Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1825: Man Cheats Death & Builds Cold Plunge Business

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin speak with Ryan Duey, founder of Plunge. The origin story of his company. (1:50) When a term can become something BIG! (5:54) The transition from bankruptcy to succ...essful entrepreneur. (8:27) How a near-fatal accident changed the course of his life. (10:46) Creating a place where he wanted to hang out. (17:23) His inspiring introduction to cold plunging and its incredible benefits. (18:51) The exciting feedback he has received from his customers. (24:38) Justin’s epiphany through breathwork and the cold plunge. (26:55) Walking a new customer through their first cold plunge experience. (29:11) The ultimate hack to cure your mid-afternoon slump. (33:28) Understanding the ever-expanding trajectory of the cold plunge market. (34:24) Some interesting ways Kelly Starrett has incorporated workouts with cold plunges. (36:47) He details his Shark Tank experience and the impact on their business. (40:39) The challenges of being in growth mode. (52:51) His connection to Sam Parr of The Hustle. (57:34) The short commitment for AMAZING results. (59:40) Who has become the first adopters? (1:00:55) Favorite ways to combine hot and cold recovery methods. (1:01:55) The future of The Cold Plunge. (1:04:42) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit The Cold Plunge for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump Listeners! **Promo code MINDPUMP at checkout for $150 off your order** Memorial Day Special! 50% OFF ALL MAPS PROGRAMS! ENDS JUNE 1ST – **Promo Code MD2022 at checkout** Medical Tourism in Thailand Watch The Iceman Vice Documentary | Wim Hof Method Mind Pump #1822: Wim Hof On How To Control Your Immune System With Breathwork Bloody Ice with Kelly Starrett SUPERCHARGE EXERCISE PERFORMANCE & RECOVERY WITH COOLING – Andrew huberman Stanford Researchers' Cooling Glove Boosts Exercise Recovery Shark Tank Kevin Hart Cold As Balls Series - YouTube Visit PRx Performance for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Mind Pump #682: Sam Parr Of The Hustle Refuge in Carmel, CA - America's first Co-ed Outdoor Relaxation Spa Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources Featured Guest/People Mentioned Ryan Duey (@the.coldplunge)  Instagram Wim Hof (@iceman_hof)  Instagram Andrew Huberman, Ph.D. (@hubermanlab)  Instagram Rich Froning (@richfroning)  Instagram Kelly Starrett (@thereadystate)  Instagram Kevin Hart (@kevinhart4real)  Instagram Sam Parr (@thesamparr)  Instagram

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Starting point is 00:00:00 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump, alright?
Starting point is 00:00:19 We have an interesting episode for you, actually interviewed a friend of ours, Ryan Dewey. He cheated death and built a cold plunge business, the successful one during the pandemic, one of the hardest times to build a business. Very interesting story, we had a lot of fun talking to him. He was also on Shark Tank, actually, he went on Shark Tank with his partner, presented his product, talked all about that as well. It's really cool. You can find him on Instagram at the dot cold plunge. Also, their company sells cold plunge devices. We wanted to hook you guys up with a discount.
Starting point is 00:00:55 So you can go to the cold plunge.com and then use the code mind pump and get $150 off. And we do talk about some of the benefits of cold plunges. We actually have one here in the studio now. Also, there's only two days left for the craziest sale that we've ever done. In fact, we usually only ever do this on Black Friday, but we're doing it for some reason here in May. All maps, programs, 50% off.
Starting point is 00:01:22 Every single maps workout program half off with the code MD2022 so here's what you got to do go to maps fitness products calm click on the maps workout program that you want use the code MD2022 get 50% off by the way that code works for all programs so there's no limit you can get all of them and continue to use the code so it's it really crazy. All right, here comes the show. All right, and thanks for coming on the show. We talked off air a little bit about the kind of origins of your company. You said it started or kind of got kicked off during COVID. So let's talk about that a little bit and talk about plunge and what happened
Starting point is 00:02:03 with that totally. So we launched in September of 2020, my co-founder, Michael Garrett, and I, we both own float spas, sensory deprivation facilities. So I'm up in Sacramento, he's in the Bay Area, East Bay, San Francisco. So we became buddies through that, and then COVID hits, World Shots Down.
Starting point is 00:02:22 We had to shut our businesses down here in California. And so, which was challenging, everyone kind of went through that. But then it was this unique moment in time that we actually had some time. So I was living in Sacramento, Mike decided to move up to Sacramento prior to the pandemic, which was just some serendipitous thing that happened. He moved up, he's an engineer at heart. We were all into cold plunging, cold therapy doing it. He had the chest freeze, or I was hitting the rivers
Starting point is 00:02:49 multiple days a week, going to facilities. And he just started working out in the garage. And we were like, this is pretty fucking sick. Like, this is, we're excited on, he kind of pitched me like, hey, do you wanna do this with me? It took me a little while to kind of come couple of months to see the evolution of the product. Then September, we're like, let's do it. We started off, we basically just emailed our email lists from our float spots.
Starting point is 00:03:14 We're like, hey, we're going to build 20 of these out of his garage, who's interested. We picked 20, that was just a number. We're like, cool, we can kind of build the units together, go through that process, hand deliver them, get to know our customers, and we didn't know if it was, we didn't envision like a massive growth company that we were gonna enter into as more of a passion project. Like a hustle to get to be through this pandemic maybe? That's totally it, man. It was like, and there was a, we did think there was a fit in the market at the time
Starting point is 00:03:46 where the price points were, no one was really doing this. We kind of kept looking at ourselves like has no one really done this? Like, do we? So it's a home, like, yeah, plunge device. You're drawing market though, right?
Starting point is 00:03:57 Massive, cold plunge. It's, it's growing. Yeah, so it's an at-home unit. That was kind of the, that's what we created. It's a director consumer unit that fits into your house. It's cool looking. It's not your standard chest freezer.
Starting point is 00:04:10 It's men and women both like to look of it. It's self-cleaning. Gets down to 39 degrees. It's just always, it's basically on-demand cold water. So it has a filtration system, plug and play. Basically fill it up with a hose, plug it in, set your temperature and you're good to go. So that was kind of the innovation that we did,
Starting point is 00:04:31 at the price point that we did, everything else was around nine to 10,000 and not on the market. And so we were like, if we can do this around five grand all in to be able to sell this retail, then let's continue down with this business. Pretty cool, because I remember just those horse troughs, right? How much ice it takes to fill those things up was mind blowing.
Starting point is 00:04:50 I remember going to the back and forth to the store, and it still wasn't enough. Bro, it's crazy. It's like 60, we've done the math. It's like 60 bucks a day if you're going to do that plus time plus gas. Yeah, I remember everything else. That might work once a month, but it's like, if you wanna do this daily, which we're real big on is the practice of it, the consistency of daily,
Starting point is 00:05:09 or at least three to five times a week, then that's like, that's what this unit is. Well, then you see the other hack that everyone does right now, which is the freezers, right? They try and convert the freezers, but then that stuff gets nasty, right? You do have no way. Have you seen what, did you have one of those?
Starting point is 00:05:23 I didn't have one, but I've been in one before. And it's like, you can only use it so many times before you got to try it. Yeah, you've changed the water, man. Yeah, you've got to clean it all out. It's a headache. It was one set temperature that it goes to. It's like, I mean, it could get you by,
Starting point is 00:05:37 but it's definitely not ideal. So it's a dude thing that goes in the garage that's like, the wife's usually like, what the hell is this thing? Like, keep that away. You can get electrocuted in it if you don't unplug it. It's not safe. It's definitely not built for a human to be getting in.
Starting point is 00:05:52 So what was the response? You sent it out to 20 people. Did they all, did you get a good response? Yeah, so we sent it out. We had a few purchases right out of the gate. They were like from our community, like, yeah, man, bye-bye, one, did it up. We had a few purchases right out of the gate. They were like from our community like yeah, I'm in by one Dada Dada so where it really took off was
Starting point is 00:06:09 We decide our company name is plunge. It's kind of a joke because no one really knows what our company name is Is it plunge is it that cold plunge are you cold plunge like? Company name is plunge. There is Whatever but on our website were the coldplunge.com. That's how you go to our webpage. We realized no one was dominating that on the internet. If you typed in coldplunge, it was directing you to some other health and wellness company.
Starting point is 00:06:34 We're like, man, this is huge opportunity. This term doesn't come along very often where we think a term can become something really big and we can kind of own that. We bought the coldplunge.com, turned it on, and then, to our first month, we didn't pay for anything organically first ranking on Google. And so that was like, we started to get traffic
Starting point is 00:06:54 into people that were just searching for Colplunch, and then we had a pretty slick website at the time. It looked good, but it was Mike and I building them, he's out of the garage. And so people started calling in like our cell phones, thinking we're some, I don't know, you guys existed. How long you guys been around? I want to, you know, purchase.
Starting point is 00:07:11 And so people start purchasing. And, you know, from there, it just kind of grow. And now we're, we just moved in this week to like our, I think our six facility. Wow. In the last 20 months. Six facility. Yeah, bro. Yeah, it's been insane.
Starting point is 00:07:24 I mean, it started garage in one of 20 months. It's been insane. It's been insane. It started garage in one of our deliveries. We met a guy in Sacramento. He's a buddy of mine. But he had a bike shop. We moved in the back of his bike shop. Two months after that, we moved into a warehouse, about 3,000 square feet.
Starting point is 00:07:38 We thought that would be home for a while. Then it was 9,000. Then we rented another 10,000. Now we just moved into 40,000, so it's just been a super. Now you're still doing the float side of the business, too, like simultaneous to the cold plunder. Did you guys just sort of abandon that move? We were able to, I have stepped away as like CEO
Starting point is 00:08:00 of that side of it, my business partner has taken over on that, so it's, that capital flow. It's running well on its own has great management doing its thing. Mike's still a bit involved in reboot, but he has good management. I mean, we're pretty much full time like co-ceo's on on plunge, which is taking up. It's, you know, it's a massive growing company. So the flow centers are thankfully they're doing well. They're more established companies that we're not. It's not a lot of our time right now.
Starting point is 00:08:26 Yeah, you know, before we get into like the value of doing this and using this as a practice, like I wanna talk about like the transition from bankrupt, losing every, because you had locations of these float tank facilities, probably doing well. Obviously, I have multiple facilities. And then out of your control, you couldn't stop it. You had to shut everything down.
Starting point is 00:08:48 At a business, the mentality to switch to a brand new business, instead of being like, yeah, I don't want to lose money again. Let me go do something, I'll work for somebody. What's that? What was that like? Man, it was hard. Like, as anyone would expect, it was, you know, cap floats was cruising.
Starting point is 00:09:04 It was good. I think I got pretty comfortable with it. And it was like, oh, this is established. Cash flow was good. Shut down. That was a real unique point personally for me. I was actually going, my partner and I who are who are together now, we broke up at that time.
Starting point is 00:09:18 So I went through a breakup. My only real main source of cash was dried up. I remember cat floats. We were literally down to we were We were about a couple days out from just not having any cash Done deal trying to get customers to stay on hey stay a member with us We'll we'll make you right at the end like if you guys can keep your memberships So you know luckily a few people stayed. I was in this unique spot of, I sold all my stuff and moved into an RV
Starting point is 00:09:47 to kind of downsize. Like, I just had no, like money was getting tight and I was like, cool, I have a little cash, I'll buy this RV and I'll just cut my rent out and I'll live in this RV and use this time to do that. So that's when Mike was developing the product and I remember Mike looked at me at the beginning and we were both clear on this of like, dude,
Starting point is 00:10:04 how are we gonna make this like a win? Like this moment in time that sucks. And there's a there is a there is an opportunity on this side. What are we going to do about it? And he was really adamant with that and that really stuck with me. And to see his development, then he just started like, I'm just going to dig in and work on this project. Like, and I'm going to build a cold plunge. And I'm just really wanna 3D model it, source it, figure it out. And so to see his development of it, and to kind of know like, okay, something's here,
Starting point is 00:10:35 there's something on the other side of this, is when we decided to go into it. But it was, man, that was a, there's some sure like everyone in the world. It was, that was a really tough season. Yeah, so you had your business before, were you an entrepreneur for most of your career? Is this something that's like inside of you
Starting point is 00:10:50 that you're working for yourself? Now it is. I think being, I'm sure you guys can attest like being out on your own. It's like once you get that, do you taste that? It's like there's no going back. I never viewed myself as like an entrepreneur. I actually,
Starting point is 00:11:06 you know, I worked at the San Jose earthquakes prior to this. I was in professional soccer, like a pretty corporate business front office side of it. And then I just had to pre-capital floats. I just decided I had kind of a personal journey that I went on had a really bad accident, which has been like a greatest gift of kind of like waking me up to be like, what are you gonna do with your life? Like, you know, almost died in the motorbike motorcycle accident. And then I just decided to go off and start cat floats because I learned, I started floating because of the accident. And so it just developed into like this thing is incredible. I just want to start one. I didn't view myself as this like entrepreneur, like business guy that would go do that. It just was more of, I care
Starting point is 00:11:44 about this. And how do I like get more people to do do that, it just was more of, I care about this. And how do I like get more people to do this? And then I was like, oh, this could be an opportunity. So that's just where it blossomed into that. I don't think I wouldn't have viewed myself as like full, full blonde. That's super interesting though. Can you go into details a bit about that accident in like totally. Yeah, how that all happened? Yeah. So I was, so I was with a buddy. We were traveling through Thailand, motorbike accident, night
Starting point is 00:12:10 before New Year's Eve of 2012, and hit a sharp turn. Don't really remember it, got knocked out, woke up in a hospital. At a speedboat meet at the other island, because there was no actual care to get me on that, for that on that side of the island, it was basically broken John too, which was the main thing and a pretty severe
Starting point is 00:12:32 concussion brain injury. Then it was, luckily I had the most incredible care out there. It was insane if anyone needs surgery done, like planned surgery, dental surgery, shoulder surgery, like Thailand is an incredible. I've heard that. I've heard that saying. I would never think that. I heard that. So my friend, there's, there's fighters out there. Obviously they have a huge Muay Thai, you know, culture there and a butt of mine opened a kickboxing,
Starting point is 00:13:02 but he says that. He's like, man, if you get injured, you need surgery. Like it's cheap and good. Which I've heard that. So this all just happened on a fly. Like I get there, they get me to the other island. It's like, we got to get surgery on this guy did it it it it it. So there was really no choice. So I'm just kind of like surrendering to the experiment,
Starting point is 00:13:21 experience like, okay, I've got to have surgery. Kind of find out my surgeon's UCLA trained. I end up coming back after about a month out there in the hospital, get out here, top oral surgeon and sacramental looks at my, the work done, he's like, I can't dream to do work this good. Whoa.
Starting point is 00:13:38 And so I'm like, yeah, he's, I mean, that was a full on through the bone hanging by two. Oh wow, good. Like, put it back together. I mean, that was a full on through the bone hanging by two. Like, put it back together. I mean, so, and you look at the pricing was insane. This was back in 2012, obviously, cost of gone up. I mean, I think I walked out of there all in. There was like a $20,000 bill.
Starting point is 00:14:00 Yeah, that's like $200,000. You're probably the best. It would have been at that time, probably at least a half million. Yeah, really. Half like this was all that they just speed boats to other islands. This is a merge what island were you on? I was on Koso Kopen Yang. Oh, and then they took me to Koso Mui. Yeah. So I've been there. Forges. It's incredible. I saw very little of it.
Starting point is 00:14:22 It was like the night. It was the night before New Year's Eve. I remember as in an ambulance, they were trying to get me down to the boat to get out. And it was like the night before New Year's Eve, Copenhagen's crazy party island, people are like banging on the ambulance like through and I'm like going in and out of like consciousness. Like, what is going on? I miss it the party. Yeah, it's like, just take me wherever you're taking it. I didn't know what was happening.
Starting point is 00:14:47 But yeah, it took me there. Kind of had this moment in that the first night when the accident happened with my buddy, he's, you know, I'm going in and out of consciousness, but I remember looking to him and just being like, dude, I needed this and he kind of looks at me like, can I look at him? Wait, in that moment, you said that? That night in the hospital when I was like laying in the hospital.
Starting point is 00:15:02 Do you have like a spiritual experience? Or what was it? I just had this moment of like, it was just so clear of, it was again like this COVID thing. Like, and it's something I fully believe in. This is like deep in my ethos. It's like, when these like wild moments happen,
Starting point is 00:15:16 that can be such like, like, their challenges, but they can be viewed as like a very shitty situation. I'm like, no, this is a gift. Like this is just, I don't know where that comes from, but it's very clear of like, dude, this is going to be like your life purpose right here. Like you have this accident. Like, how are you going to heal from this?
Starting point is 00:15:35 What are you going to do from this? And you know, get that moment of like, like, your life's now a gift. Like you get this second chance. And I remember it being so clear in that moment, and then, you know, I was in the hospital about three weeks, a month out there, finally flew back, slowly came back to my job, and then it was like, from there, I really wanted to go.
Starting point is 00:15:56 I had this vision, or not vision, but dreamed I'd always go work with Iowaska. I don't know if you guys are familiar with that. So, psychedelic medicine that was, you know, this is again, early 2013. And it was like, I had heard it on the Joe Rogan podcast. Like no one I knew did this. We're now, it's like a more predominant thing. We all like friends and family that have maybe done it.
Starting point is 00:16:17 But I was like, I'm going, I'm going to the jungle. And so, remember I couldn't even tell my parents. I was scared to tell them, Like I told a couple of friends, I was just like, I'm doing it, I'm going down there. And so that was like the journey of by getting ready for that over the year, I started floating. And so I had the neck and back issues.
Starting point is 00:16:35 So I was like, I'm gonna get in the float tank and I'm going down to the jungle for this like, spiritual inward journey. And I need to get to know myself a little bit more. So I thought the float tank was like a great place to go start that. And then very quickly it was like, oh my God, I want to start a float center.
Starting point is 00:16:53 And so it's just been this, like it was just bread crumbs leading me to like the journey that I wanted to- Isn't that weird? It's a wild thing. You could look back and you can be like, this led to this, love to this, but when you're in it, you don't know what the hell you're,
Starting point is 00:17:05 you just have to have, I guess, trust or faith that, okay, well, this is gonna lead me somewhere that I need to go. That you nailed it. I mean, it's the faith of what's happening, how it's gonna play out, and it's like, not even, I didn't think of it that way. I didn't think of like, oh, there's some grandiose plan. It's just like I'm just kind of doing the next thing
Starting point is 00:17:20 that felt good and like where I wanted to. And what's interesting about that is float tank businesses. It's not the first thing you think of when you think of starting a lucrative successful business, right, but it wasn't that for you. You just said it did so much for you. Like I love this, I have a passion for it. Let's get started.
Starting point is 00:17:37 Is that, that was how it started. It was literally, I was in there my second or third float in San Francisco. This very, it's called float matrix. It's like in a basement down there. It's not open anymore, but very unique spot. And I remember being in there and just being like normal people coming in and out of this place.
Starting point is 00:17:55 And I thought float tanks were such this like alternative world of people. And it was just like, you know, normal lawyer dude walking out, mom walking out, I'm like, who, like this is cool. And I remember just sitting there, like, I could just hang out, I was in the waiting room, I was like, I just wanna be in here.
Starting point is 00:18:10 And it was like this thought just voice came in, it was like, well, then go create it. So that was, I was literally going to create a place that I would just wanna hang out. Like it was, and then I started to, okay, you're actually gonna do this, then building a business plan and being like, okay, this pencils, this could work.
Starting point is 00:18:26 Like, there's not many out there. I think this is a similar to coal plungee, and I thought it was a modality that was gaining speed and traction and more and more people were getting into it. And so that was kind of where that came from and started. And so it didn't start from like, I knew the money would get figured out.
Starting point is 00:18:43 And I wasn't doing it to become a millionaire. Yeah. It was like, if it could pay my bills and I get a hang out here, I'm stoked. Now, now what was your experience with cold plunging? So you're doing this, you, when you started the cold plunge business, you had already done it and gotten value.
Starting point is 00:18:58 Like how did that start? What did you see from that? Yeah, so plunge started in 2020. I got into cold plungunge and got exposed to it through Wim Hof, like most people. I remember watching the Vice Documentary in 2015. I think when documentary of the year, I remember watching it, like who is this guy?
Starting point is 00:19:20 You know, it wasn't just about the cold, it was like who he was. And what he was for human. He is super human man. Like, and just, like, I watched it, I cried that night, I watched it again the next night, I cried again. And I was like, this guy is creating something or opening a pathway that is just not,
Starting point is 00:19:38 that hasn't been there. Like an actual control of our, like we are in control of our immune systems, we are in control of our health, we are in control of our stress response. We are in control of our health. We are in control of our stress response. That was so forward, that's becoming a more common accepted thing now. But in our Western world, like five, six years ago, that was not.
Starting point is 00:19:52 It was like, it's woo, it's woo. Exactly, he's crazy. And even if he can do it, he's an anomaly, we have no control over that system and that we are victim to that system, more or less. And his journey of being ridiculed and I was just more inspired by that, like that guy took so much heat
Starting point is 00:20:11 and to finally like prove it in the places that he did it in the clinical settings was like, I took it as like a big, fuck you to the world, but he was man of love and was like, no, cool, glad you guys see it now. More people need to do this. Exactly. And so that was my introduction to it.
Starting point is 00:20:29 And then I just started getting into Cold Therapy. We had a facility in Sacramento that you could go do it. So I was going there all the time. Did you notice any effects, positive effects initially from first use? I saw mood elevation and energy and just overall like I'd say mood elevation was like the bit I say like how I feel for my 100% I feel like you're like electric after yeah kind of what I didn't get into it it wasn't till I started doing until I got my own unit at my house was really when I started seeing a lot more of the plethora benefits
Starting point is 00:21:03 because of the regular use? For the regular use. So that was more of the consistency involved. So for me, I just got my levels tested the other day and I had two very unique things. So I've been plunging every day for about 15 months now. So right before that, I hadn't had really the unit, had my standard hormones and everything tested, but my T levels doubled this last year. I was already pretty low, granted that was coming through when plunge started. Like I lived in the RV, stress was out of control, so I was already pretty in the dumps.
Starting point is 00:21:36 But testosterone doubled this last year, and these are residuals I just got like three weeks ago. And my immune system, I did the true age testing. And my immune system was seven years younger as my actual age. And that was like, and my biological age was like one year, or like my cellular age was like one year. But my immune system was about seven years younger. And so that was like, I really attest that
Starting point is 00:22:00 to the breath work with WIM and cold plunging in a jar. That's what I noticed the most. The immune system, I used to get sick all the time. And when we first started the podcast, we were all doing the hot cold therapy. And that was the best period of time in my life of not getting sick was when I was consistently doing it. And I've been inconsistent since then,
Starting point is 00:22:20 and I've been sick a lot more, and I keep telling myself, that's half the motivation of seeking you out. finding out, like, dude, I need to get one. I have no excuse. I need to have one here so that I just start doing it every day because I saw the benefits on how just how little I got sick when I do it. Yeah, it's interesting because we know that if we allow our muscles to atrophy, we don't
Starting point is 00:22:41 use them and they shrink and get weaker, that causes illness, chronic disease. We know that this can happen with our minds, right? If we don't test our minds or stretch our consciousness, have conversations with people. But we forget that our ability to tolerate temperature is like a muscle. And I mean, for most of human history, we didn't have air conditioning, right?
Starting point is 00:23:01 We were hot when it was hot, we were cold when it was cold. And to some extent, we would help ourselves so we didn't die, but we experienced lots of fluctuations and your body actually acclimates. So for people who don't ever do this, like if you use a sauna or you use a cold plunge, it gets easier over time because you're able to tolerate it over time.
Starting point is 00:23:21 And there's a lot of old cultures that have done this. So my wife, her ex-husband's family was from Ukraine and Russia, and she talked about how like, they would do a cold rinse with the kids at the end of a bath. So you have a baby, you give a baby a bath, you rinse them off with really cold water, which you would never do to a baby here. When you're old, I've got kind of people.
Starting point is 00:23:41 You know, things like torture. Then there was a video she showed me of like school kids in Russia, and they're, it's like recess time, it's things like torture. Then there was a video she showed me of like school kids in Russia, and they're, it's like recess time, it's snowing outside. They went out and they're bathing suits. And they're bathing suits, and they're spraying them with water, and the kids are playing, and I, as an adult would cry if somebody did that to me, and the cold, and so it's pretty crazy.
Starting point is 00:23:58 It's this old practice, and we never exercise it. And so, yeah, we kind of stepped in. I mean, our culture is like don't go outside in the cold. Yes, you know, it's like you're gonna get sick and it's like that's a complete misconception. Totally. Of it. And I think it's, I mean, getting the,
Starting point is 00:24:15 it's very fast. I'd never heard that about the kid with after a bath getting cold. Yeah. But I mean, like, Andrew Huberman talks about, it's like the cold actually increases our, like readily available dopamine in our body, which is like a fascinating thing.
Starting point is 00:24:28 So it's like you talk about the mood elevation. It's like, makes sense to get a baby cold. It's like, yeah, kind of like gives this like level of happiness that increases right there. Yeah, really interesting. With your customers, one of the things that you hear the most from the, I mean, it's, I think the easiest thing to notice, if you've never done cold rinse in the shower, you could just try it like that. Like cold ass water,
Starting point is 00:24:49 20 seconds, 30 seconds, it's better than a cup of coffee. It lasts longer actually for me. I get like this energy boost that lasts for a good four or five hours coffee only lasts for maybe two or three for me. So that's the most obvious. But are you hearing anything else from customers who are using your plunge on a regular basis? Yeah, I mean, we see, like the workout recovery is massive. Just inflammation in general, like, rich phronies, one of our partners, and now the guy's probably the biggest end of recovery in the world.
Starting point is 00:25:19 You know, he doesn't work out, he's actually into recovery is how I view it. Like he works out twice a day, but his rest of his life is recovery, and this is like a tool that he swears by, and it improves his sleep, that's a big one. So it's the inflammation's there, like the post workout, but I think it actually improves your sleep,
Starting point is 00:25:36 which I think has the more the downstream effect for everyone. So that's massive. You know, the big one is like, stretch, we just hear in the simplest form, I'm a better father. I'm a better mother. I'm a better brother. Like, and that's more to do with,
Starting point is 00:25:52 I think people learning stress response better. So they're actually getting more used to adrenaline, shock in their body, and learning how to breathe through that. And then in turn, the downstream impacts are, we're just better humans. So that is, to me, that's the top piece that's sitting right there, is understanding how your nervous system works.
Starting point is 00:26:12 It's a manufactured environment that you're gonna get in and get in a adrenaline dump. And that is, it's rare to get that adrenaline internally as the exact same if the lion's running after you. If someone's trying to stab you or you're getting in a cold plunge, your body has the same exact system on the inside, but it's a safe environment to get in there
Starting point is 00:26:28 and actually be like, okay, how do I breathe when I'm getting stressed out when my boss is yelling at me or I get an email that works me up. Like you can learn to look at those cues within the body. And I think that is the, to me the most exciting, the biggest thing that I've noticed into it
Starting point is 00:26:44 and I do it every day, and I do this process of my body goes to the shock and, turning to breathe, regulate the body. So that's a massive one. That can definitely attest to that. I mean, just anecdotally went through this crazy period where I just was internalizing all the stress, taking everything on,
Starting point is 00:27:04 and my go-to mechanism is always to kind of bear it down and get through it. And this has just been from sports and just that mental toughness kind of discipline of being able to kind of weather the storm while it's in front of you, right? And like just internalize it. But then applying that same concept towards a nice bath
Starting point is 00:27:23 will just destroy you. It's not work to bear it down and try and like struggle your way through it. You have to relax. To relax. You have to find that calm state. And the breathing obviously is a big portion of that going into it, learning how to do that, but like to be able to have a different stress response, I think, is insanely valuable for people to understand, because then from me going from that, and I did Wim Hof, it was where I got
Starting point is 00:27:51 exposed to the cold plunge, and this kind of reduced me to that concept. But it's done tremendous things for me in terms of not having actual physical pains and tightness and knots, and a lot of these things that were building up a lot of anxiety in my life, just being able to respond to all these stresses differently. How did you figure out super intuitive to know, like, to surrender into the experience? Did you get kind of coached through that or was that something that you picked up with your body? Yeah, so it was like, I mean, it was partially, I think, it's when you're doing these
Starting point is 00:28:24 breathing exercises, getting like that hyperoxygenated was partially, I think it's when you're doing these breathing exercises, getting like that hyperoxygenated state, like you just kind of, you feel calmer. And yeah, it was actually just, I guess I just had kind of an epiphany while I was in there, that this isn't working. And I'm like, you bet your ass he tried. I did. I tried to, to pair my way through. And there was no way I was gonna be able to do it. And I saw everybody else that had like prior training to that, be able to stay in longer than me.
Starting point is 00:28:54 And it was just getting in my head, you know, like there's something else there that's in why, whenever I'm doing isn't working. And so yeah, I just kind of just conceded and then I could stay in there for it felt like almost forever once I figured that out. Yeah, how long do you recommend people you like go in for? It depends where they're at in their process and what I mean by that is like if you just starting out. Yeah, let's walk somebody through like a journey. Let's pretend that
Starting point is 00:29:20 someone's like, okay, you guys got me soul. Yeah need to get one of these things. So if you ordered a plunge, you have that coming in. I would recommend setting your temperature between 55 and 60 degrees, and I would go shoot for two minutes. And just indefinitely be there. Like just stay there until you're like, you know what? I'm getting a little comfortable. I'm a lower it by two degrees. I'm going to go in an extra 30 seconds.
Starting point is 00:29:45 Like that's where you can mess with this. This is a dose and duration. I think two minutes is a good baseline in time. It's always when you co plunge, it's like the first 45 seconds are gonna be the most challenging. It's gonna be that time that your body, the mind's yelling get out,
Starting point is 00:30:00 you haven't quite adapted, but your nervous system will start to calm down. So if you get past that 45 seconds to a minute and hit that two minute mark, then you're really getting a lot of the benefits. So starting out, I would say two minutes, 55 seconds. And just like, don't play the ego game, don't go 39 degrees in five minutes.
Starting point is 00:30:16 It's like, I always liken it to the gym. Like you're not gonna go do, if you haven't been working out, you're not gonna go hit a crossfit workout with you guys. Or like, working out, you're not going to go hit a cross-fit workout with you guys. Or like, you're not going to take someone through a crazy workout. It's like, no, let's just get your body moving. Let's just get you back to your body. That's the same system that with your nervous system and your autotomic system.
Starting point is 00:30:37 It's like you actually just need to adapt it to start and get a little more used to it. You don't want to burn out. This is like a super long game. So 55 seconds, two minutes, and then just start listening to your body. Go, okay, I can go a little bit longer. Let's go. And I always like to count, put the timer on your phone,
Starting point is 00:30:55 but count my breaths. How are you controlling your breaths? Are these, are you getting a controlled, five second breath of? Or is it really shallow in your chest? Like notice the difference between those two breaths and can you start to get it into, can you do 60 really control breaths?
Starting point is 00:31:17 Like go through that process. So I would, yeah, start with two minutes, 55 seconds and just build from there. And if you don't have a plunge, I would start with a shower. You know, everyone has a shower. It's a great time. We're in April right now.
Starting point is 00:31:31 If you're in the US, still a lot of cool, or what do we, we're may now. Still a lot of cold water out there. Just get in, turn your shower on. Do 10 set to 10 breaths. Try and get to 10 control breaths, either hitting your chest, crowning your head, or turning your neck around control breaths, either hitting your chest, crowning your head,
Starting point is 00:31:45 or turning your neck around and doing the backside of your neck right between where the hairline and your shoulders are right there. And those would be the starting points. And then just like... Slowly build on it. Slowly build. You hit it perfect because we talk about this
Starting point is 00:31:59 and with fitness all the time. That's the biggest mistake that people make on their fitness journey is thinking they're all motivated. Okay, I'm gonna do this thing. And they wanna go all in right away. And it's biggest mistake that people make on their fitness journey is thinking like they're all motivated. Okay, I'm going to do this thing. And they want to go all in right away. And it's like, that is a terrible product. Yeah, totally counter-reacted. So, when's the best time to do it? I would assume the morning? I prefer the morning because I like to just do it. Like, for me, that's how my routine works. I do breath work to start and then I get right into the plunge. The first thing I do, I like it for me, I kind of can wake up withhargic,
Starting point is 00:32:25 so it just kind of accelerates me in the morning. If you tend to run really warm at night, it might be good to do it right before bed. And like a lot of people are nervous with, like, oh, it's gonna give me so much energy. And it's like, I haven't seen that. That's been the thought, but everything for my experience with watching people that do it for bed, they don't get energy. It's also really thought, but everything from my experience with watching people that do
Starting point is 00:32:45 it for bed, they don't get energy. It's also really good that your body naturally needs to lower about one and a half, two degrees to get into deep REM state. You can do it. It's a hack. You can get your body temperature down, fall into REM state a little quicker. The afternoon coffee that you might reach for, the afternoon power nap, go get in a plunge.
Starting point is 00:33:08 Yeah, that's what I want to use it, because we have it here, and you know, I, when I'm done, that's when I get my dip and energy, two, three o'clock, I'm like, oh, I want to go to sleep. That'd be the best time, I think, to jump in there. Yeah, I want to try it before podcasting, because we haven't done it right before podcasting. Totally. I think it would make me really sharp.
Starting point is 00:33:22 I think we can all three fit in there at the same time. You know, we did get the extra large one. Here's the little hack with the plunge that we're starting to see catch a little traction is head dips, face dips. So holding your breath for like however long you can go, obviously do it with people around you. Wait, with your body in there?
Starting point is 00:33:40 No, just giving your face. Because it sends, it's obviously not full submersion, but it sends the response to the body. So you're getting this like actual, like we're seeing it. We're seeing customers come back and like I plunge full submersion in the morning and then I go at three o'clock in the afternoon and I do a like a 20 second facetip.
Starting point is 00:33:56 Oh wow. It's just to getting my whole body in there and I'm back out and I get this like energy. Oh, that's kind of nice. And the filter in there just keeps it clean, right? Yeah. Because if I go in after, you know, Adam or Justin, I want to make sure that. Well, I was out of that.
Starting point is 00:34:10 It's still throughout self-grease. It's got the self-filteration. I mean, my unit, it's my girlfriend and I, we use it and it's, um, haven't changed the water in seven months. Okay. So, now, what are you at now? Because you've been using it for a while. So what's your temperature? I'm very, I got mad about the gars is set to 45, 46 degrees. I go for, yeah, three to five minutes. You know, it's interesting about the story is that hindsight, right? We're going to look back now. It's all going to make sense. But in the moment, I'm sure it was like, you're stressed out, but you started this straight to consumer kind of health, you know, based business, right when people, like there was a massive spike in people buying home gym equipment and exercise stuff,
Starting point is 00:34:57 and we're still in it, by the way, it came down, but we're still, I think exercise equipment is still selling at 20% higher rates than it was pre-pandemic. So a lot of people now are, at one point, I remember people were selling dumbbells on what's that place on Facebook where you can buy something smart.
Starting point is 00:35:13 Oh, it was like $200 for a pair of dumbbells because it was no supply and the demand was through. So you guys probably saw the spike right out the gates, right? Yeah, I mean, we're still trying to figure out what are, I mean, we've been growing, like we're still trying to figure out what the pattern is, what the trajectory is. It's a new niche market.
Starting point is 00:35:37 You know, it is health and wellness, but there hasn't rid of this cold exposure is pretty new. Closest thing we can look at is kind of what Sonna's have done over the years. That you know, you have a higher price point item. What they are. So we're, we have a bit of seasonality. We've noticed that over our 20 months. It's like, you know, when it gets cold, less people want to buy cold punches. But you know, spring hits, spring hits. Now it opens up to the whole country, the whole, you know, regions that are just like,
Starting point is 00:36:07 I have a lake, I got my pool. Now they're, you know, so we see it up tick. But we haven't, I think we're still at a spot where the market's just expanding and the awareness is growing. That's the biggest thing. It's like more and more people are getting these at their homes.
Starting point is 00:36:20 They're seeing their lives change. So it's like, oh shit, this thing works. Like it's not just some like cold water that's like, oh,, this thing works. Like it's not just some cold water that's like, oh, I do my bathtub. It's like people doing it consistently. It's like, no, this is my like, this is my go-to tool that I have now. I figured you guys hit a few of those.
Starting point is 00:36:36 You know, the market was kind of shifting the awareness was out there. Oh my God, I just got one. Why would anyone run you? You're friends, or are you guys working with Kelly Starat, aren't you? Yeah, Kelly's a real, okay. So I just came across a video of him doing the plunge and he did this thing where, and I don't know if you've seen him do it or not, I hope I'm hoping you have so you can maybe
Starting point is 00:36:58 explain what he's doing where he gets on that bike. Dude, I did it with him. Okay, so explain what is he doing? Like, there's something he's doing, like he was, I can't, he called it with him. Okay, so explain what is he doing? Like, there's something he's doing, he called it something too. I don't know what he called it. I think we called that one Bloody Ice. Yes, that was fun.
Starting point is 00:37:14 So we went to his house and he put us through this. You can find it on like RIG or YouTube pages. But it was, we showed up, we're like, Kelly, he's been like, I got these new rad ways. I'm incorporating the plunge into my workouts. We're like, Kelly, he's been like, I got these new rad ways. I'm incorporating the plunge into my workouts. We're like, okay, let's check this out. And so his thing was 30, or it was either 30 seconds or a minute in the plunge and we were on 39.
Starting point is 00:37:38 So we were there and then we would hop off and do 30 seconds to a minute full speed on the assault. So you're going, assault bike plunge. Assault bikes, so Mike and I did it together you could hop off and do 30 seconds to a minute full speed on the assault. So you're going, assault bike plunge. Assault bike. So Mike and I did it together and we would just trade off. And you'd get in between and what it's doing is, first it's just fun.
Starting point is 00:37:58 Well, it's gotta make, it's gotta be increasing the difficulty of you to calm your breath down because you're elevating your heart rate like crazy on this bike, and then you're in the heart. And then you're in the heart. The breath is key. It's also, I believe it's called like shunting. So it's like when you plunge,
Starting point is 00:38:14 your blood, your vessels constrict. So your blood, it's actually protecting your organs. That's what's taking place. It wanted to, okay, we're in a challenging situation. Let's protect the vital organs. So blood is restricted at that point. But then you get back and get on the bike, and so your blood's kind of like there,
Starting point is 00:38:29 but then you're opening back up and getting blood flooded. Could you feel this? Oh, yeah, you start to get like stiff throughout. We did about six rounds. I mean, I just felt, I mean, first off, you feel off just, I felt great after. It was like fun. I got like a bit of, I've got to work out in my,
Starting point is 00:38:46 my energy's at a whole other level. You know, I've been in the cold for that long. So it's, I don't know exactly what it's doing. I don't know if Kelly would sit here and be like, this is exactly what it's doing, but he's just like, this is doing something to the body that's pretty special. Yeah. And it's a fun experience. Have you seen the studies on the cold clubs? Like people, what, remember the one where they put the... Andrew Huberman? Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if you get a similar response. We get like more stamina, more endurance. I think you do. That was a leads for you. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Andrew has, he's been one that kind of brought that to the forefront. There's a company out there now that's doing it. Yeah. And I haven't tried them, but based
Starting point is 00:39:24 off of his studies, it makes sense. Yeah. You know what's interesting, too, is that because I hear people will say, don't use them right after your workout because the cold reduces inflammation, which reduces the muscle building signal that you get from exercise. So it could reduce what's called muscle protein synthesis and and muscle building. That's true on its face. However, if you take that and then work out more intensely, so in other words, work out and train it away to where, if you didn't do the cold plunge afterwards, you'd be slightly overtraining, then you get the best of both worlds. What it does is it allows you
Starting point is 00:40:01 to train with more volume, higher intensity, more frequency, because of the anti-inflammatory, immediate anti-inflammatory effects post-workout. So if you do your normal workout, which is, let's say it's perfectly programmed, yes, you may get like this reduced, maybe muscle building response, but if you counter it with more volume
Starting point is 00:40:20 or higher intensity and then do it, now you can get the best of both worlds. And I've been talking with people about this who have been doing this and they're like, dude, I can work out harder, faster, more volume, all kinds of stuff. Yeah, so now I get more practice with my training because this allows me to get away with it.
Starting point is 00:40:36 Well, I remember what I was originally asked you is mainly based around the timing and everything and how that plays a major factor in success. And in terms of like the market awareness and all that kind of stuff. But now you had mentioned to us earlier about like getting on Shark Tank. And like what prompted you guys to move in that direction in terms of trying to get on the main stage?
Starting point is 00:40:59 Yeah. I mean, they call them or they call you. They called us. Oh, they called you guys. Yeah. So They called us. Oh, they called you guys. Yeah, so they called us. I always wonder how that happens. If how many people are like trying to get on there and how many do they seek out entry.
Starting point is 00:41:12 Yeah, I think it's pretty rare that they reach out. Like, you know, everyone that we've talked to, it, I don't wanna say super rare, but I think it's more that people apply. I would imagine. But they reached out to us. This was last summer. And we were like, yeah, we're interested.
Starting point is 00:41:29 It wasn't like, hey, we want you guys are on. It was like, would you guys be interested in applying? Oh, I see. And so we're like, yeah, we're in. And so we went through the application process, super intense, like more documents and paperwork and signatures than. You were?
Starting point is 00:41:43 Oh, it was, yeah, it was some of the most I'd ever been through. And so we did it, and then you kind of get paired up with a casting team, and they work with you, and then you kind of, they're looking at financials. It's a first-class show, like into the real authentic, into what they're actually trying. They're really about entrepreneurship, capitalism in general, like into the real authentic into like what they're actually trying,
Starting point is 00:42:05 they're really about entrepreneurship, capitalism in general, and just get showcasing companies that are innovating. So we got on, we eventually got the approval, we're gonna come down, this was like in last September, yeah, the last September we shot with them, shot the show. What was that experience like? Man, it was, it was, you know, have you ever been What was that experience like? Man, it was, it was.
Starting point is 00:42:25 You know, have you ever been a racking at all? Yeah, dude, yeah. No, I had no experience like in, you know, done podcasts and things like that, but never anything like that to that level. We show up, we got our own trailer. There's a psychologist on site like. So college, are they trying to keep you from getting too nervous?
Starting point is 00:42:42 Yeah, it's like in their, you know, little conversations prior, but it's mostly after's like, you know, a little conversation's prior, but it's mostly after, like, you know, who bombs? Okay, let's send the psychologist in to talk to them and just cover the rest. Yeah, it's like, we killed themselves. Yeah, our hearts, like, we are, the experience was great for us.
Starting point is 00:42:59 It was adrenaline was insane. I'd never had an experience like with adrenaline, actually like that, where it was like, I didn't do anything except stand there and talk, but I'd never been so tired and exhausted in my life. Oh wow. I think I blacked out part of the show. Like, it was never been so hyper focused
Starting point is 00:43:14 and equally like, I don't remember parts of things that happened. And my co-founder, we did it together, was similar. But it's a pretty like, you know, what you see, obviously the show gets cut down. We just aired this last, you know, this last week. Our segment was, I don't know, eight minutes and it's actually about 45 minutes
Starting point is 00:43:34 that we were out there with them. Oh, wow. So there's a lot that just doesn't get... Wow, that's a lot of talking with them. It's only get down to eight minutes. On camera too. Totally. And so it's, which is cool, is like once you go out on that floor,
Starting point is 00:43:45 it's like we have the stair down. It's like a 30 second stair down. It's like just us in the five sharks to stand in there. Like, and it's, you know, in the huge Ronsoni, on the Sony lot, massive, you know, stage that it's at, you know, hundreds, if not thousands of cameras, like all over. So we're just staring at them.
Starting point is 00:44:02 I was just favorite shark going in. Yeah. And it was a different afterwards. Yeah. Yeah. So we had our staring at them. I was just favorite shark going in. Yeah, and it was a different afterwards. Yeah, change. Yeah, so we had our sharks from Mark Cuban, Barbara, Mr. Wonderful, Laurie and Robert. Okay, nice. That's a good idea.
Starting point is 00:44:16 Yeah, we had the five, the only ones, right? Five ones. We, man, we thought it was up until that morning before we went on, we thought it was Kevin Hart that was gonna be with us, because that's why we thought they reached out. So we were, cause he has his coldest balls here. He's like, and he's into health and wellness,
Starting point is 00:44:35 and he was a guest shark this season. And so we were like, we were convinced in our minds, like Kevin, like our pitch was like geared towards him. We were thinking about like Kevin and he's like, oh brother, like we him. We were thinking about like, Kevin, how many slow, bro? Like we were in and then it was like, oh, he's like mind blowing to me that he wasn't there. I was like, wait, why are we here?
Starting point is 00:44:52 If Kevin Hart's not here, like anyways. So we ended up going out. And it's like a true experience where it's like, they say go, you walk through the doors, you do your hit your mark, you stare at them for 30 seconds, do the stare down, and then the director just says go again. And then it's just open. And then it's like we do our, our actually it's our two minute pitch, you know, it's like I'm Ryan from Sacramento and might, you know, we do our stick. And and then it's just like a, it's just us and then we're just asking questions. As it's just like truly like nothing scripted. And it's just us and them. They're just asking questions. As it's just like truly, like nothing scripted.
Starting point is 00:45:25 And it's just like with a cadence, you know, you're getting to this negotiation, you did your equity ask. And then they just dig into like who we are as people, our past, our companies, the story, what's the product all about? Like why? Did you tell your motorcycle accident story?
Starting point is 00:45:42 No, we didn't get into that. Oh, I'm gonna sold it for sure. It was sold me. We played to? No, we didn't get into that. I'm gonna sold it for sure. We played to the COVID, we're not played, but we got into the COVID story of like, hey, this business came out of, because we shot this in September of 2021, so it's still a lot going on.
Starting point is 00:45:57 And so we were, Mike, his business has shut down, he went and built this unit, worked with his dad on this out of the garage. So there was a lot lot of like heartwarming Park that was didn't get into the episode that was like a big thing for our story But yeah, it's just you know such a bizarre surreal experience where it's like oh man Like I'm actually negotiating my company right now like could you guys imagine negotiating your whole Everything you've built like in front of,
Starting point is 00:46:25 like the, all the cameras watching and you have to get off that stage within 15 minutes and come to some conclusion. It's like, this takes like months or weeks or like, there was one moment, it's like, can I talk to Mike? They're like, yeah, go off. And so like, I turned to Mike.
Starting point is 00:46:40 And we're like whispering. Everyone probably thinks we're like saying something really intelligent and he's like, I don't know what to offer it. I don't know what they're saying. He's like, what is even the offer? And he's like, okay, like I don't really know either. Like, because Mr. Wondervill's with some offer that I didn't even understand. It's great.
Starting point is 00:46:55 Yeah, so it's so it's interesting because you might not have even had the idea to have an investor come in when they contact like, do we, do we even want an investor? I'm like, well, it's gonna get, I'm imagining. You're probably thinking great exposure. We're on TV. If we bring one of them on, maybe they can bring on more other people and get it more national.
Starting point is 00:47:19 But what would that be worth? Did you guys agree that going in, we're not giving away more than X percent of our company. But imagine that's what I would do. If we were to, if we were putting that position, I would sit with these guys go, okay, I don't give a shit what they might not negotiate.
Starting point is 00:47:33 We're not giving away more than this. That was exactly it. So we had hit our, it was our number that we said we would not know past. And, you know, a lot of the things that aren't negotiated on the show, it's more of a, you know, you enter into diligence after the show. And a lot of the things that aren't negotiated on the show, it's more of a, you enter into diligence after the show. And a lot of the things,
Starting point is 00:47:49 there's so many other factors to being a partner. It's like, yeah, we discussed equity, but we also had our equity number and then on the back end, what is important to us is what kind of partner are you gonna be? Like, what are you gonna bring to the table? Like, what is actually, is this true silent partner? Are you actually gonna promote it going to promote it, promote it exactly and be a part of our, you
Starting point is 00:48:08 know, like, if we ever, like, run a commercial and I want to use Mr. Wonderful 100% like all that. So we, um, so yeah, we had our number on the equity side, which was kind of came down right to the end with Mark and Robert were in a battle. Oh, there were for the offer. And it was cool. Robert plunged on the show. So that was like a really cool moment.
Starting point is 00:48:30 I mean, the fact that you even had them doing that, that's cool because a lot of the guys get on there, they don't even, I'll pass, pass, pass. Totally. So we ended up having, I mean, we had four offers that came out. Wow. How did you get, we wanted?
Starting point is 00:48:43 Would you pass? We did. It ended up working. It was a little different. We got a credit line. And we're still kind of in how it works. It's still talking indiligence now and going through that process with Robert.
Starting point is 00:48:55 But we got a credit line and equity out of it. So we ended up walking out with like 2.4 for 12%. For us at that time for a year in was like an exciting excited offer for us. So when you're done, what you guys leaving like and just like, oh, don't jump in high five yet. Let's walk out the building. Yeah, it was like, I mean, man, it was so like slow mode,
Starting point is 00:49:15 like what just happened? Did I just degree, like, did we agree to this? Like, is this, like, you know, it's like, it's just real, yeah, it's a model. You're a person, man. And then they're coming out and it's like, cameras are all over us and then we have to go in another room and we're like, they're asking us all these questions.
Starting point is 00:49:29 Like, what does this mean for plunge? And I'm literally like, I can't, I don't have nothing else to give right now. Like, I don't know what this means. It's like, I don't know what just happened. But yeah, we, you know, we wanted, we cash for like, purchase orders and think, you know, it's a product-based.
Starting point is 00:49:45 It's always on to the next. That's the thing. We didn't come from this background of product, like manufacturing background. So it's been a quick learn for us to be like, oh, yeah, sales are good. But we need to be projecting six months from now. And we need to be buying product for six months now.
Starting point is 00:50:04 So that's been the big journey for us. A big nightmare is not having enough product to meet the demand. If you do that, then you're screwed, right? You could totally ruin your reputation. Reputation, you know, the, I mean, right now, we're still, we're at about a 10 week lead time on our product. And we're working, we're working really hard in this new space, big part of moving to this new space
Starting point is 00:50:25 is like being able to up our production. So we expect in the next six weeks that's really gonna start coming down. But you know, it's been like, we bootstrap this. This was Mike and I, like we did it together out of the garage and so we've just really worked really hard of everything we've earned. We just are buying as much as we can for the future
Starting point is 00:50:42 and you know, securing some back end financing loans that have been some short-term, like kind of more aggressive loans to be like, how do we fund to this company and get for the growth that we need? But yeah, that's been... Those are the exact same challenges that our partners PRX dealt with. Because they did Shark Tank also.
Starting point is 00:51:01 The same thing, just building out, being able to project it six months out, they had a long... A lot of people don't realize that because they see a business, it depends on the business, of course, but they look at the business and they say, wow, they're bringing in so much revenue, they're just rich and it's like, you don't understand, 99% of that oftentimes is reinvested
Starting point is 00:51:18 so they continue to grow and set themselves up. Otherwise, your business is destroyed. Let people don't know. Let people don't get that. So what happened when I'm curious about, and when I never got a chance to ask the PRX guys, was did the show make an impact really? Did you see anything as far as orders?
Starting point is 00:51:34 Like I've always wondered like, man, but just getting on that show, does it really make a big difference? Cause now the awareness and now everyone's searching. I think the verdict's still out for us, cause we just aired, I mean, this was three, four days ago. Oh wow. So it's super new.
Starting point is 00:51:47 I mean, we're, yes, sales have increased. Sales have increased. We have, I mean, it's more the wake of the show. The show's just a beast in the sense of articles that come out now. Oh sure. So there's like all these blogs and, you know, all the publications that they own that ABC.
Starting point is 00:52:03 Oh, interesting. So there's like articles. So there's articles. So it's like, it's a massive hit on our SEO front. You know, you type it now, we're forever as seen on Shark Tank. So it's gonna be, you know, it's really important. It brings a level credibility. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:17 So that's huge that we're excited on and with that. Did you put that on the website too? Is that on the website? I think it is now. Okay. It's up there. We have like a, should have a doc up there. Have you seen that on any of your social channels like any increase there?
Starting point is 00:52:31 We have and we just, we just came on with a new agency that's working with us on that and they've been incredible. So we've just seen kind of upticks in general. We had a lot of good momentum going into Shark Tank. We've kind of been on, the company's been rising really, really quick. So we're,
Starting point is 00:52:47 it's, you know, what is Shark Tank? What's not Shark Tank? I mean, I know why your hesitant to answer, because we've still to this day, we're like, what, so going on seven years in this, and, you know, we've been in fitness for 20 years, so obviously we're very familiar with the industry, but we still have not been able to tease out
Starting point is 00:53:04 like the, some, we've been on been able to tease out like the some we've been on this growth trajectory for seven years. It's hard to predict. It's hard to say like, are we feeling that because of the January wave that we should be or is that just because we're growing right now and we had this great article that came out or this episode that went viral. So it's when you're I mean, it's good. It's a good problem to have, right? When you're in growth mode like that, sometimes I'd say it's one of the harder things, I think as owners, sometimes the tease out like, okay, what is really working because a lot of stuff is working and going in the right direction? That's me has been the curious, I would love to get you as input on that, it's like the
Starting point is 00:53:35 challenge because we're building this company, we're more into like building a healthy company, we're not like a venture funded company that's like, we'll build into it. Like we want to run like a good healthy profitable company like build like, we'll build into it. We want to run like a good, healthy, profitable company, like build as we go, but we're also in this rapid growth phase. We're trying to hire for the company that we're getting into, but it's also like, we never quite know where we're going. So it's like, how do we build this efficiently, effectively, and not get to ahead of our skis that if the
Starting point is 00:54:07 coal plunge market kind of stabilizes, and it's like, this is what it is. Like, that we're not out. I think the hardest thing, I think, and I always say this when people ask me, like, oh, what's the hardest thing about Mind Pump? And I say, you know, the hardest challenge is knowing what to say, no two. When you're in that growth phase like that, there's so many opportunities that arrive and there's so many great things that are happening and oh, we need to work over here, we need to get more of this and we need to do what like you said over your skis. And it's tough to
Starting point is 00:54:33 know what you should say, you know what, pump our brakes, not yet or not now or no, you know, not know forever, but know right now, let's let's focus over here on these things that we know for sure and we'll stay there for a little bit and then that'll still be there and so I think we've gotten better at that over the last seven years of Recognizing that because early on we were like What's coral? Midskoral like everything was like oh get it is now. Oh get it now. Oh, it's exciting It is like this. This cool kid. You feel like you feel and so I totally get that And I think that's where we're kind of maturing into that spot now of like, okay, like let's ground
Starting point is 00:55:07 in a little. Like what is the direction that we're wanting to go as opposed to yeses across the board? What's the relationship now? I mean, I was kind of early bit with Robert, right? Is he involved or more silent? Or what's that going to look like? We're figuring that out.
Starting point is 00:55:22 It's kind of in like a diligence period. So we go back and forth, financials and kind of what that, I mean, it's like I said, the show is like a real handshake that takes place. And then on the back end, you enter into more of the details of it. So we're kind of at that spot right now. Interesting. When you look at, because I thought what you said earlier was really smart, you looked at the sauna, the home sauna market as a potential model.
Starting point is 00:55:44 I think that's brilliant. Sounds like that would make the most sense. And Sona's are more established. Then, then, and it'll appeal probably the same customer, same type of similar type of customer, similar type of price point. It was because the Sona wasn't something we're actually going to launch a Sona. We'll be launching a Sona probably end of this summer. So that, and that wasn't, we love Sona, but it wasn't like, oh, we're gonna get into a critical plunge, then we're gonna create a sauna. It was like our customer base was like, hey,
Starting point is 00:56:11 I'm already getting this. I'm getting this. Do you have, like, are you guys building one? And we're like, no, they're like, cool. We'll send us to a company, we'll buy that one. And so it just kind of, and we just started getting so much feedback on that of like, we would love for you guys to go create one.
Starting point is 00:56:24 And so then we have been in kind of design mode for the last six months and we're just finalizing the design. So anyways, the, the sauna market is, yeah, I mean, that's been the model that we've kind of like. Well, how big is the home sauna market versus, I know the plunge market's very small, still kind of growing.
Starting point is 00:56:41 Yeah, I mean, they're incomparable. I mean, the plunge market is market is a sliver, sliver. I mean, because we're really the... We're also not very comfortable. Yeah, totally, man. Like, it's a... That's a factor. Let's go to the next one.
Starting point is 00:56:56 The plunge and have a conversation. Right, I might have a drink and just... That's the thing I love about their customer base. It's like, you bought something that you know is gonna suck. Like it's like, it's like, it's gonna be about your character. Totally. It's like I get it from the gate like of, yeah, I'm down with you. You have a lot of high performing executives.
Starting point is 00:57:15 Totally. That's massive. And it's, you know, it's, you know, started off more predominantly men transitioning a lot more with women getting involved into it, which has been really cool to see. My wife will plunge it like 39 degrees. That's freezing. You know, turn it down. How did you, you and Sam Park connect to, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's what linked us. That's originally who linked us. So we had him on the show a long time ago, a big fan of the hustle and stuff like that, and I reached out to him because I heard a podcast
Starting point is 00:57:49 where he started talking about a house that he was building that he wanted to do, which was literally what we had talked about for years. So for years, we had talked about creating these kind of like, almost like mind-pum experience houses where we use all these cool things that we're all into and we outfit the house in it. And it's like a short-term rental place.
Starting point is 00:58:09 And we got into real estate almost three years ago now and our first short-term rental in Park City is being built as we speak right now. It'll be done in July. And that's gonna be the first one. And I heard him and I'm like, I hadn't heard anyone talk about this. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:58:24 Are you guys building out like the experience? Yeah. So everything from the cold plunge to a sauna, jacuzzi movie theater gym, everything in it. Yeah. So it'll have all the adjusting in the kitchen. But I didn't know he was doing that. I heard that. That's what made me get reach out and reach out to you and so how did you guys originally get connected? So Sam, I think I followed him on Twitter.
Starting point is 00:58:50 Sam put out a tweet about Cole Plunge's and I just hit him up. I was like, yo, like, let me get, let's get you set up. Oh wow. And he was like, all right. And then we just started like, you know, wow, that's what I mean. And then it was started going from there. And yeah, we had like, you know, how that all, that's what. And then it was, started going from there and, yeah,
Starting point is 00:59:07 we had like, got his unit. I remember there was like an issue with his unit and I was like, fuck, and so like, we got it fixed and, you know, ultimately, and he just, I mean, what's been cool is, you know, we've just kind of been text buddies through it, but he's just, he's like, I'm addicted. Like, you know, and he's just,
Starting point is 00:59:23 oh, he's all about it. Yeah. And it's cool. I think that's the best part with, you know, Sam or everyone that we, like, I'm addicted. Like, you know, and he's just all about it. Oh, he's all about it, yeah. And it's cool. I think that's the best part with Sam or everyone that we, like, they get it and they're just like, dude, this is, I can't travel anymore. Like, I can't leave. I can't get away from my cold plunge.
Starting point is 00:59:37 It's really, it's really, I mean, I do cold shower because I don't have access to a blend. Now we do, but I love it. It really changes my mood is what what it does, more than anything. My mood going in versus my mood going out, very different. I do like the sauna to the plunge or sauna to cold. That's the, so doing sauna makes perfect sense. I would have them right next to each other
Starting point is 00:59:56 and go right from, you know, 20, 30 minutes of sauna right to the cold. And that's, to me, that's the best feeling on the world. You have the time for it. I mean, that's the, what's your hot, there's nothing more inviting than to get into totally body down. It's just natural to do it. I mean, the cold plunging, what I, the other cool thing I love about it is it's like it's
Starting point is 01:00:15 it's realistically, let's say you're plunging for three minutes, it's a five minute commitment out of your day to get that return. And I, you know, working out can give you that, hopping in the saunas in that category, you know, going for a big run. But it's like the time that you have to commit to those are just different. That's a really good point.
Starting point is 01:00:35 It's a really good point. That's the out of all those things. It's the, I mean, you could even throw meditation in there, which is a little bit longer practice, like all those things. But those things are all 30 hour minute type of deals where You're in there for three minutes and you get the benefits. Yeah, every single time So that's any any type of athlete that you see more than any other type of athlete I'm assuming the high intensity like hard core is probably more likely
Starting point is 01:01:00 Yeah, we've come up I mean fitness in general, like that's been our crowd that, you know, fitness influencers that have it and then their followers have been like super into it. CrossFit's gaining some traction. A lot of the CrossFit community, I think it's been taking a little time, but the CrossFit athletes themselves, they've been like quick
Starting point is 01:01:27 adopters of this. I mean, that's all they're doing is looking for one leg up in their sleep and their recovery. And so this has been, you know, whether it's, we have Tia Tumayu's in it, Justin Madero's Rich Froney, like they're all in on it. So that's a big crowd for us. And then just like the regular people using it is just more of, yeah, like high performing like people that are getting into it. Yeah, here's another, I mean, this is something I've done,
Starting point is 01:01:56 is I'll go, I'll take caffeine and I'll do my workout and about an hour and a half later or so, you start to get it to dip a little bit and then cold. I feel like it gives me that bumps it back up or caffeine cold go in the cold. When you come out you already energize in the caffeine hints just like a nice little synergistic like that. Oh yeah, I'm always then caffeine. I like the mining shit. So do a little super hack right there.
Starting point is 01:02:22 That's a clean. The contrast that I love the most is cold to steam. You have access to a steam room, get cold, get your butt, you can do cold shower because most of that's in a locker room or getting the cold plunge, it's the best. And then go sit in the steam and two minutes in your steam,
Starting point is 01:02:40 you will have the most euphoric feeling. Have you been in order to refuge in Carmel? Yeah. I love refuge. Oh, yeah. You'll find me between those two rooms. So I live out there, right? That's all we do.
Starting point is 01:02:51 We go out there all the time. I love that. I moved out there because of the refuge. So we used to like, yeah. No way. Sort of got. Yeah. So my wife and I, we, I mean, we lived here for most time.
Starting point is 01:02:59 And then we would drive over and stay at the sanctuary, which is one of my favorite hotels on the beach to stay at. And then, you know, refuge is literally 10 minutes up the road. And that was like a weekend thing. And we were staying there so much. It's not cheap to stay there. I looked at it and I'm like, you know, we ought to think about renting a place out here because it's really, I'm, yeah, I'm paying, I think we saved money by actually renting
Starting point is 01:03:19 a whole house and just coming out here and see you go every weekend. Uh, well, since the pandemic, not really because a lot of it like shut down and so like that, but they're open yet. Yeah. Yeah, they're open back up again. Oh, yeah, I know I'm there all the time. I love that place. That places.
Starting point is 01:03:32 And for that exact, and they have all the different temperatures. Totally. Oh, yeah, I go. I've never found a place like that before. I'm like sauna freezing. sauna free. That's what I do back and forth.
Starting point is 01:03:41 Yep, yep, right there. I mean, there's a couple like, there's, what is it? Banya house in LA, there's Aasha urban baths up in Sacramento. So some of these like kind of niche urban spots are taken off. But I mean, refuge is built in, you know, the landscaping is insane. Every bit of, I've never, every time we go somewhere, we always look for something like that. And I can never find something like that.
Starting point is 01:04:03 That's like kind of out nature like that has all the different totally vibe. There is red. Yeah. So that places. There's a place in San Francisco called Banya, but it was weird because I went there and it's on a steam cold, but it's coed naked. So I didn't. So you go in there and I'm like, what?
Starting point is 01:04:20 Why are like there's man and women that are just naked? What's going to happen? Like what's going on? But it was, it was fine. Like, nothing happens. The other room look like. Yeah, dude, but I'm like, I don't know. It's always, any like the nude,
Starting point is 01:04:32 like once you get naked and it's like, oh, I'm good, but there's always that initial shock. Like any time you like are walking to that environment. Well, good deal, man. So, so looking forward. So, Sauna's the next big thing. You guys are growing more, trying to deliver faster to people, like anything else on the horizon.
Starting point is 01:04:49 No, I think that's, I mean, really it. It's a lot of work there. I know. It's a monster right there. We just did do our newest facilities, so we're really excited on that team's growing. You're so close, we gotta get out there. We'll have to come out.
Starting point is 01:05:01 You guys, for sure, have to come up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd love to see the one at Saha or whatever. Yeah, you were on the way you're on the way for us All the fact we go up there next week aren't we on the table stuff? So Sacramento We're actually now the new facilities in Lincoln. Oh, I know that is so if you head up 80 right off 65 over there about 10 minutes 15 minutes Up the freeway. Yeah, that's right. So yeah, we're We're growing we're sacram Proud Company and doing our thing. Good deal.
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