Michael Munoz - Battle Born Designs

[Music] [Music] Hey everybody, welcome back to the Nothing Over Podcast. Today is a very special episode and we are going to do things a little bit different. I'm not going to read a ton of ads because I think this episode is very powerful and you'll see why here in a few minutes. So just real quick, as always, Season 2 of the Nothing Over Podcast is brought to you by Moduse Nation. So please check them out. You know they have awesome stuff. You know you need some shirts. Please check out ModuseNation.com. Use our promo code NothingOde for a special discount. And with that, let's get into the show. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Nothing Over Podcast. As always we're back with another amazing episode with an awesome guest. Today we have Michael Muno from Battleborne Designs. Michael is an awesome dude. He's had some really incredible life experiences that I know a lot of you will be able to relate to. And not only that, he is an entrepreneur and started his own business. So it's going to be a great story. You're a great episode. I know you're going to like it. But as always, before we turn it over to Michael, we'll say how to Ben, check in with him, see how things are going. So Ben, how you been? What's new? Nothing new. You know, it's been a hack to a couple of weeks. You know, with the whole world stage, Afghanistan. You know, you know, because my son is in the army, you know, we're keeping an eye on that. Just praying for those soldiers praying for the families that have lost a marine soldier or a semen. You know, in the last couple of weeks, praying for those people over there that are stuck, especially the Afghan nationals that helped us out, wrist, wrist everything in their lives to help Americans and try to get some sort of life there in Afghanistan. And then we're going to have a little bit more freedom and human right based versus what the Taliban is offering. So that's been crazy. But, you know, other than that, things are good. Families healthy can't complain. So I'm excited about this episode today. Michael has just an amazing inspirational story. Can't wait to get into it. He's a good dude. Live here in Las Vegas. So he's it's going to be a good one. So I'm excited. Yeah, me too. So with that intro, Michael, a turn turn. How you doing? Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, kind of where you grew up, where you're born, all that good stuff. And then we'll get into the real media story. So Michael, how you doing? Thank you guys for having me on today. I really appreciate it. Definitely the first time for the podcast of getting a little experience here. But yeah, came in from from San Antonio, Texas, living in Vegas now, been out here since 2006. I came out here, basically, I was in culinary. I started cooking when I was 16, I should say started washing dishes when I was 16 years old and just been doing that for 16 years. I just got out of that here in Vegas when I was 32. And that's kind of when I was faced with my really tough decision on or choices, basically on how to get out of culinary and what to transition into. Well, hold on, hold on, stop for a second. So every Texas guest we have on speaking of culinary. What what's your favorite Kalachi? I know you probably don't eat Kalachi anymore, but yeah, as I said, not too much there, but it's been a while since I actually had some so. Dude, so I was just that there's a new Texas bar for our listeners. You may not know this, but our listeners know that I love Kalachis. We've gone down a rabbit hole in like several episodes because of Kalachis, but there's a new Texas barbecue place here in Vegas. And we were eating there on Sunday night sitting there talking to the owner and he's from he's from San Antonio. And I was telling him same question, I'm like bro, like dude, you can't get Kalachis out here and he goes wait, man. He said a friend of mine just opened up a donut shop down the street and they have Texas Kalachis, but you got to get there before eating the morning because they sell out. So this weekend, I'm going to test Vegas made Texas Kalachis. Very nice. Yeah, like let me know how they goes. I will. I know I know you don't eat that stuff anymore, but I will I will partake. There you go. Good. Yeah, let me know how that goes. So so when you were cooking and kitchens and stuff, is that when so you got way overweight, right? Like how much did you weigh? Yeah, I didn't really start gaining weight until about it's about 10 years ago. Okay. It was something that I don't know if it was kind of triggered within the body itself, but yeah, it was just one of those moments where I noticed they weight gain. I went from probably about two thirty five somewhere on there to about two seventy two eighty and reached the point. Basically, I was I was actually trying to get into the military at one point. And got to a point where I was basically on the hydroxychi, you know, all that good stuff trying to get down weight to make you know, to get in for recruitment. And I've got down to about two thirty two twenty five somewhere on there was my lowest weight. And I still wasn't able to meet the weight requirement for I was trying to go in the Air Force, my dad's in the Air Force, my grandfather's in the Air Force, my brothers in the Air Force. And it was just kind of follow that, you know, that family legacy wasn't able to get into that. And basically after that is, I don't know if it was something emotional or something within the body itself, but the weight decided powering on. I got to a point like no matter what I would do, I couldn't get it off. I would, I would see, I would see a fast food sign driving, but you know down the road and I would gain ten pounds just looking at that sign. It was, it was bad. And that was something that, you know, I kind of like said, you know, dealt with for so long, just, you know, in the course being in the kitchen, you're, you're expected to try everything, you know, you got to taste everything before it goes out kind of thing, you know, you got to make sure everything blah blah. You know, it's just, I don't know if it's something just personal within me or what it was, but yeah, it was about 10 years ago now that it just kind of started piling on I broke 300 pounds and just kind of kept going there was on different diet programs different, you know, work out, regime, you know, different workout programs and whatnot. And it just would not kind of, it would not come off basically can ask you at that time, like as far as your diet goes like where you, was your weakness more or less reading, I mean, I shouldn't say that we have apologize. Yeah, I know where you're going, let me back up for a second, I had a similar problem and I actually was quite overweight myself. So I'm asking more for personal reference to I'm, everything you're saying sounds real familiar. So please, I mean, I was in the same boat. But was it were you eating fast food or like junk food or was it more or less you were just and we're eating too much. No, let's say, I want to say towards the end there, I don't know, because I had surgery in 2018. Okay, I ended up doing a very active surgery. I had the vertical sleeve best right to be done. And so right around, I don't know, 2012 somewhere on the after 2009, basically I was on a basically high protein diet. And so I was trying to figure out a way to kind of get the carbs out of there one night. I was basically eating like a like an athlete, if you will. And no matter what I would put in my body was starting to retain the sugars and everything from whatever was I was eating the fats and whatnot and it wasn't burning that it wasn't processing that. We ended up finding out that there was a, I don't know, like a, I don't know if a malfunction or dysfunction within the stomach itself, where the body was not breaking down those parts of the, you know, the food products and whatnot, it was actually retaining and just kind of holding on to all that. That's interesting. Yeah, I was going to say towards the end there, I was, I mean, I worked in steak houses and stuff like that. So, you know, rib eyes and, you know, fillets and seafood and whatnot kind of thing. You know, I know that's one thing when you, when you talk to somebody, I, my highest weight, I was at 465 pounds. And it was, you talked to somebody like that and you kind of think of, you know, hey, just put the fork down, you know, or quite even cake and whatnot, blah blah blah. Well, you know, it's like that's not the case. Nice, as Ben mentioned, you know, I don't, I'm not, you know, I know he doesn't really know. but I've never been a sweet person, since they're in Delmon, I do candy now, which is kind of weird. But yeah, I've never been like a sweet person, birthday cake, cakes or anything like that. Even when it came time for birthday cakes, my mom would always ask, what do you want for your birthday cake? Whatever you guys want to eat, 'cause I don't eat it. And that was just one of those things where the body itself just kind of stopped functioning normally. - So it was on medical, I mean, I don't know if you ever got a real diagnosis for a word for it, but it was a medical thing. You had some sort of digestive issue. It wasn't necessarily your diet in particular. You were trying to lose weight, but it just wasn't working. - Yeah, now don't get me wrong. I mean, we'd do fast food. Like I said, we'd get off work late at night, probably about two o'clock in the morning, somewhere around there. We hit the bar, you know, doing a lot of drinking, one night, and then of course you get those late night, a piece in there, get a couple hours of sleep, wake up in the morning, and you know, go right back to your shift and kind of think on, you know, what not. So, but yeah, eventually you got to a point where we were able to die, forgot what the actual term is, but it's basically the body, the stomach itself, would not digest and process the foods the way it should be. And it just basically retained, retained, retained. I ended up gaining, I think about, I'm gonna say like a hundred pounds or so, like within like two years. And yeah, it was pretty bad. I mean, it gets to the point where it's like, like you start bumping into things. Because you get so big and it's like, it happens so quickly, like, you know, there's no time for you to kind of adjust mentally, or just physically, either, you know. Went from a 42 inch waist to like a 76 inch waist, like, for me, it seemed very rare. For me, it seemed, you know, very rapid. But yeah, that's got to put mass of pressure on your heart and your lungs, right? Exactly. And that's not, that's something, like I think we'll touch into that a little bit later as well too, but that's something that I do with now, after doing the transition and the surgery one night as well too. So, but yeah, I ended up getting to a point where my doctors gave me a, I think it was about 20, 2016 around there, and it gave me a five year expiration date, as I like to call it. By the time you're 40, you're probably your heart's probably going to explode, you're going to have a massive heart attack, blah, blah, blah, you keep going the way you're going, your borderline diabetic, you know, just the cholesterol, everything in there, it's just, you know, it's, you know, we got to do something. Wow. And that's what kind of, you know, led me to make the decisions that I made. So tell our listeners exactly what, what kind of surgery surgery surgery is. I know that doctors don't do that very lightly. I know it's a very dangerous surgery. I used to, I own an insurance agency. It's used to do a ton of medical malpractice, and it's actually most of the medical malpractice carriers in the country won't do, won't cover a bariatric surgeon just because that's, there's so many things that go wrong. And so they won't, they won't ensure a doctor that does it. So tell the listeners kind of what it entails. Like, what does that mean? So bariatric surgery, there's, there's actually two different types of bariatric surgery. One of them is the gastric bypass. And that's basically where they'll take like the top 30% of your stomach. And they'll kind of cut that out there. So we have like a little, basically like a pouch. And they kind of reference the size of like a folding cell phone. And that's the new size of your stomach. The bypass portion comes in, and they take, I think it's a lower intestines, whatever one comes from the digestive system down there, they'll take that, the bypass your stomach altogether, and they'll reattach it to that new little pouch up there on the top. And that's the gastric bypass. That one there is a lot more intrusive. And then you have the second version, which is the vertical sleeve gastrectomy, which is basically, I have, so I still have my stomach. Everything still functions normally. And at this point, they cut out about 70% of your stomach. And you're left with a, basically, they could, they call it a banana sleeve. So it's basically your stomach is now the butt size of a banana. And it still functions normally and everything like that. It's just a lot smaller, a lot more restrictive as far as how much food you can take in. And that's the one that I opted for, because I felt the bypass was just a little too intrusive for me, trying to have, you know, I was just trying to have my stomach removed. I was just trying to have my stomach removed. And then I had my stomach removed. But you know, I tell a lot of people that just because. I literally almost died from an elective surgery. I was supposed to take 45 minutes. One night in the hospital for recovery. Home the next day. That didn't happen to me. Basically, I went in for surgery. They did the initial surgery. I came back out of surgery. And while I was in recovery. I only remember. Kind of waking up. In recovery. And feeling so much pain in my stomach. And I was in my stomach in my chest area. And it was so painful to the point where they ended up kind of putting me back to giving. And medication. And putting back to sleep. Come to find out that I had internal bleeding somewhere. They went back into my body. I think about six times total to try to find the internal bleeding going on. My body ended up developing a blood clot. My doctor said that the blood clot was bigger than the size of my fist in the abdomen area there. Oh my God. And yeah, it was crazy. So after that happened, that's kind of where for me everything took a turn for the worse. I ended up having hyperchilemia, which is where my body was producing potassium and over an over abundance of potassium. And it led me to, I think it's five stages, all five stages of kidney failure, all the way down to end stage kidney failure to where they had to, you know, my mom, my fiance were there, they had to pull my mom aside. You know, she has, I guess she used the one that had to make the decision at that point, or her and my dad. We need to do emergency hemodiiosis right now, and that's going to save his life, or try to save his life at least. And that's at the point where, so this all happened on August 23rd within that recovery period. August 24th, somewhere around midnight, one o'clock in the morning is when they put me into a medically induced coma, ran the emergency hemodiiosis, all that good stuff there. I'm not sure what they did, 'cause I didn't wake up again until August 31st, around like 3.30, somewhere around there in the afternoon. And that was, for me, my experience that I had for that seven days was something that I just, I will never forget, you know, that was probably one of the best experiences I had and on a religious aspect. But yeah, so it was basically, my body started shutting down. I had a machine breathing for me. I could no longer breathe for myself. I had dialysis machines hooked up to me pumping blood. I think they ended up putting three cycles of blood through my body. Like I said, with all the kidney failure as well, two and everything, and plus a blood clotting, and internal bleeding and whatnot, basically, at that point, my body was shutting down. How was about to die? - And was there, what was the cause of all? I mean, I knew you had the surgery, but was there something specific to the surgery that caused it, or was it just your body reaction to that? - I think it's just the way the body reacted. Like I said, I try to tell everybody that just because I went through this, doesn't mean you're gonna go through it. I tell everybody every single day, I still get people that message me asking about the surgery and wanna get some advice or just a little bit of knowledge about as well too. And just because I went through that, doesn't mean everybody's gonna go through that. My doctor said I was a very rare case. So I don't know if it's just the way my body handled it. And, or what? I truly believe that I went through it because I was supposed to go through that. I know it sounds kind of weird and kind of harsh or whatnot, but I feel that I was meant to experience what I went through. And that's something that I don't hold against the doctors. I consider, I went through Desert Springs here in Las Vegas for my surgery. Went through surgical weight control center here. And I call those doctors and those nurses and everything, that staff over there, my angels, 'cause they were able to keep me alive. While I was going through what I was going through. So, but yeah, it's just a-- - Did you have the kids? Did you have the kids yet? - Yeah, so both of my kids were there. They weren't allowed in the hospital. I was down at this point, I was in CCU, critical care. So they weren't allowed in there. So that was kind of something where, you know, when my parents would come in and visit or Joyce, you know, should come in and kind of do face time with them and whatnot, but yeah, they spent time with family friends and kind of stuff like that. So just, you know, it was, it was tough for them as well, you know, 'cause the last thing my daughter said before I went to surgery was, please come home. And I promised her, yes, baby girl, I'll be home. And that was the last time I saw her last thing. I said to her until I think I didn't see them again. And so I think September 2nd, September 3rd, right around my birthday, when they were finally able to come back in. - Your daughter's like the cutest little girl on the planet. I can't imagine breaking her heart. - Oh man, she's the most compassionate person I've ever met in my life. And that's something that I feel truly blessed to have her in my life and to have you know, be able to call myself her dad, you know, so. - Wait 'til she sees the unicorn modules T-shirt I did for. I designed a whole T-shirt for that we're trying to, we're getting it done, it's almost done, but. - That's awesome, and it's awesome. - Yeah, she said, for the listeners out there, she was at my office the other day and she said, she was, I want one of these T-shirts, she goes, I said, okay, you know, what do you want on it? She goes, I want a unicorn, like she rattles off like this whole design, I want a unicorn, I want my name on it, I want it to circle around my name and I want it in this pink font and like, oh, it was so funny, she's the cutest little girl on the planet, but. - Yeah, she's awesome. So Michaela is, she's seven now and Jason's five. So, you know, of course they went through this three years ago now, so she bought four or five, or four at that time. And Jason would have been about two, yeah, right around two or three at that time. So, yeah, it was, it was tough for them, you know, to kind of go through that. It was something where, again, you know, I was supposed to be home the next day, kind of thing, you know, they were supposed to see me. I went to surgery, I got there at 5'30 in the morning. I went into surgery at 7'30. By nine o'clock, we were supposed to be, you know, meeting back up with family and reading in the recovery room, you know, that morning kind of thing, but yeah, that was just something that never happened. - So, do you want to talk about, I mean, I know you, and, you know, this experience has really kind of defined your spiritual, - Yeah. - You know, your spiritual outlook on life and, you know, your religious base. Do you want to talk about what happened while you were under or, you came out, I mean, can you share out with us? - Yeah, so I'll kind of give you guys a little bit of a backstory kind of leading up to this. So, right around 2016, 2017, I'm a Christian, and at that point, I started feeling very lost. I ended up getting to a point, again, right before surgery, getting to a point where I lost faith myself, completely 100%. You know, there's, I keep asking you for help. I'm crying out for you. I'm screaming to the skies and nothing's happening, you know, kind of thing, and I just ended up getting lost and losing faith myself, which is why I say, I think I was meant to experience what I experienced here. And it was got to a point where it was kind of weird. Like the year leading up to surgery, all four of my grandparents, my parents' parents have passed away, and it was kind of weird, like leading up to surgery, because I kept having these very realistic, vivid dreams about my grandparents. And, you know, either they were talking to me in the dream or they wouldn't talk to me in the dream or I could be in the same room with them, sitting next to them kind of thing. And that was, it was just, it was, for me, that was a very weird occurrence, because this happened the entire year leading up to surgery. Then I get to surgery and everything goes the way it goes. And I ended up, my experience that I had, I ended up waking up and basically a, almost like a VR type of situation. Like I was in the ocean, messing with sharks or whatnot kind of thing. And I went to come out of the water and kind of came up on land. I went to be take off my goggles, and I was like, in front of a computer system there, and real fancy type of thing. And at that point, I, and this mind you, this is while I'm out. So this is during my coma time. At that point there, I ended up getting up from my desk. At least I think it was my desk and whatnot. And kind of came out of a door. And when I came out that door, I was, I was greeted with this, like, I don't know, just grand doorway kind of thing. I came out of a room basically and was greeted with another big grand doorway and when I walked into that doorway, I kind of started looking around and everything was pure white. You know, it's just really nice rotunda area there. And for those of you guys who are listening, I have, like I said, I have my videos and everything on my YouTube channel. You guys can go in there and you can get full detail on what I experienced. But when I opened this doorway to this new building, this new area that I was in, I was in this rotunda basically. There was a centerpiece there in the middle of, I don't know if it was marble or what, but it was at this point where I knew something was going on. I knew I was no longer in the hospital. I knew I was no longer at home or anything like that either. And what's kind of weird about it is I could look down and I could feel myself, you know, I was looking at my hands and kind of feeling my face and my awake and my life. And at that point, I was still heavy. I was still heavy set. And the very next thing that happened to me was over this little stand, marble kind of standing that was there in the middle. It wasn't like a TV or a screen or anything like that came out. It was just this projection of what I realized was my life. And it was supposed, it was showing me basically what my life was to become. I saw myself. I saw myself healthy. I saw myself with my family and, you know, excuse me if I get a little teary idea, but I saw myself with my family and just happy. I saw myself happy. And that's something that I have an experience, you know, to that point, you know, in a couple years, you know, and it's yes being a dad. You know, having a partner, you know, it said, Joyce and everything is there, but within myself, my I was not happy. I wasn't happy with who I was and I wasn't happy with where I was. And seeing these images. Just. It really was a shock to me because, again, I could look down and I could still see myself big. I can still feel my belly and everything like that. I just seeing these images, I realized that that was me and I realized what I was being shown. After, after I saw this vision or the showing of what my life was become that kind of went away and I was kind of left with the point of shock for what I just saw, what I just experienced at that point. And I started looking around trying to figure out what do I do next, where do I go next. And looked straight ahead down one of the hallways and I saw these at the very end of the hallways that double doors and they just opened up. You know, they opened up out towards me. And, you know, at that point, it was like, okay, well, I have, I don't know where else I'm going to go to. So let me go to this open door. And as I walked into this, this room there, I noticed basically kind of like a stage, almost like a platform. And as I walked in again, everything's white, look like marble, you know, kind of whatnot. And I saw two steps leading up to that little top platform there. And, you know, I got into the middle there of the room was kind of looking around and which was nice about this room was there really was no. There wasn't four walls, there was no solid definition of I'm in a room basically. It was just like, it was almost like an infinite space of where I was. And at that point, I noticed that the back area of what would be the back wall behind the stage, if you want to call it that platform there was all open. And that opening back there was the most beautiful scenery that I've ever seen in my life. And when you talk about mountains, green trees, you know, you can see animals running around, and everything like that, I eventually come to realize that I might have been looking at a version of Eden, if you will. And as I was looking out there, just kind of an all kind of shock. And I wasn't on, I wasn't shocked, confusion trying to figure out where I was, what am I doing, what am I experiencing here is at the same time when over to my right side, I noticed somebody walk into the room. And that person that walked into the room was my grandmother Terry, my dad's mom. She was the one that I saw most of the time in my dreams. She was the one that would speak to me in my dreams. And she was the one that would kind of give me the most advice as far as telling me prior to surgery, the messages that I would receive in my dreams that everything is going to be okay. And that's a trust in her, everything's going to be fine, everything's going to be okay. And that's all I kept hearing in my dreams. Yeah, there was moments of laughter, there was moments of, you know, kind of us talking to each other and having dinner, whatnot. But every message that she gave me that whole year leading up to surgery was that everything was going to be okay, just trust her. And I saw her, you know, of course, the first thing I did was I had a, I had a holder, you know, I had to give her a big hug and I could feel her body. I could feel her body just as if, you know, if she was right in front of me here on, you know, in reality. And at that point, I just kind of broke down because I knew she's, I knew she was, she, you know, she passed away. She's, she's not alive anymore. But here she is in front of me. I can feel her. I can, you know, I feel her blessing my forehead and everything like that and feel like I'm like, I kiss on the cheek and whatnot. And, and at that point there is she just again, the only thing that she said in me was, everything's going to be fine, everything's going to be okay. You're going to be okay, me all and me whole my son in Spanish, you know, everything's going to be fine, everything's be okay. Just trust me kind of thing. And after she said what she said is when I kind of followed her as she walked across the stage and she said across the floor up onto the stage. And that's when I noticed they, I like to call it a golden throne. And it was just this beautiful chair right in the center of the stage. And on either side of this chair was two more chairs basically. So as you had five total one in the middle two on each side. And as I started noticing this golden throne, she walked past it, got up and she went to her chair to go take her seat. And I noticed this, this throne there. And I just, I mean, you talk about the most beautiful piece of furniture, whatever seen her life. The golden lay is made out of wood. When it's one thing I noticed it was hand, it looked like hand carved wood. And just kind of all the golden lay decorations and pearl and whatnot and everything like that. And as I was admiring this chair. The next person comes into the room and that's my other grandmother, my mom's mom. And same thing, you know, give your hug and everything's going to be fine. Please trust us. Everything's going to be okay. And it was at that point when I just, I just lost it, you know, because I'm starting to realize, you know, I'm seeing my grandmother, my grandmother's. Why am I seeing my grandmother's and just the whole mind flip that I was going through was, was crazy. You know, she hugged me, blessed me, said what she had to say, went to go take her seat on my grandmother, my dad's dad or my dad's mom sat on one side of the throne. And she sat on the other side of the throne. After that, I was followed up was followed in by my grandfather, my mom's dad, her, my grandmother's aunt has her husband. Same thing, you know, glad to see you on me, hope you're going to be fine. And then I just lost us, everything's going to be okay. Said what he needed to say. And then the last one to come in was my dad's dad and, you know, same thing, you're going to be okay. You're going to be fine. And what's what's nice about this is my grandfather, every time I saw him in my dreams, I would, I would hear him talking, but he was never talking to me. So it was kind of nice to have him talk to me and my, my, my dad's, my dad's dad would never talk to me at all in the dreams. He would look at me, he would smile at me, but he would never talk to me. And I always thought that was kind of, you know, kind of weird. And you know, just like that, well, you're leading up to I kind of figured it was trying to figure out why he wouldn't talk to me. So when he finally spoke to me, and again, you know, it's great to see you. You're going to be okay. Please trust us. Please, please, please trust us. And said what he needed to say we had our interaction. He wants to go take his seats. So now you have my dad's parents on one side, my mom's parents on the other side of the throne. Was at this point that I'm like, okay, well, I'm going to, I'm going to go sit with my grandparents, you know, I'm going to go, I'm going to go join them and I think this chair in the middle is for me. And it's the only other spot for me to sit out, you know, look around. There's no other chairs anywhere. So I was like, okay, well, I'm going to go, I'm going to go join them up there and go sit down with them. And as I approach the steps to walk up to the seat, that's, that's when something that I, I, I still don't, I still can't comprehend. I believe it. It was at this point right before I took the step up on that stair, everything turned white, I like this pure white bright light. I mean, to the point where I couldn't even, I was closing my eyes. So tight. I was trying to peak. And what was happening there, I was trying to, I was trying to figure out what was going on, but it was, it was just so bright, pure bright white light. And at that point, I heard what I know to be the voice of God. This loud thunderous, dominating voice. I mean, if you talk about feeling it in your soul, the vibrations and everything in your soul. And it was at that point where he told me that that chair is not mine. I am not meant to sit there. And at that point, he also said some other things, you know, there's some things that I'll, I hold still to this day personal that I don't really share with anybody else that were meant for me. But one of the things that he was said, that was said to me. And I was trying to get this voice, which I, I truly believe was a voice of God was to never shave my beard, never get rid of my beard. And that's something I keep it trimmed. I'll grow it out during the winter times, you know, because it gets cold out here. But this beard, my, my facial hair has been on my face ever since August 23rd. I've never cut it off. I never shaved it off. And. make light of what you're talking about, but that's the sickest thing I've ever heard. It was fantastic, baby. God has come to us and said that real men wear beards. Exactly. And to never shave my beard and never let anyone shave my beard either, never let anyone get rid of my beard. And I've had some great conversations with friends and just talking to people about why the beard kind of thing. You know, I have my own perspective, my own viewpoint on that, but, you know, that was one of the things I was said. And then he told me that, you know, again, that chair is not for you. You're to sit over there. And as soon as I, you're getting my eyes are closed and everything. And as soon as he said, you're to sit over there, I kind of, and I knew he was pointing behind me. And I go in and want to go turn my head to go look over there. And at that point, that brightness that that presence was gone. He came in and said, we needed to say I heard what I needed to hear and turn around. And it was at that moment. And I remember laughing at this moment too, because I don't know where this nasty chair just kind of like fell out of the sky basically. And I like to tell the way I described it and my video. And mind you, that video of me, my mom taking me in the emergency or the CC when I woke up was probably about 30 minutes after waking up from seven day coma. So that's something that kind of shocks my doctors as well too. You know, they've seen it. You know, they've watched it and everything like that. And how do you retain that much information, that much detail from being out for seven days like that? You know, but it was at that moment that this just nasty type of chair, you would see on the band and on the side of the road, and it's holes and springs popping out, you know, looks like something somebody was giving away on Craigslist is the way I explained it. And that was my chair. I that that moment I kind of thought, the thought started coming through my head of why am I sitting over here? Why am I down here? I'm sitting, I'm supposed to sit here on this ground level facing, facing my grandparents who are facing towards me. And if I'm supposed to sit here, then what's that other chair for? And as I approached my chair, I want to go turn around to get ready to sit. And as soon as I turn around, that's when out of the back portion of my grandparents, again, their backs were to this open window, this open bay window, if you will. And that's where I saw this just this bright orange glowing light. It's like something that you would see like in a beautiful sense that you go, wherever you think you've seen the most beautiful sense that you've ever seen in your life, take it and multiply it a thousand times. And you might be a fraction closer to what I saw. And instantly felt calm, instantly felt secure, instantly felt like everything was going to be okay. And from this light, out walks a figure. And that's when I first saw Jesus Christ for the first time. He came out of this light. And as soon as he came out of this light, he immediately had like his arms and his hands were open to me. His palms were facing towards me. If you can imagine, you know, someone's saying, Hey, come give me a hug kind of thing. And when I saw that, it, I mean, it really, it really hit me hard because again, I had to leading up to the surgery. I had lost all faith. I quit praying for myself. I would say my prayers for the kids at night when they would go to sleep. And, you know, before they go to bed and whatnot and still pray for family and everything like that, but I would, I'd lost 100% faith for myself. And I, I instantly felt that this was judgment. This is, this is my judgment day. Something happened. I knew I was supposed to be in surgery. Something happened. And here's my judgment day. Now I'm about to be judged. And it was at that moment where again, that light kind of went away. He was there. He presented himself. And the first thing he did was he walked up to the edge of the top step there. And he just extended his arms out. And I know most people think or based on what, you know, from what you hear when you're supposed to kneel in front of Christ. You know, I don't kneel for nobody. I kneel for the cross kind of thing. You know, at that moment, I didn't feel like I needed to kneel. I immediately walked up, stepped on that first step and just wrapped my arms around him. He wrapped his arms around me. And I was able to hug Jesus Christ. And at that, at that point there, my head was basically his shoulder length, my head's shoulder height. And I just laid my head on his shoulder. And I can I can feel his cloth is robe. I can feel his his body against mine. And you know, that the scent, the the warmth, the his heartbeat, you know, his chest against my chest kind of thing. And I felt that. And something that I'll never forget. I mean, to this day, to this day, I look at sunsets a completely different way. You know, it's almost almost like a reminder. We hugged. And I remember just trying to just trying to soak in that moment. I had my eyes closed. I was like almost like a little kid, like a little kid seen, seen daddy come home from, from work or, you know, from vacation or, you know, T.D.Y. I remember those days when my dad would come home, you know, after six, eight months of gone, you know, for T.D.Y. And just, you know, be able to hold him. And it was kind of that type of moment, you know, I felt like a kid seen my father. And that's basically what it is. After we had our interaction there, he pointed to my seat, you know, take your seat. And I want to go sit down in this, this, this rinky chair. And it was at that moment where I just sat, I looked up at each of my grandparents. They were all smiling back at me. Almost as if they, this was rehearsed. It was almost like they knew what to do. It was almost as if they knew to expect that moment. And to expect me showing up there at that time. And that's when he spoke. And he just started talking to me. He told me a bunch of different things about my life. He told me never to, never to give up, never to stop trusting, never to quit believing in him. One of the things he told me was to never take my, he referred, Joyce and I are not, we're not married, would be together for 10 years in April, but he told me to never take my wife, Joyce, for granted. So in his eyes, she's my wife. And I think that's something that, you know, if you look at the Bible, there's just because there's a piece of paper, it doesn't mean that you, you know, you're married and God's eyes or in Jesus Christ's eyes, you know, I've always felt that she was, she was given to me, she was blessed to me, kind of thing. And that was kind of confirmed. That was confirmed at that moment. You know, he told me to be there. Take care of the kids. He told me how I was going to take care of the kids, how I was going to take care of my family. And in that showing that vision that I was, that I was shown at the very beginning, when it was time for me to see myself working, to sign for me to see myself earning a paycheck at that point or earning a living, I was sitting in front of a computer. And this whole, this whole experience started off with me and like this VR experience coming out into a computer area. And everything that I was, everything that I was doing to be able to enjoy my life now was because of my work that I do on the computer. Which is why I say that, you know, I'm, for me, it's a little bit different. I'm doing what I was shown to be doing right now as a graphic designer and in marketing and whatnot. But I'm doing exactly what I was, what I was shown, what I'm supposed to be doing in my eyes and my heart. And, you know, he told me, don't, don't ever stop believing in him. He asked me several times, do you trust me? I said, yes, my Lord. Do you trust me? Yes, my Lord. Do you trust me? Yes, my Lord. And three times, he asked me. And after everything that was said, everything that was done, you know, again, there's, there's things that I, that Joyce doesn't know about. There's things that my parents don't know about. That was said to me, share it to me. And, you know, maybe someday I'll share that. with them or with my kids when they're old enough to understand and comprehend what I went through. But after what was said to me and what I needed to hear is when he followed up with those three questions, do you trust me? Do you believe in me? And do you trust me? And after that third time, I said, "Yes, my Lord." That's when I wouldn't say I was dropped back down to earth or anything like that. I was right back into the hospital bed. At that point, right after I said, "Yes, my Lord," to the third time, and I confirmed, "Yes." I was instantly awake. And at that moment, they were pulling the breathing tubes out of my throat. I could feel it. It was such a crazy feeling, but I could feel that those tubes coming out of the throat and everything and freaking out. I was fighting with the nurses. I think a little bit shocked that I was back alive again or back in the hospital room there. I didn't want to leave from where I was. I was just fighting with the nurses. And that's just the shock of being woken up at that moment. Again, this is seven days later, right around three. I think my medical records is that 337 is when I took that first gas of a bear. And that's another thing that really plays a lot into this too, is the seven and threes, those numbers. But yeah, it was just fighting with the nurses. And I remember looking at the nurse to my left. And she was trying to get me to calm down. And I was just fighting with her. And at that moment, when I looked at her face, made direct eye contact with her and her face changed right in front of my eyes. Her face changed. And it was back. It was the face of Jesus Christ. Do you trust me? Yes, my Lord. That's when he said, then quit. Stop quit fighting. And as soon as I as soon as I said yes, and as soon as I agreed to that, everything just kind of opened up for me. I was able to take a nice deep breath. I was able to kind of calm down. I was able to kind of realize that I'm back awake in the hospital room again. And you know, at that point, I had asked the nurse again, to my left. Again, Jesus Christ appeared in her face. And that was a wild thing because I saw that. And now at this point, I know I'm alive. I know I'm back awake again. And I saw that. And that was one of those weirdest things. But I asked her if I could touch her face. And I remember the nurse at the foot of my bed started like, kind of like, my God, what did he just say? Did he just ask if he could touch you like touch you? And I asked her again, I was like, do you mind if I touch your face? Or can I touch your face? You know, I just want to see if I'm alive. And she said, yes. So I took the the back of my left hand and I just kind of brushed my hand across across her cheek. And it was at that moment that I knew I was back. I was I was back home. I'm awake. And these nurses are probably like they're in the bedroom going, what was wrong with that dude? It was crazy, but it was awesome because like shortly after that, it was so hard for me to laugh that that was when I had my I had a good laugh at that moment. And it hurt, it hurt like held a laugh, but you know, it was kind of nice when she was like, did he just ask if he could touch you? And you know, it was just it was just perfect because I don't know, like for me, it was that I'm back. I needed that that little confirmation that you know, I'm back in you know, I'm back with human and human life again. And uh, but yeah, the following the following days there. So that was August 31st when I woke up. Can I can I ask you something? I'm enthralled by what you're saying and I, uh, this is amazing, but I want to ask when you were in that room that you described, did you feel like you had like, did you feel like you had a choice? Did you feel like you could have gone a different direction? Yeah, not at all. I felt like this was I felt like this was judgment. Like I said, at that moment when I when I realized what was going on, um, I was there to be judged for all my sins, all my wrongdoing. Um, this is the moment that I'm going to find out that, hey, you're not you're not welcome here in heaven. You know, you're going to go to hell. Um, you're welcome to see an experience and see your your grandparents and see what you could have had. That's that's what was going through my mind at that moment before Jesus Christ started speaking to me after I sat now, um, like I said in my in my video, I explained to you, I, I, I, I tell everybody that at all those good feelings went away. Um, it was kind of like on, on Nimo, on finding Nimo where they're like, oh, they're the following the light and you know, follow the light and everything and also need the the angular fish lights up and is like, oh, good feelings gone away. That's exactly what it felt like. Um, this is my moment to find out that I, I'm not good enough basically at that point, um, which turned out to be not the case. So yeah, I felt like I had no choice. I, I felt like I had no what kind of weight is that on you? I mean, I'm with Brian. Like, I think this is the first time we've just listened, uh, you know, for this long, um, an amazing story. But what kind of the thing that comes in my mind is what kind of weight as you practice your life, you know, we all live by certain rules and you know, whatever those rules are, whether you believe in, in whether you're a Christian, um, a Muslim, um, of Jewish faith, whatever that is, there's these rules, right? That we all try to live by and we try to, you know, to avoid a terrible judgment, right? Yes. If you've had first-hand experience and you believe in that first-hand experience, like, I have to imagine that the way you live your life, you have a weight on your shoulders a little bit more than the average Christian where you, it, you know, what you've had happen to you, what you believe has happened to you, has to just be like when you're making a life decision or a very simple decision, you have to feel like I would imagine that Jesus is standing behind you watching you and saying, hey, you know, I've gotten a second chance for lack of a better term, you know, and I'm here for a purpose and I'm, and I need to, I need to live up to that. I mean, is that a, am I getting, I mean, am I making a good point? I mean, am I, am I, yeah. I mean, I think, I think it's, uh, your correct and your, I guess the angle of coming about that, just because, you don't, you don't know, how do you, how do you do that? Um, and I'm going to say a couple things. I think, I think most Christians, I mean, most people that believe in Christianity, whether whatever sect it is, right? I believe they're being watched, right? Yeah. I mean, in some form another, right? So I got to imagine, I just, I mean, it's crazy to me, you know, the, the pressure. Like, God, that's it. That's the word, right? It's pressure. It's like this pressure. So I'm going to say a couple things that it's going to blow your mind and maybe a lot of other people's minds. I don't, you guys experience deja vu and you kind of get that feeling of like, I've been here before, I, for some reason, this is very comfortable to me or familiar to me. I no longer believe in deja vu. Like, for me, that's a confirmation that I'm on, I'm on the right path to where I need to be at. My mind, do I was shown my life? I was never shown my death. I was never shown my, my ending date. I was never shown, uh, the day they put me in the ground. I don't know how old I'm going to be when I'm dead kind of thing that I was never, I was never shown that. I was just shown me living my life and, and, and kind of what I'm supposed to be doing. So for me, when I get those moments of deja vu, it's almost as a confirmation that I'm on the right path. I'm doing exactly what I need to be doing. The second thing, and probably the thing that's going to, and maybe trying to, and I don't, I don't want to change anybody's opinion or, you know, this is, this is my, my, my perspective. This is my viewpoint on this, my feelings on this, but I don't consider myself to be Christian anymore. I don't consider myself, yeah, I don't consider myself to be affiliated with any type of religion anymore. It's religion, we're always told, God sees everything. God's watching you every moment of, of your life. You know, don't do that. Don't do this. Don't do that because, you know, you can go to hell. And, uh, yeah, there is a sense of a fear of God, which is what, you know, God fearing people, God fearing Christians and whatnot. I don't fear God anymore. I, I, I tell everybody, you know, I, I am, I'm bracing after experiencing that moment and experiencing that, that voice and feeling that power and that brightness and just that, everything there. I cannot wait till the day where I get to experience that again. Um, I'm, yes, I'm going to live my life and I'm going to have fun. I'm going to enjoy it and there was as much as I can. Um, and when that day comes, and if that day ever comes again, where I'm, I'm blessed to kind of be in his presence. And yes, I say his because that's that's what I felt. It wasn't that's another thing and that's a whole other conversation as well too, but you know, people asked was God a woman and was he a man? I don't know. He was it was dominating is all I can say. And for me as a simple human being, I can only reference that to a male. A father figure, basically, oh, see, I was going to say the opposite if it was dominating it had to. You would think so, but yeah, this was this was definitely a a father figure kind of speaking to you. Yeah, I got you. I got you. Yeah, so even today, I don't consider myself affiliated with any type of religion, Christianity, Catholicism, anything like that. I don't I don't feel myself at all. I so you don't go to like on Sundays, you don't go to church. No, and I haven't I haven't gone to church in a while and do you read the Bible? So that's that's something I'll read the Bible kind of pertaining to if the situation will basically. And again, the Bible, that's that's something that I don't know if I'm going to release it or not. I was thinking about releasing the if the full unedited version of what my parents recorded when I woke up. There's there's points and there were I touch on the Bible. There's points there where I touch on the Pope for some reason. I mentioned the Pope and and within 30 minutes of waking up from seven day coma and talk about how the Pope is is a false idol. What do I what did I get that information from? I don't just wake up from a coma and you know, go through this type of experiencing. There's there's things that were told to me. Some things that I don't fully remember, but for some reason I recalled that I was on that story. And one of those things was talking about the Pope and how you know, just it's it's not it's not what it's meant. It's not what it seems basic at this point. And so for me, and I don't feel like, you know, I don't feel like I distance myself from religion and you know, all you fools and you guys still read the Bible and follow go to church. No, do what you gotta do. You know, if you know, every single one of you guys have to go through your own experience. I went through my own experience and fortunately, for me, my experience was enough to completely change my viewpoint on that. I feel like I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. And I have a visual confirmation. You hear people say all the time, well, I can't believe it unless I see it. Well, I saw it, felt it touched it, how did it, heard it, everything. I mean, you talk about all the senses there. And that's something that I can't ignore for me personally. So I feel like I have my own personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. And I don't, I don't need, I don't know, it's I don't want to say on brass or sound arrogant or in like that. But I don't need somebody else telling me how I should believe in Jesus Christ, a worship God. Interesting. You know what I mean? Like I have my own experience with that. So, so I mean, could you go ahead, Brian? I think what you're saying is that some people get wrapped up in the procedures of the church. Very much so. Yeah. They will wear their best suit. They will go to church. They will follow all the rules of the church to a T. But in their personal life, they're a complete disaster. Yeah. They feel as if they're they're using the, I'm going to say, they're using the tools of the church to elevate themselves as opposed to actually getting the result that those tools are supposed to provide. Yeah. That would kind of, because I've seen that too, where people there, a lot of times, the people are the most religious, using air quotes, end up being the biggest disasters in a personal life. Yeah. And it's, it's almost a shield in a way. Yeah. It's a it's a it's a personal or self-justification. Yeah. I'm not I'm not an abusive husband. I'm not an abusive father in life. I go to church on Sundays. You know, well, that doesn't mean nothing. You know, again, the church aspect of it, there's there's some things there that I still haven't even told, you know, from that side of it either. But there's there's a reason why I have the the viewpoint that I do know, the perspective that I do know. And if you guys don't mind me sharing the last time I went to church, Joyce, my fiance, she's she's Catholic. And the last time I went to church was a Catholic church. And we walked in. Michaela was still in a stroller, you know, probably about one or two at the time, probably about one years old at the time. And it's a guy to give you that's about six, almost six, seven years ago now that I've since I've been to church since I stepped foot in a church. Well, I want to say since I stepped foot in a church, but since I actually went to church and it was all about give us more. If you guys do not give us more money, you're going to show up here next Sunday and the door's going to be closed and the parking lot's going to be empty and it's going to be your fault. You're not doing enough. You're not giving enough. And it was basically like give, give, give to the point where I even looked over at Joyce and she's like, yeah, let's go. And we got up and we walked out of church for the first time ever in my life. I got up and walked out of church. And it was just all about how we as the patrons of that church are not doing enough. You know, we need to get the parking lot fixed and that's $16,000 and we need to get that done, you know, blah, blah, blah. You know, it's just all about give, give, give, give, give. The only time that I stepped foot into a church after that was after this experience and everything was about a month or two after my surgery. I'd say about a month after my surgery. That was August 23rd. So sometimes in September. And my dad was trying to do a, some type of an event, one of the churches here in town. And we went to the service to go speak with the, you know, the pastor there or the father or whatever was, I don't know, it was a Christian church. So I don't think they're called pastors or whatnot, but the, the man in charge, basically. And it was kind of, it was kind of weird because that service, I was outside for most of it. We, you know, was talking to another gentleman out there, one of the guys that we were working with. And, you know, finally got to a point where, all right, let's go inside and catch, you know, so let's go, let's go wait inside until he's done, given a sermon or whatever. And when I walked inside, we sat down and that moment, again, I don't feel like even to this day, I don't feel like coincidence is occur. I feel like timing is not on my time. But things happen for reasons. There's a reason for things that, that, that time for me, at least in my situation, that these little instances occur because it's already planned, planned out, thought out. But when I went to go inside this church and went to go sit down, as soon as I sat down, he started talking about trust and about how you're not supposed to lose trust in God. Please don't lose trust in faith. You know, don't lose trust in your faith. Don't lose trust in God in Jesus Christ. And this was everything that was just, this was just told to me, you know, there was no, there was no talking of my sins, there was no talking about my wrongdoings when I was there with Jesus Christ, there was no talking about the negatives in my life. It was trust, just trust me. Believe in me, don't, don't give up on me, please, you know, and that was, that's what the sermon was about. And that was that message about. It was the last, last 15, 20 minutes of the service there, but it hit me so hard. Man, I just started, a bawling like a little kid right there in church because that, that, that message at that moment for some, you know, I needed to hear it. And again, it was like confirmation. And, you know, so like I said, it's, it's one of the reasons why I changed my old viewpoint on religion, my old view on that, as, you know, that aspect of it. So, but kind of getting back into, into everything there, you know, I had asked in the video, I asked my mom, you know, I don't know how I'm supposed to, I don't know how I'm supposed to do what I was, what I was shown. I don't know how I'm supposed to live up to that expectation. And my mom says in the video, you know, God provides, God will provide Mike. And he did, you know, my, my whole career, if you want to call it, you know, my whole life's living right now is, is done on the computer. Whether it's, it's making patches, coins, you know, logos, videos, I mean, you talk about my YouTube channel and everything like that, everything I do to earn a bit of income is done on the computer. Let's talk, let's talk about that. So you went through this, you went through this amazing spiritual transition. You went through a treacherous physical transition. And then you come out of this with the whole new outlook on life, the whole new outlook on spiritual well-being, and you decide to start a company. I mean, is that part of, I mean, talk us through that. So you start battle-borne designs, right? Yeah. So coming out of, coming out of the hospital, here's some, like I was talking about the weight loss earlier, here's some interesting little tidbits. I came out of the hospital. So a woke up August 31st, between August 31st and September 8th, I had to learn how to walk all over again. For some reason, I could not stand for more than 10 seconds. I could not walk more than, uh, about, I want to say about a foot and a half. I couldn't take more than like two feet of steps. You know, I couldn't walk, I had to learn how to walk all over again. I had to learn, of course, how to learn how to eat all over again because they, this surgery and, you know, and quotes, if you want to call it, was a success. They were able to remove the stomach. So I don't learn how to do all that. So I had to learn how to live all over again. Within that first 30 days of coming out of the hospital, I lost 100 pounds. Like crazy. I mean, like, and again, I joke about it. My videos were, I'd sit down and get up and I'd leave about 25 pounds of fat behind me. Like that's how quickly I saw it off. So let me ask you something though. When they do bariatric surgery, I know they do the internal stuff. Do they cut out any fat? Scan anything. No, I mean, it depends on like the only thing I think they do while they're in there is they'll correct any type of, I think it's called a hyalurnea. That's kind of the things that they'll correct, but yeah, they're not doing any type of like with stuff. So you're not getting, yeah, okay, that's what I'm asking. Exactly. So they go in and take out your stomach, which probably weighs, you know, however much yeah, 10 pounds or what? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, anatomy that well, but but there's nothing else. They're not in there like, like, you're not getting a show. You're not getting a stomach or nothing. Yeah, okay. So you still have the weight. You're, you come out in your 10 pounds lighter. Yeah, basically at that point right there. So, I don't know, I don't know what it was. And again, my doctor's jokingly and of course, and a friendly man called me a freak of nature. You see me bend, I mean, I don't think you would ever know if I've no, no, no, no, I told you, you know, no, I would have never guessed for the listeners. Michael is a super fit dude. I mean, super trim, you know, muscular guy with a beard. Yep, but yeah, you would never know how did you not how did you not sat down for that day and show me that video. I would have never guessed. Yeah, I mean, you see people and again, it's, it goes back to that whole I'm I'm on the I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Right. I'm there's there's a plan for me. There's a path for me. There's there's there's my life is already thought out from that moment forward. Everything is already thought out. And, uh, you know, there's there's some issues that I deal with, you know, just from the surgery itself, like I do I do this day, I do with neurological issues. Um, you know, that come from the complications of the surgery and whatnot, but you know, it's just more of a reason to live my life. Yeah, you know, it kind of thinks so, but kind of going back to it. Yeah, so 30 days, I dropped a hundred pounds. Within my first year, I was down 200 pounds on my on my anniversary date from a one year anniversary date from my front of surgery. I was down 205 pounds. I've lost two. That's incredible. I wouldn't even thought that was possible. Yeah, it's I mean, you talk about a a rapid transition, almost like the only way I can the only way I can comprehend it and my simple human being, mind is this is this is where I'm at. This is where I'm meant to be. This is this is what I'm meant to do. I'm in a, I wear a size 32 skinny jeans. I'm in a large shirt, you know, number one, number one, you're in the wrong for wearing skinny jeans. Hey, hey, for the pants that I used to wear, I'm gonna, I'm gonna rock these skinny jeans as much as I can. Dude, a 32 from where you're at, it's probably like one leg like a, I mean, it used to be a 32 on each leg. I was, I was a 76 inch waist down to a 32 now. She's I went from a 8x 8xL shirt down to a large. And I mean, I even, I even got an inch taller. I was 511 at the time of surgery. I'm six foot tall now. So I think a lot of that weight pulling something forward kind of thing kind of helps straighten me back up and whatnot. Kind of the thing that kind of sucks that I went from a 13 boot down to a 12. I bet that weight goes pushing out. Oh man, there's, you talk about like an instant relief, release of like just pressure and pain. On the back on the, I had planned, was a planter fasciitis on the field. I've had that. And that's, I've never dealt with that since. Diab, you know, I mean, we got, like I said, at the time of surgery, I was borderline diabetic. I am, I am now kind of like one of the best patients that my doctor has as far as my blood levels go. CPAP, the sleep apnea went from a 197 down to a 44 within that first month. And I was off the machine to a zero, zero episodes an hour within two months. So within two months of coming out of surgery, I was able to pack my, my breathing machine away and put in the closet. I haven't used it since. You talk about, you talk about a, a complete 180 transition on your life for the better. And that's exactly what I went through. I'm not living walking example of that. So and again, I tried to tell everybody to just because I went through this because I had this success that I had, doesn't mean that you're going to have it as well. But I'll do the best that I can to kind of share those things with you. And one of those factors that I attribute the weight loss success to is protein. And that's something that you'll hear me talk about in my videos quite a bit is protein, protein, protein. And that protein intake, man, is that's what I'm, I mean, I'll, for an entire year after when I was able to start drinking again, excuse me, when I was able to start drinking protein shakes again on a regular because I had to, at a start off with broth, just drink beef broth, chicken broth, kind of thing, vegetable broth. At one point, I was able to start adding my protein powder to my broth to kind of kick that up. They wanted me to be about 90 grams of protein per day for that. I was about a hundred and 90 to 225 grams of protein intake towards the end of that, at that first year. For some reason, I, you know, nobody told me to do that. Nobody said, hey, you know, protein is, it's your little key to success. It was just something that I felt like I needed to do and something that I did. And, you know, I had the results that I have. I mean, you talk about skin, loose skinning, you know, stuff like that. It's kind of, everything went back. You know, the elasticity portion came in. And I, like I said, I get to attribute that a lot to the protein. And of course, you know, Dr. O's got a throw in there, you know, genes and genetics as well, too, and kind of thing. But, yeah, so I mean, a total of 265 pounds gone. I think I'm now at a total 275 pounds gone now. And I'm only, like I said, August 31st yesterday, or yeah, yesterday would have been three years since I woke up. You know, so, and it's one of those things where, you know, at every moment that I have. And of course, with my symptoms that I have now, and the neurological side of it, I, every moment of my life is a blessing. Every, every, every moment there. So, like I said, every opportunity that I have to be able to do helps somebody out or share my knowledge or share my skills or even just share my, my testimony. I've had, I've had people email me on YouTube saying, "Hey, man, I was, I was about to commit suicide." And for some reason, I don't know why your video came across my YouTube, my, my YouTube that I was, I was watching that evening, whatever, and I came across through video and that changed my life. That 13 to 15 minutes there changed my life. And I just wanted to let you know. I wanted to reach out to you and let you know. And I get those stories, you know, not, but not being that close to suicide, but that just hearing that message, changing somebody's life for the better, you know. But yeah, like I said, it led me to kind of follow what I was shown. And again, I, I, I told my mom, I don't know how I'm going to do this. I don't know how I'm supposed to follow through. And I don't know how I'm supposed to live up to these expectations, but it just, it just did. It happened. Plug, plug, plug your company a little bit. I know. Yeah, so, I mean, we're talking about your, your, your, you know, your, your journey. But, you know, plug your, we want you to plug your company a little bit. Talk about what Battleborn Designs does. Yeah, so, uh, and you're, you know, throwing your YouTube channel where they can find you. Yeah, definitely. So, like Battleborn Designs, like I said, was created, I like to, I like to say it was created on a necessity. And that was basically a way to give companies or even the everyday man out there who just wants to turn this drawing or this dream or whatever it is into a creation, um, to be able to give them that, that avenue to be able to do that. Nice example of Battleborn Designs does, you know, your vision is our mission. And, uh, you know, we like to, I like to make those dreams come true, you know, to be able to have somebody say, Hey, Michael, here's a sketch drawing on a, on a napkin of an idea that I have. Can you turn it into something and be able to take that idea from a napkin drawing to be able to hold a product or that being a hold that, that design that, you know, that product in your hand, you know, it's for me is a very satisfying and gratifying feeling. I said, we do everything from logo design, uh, patches, vector artwork, you know, if you want to take a drawing of, you know, I'm part of a several four, a couple of horned groups here in town, and I've taken my foreigner and drawn it at out and turning it into patches and stickers and whatnot. You see on Instagram or you social media, people taking these, it's like the cartoon drawings of their vehicles, kind of thing. We do stuff like that to designing product for, to be used in aviation, life support equipment as well, too. I like to attribute a lot of my success and a lot of my opportunity to accompany called Pro Flight Gear, which is actually owned by my uncle. And they do aviation life support equipment, and they're the one, you know, for the Alpha Helmet and the HDU 55 Helmet that you have there been. But they produce equipment for border patrol, military, air medevac, and stuff like that as well. So there's a whole different realm of stuff there that really got me started, really got me kick started into this to allow me to want to open up my own little side business, which came out to be Battleborn Design. So launching here probably by Friday. So my birthday is September 3rd. So I'm trying to get it out then. I'm going to be 39-- Happy birthday. Thank you guys. I'm going to be 39 years old. But yeah, I'm going to have-- hopefully have my website launched by then, which is going to be BattlebornDesigns.us. That's where my website you can find there. In the meantime, you can find me on Facebook at Battleborn Designs. And you can find my YouTube channel. You can just go to youtube.com/c/thisjoyfullifeelv. You can find that there. And again, that channel has switched from the life after DSG channel aspect to it. There's just a more living life in general. And you see my travels. You see my time with my family. Kind of just getting away from telling you what I did to lose 100 pounds in a year or telling you what I did to lose 100 pounds in 30 days or talking about the effects of surgery and whatnot and everything. But kind of getting out of that just to living this joyful life that I live right now. And you can find that all in there as well too. You can find it on the website once you go on there again, BattlebornDesigns.us. But yeah, like I said, it's something that I was meant to be doing this. There's no doubt in my mind that I'm on the right path and I was shown to be on. And that's where I met today. That's absolutely incredible. I mean, it's like Ben said, normally we have more of a conversation. But I mean, I was just completely enthralled by the story. And I didn't feel like it was appropriate to interrupt when you're describing meeting Jesus Christ. So I figured he would take precedent over my silly little thoughts whatever I'm going to put in my-- No, that's absolutely incredible. I know we've run a little bit long. I know we could probably talk to you for another hour or two. I know we talked about it. I wanted to talk about business and everything else. We will have to have you back for a second go around because I know you have so much more to say. You're an awesome guest. But I want to be respectful of your time. I know where it's going to be. I can say to you, it's more than welcome. We come back. This is a great experience here. No, you're welcome by any time. I thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing all that. No problem. We could make this a three hour episode easily. But we will link up all of your social media, all your websites in our social media. So anyone out there knows that it's driving. Go to nothing.com. And we'll have it up there so you can find Michael. Ben always likes to ask, and I'm going to jump in. I'm going to take his thunder on this episode. But we'll close out. Ben always asks if the theme of the show is nothing old. It's going from that zero to one. So if you could give that advice to our listeners, what would be one thing you could suggest or tell people, just what's that one thing they can do to get started? It is a scary feeling. I understand that. It is a nerve-wracking. The unknown is enough to cause fear and everybody's heart. But just taking that first step, trust in yourself, trust in your process, and just trust in general. And that's the biggest thing. I'm not rich. I don't have millions of dollars to-- if I lose money on this, it's OK kind of thing. But yeah, just taking that first step and just doing it. And that was basically the hardest thing for me to do. Getting approached by a company like ProFlight here to say, hey, we'd like you to make something as simple as a logo. OK, well, I'm going to learn as I go. And I'm going to be able to do it. If I know that I can't do it, I'm going to be 100% with you to let you know that I can't do it. Because I don't like to promise. And I can deliver when I know I can't. But yeah, that's the biggest thing there is just trust in the process. Trust in your heart. Trust in your mind. Trust in your judgment. And if you feel that it's the right choice for you, then do it. And my first company was Frontline Virtual Solutions. It started out great. I almost had a production show on the strip here in Las Vegas. And it took a dive bomb and crashed and burned right in front of my eyes. But you pick yourself up and you start over again. And kind of thing. For me, it was one of those things where either you do something else that it's going to benefit you, or you go back to where you were. And there was no way I was going to go back to the kitchen. So 16 years of being in a kitchen. And I like to call it Slave in a Way back there, behind the lines. But there was no way I was going to go back to that kind of thing. So yeah, taking that first step, when I was 32, I went to school. I went to go get my bachelor's degree at 32. That's when I got my business. And my bachelor's in business of science or science of business with the concentration of marketing. And it all started from there. It's kind of thing. But yeah, take that first step. Take that. Don't be afraid of that. And that's exactly where I'm able to be at where I'm at right now. Granted, I have a little bit of a personal coach there to say, hey, yeah, go this way and don't go that way. But you still have to take that step. I still have to make that commitment to that. And I'm glad I did. There's things that I'm doing today that I would have never thought in a million years that I would ever be able to do it. And that's I'm doing things like that today. And for companies and for television shows and stuff like that. So just taking that first step, don't be afraid of the unknown. The unknown is a fantastic area. And it's just nothing but a best opportunity there for you. And so yeah, yeah. So I mean, for the listeners and everything, if you guys have questions, I know probably you'll get a lot of you all get to have questions and everything like that. Feel free to hit me up. I'm an open book. As you guys can tell, I like to talk. And I don't have no problem talking. And so I'm here. That's awesome. Very cool. Well, I think that's a great place to end. I want to thank you again. It's been incredible. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for sharing your story. For anyone out there, please check out Michael. Check out our website. Check out all of his social media. If you need some graphic design work, you need some logos, need some coins. Please check them out. He does awesome work. I was he was showing us some of things he was working on earlier. So please check them out and give him your business. Definitely deserves it. Battleborne designs. So with that, I will sign off for the night. Thank you all for listening. I know you think. I hope you enjoyed it. I know I did. So for Ben, former Michael, this is Brian signing off for the Nothing Oak Podcast. And we will talk to you guys soon. Thank you guys. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING]