Dragon's Gold: The Magic of Mindset

Healing Without Permission: Josh Ketner on Stem Cells, Setbacks, and Going All In

• Justin Mills • Season 1 • Episode 38

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Would you risk everything to save someone you love?

In this powerful episode of Dragon’s Gold: The Magic of Mindset, Josh Ketner shares how his mother’s ALS diagnosis pushed him to defy the system and build something from scratch (outside U.S. borders, approval, and conventional wisdom). It’s a story about stem cells, sure. But more than that, it’s about sacrifice, grit, and going all in when most people play it safe.

Key Takeaways:

  • Why he launched a clinic in Mexico instead of waiting for FDA approval
  • What betrayal, backlash, and burnout taught him about trust
  • The truth about stem cells, regulation, and real results
  • How he built Dream Body Clinic while losing friends, money, and sometimes hope
  • Why helping his mom changed everything and still drives him today

Tools & Weapons:

  • Dream Body Clinic - His stem cell treatment center in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
  • Tony Robbins - For mindset, energy, and entrepreneurial drive
  • The Molecule of More - Recommended reading on dopamine and desire
  • 10-Year Overnight Success - The real timeline behind "sudden" breakthroughs
  • Purpose-Driven Burnout - The cost of staying in the fight for too long

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About Gold Dragon Investments:

At Gold Dragon Investments, our mission is to bring joy to others by helping them win the game of investing. Helping every client become the hero of their financial journey. We believe that wealth is a tool, but joy is the ultimate outcome.

Through meaningful partnerships, we strive to empower our investors to create freedom, and build lasting legacies of purpose, fulfillment, and wealth.

Join Us on the Adventure:

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome once again to another episode of Dragon's Gold, the magic of mindset. Today we have the pleasure of having Josh Ketner, the founder of DreamBody Clinic an author to the ultimate guide of stem cell therapy. Josh, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. absolutely, my friend. Well, thank you for joining. So I'm really excited to share your story. And as I like to do, let's just take it back to the beginning. What's the origin story? Where did it all begin for Josh? Yeah, for me, always take it back about 18 years ago. Living in Seattle, my dad got Lou Gehrig's disease and you learn pretty quick just how messed up the American healthcare system can be. So with that, you you kind of, moved back home, start helping out, caregiving, helping out with him. And when you do that, you we helped out until he passed away. And then after that, I wanted to still help people. And so I got involved. in assisted living, working for a place for mom, helping people find places. And that just kind of led to this path where I wanted to do it, but there's so many regulations, restrictions, problems with that in the United States. And I've seen this article saying, man outsources parents to India. And I it was kind of funny and like, all right, well, outsourcing parents, you know, maybe we need to move this somewhere else to make sense. India is too far away. We had always vacationed in Mexico every year when I was a kid. I had a friend who lived here in Puerto Vallarta where I'm at now and I came to check it out and turned out it was actually a really good option for it had some big investment groups involved just never quite worked out and then I met my wife and her sister as a doctor and Learned there were certain medications we could get here that were very difficult to get the United States because when my dad was sick He I mean he had a big aerospace company He was like a rocket scientist and his research came up with well, they treat other muscle-wasting diseases like HIV muscle wasting disease, they'll throw growth hormone and testosterone at you like you're a bodybuilder. We asked for that and up in Seattle they're like, no, no, that falls under the Anabolic Steroid Act, you can't have that. We're like, it's 50 and dying, who cares? But they did, couldn't get it, and no one I could get that in Mexico now. created a program for people to come down, get it legally, fly back home, and that's where it started. And then about nine years ago, we got involved with mesenchymal stem cells. Started working with a guy who did his PhD in cellular biology and kind of took that and ran with it and started up our own thing. And that's what we've been doing since. just continuing to help people to heal all these various issues. That's amazing how many people you've been able to help and how many families you've been able to help, right? By virtue of you think about how much effort and time it took. And of course it's your father. So you'll do what it takes to provide and care for your family. But what a difficult task that must have been really emotionally draining and physically draining for you and everyone in the family. So by virtue of the help that you're able to give other people, you're helping stave off pain or suffering of the individual, but you're also helping the families that support that person as well. So it's amazing. Josh, we talk about the gauntlet when you run trials and tribulations, the things that you have to overcome along the way. I can only imagine the amount of hurdles that you've had to jump through in order to continue your profession. I'm curious, what are some of the difficulties that you've encountered and how did you overcome them? Well, mean, any business is going to have difficulties and the longer you're around, you'd think it gets easier and it just gets tougher. You know, we're going on, you're like, geez, we're in year 12 right now of doing this. And I always joke it's the, you know, it's the 10 year overnight success. You know, people are paying attention now to work. put in 10 years ago and it's, it's tough when people see that and they somehow think, you know, maybe they can come piggyback off it, or you start seeing a lot of jealousy and unfortunately being here in Mexico, it's just a big part of the culture. It's a, there's a lot of jealousy, a lot of things that you have to deal with. I've had some really good friends that worked with me that I've had to let go. I've had to let go of family members and those are the toughest things. know, when people you think you can really trust turn on you and it just, you know, doesn't help anyone. It never works out for them. It just slows things down, but everybody goes through it and that You know, there's so many examples that's kind of the broad picture I guess is when you're trying to do this really good thing and help people you'd be surprised at how many people attack because They're trying to figure out what do you do? Right? You're like I just do things right, you know, we don't cut corners We there's no shortcut or secret sauce to it It's like do a good thing and do it well and over time that that turns into that tenure overnight success I love that. I mean, that is the secret sauce, right? Do that is, do do the thing to do it, do it really well, right? Do your best at it, grow. When you make mistakes, learn from that, apply that knowledge that you've learned and just keep getting better. And it's over time, right? You talk about the 10 year overnight success, right? The amount of time you have to put in the lessons you've learned along that way, the mistakes that were made, the things that cost you time, the things that cost you money, all of that. And at the end of it, Everyone sees the success. You talk about that jealousy. I think about so often the idea about crabs in a bucket, always trying to bring down the, everyone wants to see you do well. They just don't want to see you do better than them. Right. And I think that uh the other thing I consider when you say those words is the iceberg analogy, right? Everyone sees all the good stuff that's coming from it now, but where were they a decade ago? with the blood, sweat and tears, the time, effort, the energy, right, in the hard times. uh And you say, it doesn't get easier, it gets harder, right? There's more bigger issues, bigger problems, right, bigger things to overcome. But the cool thing is along the way and along the journey, the person that you've become has become stronger because of that. And so now the problems that you can handle, the shoulders that you have to bear the weight of those burdens are stronger for it, right? Sure, yeah. I love that. So Josh, the fellowship, we call this uh the fellowship, the mentors, the allies, the people that go along the journey with us. Is there anyone that you might cite as a key member to your fellowship? It's just me and my wife. mean, we balance each other perfect. Neither of us could do this without the other. And that's been all of it. I'm better with the marketing, the ideas, all of that. She's better at the execution. So it's really just me and her. That's our fellowship. So it's great that it's my wife. It can be difficult at times, but... uh You know, we focus on our family, our work, our kids. And I wouldn't want it any other way. You know, the smaller my circle is, the better things have been. It's as tough as that is. But, you know, I had some friends from that I grew up with in high school from Seattle here, you know, a few months back took him out and all of that. And you just. You know, I find there's so many distractions in the United States. Like I'm so glad I left because I was so stuck in a rut with the people I hung out with, the things I did. And you know, my dad always told me that the five people you're closest to determine your reality and where you're at in life. And I don't even know if I have like a group of five right now. It's, you I mean, it's, got to keep it really tight and focused. And I had to get away from those bad influences and not even all of them were that bad, but you know, these people were talking about watching football like instead of it's like their church. It's all they talk about sports are great to play but like I don't watch them. You know, I don't get obsessed about certain things like that because I'm too busy doing real things and you know, it's it's everywhere but I've kind of gotten myself out of that frame by moving away and you know doing what I want to do instead of trying to make everyone else happy and that's that's why it's worked. Josh, there's a lot of power in what you said there and I agree completely. Sometimes it's not what you do in the light, it's what you do in the silence or in the darkness, right? And you've got to peel yourself away sometimes, pull yourself back, go into the shadows and stick solely to yourself. Not about the quantity, but about the quality of the people you surround yourself with and the time that you're investing, right? What are you doing with that time? um It's a lot of time, effort and energy to invest in. in anything you do to follow a career and a path, especially one that's not understood by the people that oftentimes we are surrounded with by circumstance and geographic location. So being able to pull yourself from that and literally relocate you and your family, right, to be able to pursue your passion, your dreams and something that's going to help people, that's incredibly courageous. takes a lot of, it can be creating anxiety. right or stress in those moments and so to push through. Kudos to you, my friend. We think about those stressors or those dark moments that we put ourselves through in some cases or that life does. We call this the darkest hour. Is there a particular moment that jumps to mind that was incredibly difficult to overcome and perhaps was where you were going to throw in the towel or quit on this dream? Is there a moment like that and how did you overcome it? Nah, I've never been to a point where I wanted to quit or be done with it. If anything, I'd say, you know, it maybe I'm at that point now, not in a bad way, but just because you get to this point where you've done so well, you know, you've hit the, maybe the material side that you want, you know, you've made the money, you've done the things you feel like you're going through the same routine. And that's when it, it's a whole different level. I always think of it like a video game. You're hitting different levels as you go. And it's tough because you could have no idea what the next level is or how to react to it till you get there. And yeah, that's kind of where I'm at right now is, you know, it's not that I want to quit, but man, if you told me I could sell it to someone and walk away with a big chunk, I'd probably think about it even though, and it's tough though, because I love what I do. I employ like 50 people that I care about all of them. And, you know, there's such great people and all of that. So it's more of that. Like, do you grow to a point where you go do something else. mean, I've had other tough things. had one of my best friends a few years ago that I spent two years fighting him and a group of ex-employees that were trying to take from me, do their own thing, turned on me. And they thought they could cut the line and do things wrong and that, and it really sucked. But nothing hurts more than having really close people you care about do that. But. You know, I stood strong. do things right and got through it. So I never thought about quitting. If anything that drove me harder because then it's more about winning. At least it was for me, but, but the quitting part, uh, the only reason I would quit or feel that way is like, if I knew, Hey, I can now go relax because look, it's, eight o'clock where I'm at right now. And I've been up since 6. m You know, like I just said, it's 12 years of doing this. You think it's going to get easier, but like the 12 hour, 14 hour days don't go away. Like if anything, you end up with more of them. And I think that's the toughest part, the burnout that you can experience from just going so hard for so long. And I mean, I was just in Europe for three weeks. I was still working, but you know, I need a little break. I went to Montana for a week, a few weeks before that. I went to Vegas. I'm going to Vegas on Thursday. These aren't just like vacation, it's just, I've hit a point I can do some fun stuff too. I can still manage my business from anywhere, so I get to enjoy the really cool things, but you know, at the end of the day, the business is what matters most. Yeah, well, and you have responsibilities, right? Commitments made to really not just to yourself, which is very relevant, but also commitments made. You talk about employing 50 people. Like that's a lot of bodies and that's a lot of that's a loss of personalities that interact with each other. It's a lot of families that are affiliated with each of those members of your team. Right. And so that's a, that's a huge weight and responsibility to, to be the head of a system or structure that is responsible for caring for so many people, right? um And with great power comes great responsibility. It's amazing that you've been able to create this and help so many people. So, Dragon's Gold. ah We call this Dragon's Gold, the accolades, the moments, the things in your life that you look back on and you reflect on. And oftentimes they are mindset driven. But is there anything that would jump out to you in your mind as Dragon's Gold that you've acquired through this journey? So again, we do stem cell therapy. So we help autoimmune diseases. We help joints, you know, people with bad knees, bad shoulders, these sort of things with chronic degenerative things like heart failure. kidney failure, liver failure, some really intense stuff, right? So you see some crazy things. The biggest rewards of the gold has been some of these people that we heal that just, they're miracles. You can't put it any other way in a lot of these. And I have these videos on our YouTube channel. You can see them, they're unreal. But my favorite one that, and it's hanging in my office, I'm not in the office right now, I'd show you, but we had uh General Stafford. He was commander of Apollo 10. We did treatment for him because we've helped a lot of these other NASA guys that have come to us and they brought him and he was so happy with treatment he sent back, because he didn't come back, he sent one of his guys, but they had, he sent me a plaque with, he'd taken one of his photos he had taken from space, signed, and then he also sent me this plaque. had just been in his safe, this patch that he took up to the Soyuz space station and had signed by all the astronauts and cosmonauts. He signed it like to Josh all this and framed it. So I got that like framed on the wall and it's like, don't know. just, you know, growing up loving space stuff. My dad launched all these missiles into space for his work. And I probably would have gone into that if he hadn't had died. And, know, to get kind of close to it inadvertently was that that's kind of my, that's my gold on the wall. How cool, how cool. And to draw that correlation, right? Like you already have an affinity for space and so to be able to help someone and who knows the scientific breakthroughs that will come about, right? And that that person may be a part of or that they may be inspiring for like, we never quite know the ripples that will come from the choices that we make or the people that we help. But I think much like you had mentioned earlier in this discussion was about just. not cutting corners and doing things the right way and you're going at it something with good intention and high quality and the results speak for themselves. Sometimes it takes time. Sometimes it's not overnight, right? Or it's overnight, over 10 years or 12 years. Everyone, just get up. Stats don't lie on that. mean, that, yeah. I think about the idea of... a passion, having something that inspires you or excites you that you enjoy, right? And then being able to be a part of that in some way. Right. So I just imagine every time you walk into that office, seeing that plaque, it's a little bit of a a buoy or a reminder of what you're doing it for. Because of the nature of stem cell therapy, and it's a bit controversial, depending upon your viewpoint, I'm curious, are there any hurdles that you ran into or any resistance that came about that perhaps you thought unfounded or were surprised by? And how did you overcome that? There's always hurdles, there's always things like we... You know, we built our own lab and I'm not a biologist. I have to rely on these other people and it sucks when people tell you just what you want to hear. So you have to do your own research. mean, I've spent 12 years, you know, learning all the stuff the doctors know, learning all the stuff the biologists know, like it's been crazy. And it's so frustrating when you keep getting close and then you have to change something because there's a financial thing involved too. mean, you wouldn't believe the amount of money I've spent. on just learning and mistakes, but I've always looked at it like that's part of learning, right? You're gonna have these mistakes, you're gonna have, and they're not even your mistakes. I mean, I think that's the toughest part of being like the guy at the top is you have to be responsible even for other people's mistakes. so it's not, there's no secret formula. It's just keep taking responsibility and keep fixing it because no one else is going to, you know? It's, I one time met this guy who owned the uh I think it's the second largest gym in the United States now, Sex Tennis Pro up in Seattle. And this guy was like 80 something and he was still walking around. He took me on a tour of the facility and he was picking up garbage as he walked around because he still cared. I mean, the guy had more money than he could ever spend, but like that was his baby. He still took care of it. And that's always stuck with me. You have to take that responsibility and just keep going. So that's it. Such a powerful lesson. absolutely. I think that that just hits the nail on the head really for arguably every entrepreneur, founder, leader, right, of any business. Like having that pride of ownership, having that care, right, taking the responsibility, right, internally, recognizing what part you have to play and steering that ship, right, and all the people that get to sail on that journey with you. It's an incredible It's an incredible feeling to be able to help those people. But the interesting thing to me when I hear that, that gentleman in his 80s still going around taking pride in picking up the garbage, right? because of that level of character that he's had arguably his whole life or that he's honed, right? That didn't happen overnight. That was a lot of nights, a lot of time, a lot of effort that was required. And he likely then, like a blade on a whetstone, sharpened that over time with that consistency and that discipline. And I think so often there are traits that can be rooted down to And when you find the people that have achieved the greatest level of success and whatever that is to them, it oftentimes comes into those virtues. And so I love you sharing that. Thank you. Josh, we call this the Hall of Heroes. So if there was a massive statue of Joshua Ketner and it had a plaque on there and could say anything that you wanted, what would you want it to say? Man, that's so tough. I don't know. I think you just wanted to say you loved your family and did the best you could. mean, that's all I needed to say. I don't need it to say anything crazy or special. Yeah, I don't know. It's a tough one. No, that's okay. Right. I mean, that that in of itself is a fine answer. Absolutely. Like it's your answer. That's what matters. It's your plaque and say anything you want. Right. We dot dot dot. Right. Do we continued whatever it might be. But the idea about family, right. You did the best that you could. Right. When you were here. And the cool thing is, is that the advances that you're helping to make. could literally be the difference for someone else being able to be with their family, right? Literally the difference of making the difference of generations of people. So it's pretty powerful, pretty epic, my friend. So what's next? What's the next quest for Josh Ketner and DreamBody Clinic? There's always new stuff coming out, you know, we never stop pushing it, we never stop learning, so... There's some new different stuff in the stem cell world coming that maybe in the future we're working on and that's really it for now. And where it goes from there, I don't know. I always joke that I forced gump my way into this in the first place. So we're just going to see where it goes next. So that's kind of how I see it. Uh, you know, you, pay attention, you just got to see what the, changes and what you can do. Cause I'm an idea guy. come up with business ideas like every day. where there's something new I'm thinking of, but my wife has taught me to be cautious enough to only focus on what we can do and what's working. So the next step is we've got a few things in the pipeline, but we're very cautious because we're dealing with people's health here, right? So there's some new stuff with stem cells that we might be able to add soon, but until it's proven, until I've done it myself, because I don't offer anything I won't do myself, it's just theory at that point. So we're always kind of seeing what's next and it'll just be that. The business will stay the same. It'll just be, you know, what's the next great thing that can, you know, help certain ailments, I think. Awesome, awesome, thank you bud. Well, best of luck to you on that journey. So Josh, we talk about tools and weapons, uh things that you've used, whether it be books or resources that have helped you along the way. Is there anything that you might cite or share with the listeners that might help them? for sure. So, you know, my dad had this big company that they sold. He recently sold for astronomical figure. And, know, that hurts to know that they did that. And I didn't go into that. like either way, like when he, when he, before he died, he gave me a box of books. That was my inheritance, right? Like mom got all the good stuff, money, all that. I got a box of books. And in that, I'd say the most impactful back then that stuck with me was that Tony Robbins in the giant within because I do think that things you say do shape your world your work yeah your world like my son I won't he's 10 years old I won't let him say bored I call it the B word he doesn't say it because if you're bored you're not using your brain so you know I find that you you can't your I don't say the word stressed because if I if I don't say it I can't be it so I think that books really good for getting your mindset right and then based on what I do the next best book and probably the most recent amazing book I've read. I read it probably two years ago and I still recommend it. It's the most book I recommend or gift the most often. It's called The Molecule of More. And it's all about dopamine. So dopamine can never be satiated. You're always chasing it and it has such an impact on who you are, what you do. In fact, there, so there's dopamine here and then you have the here and now molecules like serotonin, oxytocin. They balance each other, but if you get too dopaminergic, that makes you a totally different person who's more here and now to the point they kind of end the book with a study that they can tell you what your political affiliation are based on your dopamine. It's insane. So it's such a good book. You will understand so much more about people and everybody argues about politics, but after you read this book, you'll understand why someone thinks the way they do. Because maybe you think on this side and you don't understand that side, this book will help you understand. So many other things too, but that's one of my favorite books I've read. just shared one with me and like I will be looking that up. So the molecule of more. Thank you for that. That's awesome. I always get so much value from these conversations and it's I never know what's going to come from it. So thank you for that gift. Alright my friend, I got one last question and to me this is the most important one. If you could be any mythical creature, what would it be and why? dragon would be cool, you could fly, all that stuff, but like... I really like Bigfoot. I don't even know if Bigfoot's mythical. Let's put it that way. So I think Bigfoot would be pretty cool. Let's go hanging out in the forest. know, I grew up in Seattle. You got to the cascades. mean, there's got to be something out there. So I think I think I'm switching it on. Yeah, I'm sticking with Bigfoot. I love it, brother. I love it. I think it's awesome. Very cool. my friend, thank you for taking the time with us today and sharing some of your stories. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Awesome, brother. All right, my friends, thank you for joining us once again on our quest to inspire, educate, and empower you to turn your dreams into reality, one mindset shift at a time. We'll see you next time.

People on this episode

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Justin Mills

Host
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Aaron Iler

Producer
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Josh Ketner

Guest