EFR 831: How Do You Know SHE IS THE ONE? Getting Ready for Marriage and Kids with Maxx Chewning

00:00 - Chase (Host) The following is an Operation Podcast production Dude, welcome Bachelor Party weekend. You ready? What's up? What's up, what's up? Did you bring your assless chaps and butt plugs?

00:09 - Max (Guest) Yes, You're not gonna need them.

00:11 - Chase (Host) I brought them Like.

00:15 - Max (Guest) I brought my whole stash. What do you say? What Talk into the mic. Please Get married October 19th, Just bring the mojitos. What do you think I'm doing? It's like what do you do? How are you going to discipline your child? It rubs the lotion on its skin. Hi, my name is Max Tuning, owner of a really cool candy company, and this guy's brother and you're watching Ever Forward Radio.

00:40 - Chase (Host) Damn, it's like he's been here before hey, what's up? He's been here before. Critical blood biomarkers including cardiovascular inflammation, thyroid, metabolic, hormonal and even nutritional health. I'm talking no lab visits, no appointments, no waiting rooms. You get a complete health assessment with personalized recommendations for your well-being with a couple easy steps from the comfort of your own home. I've done it. I'm about to do it again next month. I'm committing to getting regular biomarker testing this year because I am testing several things in my diet. I'm looking at biomarkers as I age and Cyfox is helping me do just that. It's super easy. You get results in three to five working days, clinically accurate and FSA and HSA approved. So this might be little to zero cost for you out of pocket Because, let's be honest, you can be doing all the quote right things on the outside, but maybe you're not feeling the way that you want to or you have some pre-existing conditions. Maybe you've got diabetics or cardiovascular disease in your family. I know I do, and that's why getting my labs drawn regularly with CyFox Health is helping me stay ahead of the game. Linked for you as always in the show notes today under episode resources, again to save 20% off of your first lab kit. Head to cyfoxhealthcom. Slash ever forward.

02:23 All righty friends, we are back with a Tuning Bros special edition podcast. As we're going live here today, it is September 9th, 2024. And it's my guest, my little bro's birthday. He's turning 35 today and he joined me in studio. I had to kind of kidnap him recently, right before we went out to Lake Tahoe, headed up to North California, with me, him, a bunch of his Texas friends, a bunch of our mutual friends back from Virginia, and well, you know what? I don't want to spoil it, but we had a great time. But I brought Max out to LA a day early to get some one-on-one time, some brotherly time, some big bro life time, because you know what? I'm a few years older, maybe a few years wiser, but as he is getting ready to step into the next chapter of his life getting married, planning for children look, I got some words of wisdom for him.

03:14 But, more importantly, him and I just kick it. We have fun, we joke like we always do. If you're new to the show, welcome. If you're wondering, why are these guys just cracking jokes the whole time? And this is where my brother and I have fun. He's been on the show many, many times before. I'll link some of his past experiences down on the podcast and this one. We just have a lot of fun. We make stupid jokes, reference our favorite movie quotes, but we also get real. We talk about what it's like being married. We talk about evolutions and new ventures in business and what life just has in store for us and all the things that we have overcome and what we're looking forward to in the future and everything in between.

03:51 This is an episode that you can just put on in the background clean the house, hit the gym, have some fun, but also soak up some really good knowledge as well. And if you're new to the show, welcome. If you're coming over, maybe from Max's platforms, but it means the world that you're here. Welcome to Ever Forward Radio. If you would like to join the channel, support the channel and follow along and learn new ways in terms of physical, mental resilience to move you forward and keep living a life ever forward. It would mean the world to me if you would tap that thumbs up button on YouTube, subscribe to the channel. We're here on the audio platforms, just follow, whether it's Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It takes two seconds out of your day and it does big, big things for the show over here and I would love to have you with us for every episode moving forward. All right, welcome, baby bro. Back to the podcast. Happy birthday, man, love you. And here is Max Tuning.

04:43 - Max (Guest) Are we live?

04:45 - Chase (Host) We're live Rico. I wanted to. Just don't be like that, mmm, mmm Beer.

04:53 - Max (Guest) Mmm, I can't tell you the last time I've had a Corona.

04:57 - Chase (Host) Yeah, what's it like drinking? I don't want to say real beer, but it's more real than Bud Light Lime.

05:02 - Max (Guest) You know I never understood the whole everyone when I first found out Bud Light Lime and everyone made fun of me for having a beer with fruit already in it. And I said what about Corona when people put lime in it? This just has the lime already in the beer.

05:17 - Chase (Host) That's a fair point.

05:17 - Max (Guest) Our friends go. No, that's not the same thing you can put orange in. Shock Top Blue Moon. Yeah, like you can put. Like you put orange in a shock top blue moon. Yeah, yeah, but apparently, but a lime is not a manly drink, but I drink it, I love it.

05:30 - Chase (Host) And you are in fact a man. I am Dude. Welcome Bachelor party weekend. You ready? What's up, what's up, what's up? Did you bring your assless chaps and butt plugs?

05:40 - Max (Guest) Yes, you're not going to need them I brought them Like I brought my whole stash Chase. How come there's nothing on?

05:48 - Chase (Host) All right, so there's a back story behind that, so I wasn't sure, why is there a back story you? Asked the question. I'm going to tell you why. I wasn't sure if I liked the placement of them there. So instead of like hard wiring or like the mounts, I just put double-sided tape to see if I like it. I put shit on top of the shelves it falls off. It all fell off. Yeah, so double-sided tape works to keep it on there, not enough to actually put props.

06:13 - Max (Guest) Turns out Chase is trying to put like 10-pound weights on there.

06:15 - Chase (Host) I put like a little like crystal ball thing and like a couple books. But I wanted something because the design of this spot. I wanted something because the design of this spot. I wanted that wall to pop out a little bit more. So, honestly, the props kind of make it look busy, but I feel like that.

06:28 - Max (Guest) It looks nice. It's a great space, lovely spot.

06:31 - Chase (Host) Operationpodcastcom.

06:37 - Max (Guest) You're the only person that's ever pointed that out. Well, it's probably because your guests can't see over these mic stands, so they probably can't If someone was sitting over there they'd be like. I couldn't even see those little things, don't worry, I do get some short people. What did you say? What? Talk into the mic, please.

06:50 - Chase (Host) Into the mic. Oh, I just got a text from you. What? No? I was like, how did you do that? Oh, I was like I saw you the whole time. Is this a bit? I was like what are we here for, bro?

07:04 - Max (Guest) uh, I am turning. Wow, I was gonna say I thought it's my birthday I was gonna go.

07:08 - Chase (Host) No, it's not, you're okay yeah, no.

07:10 - Max (Guest) Well, I'm turning 35, so I'm getting you know, I'm getting forgetful stuff. I'm getting married october 19th, so we are going. I keep what I keep telling people keep saying utah, salt lake city. No, it sounds salt lake city, lake tahoe.

07:25 - Chase (Host) You can see how you get them mixed up honestly, I thought about utah because when we went to moab years ago, that was a great time. It was when I kind of got the idea of going away from tropical all-inclusive 10 guys on a resort together. I don't know. I don't know how fun that would be.

07:41 - Max (Guest) Chase, bring the mojitos.

07:42 - Chase (Host) What do you think I'm doing? Yeah, so I was like Utah or Jackson Hole or like outdoor cabiny kind of vibe I thought about Utah.

07:51 - Max (Guest) We don't need to go to Jackson's Holes. Jackson's Hole I've been there Filled it, fantastic Good. Where is Lake Tahoe Is in.

08:00 - Chase (Host) So it kind of straddles Half. So it kind of straddles half is in California, the other half is in Nevada. Okay, Okay. So we are staying in Truckee which is on the California side, north Lake Tahoe. Most North Lake Tahoe is in California. South Lake is mostly in Nevada.

08:16 - Max (Guest) Well, it looks spectacular, I'm excited. It's weird as it is, I never get um. I'm not like someone who, like on the weekends I'm like eager to go do like outdoorsy stuff. But I was telling, like Joe and some of our friends, I'm kind of like man, it's going to be sick. I want to go like mountain, I want to go ride bikes and stuff. I've never been like I want to ride bikes, but I'm like I'm excited to do it there because I'm like, yeah, it's going to be sick, it's going to be dope Dealing some electric, a little bit Electric assist, damn it.

08:50 - Chase (Host) Who told you? No, that's just what I would hope they would be, you don't know.

08:52 - Max (Guest) No, that's literally damn it. Well, all right. Well, that's what we're doing.

08:56 - Chase (Host) That's not a, that's just me saying stuff. Well, saturday we're doing electric dirt bikes. Oh yeah, oh shit, yeah. So I'm going to spill the beans because I'm terrible at holding surprises. Okay, I worked in military intelligence. Your nation's secrets are safe with me. So Saturday. So what we're going to do is Saturday is supposed to be boat day, but then the weather is going to be like shit Too chilly. Yes, so can that? We're going to do ATVs, these razors like razor ATV, kind of.

09:20 - Max (Guest) Yeah, I don't know, I don't know Like a.

09:21 - Chase (Host) Polaris kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're going to do that on Sunday. So we switched boat day to Sunday because it's going to be like 10 degrees warmer. So we are doing a boat. Yeah, we're still doing that. It's like a party boat. It's only going to be like 68 degrees Warmer than 57 degrees technically speaking, but Saturday because the ATVs weren't available on Saturday.

09:43 Also, this weekend is Burning man, so like everything was fucking booked Is Burning man in Burning man? It's in Nevada, but everybody comes to Tahoe, so a lot of the Tahoe like businesses and activities and stuff like that. Excuse me, like Corona's burpee was like all booked up and so couldn't do it on Saturday, but I did through. Like the interwebs found this other place that does e-dirt bikes Looks fantastic. I immediately called Shout out Michelle. I called her, I called this random company, started just hard selling me. She's like no, fuck ATVs, fuck Razors. You're never going to want to do that ever again. She was like no Inside secret, we're going to take you to this spot. We just drop you off, chaperone. You kind of let you do your own thing. So sounds dope.

10:26 - Max (Guest) the pictures were amazing and it's like the uh don't you have one like a super 73 bike or something?

10:29 - Chase (Host) um, I, you had something similar, yeah, yeah so it's kind of like that, but they're modified for off-road oh yeah, that sounds fucking exciting yeah I was just talking about riding bicycles like around the road bike thing oh no, no, no, no.

10:41 - Max (Guest) I was talking about just like riding bikes, like going on a bike ride, because I watch videos of it and people are like well, going past the water and stuff Like no, but it's even cooler, like, the views from this spot are going to be incredible.

10:53 - Chase (Host) So we're doing like that on Saturday and then other stuff. I've told you I got a surprise in store for everybody. I don't know what that means. Yes, well, what that means. Yes, well, again, keep your butt plug close I was gonna say butt plugs for everyone but yeah, I mean it's gonna be fun.

11:06 I think it'd be better than like a bunch of dudes sitting around an all-inclusive resort and you're kind of hard to plan for a bachelor party for, because one like we're all in different places in our lives than like when you did mine, which was, was it like 10 years? No, like eight years ago, kind of thing. Yeah, now everyone's kind of got obligations in life and shit to do and nobody really like party hardies that much anymore.

11:31 - Max (Guest) Well, also it's like everyone is in a relationship and or married and or about to be engaged. I'm knocked up, yeah, about to have kids and everything, and also at least most of us. It's not like I feel like the traditional kind of like life where you're like I need to escape my wife and go to a bachelor party and go to Vegas. Nothing sounds more least appetizing, nothing that I don't want to do. I don't want to go to like I didn't want to go to vegas, I didn't want to go. I don't want to go to clubs.

12:10 - Chase (Host) I don't want to go to like it's when I was asking you like ideas like I don't want, I don't want a club, I don't want strippers, I don't want all this stuff, and I was like, okay, cool, probably, probably, probably, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:21 - Max (Guest) But I feel like you and I were kind of talking like we're together on Christmas, like kind of wanting to get back to like the outdoor stuff a little bit more and just like do mountain shit, which is what I feel like Todd, which is like it's just like and it's nine of my closest friends right and all of them are mutual friends with you and like, so it's. There's only a couple that haven't like met yet. So I'm excited for, like, some of the Virginia boys to meet the everyone, the Texas folk and um, and it's going to be a good time. It's like everyone's everyone's going to get along really well and like we're going to have yeah, it's gonna be sick the house is so dope.

12:52 - Chase (Host) Honestly, what sold me on the house is, um the Imagine this like medieval kind of just like long, huge family sit down table. It's got four, four and two, so it's the only thing I found that had like a sit down dinner table.

13:08 - Max (Guest) Is there a hot tub for 10 dudes to get in?

13:11 - Chase (Host) Well, with enough lube, you can make anything possible. Nice. I'm looking forward to it, bro, slippery one way It'll be dope, yeah, but like hot tub, foosball, pool table, shuffleboard it's a huge house.

13:23 - Max (Guest) We'll make jerky shit with the doors open. It's going to be great. Go on, fuck, I forgot what it's called. Have you told the people that? What's your idea on how we're getting there? Walk us through this, all right.

13:37 - Chase (Host) So everybody's kind of all over the place. Well, yeah, virginia, florida, south Carolina, texas, california, and everybody was going to. I had a couple of ideas in mind to like get everybody together to do kind of like a joint, all fly out together, kind of thing. But the logistics were a nightmare. So I haven't seen you since Christmas and I've been wanting to like get some some bro time. Yeah, I haven't seen you since Christmas, bro. I haven't seen you in math since Christmas, and then we went home for dad's memorial in January, that's it.

14:09 - Max (Guest) I haven't seen you since January, really.

14:12 - Chase (Host) Yeah, oh damn.

14:14 And just the way, like you got your wedding planned and like everybody's just so busy, I was like man, I'm not going to get like any one on one on one bro time, so I kidnapped you. We're here in L the day before the bachelor party and so you're hanging out here. We're doing some stuff. Tomorrow morning we're getting a big uh suv driving up so we got enough room for the guys and it's like a seven, seven and a half hour road trip. What are we gonna do for seven and a half?

14:35 hours 99 bottles of beer on the wall 99 bottles of beer chase.

14:40 - Max (Guest) What you should have done is bought a bunch of camera mounts, mount them in the car and just done a road podcast.

14:46 - Chase (Host) Ooh, it's not too late, we can still do that.

14:48 - Max (Guest) I do have a— A lot of backup batteries.

14:51 - Chase (Host) I have like the Zoom H6, like old recorder stuff we can mount that.

14:55 - Max (Guest) Just put a GoPro and just do wireless mics and you just—.

14:58 - Chase (Host) We've got a couple of labs We'll make any hitchhikers Pick them up, pick them up, pick them up. You taking my button. I like long to fidget with stuff. I do too. I love just like like a pen or something, flicking around.

15:09 - Max (Guest) Yeah, I think that's cause. I think that's cause we have disorders of some sort, but I don't know what. Sorry, I got distracted by that plant back there. Ooh, shiny married. Yeah, you ready, I am, yeah, yeah, it's. Uh, I think I think when you meet the right girl, then it makes you more ready than I kind of thought you were and I'm like ready for that. I uh I tell taylor this and I think she like I don't know if I can like explain it in a way that like makes sense, but I I feel like there's like different, like chapters like of your life where I've like, you know, in like my 20s it was like I was trying to figure out what I was doing and kind of just, I was like you know, being single and you know, partying a bunch and stuff Grow your legs, exactly.

15:50 So I was like I'm fun and stuff. And then it's like when I was 30, I was like, okay, I moved to Texas and that changed my life. Then I started this. You were 30 when you went to Texas. Know, I was 28, 20, let's see how old now I'm turning 25, moved in 2019, january 1920. So younger younger than I am now, and um, but like that chapter was like okay, like I completely shifted my entire life and now I'm. And then I started like everything started picking up and I was like really focused on starting to build like businesses and get started with sour strips and um. And then, you know, I met Taylor and then like so it's been this like crazy thing.

16:24 But like now I'm ready, for I kind of look at like everything that I do throughout the day and I'm more like like yeah, there'll be more, I'm going to go on some random trips or like I'm going to, you know, have, uh, you know, challenges at work and I'm going to, you know, keep making maybe social media content, stuff. But I was like this is going to be my routine for like, unless something changes. Like it's like this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. This is life. And I was like and I love my routine more than anything, like I really really like it. But I'm kind of like I'm ready for that. Next, like big change of and the recent one was like moving to Texas and then getting in a relationship after I hadn't been in one for like seven years, seven, eight years. So, honestly, getting like married and starting a family is like I'm ready for that next like big change and that next big like how that's going to completely change my life.

17:14 - Chase (Host) Hey guys, quick break from a conversation with Max and you know, kind of specifically talking to my guys out there, but anyone who is thinking about that next phase in life, if you are contemplating children, contemplating that next step in life, if you are contemplating children, contemplating that next step in your relationship or even just on your own, look, there are a million different ways that people are preparing for the future and the next generation and growing their family. No matter how you approach it, knowing where you stand is absolutely the first step, just like I was talking about earlier in the episode of knowing your biomarkers for key health markers for your testosterone, cardiovascular health. All of that with CyFox Health. Well, I want to bring your attention to Legacy, another partner of mine that has helped me immensely in understanding my fertility health. I've used Legacy a couple of times over the last few years to understand my sperm health, because now I am finally pregnant. My wife and I are expecting our first son in early 2025.

18:14 And, honestly, we didn't have it easy. We were having about a year and a half long fertility journey to get pregnant. We even, unfortunately, went through a miscarriage earlier this year and I share all this just to let you know that just because you decide to do something, just because you decide you want to bring new life into the world, create new life, sometimes it's not as simple as that, but what I did was, from the comfort of my own home, I went to testlegacycom, slash ever forward, got my at home male fertility test kit, did what I need to do, sent it back and then, seriously, in a matter of just a couple days, I had the most in depth but very easily understandable analysis of me as a guy, my fertility health, my reproductive health in terms of sperm count, motility, just where I stand, and I had a really good sample. This was a couple of years ago, and so what I chose to do was freeze that sample, because my wife and I weren't ready at that time to begin planning for children. But I was like you know what? I got a great sample here, and now I know this is something I want to at least consider in the future. Let me just make sure I have that option. So if this is something I want to at least consider in the future, let me just make sure I have that option.

19:21 So if this is you, I highly encourage you to check out the Legacy at-home male fertility test kit because even if you're not ready right now, if it's something that you're thinking about in the future, getting a good, healthy sample freezing it you can do this all through Legacy. Not to mention they have easy payment plans. A lot of times, depending on your insurance, you can even use your HSA or FSA, so there could be very little to no cost for you out of pocket. But seriously investing in yourself to help you and your future family is priceless in my opinion.

19:48 So if you want to learn more and even save some dollar dollar bills off of the at-home mare fertility test kit, head to testlegacycom slash everforward and code everforward at checkout, linked for you as always in the show notes today under episode resources. But again, that's testlegacycom slash everforward Code everforward at checkout to save some money on their semen analysis from the comfort of your own home. What kind of conversations have you been having with Taylor? Have you been having different conversations with Taylor about marriage? Are you both on the same page about we're aware to the level to which we're stepping into a new dynamic, a new title of our relationship, or is it just kind of same same?

20:32 - Max (Guest) No, I mean Taylor is not as vocal about it because she knows that I'm not a hardcore religious person, but Taylor is very religious Catholic. I thought Catholic you should know this Well. I thought Catholic and Baptist are the same thing. No, they're not. No.

20:50 - Chase (Host) Baptists. We're like the redheaded stepchildren that we broke away from the Catholic church.

20:54 - Max (Guest) Taylor is the standard Christian. Would that be a Catholic? Yeah, yeah.

20:57 - Chase (Host) Okay, yeah, she's Catholic. I know this. Her family's Catholic Follows Catholicism Catholic.

21:02 - Max (Guest) Yes. So she very much views marriage as very much a unity and a joining of two worlds kind of like together, and it's like it is is a um, a light, a commitment to each other. So it's not like she words it in these ways that I'm like like this means a lot to you, it's not some casual thing that you're doing, and so I really appreciate that Um. On her end, it's not. She's just, like you know, trying to get married. She's like very much of like, just like she always like uses, like references of like. She's like, you know, woman is like part of man's rib and like of like back and like the, she's like these biblical terms and she's like and like being together as one. It's like.

21:48 - Chase (Host) so she yeah, she's got to open my eye Coming together in like every capacity.

21:51 - Max (Guest) Yes, and so she brings a lot of that kind of like excitement and energy into it. And then yeah, yeah, we, we, we talk about it frequently. It's, trust me, every I'd say every other day, taylor will say the phrase of can you believe we're getting married? And then she'll always be like are you, are you sure, are you sure?

22:08 - Chase (Host) And I'm like I'm like yes, dude, I feel the same, except for us. Now it's can you believe we're having a kid? It's. We're both on the precipice of the next stage in life, the next thing in your relationship, the next stage in your family.

22:21 - Max (Guest) Isn't it wild that you'll be 39 in October, and when our mom and dad were 39, they already had all of us and were.

22:34 - Chase (Host) When mom and dad were my age, I was like Seven, no, like a freshman in high school, oh shit yeah, can you?

22:42 - Max (Guest) imagine having teenagers right now, bro, oh yeah but yeah, I guess by the time I I'm turning 35, I would be five, because mom had like 39, 30, so no, and that's what I think. I'm like. You think your parents are, um, you know parents, but you're like they were just young. I couldn't imagine. No, they had three grown-ass kids by the time they were your age.

23:01 - Chase (Host) Like you. I guess the argument can be made Like, in some ways you're like, you get more ready, you know, you get more financially stable, or you get more mature or confident or your life kind of settles before you make this decision to get into like a committed relationship or get married, have kids.

23:22 - Max (Guest) I don't think you're ever really gonna be. Oh my god, yes, right now I'm totally ready to have kids.

23:24 - Chase (Host) Just everything is fucking. I definitely don't think our parents thought that, no, you know, no, I'm like only now, about to be 39, having my first kid. I can only now, with 51 confidence, go oh yeah, yeah, like now. Now is a good time. A year ago, five years ago, 15, 16 years ago, when they would have had us. I'm like I cannot imagine, bro Holy crap.

23:43 - Max (Guest) I count my blessings every day that I'm like I'm I'm glad that I'm at this stage of my life when I'm choosing to start this journey, and like I'm I'm glad that I didn't do it um kind of earlier. Even you know, meet, meet, maybe the wrong person and maybe a kid with them or something, um, I don't know I everything led to this moment and I'm super excited. I'm ready to take that next leap with you know, taylor, and um, yeah, it's gonna be wild Cause we're already talking about like, like, oh, we want to have like three. I mean we're so we're about to. We're in the um early stages of building a new house. We're hopefully going to start like early next year and what's interesting is like we're literally designing this house. It's really weird to like to do this, but like we're designing this house, like imagining for, like around your future around, around, like okay, like we're going to have up to, but three kids we need, like, let's have rooms and like, okay, like how do we want it structured?

24:38 Like do we need a laundry room upstairs? Like we don't have any kids. We're like literally building this house as if we have myself and Taylor, two dogs and three children. But I'm like, because that's like what I'm and who knows you know.

24:50 - Chase (Host) That's smart planning, what the plan is going to be, but like, yeah, just getting married and having kids, do you feel like that's really kind of helping this transition for you? For sure, how much Ow, ow it's been my nail back Ow, can I get workers comp on myself? I?

25:18 - Max (Guest) don't use nail clippers. I peel my nail back. Ow, Can I get workers comp on myself? I don't use nail clippers. I peel my fingernails. It's my worst habit Grow up I know, but it's so funny because it happened. Yesterday I was walking a dude and my fingers started bleeding because I'll peel it and sometimes it gets too much on the raw skin. But then you're like I have to get the piece off, you have to. And you're just like and you rip it and you're just like yeah, that's going to burn for the next like four days. God just bent my nail back. Yeah, that's like the, the one bad thing I have. Yeah.

25:44 I probably shouldn't eat the nails either. Just kidding, just kidding, no, seeing everyone. I think it's a really. It's kind of like it's not not comparable, but it's always nice to not be the first person to do something. It's kind of like we're building this really nice house in this neighborhood right, and the neighborhood has been there for a while and there's some older homes in there, but very recently there's been a lot of really nice homes coming up because we really like this spot. But I'm also like I don't want to outbuild for this neighborhood. So I'm actually glad.

26:20 I'm like I'm glad that all these other people, like someone, had to be first, be like I'm gonna build like a really nice house in this neighborhood that maybe doesn't have as maybe modern or bigger of you know of house, because they've been there for so long. So I'm kind of like I'm glad y'all all do this first. It gives me validation, figure out what goes wrong and then let me know yeah, so um. Similarly, to have um with, like my friends and stuff, I'm it's kind of like not, uh, oh, everyone's having kids or everyone's getting married, so I might as well do it too. But it's also like I'm excited because a long time ago I was planning on being this single guy forever and definitely. While it can be jokey about, oh, I'm fine with being single, but if, let's say, all of your friend circles are all in a committed relationship and starting to have kids, you're not going to hang out with them.

26:58 - Chase (Host) What am I going to do? You're like kind of get like phased out or you'll probably lose interest, like I don't want to hang out with you and your kids all the time, or yeah, exactly. So if anything.

27:05 - Max (Guest) I'm like it's cool that, like, all of our friends are on very similar paths. It's not planned, but In my guy world it's like everyone's right around the age of 30. Everyone's broken over the 30 mark. Joe was the last one, right.

27:21 - Chase (Host) He just turned 30?.

27:22 - Max (Guest) Yeah. So everyone's just either been in solid relationships and now they're kind of taking the next step or starting to have kids. So I've kind of I have like for all circles of like some that are just recently getting married, some that are getting into like very serious relationships, some that are like buying houses together, some that are getting into like very serious relationships, some they're like buying houses together, some that are, um, you know, having kids. Yeah, so it's, uh, it's cool for sure, do you?

27:44 - Chase (Host) um, do you find yourself talking to like because david's having a kid and I know christian and heidi have been talking publicly about kind of you know they?

27:52 - Max (Guest) want their fucking yeah, yeah, no, we're trying for kids. What does that mean? What does that?

27:58 - Chase (Host) mean Like right now or like last night. It's such a weird thing. It's so true. It's so awkward to tell people. I remember telling friends and family when May and I were like trying Imagine your family. Yeah, it's like hey, father-in-law, we're trying to get pregnant.

28:12 - Max (Guest) Yeah, but at that point I'm boinking your daughter. No, you daughter. No, you're not boinking you're reproducing.

28:26 - Chase (Host) Okay, that's a different one. Yeah, true, you're like. No, no, I used to boink your daughter. I think we met now.

28:28 - Max (Guest) Now I'm talking about the next stage of life. I'm boinking, but like intentionally, yeah, no, it's uh, yeah, no, I did the same thing with, uh, not the boinking thing, but around you know, taylor's family. It's like they also like, are like, yeah, like very soon, like y'all two are gonna have kids and yeah, family. It's like they also like, or like yeah, like very soon, like y'all two are going to have kids, and like um, it's like a weird thing to talk about.

28:43 - Chase (Host) It is, but it's y'all going to have kids soon. It's like can you please start having sex more often with my daughter during a particular period of recycle?

28:51 - Max (Guest) Yes, yes, I will. Um, no, I'm, I'm, uh, I really am excited to look forward to how are you feeling with soon to be fatherhood. Oh man, I'm doing a long time coming, right yeah.

29:03 - Chase (Host) So I mean, I just kind of started talking about all this recently like publicly. Um, we were trying for like a year and a half like our fertility when may got off birth control and we were like, okay, you're ovulating on this day, let's boink, uh. So it was about like a year and a half and we went through a miscarriage earlier this year. We got pregnant in February and we found out we were pregnant for about just shy of seven weeks and really really stung, like it was really scary and like really hard, more so like on May, but that was like a hard thing to go through just in the relationship, and then we kind of took some time off.

29:41 - Max (Guest) I didn't know it's as common. It's not like relatively common to like have miscarriages.

29:46 - Chase (Host) The more people like almost I'd say one out of three. People that I tell that we had a miscarriage Me too, they say me too. Yeah, I guess statistically I'd even say like one point five out of three, and a lot of people are like not even one. We had two, three, four miscarriages. Or you have one kid, you have miscarriage kid, miscarriage, miscarriage, miscarriage kid. So it's just kind of like wow, like holy shit, I didn't know it was this common. Yes, we went through that. Then we took like I don't know like a month or something off of just not trying, and then we, we were still boinking.

30:25 - Max (Guest) Okay, we point without trying to have a kid.

30:26 - Chase (Host) And then we got pregnant, yeah, so which I hear a lot of it's kind of you take the pressure off of the trying and the stress and all that stuff. And then, uh, yeah, and then we found out in the wildest way. So we were visiting some friends in Mexico City and we were like living la vida loca for a few days. May woke up the next day, called me from the kitchen. She was in the bathroom. She's like Chase, can you come to the bathroom? I was like, oh shit, what happened? And then she whipped out this pregnancy stick and she's like we're pregnant. She just carried that on vacation with her. Well, she knew she was going to be ovulating. So it's kind of just like our was our life at the time. She always had this stuff at the ready and, yeah, she tested. She tested like two and she's like, yeah, we're pregnant.

31:08 - Max (Guest) How quickly from the successful boink to positive pregnancy test. Like, would it be like? Hey, at midnight we had sex, At 8 am the next morning when I tested my pee. Is that like–?

31:23 - Chase (Host) I can tell you because we were. If your family listens to this, thing.

31:30 - Max (Guest) These are serious questions.

31:31 - Chase (Host) It was. We were in New York visiting her sister who just had her first kid, and then after that we went up to a wedding in northern new york and then, okay, so from that date to it was about six weeks, oh yeah I thought when you'd be trying to be pregnant, you would just be like almost, I mean I guess that would get expensive, but like daily or weekly, like every time.

31:59 Well, I mean would just be like almost, I mean I guess that would get expensive, but like daily or weekly, like every time it just be like hey, I mean you definitely get the reps in, but like when it actually counts, when she's ovulating and you actually have a higher probability of fertilizing the egg. It's like like down to like the hour, almost. It's like this day this moment.

32:14 - Max (Guest) You know I don't know mainly cause I'm a dude, but uh, you know I don't know mainly because I'm a dude, but uh, you know, I would watch movies or taylor, tell me stories about like people that I'll be like oh, I didn't know. I was like six months pregnant and then I'm always like, well, didn't they notice that they didn't have a period? But then I didn't know that some girls even not like, even not birth control is like just here have irregular periods and like oh yeah, just don't have them.

32:33 - Chase (Host) I was like because in my head I'm like how do you, yeah, like that, uh, if, like high stress, you can miss your period, um, or a lot of like overweight or even like obese women, you you don't notice it or even just you know, uh, I gotta watch my words here uh, anyone who is not overweight or not obese, you can be pregnant for like months, because not every woman shows the same way, or yeah, I think some women might even like get their cycle or something. I don't know I'm not an expert in lady part stuff. Um, I know where it is, or else we wouldn't be pregnant.

33:06 - Max (Guest) I got that going for me, but because I have a wiener, a big one very moderately above average actually.

33:15 - Chase (Host) Oh, yesterday I was doing a podcast with uh a doctor, uh sex ed specialist and urologist, and she dropped this bomb on me, which I think should make every guy feel better. She's like where is the clitoris?

33:27 - Max (Guest) It's like point to me on the doll.

33:28 - Chase (Host) Yeah.

33:30 - Max (Guest) The female orgasm is a myth right. It's a myth right.

33:33 - Chase (Host) She confirmed it's true, she was like. She made me think, forget what I was saying. Oh, uh, yeah, most guys struggle with like their sex life because they feel like they're not as well equipped as other guys, or they feel like they want to be bigger or need to be bigger. She's like the national average for penis size. What is it, chase? Five and a half inches erect. Okay, or it might have just been five.

33:59 I think it was just five, five inches erect, which is pretty healthy I'm not trying to like shame anybody who's less than that or like I don't know, but I feel like that's that's fair, that's a fair amount of inches I don't know.

34:12 - Max (Guest) On twitter I hear girls are just like if you don't have a 14 inch wiener, then you're, you're embarrassing that like what do you do with that?

34:22 - Chase (Host) help, help oh god, I mean just imagine bro, this all right, so this is so that's. This is, I think, seven inches, that's five, and we, we measured this. You sent me the link. Anyway, what are you going to do with something bigger than this? I don't know. You've got to find a special lady. You go down to Mexico and you see the donkey show.

34:48 - Max (Guest) He was really giving it to her. What?

34:51 - Chase (Host) are you?

34:51 - Max (Guest) getting for lunch. Yeah, it's like you think it's going to be a woman having sex with a horse and you get in there and it's just a woman having sex with a horse. And you get in there and it's just a woman having sex with a horse. Kind of feel bad for her, kind of feel bad for the horse. I mean, he was really giving it to her.

35:02 - Chase (Host) That's a movie we started talking about recently. She's never seen which one is that 40 old virgin?

35:06 - Max (Guest) yes, yes I want to re-watch that so here's another way.

35:09 - Chase (Host) Like pregnant, life has kind of shifted us. We just your interests begin to change. So, like now I'm getting targeted ads for like all baby shit, same as as may and uh, we've been interested more in looking at watching movies about pregnancy and new parenthood. Really, yeah, that was sort of watching. Um, we watched. This is 40. We watched funny movie really good underrated comedy, by the way. And what to expect when you're expecting funny movie and we're going to watch next, I think, knocked up which is technically it's kind of like a prequel.

35:39 - Max (Guest) It is that came out first. This is 40. Yes, it's like because that's her sister. Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a sequel, but it's like a different story. But it's those people.

35:44 - Chase (Host) But yeah, characters, yeah yes, uh, and then um, what was the other one? Oh, she's never seen. This is, uh, the 40 year old virgin, which isn't really like a new.

35:51 - Max (Guest) It's kind of like he gets married she almost had one, you know right, yeah, damn it, baby, you could have waited just two more years, but uh, it is.

36:02 - Chase (Host) I'm glad we're gonna have kids before 40.

36:05 - Max (Guest) Uh, yeah, yeah, no, I think that'd be good. And are you? Are you hoping to have more than one?

36:09 - Chase (Host) oh, yeah, I want like eight, I want like a whole group. I want. I love the idea. Honestly, I really want five.

36:15 - Max (Guest) I would love that, but you come from a family of three, why no?

36:19 - Chase (Host) I just love, I really like the idea of, of course, famous last words. Right, what if it was? They're a shithead and they hate you and your family.

36:26 - Max (Guest) I love the idea of like a family kids that I have, the higher chances that all of them won't hate me yeah, two out of five isn't bad, statistically probably we're, we're, I think, we're, I. I talk as if we have this like master plan of how it's going to work out this way. But our plan is three. But if we have a boy and a girl first, two, then we're done.

36:50 - Chase (Host) But if we were to have like.

36:51 - Max (Guest) So you get all the collector's items. We would. I think we want. Yeah, I think we would ideally want no more than three and we would stop at three. But if we had a boy and a girl on the first two, we would probably stop. Or if we had like twins out of the yeah, we probably want three. I think we want three, whatever the three that come are going to be. Taylor thinks she's going to have twins. Why?

37:13 Does she have twins in her family Apparently, that runs in families and her mom is a twin. I didn't know that that was a thing nobody runs in our family yeah, I was gonna be like twins run your family. Better go catch them we don't do cardio.

37:24 - Chase (Host) I think we're in the same boat. We, uh, we we were on the same page about we would love, ideally, to have a boy first. We both like the idea of an older brother.

37:32 - Max (Guest) Yes, and then why? Because you think women need protecting for men. You misogynist piece of shit I'm getting out of here, have you?

37:38 - Chase (Host) seen women this comes up all the time mays like, yes, absolutely, I want.

37:43 - Max (Guest) I said that one time and I'd comment that literally like oh, oh, because I said like, oh, like to look after a little sister, and I literally had people be like oh, because women need.

37:51 - Chase (Host) I was like let me want what I want for my life. Like I'm not geez, I want a boy first. Yeah, I would take either. Great success, yes, great success, Nailed it. Uh, the fertility specialist told me we were getting checked on time. She's like aim, she goes, she goes literally. Oh things look good, chase, aim left. I was like okay. And then I think if we had a girl next I don't know we might be cool with that.

38:19 - Max (Guest) You go from oh, I'd really like eight, definitely would maybe want five to. I'd be fine with two, I know, because I feel like what does May want?

38:25 - Chase (Host) Like, look, I love, I'm big pie in the sky, crazy thinking and May's very realistic. And so I feel like, realistically, after two kids, we might go. You know what. This is good, we can handle two. There's not more of them than us, you know, like, financially, school, all the stuff that comes with it that I'm about to find out, but I don't know. We both come from three. My dudes listen up.

38:49 I got to bring your attention to one of my favorite products I've been using daily for years, and that is the Clean Slate Balancing Cleanser Face Wash from today's sponsor, caldera Lab. Look, you don't need a whole rigmarole routine. Okay, you don't maybe need to adopt your significant other's 5,000-step, 2-hour skincare routine. They got some good stuff in there, no doubt. But look, when it comes to just getting a fresh start in the beginning of the day and washing the day off of your face, I cannot recommend the Clean Slate enough. It's a pH balanced cleanser using breakthrough plant-based ingredients, probiotic ferments and gentle PHAs to cleanse, rebalance natural oils and gently exfoliate skin without drying it out. So if you're looking for a new face wash or a better one, one that's balancing, no matter your skin type, cleansing, hydrating, and one that, honestly, just when you're done, you dry off your face, you feel refreshed, you look your best, helps you put your best foot forward and save some money. Well, let me take care of you.

39:50 Head to calderalabcom or at checkout, where they're getting the Clean Slate or any one of their other amazing men's skincare products. You can use code EVERFORWARD at checkout to save 20% off of your entire first purchase. Not to mention you get to try anything and everything you want. You get results in 60 days or your money back. All right, calderalabcom C D, e, r, a, l, a Bcom code ever forward at checkout, whether you're getting the clean slate, the body bar, exfoliating soap bar, their shaving products, moisturizer under eye cream Look, I recommend it all. But wherever you're ready to start your skincare routine, just just go there. Caldera labcom code ever forward to save 20 I like the idea.

40:35 - Max (Guest) You know what's interesting is, I'm assuming you just like experience this in real time, like because I can't wrap my head around how. So when you look because you have a kid for the first time obviously everyone who has a kid for the first time has never had that so especially the first, like, let's say, two years, right, it's probably a little bit of chaos because, right, it's so much shit going on, but it's so wild that, like I know, ideally people don't want their siblings to be, ideally I guess they want to like relatively close together. And then there's a lot of stuff of like women should I? Ideally it's like two years is a good time before you have the next kid, because I guess you can have. If you have to try to have kids like so soon after, there can be complications. I've heard oh really, it's like a real thing Not saying it happens, but I think apparently like two years is like the optimal time.

41:20 - Chase (Host) They probably need ample time to like recover.

41:22 - Max (Guest) That's so much on their bodies, yeah but what's wild to me is like, so like while the before the kid is even starting to do cool kid things like talk and like or like, I guess by two, but, like you know, start becoming personality and stuff. Like while it's a toddler, he's like we should have another one of these like, but it's like while it's chaos out of the woods.

41:40 - Chase (Host) Yeah, let's just go ahead and sprinkle some more shit on.

41:42 - Max (Guest) Yeah, but I mean, I guess obviously a ton of people had that, you know. But I guess at some point, like when you're, when you're in the shit, you're just kind of like let's have another one.

41:52 - Chase (Host) Like when you're in the shit, you're just kind of like let's have another one. When you're in the shit, you're like, okay, I'm not dead yet.

41:55 - Max (Guest) Or if they're I guess I didn't kill the kid yet, god forbid or if they're unplanned, right yeah, but I mean I'm pretty like planning about.

42:04 - Chase (Host) I love planning, love planning, big planner. We did decide, if the second one's a another boy, we're for sure gonna try again to hopefully have a girl. You're just copying what I said. No, but I said it more eloquently.

42:21 - Max (Guest) Nice, I, I, I can triple stamp, a double stamp and then our, yet our kids, yeah, just be cousins, okay, yeah no, they'd be brothers.

42:30 - Chase (Host) what? Because? Because we're brothers.

42:32 - Max (Guest) That's true, that's true, I'm going to need you to move. Y'all need to move closer. You need to move closer. I'm about to build a house. You're a renter, you can move around.

42:46 - Chase (Host) We've talked about that. This is a question we get asked a lot. I wonder if any new parents can relate when we tell people we're pregnant, like, oh, are you going to stay in LA? Is that a thing, I guess? But I feel like it's just because people unless you're a true LA-er, angelino-ian and Angelino, I can never get that word right I don't know what we're called People think that you're not going to live here forever or not going to live here with like a family. Everyone we tell we're pregnant, they're like oh, the first question is are you going to stay in LA? And we go, yes, we love it here, love it here Now, like if we lived in Texas, we live back home in Virginia or DC. I feel like we wouldn't get that question. So I'm saying why do people hate on LA, la for the idea of raising a family?

43:32 I don't even want to get into my thoughts about LA, bro. Why not my kid could go to school with? Like celebrities? They're going to be a celebrity. They're like oh my God your dad is. Chase tuning, play yeah.

43:45 - Max (Guest) I don't know. I mean, I guess I just go where the people are.

43:48 - Chase (Host) Well yeah, so all all of Mae's family, basically, except for her sister.

43:51 - Max (Guest) Well, they all moved yeah, yeah.

43:53 - Chase (Host) So her brother lives here. Her parents are like an hour south. Well, that makes sense.

43:57 - Max (Guest) That makes sense If you're all out here like by yourselves, but then it's still your decision, but, like, obviously now we have big ties and we're staying in Texas for sure, because Taylor's entire family is 20 minutes away from where we live, and then she's super, super close with her family and sees them frequently, like almost weekly, which is really cool, so it's important for her to stay.

44:23 - Chase (Host) I love the idea, like, definitely, like, literally every day things become more real about concepts, or concepts turn more into reality because it goes from it's, it goes from pie in the sky, idea planning to this is going to be your life of who do you want around your kid? What do you, what kind of support system do you have? Don't you have? And again, the idea of family is really important to me, so it definitely has been on my radar more of all. Right, well, we've got family in Texas, got family all the way on the East coast. I want them to be a part of my kid's life just as much as I want my kid to be part of their life.

44:58 So like logistically.

44:59 - Max (Guest) how do we do that? Man, I don't make this whole podcast about kids, but you got to think about, like, even like, what are you going to do? Like, here's a scenario your kid is 14 and lies to you and you find out that they were. They were boinking unintentionally. Drink, drink, like, get their shit faced at like a party, I don't know. It's like. What do you do? Like, how are you going to discipline your child? Like, how are you going to what's like? What would you do?

45:29 You found okay, here's this scenario I said get in the cage again.

45:34 - Chase (Host) It rubs the lotion on its skin. You found out your kid was. You didn't know that he she was at a party. You didn't know there was alcohol. All this is new information. So they lied to you about where they were and you didn't know that they were even drinking. Turns out they were hammered and you got to come pick their ass up, ass.

45:51 - Max (Guest) I think you hit them with the. I'm not mad, I'm disappointed. I'm also mad. Yeah, no, uh, I'd be like, yep, you're, yeah, you're, uh, your virtual reality's gone. Okay, ready player one not so much. Yeah, no, I I don't really know because, um, I don't know, like I was a little shithead growing up but I always like knew that even though I was being a shit head, I knew that I was like alright, I know what's right and wrong and stuff, and you have to hope that your kid also does that. And it all comes down to. It's kind of like at work, when like stuff goes wrong, you can get upset at the employees, but then it's kind of like, did I give them all the tools to like not make this error, or did I let them like do so much? Like it really comes down it's all your kind of your fault or it is your fault. So it's kind of like the kid almost too.

46:38 It's like you can hope they have the best intentions, but did I provide all of the right ways of raising them or give them the right tools to, because they, you know a certain point, it's you gotta, they get you gotta, they gotta flap their wings they've gotta fuck up, they've gotta make mistakes and stuff and you don't wanna shelter them, but it's like I know everything that I've done in my life and I know that, like stuff that I like almost got too close to, like going too far with something, or like this or that got really sketchy or I almost could've gotten crazily injured, and I'm more like, yeah, I want them to experience things, but like I don't, like I don't want them to do the same stuff I did and like super mess up or something, or what?

47:15 - Chase (Host) what do you think is a thing you hope you are now that you we're not hoping ill will or harm on on our future children by any means, but we definitely we did some dumb shit growing up. We have, you know, lived out in the, you know the country, so we had just like you're just outside playing doing crazy shit. So what do you think is something that you did as a kid, looking back, that maybe you got in trouble for, or it was sketch that you hope your kid experiences, just for like the sake of experience, and what's maybe something you did that you're like, oh God, I hope they never have to go through that.

47:52 - Max (Guest) But to be honest, I actually I don't think about it. I don't really. I didn't really get in a lot of trouble. What I would just. I would just do stuff like I would just be. I would be in like situations, maybe at like parties and stuff where I maybe not like drank and drove, but like I was too casual with like alcohol and maybe I was like riding in cars with like people who I know have been drinking. Um, I was actually really adamant. I I got called little bitch. I would like go from parties and like there'd be including girls would I'd be like oh, like well, let's go to the next party or something and they'd get in, they'd have like beers or something and I'd be like you're not having this in my car, like, and they and they were like making fun of me and I was like I ain't having beers in my car If we get pulled over or something.

48:36 That's like a little stuff, but like I would be in the cars where my friends are drinking, or like in college. You know, like some of my roommates would like we go to the bars frequently and they would have just as many drinks as I would and they would drive us back home and as I would, and they would drive us back home and I literally used to say this to my friends.

48:57 I'd be like, as dumb as this sounds, I like feel completely like he's a really good, good driver when he's drunk like and it wasn't like, oh, he had a couple drinks, like he was had, you know 15, but like we got home safely every time. But I now look back that I'm like that was so stupid. Like it was so stupid because we'd like get on the highway to make a little shortcut and be going fast and like that kind of stuff, where I'm just like I did that but like, please, don't do that. Like, please don't do that.

49:19 - Chase (Host) Like so yeah, I hope that our kids I won't speak for your children, but I, I hope my kid at least kind of like what we did a lot as kids. I hope they experienced like the actual pain of like of physical life. We like we're always playing in the woods, we played sports, we were beating each other up and we were running amok and like the trees, the Creek, the all the things, and I feel like there was just so many times where we definitely got like, got hurt.

49:50 I feel like every bee in a hundred mile radius had it out for you as a kid.

49:53 - Max (Guest) I don't know if that's gonna be like that anymore. Right, I don't think kids, kids play outside as much as they used to.

49:58 - Chase (Host) No, I mean definitely. I'm kind of, I guess, eating my words now of I mean, unless it'd be amazing you strike it rich and have a bunch of land like in la. That's not going to be the case. My kids, I mean, we had it's like 170 acres, yeah, yeah, you don't have that here. Yeah, they're not going to get the experience of just running amok.

50:17 - Max (Guest) Yeah, I don't know. I don't even know. Like, when the kid gets injured, what do you do? If the kid gets bullied, like what do you do? I don't think bullying is a thing anymore. No, my Taylor's nephew actually they at Bible school he got bullied at Bible school for his buck teeth, his big teeth, and I literally I told the parents. I was like, tell them, I was like I got made fun of all the time for like my big ears and like my buck teeth as well. Oh, dude, I had a major overbite, yeah. So I'm just like, yeah, you just got to lean into it and just honestly make fun of them back and kind of stuff. But like, when it's your own kid, like what do you tell them? If they come home crying Someone's like I don't know, I don't know, but I'm going to figure it out, but I definitely think that I'm going to be who's going to be? Who's good cop, bad, cop in your we talk about this a lot.

51:07 - Chase (Host) I feel like I'm definitely going to be a bad cop. Oh see, I'm a good cop Because I love rules, I love structure and discipline and even though my kind of association to rules has changed a lot over the last few years, I still think rules are important. They're good to implement some on your own, adopt others. I feel like I'm probably going to start my parenting style off with rules and structure and discipline and May is going to be yeah, whatever, what'd?

51:33 your father say no we're not going to do that yeah, I don't, I don't know. I think here's what happens if someone says is a mom said I, I can't do this, but like can I do you go against what you're that is going to be a case-by-case situation where I'm going to have to weigh the pros and cons of how much shit am I willing to get from may, probably, or what argument might I have with her versus what experience might I be able to allow my kid to have.

52:06 - Max (Guest) Or another thing is like what would be something that you would be, you would keep from your partner. And Taylor gave me example of like she's like if our daughter, like had sex for the first time and talk to talk to her about it, she'd be like I'm like, like I, you know we can have this is our secret, not as so you can trust in me, but it's like what's the line of like? But I don't know. That's a really good question. Like it'll be something kind of like we're not gonna tell your mother about this. Is it like having an extra dessert?

52:36 - Chase (Host) or is it like I don't know who's who's daddy's little pre-diabetic? I feel like that's going to be really personal. Like I can get on board with that example of if I have a daughter, hell, even if it's my son, if, for whatever reason, he feels more comfortable talking to me about hey, mom, I had sex. When I'm thinking about having sex and they decide that, hey, this is a between us right thing. That's where I have the faith and trust and respect in may and to know what's that mean to?

53:10 to know, like cause, look, I think I know in our relationship it's probably just a matter of time before we tell each other everything. But we both kind of know, like that barometer of okay right now, maybe like we're collecting other facts or other information, or, you know, I think we trust each other enough to know, I know when's the right time to tell you. I don't, I don't know, know, I don't think there's ever going to be anything to where we take this to our grave junior. You know, like never tell your mother kind of thing unless you murder someone again, unless literally we murder someone again. Great, all right, cut. What part of secret do you understand?

53:45 - Max (Guest) yeah, um, yeah, kids, man, life is like gonna really change the next year so I'm trying just keep hustling and bustling so that hopefully I set up everything you know kind of uh, have the right people in the place to assist with what I'm doing now so I can cause I. I told Taylor I was like I want to be the um, I want to be the like at every performance practice. Like I want to be you know there all the time um as much as I can practice. Like I want to be, you know there all the time um as much as I can. Um, but like, make it a like. That's like one of my goals. Like I want to. I don't want to miss anything because of work and so I'm going to do my best to make sure that that like happens do you think you want your kids or will like support your kids going to college?

54:28 uh, I told, I told taylor, I mean that like I don't even think college, I don't think, I literally do not think college would be a thing.

54:35 - Chase (Host) I said the same thing. I showed you that, like two days ago, I was like, hey, college isn't going to be a thing, unless you're going to be a doctor.

54:40 - Max (Guest) Correct, unless you're going for a specific trade, there will. As someone who went to college and is an advocate of it, because of how I transformed as a person, not necessarily the education I got, but just it. Not only I had a lot of fun, it was, I was like it was my uh, formative years of like social socializing. But time is times have changed so much that I think, cause I told Taylor, I was like do you think that in 20 years from now, you think that the kids are going to be going to college to get like a communications degree like Taylor got, or a bad, or a policy?

55:17 - Chase (Host) a business degree.

55:17 - Max (Guest) I was like because even right now, unless when I want to be a doctor or whatever, I would say no don't go to college, oh my Like.

55:24 - Chase (Host) So my undergrad was in exercise science. For you telling me it takes four years to learn human, human body, exercise programming, nutrition no yeah, you don't need tens of thousands of dollars. Four years of your life Well there's even like data already.

55:42 - Max (Guest) I mean, you can, I think, just like the attendance is already starting to decline.

55:47 So I'm like 90% certain that it won't be a thing. No, and I also never say never, but like I don't know, maybe the kids will want to follow in like entrepreneurial journey, and I'll help them along the way of like luckily they're in a position where they can like they'll have the ability to like, try things that they like and try different things. It's not like a very like straightforward path of like you know, hey, you're going to the military, like I did, or you have to be a doctor, like I was. So we'll see, kind of like what the what the child wants. I brought that up with me.

56:23 - Chase (Host) I was like, and here we're going to go look at the army recruiter's office and she goes, absolutely recruiter's office and she goes absolutely not. I would not take, I wouldn't kind of like what dad did with me. He was never hey, this is what we do or hey, you're gonna go look at the military. It was always just an option which I think definitely fed into my interest. To even consider it, would you push your kid to go to the military if they wanted to look at it? I would totally support their decision. I loved my experience. I think it was great. Who?

56:52 - Max (Guest) what shit's going to be like in 18 years from now?

56:55 - Chase (Host) You think America will even be a country.

56:57 - Max (Guest) I don't know, bro, I mean for you literally, like you know, your child will decide this in, literally, you know, 18 years from now. And it's like I mean, bro, even just look at how much life's changed in the past 10, you know, imagine almost two decades from now, especially as technology advances AI advances, automation advances, like all the jobs that you even think are going to be a thing in five years. Imagine how advanced they're going to be in 20. And I mean even just with AI and robotics and stuff is all the, there's so many jobs now that will not exist. Yeah, I think even just simple things, like even like fast food, like I don't think there'll be a single person taking your order in decade from now. No shit, Period.

57:44 - Chase (Host) Yeah, I already see that a lot of airports they have, it's like all automated iPad messaging. Why would they? Why?

57:49 - Max (Guest) would they pay someone to press things on a screen at the front if they can just have the machine? If either the customer can just do it for you like, why?

57:58 - Chase (Host) Are you bringing any of that into your businesses right now?

58:01 - Max (Guest) Like tech and AI. When I need to write email, sometimes I use chat GPT, but other than that, no.

58:09 - Chase (Host) You don't have like an automated like shipper?

58:12 - Max (Guest) Are you swapping out like tech for people and well, I mean, just as kind of like a John Henry type of thing is you know, john Henry is no, it's an old fable Kind of like a Paul Bunyan. Oh, john Henry, he died with a hammer in his hand. Yeah, yeah, tried to beat that. He tried to beat the machine putting the railroad spikes plot. Uh, but in the railroad spikes plot spoiler alert he didn't beat the machine and he died with a hammer in his hand trying to beat the machine. Rip. But sad story because he didn't, because the machine was faster. Is that a true story? Yes, same with the guy with the big ox, the prime example. So we get the sour strips. Yeah, sourstripscom. Right, find it at your local Target, it's fantastic um.

58:52 We're also available in operation podcast studios yes, we used to have like this and this is something simple, like a simple machine, but we used to have to build these little 12 packs of candy, right, so the candy would come in bags and we need to put them in 12 packs and it used to take.

59:07 It would take like, um, like eight people all day to pack like 600 boxes. Let's say, wait, what eight hour work day? Yeah, it'd be like all day. Like for eight people it'd be like 600 boxes. So that's like them putting it in there, right, and then them putting it in the bigger box, or sorry, this is literally just for like, taking these smaller boxes, putting them into bigger boxes, where you put 12 smaller boxes into one bigger box and tape it up. Okay, yeah, they could make like 600 big boxes in eight hours with eight people. We got this tape machine that can automatically tape the boxes for you that you put the candy in and you just slide it down the thing and it starts taping it. Now, with four people, with four people half the people we can do those same 600 boxes before lunchtime.

59:56 - Chase (Host) So half the people, half the time Correct.

59:59 - Max (Guest) Yeah, holy shit. So now we can like double our output. We just got a second tape and machine, so it's like simple stuff like that.

01:00:05 - Chase (Host) Does it need a person to operate the machine or kind of like monitor the machine at all. It just goes Like you.

01:00:09 - Max (Guest) Just I mean it's not like some advanced machine at all, it just goes Like you. Just I mean it's not like some advanced machine, it's really just it just puts tape on the top and the bottom of the boxes, but something that we were just manually doing that you needed all these employees for. Not like cause you want to cut jobs. We did. We have all this people just went into another roles, but like, but it's almost like, why would I pay eight people to work for eight hours when I could pay four people to work for four hours to get the same output? You know out Um and uh and also it's like such a monotonous task that it's like there's higher level things that humans can be doing that, like the, it's kind of like below the skill level.

01:00:41 Correct, it's just putting boxes in boxes Like let let the machines do that. Like like now you know, now you can do higher level tasks, that that then people can level up in the company. So that's like a small example.

01:00:53 - Chase (Host) Besides tape machines, what's the craziest thing you've seen in your business this year? Like crazy, oh my God. How are we going to get through this? Or crazy, oh my God. I can't believe that happened in a good way.

01:01:09 - Max (Guest) I mean, the craziest thing that's happened this year is us switching new manufacturers and just-.

01:01:14 - Chase (Host) Oh yeah, that was this year, yeah, we started in February.

01:01:20 - Max (Guest) Well, started in like January and our plan was to be, like, done by March but we just literally swapped like the last flavor like three weeks ago. So it obviously took a little longer, but that's been like the biggest like culture shock in the in the business, just because, like, I had to deal with you know, you know that's a big switch, it's massive, massive switch. Um, but it was a necessary, yeah, necessary to scale the sale of the company. So it was um, yeah, it was a tough one is it being received?

01:01:47 - Chase (Host) okay?

01:01:49 - Max (Guest) yeah, well, now it is. So the way it kind of worked is like so we needed to switch because the old manufacturer could not keep up with our demand and basically I had this decision to make. That was honestly like two years in the making, because I kind of saw that this was it already like was a baby problem, like two years ago, and I was kind of like I think this is going to company keeps scaling, this is gonna become a bigger problem. So I should start working on a solution for this. So it's not even an exaggeration.

01:02:16 It was a two-year, two-year project, from starting to like source a new manufacturer to swapping like it's been over two and a half years from the first email of like hi, new manufacturer, damn. So it was basically a email of like hi, new manufacturer, um, so it was basically a decision of like you know, keep everything the way that it is and limit my company or switch, have a culture shock and, um, change it. So, yeah, we changed, you know, entirely new uh version of the product, and I knew there'd be a lot of pushback, but I kind of like anticipated it, um, and so I knew that the people who were very, very angry would move on, say their piece and just move on. And then I basically said, like there's me three categories, like people who are angry and say I hate the what you did, I'm out forever. Section B would be um, like uh, hey, I love this even more and I'm like that's ideally what we want. And then section group three would be hey, I might have preferred the last one, but I am fine with this one.

01:03:18 - Chase (Host) This doesn't deter me really from Correct.

01:03:21 - Max (Guest) Because I looked at it at a way that I've looked at a lot of brands that have. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that I've eaten, consumed, that has changed over the years, and some I've disliked, some I've liked and some some. That is my. The group three that I fell in was like hey, I liked the old one, but I'll still eat it, like I'll still do this. It's kind of like Chick-fil-A, just changed their like chicken and like oh.

01:03:44 - Chase (Host) I heard that yeah.

01:03:45 - Max (Guest) Yeah, and like it mildly is different. But I was like whatever, like yeah, it's like yeah, maybe the last ones are a little better, but like a month I'm gonna forget about this. Yeah, exactly. And then that was another thing. I knew that once enough time went by, the dust would settle and those who stuck around would be here and you know, our sales haven't dipped at all, which is great. This can continue to grow. And the way that I looked at it, it was like a big bet on the company it was. It was a huge. I mean, it's the biggest bet I could have done on the company. Um, but I figured look, we're in like 16,000 doors at the moment. There's about like 300,000 doors, give or take. That we could be in. The amount of people that have not had sour strips yet is dwarfs the amount of people who have had it. So let's make this switch now. So now people's first experience, they can decide at that moment. Do I like the brand at?

01:04:35 - Chase (Host) all. Yeah, you still got a lot of, uh, what's it called Blue ocean? Yeah, so so?

01:04:39 - Max (Guest) yeah. So that was like what went on in my brain of like I knew there was gonna be a lot of pushback. So we did get a lot of pushback, but now it's settled. Every now and then there's still some people that'll still make a comment that even though the new stuff's been out for like months and months and months, I'm kind of like it ain't come back the old one. So, um, yeah, so that's kind of the biggest, biggest shift, because I was I was like literally betting the entire company because it could have been a big flop and but it was just like I had to make a decision. It was a tough, it was an extremely tough decision that I'd make for the future of the company.

01:05:09 - Chase (Host) Bro, I hear you say that like a lot. It was just in catching up with you personally off air and, like you know, past years of coming on the show. Like you talk about the big decisions you make or even little decisions you make that you kind of forecast have big implications in the business you you like you do things in a way that at least you feel like is betting it all.

01:05:33 - Max (Guest) I'm a very emotionally driven with my decisions in my business.

01:05:40 - Chase (Host) Like you, use emotion to drive your decisions or your decisions make you emotional?

01:05:45 - Max (Guest) No, I use the way that I feel to make most of the decisions in my company. It is not a very. It's not a very.

01:05:53 - Chase (Host) Like logic-driven.

01:05:54 - Max (Guest) Yeah, it's most people. For example, if you had this, well, not only most people would have like a lot more like maybe people on the board, or like multiple owners, but like people would like with a lot of decisions of what we do, whether it be launching a new product, changing manufacturers, you know, going into a new warehouse they would have very like systematic, like processes of like. Here's the data, here's what the data shows you should do based on this and this, this forecast of this projection. It is a good decision. This is how much like all my decisions have just been like I think this is what we should do, like I and and it's not like a I've just been like you know, I'm enlightened and I just know the right decisions. It's just like I just am like I think this is what we should do and I'm my gut is saying that this should happen and that's like how I've made a lot of my decisions, most of my decisions in the company. Um, for better or worse.

01:06:49 - Chase (Host) How would you kind of like describe the feeling? Is it a? I'm really anxious, but you know, I know that this has kind of pushed me in the past in a good direction. Is it an excitement? Is it a like an intuitive pulling kind of?

01:07:01 - Max (Guest) how would you describe the? The well, I guess I mean the. The switching of the manufacturer was a big one. Um, that I knew was like okay, the company like it's either going to hit this glass ceiling and I'm going to limit myself based on this manufacturer or I'm gonna run into like dramatically more issues or costs or anything. So this just kind of has to happen. But a lot of it is like, especially with decisions that I make in the company, because while we have a big team, anything you see with sour strips that goes out in the world, whether it be a flavor, a packaging, whatever all of it stems from my brain, like all decisions in the company You're so in the day to day, like, like, what percentage of the daily operations and decision making process do you think you have?

01:07:44 - Chase (Host) It's like 80%, 85%.

01:07:45 - Max (Guest) I mean, I guess all of it, I mean well, guess all of it.

01:07:53 - Chase (Host) I mean, yeah, well I. I mean there is no like coo or cmo or all these people. Can you're just like?

01:07:55 - Max (Guest) yes, no, make it like approving decisions correct, yeah, yeah, so I mean any any event we're gonna do to a certain level. Now I'm starting to like if there's like smaller events, like I'll just actually, for the first time ever, I saw, uh, I was like somewhere and I looked at my story and it was like sour strip story and it I was somewhere recently too, yeah, and it was like, uh, it was like, uh, sour strips had a booth at like some like outdoor gym event or something, and I go, I had no idea that that was happening. I was like that's like kosher.

01:08:18 Yeah, no, no it's fine Because I've I've given the, I've given the authority to Callie, who now is evolved from social media manager to like kind of like head of events is where we want to get there, where I'm kind of like, hey, you know, um, you know, we've kind of been like hey, here's a loose budget, uh, for the month, and just you've been with us since day one, like you know what we should and shouldn't do, and just kind of your decision-making process for these end results?

01:08:44 - Chase (Host) Yes, yeah.

01:08:45 - Max (Guest) And yeah, that's kind of um how we do everything. So, like a lot of people have a lot of inputs but I mean, at the end of the day, like a new flavor would not come out. My goal in the business is to drive the business forward and make the decisions that are going to like my, my, my job is to bring in the sales, so we have work for everyone and my job is to like what is the? What is the company going to come out with? Um? So there's not. Like is to like what is the? What is the company going to come out with? Um? So there's not. Like.

01:09:16 No one comes to me and is like, hey, we like thought up these designs for like a new candy. Or like, hey, we thought of this flavor, um. So I mean I have a lot of input from my team but most things come from, like my brain. Like all the free, like examples, like all the phrases on the back of the bags, like if you look at the goofy little phrases that we have, all of them are just like shit that I thought up imagine you just walk around laughing to yourself.

01:09:34 That's funny oh yeah, wait till you see when is this episode coming out?

01:09:38 - Chase (Host) uh, at least 24 hours from now, probably more. No, I need to know so I can say something or not.

01:09:43 - Max (Guest) Um, when do you want to come out. Is it coming less or more than a week from now? More than a week, oh yeah okay, so several weeks, so even after september 9th or anything sure yeah, if you needed to no, it's as long as it's not at least a week, yeah, okay, um. So on our birthday we're coming out with uh strabango no way you did it. Yeah, oh I should have brought him, but bites, so so we go bites yeah, oh yeah.

01:10:06 So they're great. But the phrase in the back says um, I I thought so. I think this is a really good one. Okay, sit down, everybody it said. It says Strabango just seemed like a better name than Manberry. That's good, right I?

01:10:28 - Chase (Host) thought it was funny.

01:10:30 - Max (Guest) It like hits on multiple levels, because at first manberry like oh, strawbango, manberry who?

01:10:36 - Chase (Host) when combining strawberry and mango would ever go. Manberry, it's like you, I don't know, maybe you're a sick person.

01:10:44 - Max (Guest) But no, we have a great team and the company's evolved a lot. But yeah, I mean I think about this shit for like my whole life. You know what I think about. I was actually, I was walking dude the other night and sometimes I think to myself and I kind of like pinch myself. I don't technically have this data. I am confident that this is an accurate statement. Um, that sour strips is definitely in the influencer space. I know there's feastables. That is a, it's a chocolate, it's not a candy, it's chocolate. But like I mean, he's just more popular with the chocolate. But like it's definitely in the sour world. Like sour strips is is the fastest growing sour candy brand period. Like it just is. Like especially in the new and emerging brands, it just is. And I think sometimes myself that I'm just like that's me, like, that's like Dude. Hell yeah, man, and I'm well, I think I'm like I was the kid that like was obsessed with candy, like my entire life Always have been.

01:11:48 So, that's why I'm like I just like I, I live and breathe this, uh, this business. So I love like all day. I'm just saying I mean similar to you, I'm sure, with like your business, but like when I'm going to bed at night I'm like thinking about business and work and stuff. So it's uh, it's cool. But I know, but I always try to be, I like to remember these cool kind of moments but also be like oh, that's cool, I want to make sure that that like stays like that. So let's keep, let's keep like pushing forward and keep innovating and, um, it's been cool.

01:12:17 - Chase (Host) It's been very cool. I feel like kind of in similar boats where I feel like our, our bigger picture of things is really coming to fruition. I feel like yours definitely has been a big picture for several years, several years not kind of coming to fruition. But with me, the way business has changed and grown for me this past 2024 has just been, it's been very in alignment with what I've set out to do in terms of this is what I do. These are the products and services, but also the bigger picture, and I had the same sensation or the same thought so many times when I just kind of sit back quite literally like in the studio or out, or just like walking the dog, my man, like this happened, that happened, this happened and it's like I did that.

01:12:59 - Max (Guest) Think of like the origin stories too. Where do you remember the date? I want to say it was probably 20, 2018 and the latest but 2017,. The whole family went to the beach. Where was it? Oh, uh.

01:13:13 - Chase (Host) Naxa, oh no, uh, naxa yeah. North Carolina.

01:13:16 - Max (Guest) One of those. It was that Labor Day, memorial day, I think it was Memorial day, but that I don't know if I told you Outer.

01:13:22 - Chase (Host) Banks Went to Outer Banks, okay.

01:13:24 - Max (Guest) Outer Banks had them in 2017. It could have been any earlier. We hadn't moved here. Yes, it was 2017. Okay, that was the trip I remember telling mom I don't know if I told you that time, but that was the trip that I told mom that was the first moment that I go. I go, mom, like I'm gonna start a candy company.

01:13:40 No way, yeah, yeah, I remember what did she say, she was like oh, that's cool, I think I probably you probably don't remember, but like I remember, just like saying I was like, because I was like when me and the buddies when it first went into conceptualization. I remember you talking about you were kind of exploring something new.

01:13:52 - Chase (Host) I was like, yeah, me and my buddies are going to start a candy company.

01:13:53 - Max (Guest) But that was like before we even like started Googling, like what you do. I mean, this was like the earliest thought of it. How pissed are they that they didn't stick this out. I'm very glad.

01:14:06 - Chase (Host) We could have been a partner.

01:14:08 - Max (Guest) No, I'm very glad that I didn't have partners with it for sure.

01:14:12 - Chase (Host) Well, dude, we got some more hangs to do. Let's go. Uh, do a little, bro workout.

01:14:17 - Max (Guest) You're going to get nothing like chugging a Corona and then can.

01:14:20 - Chase (Host) can you put drinking alcohol up on YouTube? Yeah, you can. Yeah.

01:14:25 - Max (Guest) We're of legal age. They used shots in the beginning of all my episodes. Oh shit, that's right, that's right, okay, cool.

01:14:29 - Chase (Host) Um, yeah, I just want to sit down with you. Always love talking with you, kind of talk life dick around, get sour strips yeah, babies are us sour. Stripscom operation podcastcom. Yes, that's about it bangers um, all right, man, let's get out of here, let's go do stuff and let's get up to tahoe for more information on everything you just heard. Make sure to check this episode's show notes or head to everforwardradio.com