Welcome, welcome, welcome to another
episode of kiss the ground. For today's

episode, I got to actually sit
down in person with Steven Smith, the

CEO and founder of Anda wellness and
is a regenerative hemp and herb company dedicated

to using regenerative agriculture to create the
cleanest possible medicine. Today, Stephen explains

the diverse uses of hemp crop,
how he kicks started his company and how

he keeps their farming values a top
priority. Well, running his business my

life, my purpose was to be
a protector or to care for whether for

nature. Soil really is the nutritional
bank account for our Willstons. Together we

can do something that we've never done
before. We can rebuild our ECOS system,

our degraded soils and are degraded water
cycles. Freedom to me is the

ability, the right to be all
of who you are. I think we

can all do our roles, even
if you're not a farmer. From the

words of Roomy Let, the beauty
you love, the all that you do.

There is hundreds of ways to kneel
and kiss the ground. So what

is hemp? Hemp was one of
the first cultivated crops. That's that's what

we've been told. That's that's what
we read. It's a questers a ton

of carbon. It has a ton
of uses. Hemp was cultivated in Central

Asia. It's a cannabis plant that
contains fewer thhc levels than others found in

the marijuana plant. Instead, hemp
contains the chemical compound can of annoyed or

CBD. It appears to kind of
the in then more narrow scope, more

contemporary viewpoint that this is. This
is new right, but this is really

ancient medicine. This is an ancient
crop and it's just the past. You

know, eighty years or so it's
been in prohibition. Archeologists say that hemp

was discovered and eight thousand bce in
areas that would now be parts of China

and Taiwan. But Steven's own discovery
of hemp was just about twenty years ago.

I decided to write my senior research
paper on cannabis. That felt a

little a little edgy for North Carolina
in the late s. So I kind

of pivoted over to hemp and I
remember like literally researching in Encyclopedias. That's

dating me, I suppose, but
I was blown away. But I the

historical context and use of this crop
from, you know, rope on boats

to to paper, to bioplastics,
insulation, fiber, on and on.

And I just was kind of blown
away at what started as kind of like

a cheeky quasi rebellion to my teacher
to write about a cannabis crop. Just

confusion and frustration actually, as an
eighteen year old, like why are we

not using this? You know,
hemp is a very diverse resource that can

be cultivated to make clothing, housing, fiber and so much more. Five

years ago or so, I had
an experience with some homemade infused CBD oil

and I recall as flying back to
Colorado for for Christmas and I was tired,

I was getting a goal, I
was slightly hungover and I was about

to get on a plane or leave
for the airport. So I mixed this

oil with tea and herbs and anything
I could find that I thought might contribute

to me making it through the day
and feeling better, but more report tonic

of whatever within the closet, a
totally than the cupboard, a Cornucopia of

wellness delight, you know. And
and and when I got on the plane,

I kind of was like dancing down
the aisle, you know, as

like this is groovy, like I
don't feel I don't feel high, I

really don't. You know, I
feel clear, but I feel so relaxed.

And it felt adapted Jenne in the
sense that I either, you know,

sink deeply into the seat of this
frontier flight or I could turn and

have a coherent, sharp conversation or
read. And when I landed I said

this is something like there's something to
these other canabinoids and I wonder if if

the market will open up in that
way. And so, you know,

I don't I can open up a
little about how this part started. But

a dear friend of mine passed away
from a seizure and and and when she

passed away before, before this happened, a couple years before that. It

would have been two or three years
before that experience, I had this really

strong feeling and vision that I was
going to work with her parents. You

know, we get these things sometimes, I don't know. And when I

landed in Colorado, it was the
end of two thousand and sixteen, I

called her, her parents and I
said, what do you think about CBD?

Do you think it's going to turn
into a market? You think it's

gonna be anything at all, these
minor canabinoids, and they said, I

don't know, but you know,
we have some friends playing around with some

stuff, and that is what started
on the wellness the home to the first

biodynemic certified CBD oil. On the
means way, vibration, ripple and so

people. You know, I've traveled
a lot in central and South America and

I was inspired by a conversation one
time and Argentina where this woman said,

like, you know, you have
good vibes, teeny went on thus like

and and that stuck with me and
I said, well, this is an

experiment. Let's just start with the
name as a placeholder and you know,

you don't overthink it, let's just
get moving. Yeah, and and it

turned out that like the concept behind
that, when you unpack a ripple effect,

the waves that we have in our
lives of ups and downs. I

get really as we started to develop
these products, like I felt that it

was regulating my waves, you know, and it's so I'm happy with the

name, still in honor of Stevens
discovering his passion and creating this amazing hemp

base wellness product. We had to
do an in studio toast, let's have

a little tears, toast, of
the release, yeah, of this amazing

product. You see green it is. MMMM, that's the whole hemp.

Well, yeah, yeah, we
we're not interested in clear, clear product,

plant products under the tongue. Yeah, under the tongue, down the

hatch. So what is CBD oil
and what are the real benefits of using

it? I'll be be quick,
but the endoconnabinoid system was discovered maybe thirty

years ago and it's his master regulatory
system, and I imagine it in my

brain that's kind of like one of
those old school, you know, operator

boards, like yes, hold plays
and they're like connecting like all parts of

the body. And so when you
bounce out of homeostasis, when you spike

with anxiety, when you spike with
inflammation or depression or you can't sleep,

your body is trying to get yourself
back to center, long right and it

does that by producing a Nandamide,
which is the bliss molecule or the runners

high molecule, and to Ag,
to Ag, or two a D to

ag. And some folks just are
always calm and not anxious, like we

know some of those people. They
are the overwhelming minority and and God bless

them, like I want some of
that, but that's what this is for

me. So what this does when
you consume on the oil owned, the

whole hemp oil, which again we
think works differently from like a isolate or

a broad spectrum which is more processed, it comes in and and your body

recognizes it as it's the same molecule. CBD looks like a Nandomide it.

They the there like they're like mirrored
ones, phytocnabinoid ones, indocnabinoid ones in

the body, ones from a plant. So when you put the plant version

inside the enzymes that are breaking down
the ones your body produces, and when

it breaks those down you don't reach
homeostasis as quickly. It goes at the

martyr. So CBD is in effect
acting on the oil, is acting as

a martyr comes into the body and
is like Hey, what's up? Taking

me, it's cool, take me, it's fine. It's that you guys.

Go, go, go, go
go. That's how I see it

and that's been backed by, you
know, the medical professionals that we've worked

with. So when you're taking it, it helps you get back to center

line. The number one reason.
We just did a recent poll. People

are taking on to is for anxiety, and especially now. So we have

the audios anxiety, which is supplemented
with Ashwagun to go to Cola, Lemon

Balm, passion flower pepperman. That's
a more directed product to kind of steer

it for that. But then the
other things would be inflammation, which we

all know is the root of so
many issues. Yes, and then sleep.

So people that aren't sleeping. Well, you know, and I've been

taking it for four and a half
years. I should not just do that.

Knock on wood. It still works, right. So I don't meaning

I don't have a tolerance. So
you know, I'm personally. I'm high

energy, I'm passionate. I was
given a dy or at all and you

know, anti anxiety medication as a
kid, like the whole deal, right,

and for me it's exercise, meditation, eating well and this stuff.

So that's why most people take it. But it has amazing effects, from

what I hear, on Women's cycles, you know, so things that I

never thought about. It's coming out
and we hear all these anecdotes that are

just completely fueling the the the progression
of the of the company but anyway,

that's what of you. Yeah,
what about what about four kids? And

we obviously know that kids, you
know, we're in high levels of,

you know, suicide for young people. What is safety? Is there any

issues with young people taking CBD?
So all of our products are under point

three percent thhc by volume. Right. So you know, a consult your

physician is what I'm saying as a
blanket term here. Yeah, or lay

that right. But but we've had, I guess she's ten now, a

young woman that that was having seizures
and her family was going to the dispensary

and using a plethora of high,
really expensive products. The only thing that

worked was Onda and the seizures just
went away. I would say it's up

to every every parent to decide.
You know, if the hang up is

THC, you know it's very,
very trace amounts of it. So it's

really up to the parent to decide. But as far as calming and and

in helping all humans, children,
all animals actually, dogs have more into

Canabin dsceptors and humans. It's just
unbelievable how it just helps bring people back

to center line. So I would
say explore with with you know, your

physician, but our stuff is super
clean, it's all organic and again it

has under that legal limit of THHC. So that would be the only thing

I think parents would probably consider,
you know, for to veloping minds.

You know, I steven didn't come
from a background of entrepreneurship. He was

an art student who had no idea
what it would take to start a brand.

So the early stages of Anda were
born from a lot of intuition and

the amazing people steven surrounded himself with. But we were early on faced with

with forks in the road, you
know, and it was like, well,

you can get a really good margin
if you use an isolate or you

can disregard your interest in sourcing directly
from a farm and buy from a bulk

supplier at, you know, forty
percent less or any number of these kind

of shiny, slippery, you know, paths presented them so for and more

efficient the American way. I don't
know. So you know that that became

a parent very early and you know
Annie and I, who is my cofounder,

we we were adamant about sticking to
our guns on this and and I

had worked in the wine business,
so that was constantly informing the model and

in my experience working in the wine
business and it was always about farming on

the highest level and then, gentle
minimal processing. So if you think about

farming, processing or manufacturing and then
marketing and sales, kind of in these

three columns, it was just really
the best you can do in farming,

which I can elaborate on our view
point there. And then, you know,

like the natural wine maker's gentle right, like honor the farming. It's

like, if you can imagine if
you were farming citrus like in this area

and putting so much love and care
into organic by Oo, dynamic regenerative citrus

and then you just blasted it into
emergency powder, you've lost the soul of

like the integrity of the farming,
in my opinion. So that's what we

see, you know, with with
a lot of hemp products. So yeah,

the thing that makes me think of
is the you know, a chef

that has really good ingredients doesn't need
to do much. It's like, you

know, just taste this peach,
taste this tomato, maybe with you know,

a little bit of lemon or olive
oil, and you know it's alive

with flavor. So it's it really
is with the minimal processing. It's really

honoring what nature did and having that
flavor actually in that that communication, actually

make it all the way to the
experience of the human being. Trying it

absolutely right. They're all parallel and
you know, that's something we find.

It's a very philosophical or kind of
it's a perspective that that humans have,

right. Are we of the mindset, or are people of the mindset of

this pharmaceutical perspective where we take nature, we break it down into these little

pieces, into the elements, to
the particulates, and then we have the

arrogance to try to reconstitute things in
a way that we see is the most

fit, whereas our perspective is on
the other end of the spectrum, which

is, like you're just saying,
farm honor the plant, keep it all

intact and trust that those nutrients are
together for flavor, for for for for

health and and keep it, keep
it aligned. You know, as far

as running a business, our mission
is to heal people, empower the farmers

and support the regeneration of the earth. And and anyone that I work with

on our small team, you have
to refer back to to those pillars and

they came to us on a group
camping trip, me in a couple of

my colleagues. We were camping and
it hit us like right on the edge

of the deschutes river, right near
our farm, or or Kassade farm that

we partner with, and it's still
our guiding light. So you know,

there's overlap, of course, but
at the same time the body, the

farm and the Earth are systems,
their ecosystems that we want to try to

positively contribute to the balance, wholeness, vibrants and and and highest functioning or

being of those entities. Yes,
and so those principles, pillars, columns,

whatever, those guide everything we do. The pillar for empowering the farmers

was really tested in two thousand and
nineteen after the Hemp Farming Act was passed

in two thousand and eighteen, which
legalized and regulated production of hemp. Production

was blooming and then it wasn't.
Even though in two thousand and nineteen,

for example, the bottom fell out, and I mean it was a nightmare

for a lot of farmers. We're
still with our farmers. We pay and

what they say their hemp is worth, you know, completely disregarding industrial commodity

pressure. So I think to us
you know, to be a business with

integrity. It's relative, right,
but we have set a course in our

framework and a mission and we just
do our best to stick with it and

and so far that model is is
working. It's not a totally it's not

delusions of grandeur. You know,
some shiny and it's sure, it sure

is hell not just a marketing facade, which you see more often than not.

Onto wellness has two farms they've partnered
with, hoskin berry farm and Kasade

family farms. And so Kasad family
farms, which I can speak more to

this model. Dear Friends of mine, Kate have stad's a really talented hat

maker. Have knowner for many years. Her husband, Chris, amazing farmer.

They are first and foremost food producers. So our interest is to partner

with people that are making food for
their communities, their region, whatever there

reaches. They grow about a hundred
tons of food. They're not just a

little market garden, which not that
being a market garden isn't fantastic, but

they're really growing quite a bit of
food. They they integrate hemp in the

rotation, so they have chickens,
pigs, cows, Turkeys. So these

poly cultures of livestock. They're growing
herbs, flowers and all these vegetables,

and so when savory comes in and
starts to to measure their I packed.

They're looking at the health of their
water systems, they're looking at biodiversity in

the soil, they're looking at inputs
or no inputs, which in their case

they don't use any inputs, certainly
not off farm inputs. If anything,

it's a compost and nutrients developed on
site. And and then carbon sequestration.

You know, are they sequestering carbon? Right? You know a little bit

about that. So we're, I
think, two years in to a five

year data cycle. Basically, cascade
is a certified organic farm and in two

thousand and twenty they received their ecological
outcome verification certification with Eov certification. The

farm is seeking to make an impact
on the climate crisis through healthy soil and

ecosystem function, and so that farm
is is being documented and recorded to to

back up what little data. You
know, what data they already have to

support that it is regenerating and making
that place better. A lot of products

nowadays claim to be organic or sustainable, but when it comes to using the

term biodynamic, you have to be
certified. First pros and cons to that.

But if you're certified biodynamic, in
my book, you check out every

farm I've ever been to and worked
for that's been biodynamic. Is is absolutely

it's a high, high level regenerative
organic certification and land to mark. It

is really interesting because they work with
farmers in a less prescriptive way, so

they don't say you have to check
all these boxes, you need to spend

all this time online. They come
out and they work with them to figure

out what is relevant to this site, where the bottlenecks you know, what

can be done to improve or get
through these things and and while documenting the

progress along the way. Kasad family
farms is located in Jefferson County, Oregon.

Like a lot of people in the
West, you know, really short

on water. This year it's been
wild. But they are young go getters.

That are I mean the farmers and
ranchers in my life are some of

the most intelligent, hard working,
problem solving, just unrelenting people. I

know. You know and and and
that's where we look at our model and

think I hear I've heard this again
and again, especially working in agriculture.

They always got the short into the
stick. You know, some shiny you

know city brand just sells for ten
billion or you know whatever, and and

and they're not always historically conscious of
their sourcing and where they're getting it from.

And so farmers, you know,
if like farmers are breaking even,

it's like a good year. What
other business would ever be okay with that

for forty years, you know?
So if we can contribute to financial and

biological diversity on their farm, even
if we're just chipping away little by little

because we're a small company, we'd
like to see that model scale. Not

necessarily in the way of saying hey, dit your carrots and go all him.

That would be in violation of the
model, you know, to be

kind of anti monocropping, but can
hemp be a little bumper in other food

producing farms? Want to ask Steven
what was his opinion on the global implementation

of her generative farming techniques? He
said we have a we have a ton

of people on this planet. But
when I see what Chris and cater doing,

for example, and they've got eighty
plus acres under cultivation and it's by

diversified. It's again not not pulling
in external inputs and producing ton of food,

a hundred tons rather of food.
I don't know, seems like their

neighbors could do it too, you
know what I mean? Like so someone

asked me, excuse me, the
other day about that same question and she

said, well, my friends family
grows let us in the Salinas Valley and

immediately thought of east of Eden in
the book when, when, when he

was trying to the main character was
trying to ship let us to New York

on freight trains in ice boxes.
That was like a part of the book

that just popped up to me.
HMM, and I thought, well,

I don't know if we should really
be doing that, you know, and

and I don't know, maybe it's
easier said than done. Feeding, feeding

the whole planet is is something I
can I don't have a solution for.

But but I will say that I've
seen farm is produce substantial amounts of food

for their community and they are less
than one percent of the farmland that's being

cultivated. So if they're biodiversified,
you know, hundred Acre farm can be

growing that much food in that way. So questering carbon, high levels,

low inputs, all these amazing things. Well, you know what about doing

it for a hundred other farms in
the area right so I'm optimistic. I'm

certainly more optimistic to explore that before
some lab meat or science tied. I

mean, that's just me, I'm
just I'm I'm thinking low tech. Get

back to nature. Let's not try
to use technology and science to outsmart nature,

because it seems like a futile task. The New York Times released an

article called attack of the Super Weeds
and the resilience of pig weed. They

have the ability to re root themselves
after being removed from the ground and have

slowly built up an immunity to many
weed killers. Even with scientists developing new

chemicals to kill the weeds, nature
always ends up on top. Do you

surf at all? Have you served? I don't serve regular but I do

love surfing. You know, the
feeling or the concept like it's like,

you know, there's something about farming
and surfing that are interesting to me in

that we are writing what we're given, like we are at the mercy,

like we are not in charge,
you know, and as soon as people,

I think my opinion, realize that
we are riding the wave of nature

and and what we're given, the
more in harmony we the sooner we can

get to where we probably really should
be going. And other than the people

that are making millions and billions off
of these chemicals, I don't understand how

anyone else sees that as as a
solution. Yeah, it's. You know,

every time I walk in a city
and I see a weed growing out

between a crack and the sidewalk,
I'm like, yeah, there you go,

you know, like it's always going
to take over. Yeah, it

is. Yeah, it's. Regeneration
is the design principle of nature and whether

we're whether whether we snuff ourselves out
and then regeneration takes place after that.

Yeah, or going to happen either
or we actually can find ourselves connecting to

that design principle, that organizing principle, is kind of the thing that I'm,

you know, most excited about,
and I know Paul Hawkin just came

out of the new book just this
past week, yesterday the day before,

called regeneration. Subtext is healing or
reversing climate change in one generation. Yeah,

I saw and so it's quite a
compelling possibility and how to but but

I'd love to ask you. I
understand that you've described yourself in the past

as an aspiring polly math so I'd
love to know such a nerd. Yeah,

what does that mean? And what
subjects are you aspiring to currently mastering

in your in your polymath exploration?
Okay, yeah, sounds good. So

this, this goes back to,
I think, honestly, what set me

on the course of all of this. You know, like I always grew

up with a guarden, my parents
always grew food, my grandmother always had

a garden. You know that that
was always a part of my life growing

up, but without any sort of
like rhetoric or conversation or identity. It

was just like, you know,
North Carolina country folks growing food, you

know, no chemicals or anything.
And when I went to Napa and two

thousand and ten to work as an
apprentice for David Mahaffey, who I hope

to see this weekend at Olivia Brion
winery, I was just wide open to,

you know, what is wine making, what is grape growing, what

is farming? And little did I
know that he would become a good friend,

a mentor and I would be living
with him and his wife on their

property for four years. He he
is, he inspired that he really did

you know? He is an amazing
wine maker, he's an amazing farmer,

he's a woodworker, he used to
shoot photos for polaroid back in the s.

He used to hang with Warhoul.
I mean the guy never finished his

Undergrad and yet he convinced Harvard to
let him teach film and photo, which

he then segued into a Master's program
he's just like he just flows through life

in this really interesting way that's fearless
and curious. Mm and I, I

just I don't know that I had
met anyone like that, you know,

in the way that it's like he
didn't give a shit. You know,

he didn't care what people thought of
them. He still doesn't. He just

was curious to learn and make connections. And so, you know, I

think we grew up on a an
age, a time where, you know,

being a specialist is is, is
encouraged. Right. You know,

I'm really good at this thing and
I fit into the COG and this way

because I bring this service and that
that is great and probably very functional for

this reality we live in and this
system. However, it wasn't really for

me. In fact, early on
I was interested in, you know,

skating and I also like Skateboarding and
surfing and I also like wanted to play

Lacrosse and learn about and so from
an early age I was like, well,

am I a jock? Am I
a skater? Kid, like,

what's the identity? And I remember
like thinking about how I felt even in

middle school that I had to identify
with a group, and yet I wanted

to be connected to all of them. So what I met David, it

made me feel validated that that was
okay in a way. Yes, and

he just told me. He said
I moved to Napa when I was thirty,

and I just asked a lot of
questions and he figured out how to

make wine. You know, the
guy can make a violin in seven days,

like he's just talented, you know. But he also he goes there,

he does the work. So for
me, I not to get who.

I just think it's interesting. I
one time had a reading from like

a psychic, astrologer, chart reading
person, and she said this is your

last life. She said you were
a man of the of the of the

cloak in your last life and you
adhere to your responsibilities and your your restrictions,

and this life you're gonna taste the
fruit of your you know, like

just do everything and explore and I
was like that sounds pretty good. Yeah,

like I can identify with that.
And so, you know, like

I live half the time in Oregon, which is really fulfilling up there to

be connected with that community, and
half the time down here, and,

you know, part of me feel
spread but at the same time I think

there's value in having kind of a
broad awareness of all of these systems and

all of these parts of this existence
and then, you know, pulling from

that perspective to find connections and create
new paths. You know, I find

that really inspiring. So that's where
I'm coming from with that statement, as

though, you know, we need
to identify ourselves on social media and stuff

like that, but I think it's
fun. I think it's fun to know,

you know a little bit about a
lot and then ultimately that can inspire

our path and and creativity in new
ways. As we've said before, hemp

is an ancient crop but, as
we see with Stephen and onto wellness,

it is one that is still being
explored even today. Steven said, having

experienced in a variety of fields can
help when taking on a project with so

much room for growth. There's something
unique, right, about what we're about

this time and this category or product
or crop. You know, I'm not

selling wine. People know what wine
is. It's been sold for hundreds and

hundreds of years. It's not a
pair of socks. It's a product that

people don't not everyone knows what it
is or what to do with it.

Yeah, so I think there's a
certain requirement of folks that are in this

space to be able to pull from
a breadth of other experiences, to make

parallels in the Bush whacking and in
the trailblazing and in the formation of this

path, while also being cognizant of
the opportunity to not do it that way.

Right. So don't want to do
it like dairy, almonds, beef,

whatever commodity, you know, massive
ocean liner. That's really hard to

turn right, when you've got these
we're writing the narrative right and I can

see and feel the the pepsis,
the corporations, the big entities, kind

of in the shadows waiting for,
you know, some of the stuff to

clear up a little and then to
make Ocean spready launched to sbd Soda.

I mean this it's happening now,
yes, but but we need to be

vocal and loud and transparent about the
opportunity for those that, you know,

give a damn of us to do
it differently from the way that these other

agriculture industries have ultimately, I would
say, in some cases, ruined,

but certainly change the course of what
our great grandparents dairy industry look like.

Right. So it's clear. It's
like we are in the front line collectively.

Let's let's see if a different model
works that benefits farmers, benefits the

Earth. They're still enough of a
margin for me to eat Raman, you

know, or whatever, and we
can all benefit from this. So I

think this is a unique situation as
an entrepreneur, because it's so new that

we can pull from this wide array
and make these parallels so people are comfortable

and see it, but also pioneer
this. This, you know, different,

different path that maybe a lot of
us believe could be more fulfilling.

Kiss the ground and Onda recently collaborated
on a new product called contentment. It's

the first land to Market Save Rey
certified crop product. We're super excited.

I mean we with this product.
We use to own the whole hemp oil,

which is an infusion oil. We
didn't, you know, we went

the route of infusing whole him,
whole mint. So ment has, you

know, great benefits and then,
of course the flavor is fantastic. So

it's great. We get to give
twenty percent to the impact fund. We

pay back to savory and land to
market. We pay our farmers above average

market price. So we're really trying
to walk, to walk the walk in

a different economic model that is empowering
people. You guys savory and then the

Kasad family farm. So we're pumped. And today is the pre launched day.

So it's funny because it just so
happened that it's the day that we're

getting together to do this. So
Yep, today's the day. It's going

live on the website and folks can
be involved with just buying a bottle.

You know, in addition to our
new collaboration on has a few other projects

in the works. We have some
really cool products we want to launch and,

to be honest, we're starting our
first kind of fund raise. So

we're looking at what it what it
might take to find the right strategic and

aligned partners to amplify our mission.
Really, you know, this was never,

never created with an exit strategy.
This isn't some tech company to like.

That's I want to flip. This
is. This is a mechanism for

the mission. That's it. So
what's coming, I think in the next

six months to a year, is
building the team out a little bit.

As you know, we launched world's
first biodynamic CBD oil and first verified regenerative

through the Savory Institute. So we
have these great kind of starts and and

first, but now I want to
expand the product line. I would love

to, you know, explore what
it look might look like to have a

bit of more of a person brick
and mortar experience, whether that's in an

urban area or exploring my past with
the winery model and having kind of like

an interactive, you know, on
farm room. Yeah, you know,

in that direction and just keep dreaming. I mean I would love to be

involved in other aspects of hemp,
you know, more partnerships. Yeah,

yeah, it's a very, very
exciting time. So it's important on this

podcast to talk about how we can
take care of the planet, but also

how can we take care of ourselves. Stephen may create wellness products, but

he says true self care starts with
the body. And Mind. I would

say for me it's it's the basics, lots of exercise and adventure, meditating,

connecting with my friends, you know, and and that's allowed me,

I think, to not burn out, because every other job before this it

was two year years, two years
of just full throttle and we grow a

business, we'd succeed. It was
always successful, but at the expense of

my emotional and physical wellbeing, and
that that's something that I wanted to do

differently. So if I call,
you know, call in or call my

team and say, guys, I
got to take the afternoon, I don't

have any shame anymore in that and
I certainly don't have anyone telling me what

I should or shouldn't do. So
I try to trust and knowing when you

need to rest and knowing when you
need to charge and just getting a deeper

self awareness so that you can navigate
your mission for the long haul. And

it feels it feels good. I
feel like I'm on the right track.

But how does Stephen Kiss the ground? I think I'm trying to use my

my life force as a warrior for
this cause, you know, everything we've

talked about. I want to I
want to use the fire and use the

passion and in the community to yeah, to give it a shot to try

to heal, heal all all beings, everything we've spoken about, the soil,

the farms and and that's it.
Just just committed