Latest / Your Thoughts Your Reality / What’s Worth Chasing Now? | Mission — The 2nd Silent War | Tony Medrano

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What’s Worth Chasing Now? | Mission — The 2nd Silent War | Tony Medrano · Your Thoughts Your Reality

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: What are you chasing now?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: For veterans and high performers, finishing one mission can create an uncomfortable question.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: What's next?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Another challenge can keep us moving.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm but movement isn't always a purpose.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: Today's conversation is about mission, the second silent war, and how service, entrepreneurship, endurance, injury, and recovery can force us to ask not only what we're capable of doing, but what's actually worth doing next.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Your Thoughts, Your Reality with Michael Cole, the podcast that shines a compassionate light on the journey of veterans battling through life's challenges.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Michael is a dual elite certified neuroencoding specialist in coaching and keynote training presentations, dedicated to guiding military veterans as they navigate the intricate pathways of post-deployment life.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Join him as we delve into the profound realm of neuroencoding science, empowering these brave individuals to conquer universal battles, procrastination, self-doubt, fear, and more.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Together, let's uncover the strength within you to re-engage with families and society, forging a new path forward.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Tony Madrano is a former U.S.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Naval Service Warfare officer who served aboard a guided missile destroyer.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: He's a serial technology entrepreneur who built companies around emerging technologies for decades.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: Tony is also a three-time full Ironman triathlon finisher.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Today, he's CEO and co-founder of Longevity Plan AI, which is focused on AI personalized health, recovery, and human performance.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: His story is one of service, reinvention, endurance, and repeatedly finding a new mission after the last one changes.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Tony, welcome to your thoughts, your reality.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: Well, tell us a little more about yourself, if you will.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Mike.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, I've always been interested in serving veterans.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I joined the Navy while I was in high school under an ROTC scholarship.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: They paid for my college.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Great, great program.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: And really, you know, largely because I just wanted to serve serve my country.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: I felt really grateful to be here and to have opportunity, even though nothing was given to me or easy in life.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: But the the military gave me a way to earn it.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I relish that.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: So since I've gotten out, I've been part of many veterans transition programs, helped, you know, mentor veterans as they move into the civilian world.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Myself, I went, you know, after my deployment and service aboard the USS Chandler out of San Diego.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: I went to grad school, went to Stanford Business School and Law School, and started an entrepreneurial career there in Silicon Valley.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Super exciting, you know, very much tip of the spear as far as technology entrepreneurship goes.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And the last 25 years of my career have been adventurous.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I always look back on my Navy times as being just so fulfilling and so mission-oriented that I constantly want to give back and help veterans.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, with my current company, the origins relate to my service injury.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: I tore my left meniscus 30 years ago during military service and used peptides to heal that injury just a couple years ago.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, 30-year-old nagging injury that hampered my athletic hobby of triathlons.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: And just like Joe Rogan did, you know, on his tennis elbow, um, I used the same compound to fix myself and then wanted to spread the word because it was really relevant for veterans.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the Veterans Administration is doing uh clinical studies for GLP1s and how they help veterans with substance abuse issues.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And there are just some great peptides out there that are frankly undermarketed and underappreciated, you know, because they're not owned by biopharma and they're not patentable, but they are widely used in uh the veteran community for injury repair, weight loss, mental health, and you know, dementia-related things.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm super excited to have you on.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, thank you for talking about that.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: I know enough to be partially dangerous with peptides, but I mean I could literally probably talk to you for two hours just about peptides.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, and let's let's definitely dive into that.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but before we do, I want to I want to you know hear more about kind of your journey.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, aboard a destroyer, you know, the mission was clear and people depended on you when things went wrong, right?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: So when you left the Navy, what do you what was the hardest part about entering a world where nobody was handing you the objective anymore?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: It it was really confusing.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And my my job in particular as a surface warfare officer was damage control assistant.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I was the head firefighter and emergency response person on the ship.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Mission is clear.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: If there's a fire, go put it out.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: If there's a you know repair or a flooding or you know, something like that, take care of it.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the mission of the ship was you know relatively clear too, right?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Orders made sense, they were all aligned, very little politics, very little motivation for profit, although you know, there is some career politics going on, I guess, but nothing like the civilian world, especially in Silicon Valley, where the profit motive is paramount, supersedes everything.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I had to relearn that.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was confusing.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And people that I, you know, I was about 28 when I entered civilian life, had to adapt really quickly to people's, I'd say aggressive, selfish behavior.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: There wasn't as much teamwork.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what that the advantages I had though is because I had those team building skills and those personal leadership skills, I was a great manager.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I knew how to manage people and to get things done.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it seemed like everybody else was looking out for themselves.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: They weren't even team sports type of people, you know, because the technology entrepreneurs sometimes aren't just team sports people, they're more individuals that are geniuses.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: But so I found my niche, which was helping people work together better and focused on that.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love that.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, so many people, whether it's uh you're you're transitioning out of the military or a a high pressure job or any of those things, it's it's people get lost very easily, right?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I can say that for myself.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, obviously you you kind of struggled with it, and I I think that's the normal story, right?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: And and once you find something with that purpose, it really changes the game.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: It really changes the game.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Having having a purpose uh is something that you know some of those companies are are lacking.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it it frankly, it wasn't that motivating to me to not have a purpose because I'm not necessarily profit or greed oriented.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I sure I like to run a company that makes money and can pay the bills and is successful.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, I I'd rather win and rather do do good for people.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: So finding that, you know, I have currently with with my company and sporadically throughout my career aligned with companies or started companies myself that filled a need in the market that I thought was good and I could create the mission.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's really why I've been an entrepreneur, is that I like to be opportunistic and take the initiative, the things that were you know ingrained in me as a junior officer.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: I I love that.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: And and really, I mean, and I'm I'm getting off topic just a little bit, but I do want your opinion on this or your thoughts, of course, because I know mine.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, when you have that purpose and you're helping people, burnout tends to not happen, right?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: I what I love what I'm doing.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, for example, I got up at three something this morning before my alarm.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Alarm was set at four because I was excited about what I was gonna do today.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean, I I had a long workout to get in in the morning before this podcast, and then a fun day at work.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, who's who says that?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: If you hate your job, you're not getting up before your four o'clock alarm, that's for sure.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I was up an hour early myself, so not not a four o'clock.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: So, and that that is the difference, right?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: Is when you have a purpose and a passion for something, and again, when you're helping someone else, it changes the game.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, really, I when you're staying up late and getting up early because you love what you do, it's not worth exactly.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't feel like I I work any days now, but one could say that I work seven, you know, 24-7.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Love it, yeah.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: I absolutely get it.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: I absolutely get it, my friend.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: So uh when you were gone, you've gone from Navy officer to Stanford entrepreneur to technology CEO to Iron Man athlete, you know.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you've had a full plate, right?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: Because obviously you're passionate about each of those.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm asking this question not like to you necessarily, but for other people to think about.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: As you know, when you've when you're going through and you have that that multiple aspects, at what point do you ask yourself whether you're genuinely pursuing purpose or whether you're simply become very good at needing the next difficult thing?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a really good question.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, for for years, my entrepreneurial work did lack purpose.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't have a clear goal and I wasn't aligned with companies that were helping people.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's one of the reasons I started my my current company, is I needed to get out of that sort of boring, mundane, just you know, hold down the job and progress in your career type of mentality that so many people get.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say 80 or 90 percent of people are running around like that.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and get back to my my purpose of helping people, and specifically in the health, you know, recovery area.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: That to me was perfect.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I really had to be aggressive about it and say, I'm gonna quit my job and align my Iron Man hobby because people were asking me questions about health and fitness, and I was mentoring people there.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna make a company out of that and incorporate the peptides that helped me and teach that to other people because there's a need there, and I can I can help people in the market, and it's an unmet need, you know, because really my phone was ringing off the hook with questions about how do how do I do what you've done, Tony.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Right so I said, wait a minute, that just it seems obvious that I need to start a business here and use artificial intelligence to help answer people's questions and make it more personable.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that that to me that the purpose is everything.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm working twice as hard as I ever have in my career, but twice as happy.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: I love that, man.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I I I always look back and and I invite guests and obviously listeners and and so on to look back at when when the door was closing, or you thought, oh my god, the sky is falling, or whatever you want to call it, right?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: Back in the military when you injured yourself.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: And because of that injury and the other things that you went through, you're doing what you're doing now and helping, you know, so many people.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: For me, life has been full of obstacles.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've you know, my first company I started went out of business in 2016.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: I started an artificial intelligence company.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was chat focused before chat GPT.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was too early.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: We went out of business.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I lost everything on both of those companies.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, was hurt in the military, was hit by a car in 2019 before my first Iron Man separated my shoulder, you know, had to swim with one arm through my first Iron Man, 2.4 miles in the ocean.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, well, I made it in time, but it was it was ugly and I had swallowed a lot of water.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, so the obstacles mote motivated me to to get around, you know, to to achieve.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like I said before, it hasn't been hasn't been easy, but it's been kind of fun.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if you take it with the right attitude of I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna lean into this situation.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, my second Iron Man, there's a tropical storm pop popped up in the Caribbean.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was gonna be a nice, you know, Caribbean Iron Man, and it wasn't.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was two inches of rain flooding the streets when you're cycling, which is pretty dangerous.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I I thought it was kind of funny.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, really, what's next?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, as long as I don't get hurt, I don't want to get too hurt hurt too much.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what I love about this is you're you're you're not saying, you know, these horrible things and traumas and so on, which some people would call it, right?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: Is yeah, happened, but no, you you took them, you grew from them, you learned from them because, in a sense, they're kind of a gift, right?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because it taught you, yeah, I can run, I can ride a bike through two inches of water.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm strong enough to to swim with one arm, you know, all of these things.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what I love about you and your story, Tony, is you literally take it from the horrible thing that most people would say, life is life is so against me, and all this shit is happening to me, to yeah, I did that.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm sure that in the military they still say embrace the suck.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, and and for me, I've always I I did that before the military because you know, life was difficult too, and always had a sense of humor, but always was able to get get around it.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I've always been able to laugh at the situation, and I think that's the best way, you know, you embrace it, you get real, and then you you don't try to get around the responsibility.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: You still have the responsibility to do the best in that situation, and a lot can be achieved in those situations, just like you said.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't be at my current company and have started this if I didn't get hurt 30 years ago in the military, and also if I didn't lose all my money in the AI company that I started before AI was cool.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: So here I am helping people running triathlons at 55 years old and in the best shape of my life.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's fantastic, and and it's it's such it's it's really a life lesson, man, because when you go from stuck in the suck to gratefulness because of the things that actually happen to you, it changes the whole game.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I love that.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Wallowing in pity, no good.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people do that, and there's a lot of enabling that goes on with people that encourage the pity parties.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's not me.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I and for for me, you know, I I I I think it's okay to be there for a minute.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: So you you can feel it, you can learn from it, you can move from it, right?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you don't lean into it a little bit, I'm sure you do this as well.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, oh shit, I can't believe that just happened.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, let's let's move.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: But I think there's that's really important because you do need to learn from it, and obviously you have.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's fantastic.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: So, what I'd like to do is let's move into you know the the getting hit by the car.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna go back to the dark side just for a minute, but we'll come back to the light, right?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then I want to get and want to get into peptides.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: So so six weeks before your first Iron Man, you were hit by a car and separated your shoulder, and you still chose to compete, right?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: First of all, you rock because most people want it.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: But looking back, where's the line between extraordinary resilience and refusing to listen when your body is telling you to stop?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's important to start.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, great, great question.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I the the the day before I got hit by the car, I was undecided as to whether I was gonna run an Iron Man or a mini triathlon.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: I had signed up for both.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not not unreasonable, not you know, too stubborn, good contingency planner, being uh, you know, head firefighter, you gotta have options.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm not not reckless.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: But after I got hit by the car, there was no choice for me.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: My body was saying, do the full Iron Man, you can.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: So it was the first question I asked of the doctor when I was in the hospital was, hey, do you think I can run an Iron Man in six months?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Expecting him to say no.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yeah, I think you can do it.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, come back in two weeks.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen people do it before.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: We're not going to do surgery on this because you know there is, I have an orthopedic surgeon on my board, and there's sort of a 50-50 split with this injury where your collarbone and your shoulder blade that are connected at the top, the you know, ligaments holding them together separate, and now that that what you think is one bone is no longer connected, so it flexes, and you can even see my bone popping out there.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my collarbone.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: With that injury, you can still maintain enough power in the arm, and it doesn't hurt, it's not like a broken collarbone.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I I doubled down.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it wasn't my so my body was saying, Yes, you can do it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: You trained this hard, you're in this great shape.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's no no effective risk, it wouldn't be like a torn meniscus, right?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Or you can't run a marathon on a torn meniscus.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: With this, I basically just had to learn to swim with one arm, which was just a little more work.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I had to bike in in one gear because I couldn't reach the uh travel bike that they have the the gears down in front with while you're in arrow position, so I I couldn't change gears.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Luckily, it was a flat course, so you know there were some things in my favor, and what I did was did more cardio because I knew I was gonna be sloppy, and so I had to get in even better shape, and that was really my goal.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't trying to win, I'm not hyper competitive in that sense.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to hack the system and see if I could do it by swimming side stroke, which I still to this day have never seen a single person in an Iron Man swim, you know, side stroke the whole way.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna swim breaststroke this year, by the way, because I just can't do a freestyle.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have enough power in that one arm, and then I don't want to swim in circles.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um but but yeah, great question.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's really important for people not to be reckless and not to injure themselves further.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, and I I I've struggled with that, you know, as well as, you know, okay, am I injured?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: Am I just sore?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and and obviously going and getting medical advice and talking to doctors and analyzing for your own health is actually gonna, you know, gonna be the best, right?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Super important.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Get the best medical advice and look for the long term.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, our company's called longevity plan for that reason.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're interested in athletic solutions, sure, but for the long term, not just for an event or for a couple years.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: We want I want to be doing this while I'm in my 80s.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm 55 now, and I I can see I can see my 80s from here, and I I can see that they could be just like this.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: So let's let's let's get into into uh peptides.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, you I we did some research and found that you initially you were hesitant about peptide therapy and later incorporated obviously into your own recovery journey and your business and helping people.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: So, what were your original hesitations and what changed your mind?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: My hesitations were based on influencers being excited about it and it seeming pitchy, and then the terminology around it being kind of unique and and difficult.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I I'm hesitant about anything that is sold, yeah, any new technology, anything that promises better health outcomes.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm skeptical of big pharma and a lot of the compounds that are out there because of the side effects and and their profit motive.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just a skeptical person in general.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: I don't tend to believe people when they're selling stuff.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um but once I my injury started to flare up again.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: I was training for an Iron Man a couple years ago, and meniscus tear flared up.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't run enough, I was in good enough shape, but two months before the Iron Man, I had to pull out.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then I started gaining weight because I was eating like a triathlete and I wasn't able to work out like a triathlete.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was up to 220 pounds at 5'10, and that's that's not it's not a triathlete weight.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I got introduced to it by somebody I trust who was a real scientist, and I said, okay, this is the right time.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do this to fix my knee.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: But most importantly, I looked at the science myself.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: I looked at the clinical studies, I did the critical, you know, research.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've got you know, four degrees, right?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Two from Stanford, Harvard, and Col, and then Harvard and Columbia.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Underachiever you skeptical.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, I know how to read the literature myself and not trust people to read it for me.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's really important.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody in the military can do that too.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many, you know, the pubs and manuals you're reading, and you know, you should know who to trust.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: You can trust somebody when they give you boring facts, when they give you hype and and things like that, I immediately just know not to trust them.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I looked more into the you know the biology and the chemistry of peptides, said, Oh, this makes sense.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna try BPC 157 on my knee, just like Joe Rogan did for his elbow, just like other other people have, like Andrew Huberman, you know, uh Gary Brecka, right?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Some incredible scientists out there that know what they're talking about.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: It worked in you know, two weeks, my knee was 100% better, and it is still better to this day, right?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even know that I had that injury.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then I tried GLP1 for weight loss because I was up at 220.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm down at 180.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've you know reduced my body fat from like 22% to 9% now.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in the best shape of my life by far.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Able to do five-hour workouts five or six days a week, back-to-back five-hour workouts, if you can imagine that at 55 years old, but better than I ever could, yeah.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's because of the recovery aspects of you know, of peptides and and the the weight loss and the visceral fat reduction and everything.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I I've done a lot of homework in those in those early days, especially, because I'm really conscious about what goes into my body.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I eat super clean, I cook 99% of my food.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: I no longer drink alcohol because of the GLP1s actually help reduce your cravings for alcohol, drugs, gambling, other things.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's there's some benefits there that are just amazing.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm doing a lot of work and a lot of research and leveraging my you know research skills to do things that are good for me and then spreading the word, and it's really motivational.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: I really I really like helping other people in similar situations.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely love it.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I have an absolute side question.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: So GLP1, you hear good and bad, right?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna go ahead and ask the question in case you can still hear me because I think you're just turning something off.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: I heard in the background.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: So with GLP1, the you know, you hear people aren't eating enough, they're losing muscle, their muscles starting to mush in a sense, you know, kind of thing.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: So talk to me about that and how you counteract the negative effects of that.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: And again, I'm going by what I'm hearing.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so don't get anybody mistake.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_02: This is not science, what I'm talking about.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: So if you will talk about the how to how to counteract literally.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's a really important question.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you asked.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: So so GLP ones, there are three classes of GLP ones.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Ozempic was the 1.0, right?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it works on the GLP one receptor, which controls your appetite.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what what that does is stop you from being hungry, it tells you you're full really quickly.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: People lost a lot of weight, but you need to eat protein and you need to do resistance training in order to keep your muscle.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: So there's nothing inherent in the GLP1 that uh reduces your muscle or that will make your hair fall out.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: But if you don't eat, it you will.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter if you're on a DLP1 or not.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't eat and if you don't exercise while you're losing that much weight, a lot of it will be muscle.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to do is signal to your body, I'm using these muscles because muscles are metabolically more expensive than fat, right?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to signal to your body while going through this transformation, I want to keep these muscles, and I'm eating protein to build the muscle, otherwise, your body doesn't know and it will get rid of the muscle.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not the GLP one, it's the person, it's the execution of it.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: And exercise and protein intake, one one gram per pound of body weight, are totally essential, and that's the responsibility of the individual and you know the practitioner involved or the person, but it's one of the most difficult convincing people to exercise that don't want to exercise is one of the most difficult things to do because they always have an excuse, and it's responsive.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah, yeah.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you can't you can't do the same exact thing you're doing now and expect everything to turn Arnold Schwarzenegger and everything to be okay, right?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: Consistency, it's consistency, it's taking action with consistency, right?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and of course, talk to your talk to your medical, you know.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think let me go back two steps.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: I think also what's happening out there is there's just so much a flood of it that people aren't actually talking to their doctors and really doing what they're supposed to do.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's mindset, and I also think it's it's forgive me, but ignorance.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there's a lot of noise out there, yeah.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: And people, you know, we all know this that people believe what they want to believe, not necessarily what they need to hear, which is you know a terrible way to go throughout life, whether that be politics, but especially as it relates to science and health.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, sometimes you don't want to hear that you know, you need to eat protein.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not a big fan of protein, you know, you got to find some protein powder or something and and actually exercise, do resistance training specifically.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Light cardio or light exercise won't keep the muscle.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that that's a great uh now.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: Version 2.0 gets a little better in that trisepatide is a new compound that's FDA approved, a GLP1, that also hits the glucagon receptor and will enable the body to process more of the glucose that it's created.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: So it helps you reduce visceral fat, turn more of that sugar into energy.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Retitrutide version 3.0 is even better.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: It specifically targets visceral fat and liver fat and has been shown in the clinical studies to help with inflammation and dementia and other brain health.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: So they're finding these GLP1s are just incredible at things that they didn't expect.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so they're getting different use cases for those.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, are there side effects?
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, especially at the higher doses, which are not necessary.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I experimented on myself with all of the dosing protocols as per the clinical studies and found I lost the most weight and maintained the most muscle at the lower doses.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I was meticulous about my training and my diet.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: And when I didn't feel like eating because they affect your hunger, just have to force down a protein shake or do something.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: But it really worked for me.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean absolutely love it, man.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I can't believe we're almost out of time.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: So do you we actually are over time?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: Are you okay talking for a couple more minutes?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, sure.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: Fantastic, thank you.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: So, so just because of time, and I have a feeling we're gonna have you back on, um, is what are some of the other peptides that are super important that are out there right now for longevity, for just general health, if you will?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there are a couple wonderful peptides that have been widely recognized and used by millions of people.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Some were even moved from category two to category one by the FDA just last month in July.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: So they're getting better uh federal regulatory approval too.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: MOTC is one of my favorite.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's M-O-T-S-C.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: What that is, it's a mitochondrial peptide.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: And if we remember from high school biology, the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's where your energy comes from, your ATP, the energy that you burn thinking or you know, exercising.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that MOTC helps produce more mitochondria.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it gives you more energy, not like caffeine, which is just a stimulant, you know, and gets you all wired.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: Mod C will help build real sustaining energy throughout your body.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: And remember, the peptides are just signaling molecules, they tell your body to produce more of something that it already has been producing since birth.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: But when you hit about 20, you start producing less and less of these natural compounds, like you know, in in your body.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: So the peptides are a reminder.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, you know, produce more of that.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's what BPC157 is, derived from human gastric juice to repair things.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: GLP1s, you know, same thing, derived from the endocrine system of humans.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that is one of my favorites.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: Gosh, let's see.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: There are probably a lot of them.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: I uh I really like NAD plus.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's not a peptide, it's a small molecule, and that's just a classification because what peptides are is a class is just a class of proteins.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: They are chains of amino acids from two to 40 amino acids.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so when people talk about peptides all having one type of quality, or all peptides are bad, or all are risky, or things like that, that's an immediate sign is that they don't know what they're talking about because all peptides are different, they're like plants.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Some are poisonous, hemlock, you could say, is bad.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, an apple is good, right?
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you and they have to be respected as such.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: So they're having you know very different attributes, very different risk profiles, different clinical studies, different, you know, research histories.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I'll give you another example of a peptide called tesamoralin.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's in a completely different category of growth hormone peptides.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: And what this does is it stimulates the pituitary gland to reduce, produce more growth hormone for repair and for visceral fat reduction.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now, it's been FDA approved since 2016, and it's shown in the clinical studies to reduce visceral fat by about you know 10% with a regular use.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: Extremely safe.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: And again, all these things are inherently very safe because your body produces them and you have them in you already.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like you know, a drug where it's manufactured completely synthetically, you're introducing a new compound.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, your body doesn't know what what's going to happen.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: So there are inherently more side effects with drugs than peptides.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: But testamoralin is hugely popular, hugely effective, large clinical studies on it, very safe.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, those are really my favorite.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I started my weight loss journey with was BPC157 and TB500 for repair of my injury, uh, GLP1 for fat loss, appetite control, and better nutrition partitioning to get that sugar more utilized and get my visceral fat down, and then testamoralin for a little bit of muscle building and uh body recomposition, you know, more growth hormone for systemic repair and rejuvenation.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll have to throw in GHKCU, which is the copper peptide that's been in women's skin cream for years.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: This is our biggest seller among women.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: It helps your skin, your hair, it's unbelievable.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: I just tried it because of a recommendation, not being into you know, beauty, but it really works.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: My skin feels and looks 10 years younger, hair is thicker, and it helps with wound healing too.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: So all those scrapes I get out there when I'm training, most heal up in half the time now.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: And it's systemic, it's not just topical, it's because you inject them, you know, subcutaneously, you get the systemic benefits of things like wound healing and collagen synthesis throughout the body.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's great for me.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: Fantastic, man.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: Sign me up.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: So with that said, uh let's uh two more minutes.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: I want to talk about your company and what your company does specifically.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so if you can kind of talk about how they're doing, you know, you're using AI with diet and peptides with with the whole program, if you will.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we work with a lot of coaches.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: So there's any coaches out there in your audience that want somebody with peptide and AI experience to help your clients.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: Your clients have questions about peptides.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the right person.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: What we do then is we not only supply the peptides, but we have an AI platform that coaches and their clients can use for free that will help them design their protocols.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: So they put in their goals, they connect their wearable device to our platform, upload their lab reports, their DEXA scan, their VO2max, whatever information they have, and we build a digital twin for the athlete, the individual.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: And the coach can help with that.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: So instead of the coach having to learn AI and peptides, which are kind of little heavy lifts, they can depend on that for us, get the peptides from us, still focus on the coaching and the clients.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we're building a nice ecosystem of coaches of all kinds, you know, wellness coaches, fitness coaches, you know, Olympic coaches, recovery coaches, and mental health coaches, all those things can be helped by peptides and a little AI for efficiency.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely love it.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, with I I think when the coach focuses on mindset and keeping people moving forward and that kind of thing.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: I absolutely love this, man.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: Tony, for anyone listening who wants to learn more about your work, longevity plan AI, or your approach to performance and longevity, what's the best way to connect with you and so they can follow what you're building?
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, wonderful.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um, any anybody can find me on LinkedIn as Tony Medrano, or you can uh find me on our site.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'll answer all inquiries that come in.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we do have an affiliate program for coaches where coaches earn 20% of whatever their clients buy on our site.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: So you can you know send them to our way for peptides and AI.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: We'll support your your coaching and uh send the coaches' clients as well.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: So you can find me 24-7, both on LinkedIn and our site.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, as we know, time is the most precious resource we have as human beings.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_02: We can't get it back.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: Tony, thank you for spending this moment in time to help our mission and make a difference.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: If something in today's conversation resonated with you, don't just move on to the next thing.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_02: Sit with a minute, research it, look into it for a minute.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: And if you know someone who needs to hear this today, share this episode with them.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_02: You can also join us at your thoughtsyourreality.com where we continue these conversations around identity and growth.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: And remember, your thoughts shape your reality.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: We're out of here.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us on another insightful journey of Your Thoughts Your Reality Podcast with your host, Michael Cole.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: We hope the conversation sparks some thoughts that resonate with you.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: To dive deeper into empowering your thoughts and enhancing your reality, visit EmpowerPerformance Strategies.com.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, your thoughts shape your reality, so make them count.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, stay inspired and keep creating the reality you desire.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Catch you on the next episode.