Chris: Let’s roll, brother!

John: Yes! Chris is a wildly creative, out-of-the-box thinking, high-performing CEO. At 28, he is responsible for over 120 million views, tens of millions of dollars in sales, and even has landed a deal on ABC’s Shark Tank. Chris, take a minute, fill in some gaps from that intro, and give us a little glimpse of your personal life.

Chris: Definitely. Thank you, John. I’ve been at it since a very young age. I’ve always had an appetite just for creativity, for learning how to make a dollar. And I’ve had a lot of different ventures throughout the years. I started off when I was – I did all the standard entrepreneurial things. I had a lemonade stand and a newspaper route. But before that, I was paying kids in elementary school 25 cents a pop to create crossword puzzles, and then I’d resell them at recess for 50 cents each.

So, as I started to get into all that stuff, it just carried on throughout my first couple years at college. I ended up starting an electronic repair shop, and it went really well. So, I dropped out and sold that. I flipped a house. One-way drive to California. Opened up a restaurant. Ended up selling that. I jumped into a portable hitting mat for golfers that we sold a bunch of. Kick-started a product, created some software, jumped into Coolbox, which is what you were just touching on there on Shark Tank.

And then, most recently, Dollar Beard Club with a bunch of little ventures in between. So, it’s been a really fun journey the entire way. I’ve learned a ton. I’m always hungry to learn more and learn from the best out there to constantly improve. Yeah, man. That’s a little summary right there.

John: Well, my only question is – when have you breathed recently?

Chris: Honestly? Only in the last year and a bit have I learned to breathe. Started learning all about holistic health and how to take care of your body and mind and that there are solutions to every single problem –

John: Totally!

Chris: – that you need to treat the cause and not the symptom. I was like, “Wow! I can breathe deep in through my nose, hold that in my belly for a little bit, and chill out for a couple minutes before I get back at it.”

John: Ah, I just did that actually. And it really felt good.

Chris: Man, I’m not kidding. If you seriously take in a big, deep breath through your nose and make sure you put your left hand on your belly and feel your belly go out. Because a lot of us breathe into our chest. When we’re born as babies, we automatically breathe into our belly, but that’s something we just –

John: – we lose.

Chris: – we lose. We know when it’s just us. But when you do that, it really calms you down. You almost feel high if you do like three of those breaths.

John: Yeah. I think one reason is because we kind of assume our belly is sticking out – it makes us look fat. Doesn’t look good, doesn’t feel good. But hey, just be Santa Claus for a second. Just have a bowl full of air – not a bowl full of jelly – and just really breathe in through the nose, let it go, hold it there, breathe out, and wow. We could talk about this because I’m actually getting really into this kind of stuff, as well. I love just the holistic side of things.

But Chris, I do kinda wanna bring things back over a little bit because you have so many different areas of expertise. I mean, we’re listening to you. You’ve done the whole restaurant thing. You’ve done the whole real estate thing. You’ve done this and that. We talked about how you just got back from Panama recently. Give us what you consider one of your areas of expertise. And then, within that area of expertise, just like you did with that breathing, give us one tip, tool, or tactic that you think that we should know as entrepreneurs, but we probably don’t.

Chris: Cool, man. I’m big into holistic health. I love all types of things. I’ll hit on some other stuff later there. But my biggest area of expertise is definitely making videos. I absolutely love the process of concepting stuff that is just so ridiculously outside the box, that just makes you laugh thinking about it. And then, putting it into a script format, assembling a team, finding locations. Even when that means guerrilla-ing them. Putting together the shot scene-by-scene. Filming the thing, getting it edited, and putting it onto the internet.

And, because I’ve enjoyed doing that so much and had so much success with it, a lot of people – we actually threw a conference a month ago, called “Unconscious Content,” where we were teaching this. So, I came up with a cool formula, called “Prohven.” And it’s spelled P-r-o-h-v-e-n. The “P” stands for Patterupt, “R” for Relatacult, “O” for Outcasquo, “H” for Humanacate, “V” for Villatition, “E” for Excitacate, and “N” for Nowboarding.

And each one of those words carries a very specific meaning that will teach you how to script each scene in your video for your business, regardless of what product or service you’re trying to sell. So, for example, just, the “P” stands for Patterupt. I took the word “pattern,” “interrupt,” combined them. It’s Patterupt.

And what is that? That’s when you’re scrolling down your Facebook feed, and something catches your eye for three seconds. And Facebook mutes the audio when you’re actually scrolling. So, the visual just needs to be so outside of the box that somebody goes, “Hold up. I just saw something that isn’t a picture of my friends at the bar. It’s not someone hiking. It’s not somebody’s new baby. It’s not someone’s relationship. Like, ‘Holy shit!’” There’s something I need to stop and see here because it was just completely different from the things that you’re generally used to seeing.

And then, as soon as they go into the video, then you hit them with the next letter. You hit them with the next one. And it’s this cool formula, where you can kind of weave and maneuver throughout somebody’s – through somebody’s emotions psychologically in a way that allows them to just have such an experience of what they are watching. And being able to do that while building a brand at the same time is something that’s a lot of fun and will create a ridiculously organic snowball that, once you get a snowball rolling, everything’s all about momentum. You just need to catch a wave, and then you ride it out to the very end. And you jump on the next one.

John: Everything is about momentum. And I love that phrase, and it’s so true. If you can get that ball rolling, everything just gets easier, Fire Nation. You gotta ride that wave. Now, Chris, your passion just comes out when you’re talking about things that you’re excited about, things that fire you up. And again, as we mentioned multiple times now, you’re just a man of many skills. You’ve done a lot of things, and we’ve kinda touched upon the things that you’ve done well so far. And you’ve rocked, and you’ve crushed different things. Take us to something that didn’t work out. Tell us a story of what you consider your worst entrepreneurial moment. What happened there?

Chris: A lot of different ways of being an entrepreneur, you know. An entrepreneur, to me, is just somebody who plays by their own rules. Sure, it involves business, but there are a lot of different ways that you can go out there, and you can make money. And I used to be into sports betting. And I started a little business with sports betting with my little brother. And one Thanksgiving when they had the three football games back-to-back-to-back, like four years ago, we had a website up where we were picking picks and putting them up publicly.

And my brother would make the picks, and he’s just a savant when it comes to picking sports. And he went three-for-three, he called all the spreads correctly, he called all the over-unders correctly, and we put them up there. And it was going really well, and that was kind of us trying to get away from betting it ourselves. But we were in the midst of opening up our restaurant in Hollywood, and we were short about $20,000.00 from being able to close the deal that we needed. And I was pretty tapped out, didn’t have any other ways to make money.

So, he and I decided to throw down a pretty big bet, and we won $20,000.00 on one game, which is pretty insane. And then, the next weekend, the greed got ahold of myself. And I thought, “Hey, why not double down on that?” And we bet another $20,000.00 and lost it. So, it was a very good lesson. It was the worst feeling in the entire world. That was actually what I considered the end of my gambling career. This was about five years ago now. And obviously, gambling in itself is not something I advise in any way, and it can be very toxic and lead you down a deep rabbit hole. But what it made me realize was how true the saying is of, “Easy come, easy go.”

And I always found myself searching for shortcuts. “How can we create a product that’s gonna get us rich overnight? How are we gonna make a bet that’s gonna do something? I wanna make a quick amount of money really quick.” And I think that’s a lot of things that a lot of entrepreneurs just have this misconception of. You have to be able to put in the time.

So, “Easy come, easy go?” “Hard to come, hard to go.” If it’s hard to build a business that’s sustainable, and you put in the time, day after day, then it can’t just get taken down overnight. Whereas, these things that are easy can. So, that was probably the worst – I still remember that feeling very clearly and having a conversation with him in the elevator. And we were just both kind of in shambles.

But, slight tangent to the entrepreneurial journey. But to me, that was part of the grind, man. There are no rules. You literally have to play by your own set. Life is your stage. Life can be looked at as a big video game, where you’re the character. You get to dress yourself up as you want, travel to different levels. You face different bosses; you meet new characters. And you just need to go with the flow. So, yeah, man, that’s probably one of my worst moments.

John: That’s powerful. And it is just one of those things where, once you get going down that waterfall, there’s no looking back. Like, I’m sure, even a few weeks before, you were probably sweating over a game that you were putting $100.00 down on. But, hey –

Chris: Correct.

John: – once you put $20,000.00 on a game, and you win, there’s no going back. There’s no betting $100.00 on a game anymore. That’s just like, “What? I don’t even care.” It’s like, you’re up to that next level now, Fire Nation, and easy come, easy go. And Chris, I just loved what you said about the “hard to come, hard to go,” because, for me, I’ve always said, “How could I build a business that is just a high barrier, that people are going to really have to work their arses off to come up to my level?” That’s when everybody was saying, “John, you’re crazy to start a daily podcast.” I’m like, “I love that you’re telling me that because that means that it’s probably not that easy to do and probably not easy to replicate.”

So, if I can figure out how to get my act together and get these systems and automations down and create a business around a daily podcast, that might be actually a hard thing to replicate. And here I am, 1,535 episodes later, I look around and there’s no competition. Because it’s not easy. So, Fire Nation, don’t be scared from building that tough business that’s going to make you put your nose to the grindstone because that means others have to do the same.

Chris: And if somebody tells you that you’re crazy the way that they told you that you’re crazy for starting that, that, to me, is the very first sign that you’re on to something legendary.

John: Yes. Yes.

Chris: If you say something, and someone goes, “You’re nuts. That cannot happen.” Then my brain goes, “Holy shit.” The reason that person is saying that – their thought process just went, “That is so unachievable. The work that would have to go into that is unfathomable. If that person actually executed this entire thing, that would probably be the best thing to ever happen, but it’s impossible.”

But the sheer fact is, anything that we’re capable of thinking is possible. If we can’t think of it, that’s when you’ve reached the realm of impossibility. But if our minds can see it inside of our heads – if you can create a thought to create something in your brain – you can project it onto the dream of life. There’s no two ways about that. So, if you have an idea in your head, and someone tells you, “You’re crazy,” that, to me, is the first two pieces to the formula to creating something very successful.

John: Yeah. Let’s be honest. How many times has Elon Musk heard that in his life? And I’m sure when he hears that, he’s like, “Sweet! Awesome! Landing people on Mars – check. I will do that.” So, Chris, let’s talk about the Dollar Beard Club for a second because, to me, that was an a-ha moment you had. But I’d love to see how that came into fruition. Like, how did you come up with that idea? Take us through that a-ha moment and how you are turning that idea into success.

Chris: Well, actually, I’ll go through a quick a-ha moment that I think is very important to share with different entrepreneurs. And that’s that, when you’re a leader, when you’re building a team, when you have people behind you, you have to be very careful in terms of what information you share with your team with things that haven’t fully come to fruition. Because right when you said Dollar Beard Club and a-ha moment, we had a sniff in the very beginning where we thought we were gonna close a big investment. And everything looked amazing. We had paperwork going back and forth, and I was talking to the team. “Guys, we have this investment coming in. We’re gonna do this, that, expand really quickly.”

And it didn’t end up going through. I was super excited to tell everybody, but it made me realize that, until the papers are signed, the money’s in the bank – regardless of what kind of deal you’re looking at, whether it’s an investment, bringing on a new employee, an acquisition, something cool within the business that’s gonna fire up your team – don’t talk about it until it happens. You have to contain that excitement within you as a leader so that you don’t set false expectations or let people down. Because that was something that I got over very quickly. And I just thought, “Hey, we’re gonna hit the pavement again and keep rolling.”

But I saw the morale of my team drop in a lot of ways. Because it’s just – it really took the wind out of their sails. So, it’s almost gossip to an extent. Before something comes true, just don’t talk about it. If you need to involve other people on your team to be able to put together things like financial documents and due diligence and all that, involve who you actually need to. But control your excitement and wait until something is completely finished before you share it with everyone. So, I think that was one of the a-ha moments on my journey that I thought was important.

But with that being said, yeah, man, Dollar Beard Club. It’s been a whirlwind. Basically, we started – I started growing out my beard about three – actually, my beard just turned three on November 8th – is my beard birthday.

John: I can see by your Skype photo right now that it looks at least three years old.

Chris: Yep. Yeah. It’s three. I had some trims going on, trying to keep it somewhat civil. I usually don’t trim it too often. But yeah, man. So, I started growing out my beard. It was kinda this brotherhood pact that every guy that joined our crew – and we were working on a bunch of different ventures at the time – all the things I just went through between the different businesses. So, we didn’t even have Dollar Beard Club.

But, as the one guy joined the crew, it was like, “Hey, man. This is kind of your dedication to the team. Do you wanna join us and grow out your beard?” And I always had this thing about it’s gonna allow you to evolve into a different version of yourself. A lot of us, when you’re presented with the options of “yes” or “no,” it’s very different than being presented with the option of “No. 1” versus “No. 2.”

So, a lot of people have not actually grown out their beard to say, “Hey, this is what I want. Or this is what I don’t want.” They don’t realize that they can look differently, and that, if you look differently, and you stop caring about what other people necessarily think of you, you will literally vibrate at a different level. You’ll give off different sets of energy – a different frequency – and then you’ll attract different people. And sure, it may not be for everyone. I haven’t convinced the whole world to grow their beard yet. But for me, it was something that worked. It was a sign of dedication that I needed to put in the time, and that I didn’t care about impressing anybody else.

It was always, “How am I gonna fit in? What’s the latest haircut? What’s the latest style?” And then, I just worried about focusing on the guy in the mirror. And I think when everyone does that, it really allows you to just operate from a place of passion and truth and be yourself. So, yeah, man, one by one, boys joined the crew. We all had beards. They were getting long and out of control. We heard about beard oil; I didn’t even know that was a thing three years ago. Bought a couple different bottles -- $20.00 for half an ounce, and I couldn’t pronounce half the ingredients.

And I was like, “There’s just something not right here. Why isn’t this stuff more affordable, and why can’t it be clean and have all-natural ingredients?” So, we started formulating our own stuff and realized that it’s not that expensive when you work directly with a manufacturer. So, we went through a bunch of different trials and tribulations and came out with some phenomenal scents that we really liked. Had about seven different skews. Filmed our first video in the warehouse there. We shot that in about 36 hours for $800.00. And once we launched it, things just went nuts, man.

On the same week, actually, that I was on Shark Tank for Coolbox – different business – it was the same week that we had launched Dollar Beard Club. So, fireworks kind of exploded all over the place. But it’s been a journey, man. We did – actually, just yesterday, we did our $15th million. So, we’ve done over $15 million in sales.

John: Unreal. Congrats.

Chris: Thank you, man. I appreciate that, John.

John: Now a quick question because it seems like your journey is pretty similar in some ways to what Dollar Shave Club was and how they shot their video for very low in the warehouse, etc., etc. Do you foresee any legal battles coming there? And have you done anything to protect yourself? That’s one thing that I know a lot of my listeners get stressed out about is, “Oh, my God. What if I name my podcast ‘Blah-Blah-Blah on Fire?’ Is John gonna sue me?”

And, of course, I’m not because I have a lot more important things to focus on. What does that play in your process right now?

Chris: You nailed it right there, man. So, I always taught – people are so scared to share ideas. If you share – if someone has the ability and the drive and the knowledge to be able to steal your idea, they have a million ideas of their own. If someone doesn’t have the ability to steal your idea, then they’re –

John: – not stealing your idea.

Chris: They’re [inaudible] [00:17:15], and they’re not stealing your idea, and you can tell them. So, it’s very similar to me when it comes to trademarks and patents and all that sort of thing. I think that people will not bother you, will not come after you, if they’re already crushing it themselves. Unless you’re doing something that is just completely ripping someone off and you’re crushing. And then, in that sense, you wanna be able to make some changes.

But yeah, for us, we got our IP and different trademarks and stuff. Our name is very generic: “The Beard Club.” Or, “Dollar Beard Club.” “Dollar Shave Club” – theirs. “Dollar Rent-a-Clubs,” for cars. And different things like that. So, we weren’t really stepping in any territory in that sense. But, with that being said, we have a pretty cool rebrand up our sleeves that we’re gonna be launching out soon that’s a very minor name tweak. I figure it kinda slipped up when I was just talking about it there. So, we’ll kinda keep that under the hood in a way, but it’s gonna be fun –

John: Well, on that note then, Chris, was this a necessary tweak? Is this something that you had to do?

Chris: No, we wanted to do it because – well, I’ll give you a little bit of insight, man. I guess Dollar Beard Club – when you use the word “dollar” – two things that does. No. 1, it puts the thought in your mind that you’re gonna be selling stuff that’s only a buck. It kind of associates you with a cheaper feel. And 2.) The dollar belongs to North America. A lot of other countries use different names for their currencies. So, when you can remove that, it’s gonna really allow us to open the gates internationally, No. 1. And allow us to start selling some really cool, different products.

And we’ll always have our original oil that sells for $1.00. That’s definitely core to who we are, and I think that it’s unfair to offer a higher barrier to entry to anyone above that because it shouldn’t be – our whole thing is making sure every bearded brother can afford oil. And everyone’s in different scenarios and different situations. So, it was just a cool combination in that sense of where we’re heading with it, and it’s really gonna allow the brand to expand.

John: Cool. Well, Fire Nation, we are about to expand into the lightning rounds. So, don’t you go anywhere. We’re gonna thank our sponsors. Chris, are you prepared for the lightning rounds?

Chris: Let’s do it, brother.

John: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Chris: My desire to find shortcuts and holding the belief that you can get rich overnight. I chased being an entrepreneur to make money. Now I chase it to make a positive difference in other people’s lives.

John: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Chris: Never listen to anyone else’s advice. Go with your gut. Listen to yourself.

John: I love that. Gary Vaynerchuk just said that. I was like, “You know what? I don’t listen to people’s advice very often, either.” What’s a personal habit that contributes to your success?

Chris: Purblak. This mushroom extract that I use. I actually just took it before this interview I jumped on. And it basically gives you the concentration that you would get from modern Western medicines Adderall and ADD medication. And it gives you the energy of coffee with no side effects of other. It is phenomenal the way it allows your brain to work, and there are a ton of positive side effects. It easily feeds your cells different things that you’ll find massive benefits. P-u-r-b-l-a-k. You can find it online.

And diatomaceous earth – it’s basically ground-up fossil fuels that cleans out your small intestine. And they act like really miniature razor blades that gently sweep the inside of your villi. And your villi are what actually absorb your food. So, when you can take that on a daily basis, you’ll stay clean. You’ll keep food moving through you. Your body will run like a machine.

John: Love all of that. And, switching gears to an internet resource you can recommend for us.

Chris: Jotsome.com. J-o-t-s-o-m-e. The name was derived from “Jot down some notes, jot down some thoughts.” So, jotsome. And it’s this distraction-free text blog that basically doesn’t allow you to share videos, doesn’t allow you to share pictures, doesn’t allow you to tag people, doesn’t allow you to put hashtags, and you can make it all completely private. And when you’re typing on it, you just choose the color of your background and some really gentle music that you wanna listen to.

And it allows you to just completely zone in, whether you’re writing down a couple notes, some ideas, you’re blogging – and then you can make the entire blog private. Or you can make individual posts private. But once you go on jotsome – it’s not good on mobile right now. But I use it on desktop, and I’ve put a lot of buddies onto that. And we all just can’t get enough of it, especially within our crew.

John: If you could recommend one book, what would it be, and why?

Chris: The Mastery of Self, by Don Miguel Ruiz. He teaches you to shed your domestications and learn about who you truly are. A lot of the things that we learn growing up in life come from society – they come from our parents, our friends, our teachers, the environment around us. And we are – we have beliefs instilled upon us that aren’t necessarily ours. And that’s how you can develop a lot of problems in your childhood, which carry on into your adulthood.

So, once you read this book, it’s mind-blowing, John. Probably three books – The Mastery of Self, Clarity by Jamie Smart, and The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. I truly believe that any person that reads those three books – read The Mastery of Self first – will completely transform as a human being. And your journey will just go down a much more positive, enlightening path.

John: Wow. Powerful words. And Chris, let’s end today on Fire, brother, with a parting piece of guidance, the best way that we can connect with you. And then we’ll say goodbye.

Chris: I think the parting piece of guidance is just realize that it’s a beautiful time to be alive right now. There are a lot of different things going on and problems in the world. But it’s just like booting up the video game. And again, you’re on a different level. But there’s this big dandelion-assed, big ball of warmth in the sky that doesn’t charge us for its light and shows up every day to provide its gift. And it goes down in one place, yet it wakes up in another and never complains or asks for anything in return. Just like the spider who builds his web and the beaver who builds his dam.

It’s like arrangements of flowers appear wonderfully if they’re simply sought out by the seeker. And they smell as magnificent as they sparkle. They’re made up of peaceful colors of the rainbow. Rivers and creeks act like angels. And to the oceans and lakes. And it’s just like – if you can use your energy to cleanse yourself and listen to people talk and pass on a smile. When someone smiles at you, receive it. Give it back. And it’ll just create this positive ripple in the environment.

Nothing limits us to our capacity of what we can actually do in this lifetime. And if you’re an artist, go find your paintbrush. If you’re a writer, go find your typewriter. Life is nothing more than a dream. And eventually, we’ll leave these bodies and return to our natural state. So, while you’re here, use your free will. And if you’re not living a life that you truly enjoy, then take a second and make a change. Because the best time to start was yesterday, and the second-best time to start is today.

Write somebody a forgiveness letter, John. I think that a lot of times, we grow up and we carry relationships that went sour in some form, whether it’s a small-business deal, something with a past relationship, your parents, an old teacher, a sibling, a friend. Take ten minutes to sit down and put an actual pen to paper – or an email works, too. And just – whether you were right or wrong – it’s completely irrelevant. And you’ll find that when you can forgive somebody or allow forgiveness to come into your life, it releases something that you didn’t realize how heavy it was. And the past is only heavy when you carry it on your back. So, let it go.

John: Wow, I love these words. Fire Nation, why not use it as a call to action? Why not sit down today and write that letter? Just take the first step. Don’t even commit to sending it right away, but write the letter. Then see how you feel. And then, hopefully, you’ll decide to send it because, just like Chris said, this could really release something that’s inside of you that you don’t even realize you’re carrying right now. So, Chris, what’s the best way that we can connect with you?

Chris: You can connect with me on my personal website, chrisstoikos.com. I’m starting to heat up my newsletter there and send it out more. Definitely follow me on Instagram. I usually have some pretty fun, cool stuff going on and try and engage with my fans as much as possible. You can check me out at cstoikos – that’s c-s-t-o-i-k-o-s – on Instagram. If you’re interested in the Prohven method I was talking about, you can check out unconsciouscontent.com.

And that name came after the fact that I believe that everything resides in our unconscious mind, and when you can tap into it through things like dry fasting and getting off of food and water for a period of time, and meditation and things like that, then you have the ability to shut – completely shut off the analytical side of your brain and think out of the creative side. And that just – man, ideas come in abundance.

John: Well, on that note, real quick, do you have any books or anybody that you follow that you really would highly recommend, if we’re interested in that kind of fasting, and getting off of food, and meditation thing?

Chris: The one book that’s absolutely phenomenal is called Return to the Brain of Eden. And it talks all about how our brain was one. It didn’t have a left side and a right side. But then, due to fight-or-flight, our brain was forced to split into two, and we started thinking analytically and creatively separately. So, this tells you how to kind of restore your brain back to that.

And then, dry fasting – man, that’s something that I got onto about a year-and-a-half ago. And I was just mind blown when I learned about it. And basically, when you stop drinking water, and you stop eating food, your body goes into a starvation mode, which is also survival mode. And you’ll start producing mass amounts of HGH, mass amounts of stem cells – your own. You don’t need to be injecting stem cells or taking synthetic HGH or any of that crap. And your body will go into a rapid healing mode.

Ninety percent of our RAM within our brain goes to breaking down food, especially when you don’t chew it. People are mixing water when they actually eat their meals – with their food. It’s like dumping a bottle of water on top of a salad before you eat it. So, do your food and your water separately. Chew the shit out of your food. Chew it a hundred times until it’s pure mush. We have teeth in our mouth. We don’t have teeth in our stomach. You’ll take away all the hard work that has to go on in there.

So then, again, when you just completely remove food, you give your body a break. If you can do a 72-hour dry fast – no food, no water – once per quarter, you’ll find the differences that are made are phenomenal. And then, you can even live your life one step further, and you do intermittent fasting every single day. Sixteen hours a day, only eat in an eight-hour window. And for those other 16, remain completely dry.

Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of good resources on the internet for that. If you search “medical dry fasting,” you’ll find some cool articles. But I actually found a book written by a guy named Dr. Filonov. And he wrote an eBook that you can’t even purchase. You just have to download the PDF somewhere online. I can send that to you, and you can –

John: Yes. Put it on the show notes page.

Chris: – post it to your fans, if you want. But, basically, this dude wrote a 330-page medical book, all on dry fasting and how it’s the No. 1 tool that we need to cure any illness, bring ourselves back, give ourselves energy, and just be in a rapid mode of healing. And the spiritual journey you go on, and the ideas that you will create when you have nothing inside of your body – and then your body is forced to get its water by converting 100 grams of fat into 60-70 grams of water. And that water is already coated with your genetic blueprint because it stored it inside of your cells. Dude, you’re in for a very new feeling and process.

John: Dude, what are you doing for the next four hours? Because I just wanna talk to you. Like, that’s all I wanna do.

Chris: I got some – I got quite the day planned ahead, but I’m probably gonna pop over to somewhere. I’m gonna flip a coin between Vancouver or Boulder right now. I really like Boulder, Colorado – cool community there. And Vancouver – our new investors are up in Canada. And I’m from Canada, and I love it there. So, I’m gonna flip a coin, hop on a plane, fast for the next – I got another five hours left in my fast – and then –

John: And that’s in your daily, intermittent, 16-hour fast?

Chris: Yeah, man. And no one’s perfect, too. So, don’t beat yourself up there. Times where I’m traveling and it just makes it really hard – but I always make sure that I fast for a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 16.

John: Yeah, and remember, Fire Nation. Hopefully you’re sleeping for eight of those hours. So, it’s not that bad.

Chris: Yep. Definitely. Don’t sleep with an alarm. If you have to wake up for an alarm to somebody – to me, that’s a form of slavery, man. It’s not natural to wake up to an alarm. Go to sleep, figure stuff out, and go to sleep at a time where you can just wake up naturally. And I don’t mean for that to sound harsh in any way. But I just know that it’s not fun to wake up to an alarm. And when you can shed that by changing your life, you’ll notice a ton of differences.

John: So, you’re trying three, four, maybe even five or more days a week, to do this dry, intermittent fasting, where you’re eating in an eight-hour window? The other 16 hours, you’re not eating nor drinking?

Chris: Correct.

John: Got it. Chris, I gotta go because I got another interview that’s right on the heels of this. You, my friend, are amazing. And let me just wrap this up by saying, Fire Nation, you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You’ve been hanging out with CS and JLD today. So, keep up the heats. I mean, usually, I’m bringing the average up pretty high, but today, Chris is just eclipsing me by just huge numbers. But head over to eofire.com and type “Chris.” He’s promised to send that link over to that eBook, 330 pages. We’ll have that on the show notes page.

And, of course, if you just type the word “Chris” into the search bar, that’s gonna pop right up. And Chris, I wanna thank you, brother, for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. And Fire Nation, chrisstoikos.com. Follow him: cstoikos on Instagram. You’ll see he’s either in Vancouver or Boulder because of his coin flip. And Chris, we salute you, brother. And we’ll catch you on the flip side.

Chris: JLD, you’re a beauty and a legend. Keep doing what you’re doing, man. Love everything that we just did. I love the other ones I’ve listened to. I love your following. This is phenomenal. I’m excited. If anyone who was just listening to this wants to connect, I’ll also take my email. It’s chris@dollarbeardclub.com. From time to time, I do one-on-one calls, so if anyone has something that they really wanna talk about, hit me up. We can arrange something. And this has just been way too cool to –

John: Way too cool.

Chris: – not throw that out there.

John: Well, I’m gonna say this, man. I, Fire Nation, will be emailing chris@dollarbeardclub.com. So, I hope you take him up on this, too. And we’ll catch you on the flip side.

Chris: Take care.