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Carlos Granados Podcast
Welcome to the Carlos Granados Podcast. In this podcast, I will discuss my health journey, news, updates, and educational content surrounding my life, and anything and everything that I enjoy. This is my introduction to my new podcast through "Youtube Podcast". I decided to expand my horizons and let you into my life outside my health journey. You can watch clips and full videos in 4k on my YouTube channel "Carlos Granados".
Carlos Granados Podcast
Brian's 13-Year Military Journey to Staring a Supplement Business and Building a Community
Ever wondered what it takes to serve in the military for over a decade? Join me as I catch up with my longtime friend, Brian, who shares his incredible 13-year journey from ROTC at Georgia Gwinnett College to a combat engineer navigating the dangers of IEDs in Afghanistan. Get inspired by his relentless attempts to join the Special Forces, the grueling 12-mile ruck marches, and the sheer physical endurance required to complete the Special Forces Readiness Evaluation. Brian’s stories are not just about sacrifice and camaraderie but are a testament to growth and resilience in the face of adversity.
Switching gears, the episode takes a personal turn as I share my brother's remarkable transformation story, shedding over 100 pounds and running his first marathon. This journey ignited our passion for fitness and led to the creation of our supplement company, Odyssey Performing Nutrition. Drawing inspiration from Greek mythology, our products symbolize discipline and honor, integrating health with community support. From sponsoring Special Olympics events to offering supplements to veterans, we discuss how fitness has the power to transform lives and communities.
Finally, we dive into building a strong, supportive health-focused community. Learn about our first live event at Anytime Fitness with Jose Garcia, the importance of mental health, and how starting small with consistent habits is key to fitness success. We also touch on our diverse product range, from organic greens to protein supplements, and our efforts to support ambassadors and grow our brand from the ground up. Tune in to hear about the passion and dedication driving our veteran-owned business and our exciting plans for the future.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to my channel and welcome back into another episode of the Carlos Granados podcast. And today, just like other days, we have a very special guest. My boy, brian, is in the podcast. But before that, I want to thank you guys for always liking the channel, showing some love to the podcast and always following, showing some love, subscribing. Don't forget to always do that. We are on Apple Podcasts, amazon Music and Spotify. If you want to listen and if you want the 4K quality, you know what to do. Always on YouTube, 4k quality and without further ado, brian, welcome to my podcast, brother. How are you doing, man?
Speaker 2:man, I'm doing great man. Thank you for having me here. I'm excited. It's good to catch up. It's been a while, man it's been so long, bro. It's been about over 10 years since I haven't seen you, bro and it's funny that our our journey started uh back in uh ggc rotc days shout out to georgia, guinette college and rotc.
Speaker 1:How long were you, did you start with the program or how long were you there for, for the GGC?
Speaker 2:Uh, I only did ROTC for uh for a year. Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, damn, I only did it for one year myself too I think we did it the same year. Then, bro, you know I was thinking about. You know, here's a funny story. People right?
Speaker 2:but when you were in the military already, when you joined the the, were you in the military already. No, actually what I did was I'm like, hey, let me get into rotc first, just to make sure I you know I like it.
Speaker 1:That's what I want to do so.
Speaker 1:I did that, and then I enlisted oh okay, so I was on the same track, but what happened with me was I was going to enlist and then I literally had like only like the paperwork to fill out and I would be in. You know, I was. I mean, I had the meetings already, I did my, my research, I liked it, I was trying to commission, become an officer eventually after I graduated and I made a decision towards the end not to join. I was like this close. I was so close, brother. I was because I've been through, you know, rotc programs, even marine rotC programs back in high school, and I really enjoy the military man. I think it's because a lot of family matters that were going on and I was just like I had to make decisions. You know what I mean. But you're still in the military right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm still in the military. It's 13 years in.
Speaker 1:Wow man yeah.
Speaker 2:Dude, thank you for your service. Bro, appreciate it, man. It's. It's definitely been a journey. It's been a blessing it's been. It's opened a lot of doors for me. Right, I've learned a lot, gained a lot of friends. Um comes with a lot of sacrifices as well, but uh, it's, it's been a ride, for sure what uh, where have you?
Speaker 1:uh, have you, where have you? Um, what's that called when they send you overseas and shit?
Speaker 2:uh, deployed, deployed, there you go. Uh, man, I've been tapped. Well, my first deployment was back in 2013. Uh, I went to afghanistan damn.
Speaker 1:They sent you right right to the. I volunteered for that one, oh yeah yeah, it was funny.
Speaker 2:So, uh, I did, uh, afghanistan. I was a combat engineer so I did route clearance. So what we did was, uh, we found ieds and route route clearance.
Speaker 1:Oh, that was, oh, that's scary man, I ain't got a cap.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to lie. You know you're so young and you feel so like bulletproof. When you're young You're like, oh, that's not going to happen to me. Or you know I'm going to be okay. And I guess you're so young, you're drilling a rush. You're like, feel like you can conquer the world, bro, yeah, yeah, we'll keep going. Um, and then the and then after that my second tour was I saw I had, I was in the georgia guard, okay, and then I would transfer to the alabama guard because I was trying to go special forces oh, so I so I tried out twice for the sfre.
Speaker 2:I didn't make the cut, man and what is that exactly?
Speaker 1:and what do you, what do you need to do for for that?
Speaker 2:for you make the special forces so the sfr use and it's in the national guard. It's a little different. So it's called uh, special forces radius assessment. Okay, uh evaluation. So you'll go for a weekend with them and they'll do like a mini selection. So you do like a 12 mile rock, you do a team event. Uh, they basically smoke you to see if you can, you're physically capable to right to sponsor you. So I did that twice. The rug really just kicked my butt, man. 12 miles in, yeah to a mile rug with like 45, at least 45 pound dry, damn bro.
Speaker 2:Um, but man, those ruckman, it's not meant for short people bro yo, so you wouldn't finish the 12 miles do that the first time I did it, you know I don't know what to expect, you know I just right, you know you watch movies and you're getting with people and I wasn't as physically prepared as I could have been so I was hurting man it was hurting, but it was.
Speaker 2:It was a really good experience. So the next time I was like I'm gonna be more prepared. I did crossfit and stuff like that. It's just that rug man, it's like. And the thing is you, you go to this uh mountains called red mountain in alabama okay that's very steep, so you're just uphill like majority of the time um yeah, so that was, that was tough, but uh, so what I ended up doing was I just uh.
Speaker 2:Well, I was attached with them, so I was on the support side. It was pretty cool, I got. I got to go to airborne school with them. Uh, wow I. I got deployed to Syria, Jordan. It was pretty neat. I was a fueler with them, so I got to do like a lot of logistics supplies. I got to work with the Jordanian army, the French army.
Speaker 1:Dude. It was pretty cool, bro, so how?
Speaker 2:many. First of all, how many deployments have you been to and how long are typically the deployments? So I've been to two that are overseas and one in the stateside. So the one in Afghanistan, that one, was nine months.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:The one that was Jordan, syria. That was six months. Usually when you're attached to an SF group, they're usually shorter deployments, right. And then the last one I did was the longest one was that I did a border mission with the aviation unit, so we were supporting border patrol. I was a fueler, so I was, you know, feeling up the helicopters. Uh, the Lakota particularly. Uh, it was fun.
Speaker 1:Wow, man, that's a. That's, that's awesome. Dude, that sounds like a good time. I'm not going to lie to you. That's like a. I feel like I will. I would have loved to experience that at one point. Um, but do you feel like now, like how long, how much longer do you plan to stay in the?
Speaker 2:military. It really depends. Right now. I'm going through flight school right now.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I just commissioned as a warrant officer, about two years ago now. So I'm in the middle of flight school, and once you graduate flight school, the Army has this 10-year ad. So so the Army is going to keep me for 10 more years If you go through the flight school, yeah once you get done with flight school, you're a ready aviator. That's 10 years at the Army, but it's not too bad because I'm in the Guard.
Speaker 2:Right, so I still get to do my civilian stuff and still do the Army, so I get best of both worlds, best of both worlds, man.
Speaker 1:I think that's a healthy thing. So they keep you for 10 years because you make a contract with them.
Speaker 2:oh, yeah, yeah definitely yeah, because I mean the army is spending a lot.
Speaker 1:It costs like 1.2 million dollars to train a pilot, damn bro yeah, they're investing a lot of money, um, but what about, like, can you get out at any time, or you you have to go through with the whole process?
Speaker 2:I think I think they can be kind of lenient, like let's say you're 20 years, you know, you're 20 years in right you got, I don't know, a couple like maybe two years left right and you want to get out. I'm sure they can work with you, gotcha um, but yeah, for the most part they want to make sure they get their their money's worth.
Speaker 1:That's awesome man, listen, I love the fact that you know that you're doing what you, what you love, bro, but today we are here for a special reason and I feel like all of your journeys, you know, in life, they build you up to something, and now you become an entrepreneur. You're one of the many entrepreneurs that we that I've had here in my podcast, bro. So I want to, I want the people to know and I want the people to be aware of what you're doing. I'm gonna let you talk, you know. I'm gonna let you you know what your company is about, and then we'll get into it into the whole mix.
Speaker 2:I'm going to let you know what your company is about, and then we'll get into the whole mix. Yeah, man, I definitely appreciate it. Man, it's been a journey. It's very exciting. It really started with growing up man, growing up playing sports football, wrestling, track and field. I just have a love for fitness and have a passion for it and I love that commodity.
Speaker 1:You help people reach their goals, whether it's losing weight, getting stronger, um.
Speaker 2:Also it helps mentally with. Mental is like a big thing, especially being in the veteran community and things like that um, about three years ago, my brother went through a weight loss transformation journey I mean he was insane, like it's really insane. Oh, how much was he weighing?
Speaker 1:yeah, at the heaviest.
Speaker 2:At one point I want to mean he was insane, like it's really insane. Oh, how much was he weighing? Yeah, at the heaviest, at one point I want to say he was weighing like 230 or 240. Damn, yeah, he was. He was a big, but like he's been like that his whole life, like he's been heavy. Um, he had a kid, got married, and he decided, uh, hey, it's time to change, change his life, you know right for his family and things like that so he lost over 100 pounds.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, he lost over 100 pounds. He ran his first marathon this year in february.
Speaker 1:That's impressive man 100 pounds. Yeah, wow, dang bro like. And how did he do? How did he do all that, just uh so first.
Speaker 2:So he started off, he first. He changed his diet like he wasn't like working out and doing like that kind of. Hey, I'm gonna get used to the diet first so I started eating clean. Uh, the intermediate fasting. So I think he'll I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, intermediate fasting yeah, I love that bro I think he told me he would eat, um, not eat for like 12 hours, have like a pretty good lunch and have like one meal a day, right, and drink water, obviously. Yeah, um, and he did that. And then he started losing all this weight. And then after once he got to like a comfortable weight. He started implementing, uh, walking and running. And then this last year is when he started implementing like, lift weight, uh, lifting weights, right and uh. Now he's all jacked and swollen. I'm trying to keep up with him now.
Speaker 1:He passed you, bro, the younger brother.
Speaker 2:I feel like they always do that to you. They do, man, and I try to keep them in check, but no.
Speaker 1:You're good now let's not mess with that. That's cool man, and was he part of the company that you started, or what is that about?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So this opportunity came. I'm like hey, you know what would be? You know I want to inspire people. You know, you inspire me of your change. You know, if you can do it, other people can do it too. And we're like, you know, let's start our own supplement company, you know, to help people reach their goals.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I feel like this is a good uh bridge to get in touch with the community, you know uh. So we decided to put together uh odyssey performing nutrition and as you guys can see right here.
Speaker 1:Let's go. Baby that looks so cool. Man that's dope.
Speaker 2:This is nice, keep going so we decided to do odysacity, performing nutrition, and we've always loved the, the greek god theme. You know, uh, growing up playing god of war dude, you're talking, you're not how you're talking and uh watching spartan. Have you seen spartacus?
Speaker 1:yep, I think I think, uh, I don't know if how many seasons there is, but it is, uh, there's a. It's not a movie, right, it's a show yeah, it's a show, yeah, yeah yeah, my friend introduced me to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah and you know, like game of thrones and that that era, you know, like you, you really had to like physically be fit right you're ready and just so much like honor and stuff like that. So we really tied into that theme. Um, so we started odyssey performing nutrition. We're like, you know, odyssey I don't know if you read the book or home or the poem. You had that 10-year war and it's a journey I feel like that.
Speaker 1:I think that that's ninth grade literature. I think everybody has some form of extent. That's actually pretty smart, though, because I I from why, when I've taught and that's one of my favorite the odyssey I loved, but literature was not my favorite subject in school. But when you had like stories like these and like you read things of this nature, I was like, bro, this is so cool, and then there's a movie on it oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a movie I've seen it.
Speaker 1:I've seen it. I love it. It's a really great movie actually. Um so we're like man the odyssey because it's a journey, right so?
Speaker 2:you're, whether you're going to fitness. That's a journey right it's tough, it's long, it takes discipline and uh, and I just thought it was a great fit, especially you know our background and and my brother's uh story, so inspiring, right um, we're a veteran own, obviously, uh, my other brother, andres. He just graduated from uh being a medic uh in january wow, congrats man, yeah man and he's, he's, he does races too, spartan races and things like that.
Speaker 2:So we, we just have that background, um. So we just kind of really start off with the promote performance side. You know, we got our whey protein, we got a pre-workout, our bcas helps with recovery.
Speaker 1:Um shows, what shows. You got the bottle over there oh which shows what the whey protein looks like. By the way, you have one of my favorite flavors, and that's the cookies and cream bro.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, cookies and cream. These are our newest flavor that we just launched. Cookies and cream man everyone loves.
Speaker 1:I love cookies and cream.
Speaker 2:That's something that I'll buy, bro, 100 man and I like it, especially with the, with the almond milk. So what I'll do is I'll get my almond milk, get my cookies and cream and then I'll do two scoops of creatine every morning. So it's like my, my first breakfast right and then after that I'll have my.
Speaker 1:Obviously, we just tell people, hey, supplements are there to help uh facilitate those uh nutritional needs, but also always eat your real foods right, of course, yeah, yeah, you know what that's smart, though I feel like a lot of people don't mention that, like they think it's just gonna be protein, protein and shakes and shakes, but it's like you also gotta read your real food because, your body needs that exactly, exactly nice, I'm glad that you're sharing that man that actually I think that's so important.
Speaker 1:I, I I still do protein shakes myself whenever I work out, although I'm on a little bit of a down slope at the moment. But we're going to get back hopefully one day. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, yeah. Yeah. I think that a lot of these companies just push their product, but obviously we're really in the health and wellness.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So we always tell them hey, make sure you're in your chickens, your rice, your, your, your vegetables you know, supplement is what it is.
Speaker 1:It helps facilitate that gap right, yeah, no, and that's interesting, bro. So how many more products of these you have? You have a whole brand, right? It's not just a whey protein like? You have more products when it comes to this, right? You said yep creatine. Is that from your own company as well?
Speaker 2:yeah. So we got it. We got a creatine, we got our uh pre-workout, we got two flavors, we got our honeydew um, that one's only has 175 milligrams of caffeine in it and then we got a fruit punch, which is our uh more stronger one that one has 200 milligrams get you going yeah I'll get you, get, get that, uh, that pump, get that power of the gods in you. That's a good one.
Speaker 1:I like that. That's good. I know you have uh, can you, can you show us? Yeah, we want to see. Uh, yeah, so we can show, so we can show the people what you're working with, bro. Yeah, because this is, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:So this is what you're referring to yep, so this is our uh opn pre-workout uh fruit punch flavor yo this is workout uh, fruit punch flavor. Yo, this is w bro and you know my my go-to is I would mix my bcas with a pre-workout.
Speaker 1:Uh, game changer man, yeah, yeah, like my, that gives you a lot of energy, or what? What is that? What is it like?
Speaker 2:I feel like it just gives you more energy and it helps you recover as well so you don't feel as fatigued during your workout. So I feel like you just you're able to push yourself a little bit more got you.
Speaker 1:So do you, uh, do you? So when do you have this whole? You have this whole plan right, you have a whole set of uh supplements, but like, do you help people, kind of guide them into some of the things they're supposed to do, how to set goals, and things of that nature yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:So. We always uh, you know, we always ask the people. You know what are your goals like? What are you trying to achieve? You know you're trying to lose weight. Are you trying to gain muscles? Are you just trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle? So based on what their goals are. Is the recommendation that we, that we tell them?
Speaker 1:okay, gotcha um.
Speaker 2:So, for example, uh, prior to, I'm in my bulking phase. Right now I'm trying to get a little mass, but okay, gotcha, but I was doing a cutting phase. So what I would tell folks is hey look, you know what our? Our best product to help you cut or lose weight is our metabolism booster. Right, uh, take your metabolism booster, the oxybrine, which helps with appetite, helps with control that hunger, and then obviously your uh protein. You can have isolate away because you need your protein intake and then just make sure you're in a caloric deficit got it.
Speaker 1:Eat, eat, eat your. What is that your negatives? What is that? Like your? Your veggies? Or something like that, I think, because they don't have any calories, whatever.
Speaker 1:They're the, the lettuces and stuff yeah, yeah I heard that one time and I was like yo, that makes kind of sense, because you have to to process it, you need energy to process it, so, anyways, but that's cool, bro. So, and your goal when it comes to the company? Like, what is it? So you're obviously, you're building a brand right now this is why you're here today but what is like, your future goals when it comes to building this? Like, what are your plans? What do you see in the future for the company?
Speaker 2:uh, definitely, we want to build a strong community, right? Not just you know we're trying to sell your product or whatever. Of course, you know we want you to support us and and reach your goals but we want to build a community to where everyone's helping each other grow, hold each other accountable. Uh, we plan on hosting uh events like meetups, like, for example, if you're local in the area, we plan on doing a stone mountain hike oh, that's awesome, we get together, hike the mountain.
Speaker 2:You know, high five each other and then you know we did that back in the day on the rsvc program. I don't know if you remember, bro, yeah with a rucksack.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude that was one of the best times I had, bro, best times, man.
Speaker 2:It was good, uh, but keep going, keep going uh, yeah, so we, you know, we plan on on really being out there for a community. Uh, this past couple months we actually sponsored a special, special olympics event um at a high school. Wow, dude yes, and because you know they're athletes too you know, they need their protein, they need their multivitamins. And dude, they were amazing man, they were running, throwing uh live, uh, doing a track and field kind of kind of deal it was.
Speaker 1:It was awesome so it's because you're veteran owned, do you do you, do you reach out to like maybe more veterans or like that community, so you can try to like you know, I think that would be a smart idea. I don't know if you have done that yet, but like to kind of promote your business even there.
Speaker 1:So, because I feel like that, that in itself is its own community, right like the military yeah uh, even you know, regardless of the branch, I feel like that's a lot of support and you guys support each other. So, uh, have you ever reached out to them or to see if you can plan something, maybe sponsored? I don't know anything, you know actually yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we uh for the burden community. We always try to go to to to the events, so we'll do like sometimes like local setups that nearby military bases and things like that we do. Uh, if you're registered with the gov x, when you, when you go online and place an order and you put your gov x information, you already automatically get 15 off for bro, this is what we need to know.
Speaker 1:Share, keep sharing that with us. That's cool. So so what do you do you have to if you govx? What is?
Speaker 2:that. So govx is basically any uh. If you work for the government in any capacity, whether it be, uh you know, first responder, firefighter, police, military, uh, basically with a dod, you get access to these special discounts. You know, sometimes like oakley will give you uh discounts for like their glasses okay and that, like different companies, have these different uh discounts for them okay uh. So once you're you're signed up and they're kind of right, you have, like your, your, your uh dod id number. You put that in and you're you're verified you get your discount wow, bro, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So, for the veterans out there that are listening, this could be good for you too.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And it can be cheaper than what you're using. Exactly, exactly, Awesome bro, you know that's a good plan. I know you told me earlier, before we started the podcast, that you're planning on eventually like growing and even maybe opening your own gym or things of that nature. You know, how do you see that happening and like what do you see going into that? Because I think, if you ever have your own supplements and you already have your own gym or whatever, I feel like promoting that too.
Speaker 2:it's a it's a win-win situation yeah, definitely, and I feel like this goes hand in hand. Right there, we can do more. We could do more to help the community you know like I would love to get to the point to where, like, hey, you know what if you're a loco? Uh, you know. First responder and you can't pay for a gym membership.
Speaker 2:Hey, we got you right come get a workout in, uh, feel good, and stuff like that. Um, and with the supplement, is going to help build that gap, bridge that gap. Um, especially, you know we'll be able to guide you dietary. Hey, you should take this, that um workout you know, and do your exercises. So I think once we get to to that point of the gym, it's going to be more community is going to grow. Uh, we'll be able to do more stuff with you and then really host more events.
Speaker 1:You know, right and really just, we're here to support the community I love that man and I think community building, uh, it's, it's something that we all need. But I was going to ask you a question. So you mentioned mental health earlier, bro. How big is that part of your life? And you know, I feel like that also plays around, like plays with the physical health of people. You know what I mean. Like if you have good physical health, naturally sometimes you build, you know good habits and then thus you get better mental health. But what do you feel like? That has like working out or, you know, starting your company and things of that nature. I know your brother, I mean, after losing 100 pounds, that must have been a big difference in his, like mental life. How big is mental health in your life and your family's life, your friend's life? How big is that for you, especially being a veteran? You know?
Speaker 2:yeah, definitely no. Mental health, that's a. That's the big thing that we want to push. Uh, that's why we're trying to grow this community, because I think mental health is something that's overlooked, that. But I think right now it's got like a big spotlight, you know, especially in the veteran community. Um, and that's what we want to do. We want to grow a community where we can lean on each other. Right just recently, I had a buddy of mine that was going through like a breakup and he was just mentally not there, you know right and I was like, hey, man, you want hang out with me.
Speaker 2:He wasn't really like a workout kind of guy. I'm like, hey, look, let's go to the gym get a workout on. Get a workout on, don't worry about lifting the most heavy, just you know, just feel good.
Speaker 1:Release some stress.
Speaker 2:Yeah, release some. Look two weeks in. He loves it. He's addicted to it. He's like man's you versus you.
Speaker 1:Right, you're in there working out getting your pump on and you just mentally distress yourself right, is there anything, any advice that you have for people that want to start, uh, working out? I've had another guy who is a physical trainer and you know he's told me a lot about, you know, discipline and I think that's one of the most important things that people want to take. But, like, what would you recommend to somebody that wants to start working out, that wants to start, you know, changing their lives? I think that's very important, right, because it's part of your goal as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, changing people's lives, definitely, I think. I think folks get wrapped up, get their head wrapped around the fact that you gotta be hardcore right off the bat, you know, oh, I can't eat this, or I gotta be in the gym for three hours. I just feel. Just start small. You know? Um, I know, if you drink a lot of coke, a lot of sodas, like five times a day, hey, instead, of five, let's start with three, you know right um, and just start building these small habits, man, like, what's gonna get you there is is the little things you do
Speaker 2:you do the little things right consistently. You're gonna get there like, let's say, um, you just show up to the gym like you go to the parking lot. You just show up, you walk in, you don't do anything. But hey, guess what? I'm gonna start showing up to the gym. And then, once you, once you show up to the gym, you're like, all right, I'm gonna start getting this workout in. And then you do like 10 minutes and train, all right, I'm out. And then, before I know, you start adding a little bit more and you start building this habit and you just show up right, half the battle is showing up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you're there you're like I'm, I'm here already.
Speaker 1:You might as well get a workout, yeah no, um, you know what you, we both love football. You know ray lewis, right, he said one time he was when I was watching his like motivational videos. No, he was like um, greatness is a lot of things like, it's a lot of small, small things done well you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yes, like, and I think that's part of the, the fitness journey. I've been in the game for a while. You know this. I mean, we've shoot to pass what the? The physical tests in the army, or at least when we were in rtc2, you know you had to be decently fit. You had to run. You know your mile, your two miles, your push-ups, your sit-ups. So we, we've been in the game for a while, bro, and I think you're right. I think it's a lot of small things like you don't have to cold turkey it. Everything that you're doing. Start reducing your. You know your sugars, your your the bad food intakes. Start start eating at home. Start eating healthy, your vegetables and stuff like that. But you know what, you know how you? You say that the, the protein is like a uh, what is that?
Speaker 2:a gap filler, yeah like a bridge to gap.
Speaker 1:A bridge to gap Right, so I feel like you can also be like that for people that don't know a lot about fitness.
Speaker 1:I feel, like it's going around a lot, but a lot of people are promoting just I wouldn't say fake stuff, but it's a lot of like they just want to sell their things. But what you're doing is you want to build a community because you care about people's health. You know what it's like. You've seen from your brother what it feels like. You know what I mean. So that's really great. Bro, is there any other products that you have lined up that are coming with your business, or do you have any plans when it comes to that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm glad you asked, man. We got this catalog of stuff here. Well, these are our mission statements. Well, these are our mission statements. Our mission statement is to empower and to lead a healthy, active lifestyle by providing the highest quality supplements. So we stand by that. We want to make sure that what we're putting out there is good stuff. Everything is made in the US, and the USA it's a.
Speaker 1:GMP America man.
Speaker 2:America it's third-party tested for potency and purity. Okay, and so like, for example, like very first uh event that we did, we went to anytime fitness with uh jose garcia. Uh shout out to him for letting us host our very first live event with him um anytime fitness and and it was great man like people were out there asking questions and my buddy, joe who's who's actually deployed right now. He's one of the co-founders he looks swole man.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you guys can see this, but if you're listening you can't see this. But this man on the on the left side of the picture, that man, huge bro, yeah we call him bear.
Speaker 2:He looked I have a lot. He looked a bear. That man's big. Uh, so we're, we're there, uh so uh, hosting our, our stuff, are promoting our stuff and people just loved it, especially organic greens. That's a big one. I mean, how, like you don't have time to like chug down all or eat all these greens so conveniently, we have these organic greens. We have all your vegetable needs and also the organic reds, which is a fruit base gotcha.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, that's cool and it's organic. Usa organic, you said, is that?
Speaker 2:yeah, us uh usda organic made in us, hey, I love that even more you was.
Speaker 1:I'm all about that. Organic life, bro, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then we got so yeah, here are my brothers, this is the brother. Yeah, he does a sport and races, just flexing his muscles.
Speaker 1:His muscles. Hey man, he's in good shape.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:Good shape, definitely.
Speaker 2:You know we got our BCAs, our creatine, which we got the watermelon flavor. Creatine is usually there's no flavor to those, it's pretty standard in the market. We got two flavors for our pre-workout. We're about to launch a new flavor soon. Stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1:Okay nice, we can't know yet. No, not yet, not yet. Okay cool, it's private. Classified there you go Cool cool, cool.
Speaker 2:Right now we got watermelon I'm not watermelon. We got honeydew pre-workout and then we got fruit punch.
Speaker 1:Honeydew seems really good.
Speaker 2:Man, I like mixing that honeydew with the BCA. Game changer, game changer.
Speaker 1:Fire, it's a spot bro.
Speaker 2:And then we we got chocolate and vanilla. I like vanilla because you get to mix all the fruits, your bananas, your strawberries.
Speaker 1:Yeah, chocolate, it's hard to get. I feel like the chocolate will take over the smoothies.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what, though? Eventually I'll probably want to try your vanilla smooth shakes, because there are some that I've taken and I'm like I don't know if it's the best fit for me, so I usually go with chocolate. Yeah, it's like the best fit for me, so I usually go with chocolate. Yeah, yeah, and I'm not a chocolate person.
Speaker 2:I'm a team vanilla guy, me too.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying I'm a team vanilla through and through, but there's some things that chocolate just hits different like that chocolate milk.
Speaker 2:Man, bro, I'm the same.
Speaker 1:Bro, we're kids, man, we're kids, chocolate milk just hits different it really does man that is delicious, and I think that's why I like cookies and cream too. It just it's delicious man, that's my.
Speaker 2:I've been like staying away from vanilla and chocolate. I'm like yo. Cookies and cream is my go-to now.
Speaker 1:Cream is so delicious, I feel like in smoothies and or or in shakes. They're so good yeah, it's like so creamy and just it just sits, so well you know what trend I'm on right now. So you know how you have your almond milks and you know skater milk or all that stuff. But bro, bro, oat milk, for some reason it's hitting where it should be hitting. I love it, bro? I'm telling you, to me, oat milk is delicious. I don't know if you like it or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have that for breakfast because it has that fiber. It has that fiber Oat milk. Yeah, it's good to help you go to the bathroom.
Speaker 1:man, wait, wait, wait. Listen, I'm trying to think, not um, not probiotics. I need more prebiotics. Oh, okay, so I need to be feeding the bacteria that is in my stomach because there's a lack of it. You know what I mean. There's some bacteria that's good bacteria that dies if you don't feed it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm on the grind of feeding it and I heard oatmeal, or oatmeal in general, is is is good for your gut and, just like you said, fiber, and I need more fiber and I'm trying to find sources of how to get more fiber myself. So I'm in that journey right now, trying to get more fiber in my system. I've asked around people who suffer from reflux and stuff which is what I suffer from, and oatmeal. It seems to be a good answer. There's other things you know, of course, like the natural stuff, like the vegetables, the hard greens, the broccolis and stuff like that. But yeah, man, that's that. That's really cool, bro.
Speaker 2:So, but keep going, talk, keep keep talking oh yeah, oh yeah, for sure, uh, let me see what we got superfoods too. That's kind of dope. Yeah, we got the super fruit uh food, so we got the organic reds and the greens, uh that's. You know, like, that's like what I mentioned before the greens are the vegetable base and the reds are the fruit base.
Speaker 1:Gotcha so where can they find you? So right now the people that are listening, they're wondering like yo, where can I, where can they find you? You have a website, um, if you do, I'm gonna link it in the description, but so uh, so, uh, you can look.
Speaker 2:Uh, look us up at uh, opn supplementscom or odyssey performance nutritioncom, and you can follow us on our instagram, opn supplements. We're on tiktok and we're also on facebook. Um, we also have an ambassador program, uh, if you're interested becoming our brand ambassador. Uh, we have a great program. We have a tier system. Uh, you can help, you know, if you love fitness and you love being out there with the community.
Speaker 2:I mean this is a great program it's it's growing fairly rapidly. Uh, we got ambassador from a little. We got ambassador from florida, georgia, alabama.
Speaker 2:We got some from, uh, panama wow, yeah, that are making it happen yeah, I mean it reaches all the way over there because you, we're all over the place and it's really nice to that. We all have that common goal and that and that and we and the, the transformation that grow. Uh, that happened in there. People are just sharing their goals and hey, hey, today I just ran 10 miles. I mean, before I could only run two.
Speaker 1:You know Right.
Speaker 2:Or like the amount of weight they've lost or hitting UPRs. Hey, I was able to bench two plates today, right. I've never done that before you know like stuff like that, dang, that's cool.
Speaker 1:It's cool the first time that that hits different I. I remember that. So so, um, I think, probably for the people to listen and want to change their lives, to, to to have a better, healthy lifestyle and and they want to, you know, be a part of the ambassador program, that'll be. That's legit, bro, because you give them opportunity to also make money off from their own journey and, yeah, record it. You know what I mean definitely, uh.
Speaker 2:So if you're an ambassador program, you get exclusive perks with us. You'll be the first to know about new launches. You'll get 10% off all of our products. As you move on to tier 7, you'll be able to earn commission based on folks using your link and things like that to help promote the brand.
Speaker 2:obviously, and once you get to a tier 1 which is god status, you know you like right there, I see that, I see the odyssey um, you'll, you'll be sponsorship, you'll have, uh, you know, like paid ambassador trips and stuff like that, with all the ambassadors get together, okay we'll send them, like to a cool place, you know, I don't know, like uh, aruba or something right, that's cool, man, wow, so so.
Speaker 1:So then, for for somebody that wants to join, do they go through the website as well?
Speaker 2:yeah, so you can go. If you go to our instagram, we have a link and you'll fill out an application out, uh, our team will take a look at it and review it. Make sure we're a good fit, right, uh? And then, yeah, and then we'll. We'll send you an email. You'll get two emails one, you know, welcoming you, you to the ambassador program. You'll have an outline explaining everything, and then you'll join us in our Slack. That's where we keep in touch with all the ambassadors and let them know and they'll have little challenges for them.
Speaker 2:Hey, if you do three posts of promoting OPN or if you accomplish something like you just had a race, like a Spartan race, and you can accomplish it, we'll definitely recognize you and you'll be featured in our website and things like that.
Speaker 1:That's cool. That's actually a really, really cool for people to stay active and trying to reach like certain goals. So let me ask you, brian so we're we've talked about like the good side and you know the brand and stuff like that was one of the hardest parts for for starting your business, like what do you feel like was one of the struggles that you had, or you know some of the difficulties? You know, not everything is sunshine and rainbows. What has been the hardest part, uh, from your business standpoint uh, definitely, obviously start now we're.
Speaker 2:We're a brand new uh supplement company it's very competitive out there. Um, I mean you have companies like rise, uh, bpn, um you know, transparent labs.
Speaker 2:I mean they're just so the competition it's, it's, it's, it's a lot, and also, you know, people don't really know you, so like, hey, you know I never heard of you guys before you know what you're about, and things like that so definitely the marketing and just trying to gain that trust from from people, right and uh, we're building this literally brick by brick, like we go out there and we're physically like talking to you hey, this is our story, this is what we got going on, we're about supporting you. Um, you know, we don't have like a big budget. We're starting off right some of these companies, yeah, we can just freaking throw money, throw money out there and just get on these.
Speaker 2:You know, we're literally kind of like door-to-door salesmen, basically we're out there, you know, talking to you and stuff like that. So definitely the the competition itself is is it's challenging yeah um, also, you know the time, you know it's. We still got full-time jobs. You know we still got family. You know it's not like we can just dedicate ourselves, like oh yeah, I can do this. You know it's you make time yeah you make time for it.
Speaker 2:But we're slowly starting to get to that, to that point to where, like, hey, you know, people are starting to notice, uh, notice more of us and and just really get that, that support you know, um, I don't know if you heard of like uh, when the ambassadors and stuff, like people who do like for quinnett young professionals.
Speaker 1:Well, you should look into, um, talking to them um, because they do a lot with like guinette and obviously we're in, you know, in the guinette area yeah you can look into maybe, I don't know partnering with them or seeing if, like you can set up something whenever they have meetings or when young professionals on there. It'll be a great idea because they right now, recently, so they're having a something called the white party soon and you can sign up and go and you can literally communicate with other, um, young adults, people you know, who are either, you know, working towards something in life, who have accomplished certain things, business owners, you name it, and you can go to that, and I will recommend you to actually go link up and just buy tickets. If not, I'll go with you, homie, and we'll just talk to people, bro, but I'm serious, it's really important and then you let them know about the whole process and the main point of that is for networking, yeah, networking with other young professionals, just like yourself, and I definitely appreciate it, and that's what I love about this.
Speaker 2:When we go to these live events right now, our biggest partner is Crunch Fitness. Oh, Right now our biggest partner is Crunch Fitness.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, yeah, they have like a corporate sponsor program to where like if you own a business and you want to, you know, get advertised in their gym and host they have like a membership appreciation month. So all the businesses go out there on a certain day that they tell you and you can kind of promote your stuff and talk about your business, whether you doing a roofing or, you know, water testing or, in our case, supplements, um, you can go out there and promote your, your stuff. So we've been going out to these crunch fitness events and, man, we get people, different kinds of people, coming. We got runners, we get people that just started their journey, we get people that are like freaking bodybuilder already you know it's it's.
Speaker 2:It's really cool and everyone has a story behind them, right and uh, I remember this one event. Uh, I talked to a law enforcement. I'm like hey, you know, I was law enforcement too yeah I can relate.
Speaker 2:He's like yeah, you know, I like I kind of let myself go because of work. I mean, I understand, because you're doing like 12 hour shifts and you're like, man, I need to sleep, you know. Uh, so you really I need to sleep, you know. So you really relate to everyone, because everyone's trying to better themselves, everyone's trying to do something and this is just a great way to get going, you know the fitness and your mental and eating right.
Speaker 1:And do you feel like, when you talk to, especially when you go to Crunch or whatever, I don't know have you talked to other people who are in the gym, opening opportunities for them as well, like for bodybuilders or something like you were mentioning, or people who are fit and stuff like that? I think that'll be a great opportunity because they already work out. Yeah, so you know what I mean. So why don't you take advantage of the opportunity? Yeah, so we tell them them. Hey, no, we would love to like support, like if you got a show coming up, man, we'll get the whole community go out there and freaking clap for you, man, and yeah, a lot of.
Speaker 2:So we got a a couple ambassadors that are that starting their, their body build, like they're prepping and stuff like that, and we're just trying to get our community so big that, hey, we just want to show up and cheer for you. That's cool. Get to that point, you know. Or if you I don't know have like a flag football team or something like that and you're in a tournament, hey, let's go support our boy, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like stuff like that, or at least make them aware, like, hey, this person's having a certain event, let's go out there and just you know. Yeah, support them.
Speaker 2:I mean, how cool would it be if you're I don't know, you're doing something you love and we got like freaking cardboard supporting you hey that's cool, you know and you feel good like.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, you know yeah you got that back and we have your back, kind of yeah, that's cool man, and I think that's a great part of our community. Bro, I talk to my youtube channel all the time and I'm like we are a community. We might be from all over the world, uh, and you know what's funny, you say that about Greece and stuff, because I've had somebody from Greece tell me from the YouTube channel he's like Carlos, whenever you come around Greece or you know, if you come here, bro, don't worry about anything, come, I got you that ass, bro, I got, hype I got hype.
Speaker 1:I went to um. I've talked to somebody like listen man. I've connected with people from all over the world, bro, like you know, australia, greece I mentioned India you, you know Asia, europe, you name it but I've always, you know, every time, because of the, because of how I carry myself and like my YouTube, and you know I'm always putting content for them that a lot of people don't you know, updating with my health, journey and life, and they're always thankful for that and they're like, bro, anytime you come, like to these parts, don't worry about anything, I'm like yo yo, hey, man listen, I'm honored, bro, I'm honored.
Speaker 1:So it's good, bro. I think having a good foundation, um, when it comes to especially starting a business like this, is very strong, and you need a strong community, you need people to support you, to believe in you, uh, and I'm glad that you're grinding, bro, um, so so let me tell you something. I don't know what you feel like for like the future that's coming and stuff like that, but like I would love to like try to see if, like, people from my youtube channel would be interested in that, like the program, program and stuff, and like I can leave the links for them and they can just sign up you know what I mean or they can just try to join.
Speaker 1:Even on my instagram I'll post all these things and put you gotta send me all the links I can post them yeah and I'll post them. Bro, this is like really interesting dude, this is like super cool. I don't think I've met somebody that started like a supplement company before, so you're my first one.
Speaker 1:All right, you're the first one that I've met, the first one here on like on my podcast. So that's pretty cool, bro. Uh, is there anything else that you would like to say to like the community in general when it comes to your business and stuff? Um, or anything else that you'd like to share, maybe about your journey, you know, like what you know, like your fitness stuff, anything, bro yeah, definitely, um, we love the support.
Speaker 2:If you're an ambassador, you want to help folks, um, you know, if you're like, we have our, our lead ambassador director. She's a personal trainer. She's actually out in pensacola, oh wow, um, and she helps a lot of folks, you know florida.
Speaker 1:Florida too, bro. Florida, I mean, that's a W.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got to go to Florida man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love Florida, let me tell you yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you want to be part of the community ambassador program. We have a great program. We got a great community. We're always supporting each other. Obviously, we stand by our products. I mean they're. We don't just you know, whatever anything. Yeah, it's made in the us gmp, it's third party tested um, and just we're here to support each other.
Speaker 1:You know, right, yeah, man, you know I think a lot about small businesses. So I work for the government myself, right, but for the federal government. So you guys still consider me a civilian, but it's all good, it's all right, but I work for the federal and we, when we do contracts and stuff, there's a, a lot of love towards veterans and stuff. I think that's where you guys should definitely show out, try to go to people and the fact that it's a very own company. You guys always get some love, and rightly so. You've literally explained to us what you've done, how you serve your country Supporting you. You don't have to become an ambassador. You can just buy some products and stuff like that. You know what I'm gonna do, man. Um, uh, when I try it later on, like the products and stuff and see which one I like, I would love to like. Whenever I do my podcast, you know, I can just tell people or like people who are into like the fitness journey.
Speaker 2:I can just talk to them about your products, bro, so I can just, you know, put you on yeah, so you can grow it, bro, I love to do that for you, bro yeah, that that would be awesome, man, and I definitely appreciate your support and having me out here having the opportunity to share our journey. We're just getting started and we have a lot of good things coming this way. Man, we're about to redefine ourselves yeah, about to redefine ourselves in a very awesome way and just really, man, I can't wait to get to a point like we can really give back to community, you know.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, man, I love that, bro.
Speaker 2:You're the. You love me. I'm about that, I can see your passion, man yeah, I'm about that life, see not many people, though, have that.
Speaker 1:Not many people have that passion, because there's a difference right when you start a business, but if you're not passionate about it, you know a lot of time people just care about like the money.
Speaker 1:It's yeah, but you, I can see in your eyes like you're passionate about this and you know obviously I've known you for a very long time and I I just know that like there's a passion behind and like you get motivated for this yeah and there's a difference when you do that right, like you know me doing the podcast, I love talking to people, I love learning, so it comes natural, like, and you naturally help people and you want them to do better, and I think that's great bro. I think you got to keep that, that same passion, bro, and hopefully people join you want them to do better, and I think that's great bro. I think you got to keep that that same passion, bro, and hopefully people join you in that nature. Um, I was going to tell you I might, I might even try to uh connect you to one of my guys who's a physical trainer too.
Speaker 2:But, dude, I'm excited, I'm uh, if you don't like, if you're not really big into like taking supplements or you know you're more like hey, I want to stick to my real foods. Hey, buy a merch man. We got shirts.
Speaker 1:We got cool shirts support, support you know that's also cool though, bro. If you make like really cool shirts and stuff, yeah, they'll probably just stand out by itself yeah like I've already people you know, there's people that obviously have their supplements to stick to their brands.
Speaker 2:Be like, it's okay, you can buy our shirts yeah, buy shirts, give us some a little marketing on your back, exactly, bro, when you go to the gym, you know show some love.
Speaker 1:That's cool, and so this is one of the shirts that you have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is one of the shirts, so we got our logo up in the front and then we got our kind of like our uh, it's our themes kind of like forge the body of a greek god you know that's like, like the goal you want to strive for you know, because that greek body man, you know, like zeus hercules yo, because I mean those are the real, the g's bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, swole bro. I see you have the american flag on you, yeah you know america, we got uh american flag here on the right.
Speaker 2:Um, obviously, if you uh, if you serve, you know that. You know the flag is not backwards, because we're always going towards the fight. So we're always going towards our goals, we're going towards our objective.
Speaker 1:Oh, wait, wait. Explain that one more time. Wait, I didn't know. Run it back.
Speaker 2:So if you serve, you've noticed the flag. Some people that don't know. They think the flag is backwards.
Speaker 1:Oh, because the stars are usually on the left side. Yeah, okay, towards.
Speaker 2:Oh because the, because the stars are usually on the left side. Yeah, okay, so when you, uh, you know like you're, because you you're charging towards the enemy, you know you're, you're charging to the, to the objective, so the flag is gonna, like, you know, like, wave that way. So, oh, because you're going that way.
Speaker 1:So you're heading that way because you're looking at you're not looking at it from the other people, so you're going. I see what you're saying yeah you're going like going, yeah, that way, wait, that's a thing. So that's like uh, is that always on everything that's not on on, even on on your uh, yeah, really, I remember when I used to wear that man, you've been out the game too.
Speaker 2:I've been too long.
Speaker 1:Hey, I got I got uh my name somewhere here. That my tag. My name granados I have it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I still have it I still have my.
Speaker 1:I think I had the private first class that I got. By the way. What rank did you get up to at this point now in your life.
Speaker 2:Right now I'm a W01, which is a warrant officer, Warrant officer one.
Speaker 1:I don't know what that means, bro, so okay, so what'd you start with? A private right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, I started off as a pv2, coming in private, uh, and then I moved up to you know, pfc, prior first class special. I actually was able to rank up fairly quickly. In my first I want to say two, three years I actually got to a sergeant e5, damn, um, yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:It helps when you volunteer for deployments so when you volunteer, you know your time and service counts and you get your your duty time and things like that. So I was, I got my E-5 fairly quickly and then, after I got offered my promotion for E-6, for a staff sergeant, but I turned it down because if I were to accept that promotion I would have gotten out from supporting the special forces, which is I wanted to stay in that unit. It's like, you know, I love where I'm at, I love the people, I love who I'm supporting. Um, I'll turn down my promotion, uh, and then eventually I was like you know what you know I want to, I want to fly. So then I took the warrant officer route. Okay, um, and it weren't officers fly more than a commission officer? Um, so now I'm, I'm a w01 now I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:I didn't know about the warrant officer at all. I had no idea. You know, I I that's how you know. I've been out of the game for a while, bro, because before I would have gotten more into the mix, but now it's like I'm I'm lost in the sauce, bro. Uh, but again, man, thank you for for serving, thank you for the time, uh, by the win, whenever you rebrand, you can come into the pockets again and we'll talk about, you know, like the, the rebranding and stuff we'd love to have you on, bro. I appreciate you sharing your journey, sharing um, a good quality lifestyle for the people, and I'm gonna put, I'm gonna put this right here too before we leave.
Speaker 2:So, people, get the cream.
Speaker 1:Yeah, buddy man, hey brother, thank you for coming to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely appreciate you having me here. I'm excited, I can't wait, you know, continue working together and just really really helping the community grow and really just have a positive impact. I mean to have you on again and your brother can come back as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we can all talk. We'll set it up again and we can talk about his journey. I would love listen to me. I'm not going to lie to you. We can do this on another episode. When you come back from Alabama, Run it back and we'll talk to your brother and we'll just ask him about his channel. I always talk about my health journey yeah yeah, and how to stay healthier. You know what health issues are real, bro, and what have they?
Speaker 1:done to me and, like for him, I would love to hear his side of the story and his weight loss journey, like I think that would be great content. You know what I mean. Definitely, man awesome man.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, familia. Thank you guys for listening and if you're watching on on on youtube, don't forget that you can watch the youtube channel on 4k. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe to the podcast. Uh, we had a quick episode, but listen. I think it was really, uh, intriguing. I think it was very informative. I appreciate sharing your business, brian. Don't forget that you can listen to the podcast on spotify, amazon music and apple podcast, and we'll put brian on too because he's you're eventually going to start a podcast too, so we're going to put you on too when people, so people can start following and listening to you, bro follow the journey.
Speaker 2:I don't know if others up below and comes have done it to like hey, this is where we are, like we're starting, and when we get to a point to like we're the next, you ran like man. I followed these guys from their beginning, that's real, that's real.
Speaker 1:That's a good feeling. Yeah, yeah, man. Well, thank you, youtube. Amelia, thank you for listening to all the platforms, audio platforms. I appreciate you. We'll see you guys on the next one. Thank you for listening to the carlos monado podcast and, uh, see you soon, deuce see ya.