[00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of super human radio. We have a really interesting show planed today during the first hour long to be joined by Shannon Yorton Penna to talk about the modest and Provident beginnings of Quest Nutrition. I had never heard this story before and I don't think I live under a rock.

And I thought this probably a lot of people out there that don't know this either and I really am interested in spreading this word then later in the show. We're going to be joined by Jaques Newell Taylor to talk about exploiting Neuroscience to get what you want out of your body. Let's face it we all want results.

And of course, I have to thank our title sponsor All American pharmaceutical and EFX sports right now. You get there six top selling products absolutely free by going to superhuman radio dotnet and clicking. The EFX Sports Banner ad and you will pay five dollars and change for shipping but that's [00:01:00] legitimately the shipping charge.

It's not a self-liquidating promotion like so many other scammy companies out there. And the reason that they do this is because dr. Jeff believes that no one should buy anything until they've tried it and he puts his money where his mouth is so check that out and without further delay. Welcome to the show Shannon you're in pain.

How you doing, John? I'm great. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to have you on the show. I don't know why we didn't do this sooner to be honest with you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm excited to be here. Well, so I had an opportunity to spend some time with you and Ron this past week in in Los Angeles and you told me a story that I have never heard before and frankly.

I have a funny feeling that a lot of people have never heard it. And we're going to talk about the Inception of Quest Nutrition. But before we talk about that, we have to lay the groundwork about your life as competitor and obviously the daughter. Chet Yorton, anybody who's [00:02:00] followed physical culture and body building and its golden era.

We know you know who your dad is talk about how you got started your love of physical culture. Did you immediately love physical culture? Was it something that you had to learn to love? No, oh gosh, it feels like it's in my blood like it comes so natural and I would love to say that it came from my dad. I was raised a very specific way nutrition-wise growing up.

We were very much a low-carb family now, Because anyone said that it just my dad never really ate much carbohydrate. He wasn't a rice eater. He wasn't a potato-eater things that pasta we never had that in the house. So I kind of naturally just grew up with you know, typical fruits vegetables Meats.

I ate everything other than I was big eater since I was a little kid, so but I always grew up with kind of that type of food, so we went out to restaurants, you know, I never ate. I never thought to order a potato or rice as a side or things like that so still to [00:03:00] this day. Those are just never Foods.

I would I'm interested in sure. I love pizza and ice cream and I eat that stuff on occasion, but I just didn't actually grow up with that stuff. So I would say though that growing up with that led me to you know, Quest and all that stuff where we're at now. What about training did you do will you natural wood?

Were you an actor natural athlete and high school and so on did you just love? Training. Yeah, so, you know, I didn't play sports as a kid. I'm an only child. So I was very much like the Mama's girl. I wanted to be with my mom like 24/7 my parents worked a lot. So any chance I got to be with them.

I wanted to be with them. They tried to get me into you know ballet and Jazz and karate and I just cried I didn't want to stay so I actually didn't get involved in sports until high school, you know, I did typical physical Ed, you know PE in junior high. And then when I got into high school, [00:04:00] I didn't want to have to take regular PE, you know at second period of the day and then you go through school kind of the rest of the day sweaty and hot right that is like I'm going to take a sport because then it's end today and I can go home.

And so that was my lead in into sports and sort of Fitness that way I didn't realize I was going to love it so much. So I joined the cross country team because I thought running is good for you. I can I can run and then go home and I fell in love with cross-country it became like. A challenge for me.

How far can you run? You know things like that and then obviously I joined the basketball team or a try it out and I made it and then I did track so. He kind of grew like I realized I love cost cross country and that challenge and I thought well, let me play basketball. Let me try these other sports that I kind of had an interest in and I fell in love with it.

[00:05:00] So, you know there I am 9th grade and high school like loving Sports thinking back like God, why didn't I do this when I was younger, you know parents tried didn't want to so it was natural for me. I fell in love with it right away. And as soon as I could I wanted to go to the gym with my mom.

That about 13 14. I started going to the health club with her and you know, they don't let you in the gym without a parent you have to have somebody over certain age. So I when my mom will go and work out I would go and kind of play with the little baby weights and take a step class or you know, whatever was available at the time and I just I loved the movement.

I love the challenge. I love sweating and feeling good after so it was very much a natural for me. That's so cool. That really is. So now let's fast forward. So you became a competitive strength athlete you you competed in was it figure that you came here? Yes, I could figure [00:06:00] and so and as such you also were a personal trainer and and nutrition is 80% of what makes us look the way we look and you had specific goals and but you also didn't want to lead.

A new whatsoever. Gastronomically monastic life you like the way food. I mean, you're a foodie. I you really are. No, I yeah, I'm a foodie and you know anyone who's been maybe on my Instagram page or anything like that? That's probably predominantly what my page is food. So I'm posting either what I'm making or baking or what, you know, my husband and I you know when we go out and eat the I love.

Food, I don't care if it's healthy food if it's a steak and veggies or if it's you know a dessert. I love it. Also. Yeah, that's you know, I grew up with that. My mom was very much into food my dad ate food for fuel and nutrition only that he sure loves, you know a good meal, but he always just.

For fuel and my mom was more of a hey, let's bake [00:07:00] cookies as we can. Let's make banana bread. And so I kind of got into the baking side of it more because of my mom and who doesn't want dessert when they're dieting like rarely do people say hey, I just I want a good piece of meat when you're dieting most people say I want dessert.

I want a cake. I want ice cream. And so I think that's kind of really what led me there is I didn't compete until I was I think what I was 30 when I did my first show. So it's not like I competed all through my 20s. I I kind of found it much later obviously figure didn't exist in the early 2000. I think figure came.

I don't know maybe around 2004. I forget when figure came about before it was just Fitness and bodybuilding and so for me it was you know, I was a personal trainer. I did people's nutrition. Obviously. I followed a specific plan myself. I got people ready for whether it was weddings reunions Marathon, you know, whatever their goals were.

So I had the ability to do that and [00:08:00] I kept saying to myself God I want to compete I want to compete and I just never really saw myself getting up on stage. I mean, honestly, I have horrible stage fright. I don't love being on stage in front of people and. But I love the idea of the challenge like a it would get me up onstage and maybe get me over that fright, or at least make me more comfortable.

But God I love competing. I competed in sports in high school and I thought I just want that challenge, you know the idea of bettering your body and getting up on stage and being judged for it. I love that idea. A lot of people hate that they you know, they don't want to be looked at and judged and you know being told now your abs aren't good enough your legs aren't big enough or whatever it is.

And I really look forward to that. So honestly, I didn't compete until I met my husband and he was really a great help in that. You know, he really he would die it with me. So, you know, I have [00:09:00] a lot of support in that area. So I finally did compete when I was 30. Okay, so and at this point in time, you've got clients that you're training and you're competing in you're going man.

I miss some of those really good things and that's it you out to start hunting. For nutritionally appropriate desert type products that wouldn't that wouldn't cause you to derail your contest prep for instance. Right? Right so that you know, you go to the grocery store and you kind of look for things like okay.

This is you know, maybe dietetic enough, but then it doesn't taste great or oh, you know, how can I figure this out and use ice I always started to look at things, you know, if I ate a dessert out, how can I make that healthier at home and not just healthier? Moving some of the sugar but like removing the flower entirely removing, you know, everything entirely and that led me to like baking with protein powders.

So it kind of just started their everyone's had a protein shake for the most part. I started baking with them. A [00:10:00] lot of people have done that that's not like a new thing but I started playing with different ingredients with the protein powder and seeing what I could make out of it, you know, you start with making a protein pudding and you start, you know, I started making brownies, so I was doing that before my husband and I were even married.

So I was making brownies and doing all that. That's what kind of led me to making the bars and there's kind of a little story before that but. You know, it was it's looking at ingredients. I really was always a label reader and a label looker and trying to figure out what can I substitute those exact brilliants for well, but not that you and the little story that you intimated just now before that was you actually found the product that was kind of a premade mix they become neck baked on your own and you bought it and you will like this this rocks this tastes so good, right, but you couldn't it was kind of like that Seinfeld episode where they're all.

In the yogurt and [00:11:00] getting fat they can't believe that there's no sugar in it. Right? Right. So yeah, so we I found this product online and ordered it and I started making it I thought oh, it's so easy. It's a premade mix. All you basically do is add your nut butter to it. And I thought fantastic, you know, I'm going to do this.

This will be a fun snack treat whatever. So my husband and I are eating these for probably months and we're necessarily getting fatter on it. But we kept wondering like why do these taste so good? I mean, I love peanut butter and I love almond butter, but that doesn't make something inherently like sweet and it doesn't you know, Give us the taste we were getting from it, you know, it was just like a vanilla powder.

So I thought what there's got to be something in this and my husband being who he is. He was like, let's get this tested. So we did and it didn't come back with as low carb as they claimed. So we were like, oh my God, we've been eating carbs like a huge [00:12:00] amount of carbs all this time. And that's when we were kind of, you know, how people can lie on their labels and get away with it and whatnot.

So, That kind of led me that's really the thing that led me to making my own. I was like screw this I'm making it myself. I know what's in it. So I started trying to work on protein bars. And that was I guess you would call the Inception of quest even though I didn't know Quest was ever, you know coming around the corner.

So I started playing with things, you know ingredients adding things in pulling out nut Butters to not have it be maybe as high fat and just kind of goofing around with products. I spent a lot of time online researching like what can I put in here? You know, I need some type of a liquid. I need, you know, most everything.

If you looked up protein bars online especially back then how to make them yourself. Everything was with oats or you know, mashed banana or some type of your sweet potato, you'd find all sorts [00:13:00] of interesting and trying to get the carbs out. That was my goal because I was a low carb diet ER. So yeah, that was really the start of you know, what became the crossbar.

Well when I want I want to I want to point something out here two things. I really want to point out. First of all for those of you out there listening to this inspiring interview. No, no, really. I tell you why because it's quite often, you know, we're always told do what you love and the money will come and the reality is.

You would doing what you loved you love to bake. You love to cook you love to train you love to compete and you would doing what you love and it wasn't like anybody set out to you know, oh we're going to we're going to cure type 2 diabetes. We're going to come out with magical food that no, this was just you being Shannon your antenna.

That's all it was. I guess there was no there was no ulterior motive. And the reason I point that out is that everybody in this [00:14:00] audience is doing something right now. That they're not looking at. Like wow, this could be something I could quit working and start doing but listen to the way the story unfolds that that that's all I want to point out and it is totally possible.

I mean people are out there making things whether its food or jewelry or whatever right we're doing it is possible to turn into business. I never had that and you know, that's the other thing. I want to point out. You never had any desire to have a big company or nothing like that. No, no. No, I never want to even when my husband eventually did bring that up.

I was kind of like are you crazy? What am I? Sell these door-to-door like he was it's I'm not a business person. I don't have the mind that goes that direction. I'm really a person who's good with the day in day out. I like my I love my personal training job. I was happy just doing that like that would have been fine for me honestly for the rest of my life.

I'm good with. What [00:15:00] I love I don't need you know, I've never been someone who needed like more I need to turn this business into like I need to have my own gym. And you know, that's not how my brain really sees things or works but it's so refreshing to hear. No. No. No, I'm gonna tell you why because most of us feel guilty because the message that we're getting is grind harder wake up at 3 a.m.

In the morning and get started on your day. You're lazy and if you're sleeping and you're like no I'm content with my life. I really am. Well it yeah, and that's great. I you know, I never I never thought I like wouldn't have you know a job like I don't physically work hard or work at all some days like where I'm at now with Quest.

I don't have to do that. And that's a really cool thing because now I can spend my time with my dogs and hiking and doing other things. I enjoy and I'm good with that. A lot of people, you know, my husband sister always used to ask me like, [00:16:00] what are you going to do with your life now? And it's like I'm doing it like I'm totally good.

I'm really happy. Love it. Maybe they'll be something different. I want to get involved in whether it's volunteering or another business or who knows what but I love where I'm at. And I loved where I'm at where I was at when I was personal training and I've always been very honest that way not just to the outside world but to myself, I'm really.

He just hanging I'm good with that you're content with the simple things in life. And that's a black and that's a blessing by the way, just for the record. That's a big sense of my husband says, yeah it is. I think it came from being an only child. I mean, I know there's a lot of only children. I don't know about that Shannon because I know a lot of only children that are really miserable.

You're not missing you really one of the sweetest people I've ever met and genuinely, but anyway, okay, so now I want to move forward so now. You making [00:17:00] these bars you figured things out. They really taste good. You're selling them to your clients. Ron is bringing them to work. Yeah, good.

Yeah. I was just making the bars for myself and then you know, obviously Ron was always my taste tester. He would come home from work and he had a software company at the time so he came home from work and he dig in and. Like all these are really good are this isn't sweet enough and he would help me taste test and work on him.

I was just doing it for us and I used to send him to work. I'd wrap him up in little cellophane or whatever and send him to work. So he didn't have to eat another turkey burger that I made because that's pretty much what we lived on was like turkey burgers chicken breast and vegetables right whites, you know, the typical bodybuilding kind of.

So he would send them to work with those because I knew exactly how much protein was in and all that knee of carbs fat, whatever and one day his one of his business partners Mike who's [00:18:00] our business partner request. He I think Ron gave him a bite or Mike said, what are you eating? And Ron said here you go.

Try it. He's like one of those really good. He's like yeah Shannon's been making these and it kind of spiraled wrong came home and told me like, yeah, Mike really like them and I thought well, I'll make some extra and you can give them to whoever wants him at work. Right started making bigger batches of my bars and sending around to work with them and the tech guys were you know who live on like Skittles and pizza and whatever at work we're like, oh, these are really good.

What are these things and Ron's like well, you know Shannon's protein bars and you know, they were like, oh cool we get more like would she want to make them for us? So when regular people and I mean regular in the nicest way just regular people who eat whatever they want. When they like them which I thought oh my God, they really want to eat this stuff.

It's diet food. They're going to hate this [00:19:00] like I thought I liked it because I'm always on a diet, right but they genuinely like wanted more and I thought wow and so it gave me an opportunity to work on more flavors and things like that and they all became my test subjects. So that's where the spiral then after enough months of that.

Ron kind of came home and he's like we're going to do something this with this we're going to turn this into a business and I thought. Are you crazy? No, I really thought he was kind of nuts and I was like, what do you mean you do software and now you're like you want to make protein bars like. How are we going to do if he's gone?

He's earlier to make these by hand at home and we're going to like go door to door and he's like no you sell them online like we out we'll do a website and I was like, I don't even understand how this works, you know and small backtrack is I got you know my first cell phone when I was 29 and dating my husband like I'm [00:20:00] not a tech person in the slightest, right?

So for me, I was like website online. Like I just couldn't even grasp it. Well, I want to I want to I want to take a break I want to interrupt. I want to take a break because I want to when I'm when we come back. I want to talk about you use the term spiral this this ended up being like I want to tell the story about how the people at the post office got to know you because the story really gets good.

This is very inspiring anybody out there who feels like you know, your life is lacking some sort of goals or initiative, you know, sometimes things just happen and as they are happening you get swept away and that's. It's part of the story stay tuned you're listening to superhuman radio. We're talking to Shannon Yorton Penna the gal who gave birth to Quest Nutrition with right back.

Welcome back to super human radio with talking with Shannon Yorton Penna about how Quest Nutrition became the company that it is today, and it really all started [00:21:00] with her desire to have things that she could eat that she would enjoy. And lo and behold people who didn't care about their weight weren't competing.

They love them too. And that's where the magic is. So Shannon, Let's pick up with the quote-unquote spiral. So you find yourself making these bars. You literally couldn't even make them all in your kitchen at some at one point in time. Right? Well, right. So at the time when I was giving them to my husband to take to work and stuff.

I was also selling them at my boot camp. So I used to run a boot camp in my backyard and it was more just for fun our business partner as I mentioned before Mike his wife used to come and all her mom friends. And so I had these like pretty much weekly three times a week 12 ladies and a. All of them were eating other protein bars that were out there and you know, they would complain about their weight and this about the other and I would sort of start to educate them about, you know, what's in those [00:22:00] bars and why you don't want to eat those and the amount of sugar the soy protein or whatever it is that I believed was not optimal and so, you know, I was telling them look I make a bar.

I'm happy to make you extra I'd have to charge, you know, like a typical. You know food service or whatever. So, you know, I was making it for them as well and they would buy them weekly I would make them on the weekends and give them to the Monday morning. So they would have their batch of bars for the week.

And that's kind of how that went. Once that was doing. You know, really? Well like I mentioned before my husband said, okay, we got to do something with this and he got his, you know ideas together. He pitched it to you know, our who are our other business partners and. They also kind of thought he was crazy runs really the genius behind, you know Quest I make the, you know the products but you know, Ron really has the business mind.

He's a true entrepreneur. He's been doing different [00:23:00] businesses since he was you know, 18 19 years old. He's had you know, he had a Subway he's had restaurants. He's you know done all sorts of stuff. So it's really, you know with his concept of like what we were going to do how we were going to do this with the least amount of risk.

I mean, he's he had it all kind of planned out. And so it was just who wanted to be on board with us at the time and all this time. I'm still thinking this is crazy. I can't believe we're taking my food and going public with this. Like I don't believe people want to eat this that's how I was so funny.

And so, you know, I'm kind of I don't know almost begrudgingly doing this like he really wants to do this like, okay, I'll do this with him type of thing. And yeah, we started renting time at a commissary. So you rent, you know blocks of time like four hours six hours. And you go to these they're like kitchens and we you know, I had to get a food license.

So [00:24:00] I went through the online training to get a managerial food license so that somebody has to be certified in that before you can make food and sell it to the public. So did that got that certification? Like we did all the little things we had to do to work in a commissary and we started making them we would do like started as one night a week after everybody left work.

We would go to the commissary and we'd work till like 10 11 o'clock at night making bars and by hand. No, I knew how the mix went because it was my formula. And so I would put that together. Everybody had their little station of what they would do, you know, some people are putting the bars in packages and some people are heat sealing them.

So, you know that was kind of our crew of like I think five or six people even had my dad come for a while. We needed extra hands. So we would, you know, Ron had the whole system online and doing that thing and we were giving out to free bars to anybody who [00:25:00] filled out the form. And so when we started we were just giving away product we weren't selling anything and the like reorders if you will would start coming in where people wanted to now purchase them and when that started happening it started happening really fast and to the point where our business partner Mike had me set up at home with you know, a printer and everything so that the orders when they would come in.

I would just print them. I would you know package them and get them ready and then go to the Post Office and that's what you were talking about the so yay for you, you're the you're the you were the shipping Department. You were the chef you all the bars. Yeah in the early days. I mean when it was small enough, I made the bars.

I yeah, I did the sales online if you will even to meaning. Yeah, well, we had a website and kind of advertising and that sense going out. I was a featured blogger on bodyspace at the time and don't actually how that even happened. I was just posting [00:26:00] very regularly and eventually I got put up there as a featured blogger.

So I started talking about the quest bars and things like that and. I you know was new to Facebook at the time. So I started to the girls I was competing with and I would write them and say Hey, you know, can I send you bars if you love him great, maybe you'll want to you know, talk about him and it's not the no harm.

No foul. You got some free bars, right and they were like, yeah, I would love to for sure send to my way and lo and behold, you know, people start talking about him. One of the first girls was a friend of mine Gina Aliotti who I didn't know other than from competing and Geno's a great girl. She was like, oh my God, I love these.

Amazing, they're clean and she started giving them out to her, you know, her clients her nutrition clients that she did their nutrition for and her competitors and all that kind of stuff. So Gina was one of the first people I worked with and we [00:27:00] call them influencers now at Quest and they're you know, it kind of just like grew like that.

So more of those people started talking about it the trickle-down effect kind of got towards, you know, the regular everyday person and more and more orders were coming in. So I was been doing all the shipping and it was kind of getting a little crazy like I couldn't handle it every day. And that's how quick things started to happen.

I would go to the post office with my buckets and buckets of you know bars in packaged up in boxes and standing in line. You know, the lady would always say to me and up you got to get in line and after she would start to see me every single day. She was kind of like, what is it you're doing here, you know, so I told my total business like who has that much stuff to ship every day, right?

I've had to go out. And so it was all prepaid stamps. We did all our stamps online. So everything I didn't really technically have to stand in line, but she eventually [00:28:00] would look at me and say okay over here like dump them over here and she would just let him go. So I was you know kind to her for letting me do that not have to stand in line and go back and forth to my car so much.

So, you know, I give her bars for free or I eventually bought her a gift certificate to the shoe store. That was right across the way I would do things to like thank her for the fact that she would let me cut line and drop off all my stuff because. No, you know what a post office can be like, oh my God, you could be there.

You can be there for a couple hours. Right? Right, right, so. Yeah, so that's that was the start of that spiral. I call it spiral up obviously, but it just kept going from there and it just you know, nothing slow down it just the more orders kept coming and coming in and obviously we started doing the Expos event.

So we did our first the LA fit expo is our very first [00:29:00] Expo and you know, we sat there with a little 10 by 10 10 10 by 10 booth with a little small table and two little laptops you. Begging people to try our bars. Nobody wanted to eat another protein bar. They were they'd walk by our booth and they oh, no those things give me stomach aches or oh God.

I can't handle another protein bar because also you're at an expo with 50 other companies that have protein bars and you know in the early days that's what people would say to us is like really you're getting in the protein bar business like you're going to lose your ass. Nobody want, you know, everyone was trying to warn us well because everybody thought your ball was going to be like everybody else is born, but the reality is that.

The Quest Bar influenced everybody else's bar because once the Quest Bar hit the mark. And was so wildly successful. Everybody was copying the ball. Exactly. Everybody copied us. Well, we blew up so fast, I mean in everybody thought well, then we have to do what they're doing. So they just copied [00:30:00] us or try to you know, a lot of those bars either didn't taste as good or they also still had a lot of other ingredients that you will still put, you know glycerin or other sugar or they put real chocolate chips that had regular, you know, sugar in it.

We made our own so I made you know, the chocolate chips for our you know chocolate chip cookie dough bar. White chocolate chips for the white chocolate raspberry like those are homemade, you know recipes that I made without sugar that we ended up putting into the bars, right anybody else who had chocolate chips in it were just using regular sugar chocolate chips.

So we were really doing something that was different and I was still shocked by it all and still to this day I go into stores and I take pictures of me standing next to the quest bars, you know, eight years into it. As you know as a company, I instill some I shocked by it all I mean I get how the business side of it can work.

You know how you get things out there, [00:31:00] but I never planned on this I never meant for it. I didn't even want to do it and this is what it became. So it's all yeah pretty shocking it is and obviously you're right Ron, you know, it was the perfect was actually the perfect marriage of creativity and business sense.

Right? And that's what I am. I'm an intuitive cook or Baker or you know. I love being creative and playing I never liked following recipes. So it's actually like I have a ton of cookbooks, but I'm always morphing on it. Like I don't really love following a basic recipe. So, you know my husband with his business mine and any other my creativity side or my just playing side with food is kind of what made this.

So yeah. I know it was really it's really amazing. And so. So but the reality is that you're not done. So Quest is up you still have influence on what goes on at Quest but you've gone off in another Direction you're creating again. And I got to taste some of the new nut Butters and I want to [00:32:00] I want to take a break.

Okay, and when we come back I want to talk about the fact that while you downplay like well, you know, I like hanging out with the dogs. You're still at it you're still at it. You're still doing this funny. It's not really downplaying it's genuinely who I am like that is the life. I like to live as I you know, I love what we did at Quest and stuff.

But I am not a corporate girl. I'm not a business girl. It's not what I would want to do for the rest of my life and most people look at me and go. How do you not want to be a part of quest like forever? And as long as we have Quest we have Quest but I just mean it's just not you know business is not my thing.

So I love being in the kitchen. I love being with my dogs. That's what I want to do. So like I said when we come back from break, we'll talk. Yeah, we'll talk about what you're up to now stay tuned. We'll be right back [00:33:00] with more superhuman radio.

Welcome back to super human radio later in the show going to be talking about how to use Neuroscience to get the most out of your body. Whether that's fat loss building muscle being healthier right now. We're talking with Shannon you're in pain out. We're talking we've talked about how Quest got started if you missed that you have to tune in to the podcast later.

But now we're going to go on and say that Shannon is still creating aren't you? You're still doing things. Yeah some other brands right? Well, I'm always I'm always making something. I mean, I never stopped, you know, kind of making products and stuff. I don't obviously do as much for Quest anymore.

We've got a whole R&D team that Ron built over the years and you know, they're pumping out the chips in the cookies and the pizza and all the amazing things. I can't take any credit for those but yeah. About a year ago or so we started running eyes and our business partner Mike or Michael. I should call him Michael Vinny.

We started another company kind of with [00:34:00] nut Butters and things I always wanted to do and things I make at home. So I'm always making my own nut Butters and goodies like that. So it's called legendary foods and we have season nuts as well as flavored nut Butters that don't have protein in it. So.

With that that was kind of the thing that got really big for a while. It was all these protein nut Butters and I just couldn't stand sort of the thickness and the pacing us because when once you have protein tell the numbers they get super gummy and just too thick. And so it was not something I ever really enjoyed.

Also again a lot of those had a lot of sugar in them. So it's kind of like well, I'm going to buy peanut butter which or nut butter almond butter whatever that's technically healthy and could be on a diet or whatever. But now it's got all this added sugar in it, whether it's chocolate chips or toffee bits or marshmallow goo and I just thought forget it.

I just got to stick with my own so. You know, I started [00:35:00] making my own and again, this has been for years. I've been making those types of things and when you know, Michael our partner, you know wanted to do something. He wanted to go into the into the nut realm like something. You know blue diamonds or whatever make actual season nuts that were healthy that didn't have sugar and maltodextrin and all that kind of stuff.

And so we started working on those things. And I said well if we're going to be in the not businesslike, why don't I why don't we do my nut Butters and you know, he wasn't privy to the nut butter world. He was like, why is that a big thing? And I was like flavored nut Butters like yeah. It's pretty good.

Yeah, no, it's also fun and it's dessert like but it's clean and you know, and he was like, I guess so I made a bunch for him. I he taste-tested. And he was like, wow, these are really good and he brought him home to his girlfriend and her kid and they ate them and so became a thing where he was like, okay, [00:36:00] let's you know, let's do it.

So we started working on that and we launched, you know, legendary foods, like I said about a year ago or so. What a great name to for a food company legendary food. All right along the line of question. Yeah. Stay with those real those good names. Yeah, and the reality is that. Nut Butters are probably a bigger segment than the spiced or flavored nuts themselves, or is it?

Well, yes, and no honestly, you know our sales and what we're finding like that Expose and things like that people are loving the nuts, you know, they're real. I mean, they love the nut Butters to but nut butters for some people, you know, they can't stop. I think you've said you've eaten a whole job I ate so when I got sample sent to me and I always appreciate that things as being affiliated.

With your company's always I always come home and find packages of stuff and it's so exciting and I got the Apple. What is it? There's apple pie pecan pie that we have the blueberry cinnamon bun. We have chocolate [00:37:00] peanut butter chocolate chip and then we have like peanut butter cup II think I opened the apple pie, but butter up like at a five o'clock on let's say a Wednesday afternoon when I came home from work, and I found.

And it was gone by five o'clock the following day. So I mean it depends if you're a hungry person or you're just not good with horses. I'm so yeah, I'm just a you know, an Italian I would be called a god of own. I'm yeah, I just I just don't poor Eliza. She gets mad at me because I eat everything before she has a chance even taste it.

Right? Right, right. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, there's people like that and nothing wrong with it. But you know, there's those people who say I better stick with the nuts because I can't control myself with the nut butter but at least that says it's that good, right? But the reality is that I ate three bags of the bacon cheddar cheese on the other day like my favorite seconds like the one I got and I thought to myself I better [00:38:00] stop.

Yeah, because that's a lot. It's a lot more than I think it is, you know, right but oddly somehow even though nuts and nut Butters are basically the same thing people feel safer and better with the nuts than they do with nut butter, even though you can eat just as many nuts, but. It's it's something that people are a little more controlled with some of the Savory things and they are with the seat things.

So I think it's a little bit of that. Some people would say no, I'm not even a sweet person and I eat, you know, only Savory things but you know a little bit of this a little bit of that but they both do you know sometimes equally as well, sometimes you'll see the nuts or doing much better than the but it's either way.

It's been a smashing success once again, so it's been a really another exciting. Adventure I guess for me. I never expected you quest and here I am doing another business and I never thought that would happen and it and again it's all born of something [00:39:00] you love and that is being in the kitchen and creating something that you and your mom enjoyed together something that's really in your DNA.

To do so. It's not like there's no you have to you're not somebody who's doing something you hate just because you want to be successful. And as you pointed out you didn't even care about the success. It was just what you love to do. Right. No, I mean I I definitely never expected to have you know, one of the big news biggest businesses out there it that's probably more the shocking part like sure we can all turn things into businesses and they may not go anywhere.

They may just pay your bills they met and that's all I expected. I thought maybe if we're going to do this, it's going to pay our bills. Like I just never thought it would be as gangbusters as it is. And in fact you texted Ron when you came up with the name Quest and you even had a tagline for it, I would let you know that that's I gotta say something and I know that Ron [00:40:00] is going to cringe right now, but that's the true sign of a Gemini like we just stuff just comes in our brains.

We just create stuff out of nowhere and people don't wow, that's so great. I love it. That's so funny. Yeah. I was coming home from visiting my parents. Actually just they live in the valley and I was driving home. I was stopped at a red light and there's this big billboard as you see on every corner and it was I don't remember if it was like for Powerade or Diet Coke or whatever it was but it was it was a guy on a bicycle and there was you know mountains in the distance and I was thinking like how is that a Diet Coke or a Powerade other than I guess it's like to fuel you and automatically popped in my head fuel your journey and I was.

Quest and it just came to me thinking what else is a journey. It's a quest and so I was like Quest Nutrition Quest Bar. Oh my God, I Textron right in the car literally like. That's [00:41:00] I think this is a name because four months mind you we've all the group of us had been emailing back and forth, like keeping a running list of all the names we had going in our name that was at the top of the list at the time was Health Factory.

And so like that would have been something that would have sucked that would have sucked so much compared to Quest it really would have you know, yeah that was almost what it was called and I just you know, whether it's my brain or that billboard or whatever you want to, you know, give the thanks to that's how the name.

Came to be and Ron love the name. And so the next day I met everybody before they headed off to work. We met outside of Kuru. When those still existed and it's a for it's probably only an LA thing, but we had it's a chicken place out here. So we met out front of that and I literally had to pitch the guys because I worked with a bunch of guys.

So it was you know me and [00:42:00] all these guys so I pitched them on this, you know name and I was like, you know, if you know Quest Nutrition, you'll feel your journey, whatever whether your stay-at-home mom, whether you're a lawyer a doctor a secretary, like everybody needs to fuel their Journey for the day and it doesn't like this little silly.

It's but they were like that's actually a really great name. And so we kind of mold it over for some days or week or whatever it was and we had to settle on something and everyone like that the best so we went with it and that was that I know the whole journey has been a surprise to you. Oh God.

Yeah, but delicious. I mean it's really is I think anybody who hears this story would agree that this was just. The perfect marriage of creativity opportunity timing it just it just and this is what can happen when. Lines up, you know, I want to take a less commercial break and then I want to talk get back to you personally and talk about where you see yourself in the future and [00:43:00] kind of get a feel for what you hope to happen.

We're talking with Shannon you're in pain Au she literally gave birth to Quest Nutrition that can be undeniable from this story today. I never heard it before maybe you've heard it, but it was new to me and I hope you're enjoying it. Stay tuned.

Welcome back. Shouting what's your favorite Quest product right now? It's the chocolate chip cookie. I he I eat at least one a day sometimes too. But yeah, I'm kind of obsessed with those I am too. Yeah that the peanut butter but the chocolate chip cookie dough or cookie one is just yeah, that's been my favorite.

You don't want a Lisa bought real chocolate chip cookies the other day. And I take like they were supposed to be gluten-free. I think they're made with like tapioca flour. But each one had five grams of sugar and they will little cookies. Right, like maybe an inch and a half around and I tasted one and I said I spit it out.

I said, I don't want to waste my calories and I give the question. [00:44:00] You know what I have I eat and I eat. Two pounds of beef a day, right and one pound allotments and after each pound I eat one Quest cookie and the chocolate chip and my logic is twofold number one. I love the way they taste and number two.

I got a little fiber with all this meat I'm eating and so I feel like as though I'm doing something good. I'm with you that is that is the game changer that cause I just love it when I want something a little sweet or I'm a little hungry but like don't want a big old meal or just don't feel like cooking.

Like I just go to the. That's just kind of been my thing the last night I had a bag of chips. So of the you know questions that new tortillas tortilla chips are made and I like the tortilla chips because they don't have a lot of fiber tuba, right? Yeah for yeah for you and stuff. Yeah, so it's like it just depends on like a mood thing like was I wanted something more on the Savory side so [00:45:00] went for that.

But yeah, I would say daily. I eat at least one of those chocolate chip cookies. So talk about your two girls for a. My two girls my to doggie girls. Yes. Those are my four children. I love them might my girls are what almost ones almost 10 my oldest and then the other one seven and they're my life.

You know, for those of you out there who don't have human children, you know your dog. Typically your everything and I love it. I love being outside with them. I love hiking with them. I love just being with them. They're the best or the cuddliest. Yeah, most lovable dog. So I got to stay with you over the weekend and Saturday night you and Ron had an event to go to and yes, I got to sit with the girls.

Yes, and we were watching TV together watching a movie together. And I was sitting there and they were you know, everybody's happy. I'm like, oh I'm doing a good job. I'm pet-sitting and then all of a sudden I hear this howling. Yeah I go [00:46:00] over and I want to and so Maui was sitting next to me, right?

And why did I just forget? I just blanked out Fiji. Thank you. Like The island Fiji, is missing and I'm like, so I look at Maui and I'm like. Where's your sister? And I hear this howling and it's this sorrowful how and I realized that she was crying for you. Yeah, and so I interrupted the movie and I thought you know what I'm just going to go upstairs and sit with the and then she was she was more relaxed.

It was kind of like. It was because I wasn't really paying attention. I was watching the movie and she realized oh my God mom's not here. What am I gonna do? Yeah, Fiji’s not one of those  like Maui is super cuddly. She just wants to lay next to you on you whatever she's good with people Fiji is like.

She loves Mom and Dad. She's not great with new people. She's a little timid. So she either this is one of the things she wants she wants to either be covered with a blanket [00:47:00] or she wants to go to her space on the couch. So she has her like spot, right? And so because you were in like the movie room, she may have been like, okay, you didn't cover me.

You're not my mom and dad. So like I think I need to go back into the house, you know. She's funny that way she's not great with new people are housekeeper even says the same thing like when I leave sometimes she finds her like howling at the door because I left so yeah, she's funny that way and both of them are Hungarian Vizslas.

When did you when did you get your first Vizsla? Well, I got them both here in California. There's some you know their purebred so you typically get that dog from a breeder. I looked for ones in Los Angeles just because I didn't want to have a puppy shipped. I. I've never been yeah the shipping of dogs and I you know, it has to be done.

Sometimes I just didn't want to do that. And so I found one in Ramona, California and then Fallbrook, California, which is kind [00:48:00] of like Temecula area a Broadway, right? So yeah, I found a there from different breeders each of my dogs. So yeah up there and so, how about how do you have had you known about the Vizsla before that?

Did you say you know, I really want a Visa? So here's a funny story. Like I didn't have a dog since I was 18 like my I grew up with a dog and she passed it at 18 from cancer actually, and I hadn't had another dog. And so finally, you know, I'm here. I am at 31 in a house with the yard and I was finally like out of an apartment and I thought I wanted a dog.

I've been wanting a dog my whole life. So I used to watch even without any pets of my own. I used to watch Cesar Millan The Dog Whisperer. And why did I watch it was very interested in dog training I suppose and so I saw this dog. His name was Booker. I remember the show very well was about this Hungarian vehicle any Booker and he was terrified of everything and [00:49:00] they went from living in the country to the city.

Anyway, long story short. I fell in love with the look of that dog. So it was definitely a visual thing. But also they're known as the velcro dog because they just want to be stuck to you. They are a people dog. It's like a hundred percent of the day. They just want to be with you and I was like, oh my God the dog can run with me and you know the hike with me and do all this stuff that I love to do but used to do by myself.

So I started checking out Vizslas and looking into the breed and I was like, this is it this is the dog for me. So we got my first one Maui and when she was two and a half we got her sister Fiji because I just felt like I love this breed so much. This is the dog. I want I fell in love with the breed to when I was in my late teens and.

It's the most wonderful dog. You can never buy in my humble opinion. Yeah, [00:50:00] they're just they're really loving that, you know again than their nickname is known as the velcro dog. They just are a people dog. So if you don't want a dog who wants to love on you and be next to you and kiss you and stuff.

Don't get this dog because that's what they do get a cat instead. Listen get a cat get it dog. That's more aloof by you know, there's a lot of dogs. I love breed wise like the look and everything like there's a dog called a borzoi. But they're much more aloof. So not cuddly and I want I want a dog on me.

Thank you so much for taking time this morning for one story. I'm so glad that you told the story because I guess. I don't think a lot of people know how Quest got started. And now that people know it it's even more amazing story. Thank you. Thank you. I have a wonderful day and tell the girls Uncle Carl said hello.

You got it for sure will do. Thank you Carl. Talk to you later. We're going to take one quick [00:51:00] commercial break and when we come back, we're going to talk about how to harness Neuroscience to be a better human stay tuned

when it comes to your body. Really all of your abilities come from your brain. We've done shows over the past 13 years that show that fatigue actually starts in the brain and also your belief system your willingness to work hard at all comes from your brain. But yet all we think about when we think about our body is the body we forget that the blunt the brain plays a huge role in the success of what we want to do with our body.

And there are people out there who are not ignoring this they are paying attention to it. My next guest is Jacques new L Taylor. How you doing? John Doe? I'm very well. Thank you. Thanks for being here. And this is this is an area that you are really working hard to spread the good information.

That if we understand Neuroscience, we can actually get more out of our body right? Correct. Correct? Yes. It's I when I think about it, I call it a [00:52:00] neuro - logic approach in other words. Typically when we're thinking about exercise. We focus on the adaptations that we want to stimulate in the muscles or in the cardiovascular system or we might even consider what's happening with the joint.

But rarely do we think about the changes that are happening in the brain and things that we can affect in our brain affecting our behavior and how our attitudes towards exercise might actually impact the way our bodies shift. So yeah, this has been a really interesting Journey trying to make Neuroscience relevant to exercise.

So, where did it start for you? What give me the beginning for you? Okay, let's see it started when I guess it was 14 14 years old and was one of my first jobs. I was working in Neuroscience laboratory and we are looking at something called long-term potentiation, which is one of the mechanisms that they think is responsible for memory how neurons communicate and remember information.

And it was at that time that I realized that there was something about or I learn as you say, I realize I learned there something about activity that [00:53:00] seem to be linked to this long-term potentiation. So that was the beginning of this fascination of mine between this link between neuroscience and motion.

And then as I went through school and I went to college where I studied neuroscience and that I got out in the world and I kept reading and studying and I came across the work of Michael Mirza Niche and he is a very well-known Neuroscience scientist and he's done some more research. That helps us to really appreciate that when you are training your body you are training your mind whether you know it or not whether you acknowledge it or not, whether you strategically doing it that way or not.

You can't separate the two. So that's that that that that Continuum from back when I was a teenager to now it's really been strong and it's. I've been fostered by a lot of wonderful research some really great guys men and women out there. Well, I mean we and this is this is supported just by the evidence of neuroplasticity, right?

We see we see Parkinson's disease. Patients learning to do some for them challenging resistance [00:54:00] movements, especially when you're training the legs and we see neuronal sprouting happening in the substantia nigra. So it's kind of like the we talk about priming a pump right? You got to pour a little water in the pump to get the gasket wet and then it can suck more water up it we seeing this in applications in health care to now.

Yes without a doubt. It's really quite exciting. There are things that and in the medical field, they would say somebody has a stroke or Parkinson's many diseases where you know, people kind of you know, you know kind of threw up their hands and said there's nothing to do but what we didn't realize was that times when were when were applying an exercise or a stimulus.

We look at it for 12 weeks when it really takes 36. So sometimes you cut off the study you pull you can realize it there any benefits. The other thing I think is really fascinating about this is for most of us who are really trying to just get the benefits of exercise in our daily lives. There's some things [00:55:00] that we need to know about the hormones that muscles can produce an exercise that therefore can then stimulate changes in the brain.

It's really fascinating stuff. And I think that if people understand more about these hormones and the conditions that allow these hormones to be produced then we'll all get more out of exercise, but also is okay, so we're still talking about the muscles being the. In this process of the brain. Is there a way to stimulate the brain because I know I have a company that sent me a gadget.

I haven't tried it yet. It looks like headphones. I know exactly what you're talking about. You're medically if you if you if you put this thing on and wear it for a period of time. I'm not sure if you have to wear it while the action or before but it's supposed to help. Hardwire certain movements that you're trying to learn.

So is there ways to activate the brain to trigger the muscle changes. Well that device that you're talking about embarrassing though you with it. It does it does give you a bit of a head start. [00:56:00] I'll say in terms of. Motor pattern recruitment. Okay, but what's interesting is even though you have this stimulus this selectric stimulus that stimulating your motor cortex more motor cortex, and it's supposed to be priming this your nervous system that does have its advantages for specific goals, but that might be goals where that's Max not actually advantageous.

Were you want the natural ramp up of ab activity as part of your exercise session? Well while I give you an example why that would be okay. Let's say you are a an endurance athlete. Well, what you want is you want to be able to train the full spectrum of motor unit recruitment patterns and not have any patterns kind of Leap Frog because of this priming stimulus.

All right, interesting. You made jock. Can you hear me? Because I think we just lost you. I don't know if you're on a cell phone, but I need you to move if you are. Okay. So yeah, okay. Now I can hear you now. I can hear you. I'm sorry. You dropped out there but moment sure I'm sitting in one place.

I'm [00:57:00] not moving anywhere. That's weird. Okay, okay.

So where did where did you lose? Well, you were saying suppose you don't want that movement pattern to kind of Leap Frog. Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh, so another scenario might be in a rehab scenario or yeah, we have some area because here's what here's what we typically forget about around our joints. We have these receptors.

I give information to the nervous system about what it can and cannot do at that joint. Okay? Okay, because you get here you're getting feedback from the Golgi apparatus. And that's what proprioception is all about. Right? Well from the Golgi apparatus from nociceptors from the kennel receptors from muscle spindle organs.

We got all kinds of receptors from receptors in the skin. Eddie's receptors are giving your nervous system feedback about hey, can I really get maximum output at that joint? Is everything okay down there. So if we have something that is sitting on top of our heads that is in some ways obliterating some of that feedback overriding some of that feedback that may not always work out.

So well write that might cause [00:58:00] something called neurogenic inflammation in other words inflammation that is started by signaling from the nervous. From the nervous system. So it's that's a great tool nothing wrong with it. But like any other tool has to be applied under the under the appropriate circumstances.

Okay. Okay. So now let's talk about individuality here. Right? So we hear a lot of people talking about, you know, we create individual programs for people and all that stuff. But can you really create individuality if you haven't assessed from a neurological standpoint where this person is? And it's such a great question and I would have to agree with you and that again that is why I'm such a fan of talking about this neuro logic approach.

It's not that this is any better than any other approach but it's the missing piece. For example, you have somebody who's coming to you and they will often say look. I'm coming to work out because I've got a change line my blood chemistry. My cholesterols too high. My blood pressure is high. I'm stressed out and I'm fat.

I got to do something about this. So then we [00:59:00] take them to work out. And what do we do? We are telling them push harder. Come on. You gotta do more increase your stress. That's right. I've become the stressful thing. But the person leaves going man. My trainer kicked my butt. We had this boot camp boy.

Am I beat and then two months later you check your blood glucose through your cholesterol and nothing has changed. And then they got to put you on medicine and partly it's because we didn't we didn't really listen to that that that that that goal of I need to reduce my stress. So if we know that then we have to do is we have to figure out how do we design an exercise for this individual where they work hard but it doesn't create a successful scenario.

What is this means we need to talk to about our clients. For example. You'd be surprised a lot of people in there doing say let's just take an exercise not to not that everybody should do this exercise, but what they can exercise like a squawk and you doing a squat with what looks like [01:00:00] we've been formed but as you're doing the squat your trainer saying do you see that your leg and you're going yeah, but I really feel it in my back, right?

And you say okay if you do a couple of things so you make it a little bit better for you back. And now you feel it in your legs and you feeling that burning sensation that heightened sensation and wow.

I think you just dropped it. Oh, there you go. You said you burn it you feel that burning sensation that tightening sensation and then you dropped out for us. Okay, sorry about that sack and they are they are unaccustomed to that feedback from their bodies. So they interpret that is something stressful and I'm going to be afraid of right so we have to talk them through that that Sensation that you feeling your quad and your group.

That's your body give you some feedback about those muscles working hard. That's great. That's exactly what we need. The stress level for to come down they can continue to work harder, right? So there was it was a study we've talked [01:01:00] about on the show. Tangentially. I didn't actually have the author of this particular study on the show, but I've mentioned it enough over the past several years where they took women and these were these were postmenopausal women who.

We know that when women go through menopause their ability to manage stress diminishes because estradiol actually blunts adrenal response. So they tend to have you know, these are the women that say, you know, I should be able to handle stress so well now everything gets me all frazzled. So what they did was they had two groups of women one group of what that they both had to lose weight.

They both were given specific diets where they would be at. Maintenance levels of calories and but one group was given like really simple like light cardio and you know walking around and the other group was given cardio and resistance training that they perceived to be arduous and difficult the group that was training harder.

Stalled on any fat loss the group that was training less. They were actually burning less calories expending less energy. They burn more body [01:02:00] fat and when they looked at cortisol levels and they looked at stress hormones what they deduced from the study was that. Your body perceives stress is stress.

It doesn't know. Oh you're doing this to me on purpose and when the body is in a high-stress environment, it assumes that the environment is hostile and it goes into survival mode and one of the things that survival mode is to shut. Metabolic resources down conserve more save more body fat because the body think so man.

Next thing we're going to knock you have any food and we're going to starve to death. So this what you're talking about is very interesting because what you're saying is that just having simple feedback like, you know, you're doing well could all suede that but is there a more is there a more clinical way of handling this like it does it pay to do?

Let us all level tests post-workout and go. You know what you just work too hard today, you know, here's what I'd say. Absolutely. Yes, there's room for that. But let's take it one step further [01:03:00] back and that is there's a part of your brain. Oh there are parts of your brain one area called the amygdala in particular that helps you decide whether something is stressful or not, h?

It literally helps you go that that that load on my hand that you do some stress. No, that's no big deal. I'm not worried about that versus another Force you're going. Whoa, that's too much in the wrong direction or whatever right? You have a stress response. Okay, when you have this stress response what it does is it undermines?

You say why you exercise for example, there's a there's a hormone called brain-derived neurotropic factor that your muscles produce as you're exercising as your exercise starts to get a bit intense that bdnf starts to be produced and what b d and f does is it can cross the blood-brain barrier and it can stimulate neurogenesis.

Can also stimulate the formation of new neuronal connections and can also stimulate the production of Serotonin. Okay. Now when you are stressed that when you're perceiving that this physical activity is stressful that undermines. The activity of media that [01:04:00] real words the cortisol response is the thing that will undermine that proves us.

If we really want to get the benefits of strenuous exercise. We have to perceive it as I'm capable. This actually does feel pretty good. You know what I'm not going to die. I can stop whenever I want to right but those are all things that have to be earned. So if for example. My doctor says I have to do 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise a day before I'm going to see any benefits.

Well, I'm going to take that client and I'm going to say if you've done if you've done no exercise or last five years. I'm not going to do this for 20 minutes. We're going to do this for three minutes and we're going to make sure that it's comfortable that you feel confident and we're going to build on that.

So it's never a stress to you in terms of your emotional connection to it, but it might be a challenge to your. There's a difference there's a difference right very interesting. There's a huge difference. I want to take a break we [01:05:00] have to take a break and when we come back, I'm going to pick up this discussion on the other side wall.

So I'm going to tell you how that you can utilize some resources at the Shocks website. If you want to reach out and learn more about what we're talking about stay tuned right back.

Welcome back. We're talking with jock new L Taylor. His website is http://myotopia.training . No. No. No, that's it. Is it my all talking about training.com? Is that what it is? It is mild opiate myopia dot training dot Trader. That's all that's one of the new designate start training. That's so cool.

http://Myotopia.training  and you can you can reach out to him and learn more about this. I want to share it with you and the audience two phases of my life and my training and get your opinions. So when I was when I was training in a more powerlifting Style. My body actually crashed on me. I got very sick, but my leg and back sessions would start to worry me the day before, you know, because I thought [01:06:00] I was I was handling extremely respectable and heavy weights and I was worried that you know, I'd blow a disc or some of the inevitable things that did happen later on in my life.

I tear a hamstring and all that sort of stuff they didn't have until I was older but I was always very stressed out. About my training now fast forward to when I turned 50 when I turned 50, I was in some of the best shape that I've ever been in my life. Although I'm probably in slightly better shape now, but what I did when I turned 50, I had gone through a divorce.

I was living in an apartment and I was training a lot more would I would call freestyle training? I did what I wanted to do when I want to do and I was doing a lot of stuff that had more to do with motion. Then lifting like I grab my power block dumbbells. I put on a good song that had a good Rhythm to it and I would do maybe 30 seconds of clean and presses and then and then rest [01:07:00] for 30 seconds and I would do that and I got shredded I felt good I slept.

Well, there was no stress in that workout at all. It was fun. It was almost like dancing with weights. So talk about this. There's a phenomenon today. We watch people on. YouTube or Instagram somebody who's dead lifted 800 pounds 6 times. We think we need to be able to do that. And that's really eroding probably some of the neurological foundations for a lot of people.

Well, it certainly can be it certainly can be it's a really interesting thing that if you talk to athletes though at the top, I mean really. You know pop to your Olympic athletes their mindset is far from one of Waging War on the weight or Must Destroy this right crush it grind it. Yeah, right.

There's none of that it is it is a very big their mindsets about almost uplifting almost like a like a beautiful realization of what the body can do. So I think what it is when we are left to our own devices, you know, when we don't [01:08:00] have guidance turned to what we think might be the best way to do it.

That is okay. I'm going to get myself psyched up. Hey, this is gonna hurt but it's good for me right hand side becomes the materials. Absolutely becomes toxic because the benefits we can't even we can't even receive the benefits because we are undermining them because of the cortisol response because of the stress response.

So I think that what you were what you managed to do quite organically, what was its tremendous it's tremendous to be able to find something that truly feels good and something that you truly enjoy and you could still work hard at it. Do you think do you think there's any value to hypnotism or creative visualization in the context of our discussion?

Yes. I don't know. I'll be honest with you. I don't I know this sounds strange, but I don't know much about hypnotism, but I will say that the visualization try and the key part is.

Situation so we're not trying to say okay. I'm about to squat, you know, 500 pounds. I'm freaked out about I'm not [01:09:00] that's not it is developing a genuinely healthy attitude about what you're about to do. And if you don't have it right now, it's starting to deconstruct were the issue work. What why don't I feel that I can do this confidently with no pay.

It's where the motion does it and then a skillful trainer can design things for you. So that you go, you know what I actually feel confident. Now I can go and do this. It's going to be some hard work. I know I can do it right very different scenario, but a what a creative personal trainer can do for you.

So. I'm sorry, you broke up just a little bit. I thought you were going on from there. So okay. So  what you're saying really is that it has a lot more to do with the attitude in which you approach the tasks and but a lot of people a lot of people in negative about exercise in general right?

I've got to go do this today. I really don't feel like it this is that literally take away from the results of the of [01:10:00] the. It can so think of it like this. Okay, really interesting stuff

Jacques. Are you there?

The last thing I heard was really interesting stuff if you can hear me. Okay. All right. So you're sitting in a chair. Okay, you can you hear me now? Yeah, I can't. Yeah. All right, you're sitting in a chair and you go to stand. And if your nervous system waited to adjust your blood pressure until you stood up you fall over your past.

Yeah single bright exactly. They call that other static they call that orthostatic hypotension hypotension. Right before you stand up your nervous system is anticipating that right, right? My hypothesis is that if you are going into the gym what that negative attitude, You know, the system is anticipating all those things that are going to happen to you when you go in and it's too late try and that's not a good thing versus an attitude of this is going to feel good today.

I'm perfectly capable. I know I'm going to do exactly what I'm capable of doing. I'm going to push this up a little bit. [01:11:00] But you know, this is this is this is going to be a good day. Now it's not to say that you could go in with What attitude about attitude and come out with a good one. Let's say you can't

there you dropped out again. I don't know if you can hear me. It's like I always hear you. Yeah, I know. I don't understand. It's well, the signal coming out of the cell tower is stronger than the signal from your cell phone back to the tower quite often that that might be part of the problem.

Sorry about that. Yeah, it's making it a little difficult to and probably for the audience to it's going to create a little distraction. So yeah, but let's talk about your website for a second. Okay? So people can go to your website. You can work with people no matter where they live, right?

Yes. I think that there are some there are some constraints on what I can do depending on what the individual needs but yes, I woke up people literally all over the world, but there are there will be people that [01:12:00] I will communicate with and I said, hey look this is only going to do given the circumstances.

And you have two locations. It looks like West Palm Beach, Florida, but also a North East Harbor Minnesota right main, I'm sorry maintain mean. All right. Yeah, that's why I'm right now and where did the name myotopia come from myo meaning muscle and Topia meaning a place for so my oh Toby. Now you know, you don't just focus on building muscle you can help people lose body fat.

I mean it goes a lot further than just that right. That's right. That's right. And I I would say that. A name change might be an order because you're right. My focus is not just on muscle really it's on how the nervous system influence month influences muscle and fat and how fat and muscle influence the nervous system.

Did you know that your fat cells actually communicate directly with the brain? Through hormones that they produce human right exactly through hormones that they produce so one of the things that is often neglected is yeah how the how this adipose [01:13:00] tissue when we get

yeah you dropped out again. I don't know if you can hear me.

Okay, unfortunately, this is live radio so I don't go back and edit anything. So those of you listening to the show right now hearing dead air on jocks side, John. Can you hear me? I think we're going to have to end the interview because it's becoming a little too cumbersome to continue on but what I will tell people is the email is info at my autopia.com and why?

Oto Pi a.com. That's the email address their phone number in West Palm Beach Florida as well as North Northeast Harbor Maine is 3 2 3 5 7 8 9 0 8 9 and the website is http://myotopia.training and you can reach out. To Jacques there and get some more information from him.

They definitely have an amazing program. I've heard a lot about it. That's why I want them to have them on the air because he's got some really interesting ideas and apparently has had a lot of success with people who have not [01:14:00] had success elsewhere. So check him out. Of course thanks to Shannon you're in pain for coming on and sharing this story today about.

How Quest Nutrition became what it is today? I had never heard that story before and I'm glad to have allowed everybody in the audience to hear it as well. And that's it for today. Tomorrow's Friday. You know, I'm off the air on Friday. We have an amazing show on Monday Patrick Dolan who's been on the show before he's the guy who broke the research on how beef actually lengthens telomeres.

We did that show before anybody else talked about it. He's coming on and go drop some bombs on some ketogenic diet stuff. Yeah. Not even your ketogenic. Gurus that you pay attention to her up on and there is a ketogenic Continuum and we're going to be looking at the effects of the ketogenic diet on health and performance in some contexts that you will not hear anywhere else.

I hope that you can tune in Monday live. Of course, you can ask questions on Facebook if you tune in live. Otherwise, listen to the podcast we've [01:15:00] got great shows all next week. I'm really looking forward to next week. Anyway, look have a safe and wonderful weekend will see you Monday.