Joe Quattrone 00:35
Welcome back to the FUZZEE’-ish podcast. I’m your host Joey Q. And with me today, as always, are JMG and Kary, boys, how are you doing? Doing good,

Kary Youman 00:46
man? Yeah, man doing well, it’s good to see you all spend a minute.

JM Guthrie 00:49
Right? minutes. Yeah, together. Sure. Let’s

Joe Quattrone 00:53
go on life. Happy February happy 2024. I know we’ve done a couple of interviews in the new year. But this is our first fellas edition of the New Year. So big chance for us to catch up and just see what’s going on in each other’s lives and talk a little bit about the industry and kind of current events and where we see this podcast going. So it’s been a little while since we got the three fellas, the three co hosts together with no guests. So just wanted to kind of, you know, do a little round robin here and see what’s going on in each other’s lives. I guess I’ll kick us off. On my side of the fence, there’s been some weird stuff going on weird stuff, negative stuff, heavy stuff. You know, my family, not necessarily me, or in my direct family. But in my kind of extended family, we’ve been dealing with some mental health issues, bouts of you know, homelessness, stuff like that. I’ve had a cousin die recently of a fentanyl overdose, which obviously is not great. Yeah, so, you know, I, I can’t help but thinking, I can’t help but to think that this message that we’re trying to get out there and MeTotal is is more relevant now than it ever has been before. Because, you know, seeing some of these things happen. It just reminds me of how how there’s not really a lot of places in society for people with like, hardcore mental health issues to go. You know, whether it is kind of bringing being on the brink of homelessness, and not necessarily having all of your bridges intact with your family members and friends or whether it is battling, you know, hardcore addiction. It just seems like these are the forgotten people in society. And it’s just a very heavy topic for me right now. Yeah, but I just, you know, thank God for my own unwavering commitment to MeTotal and living a clean lifestyle. So, you know, that’s some of the things I’ve got going on, obviously, the business is going well, you know, I think I’ve been consolidating some of my practice. So instead of working on a lot of different clients, I’ve been trying to do fewer clients and commit more of my time to them. So, you know, life as an entrepreneur is an up see, you know, upside down topsy turvy endeavor, but I think I’m learning a lot and I’m trying to put those things into practice, but that’s just so what’s going on in my life. I’m thankful that my, my immediate family, everything is going well, they’re, you know, Truman’s six months old now. So, you know, I think he was born one month before we launched this podcast, and now he’s a growing dude, you know, he’s, he’s getting big. He’s still not sleeping all the way through the night. It’s causing me some problems there. But family life is pretty

JM Guthrie 03:42
steep buckets and dad is waking

Joe Quattrone 03:45
up at 245 this morning, when my wife was like, I’ve been up all night with him. Can you like crap?

JM Guthrie 03:54
I do not miss that part.

Joe Quattrone 03:57
Yeah, it’s, you know, it’s the life I chose. I can’t complain too much, right? Yeah. Three is what you guys carry, what’s going on in your life?

Kary Youman 04:06
Yeah, man. Again, condolences to just you and your family. It sucks to lose people, especially when it’s someone who’s close to you who you know like who you grew up with. So yeah, man just my prayers and condolences to your family. Yeah, man definitely has been a season for me as well. You know, I feel like for me what’s been on my heart lately has just been this whole concept of resilience and something we talk about a lot you know, when it comes to this whole MeTotal movement and you know, I put together a video the other day, it’s like, you know, when things are going good, you know, your wife is you know, happy with you and your kids are cooperating and your health and fitness are in shape. money’s coming in, like it’s easy to feel good. You know what I mean? Like Life is good. It’s easy just to sort of whistle and skip. But I think the true test really comes when that dark cloud comes in and you forgot to bring your umbrella and you’re like five miles away from home but you know, you got to get home. I think that That’s where the rubber meets the road. And for me, you know, personally, I think I’ve just really been looking at myself in the lens or from the lens of resilience and just really, instead of beating myself up really sort of trying to give myself a little bit more credit, because I think it’s easy to forget how far we have come on our journeys versus where we’re not. And I think for me, just really stacking on top of just some of my own challenges in life, I just realized, like, bro, like, Yeah, this is the part of the story that sucks. Like, this is the part of the story that, you know, you probably don’t want to repeat again. But if you’re looking at it on a screen, like this is actually the part that is the most interesting, like, this is the part that makes all the other stuff that happens that much more, you know, worthwhile. So I think for me, in general, just sort of being in the eye of a storm right now, just remembering to just kind of take a step back, like, Yes, I’m in it, but I don’t have to completely just get wrapped up in it. Like, you know, whoever out there is getting this message. Now, it’s like, just because you’re losing doesn’t mean you’re a loser, you know what I’m saying? And just because, you know, you gotta sit back right now, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be stuck in this sort of limbo. So for me, just lately, I’ve just been thinking a lot about just my own journey, how far I’ve come, just some of the incredible connections I’ve made, you know, obviously, you guys being part of that. But also just reminding myself that there are legitimately people out in the world who don’t feel like they have anyone to go to you know, and that right, there is just something that I hope, ultimately, this community can help to bridge that gap. Because we do want people to feel like they have support and knowing that when they are at those lower points in their life, you’re actually kind of exactly where you need to be as long as you can just keep your eye on the prize. So yeah, fellas, I didn’t mean to come up on here on my Tony Robbins, but I love I’m trying to get myself out of the darkness right now with a clear head.

JM Guthrie 06:53
So, you know, it’s interesting man like, and I appreciate the vulnerability carried in what you’re sharing. I appreciate the additional depth that we’ve connected on one on one particular to those challenges. And, you know, the thing that I’ve been really trying to take a step back and recognize, personally is it doesn’t it, what’s interesting is, it doesn’t matter how well life seems to be going on the surface or material materially, or how poorly it’s going on the surface or materially, the reality is, as you’re working towards whatever is the next level, whatever is the next chapter, whatever is the next blessing, whatever is the next, you know, profession, or occupation, or success story, or whatever that is, or, you know, 10 more pounds of lost weight. It’s such, it’s having to show up every day. Right and not seeing the result immediately. And that’s so hard. And I’ve been putting that into different flavors for my own self specific to different people that I’ve been talking to, that are having financial challenges, right. So you’re working hard on a daily basis and don’t see the fruits of your labor right away, you have to be thinking about that in the long term. And that’s really hard. Or you look at somebody who’s overweight, and they’re showing up to the gym every single day, and they’re getting on the scale. And they’re not seeing a lot of improvement. But the reality is to get to the place that they want to get to, they have to keep showing up. And it’s the same in work, right? Like, you know, when I think about my life professionally, and even personally, to some degree, there’s lots of things that I want to work towards in this next chapter, that I’ve that I look at myself in the mirror on a daily basis and think, Well, I showed up today, but I’m not really seeing the outcome or the results. And I’m not seeing the progress on the things that I really want to see progress on. And that’s hard. That’s hard for all of us. And that’s hard in life. And that’s the way life is. And I’ve seen a bunch of bullshit, you know, because we talk about this stuff all the time. Because I’m intrigued, I’m interested in it because I share stuff with my wife and with you guys and friends. That’s motivational. I get all the motivational stuff on my Instagram feed that is just filled with all these people that are basically reusing motivational quotes from other people over and over. But one that keeps coming up and I think is just so clear, is you’re living the life that you dreamed of 10 years ago, and I think most people can look at things that have progressed in their life and they’re certainly setbacks. But Kary, you wanted a wife, you wanted a family here you are, right. JM, you started a business you wanted it to be successful you wanted that happened, but we never are. And I think this is human nature. We’re never satisfied, or at least most of us aren’t satisfied. You’re always looking at the next thing and as you make each wrong. You want to keep going and In an understanding that it’s the sum of all the parts is the thing that I keep coming back to. And just lastly, I’ve talked but like, on the MeTotal side, in particularly Joe just like, you know, condolences on your friend, or on your cousin with fentanyl, you know, I think we could probably have a long dialogue with maybe have different people drop in and talk to us. But fentanyl is an epidemic. And it doesn’t get nearly the coverage that it should. I mean, the number of people that are dying on a daily basis, not even realizing that they’re consuming fentanyl is terrifying. Right there. There’s so much of this happening all over the place in the way that that at least that I am able, all of a sudden to measure it is it’s only every it’s every few days I hear about somebody else that’s like one deviation away from me in my circle that’s had either a loved one or a friend or a cousin. Or you know, even a spouse that’s passed from this chart, you know, somebody professionally their kids 17 years old, came home from basketball practice, went into their bathroom to take a shower. Dad went to bed brother went to bed woke up the next morning, he wasn’t in his room, door to the bathroom still locked his little brother 13 years old found him dead on the floor with a half pill still on the counter literally died immediately from from fentanyl laced pain pill that he had. That’s everywhere. That is so terrifying for me as a dad, right? Like thinking about if this is how it is in 2024 My oldest is only 10 years old. What is it going to be like when he’s 16 and 2030? If we don’t get a hold of this, how many more times is our boy that all of us know Jason Marshall, right? Good friend of ours growing up has been like, you know, salt of the earth and a fabric of rest for as long as we’ve been around, right? Like basically our entire lives. He has a thing on Facebook, where you post these pictures of people that die. Like rip you will never be forgotten. And my goodness, man like that feed has been live the last six months, you know, the number of people that are directly connected to our childhood that have lost their life, in in some cases have taken their life, but in a lot of cases have lost their life to fentanyl because they don’t have hope. And I think carry what you said about having people to talk to and having some hope of, you know, being able to ultimately get out of the hole that you’re in. That’s what I want to provide as part of this narrative in this story. And I know I totally started with drinking. And it’s certainly still the sort of origin of all of it. But at the end of the day, what we want to do is inspire people that there is a better life that you can live and it truly starts with taking one day one better day at a time. And while you might not see the result right away, if you keep at it all of us are models of the fact that the good things are to come and even through challenges you can find success and find all of these blessings. So yeah, it’s a lot of deep shit out there these days, you guys and yeah, and I would say

Joe Quattrone 13:23
you know, one word that popped out to me while you’re talking about that is you know, or not a word but like one kind of way of thinking about it is like what do you what do you determine to be a long time or a short amount of time? Right? So you know what an example is, I’ve been my whole life I’ve battled with my weight right? Back when I was 21. I went from like, almost 300 pounds to down to 175 pounds within about a year roughly. Of course it’s been like 25 years since that happened and I gained a bunch of weight going out to LA and then coming here to Tennessee and eventually got up to 60 to 65. But over the past six or seven months, I’ve actually lost about 30 pounds. So I’m back down and it’s actually the least amount of working out I’ve done in the past 20 years. How

JM Guthrie 14:13
much of the just how much of the jobs or sizing have you been doing as part of your actually I haven’t

Joe Quattrone 14:19
done a lot of that lately, but I know what you mean, that’s actually

JM Guthrie 14:23
me because you’re because you I gotta tell you Yeah, the freebie that face is like you might have to be like be the next filter. Oh man, but uh, he says he’s not really doing it but it just happens to be and there’s a right there. It’s again, it’s fucking I’m like starting to chomp on his tongue thinking about it. Then he’s got a best friend right there.

Joe Quattrone 14:45
It’s been about seven months that I’ve down 30 pounds from just really fasting and doing like different types of stuff

JM Guthrie 14:51
like that. Congrats. Amazing.

Joe Quattrone 14:53
But when I think about that, you know, is seven months a long time or is it a short amount of time right and the great I talk about it all the time with my wife, you know, because our, our newborn baby is six months old, and it feels like it happened like that. Right? Now I’m having another one every day. But every day when I step on the scale, you know, I don’t see that much progress. But it’s, it’s look, it’s thinking about it in that macro level when I, when I look back, and I’m like, Okay, well, 30 pounds in seven months, if I do that same thing for another seven months, that’s 60 pounds in 14 months, that’s a massive amount of weight loss in a relatively short amount of time, you know, and if I thought going into it, hey, this is gonna be a process, it’s going to take about a year and I’m gonna lose 60 pounds. I’m like, no problem. That’s, that’s no time at all right? But I think as humans, sometimes we’re in a microwave society, and we want to see stuff happen overnight. But it’s really just that, you know, slowing things down, looking at things in a macro, doing the same things repetitively over and over again, to create the habit is really, you know, that’s, you created the habit, you know, in most cases, you know, when you’re gaining weight, you created the habit by doing what you shouldn’t be doing over a long period of time, totally, you might as well reverse that habit and, and try to do what shouldn’t be doing over longer.

JM Guthrie 16:10
I heard somebody recently and I, and this just hits so close for me about, you’ve got to get to a point where when you don’t do what you’re supposed to be doing or want to be doing that it just pains you. Right. So if you don’t go to the gym that day, or if you eat something that you shouldn’t, or if you’re not chasing the business, or the concept that you have, or it eats at you. Right? That is so true, right? Like, you’re not able to get to the place you need to until it’s truly something that burns you if you’re not doing whatever that is. And that’s hard. It doesn’t happen overnight. But maybe it’s the 66 days that Mike talks about or creating a habit, Joe, like you’re saying, but I can tell you, if I don’t move my body for 20 minutes every day, like I’m trying to close the move ring on my watch everyday this year. And if I don’t do something, by the middle of the afternoon to move towards that happening, it starts to burn my ass, and I figure out how I’m going to do it. And the reality is, you can make time for whatever it is that you need to make time for, like anybody that tells you they can’t, is full of shit. There’s a business partner of mine right now. It’s like, oh, I can’t make time for this. And I’m like, you can make time it just needs to be a priority. And so that’s a prioritization exercise, not whether you have time or not. So, Kary,

Joe Quattrone 17:33
you were you said something earlier about taking inventory and taking kind of giving yourself a little bit of credit for what’s going on and how much you’ve evolved and stuff like that? How much is, you know, because I think unless you’re measuring yourself, you know, and JMU Mitch closing your rings and stuff like that, that’s something that I’ve avoided for periods of time when I’m not living my best life. But how much is kind of going back in during some of your tough times, and taking inventory or auditing what you’ve got going on and kind of you know, looking at the good and the bad, truthfully, how much has that helped you kind of, you know, keep your spirit tie in the most recent weeks. Yeah, immensely,

Kary Youman 18:11
man. I mean, I definitely get amnesia from time to time when you know, certain scoreboards don’t appear to be having her points added to him, you know, I think in our society, you know, especially as someone who identifies as a male who is a male, you know, our finances just play a big part in like, if you’re winning or not, it’s a very easy thing to add up, like what is in your bank account? And I think for me, sometimes I over index on that. Because, you know, Jim, you mentioned something earlier, it’s like, you know, I wasn’t the kind of guy that’s like, I’m getting married, like, as soon as I turned 21, I’ve never been that guy. But I’ve always told myself that, like, when I do get married, like, I, like, I only plan to get married once, like, this isn’t something where I’m like, okay, my fifth wife, and you know, we, and no, no, no shade to anyone who’s been married five times, because, hey, you gotta keep going, you know, but I just feel for me, the relationship that I have right now, just with me and my wife and our kid, it’s like, I mean, what we’ve been through in the last six months, I mean, there there are people who’ve been divorce for less challenging things, or for Yeah, for less challenging things, you know, so for her and I to be able to hold space for one another and grow and have this level of maturity that’s allowing us to, to really level up and yeah, really support each other through this has been incredible. You know, I couldn’t imagine going through this with a partner that wasn’t supportive, you know, and it’s that it’s that stern support, you know, I heard something the other day, it’s like, just because it’s good for you. Doesn’t mean that that’s necessarily what you need to go for, like cake is good. You know what I’m saying? Like, you can eat a piece of cake every day and say, Man, this cake is good. But over time, like that cake can really have a negative impact. And for me, I just feel like I just wanted love cake by the way, I do. Yeah. I mean, that’s real talk, man, I love a good piece of cake. But just to close the loop, man, I just feel like, as I reflect, and I look at my habits, and I look at some of the relationships that I’ve built, it’s like, okay, maybe the way to measure this isn’t something that’s going to pay this bill. But ultimately, the foundation that we’re creating, is going to allow us to do so much more. It’s like, there’s so many people that have, you know, the financial success, or the house or whatever it is, but there’s no love in the house, there’s no trust in the house, they never have time with their friends and family that they, they’re extremely, you know, outside of their fitness goals. And for me, like, my fitness is really good. You know what I mean? My relationship with my wife is good, all things considered going through this. And I feel like I do have some really good friendships and just tight connections with folks who I can talk to, and just be vulnerable and share. So I think, again, looking at life, especially here in the Western world, it’s really easy to look at that scoreboard. But I mean, you and I, you know, we all know that there are people who’ve been very successful, who have whose family members have had to read suicide notes, you know what I’m saying? So it’s like, at the end of the day, it’s like, what are you measuring? Carry? You know, and how far have you come? Because, yeah, I just don’t feel like I just don’t feel like I would really be able to appreciate some of these other things that might not be in place, if the foundation of where I’ve come from wasn’t as strong as it is. Now, you know, what I think just before man, I mean, just as much as I used to drink and smoke and just have sort of these transactional relationships, like really just closing that loop in my life, and just really bringing them more quality has just really made a difference. Man, I, who

JM Guthrie 21:45
I thank you, one of the questions I had was just sort of the relationship aspect of everything that’s going on. So it makes me so happy to hear that you have that force. And, you know, it’s so important to have people that are going to not always tell you what you want to hear either good and bad. But that last mention of how much closer your relationships are removing, smoking and drinking or whatever other kind of, you know, toxin related aspects of consumption. I mean, I, and this is coming from a guy who has been married since, you know, 2012, right. So, wow, 12 years now, 12 plus years. And dude, most of I would say the majority of those years didn’t feel as good as you you’re saying the relationship with Tanya is right now, right? Like, it’s super exciting. In the beginning, you have a kid, you start chasing your jobs, you, I’m drinking too much, you’re separate all the time with travel, you’re finding out, you know, out output to other things that isn’t in the reality is, this last almost 1000 days without drinking, my relationship with Erica is at a different level. And it’s an all time high. And that’s because there’s nothing in between it, right, like the directness of our relationship and our connection, and in the understanding of our partnership with regards to our job, which is our family is at an all time high without any thing diluting or diverting that connection. And I think the thing that I keep coming back to with lots of people even at work is like life is a big relationship. And the less distractions you have between those connections in the truer area, the stronger that you can feel those relationships and the pulses, both positive and negative, to ensure the best connectedness is going to be the most successful life personally and professionally period. And the cool thing about what we’re doing is, that all starts with yourself, man, period, like you can’t have, you can’t make the decision to walk away from booze, you can’t make the decision to live a more sober life, you can’t make the decision to be more connected with your wife, if you don’t like who you’re seeing in the mirror. And so finding that path and finding a place to feel that strength and that conviction towards being the best version of yourself is where the rest of all that stuff comes from. And as I said, I’m stalking that on a daily basis, and I don’t see the results every day. But I can look at the last 1000 days and say, I wouldn’t have the relationship I have with my wife. I wouldn’t be doing this with you guys. I wouldn’t have sold the business that we sold in the last two years. Like there’s just a laundry list of things that all started with this idea of maybe I should put the bottle down for a little bit and see what happens. It was never like it’s such a problem. I need to stop right. I was lucky. But man just the impact has been.

Joe Quattrone 24:58
It’s so funny. Because it’s like, I think one of the things that we keep showing that we keep dancing around, or we keep kind of like, you know, kind of getting getting circling around, I should say is, there’s two kind of really forces at play when you when you really think about our evolution, as you know, men and people and whatnot, there’s the need to kind of evaluate and be tough on ourselves, ask ourselves the tough questions. But then there is also the need on the back end to not go too far with that. But also forgive yourself for what you’ve done. Because you can’t really heal until you, you’ve just acknowledged what it is, and you gotta feel it to heal it. All right. So like, there’s this weird friction of like, I want to be tough on myself, but not too tough, because I also need to come through this thing, and I need to get better. You know, unless you’re David Goggins? Well, I think some people are just too tough on themselves. And they never get over that because they’re too tough of themselves, they don’t forgive themselves. They don’t, you know, heal their generational trauma, or whatever it is that’s holding them back. And then there’s some people that aren’t hard on themselves at all. They keep doing all these things to self sabotage. So it’s kind of like figuring out that balance is really important.

JM Guthrie 26:07
I mean, I think the thing that I was talking about that I’m really challenged by right now, especially given a lot of the things that we’ve already talked about, is just this world that we live in, right? Like, it’s really hard for me at the moment, to put blinders on. Just society, culture, and really global conflict, fitting my kid

Joe Quattrone 26:32
mass shootings, all the things. Yeah, so it’s like, it’s, but it’s right.

JM Guthrie 26:36
It’s not just domestically, it’s globally, right. So you have or so right. So like, I have almost 10 year old boy who goes to his public elementary school with a bunch of people that come from different backgrounds, and have different faith profiles and have parents that are sharing different amounts in depths of what is going on in the world with regards to the various conflicts and maybe have some connection to something like a drug overdose, or that they share more depth and more clearly than maybe Eric and I choose to. And then on top of it, you have these different things that are happening at public school, I think all schools really with regards to these drills that they do in the case of somebody coming into the school with a weapon or what have you. And you just find yourself in these conversations that are way deeper than I could have ever imagined having a conversation with a nine year old. And then you have a six year old who wants to be that nine year old and it has, you know, I always joke with them. They’re like bugs, right? Their antennas are always like they don’t look like they’re listening, but they’re listening to everything. And so you have these conversations, or even just these bits of discussion in their hearing, I want to be part of the conversation too. And so all of this is to say I’ve never done this before, it’s my first time being a dad.

Joe Quattrone 27:59
So I’ve been feeling the same way jam like 100% Every conversation I’ve been having recently with people is about the future. And what does the future hold for my, you know, eight, nine year old seven year old, all that kind of stuff. So why don’t we talk about vision for a little bit and talk about like, what do we think, you know, and the way I kind of phrase this here is like how each of us think about the future, and how me being total can kind of help the future. But kind of given the state of where that where the world is today, like, what do we want to see out of the future? And how can this world evolve? Like, what are the things that are really important to us individuals, because I think that might be able to help frame the lens in which each of us apply to podcasts.

JM Guthrie 28:48
So I’ll start by kind of finishing what I was talking about. So the thing that I keep coming back to and fentanyl will continue to be a theme in this in all of these conversations. But what I want to make sure is that my kids always feel comfortable to talk to me about anything, right? Because the reality is, and as I even think about our childhood, the people who went the most aggressive were the ones that had a lot of times the most strict parents too, they were kind of going against the grain in regards to what they had been told or hammered on for however long. And the people that I feel like even to this day have the best relationship with alcohol in particular, are people that were comfortable to talk to their parents about or maybe even able to consume a little bit with their parents at a younger age. And so that sort of thinking of being open to the dialogue with my kids is an important thing, which is why we talk about all these topics too, with regards to MeTotally. The whole thing for for, for me personally is if everybody could just find some amount of empathy for somebody else or some amount of ability to at least understand Another person’s perspective versus drawing their line in the sand and staying put in whatever bunker they’re in particular to their own thinking in their own convictions, then the world would be a better place. And you can apply that everywhere, you can apply that in the world conflicts that are happening all over the place, you can apply that to American politics in regards to the parties and these different jokers that are lining up to run for president again, and all the bullshit that they talk about, and all the specific spouting that they have specific to all this stuff that is attacking and not at all about unifying the country, you can talk about it in regards to the ways that we’re teaching our kids in schools specific to whether things happened in history or not, on and on and on. And the reality is, if we can find that middle place, or just that ability to show some level of empathy and some level of understanding, that’s gonna go a long way. And so while we can’t impact the global conflicts, and while we, you know, I’m not running for president, I don’t know about either of you guys. But you know, whether we’re gonna get involved, if we can make a small impact with those around us and start to help people to see some level of compassion or have some level of understanding that creates some level of empathy particular to somebody else’s circumstance that might not be their own, it might not necessarily even be what they believe in, then maybe that person will share with somebody else, and we can at least make an impact across some small fraction of people, which would be a big win from from my side, because reality is the world is heading in a really bad direction right now. I think the more that we can try to impact those around us the better. Kary, what

Joe Quattrone 31:39
What do you say?

Kary Youman 31:39
Yeah, Jim, I can definitely resonate with your perspective, I want to kind of take this down a little bit of a rabbit hole and sort of respond in an indirect way. But it’s interesting, because when I think about the future, I almost think about it, like someone who is 80 years old today, like their vision of the future. Like, when they were my age, they probably looked nothing like the future looks today. I mean, I remember growing up, like Back to the Future, and the Jetsons, like, some of that stuff is on point, but a lot of it’s very far away. But I know, just recently, Apple released this vision Pro, and you know, it’s the first iteration of it. So there’s a lot of, you know, trial and error. And, you know, everyone has an opinion. But there’s a part of me that I’m actually somewhat optimistic for the future and hear me out on this I am, you know, I do tend to be kind of a half full kind of guy. But I just feel like, again, I mean, there’s so many different energies sort of moving in the world right now. And I just feel like us as human beings, although there are still a lot of just really dark things happening. I do feel like as a species, like as, as an entity, like humanity is evolving, like, on a lot of levels, although it doesn’t seem that way sometimes. And I think for me, it’s kind of like this crossroad that I see. Like, I feel like it could literally go in either direction. It’s like, we have the technology and tools now to literally pretty much get rid of everything that we have a challenge with right now. Like we have the technology and the tools in the brain to do it. But I think what’s lacking is the emotional intelligence, you know, there’s still people trying to force things to happen, or trying to impede and impose their way on someone else who thinks differently, instead of creating space for a dialogue to happen so that growth and change can actually occur. So I think for me, I’m optimistic because I feel like part of developing emotional intelligence is healing, you know, like, once you start to heal, you can feel more and as a result, you just become more empathetic to people around you, even if they’re different. And I just feel like the reason I mentioned the apple vision pros, because, you know, we’re all in the tech space, you know, at least not too far from it. And I mean, I’ve just seen some different, like augmented reality, tools that really give us an opportunity to like immerse ourselves in these environments that give us a chance to start developing our emotional intelligence, sort of in the comfort of our home, for example, you know, back in 2020, you know, George Floyd, there was a lot going on, but people were becoming much more aware of this term micro aggressions, which can happen to all people. It’s not just one race that experiences it. But now with these augmented realities, you can essentially simulate a situation where you actually get to experience what a microaggression is, like, someone’s not telling you that, like you’re actually experiencing it to where you can feel it. And now you’re like, oh, that’s what that is. I didn’t even realize that was that was something but I just think again, like as we start to heal as we start to become emotionally intelligent, more emotionally intelligent. I just feel like human beings will start to go about the way we do things maybe just a little bit different, maybe with a little bit more compassion, because I think at the end of the day, like, I just don’t think you can fight fire with fire. We’ve tried that. And it just doesn’t, doesn’t really work that well.

Joe Quattrone 35:15
Yeah. So I kind of split the difference between the two of you in terms of my perspective on if the world is good or bad. So for the listeners out there, if you have time to Google a guy named Steven Pinkerton, you should do it. He had a TED talk about five years ago, maybe it was a little bit less, maybe three years ago, something like that. We’re still kind of, you know, in a similar kind of communications, to what we’re in right now. But his basic premise is, we’re all just being gaslighted by everybody, all the politicians and all the media around us. And the way you can kind of tell what’s going on is just look at these statistics from, you know, your parents’ generation to now the world’s never been better than it is right now. Like, we’ve never had fewer wars, we’ve never, you know, like, wars have been happening since human history all over the planet. And it’s actually getting better, not worse, when it comes to that stuff. If you look at it, statistically, generation after generation symbol, it’s across the board, you could look at the 80s and see how much more deadly that decade was than it is right now. We all think fondly of the past because we’re looking through rose colored glasses on those things that happened to us in the past, especially if you made it through the generations to where you’re at now. So all that to say, I think both of you are right, I think the world is in a dangerous place. The world’s also never been better, right? But the reason why we’re in this kind of juxtaposition is because the people that are communicating to us and the people we choose to trust and believe in let into our brains when it comes to the news and social media and all that kind of stuff. So that’s one big thing for me is figuring out how to better navigate that stuff, how to really evaluate the stimulus that’s coming into our everyday lives, not just for me, but for my kids as well. Right? Like really being able to navigate mobile phones and social media in the news and really figure out what people are telling us and how to see through the bullshit and find out what’s truth is, is a big thing for me moving forward. And similar to outside of technology, I think, you know, JM to kind of piggyback on what you were saying like the epidemic with fentanyl. It’s not just fentanyl, it’s, there’s a much bigger thing at play, to me, at least in my opinion. And it starts with the stuff that’s already legal. So like, I’m very skeptical of big medicine and Big Pharma. And right now, a lot of the precursors to what’s happening with a lot of our overdoses and drug problems, and the epidemic of addiction in this country starts with our over-prescription of the population. And you know what we’re doing with synthetic drugs, when more natural compounds exist right in front of us, and we turn our nose up at it all the time. So I think those are two things that are really big for me: the world of technology, communication, but also how we view medicine in general. And then I think, lastly, to kind of figure out what I would see in terms of vision in terms of how we can come back to these things. I think, and this is where I think I totally can be inserted as a wedge issue into them is we as the society as we the people, we need to exercise more control or take more agency over our situation and not just trust that the macro forces at play are telling us the truth all the time. And so the more I think we can kind of like convince people to like do their research, do your homework, understand what you’re putting in your body, understand how you think about things, understand how you’re interacting with the world, the better we’ll be and so part of my meat total journey is also figuring out how to how to coach my kids and did their meat total journey, you know, and how to pass this thought process and behavior model alone.

Kary Youman 38:57
Yeah, and Joan, just curious. I mean, you know, I know as a kid, my mom used to say, put your dishes in the dishwasher or, you know, wash your dishes after you eat, and she never did it. You know what I mean? So I think as adults, and as just people who are, you know, raising this next generation, I think we have to, we have to be that thing. We can’t just keep telling each other. Oh,

Joe Quattrone 39:17
yeah, that’s, I mean, you know, and I think this dovetails nicely into the topic we’re gonna get into next, I won’t necessarily crack the top on it yet. But I have this I have this conversation at least once a week with people in my, in my day job of, you know, like, I saw a statistic out there somewhere where I think it’s either one and four, one and six members of the Gen Z demographic is on some prescription of antidepressants. And that scares the EverLiving crap out of me because my kids are only probably, you know, 10 years, 15 years away from where Gen Z is right now. And when I think about it, and I asked myself the question, Would I rather Mike Kids be prescribed antidepressants, or would I rather them be able to use something like cannabis to cure their problems, and not even cure? I’m not even and nothing against people that are on antidepressants. I know they’re really good for a certain number of people out there. But for me, when I think about my kids and what I want them exposed to and what I don’t want them exposed to, I’d feel much more comfortable with cannabis, even though I’m not that big of a cannabis user myself, you know?

JM Guthrie 40:29
Yeah. So the world is the best it’s ever been. Maybe

Joe Quattrone 40:38
Neither of us can prove it. Well,

JM Guthrie 40:40
That’s why I’m saying May, I’m not going to disagree with you. I, you know, there’s a lot of things I would say in response specific to just the advances in technology, particularly on the conflict side, that make it a much scarier world than it was all those other times ago. I also, again, and I think Pharma has a big reason why this is, you don’t get the coverage of how many people are losing their life to a variety of different things on a daily basis. And so that epidemic is as large as any drug epidemic, I think, that we’ve ever had. And you’re right, it all spawned from Purdue pharma basically, right? Like it started with pain pills, and just getting just droves of the population, completely fucking addicted to this drug that then all of a sudden was gone. And so they just continued to look for ways to chase the lightning or to find that high. And going back to the conflict thing, like you, we could I’d also say, you can’t tell me it’s not true that China is ensuring that fentanyl finds its way into this country as a way to attack the US. So there’s like a million things that I would go on that. But all that being said, I do think the reality is, there’s a ton of Gaslamp being going on. And you have to find the source of your information, and you have to find the right data. And you have to realize that there are, to your point, natural paths to some ability of wellness, or some ability of cure to the various things that we battle. But at the end of the day, you know, I keep coming back to this is a big, this whole life is a big relationship, and trying to cultivate the strength of the relationships that each of us have, with all those around us, the best that we can and show up in the best version of ourselves, is the best way to start not only for the relationships I have with you guys, but to your point, being the right model for our kids to hope that they value those things going forward as well, more than most of the population at this point.

Joe Quattrone 43:04
It’s such a weird juxtaposition, because I’ve seen stats like 30,000. And I don’t know exactly where I found it. But like 30,000 or 300,000 people a day, one of those escaped poverty worldwide every single day. And like on one hand, that’s amazing that I can’t even imagine. I can’t even speak volumes of how amazing that is. But on the other hand, we’ve never had more deaths from unnatural and unusual causes. Right? So like, part of you wants to think, Okay, well, like, you know, some of these vaccines and therapies are really great, you know, like, we’re able to go into third world countries, and we’re saving people, like, by the hour, but then to your point, like, you know, if we if we don’t shore up other aspects of what’s going on out there civilly and societally, then crazy or crazy things that shouldn’t be happening or happening, like the like, the internet is awesome. Social media is awesome. But it’s also brainwashing people into going in and shooting up schools. So I have no idea what to think, you know?

Kary Youman 44:00
Yeah, I mean, I definitely think social media plays a part. But I think also too, you know, parents play a huge part. I mean, I just still haven’t heard a story about a kid who is involved in a shooting whose parents were truly involved. Like, I just haven’t heard it. I haven’t heard of it.

Joe Quattrone 44:17
And that’s you asked, What can we do like that? That is what we can do. Right? Like, I think there’s MeTotal as it pertains to liking us and taking control over our own life. But there’s also MeTotally as it applies to us outward, right? So like, what can you do in your immediate family, your extended family, your community and apply some neat little principles in a very easy and simple way?

JM Guthrie 44:41
Yeah. 100%.