Ep. 21: Steven Haynes | The Danger Den Podcast w/ Danger Foley @SXSW

In this SXSW edition of The Danger Den Podcast, Danger Foley sits down with Steven Haynes, founder of Fjord Cold Plunge, to talk about the intersection of wellness, design, and the power of intentional recovery.

Steven shares how his background in fitness and personal development led him to create Fjord Cold Plunge — a company redefining how we think about cold exposure and daily wellness. He breaks down the science behind plunging, how to build consistency in your practice, and why discomfort is often the gateway to calm and confidence.

This conversation is about more than ice baths — it’s about building habits that strengthen both body and mind.

Connect with Fjord Cold Plunge:
Website: fjordcoldplunge.com
Instagram: @fjordcoldplunge
Follow Steven: @steven.c.haynes

Connect with The Danger Den:
Website: https://www.thedangerden.com
Instagram: @dangerdenco
YouTube: @TheDangerDenCO

Transcript

0:04

Hi. I am Danger Foley, and we are at the Danger Den in Austin, Texas. We are here for South by Southwest, and I am here with Stephen Haynes of Fjord, the cold plunge company. Yes. Stephen, first of all, welcome to the Danger Den. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Such a cool spot you've created. Thank you so much. And it's actually a big honor to have you here, because you have supplied us with our cold plunge for the week, which has already been extremely helpful and special to all the people that have been here so far. Awesome! So we met, last week, maybe a week or two ago, and you told me a little bit about who you are and how you got started. But, would love to just hear the origin story of how you got into wellness and cold plunges. Yeah. My background before this was in strategy consulting, and I got in for my own personal life. I got into health and wellness and biohacking about 7 or 8 years ago. My dad had had a heart attack, and it woke me up because I thought, I'm young and healthy. I used to be a competitive triathlete, but perhaps there's something under the surface. Maybe I should be looking at my biometrics and tracking things and paying more attention to that. So I went on my own journey of doing that, which was an amazing education. Found out about cold water immersion and sauna, of course, and just all the things that they do for the body. And it doesn't require pills, which I really, really like. And when I decided to quit management consulting, I thought, let's go ahead and create something that is doing two things. So for me, my why for doing this is not to make a ton of money. It is to, create a purpose for two things. One would be wellness. Help people with wellness to become a better version of themselves, and also a connection because I think people are looking for connection and this is a really healthy, fun way to actually be social with someone else is doing like wellness activities like Cold Plunge. So I've helped a lot of individuals own those as well as, you know, saunas or gyms, you know, all kinds of B2B applications. So we built the product intentionally such that it can be used, with repeat use for like gyms and stuff. Yeah. And it's super late. You guys were able to transport it in here and get it set up with two people under 20 minutes. Yeah. Which was actually extremely impressive. And I wish that we actually, you know, had thought of something like that when we were building our cold plunge at our house because it is extremely deep, which we don't have with our current one, and it cools down extremely fast. Yeah. So how did you get the tech that you have? Like how did how did this happen? Yeah. So we've been in operation for a little over two years. And when I started the company, I just wanted to get it, I want to get the company going. And, I made a mistake, a huge, grave mistake that I learned from. Sometimes the mistakes are really expensive. And this was the case. Been there. So I decided I'm going to go ahead and, create a cold plunge with an all in one unit. And I sourced one from a Chinese manufacturer. I actually tried five different Chinese manufacturers. How long was that process? This is over the span of nine months. Okay. So I went through multiple different machines. That's a lot of heartbreak. Testing them out, paying thousands of dollars for these things, waiting for them to come and then having them break. And it's not like the same thing broke each time. Yeah. The pump would break. Then the chiller would break. They're not making these things with actual pure copper. They're using alloys and and just low quality parts. And the craftsmanship wasn't good. I would I started to become I went from a consultant to like a plumber and an electrician. Totally. I sort of opening these things up and discovering what was going on, and then decided what the right idea what the right thing is for my customers is to have this thing manufactured to the very highest quality, such that I could be proud of what I'm giving to customers and not have to worry about maintenance issues and stuff. So we have. That's one of the things that makes us unique. I think there's one other competitor in the market that's doing this, manufacturing their equipment in the United States. So we have ours manufactured here. And the result of that is, of course, it cost me a lot more to get those made. But the supply chain is faster, which is nice. It is? That was my question, is just because it's made in the USA doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be 100% perfect, right? But the supply chain is faster? Not always perfect, yeah. We haven't had any issues with the current machines. I am proud to be able to say that. And we've been using these current machines for about a year and a half. And so they've been really, really strong. The BTU power output is, really good for cooling. So it's able to cool the water pretty quickly, like you said. So we're proud of, you know, the quality. For sure. That's behind it. Absolutely. Yeah. And where are you able to actually get your Cold Plunges? Are you mostly online? Do you, how do you sell them? Like. Yeah, so we have an online storefront fjord called punch.com. You can buy them there. We also do a tremendous amount of referrals, networking, you know, word of mouth sales as well in Austin and beyond. So all over Texas, we've got some in, you know, Costa Rica, California, Florida, different places that we ship. So, we'll ship anywhere pretty much. And yeah, that's that's probably a good way for us to, you know, for people to find us is online or on our Instagram at Fjord Cold Plunge. For sure, awesome. And what do you see for the future of all of the biohacking and just the shift more towards wellness and the elements? I mean, cold water immersion therapy has been game changing for me. In terms of like my mental focus and everything like that. Yeah. What do you, as more people are waking up to this kind of therapy in this kind of, like substitute for medicine? Almost. You must be pretty excited. I'm really, really excited because, I mean, it's such a cool thing just to see that happening. Yeah. To see that people are starting to take more of an interest in health and wellness, even at younger ages as well, when you could just be out partying. So I think slowly we're seeing this, shift from like the bar scene and the drinking scene and everything, and there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, I still enjoy that from time to time. For Sure. But it's really, really nice to have an alternative to that. And people taking an interest in that, especially coming from, you know, I think coming out of Covid, a lot of people woke up to Western medicine not quite being the solution, and that there's other modalities that we can explore here. And. Absolutely. You know, fortunately, there's a ton of evidence based science behind cold water immersion, what it does for the body. So we're not it's not guesswork. It's not a placebo. We know that it's actually having physiological and mental effects that are really beneficial. Do you track your biometrics regularly enough to know the difference that this is actually making for you? Yeah. The primary way I track it is with the Oura ring. Oh, okay. You have an Oura. Yeah. So, it is showing me improved heart rate variability. And also for me, sleep has been a chronic issue for me. Falling asleep, staying asleep, getting quality sleep. And I notice on the days when I’ll do a proper cold plunge. Which is what? What is a proper cold plunge to you? A proper cold plunge. Really. It depends on the temperature. So. Yeah. People, that's a popular question, right. Cause people are like, how long do I stay in what really is there's multiple variables. So how cold is the water. Plus how long you stay in equals the dose. So we could just say you know for example my plunge protocol typically is plunging at about 45 degrees for 3 to 5 minutes. So after about 90s you've already got you've already gone through the cold shock response. The norepinephrine has been released. The brown fats been activated. Your breathing slows down. Your heart rate slows down. You're getting the dopamine release. The 250% up from baseline dopamine release. It's like absolutely incredible. Yeah. So I would say a proper dose is 45 degrees for 3 to 5 minutes. Okay, so is it possible to overdose. Cause I feel like kind of really went hardened the paint today. You did it! Nice! Yeah, I did. What overdose looks like is hypothermia. Oh okay, so I think I'm good in that regard. But no I, Ash who’s the person who brought over our BREZ today. He's with BREZ. Yes. He and I did a little cold plunge off, and. Oh nice! He set the record at 42 degrees with ten minutes. Wow. And then I did 42 degrees at 11 minutes and 30s. How was that for you? I mean, not not dope. Not like I it was fun because we were having such a great conversation, but, I mean, did I, did I ruin my OVS, my ovaries? Am I okay? Did you get a good shiver? Oh yeah I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shiver is a good litmus test for people as well if they’re like how long have I stayed in. Is it working like did you start to shiver if you did? Great. Okay. So that's the goal is to shiver. Yeah. You don't have to. All these things are starting to happen without the shiver. Yeah. But I think that's a cool way to do it. Okay. In fact, can I tell you this? This is fun. I came up with this. Sure. I came up with this, and I've shared it with a few people and think it can be helpful, especially if you're a beginner or you're like, even you want to push yourself on the cold plunge. Cold plunging is one of those things. It's mostly a mental game. For sure. And I find that on the mental side, there's like these four walls that you need to overcome. The first wall is the decision just to get in. Yeah, yeah. So if you decide like I'm going to get in, a second wall is total immersion up to the neck. So getting your body in? Nope. That's the second wall. Okay. Well. Third wall is that first moment that comes at different times for different people. So let's call it two minutes. You know, three minutes. It’s like the, the fuck this moment. When you're like, okay, I'm cold, I'm uncomfortable. Yeah. I wanna get out. Yeah. And I encourage people to consider pushing through that third wall to get to the fourth wall, which is the the second time that you're like, okay, I’ve stayed longer. Really, really, really screw this. Yeah. And now I'm ready to get out. So this is sort of the challenge that people can give themselves. How many walls can you overcome without getting hypothermia? Totally, yeah, blue lips. Yeah. I'm so brave. I'm going to do it. Yeah. So and I hear that it's different for men and women too, right? Yeah, I’m actually. Like women should actually be 15 degrees warmer. Is that what I heard? So I'm doing research on this right now. I'm trying to talk to some functional doctors that have studied this. Yeah. Doctor Solt is one of the ones. And there are many others that I'm consulting to try to come up with a piece on this, because there is some data showing how cold plunge affects men and women differently with hormones. They get released and so forth. What I've learned so far, and I'm not finished with the research, is that during certain, weeks of a woman's cycle, it's totally beneficial to cold plunge. And there are also certain times within the cycle that it can mess with hormones a little bit. Totally. Yeah. I also have been reading that depending on your, those hormone levels and the consistency of them, just the cortisol spikes that can come from cold plunging at a degree that's too low. It can totally reverse the intended effects. So the crazy thing is that there's just so much research out there, and some people say that cold plunge, cold plunging is just entirely like puts your body in fight or flight. And da da da, but I mean, overall, as you've said with your results that you've actually been tracking. Right. It sounds like you're kind of a little bit of a data nerd. Is that would you describe yourself as such? Because I do. Yeah, yeah. I became that. I haven't been practicing. I've, it's been very sad for me, but, having the opportunity to work with wellness practitioners and other company owners who are doing this stuff is tickling a part of my brain that I didn't think I would get a chance to use. Yeah, it’s exciting. So it's really, really great for me. Yeah. We're also working with, you know, a mind mapping company called Brain Code, they’re of Denver, but, I had a mind map done, and they were saying that, they suggested cold plunge for me to get out of. I think it's like, low alpha, which is an overproduction of the fight or flight response. Yes. I guess is that right? Oh, interesting. I'm not familiar with low alpha, so. Yeah, I think that’s, that was that was the one that I'm over exposed in, but all of these different things are just going to be so interesting to continue to learn more about. And, yeah, I'm really excited that so much of the culture is shifting to a place where cold punching is now a big part of people's lives. Yeah. People are building them in their houses, left and right. And I. They’re at every event. And I actually applaud that. Sometimes I'll meet people and they find out that I own a Cold Plunge Company and they'll kind of sheepishly say, yeah, I did a DIY with this and that, and I'm always like, good for you. That's great. Totally, out of the trough. Like the and, or the big bins that they use. Yeah, however you can get it like, I, I love when people DIY for themselves. We we try to build an elevated product that's got an esthetic and some durability and reliability and proper filtration. It's professionally done, but I also love it when people are just creating solutions for themselves. Totally. Yeah, it's not about the scarcity, it's just about getting the word out there. Yeah. For the people that don't have the capacity to DIY it and who want an actual quality USA made. Yeah. Good product yeah. I have plenty of customers that have DIY’d and then upgrade. For sure. Well, and once you realize that you actually do want to use it all the time and you don't want to have it be floating with dirt. Yeah. Be able to have filtration stuff, it's important. Yeah. It’s good. Awesome. Stephen, what a pleasure to have you. What a pleasure to bring you just into the Danger Den, not only you personally, but just your product. I'm so impressed with it. Thank you. And really hope that, this will get the word out about what the benefits are, because it's actually a very big and important part of health and wellness is the exposure therapy, not only for physical stuff, but for the mental strength that is necessary to get through the hard shit in life. Yeah, totally. I've noticed it big time for me. So is there anything else that you want to say? What's the last thing that you want people to know about your mission, or what you want to be looking forward to? I would I would just shift it back to you and just say, I've appreciated your passion for wellness and bringing that to artists and people that really need it. And creating spaces like this in environments where you can invite people in and share what you have. Thank you for sharing what you've created. Oh man, it's such a pleasure. Seriously. And, it keeps getting cooler with the people like you keep coming into the fold. So, yeah, we're going to keep going at South By, and we're going to be using Steven’s Fjord Cold Plunge throughout the week. Yeah. So we'll keep you posted, and you might get to see some cool footage of cool folks using the cold plunge. So thanks again man. Appreciate you. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.