Welcome to the Artificial Intelligence Podcast! Hosted by best-selling author Jonathan Green, our show dives into the innovative ways you can create new revenue streams and escape the daily grind of underappreciated work life. Join us as we explore actionable strategies for making money online and turning your passion into profit.
In today's episode, we're joined by John Jackson, a remarkable entrepreneur who transformed personal adversity into a thriving beard care business. After a life-changing mountain bike accident, John discovered the benefits of natural oils, which led him to create his own beard oil recipe. From there, his brand, Braw Beard Oils, was born. John shares how his journey from recovery to business owner was fueled by his passion for facial hair care and his commitment to natural products.
We delve into the challenges and triumphs of building a brand in a niche market, the importance of personal branding, and the commitment to maintaining quality as a small business owner. John's story is not just about growing a beard; it's about cultivating a business and a lifestyle that reflects your true self.
Tune in as we discuss the essentials of beard care, the power of community in business growth, and how embracing your personal journey can be your greatest business asset.
Notable Quotes:
Connect with John Jackson
brawbeardoils.com
Connect with Jonathan Green
Welcome to the Artificial Intelligence Podcast! Hosted by best-selling author Jonathan Green, our show dives into the innovative ways you can create new revenue streams and escape the daily grind of underappreciated work life. Join us as we explore actionable strategies for making money online and turning your passion into profit.
In today's episode, we're joined by John Jackson, a remarkable entrepreneur who transformed personal adversity into a thriving beard care business. After a life-changing mountain bike accident, John discovered the benefits of natural oils, which led him to create his own beard oil recipe. From there, his brand, Braw Beard Oils, was born. John shares how his journey from recovery to business owner was fueled by his passion for facial hair care and his commitment to natural products.
We delve into the challenges and triumphs of building a brand in a niche market, the importance of personal branding, and the commitment to maintaining quality as a small business owner. John's story is not just about growing a beard; it's about cultivating a business and a lifestyle that reflects your true self.
Tune in as we discuss the essentials of beard care, the power of community in business growth, and how embracing your personal journey can be your greatest business asset.
Notable Quotes:
Connect with John Jackson
brawbeardoils.com
Connect with Jonathan Green
turn your beard into a business with today's special guest, John Jackson. Now, this is something near and dear to me as I've gotten older, even though I don't have a beard right now, I've gone through a lot of different phases. Um, I've switched from cartridges to safety razors. I'm even thinking about playing around with, you know, more and more different things and my shaving process has become one of my hobbies, like a ritual. I have like all these different tools and different shaving blades and there's a lot more to it than when I was younger. I was like, oh, whatever's on TV, that's what I'm using. And I'm using the cheapest shaving gel and get it at the grocery store. And so in the same way I've learned that there's so much more to having a beard than just not shaving. I used to just as a kid, I was like, either you shave or you don't shave. And both of me kind of phoned it in. And I've, as I've met more and more people who, it can become something people are really passionate about as a hobby and it becomes a really big part of your life. So I'm really interested in when people are able to turn a passion into a business. So I'd love to hear. how you got into growing out your beard, if you're just always a beard guy, if there was a transitional moment, and how you realized I can make this into a business and do something really cool here. Nah, well the way I got into it was actually I broke my back in a mountain bike crash in 2011 and then through recovery and RU-TAP I learned the benefits of natural oils. So through sports therapy I was taught how to use the oils properly for the muscles and stuff and because I had all these natural oils lying about the place for a course I was doing at the time I made hair oil for my wife. She was using the expensive hair oil that you get in the supermarket. And I had facial hair at the time, so I thought maybe this oil will work on my beard as it does for hair. Which it kind of did, but beard hair is a lot more coarse. So it worked okay, but it felt a bit oily, so I had to change the recipe up a little bit, change the ratios of the oil, and it worked good for the beard hair. It felt nice and soft, and it kept the skin moisturised underneath. And I had originally, I broke my back in mountain bike crash, and... before then I was getting irritation under my chin from the helmet strap. I just thought that was just normal, which it probably was normal to be honest, but I found the beard oil that was making it was all that's 100% natural and it was soothing the irritated skin underneath. So I thought maybe there is something here, maybe there's a product. So I started playing about the recipes. I came up with a final one I was happy with, gave it to family and friends who had facial hair. They enjoyed it. And then eventually I made a website. and word of mouth spread and sales started to come in and it just started to kind of snowball from there. So I've always had facial hair since I was 15, different variations of it from goatees to sideburns to short beards. This is the longest it's ever been. And yeah, it's just kind of take it off, man. Now you kind of skipped over the part that's really interesting because you went fast and that's okay. When I dial into like the formulation process, like you don't have to tell me your secret recipe but were you just trying different recipes in the kitchen and how did you get ideas for ingredients? Like were you just looking online or were you playing around with some oils that women were already using or using for other parts of your body? Like how did you kind of start playing with ideas and know what might work and what might not work? So I had oils from the massage course. So I was like hemp seed oil was one of the main ones we were using because it's rich in omega-3, six and nine fatty acids, which are good for the skin, good for the hair as well. So that was one I wanted to get in there. There's a lot of negative press with hemp seed because of cannabis and stuff, but the THC content is taken out and it's actually really beneficial for the skin. keeps the skin moisturized. So that was one of the main ingredients. Jojoba was another one I was using. Then there was vitamin E. I was using that as well because if you add the vitamin E to the essential oils it retains the fragrance longer. And then the essential oils are derived from plants as well so we use them for the fragrance rather than use synthetic oils. I prefer to use natural oils and build up fragrances by mixing two or three of them together. one of the challenges with especially with the formulation is scaling right at a certain point when you're growing you can't make it all yourself. What was it like or what's the process like dealing with larger numbers of orders because there's always that moment where you go 10,000 orders have come in I can't make that many in a month what are we going to do right and I've seen it happen even at larger scale businesses where they start to get the big orders and either they get like three or four months behind or they have to go out to that process and that could be really challenging because if you work with a co pack or a larger factory, a lot of those places are making other brands. And so there's the chance of like, like ingredient cross contamination and things like that. So what was your approach to that part of the process as things started to grow? Well, as it stands at the moment, I still make all the products, all the beard oil myself. The shampoo and the beard butter, which is a styling product, that is my recipe, but it gets made externally and then sent back to me and everything gets dispatched from my office, my warehouse. But I still make the beard oil, but you're right in what you're saying. If we get to that scale, I may have to outsource it or take on staff. But at the moment, the beard oil is how I started. That was the very first product I made. So I'm trying to hold onto that as long as possible, making it myself, just so it's got my personal stamp on it as well. But yeah, you're right. I'm not quite at that stage yet where I need to outsource that, but in the making of my time with the business keeps growing the way it's grown. It may come, or we need to move to bigger premises and bring on more staff, which is the, that would be my preferred option is to keep it in-house. Yeah, there's definitely benefits to both. You know, I worked, a couple of my friends do physical products. It's always the scary part is what if I make a bunch and nobody wants it or if something goes wrong? Like sometimes these huge companies have to recall like an entire car model. So I always think about those challenges as you've kind of been building this brand for the last 10 years. What have you noticed are? some of the biggest challenges because most businesses, especially when you look at like entrepreneurial businesses in the skincare, health, this type of brand, that's where you see a lot of women-led businesses because there are so many more products for women than men when it comes to skincare and haircare and makeup and all of those things. So what are some of the kind of uniquely experiences you have as a man in that space, in kind of the beard space when people go, wait, you're doing a cosmetic, I know there's sometimes a perception that way of, wait, what kind of business are you? What has that experience been like? Yeah, at the start it was really, really difficult. Like we started in 2012 before beard care was really a well-known thing. You know, it started off before the trend, as I keep saying. But it was hard. We went to car shows, motorcycle shows. Ever, but my background is bike racing. So that's both cycling and motorbikes. Rock and roll music that kind of thing. So that was our audience and trying to tap into the audience to explain to them this is actually good for your beard. It is not just a perfume or a cosmetic. It is beneficial. So it was hard. It was really difficult trying to get people to buy into the product. But once they did, they realized the benefits of it and they became customers. I remember being at a show, it was a tattoo show in 2014, 2015 maybe. And there was a group of big bikers came along. proper bikers and they were just laughing at me just saying it was it was embarrassing the product and then one of the they went away one of their wives came back bought the product and then the guys came back over and they were chatting a bit and we kind of broke the ice a little bit of chatting but those guys didn't realize that the wife had bought over and came over and bought one but at this point I knew a couple of their names so anyway A month later an order came through and it turns out it was one of the biker guys had tried the product that his wife got him, really enjoyed it and came back as a customer and he's still a customer today. So it was hard, it was difficult trying to break that barrier but once we did and you know people understood what the product had done and the benefits of it. And we do sponsor athletes as well, we sponsor motorcycle racers so seeing the brand get put out there it does hit a wider audience. And it's more accepted now, you know, there's bigger brands doing it, you know, like the mainstream brands are doing BF Care now, so it's more acceptable now. Yeah, it sounds like you kind of created a market, at least in your region where you could reach you started building your audience and then suddenly everyone larger brands which have bigger budgets and larger factories start competing. What's that like? Were they able to start encroaching in your audience or how do you establish or kind of maintain your beachhead since you worked so hard to build this thing? Yeah, I have noticed that. You know, I've seen a lot of customers come and go to the bigger brands that are cheaper products. Like our products are known as being a little bit more expensive, but it's because I make them myself. You know, I've got to cover my time and my bills and stuff. I don't have the big budget like these corporations do. So yeah, I've lost some customers, but then they've tried the products, realized they're not as good. They're maybe a bit greasier, or they cause breakouts in spots, because a lot of mainstream products, preservatives in them to extend their shelf life and that you know the alcohols and things can actually be detrimental to the skin so that the customers come back which is good but it is a fairly easy product to make a beard oil but it is tricky to get it right so there are a lot there's a lot of competition online now which does make it tricky as well but we were lucky we built a good community at the start called the Brotherhood it's a customer community And we do events together, we have our own event, the Beard and Moustache Championships here in Scotland. And it's a big community we've built and that keeps customer attention as well. Yeah, it's interesting because there's so little like education or knowledge for men about skincare and things to do for your skin. Like, you know, only after I turned 40 did I start changing. Is there a different way to shave or the things I can do? Because I'm kind of just looking for more hobbies. I was like, oh, maybe this could be one of my hobbies. I can get into like old school shaving and seeing the difference. And then same thing you mentioned, as soon as you switch, you start getting. because it's a lot more risky. It's a lot. You call it a safety razor, it's not a safe. You start cutting yourself all the time and getting razor bumps. And so I learned about pre-shave. I'm like research, why is this happening? I learned about pre-shave oil. And you start using these other things and there is a huge difference. Some of the really older products are, I find are way better. A lot of the stuff I like to use is not new stuff or big branded stuff that's like, oh, they've been doing it for a hundred years the old way and they never changed. And there is a lot of education that you kind of have to get yourself. trying to get really into shaving or really get into your beard because you, when I grew a really long beard, and I was like, you get to a point maybe six weeks in where it really itches, and that's when it's like tough for me to keep it. Like I hit that point where it's like about this far and it's like, it just feels like it's supposed to itch. Like it's like this test of endurance and I couldn't handle it. I would shave it off, regrow it a lot of times. I've never been much longer than that, and then. But that's one of the things that you don't realize, oh, maybe there is a better way than just toughing it through, right? Like that's so much the approach because we're taught that, you know, your hair is just dead. And so because we have that thought, we're like, well, there's nothing I can do about it. And one of the things I've started doing recently is like I've stopped using shampoo like a year ago. I saw a video about it and he was like, you wash off oils and you put oils back in, that's silly. And it's really crazy that that works. Like it seems like it shouldn't, right? I stopped using product. I maybe, I don't do never, like he'd done three years, I can't do that, but like I maybe wash my hair every three months for a dandruff and that's it. Like I have no, I promise oil, no one has ever said my hair smells or noticed anything. I'm like, man, I've been a sucker for 25 years. So it's so much stuff out there that you're convinced you need is the wrong stuff. And then finding about the right stuff. So what are some of the things like when it comes to taking care of a beard and educating the market. What are the things that kind of problems or issues it can solve? Because yeah, I think a lot of people's first thought is like, is you see a bearding competition where you make your beard into a shape and you're using like waxes for that, or like, is it a beard perfume? But it's more about like, the skin under the beard as well, right? Yeah, the skin under the beard is one of the big issues. If it's dirty and grimy under there, it can cause spots and irritation but it can affect the follicles and your beard can essentially fall out. It goes through cycles anyway, like the hair goes through three stages eventually. It falls out and regenerates but spots and irritation can cause that to be more frequent but it could also damage the hair to the point it doesn't grow back in that area. especially if you're scratching all the time. So it is like, I wash my beard every two days, sometimes every day, every two days with our shampoo. It's got aloe vera in it, it's good for calming the irritation, keeps the dry skin away. But the reason I wash it so often is because I'm in the gym most days, so there's a lot of sweat builds up. And obviously you're eating as well. So there is food gets in there, it happens, you know. And so yeah, I wash every two days at least. And then the beard oil is a conditioner. It conditions the skin underneath, keeps it soft, keeps it moisturized, just like a skin moisturizer, but it also keeps the hair soft as well. And then I use a comb, which the comb is a detangling tool, and I use a brush as well, which separates the hairs and adds volume to the beard. And that's kind of it. We do have the beard butter, which is a styling product. You know, I can use it to style my mustache to the side and things, which keeps me from chewing on it. But there's so many products on the market, a lot of them are unnecessary. I think a beard shampoo is what you need, a beard oil for conditioning and then the tools for detangling and adding volume. That's kind of it man. That's kind of it. I try not to push all these products. The products we sell are the products I use personally. That's the way it's always been from the start. So having been building a business for more than 10 years now in the physical product space, you know, a lot of brands are like Amazon only and some brands never go on Amazon to build their own e-commerce store. What's kind of your been approached to dealing with? Am I gonna sell just directly from my website? I'm gonna sell through, you know, and then when you sell through Amazon, sure they handle the shipping, but also they take a large percentage of your profits, it can get even harder to compete. It's like a different game. What's been your approach to that part of the business? Kind of the logistics and challenges of, you said you ship everything from your house, it gives you a lot of control, but it also means you have to do a lot more personal logistics. How do you handle all that as you grow your business? Yeah, so yeah, we actually have an office. I've got an office warehouse space. So we moved out of the house quite a few years ago. And I actually just moved into this new place. We had another office last month, which we were in for six years, and then just moved into this new one. But it is a thing. We do have a presence on Amazon, but I try and direct everybody to our website. The everything that goes from Amazon comes from me anyway. I'm not fulfilled by Amazon. I prefer. to send it from here. Again, it's just a personal touch. There are a lot of companies got in touch saying they want to do drop shipping or they want to sell it through their online website. I prefer our online presence and online sales to come from my website. Just it feels more personal. It's more personal brand. If you go on our social media, it's my face. It's everywhere. It's me doing the social media. I'm trying to build a personal brand as well as a beard care brand. I just feel like once you start dipping into other websites, yeah you may make more money but you kind of lose control of the brand slightly. That's my feeling on it at the moment but we still are considered a small business, small brand so we'll see how that goes in the future. So. What are some of the big challenges over the last 10 years, like things you've learned now that you wish you knew earlier? Like if you go back in time and teach yourself a few other things at the beginning, what are some of those things that you think are the biggest lessons you've learned and wish you'd learned them a little earlier? to get out of my own way, I guess that was the best bit of advice I was ever given, was get out of my own way. And when I say that, I mean, for being present on social media, I was always... So, Broadbeard got a little bit of fame, a little bit of fame. It was well known in his early days, which added to the story of Broadbeard. You know, it was a couple of people got involved with Broad... became customers. So Fred Dusch from Limp Bizkit, he became a fan of the brand and the newspapers got hold of that. And it can accelerate the brand faster than I was expecting. And I guess it was a bit of an ego that came with it as well on my part, just young, naive. I didn't really, I didn't realize there was a lot more to business. And I don't know, there was a lot of people knew about the brand just because of Fred and the media. And then that's like the way it off. And I was, I was shy person at school, I was too nervous to get on camera and things like I would never have done this 10 years ago, sitting chatting to you, someone I've never met before. But the best bit of advice I was ever given was get out of your own way. It's not about me, it's about the business, about the brand. So that's what I've done. It was one day, 2017 in December, I just opened up my camera and just started vlogging. I just started talking to my camera. I thought I don't care if one person sees it or a hundred people see it, I'm just going to talk to this camera, tell the story about my day and how the business is going. And that's what I've done and the vlogs been going. I just finished episode 317, I think, last week. And honestly, that's been a game changer, is telling the story, telling the more personal side to the brand. And I wish I knew that at the start, because I could have told the story from the start. You brought up something that's, I think, really important to dial in because a lot of people, they think, oh, I want to form a brand and become impersonal, right? And that's what it's, if you're, if there's not you, then it's really hard to explain how you differentiate from other brands that are making a similar product, right? And it's like, very important, a lot of entrepreneurs kind of are thinking about, well, one day I want to be able to exit or I want to create a brand. And it's very interesting. I mean, there was a phase where everyone's trying to create a personal brand, right? And it's like, well, your personal brand and your business, right? They're the same. It's, you're not until you're a multi-billion dollar company, they're going to be the same thing. It's so hard to separate those two things and you don't really need to. And so it's so important for people that are as they're starting their business to realize that what makes you different is if people like you. But that's the critical part that people, you know, my audience, why do they follow me? I'm not the only person, nothing I teach is unique, right? Nothing I do is a hundred percent unique. There's other people that teach how to build online businesses or the podcast. So why do you listen to one show or the other? Why do you follow someone's other? It's who you like. That's how we choose. Like we want what TV shows we watch, the ones we like, right? Not just the ones with the best education. Like sometimes we'll watch a show that's a little less educational because it's more fun or we like the person. So. It's cool that you dialed into that. I think that's a really good lesson for people listening to remember that sometimes you do have to go a little bit outside your comfort zone to let people get to know you and it can make a really big difference because then they can go, well, what are you buying? Well, I'm buying from John Jackson. I like the guy, right? And that's how you can, and when they go, well, but it costs more money. They go, yeah, but he makes it in his house. Now they can kind of create that justification for the higher price because that then it starts to make sense because it's like, well, do you want something that was made in a factory in the middle of nowhere that mixes in green tone? Or what's happening to something that's made at a house where the guy who makes it is like brewing it like over a cauldron, right? And it creates an image. So I think that's a really cool thing. And the fact that you're still doing it all these years later, that's a lot of consistency. So as you started to kind of get your face out there and create a presence, one of the things that interests me and one of the challenges when you become the face of your brand is that like, you can never shave your beard like you have to always have a beard. Do you like if you ever go like a little bit shorter, do you get a ton of messages and social media people like what's happening? I noticed it's shorter today and like, do people get worried? Well, I've never actually trimmed it shorter, I just keep it going. I trim the edges just to neaten it up and stuff, but I've never trimmed it down. But I have used on social media, I have used images from a few years ago sometimes, you know, you're just struggling for ideas and you think, right, throw back to whatever. And people see the image, but they don't actually read the caption. And then you get some messages, like, what have you done? Have you shaved it? Well, you've trimmed it back. But yeah, that is the thing. I'm lucky I've kind of had facial hair. since I could grow it since I was 15, variations of it. So luckily my wife's used to it. My son is now used to it as well. He's three years old. So he's always seen me with a beard. And then he sees photos from years ago when I had a short beard when I was racing and stuff. And he's like, that's not daddy. So I am stuck with the beard, but I like it. I genuinely like it as part of my identity. It always has been. I enjoy it. Yeah, it doesn't bother me too much. If I go to the gym, I'm in the gym most days and I just tie it up, keeps it out of the way. So yeah, I'm kind of lucky that the life I live allows me to have a beard this long. Yeah, that's really interesting is that we live in a world now where you can create like your own idea, your own business and live the life you way you want, like do the things you want during the day. I never have to leave my house, which is like, everything I want to do is here. My kids are here. I don't have to go out, we have a pool, which is so lucky, like we just have this amazing life. But it gives you a lot more freedom, which is I think a value that we sometimes forget is that I can just go to the gym when I want because like I don't own like any suits. Like I couldn't do like a suit job. I wouldn't like getting up at a certain time, going to bed at a certain time, like having someone else tell me what to do when I do is like something I just could never go back to having a boss. Like I just wouldn't be able to do it. Even when some of my friends have reached out to me with really big opportunities, I'm like, yeah, but I kind of would still report to you, right? And I'm like, I'm not able to do that. Like... go to a meeting at a certain time, wear a certain outfit, all of that stuff. Like I own one shirt. If you watch my videos, I own this shirt. I own a hundred of the exact same shirt. They all cost $2. Sometimes my wife comes in instead of black, there's like 10 dark blue ones and that's it. It's all the same shirt that I have. And you can't do that. Like, you know, it's like, I remember when I grew up, you were watching a cartoon, they would all show Inspector Gadget, he says 10 of the same outfit. And I've become that, like the guy who just has, because it doesn't matter what I wear. I've got four kids, they don't care. And there is that value of freedom that a lot of people don't realize until you see it, that it's really exciting. It's really cool that you've able to basically take something you're really passionate about, turn it into business, help you start to grow and... have that level of freedom. And I know you've also transitioned, now that you've kind of got the business and it's humming along nicely, you've also transitioned into helping other people figure out what they wanna do. Like helping people to establish their own type of confidence or figure out what they wanna do as far as their mindset, as far as handling their fitness, which is something that is really near and dear to me. I've been doing a lot of content about fitness lately and talking a lot about it, because there's this idea. I don't know if it's the same where you live in America. There's this idea that you have to sacrifice either your family or your body to grow a business, right? Either you have to have kids who don't know you and hate you, wife divorces you, or you have to just have like unbelievably bad health in order to grow a business. And there's this belief that the worse you suffer along the way, the more you deserve the reward at the end. And I don't know where we got this idea. I would rather build a business that I enjoy the whole time. I don't want to suffer my way to the top, but... It's really interesting that you're diving into that because it is challenging for me. Like health has always been my slowest category. You know, married, I've got four kids. That's coming along. That's going great. The business is growing. That's doing good, but it's hard to sit at the computer all day and not eat. You know, there's this connection. Like when you're sitting, you're eating bad snacks. And it's really hard to break bad habits. And like, I'm drinking fruit tea. Like I wish I was drinking something cool. But I can't drink anything else. I used to drink hot chocolate, so I wish I was drinking. But it's just like, once you hit, at least once I hit 40, my body turned against me. I started getting a lot of weird injuries. Like I ripped an ab at the gym. I didn't even know that was a thing. All sorts of stuff happens to your body. And so you really have to be more serious about your health and kind of make it an important part of your life. And I've kind of, come on, really. much more strict with what I eat. Like if I eat the wrong thing, I can put on two kilos in like an afternoon. It's like, it'll take me a month to knock it back off. So it's very important, I think, especially earlier. Like I wish earlier I'd known it was possible to kind of maintain the same things, where you can kind of have success in all of the different areas instead of just focusing on one and sacrificing the other. So I'd love to know how you've kind of transitioned and helping other people to take a little bit more control of their destiny. That's it, it's spot on what you're saying. There is this notion that you need to sacrifice your family or your lifestyle in order to grow a business. My business isn't a multi-million pound, multi-million dollar business, but it is sizeable. I've kind of stuck with splitting up into three. Morning is for the gym lifestyle, afternoon is for business, evening is for family and it's served me well you know. But yeah this, so over 10 years I've built this business broad beard and before then I was a qualified personal trainer, really into fitness, I've been into sports all my life so I got the qualifications of personal trainer just as a side hobby really so I can build intertwine that into business, building a business, building a community as well and raising a family. And I've just finished a four-year business degree at university, something I signed up for in 2019 when it was offered to me here. It was offered a place and I was like yeah I'll do that because I want to learn the subjects in more depth like marketing in more depth, finance in more depth, law in more depth and thought if I go to university I'm going to learn that and get a degree at the end of it. If anything goes wrong with Brot Beard I do have this business degree. So running broad beard, doing a four year degree, raising a family, still going to the gym, it is possible. It's just a case of how you spend your 24 hours. And I still get eight hours sleep at night. It's just prioritizing your things. And I've learned how to be very, very productive, how to break up my day, time manage my day. So I'm helping other people do that. Yeah, we have this community called the Brawlerhood where it's mainly guys that are in there. There are some women in there as well. but it's mainly guys and the one thing I see coming up very often is mental health issues, people struggling, you know, things get on top of them but adversity gets on top of them and they let it get to them when in fact a lot of the time the things they're worrying about are superficial. So it's realizing how to manage that in your head and a big part of that is getting in shape as well. It's feeling good. Once you feel good, your mind acts sharp, you know, you respond sharp and it depends on what nutrition you're putting in your body as well. If you're eating a lot of sugary foods, you get an adrenaline spike, you get a blood sugar spike and a dump and you feel lethargic after it. So yeah, it's moderating your food intake, your fitness and I just think it makes you perform better, whether that's mentally or physically or in business. I could always tell when someone's giving my kids candy because they're they turn into monsters like there's a such a shift in personality if you're paying attention to it. When you have or don't have sugar in your diet. It's like, so dramatic. It's like so much of a difference in the kids the same for me and yeah, I'm glad you brought up. mental health because that's a big topic for me. I care a lot about it because it's something we don't talk about very much, especially for men. It's kind of like, when men go through something, they're not supposed to tough it out no matter how bad it is. And I you know, and I had to go to therapy last year because my family went through a traumatic incident where we almost all died. We all got to the hospital with hours to live me and all of my kids and it's like, I couldn't tough it out. Right? Like you can't, there comes everyone has a point and it's like And I was like, Oh, I better talk about that I went because a lot of people maybe some will hear and go, Oh, maybe I can try it. Right. And it was actually from a podcast episode, someone said something, you know, and I'm gonna call it therapist tomorrow. I'll just do it because I got to get out of my own toughness because you can't show weakness in front of your kids, your wife, you got to be the stone. So there is a lot to be said for like talking about it. Because even talking about it, it's like so taboo for men, as this issue where, yeah, some days you just feel really bad, and you don't know what to do. And so I think it's Great to mention it that there is this connection between mind and body. I can definitely tell if I don't work out for maybe four days, I start to get a little bit depressed. I start to sink down. And now every morning I get up at 5.45, even on Saturdays when I have a day off, I still wake up at like 5.44, like even the alarms not going off. And I start every day, I do my workout. Cause I will not, if I don't do it first thing in the day, it's not gonna happen. Even if it's second, it's not gonna happen. I've learned that about myself. Some people can work out after work. I can't even imagine that. I can't even imagine how you can switch to that mode. I gotta do it first so it's done. And then I play guitar for 30 minutes to an hour. Got my morning habit. I got back into that. My kids started playing guitar and then of course, they all quit, but I'm still playing. And then there's definitely a huge difference throughout the day for me as far as performance, as far as how I feel. It's just kind of doing something that's for the body, something that's a little bit for the spirit, like something a little musical. Hmm. I'm, you know, probably this late in life, I'm not probably going to become a rock star. But those things are all interconnected. And it doesn't kill my day, I can spend a few minutes in the morning, right? Like, it's maybe an hour, hour and a half of the morning. And then the rest of the day, I get a ton of stuff done. And I still feel fine throughout the day. I don't have that late afternoon lethargy. So I think that's a really cool thing to talk about is that you can do more with less. Like I've also started doing intermittent fasting. I only eat for eight hours a day and I don't feel hungry the other 16. I never knew this was a thing. I was like, I used to be snacking all the time. And now like, because there's like a rule, I can be fastidious. And it's like so surprising that you can have more and more control over your body, over your thoughts, over your life. Then it gives you this like, I don't know. I just have always wanted to have more control of myself, which is a kind of a definition of freedom. I can decide where I live, what I do. what my kids do, like that's freedom and being free from letting food control you is a pretty cool feeling too. Yeah, there's a couple of things you mentioned there, the fasting, I've done that myself. I still do it to be honest, the 16-8 rule. So stop eating at 9pm, still have maybe a green tea before bed and then don't eat until 1pm after training. I usually train around lunch time just the way it kind of works. I know. So yeah, train at lunch time. And then I have food after the gym. So, and that's just the way, I've just got into that routine. It just worked for me now. It was horrible at the start, training and fasting, but I got used to it. But the getting up at that time in the morning, doing your, getting up, that's a little win at that time. And the fact you're getting up before your alarm as well, that's a little win as well. It elevates your mood, you know, picks you up, and you're getting your gym session done, another win. You're playing guitar, another win. It's just stacking wins before your day starts, even if it sets you off on a good foot, you know? It's a way to do it rather than slog out of bed and think I need to go to work and just feel lethargic all day. You're actually getting stuff done and feeling good about yourself. It lifts your spirits for the rest of the day. That's what I find anyway as well. I'm the same. Get up early. I do ten burpees in the morning. Do a bit of reading. Have a coffee. Have a shower. Play with my kid for a little bit and then off to the gym. Yeah, because you either stack good habits or you stack bad habits. And it's easy to, you know, I go to a job I don't like or my job is a struggle. So after work, I do, I have more bad habits, right? We go either go out. kind of eat real like bar food is gotta be the worst for you food that exists like so unhealthy it makes you feel bloat sick at least me my body can't handle it and then or we watch like I used to watch so much television and now I can't even fit it like my wife and I wanted to go see a movie recently now every movie is like three hours long I'm like I'm not doing that that's a commitment like to me three hours is like such a commitment I'm not doing that Star Wars was less than 90 minutes you can do great movie in less than 90 minutes I know I sound like my dad who like used to, I suppose my dad used to always fall asleep in the middle of a movie. Now I understand why. It's like, I can't be not doing something valuable for that long, right? If I went, if I'm going to a long movie, I want all the kids with me. So it's like, we're doing something together because my kids are only watching the movie half the time. The other half the time they're choosing who sits next to me, who sits next to their mom. But there's this shift where your time starts to become more valuable when you want to use it efficiently and do things that you really like. And it's just either stack it one way or stack it the other because it's like how you end the day. I'm going to watch TV like I used to watch TV for like six hours like as a kid. And now it's like, I struggle. Even when I'm doing stuff on the computer, I can have a TV show on it takes me like for 45 minutes show, it's going to take me 12 hours to watch it because I'm pausing it, watching a pod get bored. I'm like, I'd rather just read the summary online. And it's like, we the way you see the world shifts and kind of you start to see what's valuable and what you really want to be doing and what habits you have. And I do have some habits that are great. I do play some video games throughout the day, but not when the kids are here. I like, Oh, I'm having a break. I'll play 10 minute game, do two hours of work, 10 minute game, two hours of work. But I also, it's okay to have some things that it's not like I could never do. Like when I was a kid, you just start playing after school and it's time for school when you finish. I could never do 15 hour session like that. I can't, it can sound, like that's the thing, things that as a kid were normal, now it sounds like crazy to me, right? Like, oh, I'm just gonna play video games for 14 hours straight. And there is that thought when you say, oh, I play video games, people think that, it's like, no, maybe two hours a week across the whole week. And so it's that balance of knowing, oh, it's okay to have some things. And it's better to have that as going, oh, when I do good, I'll eat a cupcake. Old strategy. That's the thing man, it's good to have these little things. I play the Xbox as well and it's a way of clearing my head. I feel sometimes you consume way too much information throughout the day. It's just a good way of just switching off and clearing your head a little bit. I like going for a walk as well. Again, it feels like an old man thing to say, but going for a walk, just clear your head, get out in fresh air. Then I also find that new ideas come to me as well, new business ideas when I'm out walking. So I like to do that. And yeah, that's the thing, it's weighing it up. You know, it's understanding where your priorities lie, what's important in life, like you say, your business, your family, your health. And then after that, whatever spare time you've got, you just distribute it however you like to feel. I'm the same way. I like going to the cinema with my, you know, as you're building a business and the family as well, you lose touch with some friends. Like there's a guy I used to go mountain biking with every weekend. He had... he's got kids now, I've got kids now, lives drift apart. For now, every month we agree that we're gonna meet up and go to the cinema, but sometimes you are, you're sitting there for a three hour movie thinking, I'd rather be having a coffee talking to you than sitting watching this movie. So yeah, it's picking priorities, isn't it? Yeah, you just shift the way you view time when you're in kind of control of it. You're like, I wanna be in control of all of that. I wanna choose when I get up, I wanna remove. Cause there's this, do you remember this when you're like young and you spend like an hour choosing what to wear? Like which shirt should I wear? Which of my favorite bands shirts am I wear? All of that stuff. That's why I only have one shirt. it's removed that decision from the day. It's like, I know what I'm gonna wear because there's only one choice. And I just had a huge, right before this call, a huge meeting with my wife in the closet because we hired someone new who's been organizing. I go, where do all these shorts go? Every pair of shorts that I don't wear anymore. I have a whole huge thing about which is my favorite shorts right now. Whole thing. Like it's a massive part of my life. I'm like, these shorts are out, these new shorts are in. I bought 10 pairs of these. Like, again, once I like some marriage, buy a bunch. I want to think about it. Like these shorts, I don't know where they, I haven't worn these in four years, three years. I don't know where these came from. We got to remove them all from the closet because I want to remove, where I'm like picking up 10 pairs of shorts to find the ones I want. Let's just get rid of the ones I don't want. And it simplifies. Because I would rather spend the time playing with my kids or doing other things. And it's okay exactly to have some stuff you do that's meaningless and kind of relaxing your mind and having that shift and kind of making decisions how you're gonna work. Like I, my dad, I'll never forget this, because this is when you know you have a problem. My dad was like, look, you shouldn't work more than six and a half days a week. It's like, that's when you know your second generation workaholic when it's like, and I was like, and he's like, you should take off at least four hours a week, but I don't work like other people. So I worked, I do work seven days a week, but I work much shorter hours, because I would rather do that. I'd rather split the 45 hour, the 40 hours or really 35 hours across seven days than across five. And that's just kind of one of those decisions you could only make when you work for yourself because I like what I do. And I think that's the craziest part of it is that I like, I'm having a good time right now. I was really looking forward to talking to you. I'm very fascinated by like rugged man brands and like that process of kind of carving out a space because I think it's really important. So. And I get to do that, right? We get to do the things we like, we get to do things we're passionate about, and that's like an amazing thing. So it's really exciting. This has been a really cool conversation. I know your time is very valuable. We went longer than I was planning because we kind of caught a new group, which is awesome. Where can people kind of connect with you? Where can they find if they wanna kind of get, like make jazz up their beard and where can they kind of learn more about if maybe they're a good fit to kind of be part of this next endeavor where they can learn about your coaching process and how you're helping people to get to that next level. Sure, thank you. I appreciate you giving me the platform to share this. But the best place at the moment is probably Instagram. It's at Braw Beard Oils. I, so at the moment I'm kind of transitioning the mindset stuff in there as well. So that's the best place to get a bit of both the beard care and the mindset. I'm sharing both on that page, just at Braw Beard Oils on Instagram or Facebook, Braw Beard Oils. And the YouTube channel is just Braw Beard. It'll be this logo that pops up. And on there we've got beard care tutorials, I've got my vlog that I share, the weekly vlog, the short entertaining videos go up there as well. So a bit of lifestyle in there and a bit of beard care tutorials. But YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are the main ones at the moment. And then we've got the website for anybody who wants to purchase products, just broadbeardoils.com and all the merchandise and products are available there. Awesome, thank you so much for being here. This has been an awesome episode. I'll make sure to put those links in the show notes and below the video. Thank you so much for being here for today's episode. much.