From Marine to Healthcare Innovator - Eric Rittmeyer of LifeMed (Full Podcast)

Imagine transforming your approach to health by harnessing the wisdom of a former Marine turned healthcare innovator. Dive into this episode of the Everyday Millionaire Show, where Eric Rittmeyer from LifeMed shares his inspiring journey from military service to the forefront of private healthcare and preventative medicine. Discover the profound benefits of advanced biochemical testing and personalized health optimization, particularly for younger individuals eager to maintain long-term vitality. 

We explore LifeMed's unique concierge wellness model, focusing on age management, aesthetics, and cardiac preventative care. LifeMed's approach not only aims to optimize health but also to prevent major health issues before they arise, paving the way for a healthier future.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Everyday Millionaire Show with
Ryan Greenberg and Nick Kalkis.
Alright, guys, welcome back toanother episode of the Everyday
Millionaire Show.
We're here with Eric Rittmeyerof LifeMed.
This is a long time coming,eric.
I definitely appreciate youcoming out and we have a lot to

(00:21):
talk about today.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
We do.
You said, we have three hours.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
We're no Joe Rogan, but we're trying, but yeah.
So basically I went to LifeMedbecause I was having I wouldn't
say issues, but myinsurance-based doctors were not
giving me the information orthe guidance that I needed or
wanted when I started trainingfor Ironman events and ultra

(00:46):
endurance stuff.
And when I went to LifeMed itcompletely changed my outlook on
insurance, that whole what Ithink is now a big scam and
doctors and how they'reincentivized in different ways.
So kind of tell me, how did youend up with LifeMed doing what
you're doing now?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
was offered an opportunity to come help build
it, and it was just.
I could see that this wassomething that obviously was
going to be, you know, the wayof the future.
It's all about preventativemedicine.
That's where we're headingright now.
It's about preventing, so wedon't have to treat.
So for me, it was just anawesome opportunity, at the
right time, to jump into abusiness and give me the
opportunity to spread the wordfor something that I believe

(01:40):
wholeheartedly in and I'm an oldhead now compared to you guys,
right?
So when you hear that, you hearthat phrase, when you love what
you do, you're not reallyworking.
I always used to hear it and belike, yeah, whatever.
Now I'm in the middle of it andI'm like this is what they mean
when you talk about loving whatyou do.
So for me, right place, righttime, right people, right
environment, right product I'mjust an absolute heaven with
what I'm doing.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
So when you worked at Patient First, were you like a
nurse there, or what was yourdescription there?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
I never worked at Patient First.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
He was the patient first.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
That was funny actually.
I picked up and I'm like oh myGod, we're derailing off this,
Got it.
Okay, I misunderstood you.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
I thought you said that's where you started, and
then you saw how they wereworking things, and that's how
you got into LifeMed.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
That's what I, yeah, start out as a patient first.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
So what brought you to become a patient of LifeMed?
Because most people I feel likewhen they hear that you're
going to see, like at least whenI told people I'm going to see
a private doctor when I havehealth insurance, they're like
why would you do that?
And I'm like, well, I wasnprescriptions for things that I

(02:46):
didn't think I really evenneeded.
What brought you to go theprivate route?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, so for me, like when I got with the Marine
Corps chase we talked about thistoo, and I'm sure you look much
better in a uniform than I do.
We talked about this off camera.
But for me it was like when Igot with the Marine Corps, like
I was bulletproof right when Iwas 18, get out and I'm 22, I
hit 30.
I'm like I got this, like mybody's starting to fall off.
I'm like I'm good to go.
I hit 35.
I'm like, dude, I'm good, I hit40.
I'm like I am indestructible,like I am just never, ever going

(03:12):
to fail.
45 for me.
I was like, okay, like this iswhat it's, this is what's up,
right, I started lift weightanymore, I was whatever.
So for me, at that point where Iwas like, okay, I got to get
some stuff checked out, went in,had this full blood panel done,
we did advanced biochemicaltesting, determined that I was
low in testosterone amongst allthe other markers that were just
not optimized.

(03:33):
So for me, going through theprocess and then firsthand, I
was like, okay, this is what washappening to my body.
I was hitting a point where Iwas just not capable of doing
the things I used to do.
And for guys I think we're kindof hardheaded with that,
especially military guys Likefor me, it was, like you know,
improvise, adapt and overcome,like push through, and it got to
the point where justphysiologically that wasn't
going to happen.
So blood panel was done,started on the testosterone, and

(03:54):
for me I just firsthand got toexperience what I went through.
And then that led to myobsession with conveying the
message to others, especiallyyoung guys.
So insanely important for young, for young people, to get their
blood draws done, even thoughyou feel good, to get baselines
and see if there's somewhere tooptimize.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, I would have never guessed, like, if you like
, take my profile of what we do,what I do as far as like energy
levels, all that stuff, that Iwas also low on testosterone and
that was like one thing thatled to a whole bunch of other
you know kind of preventativestuff that LifeMed is now
helping me handle.
But so why not go to theinsurance people?

(04:34):
That's the million dollarquestion that I feel like I want
to get the word out.
I want to tell people why theyshould be paying to go to see a
private person instead of goingto that insurance-based doctor.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, and I have some thoughts on this.
First off, internally, withLifeMed, our blood draws that we
do this advanced biochemicaltesting which checks almost 100
markers hormones, genetics,cardiac particle sizes,
metabolic, kidney, liverfunction, glucose levels,
thyroid levels, information,markers, vitamins.
We check it all.
I know you've had your blooddraws done.
Obviously we do run the bloodthrough insurance, so that piece
of it within our company isnormally covered by insurance.

(05:10):
You have co-pays, deductibles,things like that.
Everything else is cash payoutside of the blood draw.
My philosophy and my belief, myhypothesis as to why insurance
doesn't cover places like ours,like preventative medicine, if
we all let's just say right nowhave Blue Cross, blue Shield as
our insurance providers, let'sjust say it's very unlikely that

(05:33):
seven to nine years from nowwe're all still going to have
Blue Cross, blue Shield.
Right, I'm going to have a jobchange.
I'm going to go toUnitedHealthcare.
You're going to have a careerchange.
Your wife's going to get a job,You're going to be with Kaiser.
We're all going to havedifferent insurance companies.
Let's round up and say 10 yearsfrom now, so for insurance
companies to invest money inpeople like us right now for
things that really aren't goingto benefit us until later in

(05:54):
life.
They're not going to spend themoney because they know that 10
years from now they're not goingto be insuring you.
So why are they going to spendthe money to invest in you for
Kaiser to benefit from that whenyou're with them 30 years from
now?
So my philosophy with insuranceI believe they're not covering
preventative type stuff becausethey're not going to reap the
rewards from it.
The stuff that we're doingright now preventatively.

(06:15):
Insurance is set up to fixthings that are broken.
Preventative medicine.
They call it medicine 3.0,preventing, so you don't have to
treat.
This is all about doing thingsnow to not deal with it later in
life.
Insurance companies don't wantto spend the money because it's
unlikely.
I guarantee if you had the sameinsurance company on the day of
birth to the day you die, 100%all this stuff would be covered
because they would recognizethat let's do stuff now so you

(06:36):
don't get sick later.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
That's an interesting take on it.
There's a lot of content outthere that says you know, the
insurance companies havebasically incentives to keep to
make us sick so they can treatus later on in life and the the
doctors I feel like are kind ofset up uh, the insurance based
doctors are kind of set up forfailure because they have to

(06:59):
push through so many patientsevery day in order to turn a
profit, Whereas, like I feellike what I felt like at LifeMed
was that you're paying for thattime with the person and spend
like Nick's about to go do hisfollow up, where it's like an
hour long meeting, where they'reactually explaining to not just
like your levels but what whateach level means, and I think

(07:20):
that's that's something that,like I've never had done at any
other doctor or any other placebefore, and I think that's
something that I've never haddone at any other doctor or any
other place before.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
And I think what's important is to recognize the
role of a doctor.
A doctor is trained to treatsomething that's broken.
So they are not preventing,they are treating.
So a doctor.
This is called medicine 2.0,you get sick, you go to a doctor
.
They prescribe medication tomake you better.
That's what they're trained todo.
It's the advent of antibiotics.
This is how we're able todouble our lifespan, essentially
in the last hundred years,mainly because of antibiotics.

(07:51):
So I think most people get intothis mindset of I go to my
doctor and all they want to dois write me a prescription.
Well, you're going to thedoctor because you got sick and
they're writing a prescriptionto fix your illness.
It's not your doctor's job toprevent your illness.
It's your job, it's yourresponsibility to do things to
stay healthy, so you don't needto go to a doctor to write a
prescription.
So I think if people kind ofshift the mindset from I'm only
going to the doctor to treatsomething that I'm sick about,

(08:12):
as opposed to I'm going to bepreventative and not get sick or
do the best, we're all going toget sick, but I'm going to do
the best I can to not get sick.
It's like sending your kid toschool and be like hey, teacher,
raise my kid right.
It's not the teacher's job toraise your child.
Same thing with doctors theirjob's a treat.
So they only have enough timein their schedules normally on
average about 13 minutes to havea blood draw done to see what's
broken and to address what'sbroken and to fix that.

(08:33):
It's not preventative in nature.
Their job is to treat stuffthat's broken.
Companies like ours, we view itthrough the lens of okay, you
feel good and the majority ofour patients who come out, you
guys, when you came out,probably felt all right.
Maybe a little something wasoff, but you felt all right, you
weren't sick.
We now look at that and go waydeep into it.
We don't just look at what'sred on the panel, we look at
what's yellow, what's green.
Where can we optimize it?
Is there anything we can detectin here that might show future

(08:56):
issues that we can address rightnow, so it doesn't become a
major issue?
That's the biggest difference.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, that, I think, is something that most people
don't realize that you can go tothese places for preventative,
for proactive instead ofreactive medicine.
And I know, since I startedgoing to LifeMed I've been going
basically once a week andgetting the Powerhouse Max shot

(09:22):
with like a bunch of vitaminsand everything.
My wife's a teacher.
She's been sick several times.
I haven't been sick since Istarted taking those shots and
maybe maybe I'm just making itup, but with all the vitamin C
and all this stuff that I waspotentially deficient in getting
those those shots each week has, I think, in my eyes, helped a
ton.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, and it's definitely not just your mind
but realistically, if you wantto look at placebo, right.
So if you have that placeboeffect I'm a huge fan Like, hey,
if we're giving you, if we'regiving you an injection with
saline has nothing in it and youthink it's making you healthier
and you're healthier, go for it.
I'm a huge fan of placebo but Ican say it's not the case with

(10:03):
you.
If you're getting thoseinjections, that's just a bunch
of germs running around.
You have to do everything youpossibly can to optimize every
little to stay hydrated.
Our IVs have 500 bags of saline.
You can't drink as much wateras you get intravenously.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, we did a.
We did a triathlon recently.
I can't do IV bags because Ijust pass, I just pass out, I'll
just lay there, pass down so Iget the IM muscular shot.
But our last triathlon in Miamihe had an IV company come to
the Airbnb and gave me an IV andthat's why he beat me.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
Yeah.
So my wife was doing it.
It was me, my wife and Melissa.
We were all three going to dothe IVs.
And my wife gets her injectionin there and all of a sudden she
gets to be a sleepy girl andshe starts laying over and I'm
like, alright, get the IV out.
So now we have an extra bag.
So I'm like, alright, well, Ipaid for it, let me take it.
So I take an extra bag.
So I got two bags right the daybefore I race.

(10:55):
Oh my god, talk about feelinghydrated and feeling good, no
cramps, I mean, I just feltamazing those IVs are legit.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
I think it's the rehydration aspect of it.
Obviously, we add nutrientsinto them.
We have like 17 different onesB vitamins, vitamin C, calcium,
magnesium, glutathione, which isa liver detoxifier, we have all
that.
If you extract all the vitaminsout of it and just get a 500
bag of saline intravenously,it's wild what it does.
We are so under hydrated.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
I drink so much water , but the amount of water we
drink like this you can't getwhat you get in a bag of saline.
It's pretty wild, yeah.
So obviously, Ryan, you know alittle bit more about LifeMed
than I do.
Obviously you know the most,and I just wanted to get my
blood work done two weeks ago.
So for anyone out therelistening, can you like explain
what LifeMed, like who's LifeMedfor, what does it do for them?
And like why choose life medover just going to their primary
doctor to get blood drawn?

Speaker 2 (11:49):
yeah, it's an awesome question.
So I mean, the officialdefinition of our company is
we're a concierge wellnesscenter, so we specialize in age
management, aesthetics, facialcontouring, lip fillers, botox,
vip peels, diamond glows a lotof lady stuff.
Some of the guys like it too.
It's called brotox.
Guys, guys, get Brotox.

Speaker 4 (12:03):
I haven't got it yet.
Not my 11s, got my cruise feet,but yeah, our nurses, our
injectors are top notch.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
I mean, we hire, we train, we only find the absolute
best of the best.
But then it's the cardiacpreventative piece of it.
Our medical director is acardiologist.
We're up to 13 nursepractitioners, three physician
assistants, two other MDs, andthen the hormone replacement
therapies is really the core ofwhat we do.
But, to answer your question,nick, this is all about
preventing, so we don't have totreat right.
What gets measured gets managed.

(12:32):
So that's a good philosophy tofollow.
If we don't measure it, wedon't manage it.
Meaning we pull blood, we findsomething that's imbalanced or
not optimized, we have theopportunity to address it and
deal with it now, before itbecomes a major issue.
So, as far as who's right orwho's the best person to come
out, any adult over the age of18 who's looking to either
optimize and or just getbaselines, that's another thing.

(12:53):
A lot of people are like I'mtoo young, I don't have to come
out yet.
Someone like you, chase,obviously you're 40, we check
what's called PSA,prostate-specific antigen.
So if we see that start totweak, we might be like, okay,
this is an issue, go to aspecialist to have it checked
out.
We've had patients.
One of our providers, actuallyone of our PAs, detected a level

(13:15):
.
It's called LPA, lipoprotein A,lp, little a.
It's a genetic marker and it'sa risk factor for, for
cardiovascular disease.
She saw an elevated LPA, someLDLs that were out of whack,
cholesterols, all the lipids.
She's like you know what,probably not a huge deal, but go
to your, you know, go to acardiologist, get this checked

(13:35):
out.
A couple of weeks later theguy's in for open heart surgery.
The doctor's like hey, had younot detected this, you'd have
probably been dead in about sixmonths.
So so, to answer your question,nick, I would say you know, we
don't know what we don't know.
But I use like the analogy withthe Marine Corps.
It's like we, we have a, ifwe're shooting an azimuth down
range, and now we have GPS forthis stuff and I was in the
Marine Corps we use a compass,and so if I'm shooting an azim

(13:57):
where I'm supposed to be, health, I believe, is the same exact
way.
You take something that's anissue like this right now, left
unattended to, it becomes thismajor issue that could be
detrimental.
You could live a shortened lifebecause of it as opposed to the
issue.
Is this big now we address itnow, we squash it, we don't deal

(14:18):
with it later on in life.

Speaker 4 (14:20):
I got a question real quick.
Please For the military peopleout there like why do you think
the military doesn't dopreventative maintenance?
And it's just kind of the sameas the insurance industries.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, that's a really good question, because you
would think that you'd wantpeople being optimized.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
They're investing in their people right, Totally.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, that's a great question, Chase.
I don't know the answer to that.
I mean, this sounds bad to saymy thought would.
But if we're looking to and Ithink kind of the other, you
know to be objective about thisas a former Marine, I guess it's
just kind of like you knowyou're getting as much as you
possibly can out of this personand in conjunction with that
you're talking normally about Idon't want to say kids they're
adults but 18, I joined when Iwas 17, shipped out when I was

(14:56):
18.
You got 18 to 22-year-olds.
So aside from some kind ofmajor genetic predisposition,
you know you're talking aboutpeople that even if there's
something wrong internally,you're probably not going to
detect it.
And at 18 to 22, I mean, canyou still optimize?
Yeah, you probably can.
I know some of the training Iwent through.
I could probably been optimizedwith just a couple hours of
straight sleep.
But that's a very good question.
That'd be something you wouldthink.

(15:16):
And we do work with a lot oflaw enforcement.
So I mean, they're in theirones to first responders.
They need to be at the top oftheir game because they're out
there.
You know they're out thererunning through the trenches.
So good question though.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Yeah, what is the recommended time that you should
have your blood drawn Like?
Is it every year, every sixmonths?

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah.
So it depends on whether or notyou start on treatment.
To make a very general rule ofthumb, a general statement once
a year would be therecommendation, but depending
what type of treatments youstart on.
So for a lot of our guys whocome out who decide to start on
testosterone replacementtherapies, if you're a candidate
for it, if you're healthyenough, after the blood draws
are done, normally it'sintramuscular injections where
you shoot it right in your glute.

(15:52):
We do them in office.
We can also ship it to thehouse, we can show the guys how
to self-administer.
But when you start on one of ourtreatments, that would normally
dictate the schedule as far ashow often you have blood draw
done.
To make a very high-levelstatement would be once a year,
let's call it.
But again, if you start ondifferent types of treatment, we
want to monitor that, to makesure that dosing is correct,
that you're not metabolizing itdifferently, that you're not

(16:14):
getting too much, that nothingelse is tweaking out.
Because that's another really,really important thing that we
do internally.
Once recommendations are madeas far as treatments are
concerned, if a patient decidesto start, the follow-up is
equally, if not more, importantto make sure that, again, dosing
is right and also to make surenothing else is happening
adversely with any other type ofthing going on with your blood.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
So yeah, so I'd like to talk about kind of the stigma
behind testosterone replacementtherapy, because it's one of
those things that I feel like alot of people look at as like
like a negative thing, becauseit's like steroids or you're
you're getting roid rage orwhatever.
So can we like talk about thethe stigma behind that and why

(16:58):
we think it's a bad, why a lotof people think it's not a good
thing, and then when you go tothese places like a lifebed,
they're like this is the mostimportant thing as a male that
you could be.
You know, doing um is makingsure your your test levels are
right.
Um, why do you think that'skind of like a stigma?

Speaker 2 (17:17):
I think it's a marketing thing because right
now let's be realistic it's 2025.
I think if you go on anycomputer, on any social media,
on your cell phone, everythingyou're going to see is you are a
guy, you need testosteronereplacement therapies, and
that's pretty much what you see.
And that's just not accuratebecause not everyone is a
candidate for it.
So I think at the very root ofit is it gets marketed
incorrectly because it getsmarketed as it doesn't matter if

(17:37):
you need it or not, just takeit.
That's kind of the way andthat's not an accurate statement
For the right person, for theright men who need exogenous
testosterone, and exogenous isfrom the exterior.
It's a game changer, not justfor immediate menopause I talk
all the time about women.
You have to excuse that partNot menopause.
Symptom relief For symptommitigation for guys, lack of
energy, loss of muscle mass,sexual vitality.

(18:01):
If you have someone whopresents with all these things
we pull blood, testosterone islow you might be a candidate If
you are and it's dosed correctly.
And that's another importantthing to point out.
When you talk about TRTtestosterone replacement therapy
we're talking about replacing,restoring the physiologic levels
.
So, as a guy ages, testosteronewas here, now it's here, we're
just restoring at thephysiologic levels.

(18:23):
We're not putting you, we'renot hyperdosing you to turn you
into Lou Ferrigno or anything.
We're just getting you back tophysiologic levels.
When you do that, when it'sadministered under the care of a
provider and it's monitored,getting those levels back up
again not only provide thatrelief but also the long-term
benefits.
We see patient after patientwho see significant improvements
to their lipids, theircholesterols, just with

(18:45):
introducing the testosterone.
It has very positive long-termimpacts.
That all being said, I think thebig problem is just making the
blanket statement that everyone,every guy, should start
testosterone, and especially notfor younger guys.
We talked a little bit offcamera about this, about guys
who still want to have children.
When you start takingtestosterone from the outside,
it's normally going to be along-term, lifelong commitment

(19:07):
that you're committing to atthat point and if you're younger
, call it under the age of40-ish.
There are some othermedications that can accomplish
the same goal of elevatingtestosterone.
It's just we do it with yourbody's natural production
Clomiphene, acg again, we talkedabout this off camera.
These are things that we cangive to men who are younger, who
might need it, without givingthem testosterone from the
outside, because then their bodyis going to rely on it.

(19:28):
They might have to stay on itfor the rest of their life.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, that's really interesting and I truthfully had
no idea that my testosteronewas low and I'm glad that I
figured it out now.
Um, but the I guess one of thestigmas is like it's going to
make people angry, it's going togive them.
Is that that stigma is becauseof people like the Lou Ferrignos

(19:51):
of the world that took a bunchof it to be a giant Jack
bodybuilder, and that's probablywhy, yeah, when you get hyper
fizzy a lot.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
I mean, here's the thing like again, I'm 50 years
old, right?
So I feel like my generationwhen I was a kid, when I was
younger, coming through whateversteroids, steroids, steroids,
the whole roid rage thing.
I never subscribed to that,meaning that I never felt
personally like the testosteroneyou were giving that person
made them angry.
If you were already an angryperson, you might exacerbate

(20:19):
that or there could be otherimbalances, because once you
start to give somebodytestosterone, it can increase
all these other levels.
You have to monitor this stuff.
So it's almost kind of likesomeone who gets drunk, goes out
to a bar and gets drunk andthey get into a fight and they
become this mean person whenthey're drunk it's like the
alcohol doesn't make you mean.
It's just that in your normallife you're withholding it,
you're suppressing it.
The alcohol just totally losesthat inhibition.

(20:39):
It doesn't make you alcoholdoesn't, and some people I guess
you don't go out and get in thebar fights.
You know that's who you trulyare.
I feel like the same way withtestosterone, like it's not
going to turn you into this wildperson, especially not when
you're dosing the physiologic,when you're giving just enough
to restore it again, to replaceit, to not abuse it.
Use and abuse, right.
That's the big difference there.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
So what is a normal level for a male, and do you, if
you are, let's say, 50, do youwant to have the same levels as
somebody that's 30, or is itnatural to have less as you get?

Speaker 2 (21:12):
older?
Yes, that's another awesomequestion, right?
So testosterone is measured inwhat's called nanograms per
deciliter.
So when you look at any panel,you're going to see a range from
250 to 1100.
That's the general range.
So where I think my non-medicalbecause, remember, I'm not a
medical person, so this isnothing medical, please anybody
watch this.
I'm not providing medicaladvice, don't take it, you would
harm yourself.
You don't want my medicaladvice, but just here to educate
.
So where I personally believethat that whole system goes

(21:35):
wrong is they take someone theysay oh well, that's normal for
your age, right?
So it's like me being 50.
Normal for might be like 400for my age if I'm not taking
anything.
Well, I understand, it's normalfor my age.
But what if I want to optimizethat?
What if I want to feel better?
What if I want more energy,more sexual vitality, the

(21:58):
ability to maintain muscle mass,which is so critically
important for long-term health,the retention of lean muscle
mass?
What if I want to do that?
What if I want to restore itback to the levels where I was
when I was in my 20s?
What does that look like?
So if we take that person,regardless of your age, and get
you back up to that thousand-ishlevel.
So if you look at any of thestudies there, they all show
kind of the same thing.
If you're getting it back tothat normal level, it's going to
help with the cardiovascularstuff, it's going to help retain

(22:19):
muscle mass, it's going to helpyou live better, it's going to
help give you more energy,because we do have to put it
something on quality of life aswell.
And for a lot of guys who comeout, you know again, they're,
they're, they're, you know, dude, I can't like, I have no energy
left.
I'm putting fat on in this midregion, that visceral fat that's
so dangerous for cardiovasculardisease.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
All those components yeah, I um, I mean, I've been
pretty transparent about mine.
My level was 150 and I didn'treally feel a lot of the
symptoms until I I guess youknow we got to talking about
more of it.
And then I'm like, oh well,maybe I guess I am a little bit
less, you know, energized than Iused to be and that's like the

(22:56):
range you're saying is.
That's a big range right 250 to1100.
Do you think that most malesshould be closer to that 1100,
be aiming for that 1100 number?

Speaker 2 (23:09):
see a big component that's symptom related also,
right.
So if I have someone, sotechnically, if you have a, if
you have a testosterone levelbelow 250 nanograms per
deciliter, you're medicallydiagnosed what's called
hypogonadic.
So that's technically a medicalcondition.
If you're below 250, set asideage, that's that's, that's a
thing.
Um, it's all symptom related,right.
Right.
So if I have, if I have a malethat comes in and he's like hey,
I'm 45 years old, I have nosymptoms whatsoever, I feel

(23:32):
decent, I feel good, and we pullhis testosterone levels, he's
300, 350.
He doesn't feel bad, he has nosymptoms.
So you're not just going to wantto recommend testosterone, just
to take it.
So a lot of it's symptom based.
We have plenty of patients whocome out who have no symptoms
whatsoever.
We pull their blood, theirlevels are low, possibly could
optimize.
But if there are no symptoms?

(23:53):
Because then again, what youalways have to remember is,
especially with testosterone,once a guy starts taking it at
some point our body's naturalproduction will suppress.
It's our pituitary gland.
It releases hormones calledfollicle-stimulating hormone and
luteinizing hormone.
That stimulates the testes toproduce testosterone.
That's a closed-loop system.
So our testes are constantlytalking to the pituitary gland.
If testes are low.
Hey, pituitary gland, give memore, I want more.

(24:14):
It releases FSH, stimulates thetestes more testosterone.
When a guy starts taking itexogenously we're using
bioidentical testosterone comesfrom yams primarily.
When your body's getting thatexogenous testosterone, all the
testes know is I got enough.
So that sends messaging back tothe pituitary gland I'm good to
go.
So FSH, lh, suppress at somepoint.
After long enough of suppression, your body's ability to make it

(24:36):
on its own.
Depending on how old you are,you might not be able to make it
on your own again.
Hopefully it kicks back in.
But where does that fall?
How long does it take?
Nobody really knows that.
So, before you start on thisstuff, you have to make certain
that number one, mostimportantly, you're healthy
enough for it.
Number two, do you havesymptoms?
And number three, are youwilling to commit to something
that's going to be a long-termthing?
These are all questions youhave in combination with your

(24:58):
doctors, with your spouses, withyour friends, but it's a
decision that should not betaken lightly.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
So what causes?
I guess in a general sense whatcauses it to drop or get lower
over time.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
So this happens naturally.
So this is part of ourevolutionary advantage, if you
want to call it that, hundredsof thousands of years ago, when
we're out in our tribes, right,we have to go out, we have to
hunt, we have to defend, we haveto reproduce.
That's when testosterone levelsgo up.
At about the age of 30, we seethat testosterone start to drop
off Naturally.
Start to drop off naturally.
It declines.
As men, there's really nothingwe can do to stop that decline.

(25:28):
We can slow it down, keep ourBMI low.
That's a very big thing.
For every 5% increase in BMIyou accelerate your testosterone
age by about 10 years.
So maintaining a decent BMI isa very important factor.
But as evolution has it, as weget older, we don't need to
defend as much anymore.
We don't need to reproducebecause we have children,

(25:48):
essentially, who are doing thatfor us.
So evolution says thattestosterone just starts to drop
to the point where, as we age,it can go down extremely low.
So it's part of what happenswith us.
Some people view it as okay.
It's our bodies telling us wedon't need it anymore, so we
shouldn't replace it.
Again, I respect that ifsomebody wants to do that.
But if you look at all thestudies, it shows that
replenishing it can have somelong-term benefits.

(26:10):
So it's part of evolution thatjust says we don't need it
anymore because we don't have togo out and hunt and protect
anymore.
What's BMI, body Mass Index?
So it's just a simple equationthat takes your height, it takes
your weight and it gives youthis number.
It's not very accurate.
In the military you can relateto this chase, like my last year
in the Marine Corps.
I'm in Okinawa, japan.
I was 185 pounds.
My body fat was like nothing.

(26:31):
I go, I get up looking at thescales, like five, nine, like
one, 85.
And they're like you'reoverweight.
And I'm like, okay, so theysend me to medical.
I go into the jet, the colonelsin there it's like dude, what
are you doing here?
It's like they told me I'moverweight out of my face.

(26:53):
So that motivated me enough.
I ran my PFT in 18 minutes andthree miles.
But so it's just a very, very,very quick and actually a very
antiquated way looking atsomeone's overall cardiovascular
health, because it's not verypredictable for cardiovascular
health.
But it's a simple way to sayheight, weight.
This is your BMI.
Is this high?
As a guy, you want it below 25%, preferably lower.
The lower the better.
But once you get above thatyou're considered to be obese
and that can be.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
That can be an issue.
So it's a quick way todetermine whether or not
someone's obese.
Do you think?
Do you think there's a strongcorrelation from when kids are
young and back in the day whenkids used to actually go outside
, versus nowadays?
Kids aren't outside as much towhere they're going to grow up
to have less testosterone thanthey would if they were, you
know, back when we were youngerand we were running around
outside.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
I was going to go on and I'm going to add to that
because I was going to asksomething very similar.
I've went into rabbit holes onYouTube about almost exactly
what Nick is saying, but aboutthe food that we're eating as
well.
So do you think there areoutside factors that have
changed in society that arecausing these things?

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, 100%.
And it's very difficult togauge where this all starts
because we didn't have the databack then to even know.
I mean, I think, if you look atit now, the lack of physical
activity 100% plays a role inall of this.
Again, I'm 50.
There was no such thing asinternet or anything when I was
a kid.
It was go all out and fromsunup till sundown, seven days a
week.

(28:09):
That totally plays a role inwhether or not someone is
overall healthy.
Right, the lack of physical,it's 100% plays a role.
Diet, all that stuff, thechemicals that go in food.
Yeah, I mean, is there a way toequate it, to say, okay, based
on this food that you'reconsuming, has this much of an
impact?
That's extremely difficult tosay.
But you know, I would say thatthe lack of physical, you know,

(28:31):
being in front of computers,being on your cell phone, all
this kind of stuff, these arejust factors that there's no ifs
, ands or buts about it.
It has to contribute negativelyto testosterone and just the I
hate to say the loss ofmasculinity, but I do feel like
it's just the.
You know, men are meant to goout and to hunt and protect.
That's part of what we did100,000 years ago.
So I feel like if we don'tactivate those things or at

(28:53):
least do something that's goingto stimulate that stuff, you're
going to lose it, and I thinkthat's the result of what you
see.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
So from the business perspective, is there any
competition locally ornationally with LifeMed?

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah.
So there's lots of clinics nowwho are popped up, who are, you
know again, their, you knowtheir focus is on this.
I think they recognize now that, hey, this is something that a
lot of people are moreinterested in.
I think COVID played a big rolein this, just basically helping
people to recognize hey, theabsolute best thing you can do
to prevent illness is to remainhealthy, and at some point
you're going to get sick.
We are all susceptible to it.

(29:26):
But I think the takeaway fromthe whole pandemic was the
people who fared the best on theother side of it were the ones
who went into it the healthiest.
So I feel like there's lots ofplaces I'm a little biased.
It's obviously the company Iwork for, so I'm a little biased
here with this.
But we absolutely do things very, very differently, and we just
had a big company meeting todayand one of my messages to all

(29:47):
the staff was hey, it's veryeasy to make people feel good by
giving them pharmacologicalmedications, whatever IV bags,
vitamin B, vitamin C,testosterone, whatever it is.
It's very easy to do that.
The difference is what we dointernally, I believe, is we
make people feel better mentally, so when people come in, they
know what they get with us.
You get smiling faces, you getpeople who want to be there.

(30:09):
You get very smart, highlyeducated people who have devoted
their lives to making peoplefeel better.
This is just next level stuff,but it's ultimately about how we
make people feel, because themedication only goes so far.
When people come in, they wantto feel good when they open up
that door.
They want to know someone'sgoing to remember their name,
someone's going to remembertheir name, someone's going to
remember their family, someone'sthere because they truly care
about that person.
That's the biggest differenceis what we do, I would say.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
And that's why I scheduled the appointment, and
it was two weeks ago.
As I mentioned before, the showand the service there was great
.
I'm not a big fan of needleseither, like Ryan, and when I
got the needle I was so close topassing out and she's like if
you pass out on me, I'm going tohave to redo it all over again.
So I literally was just on thebrink of passing out and I woke

(30:53):
up and for like 10 seconds I hadno clue where I was and I
finally got it done.
She broke out the pixie stick,as I mentioned.
I haven't seen one of thosesince I was like 12.
And then I got my sugar back upand it was good to go.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
They're pretty magical.
The one thing I would recommendmoving forward next time if
your blood draw is done, becausethat's a common everybody's if
someone walks in and they're notfearful of a needle, right, you
better have a little needlephobia when you walk in Like,
get me up, I'm good to go.
I mean, even the guys that gottattoos right, I'm still like
there should be a little phobia.
Drink in a men's, because also,we want you to fast eight hours

(31:25):
prior.
No food.
The water is so insanelyimportant.
The vast majority of ourpatients who have problems with
with the blood draws which is avery small percentage of people
who do, but the ones who doalmost every single time it goes
back to probably the lack ofremaining hydrogen.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
You're looking at 50% of the people right now.
I mean right.
You guys are skewing thesenumbers.
Yeah, you guys are skewingthese numbers man.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah In the military.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
We're used to this.
It's like, all right, tell meup Like let's get it over with
and it's crazy because, like,mentally, I'm not afraid of
needles.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
It's just when I'm around, when I stare at a needle
when we were having our babyfour years ago in 2020, I'm like
this is not a fear, like I'mgoing tope at the time and she,
as soon as they stuck it in herand started pulling the blood
out, like I passed out.
I wasn't even getting theneedle, but like I wanted to
face my fear and it just I justcouldn't.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
That's a very normal thing.
I will say the one.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
My hands are sweating talking about it.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
I think the main thing what's helped me a lot
with this and with a lot ofpatients who come through a
little bit of a shift in how youthink Maybe this will help.
I hope it does a little bit.
I think the main thing withpeople having needles and making
them feel like weak in theknees and passing out is the
thought of getting a needle toremove stuff, to remove blood
from your body, as opposed togetting an IV to put a needle
and to put stuff into yourbloodstream.

(32:42):
So I feel like for peoplecoming in to get the blood draws
done, when we hit you with theneedle, we're pulling that out,
but if you're getting the needleto get the stuff going in, it
shouldn't be that big of a deal.
But it's normal in people.
I mean, it's very common tohave that food.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah, it don't matter if it's coming in or coming out
, I'm passing out.
The lady knows me, now that Iget the special chair, I can't
go.
It was the most embarrassingthing that ever happened.
Like I was in to the columbiaoffice, has the blood draw like
right next to the waiting room.
So there's people there, thedoor is open and the lady's like
doing it and I'm slowly fadingand she's like are you with me?

(33:18):
Are you with me, buddy, are youwith me?
I'm like, uh, not really, not,not really.
And then the next time that Iwent in for the follow-up, I'm
like we can't do it here again,because, because all of those
people the nurses, everybodycame with like glasses of water
and the pixie sticks and this,and that I'm like this is the
most embarrassing thing, as,like a man, like I'm, like I

(33:39):
feel like, you know, I was ahockey player, like I was, like
I'm a tough guy and I'm passingout in front of all these people
and all these women are heretrying to give me water and all
this stuff.
I was like take me in the backsomewhere where nobody can see
me and lay me down and do itthat way.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
The crazy thing is how they handle it, because I'm
not a medical person.
So when I see somebody gettinglike that, I'm not a medical
person.
So I see them like oh mygoodness, oh my God, what's
going on?
The nurses are like, yeah, nobig deals, like I got him, like
they're like holding up againstthe wall, like yeah, I want
mayonnaise on my sandwich.
I'm like I'm like freaking out.
They just know that stuff Likeyou got to have, like our again

(34:18):
our nursing staff, everybody,it's just the whole medical
field to me.
I'm so fascinated by it becausethat's so not what I'm able to
do, Like I just can't when I seepeople passing out, but it's
not uncommon.
You guys, obviously you're.
You know, you got the, you gotthe ratios.
You're messing with the ratiosaround here, man.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
Yeah, um, so one thing uh that I wanted to talk
about was life meds marketingstrategy and the way that, like,
we have uh other companies inthis area that I never even
heard of before, and the onlyreason I even know about them is
because I wore one of theLifeMed shirts to a buddy of
mine's house whose wife happensto be a nurse practitioner one

(34:52):
of the competitors and I waslike, oh, that's here in
Savannah Park or Annapolis.
I've never even heard of that.
I've been going to Columbiabecause LifeMed is what you see,
so can you give some insight onkind of your guys' strategy
there?
Because any gym I feel likethat I've been to around here
doesn't matter where you'regoing to see somebody in a

(35:12):
LifeMed shirt.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Yeah, our strategy is to let everyone know that we
exist and to also let peopleknow that we are for everyone.
We do not we have all of ourpricing.
That's, I feel like, verydoable for the average everyday
type person.
This is not something that'slike outside of someone's
ability to afford.
What we do we are all about andme personally being the mark

(35:34):
you know, being marketing is mything.
I absolutely infatuated with it.
It's just I don't say no, likeI love being out there, I love
bumping elbows, I love talkingto people and ultimately, what
it boils down to is just lettingpeople know hey, these are
things that every single one ofus should be doing.
We can live better, we can livehealthier, but ultimately,
getting the word out that bootson the ground right, it's just
guerrilla marketing.
It's Marine Corps 101.

(35:55):
It's like just in the trenchesjust doing it day and day and
day.
Again, summertime we go.
I did like 350 events last year, right.
So it's like we just go and ourstaff's on board with it.
They love it.
We love getting out in thecommunity.
I meet so many awesome peopleand that's a cool time.
I mean, sometimes it's a littlecrazy, like this weekend I got
the boat show.
I got an event, a power liftingevent.
I got the Ravens.

(36:21):
We do the tailgates down atJimmy's.
That's wild, by the way.
Yeah, jimmy's tailgates arewild.
I 100% believing in what we do.
There's just no substitute whenyou have a core of people who
are all in on whatever thatmission is, we live and breathe
it.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
So are you guys going to have a booth up at the boat
show this weekend?

Speaker 2 (36:37):
We are.
Yeah, it's Money andFairgrounds.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
I'm going to stop up there, probably Saturday or
Sunday morning.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
We'll be there Friday through Sunday.
Yeah, that's just why that getslast.
Last, I've done it for this, mythird year, I think, doing it.
Just people come through andit's crazy because also come
through wearing our shirts, likeI'll be, like you know, it's
crazy like driving down the road, people beeping the horn with
me so my truck is all wrapped up.
I'm gonna stop light me.
People beeping the horn.
I think they're like flippingme off or something.
They're like waving likelifeblood shirt.
I'm like throwing cards out thewindow.
It's just, it's gotta go to thegrocery store.

(37:03):
Like I gotta be careful how Idrive and I don't get in too
much trouble.
People wear it.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Like that's the.
That's the funny part about it,cause I think another thing too
like is the quality of thestuff that you guys put put out
there.
But like I wear LifeMed shirtsall the time and when I left the
first day with like the similarbag that um that you gave me,
it was just stocked with all ofthis cool stuff.
Like I've been rocking theseshaker bottles and rocking the

(37:27):
shirts and I think that's anawesome strategy of getting the
word out there, because thereare people that are wearing it.
I mean, he wears thatsweatshirt damn near every day,
just about every day.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
I mean, let's be real though, like I don't want to
typically wear, I don't wearbranded stuff.
I like my bill, I like my cutt-shirt no brand.
But when you have somethingthat's really quality, you guys
do the black on the black.
It's nice stuff, it's just hardnot to wear it and it also
becomes kind of like acamaraderie right.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
It's almost kind of like being in the military.
When I see somebody with aMarine Corps sticker, I'm laying
on the floor, I'm like SemperFi, hurrah, do or die, hurrah,
devil dog, it a double dog.
It's like wild.
It's like the same way withlife med.
I was the grocery storeactually.
I was in there, probably likelast week I think it was, and I
ran into a couple that I knewI'm talking with them and, um,
this guy comes walking in, he'swearing it, he walks by, he's a
point his life med hat and mybuddy's like dude, what was that

(38:16):
all about?
Is that like some kind of likecredo or something like?
It's like a jeep thing, bro.
He's like pointing we have newpeople, new hires, come in, we
get ready to hire new people.
It's like I always tell themI'm like look, I said the people
you're going to be dealing with, it's not just the staff,
that's really cool.
The patients, like 99% of ourpatients who come in there, are

(38:36):
so cool when someone walks inand they're like you're like hey
, what's going on?
And the common thread, I thinkthe common denominator, is these
are all people who areinvesting in themselves.
These are people who are optingto do things now to help them
feel better.
It's just, it's a cool, awesomecore of people.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
I got a difficult question.
It's not super difficult but alittle difficult.
How many LifeMed shirts do youthink have been given out?

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Oh, my goodness.
Um, I mean I it's, it's well inthe hundreds of thousands.
I mean it's definitely.
I mean I would say any givenevent.
I'm giving away two, three, Imight have to assume.
Wow, that's actually a reallygood number.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
I mean, that's a metric that you should.
You should just know to getyour shirt prices down.
You should be like yo dude, Ijust bought 300,000 shirts from
you.
Let's get me a dollar off ashirt.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Our shirt guy definitely loves us and we love
him.
It's a very reciprocated name.
Craig's his name.
He's an awesome guy.
He's a wonderful guy.
Good question, nick.
I mean, it's just, we canvas it.
It's the shirts, it's the hats,it's the sweatshirts.
I mean it's well on, pureinsanity.
I mean it's just wall, it's aceiling, it's floor to ceiling.

(39:51):
It's just, we're just ready tostart slinging it.
Summertime when that kicks in,going down the beach, we do the
white model and open the poorgirls open.
We have the plane that flies by.
We're actually wrapping a busdown there.
This year we got a few boats.
A few of our patients tooktheir boats and wrapped them
with LifeMed stuff, it all inman.
We're just 100% sold on thisand the shirts are a big part of

(40:11):
it, but it's the other,anything that's going to get our
name in front of people.
We have the plane that fliesover the stadium.
You'll see it there thisweekend for the Ravens, although
it's dark, it's night game.
Probably won't see them flyingover this year, this game, but
the rest of them.
Anywhere there's peoplecollected.
We're going to get our name inthere one way or another.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Well, we host a quarterly event.
It's coming up next week, sowe'll have to get you on the
next one for sure, because wehave like 200 investors that
come to network and stuff andhalf of them show up in LifeMed
shirts already.
So it's funny.
I would love that.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
Do you know how much we spend on them?
But it's a very substantialportion of our budget.
A lot of it, too, isreferral-based.
There's no substitute for wordof mouth.
We're so fortunate to have somany of our patients who are all
about getting their friends andfamily to come in.
There's nothing Me personallymy phone's nonstop with somebody

(41:17):
referred somebody to me,whatever.
Obviously, women's health is mymain passion.
I love helping ladies, butthere's nothing better than
having someone who trusts youenough to refer their family.
So we treat everyone with thewhite gloves.
But when they come throughreferrals it's like next level.
My cell phone, you know it'sseven days a week, legitimately,
and I love it Like I never letmy phone go to voicemail.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
Well, it's funny, like you say referrals, but the
reason you're here is becauseyou reached out, because we were
talking about Lifebed on thepodcast and I guess somebody
that you know listens to theshow and heard it and not only
you but another, jennifer, maybesomebody else reached out like
on, I guess, one of our videosthat I was talking about life
med.
So you know we were talkingabout it like we were plugging
you guys without even pluggingyou guys.

(42:00):
Usually people pay us to dothat kind of stuff so we're,
we're like happy I'm at leastnick has got to get through his,
you know, second consultationor whatever.
But like I am super, superhappy with the service and like
I've been telling everybodyabout it and how it's helped me
and how I've found out thingsabout my body that I've been
going to doctors for years andnever had known.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
And that's exactly what it's all about, you know,
and I feel like just as like alife lesson.
I guess, again, being 50 yearsold, being an old ad, you know
it's like treating peoplecorrect, it's not.
It doesn't matter what business, it doesn't matter if it's
somebody at the grocery store,right, it's just treating that
person with respect.
And I think what thattranslates into in business is
the feeling for the majority ofour patients that they're part

(42:42):
of something.
It's not just getting written aprescription to take medication
.
They know they're part of afamily, they're part of someone
who truly cares about them, andthat's what I think is just so
significant about todifferentiate us from other
companies.
It's the ability to amass thatgroup of people who have the
full package smart,compassionate, intelligent, kind

(43:04):
.
All of these things togetherjust make for this perfect
ingredient to say, okay, this isgoing to fit well for people
and they're going to recognizethat we do it differently than
anybody else.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
Eric, the year is 2030.
Where do you see life, man?

Speaker 2 (43:19):
To owning the world.
I mean we're going to benationwide.
That's where we're going rightnow.
We're going to open up inPhilly.
It's another good question.
You didn't tell me we haddifficult questions here today.
Although when he said he haddifficult question, like please
don't be math, please don't bemath, I mean we're we're growing
and we're going to continue tobuild it.
They will come.
That's the old, that's the oldadage, right, and it's like for
us, we're going to continue toto build them out.

(43:45):
We're going up in the Philly.
That's going to be a true test,mainly for me, that's a market
that I'm going to be goingnonstop with it.
But ultimately, we just want toreach as many people as we
possibly can, to get this out toas many people.
It's affordable, it's doable,everyone needs it.
So I feel like, if the businessmodel is correct, you scale it
out.
So by the year 2030, wehopefully will be nationwide.

(44:09):
And you guys have threelocations now, so we have four.
Right now we're getting readyto be number five up in Philly.
That's going to be our fifthone.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
So I guess for the listeners, where are all four of
the locations now?
Timonium, Columbia.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Timonium, columbia, bel Air, rehoboth Beach,
delaware, and then getting readyto be right outside of Philly
Westchester, glen Mills.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
I didn't realize you guys were down at the beach too.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
We're with beach, we're right behind I have to say
this slowly the seashell shopSomebody going to ask the
question ask who works at thefront desk.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Who works at the front desk?

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Sally, you get a Sally sells seashell, got it.
They get worse.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
So what is one of the hurdles that you guys face for
opening up a new shop andgetting boots on the ground and
getting that stuff In Phillyit's a couple hours away.
What are some of the hurdlesthat you're expecting to take on
?

Speaker 2 (45:02):
The biggest hurdles are staffing, obviously, because
you can build whatever you wantto build if you don't have the
people to run it.
So that's what we put so muchemphasis on is just finding the
right people, because there is aunique individual that we have
to have.
They have to be like a unicorn,right, they have to have all
these things together.
So staffing is by far I meanthat's the most important thing,
because, again, we can buildthis beautiful facility and we

(45:23):
can spend all this money onmaking it look pretty, but if
you don't put the people inplace and if patients aren't
treated correctly, they're goingto go elsewhere.
It's why we get so many peoplecoming to us from other places.
They just weren't appreciated,or they tell us they didn't feel
appreciated where they were.
We know every patient thatwalks through our doors has the
option to go to all thesedifferent places.
What are we going to dodifferently?

(45:44):
And I say this to all of ourstaff, I say this to everybody
this is a good life lesson.
People will forget the thingsyou do.
They'll forget the things yousay.
They will never forget the wayyou made them feel, and that
goes with any part of life.
This is called patternrecognition and emotional
tagging.
You can go back like a song onthe radio, right, if you can
hear a song right now from 20years ago that will click in
your mind.

(46:04):
You know where you were, whoyou're with, what you're wearing
, what the weather was like.
People attach to feelings, andwhen you do stuff to make them
feel good internally, this iscalled effective presence.
When you make them feel goodinternally, they don't even
recognize it, but they gravitatetowards that because they feel
awesome.
And again, I'm not talkingabout medications here, I'm
talking about emotionally.
I think we've gotten very goodat putting together a team of

(46:27):
people who are very good atmaking our patients feel good
about themselves.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
So you do some mental toughness coaching, right.
What would be why somebodywould come to you for that?
Because we are actuallylaunching a coaching, a business
coaching, based around realestate investing platform that's
going to be rolled out.
Why would somebody come to youfor mental toughness coaching?

Speaker 2 (46:53):
Yeah, and I've actually backed off the mental
toughness coaching quite a bitjust because I devoted so much
now to mainly the women's healthstuff and the marketing stuff.
But I mean, mental toughness,in a nutshell, was just
emotional control.
Uh, we get no training on this.
We go through a school systemthat teaches us to memorize,
regurgitate.
We don't get taught how toexpress our feelings, especially
as men.
Suppress it, don't deal with it.
You can't tell people how youfeel.

(47:14):
It's a sign of weakness.
That's dangerous.
So mental toughness, in twowords, is just emotional control
.
So I spent about 20 years and Istill do a lot of this, but
it's just all about helpingpeople to recognize that we're
emotional creatures.
We're hardwired to feel firstand think later.
Instead of trying to suppressthat emotion, which is not
possible, learn to recognize it.
Learn to understand what'scausing it.

(47:35):
Then get to the core of what'scausing it and find constructive
ways to respond.
The problem is we go throughlife reacting.
We are emotion-based.
Something happens, we react.
So we allow all this exteriorstuff to totally control us.
Something happens, we react.
Something happens, we react asopposed to responding.
When we do that, we processinformation logically.
It's like taking a deep breath.
Now we can respond to thesituation instead of reacting

(48:00):
knee-jerk, saying things we'regoing to regret, harming
relationships, ruining businesstransactions In real estate.
You've seen this Everybody getshigh in emotion.
Emotion and logic are inverselyrelated.
I call it emotionalintoxication Emotion goes up,
logic goes down.
When you get drunk in emotion,you have no control over what
you say and do and stuff fallsapart Relationships, business
transactions, depending on yourline of work.
People could die Lawenforcement, military if you

(48:21):
allow that emotion to get thebest of you, creates bad
situations.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
So mental toughness 101 is just emotional control.
How did you learn about this?
This is something that I feellike nobody really talks about,
especially men.
How did you get so comfortablewith the topic?

Speaker 2 (48:37):
There were two things .
Number one, I would say it wasthe Marine Corps, which is what
really kind of spurred it.
But it took me until about myearly 20s, I think, to recognize
like I'm a firm believer.
And everyone's kind of bornwith something.
Some people are athletic, somepeople are artistic, some, you
know, born with something.
Some people are athletic, somepeople are artistic.
Whatever it is, I went throughthe vast majority of my life not
knowing I was just good ateverything I did.
I was never out wild awesome atanything.

(49:03):
I was good, I was okay withthat.
It took me until, probably aboutmidway through the Marine Corps
, I recognized I'm good atpeople.
That's my gift.
I can connect with people.
I can diffuse hostilesituations.
I can hear an opposing point ofview, I'm able to listen with
the intent to understand, notwith the intent to reply.
So for me it was like once Irecognized that that was my gift
and it sounds cheesy to saywhatever, but once I realized
that people were my gift, then Iwas just on this mission to try

(49:26):
to find a way to bottle up whatit was I thought I was good at
and born with and then just getthat message out to the masses
so they could strengthenrelationships, they could be
happier, they could live longer,they could formulate, they
could deal with opposing pointsof view.
Right, the society we live inright now, we're just incapable
of hearing what someone says ifwe disagree with them.
So this is something I felt wasvery useful.

(49:47):
So it was kind of takingsomething I feel like I was born
with and then just packaging upin a way that I could say here
try these things and see if youhave positive results from it in
relationships and in business.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
Yeah, I mean, I I think as, especially being in
the military, it's it's alwayshard to get across like how, how
you feel as a male, and thenyou go to the doctor and they're
asking you how you feel andyou're like, oh no, I'm fine,
but you know, you have some typeof pain knee pain, ankle pain,
whatever it is, and it is it's.
It's very difficult to explainthat and to express that.

(50:22):
What do you say?
What do you say to those, thoseyoung, the young guys like me
that have those troubles?

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Yeah.
So I mean, I think, as itrelates to the emotional
component, and for young guysespecially, you know, if you're
still at that stage where you'rein relationships, you're not
yet married or whatever you know, the ability to have deep,
meaningful relationships doesrequire you to accept the fact
that you're an emotionalcreature and that calls
emotional capacity.
I've written about this right,we all have this capacity to
feel emotion.

(50:51):
The issue with mostrelationships, I believe, is you
have two people who havevarying levels of emotional
capacity.
So, doing a scale of 1 to 10,if my scale of emotional
capacity is a 3 and my spouse isa 10, once I get to 3, I'm full
, I'm good to go, I need no more.
If she's at a 10, she doesn'thave enough right, she's not at
that point.
Her capacity has not yet beenmet.

(51:11):
So I think in mostrelationships you have one
person who's I'm good to go.
What's the problem?
No big deal.
The other person is starvingfor more.
So for men especially, I feellike we have to get very good at
recognizing that feeling wehave is awesome.
100% of our feelings are okay.
It's how we respond to them,and if we're not able to be very
good with processing emotion.
It's going to ruinrelationships.

(51:31):
It's not going to allow us tohave deep, meaningful
relationships, and the older Iget, the more I recognize that
is the absolute secret to life.
It's deep, meaningfulrelationships Obviously stay
healthy.
All that good stuff.
But if you want to live a longtime and be happy, there needs
to be a significant amount ofemphasis put on your emotional
well-being.
And if you're not okay withemotions, if you try to suppress

(51:53):
them, ignore them or turn themoff all of which are impossible
it's going to wreak havoc.
It's the old saying don't holdyour sneeze, as if you do, your
lungs are going to collapse.
Right when I was a kid, thatwas a thing.
Don't hold your sneeze, yourlungs are going to collapse.
Emotions are the same way youtry to express their feeling is
anger, is rage, is violence.

(52:13):
They have not been taught howto properly articulate.
I call this an emotionalvocabulary, feelings vocabulary.
What's causing that emotion?
It's okay, don't try to stopthat feeling, just learn
constructive ways to express it.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
So I love that and I think that's super, super
helpful for listeners, foranybody that's struggling
emotionally to kind of graspthat, and I think that's super,
super helpful for listeners, foranybody that's, you know,
struggling emotionally, to kindof grasp that.
Before we wrap this up, we wantto plug your books here.
Can you show those books?

Speaker 3 (52:39):
to me.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
So what.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
The Emotional Marine.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Can you tell us?

Speaker 3 (52:43):
a little bit about that one.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
Yeah, it's actually camouflaged.
You probably can't see it, nick.
You know, bought a camouflageshirt the other day.
Put it in my closet I can'tfind a damn thing.
I bought a camouflage shirt theother day.
I put it in my closet I can'tfind a damn thing.
So the Emotional Marine was myfirst book.
I published that back in 2019.
It's just it's mental toughnessand emotional intelligence
secrets to make anyone instantlylike you.
So it's just a book where Igive some simple tips on things

(53:05):
anyone can do to increase theirlevels of emotional intelligence
.
The downside to IQ is you'reeither born smart or not smart.
It is what it is.
There's nothing you can doabout it.
I was born not smart.
I can't fix that EQ.
Our ability, self-awareness,self-regulation, motivation,
empathy, social skill these areall things that any living
breathing human can optimize.
You can get better atcommunication skills.
You can get better at handlingopposing points of view.

(53:25):
So that book was just simpletips to help anyone formulate
relationships, to meet people,new people.
It was mainly for guys.
Just because we're a box ofrocks, we're not very good with
that stuff.
So that book was great.
I mainly wrote that for myspeaking business, my mental
toughness business.
I wanted to get televisionairtime so I wrote that book to
be an author to get on TV.
I've done a thousand showsbecause of that over the last I

(53:48):
guess probably 19,.
So six years now.
So that book's just all abouthow to connect with people.
The other book that was myheart and soul right there, so I
know it doesn't look like it'sonly 100 pages and written in
crayon with big pop-up picturesand large margins, because us in
the Marine Corps we have a hardtime with reading and writing.
I published that one Februaryof last year and that was really
my heart.
So with LifeMed I recognizedvery quickly as I was trying to

(54:10):
learn everything about what weoffer, because in order to
market the business I had tounderstand what we offered and
prior to a few years ago Ididn't know what a red blood
cell was.
I have no medical trainingwhatsoever, so I had to learn
everything.
As I was learning about ourservices, I could not stay away
from the women's health stuff.
I kept gravitating back towomen's health.
I was meeting all these womenhot flashes, night sweats, brain
fog, insomnia, hair thinning,weight gain, sexual vitality,

(54:32):
vaginal atrophy, vaginal dryness, urinary tract infections,
heart palpitations, skinirritations, emotional
disturbances, weightredistribution in the mid region
All these women I'm just.
At all these events I keptgoing back to it, going back to
it, going back to itbalances.
All the studies, all theliterature, all the podcasts, my

(54:53):
one-on-one interactions withour patients, our providers, our
medical director, our MPs, ourPAs that's about three years
worth of information that I puttogether and tried to put into
writing Very easy to digest.
For women to be able to readthis book, because when they go
through it, all women go throughmenopause.
It's the only for women to beable to read this book, because
when they go through it, allwomen go through menopause.
It's the only universal femalemedical experience.

(55:14):
All women go through it.
That's a very simple, easy toread book, because women in the
medical system just do not getsufficient amounts of attention.
They get pushed away.
Don't eat chocolate chipcookies, don't drink wine, take
some anxiety medication.
So the medical system is notset up to help women go into
that stage of life.
The average woman spends athird of her life in
postmenopausal years, so deprivethem of quality of life is not

(55:36):
fair.
It shouldn't happen that way.
So that book is written by aguy who has no medical training,
who can hardly read or write.
But it's all about educatingwomen.
So the first book I love.
It helps relationships.
The second book I'm just.
That's my whole heart, becauseI'm so passionate about helping
ladies.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
Awesome.
So that's the menopausal Marineplay on words.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
Yeah, so I did the emotional Marine.
So when I started to write thesecond one, I was like what am I
going to title it?
And I was thinking like nottoday menopause, not your mama's
menopause.
I'm like what am I going to?
I'm like why not stick with thetheme?
Do my TikToks?
All that kind of stuff?
I catch a ton of crap Becausethe first thing people want to

(56:16):
say is Eric, you're a guy, whatare you doing talking about
menopause?
And I'm like it's dangerous tonot accept someone's research on
any topic merely because wedon't have credentials or
letters after our name, right?
So I'm not providing anymedical advice whatsoever.
But to not listen to someonebecause they're either not the
same sex or they don't have acollege degree Again, that for

(56:38):
me is just my research, is nomedical advice.
I put a little thing in therecalled Genma just education, not
medical advice.
So all I'm doing is providingeducation.
Anything I put in that book,you can go and look it up and it
will confirm that I'm givingyou statistical data.
I'm not giving opinions inthere.
This is all about data that Ifound.
So that truly was really,really my.
Again, I'm infatuated with thatbook and with Helping Ladies.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
Yeah, that's great man and we'll wrap this up, but
anybody that's out there that'slistening to this we have a
heavy, obviously local listeninggroup.
If you're you said Bel Air,columbia, timonium Rehoboth now
going to be in Philly you needto go to LifeMed.

(57:22):
You need to get your levelschecked.
I can't thank you guys enoughfor all the stuff and support
that I've gotten the, thefollowup calls, the blood drawn,
the, the medication, whateverit is.
Um, every time you go in thereyou do feel like the people
really care.
Um all the facility well, Ishouldn't say all of them, cause
I haven't been to all of them,but the ones that I have been to

(57:42):
are like, state of the art,super nice, everything.
You feel like it feels a littlebougie.
Yeah, it feels a little bougieyeah, it feels, a little bougie,
you know you leave with a nicelittle package and, um, you do
feel you do leave feeling good.
So if you're out therelistening, um, at least go give
it a try, even if you're lookingat two guys that literally pass
out.
Every time we go to this place,we voluntarily go and pass out

(58:06):
in front of people, uh, just tojust to feel good.
So you got to get out there.
Eric, thank you so much forcoming on the show and yeah,
we're looking forward to along-term relationship with you
guys.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Appreciate you guys.
Thank you for this yeah it wasawesome.
Thank you for having me on.
Yeah, can't wait to come back.