160
attention. There's discussions more so kind of philosophically on the peer support mental health

788
01:01:23,160 --> 01:01:27,880
side. But there's a lot of you know, what kind of nozzle is best, what kind of ventilation, they'll

789
01:01:27,880 --> 01:01:33,320
spend all kinds of money on that, but we're dying in droves. And there's no real research into the

790
01:01:33,320 --> 01:01:37,560
shifts and sleep deprivation, because if they know exactly what's going to happen when they find out,

791
01:01:37,560 --> 01:01:43,960
yes, you're going to get exactly so or demand change. So what's interesting is there's there's

792
01:01:43,960 --> 01:01:49,240
a chief I just had on from Boynton Beach here in Florida, they just went to the new shift 24 or

793
01:01:49,240 --> 01:01:56,040
72, which is extra 24 off, which is still a 42 hour workweek is what most of the country works.

794
01:01:57,080 --> 01:02:01,720
But there's another one I just had on one of the union guys from Pasco County in Florida,

795
01:02:01,720 --> 01:02:05,880
who's going to them in two years and the city of Gainesville, which is a big city,

796
01:02:05,880 --> 01:02:09,880
which is a big city for men and women. And then the other one is, you know,

797
01:02:09,880 --> 01:02:13,800
they're going to the same place they went to two years and the city of Gainesville here near where

798
01:02:13,800 --> 01:02:19,640
I am. They I don't know what the timeline is, but they're going. So those to me are the ones that

799
01:02:19,640 --> 01:02:24,520
we need to really kind of, you know, hone in on as far as the studies, where are your guys now,

800
01:02:24,520 --> 01:02:31,080
men and women, when you're working this 56 hour workweek, and then let's see, let's observe them,

801
01:02:31,080 --> 01:02:39,560
Yeah, totally. I mean, it would be wonderful if we saw change, and it would be even more wonderful

802
01:02:39,560 --> 01:02:45,800
if we quantified change, because if we quantify the change, then it's staring you in the face,

803
01:02:45,800 --> 01:02:54,440
and you'd be crazy to say, no, you know, it's not worth $1,000 per person or $500 a person per year

804
01:02:54,440 --> 01:03:00,760
times 100 or times 500 or whatever. The calculus is so like, we had this conversation with the

805
01:03:00,760 --> 01:03:05,960
state of Delaware, for example, and hoping to be able to do something there. But they were like,

806
01:03:05,960 --> 01:03:12,680
we're spending X amount on diabetes per resident every year. If we drew that down, we could send

807
01:03:12,680 --> 01:03:17,640
them a wellness allowance, right? You spend that money on food or gym membership or running shoes

808
01:03:17,640 --> 01:03:25,880
or whatever. Like, if if you spend 1000, and you save 1001, at scale, it's worth it. If you save

809
01:03:25,880 --> 01:03:33,000
2000, it's worth it. If you save 5000, it's even more worth it. So like, we have to establish the

810
01:03:33,720 --> 01:03:38,360
case study that says if you do this, then that we're starting to see it in corporate wellness.

811
01:03:39,160 --> 01:03:44,760
We have much easier conversations there because you can like look at a single person and see that

812
01:03:44,760 --> 01:03:51,640
they're, you know, their, their single headcount is contributing $500,000 a year to the company,

813
01:03:51,640 --> 01:03:56,520
or $10 million to the company. And if this person is sick, they can't do that. Or if they leave,

814
01:03:56,520 --> 01:04:03,400
they can't do that. And so it's, it's an easier cost justification from an entity that is much

815
01:04:03,400 --> 01:04:11,640
more familiar with numbers and data. But I feel like we're gonna, you know, fast forward 12 to 18

816
01:04:11,640 --> 01:04:17,320
months, and we're gonna have three to five case studies like that from major municipalities

817
01:04:17,320 --> 01:04:27,960
in California, in Virginia, hopefully Florida, and Massachusetts, where they did this, and this

818
01:04:27,960 --> 01:04:34,760
is what happened. And this is the result. We did a pilot with, we're doing a pilot with a with a gym.

819
01:04:35,400 --> 01:04:42,440
And the president of the gym discovered something that was impactful for him. He's like, this is

820
01:04:42,440 --> 01:04:46,680
in our contact was like, this is great, because he's going to be a huge advocate, because he

821
01:04:46,680 --> 01:04:50,040
learned something through blood testing that he wouldn't have known otherwise. And now he's going

822
01:04:50,040 --> 01:04:55,480
to improve. And it, you know, he learned about it 10 years before it became a problem. We had a, we

823
01:04:55,480 --> 01:05:01,560
had a guy who works at a tech company do the exact same thing. Like, the CEO of the company

824
01:05:01,560 --> 01:05:09,320
emailed me was like, our guy learned about something that he feels, say, 10 years of his life,

825
01:05:09,320 --> 01:05:13,960
and, and, you know, address the, he's able to address a problem with his doctor today,

826
01:05:13,960 --> 01:05:17,800
that could have been a much bigger discussion, a much bigger problem in 10 to 15 years.

827
01:05:18,360 --> 01:05:23,160
And so this is happening. It's not like we're just like shooting in the dark, and there's no,

828
01:05:23,160 --> 01:05:30,120
there's no results. I just can't wait to see what that study looks like, and what we're able to prove.

829
01:05:30,680 --> 01:05:38,120
But like, the trains left the station, and it's, it's happening. And we're just, we just don't have

830
01:05:38,120 --> 01:05:44,680
enough runway to say, this is exactly what is going to happen. But like, it's science, like,

831
01:05:44,680 --> 01:05:50,280
it's data, it's predictable, in that, you know, we look at our population, and that number I

832
01:05:50,280 --> 01:05:56,680
referenced 47% of those who test high with elevated A to B. So look at, let's say there are 100

833
01:05:56,680 --> 01:06:03,480
firefighters, 10 of them have elevated A to B, five of them improve their elevated A to B.

834
01:06:03,480 --> 01:06:08,760
That's five people who potentially, you know, have gone to their physician and addressed

835
01:06:10,120 --> 01:06:15,240
like a medical challenge. And so again, we're not saying that in isolation,

836
01:06:15,240 --> 01:06:18,440
inside tracker is going to save the world. We're saying we're going to give you the tools to

837
01:06:18,440 --> 01:06:26,760
identify when problems may exist, and what avenues to focus on. I had a fire chief say,

838
01:06:26,760 --> 01:06:33,960
we're in the business of reacting to events. Our, one of our captains had a heart attack

839
01:06:33,960 --> 01:06:40,040
and died in the hospital. We must respond to that event with better health and better health

840
01:06:40,040 --> 01:06:46,600
programming. And he's right. It's like, it's sad that it takes an event like that, in order to make

841
01:06:46,600 --> 01:06:53,160
a change. But again, as I said earlier, stasis is the enemy. It's so easy to just keep doing what

842
01:06:53,160 --> 01:06:57,800
you're doing until it punches you in the face and you can't continue any longer.

843
01:06:59,640 --> 01:07:05,400
Well, you were kind enough to put me through the inside or inner age, inside age, and then

844
01:07:05,400 --> 01:07:10,200
the comprehensive one as well. So I just pulled up my results. I'll kind of walk you through the

845
01:07:10,200 --> 01:07:15,480
experience. Firstly, we just did the on-ramp, you know, the form about my medical history.

846
01:07:15,480 --> 01:07:20,520
Immediately, there was an opportunity to book a blood draw quest diagnostics. I want to make a

847
01:07:20,520 --> 01:07:26,040
shout out for quest in Southwest Ocala. They're awesome. Every time I go there, had the blood

848
01:07:26,040 --> 01:07:30,840
draw and it was only you were surprised how quickly I got my blood results back. But, you know,

849
01:07:31,480 --> 01:07:37,000
looking at me, you know, I'm almost 50 now, I'm still lean, I'm still active at Jiu-Jitsu today and

850
01:07:37,000 --> 01:07:43,480
still coach strength and conditioning at a CrossFit gym in town. But my cortisol was high. And the

851
01:07:43,480 --> 01:07:48,360
very end of last year, right before I had this done was a lot of family issues going on. So from

852
01:07:48,360 --> 01:07:54,920
the inside looking out, okay, there's a marker. My iron is high. I'm actually on peptides from

853
01:07:54,920 --> 01:08:00,200
Transcend at the moment. Just not TRT, just peptides to help boost, you know, some of the

854
01:08:00,200 --> 01:08:05,640
natural hormones, but my testosterone was high and I want to titrate to minimal dose. So again,

855
01:08:05,640 --> 01:08:10,440
and they're going to do blood work next week, but that was interesting. Cholesterol, not so worried

856
01:08:10,440 --> 01:08:17,480
about very borderline high, but then everything else was normal or, you know, excellent, optimized.

857
01:08:17,480 --> 01:08:23,400
So I can look at this, especially with, you know, with my background being in this space somewhat,

858
01:08:24,200 --> 01:08:29,240
and then think about performance. I'm not dying from anything, but that's not the point. How do I

859
01:08:29,240 --> 01:08:34,920
get my inflammation down in my old injuries? How do I, you know, get rid of some of the brain fog?

860
01:08:34,920 --> 01:08:41,640
How do I just perform better on the mat or, you know, in the gym? So I mean, just from a personal

861
01:08:41,640 --> 01:08:45,640
testimony, I mean, it's absolutely incredible and it was flawless. And then as you said, then I've

862
01:08:45,640 --> 01:08:51,160
got hit action plan and now we're talking about nutrition, about sleep, you know, some other

863
01:08:51,160 --> 01:08:56,120
things like that. So a firefighter, whether they're in the middle of New York city or out in, you know,

864
01:08:56,120 --> 01:09:00,520
the boonies somewhere can have this done and have this at their fingertips. So I thought that was

865
01:09:00,520 --> 01:09:05,880
phenomenal, but shifting from risk factors and disease in the fire service, let's talk about

866
01:09:05,880 --> 01:09:12,600
performance now, because we are tactical athletes and, you know, if, you know, a goalkeeper misses

867
01:09:12,600 --> 01:09:20,120
a save on the ice, then they're down a point. If we miss something in a, you know, searching in a

868
01:09:20,120 --> 01:09:26,520
fire or trying to cut someone out of a car, people die. So, you know, we downplay the importance of

869
01:09:26,520 --> 01:09:32,440
performance in this profession or our professions in general, but it's extremely important. So talk

870
01:09:32,440 --> 01:09:37,000
to me about how people listening can optimize, be the very best version of themselves.

871
01:09:37,000 --> 01:09:43,320
Yeah. So, every time we sign one of these big contracts, we ask why, so why are you doing this?

872
01:09:43,320 --> 01:09:49,560
We're in the process of contracting. We asked that, we asked that to SOCOM, some special forces,

873
01:09:50,120 --> 01:09:56,200
and they're like, when you're fit and ready, you're harder to kill. And that's the epitome of it,

874
01:09:56,200 --> 01:10:02,360
right? Like when you put yourself in the best position possible, you're in the best position

875
01:10:02,360 --> 01:10:09,720
possible. So, I'm going to parallel it with professional sports, and then I'll land a plane

876
01:10:09,720 --> 01:10:18,600
related to fire. So, looking at a pitcher in baseball, they have an increased risk, and we're

877
01:10:18,600 --> 01:10:26,200
actually working on proving this. The hypothesis is they have an increased risk of biomechanical

878
01:10:26,200 --> 01:10:33,720
breakdown leading to injury if their iron and endurance markers are suboptimal. So, if a

879
01:10:33,720 --> 01:10:38,120
pitcher is able to optimize their endurance potential, they are potentially likely to have

880
01:10:38,120 --> 01:10:43,560
less injuries. I said potential and hypothetical so many times because this isn't proven, and we're

881
01:10:43,560 --> 01:10:49,560
looking to prove this with a baseball team this year and a platform that measures the biomechanical

882
01:10:49,560 --> 01:10:55,000
efficiency. Then maybe some wins and more games or, you know, don't get injured, you know,

883
01:10:55,000 --> 01:11:02,200
don't get injured and whatnot. As you said, it impacts them in their career, but nobody's going

884
01:11:02,200 --> 01:11:10,600
to die if a pitcher has a, you know, Tommy John surgery or whatnot. If a firefighter is able to

885
01:11:10,600 --> 01:11:16,520
optimize their vitamin D, if a firefighter is able to improve their testosterone levels and their

886
01:11:16,520 --> 01:11:23,480
magnesium is higher, so their sleep is better and their cortisol is, you know, optimal, so they're

887
01:11:23,480 --> 01:11:30,440
not racing, their mind is not racing, and they're able to achieve better mindfulness. Like, when you

888
01:11:30,440 --> 01:11:39,720
enter that room, you're more calm and you're putting yourself in a better position or you're able to

889
01:11:39,720 --> 01:11:49,000
exit and do the essential components of the job and not be worried about physically breaking down

890
01:11:49,000 --> 01:11:54,920
and not be worried that, like, you're not going to be able to perform. And so some of it is the

891
01:11:54,920 --> 01:12:00,840
mental performance around, like, I just know I'm in better shape. And so for me as a runner,

892
01:12:00,840 --> 01:12:06,760
I know that when I have the optimal iron markers and testosterone and vitamin D and whatnot, like,

893
01:12:06,760 --> 01:12:12,120
I have a better chance of having a good long run. I can't speak for a firefighter entering a burning

894
01:12:12,120 --> 01:12:17,400
room, but I have to imagine psychologically if you know that you're in a better position

895
01:12:17,400 --> 01:12:23,320
metabolically and physically, whether it's because you're physically stronger and you've done the

896
01:12:23,320 --> 01:12:29,160
training or you've looked at blood work and your testosterone is 900, whatever it is, like, there's

897
01:12:29,160 --> 01:12:35,720
some aspect of ownership and control that truly leads to cognitive improvement and physical

898
01:12:35,720 --> 01:12:45,720
performance benefit. And that can't be understated. And so the ability to, like, have the confidence

899
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:51,960
in yourself, but think about your team. Think about the people around you and the fact that,

900
01:12:53,080 --> 01:12:59,880
you know, your life is in somebody else's hands in theory, right? You want all those other people

901
01:12:59,880 --> 01:13:06,600
to be in the best physical shape and mental shape possible if they need to save you or if they need

902
01:13:06,600 --> 01:13:14,040
to save grandma or whoever the person is in the room. And so to me, there's like some of the

903
01:13:14,040 --> 01:13:23,320
psychological of like knowing that your team is your tactical athlete team is prepared and in the

904
01:13:23,320 --> 01:13:30,680
best position possible. You know, you think about military use. We have some contracts with military

905
01:13:30,680 --> 01:13:37,400
and the focus right now with the military is not performance, it's recovery. And it's making sure

906
01:13:37,400 --> 01:13:43,400
that the guys and men and women who come back from deployment recover so that they can do it again.

907
01:13:43,400 --> 01:13:48,680
And they're not just burnt out. And then, you know, I think it's like a million dollars to train a

908
01:13:48,680 --> 01:13:57,320
soldier or whatever the amount is. They need to retain those people. They need those people to be

909
01:13:57,880 --> 01:14:05,480
ready to do it again. And so again, they're the focus is recovery and preparedness. And so the

910
01:14:05,480 --> 01:14:11,480
metrics that we test for are directly related to recovery and preparedness and cognition and

911
01:14:11,480 --> 01:14:18,120
strength and endurance and athletic performance. And so again, we got our start in professional

912
01:14:18,120 --> 01:14:25,640
athletics. And it's been cool to see Stanley Cup winners and World Series champions and

913
01:14:27,720 --> 01:14:33,480
the trickle down is sometimes that individuals like to emulate what's going on in pro sports.

914
01:14:34,280 --> 01:14:39,320
What I like about pro sports is that it's a learning environment where money is often not

915
01:14:39,320 --> 01:14:46,760
an object and the desire is peak efficiency. So let's say you have 100 million dollars to do

916
01:14:46,760 --> 01:14:53,480
whatever you want on athletic performance and recovery. Everyone's blood testing. Every single

917
01:14:53,480 --> 01:15:01,960
person is going to do it if you're thinking about performance. And we have, you know, these 10, 20,

918
01:15:01,960 --> 01:15:06,760
50 million dollar athletes who are customers of InstaTracker and they're testing quarterly.

919
01:15:06,760 --> 01:15:15,800
And they're doing all of these things and that's the foundation of what they do next. And so again,

920
01:15:16,840 --> 01:15:22,360
it's a fascinating case study because again, if money is not an object, what would you do?

921
01:15:23,080 --> 01:15:29,640
And these guys focus on nutrition, sleep, and supplementation. They're already exercising,

922
01:15:29,640 --> 01:15:37,000
potentially too much. And so they are using it to see like what type of expert should I

923
01:15:37,560 --> 01:15:43,640
enlist to help me? Is it do I need to dial in the strength and conditioning? Is it nutrition or am

924
01:15:43,640 --> 01:15:49,080
I wasting my time taking all these supplements and I should really take XYZ instead of ABC?

925
01:15:50,920 --> 01:15:55,480
Speaking of supplementation, I've used Thorn for several years now. I think they're phenomenal.

926
01:15:55,480 --> 01:16:01,000
They actually sponsor the podcast as well. But that being said, I'm always open to other companies

927
01:16:01,000 --> 01:16:05,720
if people are behind them as well. Do you recommend specific brands or do you just

928
01:16:05,720 --> 01:16:13,880
normally recommend a supplement supplementation of a certain compound? So we do recommend certain

929
01:16:13,880 --> 01:16:22,600
brands. So that's located within the app. So we'll make a branded recommendation based on

930
01:16:22,600 --> 01:16:30,040
quality and effectiveness. And yeah, that was a request from a lot of our users and we added

931
01:16:30,040 --> 01:16:37,160
that in. So it's based on third party independent testing. Beautiful. All right. The other question

932
01:16:37,160 --> 01:16:42,440
I had, you have the first responder blood panel, but then you have the comprehensive one that I did.

933
01:16:43,560 --> 01:16:47,560
There are going to be people out there, especially when you talked about a 30% discount,

934
01:16:47,560 --> 01:16:50,840
they're going to say, you know what, I'm going to invest in myself. I want to do the full panel.

935
01:16:50,840 --> 01:16:56,280
And I think one of the lesser known areas is the hormonal testing. You've got testosterone,

936
01:16:56,280 --> 01:17:00,440
as you said, estradiol and progesterone for our female tactical athletes as well.

937
01:17:01,400 --> 01:17:07,240
That is a huge indicator, not only just for the levels and where they should be,

938
01:17:07,240 --> 01:17:11,400
but also when it comes to mental health. I've got a lot of friends who have been struggling and when

939
01:17:11,400 --> 01:17:17,160
they actually figured it out and went on, for example, TRT, if it was the right fit for that

940
01:17:17,160 --> 01:17:22,840
individual and hopefully they had addressed lifestyle changes first, that was actually

941
01:17:22,840 --> 01:17:29,320
game changing for them. So for the people out there that maybe have gratitude that their

942
01:17:29,320 --> 01:17:33,320
department is going to put them through a panel, but want to actually take their own health into

943
01:17:33,320 --> 01:17:38,920
their own hands, take advantage of this, talk to me about the hormonal testing for people in my

944
01:17:38,920 --> 01:17:43,640
professions. Yeah. So first we do have an option where if you already have data, you can upload

945
01:17:43,640 --> 01:17:50,280
that. It's $149 a year. It's called blood results upload. On the hormonal testing side of things,

946
01:17:50,280 --> 01:17:58,200
we look at testosterone and cortisol and TSH and for women, progesterone and estradiol.

947
01:18:04,120 --> 01:18:10,200
The female hormone testing is interesting because we added it prior to the data

948
01:18:10,200 --> 01:18:14,760
and guidance being strong enough to say definitively, like, if you do this, then that.

949
01:18:14,760 --> 01:18:20,200
The feedback we got from a lot of women was, I must have these things tested. And in the process,

950
01:18:20,200 --> 01:18:27,320
we're building a better ability to drive personalized guidance by association of other biomarkers.

951
01:18:27,320 --> 01:18:37,080
And if you do this, then what happens? So those are values that we still suggest working alongside

952
01:18:37,080 --> 01:18:43,240
a physician potentially. But for a lot of women, it's important to have those tested,

953
01:18:43,240 --> 01:18:48,120
particularly pre-menopausal women so that you have a baseline and you know where you're at.

954
01:18:48,120 --> 01:18:55,000
And many of those values, there's not a lot of research. And so we said, instead of waiting for

955
01:18:55,000 --> 01:19:02,200
research to happen, we want to help create some of that research and enable women to make educated

956
01:19:02,200 --> 01:19:08,040
and informed decisions of, should I speak with a physician? Is this a problem or is it not a

957
01:19:08,040 --> 01:19:14,920
problem? On the men's hormone side of things, testosterone and pre-testosterone are fairly

958
01:19:14,920 --> 01:19:23,960
common and very straightforward in the ability to influence. We work with athletes all the time who

959
01:19:23,960 --> 01:19:30,360
have low testosterone. And my favorite story is a baseball player we worked with in 2015 or 2016,

960
01:19:30,360 --> 01:19:38,840
his T was super low and he said he was just playing video games every other night up till 2 a.m. So

961
01:19:38,840 --> 01:19:45,000
similar to shift work essentially, where every other night his sleep was horrible.

962
01:19:45,560 --> 01:19:50,840
And he stopped doing that and his testosterone doubled and he advanced like three or four levels

963
01:19:50,840 --> 01:19:56,760
from single A to high triple A that season. Not saying it's because he did inside tracker, but

964
01:19:56,760 --> 01:20:00,600
his testosterone doubled. And so a lot of other things are probably impacted as a result.

965
01:20:01,880 --> 01:20:09,000
So yeah, it's cool to see what can be done when you have that data and when you see what works

966
01:20:09,720 --> 01:20:17,240
for you. Well, going from the performance lens, focusing on the hormone element, what I learned

967
01:20:17,240 --> 01:20:21,240
from Doc Parsley and some of the other sleep experts have been on for several years now,

968
01:20:21,240 --> 01:20:27,160
was the original scale that your physician would look at if you happen to have even had a testosterone

969
01:20:27,160 --> 01:20:32,600
blood test, which you probably wouldn't have back then. But if you did, it was like the 250 to 950.

970
01:20:32,600 --> 01:20:39,240
Yeah. And so, and that was, you know, I learned that in near one of the Ivy League schools where

971
01:20:39,240 --> 01:20:44,600
this research was done, one of the towns, they took the eight year old sedentary dude and the 18

972
01:20:44,600 --> 01:20:51,640
year old football player, and that is your scale. So now you have a 35 year old firefighter and his

973
01:20:51,640 --> 01:20:55,160
blood, you know, his T is 300 and they're like, Oh, you're fine. You're within normal limits.

974
01:20:55,160 --> 01:20:59,960
Well, you're not, you know, and this is the problem. You know, you probably should be 700

975
01:20:59,960 --> 01:21:05,560
at that age, especially arguably, you're probably one of the more resilient athletic members of your

976
01:21:05,560 --> 01:21:10,440
community. So this is what's nice again, looking at that performance side of this is really

977
01:21:10,440 --> 01:21:15,000
understanding. No, you're not where you should be. You know, this is, this is the range that would

978
01:21:15,000 --> 01:21:19,400
probably be optimal for you. And even then, like I said, with what I'm doing now, you're going to,

979
01:21:19,400 --> 01:21:23,720
you know, titrate to effect. Each one of us is different, but if your doctor tells you that

980
01:21:23,720 --> 01:21:28,360
you're fine, or conversely, you go to a men's clinic and they draw blood and they're like, Oh,

981
01:21:28,360 --> 01:21:34,280
you need TRT and you're only 35. And he hasn't talked about sleep hygiene and exercise and

982
01:21:34,280 --> 01:21:37,800
strength training. That's also the other side of the spectrum.

983
01:21:37,800 --> 01:21:44,360
Totally. Yeah. So that normal range is based on 95% of the healthy population. So exactly like

984
01:21:44,360 --> 01:21:50,440
what you said, 80 year old sedentary person and 30 year old athlete. It doesn't make any sense to

985
01:21:50,440 --> 01:21:54,360
me, but we create optimal zones based on the demographics of that individual.

986
01:21:55,400 --> 01:22:00,680
Absolutely. Well, I have got an envelope sitting on my kitchen table and waiting to be mailed out

987
01:22:00,680 --> 01:22:03,960
tomorrow, which is the DNA test. So while we're talking about all the things that you offer,

988
01:22:03,960 --> 01:22:08,760
let's finish with that. What can I expect when those come back? Yeah. So the DNA test is

989
01:22:08,760 --> 01:22:15,240
fascinating. That product has evolved over the years. My favorite assessment in there. So

990
01:22:16,200 --> 01:22:21,560
genetics are your, the card you're dealt and the blood work is how you play the hand. So

991
01:22:23,240 --> 01:22:30,200
there's a predictor called grip strength, or there's a metric called grip strength potential.

992
01:22:30,200 --> 01:22:34,920
So grip strength is your ability to squeeze something hard and it's rated in pounds.

993
01:22:35,720 --> 01:22:45,160
So grip strength is a pretty strong indicator of health span and lifespan because it's used

994
01:22:45,160 --> 01:22:52,600
as a proxy to understand, like, let's say you fall, are you able to hold that railing or are

995
01:22:52,600 --> 01:22:58,040
you going to fall and break your hip and then die in the hospital 30 days later at 80 years old?

996
01:22:58,040 --> 01:23:02,520
Or whatever. And so it's not to say, okay, people who have a stronger grip are able to hold into

997
01:23:02,520 --> 01:23:09,960
life longer, but they're able to avoid the things that are proven to put people in a bad place. And

998
01:23:09,960 --> 01:23:17,160
so you can see if you have an elevated risk of declining grip strength. So if that's the case,

999
01:23:17,160 --> 01:23:25,400
the best thing you can do for your health and longevity, farmers carries or carrying things or,

1000
01:23:25,400 --> 01:23:29,800
you know, things like that. And so it's putting the ownership into the individual through

1001
01:23:29,800 --> 01:23:35,080
understanding risk. And if it's not a risk, then maybe you're not going to pay super close attention

1002
01:23:35,080 --> 01:23:41,560
to it and you'll focus on cholesterol and ApoB or, you know, you're a morning person, so focus there.

1003
01:23:43,560 --> 01:23:48,520
That one's fascinating and that product is evolving. And we've finally gotten to a place where

1004
01:23:48,520 --> 01:23:54,680
it's really impactful and it's just getting better from there. And it doesn't involve getting poked

1005
01:23:54,680 --> 01:23:59,560
in the arm. No, which I don't mind. I did it to lots of people. So if I feel like it's payback

1006
01:23:59,560 --> 01:24:04,840
every time I get blood drawn. Yeah. My girlfriend's a nurse and she always tells me, oh, you've got

1007
01:24:04,840 --> 01:24:11,960
great veins. I could stick a needle in you real easy. I'm like, that's where you're into. But

1008
01:24:13,000 --> 01:24:18,040
I've got good veins too, but I'm from England and the blood is really good. And so I'm like,

1009
01:24:18,040 --> 01:24:22,760
I'm going to get a shot of that. And then the blood banks won't take English blood because of

1010
01:24:22,760 --> 01:24:27,880
mad cow disease. So I disappoint people on a daily basis when they're waiting outside my grocery

1011
01:24:27,880 --> 01:24:33,960
store here. All right. Well then I want to kind of just get to the closing questions before we do.

1012
01:24:33,960 --> 01:24:38,680
You mentioned earlier a podcast. So the wrong, excuse me, the long run podcast. Talk to me about

1013
01:24:38,680 --> 01:24:43,320
that and some of the people you've had on. Yeah. For the long run podcast is aimed at exploring

1014
01:24:43,320 --> 01:24:48,760
the ways people run long, strong and stay motivated. And I was having a lot of conversations

1015
01:24:48,760 --> 01:24:55,880
with excellent athletes. So Olympic gold medalists and people winning marathons and

1016
01:24:57,240 --> 01:25:02,680
whatnot. And just been curious about what enables them to be successful over the long run or for

1017
01:25:02,680 --> 01:25:12,280
the long run. And I just published 301, episode 301 last week. And yeah, it's just like a clinic

1018
01:25:12,280 --> 01:25:20,200
of excellence and relatability and understanding how to create a sustainable path towards growth

1019
01:25:20,200 --> 01:25:26,680
and progress. And it's been a really like personally really fulfilling in that I've

1020
01:25:26,680 --> 01:25:32,040
learned a lot from it and have helped seemingly helped a lot of other people learn a lot from it.

1021
01:25:33,320 --> 01:25:39,080
And just a really cool way to connect. I love this platform. I love this medium. I started the

1022
01:25:39,080 --> 01:25:47,080
podcast in 2019 and at the beginning of pandemic, I was living alone in a fourth floor walk-up

1023
01:25:47,080 --> 01:25:54,200
apartment and I recorded 14 episodes in the first seven days of lockdown. Cause I was like so

1024
01:25:54,200 --> 01:26:03,160
bored and craving connection. And I think people love that human connection and getting to know

1025
01:26:03,160 --> 01:26:09,000
an elite athlete and what makes them tick beyond just the numbers and times on their watch,

1026
01:26:09,000 --> 01:26:15,000
which is not very relatable, but the other aspects of them as humans is incredibly relatable,

1027
01:26:15,000 --> 01:26:19,960
even if they're running paces that people could not imagine for a 10th of the distance.

1028
01:26:20,840 --> 01:26:26,280
Well, you mentioned there being a paradigm shift after the pandemic. I think there is an echo

1029
01:26:26,280 --> 01:26:31,000
chamber and we all exist in it, but what really broke my heart and it was funny because I was

1030
01:26:31,000 --> 01:26:36,200
already doing two episodes a week when I saw the misinformation starts to get put out, the

1031
01:26:36,200 --> 01:26:41,000
politicization, the removal of autonomy. I'm like, right, well, I'm going to put an extra one out

1032
01:26:41,000 --> 01:26:45,080
every week so that people can have this for free, you know, nutritionists and strength and

1033
01:26:45,080 --> 01:26:52,120
conditioning and all the other things. But we had a beautiful captive audience. Whatever you think

1034
01:26:52,120 --> 01:26:56,840
about the way it was handled, you know, people were glued to their television and a beautiful

1035
01:26:56,840 --> 01:27:02,680
opportunity to really educate people on nutrition and exercise on sleep and all the things. And it

1036
01:27:02,680 --> 01:27:07,720
was completely disregarded and I found that absolutely heartbreaking. So it kind of warms

1037
01:27:07,720 --> 01:27:14,680
my heart that there is now you're seeing a kind of yearning for health information. I think, you

1038
01:27:14,680 --> 01:27:18,200
know, for people to start controlling those, there's a little more because I think a lot of

1039
01:27:18,200 --> 01:27:23,800
their doctors that they supposedly trusted implicitly were probably telling them the wrong

1040
01:27:23,800 --> 01:27:29,480
things as we look back now. So, I mean, I remember the the poo pooing of underlying, you know, health

1041
01:27:29,480 --> 01:27:34,440
conditions contributing to the deaths. I mean, that was a completely unethical statement. You're

1042
01:27:34,440 --> 01:27:39,800
telling me that a morbidly obese person with diabetes died from COVID. No, you know, it's a

1043
01:27:39,800 --> 01:27:45,320
real virus, but it's opportunistic. So, you know, I'm hoping that there is a paradigm shift and

1044
01:27:45,320 --> 01:27:50,920
people are really starting to open their eyes now about the incredible healing ability of the body

1045
01:27:50,920 --> 01:27:54,680
and how so many of these diseases are actually preventable, if not reversible.

1046
01:27:54,680 --> 01:28:01,720
Totally agree. Yeah, people are empowered and information is available in ways that never has

1047
01:28:01,720 --> 01:28:08,280
been before. The challenge is that, you know, the people who say I did my own research while it's

1048
01:28:08,280 --> 01:28:17,720
observation bias, it's hard to argue that proper movement, proper nutrition, proper sleep, and

1049
01:28:17,720 --> 01:28:23,800
proper wellness of the body and mind isn't going to help, right? It's going to help. It's going to

1050
01:28:23,800 --> 01:28:31,880
help everything. And so we're proud to be purveyors of like a platform to suggest that this is what

1051
01:28:31,880 --> 01:28:38,120
you need to do. And this is what the result is when you do it. Absolutely. Well, I want to throw a

1052
01:28:38,120 --> 01:28:43,720
quick few quick closing questions at you. The very first one, is there a book or other books that you

1053
01:28:43,720 --> 01:28:47,960
love to recommend? It can be related to our discussion today or completely unrelated.

1054
01:28:47,960 --> 01:28:54,760
Yeah, anything Brad Stulberg writes. Brad literally wrote the book on excellence and

1055
01:28:54,760 --> 01:29:02,280
sustainable excellence. I've read most of what he does. Alex Hutchinson's Endure is fascinating.

1056
01:29:02,280 --> 01:29:10,200
I read that one for the first time when I was chasing a mile time trial. And the ability to,

1057
01:29:11,560 --> 01:29:17,800
basically one of the principles was like, when you think things are hard, you're only at 30

1058
01:29:17,800 --> 01:29:25,800
percent. And reading that line right before running a mile, which if people listening haven't

1059
01:29:25,800 --> 01:29:32,280
raced a mile at full tilt, like it hurts from the beginning and it hurts even more at the end,

1060
01:29:32,280 --> 01:29:41,320
and then it's over. And so, yeah, I could talk for another hour about racing a mile.

1061
01:29:41,880 --> 01:29:45,800
What's your mile time? My son's a track athlete in high school and he runs a mile.

1062
01:29:45,800 --> 01:29:52,920
Five flat, like 500.9. I think unofficially,

1063
01:29:54,280 --> 01:30:01,480
one of the practices he broke it, but I think his official one is 5.01. So he's battling,

1064
01:30:01,480 --> 01:30:04,200
I think a little plantar fasciitis at the moment, which is messing him up.

1065
01:30:04,760 --> 01:30:10,600
Yeah, so I get to witness what you're talking about in his face. He looks miserable from beginning

1066
01:30:10,600 --> 01:30:18,840
to end. Yeah, I ran a race here in Boulder. So it's at altitude, of course. And our first lap was

1067
01:30:18,840 --> 01:30:25,960
at a 434 pace. We went out way too fast and I ran 5.22 in that race. So pretty brutal finish. I was

1068
01:30:25,960 --> 01:30:34,840
like, why is this so hard? And then later that week, I ran 500.9, which is like painfully close.

1069
01:30:34,840 --> 01:30:42,360
The goal was breaking five and it was like one second off. Beautiful. Well, good luck. Thanks.

1070
01:30:42,360 --> 01:30:47,000
Do it again this summer. Excellent. So what about films and documentaries? Any of those that you

1071
01:30:47,000 --> 01:30:56,920
love? Top Gun. Love the Top Gun movies. And I heard that there's Top Gun 3 coming out. Oh, really?

1072
01:30:58,040 --> 01:31:04,120
Talk about ageless. Tom Cruise looks the same in this version than he did in, what was it,

1073
01:31:04,120 --> 01:31:08,360
in the 80s. Yeah, let's hope he doesn't have another singing at the piano scene. They kind of,

1074
01:31:09,160 --> 01:31:12,440
they could have done without that portion, I think. That would take my brother.

1075
01:31:14,840 --> 01:31:18,680
All right. Well, then the next question, is there a person that you'd recommend to come on this

1076
01:31:18,680 --> 01:31:24,120
podcast as a guest to speak to the first responders, military and associated professions of the world?

1077
01:31:24,120 --> 01:31:36,040
Yeah, I got to connect you with my colleague, Carl. Carl is a fascinating expert in all things

1078
01:31:36,040 --> 01:31:41,400
human performance related. He's worked with professional athletes, Olympic athletes.

1079
01:31:41,400 --> 01:31:48,520
He's working with fire departments now. He could speak for, we've been talking for an hour and 25

1080
01:31:48,520 --> 01:31:54,360
minutes. He could speak for an hour and 25 minutes straight through and it would be like people would

1081
01:31:54,360 --> 01:31:59,000
get value out of that. Brilliant. Yeah, but I'd love to get him on in some of the podcasts that

1082
01:31:59,000 --> 01:32:04,440
had a four hours long. So if we need to, then we'll create latitude for it. So yeah, if you can help

1083
01:32:04,440 --> 01:32:11,400
make that connection. Yeah. And I think you've spoken with Megan lots, right? Rescue RD. Oh,

1084
01:32:11,400 --> 01:32:15,560
yes, I have. Yeah. This is so sad that I know people by their Instagram handle more than their

1085
01:32:15,560 --> 01:32:22,200
real name. So sorry, Megan. Yep. You and me both. Absolutely. All right. Well, then the very last

1086
01:32:22,200 --> 01:32:26,520
question before we make sure where people can find you and of course, inside tracker, what do you do

1087
01:32:26,520 --> 01:32:37,560
to decompress? I go in the sauna and lay face down or face up, more so face up. I use the sauna three

1088
01:32:37,560 --> 01:32:43,560
or four times a week. I'm going to jump in there shortly. I got started doing that in like 2018,

1089
01:32:43,560 --> 01:32:49,640
2019. And when gyms closed in 2020, it was like the thing that I didn't realize that I missed the

1090
01:32:49,640 --> 01:32:56,040
most. And in 2021, I bought a sauna after buying a house and put it in my backyard. And it's the

1091
01:32:56,040 --> 01:33:04,520
single best thing I've ever done from a wellness standpoint, because the data on health benefits

1092
01:33:04,520 --> 01:33:11,320
of sauna are phenomenal. And the mental benefit of sauna is phenomenal. And you can't bring your

1093
01:33:11,320 --> 01:33:17,080
phone in there. So it's a forced decompression. What about the cold plungers? Do you do those as

1094
01:33:17,080 --> 01:33:23,880
well? I hate cold plunging. Yeah, I have one. I hate it. I have a little inflatable one, which we

1095
01:33:23,880 --> 01:33:28,680
haven't used for a while. It's got mold all over the top. So I got to clean it out. Yeah. Ours does

1096
01:33:28,680 --> 01:33:34,760
too. There's a lot of data that suggests that it's not advantageous for endurance athletes. And I

1097
01:33:34,760 --> 01:33:38,680
read one paper and that was enough for me to believe it. So the one that says it's okay to drink

1098
01:33:38,680 --> 01:33:44,760
wine is good for you. Talk about observation bias. But yeah, it reduces blood plasma volume,

1099
01:33:45,320 --> 01:33:53,880
as does the winter. So yeah, I avoid that. I like doing it in the summer in a mountain creek.

1100
01:33:55,000 --> 01:33:58,680
That's a different story. Yeah. Yeah. Now, I mean, when I grew up in England,

1101
01:33:58,680 --> 01:34:03,960
every trip to the seaside was cold plunge therapy, because there is no warm water in England. So

1102
01:34:03,960 --> 01:34:09,800
yeah. All right. Well, then for you specifically, where can people find you first on social media

1103
01:34:09,800 --> 01:34:19,960
or online? Yes, I'm JW Leavitt, L-E-V-I-T-T on Instagram. I like to tweet still. Pretty active

1104
01:34:19,960 --> 01:34:28,200
over on Twitter or X, whatever you call it. But active on Instagram as well. For the LR pod is the

1105
01:34:28,200 --> 01:34:36,600
podcast handle on both and inside tracker is at inside tracker or inside tracker.com.

1106
01:34:37,160 --> 01:34:41,160
Beautiful. If they used to call it tweeting when it was called Twitter, what do they call it now

1107
01:34:41,160 --> 01:34:47,560
when it's X? It's posting. It's boring, but it's still twitter.com. So that interesting. Yeah,

1108
01:34:47,560 --> 01:34:51,480
I've never had any luck with that. So I have an account. I will definitely make sure I follow you.

1109
01:34:51,480 --> 01:34:57,560
But yeah, it's just certain handles that seem to fit better than certain people. Yep. All right.

1110
01:34:57,560 --> 01:35:01,320
And then what about the app themselves? So the website and the app for inside tracker.

1111
01:35:02,120 --> 01:35:08,920
Yeah. Inside tracker.com. Our YouTube is full of information. We have our own podcast.

1112
01:35:08,920 --> 01:35:14,680
It's hosted by Gil, our founder, and Ashley, our lead nutrition scientist. And we have a different

1113
01:35:14,680 --> 01:35:21,640
guest who's an expert in the field on, and that's been a hit. It's been really cool to listen and

1114
01:35:21,640 --> 01:35:27,960
learn from that one. That's over on YouTube and also Apple and Spotify. Beautiful. Well, John,

1115
01:35:27,960 --> 01:35:33,240
I want to thank you so much. It's been an amazing conversation. You're bringing a very powerful tool

1116
01:35:33,240 --> 01:35:38,600
to our profession and I can attest having used it myself and at least having some semblance of

1117
01:35:38,600 --> 01:35:43,400
understanding coming from the background that I do that it is actionable information along,

1118
01:35:43,400 --> 01:35:49,080
as you pointed to, some lifestyle changes, some supplementation. So no matter where anyone is,

1119
01:35:49,080 --> 01:35:52,600
whether it's their department providing it for them or it's simply going out on their own,

1120
01:35:53,480 --> 01:35:58,280
another incredible opportunity for us to own our health a little bit more. So I want to thank you

1121
01:35:58,280 --> 01:36:02,120
so much for being so generous with your time and coming on the Behind the Shield podcast today.

1122
01:36:03,160 --> 01:36:08,520
Yeah. And thank you for doing what you do. It's been cool to see the guests you've had and the

1123
01:36:08,520 --> 01:36:13,400
impact that you're having out there as well. And if you've made it this far in listening,

1124
01:36:13,400 --> 01:36:26,680
thanks for tuning in.