Why Ketones Are the Next Big Thing in Human Optimization | Michael Brandt DSH #1226

Ketones is really interesting for the brain.

Like a big part of why you already make ketones is because your brain uses a ton of ketones.

And when you have a concussion, like you get hit in the head, you interfere with your brain's ability to do metabolism, to basically like generate oxygen.

Because you have like broken blood vessels and stuff.

Like energy can't get in.

But ketones rescue a lot of what would otherwise be an energy deficit.

They just get in your brain really easily.

And so people have been trying different ketogenic diet or what if I have a bunch of MCT oil that your body can kind of convert MCT oil into ketones?

People have tried a lot of stuff like in and around what we're doing with ketone IQ.

If we do our jobs right, then every single one of those blue tents on the side of the NFL sidelines will be pouring out ketones every time someone gets hit.

Like, I think brain health is, I think, going to be the next frontier for just everyone in the next like five years.

Yeah.

All right, guys, we got Michael from Ketone here today.

Cheers, brother.

Cheers, bro.

Tastes good, man.

So what did we just take?

Can you explain what's going on here?

We just took a shot of pure ketones and ketones are something your body already makes.

A lot of people know about the ketogenic diet, right?

Where if you don't eat any carbs, you force your body to make a lot of ketones.

The truth is, we all already have ketones flowing around our body.

And they're just really powerful metabolic source of fuel that your brain especially loves.

We were the first ever to figure out how to make it in a shot.

We ferment it, make it in a shot, and it's just super fuel.

It's high-performance energy.

Yeah, you're going to disrupt the space because a lot of energy shots and drinks don't use the highest quality ingredients, right?

Yeah, they don't.

A lot of it just, you know, caffeine plus sucralose or sugar, just like photocopying.

And then to that point, a lot of times it's got a lot of other weird stuff that gets you cracked out.

Right.

We're all about, I'm a marathon runner.

I run 10 miles a day.

I care a lot about high performance.

And so I wanted to make the best, healthiest energy.

Yeah.

I don't know what it is with coffee, but sometimes I get anxiety on it.

Yeah.

It's weird.

Like my heart will start like racing.

Yeah, I think caffeine is going through a moment right now, kind of a negative moment where people are realizing it's not just this wonder drug.

You can't just like have more and more and more and more caffeine.

That like for a lot of people actually has some drawbacks.

It's, it can be anxiety inducing.

It interferes with your sleep.

A lot of people are wearing, you know, 50 million Americans have an aura or a whoop or a Apple Watch.

Yeah, 50 million?

50 million.

And they're, and they're measuring their sleep score and they're saying, hey, caffeine messes me up.

And so I think caffeine got this like pass basically for the last, oh, it's caffeine's been around for all of human history.

And it's gotten this pass of like, okay, well, it's the go-to thing to keep you focused and dialed, but like a lot of people want a better boost, smarter form of energy, right?

They're turning to different kinds of mushrooms.

Obviously, what we're doing with ketone IQ, like different ways to get a better boost that are maybe more, more

better for your long-term energy optimization than yeah, so no caffeine in the shot, right?

No caffeine in the shot.

We have a version where we stack ketones and caffeine if you want a little bit of caffeine.

It's not too cracked out.

It's just 100 milligrams of caffeine on top of the ketones.

But our main, our biggest seller is honestly just the straight ketone.

Yeah, it's so easy, too.

Just take a shot and you're good for how long on average?

Yeah, a few hours.

If you're doing something active, you're running, you're going to burn it off sooner.

A lot of people have it just at their desk and it lasts a few hours.

I'm big on mental performance, so I'll take this like before I film and I kind of notice it.

I don't know if it's placebo or not, but I definitely feel like there's something.

It's got this nice like dial-in feel.

People have done intermittent fasting or a keto diet.

You get this like mental sharpness

and it's just, it's a nice feeling.

I mean, for me as a podcaster, that's important.

You want to be on top of your game, right?

You don't want to be feeling like shit when you're going into an episode.

Yeah.

And there's a ton of people who see their body that way, like mental athletes, people that see their body as an asset to optimize.

That's our people.

I mean, yeah, I play chess too, and something like this could give you that little 1% edge, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

Did you see the Magnus interview?

Oh, I love that one.

I was nerding out on that one on Rogan.

Yeah.

Because he doesn't do pods.

No.

That was his like first big podcast.

Yeah, super interesting.

Because people think of him as he is.

He said about himself that he's like, has a reputation for being like, quote unquote, lazy, but he's the GOAT.

I know, it's nuts.

It's actually really inspiring.

I think the biggest takeaway for me from that one was like that obsession beats discipline because he talked about all these other people that were like more disciplined than he was, but he was just obsessed.

So he didn't need to be told to do his homework or whatever, to like check his chest.

He's just like, think about it.

He's like, Joe, as I'm talking to you right now, I'm playing out chess moves in my head.

He's just like obsessed.

And obsession, I think, eats discipline for lunch any day.

Yeah.

That one felt like a throwback Rogan episode to me.

Instant classic.

Yeah, instant classic.

Shout out to Magnus, man.

He is the best player in the world at chess for people that don't know.

Yeah, yeah.

Do you play any chess?

I'm not that good.

To me, it's one of those things where it's like slippery slopes.

Like I start getting into it like chess.com, and then I'm just like not doing my job job.

I played a lot of sports, a lot of games as a kid.

It's a StarCraft, Civilization, Counter-Strike, all that stuff.

And then once I started becoming an adult, to me, my Shopify store is my video game.

I love that.

Because I'm just trying to click on stuff and make the number go up.

And so every time I start getting into chess or any other game, it's like it starts peeling my attention away.

Distraction.

If I ever, you know, whenever get FU money and retire and all that, maybe I'll get into chess.

But for me, right now, I just turn all my calories into like the main video game, which is shop by store.

All right.

Shout out to today's sponsor, Ketone IQ.

Ketone IQ is a clean energy shot that boosts mental and physical performance.

It helps your body access ketones without needing a strict keto diet.

There's no sugar, no caffeine, no crashes or jitters, and it supports recovery.

It aids in reducing inflammation and accelerating muscle recovery after workouts, which is great for me as a basketball player.

Also, it keeps me mentally sharp.

I feel energized with no crash when I take this.

I take this when I'm filming podcasts.

As you guys know, I film a ton of podcasts back to back.

This product's an absolute game changer, and I love that it's all natural.

Shout out to Ketone IQ.

I actually had to delete the chess.com app a few days ago because I, like you, I'm too addicted.

Because the thing is, if you lose, you don't want to end on a loss.

No.

So you got to keep playing till you win.

And sometimes you lose like seven straight.

Yeah.

That's how chess is.

It's a brutal sport.

It's so funny.

It's like a mind virus.

Yeah.

And it takes years to actually get good at it.

Yeah.

I'm two years in and I'm only like a 1400, which is like still pretty bad.

Yeah.

You know, Magnus is like 2,800.

Yeah.

Crazy, dude.

You mentioned fasting earlier.

So you did a seven-day fast, which is the longest I've heard in a while.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I did a seven-day fast.

Early on when I was starting the company, I've always been really interested in performance optimization.

I'm an engineer, studied engineering at Stanford.

And when I got out, I was just really curious about the human body as a platform.

We got all these devices and sensors that are more accessible than ever before.

Like, we're able to actually see what's going on in our body.

And so I just started trying out a lot of stuff.

Like, okay, what happens if you go and run 10 miles a day?

What happens if you fast for seven days?

What happens if you take this nootropic, that thing?

And I just started looking at myself as an end of one biohacker tester, trying these different things out.

Fasting for seven days was

honestly, it was one of those things, like it was hard, but it didn't get harder.

Like, you, you kind of hit this wall at day like two.

Was day two the hardest?

It was hard, the hardest.

And then, and then you just kind of like, like, have you ever been on like a long hike where like you get tired, but then like you still got to keep hiking, but like, it doesn't necessarily get harder.

It just like stays at like a seven out of ten.

It's like, there's no point where I was like, oh my God, shoot me.

Like, this is right.

You were on autopilot.

Yeah, I got seven.

Sometimes sometimes it was swing.

Actually, like, you just felt completely fine.

Like, zero pain.

Damn.

You just feel based you just feel like I kept thinking about how like Plato would have his students fast because it made them mentally sharper and they could memorize more more of the like scripts and and stuff that they were working on I felt like this really based like level focus mode when I was fasting and that was part of what actually inspired the idea of making a pure ketone because one of the things that happens when you fast is that your body starts making a lot of ketones yeah and so I started saying okay well what if you could get access to this magical molecule without having to fast for seven days or do a keto diet or put butter in your coffee and hope that that turns into ketones?

And so it was really informative to me just as an entrepreneur.

Like right now, it's all obvious in hindsight, but early days, I was just trying stuff out and it's like, okay, what could be interesting here?

And then, and then now it's like, well, you solved a major problem because you said no one was able to get it in liquid form before, right?

Yeah, no one had done this, like this level like purity at this cost, the ability to just directly, you drink this, you're in ketosis in 15 minutes.

Wow, it's that quick.

Yeah, yeah.

Holy crap.

Cause if you fast, how long would that take to get to ketosis?

Like two, three days.

Wow.

Wow.

And that's the reason people fast, basically, right?

It's to get to that point.

Yeah, yeah.

To get the ketones flowing, and you just feel really locked in.

And it's cool.

Like the energy drink market is huge.

It's like an 85 billion dollar market.

And I don't know if you saw Alani New just got bought by Celsius for like $1.8 billion.

Ghost got bought in Vegas.

Yeah, Ghost got bought by Kirk Dr.

Pepper bought them up for another.

$400, right?

Or was it more?

I think they bought like a chunk chunk of the company for like 400 or 600 mil, but the implied value of the whole company was billions.

Damn.

So it's a beefy market.

Everyone wants energy.

It's the most important problem on the face of the planet because if you can help people with better energy, you can help them solve all the other problems in their life.

100%.

Most people wake up feeling like terrible, right?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Most people don't feel good.

We're all trying to optimize our energy because, yeah, once you can optimize your energy, it's like, oh, you can be better at your job.

You can be a better parent.

You can make better this, that, better grades.

So energy is the most important thing.

It's a massive, like super lucrative market and it's growing.

And I'm just stoked.

We're here bringing something new to the market.

I'm just, as an entrepreneur, I'm fired up.

It's very,

there's a lot of ways to make money as an entrepreneur.

Like some people make, you know, the Jonas Brothers popcorn flavor.

And I don't want to like knock anyone.

There's a lot of ways to make money in the world, but for me, it was really important to really invent something.

Like, I think America needs more actual inventors, like making a new thing that didn't already exist.

Right.

Not just like a different flavor of what already did exist.

So to me, I've just been stoked.

And it gets, it's really hard in the early days because no one, in the early, early days, no one knew what a ketone was.

And now, you know, we're working with John Jones, we're working with the U.S.

military, we're working with some like big names.

Crazy.

And so it's interesting because I spent a few years, honestly, dude.

Like, this felt like a science fair project.

Damn.

I was just like in the dark, just me and my co-founders, like grind, grind, grind.

And now it's like, cool.

Now it's like, yo, I was, I got flown off to France last year.

I was at the Tour de France because a lot of the one of the best teams in the Tour de France is

big into ketone IQ.

Like, it's gotten really really fun.

If I had any message to share with entrepreneurs out there, it's like, if you're in the dark for like several years, you might actually be on the right track.

You just got to really believe in what you're doing.

And then at some point, you see it kind of flip over and then it's like, oh, wow, you're that person that invented that thing.

Yeah.

The education caught up.

I feel like that's with mushrooms.

That's going to be the next thing once that's legal.

If you were there for years before, same with AI, right?

People that were doing AI for years.

Dude, people bought Nvidia like five years ago, look mad smart right now.

Yeah, they're geniuses.

So this thing didn't take off right away.

Yeah, a a few things do right as you always hear that like seven-year overnight success like some things do for sure like some things you just hit lightning in a pan and boom go but yeah we've been working on this and just the early days and in 2019 the way i really knew that we were on to something was in 2019 we got a six million dollar contract with the department of defense to do the biggest ever R d on ketones as high performance energy for special operators.

And we had to go and actually like spend that money on R ⁇ D.

It wasn't like I went and bought a freaking Porsche.

We got the money and it was like, all right, now you got to do $6 million worth of research.

So we did all the stuff with like hypoxia, which is like, you know, like the in Batman Bane, like that mask.

Like you, you see people exercising with one of those.

We did a ton of research on that and like low oxygen, measuring different biomarkers, seeing how people perform at stress.

And then, okay, what if you give them ketones versus what if you give them a placebo?

And so we were able to really see some amazing results.

And that was, that was what kicked this all off.

And it was still a lot of grind for several years and then really like brought the technology out

in 2022.

Yeah.

So for a little while, it was really this like research kind of hypothesis and early signals.

Like it's always really good as an entrepreneur of like an extreme, if like special forces are buying.

And at the time it costs $30.

You got special forces buying your stuff for $30,

like you might be on it.

Something like one shot was $30.

One shot was $30.

You got to figure it out.

It's probably not going to go mainstream if it's $30 a shot.

But like, if you can get it going, it's always get it going like the first the first computer was like the size of you've seen those photos yeah it's the size of a room yes the size of a room it's the size of a u-haul and then like now you got that much in your in your pocket so early innovations often start like too big too expensive too hard to use all that stuff but if you can find like a

market for that and then slowly like sand down the friction on it yeah then you will probably have something that's going to be really good and you know broader mainstream 100 i love that how'd you get that contract was it luck or was it did you really pursue that i mean you know how it is Like, luck, hard work, it's like everything, right?

I think the harder you work in life, the more lotto tickets you get.

And you can't determine your success on any one lotto ticket, but like

if you work hard and get more lotto tickets, you're like bound to, it's bound to click.

So, yeah, we had Andreessen Horrorways.

So, you know, like Mark Andreessen, he's one of the smartest guys in Silicon Valley.

He's one of our early investors.

He had some connectivity into the Department of Defense.

We had just a few different like lines in through our networks and through some investors.

Yeah, you got some interesting investors I saw on the site.

Jake paul right

joe montana joe montana is an investor got some really cool people on the table that's smart that you just didn't take money you took like strategic money yeah yeah there's a lot of just you know it sounds crazy to say because it's you know a lot of people are you know tight for cash but like there's actually a lot of money in the world There's a lot of capital out there.

There's a lot of rich people who want to put their money into something that's going to multiply.

And what's actually rare in the world is good businesses, good assets that you can put, you know, a million dollars into and see it return as two million.

Or put a hundred million see it come out as two million super rare.

Yeah, so I would say for any entrepreneurs out there, like if you actually have a good idea, there's actually a lot of capital out there if you have something like real, meaningful, legit.

And then, when it if you're really good as an entrepreneur, like you should be choosy about who you bring in because, like, yeah, like so any old person can write a big check, but you want like some, you know, people who that are actually into your brand who aren't just you looking at you as like an asset that's gonna double their money, but someone who can, you know, be actually helping to popularize it.

It's like cool stamp of approval, intros to other cool people, intros to retailers.

Right, you want someone who can actually help carry the water with you.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I heard the VC space is struggling right now, actually.

Yeah, I mean, it's a tough market.

It's tough to find good companies.

A lot of people got burned because there was that big bubble in the middle of COVID.

Right.

Everyone was like.

The tech bubble, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like crypto and all these like crypto enablement platforms.

Yeah, web3 flopped.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So a lot of people like they raised a whole ass fund, invested into a bunch of Web3 stuff at like peak, it all cratered.

Yeah.

And now a lot of those people are like wrecked.

OpenSea got like a 5 billion valuation or something crazy.

Yeah.

And I don't think they're back anywhere near that.

Nah.

NFT's kind of tanked, you know?

Yeah.

And crypto's down bad right now.

Crypto is so volatile, though.

Yeah.

Crypto's been a head scratcher for me because it's like, I own some.

Yeah.

I think most people, you know, at this point do, right?

Yeah.

And it's been weird to me because I thought it was supposed to be more like of a hedge against the economy, but it really seems like it goes up and down the economy.

So it's like, what's the point?

Yeah.

But, you know, I'll still hold, but it's like.

If you're looking at it daily, it's not a fun thing to hold.

No, yeah.

How important is cardio?

Dude, cardio is so important.

Cardio is the longevity drug.

And I think anyone who's not doing cardio is honestly just coping.

Like, cardio is so freaking important.

There was a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine where they showed that they measured VO2 max, which is the measure of basically how good your cardio is.

It's like how much oxygen you can take at your maximum, which is a mark for how healthy is your heart, how healthy is your lungs, how healthy are your blood vessels.

Basically, they said in the top third of cardio fitness people versus the bottom third, you're 45% less likely to die from all-cause mortality if you're in the top third of VO2 max.

Damn.

And so literally, cardio is the longevity drug.

It's really funny, Sean, because you see a lot of different

influencer types out there that are doing like, oh, I'm measuring my nighttime boners and

biomarker.

It's like, you're just inventing something.

Like VO2 max is what scientists have been looking at for 50 plus years is the marker for cardiovascular health.

And that's the thing to actually optimize for.

If you can optimize that, that is the longevity drug.

All these other things, it's like, dude, okay, you can measure your, your

on your overnight boners and then like take some sialis to optimize your nighttime bonus.

It's like you're optimizing the the wrong thing.

Like that having a better better nighttime boner isn't what makes you live longer.

It's like it correlates because yeah, if you have better blood flow and better

functioning overall body system, you're going to have better nighttime bonus, but it's like you can't optimize for, it's like if you see like a bunch of fast cars and they're all red and then you go paint your car red, it's like that's not what actually makes your car red.

And so I think, I think there's been this interesting, I think, pendulum swinging away from cardio.

And I just, it's the obvious longevity drug.

I think literally the reason more people don't do more cardio is it's just hard.

Yeah, people are lazy.

Yeah.

People want to pill.

People want to just maybe lift and then go into sauna.

Yeah, yeah.

But yeah, cardio is huge, man.

I took a VO2 max test and my results were terrible.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

My chronological age was higher than my biological age.

So I was like, damn.

Do you run at all?

I just started running more, playing basketball more and saunaing more.

But yeah, I've heard from reputable people that VO2 Max test is one of the most important metrics for health.

Yeah, it's how much oxygen can your body take in at its maximum level of exertion.

And so it just means, you know, how healthy is your whole system, your heart, your lungs, your blood vessels, all that stuff.

And that correlates with overall just whole body health.

Yeah.

Now you're out here running marathons, though.

Yeah.

You're taking it extreme.

Yeah, I run 10 miles a day.

I try to run fast for a marathon, too.

I'm not just trying to like finish it.

240 is really fast.

Yeah, yeah.

It's like 6.0 something per mile to still eight.

That's crazy.

I'm trying to get under six.

I'm trying to really get like even faster.

And yeah, it's fun.

I don't think you you got to do my level of cardio to be like normal fit person but um i just really love it it's like a fun game for me i'm addicted to it it's it's like really fun um but i do think in general a lot of people overlook cardio a lot of people like when we think about fitness it's like okay you want to be really like jacked but honestly i think i mean a couple of things on it i think i think like longevity is not the same as being jacked and i also think a lot of a lot of guys get like super jacked a lot of times it's like it ends up being for the the dudes like for sure you talk to most women like they they care about fitness up to a point, but once you're like Chris Bumstead level, like super swole, like women don't like that.

That's for the dudes.

Like, I know a lot of, you know, a lot of these guys, I'll ask, like, what's the craziest DM you've gotten from a chick?

They're like, bro, it's 90% dudes.

It's always dudes.

And no, it's all, it's all love.

Like, if you're into that, like, by all means, get into that.

But I would say, like, for just general fitness and just being like.

Who's the like the hottest guy in America right now?

It's like Timothy Chalamain.

Ladies love him.

Yeah, women, ladies love them.

So like, I would say, like don't put so much pressure on yourself to have to be like like super jacked and that's what it takes to be attractive like get some cardio in there too like it's gonna help you live longer you'll feel amazing and yeah i think there's i think there's uh let's let's make running cool again absolutely is it true 88 of americans are unhealthy yes yeah americans are massively metabolically unhealthy combination of stagnants we don't move around enough and we just eat a lot of the wrong stuff we eat hyper processed stuff the more really processed food especially processed carbohydrates that you eat, you're just spiking your blood glucose all day long.

And if you're not moving, if you combine that factor with not moving, then what your body does when you have a lot of sugar in your system is you really release a lot of insulin

and then you need insulin to process the sugar.

The insulin stops working.

If you keep spiking it again and again and again, you keep eating sugar, you go get a slurpee, don't exercise, go get a Kit Kat bar, don't exercise, you keep doing that, your insulin just stops working.

And then you just get fat and you have low energy and you're just considered metabolically unhealthy.

You're considered metabolically unhealthy at that point.

And so, yeah, there's epidemic.

88% of people in America are metabolically unhealthy, meaning they're, they're diabetic or pre-diabetic.

When it's just to connect the concepts, they're like, once your insulin stops working, that's just diabetes.

Like, that's insane.

That's what diabetes is.

Wow.

That's so crazy, man.

88%.

Like, that's so high.

It's, it's crazy.

Ever see those videos from like the 40s, 50s where like everyone was super jazzed?

Yeah, on the beach.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, you watch, I saw some video of like when, when we went to space, and like it was a video of the people watching

the spaceship and it's just like normal people having a picnic out in Fort Lauderdale or whatever watching the spaceship and like everyone just looks healthy.

And like,

why?

Like what we lost something?

Yeah.

Like we lost some like, I guess, sense of,

I guess, pride or just the way that our society is or something where we're not in shape.

I think that's why a lot of people like RFK, whether they love his policies or pro-vax, anti-vax, whatever.

It's like, I think you look at RFK and you're like, okay, that guy is like fit.

He actually just cares about his body in a way that a lot of Americans used to.

Like, I'm more inclined to listen to that person than like a totally out-of-shape

doctor lady.

I don't know.

Could you go to a doctor that was obese?

No.

I remember having gym teachers in school that were fat.

Like, what is that?

Yeah.

Why are you teaching gym?

Yeah.

Like, do as I say, not as I do.

Like, what?

Yeah.

Like, gym teachers, there should be a weight requirement for gym teachers.

Yeah.

You know, we got to make that a bang RFK.

I'm sure he's, I mean, that's the thing.

He's a little crazy.

I don't agree with him on 100% stuff, but I think directionally he's trying to say, yo, let's like just be healthier, move around more, eat better.

Let's not just like throw pharmaceuticals down everyone's throat.

For real.

Are you on the methylene blue wave?

I'm not on it personally.

I think methylene blue is probably reasonable.

I think it's like, yeah.

Have you tried it?

I tried it once because I was flying.

He said it would help because I get sick when I fly sometimes.

Yeah.

So I took it and I didn't get sick.

So cool, cool.

Only one experience.

I don't know if that's a judge-all-be-all, but you know, he's drinking it every day.

yeah

biohacking is like you could take it extreme for sure like you could take 100 supplements a day and i think that's pretty crazy yeah yeah you can definitely there's a diminishing returns for most people like most people don't want to take more than like what five five yeah five ten max you take some omega-3s take some

some

magnesium for vitamin d3 yeah yeah take a few things and you're good i think most people don't want to be tracking like a bunch of stuff it just gets complicated at a certain point like all the metrics and markers and blood tests it's just data porn yeah like you're just getting info but like for the sake of info like what are you actually doing i think it's been cool to see the the evolving user experience around the wearables where people are really honing in on a few things like sleep score is important yeah i have an eight sleep yeah yeah and that tells you your your sleep score and your hrv yeah dude mateo there's a gene he's actually an investor in my time oh small world yeah mateo is super their ceo founder guy he's super sharp um they sent over a bunch of mattresses to doge oh really apparently all the like you know how like the whole meme with the Doge?

They sleep, right?

Yeah, the three-year-olds, like, not sleeping.

I heard there's a teenager now that's reviewing the financial information.

Yeah, yeah, it's funny.

It's um Elon's good at finding these young geniuses.

Yeah, he finds like young.

And people were being ageists towards these guys, I saw.

Yeah, yeah.

A lot of people are like, oh, man, they're like young WizKids.

What do they know?

It's like, well.

That's not a good reason, in my opinion.

I don't think, I think, yeah, I think it's Aegis or ad hominem just to attack someone like strictly on age.

Yeah.

Because you and I are young founders.

Yeah.

And a lot of what these, a lot of what they're doing is like database work.

It's like you have a bunch of crazy, unstructured, messy data that like no one's ever come.

When was the last time you had like best in class computer science people like crunching through the numbers?

Yeah, it's a younger job, for sure.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's like, I don't know, I think people are wanting to like conflate a lot.

It's like, I think there are serious policy questions.

I'm not saying I agree with everything going on.

I think there's a lot of stuff that like, like, I think just personal policy.

I think, I think, like, foreign aid is a good idea.

I think that like, if you invest more in like

books versus bombs to spread American influence in the world, that's probably a good thing.

So, I don't necessarily agree that, like, I think we overcut on some of the aid, just on my personal belief on things.

But in general, like, it's a good idea to have

smart number muncher type people running the actual database work so that we even know what's going on, so that the people in charge of policy have an informed way of looking at what's going on.

And then just the transparency, like the ability to just see.

Like, I think we all viscerally know when you go to the post office or the DMV, that shit sucks.

Yes,

and you know that, like, that probably extends to other parts of the government.

So like sunlight is the best disinfectant.

I'm a believer and like, I do think that like government has a role and like good government is good.

I'm not a guy that says like, okay, compress it all down, burn it all down.

Like really tiny government is the way.

That's not what I believe, but I do think you need an effective government.

There needs to be accountability.

You need, I'm supportive of.

trimming all the fat, all the weird waste.

Like, I don't think we need to be putting on like,

yeah, random, I don't know, it's just some crazy stuff that

the doge has surfaced that we were putting our money towards the transparency has been awesome because we've never seen where the money goes yeah ever i think i think it's so american like that we just want to know what's our tax dollars going it's awesome tea party right it's like where's where's our taxes going to yeah i mean we're spending you know a lot of money on taxes 40 your state's 50 right california's not 52 yeah yeah so you're spending more than you make on taxes yeah people got to be I think stomping their feet on like what's it going to yeah again I think

taxes that make society better are good i think you know something like public schools that whether you have a kid or not a kid like a better public school system probably better for society is my my personal belief i do think like taxes are helpful to a degree to help society and then we all win like better schools okay better smarter workforce better gdp china doesn't peel out ahead like good

Good thing to do there, but like let's make sure it's actually going where we think it's even going.

Facts.

Like even if you are a like pro

you know common good, pro-government should do stuff person, you should still want accountability.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm not opposed to taxes if it was being used correctly.

Yes.

Which it hasn't been.

Yeah.

That's why people hate taxes.

Yeah.

You know, but I wouldn't mind if it was going towards great things.

Yeah.

I want good schools.

Yeah.

I think we want American exceptionalism.

We want American industry to thrive.

We want to be leaders in the world.

And so

we need to, I think it was on a scary course where like if things are plateauing and then like we're just racking up debt and it's not clear where that stuff's going it's

i'd love to see how cali spends their money yeah the homelessness budget didn't do much yeah dude i don't know cal

i look at it honestly as like a california uh it's just like it's i i think the nicest place to live coastal california oh it's by far the nicest weather wise yeah yeah perfect weather year-round super nice it's like just good good place and the networking is great it's good for business yeah it's huge like i lived in in silicon valley for a while and now i live in la like i got no complaints on lifestyle this is awesome i look at like my co-founder lives in Miami.

It's you know, plus or minus.

I don't know, you got some crazy.

I got Miami over LA.

Well, it's like, I don't know, I like not having to evacuate for hurricanes or like Miami's just crazy.

You just see some like

Florida in general.

It's just like you'll just see an alligator.

Yeah, you just got some crazy bugs, some crazy mosquitoes, crazy humidity.

You'll just like walk around the block and get sweaty.

I'm not trying to yuck Miami's, it's all good.

I just think like

California is on its own a really like special place.

And I think that they kind of

I think they kind of take advantage of that because like they know that because it's a lot of people consider it the best place to live that like they're willing to pay more taxes.

But

I think a lot of people are upset now because I think we just had these fires.

Yeah.

Half of my daughters, I got a daughter.

Half my daughter's school burned down.

Holy crap.

In the wildfires.

Like a lot of people are displaced.

Like I had another friend who he owned his house outright.

And then the insurance company like in September just pulled his coverage.

They're like, yo, it's too high risk.

And the state won't won't let us raise your insurance rate.

So we got to be out.

Holy, he probably would have said yes to like a little bit more expensive insurance, but the state has some rules where the insurance company can't raise.

It's supposed to protect consumers, but it has the opposite effect.

But he had no insurance.

He had no insurance.

And he owned his house outright.

So it's a real problem.

Real people got affected.

And I think there's going to be a reckoning.

There has to be because that's millions of dollars.

There's probably like hundreds of families that happen to it, too.

Yeah, it's bad.

So

hopefully it corrects out in California because it's it is an awesome place i know it's got its haters this is that but like yeah it's a it's beautiful and i think i i hope it it

i mean i'm there once a month because it's so good for business the food's amazing yeah like the food's good the weather's good the scene's good it's like just living there though with the politics for me is tough yeah it's a it's definitely a different place yeah it's different what's next for uh keyton rq anything fun planned yeah we got some big launches we just launched nationwide into vitamin shop that's a good one.

We're working on a couple other ones.

Let's get you in Costco.

Yeah, that'd be huge.

That'd be huge.

Yeah, I love Costco.

I'll hit up the Big Justice guy.

You've seen that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, he's coming on the podcast.

Okay, cool, cool.

I feel like they have some pull at Costco these days.

Yeah, they blew them up, right?

Yeah, we love to connect.

Okay.

Yeah, working on some big retailers.

You know, we've been doing a lot of work with John Jones.

Yeah, I saw that.

So he takes us before vites?

Yeah, yeah.

Wow.

He's cool.

That's the goat right there.

Yeah, no, truly.

And he's awesome.

He's like, he's gotten to spend some good time together.

He's like, he's total gentle giant.

He's one of the most misunderstood athletes of all time.

Once you're around him, he's just like so based.

Like, he's actually just very wise and like

mission-driven and kind.

And, like, I think he's been through some ups and downs.

No doubt.

Like, he's been through some shit.

I think if you were 19 years old and like goat at anything, like, he was actually the UFC heavyweight champ at age.

19.

Which is crazy.

Yeah, it's crazy.

And he's held on to that for

20 years.

Yeah, like, and and i don't think you get good at fighting by being by having like a normal upbringing too by the way i think that you go through some shit and that's why you got that dog in you you need an edge you need an edge and i think but net of all of that like i think at this point he's very self-aware of like who he is what he's been through and what his mission is very like god oriented very there for his kids very much just thinking about like he's still fighting like he still has fights left in him and he's also thinking about like you know what's next what's because you look at people like shaq or martha stewart or these people that have had like a kind of second third act in their life and so he's I think really smartly thinking ahead like he doesn't just want to be one of those like former athlete kind of washed up people he's already he's like shooting some movies we're doing a lot of stuff together he's really thinking seriously about his business career so it's really cool to see him morphing his like

goat energy inside the octagon into like broader everyday life but i also don't think he's done with octagon i think he'll have a couple more and i think he'll probably end up making more money outside of the ring yes i think he'll invest in the right things and you know, I think he plays his cards right.

He'll be doing that.

And so, yeah, we're, we're doing a lot together.

Um,

we have a

bunch of research going on.

We just submitted a big contract, another one with the Department of Defense for that with the Navy Health Research Center for ketones and traumatic brain injury.

So, wow, ketones are really interesting for the brain.

Like, a big part of why you already make ketones is because your brain uses a ton of ketones.

And When you have a concussion, when you get hit in the head, you interfere with your brain's ability to do metabolism to basically like generate oxygen because you have like broken blood vessels and stuff like energy can't get in the ketones rescue a lot of what would otherwise be an energy deficit they just get in your brain really easily and so people have been trying different ketogenic diet or what if i have a bunch of mct oil that your body can kind of convert mct oil into ketones people have tried a lot of stuff like in and around what we're doing with ketone iq so really we're really excited to be doing actual ketone iq after a concussion after tbi and seeing some of the results there not just like for one time but also for people who've had chronic tbi seeing how ketones can help there so yeah it's uh it's an exciting time for sure that's really exciting these veterans need something like that man yeah i'm big on brain health i think like if we do our jobs right then every single one of those blue tents on the side of nfl sidelines will be pouring out ketones every time someone gets hit.

Like, I think brain health is, I think, going to be the next frontier for just everyone in the next like five years.

Yeah.

it's exciting now because i think growing up we thought once you had concussions it was permanent yeah and you couldn't fix it right but now there's some new stuff coming right yeah that different um ketones are helpful people have seen different things with different oxygen oxygen yeah um hyperbaric oxygen therapy people have seen different things with different types of mushrooms that you're able to basically stimulate neural activity and redevelop different pathways that previously people thought were compromised.

So it's exciting.

Yeah, man, because some of these fighters, seeing them get older, oh, it's tough.

It's tough.

And I think, especially in a world where like AI is coming up and all that, like you gotta, you gotta have an edge.

Like, you gotta be able to like connect the dots.

Because a lot of the like basic level stuff is gonna get taken over by a robot.

100%.

It already started.

It's already, yeah.

Yeah.

Going.

Like, I already, I already, I use AI for like a ton of stuff.

I use it daily.

Yeah, constantly.

Yeah, whenever I travel, I use it for restaurants.

Yeah, dude, I have, I have chat GPT on my like bottom on my dock.

Oh, you could do that?

Like on my you gotta show me how to do that.

Like on the so you could just search on your homepage?

Like on the yeah, on the bottom.

Wow.

I just use it that much.

Oh, on the bottom.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Like it's just like I got

four text notes.

It's one of my top four.

Yeah.

It's my starting starting lineup.

What do you use it mainly for?

Man, I use it for everything.

I'll use it for like, I mean, if I want to read something really quickly, I'll just like load it into ChatGPT and be like, yo, give me the five points.

Damn.

And I'll use it for, you know, making little scripts, little like.

Twitter threads, this and that, social media scripts.

I'll use it for

like job interviews.

Like, yo, I got, I want to to assess this candidate.

Here's their LinkedIn.

Here's what I need to assess them for.

Here's what I'm uploading their LinkedIn and the job description and be like, okay, give me some questions.

It's never going to do the perfect full job, but it gets you like 70% there.

The biggest thing for me is it solves that blank page thing.

Like you don't have that writer's block of like, oh, gosh, where did I say?

You get something like decent, then you can immediately, for me, I just immediately am in there.

Oh, yeah, like.

Number three out of four, not that good.

Let me brush it up.

But it's like, it gets the ball rolling in a really positive way.

I got an AI thing.

It looks at my, you know that thing in Doge or Elon Musk sent that email.

What are the five things you did this week?

Yeah, yeah.

So I've been doing that at my company for like

five years.

Oh, really?

Yeah, where every Friday we have our all hands and we open up a Notion doc.

Yeah.

And everyone has a little, it has their name there and they got to like write in, what'd you do this week?

And this wasn't controversial at all.

We've been doing it forever.

Like we're a fully remote culture.

We're not all in the office together.

So just every Friday we get together.

Everyone writes in what are the top, you know, three, four, five things you did this week.

I actually made a little AI script that does that.

There's a little tool called Lindy, where basically it pulls from my emails, pulls from my calendars, and writes my top things I did this week.

No way.

And again,

it's not all the way 100% perfect, but it's like I did today.

It was like four out of five.

Wow.

Good.

And I just like brushed up the other one.

And so I'm starting to see all these areas that it's like, like, I want everyone on my team instead of their next hire,

the next hire, I want them to think about like what AI you could use instead.

Like, how do you, how do you take whatever problem you're trying to solve and like use AI for it?

I don't think that people are going to get replaced by AI, but I think people are going to get replaced by people that can use AI.

I see.

Oh, yeah.

So, I think, I think there's job security as long as you're on top of it.

It's like if the internet comes and there's email and Excel files and all that, like the past generation, like whatever happened 20, 30 years ago, like if that happened and you were just stuck on like fax machines and hadn't written notes, like you're gone.

You're dead.

Like, there's no, there's no job.

But if you're gonna adopt to the new tools, I think there is job security.

You just gotta be plastic with it.

You gotta be like able to

morph around the tools, be able to use the tools.

There's, I think, always going to be the need for that human operator to stitch things together, but you got to be like active in that spot.

Agreed.

Yeah.

You got to embrace it.

I know a lot of people are opposed, but you should at least learn how to use it.

I don't even get that point.

Like, how do you be opposed?

It's like being opposed to the rising tide in the ocean.

Like, there's some things that are just inevitable.

Like, it doesn't matter your opinion about it.

Like, the tide is going to rise.

Clearly, AI is having a moment.

Like, it's one of those things.

I think

I just wonder, like, what it's not productive to have an opinion.

It's like when it's raining out.

Like, I don't feel mad or sad or happy or anything.

Just is.

Like, wear an umbrella, dance in a puddle, like, enjoy it.

Like, you might as well enjoy it.

You might as well, like,

take advantage of what.

objective reality actually is.

Yeah.

Like, if you see it, right, go buy some NVIDIA and go learn some tools.

That's the entrepreneur in you.

Yeah, just like,

it's not productive to have a strong opinion about it.

Just like see that it's happening and do something about it or don't or sit it out.

But like being anti-like what no one cares.

The universe doesn't care if you don't like AI.

Like it's going to clearly have, it's like saying that you don't like freaking Microsoft Excel.

Like, okay, you want to go back to graph paper and

paper?

Like, that it's inevitable.

There's going to be AI girlfriends.

Have you seen that?

Yeah, that's the robots.

Yeah.

So they're saying 30 to 40% of the market will be dating those in like 20 years.

Yeah, like that movie, her.

Yeah,

that was a good one.

Yeah, that was the Megan Fox one, right?

Um, um, Scarlett Johansen.

Oh, is it scarlet?

Okay, I might be thinking of something else.

Well, she never comes on screen, it's always just her voice, and then it's um, Yoke, I can never say his name, Joe Kim Phoenix, Joachim Phoenix is on, he's and he falls in love with her.

It's voiced by Scarlett Johansson, but you never see her face because interesting computer.

Um, yeah, that's gonna be crazy.

What do you think of that?

Like, that's some black mirror shit, bro.

That shit scares me.

I mean, I, I think it's still, I think what's gonna happen is across the board, the premium thing is always gonna be the human-to-human connection.

Like, you could have a robot make your sushi, or you could go to like the five-star restaurant and have like an actual, like, inventive human person doing it.

Yeah, I think the same thing with girlfriends, the same thing with everything.

Like, you can get the robot version that's probably like 80-20.

It's probably like almost as good and like way cheaper, but I think you're always going to have, I think what's going to happen is like, like the human human to human stuff is always going to be the premium and the stuff that people really, really want.

I think you're going to be able to go and get like a really nice steak, really nice sushi, really nice, whatever you want made by a robot in like a few years, maybe sooner than we even think.

But I think that the like ultra high, and I think if you're going to go pay $500 for a meal, that's going to be human, and that's going to be part of the like premium aspect of it, the

aspect of it.

And I think just across the whole board, I think people are still going to want to watch sports.

I actually think you're still going to want to watch, like, if we're surrounded by robots all day and robots doing all your you're like it's gonna be such a breath of fresh air to go to an nba game and see like human to human doing like do you actually do you think people would want to watch like robot teams playing basketball it's just not yet stupid not yet maybe way in the future yeah and at that point it's just like i guess you're watching you're like a fan of the program or of the robot yeah like there are battle bots out here have you seen that it's true yeah that battle each other it is kind of cool that's cool yeah i went and it was cool because you get to see like the kind of inventiveness and but it's its own separate thing like i don't think that that's taking market share from NBA.

And humans are inventing those, too.

Yeah, and it has that human feel to it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I think

the human-to-human stuff is always going to be there as the premium

basis stuff.

The most expensive stuff is going to be the human touch.

Yeah.

For food, I prefer human, I think, because I think there's a spiritual component to making food.

Interesting.

I think there's

an energy component.

Whoa.

Yeah.

I don't know if you're spiritual at all, but like when someone you love makes the food, it just tastes better, dude.

Yeah, yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, there's always something that feels like the vibes aren't totally there when you get takeout yeah no it can be um but it's like it doesn't taste as good as when you sit in the same restaurant right yeah yeah yeah because they're making it to go there's something to that apparently there's like even just right after you cook food if you eat it immediately you get more of the nutrients from it really yeah then

i forget what it's called this um japanese like stone

grill thing where you like grill it right there and you eat it And apparently it's way better for you.

And like Cavemen used to always just like, you grill it at the fire and you eat it right away.

You weren't like, it wasn't like sitting in some Uber for 45 minutes.

Yeah, some star film box.

Yeah, yeah.

I believe it.

I think, I think having like that per that time to like with someone that you love and like making a meal together, I agree.

I think that's still going to be pretty.

I think only you're going to be able to replace it.

I think it'll be able to replace like the, remember Soylent, like the meal in a bottle.

Yeah, like that will get better.

I think like the

cheap robot meal will get better and better, but I think the premium, like best in class experience is always going to be like handmade stuff with people that you have kinship with agreed 100

michael it's been awesome man where can people find ketone and keep up with you yeah so you can check us out we're on instagram at ketone i'm at michael d brand i love hearing from people whether entrepreneurs athletes just curious people i love hearing from people so yeah definitely yeah definitely say and check out the pod too oh yeah i got a podcast it's called fast ones yeah my first guest on that was john jones i got steve who was on there riley reed adult entertainer was on there we've had some really fun guests on there we've got a bunch of episodes coming out, too.

It's called Fast Ones.

It's a show where we ask 10 questions in 10 minutes and we do it on a treadmill.

Every minute it goes up by one mile an hour.

So we start at one.

We're just walking.

And every minute it goes up by one.

So by the end of 10 minutes, we're doing 10 miles an hour, which is a six-minute mile.

So we're cooking by the end of it.

Sean, you got to come out.

I'll come out in LA.

Yeah, come on.

I will.

I'll try not to throw up like Steve-O.

Oh, dude, he was probably the closest to puking out.

I love it, man.

We'll check out, check it out.

We'll link the pod below.

Thanks for watching, guys.