Video summary
The podcast opens with a candid reflection on the long-term consequences of consistently overworking, spanning nearly two decades from university until recently. The host describes himself as a classic Type A individual who has always sought to maximize his time and make an impact, leading him to repeatedly "bite off more than he could chew." This relentless drive eventually pushed him toward the threshold of burnout for about twenty years before realizing that the dopamine derived merely from being busy does not necessarily advance one's life goals. Instead, this busyness often serves as a coping mechanism for existential loneliness and a need to feel important, creating an addiction to trivial tasks like answering emails without making meaningful progress on actual projects or business objectives. As he approaches his 37th birthday, the conversation shifts to the company New Tonic and its strategic direction under James' leadership. While acknowledging that their discussions are sometimes perceived as promotional, they emphasize a serious focus on brain health, productivity, performance, and cognitive function rather than expanding into unrelated categories like sleep aids or sniffable powders. The brand is currently raising capital to expand retail presence in the UK and US markets, which requires significant cash flow due to high costs associated with can production and stocking. Plans include releasing new flavors such as peach mango and mixed berry for their Focus blend sticks by year-end, alongside a potential four-pack variety set, while maintaining that their core Brain Capsule tablets remain an exceptional product in the industry. A segment of the discussion addresses personal finance management and content moderation quirks regarding guest interactions. The host admits to lacking extravagant spending habits but acknowledges he is not a sophisticated investor who optimizes for credit card points or cash back; instead, his strategy relies heavily on dollar-cost averaging into the S&P 500 following advice from Morgan Housel. He also humorously notes that while some guests like Mark Norman burp frequently during recording sessions, others might accidentally produce gas, which he can sometimes mute mid-stream without affecting local recordings. Despite these minor anecdotes, his primary financial philosophy remains simple: work hard enough to accumulate wealth rather than obsessing over complex investment tactics or maximizing every possible opportunity for returns. The most serious portion of the interview concerns the host's ongoing health struggles following exposure to toxic mold in his home and contracting EBV after COVID-19. He explains that he has avoided detailing these issues extensively because discussing unresolved negative situations can dampen the positive vibe listeners expect, yet he clarifies that this is not a cry for sympathy but an honest account of being "balls deep" in recovery efforts. His condition involves multiple layers including disbiosis, candida, H. pylori, liver fluke, tinnitus, memory loss, and severe sleep disturbances caused by moving to the US where his stomach was unaccustomed to local food additives like Red 40 and Blue Three. To combat these issues, he has employed a comprehensive protocol involving binders, colestyramine, phosphatidylcholine, glutathione, red light therapy, sauna use, ozone treatments, and high-dose vitamin C IVs, though he remains hesitant to present this as a fully solved problem until his health is completely restored. Ultimately, the episode serves as both an update on business milestones for New Tonic and a vulnerable admission of personal limitations regarding work-life balance and physical well-being. The host emphasizes that professional resilience involves "sucking it up" and delivering results despite significant challenges, even if those challenges require dialing back workload and investing substantial time in healing processes. He promises to share more detailed vlogs documenting his journey through various states of recovery with videographer Max, aiming to provide transparency without abandoning the audience or ruining the show's atmosphere. The overarching message is a warning against relying on busywork as a substitute for genuine progress while encouraging listeners to prioritize sleep and sustainable habits over the addictive dopamine loops generated by constant activity.
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have you ever bitten off more than you
can chew
workwise literally my entire working
life probably from the age
of 19 turned 19 six months into uni
probably from then
until about six months ago so a full you
know 17 years or something uh I
permanently bit off more than I could
chew I I
rode the thresh hold of burnout for you
know the best part of two decades and uh
maybe some would say well have you
considered that might contribute to the
way that your health feels at the moment
you'd probably be right so you know
whatever but it's common you're a type a
person you want to maximize your time on
this planet you don't want to [ __ ] about
you want to make a dent you're going to
bite off more than you can chew that
being said do it in your 20s and a bit
of your 30s uh and work out how hard you
can work and know that you've got that
in the tank and if the [ __ ] hits hits
the fan you can get back to doing it but
after a while at least in my experience
and you know this has kind of been
brought on by the uh chronic awareness
of my own work mortality by having my
capacity severely diminished over the
last 12 months um that fuel kind of
starts to run out and you realize that
the dopamine you get from just being
busy doesn't necessarily move you toward
the life that you want that what you're
doing
is you're healing existential loneliness
and
a need to feel important and a need to
feel like you're making progress by
being busy but not doing things that
matter and that's a very dangerous
situation to being because you can you
can create an addiction to the dopamine
of pressing enter on the email and none
of the emails that you've sent for the
last hour actually move you any closer
to the life you want they don't actually
do anything for the business that you're
working on or the project that you're
trying to achieve they've just kept you
busy and uh sure there's worse ways that
you can distract yourself with drugs and
junk food and stuff like that but dope
means is a hell of a drug as well so
yeah be careful with
it J Jal jalexander revans how do you
feel about turning 40 soon I'm
36 okay it's not soon 37 next month 36
okay I'm going to be like David Brent in
the office where he's going 30s I'm in
my 30s uh it's not soon okay got ages
unless you're that guy asking about my
wife that I don't have Isaac Rogue what
are the plans with new tonic uh okay I
no new SKS I don't want to make noral
products right James Wanted the focus
people might think that the
conversations that me and James have on
the newtonic marketing all for show or
something that's it's perilously close
it's maybe like
selected you know uh specifically but
it's perilously close to our real
working relationship and uh he wanted to
focus blend because you can't get the
the cans in Australia so he wanted to
drink in Australia I'm a huge fan of the
brain capsules those brain capsule uh
tablets the red pills are [ __ ] money
I think you know the cans are amazing
and they're always going to be amazing
because we worked so hard on the taste
and they're enjoyable and all the rest
of it but caffeine-free I challenge
anybody to put something in their mouth
that makes them feel better that is
legal uh those brain capsules are
phenomenal I just don't want any new
skews because I I my point being for
I've whed and talked about that I don't
want to over confus what we are as a
company we are brain health company we
are productivity performance and focus
right but
cognitive we don't need anything else we
don't need a suppository we don't need a
sniffable powder I would be
down for doing a Zin style pouch because
I think that would just be funny but
that would be a joke product that
wouldn't be a real product and I just
want to really really dial in uh we are
going to do a raise uh so we're going to
be raising some some Capital uh because
we want to go into retail in the UK and
in the US uh it's not cheap
unfortunately cans cost just an absurd
amount of money the margins on them are
awful which means you need tons of cash
in order to be able to get the stock
order in order to be able to put the
stock into the retailers in order for
them to be able to sell it in order to
get more cash back in order to be able
to grow and you can do it by
bootstrapping but it's going to take you
forever so we're going to get an
injection of cash uh which means we're
going through valuations and we're doing
pitch decks and all this other stuff and
uh largely I'm not involved I get kind
of wheeled out to sell a dream um but
the coming up with the figures and all
of that I mean I have input I guess I I
could contribute something useful if I
was asked but well I don't know about
like annual eidar and annual run rate
mul
multiplicativity pack by the end of the
year so we'll probably release at least
one new flavor uh on the cans and then
that would mean that we could do a four
pack one of each four flavors variety
pack by the end of the year and I think
that'll be awesome um the peach mango
and the mixed berry on the uh Focus
blend the stick packs great awesome
flavors we've got one more flavor that
we might release with that and then the
brain capsules are just money and I I
just keep on using those so yeah between
those keep growing get more people on
board we've got subscriptions now you
can get discounts uh we've got cool
welcome gifts and stuff coming uh so
just do that and keep making cool
marketing because I love the marketing
for
it h an inside story when will you have
someone on to talk about non-violent
communication I believe you said it's
the best example of the worst branding I
don't remember saying that but I agree
with me nonviolent community
communication is terribly branded uh
because the what's implied is that all
other communication is violent which may
be true I mean who knows but uh I
probably need to learn a little bit more
about it I got sent I've been doing like
a really deep dive into relationship
Dynamics recently so Stan hatkins uh
your brain on love this is your brain on
love [ __ ] awesome and then from that
I got conscious loving suggested to me
and I think that conscious loving is
half a step away from nonviolent
communication or at least nonviolent
communication's included in that so I
need to do quite a bit of research and
alongside all the reading to do for the
show that's like more more more more on
top but I'll get there and uh I feel
like nonviolent communication's kind of
like the CBT of the relationship world
it's quite evidence-based at least from
what I can tell evidence-based very well
regarded people are impressed with it
but just [ __ ] awful brand and I
haven't got around to it yet so hold on
tight
Oliver Oliver norgrove Chris how if at
all has your personal money management
improved over the years um
I look I I think the the only thing that
I've been particularly good at when it
comes to money management is I don't
have a big I don't have
extravagant uh spending habits I'm not a
particularly showy person I like nice
things but you know I'm talking about
nice things like a new pair of trainers
or a nice car but not an insane car or
you
know a coffee where I don't have to look
at the the price tag I don't tend to
have particularly expensive tastes uh
and I guess the other side has been even
if investing like managing money is in
putting in places and moving it around
and ETFs and all this stuff even if that
hasn't been super dialed uh I've just
worked sufficiently hard to accumulate
money and um I don't know I don't have
I'm not a credit card points Optimizer
I'm not a cash back guy I I never have
been that sort of stuff just feels like
homework to me um and I've always felt
guilty about not doing it like I should
uh you know like if I care about my net
worth I should be maximizing all of
these different opportunities to do it
uh and I didn't do it when I was poor
and I still don't do it now so um I
guess I felt more guilty previously but
you can only prioritize on so much stuff
one time um honestly the 90% of my
investing strategy comes from Morgan
howel which is just dollar cost average
into the S&P 500 and leave it for a few
decades so he was the guy I trusted him
so I've just followed that since I spoke
to him four years ago or something I
don't know how much I've got in the S&P
now but it's gone up
so more hopefully I guess Ben boy
mindset has anyone farted on a modern
with podcast maybe Jordan Peterson from
all that stake I think Jordan's actually
very far down the list from that because
of how clean the pipes are going to be I
mean look regularly I can but I have the
opportunity to M mute my microphone uh
so sometimes Dean I will have to put a
little note in like 24 minutes 30
seconds mute my mic if I forgot to uh
but I can mute it for the guest but it
doesn't mute the local recording so
sometimes Dean's version so he has had a
laugh uh on particularly gassy days but
I don't think so Mark Norman burps a lot
uh but apart from that not much gas you
mentioned about your autoimmune problems
once or twice promised to full episode
and disappeared with it can you please
mention how you tackled it on the Q&A
some of us suffer exactly from that and
don't know how to fix it your help is
much needed thank you all right yeah so
um being completely honest the reason
that I haven't uh done the big round up
to sort of explain what went on and
what's going on is that it's still going
on and talking
about a negative
situation when it's not resolved uh
doesn't make people listening feel
hopeful it makes them feel sad for you
and as much as sympathy is very welcome
um I don't know I it feels weird
to it feels weird to me to
be I don't know does it come across as
if I'm a woe is me please look at help I
need some sympathy thing I don't know it
just it didn't feel right it didn't feel
right to
um to talk about it until it is resolved
but it's been over a year now and it's
still not so long and short of it uh got
covid 18 months ago was living in a
house that had toxic molding didn't know
uh turns out like 85% of people that
have got EBV uh Epstein bar virus which
that got kicked off by De Mold Plus the
covid then America is very unforgiving
to immigrants so uh the food system here
just ruins anybody that wasn't born here
um although it's bad because you've been
exposed to red 40 and blue three and
you've got ADHD and autism uh it's good
because your stomach's used to them but
if you move here you don't have those
things but your stomach has no idea what
to hit it and it's sure enough two and a
half years two years in like everybody
else every Mexican person that I know
that's moved here uh T of got disbiosis
candida H pylori CBO roundworm and liver
fluke from [ __ ] Africa maybe I don't
know um
tinitus memory loss mood disregulation
sleep I falling asleep at 8 o'clock at
night 8:30 at night every single evening
um and it's like the most Salient part
of my entire life the reason that I
don't talk about it that much on the
show apart from right now is it a bit of
a buzzkill this isn't Fun you guys come
here I don't know maybe you come here to
find out about me but presumably you
come here for interesting conversations
and a good vibe and a good hang and I
don't know I think I get worried
about ruining that uh or
not not being a professional right being
a professional is sucking it up and
delivering the doing what needs to be
done in any case and um I'm proud that I
managed to do that over the last year
because it's not been superbly easy
and it's meant that I've had to dial
back a lot of workload uh spend a ton
more time and effort and money
and thought Cycles um trying to fix it
uh
but yeah that's it uh in terms of how I
tackled it the same way that everybody
else will have done with binders and
colestyramine and phosphat choline and
glutathione and red light therapy and
saas and ozone and high do vitamin C IVs
and a ton of other stuff and I will
detail the whole protocol of everything
that I did but to be honest because I'm
still like balls deep in it maybe the
worst I've ever been from a health
perspective at least a felt Health
perspective even though we fixed a lot
of those
problems uh I'm hesitant to go and this
is what I did because I also would go
this is what I did and it's still an
issue
so I don't know man um I I'm sorry if
it's felt like I've opened the door and
then abandoned everybody uh but that's
not because I'm off Dancing in the
Moonlight having a great time it's
because I'm still down in the trend
she's trying to fix it uh so that's the
update on my health
uh hope that's useful I'll have more
stuff soon we've tracked a lot of it
with Max the videographer so there will
be I guess
a semi-interesting vlog coming at some
point uh which will show me in various
states of disrepair getting a lot of
different treatments
and in a good mood and in a bad mood and
sad and all the rest of it so hopefully
that'll help and uh if nothing else just
keep on keeping on getting enough sleep
and uh yeah I'll I'll keep you updated
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