Taking Control of Your Wellness Journey

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you

00:06
Cheers and welcome to the vacay podcast. I'm Ryan Alford, your co-host with my good friend, co-partner, co-founder, co-amigo, Chris Hansen. What's up, brother? Cheers, bro. How you doing? I'm good. How can we vary the intro here on the vacay podcast? Greetings, friends. I'm trying to get away from my old intros.

00:33
I love your intros. It's the energy that permeates not the words. Yes, that's right. Hey, you got to turn it on. If you want everyone. Hey, you have to impart what you want to take in. I like that. You have to reflect what you want to bring in. Reflect what you expect. There you go. Like that one down. Twitter DM trademark hashtag reflect that. How are you today, brother? In Miami.

01:02
I'm good. I'm started the day strong. It's a nice workout. Got a little sun. Ah, go hit the, go hit the cold plunge after this. Oh yes. You're always in wellness mode. And we talk about vacay being the destination for making alternative wellness. No longer alternative and Chris Hansen's living the lifestyle. He's got cold plunges and mushroom rubs and he's got it all in his wellness routine.

01:32
Keep it on the toolkit. I got to keep the mind healthy, the mind and body. Yes, that's right. It is, but it's interesting today's to kind of warm it up for everyone. We're going to talk about a couple of things. I'm going to dig into a little bit. Our first episode dug into the history of Chris and.

01:49
really why he started VK. Today we're gonna talk about how I've gotten involved, my passion for this, why it's there, and where we're going. Also wanna talk a little bit up from the marketing perspective of how the industry's been its, were owed worst enemy, and how we're trying to stand out by being both ultimately different in the category and defining a new path, but just talking about some of the dirty tactics.

02:16
They're out there for moving some of the snake oil that's in the industry. Briefly talk on that. And then we did want to mention what we're seeing in the evolution of the event space with wellness, this transition from alcohol based social events to wellness getaways and wellness experiences where groups come together and share these experiences in much the same way that you would think about getting together and having cocktails and.

02:44
But I think again, we're evolving as a society and as the wellness routines and knowledge base grows, so does these types of events and opportunities. So I know there's been, we joke about Chris and his routines, but I know you've got to come, you've been to a few of these things and they're not just all tea dance parties, right? No, believe me. And I've, it's gotten me out of my comfort zone. I was, I used to be very judgy for sure. Where.

03:14
Because I was like your typical dude in the nightclub popping bottles and doing that life. And so the idea of going to some of these other events was always like, not for me. Yeah. Enjoy your old self. But yeah, I've evolved. I think like you said, society is evolving for sure. That's right. Just looking for something different. I know. I'll get there one day. I can, but I feel like it's like the train's coming for me. I don't know. Like I'm feeling like.

03:42
Trains coming for all of us. I know. I don't know. I don't think I'm far from maybe being convinced of not even drinking. I don't know. It would. I do enjoy it socially, but I think I could be. Yeah, I don't know. I think I'm teetering on that experience. I think if I I think if I like set like this thing where I didn't do it for 60 days, I might not ever go back. But I got it. Yeah, I've seen that quite often. Obviously, my situation was like.

04:10
It needed to stop. But yeah, yeah, there was, I would not be sitting there at all. But you did. But, but I, yeah, I'm definitely noticing a lot more people, but even like your, you had a guest on the Radcast, Kelly Siegel. I'm linked up with him this weekend down in Boca Raton, Florida. And him and I and another friend of his and no one was drinking and they weren't drinking. It's not because of the story like mine. They just are.

04:41
They're into the gym, like they're into their health and fitness. And I think in his case, like you just said, I think he gave it up. 30, 60 days and realize just, Hey, I feel good. Yeah. So I'm just going to keep this rolling. It's, it fights when you're healthy and generally successful and you've got things going, it can fight and be completely directionally different than everything else you have going on.

05:06
And I think I'm starting to notice that more than anything. And I think then I think that's where the slope and the.

05:12
thing might turn. And it's all about balance, everything in moderation. They do fly in the face of one another. If you're trying to clean up the diet, trying to clean up, get ahead, the exercise, like no amount of beer is helping. That's what's funny. My brother's alcohol is the last thing anyone wants to cut from their diet, like nutrition wise. And we know it's probably the biggest thing. Oh God. I dropped 10 pounds in a day. If my body just knew I wasn't going to have a beer this weekend. Yeah.

05:42
Like, it's not surprising. Fuck, bro. These alcohol companies and you know this and we like, we can get into this with your experience in the advertising world, but they have done a damn good job. Like they have great marketing and they sell on emotion and that feeling. Like, I think of all the Corona ads where it's just I think of Corona. I think of crystal blue water on a beach and like a great. The atmosphere. Exactly. Yep, we'll talk about that, but let's back up. Chris and I met.

06:12
Well, over a year ago, about a year ago at a conference and became fast friends. And I learned a lot about his story and what he'd been doing. And it really resonated with me, but I come up from I'm a South heat. If you can't tell from the accent from South Carolina, born and raised, Steve and Mary Linda, two entrepreneurs.

06:34
Working five jobs and not really making one salary. That's how it was in the early days. I posted on social media. I did not grow up wanting for meals. I don't want to like overstay it or understate it, but this was not, I don't know, the middle classes. We know it today. It was, we were on a slab house in Easley, South Carolina. My dad worked two jobs. My mom worked a job. Stephanie, my sister and I.

07:02
had clothes and we had food and we didn't know for any better, but looking back and thinking about it, it was, there were moments of borderline poverty as far as the areas that we grew up in, probably not because even my dad even said there would be moments where he's admitted this now is they really weren't sure if this payment was going to get made or that payment and

07:27
It was like, and we need groceries this week. And again, we had family and friends. Again, it wasn't like we were going, Oh, dad, I'm hungry. We were not hungry, but did not grow up off. And, but I always wanted for more. And I wasn't, I think it drove my parents a little crazy, but I always just went. I think a lot of my friends always thought that I had more than I really had because. I would go make it happen.

07:55
And it would seem, oh wow, he's wearing Air Jordans and nice things. And some of those became gifts as I got older. My parents did advance in the middle class as I got older. But some of those things I would just go make happen. I'd go trade horse trade for this or that, or sell baseball cards and turn $10 into $30 and then buying something that seemed more than the example I gave in the content was.

08:22
my parents giving me my grandmother's old Zmobile 98 car when I was 16, 17, I think it was my 17th birthday.

08:30
And they were so proud because like not growing up with much money, they're giving their son a car. So they were proud to be able to give their son, even if it was my grandmother's car. And they're giving me a car. My mom wrapped that thing in brown paper. It was like, like the, like practically like newspaper, but like that brown paper you go buy rolls and they wrapped that thing up. And I'm like, Oh boy. I really had no idea. I wasn't expecting my parents to get me a car.

08:54
We used to grow up expecting to get that. And I opened that thing. I'd like to see the face that I tried to put on because I was like, it was kind of like that. I was so appreciative that I got it. So I didn't want to be like that snobby kid because I had no right to be. We had no right in my family to be the snobby kid getting a car. But it was like, yeah, this is awesome. My grandmother's old for Bill 98. And I opened that thing. Anyway, three weeks.

09:24
Three months later, I don't know, it was in quick order. I had that baby traded for a 78 CJ five and the rest was history. Again, making things happen. I think that's ultimately that and being a marketer at heart went to Clemson university in South Carolina. Graduated in one of those people that found marketing, new marketing, knew I was made for it. I didn't change my major seven times. I was a marketing major day one.

09:47
and found that groove, found my creativity and strategy and like the ability to market and think about consumer behavior early and that translated to working in the ad agency business right out of school. So again, I wasn't one of those that flip-flopped 12 times as their major and then came out of school and worked four jobs trying to figure out what they wanted to do. I was a marketer and I was lucky enough to get on with an ad agency right out of school and went

10:17
and rock and roll for almost 15 years for other people working on some of the largest brands. I was a roller coaster. I was 27 years old working on Verizon Wireless, working really on the beginning of the smartphone era. There's two things that kind of highlight my life, career, business side of things on that is I came up in this era.

10:42
of smartphone and internet that was happening and both marketing it and what it was changing to society was really profound. People don't realize how conditioned we are with smartphones and everything now, but in 2005, 6, 7, when the first iPhones coming out, smartphones and Blackberries and all that, I was marketing and learning the consumer behaviors and the strategies with which...

11:10
to flip, to get people to use these devices, to think about them this way, while obviously the technology was happening and coming along. But it was a really fascinating time where you have these worlds where I'm working at the highest level from a marketing perspective, but I'm watching and transitioning as this society moves into this always connected realm. And you yourself are adapting. Exactly.

11:34
Exactly. And so it's this weird thing when I think back on it now, I knew how profound it was going to be, but I couldn't even totally digest how big it was going to be. And because you, I knew it, but I can't think as big as it becomes sometimes. And I cut my teeth working with some of the most talented people in I moved to Manhattan, lived there for five years. So.

12:02
Apple, Verizon, Samsung, worked on Budweiser some. We'll come back to that. Who's Who in brand names across Lexus, Audi, worked on a lot of car stuff. But the smartphones were the biggest thing and wireless connectivity and all of that was probably like all at the center because I worked on all sides of it. I worked on everything from the Blackberry marketing to then the iPhone, the first iPhone, Apple iPhone launch, which was huge with Steve Jobs.

12:31
Then working on Microsoft had their own first smartphone. People don't remember that because it was a complete failure. But it was the Windows Phone. This is like in 2009. And I worked on that. But even before that, if you remember all of the marketing around the pre-smartphones, the Motorola Razr, the thinnest device ever, I worked on that whole entire campaign for Motorola, worked on the Juke.

13:00
which was the first music playing Motorola device. So there was all these functionalities that were coming out before they had them all built in that were the specializations of the phone. So worked on all of those, the naming of them, the marketing of them, the Motorola. Droid does. We kicked Apple's ass for about three weeks. We sold like a billion smartphones coming out with Droid does, had this whole anti-iPhone campaign. It crushed.

13:27
and then they got a little nervous. The campaign stayed, but it just kinda got watered down. And they never really caught up with them again. This was like when, before Google phones just became Google phones, there were variations of the Google phone. And the Droid was the bad boy. Had that little bit of an edge, it had more functionality than the iPhone, you could hack it a little bit. They leaned into that difference from the iPhone where the iPhone was all about one unique user experience. Everybody having the same experience?

13:56
but keeping it kind of locked down. And so we leaned into that. But nonetheless, worked on all these things and cut my teeth in marketing, working with other people. So yeah, I spent 15 years working in the agency business on some of the largest brands and the largest agencies in the world. Then started my own agency and my own podcast, the Radcast, six years ago. And we've had a great ride and a great trajectory and it's allowed me to meet a lot of people, including Chris.

14:25
And I really learned about this story. I've always been into health and wellness. My it's in the offer blood. My parents were like, even though we had no money, they were the first ones in that $30 or $40 gym a month when I was like in whatever great it was, but my dad ran five miles every day and health is just always important to them. Even before it was like mainstream.

14:48
And my sister and I both watch that. I don't I can't help but think that it had an impression on us, but I also think that it's there's some of its nature. Like my sister and I are both the same way. We've probably in our adult lives worked out four to five days a week every week. Regardless, it's like we're wired that way. Like it's I may not.

15:08
always have the healthiest of diets, but my ass is in the gym or running or doing something four to six days a week, depending on what's going on. And my sister's same way. And that's always been ingrained in us. And I think the education of wellness has come along. I've been fascinated with the biohacking, being an executive and being involved in these things. I've always was when nootropics came out, it was like the first one, like ordering it from Australia or wherever it was that you weren't quite sure about it. And

15:36
I think I was always research chemicals. You're like, not sure if it's legal or not. It did come back to help me with some Bitcoin that I had stored in a wallet that I didn't know that I bought for $200 a Bitcoin. Anyway, that's a good story, too. But but anyway, always in health, wellness, fitness, the. Alternative, I'm curious, I think most entrepreneurs are very curious. So I'm a curious person. I'm always like, OK, I could get better by doing that. I can do this.

16:06
And when I heard Chris's story, I think I got behind it because I was always prone to want to work and be involved in wellness in some way. And it'd be one of kind of the core businesses. And hearing Chris's story and firmly believing that we have had the wool pulled over our eyes with prescription drugs and the way with which medicine taught in some ways. And I'm not.

16:32
smart enough to know every in and out of the structure of teaching. But I am smart enough in my marketing background and knowing some of the tricks of the trade and the manipulation that sort of happens that and seeing firsthand, cause I grew up in South Carolina and had a grandmother that used natural herbs and did things like, like some of this just didn't connect with what truly makes us what substances. And I think

17:00
We've seen this trial and tribulation of natural things get put in this closet that's perceived to be taboo while we have all these epidemics going on and all these prescription drugs things. And I haven't been immune to some of that with family, with friends, myself at times, and so I, it just meant a lot here in Chris's story and knowing that we could spread this message. And so.

17:30
We just figured out the details and the rest is history. But I think the key there is it wasn't, I'll say this, the path to Chris and I making fortunes are a lot cleaner and easier than this one. This is not a path. This is a passion that will make money one day, but it's more that it's led by passion as much as anything for

18:00
wanting to build something together, wanting to see the impact that plant-based solutions and alternative wellness can have on people and seeing firsthand on things like sleep with, it's just something really cool. Everything I've done in my career, that's great. Okay. I can have, you got the bullet points on the resume and you're like, oh, like it gets me in a lot of rooms and all that's great, but nothing feels as good as someone DMing me and going, I took those vacay sleep gummies and I had the best night of sleep last night.

18:29
And feeling that that's cool. Having knowing how much impact that has on someone and feeling that firsthand and wanting to continue to bring solutions that may not be mainstream, but can have a drastic impact on people. And so at its core, it's passion and belief in both Chris and what we're doing to bring this message to the masses.

18:55
I couldn't agree with you more. Yeah. So it's definitely. And I think you and I both being marketing guys, two things. One, when you said the wool being pulled over eyes, I think you and I are so used to looking at the game of it all, the game of the marketing where it's, that's what I noticed too, is I know what's going on. Like I recognize this shit. Like this isn't, it's being sold to me in a way.

19:22
But yeah, man, I think it's awesome that we aligned. And even myself, you said, I don't think I was ever as heavy into wellness as I was now. Definitely not in my old partying days, but now I'm just like...

19:38
It just seems like this shouldn't even be something you're into or not into. You should just do it. Yeah. Take care of yourself. It's like, just live. We don't just walk around as beings that just happen. Like you have to, you have to contribute to your own health. Right. Invest in your health. You got to give a shit a little bit. And I heard some people like, Oh, I'm really into longevity. I want to live a long life. And I'm, but now I'm like,

20:01
Duh. Yeah. And that shouldn't be something like that. It hobby or interest for certain people. Everyone should give a shit about longevity and quality of life and whatnot. But it's a whole reprogram, I think, of everything we've been taught to believe or. What's possible, even. Yeah. And yeah, because going down that road, like when you think about, like, our parents and our parents before that, they didn't think about these things.

20:30
They just were so wired to the American dream is to work and have the opportunity to work and to provide for your family. And you come home and you have some amount of leisure and you do your one or two weeks of vacation a year, but you do your tasks. And if God blesses you to live to a hundred, he blesses you to live to a hundred if he lives, but I'm eating, you know, what I'm gonna eat and whatever ends up on the table. And...

20:59
That's, it's a roll of the dice, but you don't necessarily think of it as a roll of the dice, but that's what it was. Cause you're just, you didn't have the data available to you, to your own biomarkers. You didn't have these wellness checkups more regularly. You didn't have these alternative things. And so that was just the way you were wired. That's just what it was. And now we're evolving where all these things are available to us, combined with the education, combined with the enlightenment and going, okay.

21:29
I have a choice here. I don't have to go work in the mill and hope that I don't. You don't know what you don't know. Yeah. I think now that society is so connected. And I, it's funny when you said, I thought this clicked in my head about like our parents' generation, they probably looked at a lot of quote unquote, modern medicine, pharmaceuticals as like the next advancement in technology.

22:00
iPhones when they first came out was an advancement technology. And now you can see like the pullback where like, okay, shit, these may be doing some damage, whether it's that you're staring at your phone all hours of the day or at night and the sort of off your circadian rhythm. It's an hour seeing, okay, these are advancements, but maybe we need to also reel it in a little bit on these things.

22:27
all these two steps forward, one step back where I guess everything is always going to be like that. You're going to it's all starts with progress and then you start to see the consequences after the fact. But I sat on focus groups where we were trying our hardest to get non-business people to use smartphones and like folks like how do we get these people to use it?

22:52
And the answer ended up being the iPhone, which was making these things easy to use. They were just too complicated. Like these business phones were like so complicated. Palm pilots. I remember Palm pilots. So many things to get through. When the iPhone made the UI UX user experience easy. That's when, you know, the masses got on board. They didn't need to be convinced that they wanted the conveniences, which is what a lot of the executives thought.

23:19
It was no, you got to make it easy. You got to make it repetitive and you got to make it reliable. And that's the first that's what the iPhone did. Everybody thinks that Steve Jobs sold magic. No, he didn't sell magic. He's actually sold a very practical way with which to use high functioning. Computers on your hand in your hand. And it was as much, it was UI UX. It wasn't the magic of the ads.

23:48
It was the magic of the ads explaining how easy it is to use it. And I think that's it was consumer behavior. But at the end of the day, it just took it getting in more and more hands and having the experience that lived up to the promise. Because a lot of the smartphones before that didn't live up to it. But nonetheless, the evolution and then it became how you got them to use it more, which is back like the algorithms of how you get people to use it more, how they hold it longer. But now we've tipped, like you said.

24:17
with people looking at them too long and our own health and wellness being driven negatively from the amount of time spent on the devices. We've been hijacked. Yes. We do it to ourselves because we're given access to information. We have this access. We can't put it away because you've got the dopamine factor of the gaming and the certain things and the apps that feed that. But then just knowing, and it's even me now when you think about it, like any time, and I'm the worst.

24:46
Like Cameron and I were talking earlier, and I'm AD anyway, but like, the fact that you can get to something immediately doesn't mean you always should. Like, oh wait, we're talking, but we have it in our pocket because we can Google anything really quick or we can get to any app or get to any functionality. And I think that's what it does, because we're kind of like, oh, I can get to it now. Let's see you all right now. Oh, I did that this morning where I was trying to do my hour on airplane mode and just do my journaling, whatever.

25:15
And of course, as I'm sitting on my balcony and I'm like, shit, I need to text this guy and set up this date. I need to do this where I'm so used to immediately like, access right now I can shoot to get this out of my brain and handle it where I'm like, no, wait, you can do this in 20 minutes or whatever. And like you said, we're curious creatures, naturally.

25:40
So I guess that's the upside of you want Google. You want to know the answer to something you can pull out your pocket and do it right away. Yeah. But I think about it now, like another plug for podcasting, but I do some of the best thinking on podcasts because I'm talking with the guests or you and I are talking like we're doing now and I'm unplugged. I have no distractions.

26:06
I'm 100% into whatever you're saying or whatever I'm formulating at the time. I do some of my, because I'm not trying to learn something. I've got all those distractions turned off. And so it's a unique experience thinking about thinking. It's a weird time, man. It is a weird time. There's even times I go to reach for my phone and I'm looking at my phone right now.

26:32
as the camera where it's right in front of you, dude, like stop reaching out of habit. Just like a pacifier. Yeah. It's the adult pacifier. Yeah. It's just become so prevalent. You have to actively try to get away from it and give yourself that break from that constant access. And I think that's part of back to what we do with VK. Like it's about getting away. Like that's at the core premise of what we're.

27:02
trying to help people do is relax and escape a little bit from that every day. And it's like me, like back to discussion, like with alcohol and so on and all that. My getaways, I take the kids, we go down, we go to the houseboat, we get to the lake. And I'm off my phone 80, 90 more than I am on any other when I'm doing that and just away. And if I'm having a beer and hanging out, like I just I leave the phone inside.

27:29
Yeah, like you lie yourself to be present in the moment. Yeah. And I have friends that, you know, even when they do that, they're doing stories, there's every moment like that. I'm like the world's most unsocial social guy. Like I'm not like there's a lot. Ninety percent of my life probably doesn't get documented because I'm just trying to it's less because I want people not to know or see that or I'm private. But it's more just trying to turn that off and truly get away and be in the moment and enjoying.

27:57
And I think that's the only way to really rewind and unwind is to be able to turn that off on some level. And I think that's what's happening now. And that's the evolution is we have all these avenues, we have these things and people are exploring them at greater depths and then doing it both socially and in events and in other things that are expanding the ways with which wellness happens. Right.

28:27
Yeah, I can talk about that event. I went to two weekends ago, it was called Daybreaker, which I heard about it for, I want to say like a decade. I remember they launched something in New York City, probably when you were up there. And it was initially like a morning dance party, I think from six to nine a.m. or something. Like no alcohol, straight up like DJ on a rooftop in Manhattan, people dancing. And

28:56
I remember seeing them like cool concept, but I would never go to that. And I'm not going to wake up early before work and go fucking dance on a rooftop. You wouldn't know I'm there. I'd be break dancing. Looking back, I'm like, honestly, great way to start your day positive. It's no different than going to the gym in a way. But essentially they host events, I think all over the world. I think they're doing like a tour right now, but

29:23
My wellness coach was a speaker at it here in Miami. Like I said, about two weeks ago, and it was from six to 10, but the first two hours was either you could do yoga or a breath work class. And this is, dude, you have 200 people in a room like doing yoga, but it's a big event. There was a lot of people. So me and a buddy of mine popped over there. I've done yoga before, heard of breath work a lot, really the last two years.

29:53
So him and I were like, hey, let's check that out. And I was always, even that to me was a little bit of a taboo thing two years ago, three years ago. Even six months ago, this yoga studio I would go to in Tampa had breathwork classes and I'd hear people talking about it. Like, oh, it was so intense and people were crying. Like people were having like emotional, I don't know what you call it, processing, just being moved by it, whether it was happy or sad or whatever.

30:21
And then I heard people talking about borderline like hallucinating and I was like, all right, this sounds a little gnarly for me. Too much oxygen in the brain. Yeah. But it, so, and, but I'm like, you know what? Lean in, try something different. What's the worst that can happen? What you get winded maybe. Do your breath work wrong? You're like, yeah, exactly. But great experience. And this is a buddy of mine too, that he was a big baseball player, like college athlete. Not.

30:51
hippie dippy type guy either. So I think we lean on each other like, all right dude, let's roll up our yoga mats, let's go check this shit out. We're gonna bro our way through this. Yeah exactly. You fist bump me at least halfway through so I feel like I'm not. Literally. Yeah. And of course it was predominantly women. The whole event was definitely more women and I think that's common. You go to any yoga studio you're gonna see a lot more women than men typically but.

31:17
That's perfect for you. Yeah, I don't mind it, which is crazy because if you look at as far as from a health perspective in athletics and fitness, like the top athletes in the world are doing yoga. The NFL guys are going in at 285 doing fucking downward dog. Yeah, it's for their flexibility and shit. But anyways, really great experience. So that was cool. Definitely recommend it. They had some ladies doing sound bowls and everything. But definitely for me, like I enjoyed it. It was relaxing. It was.

31:47
a little bit out of body even with this breath work, redoing this deep breathing. But something I was like, all right, cool, I'll definitely go do this again. Now my eyes are open to this, I'm curious. So you do that for about two hours. And the last two hours is a straight up fricking like rave party. DJ, live music, everyone's dancing, going wild.

32:08
No alcohol. They're serving kombucha drinks and they had like fresh fruit. It's like, do you think people were like secretly taking ecstasy in the bathroom? Probably. Yeah. I mean, obviously you can have a lot of fun and alcohol is not necessary, but it does seem like there'd be something that can remove inhibition. There's definitely.

32:33
There's a lot of these people I've met in this wellness space that are, they don't drink, but they're open to mind expanding substances. Like the psychedelics. Like MDMA mushrooms. Yeah. Which MDMA just got approved for PTSD treatment. So there's something to be said for that. I didn't notice there was no like weird looking stuff like that where people like some secret potions like tea glasses. They're like, Whoa, you sure you want that? Yeah. But

33:03
Overall, even for me, going and dancing sober is still like a challenge, per se. Just not giving a shit where it's, it was a good experience though, because everyone there is there for, they want to be there for the same reason. It's not like you're at the middle school dance and it's all awkward. You know what I mean? It's like people that have a good time and obviously I've got a lot more comfortable with myself. I've always liked dancing. It was never something I needed to drink to do. It's just kind of one of those things. Just.

33:30
Fuck it. Right. Get loose. And then even that you get a little bit dopamine rush just from the physicality of it. But I am noticing whether it's stuff like that or these retreats people are going to. And don't even need to have substances involved with some of these things. But I think people are just trying to like get back to the root of themselves. We can party all day. But Monday comes. How do you feel Monday to Thursday? Are you full? Do you feel positive? Are you?

34:00
Physically, are you feeling good with yourself? And I know we've talked about this with just even like the beverage market expanding to, I've noticed even at a lot more restaurants that they have a whole new menu of mocktails now, like catering to the non-alcoholic crowd. Yeah, I think that's like the hottest drink segment right now is mocktails. Oh, and I remember in Manhattan 10 years ago going to visit my sister and they were, the bigger cities were the first, I think, to start doing that.

34:30
But I remember in New York, I was always intrigued. Like, oh, there's a menu of non-alcoholic, like really delicious, cool drinks that I would never make at my house. Right. That I'm totally down to try. But I'm starting to see that a lot more places. And I was talking, I think on another episode, I mentioned to you this company, DeSoy, non-alcoholic aperitifs. Katy Perry was the founder in it. A lot of similar ingredients we use. These functional mushrooms, ashwagandha.

34:58
And a business partner of mine, she brought it. We went on the boat one day and she's pregnant. So she was, she, she still wanted to participate in the party, but clearly she can't booze while she's got a baby grown inside of her. So she brought it. I recommend it at least. Yeah. She should have not recommended it. I don't think that's not even an old one. That's common knowledge. Yeah, that's yeah. That's just don't booze if you're pregnant. Yes. Please do not sponsored by vacay. Do not booze while pregnant.

35:26
Yeah. And some of this comes down, I think, back to marketing is there's drinks have been around. They just weren't marketed in a way that were appealing to people. Yeah. Where this bottle looks like a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne tastes delicious. You do feel you feel something. I felt relaxed and kind of the definitely more chatty, whether that's I don't know if that's the functional mushrooms. I don't know if that's the freaking ashwagandha they're putting in it or whatever. But these people are on to where they're like, all right,

35:56
There is a demand for non-alcoholic drinks, but people still, and we talked about this, people still want to feel something. Yeah. I can go drink Shirley Temples all day while you're drinking Cosmos, but. Yeah, it's not doing much for me. That sugar high is not quite what I used to. Exactly. I gave my kids mocktails all weekend. It's called Gatorade and Prime. Like. A little mix of both. Here's your mocktail, son. Here's your mocktail. If you used to use mocktail as a mocktail, it's now a cool drink, no matter what it is.

36:26
That's just cherry and grape welches. Cool aid, son. OK, so delicious. But no, people do want to feel something. And I think that's where some of these natural products that don't have the hangover effect of three, four or five glasses of wine or six beers or whatever, where you can mellow out a bit without giving up your next day or having to drink 10 of them.

36:56
or five of them and drink 800. The only thing about the mocktails, most of them are fruity, fruit-based, there's sugar. I know there's some diet and stuff, but like a lot of those mocktails, two, three, 400 calories. So it's pounding those. So I do their sip on, like a CBD. Keep those calories low. CBD soda or something that's low dose, low calories, but I could drink one or sip on one.

37:24
over an hour or something and mellow out, but not necessarily have to drink six of them to get there. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's going to continue. You're saying you're already seeing that there's going to be an even greater push into these supplements that are mixed with either the packets or anything, and that's not a new thing. Everybody listening. Yeah, we know they're out there, but it's going to be.

37:48
I think you talked about like that personalized medicine, the personalized drinks, like the packets. I could see a world where you go in and like the flavor, like depending on the supplement, like a supplement bar, and it exists now, they do it a little bit at Smoothie King, but I think you're gonna see bars and restaurants maybe even that have these ingredients and you get your own blend right there.

38:17
Yeah, so long we've had like alcohol, no alcohol, no in between where it's like, all right, you can have the alcohol drink, you can have the mushroom functional energy type drink, whatever, whatever kind of vibe you're going for. That'll be the brand extension for us. The vacay bar, just all plant-based drinks and alternative appetites. Yeah.

38:43
There's another guy I want to get on friends with him on Instagram. He's got a company called Fit Soda and they're all over Amazon. And it's like a wellness soda. It's just amino acids and stuff like that. I've tried it. He sent me a box of it. Solid. Delicious. Good. I don't know, but even those, I don't know if you can go drink six of those. You might be a fricking amped up. Yeah. I'm BCAA or something else. B12 and stuff. Yeah. Exactly.

39:07
You can like overdo it. I think you have to watch your mixes. I even ate some caffeine gummies earlier that we got at the conference. I don't know if you saw those guys. I still got those. I got those in my bag. How are they? Did you feel them? Yeah.

39:18
I think he gave me a little cake. I took half the serving size. Yeah. I was the little tester because I actually went to make a coffee before we went live and I was at a Keurig pod. So I was like a little caffeine in me. Let me try one of these gummies. Little energy, energy bears. Yeah. Maybe we need to jump into that. I know. Hey, I've been telling you, we got to have the energy product that's coming. We need some pep in the step. People always need more sleep and more energy. I know you don't. Opposite ends of the spectrum. I know, but you don't always sleep on a vacay. Yeah.

39:48
No, that's true. Sometimes you need that energy to get to the next event. I think that's all for today, brother. I hope we appreciate about there. We want to give you a little background on where I come from and how I got involved and then the evolution of the industry where we see some things going with both the events and the supplements and really looking forward to some of the guests that we have lined up. I think you're going to like those. It's getting hot and heavy here, both outside and inside. It's 97 here. Maybe.

40:17
I don't know what it is here, but it's really hot. Yeah. It's just hot and sweaty. Exactly. We appreciate it. Everyone. You can find us at take a vacay.com. You find all of our wellness products, our gear rocking the t-shirt today. Got all kinds of stuff there. And you can reach out to us on Instagram. You can find Ryan Allford or Chris Hansen looking us up there. You'll see the blue check marks. We had them before you could buy them. And.

40:45
Go to the vacaypodcast.com, all of our past episodes, the video links to some of our YouTube stuff and we really appreciate all the support up until now. That's all I got Chris.

40:59
Perfect. Enjoy the rest of your day, brother. All right, man. Thanks, everyone. We'll see you next time on the VK podcast.