Saturday 7

Published: Sat, 04/06/24

Good morning!

Here's your Saturday 7 roundup!

📉 How I dropped 3% body fat in 31 days:

March was the first month of my fat loss phase after 18+ months of bulking (with beef, eggs, and milk).

I'm down 5 lbs, with no loss of muscle, and my body fat went from 19% to 16%

After a proper bulk, the first month of fat loss is easy.

All I've done is eat slightly less (mostly by reducing my milk) and add in 10 minutes of cardio/day.

The "slightly less" food consumption is overall still quite high (~3000 calories), but just lower than that at the peak of my bulk (~3500 calories), so I'm able to lose fat while eating a lot.

This month is just more of the same — less milk and now 20 minutes of cardio/day — and thus hopefully another 3% body fat loss in April.

🥩 How beef and bitcoin mesh:

I ran a 6-week fat loss challenge for several years (due to time, it's now a self-help bonus program of The Ultimate 90-Day Carnivore Challenge).

Through this program I got to know Michael Jordan.

He's a triple threat. Successful businessman, beef eater, and bitcoiner — and now host of The Bitcoin Way Podcast.

He invited me on to talk about beef and bitcoin, 2 of my favorite topics!

Stacking Steaks and Sats with Dr. Kevin Stock | Ep. #5

📩 What got hacked:

The team's Meat Health email address got hacked ([email protected]).

To fix this, I went to our email hosting provider to get support. The 1st step I had to go through was to chat with their support bot.

I expected it to be just a hurdle to get to an actual human.

I was wrong.

This bot was integrated with ChatGPT and was trained on the company data. It walked me right through the problems and steps to resolution, both understanding and responding in natural human language.

Instead of wasting 30 minutes of an expensive, technical, customer support agent's time, a bot solved my problem without human intervention.

Even though half the time I'm disappointed in AI solutions (here's the top 50), I can't help but think in time this is the future of online customer interactions and likely much much more.

By the way, I also got a new email address...

💡How I got a new email address:

Let me catch you up to speed.

In 2015 I start developing an anti-snore device, a Nasal EPAP Dilator. I called it "NED" as a placeholder name.

It kind of stuck though. I got the domain name https://ned.rest because the the guy who owns the .com wanted $7 million for it.

But I never loved the name and really didn't like not having a .com.

Fast-forward to today...

After nearly a decade of R&D and prototyping, we are moving to mass manufacturing, and really launching the product. This includes a whole new website, among other things, including branding.

If there was ever a time to re-brand, now is the time.

While I was putting website wireframes together, I had a flash of inspiration for a new name. I rushed to GoDaddy. Alas. Taken.

But I really liked the name so I decided to throw a Hail Mary and hire a domain broker to submit an offer to the owner. A week passes and they can't get ahold of the owner.

I decide to take matters into my own hands. I search the web to figure out who owns this domain and how to contact them.

After calling several wrong numbers, I get a, "Hello?"

It's him. An elderly gentlemen who had been working on a nasal dilator but given up on it.

Over the next 2 weeks I follow up, follow up, and follow up some more. We talk on the phone, exchange emails, and ultimately get to an agreement for the domain. I send the money.

Now it's time to transfer the domain to me.

He doesn't know how. I try and walk him through it, but he doesn't know where it's registered or the email or the password to access it. He had hired a guy to do all the tech and he can't get ahold of him either.

So, I ask him if he can give me the tech guy's name to see if I can find him. Again I find myself dialing wrong numbers.

"Hello?...Sorry, wrong number."

"Hello?...Sorry wrong number."

"Hello...yes, I registered that domain."

Found him.

It took another couple weeks of follow-ups to coordinate with this guy, the owner, and the transfer. Finally, the transfer went through.

The rebrand is now underway, the product is in the final development stage, and the official launch of...well I don't want to spoil the name reveal yet, so stay tuned :)

Moral of the Story: People give up easily. No one cares as much as you do. If you want something, you often have to get your hands dirty, follow-up, and then follow-up a few [hundred] times.

Not giving up is a massively underrated secret to success.

P.S.

I'm planning on running a pilot test study of the anti-snore device with around 100 people. If interested, I'll send the people on the waitlist more info in the coming months.

🧠 What quote I've been thinking about:

"Not giving up is a massively underrated secret to success."

– Dr. Jeff Ross

📊 What's up 7 months running:

In it's longest streak since 2012, bitcoin closes up for the 7th month in a row.

But bitcoin is not alone. Assets across the board are up in expectation of Fed cutting interest rates.

Despite sticky high inflation, rising gas prices, high employment, and rising GDP, the Fed plans to cut interest rates. (r)

Historically, rate cuts happen in response to the exact opposite set of conditions in order to stimulate the economy.

But the Fed needs to cut because the government needs to keep issuing more debt. But the interest payments on this debt is growing too fast.

Bank of America highlighted this dilemma showing that if we keep the rates where they are, interest payments on debt will rise to $1.6 trillion by the end of the year.