When Ethan Jones overcame the clutches of addiction, he not only reclaimed his life but became a beacon of hope for others struggling on similar paths. In our heart-to-heart, Ethan, the soul behind Mind Right Wellness, unfolds his transformative journey from the darkest alleys of dependency to the summit of holistic health. We traverse the intricate connection between trauma and addiction, debunking myths and celebrating the healing potential of plant medicine, Kratom, and functional mushrooms—substances that, despite controversy, harbor potential for remarkable personal growth and healing.
As we wrap up this episode, you're invited to imagine a world where education and informed choices pave the way for a revolution in natural health. From the holistic benefits of mushroom extracts to the personal transformations ignited by psychedelics, we uncover stories of recovery, self-discovery, and the relentless pursuit of wellness. Step into the world of Mind Right Wellness, nestled in downtown Columbia, Missouri, and join us on a quest to harness the gifts of nature for a balanced, thriving life.
You can find MindRight Wellness online at www.mindrightwellness.com
Find Kelly at www.kellyhowe.co or @kellyhowecoaching on IG and FB and @This.is.howe on TikTok
Did you enjoy the episode? Please consider leaving a review and sharing it with anyone who might benefit from the conversation. We so appreciate you!
When Ethan Jones overcame the clutches of addiction, he not only reclaimed his life but became a beacon of hope for others struggling on similar paths. In our heart-to-heart, Ethan, the soul behind Mind Right Wellness, unfolds his transformative journey from the darkest alleys of dependency to the summit of holistic health. We traverse the intricate connection between trauma and addiction, debunking myths and celebrating the healing potential of plant medicine, Kratom, and functional mushrooms—substances that, despite controversy, harbor potential for remarkable personal growth and healing.
As we wrap up this episode, you're invited to imagine a world where education and informed choices pave the way for a revolution in natural health. From the holistic benefits of mushroom extracts to the personal transformations ignited by psychedelics, we uncover stories of recovery, self-discovery, and the relentless pursuit of wellness. Step into the world of Mind Right Wellness, nestled in downtown Columbia, Missouri, and join us on a quest to harness the gifts of nature for a balanced, thriving life.
You can find MindRight Wellness online at www.mindrightwellness.com
Find Kelly at www.kellyhowe.co or @kellyhowecoaching on IG and FB and @This.is.howe on TikTok
Did you enjoy the episode? Please consider leaving a review and sharing it with anyone who might benefit from the conversation. We so appreciate you!
Welcome to the Manifestation Lab. This is your host, kelly Howe. From the grounded science to the mystical and unseen, we're investigating this big experiment we call life and finding what really works when it comes to manifesting a life that sets your heart and your soul on fire. Welcome to the lab. Hey there. Welcome back to another episode of the Manifestation Lab. I want to tell you guys I am really setting the intention for 2024 to really get more consistent with my podcast. I know I am very much healing my relationship with consistency. I'm an Aquarius, I live out there in Airland and I sometimes don't like structure. So I'm working on that, I'm healing it and that's my goal. So just wanted to let you all know that I'm really going to be attempting to stick to that for next year. But getting on to today's episode, you guys know I never shy away from going deep with guests but seriously, you guys, we go deep in today's conversation. I did not anticipate all the things we were going to talk about, but I am so grateful that we did. The conversation that we had is so freaking important. It is something that I think needs to be talked about with our children, with our siblings, with our parents, with everyone in our family, with friends, family. I mean it's just so important. We go deep into a story of addiction, even life-threatening addictions, pain and what it looks like to rise from the ashes. It is an inspiring story. It is also likely going to be triggering in some ways. I want to just kind of put that out there. Please pause this if you get overwhelmed with emotion. Some of it goes pretty deep, so I just wanted to kind of put that out there.
Speaker 1:My guest today is Ethan Jones. Ethan is the owner, founder, of Mind Right Wellness here in town. He built this business from a spare bedroom with just $500 and his passion for holistic well-being and the belief in the transformative power of plant medicine just like oozes out of him. He so believes in his craft and what he does. Mind Right Wellness really is a leading light for those seeking a natural path to a better health. Ethan's journey has been fueled by a singular mission to empower you to harness the gifts of nature for your wellness.
Speaker 1:Mind Right specializes in a curated selection of natural herbal health products, carefully chosen to enhance immune health, provide pain relief, offering anxiety support, and promote restful sleep. They have a unparalleled commitment to customer service and I can speak to that the first time. Actually, every time I've been in the store whether it's Ethan or someone else everyone has been absolutely so friendly and so informative and so helpful. I always walk out of there knowing more and honestly, with a lot of products, because I believe in what they're doing there. They really are a trusted ally in your wellness journey. If you're not here locally in Columbia, missouri, you can find them online as well and we'll drop their website in the show notes for you so that's easy to access there. Mind Right Wellness truly is more than just a store. They are a movement. Ethan says that he envisions a future where the healing virtues of plant health and medicine are universally embraced.
Speaker 1:I too share that vision and it was truly on my path of seeking some more natural alternatives for things like focus, pain, what else? What was I looking for? Oh, I know I may have shared with you guys this very sad story. Actually, it's not that sad, it's kind of funny at this point but a little over a year ago coffee stopped tasting good to me, and it was really funny because it took me about a month to realize that every morning I was still getting up and making myself a giant cup of coffee the way that I like it, with lots of cream and with cinnamon, and every day I was throwing away like nine tenths of my cup of coffee and I thought, god, I'm really wasting a lot here. Then I kind of got conscious about it and realized, when I would take a few sips, that it just didn't taste good anymore. It tastes bitter and, quite honestly, I just feel my body pulling away from it, which is so weird. I've drank coffee for over 20 years and it kind of came out of nowhere. And I know what you're thinking. Oh, she must have just had COVID and her taste buds changed. I'm not saying that didn't happen, but my previous known time to have COVID was about nine months before that. Yes, I did lose taste buds for a little while and my sense of smell, but it came right back. I don't think it was that, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Another interesting piece of this is that about a month before I stopped liking coffee, before it just started tasting like trash to me, I was working my way through an intuitive course and trying to learn how to remote view. I need to get back to that course. I never finished it, because sometimes I'm really bad about that, but this is a reminder to myself. I'm going to get back to that anyhow. One of the things that he recommends in this course is that you quit drinking coffee, because he says that caffeine is one of the things that can really block your intuition. I'm going to be completely honest with you. When I heard him say that, I was like yeah, yeah, whatever. I really didn't take it seriously at all, but I did, at the same time, set the intention that if that was right for me, that maybe I would just stop and lo and behold about a month later. It might have even just been a week or two. Honestly, it may not have even been a full month, but it just started tasting really bad.
Speaker 1:I had to give up coffee, and long story leading to it has really pushed me to try to find a coffee alternative, something that helps wake me up in the morning, something that's warm and comforting, tastes good, something that can help me focus and really replaces that habit, because I love the habit of drinking a warm beverage in the morning and doing that with my husband. It's kind of part of our morning ritual. So, honestly, that was the hardest part of it was just trying to find something to replace what I was already doing and, yes, I tried to just not do that habit for a while, but ultimately that's not what I wanted to do. I've tried several different like mushroom coffee mixes I mean obviously a million times types of herbal teas and matcha. Interestingly, even with matcha, I realized after I stopped drinking coffee that I have way more of a sensitivity to caffeine than I ever realized before, and I think it was probably the cause of at least a little bit of my anxiety on a regular basis, maybe some of my heart palpitations. That kind of thing is now even just like a little bit of caffeine. I really feel it, even if I drink like some hot chocolate or even have like a little piece of chocolate. So okay, thank you universe, because apparently I did need to back away from my caffeine just a touch.
Speaker 1:So anyway, that led me down a journey of really trying to find some kind of natural alternative that was just as satisfying, if not more, and I ended up wandering into mind right wellness at the recommendation of a really good friend of mine who really loves their products, and just struck up a conversation with somebody work there and ended up learning a ton about medicinal mushrooms that I didn't know. I ended up learning a ton about something called cratum, or you'll hear it called cratum. It is a highly controversial subject, but we're going to get into it today and, yes, I have been trying cratum. Cratum sells a very high quality product of Kratom. You don't want to buy that everywhere and we are going to talk about that in the episode, but the Kratom is really helping with alertness, with motivation, a little bit with pain. Even so, it's interesting. That's all I will say. It is highly controversial, we'll talk all about that, but I am so looking forward to this conversation and sharing it with you all, because we do talk and go deep and talk a lot about addiction and, of course, that is a very important subject to me. Because it is a very important subject to me Because it is close to my heart I've talked about that on the podcast before that.
Speaker 1:I grew up surrounded by addiction and really watched my dad struggle with addiction really often on most of his life. We all have addictions. There's been times, obviously, I was a little bit too addicted to coffee, so maybe just reflect on yourself whether it be something that is what I would call like a life threatening or a very harmful addiction, or maybe just something that feels compulsive. You might reflect on some of the ways that you could be more mindful of choosing some of these products to help you work through some of that compulsion and even addiction. So, without further ado, I'm so happy to bring you our conversation.
Speaker 1:Oh, and really quickly before we launch in, just a quick reminder that this is for informational purposes only. We are not doctors, we are not therapists and we are not trying to prescribe anything. We are truly just offering information. If you have questions, please consult your health provider, your mental health provider, whoever that may be, that you trust and can help you make those decisions and find out if that is something that might be right for you. Okay, enjoy. I am really fascinated with the products that you have in your store and I'm just really excited to share it with our listeners, because a lot of them have very much helped me with things that I've been struggling with. So, for our listeners, I have Ethan Jones here today. He's the owner of Mind, right in Columbia, missouri, right on Broadway, such a fabulous wellness store. We're going to talk about all kinds of things that you have in there, hopefully, but functional mushrooms, cratum, crystals, cbd. What else you got in there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you kind of listed it. We have a huge selection of herbal teas too. Can't forget that. Yeah, lots of tea, lots of herbs, raw herbs Said the cratum, big cratum, people help a lot of people with cratum, because it's very misunderstood. Cannabis people, of course, and then the mushrooms have been huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's where a lot of people don't know a lot about and gives us a lot of value.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. I mean, I feel like the mushroom world is exploding right now, so you're like in the right place at the right time. And I'd like to start with, if you're okay, with talking about how you ended up with this type of store, with these really unique products that are so useful and functional and really people need and don't know about. So how? Did you end up here. Are you okay with telling us a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, it's been always a journey, right. You don't just decide one day. You wake up and build all this and know what to provide. Right, that typically comes from experience and I've gone through a lot in my own life which has created a lot of understanding on what to do, how to do it and why it matters. So I guess the story could start when I was younger, obviously Growing up and everything. I came up in an era that everything was very unhealthy Food-wise. Yeah, I was born in like 95, so, like early 2000s, everything was just like heavily marketing, you know, bunch sugars, like not a lot of understanding.
Speaker 1:Low-fat, high-sugar, lots of additives. We're from the country.
Speaker 2:So, like you know, rural country, they don't really understand a lot of that. You know pleasure foods, eating stuff of that nature. You know it's generational. So you see, like grandma's heavy, mom's heavy, you're probably going to be heavy because you're just big boned or something you know. So I was very, I was, I mean, I was always an athlete, so I was just lucky enough. I wasn't like entirely like falling apart in that sense. But you know, things change, especially when, like, you're not able to do activity, and so I think a lot of my understanding on health and wellness started to stem from when I was I was like 6, 17. Yeah, I was a senior in high school. I was going through a lot at that time. Like my parents just got divorced, which is a really odd age to go through, all that you know.
Speaker 1:So I had a lot of like, oh, it was crazy, yeah, I mean high school, like we're kind of figuring ourselves out anyway, and then it's like the rug gets pulled out from underneath you at the same time.
Speaker 2:My sis and older brother. They're already gone so I was stuck at the house going through all this craziness and then I was playing football my senior year, and you know I was very much a party guy, right, like. I've been drinking alcohol since I was like 14. And so I mean by the age of 21, I actually quit drinking which is odd for people to even think about, like because I already had a problem by then, and so I was very much into that. You know, I was very ego driven.
Speaker 2:I was actually going to join the Marine Corps because I was just trying to get out of my hometown, like I wasn't going to go to school. I wasn't that type of person. I was like this is what I'm going to do, right, like. And all that was just based off of what I thought people would think of me. You know, like, oh, I want to be that guy, right, and so that was my plan and I wasn't really given a crap about anything or anyone until that happened.
Speaker 2:And then, like I said, I was playing football and I blew my entire knee out, actually, so I tore a lot of like three ligaments in my knee, so I had that surgery, and so that was kind of devastating to me, because I actually, like, lost my ability to go to the Marine Corps, you know, yeah, and so I wasn't prepared for anything. You know, this was already into my senior year of high school basically just screw off classes, whatever you know. And so that was like oh no, reality kind of hit real fast right there and I was not prepared for much, and so I was going through having my own little pity party there and also with that I realized, holy crap, I'm getting like super fat because I'm not moving, I'm not doing exercise and I'm still eating ridiculous, you know, sodas, big Macs, whatever you know.
Speaker 1:And you went from being a constant athlete to just dropping out to 230 pounds of straight body fat.
Speaker 2:you know it was wicked, I wasn't able to move around. But also in that meantime, throughout the surgery, I got heavily addicted to pain pills.
Speaker 1:so narcotics and you were a senior, so 18.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I graduated when I was 17. I was younger from my class. But yeah, that all started when I was like 17. And so from 17 to about a little over 20 years old, I was just a flying mess, you know. I tried to go to school for a little bit, didn't work out, just wasn't able to, just it wasn't for me.
Speaker 1:And then so I'm curious before we move on, were you one of the oxy people that got second back? Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:Like that all started. A lot of people, surprisingly at the time of like 2012, knew a lot about that kind of issue, which is, you know, Well, because it was still being claimed to be safe and effective and not addictive, and doctors were still writing scripts at this time.
Speaker 2:Oh, like it was handy and nobody talked to us about things like you know. Again, you know, being from where we're at, like most people, just you know you trust your family doctor or whatever. We don't know anything about medicine, you know, and so I didn't know anything about that either. But it felt good and I was already going through things, and so I was, just, you know, pop a couple of those and drink a bunch of whiskey and I'd be doing some crazy shit. You know I'd be punching holes in walls. You know wicked, wild addict behavior. I'm not. It's just, if you would be able to see what I was then and what I am now, it just wouldn't be of the same, you know and that's just the healing that I've gone through and understanding I've created in the piece that I've had to build within myself, because drugs take a lot of that away from people.
Speaker 2:They turn people into something that they never, or monsters in some ways, you know, and so, believe it or not. So I was with my girlfriend, which is now my wife. She's still with me through all of this. It's crazy. She's the strongest saint person I've known, you know, and I got blessed with. God put her in my life for a big reason, and so all that happened. You know I was going through all of this. I dropped out of school. I was really frustrated, you know I was getting clean. I got clean off of narcotics because I about lost my girlfriend at the time, you know.
Speaker 1:How old were you in that Like?
Speaker 2:20. Yeah, like 1920 ish. I can't remember a whole lot.
Speaker 1:So by 20, you were already dealing with drug and alcohol addiction.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I was already into alcohol. Since that can back up even earlier, I got exposed to a lot of these things. Just my older sister, her ex-husband. He's an ex-military Iraq vet, you know. He got back and he was not good, you know, and I was like 13. I was in like seventh, eighth grade at the time and that was like a huge era of like the fake K2 stuff. I don't know if you remember, like fake cannabis and stuff. That stuff is wicked. It's not a drug, it's like a heavy drug.
Speaker 2:Right, it's not weed.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2:So it's a synthetic cannabinoid. It's just literally a chemical. It's a chemical that can't be. It wasn't made illegal because it was a legal compound. I mean, it's just a scientific research compound.
Speaker 1:Do you remember, though, when it came out and like It'd?
Speaker 2:be sold at gas stations, malls, little kiosks. But this is like a synthetic, entirely synthetic drug that's just sprayed on like clippings of, like herbs, and people smoke it because it was totally legal. But also a lot of the vet dudes or active military guys liked it because it wouldn't pop on drug tests, because you can't test for it, right, yeah, so in this man, I mean and he was he was like my best friend, right, you know, he was going through his own shit, but he needed a little buddy to do it with. And so here I am, you know, hey, you know I'm going to hang out. And so I'm getting blasted off like at like age 13, with synthetic drugs.
Speaker 2:And it created it. It changed my entire personality. It made me a very negative person when I wasn't that way. I was just an innocent kid at the time before I touched drugs like that. So it changed.
Speaker 2:It turned me into a very you know he was heavily in like porn too, you know, and so that totally warped my mind and and how I treated women, you know, is very odd. And again, he was just going through his own shit too. And so, looking back at it now I can't even blame him, because he just didn't even know how to handle things, because he didn't have the help either. And and I miss him because of that, because we just, you know, it's like losing a best friend when they you know he got into it so bad that he was, like, you know, hit my sister and crazy shit like this. And so, you know, god bless her. She finally got enough nerve left, you know, and that was hard for me because I was like losing a friend too, you know, and so, but he was also buying me alcohol. You know the UV blues and shit.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's bad friendship or relationship and some days I wonder how I would have ever turned out if I've never even was interacting with somebody of that nature, you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I want to pause there, because so many people end up in addiction because they have trauma and they're trying to. I mean people say escape I don't necessarily think that's the right word. I mean on one level, yes, like get out of the pain, but I that's how I look at it is like they're just trying to get out of the pain.
Speaker 2:However, they think they know how to do it.
Speaker 1:So so was there any piece of that and you don't have to share anything in particular but was there any piece of that where, at 13, even though you were being guided in by this friend, you know older person that you were like, found a way out of some of the discomfort you were feeling?
Speaker 2:from the use of that kind of totally.
Speaker 2:I thought I was the best, right like it was. I was riding so high on all that shit for so long, so numb to everything, that it all came to head at this one point when I told I'm about tell you when I got clean and it's because I never realized, you know, in drugs and alcohol have such a numbing ability to where you just don't fully understand or have the capability to understand how your actions hurt people, because all you think of yourself that's a good quality, you know. And so it all came to a head. One day, one night I got super wasted on. You know, I literally drink like full fists of whiskey in a night, just like thinking it's fun, and so I, you know, got way bombed on that stuff.
Speaker 2:And then you know, I was a heavy cheating guy. I would I and I talk about this openly because it's something that also a lot of other men have major issues with. It's just like insecurity thing, and that's really where it derives from. Is major insecurity trying to find yourself worth through sexual acts or just trying to dominate, right? And I got that a lot from that that porn addiction and the you know that, that male mentality that was being driven into me because it's cool, you know, and it's not cool?
Speaker 2:actually, it's not at all, it's actually.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you talking about that.
Speaker 2:It needs to be talked about. People don't talk about porn addiction and they don't, and it's so it's a drug.
Speaker 1:It's a, it is a drug, and it is such a vortex of negativity.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And I don't say that in any sort of like. I'm not a prude, I'm very comfortable with my sexuality.
Speaker 2:I want other people to be about to have a baby.
Speaker 1:You know, right, exactly like, but I think there it's just a very unhealthy way, and energetically, because I like to energetically entirely.
Speaker 1:Right, like I like to look at things from the energetic dynamic in a relationship of like one person is putting all their attention on something that is completely outside of the relationship, right, I guess there's, you know, toxic relationships where that both people are involved, but a lot of times it's one person right, and so all of that attention is going somewhere else. And, you know, orgasms are like one of the most powerful manifestation tools on the planet.
Speaker 1:I mean in the universe, right because our vibration gets high, releases all these wonderful hormones for our well being, just the energetic connection.
Speaker 2:Right, like it's just so. It's a beautiful thing until it's not, until it's being used to a means to an end, right.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and that's what I'm saying. If you're using that, that kind of manifestation power, while you're focusing on porn and that's not focused on your partner, everything out of us it does, it's and also the expectations that change.
Speaker 2:Right, like you're an addict. Right so, just like if you're doing drugs you start here. But now you need more of this to reach this. Right Like it's no different and in a reflex, 100% directly into your relationship and the way you talk to your partner and the way you respect them and love them. Going to give me emotional because it's so evil and it's not fair it's never fair to your partner and to have these ideas you know that are so demented and then it's not.
Speaker 2:it's not real, it's not real, and then you're acting as if your partner is not good enough now, and then you start to seek other things.
Speaker 1:Right, and so, yeah, I was and you can't blame, I mean, a young kid who this has been their only experience, right, you know? I mean I think most of us have experiences with seeing things like that when we were kids, whether we were watching hardcore porn or not, a magazine that we're laying around or whatever. But like we can't blame kids if they're exposed early, they don't know.
Speaker 1:Absolutely no other context. The only thing they're learning is from what they're seeing on these videos and what they got in health class, which is like nothing, nothing.
Speaker 2:You know we want to have these conversations with kids and I love to have these conversations with kids because we're all trapped in these same ways and they know in your body, always knows your spirit knows that this isn't right, like even masturbation, for men is just. These are all things that need to be regulated within ourselves, internalized you know, anything that goes, that gets compulsive, is dangerous.
Speaker 2:Always seeking something and that's attic mentality. Again, like you're. I know from the things I've done and gone through that that created a switch in me to be that attic. I was never that way until I started using those things. So any and everything that ever made a release for me. I was that times 10 right, and that was the same thing with my cheating like I would, it was. It was not good.
Speaker 1:So what was the moment right where? This like all turned around for you.
Speaker 2:So that night I was telling I got super blacked out on whiskey, whatever. And I come home thinking I could do anything I want, right, and I passed out in my bed next to my girlfriend at the time. Again now my wife and my phone was just like blowing up this is right. When my tender came out you know these were that time like 20, whatever, and it was just blown up and I was passed out drunk and she just goes over my phone and just is like going through and she's like it's like two in the morning and she I wake up and she's screaming at me and I mean she obviously I ripped her heart out.
Speaker 2:You know, there's no doubt about that. Like that she was heartbroken and she gave everything to me. But she also came from a lot of trauma herself so she didn't even realize how much she was being abused. You know, I mean it was that bad. It was that bad between the both of us that she just Gravitated to that type of negative man right you know, because it's Exactly, even if it's painful, it's familiar and it's it's really weird, how is always begging for that acceptance, you know.
Speaker 2:And so we've gone through our own healing journeys together, like that's the beauty of why I'm so in love with my wife is because we came from a place of a lot of hurt to build into something that's special and beautiful. And like you were saying, you know, those intimate moments now are actually special. You know, like it's actually a a great thing for us now, but I almost lost her, like literally. She was like she's done, like why not? You know, yeah, fully understand fully understand why.
Speaker 2:But I also realized I was I Repeating a lot of what my dad was and that hurt a lot. Oh cuz. At the time I resented him Tremendously. But there is no reason to my dad's a great guy, he's a great man, he's a great father. I was just very angry and mad at the time and Because of some of the things that he did, I realized like I'm repeating everything just out of my own, my own pain, you know, blaming everything on everyone else, never my fault. Everything else is happening to me, right. And it wasn't until like I saw her and just seeing her break down into a million pieces, I begged for her to not leave me, because it was all I had left. Anything stable was her, and she Was an absolute rock, because I also, at this time, had no relationship with God. God was gone. It was very dark.
Speaker 1:I think that's probably the most common denominator in addiction very much.
Speaker 2:So they lost themselves. They lost any ability to love, even love themselves. All you love is drugs. And that changed me. When I fully understood that and realized that and then saw her at that exact moment it hit me like a pound, like a million pounds, bricks or whatever that I was doing all of this and it was crushing her and I was had no one to blame on myself and it really was a hard pill to swallow. When I made that full realization and Then I understood if I Want something better in my life, it's gonna have to come from me. I have to do the work, you know.
Speaker 1:That's a huge awakening.
Speaker 2:It was it's huge the pain in her eyes that made me understand that my actions have consequences. And who am I to walk around and just hurt people, right, and most people, some, some people go through the whole life doing this shit, entirely, you know, abusing their wives over years and years, physically even, you know, and I bet eventually that's probably even got to. Who knows, I was such a fucking monster. Between how much I hated myself in the world, lord knows what I would have done eventually with the drugs in my life.
Speaker 1:Well, let me just stop for a second and say what a courageous thing for you to do to tell your story. I know this isn't the first time for you probably telling it, but it's.
Speaker 2:this is actually on that one.
Speaker 1:It's the first time, yeah, so thank you for that and you know our listeners probably know, but you might not know I grew up around addiction as well. My dad was a longtime alcoholic and During my younger years probably between I was like two and I think it was around 12 when he finally stopped he was a heroin addict. Pills like really a very much to get his hands on. So so I'm very comfortable like knowing and talking about addiction. I did my first Research project on addiction when I was like in sixth grade.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow might have been fourth grade. I kind of go back and forth, I was you're fully awake today. I was like I went, I need to understand what's going on and I needed to understand, like I did, my first, you know, research project on opium. Oh, wow and like wanting to understand, like how does this work? I love science.
Speaker 2:I always had. It is kind of neat. Drug science is neat. It's super, yeah, a lot of why people do what they do and how they act, because it's not necessarily the people. It's about these chemical drugs and all kinds of drugs that we put into ourselves that Create those abandonment issues. You know that ruin children's lives because parents can't decide what is right, what is supposed to be focused on, and not because drugs become only that forefront in your head right and you leave your family for it.
Speaker 1:I've had to do so much healing on the abandonment, and not only just related to the drugs, but because he moved to Florida when I was very little and so it was literally like he was it was true of and gone. Yeah, it hurt, but he's also one of my spirit guides now so they always, he always encourages me to talk about it because as you should.
Speaker 1:Going back to the porn thing, going back to the addiction, it's such a topic that people don't want to dig into and I'm like let's fucking talk about it, because it happens everywhere, it's everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's everywhere and I think people don't understand that it is. It's not just a moral weakness, right, that's so little of the issue. It is this chemical dependence, but it is also so much the time and this was the part that I didn't understand until I was much older was it is about trauma and Some you know I don't know about you, but like I believe that we're still working through trauma from past lives and that so generational trauma is Reflects into the way parents, parent and that itself with left into the kids and they're upbringing right.
Speaker 2:I've had to work through all of these things and it all makes sense now, right, and that's where I now having that understanding and that full realization on how these things work, I can always make sure that I will break those chains. And that's exact what you're saying, right? There is exactly what I realized and exactly why I wanted to make a real personal change is because I refuse to Recreate that cycle and then hurt the one person that loves me most through all the times that she should have never loved me. And I told her straight to her face. I was like Bernie, if you just please Give me one more chance, I promise you I'll be a good man. I promise you I will be the man that you need me to be. You know that I will be by your side as a partner and I will never do this to you again. I promise you this.
Speaker 2:And it took her a long time to Build that, build that trust back with me and, as she totally should, I had to work for that, to earn it, and I I showed up every single day for it and I showed up every day. I never quit and I still do to this day, to every single day. I think about that, you know, every single day I I've forgiven myself, I'm okay with. That's why I can talk about this and I'm okay with it and we talk about because it doesn't even matter. However, the story matters Because there's so many people that can relate a lot of that. That's still trying to figure out their own issues and why they're treating people the way they are, or even themselves. Because I was heavily depressed, heavily suicidal, right Like nothing was good in my life, but there was a lot of good. I just couldn't understand that. No, I wasn't connected.
Speaker 1:What would you say about For people? If they're listening, they have Attics in their life. They have a son or a daughter or partner or parents that's really struggling with addiction. Do you believe that we can get through to people or is that like totally an insight?
Speaker 2:It's a hundred percent inside job. You can tell people in an addict anything and everything. You could tell them how much you love them and how much you want this and that for them, that they don't matter unless they fully hear you and Want that for themselves. And a lot of times some people Never reach to the point because they love those drugs so much and they have such a misunderstanding on why they're even doing the drugs that they don't ever realize that a lot of this is them. A lot of this is their choice now.
Speaker 2:They're still in that blame for sure mentality and they live in a living all that pain out every time, you know, and so, and it comes at a time that when you had enough, you had enough, and and there's resources for people out there that need that need. That you know I.
Speaker 1:Just wanted to ask because, as a person that grew up with that kind of addiction around me, it is unbelievably painful. Yeah right To watch somebody go through that and feel like there's nothing you can do. And, yes, we tell them we love them and we can offer resources.
Speaker 2:But it is that is.
Speaker 1:That is like I think, one of my soul. You know, biggest lessons I've learned in this life is to be able to say it truly is like you can offer resources and help and love. And it just comes down to they have to make that decision.
Speaker 2:They have to make that, they have to make the choice and then, once they do, it's game on and then Doing things right. What we do with addicts and how we tell them to get off drugs and and do the you know the whole sober process it's criminal, it's not possible. That's why there's incredible high failure rates and that it brings me to a lot of what I do and why I do things right.
Speaker 1:Let's so, let's get in.
Speaker 2:We'll talk about that in a sec what I want to talk about real quick is how I actually got into that and the reason why I got into it was Back to where I was saying I just dropped out of school and all these things. It's kind of a funny story how it all came to be. I Actually moved back home. I'm from California, missouri, so just a small town, and there's a ham factory out there.
Speaker 1:Ham, ham okay.
Speaker 2:I'm back. I'm burger smokehouse they do.
Speaker 1:I don't know where I thought they came from, but they come from a factory one of the biggest ham factories in the country.
Speaker 2:Yeah, crazy enough.
Speaker 1:Bacon ham all this does the whole town smell like ham? A lot of it.
Speaker 2:And so I was working there, going nowhere with my life, having no clue what to do. At least I wasn't addicted to hard drugs anymore. I was still drinking a little bit, but I wasn't doing what I was doing. Introduce a little bit of cannabis into my life. That was a godsend. And one day this lady walked into my wife's store she works at the buckle clothing store there in Jeff City and Asked hey, do you know anybody who would want a job here at GNC? She owned all the GNC's in town In Columbia, jeff City, springfield. Her name's Jan. She saved my life straight up. She's like a mother to me in a lot of ways, especially a business mom is what I say. She taught me a lot, she gave me a chance and she just my wife was like yeah, my, my boyfriend used to play football, so she's like he's hired, so he used to be in the whatever.
Speaker 2:You know I didn't know shit about any of it, you know, but so she texted. She got my number from Brittany and she text me. She's like hey, ethan, go ahead and swing into the store and grab a polo from David. It looks like you're gonna be working at GNC and like I was like Bet anything.
Speaker 2:Factory, you know. And so I, I got a part-time job at GNC and that is where my whole life changed straight up. I would I again, I was very, I was very heavy, I was not in shape, and so, working at GNC again, I had no knowledge of any of this stuff. I took a protein one time, in seventh grade, you know like total.
Speaker 1:And then you're suddenly I'm selling it now.
Speaker 2:Okay, here I am. However, the manager there, david he was. He was a wizard of all this stuff, like I mean, he taught me everything. I mean, I just sat there and I would ask him a million questions. We'll walk around the store what's this, this? Then they had a whole herb wall, you know. And so I'll just literally spend hours going through each and every alphabetical order and, like Chastberry, all these random things you know, and I just dig in a read because I had time, I wasn't going to school.
Speaker 2:You must have enjoyed it to be able to be like you were just like soaking up, like absolutely.
Speaker 2:Loved it. Learn how to do sales, you know. Learn how to, because at this time I could barely talk to people. I was so insecure. I had no Public speaking ability, you know, I was just. I was very quiet, you know, and so I've really found my voice.
Speaker 2:I found, I found somewhere that actually fit in well, you know. And so I started going to the gym, met my best friend, jared there. He runs the supplement super stores here in town. Yeah, he's awesome. He taught me a little bit about working out, started going to the gym, started lose the fat, started feel good, started realized Holy crap, I've been killing myself this whole time. No one knows anything about nutrition, nobody knows even how to exercise because we've been marketed and sold for years Bullflex and all this crazy stuff, hydroxy cuts, you know, it's like holy shit. So I was like, oh, my god, I'm having such a realization in, like this was before, like kind of, you know Instagram and all that kind of stuff where, like the fitness influencer, stuff got real big. So I was like, man, you know what, jared, we can maybe do something with this stuff. Like, dude, let's figure it out. And then Jared left GNC not long after that because supplement super store came into town and I needed a full-time job. I was just working part-time. And then I started working part-time at the YMCA, actually to pay for my gym membership. You know a funny, quick side, tangent story, the real.
Speaker 2:The one moment that I realized that I was a lazy piece of crap was I was I had no money. I was in what's called the outreach program is for people with low income and they would subsidize the cost of a gym membership for like eight dollars a month, but you had to go at least twice, or two to three times a month to maintain it. I was like the day that I was like you know what, babe, I'm gonna go to the gym. Now I finally gonna do it. I show up to the Y scam, a little thing like oh, your membership's canceled because you never showed up enough. I was like, oh my god, you mean I had. I never showed up. I didn't even go to three times. So that pissed me off, because now I have to pay for a full membership, which I now I'm like invested into, which is only like $25 a month. What I was like oh my god, I'm so mad, you know. So I took that anger. I was like, well, I'm gonna go every day. And so I started like hammering the gym.
Speaker 2:And then I got a job at the gym, that to pay for my membership. And then, you know, I just really fell in love with the community and, like all these new friends I was making, fitness was my savior, you know. It saved my life and it made me the man I am today entirely. And Jared hired me over at supplement superstore. I started working there full-time. I was very proud about that Because they helped me go through my nasom national academy, sports medicine, for like personal training certification. So I was feeling kind of special, you know, and I mean I was like kind of happy about myself that I actually followed through with something. Finally it was, yeah, I was, and and I was having a blast. Honestly, I was there's a really good time.
Speaker 2:And then I lost my best friend from school who's on my arm, corey. He just got out of the military and he died in a motorcycle wreck tragically, just random, you know, and I love I. I mean Corey was my person, like we were brothers in a lot of ways. I mean forever we will be, and that really hurt. But what I also realized when that happened was man. I'm so much stronger now than if they would have happened Years ago. I would have died, I would have overdosed, I would have just I would have killed myself, you know. And that made me believe even more into what I'm trying to do right now to heal people through movement, exercise, positivity, spirituality.
Speaker 2:You know, that was a great test for me because that was very, very hard. That was one of the darkest times I went through, not maybe in a depressive Moment because I was handling myself a little bit better, but just emotionally. It was very, very hard for me and I made it through that, you know, and I also knew the moment I went through, that, After I came out on the other side, I also wanted to marry Brittany because she was Unwavering through that time, because how do you really be there for somebody Through such a tragedy like that, so unexpected that I mean again, we were brothers. You know, through all those terrible times I was went through, corey was always there. At least put a smile on my face. I mean, look at the picture that's a literally a picture I took of him Literally putting fake lipstick on and fake glasses while we're driving around.
Speaker 1:I wish they could see it. It's so cute he's got glasses on and it's just a perfect example for what he is.
Speaker 2:And he was love and you know I never, ever said the words I love you ever and. But when it was Corey and I, we always left the conversation saying I love you. That was even before I was. You know, that was when I was still man's man, kind of shit, you know what I mean and like. So that's how deep it was and how personal it was. And so when that all happened, I realized a yeah, I'm gonna marry this woman, but to like, this is my future. This is how strong this stuff is. They can save people, and that got me into actually moving up here. This is why I'm even in Columbia is because they Chose me to be the manager for the Columbia store, and so Brittany and I we packed our stuff up, we moved to Columbia and this is where we stay. You know, brittany still works at Jeff City buckle. She manages that store. She loves it Absolutely. I've never met anyone who loves you what they do as much. She inspired me actually. So this is part of the story. Actually. She inspired me to continue seeking that passion right To find, whatever it is, because she can work 60 hours a week if she has to and still come home with a smile on her face.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh my God, this is crazy. And so, you know, I was managing the store. You know, everything was good, everything was great, whatever you know. But I still wanted something more for myself in a lot of ways, and I was very much into that. Nature therapy and those natural health supplements had some kind of hold on me, like such a deep curiosity within myself, you know. And so sports supplements are great, you know, they have their purpose. But I was just like kind of burnt out, you know, because I've been doing this since, again, I dropped out of school. I was doing GNC, like I wanted something different.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like you are being called to that more natural stuff in some way, like there was just some deep inside of you?
Speaker 2:I didn't know why, yet until it comes up to this next part. So they actually fired me because I started my crazy.
Speaker 1:Thank you, university. Oh, it was insane Out the door to make you take your mention. It was absolutely exactly.
Speaker 2:Literally so, and they know if I would have, if they would have never done that, you know I hated them at the time, but if I never got fired I would have still milked that and try to build something on my own which you just can't do that together. And I was meant for something different and they knew that. And so they cut that tie and I was whoa life's. You know we actually, bernie and I, just got married at the time. We just bought our duplex and then I lost my job and I was like holy shit, here comes depression again, and I actually was very depressed at this time. Like man getting fired unexpectedly has like a ability to jolt you so heavily, to the point that you feel as if you're nothing anymore. You know, because that was my identity, I literally identified as like Ethan from S2, right Sure.
Speaker 1:All my best friends were there. You know, traumatic I mean it's a rejection.
Speaker 2:It was crazy Coming back to the abandoned thing, I was still very young, you know, I was only like 22 or something like that.
Speaker 1:You've been through a lot in those young years. It was crazy.
Speaker 2:I mean. But the reason they fired me is because I started mine right on the side. I started as a basic little supplement, a Kratom company and I knew Kratom was very special because it helped me get off of hard drugs and managed so all my pain.
Speaker 1:When was the first time you tried Kratom then?
Speaker 2:I would been back actually when I worked at the Jeff City S2.
Speaker 1:So you were already off of the heavy stuff right Drinking a little bit by the time.
Speaker 2:I got up to Columbia I was fully clean. Even when I was at GNC I wasn't really doing anything like that. And then, a little bit later is when I understood more about what Kratom even is, because I was buying it at like a smoke shop. I was just like it was very weird.
Speaker 1:Can we go ahead and just talk about what Kratom is so that people have some context as far as, like, what we're getting to?
Speaker 2:Kratom is a tree. First off, it's a tree and people like ingest the leaves of the tree. It's from like Southeast Asia, so like Thailand, indonesia, and it's a native medicine there, like people have been using it forever like anti-diarrheal.
Speaker 1:There's no stigma around it.
Speaker 2:No, they just literally they call it juice and they make these teas and stuff with it and oh, I want to pause them for a second, so for our listeners.
Speaker 1:This is a highly controversial substance in the United.
Speaker 2:States. I could go for two hours on that part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would love to.
Speaker 2:I mean, at some point we should do a whole podcast. Yeah, a whole podcast about Kratom. Short story on that one. Basically there is a component in alkaloid in there called mitragenine, that structurally similar what morphine's like, but that's a very small. That's not even 2% of like the plant material per serving.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of chemicals, molecules other than alkaloids. Yeah, yeah, there's over 40 plus.
Speaker 2:So like, basically, in a nutshell, the FDA tried to make this Kratom deadly substance as a pawn off of what's happening out there, which is the narcotics, the fentanyl, all this bullshit. But it's not actually. It's actually a medicine to help and save these people's lives. And the thing is is when there's something like that available that works so well, we want to put that boom in the bag because we don't want anybody to use that, because then what you know? That ruins the whole system.
Speaker 1:Well, there's a lot of business that would be out of business if we had the means to deal with our own addictions.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God Deal with our own depression Right Deal with.
Speaker 1:Like think of all the things that people take for those things for ADD, adhd and Kratom. Four different people helps them with different things, For sure, as far as I understand right.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing like when I started to understand more of Kratom, the science of Kratom, the history of Kratom, like how it functions, the way it can be used in all different ways, because at that time, a lot of times you only think of people who are like ex-heroin addicts using Kratom, but that's not true. My grandma used Kratom, my mom can use Kratom, my dad uses Kratom. There's all kinds of people that use Kratom in all kinds of ways that don't create issues or they're not those types of drug people.
Speaker 1:Well, I definitely was one of those people for a long time and really until I came into your store and I saw that Kratom was there, I was like what is this?
Speaker 2:And your guy that works there is it.
Speaker 1:Clayton, oh, he was so helpful. But I was one of those people because you do, you see it on the side of those like dirty smoke shops and like billboards and it's not classy, looking Like your store is so cute and classy and like wonderful, and so I definitely had a stigma about it, even though I knew nothing about it, because I was like whatever they're selling, I figured it was like that K2 trash.
Speaker 2:We were already talking about.
Speaker 1:Like I just like lumped it into that pile because I was like it's got to be like that.
Speaker 2:But then you get to know who we are and what we do. We're never about pushing people down. We're about lifting people up. We're about healing wellness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're about true like let's actually heal, Meet people where they're at. Let's not cover up the issue.
Speaker 2:Let's meet people where they're at. Sometimes, kratom is the necessary product that needs to meet them where they are at right, to save them, to help them and that's why I actually opened my store as a brick and mortar is to give Kratom that cleaner face, that place of safety for people who do use Kratom, to not feel dirty or judge or, you know, made to feel that they're doing something bad. Right, but also teach people how to manage their Kratom use, how to use quality Kratom and like there's so much that goes into that.
Speaker 1:Yeah and we don't have to make this whole podcast about Kratom, but I did want to like spotlight it because I'm using it and like infrequently and I freaking love it, it's incredible, it's incredible, it's every time. It is. I have tried so many herbal supplements and I mean just like name it, I've probably tried it. And even things like Kava, which people have a lot of success with with like stress and things like that.
Speaker 2:I don't like it. It's not the same.
Speaker 1:I don't really like how I feel, like.
Speaker 2:I.
Speaker 1:I don't like it and this is truly like one of the first things that I'm like. I actually feel a difference. I feel depending on the different strain, I feel different things, and so we'll get in and talk about that too, but I feel a difference, and so the way that my brain works is like I have to learn everything I can about something, and so I went and watched that documentary a leaf of a leaf of faith, so good.
Speaker 2:And I was like, oh, a week and a half, and then it'll yank back. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean again you guys. It is controversial. So what I want to say is do your own looking into this, watch the documentary, know that, yes, they're trying to paint it in a super safe light, but, like, keep digging.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What I do is I like when there's a doctor on there, I go, look that doctor.
Speaker 2:Dr McCurdy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They're at University of Florida. That's impressive stuff.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, so anything like that, but even with cream there's problems right, there's problems in the industry.
Speaker 2:There's addictive properties to it that people aren't aware of because of the places they sell it. They just try to push to make money. They don't educate and nobody needs a cratum problem when they never even had a problem in the beginning.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and that can't happen that? Is real, so I appreciate you acknowledging that. That makes you I mean not that I thought you wouldn't- no. Like everything I've encountered in your store is just so up front.
Speaker 2:Very transparent.
Speaker 1:But it is. It can be addictive if it's abused, but guys like alcohol is legal and that it kills people every single day Liquor tea. Cigarettes are legal. Cigarettes are legal People, every single day, all day long. We are exposed to things that are addictive all the time let's talk about 99% of the food in the grocery store in those center aisles. Right, it's made by engineers to be more addictive.
Speaker 2:So that's where, when I decided I got fired right, my cratum company I was starting in my spare bedroom had nothing to my name. It was just an idea. Also, on top of that at the time, like cratum was still this like red flag thing. They still have my Facebook account banned. You know, for my business.
Speaker 1:Because of cratum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so because you can't advertise, like, even the hashtag on cratum has been hidden since like 2018. So the censorship has been happening to us forever, but nobody would even know what year was this.
Speaker 1:when you got fired, you had your little like little store, but was you?
Speaker 2:know, just in your bedroom. That was 2018. 2018, I believe, is when I started mine right as like a little thing right, and I just kind of kept sticking with it, kept sticking with it. It's really hard to grow it at the time because, like, it was only online and then online the only way you can actually take somebody's card payment or actual payment. You couldn't take debit cards or anything, because I was still high risk. So where I was saying is I just started this thing in my spare bedroom.
Speaker 2:I didn't really know where we were going with it, just because, again, it was such a like a high risk thing, right, like what they were saying, which I knew the truth of what things were. So I was like man, I'm the kind of guy who likes to push the boundaries. Let's figure it out, let's turn it into a business, because everybody's so scared about this drug. When I understood the truth and actually why this was happening, and I felt like the whole country just didn't really even understand what this was yet, because it was kind of like, what should I say? And it still hasn't reached this peak yet, but like, remember, like CBD in like 2012, 2013, ish is like people are like oh, what is this?
Speaker 2:But now you see CBD at like every grocery store.
Speaker 1:Cannabis, I mean very much, you know my dad, before he died, was a huge advocate for legalizing cannabis and you know I grew up around a bunch of hotheads. To be honest with you, and I don't personally love cannabis. I've tried like every strand of the sun and I really want to like it. It just isn't my thing.
Speaker 2:Like I don't, I just I think there's something Everyone right.
Speaker 1:And it's like there's something about my biochemistry that just, it's just not for me.
Speaker 1:It doesn't drive with. But my dad was a huge advocate for legalizing and I had to go again like dig in and learn, unlearn everything I had learned. Even though I grew up around potheads, I had a lot of my own judgments and stigmas and this, that and the other. Um, once I, like really did my own research and started to dig in, I was like this isn't what I thought it was. Can it still be a problem for people just like create them abs a?
Speaker 2:fucking lute.
Speaker 1:Yes, Like we need to be we need to be responsible and know that these things are powerful on both sides. They can be harmful and they can be incredibly helpful. Yeah, but.
Speaker 1:but so I understand, because that was very much during the time when, um, you know, moving from like my teenage years, where it was like you were still going to jail if you got caught with a little a little joint right Um to the years of helping my dad make cannabis butter to make his cannabis brownies when he was dealing with his cancer you know, and um yeah, and so I went through this huge evolving thing through my whole life and then all of a sudden it's legal Right and like people, like everywhere you go it smells like cannabis, and it's just so I know when you're talking about credit stories being told may not always be true and mushrooms right.
Speaker 1:Silicite. Oh my gosh, villified, yeah, villified, vilified, vilified. And now?
Speaker 2:my little thing I'm going to talk about.
Speaker 1:I would love to talk about that, that's what transformed me. So psilocybin, magic, magic mushrooms for people who don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yes yeah, you have to bring that to forefront, like there are, and plus there's so many different kinds of mushrooms. But, um, again, I would like to go back to like the Kratom talk, because that's what mind right was born off of my like, my logos. Kratom leaves Like.
Speaker 1:I don't think I really I don't think I realized my little logo, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:See it. Yeah, it's a great logo. That's actually a cradle.
Speaker 1:I did see that when you walked in you guys see, it's just like beautiful green Kratom leaf on the back of his calf, and so I understood there is a whole stigma with this.
Speaker 2:That was just all marketing and bullshit, right.
Speaker 1:And so you saw through the yeah.
Speaker 2:When you've been through what you have, nothing scares you in that sense anymore you can't tell me nothing. No, no government agency is going to tell me how to regulate my body. Okay, um, and so I was diving into the Kratom company. Everything was going good, I was just learning, I was jiving with it. You know, I was doing some construction at the time, just growing a little Kratom company, and then this was everything. Everything turned upside down and that was because I got bit by that tick.
Speaker 2:And then this is where the whole Lyme disease story comes into play. Right, like I went from doing lane, you know, hanging drywall, doing flooring, you know, like I was into it, uh, to not being able to even walk. Like my wife was putting my underwear on me and I was like 23 years old. You know, it was insane. I didn't know. I felt like I was literally dying. I was rotting from the inside Like doctors, you know, it's craziest thing. The first time I ever went to a doctor for this, I went to the emergency room because I thought I was literally dying. I thought I might appendix burst or something, because it had so much pain in my my abdomen. It was crazy. No, I don't know what it was, I don't know. It's just uh, I just thought something happened in me that I was like I better go to the emergency room.
Speaker 2:And uh, his first line of defense what? And I even told this man and I was sitting there with my father and my wife at the time. I told this man I like, hey, I'm in a lot of pain. However, I don't want anything for the pain, like that. I want to figure out what this is going on Like nothing happened. It wasn't an injury. You know what I mean. Like I told him about tick, bite, my arm swollen, the neurological symptoms, like all of this stuff. And I told him about my past addiction. I do not want to touch a narcotic. Uh, this man had the audacity to look me in the eye when I told him that. And then, by the end of I mean, he gave me what like 10 minutes of his day. Maybe uh, writes me a script for a muscle relaxer, a painkiller.
Speaker 1:It didn't like no investigation. No, oh wow.
Speaker 2:This man could have sent me right back to the hell that I came from by not even listening to what I was saying.
Speaker 1:This is the system. This wasn't that long ago either. Oh yeah, it happened. This was not long ago.
Speaker 2:This was only a.
Speaker 1:This was only like four plus years ago, not even you know there's some wonderful caretakers, wonderful doctors out there, but there are some really really fucking bad ones.
Speaker 2:And just imagine if I wasn't the person I was at that time, I would be dead right now because I would have filled that script and I'd be right back in the game and I'd be who fucking knows right, like he had that power to do that and he could have done that and he did do that, but I didn't fall through with that and again, that's just because I was spiritually stronger and okay with who I was. Like I knew this was not the answer to you know, I wasn't listening.
Speaker 1:What was your yeah, what was your sense? Did it feel like he just didn't hear, you didn't listen to your story? He knew what he was going to do in the second.
Speaker 2:He, you know actually this is what I really believe low key.
Speaker 2:I believed he thought he was doing me like a good old boy thing. I think he thought I was actually seeking and that I didn't want to say it in front of my dad or my wife, and that he was low key, going to give me what I want, Right, I got you buddy. I got you buddy, you know. I think that's what he really was doing and I don't fuck with that at all. Then I got a $3,000 bill in the mail. So I'm like, holy shit, I can't even you know, because, again, I can't work right now because I can't move and I'm doing construction. If you can't move, you can't work right. Like so we about lost our home. We were missing house payments. We got hit with this giant medical bill. I'm dying, have no clue where what's happening. I'm deteriorating. I lost like 60 pounds and I was stripped down to my bones. I was going to like atrophy.
Speaker 2:And then my friend who actually was ex addict to was was teaching me a little bit about like what psychedelics are you know for like depression and like, because I was again getting back to kind of like even suicide again, because I was like, babe, I, I can't handle this. You know, I had her hide the guns kind of thing, and so he taught me how to use, like mushrooms and even a little LSD, and it was these types of experiences that pulled me out of that very dark, deep depression that I wasn't to give me a little bit of peace, Right. And then I also realized like holy shit, these are very interesting, Like these are. I don't have to do this every day to maintain these positive results. Whoa, you know, and I was like totally fascinated, totally fascinated. And so I started again. Anything, I probably a lot like you, you get kind of intrigued or curious. You go in and you learn.
Speaker 1:I can't help it. It's like I have to back.
Speaker 2:Right, that's exactly what I did. I was like holy shit, these things are the future, you know, and at that time nobody was even talking about that. Nobody was talking about that. Nobody was still caught into the cannabis talk which cannabis is great, Canis is cool.
Speaker 2:But I already knew that ship done sale for me, Like I wait for some things for some people some people that are even going to be in that cannabis business, because that's already eight up and that's a whole another thing there. So I was like man, but I can maybe be into that.
Speaker 1:Can I ask you really quickly were you micro dosing or were you?
Speaker 2:first time I took a big ass trip. Yeah, Because again I was just like well, if it's going to work, it's going to work, let's go. I ate two tabs of acid and like four plus grams of mushrooms and I thought I died.
Speaker 1:I thought I died in my bath. I don't recommend that. Guys. I was going to say I don't recommend this, but I didn't want to know.
Speaker 2:Again, that's just what I am and what I do, and I push limits in a lot of ways and I'm okay with that in many ways, just because someone has to find out answers and someone has to help bring that to other people with understanding and trust and to tell them what not to do and how what to do Right.
Speaker 1:And this might sound really extreme for some people, but let's get perspective on the fact that people there are the amounts of suicide right now are just through the roof, very, very serious and so this might seem like so extreme, but it's like, when you have nothing to lose, what are you going to do? Yeah, exactly, I knew it couldn't kill me.
Speaker 2:I knew for a fact that I can't, it won't cause like an overdose or something, If anything, maybe a manic episode, which is probably already there, you know, and so but I came out of that and I was like holy crap. It literally took everything that was in my body, my brain and my inability to open up and speak of, and it just like shot it out of my head and laid it all in front of me on this like spatial timeline of life, and I understood why I'm here and what happened here to make all these things become who I am now. And I understood this was all put together and like it wasn't always my fault and I forgave myself and I cried and I felt great and I'm still in pain from Lyme disease, but I understood there is a future now, Right, and my purpose is to maybe go through the pain that I'm in to help others understand that they can do better for themselves, and I fully believe that still today. And so I. But now, like I don't do that kind of stuff, I'll do like a little micro dose, you know, just to keep me kind of straight every so often, but maybe for me that's just what it took to, you know, take that ego and and and bring it down.
Speaker 2:So, because the ego is always protecting you, you know, and like, when I was in pain, I was very defensive and, just you know, I was also very insecure because I was literally deteriorating and I was getting so skinny. People would say things and I'm like I don't know what's wrong with me. I know I'm dying, so um. So I went through all of that and, believe it or not, like I was really having a hard time but that helped me. Like okay, I gotta find other answers. Like I can't do construction right now because that's just not a feasible option.
Speaker 1:It's motivating at the same time Very much so. Right where you're like. This is do or die. I gotta do something.
Speaker 2:So I had a friend that I used to help out a lot there at the store S2, and I just messaged him because I knew he worked at Veterans United and, as I do, you know, like give me a job, like I need something to where I'm just like sitting down I'm dying here but I need money like ASAP. And so, man, I like interviewed like three or four times, never got hired, and then I finally landed a job at their real estate brokerage. So I worked for Veterans United for a little bit. It helped me really get back on my feet. Like that was a really safe, stable place for me to just like breathe, financially, stabilize myself. It helped me also like re-engage with MindRite again, because I couldn't even think about MindRite at the time I was going through all my Lyme symptoms at the peak of all that. I couldn't even think about it. I also gave up on Kratom because I was like, well, maybe Kratom's killing me too. I blamed everything.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm sure I blame everything I mean you're just trying to get to the bottom of it. I quit everything.
Speaker 2:And I was just like well, maybe these are the problems you know. No, it actually came from Lyme disease.
Speaker 1:but but you still, at that point, didn't know that. Oh, I had no clue.
Speaker 2:I didn't actually start treating my Lyme disease until last year July oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So I even started my store, mindrite and everything, not even knowing what was wrong with me. I just knew these natural therapies were saving my life, and so this is kind of the whole story of how we got into the actual store. And so I was still doing MindRite on the side, online, you know, just doing my little thing, which is kind of just like a thing for me to be happy with. You know, it wasn't even like something to make money with. It was just like this is what I love to do and I like to help people, and it's a necessity for the people I've really needed at this time and it was a really cool thing. And, you know, do you believe in God?
Speaker 1:I do Like some kind of power. You know I'm a very, I'm a very like Funny things happen right.
Speaker 2:Big spiritualist, non-religious People come in your life when you need them and they do great things because of that, and if you recognize it and if you're ready. And there's this guy named Steve and Steve I found Steve from a Craigslist post. He posted about a little warehouse space he had downtown up above his old clothes store, which is Savvy's that used to be next to American shoe downtown. My first little office, or my second little office, was up above there in this old little storage warehouse that he had and it was downtown location. So I thought that was just fun. You know, it had everything I needed and it was cheap, and so nobody was renting it because he was taking pictures like on a flip phone, you know what I mean Like you couldn't even tell what it was. And so I called him up and I met Steve and I started renting that place, that little warehouse. I rented it for a couple of years and then again back to, you know, kind of like Veterans United.
Speaker 2:I was like man, I really enjoy this. But this isn't where I be forever, you know. I want to get back into what I do best helping people, talking to people about their health, their wellness, that kind of stuff. And I love supplements. I just love. I'm a supplement guy. I like that kind of. I think they're neat. And so I was like man Steve, he had a couple of units up above there. I was like what would you take for one of those? Right? Like just me always coming up with a million ideas, I've come up with a billion business ideas. Like my family got so tired of me because I would just be, it's always something new. What's Ethan up to now? Cause I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, like that's why I dropped out of school. Like I knew I could do something right, I just didn't know what it was yet.
Speaker 1:And oh, you needed that life experience to take you on that journey.
Speaker 2:first I had to nobody's ready, you know, until you really just face adversity and that's all. Business is adversity all the time. It's chronic stress. I love it, I live for it. It's just who I am and programmed to love that. And Steve knew, so you saw that like cause, that's what he was. He was just an older he's, he already retired now, you know. So he really appreciated what I was trying to do too, because his, his wife, dealt with chronic migraines and Kratom helped her a lot. And so he's like, wow, I've never met him, but he's actually selling Kratom, like that, you know. And so I started renting that unit from him.
Speaker 2:And then, over time, covid hit, covid hit and, like everybody, obviously we all know what happened there freaking out business, shutting down. It was insanity. However, me again, I love the push to limits. I also know what's bullshit in the sense of fear. Right, I was like this is a great opportunity for someone like myself who loves to help people with their health and especially with nature. Cause I already knew by the time this shit's all over, people are going to be seeking natural alternatives. They're done with this.
Speaker 2:And so I was like Steve, because Sabby's the clothing store there, no one was renting it and it was really a tough place to rent cause it's just not really set up for a lot and he was eating shit on taxes every month, you know, the whole year. So we worked a deal and he was like Ethan hear me out, I pay like a little over a grand a month every month for taxes on this, this place, and it's just collecting dust. What if you rented this in the unit you already have for like a thousand bucks a month and you just gave it a shot? But if somebody came in and wanted to pay market rate for my rental, you gotta go. That's the deal Month to month, you gotta go.
Speaker 2:I was like you know I got a great job right now. You know I was doing production, so I was making fat commissions Like I was doing great. I had retired there phenomenal. But again I would have killed myself cause I go so hard. You know I wasn't leaving my computer, I was doing hundreds and hundreds of emails a day Like I would just drive it every time.
Speaker 1:You know I'm here to make money you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like that's what I was there for. I was there to make money. I had to make some money. We were in a very bad place. Like I said, we almost lost our home, Like I wasn't playing around, you know, and I was also there to provide for my family, you know, Like I wanted to do something great and pay back all the shit I've ever done for my wife and all these things, you know. Like, that's just like how I think of things, you know, and I was like shit, my or Steve, you're gonna, you're gonna make me quit my job right now. And so that's what I did. I straight quit my job and I built out a little store in there.
Speaker 2:It was such a big place that we had to put this ugly partition thing up just to like make it look kind of full. It literally looked like a little pop-up shop. However, I was like we're doing it right, Cause I already had an online business and my online sales were reaching, finally, at like a thousand dollars a month. So I was like what's the downside? I can pay my rent with my online sales and anything that walks through that door is just a plus right? That's how I saw it and so I was like let's do it.
Speaker 2:And so we did and we popped it up and we were working it, we're working it, and it was about three months into it this lady comes walking in my building and it goes behind my counter and he's like in my closet where I'm storing all my storage, and I'm like what are you doing, lady? She's like oh, I actually own the other half of this building. I'm like what do you mean? There's two owners to this building. I don't, I didn't know that. He's like yeah, you didn't know that they're actually selling this half of your building.
Speaker 2:I was like whoa, steve never told me. He never told me because he didn't want to freak me out, but it was happening. And so I call Steve up and he's like, yeah, that's kind of what we're doing. You're gonna have to leave unless you want to pay $3,700 a month. And I was like I can't do that. I'm having $50 days here you know Like what the hell?
Speaker 2:And so I was like holy shit, the exact fear that I had is happening. So I'm like what do I do? Because something like my business needs a cool spot to kind of get started right, like it needs that foot traffic. You can't market it because of the risk, you know, cradom, all that kind of stuff. And so I was like man, babe, this is crazy. It's like done before you even got started, you know. And then there was one day I was just walking down to Jimmy John's down the road to grab a sandwich and I come across that old cricket wireless building. And again, covid was a friend to us. Like they left, they went to the south side of town, left that lease. Nobody was putting anything in there because nobody was. Everybody was terrified to start a business.
Speaker 1:Nobody was, yeah, nobody would touch it.
Speaker 2:So I was like oh crap, this could be. It Got ahold of my who owns that whole building, went through. I was like this is insane. This is perfect. It's smaller. It's exactly what we need. It's cozy. The back half is already set up for production because it used to be a rest. It actually used to be a yogurt place, so it was a kitchen actually back there that had everything pulled up, but it had like food, safe walls, drains, everything that I could just pull all my production into it.
Speaker 2:I was like holy crap, this is great. So and then I call Steve up. I was like you know what, steve? You only have to feel bad, dude, I'm moving, you know. And he's like holy crap, that's great. Still no one's renting the old place. Still, bear you go buy it. You'll see my old signs up in those. Yeah, yeah yeah, Whatever you know. But, it pushed me to do that right.
Speaker 1:I was like, well, let's do it. It got you curious and opened you up to another spot, and now you have the perfect spot.
Speaker 2:Now I have my dream, which is mind right, wellness. It's a beautiful store, I have a beautiful crew, and then, with that, you had to start somewhere right Like, with, like you know, product. We at the time weren't making our own extracts at the time, but I was using a friend of mine, eric. He started making. He's also someone I met through the recovery community. He was a heroin addict, spent years in prison, even you know, and he's a genius, like way genius, you know, and he can manufacture anything kind of thing. And he started making these tinctures and I was like, holy shit, these helped me a ton, like cause I was still feeling really rough, you know. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:When you had Lyme, which of the? Actually, I was gonna back up and ask you this. So when you were really down in the dumps and you're trying all these things, do you have anything in particular where you were like, ooh, that actually makes me feel better, that helped my pain, that helped my first off, crater will always help me get through the days that were just trash, like when my hips couldn't even move For pain.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, and just general, like just energy and focus, like I always had such brain fog and shit. It was insane I would never been able cause again. I was working every single day, open and close, open and close every single day, and that's very demanding, you know. And so if it wasn't for Crater, I would have never made it through any of that.
Speaker 1:Maybe you could tell them about the different strains.
Speaker 2:Oh sure.
Speaker 1:And how it can help with so many things, because each of the strains or not the different strains, but the veins, the veins, thank you.
Speaker 2:Crater is all one leaf. It's never a different like product in the sense like it's only one ingredient. The difference is just how these leaves are aged and processed and dried. And so elder leaves, like red veins, mature a little bit more the alcohol has changed a little bit and have more of a sedative property when, like the green and white veins, are little younger leaves and because of that they have more of like, a kind of like, more of an uplifting feel. You know, white vein has a little bit more energy than green, green's, kind of more for people with like, more like focus issues and anxiety who don't need to be stemmed out, you know, cause that creates a little bit more issues. And so I found that green vein helped me a lot, cause I couldn't I mean, I never was able to like focus through school or anything like that, and my brother was on meds and stuff. I didn't really want to do that kind of stuff. I have, but I didn't like it.
Speaker 1:I do feel like it sharpens my mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's called getting your mind right. I never. Yeah, exactly that's exactly how that happened too. I like that. That's exactly how it was born, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's like it just kind of I told my husband it's like it takes the fuzz and it's like when you dial dial the radio and you get the clear. It's like it just just a tiny little bit in my brain feels a little bit clearer.
Speaker 2:And you're not high, you're not on drugs, you're not tweaking.
Speaker 1:Now I will say, the first time I tried Kratom was when my husband and I, we didn't drink alcohol for a moment and it was in between, so I, like, had nothing.
Speaker 2:Total sobriety.
Speaker 1:Total sobriety, like we weren't even eating sugar you know what I mean. And then so I and I tried, started with like the two and both of us were like whoa.
Speaker 2:Light you up a little bit.
Speaker 1:And he, he enjoys cannabis like regularly, so it even made him feel like Cause it's not any of the same, it's very different. They're not any of the same people associate them.
Speaker 2:A lot of the same, but they're not they're not.
Speaker 1:I mean one's a tree, one's a weed, you know. Right, right. And the receptors? They're working on entirely different systems.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got in the opiate receptors and then you have cannabinoids in your body. You know CB1, cb2 receptors. Those are totally different pathways, have totally different functions and and the pharmacology that it created, like that is needed to activate those systems, are entirely different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was interesting, though it felt like all my receptors were cleaned out, almost because I wouldn't do anything, you know, crazy thing.
Speaker 2:I'll even put this on record. I have had a lot of ex COVID people talk about how they have never felt back to normal after that, until they did a little bit of Craydon and then that like helped something to the point that they felt normal again. Interesting, I mean.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure about the details of that, yeah crazy shit.
Speaker 2:You don't even know.
Speaker 1:You know it could be anything Right and like. The problem is, I think, because there is such a stigma in the United States and there's censorship and there's all these issues, there isn't the amount of research that there could be.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I mean it just, it's like it's in the baby stages here, yeah, a lot of it's mainly for, like pain research even, but there's so much broader applications for Craydon and it's medicinal use than even just that they will whatever. I don't need that to justify, you know, because I have so much anecdotal research.
Speaker 1:I don't either. I just love it. It's great. I love to read it too. I'm like, well, that's so interesting.
Speaker 2:But the thing is is Craydon ain't gonna heal you right Like it's a, it's a band-aid in a lot of ways. There's nothing about that that's gonna heal my lime or any of that nature. You know so, and with that I want it to be well, it's mind right wellness. You know it's not just mind right Craydon anymore Like we're a wellness shop, we're about wellness, we're about health, and I wanted to figure out how to transition people from who are even doing like heavy cradle muse into just being more well, you know, cause I had to find that for myself cause doing just a ton of Craydon ain't gonna help you, and so that's where the mushrooms come into play. You know the mushrooms wore that segue into finding balance wellness. You know, deeply, internally, you know, finding that, that level of just health, you know, rather than just relying on a Craydom dose or something of that Right cause.
Speaker 1:like you said, those things are kind of like band-aids.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 1:Okay, so mushrooms are different though.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Because they actually do what I mean I like.
Speaker 2:I've looked into this, they actually change us. Yeah, they actually have like immune modulating effects, you know. They have adaptogenic effects, you know, rather than just a psychoactive effect, which is a lot of Craydom's component, which it also has a lot of, like you know, alkaline properties to it. But it doesn't have what mushrooms create and it wasn't until I started functioning with or using and experimenting more, and not with psychedelics or anything of that nature, but like functional mushrooms. Eric taught me a lot about these things because they also helped him get clean too and find that wellness.
Speaker 2:He was actually going through a, a Suboxone detox. Suboxone is what you take to, you know. It blocks opiate receptors Right. So like opiates don't work anymore. However, detoxing off some hoxone is is insane, like months it takes, like it's not just a quick withdrawal like you would with opiates, like it's just tapered out and in dangerous, dangerous process. And he was going through this at the time. We became good friends and I believe in him, you know and so we joined together and I was like man you know I have mushrooms in my store because I know that was cool. I didn't fully understand like the full benefits, because I never really experienced the benefits, because what I was selling wasn't, it was subpar mushroom product and I didn't really understand the industry on the mushrooms yet, and so I was just buying the bigger names of things you know, like you know the host defenses and stuff like that. My ciliated products, like products that are diamond does and straight up, that aren't they're just not as potent right, and they're not high quality.
Speaker 2:They're not what you need if you're trying to heal, right, like they can help some people. But they weren't helping me and so I was like you know what, eric, these are fire, like whatever you're got going here, dude, like I believe it, because I'm feeling that the court of steps restoring those energy levels, restoring my adrenals, you know, like they were shot.
Speaker 1:I take court of steps from your store every morning. Now it's a miracle. I love it, I know.
Speaker 2:I love it. It's absolutely absurd. Once you start to experience it, you're like so nice crap. You know the Lions main, the turkey tails the reishi, the chagas can we go through each of them and just?
Speaker 1:talk about court of steps just now, the energy guy.
Speaker 2:You know, the stamina increases lung capacity, so oxygen levels of people with, like, asthma issues or people who love to train interest, you know, cyclists, runners, that kind of stuff has crazy output like endurance.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:It's very neat, the Lions main more that brain antioxidant. It helps a lot with like mental focus, brain fog. It also has antioxidant properties to help remove waste materials from your brain, so like amyloid plaque, which is a big causation of like dementia, you know. So it has these abilities to help remove waste materials. It has ability to stimulate what's called nerve growth factor. Nerve growth factor is just stimulating nerve pathways. So people like I was dealing with a lot of neuropathy from my Lyme disease because it attacks your neural system. I mean at one time I couldn't even like feel my feet or wiggle my toes. Now I'm like you know I can redo that shit. I'm still in pain a lot of times but I'm not like I'm functioning, you know, way better than a lot of these other people with chronic Lyme issues. So that's really fascinating.
Speaker 1:Some of the stories.
Speaker 2:I have. I could go into on that. It's just absolutely insane. I mean people with seizures. You know I haven't seizures anymore. Like it's, it's, it's, it almost sounds science fiction. And again, you can't forget, none of these have any head highs, you know. I mean they're fully medicinal, much no addictive qualities. Nothing of the nature just nature's medicine 100% and they've been around forever. And lot Chinese know a lot of this stuff. They've been using these forever.
Speaker 1:They're absolute masters of the most years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they have mastered this, they've mastered the Garoa mushrooms, the extraction, all of the. A lot of it comes from Asian culture that I've studied a lot of re-sheaf, very fascinating, heavily adaptogenic.
Speaker 1:Could you talk about what that means? I know what that means.
Speaker 2:Adaptogenic means a lot of people like heard of like ashwagandha, right, like. These are types of things that can modulate, like your immune system. Up down. However, your body's reacting because everybody's different and their reactions need like, for instance, audio immune disorders. It's just because you have a hyperactive immune system attacking your own system, your own body. You know adaptogens can help modulate that to more of a homeostasis level, kind of adapt to whatever that person needs as far as I understand, one person might need it to do one thing and another person needs something else.
Speaker 2:It's entirely different to the host. It's fascinating, it's incredible.
Speaker 1:It's a miracle, it's amazing.
Speaker 2:But also like stress levels, like cortisol hormones, all these things that wreak havoc on your weight gain, your sleep. You know your hormones all those things have a big issue with our, our mental wellness or health or inflammation, so it helps a lot with stabilizing those types of things. A lot of people take it before bed help with stress.
Speaker 1:I have a lot of parents, and that's re-sheathe, the one that will bring it down.
Speaker 2:I have a lot of parents that even give it to their hyperactive kids. Set up medicating the shit out of their kids. They give them a little tincture dropper or a couple caps of the re-sheathe and the kids are sleeping fine, they're functioning in school and they're not on drugs. It's fascinating. Turkey tells really cool. Turkey tells one of my favorites because when I started into my Lyme treatment from an actual Lyme literate doctor God bless him, dr Charles Christ, anybody listening this is that a local person?
Speaker 2:He's actually a national and he's a world renowned infectious disease doctor.
Speaker 1:Wait, what's his name?
Speaker 2:Dr Charles Christ. He's a little aggressive for some people, you know his personality. His personality is real dry. Like he may not fit everybody's, you know, cup of tea, whatever, I don't give a shit about that.
Speaker 1:Well, as long as he can help people feel better.
Speaker 2:But he also does some like aggressive regimen, like antibiotics and stuff that some people may not agree with. But the dude knows what he's doing and if you just trust a man like he can save your life. And he did because he started. I mean I went, I did like 10 plus months of antibiotic regimens, which have its benefits but also its side effects. I mean my gut was wrecked because it kills everything you know, good or bad, and so trying to restore a lot of that by and he's very much about that too like he doesn't just leave you out the dry, you know. But I also knew a lot about like the gut health and biome and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:And so the turkey tells me, because it's a prebiotic, it's a fiber source for like good bacteria, like probiotics, to cultivate and reproduce and feed off of as energy. And so if you need to rebuild like a gut biome, which has a direct impact on your mental health, your immune system, your white blood cells, you need to have something to assist the healthy bacterial units to continue to cultivate. And that's the beauty of turkey tail it has that prebiotic ability. And so people who go through a lot of like treatments, for instance, like my antibiotics. Or like people with cancer, people who've been radiated. You know every cell in their bodies confused. You know it has and that's directly proven. Anybody can look that up about the anti-cancer properties or the rebuilding abilities of turkey tail. So, like a lot of people have gone through that still, yeah, if you want to do traditional treatment, for sure right, but like to help recover after that, you know they really assist in that process.
Speaker 1:So you just may not deteriorate maybe as much as the other person you know, or even through out, I mean, yes, that's a big one, and I have a lot of people to do that because of that.
Speaker 2:Chaga, one of the strongest antioxidants known to man of food. Per hundred grams in Chaga is like literally a hundred times more antioxidant content than like blueberries wow so, like a lot of the common, like antioxidants we think of, like are the best, chaga just absolutely blows it right out of the water. Has DNA support. You know free radical scavenging abilities. You know it also has a really high content of melanin, so it's really healthy for your skin. Interesting, reduced burns, all kinds of weird stuff like that, you know for burns.
Speaker 1:Is that like a topical thing or it's still taken in turn?
Speaker 2:yeah, your skin's more resistant. A lot of like snowboarders and stuff use a ton of Chaga to reduce like the sun reflection off the snow.
Speaker 1:Lots of random stuff interesting I mean, it really is nature's medicine I'm endlessly curious about. And then we're gonna learn about that. Yeah, I was gonna say we're just holy crap starting to understand and they are safe and they work they do and from what I understand and you can correct me if I'm wrong the reason they're not a bandaid is because they really are going in and doing like I don't want to say structural, but like long term.
Speaker 2:I call it deep work, deep work. They're doing deep work so that it's like you don't have to take it every day.
Speaker 1:No, because you're changing as you take these mushrooms for sure, right I?
Speaker 2:still take them every day because I'm in a disease state. Chronic Lyme is something you deal with forever and that's just something a lot of people have to accept. In a lot of ways. I may not be as symptomatic, but it can re-trigger itself according to whatever may happen. You know, foods or maybe even other tick bite right like it's always kind of dormant in a lot of ways and so, but also I take these things just to function more as like my daily multi-vitamin. You know, knock on wood, but we don't ever get sick.
Speaker 2:You know, all throughout this whole time of whatever you know last few years, both my wife and I, around hundreds of people every day. You know we don't ever get sick and we just keep going. You know, and also at that time I can't miss work too. I was like working every day. If I miss work I have to close the store and that's not possible, that's not happening. And so that's how serious it was.
Speaker 2:But that's also when I understood like damn, these things really work, what the heck? And so that's when we got into really refining our own extraction process and and understanding what's what's a value and how to present that to people to actually let them use it and and notice the difference, right, and that's what really started to blow up like once you started, once we started putting quality, high quality, potent mushroom extract products in front of people to use. I mean, they just sold themselves after that, right, right, I mean that's just what they do and so that's what we kind of come to be as mind, right right, we kind of are the mushroom people, the creative people. We love CBD and stuff of that nature. Cbd is kind of died down, but it still has its place. I love a good CBD tea before bed you know what I mean but, I'm actually using the.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's got turmeric. I want to say lion's mane are you doing?
Speaker 2:talking about triple threat and the turmeric lion's mane and CBD and the CBD combo?
Speaker 1:yeah, that one's a special one and I actually bought that, for I went into your store and I bought it for my son because he plays baseball and football and he cracks his head oh, yeah, you know and I I went in and I was like I need some anti-inflammatory stuff.
Speaker 1:I went in specifically looking for CBD because I know that it's good for anti-inflammatory and, for sure, brain injury stuff and everything. And I can't remember it was the gal that works there, ireland. Ireland was like, oh, actually, what you need is this, and so I got it for my son. He, he does use it, but I've been using it and, one of the most interesting things I just put this together this morning it's helping my allergies oh, my seasonal allergies which makes so much sense yeah, but because that's just an inflammatory response, right now.
Speaker 1:I never have allergies, except this time of year, like right now, and I woke up this morning and they haven't. They haven't been that bad this year. I've been sneezing here and there, my eyes get red and itchy, but it is like nothing compared to what it used to be and I kept thinking like, oh, maybe it's still coming, it still could be whatever. But what I realized was my eyes were itchy this morning.
Speaker 1:I did that to ensure I always like hold it under my tongue for a little bit yeah and I think because it's like all right there yeah it's you know, gets through that blood brain barrier really quickly and my eyes stopped ditching and burning and I was like, oh my gosh, I have to tell you this is what I know you're not shocked, but for people listening.
Speaker 2:They might be like that one's such a cool product is actually that product doesn't exist anywhere else. It's an entirely unique product. You can look that combo of anywhere in the entire world and no one makes that's cool.
Speaker 1:Well, I felt like it was like divinely guided that it ended up in my hands.
Speaker 2:That day that was all me and Eric just getting our heads together and figuring out how we can combine these three awesome ingredients into a single tincture extract that people can use easily yeah, and I love tinctures, by the way.
Speaker 2:Oh, they're great they are super functional, fast acting, very pure too, you know, and so, yes, that's a really, really neat one, and and so, yeah, that's kind of how we become what we are. I mean, we have such a variety, as we kind of stated at the very beginning, between the Kratom selection. We're definitely the Kratom specialists in here in the Missouri area. I mean, we're the one source for not only the highest quality Kratom but the educational piece and the respect of Kratom.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, I can tell that you're really dedicated to educating people so they understand why they're putting something in their body.
Speaker 2:It makes no sense not to. You know, and like I know for a fact, we're always our best advocate, and by empowering people with education, people can make now more educated decisions and not also pass the blame to other people, right, because it's their choice. Now, you know, when it's your choice, it's your choice, not our choice, to tell we didn't sell you on that, you know. I mean, you decided to take this and you benefited from it. That itself is empowering. Making a decision for your own self and then actually getting positive results from it is only going to lead people into more curiosity of what these things do. And that is our whole I guess you can call game plan. Is you educate people. They're come back because one I already know the products work. Our customer service is a one. Outside of that, our product quality is no one could touch, that you know, and because we make sure of that, Quality matters so much especially with the freedom right.
Speaker 2:Why even being business if you ain't got it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because there have been right, like we don't have to go too deep into that but, just so people know.
Speaker 2:It's a food product.
Speaker 1:Right, like it's not regulated? No, and it can be dangerous. And there have been accounts of people, if you're not buying it from a reputable source, being like really, really bad stuff in it.
Speaker 2:You can get sick, you know, and like with any plant you got, and if you're not testing a lot of people won't spend the extra money to do the testing for like heavy metals, bacteria, alkaloid content You'll have artificially spiked cradome out there. You know they do all kinds of weird shit, like in the places that love to push drugs, you know. So, again, that's not necessarily even my problem because I don't care about that stuff anymore. If people want the real stuff and they want real healing and love, they come find us. And that's how people find us every time. It's just they're in a spot. They said I'm done with it. And they look on Google and they just find something that's nature-related. Then they see our reviews and they decided, hey, we'll come in. And then they have a great experience. They get something that actually works and they're impressed.
Speaker 1:They tell a friend, you still have your online shop right.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so like you ship all over the place, yeah, and so one thing that's finally really cool about that within the last year and a half or so, they finally allowed people like myself Kratom vendors to take debit card payments Woo, oh, my goodness, as a normal business now, right.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Well, that's a big win. You gotta think like for over three plus years I try to grind this thing to grow online with people, which is already sketchy right Kratom, buying Kratom. Now they have to put their routing number and account number and it's gonna pull out of your account in three days like a check. What the hell?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that feels weird, Like okay, I am 100% sure. Had I tried to buy before that happened, I would have been like, wait what you would have never followed through with that.
Speaker 2:I don't think I would have. And plus, you're not talking to us face to face, you're online, you know. So it's just like not happening. I don't think I would have, it would have never happened.
Speaker 1:I think the only way I was gonna do this was exactly how it happened, the way we built it to be, and Clayton. I have to give him so much credit because he talked to me for like 35, 45 minutes and just the man cares. He cares and he's so knowledgeable.
Speaker 2:I mean as are you of course, and Ireland is fine.
Speaker 2:We take training very serious. I'm not about I would work every single day and every single hour If I had to, if I didn't trust my people, you know. And I would never have anybody in my store talking to people about their health and life if they don't understand the process and they do. That's why they also been there for over two years. You know what I mean Trying to have in a retail team that stick around for that long unheard of no one sticks around and retail that long. But they do because they love what they do and we get results.
Speaker 1:And it's a mission. Oh, it matters, it's a mission.
Speaker 2:When people come back and be like you know, honestly, I owe you my life. That's not what we do it for. We do it because they needed someone. They needed someone and we were them. I needed someone at time that I needed it. I didn't have that, so we built that and it's very, very much more it's even more applicable to today's world than it even was then, just because shit has gotten so bad since then.
Speaker 2:I mean just in all areas, you know, in every area, and so people just want a place to feel heard, cared about, safe, respected, clean and a place to talk about healing and love and all the stuff that we need to move forward with life. Hope, hope is key. Hope is everything, and I know what we do will provide that for people. It just comes down to being willing to open up, talk to us a little bit, be willing to try something new, like that is the key. We just are there to present options and tools. We're not the answer. There's that holistic. What you do. All of these are pieces to puzzles that people need for them to continue their healing process.
Speaker 1:I always say just keep trying things. I know it can be expensive, trust me, I know Because I've tried a bazillion different things but keep trying things, because we're all so unique and so different and just there's no way there's gonna be a one size fits all. And then you might find something that works for a little bit, and then the universe wants you to go in a different direction and try something else.
Speaker 2:And that's why we've actually expanded our selection so much. Like again, we were born off of a cradle company. We and I've always been a cannabis guy, ever since the days that you were able to talk about cannabis. I was using cannabis before it was ever that. But it's fascinating how we can have cannabis products just there to be another piece, and so that's kind of how we use our store.
Speaker 2:We have it kind of in a circle format. We kind of have these options and if you need a little higher up option, we have those options to a little bit. You know, sometimes you need something a little faster right now or like a little bit more noticeable, and like we meet again, meet people where they're at and figure out what they need, provide those options and tools, provide the education, and then from there it's just, you know, we build that relationship and so far it's turned out really well. We've been doing extremely well. We're about to go on our third year of actual just a brick and mortar store and I'm very proud about that. I'm very proud about what we're doing.
Speaker 1:Such a warrior to do it during COVID. I'm so impressed. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2:Honestly, it was the smartest thing to do, and I mean straight up, like it wasn't even scary, it was your time, Because I didn't give a shit right, Like I already knew what it was. Second, all this stuff popped off. I was like here we go. You know, wait until the next one comes out.
Speaker 1:Well, that's why we're having this conversation. So people know there are options for immune health, and that's what I will say about that Get on it now. I think that a lot of people are becoming aware that the one option that we've been presented with didn't work that well.
Speaker 2:No aside, what we do know is our stuff works and it's a great assistant to you know anything that you're going to go through, and so the best thing you could do now is start exercising, drinking your water, get your vitamins. Eat well, get your sunshine ground and then use nature to help assist you when you need it. And that's what we do. We're that piece, you know.
Speaker 1:Tap into your intuition and really listen to what it's saying and make choices from that place when you're clear and connected.
Speaker 2:You're always your best advocate and don't ever let anybody tell you any different. You know your body intuitively knows what it needs in a lot of ways you know. But the thing is is if you stop searching for those answers, you're never going to find them and it's not going to just land on your lap most days and it's going to be very frustrating, it's going to be a long journey for you, but it doesn't have to be. There's resources, especially here in the mid-miss, like Columbia area, huge network of awesome people, healers, people that care, you know, and that's why I'm so happy to do and start things in Columbia, because it's the perfect place for mind right to have a home. You know it fits in great because of the mindset that kind of has been adopted here in Columbia. It's progressive in a lot of ways and I'm excited to continue to spread the message of what, like, mushroom health will do for people. Continue to the cradle message, of course, saving those lives, because those lives matter, whether you're addicted to hard drugs or not. Like, everybody, lives matters and like, for instance, I have a good friend heavily addicted to fentanyl at the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very bad deal, very bad deal. He's about to lose everything. But he wanted it, he wanted to change and you can feel that he's since that. I sense that. You know he couldn't do it by himself and he finally understood that he's a very strong man, you know, physically and just, mentally and spiritually. But that shit had a hold on him and he couldn't get off. You know, because it's so strong and dangerous.
Speaker 2:I had him clean in no time, fully clean today, got his business back running. He's actually making a ton of money and about to have a he just had a baby Saved his marriage, saved his relationship. All because he's clean now, all because someone cared to give him a chance, because I sat there and listened to him and met him where he's at Now. He has a chance to continue on Because that's not who he was, that's just what drugs were for him and so, like everything matters, everyone matters and I'm just honored to be a piece of that. Like God called me to do that and I just I wouldn't know what to do with my life outside of that, straight up. You know, I'm glad you listened.
Speaker 1:And I hate. You know, in your short, not that you have had a short life, but in a short span of time you had a lot, a lot going on.
Speaker 2:It's been a lot, for sure.
Speaker 1:So I just have to thank you for being so vulnerable and sharing your story.
Speaker 2:It's really beautiful.
Speaker 1:I want to say congratulations to you and your wife for making it.
Speaker 2:Did you know we're about to have a baby?
Speaker 1:No, oh, I didn't tell you that no.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, she's 14. We just actually that's where we're at this morning. Had another baby appointment Healthy baby boys where we were having. And so his name's going to be Marcus Lee Jones. Lee was my best friend Corey's middle name, and so I'm very proud about that. I can't wait to be the best at possible, and I know I will be yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you're doing great work here in the world and I'm so happy you pulled through these hard times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love talking about things like this. It's kind of newer for me to kind of start sharing that story and message a little bit, because I've been so heavily focused on everyone else, you know. But the message is a part of who I am in my life and people can relate a lot to it, regardless if they've been through the same things. We all have the shit right, like we all have that shit that we carry, and all I hope is to not make the story about myself, but to the point that people can hear it and then internalize it for themselves and then realize like, oh, there is a possibility, like you can change, like there is a future if you just don't give up. And there are so many times I could have but I didn't and it had all been done in vain if I did. And I never forget that A good friend of mine told me that Like there was a time I was so down, bad Like I was I just got fired.
Speaker 2:I was like dude, what if all this is just why you know, why don't I just stop? But it's bad even you know. And like I just didn't know what I was doing and he straight up told me he's like if you quit now. Everything you've gone through, all the pain, all the struggle and depression that you've overcome, is all done in vain. Like why would you ever do that? And I was like damn dude, you're so right.
Speaker 1:Why.
Speaker 2:So wise we are here to live another day and like it's just, you know we're always, you know, standing on. I call it like standing on the shoulders of giants. Like, you know, all the people who preceded us before like built these ways and avenues for someone like me, you know a younger kid, to come in and not care about the stigmas of things because of all the, you know the people that were jailed, you know, for all this crazy shit. You know it's like, so I respect that entirely. It wasn't me who did these things, like it's all the people before me who sacrificed to provide me this opportunity, to maximize it and continue to spread that message and safety too. And so that's the blessing and that's where I'll never tell my back to this kind of stuff, because those people gave their lives, some of them even to continue on, for people to have access to plant medicines, and I take that very seriously.
Speaker 1:It's been a rocky road, but I have seen so much positive feedback in our world that natural medicine really is like emerging in a way that I've never seen in my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it feels like, yeah, it feels like the suppression and the repression.
Speaker 1:I know it's still there, but I'm hopeful.
Speaker 2:I feel like it and I saw this coming. That's why I did this, because I knew I just knew, I just knew you can't deny something that's so real. You can't like, and as much as people want to try, that you know, between different agencies and blah, blah, blah, blah blah. You just can't with today's technology and communication. The truth is there.
Speaker 1:It's there.
Speaker 2:It's there and you just dig for it and also experience it for yourself. You know you can read and listen all day long, but until you understand it for your own self, then you really know the truth and no one can tell you any different after that. And I stick to that. That's my guns every time.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much. Thank you Such a pleasure. It was a good time. I hope everybody enjoyed listening to this.
Speaker 2:Come see me downtown Mind Right Wellness. It's downtown Columbia, missouri. We're right next to like Jimmy John's Hot Box Cookies, right off Broadway, downtown, right on the Strip. You can't miss this if you're familiar with the Columbia area. Or you could find us online mindrightwellnesscom. You can find every selection we have there online and they ship. Well, we ship all across the country every day.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.