Update 4: Replace or Rebuild?

The sections:

• Section 1: ‘Have Ideas. Do Them.’ reflections & notes (you may have seen some of this on social)
• Section 2: Updates on Uncharted Spirits, Teaquila Farm, Mavericks, Cancer
• Section 3: Your thoughts, feedback, and involvement

​

*Note: still figuring out the best format of this, trying not to repeat too much, might take some time, so your feedback is important. Eventually, I will have a page that keeps project progress up to date and the newsletter will focus on 1-2 topics. Thanks for bearing with as I figure it out on the fly...

​

Has Ideas. Does Them.

• The end goal here is to produce some type of media that tells the stories about people who had an idea AND did it. Doesn’t matter if they failed or succeeded. This will content will inherently inspire others to get out there and do the things, but most importantly, it should give the HOW to get started, to keep going, to get to the top tier levels. Starting the plan for it now, but execution begins in 20223.
• Many people, especially Americans, hate to talk about death. In other countries, talking about death is the norm. We need to talk about death more because studies show that countries that talk about death are happier. When you can talk about death freely, you’re released from the fear of it. I’m starting a death meetup soon, which leads to...
• The first death meetup will be at my house the weekend after thanksgiving. I have my best friends coming in from out of town and, hopefully, a few local friends will join too. I’m calling this first one ‘Burritos, Dudes, and Death.’ Oh, and sorry to those I asked to come if this is the first time you’re hearing about this haha. It’ll be fun, don’t worry. More to come.
• I’ve had to choose between doing the same things I’ve always done, or rebuilding my life in a better way in the hopes of healing. Here’s what I wrote about / posted yesterday...

---------------------

Which road? And what will you do with your engine?

My hunch is that we get one, maybe two, moments in life to drastically change our direction..

...AND the ‘engine’ we’re using to get there. I recently had that moment...

Imagine going down the freeway at 100mph and your passenger pulls the parking brake as hard as possible. When that happens the rear wheels will likely lock up, which leads to fishtailing, which leads to, likely, multiple car flips.

That’s exactly what it felt like.

For about 45 days I sat on the side of the road figuring out how to get going again, even though I was just in the worst wreck of my life.

I was trying to drive on the same road with the same engine.

Luckily, I couldn’t go anywhere. This forced me to reflect on how we got here. Looking back I realized...

First, I was driving 100mph in 3rd gear. For those who don’t drive a manual car, you will destroy the engine driving like that.

Second, I was on the wrong god damn road the entire time.

In non-car terms, I didn’t take care of myself physically, mentally, or emotionally as well as I should have. While I was generally healthy, I needed to eat better, I needed to sleep better, I needed relieve stress better, I needed to let go of past failures better, I needed to do the things that made me authentically come alive better (+ more). I just didn’t do those things well enough.

And this kept me driving my life at 100mph in 3rd gear.

As for the road I was on?...I never even cared to be on it in the first place. While driving this road, I kept looking over at a different road, wondering when I could finally drive on that one...to the place I really wanted to go.

When my body pulled the parking brake, it did so because I ignored it for way too long and it finally had had enough.

You may experience a moment like this yourself (or you already have) (it comes in many different forms).

And you get two choices:

1) Replace the engine. Defined as ‘to put something back in a previous place or position.’

2) Rebuild the engine. Defined as ‘build something again after it has been damaged.’

On one hand you can put the same thing back in or, on the other hand, you take the chance to build in a better way.

I’m choosing to rebuild.

And this new engine I’m building can take me off road so I can’t get to the other road I’ve been staring at the entire time.

When your moment comes, which will you choose?

---------------------

​

Uncharted Spirits Updates

• For those who aren’t sure what this is, don’t worry we’re still working on clarifying it ourselves. For now, in short, we’re going to run much needed supplies to remote people / villages in other parts of the world and film it. The story, though, is the 4th person that joins us, someone who has never left their corner of America.
• The biggest obstacle we faced was finding these ‘routes’ to remote people and villages. It’s no longer a problem because we all of sudden have three! First one will be Laos in April. Second one will be the Himalayas in October-ish, and now we might have one in Chile for Jan/Feb/March of ’24.
• Our biggest obstacle now is finding the 4th person. This 4th person will, ideally, have never left the US, but is interested in pushing the comfort zones and looking to gain an experience they will never forget. Jake’s building the landing page, but we could use your help now. Do you know anyone who might be a good fit for this?

​

Teaquila Farm Updates

• Time away. Stacie and I left Ventura this weekend for the mountains of CO. Needed space from Teaquila Farm as it’s been a chaotic 90 days.
• While here, though, we’ll be building out the bigger vision for TF, which has become a lot more meaningful. Regeneration will be the theme...nutrition, body, and mind. Hopefully, we’ll have this plan documented by next newsletter so you can see it.
• Snippet of that plan: organic food production; a podcast with guests that are top farming/gardening, nutrition, and ‘wellness’ experts; a regenerative space to share with the community including Finnish sauna, cold plunge, etc. We’re doing it for ourselves now, but want to share it with others.

​

Training for Mavericks Updates

• Still setting baseline fitness, so no major headway here. In fact, my calves are cramping as I write because I’ve had so much coffee already haha
• I am starting to get connected to people that can help me prep for surfing this including a wave hold down specialist, some Mavericks surf instructors, and even a photographer if/when the time comes.

​

Cancer Updates

• A few weeks back I had a 2nd brain MRI that showed the medicine (PLUS all the other stuff I was doing: nutrition, mediation, high intensity training, ice baths) was working and reduced the size of my brain tumors by 50%, in just 6 weeks. The oncologist was like, ‘wow, that’s fast’. Well, it’s probably because I just didn’t rely on the meds...I’m rebuilding a better engine to accelerate this recovery, but...
• The medication is still toxic. Think of it as a step down from chemo. We did a blood panel a few weeks back and it revealed that my liver #s were 3x higher than they should be. F me. That means I would need to come off meds. Obviously, didn’t want to do that and potentially reverse the progress. I adjusted a few food items and started chugging 150-200oz of water a day to flush the toxins. It worked because liver #s are now back in he normal range as of today. The culprit could have been the amounts of cinnamon I was consuming...I was doing like 2tbsp of cinnamon on fruit, which is like 5x the amount you’re supposed to have and where it becomes toxic. Oops! Anyway, we continue the medication plan as it was.
  ​

Your Thoughts, Feedback, and Involvement

Yes, there’s a lot here. Will simplify in time, but with each newsletter I’ll ask for just one thing from you if you can help.

Here’s my ask to you today...We need to start finding our 4th person for the Laos trip in April. The detailed landing page will come out soon, but I wanted to get a head start. The ideal person is someone who has never left the US, or has only traveled to touristy places like Cancun, and is open to getting out of their comfort zone. This person should be older than 25 and can be on this trip for ~21 days.

Do you know anyone who might fit this description? (You can also nominate yourself if you’d like)

Have Ideas. Do Them.

Chad

🏄‍♂️