Sam Maxwell & Kyle Ponton | Conquering Addiction & Becoming a Millionaire by Doing This!!! | #143

This week,

I sit down with Sam Maxwell and Kyle Ponton… founders of The Cold Life, and the guys behind one of the fastest-growing brands in cold exposure and recovery.

We break down how they went from nothing to building a company that’s now blowing up across the country… how they saw the opportunity early, and what it actually took to turn it into a real business. They talk about the risks, the pressure, and the moments where it could’ve easily fallen apart.

We also get into how they connected with Gary Brecka, what came from that relationship, and how being around high-level operators changed the way they think and build. They share how they’ve leveraged that exposure to scale faster and position themselves in a booming space.

This episode is about timing, execution, and building something in a space that’s exploding right now.


Sam & Kyle’s Links:

[https://thecoldlife.com/]

[https://www.instagram.com/thecoldlife/]

[https://www.instagram.com/sammaxwell/]

[https://www.instagram.com/kyleponton/]



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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Yo yo yo, it's your boy, it's Phil Wam Bam Benamino, baby. It's another Wambam Wednesday. You know the show about ordinary people who've done extraordinary things, and today I got a treat for you. But first, as always, hit the subscribe button, baby. Hit that little button down there. It takes zero effort, cost you zero dollars, but it sure does help. Help us keep giving you great guests. And today we got a group of two young gentlemen that actually are entrepreneurs. They came from Atlanta. They're here today in Miami. I wore my Miami Vice colors. Okay. And they took people that hate discomfort. You know, if you're discomfort, like you just don't like pain, they built their business around it. That's right. They built their business around pain. When men and women choose to feel discomfortable every morning or every night before or after they end their day, you might not know this, but I got the boys here from the cold life. I got Camel Ponton, and I got Sam Maxwell in the house. What's up, guys? Let's go, boys. Let's go to the film or come to freaking be here and meeting. What was it? They got YouTube. First of all, how do you guys meet? Let's let's talk about YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

It's always a good start to the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

You guys aren't brothers, but you're looking like brothers.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

And then we get that all the time too. Unfortunately, you know, I'm just the better looking one. Um, I'm just kidding. Um, well, I said this story. I could I'll I'll give the the short condensed story because basically Sam scammed me out of a bunch of money. Ah. And that's how I got to meet the guy out of out of the.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

That'll be a good hook on a reel. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

He's thinking, he's the marketer. So so I do a business deal with Sam through some other guys that I know. Didn't actually get a chance to meet Sam really closely to the deal. He was just part of the deal. Yeah. And um, a long story short, he was actually hustling. Uh, I say hustling because at the time it was a bit of a hustle. Yeah, um, they were hustling uh Amazon like e-com stores, and for a short period of time, they were doing very well. Like you could start a store on Amazon, you could basically do a bunch of drop shipping products, and they were ripping and doing really good. So it was a split profit. You paid them to set up the store, and then you know, you took the profit, they took a small share, you took the line share, and that was it. Well, about I don't know, 30 days, 60 days, it felt like 90 days max into the thing where where things are going good. It was like four months. Four months, whatever it was, we're into it. We're making a few thousand bucks a month, things are going good, and then all of a sudden Amazon cuts all their policies and they caught on to this store because it was happening all over, you know, everywhere, realistically. And so, long story short, we put in all this money, me, my brother, and I, 50 grand 50 grand. We put 50 grand in. It's a lot of money.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

You're young, yeah, younger, I should be.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Exactly, yeah. Still young, still young, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

I was like 24 at the time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

And I've only got a few years on him, even though it may look a little bit different, but I've only got three years on Sam. So he likes to call me the the old guy the other day because we got kicked into the older group at High Rock. So now all of a sudden I'm the I'm the problem because I'm the senior in this.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Wait a second. Is it his tag, salt and pepper? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Look at that. Salt and pepper. Look at the hair look at the girl.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

It helps me. I look older than I am. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Um exactly. But but uh no, so anyways, you put money into the store, it goes okay for a few months, and then it basically crumbles and falls. And I always like to start off podcasts and introductions and conversations about this because in that moment and through the downfall of that is how I actually got to know Sam, which was beautiful and powerful because I got to know Sam when things were bad. And it's really good when you get to meet somebody when things aren't good because it exposes who they really are, versus it's very easy to hide things when everything is good. When money's up and revenue's good and business is going well, everyone's happy, no one's mad at you. No problem. But the second shit goes south, all of a sudden you start to really understand how someone's like their emotions, what's the real true side of them. And it was through that process that he showed his true colors in a really good way. He did everything he could to pay the money back, he was super communicative. He was very just transparent about the whole thing, which I felt very connected to. So it came down to where they did get uh a lot of the money back, not all of it, but I said, Look, dude, screw you know the money, screw that deal. I said, I want to do something with you. Let's do a business together, let's find something we can work on together. And uh that's how Cold Life was born.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

That's crazy. Now, Cold Life, Sam, why Cold Life? Where did you come up with this plunge? You decided, hey, everybody needs to freeze themselves and be in pain and cry and whine, you know, for at least three minutes a day. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Basically, this is also a crazy story. I never thought four years ago I would start and create a product that generates cold water. Never would have thought, but that's what happens as an entrepreneur, right? Through trial and error, the opportunities, the ideas come to mind, and that's exactly what happened with the cold life. When Kyle was coming by at my office for us to meet for like the You wanted to drown him?

SPEAKER_02 4:55

Is that what you were gonna say? You're gonna exactly like something that gets too much. Hey, let's just toss him in the trash can.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Something like that. I could have tossed him in the bucket that he that got his attention. When he walked into the warehouse, the one that you had came by, I had a plastic barrel in the corner of the office. And it was like my fourth day using that bucket for an ice bath. And I was going through a really rough time of my life. You know, the Amazon businesses crumbled. He was one of like 18 stores that I collected money from investors, about half of them made their money back, and the other nine people, Kyle was one of those nine, hadn't. And you know, the contract didn't promise anything, but these people are local friends of family, friends of friends, and I care about my reputation. My dad raised me to value my reputation and being a man of my word. So as I'm refunding all these people, partial payments, and trying to get them as whole as possible. My other also e-commerce business I had, which was a photo booth business, was also crumbling. So I was at negative zero. I was like, what am I doing? I've been doing e-commerce for five years. I never own the IP of anything I ever sold online before, but I'm really good at running ads. And I told myself I wanted to give e-commerce one last shot. I want to start a real brand for the first time ever. I wanted to create my own product and I want it to be made in America. But I had no idea what that product was going to be. I saw um online that cold therapy was becoming a thing, and I never thought when I bought the ice bucket to do ice baths that I would start a cold plunge brand. Really. I did it because I saw it could possibly help with like mental clarity and mental toughness and that dopamine hit outside of the inflammation and et cetera. And I was addicted to Adderall. Everyone that knew me up until four years ago, I'm Sam's cracked on Adderall, Sam's addicted to Adderall, Sam is in sleep for two days at a time. My parents didn't know which side of Sam they were gonna get on some days because I'm so overstimulated and sleep deprived from all the Adderall I was on. I could just never turn off at all. And uh I bought the ice bucket and I cold plunged every day or ice bath every day for 30 days. And by day 30, I never took Adderall again. Fast forward into the day, I still yeah, take it not and take an adderall.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Congratulations, man. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Adderall free, right? I beat that's awesome. I beat that addiction. And once I started to identify the power of what cold water therapy was contributing into my life at the time, that was when I was going through the settlement checks with all my investors. And Kyle came by my warehouse. And before I gave him that$12,500 check that I did not want to give him, um, he was he walks in and he's like, dude, what in the world is this Jeffrey Dahmer looking bucket thing in the corner of your office? And I was like, Well, funny enough, I was like, Don't worry, I'm focusing on the Amazon business. Like, I'm not pivoting already, but I've been doing it for a few days and I'm really thinking about starting a cold plunge brand. Yeah, I was like, this is what it's done for me so far, and I would love to start one like down the road. I kept like trying to give him reassurance, like I'm not running from like the money that I owe you. And he looks at me literally straight to my face immediately, and he goes, dude, I want in. I do cold plunges with my my community, with my friends, part of our business. We go to the pool in Atlanta and different apartment complexes during the winter, and uh, we get in the river. I love cold plunging. He's like, tell me more about it, tell me about your idea. And uh within a few days, he like sat me down and was just like, Listen, if you want to do this, I want in one way or another, and uh let's let's do this together. And that's how the cold life was born.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

That's awesome, man. You know, I didn't even realize that you fought an addiction. I mean, Adderall is an addiction. A lot of people are like, oh, I'm taking it, it's prescribed, blah, blah, blah. But the reality is they're they're taking way more than they should.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

I mean, how the system is, right? Is you know, when I was 14, I went to the doctor, a normal checkup, you know, doctor appointment with my parents. Yeah. They said I had severe ADHD. I got put in slow class and middle school and high school. I started on Viavance, then a few years later I moved to Adderall. And then once I got 18, 19, 20 years old, and I'm going to the doctor without my mom, you know, they're asking me, How do you feel? And this is where I really identified years later where the addiction really started. I was I was comprehending how easy it was to get more, right? To get a higher dosage. So every time they asked me every every quarter, I need more. I was like, Oh, I'm not feeling it anymore. So I was getting more milligrams, you know, stronger Adderall. They ended up giving me double the amount of pills. So I was having 60 pills instead of 30. Wow. And I would go through that within like 20 days of the month, and then I'd be going through my entire network of friends. Hey, can I buy your Adderall? Can I buy your Adderall? And I was like that until I was like 23. So, you know, another thing that I am really trying to do with my personal brand and with the company we built is drive more awareness on, you know, how many men and women out there are battling ADHD. You know, the Adderall is a good temporary solution, you could say, but it's not good for you. Um and being dependent on a medication for me as a man, I didn't like that. Right. I if I didn't take it, I was a zombie. Um, so you know, that's nothing better than having a natural source of real energy, real mental clarity with no crash as well compared to caffeine and all the other stuff out there. Right. And as you start your health journey, and you know, as we all have experienced during the journey of life we've been going through, trying to live healthy, be healthier and live longer, um, it influences other things. You know, you experiment one thing, you see the results, you're like, well, what else out there can I do? Right. So cold plunging kind of started that lifestyle for me. I wasn't living healthy at all. I was going to Zaxby's Chick-fil-A, drinking soda, drinking every weekend. Um, so for me, it's changed my life in a lot of ways outside of the addiction as well. That's great.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Facts.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Kyle, so you know, you see this big cold plunge sitting there and you're like, I want in. Yeah. Don't what kind of money are we talking? Like, well, what it would it take to start this? And what was the game plan? You know, let's just buy some barrels. Oh, good question. We asked ourselves those questions. Yeah, like, you know, what's the game plan here? I mean, you how how did you sit down together and map it out? What'd you do?

SPEAKER_00 10:29

You know, I I'll I'll I'll answer my part of that. I think I think everything happens for a reason because at that time I had another business. I had a successful company that um I had a services contract that got cut. And so, long story short, I basically couldn't operate the company I was operating anymore. It was two months before I was about to get married. So my main thing that I'm making money from, I'm doing my thing, isn't making any money. Um stopped doing it. This Amazon thing I started a few months prior has now come to an end. And I'm kind of like, I'm about to get married, about to walk into a season of commitment and manhood and providing and all these things. Um but I'm just an entrepreneur at freaking heart, dude. And I just believe that if you bet on yourself, you're the only person that's gonna do that. And at the end of the day, that's what's gonna get you to the next level. You can't really wait on anybody else to do that. You've got to bet on you. And so it was two months before I got married, and I remember sitting down talking to my wife, and I was kind of a little like you know, a little a little timid to bring it to her, my fiance at the time, because I'm like, oh, like we're just about to get married, like she's no idea what's happening really in the business. Like, I kind of keep things a little bit more like, you know, I talk to her, but I'm trying to just do my business. So I go to her and tell her, and I'm like, hey, like um, I'm thinking about starting a cold plunge business. And she was like, she's kind of assuming, like, oh, like, I don't know, a little thing on the side, like a little whatever.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

A little side hustle.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

And I'm like, no, no, no, no, like, like for real. Like, I'm thinking about taking like all the money we have, like all the savings we have, all of our time. We're gonna go out, we're gonna have a yard sale and everything in there. Like, we're gonna go start this cold plunge business. And uh honestly, you know, she's a big believer in obvious in in that if it's aligned with God, that it's aligned in general. And so we we felt very aligned on that. And so um, from the beginning, it's always felt right to do that. And so we didn't have all the right answers. We just started, and um, I thought we could get this done in, I don't know, three months, 90 days, we could have a product and be in the market without that turned in 50 to 100 grand at first. About 50 to 100 grand, yeah, at first, and then we blew through that pretty quickly through through RD and people don't understand or realize it takes a lot of time and effort and energy to come up with a product idea, and you think you have what you have in your mind, but then you build it, and then there's shit that's not right or shit doesn't come in.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

And we learned score that was the first time we were creating a product from scratch. It's not like creating a phone case, right? We're creating like a 30 by 30. I think what's great about what you create too, though, it's here in the US.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Everything is made right here.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

It's made right here in the United States, which is very rare in today's world, right? It's extremely rare. Huge competitive advantage that we have for anybody else.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Yeah, it's it's a massive competitive advantage, but it's also just because it just goes with like who we are as the heart and soul of our company. Like we do things the right way, we build things with high quality, we want these things to last a long time. Our brand reputation matters, like it's who we are as a company. And so it just made sense to do things here in America. It also allowed us to get things going faster because when we started this, you know, this small budget we had to start basically RD and stuff. I mean, we blew through that through engineering and then we would get a tank done, and then it wouldn't be right. And these tanks is a lot of metal, a lot of supplies, a lot of materials. I mean, each prototype is a few thousand bucks, and we're trying it out and trying it out and trying it out. And um, yeah, I mean, we figured it out. We started off with a very small factory in Atlanta, Georgia. It was actually about an hour west.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

And um bless these guys' hearts. They were great guys and good people, but they just didn't quite understand our business model. And so after, I don't know, 20 tanks or something like that, it was a very small amount of tanks. Um, by the grace of God, we come down to Miami, we put an event down here. My best friend, shout out to you, Gabe. He was getting married down here. Uh his bachelor thing was down here. So I I told Sam, I said, yo, let's let's do um a pop. From Atlanta, because we had no money.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

We drove down from Atlanta with two tanks, dropped them off at the Airbnb that they were staying at for so they could enjoy them for the bachelorette or bachelor trip, excuse me. And then after that, to make it worth our while, you know, we're looking at our first 20 customers, and we're like, seven or eight of them are in South Florida. So we need to get content. I was thinking for ads of like South Florida lifestyle, more premium backdrops. So we're like, screw it, while we're here, let's also host an event. We hosted an event, didn't never hosted an event before, you know. Kyle couldn't even come because he's enjoying the bachelor trip. I'm like, you know, the head guy at this event, um, you know, with no budget. And uh, I think like 18 people showed up. And out of the 18 people that showed up, this one random guy is like really snooping out the cold plunge. I'm talking like really looking at it like in a really weird way. And I I just went straight up to him. I was like, What's up, man? Like, can I help? Can I help you? Like, you're gonna get in? He's like, I could make this. And I'm like, Where where is this about to go? Like, okay, you're trying to trying to compete? Yeah, and he was like, you know, we're a family-owned manufacturing business, fabrication, and metal, and blah, blah, blah, based here in Miami. Like, you give me a week, I'll give you a better prototype than that. And I was like, Really? And I call Kyle, like two weeks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Because literally that product, it was made of steel at the time. We had like 280 pounds dry. Um, it was super hard to move. People trying to put it in their basements or you know, older people, which is a lot of our demographic, you know, they're struggling to move it around. Um, and uh he was like, dude, like I can, I think I should make this out of aluminum. It'll be a lot lighter, the same price, if not maybe a little bit cheaper, um, and also help with your shipping costs.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

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SPEAKER_01 15:51

And I called Kyle, I was like, dude, who in the world is this guy? Like he says that he was he actually was messaging Kyle and um told him he was coming, and I just didn't recall this, you know, this heads up of a manufacturer's coming to the event. And then within two weeks, dude, he sent us like a little mini module of the cold plunge. Like a little Yeti. Dude, it was nuts. Basically, it's like a perfect little trash can, and it was perfect. The weld lines were perfect, everything was perfect, and we ended up switching manufacturers to him, and now we've been with him for almost two and a half years.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Yeah. Now you guys were still in Atlanta when this was happening. Yep. So you were back and forth. You you didn't really make the full move to Miami at that point. No, you were working out of Alpharetta, Georgia, I believe, at the time. Because I remember running into you guys back in that day. That was that was uh that wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

How we met Phil was through Bryce. Shout out to Bryce, he's a stud, awesome man. I saw Bryce at the gym with a echo hydrogen water bottle. That's right. And I went up to him and I was like, dude, like I was like, I was like, I don't see anybody in Alpharetta drinking hydrogen water. I'm like, I'm like, I've been seeing that all over social media. Like, I'm trying to partner with Gary Brecca right now. Like I see him promoting that. And he was like, Yeah, dude, like my my my mentor, like my good family friend uh Phil, he bought like 10 of them. He he gave me one, and uh he's like, What do you do? And you know, we I explained to him what we do, and his eyes like lit up. He's like, dude, Phil would would eat alive like what you guys are doing. He's like, I gotta bring them by your facility. And at the time we were starting to raise money. Yep. So I remember we sent you our deck, and you know, you came to the office within a few days, checked out our little like 1200 square foot facility with like two coal plunges and inventory, and you saw where we were at as a business then, right? We were you know several hundred thousand dollars in debt, and you know, we knew we had something. We just had to get the funding to move on to the next level of the business. And we never thought then we would move to Miami, honestly. We weren't thinking we're gonna raise money.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

I didn't think either that I was actually working with Gary Breckett at the time. No, he actually saved my life, you know what I'm saying? So you know, I've taken his home and been around him, and and then here, of course, you're like, yeah, man, we're trying to get with him. And I'm like, man, that's that's your ticket. After seeing your deck, I was like, I just knew at that point in time that Gary was the guy too that you guys needed to work with and partner with that was gonna bring you to that next level. So I just I just saw it. But but you know what, to to speak on both of you, you know, as both young entrepreneurs. I mean, you guys were fantastic, like you were great, and you guys complimented each other. You had the numbers down, you had the the logistics and all that stuff, and you were all about the advertising and how to promote and market and everything else, you know, and together you made a great team. Yeah, and you know, I you know, at the time I was like, Yeah, I don't care about your products, I would invest in you guys because you guys were the product. Yeah you know what I'm saying. So, but at the time, knowing Gary was who he was and what he has done and where you were trying to go, it was the the quickest way for you to get there. So, you know, super, super stoked that you guys got to make that connection and that relationship. And uh, you know, Gary became part of the the the Cold Life brand, you know, which is which was great. And look at you today, you went from being negative hundreds of thousands of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars that you guys are processing and and doing over the past couple years and stuff. So yeah, kudos to you guys, man. That's that's great, great, good stuff. So, but you know, in the process of it all, it wasn't easy. Even the move. Let's talk about that because now you got to transition. You gotta, you know, you gotta actually pack up, leave your home, leave Georgia. You gotta bring a wife along. You gotta convince her to come to Miami, you know, and and know that hey, it's gonna be better if we're here around the actual product, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. No, I joke. I say I'm still convincing her because she obviously lives with me and she's down here, but I say that she's in a uh a drip campaign, you know, she's at the bottom of the of the of the email campaign. We're just trying to convert her into staying here. She's she's an Atlanta, you know, southern girl. She likes southern hospitality, she likes space, parking, driveways, parking at the grocery store, all things Miami does not offer.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Uh and so um, but I'm just trying to convince her, you know, we got the water and we got great people down here. So hopefully we'll get here here soon. But um, yeah, no, moving down here was was it's completely different for the both of us. It was very different for the both of us. Sam was uh obviously, you know, he's single, he's ready to go. Miami was already like on his, you know, friggin' top top city to live in. Like he's Sam was ready to go. Sam packed his truck up and was down here like before we even knew we were moving down. He's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sounds good. I'll just wait out down there. I'll just pop the pen on the black road and I'll find a place. Just in case we're gonna go out of the manufacturer, even though I don't even want to go to the manufacturer, I'll just hang out down there, you know. But for me, it was a little bit different. But I think at the end of the day, it's it's I said this a lot, and and not to turn this into a marriage thing, but I do think the partner you pick is extremely important. A hundred percent. And and uh, you know, if if I'm I'm incredibly grateful for my wife because without her, there's just no shot I would even be doing what I'm doing now, nor, nor do I think most wives truly understand entrepreneurship. It's just a very different game. It's not it's not the same. I'm unavailable for for most hours of living in existence of our marriage, and there's not many people who get that. And she does, and so she was, although hesitant for for for all the living reasons, you know, she was deep down ready to go and on board, and she's been my number one supporter ever since.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

That's great. I think you guys are gonna last a long time because of it.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Yeah, no, they they have an awesome marriage. It's great for me to also be around that, you know what I mean. They're they're they got a healthy relationship, and it's shown me a lot of things that I want for my future family, future wife, um, and et cetera. But the move, like Kyle said, I mean, we had no money. I took out a I'll openly say it, I took out a$25,000 Amex loan um because I had no money, and I was like, this is gonna work out, we're gonna get funding. We I moved down here before we even got the funding. I think we got the funding like eight days after we moved here, which is a long time too.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

Like it wasn't an overnight deal that you closed the deal even with Gary and all that. Like, no, you know, he's not gonna sit there and just you know, like, no, it took some time.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

I mean, though the way Gary worked is, you know, he had gone through a bad partnership with a prior cold punch company. And you know, like we were just talking about off camera before we got on, you know, the best thing about Gary is that he truthfully doesn't promote anything unless he believes in it. It's the best and he does it himself. Yeah. So when we got in contact with him and his team and they expressed interest in working with us, they were like, How fast can you get us one? Which we had like three in inventory at the time and no money. We did like frontier like a frontier type logistics company to get it down there for the cheapest amount of money possible. We even hopped on like a frontier flight to come install it ourselves. Um unfortunately it wasn't there when we installed it, but after we installed it, you know, we they gave us the heads up. You know, he wants to try it, he wants to see if it works. Like, you know, he's not gonna put his name on it after the last experience that he had. We didn't hear from him or his team for months, which felt like years. And obviously, you know, we're just waiting to see like an Instagram post or a text from his team. And finally, from the grace of God, like as of the moment we're talking to investors, at the same time, his team finally reached out and they're like, Hey, Gary wants to get on a call with you guys to officially formally meet, and uh he loves the product, we've had no issues.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Um, you know what? The funny thing about that, and I just you know say this for the viewers too, you never know what somebody's going through, right? Yeah, you know, those months that he wasn't reaching out, he might have been under contract with other products and other things where he couldn't. You know what I'm saying? So he's like, hey, I gotta wait until I can actually speak on this, wait for my my my time to run out on that sheet of paper that I signed. Exactly. You know, so I have the opportunity to have those conversations.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Yeah, and he's the busiest man in the world. I mean, that guy's in a different country, in a different state. He wakes up in this country and the next morning he's he is the ultimate human. He's the only guy in the world that can travel as much as he has and and he does and have a 99 uh sleep sleep course. Yeah, the guy's dialed in. I still can't get that. I can't even get to the 80s. Yeah, I can't do it.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Going to bed at eight o'clock, checking my electrolytes, waking up at six. It's still not getting 99. Yeah, it's incredible. It's crazy. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

But no, he's been a great addition to our business. I mean, we're so fortunate to have him be a part of the brand. I mean, obviously, he's a public figure, he's a very influential guy, but he's very knowledgeable. Um, he knows what he's talking about. Smart guy. He's super, super smart, and obviously he's got a large audience, right? And that's really helped us have a competitive advantage in our market. You know, we had to give him equity. You know, he's not a cheap guy to have a part of our business, but he's worth every penny. Sure. Um, and you know, on top of that, you know, one thing that we also identified, me as the marketer, was is once we got Gary, I was like, okay, like he's a face of the brand, like we're good. And it took over a year for us to discover Kyle and I, as we're talking right now on this podcast, we got a phenomenal story. You know, we we have a lot of passion for what we do. There's consumers want to support a founder, they want to hear the story, they want to see who's the actual people operating the business. So it's been the best duo of like having the Gary Brecka and then also having Kyle and I being the face of the brand alongside with him.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

Well, I think I think what you what you have there is you got somebody that gave you some reassurance that what you're doing is right.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

And what you guys created was awesome. Yes, you know what I'm saying? And and you and you fought to get to the top. Yes, you know what I'm saying. You're still fighting. I mean, because you we don't ever get to the top because we don't know where the top is. You know what I'm saying? Where because every time we think we're at the top, there's another layer. Yeah, there's another level, you know, or you get you fall down a little bit and you got to get back back up to that to that tip. But I mean, I think that's really what what it was is getting the reassurance that okay, somebody's really actually went ahead and and and took my product and said it's good. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And now they want to get behind it. And and that's really all it took.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

It is, and I think to just to speak on that, I think a lot of times like we also have not to like clout or whatever, we also have Mark Wahlberg as a part of our company. He's he's now officially part of our company, which is sick. He's been like that for a year. But it's it's very different. I've heard a lot of bad stories of big names like a Gary Breca, like a Mark Wahlberg, who come into companies and they're just all about the money and they don't give a shit about the brand or the mission or the product or anything about that. They're just strictly there for a check. And when it's only about the money and something isn't there or something doesn't go right, things go south really quickly and that gets exposed very fast. We have had not just a good like relationship or partnership with Gary, it has been like a true, like friendship brotherhood that's turned it's turned into a brotherhood, it's turned into a friendship now from a partnership. Uh and same thing with Mark, these are good human beings that actually care and like they want to see the thing succeed, which I think is hard and rare. I think a lot of people have a hard time seeing that because these guys, you know, Gary's a big guy. They could get any deal they want, they could get any brand they want, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:12

But you know, it's important that you say that because there are a lot of people that jump on those brand deals because they're endorsers because of the social media, because of their name, and they're not like Gary would never uh endorse uh a product that he didn't believe in, like you said earlier, you know, type of thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Well, you've been to his house, he actually has a dedicated uh table. I I I I don't want to uh mispronounce his name, but I think he calls it like the junk table because it's literally like stacks and stacks and stacks of people that just send him stuff. Oh, of all these crap of all he tests it all. He takes those interests to a third-party test, and like 99% of them, he's like, nah, no, no, no. Everything. I mean, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

I got into uh one of his conversations about his red lights. I'm like, how do you know? Like, it just might be a red bulb. Yeah, exactly. No, I he brings me right in his lab and shows me where he tests it, and I'm like, I'm sold, I'm sold, right? He's like, I'm not trying to sell you anything, I just want to prove to you. I'm like, yeah, you did it. You know, so I don't even have to question it. If Gary tells you to do it, boom, I'm doing it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Yeah, which is cool, which is awesome, awesome to have as a partner because he really is. I just says about Gary, as much as people see him on Instagram and this, and he's a great communicator, which is also an incredibly great skill set he has. He's a great communicator about the things he's knowledgeable about. He's a one-hit wonder. But you can also go deeper and deeper and deeper. You people like will sit there and you know, people will be, oh, well, he just talks about it on Instagram, he just pushes this product. But it's like, go ask that man a question and ask him about why he pushes it, and then do this, and then ask him about the next autoimmune disease thing, and then show him your blood work. And then it's like it goes deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper. And there's very few people who have both sides of the spectrum where they're actually like depth and knowledgeable about the craft and the thing and the skill set that they have, and they can communicate it in a better way that actually dilutes it into information you go do something with. You know, you go earn it, you learn it, and then you actually go take action on it. That's tough. It's really hard to do that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

You know, let's get back to you guys. You guys come into Miami, you go from a 1200 square foot place to now all of a sudden you have a huge warehouse.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

You know, what was it like, man? Your first day walking in, Sam, you know, walking in the office, like, you know, you got you got this huge you got, I I'm I mean, when did you feel like okay, I made it? Like this is this is what I this is this was my vision.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

I mean, honestly, as an entrepreneur, which all three of us can probably relate to, it was like a high for maybe a day or two, and then it was just like it just brushed right by me. Because it's like now there's more responsibility, more pressure. Now there's the next milestone we want to hit. Talk about that. What do you mean by more responsibility, more pressure? I mean why? I mean, we got you know, instead of three employees, we within a month had 10. So we have 10 people relying on us every other week to have that paycheck hit their account, whether it's for their mortgage or their rent or for their kids or you know, whatever like that. Um, additionally, you know, we just raised money. So we technically have, you know, a new partner that wants to make obviously his investment back and then some. Um and then just additionally, you know, we took a leap of faith of moving away from our families and from our whole normal routine and reality in Atlanta to moving to Miami, which obviously our family and friends all support us, but you know, deep down some of them are like, you know, the skeptical ones that aren't the entrepreneurs. Like, are you really doing the right thing? Like, this is really risky. Like, are you sure this is the right move? Um, you know, for me, I think one struggle I battle with as an entrepreneur is even when we hit milestones, they don't really affect me or give me any type of hype because now I'm ready for what's next. You know, okay, we hit we hit we hit you know eight figures this year. I want to hit nine figures next year. Like, how can we get there? Right. Um, and that's an unhealthy thing I'm I'm battling where I'm trying to now take a step back and really acknowledge when we hit a milestone, like celebrate it, enjoy it, let it sit in, like give yourself some credit, be proud of yourself. Right. Um, but I would say when we moved to Miami and we got the new warehouse, you know, it it felt great, but it's like okay, where our rent just went from, you know, two grand a month to 15. Right. You know what I mean? Plus more employees, plus reply replacing large POs, plus I now, you know, I'm responsible for all of our marketing spend to make us more money within the next one, two, three, four months. Um, so I mean, it definitely was a surreal moment for a very short period of time.

SPEAKER_03 30:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

And it definitely felt good, you know, seeing our hard work finally paying off. Like we aren't crazy. We are the crazy guys from Alpharita, Georgia that created a product that makes cold water. Um, but that was a lot more stress and responsibility, like I said, that came with it. Yeah so um I mean, but that's that's pressure makes diamonds, dude. I mean, it's you know, having your back against the wall, our backs are against the wall, it feels like every other month in business, but that's what creates greatness and amazing success stories. And that's why I think you know, we're thriving in this business, is we're relentless. You know, every challenge that comes our way, what helps us tackle every challenge that comes our way is we believe in what we do, we have a passion in what we do.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

What is it about the cold water that actually matters? I mean, what is the benefit of the actual cold plunge? I think a lot of people say people just put ice in the bathtub and do the same. Yeah, you know, yeah, but what's the real benefit?

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Well, we do encourage that. I think people start, you gotta start somewhere. Start with an ice bath, start with a cold shower. Um, you know, we always encourage people to start somewhere wherever you can, but obviously eventually if it if it becomes enough part of your routine and your habit, you don't want to go buy ice every day. You don't want to get a nasty water. People don't like it. That's the whole point of it. That's the whole point of it. I think powerful. That's it so. Listen, I'll put it this way. When I actually I'll admit something, from October to December, I moved. Well, I moved in October. So when October to December, I had no cold plunge. So I was not cold plunching every day. And that had been the first time not doing that for about two years, where I was really pretty consistent. It wasn't every day, but it was very consistent. And from October to December, was I was slump, I was lazy, and I didn't really even know or process or understand and even put a finger on why it was. And then January 1st, I had my cold plunge set up this year. And I've had my cold plunge set up on my balcony, and I have cold plunge nearly every single freaking day. And I do it in the mornings. And I kid you not, I was awakened again, like I had never discovered cold plunging. And that is the power of it. Is you come out of that thing, you do it yourself, but you come out of that thing feeling like a freaking champion. It's hard to do. I mean, no matter if you do it every single day for five years in a row, ten years in a row, or it's your first time, you get up to the cold plunge and it's cold water, you're like, I don't want to get in it. And that training of a muscle of doing that thing and getting in the cold water, even when you don't want to do it, is literally one of the best muscles you could ever train on the planet. More than your mind, more or more, more than any physical muscle, that mental muscle of doing the thing you don't want to do is will will will will demolish any other thing you do because you take that mentality into the rest of your day and you end up finding yourself just doing stuff. You know, you used to procrastinate, you said, Oh, I'll do that weight. I'm just gonna eat lunch first, I'll do it after lunch. Like instead of doing it, you just do it. You just you just knock it out because you've you've trained this mental muscle of yours to not sit there and wait and to just do the hard thing. And then the hardest thing you had had to do for the whole day is a damn cold plunge, and the rest of the day is easier after that.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

So anything anything else can come your way and you're gonna be able to handle it. That's right. That's true. That's that's well said. Um, why do people not want to get in that, Sam, knowing that there's benefits to it, you know? I mean, I got I got a buddy of mine, Richie, back home, man. He he he he won't get in it. He won't get in it, it's too cold for him. Richie, stop being a little bitch.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Yeah, I was just about to say, he's not being a bitch. Stop being a little bit. I mean, the the most direct way to say it is those people are they're just weak. They're scared. No, like in truth, like he did get it one time, but he started, you know, freaking out. Yeah, you know, people do freak out. I mean, dude, I'll I tell everybody, I'm like, if you can't do something for 60 seconds, who the hell are you? All you gotta do is last in the cold water for 60 seconds, and then it's so much easier. I mean, when we're working out and we're doing hard workouts, it's like you know, you got 15 more seconds, Sam. Like you can't do something for 15 seconds, like you're a fucking man. Like, like man up. You know what I mean? Same with the cold punch. Just like you get in there, do it for 60 seconds, minute two and three, you're good. That's right. You know what I mean? So it's like for me, the everyone that you know always says, like, oh, I don't believe in that shit. I'm like, well, then give it a damn try. And nine out of 10 times, if not 10 out of 10 times, the people come do it, they're like, All right, I'm sold, like, I'm ready to attack the world, I feel amazing. And another thing that to add on top of the muscle that it helps you build that Kyle was talking about was not speaking about women, speaking about a man, when you do something challenging like that, a lot of guys that are in depression or they're upset or they don't have any confidence or they're in a bad state mentally in their life. When they force themselves to do something challenging like a cold plunge, as simple as just two to three minutes, it fuels your ego in such a healthy way within yourself, which helps your self-confidence. We're like, I did that. And the average guy in my network or around me, or the people that live in my building, people in my neighborhood, other people this morning at 6 30, 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock, they didn't get in a cold plunge. Like you feel so good about yourself, and it helps you. Like I'm saying with me, I always say, like, outside of the dopamine and helping with inflammation when I'm working out hard and the mental clarity and all the other stuff. My favorite thing about it is that it makes me feel like a real alpha guy. And I get out of that thing, and I and I I just know I'm like every guy I'm walking by on my way to the office, I'm like, he didn't get in a fucking cold punch. I I did. How long do you get in for? Usually three minutes. Three minutes or number. Three minutes. Usually I'm I'm out within three minutes, you know. As Gary says, you know, two minutes minimum, six minutes maximum. There's no studies that say the colder the better. Um, but you know, our temperature at my temperature is like 46 to 48, personally. Okay. Um, you know, say whatever you want. But I'm a 44. I'm a 44. 44. So you gotta find your temperature. We do say every temperature, every every degree.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

But I think I'm gonna move it up to 40, 48. As I'm losing weight, it's getting a little bit more piercing. I feel like you know what I mean? It feels different.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

But the thing is, it don't count if you don't dunk.

SPEAKER_02 35:40

Hi, I'm Phil Benamino, CEO and founder of Cost Plus Processing, the company that provides financial services to your business. We provide things such as POS systems, ATM machines, and check services. One of the biggest things that we strive ourselves here at Cost Plus Processing is our customer service. We are an A plus rated with the BBB with customer service, and we're proud to say we're here in the United States with all of our customer service agents. Our objections actually teach you and educate you about the costs that you're currently paying and show you ways where you can eliminate those costs that you no longer have to pay. One of the biggest programs that are out there today is our dual pricing program, where you actually can offer your customers now a choice of how they want to pay. Do they want to pay with cash or do they want to pay with card? And if they pay with card, it actually helps you to absorb the card fees so you no longer have to pay the fees like you've done for many, many years. Costless processing aligns ourselves with some of the top POS companies out there in the industry today. For example, we have perfected the car dealership industry, and our dedicated team are equipped to manage a variety of online payment forms and financing options that merchants require in this advanced ecosystem of payments. If you have a restaurant, we are proud to be able to manage the ongoing difficulties that arise from this fast-paced industry, and you're looking for pay at the table where customers can easily swipe their cards, tap their cards, and make their payments with tip and also have a choice of how they want to pay. We have the solutions for you here at CostPla. We want to help other small business owners make their dreams come true for providing the best financial support. From barbershops to liquor stores. Having the ability to take payments scheduled online and make calculating tip sharing an easy task only helps business owners put more attention and money into what really matters the most. Also, cost plus processing is on the front end of AI. We can also provide you kiosk for your business so customers can walk over to the kiosk and order anything that they want. Likewise, if you're having problems getting employees in the kitchen to work, we can also provide you robots that will actually deliver your food straight to the customer. I want to thank you for the time that you took to learn a little bit about cost plus processing. And most importantly, why we are the future of merchant processing. That's the cold life saying, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:55

That's the cold life saying. So we we get in and we dunk right away. First or dunk glass. Right away. Right away. You shock the whole body. It's actually easier if you do it right at the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

It is.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

So there you go. What's the biggest myth they have about cold plunging, Kyle? It's out there.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

Uh the biggest myth. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. Um, people ask all the time about if you uh cold plunge after a workout, do you lose all your gains that you get from a workout? And there are some studies to show that you know when you're working out, you are stretching your muscle. So now you're inflaming the muscle, and a cold plunge is deflaming the muscle. I mean, that's the whole point of it is to reduce inflammation. So we always say take a damn cold plunge before you work out, which maybe it'd be a little bit more inconvenient or whatever, but like just do it before you work out because that's actually going to help you in your workout. There's actually a guy who did a curl uh challenge and he did it pre and post-workout, and he did this for like seven days, and he actually increased his curl performance by like 30%, but he would do it immediately after a cold plunge. And it was actually a pretty cool little testimonial to say, like, look, if you put obviously, if you put your you know, muscles in cold water and it deflames them like that, you've actually got more capacity because you can inflame them faster and more. So we always say do it before, or if you're gonna do it after, just wait like four hours. And and and I wouldn't say it's a myth because it's true. Like the myth is true that like you don't want to do it immediately after a workout because you're kind of hurting your gains.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

Or the other one is is that you know, a lot of people that are buying our cold plunges, they're they're married, and you know, the wife's not on the same page of them spending, you know, six, seven, eight grand on a cold live cold plunge. You know, she wants to get you know a sauna. And it's like, okay, well, you should you should actually get both. They're both really, really good for you. But they're like, oh, the wife's done research and it's not good for you know a woman to do a cold plunge. And it's like, no, it is good to do a cold plunge for a woman, but it's not good to do it all 30 days out of the month based off their cycle. Um, so from my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm I'm not a doctor, um, is uh it's not good for them to do it when they're in their luteal phase. Um and it's also not as good for them to do it as cold. So women usually do it between like 50 to 60 degrees, which they're still getting the full benefits. So that's the nice thing about the machine, right? Is you know, sometimes the husband does it first thing in the morning, they have it at 45, 48 degrees. The wife does it when she's done her coffee and her morning routine and gotten the kids to school. You know, the husband turns it up to 52 for her. So by the time she gets in, it's a little bit warmer and then she knocks it down for him.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

Or they can just buy a second one, you know. I mean, you make them different colors now, you know. I like the way you think, Phil. There you go. I like the way you think.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

Phil's joining our sales team, Teddy. He's gonna come train everybody right now.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

Yeah, it's important, man. It's important. It is knowledge is power, but yeah, I mean, uh having access to it, you know, you gotta you gotta you gotta be able to do it. Now, I know you guys do a lot of events, you guys do a lot of coffee events, which blows my mind because it kind of confuses me. Okay, but you guys get hundreds of thousands of people that show up to these events. It's crazy that you set up like these air cold plunges, right? And you have groups of people that just gather together in it and sit in it and have coffee. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about that. Like who he came up with this brilliant idea, and and how has that worked out for you?

SPEAKER_00 41:04

The main one, so we we co-host these. Um, I won't take all the credit. The main one's coffee and chill. So shout out to Coffee and Chill. Um, they are a national organization now all over the uh the country that have their main cities in Miami, Austin, uh, LA, San Diego, New York. So if you're in one of those five cities and you're listening to this, go buy a coffee and chill ticket. It's the best event. Um, you've probably heard of it. Um, I think Coffee and Chill has done such an incredible job at building community around cold plunging because cold plunging, like you just asked beforehand, can be challenging and intimidating to people, but there's nothing like getting into a cold plunge with five, six, seven other people because the encouragement there is there, the bonding. I mean, you literally break the ice, no pun intended.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Like I go there, you know, people go there to also meet Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

Yeah, everyone's you know, in a bathing suit and a bikini if you're a single, you know, person and you want to go meet people not at the bar. Go in your spandex, show up, exactly. Exactly. That's marketing. You gotta stand out. You know what I mean? Um, but no, I think it's done a really good job at building community around something that's very difficult. And when you do difficult things with community, it tends to make it a lot more easier. And that's really what it's been, and that's why I took off. I mean, there's again, there's five cities across the country, the tickets drop, they sell out usually within a day or two, they're gone. And uh people down here are like reselling tickets, you can't even get into the event. And it's just a good group of community of people that really come together and enjoy it. And we found ourselves loving the events. I mean, Sam and I are usually at them. Most times we don't go to every single event because it's every two weeks.

SPEAKER_03 42:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Um, but we've actually had a cool time going to like Austin. We go to Austin, we get to go check out the Austin Coffee and Chill. And it's not just coffee and chill, it's also like after coffee and chill, I would consider them to be like the pioneers. But like you've probably seen it in Atlanta, like there's so many different people and and in organizations and gyms and run clubs and all these things that want a cold plunge at their event because it kind of just increases that community aspect. It's the hard thing to do. And so we sell those party plunges, the ones that you're talking about. We sell that exact party plunge to event companies that actually host events all over the country. And it's some of the best feedback that we get because it's so easy to use. You blow it up, you have it ready in a few minutes, you put the water in, and then once the event's done, you put it back into a backpack, you put it into your car, your storage locker, and you're done. Um, it's super cheap, it's super affordable, and that's why it's been one of the cool ways we have been felt a part of being more getting people accessible to coal plunging without having to spend six, seven, eight thousand bucks on our product. You could literally go buy a$30 ticket and go to one of these events or shit. Some of them are even free.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Yeah, it was great for us for exposure when we moved here. We weren't I I've never really been a part for any prior business and like events or any of that stuff. I've always seen businesses being like sponsors at events or whatever, like that. And uh when we moved down here, that was the first investment we made was Coffee and Chill. I just expanded to this was their second location from California. And we were like, dude, we we gotta do it because we manufacture here, we're the only cold punch company in South Florida. How do we get known in South Florida organically? Versus just paid ads. And within a few months, like it's almost kind of frustrating sometimes when I'll take it, but it's like, oh, you're the coffee and chill guy. I'm like, I'm the cold plunge guy, the cold life that's associated and partnered with the cold life. I mean, with uh coffee and chill, but it gave us so much awareness. Yeah, there's so many eyeballs, and it's all people that are in health and wellness, trying to live that lifestyle. Um, and obviously we're in Miami. A lot of people down here are moving and shaking and making a lot of money. And yes, there's a big party scene here, but the party scene is slowly dying here. The wellness scene is what's taking over the the the darties, the day parties, the coffee parties, the coffee and and cold plunge parties um and events. That's like the cool thing to do. And that's like one of our taglines, one of the things I always say is that it's so cool to see over the last four years building this company that it is starting to become more and more day by day, month by month. It is cool to be healthy. Right. It's like a bragging, right? Right, it is a bragging, right? It's like, yeah, like I do contrast therapy a few times a week. Like I do red light every morning, like I drink my electrolytes in the morning. Like I quit drinking three months ago. I mean, the amount of people I meet and talk to that I hear how long they're now sober or alcohol free, it's phenomenal to see the way the world is going, which is why.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

It's definitely happening. I mean, obviously, you you know, I own a processing company, of course. We do a lot of liquor stores and businesses and stuff, and their numbers have dropped. Wow, they've dropped over the year. Yeah, people aren't buying the alcohol like they used to. Wow. I mean, they're just not. Yeah, and that's the reason for that is because America is getting healthier.

SPEAKER_03 45:29

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 45:29

And they're a little bit more focused on what's going to keep them living longer for those that want to, yeah, you know, type of thing. And and you think about it, alcohol is always you know evolved around social, right? Social events, social things. Like you go to a social event, you know, where's my drink?

SPEAKER_00 45:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

You know, and now they're replacing it with the coffee, they're replacing it with the protein shakes and the the the healthier, you know, healthy alternatives to that shit. Yeah, exactly. Which is great, which is great. Um, well, I guess we'll know the outcome in the future, you know, if it does allow us to live longer. Who knows? Who knows? We'll find out.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

Ask Gary. Yeah, exactly. Well, for sure. For sure, 100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

So, you know what, you know, being there, you know, and I want to talk a little bit about your journey because yes, you guys went from a you know, a couple young kids, now you're in a different level. You're talking to the Mark Wahlbergs, you're talking to the Gary Breckas, you know, you're around those, you know, the Dana White, you're you're around that, those people that have been, you know, through businesses and been successful and stuff. You know, how do you fit in with that crew? Like, how do you, you know, when you first get in introduced to these people, how do you like, hey, I started a cool life. This this is my product. You know, top of it, but but how how do you how do you fit in and does that scare you? Did that bother you? No.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

It's treating them like a normal human being, not being a fan, not acting like you're, you know, amazed to be around them. Obviously, we all have our own egos, and people with public figures have their own egos, but it's like when you go into those meetings and we see it with people that we've introduced to that crowd or random people we observe that are in that crowd, they have to get a picture the first time they meet them. They gotta, you know, document that they're around that and show off and you know, I'm in this circle and blah, blah, blah. Me and Kyle just treat them like normal human beings. You know what I mean? And we go we go into that, we go, then we go into that not having to prove ourselves. We're not going in there talking about how much money we make or how much revenue our business does. We literally just treat them like a normal human being. And I have resonated and acknowledged, you know, this business has definitely put us in a lot of powerful rooms. We naturally meet a lot of very influential, successful people. And it's really crazy, truly, what this business has done for our network and the people that we have in our contacts is is super, super cool. But I think the main reason why, my opinion, why you know we're allowed to be, you know, those people accept us and allow us to be around is not just because we have a cool business, but because we're cool, normal people. You know what I mean? We can't.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

Your authenticity shows. Yes. You know, and you stay true to that, and that's important.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

And we don't expect a handout either.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

You know what I mean? No, you understand business. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:51

Because you guys have failed.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

You understand what it's like to be there. Yeah. And you understand that, hey, it it's still a struggle. It's always a struggle. Yes. Because what's the next step? What's the next step? Yeah, you know, type of thing.

SPEAKER_01 48:00

And we stand our ground too. You know, it's also like, you know, when you get that successful person's number, you know what I mean. If I was five, six years younger, I'd probably be, you know, texting them a little bit more than I should. Yeah. We we don't, we text them when we need them or or they end up texting us first or respect that a little bit more.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

Because they they they have their own lives, they have, you know, they have their own families, they have their own, you know, little bit of free time that they're doing with X, Y, and Z. It's like you can't be, you know, looking for a handout and as many finding ways to take advantage of that relationship as much as humanly possible.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

It's actually quite the opposite. That's something I've learned is that it's like the more you can actually give value. And a lot of these people, what I've learned about it is that someone might be super, you know, more successful than you from a revenue perspective or whatever, but you can always add value to somebody, whether it's through you being the mentee and you asking them questions and learning, because a lot of people love to provide that advice and stewardship and wisdom and guidance, which I'm always kind of a sponge in those environments. Like I always like to try to be the most poorest, the lowest of the totem pole person in the room because it means I'm doing something right. Um, and and I think when you can actually provide value back to them in a unique way, whether it is through that, or it's also like we might be in completely different industries and they might be looking at investing in like a CPG brand or wellness stuff or this over here. And it's like, well, we have spent millions and millions of dollars on ads. We have, you know, gotten into the Miami crowd and been able to sell products and do these different things. Like we probably could offer a unique value, and it's also just understanding how to like know your place in that scenario. And if someone is in this upper echelon thing, it's like you have to find a way to get your value established in that way without you know coming off like you know, you don't no one wants to look at you want you don't want to be that guy that's walking around acting like you're the guy when you're really amongst the guys. Of course, because the guys know when you're not really the guy, and that shit comes off really easily.

SPEAKER_02 49:38

How much money did you guys spend in advertising last year? Would you say?

SPEAKER_00 49:40

Uh last year we were close to about five million bucks.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

Five million dollars in advertising. Could you go back in time and think to yourself that you know what? I'm gonna create a product and I'm gonna spend I'm gonna spend five million dollars just advertising in hopes that somebody will buy it. I used to dream.

SPEAKER_01 49:54

I used to, I, I, I, I legitimately. I've been I've been sp I've been doing ads since I was 19 years old, and I started off with a three dollar a day budget. You know what I mean? So literally three, and that's how easy it was in 2018 when I started my online business journey, but I had never imagined spending that much money, but I dreamed about it because I'm doing the math and I'm like, I'm spending$100 a day, I'm getting a 2x return. If I'm spending a million dollars a month and I could still get a 2x return, I'm making you know$2 million a month. There you go. Um, so yeah, we we spent nearly five million dollars last year. I'm I'm our CMO, so I'm overseeing all of our ad spend, our creatives, our ads, which you made a comment and everyone says the same thing to me. Like, dude, I can't get you off my social media. You're everywhere, baby. You're everywhere. It's all about being everywhere, right? Man, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 50:39

We get we gotta learn from you. How do we get to be everywhere, man? You know, we gotta we gotta learn that trade. It's so funny because a lot of people will sit there and say, Man, I can't believe you spent five million dollars in advertising. And it's like, uh, show me where I write the check. If you're telling me it's gonna return me 10, why the hell wouldn't I? Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like, why wouldn't I?

SPEAKER_01 50:55

Which that's the thing too, is you can control, right? It's a button and then you type, you type in the number. You know, your results go down, your performance goes down. And we also know with having three full years now of data, we know what months are most likely gonna be a bad month. So we can forecast and plan around, okay, like we're gonna have to cut down budget in this month. You know, you can adjust it every single day. We're not burning it every day. But the downside of having a direct-to-consumer online business is that a lot of our revenue, majority of the revenue comes from advertising. So, you know, in the sales cycle for our business is 30, 60, 90 days because of how much of an investment it is. Um, so it is hard to sometimes track the real attribution as to like, okay, this customer finally bought. Like, let's go back to like what got what ad got their attention, like what ad eventually got them to convert. We started to really get into the data, which we're getting more into now as we're growing and which we really need to know. And people are having to, there's like, you know, 12 to 18 touch points. They see 12 to 18 ads before they call, they see 12 to 18 ads before they add it to their cart. Um, and that's what we're really learning right now. But you know, the business we're in is you know, it costs us a lot of money to acquire a customer. Um, and that's one thing that we're trying to lower down, which is also why we shift to our filtered shower head and we're expanding our product line, is because selling a very expensive product online is very challenging, right? Because we sell to a very high income demographic. Those high-income demographic people are very smart. That is why they have money. So, how are they smart, right? They're very invested into the politics. Most of them. Most of them. Most of them. Some of them got lucky or some of them are spending their money, but majority of them are very invested into the politics, into the news, into the economy. They have their money in the stock market, or they got money in crypto, they got money in other investments. So when those things happen in the world we live in, those things happen occasionally throughout the year, every single year. Our business does get affected where we have to get creative on how can we keep revenue coming in the door because this product isn't for the masses. We didn't introduce a more affordable cold plunge about a year in. That's about half the cost, which is probably about 25 or 30 percent of our revenue. I like that one because you can travel with it too. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

So that's a light product.

SPEAKER_01 52:59

It's a great starter one where we say split the investment in half. You still get the premium chiller, which is the most important part about cold plunging. Yes, I can argue that vertical is better. It is, it's easier to breathe, takes up less space. We can stop there. But at the end of the day, the most important component when you buy a cold plunge is the chiller, which is why we say you can get the inflatable tub. It's about three grand, thirty five hundred bucks all in, but you already have the premium chiller. A year down the road, two years down the road, you want the aluminum bougie, nice, luxury American-made tub. Right. You just go on, that's right. You can you can buy that separately down the road, and then it's literally just plug and play. The same hoses and the same chiller that you already have. And I mean, that's what we it almost took us out of business when we started the business. That's why we were in such a bad position, is it took us a year to get a final product for the tub. Right. And that took all of our money. So I didn't want to buy from China anymore because that's what I had done for the last six years. Well, we couldn't find a manufacturer in the United States at the time it hit the market. We were already late to hit the market. We saw the few brands at the time scaling up their spend. They were everywhere. We're like, we got to hit the market. So we sourced from China a chiller. We tested it, of course, and it worked. So we're like, screw it, we're gonna buy 50 or 100, put it on the credit card, started running ads. We sold all hundred of them. I think 60 to 65 percent of them failed within like three months. Yeah. And then and then what are we gonna do? We first off, we don't have much to any money, but we aren't gonna burn those people. We don't want to get chargebacks, but we don't want to also replace that chiller with the same chiller that we know is gonna fail most likely again. That is why, fast forwarding the three years after we launched the company, there was about 30 to 35 companies at one point all running ads selling cold plunges. Today, you go on Google and you type in cold plunges or the best cold plunge, maybe four or five companies at most are running ads. Now, don't click on our ad because we'll pay for that click. You know, just go on there to see what I'm saying. Unless you're ready to buy. Unless you're ready to buy. Um, Google is our best platform because that's the most high-intent people that are going out of their way to search the cold life or search for a cold plunge. So Google is our most profitable platform as a high-ticket product, I can say. But um that was one of the challenges that we went through. So that's why we had a kind of closed shop and we stopped collecting revenue for a few months because we had to go find a better, a better chiller.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

But in the same in the same breath, it's actually what helped you get to where you are today. Yeah, because by finding the problem, you created a solution for it. You're 100% correct, you know, and it was a much better solution than what was out on the market with everywhere else. It was a blessing in disguise. Yeah, that's what that's what I mean. So you probably didn't realize it back then, but looking forward, yeah, you know. So tell them about the shower head, man. So how'd you get into filter being in Miami? I know there's a lot of chlorine and stuff in the and the water. Like, what what got you into the shower head? It's everywhere in the country, dude.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

Yeah, Miami's one of the worst. You could definitely say there's water reports you could see online and go on our website and do a free water report, put in your zip code, and it'll show you. But I actually, believe it or not, when we were starting in the cold life, presented Kyle, I was like, hey, like, I'm all in on this cold plunge. But I was like, if we could also do like a second business at the same time, which that was my biggest downfall. I did too much at once. He was like, brother, if we're doing this together, you are committing to me, face-to-face, man-to-man. We are only both doing the cold life. And I was like, Okay, that's fine. You need another product, yeah. And then and then about two, three years later, it came up in conversation again. As we noticed, you know, the the cold plunge business isn't seasonal, but there are peak months, and then there's months that it's a lot slower. And obviously, we want to grow the company to a bigger company. Um, Kyle revisited that conversation. He was like, dude, I think we need a different product. When you expand our product line, let's go back to the original idea. And that's when we hit the drawing board. And Kyle's been the absolute stud behind the product. We just officially hired a head of product. Um, but Kyle's really owned that department, and Kyle can can nerd out on the shower head. I mean, he's the best one on the market.

SPEAKER_00 56:50

I think just as a company, we're very selective and very intentional about the products that we release because not just because that's who we are as a brand and that's just what we're known for, but it's also because of our partners. You know, we can't put out a product that I can have Mark, you know, texting us or calling us, or as people being like, oh, this thing's, you know, whatever. He's got people going after him or Gary, same situation.

SPEAKER_03 57:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 57:09

We have to put out the best of the best. So it's just how it has to work. And so when we go out to a market and say we're gonna build something here, we better be ready to go into that market and be somebody in that market because there's just nothing less than that. So it took us over a year to develop this product. Most products out there that are similar to this are white labeled Amazon ones, TikTok ones. They don't do any testing, they don't really care about it because it's kind of what they call like a direct response product. So someone sees it, they know they need a new shower head, they need a new filter, it looks cool, whatever, they buy it. Whereas ours, it's not so much in that category because people are buying it because they're buying it from a trusted brand. They know that this thing has actually gone through all the science testing, the credibility, et cetera. And that's exactly what we did. We took this filter that you see right here, we put that through an extensive amount of lab testing to ensure that it actually not just filtered out all the bad stuff like chlorine, heavy metals, PFAs, but it also lasted. You see, most shower heads that are out there, the filter actually lasts for like two weeks. So you buy this thing, you take a shower in it, and two weeks later, it's not doing anything. And you'll actually see people talk about that. If you go look at the reviews and stuff, it's like, oh, it was great when I first got it. And like now they're like, I don't even know if it does anything. And the truth is it doesn't do anything after a few weeks because the media inside of that filter is expensive. You have to find high quality media, and you also have to be able to get in bed with those suppliers, and it's hard to do so. So we did that. I tested this filter, it's over 10,000 gallons, which is a complete overtest, just as a complete over-engineering to ensure that it would last for all types of uses. If you had a family of four, you got a family of one, whichever the case may be, this thing lasts. Um, and then also we wanted it to look good and perform good. That's always a big thing for us. You look at our cold plunges, they look beautiful when you walk into a room. They're a statement piece. It's not like some ugly, you know, wooden or bathtub thing or whatever. It's like it's beautiful. It looks like a nice thing. So in the shower, we know, you know, a lot of females and women and mothers and girlfriends control that bathroom and control that shower. So we know this thing had to look nice. It had to look clean, it had to be all the right colors and chrome and black and maybe some new colors coming out here very shortly. Um, and and and it had to perform. And so, you know, the worst thing that I've ever experienced in a shower is excuse my language, but just crappy water pressure. And so this thing's got like out the wazoo water pressure. It honestly will hurt your back in a little bit if you put it on your shower. Nice. It's it's awesome, and uh, it does the job, it removes all the marriage everything.

SPEAKER_02 59:21

All the marriottes need to put them in their freaking hotels.

SPEAKER_00 59:24

Yeah, exactly. That would be a reason right there. You know, everything. Yeah, everything. Yeah, but it truly is, I would say, one of the products that it wasn't just about creating a shower head, it was about entering a category for us. We want to broaden our awareness as a brand. Cold plunging is incredible. We both clearly have a huge passion for it. Um, but we also know there's only so many people in America or in the world that can afford a$70,000 product. And we want to get into more homes. Candidly, we are partners with some of the most wealthiest and influential people on the planet, and we know that we can use a lot of their credibility and leverage and networking, et cetera, to be able to get into more homes, to be able to get into more retailers, but to get into more, you know, um accessible things. And we see the trend. People are starting to care more about their health. Filtered shower heads, you know, it's about the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the food you eat. And so this water right here that's going into your skin, it is the exact the chlorine that you absorb in a shower by taking a 10-minute shower is the exact same amount of chlorine as drinking 10 cups, okay? 10 cups of your normal tap water. So if you don't think that you're absorbing chlorine into your skin by taking a shower, it's the exact same amount of chlorine as drinking 10 cups of water, um, which may sound like a lot, but people drink that all throughout the day. You drink a gallon of water, that's the same thing as taking one shower. So it's really not good for your skin to be taking into all these car, you know, harmful chemicals and toxins and all these things. And so we knew that it wasn't just about showers, but it was also about other future products and entering the the the broader filter market and becoming more known in that space.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:47

But a$5,000 cost to a shower head is pretty expensive, don't you think?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:52

$5,000 is is is a very expensive shower head. But lucky for you. What is it? But lucky for you. Lucky for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:59

You get two for$99 each right now. There you go. Um, but additionally, you know, feeding more off of that as well. You know, a lot of people rent, you know, including myself, including Kyle right now. Soon, hopefully down the road, we'll become a homeowner. Once I become a homeowner, sure. Maybe after the first year, depending on where I'm at my life financially, I'll invest into a reverse osmosis machine or a home water filtration system. But those cost five, ten, fifteen, thirty, a hundred thousand dollars. I mean, Gary has the best of the best one that we, you know, saw in his closet, but you know, that's very, very expensive. But he you know said himself when we were talking to him, he's like, no, I'm a psychopath. I need to have the best of the best. But at the same time, this is a great solution. He is for sure. But this is the best solution. Getting a filtered shower head costs as little as$99 if you get two,$129 if you get one. You replace the filter every three months, it's like$40. And for that little of an investment compared with thousands of dollars for an at-home water filtration system or reverse osmosis, you, your kids, your parents, whoever have really, really clean, good water. It makes the water softer as well. And additionally, we thought about it also, it's like, well, we understand if someone can't afford our cold plunge, so start with a cold shower. But then we thought about it, it's like, well, you're killing two birds with one stone because your skin is your largest organ of the human body. Every day you're showering. But if you want to start doing cold showers, you might as well start doing a cold shower with the cleanest water.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:16

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:16

So it's like, hey, you want to start with cold showers? Well, upgrade the shower head for better water pressure to get that cold water really on that body. And additionally, it's better for your hair and skin. Yeah, you know, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:27

And it is cool because I'll get text messages. I mean, you wouldn't think this is the case, but like I get text messages, Sam gets text messages. I'm not kidding on a weekly basis, which sounds odd, but I get it weekly. Of people who are who are like, dude, I I love your shower head. He's like, I never thought I would text somebody that I love my shower head. He's like, but I freaking love the shower head. Like it's just a great pressure, and you feel like your skin feels like so much more refreshing after a shower, and it's just like, wow, who would have thought that I'm replacing my shower head and go home right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:58

Check it out.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:59

So it's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:00

Well, listen, man, this is part of a show where I like to do what's called the rapid fire questions. So I'm gonna give the first one to you and you can do the second one and go back and forth, okay? Just rapid fire off the off the top of your head. You ready? Sam, ice bath or sauna. Ice bath one minute or ten minutes. One minute. Morning or night? Morning. Alone or in a group. Hardest mental battle you've personally faced.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:31

I've been through a lot. Um I would say adderall, or just being a lot of personal debt and barely being able to for my bills.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:39

There you go. I'm gonna give you the same one. I'm gonna give you the same question. Hardest mental battle you've personally faced.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:47

Responsibility as a man and turning that into a real um uh ownership of responsibility. Yeah, bills, challenges.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:56

Does a cold build you or does it reveal you? One habit every man should adapt to immediately. Every morning Pain or comfort. What's something you used to believe that now you think is completely wrong?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:18

Um business is easy. It's hard.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:33

If someone watching this feels stuck uncomfortable or not growing, what's the first uncomfortable thing they should do they should do immediately?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:45

Uh do something uncomfortable that you you would never naturally volunteer to do, whether that's public speaking and getting on your camera like I had a face a few months ago and start making content, or getting out of your circle and moving and starting from f starting fresh, or quitting that job you're miserable in and just figuring out in the real world with no plans and just putting yourself out there.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:05

Yeah. Good. Last one, you got a young entrepreneur, he's got a hundred grand. What product should he do?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:14

At a hundred grand, I am telling that person to probably invest into mentorship groups, mentorship people, and getting around the right people because at a hundred grand, you may not have enough money to build a product.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:28

Yeah. Relationships. I like it. Like where it has that. Well, that's great. Listen, anything left you guys want to say to the viewers real quick before we break? Got a lot of young entrepreneurs out there that I'm sure you know have this goal and they want to get around those people that you've been able to get into that network. Yeah. It didn't happen overnight. No. What do you tell them?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:48

I would I I'll I'll I'll jump into it first. I wouldn't be afraid to work alone. Some people jump straight into a partnership just because they don't want to work alone. They want to enjoy the process with a friend of theirs. I made that mistake. Multiple times. If any of my friends watch this, they'll laugh. We're friends now, but I just used to be afraid to work alone. Be very strategic who you decide to do business with. Kyle and I became business partners and then brothers. I think that's the best way to do it. I think you need to be very hesitant on who you decide to do business with and also be prepared and allow yourself to be alone and work alone first and not force a business partner, not force getting an investor, you can get the wrong one. Um, I think that's one of the hardest lessons I went through as a young entrepreneur. I would just give away equity in a new business or pay a friend a substantial amount of money because I just didn't want to be alone. When I could have had way more money in my pocket or way more success, or some businesses crumbled because I gave the wrong person 50% for my business and I ended up doing 95% of the work, he did 5%. And the problem was I either taught them what they knew or we both knew the same thing. Me and Kyle, like you said at the very beginning, we are the complete opposite. We both are good, and our strong suits are the complete opposite, which is why we're such good partners. And when you find somebody you can trust, you keep them by your side. Yeah. Because it is so hard nowadays, the world we live in. People are greedy, and money changes people, situations change people. When you find somebody that you can trust, keep them by your side and take care of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:19

Kyle, anything else last you want to add?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:21

Last last minute stuff. I think it's funny because if you ask anybody that's that's that's been through it, been through the pain cave in business or in life in general, it all always comes down to relationships every time. It always comes down to relationships. And Sam just said it himself, you know, who you get into business with matters. And I'll put it like this I still will come back to, I think, one of the most important decisions you can make. This is gonna sound crazy, but in business is your romantic partner. If you pick the wrong girlfriend, the wrong wife, I'll tell you this right now. That will be the worst drag of a shit thing for your business, more than anything. You could be in the shittiest market with the shittiest product and still outbeat and win the guy who's in the best market with the best opportunity. If his home life and his wife or his girlfriend is not on board with the mission, it is just, I've had so many friends and so many people I know, people going through divorces right now, and it's just it's painful. It's really, really challenging, and it's something that's a huge commitment. So I'm a huge believer in being very intentional about the partner you pick in life because they're there for the long run.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:21

Well, there you have it, folks. You heard it right there from the boys at Code Life, man. Remember, understand the relationships that you're trying to build first, okay? And stay humble to who you are and what you're doing. And as your boy Wham Bam always says, if your life was a movie, would it be worth watching? And if the answer is no, then stop being ordinary and start being extraordinary. Till next Wednesday, baby. Stay positive and keep testing negative.