*timestamps reflect the interview portion only, not the entire episode

00:00.00 chasechewning All right lights camera action baby ah Michael welcome to ever Ford Radio my man. Finally this has been too long in the in the waiting. 00:07.47 Michael Chernow Thank you so much for having me man I know that we've been trying to put this on the on the calendar for a minute and we're here I'm ready to rock. 00:15.39 chasechewning We are. We are man and you know a lot of things I see in common in our journey and our mission and our habits which we're definitely going to get into but right out of the gate man I had no idea that you had roots in Dc too with one of your ventures the meatball company. Um, that's that's kind of my old stomping grounds as well. So not not can put a face to a meatball. 00:36.63 Michael Chernow You know it's it's so interesting that we so meatball shop is a New York city born and and bred business. Um, and. We had an opportunity to try out a restaurant in Dc for a year and see if it worked for us as our first like out of market business and and we tried it out and it was a small restaurant and it did not work nearly as well as the restaurants do in New York City and so we decided to. 01:02.96 chasechewning Where was it. 01:06.31 Michael Chernow Um, oh god man I'm trying to I I yes dc proper like Seventeenth street and and I think it was seventeenth street um and like over over h or something like that. 01:07.83 chasechewning Like Dc Dc like that like Dc proper not like Arlington. Yeah, okay. 01:24.29 chasechewning Okay, yeah, you're in a good run of ah restaurants and shops and stuff over there. 01:25.72 Michael Chernow Um I forgot forgot. Yeah yeah, and so we had we had a good time. Ah, you know there was lots of I remember there was lots of bumps along the way I at that point meatball shop I had earlyy. Ah, sold the majority of my equity and I was really just ah, a board member and advisor. Um, but yeah, we we loved. We loved being down in Dc and um, you know we we tried a couple of restaurants out of the New York city market and for whatever reason it just didn't work as well as as the New York City restaurants do. But. 02:01.70 chasechewning A man Dc Food Market is it's cutthroat. It's cutthroat it either it. It thrives or kind of gets left behind and it but the food scene is incredible there. So it's ringing a bellm wondering when it was there and because I'm like I feel like I've had this before. 02:02.20 Michael Chernow You know. 02:18.45 Michael Chernow 2 that I think it's got to be 2018 to the 2018 yeah 02:20.12 chasechewning Um, I'm just stuck over meatballs too. So oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I was definitely there the end of 2018 s when I moved to l a man. So I mean who knows probably had a few meatballs as my going away gift to myself. Ah, but the food industry is something that you're no strangers to man and um, what I love about your story. What I understand of it is you took a passion for something that served you and that you felt so attached to something that pulled you and you made a life out of it for yourself and in order to do that. It takes compound interest compounding success right? And by that I mean stacking conditions in your favor through these little little micro actions throughout the day and big actions in our life such as habits. So how do you define habits I'm curious. How how do you define the word habit. And how does it look in your life first. 03:09.51 Michael Chernow Um, it's a great question. Um I am my habits we are our habits I think of habits as decisions choices. We get to make. That bring us either closer to or further from happiness and freedom and I don't know if that resonates but I will tell you that habits will make us or break us and for years because i. I grew up in New York City I started working in restaurants as a kid at at around twelve years old I was I was deeply exposed to the nightlife in New York all throughout my teenage years and and early twenty s and I partook in all the things that 1 can imagine a young kid ah does that night in New York city and so drinking and doing drugs was ah was part of my it has is part of my journey and those habits really. almost killed me actually I overdosed and and those those habits almost killed me and I got very very lucky where I was 23 years old I had sort of had enough and I was introduced to a couple of guys that. Thought I had what it took to change my life and I know now at this stage in in my life that anybody can change their life. Anybody I'm not a unique person I'm not a snowflake. Anybody can change and I think we you know I mentioned it to you before we started recording but you know all it takes is all you got. That's just that that that that quote for me so means so much. And at that time in my life I knew that I needed to make a change I had a couple of guys that were willing to help me I had no idea what asking for help meant but they put a list of habits in front of me to commit to decisions choices. Rituals. Ah, and said hey man like these are the things that we're going to ask you to do and it's on you to make the to make the call but we promise you that if you make these choices. 06:00.43 Michael Chernow On a daily basis every single day your chance of success here is totally attainable and I was desperate at the time I really was down and out I didn't have much to stand on. I'd lost my job I'd destroyed my relationship with my family I had ah really been a terrible boyfriend to any girlfriend I had ever had. Um and I hated myself truly actually and I say this to you not even being able to fathom that. Sitting in this in this in the seat that I sit today because I've I've done so much work on myself over the years but I can honestly say with every cell in my body that I genuinely hated myself then and these guys said look kid. Here's what's going to happen. You're gonna meet us at this gym and I had no I knew that I knew that the 2 of them were moai kickboxers like competitive kickboxers because the way I got introduced to them was through a friend who was dating one of them and I looked up to these guys. I thought they were cool I wanted I wanted what they had and they said you're going to meet us at this gym and we're gonna we're going to you know, walk you through with the with the the next. Ah, you know 10 years of your life is going to look like and I said all right cool I'll do it and so I met them at this. Um Moyag Kickbox in gym in Chinatown in New York and they put a pair of boxing gloves on my hands and they said you're going to come here every day and this is what your morning is going to look like you're going to wake up at 8 am you are going to get on your knees and ask god for help. And you don't have to you don't it doesn't have to be a god of of of any understanding. It's just something that is greater than yourself the universe. Whatever you're going to ask for help that higher power that's going to be the first step of your day and then you're going to have a huge bowl of oatmeal because. 08:03.64 chasechewning Just higher power. Yeah. 08:13.53 Michael Chernow You've probably been eating garbage for the last fifteen years and then you're going to walk to this meeting where we'll be at and you're going to share about your story and and talk about what's going on in your life and try to heal. And then we're going to go down to the moyai gym together and we're going to kick your fucking ass and we're going to teach you about commitment and discipline and and humility and um and we're going to teach you how to live and then you're going to have a salad with chicken and broccoli. And then you're going to go home and take a nap and you're gonna go to work because I was working at night and I was actually able to get my job back and I I'll tell you that story in a minute but ah, you're gonna you're gonna go to work and then you're gonna have chicken and broccoli for dinner. And you're going to go to bed and you're going to do it all over again and that was the beginning of my journey in replacing my bad habits for for the habits that I have today because I learned everything I really learned everything in that moaijin. That's the truth I learned I learned how to live in that. And that discipline structure I learned how to take a punch I learned how to get back up which I think is the most important piece of all of this for me is understanding that what happened a minute ago does not have to impact or predict. What's going to happen right now. So as long as I get back up. Getting kicked in the kicked in the side and hitting the floor if I want that to project what the future or what the moment looks like I can or I can just get back up and give it another shot and so I learned that there um and. And I built this the foundation and structure of my life and happiness today out of out of this commitment to fitness and nutrition and and that's where it all started for me and so when you ask me about what is habit for me habit is the decisions that I make on a daily basis. To bring me closer to and or further from happiness and freedom. 10:26.95 chasechewning I love your little attachment there to further away from or closer to happiness and freedom I think that's a really important concept when we're excuse me when when we're thinking about the habits and systems we have in our lives or or lack thereof. I think that is a really great start or kind of ah a little twist on setting yourself up for success more quickly right? out of the gate or to just change your perspective to the systems and habits that you have or don't have because I think that is going to help us attach meaning much more deeper meaning. Um, and develop the why. So it's not just doing things for the sake of doing them right? You know I read this book or read listen to a podcast or I'm looking at success from another person. Um, if we can attach our happiness and meaning to it out of the gate then you know I think it's a much more much more deep bond. And when we're making that connection. Um in your story there man you kind of remind me. Ah um, a great book on habits by the way James Clear's atomic habits. Um I'll make sure to put that down on the show notes for everybody. There's this this qualityty has in there that it's probably 1 of the shortest but 1 of the sweetest and you don't rise to the level of your goals. Fall to the level of your systems and you can interchange habits for systems there I think and when you're describing your story. It sounds like you were really you of these other guys these these these brothers these mentors of yours you were really building for the first time. Um. This new baseline of your systems. This new baseline of your habits so that I'm assuming down the road when you failed again or when you rubbed up against a wall or you know we're kind of questioning things. You had this new baseline that you would fall back to you fall back to this this system these habits that served you so I'm curious. When you were building. This new system was it a realization of wow like I never did any of this before and that is maybe what contributed to where I am today having to kind of rebuild or was it this kind of unique perspective of no this is how you build healthy habits this what I was doing before was completely wrong or incorrect or. I just had a different mindset about it and. 12:39.39 Michael Chernow Well I mean I think the the the easiest way I can answer that question is fear is real in everybody's life right? Like fear is a thing. And everybody's life fear however is not actually real. It's it. It is a um, it's a thought right fear is a thought. It's not tangible. You can't see it or touch it necessarily. I mean if somebody's running at you with an axe like that would be ah, a tangible way to say that that is you know fear in real life but fear is real in in everybody's head. We have a choice to live. In fear or live with fear and there's a massive difference there when I live in fear I'm allowing fear to make decisions for me right? because I'm in I'm in it. I can't see anything else I'm I'm in it and what I'm what I and I tend to be in fight or flight mode when I'm living in fear I'm I'm not thinking through any decisions I'm reacting as opposed to responding I'm really in fight or flight. Get me the hell out of here as quickly as possible and for me for many years 14:15.45 chasechewning And yeah fear is the ultimate system override for humans it literally it hijacks the brain. It's the ultimate human override if if we allow it. 14:22.00 Michael Chernow Ah, hundred percent and and for me for years that the ramification of living in fear was running from it through drugs and alcohol when I was able to step away and start to live with fear. I e courage and bring courage into my life where fear is right on my side where I'm actually utilizing fear as a motivator where I'm where I'm looking at fear dead in the eyes and smiling. And saying I know you're there I'm going to put my arm around you and run as fast as I can towards you because I've got because I know I know that the other side of fear is freedom I just know it I've experienced it and it took a lot of it took a lot of. 15:11.50 chasechewning Yeah. 15:19.42 Michael Chernow Asking for help and a lot of ah community support for me to to get to where I am today where I can honestly say that every single morning I wake up I'm excited to run towards the fear like truly I am a hunter at heart I love running towards the fear. And ah and you know my wife would probably appreciate it if I didn't want to run towards the fear as much as I do but I really do love running to it. Yeah, you know? and so I today can can say that I live with fear and and there is a big distinction there and so. 15:43.55 chasechewning Ah, yeah, maybe ours in us artist support group. 15:57.83 Michael Chernow The way I was living in my adolescence in early Twenty S was I was living in fear man and that's that's the massive distinction between what it was like then and what it is like Now. Ah that how I perceived fear and how I allowed fear or did not allow fear. To penetrate my decision making process. You know we all are able to have Courage. We All are able to um to stand up and fight all of us have it in us. You know and you know ah cultural environmental. Um, those things can potentially impact our ability or hunger to want to fight. Um. But I just know for sure that I've seen miracles happen in people that just that just turned it turned it on and said I'm goingnna I'm going to do this and I'm going to go and yeah and that's the difference between what my life is like now and where the you know what it was like then. 17:07.99 chasechewning I love that man. Um, and what you're describing there reminds me of this other side of fear I think a lot of us can relate to have experienced or definitely will when we are in this kind of rebuild phase or when we're in this habit analysis habit rebuild phase. There's fear that you're talking about of the unknown fear of outside external threat. There's fear of failure but in my experience there has also been fear of succeeding and especially when we're trying to establish or reestablish ourselves in the gym. In life in our relationships and in our spirituality. Whatever the unknown now looks like success because we haven't had that before and there's still that that that amygdala response that that innate human response to. When I think about or perceive something to be an unknown something that I haven't experienced yet. Well, it's the same trigger for uncertainty of you know of succeeding or being attacked by a mountain line. You know it's this uncertainty that the brain can't handle that begins to kind of let anxiety and stress and worry and fear just kind of. Open the floodgates a little bit so my question Michael is did you experience any of that and if so how do you navigate fear of success any differently if so from fear of failure. 18:32.15 Michael Chernow Um. You know it's interesting. So I I had a podcast called borner made for I don't know about a year and a year and a year and a half almost two years and I decided to push pause on borner made this past October to focus on the launch of creatures of habit. And ultimately now relaunching a new podcast the creatures of habit podcast but Borner made was a podcast that really dove deep into the nature nurture question. Are we born to do what we do well or are we. Made over time and like are we naturally are we supposed to be doing the things that we succeed at and and it was such a great I mean it was such a great podcast I got so much incredible insight there you know i. I I believe that I was born with a um with the ability to just sort of take risk for some reason I can't I can't describe it when I was opening up to meatball shop. You know my first business I was 28 years old and I'd never obviously done anything like that before and you know, raised money and went out in there and and and was ready to do this and people would ask me are you are you scared hold on one sec. Let me just tell my kids hey guys. 20:07.20 chasechewning Oh yeah, we're good. 20:10.58 Michael Chernow Hey guys I'm I'm on a podcast I'm on a podcast sorry about that. 20:17.99 chasechewning I love how you can just say that I'm on a podcast and kids know what that is now that's amazing like I didn't know what a podcast was until I was like 28 20:23.18 Michael Chernow Ah, yeah, well you know because we've been working from home for the last two years my kids are very accustomed to dad recording podcasts in the office and that means yeah, no no screaming 20:31.17 chasechewning Yeah. 20:39.46 chasechewning Daddy's having his quiet time all right? yeah. 20:43.40 Michael Chernow Um, but where was I I right? Yeah, so people were asking me if I was scared and I just I really did not feel fear. 20:44.31 chasechewning You want to pick back up. You're talking about. Um you know raising money for meatball shop people asking are you are you afraid. 21:00.71 Michael Chernow And and and most likely I can only imagine that had I tried to attempt something like that in my days of addiction and absolute chaos. A I would never be anywhere have the ability and or nobody would ever give me the money to attempt something like that. But I I could honestly say that I probably would have a lot more anxiety around it I simply just did not have a lot of fear I I felt like this was the right thing for me to do and so I don't have fear of failure. In all sincerity I Really don't I am I am one of the most optimistic positive glass half full Always I don't see the dark side of things and that's why that that can that can be dangerous too right? I I need to surround myself with people that can help. 21:55.77 chasechewning The realistic the logistical the like hold us debt back down to earth from. Yeah yeah. 21:55.91 Michael Chernow You know that'll basically be like hey Mike right? the operator The operators the ones that are the ones that are like dude you're doing 60 and a 30 There's speed bumps coming and you're driving. You know a tractor from 1936 like you need to slow down. And and so I I do have people around me that can help me navigate and help me to see the bumps that I'm not seeing ah but before I was able to before I had the the capacity to bring those people into my life I had to learn the hard way. and and I did and I learned the hard way and I failed and um and I wouldn't change a single thing ever I wouldn't change anything in my life. You know if I had if somebody gave me an opportunity to say hey dude if you can go back and change anything you wanted. 22:44.67 chasechewning And. 22:51.94 Michael Chernow I would keep it all the same everything and there's a lot of trauma in my life. A lot of adversity but I am incredibly grateful for all of it because it's made me the guy I am today man you know it's like it's the it's the chipping away at. At this at the the ah the statue that that makes the masterpiece and the chipping away at the piece of clay or whatever. It is whatever medium you're working on that ultimately in the fourth quarter of life. You're hoping becomes this this this legacy. That um, that you've you've made an impact on on people and so I really don't have a deep connection or identification with the fear of failing or the fear of succeeding. Only because I really do think about everything optimistically and um, you know I get I get a lot of shit for that. But um. 23:58.24 chasechewning You? Well no I'm with you man I can I can relate to a lot of what you're saying and my words my experience not yours. But I'm curious if you can kind of maybe attach a meaning to this I'm the same way and this person in my life who brings me back down to the real world. All the time is my wife. Um, she's the Logicd driven 1 the operations the like okay chase get out of your vision. Sometimes you know we need to play in the real world here. Um, and I just I go full seem ahead as well and when I've thought about this you know cha chalk up to you know, five six years now being in. You know self-employed and entrepreneur. Maybe it's just you know familiarity and confidence growing year after year. But when I really think about it. It's because um, a very scientific term here I've been through some shit I I have lived many many lives in my short 36 years on earth. 24:43.98 Michael Chernow Um. 24:51.63 chasechewning And when I think back into these life experiences of of being active duty army for 6 years of being 19 years old and bearing my father after passing away from a terminal illness um of suffering career ending injuries in military and just going through all these life experiences. I'm on the other side of it now but I give so much credit to all of those experiences the shit storms the the pain the physical mental emotional spiritual torment that I have gone through and I'm not special so many other people have gone through it yourself included that that's almost like ah like a fear deflector. It's like every time we go through we fall down we go through this this struggle this hell on earth. It's like our our fear. Ah you know elixir our fear anecdote kind of just gets stronger and stronger so that next time you know we we can lean into it a little bit more a little bit easier. And it kind of just dilutes the fear I think in my experience I don't know if that means anything to you. 25:49.64 Michael Chernow Well I also ah know one hundred percent and and I also have a little sort of analogy that I think about when you know life gets hard and life gets challenging and you know there are moments man where you know I have an autoimmune disease too. And when when the stress begins to to rise in my system. My body starts attacking. Yeah, my body starts attacking itself but the analogy that I use is that is actually 1 thing I would change my lyme disease but um, ah you know. 26:10.78 chasechewning I was here fighting every day. Yeah. 26:23.37 chasechewning Okay, we'll give you that one? yeah. 26:26.75 Michael Chernow Um, when you think about a mountain right? You think about these like unbelievable athletes that are mountaineers expedition experts that are that are climbing these massive Mountains. You know. They they spend years training grueling and then they spend days potentially weeks waiting for the right time to to step into the void of this like. Life-threatening feet of climbing this massive mountain and it's so hard and it's so challenging and they're they're willing to lose their lives and the amount of time that they spend on the summit is like minutes. 27:23.37 chasechewning You please real real quick. Just go back and say that again like that is a very important concept and the part about spending as little time as possible at the top. 27:24.64 Michael Chernow So I. 27:28.67 Michael Chernow The whole thing. You know when when you know these guys spend days potentially weeks trudging the pain to make it to the summit where they spend. A couple of minutes and I I when when I'm going through it and when I have a lot of balls in the air and it feels like I'm all alone. Ah I think about that and I think about. This this this quote that I've been saying for many years actually it's not a quote. It's something that I've just been saying is Mike you've got to learn to love love the heart and the hurt. Because if I can love if we can love the hard and the hurt we actually become unstoppable right? because if I can truly embrace the climb like really say you know what man this is about. The pain and the heart up. This is what it this is what it is the the summit is just the the the period of time where we get to really take a breath smile. Don't forget to celebrate because this the the summits are are absolutely warrant celebration. But really this journey that we're all on called life in my opinion is about the success anyway. In this journey that we call life is all about how well we are able to receive the pain and the hard times because if we can become comfortable. There. We're gonna learn. We're gonna get stronger. Then we're going to be able to share our story and be of service. 29:46.35 chasechewning Um, being of service I think that's another really important concept here that we might not think of when we're talking about building a life of our design improving our habits establishing new ones because what I heard in your story there Mike was. You have other people in your life that saw things in you that they felt compelled to kind of share these habits with and you have other people that see your habits and kind of help kind of you know guide you in terms of you know um you know staying true to your you know true north but also being mindful of the ah other people in the real world around us and I think those are very important people to have in our life and if we think about it when we are when we were laying down the groundwork when we were establishing habits and when we're you know, compounding compounding compounding growing growing growing right. We're also being a model for other people. We're also being an upright citizen whether that's one person that maybe follows us online or a family member that just notices 1 little thing that's different about us whether that's you know, an uptick or a downtick this concept of habit building. And being a model to other people I think is very important because I'm sure those gentlemen that brought you under their wing. They were doing the same thing for themselves they were establishing habits and rebuilding their life and in in doing so that is how they were able to see what you needed or what they thought might serve you and yours. Um. Can you maybe shine a light for us. Please there on this concept of the habits we establish and the habits we build for ourselves are not just for ourself. It's also for those that matter most around us. 31:27.50 Michael Chernow Yeah I mean you know I think what I'd like to do um is to walk you through my morning routine because my you know my ah my morning routine has has you know it. It is not. 31:35.62 chasechewning Oh here's the perfect example here's the model. Absolutely yeah. 31:47.33 Michael Chernow Original I certainly did not did not come up with all of the things that I do in the morning I've adopted them from other people. Um, but I have ah strung an enormous amount of of of small little winds together every single morning. To help me be my best version of self and set myself up for success on a daily basis and I've shared this with lots of people and it's been It's been helpful for for lots of people and I think that's where the service component comes in. So. My morning routine is is just like this I wake up at somewhere between 5 four forty five and five fifteen every day I do not set an alarm but my my body clock wakes up on average around 5 a m every single morning. Ah i. Quietly ah, take off my face Matt my eye my eye mask and I look up at the ceiling and the first thing I do is smile from ear to ear and I really do smile from ear to ear like shit eating grin pearly whites out uncomfortably large smile. 33:00.69 chasechewning Ah, just unapologetic Gratitude man. That's what it sounds like. 33:01.94 Michael Chernow Ah, just like this just forcing it because lots of us wake up with anxiety and stress and I have learned that forcing serotonin into my system immediately in the morning through smiling. Does help to combat the anxiety and stress right out the gate and and so I do that and then I tend to think of my wife and my two kids ah the image that comes into my mind for whatever reason every morning is my wife and my two kids. We're sitting down at our breakfast nook at at our house having breakfast together and it makes me really happy and so that is how I kick off my my morning and then I make my way into the bathroom. Ah I take a piss um and you know I'm a competitive bodybuilder so I typically step on the scale because that's. what what I do in my sports life and then I brush my teeth I wash my face and I put on a face moisturizer. I then drop down to my knees and I I have a morning prayer that I say every day for about 3 minutes um and then I do 50 pushups and then I quietly walk back out into my bedroom past my wife and I head downstairs and i. Immediately light candles in my ah in my kitchen and sort of breakfast area. Um, and then I have a glass of ah of about twenty ounce twenty ounces of water and I squeeze the juice of half a lemon into that water. And then I do 2 pinches of pink kimmelaine salt I mix that up. Ah I drink that down and then I have athletic greens I've been having athletic greens every morning for a long time. Yeah, lots of athletic greens in my life. Um, and then I I start. 34:59.56 chasechewning I shout out a g 1 baby? Yeah great stuff. Yeah. 35:09.81 Michael Chernow Prepping my coffee and sometimes I'll set up my coffee the night before so all I got to do is just turn on the water to pour it over. But if not I'll just start prepping my coffee I get my coffee prepped and then I I go sit down to meditate I meditate for 10 minutes before I have my coffee. By the time I'm done with my meditation. My coffee is like at the perfect temperature I then walk over grab my grab my cup of coffee sit down with my journal I write my journal every morning by the time I'm done writing in my journal. It's about 6 a m or so. My older son Finn has made his way down to the kitchen and he sits down crawls into my lap and I mean I get emotional when I think about it. It's one of my favorite parts of my day I love my sons and like my family but that moment that I get in the morning with my older son Finn is just. Like I just can feel like I could that the the love that I have right now just talking about it is makes me emotional and so I get that time in the morning with fin alone and we hang out. We talk about you know, whatever and then the rest of the fam comes down. Um. And and I hang out with the family from like 6 to 7 7 15 at which point I will go upstairs and read 10 pages from a book. Ah sometimes I miss that sometimes ah, not not often, but. I've gotten really into the habit of reading 10 pages every day and then I have a preworkout and I had I hadn't head to the gym I work out for about an hour and then I come out and the first thing I put into my body is the protagonist which is the oatmeal product that I created this superhuman. Um. Incredibly functional instant oatmeal and then I'm typically sitting down at my desk by nine thirty in the morning. Um, and that's my day almost every day you know I pretty much run that routine. On the weekends. A few things are left out so I'm not sitting at my desk at nine thirty in the morning. Um, and on Sundays sometimes I'll just allow myself to sleep a little longer but that's pretty much my day and I can honestly tell you man like I know that sounds crazy structured I know it sounds um. Like almost robotic but here's what I'll tell you it's about 17 things that I do and and each one of them is a real win for me the brushing my teeth the washing my face the moisturizer the prayer, the 50 pushups the smiling. 37:57.60 Michael Chernow The the lighting of the candles. The the water the aid the athletic greens. The awesome coffee the meditating the journaling. It's all they are all wins. So by six o'clock in the morning I have literally won 17 times. Anything the day has to throw at me my ability to respond to what the day throws at me as opposed to react because of those things that I do in the morning my ability to make great decisions throughout the day are far greater. Far more far more attainable without that stuff and so I believe in that in those morning habits that ritual that routine I believe in that with every single cell in my body if anybody is looking to make a change in their life. Implement just one of those things try to commit to just one of those things I think one of the most important things that I've done is waking up early in the morning you know, um, waking up at five o'clock in the morning the amount of time. I've earned back into my life and I say earned because it's not easy waking up at five o'clock in the in the morning but the amount of positivity I've earned into my life when I started waking up at 5 a m. You know it's just it's invaluable it's like it's invaluable I you could never put a you could never put a price on it. You know. 39:39.44 chasechewning I Yeah and the proof is in the pudding or should I say the proof is in the oatmeal man and um your your habit stacking here and this life you have built for yourself has also quite literally built a business. Um, so let's switch gears here as we begin to kind of go into ah the latter half here. The latter portion of the interview. Um, this has now yielded Ah, a new business man. So you've taken your habits and these things or this one particular thing that served you and you've created a product created a business out of it. So um, let's shift gears into kind of like the the business aspect here and how did how did creatures of a habit come about. Well you kind of just told us. Um, what is it and and how is it serving other people now that Beyond just serving you. So. 40:21.51 Michael Chernow Sure I mean creatures of habit I started thinking about creatures of habit at at at the end of 2018 I was running seymour's the restaurant concept that I founded in 2015 and I knew that I was ready to take a step back and start creating my new business. Um, and that's sort of like my been my that's that's sort of how I like to do it I create something build value run it for 3 to 4 years find great people to take take it. Ah you know, take it from 5 to 50 and and then Zoom out and sell equity and then create again and so I knew that I wanted to create something new I knew that it had to be in wellness just because you know the cornerstone of happiness in my life today and for the last many years has been my my passion and my commitment to fitness nutrition and mindset. And so I knew I wanted to do something there and so I came up with this idea of creatures of habit because like I said habits have created a life beyond my wildest dreams for me my commitment to them and so initially creatures of habit was going to be a restaurant and I was building out this idea all of 2019 um, completely sold. You know the majority and not didn't sell all my equity but sold the majority my equity in November of 2019 at seymour's and I was off to the races to find a location for this creatures of habit restaurant. Of course as we all know 2020 came around and the pandemic hit and the world changed and um. had to make I had to make a a decision of what I was going to do I just watched the industry that I I had built a career in and spent my life working in come to a crashing halt and and I said man what am I going to do you know? Um i. I didn't know what I was going to do and so my wife and my my wife and I made a decision to move to our house upstate and see if we can weather the storm upstate and I just and I said I'm going to take three months to really figure out what the next step was and I was on a run up here and I said you know. I love oatmeal oatmeal really is is is where I I began my my journey in nutrition and wellness these guys seventeen and a half years ago this is the first thing that they told me to eat every day and I have been eating oatmeal is my first meal every single day for seventeen and a half years I believe in it and I said you know nobody's really optimized oatmeal. Nobody's really made a superhuman version. 43:04.79 Michael Chernow Of oatmeal. Um and oatmeal is a massive market. We all lots of people eat oatmeal. So I just had this idea and I said you know what I am going to because I've been eat the way I've been eating my oatmeal for years and years is I got my my oats I've got my my protein powder. I've got my pink himalayan salt I've got my chia seeds my flax seeds my pumpkin seeds and on the side of that I've got my omega 3 s my probiotic my digestive enzymes my vitamin d three I had all this stuff on my counter and it took me 20 minutes every morning to make this awesome oatmeal that I've been eating for years. And I said I am going to I am going to help offer this habit that has really changed my life or at least was a catalyst and tool in helping me change my life I'm going to package it and make it very very simple. For other people to easily implement into their life as a daily habit and if they can commit to 1 great thing and that would be it that would be the 1 great thing that they commit to I will have potentially impacted more lives ah than. Than I do in the restaurant business and um and that's when I just said that's it I'm doing it. It was literally on a run and ah and you know I I got back from that run I wrote down all these things I actually came up with the name. The protagonist on that run. Um. And I got to work man and I said you know I know that I can I can share this habit that has really truly been something that it is probably the only nutritional commitment that I have stuck to for all these years. It is my favorite meal the day. Um I just love oatmeal man I really do and and. 44:50.13 chasechewning I Ah team oats all the way baby I'm with you. Okay. 44:52.30 Michael Chernow You know when you add. Yeah when you add all those things to it. Um, it becomes not just oatmeal. It becomes this incredibly functional optimized you know I like to think of it as like this superhuman food that. Fuels the body right? The macros are incredible, especially in the beginning of the day. It doesn't have to be breakfast you know for me I don't eat until after I train. So it's typically my first meal of the day which is at around nine thirty ten o'clock in the morning and so but it could be It's an amazing. Breakfast. It's an amazing pre-workout meal post-workout meal. you know late afternoon meal it's a meal it's not a snack you know it's it's three hundred and fifty calories it's you know forty grams of carbohydrates thirty grams of protein Eight grams of fat I mean it's like a really satiating thing. 45:47.11 chasechewning Yeah, that's solid. 45:48.59 Michael Chernow But it is truly optimized and and I and I went to town and I spent a year working on the formula and I launched it in August of ah, 2021 and what I also did with the brand was I wanted there to be a real lifestyle component to it. I didn't want to just be an oatmeal company and so I created this amazing line of apparel because I love I love apparel I love lifestyle and I've always wanted to design a small capsule collection of of apparel. So I created a completely custom cut and so. Awesome line of comfort apparel for people to ah to purchase as as if they were buying a jersey from the team that they support you know like that's the way I see it. 46:39.28 chasechewning Tapping into that lifeblo man. It's not just a product I mean you're you're creating a lifestyle and like there are multiple components to a lifestyle right. 46:44.43 Michael Chernow Ah, hundred percent and so that's why creatures of habit is a true lifestyle and wellness brand and we will have more products. Um you know over? ah ah, over over time. But you know I really wanted to own the oatmeal space I really wanted to own. The um, the optimized oatmeal arena and you know there's no fillers. There's no gums. There's no stabilizers. There's nothing bad in it. It is all really really good. It's really really delicious. It's incredibly versatile. You can make it by just adding hot water. It's made in 2 minutes you can make it in a smoothie. Just. You know, throw it into a blender with a little ice a little almond milk and some but maybe a banana you can throw it in the microwave and you can also do it overnight which is probably my favorite. Um, yeah, and and and I have a promo code for anybody listening. Um if anybody wants to to jump on the the creatures of habit. 47:30.28 chasechewning Oh nice. Okay. 47:41.61 chasechewning I do. 47:41.79 Michael Chernow Bandwagon you can use ever forward. Yeah ever. Forward fifteen e v e r f o r w a RD the number 15 for 15% off your first order I would really love it if you guys gave us a shot I think you're going to love the product. It's really really awesome. 47:57.42 chasechewning Hey Michael we appreciate that man seriously I'm going to jump in on that I I keep up until this point I've kept Bob's redmill I think in business every day with their old fashioned oats. So time to upgrade a little bit here I guess um. Michael I just want to acknowledge your story and your time here today. Thank you so much for being a model of what a life can look like when we decide that we can charge into fear and live with it instead of being scared of it and running and what can happen when we just compound success when we compound. 1 little habit after the other so truly man, no small feet and so part of that I think ties perfectly into my final question here. It's the last question ask everybody to bring it home to the mantra here I had ever afford radios to live a life ever for it is. How do we bring awareness and attention into these key markers for our life to just move the needle all the way or even just one one percent here today um that's what I mean when I say live a life ever for and you've been a great experience of that definition. But I want to get your definition man. So those 2 words what does it mean to you. How do you live a life ever for it and. 49:12.60 Michael Chernow Understanding that self-care and self-love is truly the door that opens up. Happiness and service towards others and it's not selfish. It's selfless when we're not feeling well inside. It is almost impossible to be available for the ones we love. And so how do we live ever forward make self care and self love a bigger part of your life commit to yourself invest in yourself believe in yourself that my opinion is. The thing that people leave out far too much. Those little things man those little things in the morning you know that? ah that can make us feel good and a byproduct of us feeling good is being great towards others and. Ah, that combination us feeling good us being great towards others. It's happiness too. You know that's it and and you know I say I've said it many many times in front of my wife and kids I put myself first that doesn't mean I sacrifice. Like my time with my wife and kids like I said right? I wake up at least an hour before any of them so that I can focus on myself I am a better father husband son brother business partner business owner friend. 50:53.17 chasechewning And so that you can better be with them. You can better serve them come time. 51:06.14 Michael Chernow When I am feeling well inside and the only way to get well Inside. It's a daily operation and we have to do things that make us feel good and you know what you put into your body and how you move your body really will determine. The decisions that you make. 51:27.78 chasechewning That beautiful answer brother. There's never a right or a wrong answer. It's your personal interpretation and it truly means the world to me and and my audience. So thank you for that Michael all of your information everything we just talked about it's going to be down in the show notes for everybody to check out. But if they want to go somewhere right now. Where can they go to learn more about you and the amazing work you're doing for the world. 51:48.40 Michael Chernow Ah, they can follow me at at Michael Chernow on Instagram that's kind of where I really spend a lot of my time in terms of my ah, my social stuff. Um, you can check out creatures of habit. Ah, that's creatures with a k at creatures of habit on Instagram or creatures of http://habit.com ah, make sure you use that promo code if you want to try something ever forward the number 15 um, and you can pop over to my website Michael Churout Dot Com um the truth is I really don't keep that thing up as much as I should but really, it's it's to to to ah see what I'm up to Instagram. At Michael Chernow is the best place to go. 52:27.82 chasechewning Beautiful. Michael thank you so much. Man. Thank you everybody for tuning in in here today. Check out Michael's work check out creatures of habit you're gonna you're gonna enjoy the ride for damn sure and hopefully take home something you can apply just was one little habit. 1 little optimization. 1 new thing I know I have man. It's been a great. Great piece of content to follow. 52:46.41 Michael Chernow Thanks man.