Working Towards Our Purpose

Welcome to working towards our purpose, a podcast that

offers a different perspective on what a job can be. For everyone

out there that's heard that voice in the back their head, asking for

something more. It's time to listen to it. I'm your host,

Gino, and join me as I interview people who have decided to

work in their own purpose. Together, we will learn, become

inspired, and hopefully find our own path towards working in our

purpose. Joining me

today is Alex Angloff, who is the owner of the Remedy Co,

Connecticut's 1st craft CBD company and owner of The

Cultured Cafe, which is a health cafe located in New Haven that

provides fermented foods and drinks end products for your gut health. Alex,

thanks for joining me on the podcast today. How you doing? Thanks for having me.

I'm doing quite well. Good to hear. Good to hear. So,

yeah, let's just, start by telling me a little bit about,

like, your upbringing and, like, you know, where you grew up, like, where you

went to school and that sort of thing, and, like, maybe your interest in stuff

as, like, a kid. Yeah. For sure. So I

grew up in Westville In New Haven,

I, went to school at Amity, Woodbridge,

then Pace University, UConn, kinda bounced

around, didn't really, didn't finish college,

didn't really, cared that much about school,

to be honest. It, I think I

probably started off. Goes back to my my childhood and

the fact that, my sister was newly born,

and I was getting booed off to kindergarten, which I

was very upset about. So I had a bit of an antagonistic

relationship with school from the beginning, but always had a

little bit of a problem curiosity in general. I

come from a long line of pharmacists. My my family

owned Silver's Drug shop in

West Haven for several generations.

So my uncle sold it, I think while I

was in middle school or something like that, so it wasn't

particularly a big part of of my life. But

As far as being kind of based in

pharmacovia and, kind of pharmaceutical

medical way of thinking about the world. It was definitely

pretty inherent to my upbringing. My mom

was a psych purpose. So

there's a lot of, diagnosing going on,

And there is a pill for

every diagnosis. And, as a

person little person subject to,

a lot of those kind of off the cuff diagnoses.

I think I had an early

start into my skepticism of, the

soundness of that entire process because of my

mom's sort of casual pronouncing of these

different diagnoses and my understanding

that Many of those were either just

difficulties in growing up in my particular household and

difficulties in Our relationship and

and dynamics. So I think from

that, It started kind

of the 1st seeds of my maybe distrust in

the pharmaceutical industry medical Process.

Although, you know, I didn't necessarily have a lot of ideas

of alternatives at that point. But growing

up, I was always creative, kind of out of the box

thinker. Always wanna know how things worked.

Like to draw and write,

create anything I could, like Rube Goldberg

type, You know, marble tracks

and creating my own card games and

board games or, you know, A 1,000 different games to

occupy, my younger sister who had, you know,

maybe 5 minute attention span at the time. So

Internet games from that. So so just really

generative, creative force. I

think that's kind of been maintained and and got

me where I am combined with, you know, just

Trust your displeasure with the, kind of medical establishment

and pharmaceutical approach to,

How how things were being treated through

allopathic medicine. Yeah. Thanks for sharing all that.

I Noticed 2 things that or a few

things. It seems like you were very, like you said, creative and, like, always

wanna think outside the box. And That sort of thought

process or, like, way of being is definitely stifled by school for

sure. So I It kinda makes sense that, you

know, being like that growing up, you also didn't really like

school. I found that similar In my own

upbringing that, like, I always felt constrained by school and, like, doing things that you

didn't wanna be doing, didn't understand why you're doing them. But for me, I I

did go to college and went to 4 years and graduated and everything. What did

you what did you go to school for or try to go to college for,

and, How did that look like as far as not finishing it?

And, like, what made you decide to stop? Well, I was going for

environmental science. And,

I mean, I I, yeah, I just really was

not, you know, taking school very seriously.

For me, I just there's just a huge disconnect between there was

a big dis disconnect between school and

Where that and how that might be applied and what you're doing

outside of school. I never really was able to kind of bridge

that gap You know, determine what I wanted

to be doing with myself. Through

school, I was always very aware. These classes

almost have no reflection on the

actual activities or processes

that, You know, we'll be needing to be done

with this degree or what we're gonna actually be doing.

And I think in order to even get a taste of

What one might be doing in a certain field you need to

be, you know, 3 or 4 years

into Your degree, you know, start doing

field work or, you know, internship or something that

might actually give you kind of glimpse into what that might actually

be like. So I think it's kind of a insane

topsy-turvy sort of process.

Yeah. I was gonna say I definitely agree with that. And I would even say

further so, like, I didn't so I went to school for mechanical engineering. I didn't

know what it was until 6 months into my 1st

job. Like, I didn't understand at all what an

engineer did. And it is very crazy that you decide

at, you know, 18 or 17 to go and

take this 4 or 5 year path to think about what you wanna

do in 5 years. Yeah. So I actually

just got, arrested at Yukon because I

was, selling a fair amount of psychedelics and things while

going to school. So that's what stopped me,

from continuing at at UConn.

And then From there, I was incarcerated for about a

year and a half, got out, and

then, you know, kind of for the first time, had

Freedom and money. Although, I

mean, I was on parole, so not that much freedom.

But at least there's, like, money and a car.

And so that was kind of the most agency I'd ever had,

Weirdly enough, even though I was technically restricted

to staying within the state, and There's

all these potential forces that could be

unleashed upon me from pin drop.

Interesting. So was it more so, like, in

contrast to the previous year and a half of being incarcerated?

That felt like such a, like, a freedom sort of thing. I

I have a lot of questions about that, but that's my first one. Yeah.

No. No. I mean, I think I was Also

in a really good mindset while incarcerated. Mhmm.

I obviously literally, Physically

not the least, you know, the least in freedom one could possibly

have, but Still within I

mean, what that does is it makes you realize

that you can either Control your environment, control your

actions, or you can change your mindset

and the way you're processing reality And how you're thinking about

it. And when you're incarcerated, you can't

really change your environment. You can't really do anything

About any of it outside of just changing the way you process it

and, changing your kind of framing. So instead of just saying, oh, I

wish I had that right now. I wish

I would never got myself into this so I could have that thing I

want. Just think about, oh, I mean, that. The thing that I want is gonna

be so good when I can finally have it. You know? And that

that's just so applicable to, you know, any point in your life.

And and it's still a mindset that I I see to adopt and

sometimes falter from, for sure. But

no. I mean, Literally, I didn't

feel like I didn't I really didn't have much agency growing

up, I feel like. Like, I didn't I didn't really have a car.

Parents are a little bit forbearing, but also

didn't really give me a lot of opportunity. Like, I

never really looked at Colleges. Like, my hand wasn't really,

like, held through any of these things, and I also was

not all over it or, you know,

Karen, the one where I could nag them into,

you know, whatever taking me on College

tours or, like, even, you know, the basic things going and

hanging out with my friends was, like, difficult to

do. So, yeah, I think I was

I was a little bit restricted until I went away to school, and then, you

know, it's just a little bit Crazy and just, you know, excited

to just have these opportunities, but never

really had the Opportunity to learn how to

balance responsibilities and all

the potential things that that I wanted to do. So

I think getting, yeah, getting out of out of jail was really kind of

this opportunity where I

finally, you know, could kinda go where I wanted and

do what I wanted to a large extent. It was It was pretty

freeing. I I definitely had a really good mindset that

I kind of fostered during,

My imprisonment, but, ironically, also

sort of just had this agency for the first time. Just

interesting to reflect on. What do you

think led to you having that sort of

mindset while you were incarcerated? Because I could imagine That

could go many ways. Like, you know, being in that sort of

situation could surely affect your mindset negatively. What do you think

kept your mind, you know, positive or

or, you know, in in a in a good reframing mindset.

Well, Well, I guess, part of my instinct is to say you don't have

a choice, but, obviously, you you have a choice.

I also did a very hefty

dose of LSD couple weeks

for a few weeks before Getting arrested. So

I was still kinda riding that out and

still in that sort of headspace. So I think

That helped. But I also I think I have a little bit

of a I kind of thrive in maybe, like,

chaotic Environments or kind of up

against the ropes or kind of adverse

situations. For some reason, I get, like,

a kind of serene mental clarity

from maybe, like, extreme or adverse

Scenario. So even pretty much

immediately. Like, it was, like, 6 AM when

they raided my dorm room. And, you

know, maybe, like, 645 by the time I was

in the cop car. And, You know, I was

just asking the cops, like, hey. Like, how do you feel about

this right now? Like, are you gonna go home, And

are you gonna, like, are you gonna tell your family

that you, like, took this scumbag off the

street that was, like, poisoning Students

and that is something you're

proud of and you think, like, needs to be done, and that I'm just, like,

a bad person. And and they

were not very passionate about what they did. And they're they're they're like,

please. Like, come on, man. We're just trying to put food on the

table for our families. Like, they really didn't have an opinion

on it at all. Or if anything, I think the response showed

some guilt in the back. They, like, they didn't really wanna

hear or know that or, like, give me a real answer. But I use that

as as an example of, like, These are like, I was immediately just kinda went,

like, curious journalistic kinda

mode. So for whatever reason, you know, like, when I'm

Injured or in a,

abnormal sort of a situation. For for whatever reason,

I I seem to have pretty cogent kind of response

to that by some kind of reflex.

Yeah. No. I like that. Yeah. I I could I could definitely relate

to that a little bit. It it's kinda like almost like you get to a

point where you have to make a decision, and then It

becomes motivating for you to, like, make the decision because it's like, well,

I have to pick 1 or the other, and I guess I'll

pick the one that I think is best. And, yeah, I don't know. That I've

always worked, I guess, better under pressure too. If I've

If I have too much time to do something, like, I won't do it or

I won't figure it out. But if I have, like, a lot of things to

do, Then I'll be able to, like, work more efficiently and

kinda, I don't know, see things more clearly. So I guess I

could I could I could resonate with that a little bit. But that is that's

really funny, that story about asking them about what they were

doing and And if they felt good with it, and they were just like, hey.

I'm just just doing my like, just just trying to get paid here. And,

like, I don't know. That's that's

So funny into, like, thinking about what you're actually doing

with your day to day or your life or, like, how your actions affect other

people. And people just, Or at least in that case,

just wanting to ignore that and not think about that aspect of

it and only think about, like, well, I'm still getting my paycheck, so

That's all that matters. Yeah. So very, very, like, corporate

mindset sort of thing. Yeah. Exactly. We're yeah. My

response is like, well, you know, People get paid pretty well

to kill people, I imagine. You know? Why not get

into that? Right. Yeah. We're gonna think about that

too. You know? That might be nice. Big paycheck.

Yeah. It's just sad. I mean, I think the world be in a lot better

place if everyone did things that align with their values, if

that was possible. Yeah. No. That

that that statement right there is exactly how I feel, and it's very

succinctly articulated. And That's, like,

part of the reason of this podcast is I feel like if people were able

to and I know it's hard sometimes. You know? You have outside pressures and

obligations and that sort of thing. But at the end of the day, I think

you do have a choice in what you do with your time here. And

it's, Yeah. I don't know. I think if if more people

cared about what they did and it was aligned with their values, it just

makes every other aspect of your life more enjoyable or more better

too. Because, like, as soon as I quit my corporate job, I felt this huge

anchor Just be like, I don't have to carry it

anymore because I wasn't doing this thing I didn't feel connected to at all

and even didn't really like The whole values of the companies that I

worked for. But then I was able to, like because I wasn't carrying that, be

better to the people around me and be more present to the people around me.

So I think that just it's like a butterfly effect. If you're doing something that

you care about, it just affects every other aspect of your

life and all the people around you. So, yeah, I I like I like how

you said that, like, very succinct.

So, yeah, what so next question would be, like, what did

What did your life look like after you got out and, like,

you deciding what you wanted to do? And, like, did you know what you wanted

to do right away? Or was it, like, trial and error of things? Or what

what was the next stage of your life like? I mean, at first, I was

just trying just getting used to being out. I mean,

It is an incredible, like, kinda sensory experience. Very

overwhelming to be in, like, a grocery Like,

you know, having so many options at these

places, time going by incredibly fast

all the time, especially, you know, like, the 1st time I opened up a

laptop and went on Facebook, it was, like, 5 hours.

Boom. Gone. Like, An insane juxtaposition

to have, like, within a day's time. You're going, like,

reading all day and doing some push ups and

Drawing and journaling to just back to, like, you know, this I

never TV or anything in there that entire time or or a

pillows. And, So so, you know, at

first, I just kinda started, like, going out,

seeing live music, I'm chilling. Like, I

had, you know, I had some money saved. You know?

Just getting laid a lot. Like, really just Enjoying life

and indulging, a little bit,

and probably just, you know, making up for

For, that time lost?

Because yeah. I mean, like I said, I just I

had a lot more agency. I was a very different passion, and then I got

out and met the world. It was also very different, and, like, responding

very different need to me. So there's a lot of playing

within that. I was working. I got a job at the

Geek Squad in Best Buy, fixing computers

there for them for a couple

years. And then while I was doing that, sort

of stumbled on CBD,

Started going to dispensary a little bit and was pretty

baffled about how poorly A

lot of their products were formulated, and

so I think I could Do a lot better than

this without too much trouble. And we kinda looked at the

CBD landscape at the time. It was it was very early. There

was no Regulations. There wasn't really enough

on paper saying that it was legal even though there is a

national farm bill. And

just start tinkering around, start looking in the industry, seeing that

kinda like the top dogs. We're literally just

putting the amount of CBD in their product that

they said they were going to, and I was,

like, the highest and expectation that

one could possibly hold company to. And I said, wow. It's pretty low

bar. I think I could add a lot of value on top of just

Being honest with the quantity of CBD. So I started taking

CBD, stacking different things on it.

Just like, I was used okay. So I guess I should take it

back, like, rewind a little bit. While I was,

selling all of psychedelics, I was taking Some of those

proceeds, and I was putting them just, you know, to all sorts

of different experiments. I always really kinda like to to experiment

whether it was Supplements related to the gym and performance

or, you know, back at Yukon, I was making study aids. Just giving those

away making things to for people who take, before

psychedelics experiences that potentiate them

and things afterwards to help them kinda reintegrate

And come back to Earth in a smooth fashion.

So I was no stranger to Doing

research on on various compounds and being intrigued by them and and

wanted wanted to try them. And always kind of

had a knack for Discerning my own use

case for particular compounds

and extracts. And, actually,

From that time at UConn, selling all these

things, I was buying a lot of stuff on the dark web or whatever,

you know, the, Silk Road. And so through that time, I'd

really tried, you know, not everything

that exists, but The vast majority of different

things that exist in a variety of different

forms and different potencies. And

from that, built out, like, a pretty good intuition for what

different grades of different extracts

feel like and what qualities they kind of convey, what

something more raw versus more refined

feels like. And so from that personal experience, I was

able to just kinda, like, keep keep adding to that and

building out this intuition That started with

more so, you know, recreational drugs

and things. Although, I I think all of those have,

medicinal use cases as well, and then

continuing into more and more

subtle things, and and then realizing that there

is kind of this whole world of things that

add Primary benefits, side

benefits, and zero downsides or risks,

generally kind of natural medicine

In general, and I think the CBD falling into that category as

well. So so through that developing all of

these different sorts of products, developing Branding, you

know, learning about graphic design, learning about

web design and web platforms, and, you know, all the things you really need

need to do to Put together sort of a rudimentary

business, making an LLC. All of

it just came down to just looking things up on

the Internet and then trying things out and chipping away at them.

Like, you know, everything seems Very

hard, and if not impossible, from far

away. And then you start tripping away at it, and and,

You know, nothing is that hard. I think there's kind of an

interesting flip. From a certain distance, you think,

That's like that gave you that hard. It's gotta be pretty easy. And then you

start going after it, And then you get a little

closer, and you're like, oh, fuck, man. Like, I don't know about these specific

things. Like, you know a little bit more than You're really

seeing the hurdles more clearly. But then when when you start approaching

them, you know, you can just kinda knock out one after the other and just

it's just doing things, And you're already gonna be better off than

than doing some things than not doing anything at all in part of

an analysis paralysis. Yeah. For

sure. I I agree with that. And and that is kinda funny how it

it seems to work like that. I don't know why it made me think of

this, but, I don't like going through, like, mail and, like,

physical things. Like, I hate getting letters and, like, having to do something

call somebody. I had this stack of letters on my desk that have

been, like, piling up. And the other like, yesterday, I looked at them. And I

was like, alright. Let me just read these and figure out what I actually need

to do. I looked at it, and I was like, that's not that hard at

all. But I was thinking it was gonna, like, take this whole day to do

all this different stuff. But I think it's like the your assumption of, like

I I think about this a lot. Like, if you think it's gonna be hard,

then it's gonna be harder. But if you just don't have that,

like, preconceived notion, then it We'll just be what it is. Like you said, just

do things, and you'll be better off. Just figure it out and do it. If

it doesn't work, cool. Do something else. Like, I like the idea of just, like,

rapidly doing things and figuring things out. So with the

Remedy Co, when did it, like, start becoming, like,

a business that you thought, like, hey. This is, like, working, and

it's, you know, something I should continue to pursue.

Well, I I had the website, and the

sales were were coming in, and the

industry itself was bustling in in its

infancy and and growing. And,

you know, it started taking more more and more of of my

time, And, you know, it's

attracting some attention. And I started

building out laboratory for it

in a commercial space, and working around

taking things to the next level. And

then I well, I got fired taking my job at

Best Buy. And then, I was like, okay. I'm gonna

Focus on this full time. I did leave a long I was going back to

school at Southern for a semester or

2, And stopped going to

school because, once again, just wasn't

very interested, and it wasn't didn't

feel very committed, and I, you know, I

was kind of taking, some shit from From teachers

while having important decisions to make

over, you know, using my phone or something in class, and they thought I

was Texting a friend or, you know, something unimportant.

And I was like, you know, I don't feel like dealing with this from

teachers, you know, when I'm supposed to be paying for

the service here, and then teaching me,

badgering me. So there's a little leap. It

wasn't like I was necessarily

totally, you know, making in all all the

money I needed to at the time, but I

just figured, you know what? Like, let me put my all into this

and see where it takes me

And I fully commit myself to,

taking this to the fullest extent. Actually, I didn't really end up

paying myself for for a little

while. It took a couple purpose Telling me that I needed to

pay myself to actually start playing. So

There's a, like, a, I guess, a quote that I

Read somewhere. I don't remember. It was some book. And there's, like, 2 different schools

of thought. Like, some people say you should pay yourself last in a business, and

then some people say that you should pay yourself first. And I

think the second is is a better approach

because if you pay yourself first And then you have to pay these other like,

you know, you owe money to other people. It's gonna make you figure out how

to do it because you're you'll be more Dedicated to paying

that person because you owe them something versus you would yourself. Because a lot

of times, you're like, well, I'll just get it next month or, you know, think

about it in that way. So I I always liked that approach.

So, also, with the Remedy Co, you also have, like, a physical location now.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. Since,

2019. Since 2019? What what was, what was that like?

Because did you start just online and then move to a storefront.

Yeah. It was all online, but there's a lot of

problems with Processors,

marketing. There's a lot of challenges with CD online even

still to this day. And, you know, I

already had this space. I figured why not put a,

storefront on it And just a

lot of people walk in and buy stuff. So I had laboratory space in the

back and then a storefront in the front so I could, You know, we're making

stuff in the back and working, and then also handle customers when they came in,

so it's pretty efficient. Nice. So Is that still how it

exists now? Are you the only one that works there, or do you have other

people working under you? Or Yeah. I'd rather be working there now. I've We've

been focused in the cafe for the last 2 years. Okay.

Cool. So that basically grew from you doing everything to

then you employing people and habit showing them the process and

kinda having that run on its own? Yeah. Creating

systems and and aren't able to

Taking on a lot of responsibilities. What was

hiring, like, your 1st passion? Like, did you have to deal with

any having a hard time trusting people to do

things the way that you did them? Did that come hard or easy to

you? Yeah. It's tough

because when you're a small business and you're starting

off, Can't really afford people

who are going to be

able to work as well As you do most of the time,

unless what you're doing is, like, pretty simple. And you're

really good at systems, which is something I'm

still Learning about, and skillsets

I'm still working on. So, yeah, there's definitely

it's, you know, It's hard to trust because, you

know, certainly, people's work ethic is

varying, and it's also very dependent

on Sort of an environment that you

keep and produce. I know it's still

something still working on, so Wanna make sure there's,

you know, incentive structures in place and that there's accountability,

and that that stuff is is is pretty difficult. And,

you know, ideally, you wanna be hiring people that are better than you

at particular tasks. And then in order to do that, you have to be able

Pay those people pretty well. So it's a little bit of a catch

22 as far as hiring people

In a way, it's gonna generate growth

and not just kind of maintain or be a

body and a placeholder. Unfortunately, You know, especially for

a small business that's and that ends up being the only thing you can afford

unless you have something else, like Equity or or

something to to stream the pot for hiring when the

systems required, organized and fully

utilized. The employees is it's a tricky

day on, and something that's still always learning about.

Yeah. I can imagine that Being a huge learning curve and a whole new set

of skills once you've already mastered, like, your own, you

know, trade or or whatever it is that you're doing now, you have to Learn

these other things to kinda manage people and and learn that whole

thing. So when when did the cafe come into the picture? When did you

want to or decide to open a cafe and and tell us a little bit

more about, like, what the cafe is. So the cafe

had been something I envisioned

since 2019 or 2020,

And it definitely evolved. Since then, I actually

I opened a place in Middletown, Connecticut Right before

the pandemic, and there was just

some, some bad partnerships involved.

And It it wasn't a good time for it, so I

pulled out of that venture. And

and since then, kind of refined the concept

And what I was looking to do and

the location here in New Haven, is becoming

available. Friend, the

previous owner, would be Sitting in

there, smoking cigarettes, and I'd approach her and ask her if she

was looking to rent it or not. And finally,

if she was, For a long time, she's,

you know, just kind of showing me off and telling me

no. But I guess the concept came to me because

I would always give people sort of laundry list of recommendations of

things that they should be doing Besides just

using my product and remind them that it's not like

I think probably kind of the opposite of what most

CBD or natural health product companies might tell

their, customers, hey. You know, this isn't like silver

bullets. You know, like, fix solve your problems. You

should also be exercising and trying to

sleep well in a regular cycle and

eat things that are gonna help reduce these

chronic inflammatory cycles that you're dealing with.

And I have been messing around with

fermentation in my own apartment for a long

while. I was making my own kombucha, yoga,

all these things, having a lot of success with that.

My own gut, feeling really good And,

seeing the results. And so wanting to incorporate that into the

business and wanting to be able to offer

The type of food and kind

of diet, but for lack of

better phrasing, a kind of dietary practice that

I recommend, but in a very convenient and out of the

box way, You know, it wouldn't be

the extent that it would

be otherwise going to farms, Getting our

organic, local produce from those

farms, fermenting it, Then eating it, you know, it's

a big thing to to ask of people. And so

the cafes would be a place for food and go, and

and get the benefits of my products,

and get a lot of those same ingredients

infused into food and smoothies, so

like turmeric extracts that we use at Cafe Raw,

Standardized extracts. You know, there's Rolodex of different

ingredient suppliers from the Remedy

Co, a lot of which, you know, have

good flavors or pigmentations or, you

know, things that think would add value,

food wise, and it's also easier, you know, easier

to Make a smoothie than it is to

fill loads of capsules. It's, like, kind of a tedious process.

So being able to kind of combine the benefits

of the remedy with our standardized extracts and

Supplements with food as medicine approach,

organic foods, and then also just applying my knowledge,

I think Most food like, health food

spots have, like, really

significant blind spots They overlook and make them

not a health food place at all, which I think

is really sad. I would say

criminal because it makes it just the same as

every other restaurant, but those other restaurants are purporting

themselves to be A place of health.

So, you know, it's sad. I think there's a lot of vegan places,

and they'll use you know, those are refined enriched

Flowers and refined seed oils. There's

a, I think, a lot of, like, farm to table

Places like when I went to, actually, a month or 2

ago, but then they're still using, like, common's

ketchup Or whatever. And

there's just you know, like, it's just window dressing at all these

places Where, you know, they've got like, oh, here, like

these are the farms that we got these specific things from, but, like,

don't worry about these ingredients.

Mhmm. Right. It's more so just a marketing tactic than it is, like,

actually, we care about what you're eating. Yeah. I mean, it's got it's gotta

be all the ingredients, Or it just doesn't even

matter. Right. Right. Yeah. So so at the

cafe, try to incorporate a more holistic approach to

having a health food. Yeah. It's

a combination of fermented ingredients,

standardized extracts from The Remedy Co

that, you know, would be used in a capsule or or any

sort of supplement. My, nutrition

and Ingredient knowledge, you know,

formulation. So I really see, you know, us making a

sauce Or or a meal as a a

formulation, and, you know, each of these

ingredients have different properties that

Either provide health benefits or

not. Everything that we offer is something that really

provides benefit. And together,

provide even more benefits, and

we Keep out anything that might,

some harm or anything that might compromise that at all. So

refined sugar, Refined flour, refined seed oils,

all these things. You know? They just make their way into

just about Every meal that you can get

at any restaurant, anywhere, all the

time. And then so okay. Even if you get, like,

Steak and a salad. Oh, wait. But that

steak was fed a bunch of GMO, corn, and soy.

So it's not even about necessarily

the food you have in front of you. There's layers to that if the food

that You're consuming was fed

a bunch of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and

herbicides or Food has been genetically

modified and soaked in pesticides and herbicides and

mold. That's Still what you're consuming

just 1 step away. So you think

you know, you look at a menu And you're and you're

thinking, oh, I'm making the smart choice. I'm getting the salad. But guess

what? That salad has a salad dressing. It's 75%

refined seed oils. All of those leaves have been

saturated With pesticides and herbicides and

then fed synthetic fertilizers

their entire life. Oh, wait. That's not actually

the healthy option. Mhmm. Yeah. I think it's definitely

a place that at least for somebody who, like, tries to

Eat healthier good. It's it's like yeah. It's that chain reaction

because everything's so globalized. Like, you don't know where anything's coming

from or how it was grown or what it was fed when it was grown

and that sort of thing. I'm I'm sure we could have a entire podcast about

nutrition and thinking about, like, Making smart decisions

and and that sort of thing. But we are coming towards the end of our

time and had a bunch of things I wanted to ask you. One other thing

I did wanna ask you is the, like, Last sort of thing. I do notice

follow you on Instagram, and you post a lot,

and you're consistent. And I wanted to ask

you about Something in particular. So you have, like, a

page for yourself. You have a page for the Remedy, and then you have a

page for the Culture Cafe. I noticed that You

post things together and, like, you know, post

them all all from the same pages. So, like, personal, cafe,

remedy. I think that that's Interesting because I

think about the idea of, like, you as a business owner

and you as a person, and it seems like They're

similar. And I kinda like, I like that idea of that, like,

you're showing who you are, and that's who your business is. And to

me, The more of yourself you can be, the

more people will be drawn to you because, you know, you're everybody's

unique in in their own way. And the more that They can be themselves,

the more, like, I think that attracts people to you. So

I think you do a good job of, like, Just making a video of

yourself and then being able to post it across the businesses, and it kinda all

makes sense because it's all you and, like, authentic. I wonder if that's,

like, an intentional thing that you do or if it's something that you just

do without thinking about. Yeah. Part of it

is, convenience and

expediency. But I think,

there's definitely I mean, I definitely I'm aware that

both of my businesses are really predicated on

My own experience, my own gut, like I always

said, at the Remedy, you know, there's the research,

Existing body of research, you know, that I'm reading is getting me

intrigued about a subject, and then there You know, is

the is the mechanisms and my understanding of

how they work in the body and how they a particular compound

might synergize or Stackwell

with another compound that maybe I have

in the formula. But in the end, There's really

my experience with a

particular compound. And no matter what the research

says and, you know, what's down on paper, if I don't feel

what I'm looking to feel Or

something significant or you know, if I'm not getting a

satisfactory result, then I'm not gonna include it in the formula. I'm

not just going on blind faith. I'm not just listening to what somebody else says,

and I'm not gonna try and convince someone else that they should just

faith in what someone's just telling me that I'm just passing on. And I think

that's what probably 95% of

Health related businesses are out there. It's just

someone just relaying something that someone told them

that they're just having faith in. And I think this really kinda

shows the continuity of my experience as a drug dealer, my

experience as a, Whatever I

am, passion product formulator, is

that, you know, you you're not being

protected by, Like, your boy

or your dealer or someone selling you natural

products. You're not being protected by them being a good

guy and having good intentions. Like, that

stuff only goes so far, And it's this

is almost a nonstarter at all. Like, the only thing that's gonna

protect you or help you is

knowledge and research and application. Of

course, you want good intentions behind all of that, And

you want someone to to be genuine and to be a good

guy. Obviously, all that stuff is great and

Important, but build on top of a foundation

of deep understanding and research and and all

that Being applied. And, yeah, I feel I feel like that

was something that came up a lot when talking to people about

drugs and natural products, both I mean, Almost

indistinguishable. But, you know, people always say, yeah. You

know? He's a really good guy. You know? I trust Is

that why do you trust it? Is is this tested? You

know, is it from a sort of, like, Has it been

through mass spec? Have you used test

regions on it? Like, what there's

objective ways of of knowing.

And so I I think I've I've strayed from from your question.

But, yeah, I think I think it's really important to be

Genuine and to be yourself, and I think there's a lot of

people out there who are playing a role and

Trying really hard to do a thing

and convince people of a thing. But if it's not something Natural. If it's

not something for you, I guess I guess this is like a one way, bit

of like a Ane Ane Randian, Although, I really don't

like her writing. Is that I think you

really you really do have to put yourself first, and it really does

have to be about you. If it's not personal,

and if you're not enveloped in it, and and

obsessed with it, And personally benefiting from it

and and have that personal experience to go with

knowledge and facilities research, then, You know,

you're just repeating something you're you were told. It's just

a superstition. Yeah. Yeah. I like that.

It's it's almost like The anti capitalist type of

business. Like, you're not just doing it for the money,

which, I guess, is your own benefit, but You're doing it more so for your

own benefit and then helping other people because it's benefiting you. And, yeah,

I really like the idea of helping yourself first,

and then You'll be able to then help the people around you. And it seems

like that's how you've, you know, existed all of these businesses or created

all these businesses is having yourself be the test subject and then being

able to take that knowledge elsewhere. And I think that that's a really, I don't

know, holistic way to To do something. And I I

appreciate that. But before we go, I do wanna give you a chance to tell

people where they can follow you and, you know, maybe where they can

find you cafe wise and and that sort of thing. Yeah. Totally.

So you could find, my products in the Remedy Co

The Remedy Cares .com, or you can come

to our store in, Wallingford, Connecticut. It's at 43

North Tony Road. You can come say hi,

and then we also have the Culture Cafe,

and you can find us online at cultured dot cafe.

We have a monthly box that we're offering currently,

so you can get a variety of our different Fermented

items directly to your door every month. The

consistency is really the most

important factor when it comes to really Any natural practice,

but fermented foods, in particular, doctors really recommend

3 to 5 servings a day. What a serving is is

not clearly defined in any sort of way by anyone, and the doctors

will defer to manufacturers. And I promise you, manufacturers just

made it up at their convenience. But 3 to 5 servings is

far more than most people are getting in a day.

And so having that in your fridge and being stocked with it is gonna be

the best way to do that. And having us bring it to your door every

month would be the by far the most convenient way of doing that. You just

have to remember that most of the probiotics,

Fermented food items you can find in the store have been

pasteurized, have been created

from a powder Absol

probiotic, which are dead and takes about

3 to 4 life cycles to bring them back to life, not

just 1. A lot of them have been sitting on the shelf for a

long time, so they're not fresh. A lot of them do not

have very robust probiotic profiles

for particularly impactful strains of probiotics. Many of them

are preservatives, Added sugars, things that totally

neutralize the benefits of them. So you

think you're kind of, doing a good thing By grabbing yourself at

the store. Unfortunately, a lot of time,

it is just a marketing ploy Or just

for flavor or texture or whatever sort

of kind of externality comes from the fermentation process and

not from the probiotic Benefit that you, hopefully

are looking to receive from it. So there's a lot of benefits getting

your fermented foods from us at the cafe, And, you can

find us at www.cultured.cafe.

It's cultured with e d, And you can come see

us at, 965 State Street in New Haven,

Connecticut. Awesome. And I will definitely include links in the show notes so

people don't have to search. They could just click the link in the show notes.

And, thank you so much for being on. Thanks for being

vulnerable and sharing your experiences and your stories with us. I

appreciate it, and I think, you're doing good with your businesses. And,

I Hope the best for you in the future, and best of luck with the

cafe and and everything else you do. Thank you much. I appreciate it. Thanks for

having me on. This fun. Thank you for listening

to working towards our purpose. If you liked today's episode and are

interested in more, you can sign up for my Substack newsletter with the link

in the show notes where I share thoughts, tips, and ideas that

I'm learning along my journey to help inspire you. The show was

produced by Pleasant Podcast at pleasantpodcast.com.