Breaking the Chains: From Addiction to Altum Fitness with Jesse Carrajat
After a harrowing battle with alcohol abuse, Jesse Carrajat found fitness to be a transformative coping mechanism. He made a bold decision to leave his career to start "Altum Fitness" and help others along the way to recovery. JT and Jesse have something major in common: the experience of intertwining vulnerability with entrepreneurship in the realm of addiction recovery.
In this episode, Jesse sits down with our host JT to discuss the profound connection between pain, pleasure, and habit formation - helping us all gain insights into breaking destructive cycles. Jesse gives us info on two new groundbreaking apps: one centered on dynamic fitness programs and another focused on building a supportive community for habit change.
Don't miss this empowering discussion about resilience, redemption, and the birth of a movement committed to helping others break free from destructive habits.
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JT 0:01
Alright ladies, gentlemen, welcome back to the podcast today I'm sitting down with Jesse Carey jet from Ultimate fit fitness. There's a lot to cover in this episode, but I'm going to, I'm going to be completely upfront. Jesse, when I saw what you and your partner were doing, I was I was a little angry. It this is a reason because it's, it's exactly around the same concept of what we're doing here. I don't know anything about technology, you guys have kind of wrapped up CO H and put it in app which is fucking brilliant. And I've been kicking myself ever since so. So if I'm gonna start with buy and sell she will be but but I want to say thank you so much for joining me here on the podcast.
Jesse Carrajat 0:46
Thank you for having me, JT. And look, with the mission that that we both have, look, reaching as many people as possible to help them with habits, discipline, those types of things is a good thing. So it's a great thing that we're both out there, kind of in the same vein.
JT 0:59
And now you now you take the high road army. Use on old bitch. Alright, let's get let's get into this Jesse. I think I stumbled on to you guys on social media on my bad habits. And immediately I was, like I said, I was like, this is, you know, it's one of those Why didn't I think of that moments. But I love it. And I say this in jest this beginning part. But honestly, I told you this, you and I got on a phone call by last week or so. And I said how much I respect it. I love what you guys are doing. As far as service goes, you're right. We are we are trying to do help a lot of the same people. And we both have our own stories, right? This isn't, this is coming with a little bit of street cred from from making positive change. So let's give an elevator pitch what is ultimate fitness? And then we'll get into one of where this came from and how it came to be. Yeah,
Jesse Carrajat 1:58
so ultimate fitness is it's really you're taking really, really three things. You have an expert fitness coaching, expert, habit coaching, which is similar but different. And then community and combining those three things into a synergistic experience across two different apps to help people improve any destructive habits that they have. Particularly when we're kicking this off, we're leading around alcohol habit change, because it's the most ubiquitous, it's the most common, but it's it's taking those areas and kind of bringing them together to help people with whatever that they're trying to improve their life and just live their best life yet.
JT 2:39
Yeah, yeah, this is actually temporary shameless plugs, you probably see me sipping on one of my athletic brewings here, as as as we speak. So yeah, I mean, there's so much to cover about this, when we kind of get into the the pain, pleasure balance and the things that we do with to cope with life. Is it something that benefits us kind of long term? Is it something that that gives us short term pleasure, but but does not serve us over a period of time? Where did this idea come from? And how does this have a personal connection to you? Yeah,
Jesse Carrajat 3:14
that's a great question. So I mean, it came from a personal experience, and unfortunately, a painful experience. For me, it's like my whole life. What I've done is I've used substances or a substance in particular, which is alcohol, to either cope with life, or to experience life in a joyful way, in a fuller way. And when when you allow something like alcohol, to come into your life, where it's helping on both of those ends, it can grab a hold you where literally all of your experiences you associate with alcohol. So for for me from the youngest age possible. I'm talking JT 1314 years old, I come from an Irish Catholic family. I don't know if that means anything to you. But what what it means to me is that drinking is so deeply embedded in socialization and family time that you quickly think that it's 100% the norm right? And for me from the youngest age possible alcohol was just such a massive part of my life. Unfortunately, not in a good way in a very destructive way. So you know, kind of going through the whole journey let's just say I've used alcohol throughout my teenage years getting arrested my claim to fame, at least locally was nine times by 19 Getting arrested and really just no one really kind of setting pulling me aside and saying like hey, you know, we need to talk about this because in the circles that I ran with it was just so accepted that that's what you did you drank you went out you in my situation you you got in trouble you raised hell and you just kind of moved on but that's not sustainable long term. So unfortunately, you know, gotten some trouble joined the Marine Corps in I'd love to say that I kind of turned myself around but but I didn't you know it, fix some things. He gave me something to be proud of. It gave me some discipline, something to strive for. But the underlying mental health issues underneath it all were never addressed. And I would say, never adjust until later in my life. So back to the kind of the question is like, you know, what is the genesis of ultimates, it's a guy like me looking back on, you know, 39 years of my life, and just recognizing that this constant has been this one negative habit, and just reflecting on all of the damage and all of the consequences over the years that it led to, and it's just never being addressed. Now there's, we can get into this, but there's been some positive habits that I've always embraced fitness discipline, things like that, that I think helps kind of offset, you know, some of the negative side of things. But I just recognize that if there's a guy like me that's out there that struggling quite quietly with something like alcohol abuse, there's probably so many more out there, just like me. And there was never any organization or brand or kind of company that I felt identified with that I would raise my hand and say, Yes, I'm going to get help with this thing. And the options out there just didn't appeal to me. And I know, there's so many other people out there, like me, so quit my corporate career this year, and just said, we're going to create that company ourselves. And we're going to create that space for people to come in and, and get well regardless of what the habit is. But my personal story is around alcohol abuse for two decades.
JT 6:25
Yeah, man, I mean, it's like we're living in a matrix, because a lot of your story is something I certainly can relate to, it's, I actually think I used to call him was take pride in the fact that I could do both that I could I could, I could work out, I could, I could go run, I could lift, I could do all these things. But yet, I could still do this other thing, right? Because in my mind, if I had a real problem, you know, I had this image of what, what a person with a prom look like. And that was probably from a movie, right? Or somebody that would completely go off the rails. And this isn't and I don't mean that I'm not judging that person. Just people, people. alcohol affects people differently. And some people like you know, they, there's a joke in the recovery community, you know, I started drinking, I'm allergic to it, you know, I break out in handcuffs. Other like other people can still, at least, at least appear to have somewhat together, right? You can, you know, you can still have a professional life, you can be corporate world, you can still work out, you can do all these things. But there's always this thing kind of I don't know if being a slave to it, it is fitting for you. I know it was for me, like you there was still this huge portion of my life that were revolved around it. But when you first decided to do this, you know, when you immediately back up when people first stopped doing something, there's this motivation like Oh, shit, me, and my life is so much better. I'm going to do all these things. But but that fades? How has this been still like something that you are willing to take this leap of faith and really just bet on not just yourself, but your your business partner, and then this idea that you're willing to, to really kind of just dive headfirst into this thing?
Jesse Carrajat 8:21
Yeah, yeah. Well, that, I think, important to note here is that the Genesis to I mean, literally JT, I was I was sitting in in a corporate job. And by corporate more specifically, I was a vice president in a really large medical group helping to run an entire region. And I was quite literally sitting at my desk. It was the end of the day, it was a Monday. And I was sitting there. I'm a man of faith. I became a believer later on in my life. And I was sitting there at my desk. And this doesn't happen often. But I felt like I just had a vote, not a voice, but just like a directive come to me and said, Jesse, this isn't for you. You need to go do this. You need to go get yourself better. Get yourself well, because at that time, JT, I was using alcohol to cope with the stress and pressures of work. I have three little kids at home, I was traveling quite a bit. Again, performing at work. I think if you just looked at me, like let's just say in the kitchen with kids dancing around me and Mallanna in the background, you'd probably say I was quote, performing in the kitchen too, and with the family and just being both, but internally, I was just drained with no margin. So I walked across the street, I literally call my boss somewhat spontaneously, and some people might even think that's a reckless thing to do. But I believed with all my heart that God told me Jesse, you need to stop what you're doing right now. And you need to go pursue this because ultimate fitness has been something in the background of my mind for over six years. And I just met I made that decision. And the thing is, when when you think and you believe that you're you're living out your purpose in life, which I truly do believe as I sit here that this is my purpose in life is to help other men And women kind of again, creating that space for them to get the help that they need. When you think that that is your purpose, and when the start of it is rooted in your faith and God telling you to do it and really believing that you're equipped for the resilience to endure those highs and lows that are going to happen. I mean, I have to tell you, man, I am working around the clock. Right now we chatted a little bit while we were waiting to start, and I've got three sick kiddos today, that happens unexpectedly, and you got to do what you can do. But I mean, I'm exhausted sometimes, because there's just so much that has to happen. But again, when when you feel like it's your purpose, man, you just you just have that motivation in that drive. And I think the the beautiful thing for me about ultimate fitness is I'm, you know, we're young in our journey here, but my story is not, hey, I'm on the mountaintop, I've been sober and haven't drank for, you know, 10 years, I've got all the tools, I've got all the skills, let me download onto you. And then you can be like me, that is not the story. The story here is I'm very much in this too. And I will tell you this, if you're a man of integrity, like I am and JT like I, you know, I know that you are, you know, I can't be out in front leading this company, talking about habits and talking about drinking and ways to not drink and healthy living. If I'm then behind the scenes, you know, just drinking and basically being you know, manipulative, right. So, for me, ultimate fitness is also going to help me and it's going to keep me on the right path. And I want to surround myself with people in ultimate fitness that have that story too. We don't want to be perfect people. We want to be imperfect people helping imperfect people.
JT 11:39
Yeah, it's it's interesting. I've, you know, I've been doing this for a little bit I had a conversation with I can't remember his name right now I feel terrible about it, because he was a past guest. But he's, he's the guy who started clean, it's a it's a drink. It's like a, it's, you know, it's a caffeinated energy drink. And he started right out of rehab. And it's gone on to do some pretty amazing things, and they take 50% of their proceeds. Right. And they use that as as, like scholarship money to get people into treatment centers who couldn't normally afford it. And you know, he said to me, he's, you know, like, it was a lot of pressure. He's like, I've got this thing that I started and we do all this amazing work. But at the same time, I struggle with this, and I could, who knows, you know, I could fall off. I could fall off the wagon. And his Wasn't it you know, his bad habit was, was let's just say the consequences were pretty bad. It wasn't just alcohol. There was other things. And sure, shit, it happened. And it happened here. And and he's, he's gone on, he's got himself clean again. And he's going on to do amazing things. So it's not like this time didn't this. There's still his story's not over. But but there is there is a pressure, right? I mean, I would, I would assume that you feel it, too. It's it's, as you talked about being leading, and then also being vulnerable enough to say, Hey, I'm struggling right now. Or maybe I got this alcohol thing under control. But I got this other thing, man, that is, because anyone knows addictions, like, it's like water finds its cracks. My it might be out of there. But it's it's, it's counting for
Jesse Carrajat 13:20
sure. It's true. So true.
JT 13:23
All right. So now you have this idea, you've quit your job. You're gonna there's there's, there's a big leap of faith, but at the same time, you have to make the seeing reality. What does that process look like? And in? I would say, more importantly, who do you turn to you? And you say, hey, I need help with this, or this is some talent you have, I think you'd be a great asset for this this concept that I have.
Jesse Carrajat 13:46
Yeah, in terms of how do you kind of move in the direction of actually starting the company? Yeah, yeah. So I think the first the first step was a little bit more internalized, private, and allowance is really trying to craft as, as far as I could, what what is, you know, what is the product? What is the service that we're going to be offering Now personally, I had used with some degree of success, sober apps to help me, you talk about habits, one of the simplest things is replacing a bad habit with something else, right. So you picked up your athletic brewing, that was a big one for me that I got through a sober app. And then another one, which is logging my drinks every day, there was something about waking up every single morning. And just looking forward to that victory of typing in zero the day before right shores these little or you know, the habit loop, the cues, the rewards, all those things. So having had a good experience on several occasions, using a sober app, I knew that somewhere somehow there was going to be an app involved. But in any other type of, you know, app or service that I ever used to try to help me when I needed it. There just wasn't the fitness component and it just goes to to hand in hand to be ignored. So I was just I was trying to wrap my head around. How do I offer to people for fitness training like legitimate fitness training multi week programs with expert trainers that are writing them and give them some level of engagement with those trainers. But then also borrow some of the best things of kind of like a traditional sober app, which is, again, drink counting the community, things like that. So I just kind of set out at eventually, like, I'm gonna, you know, it's not out there. I mean, and that's any entrepreneur when they when they see that what they envision could help people is not there. It's a very exciting moment. But then immediately, it's very daunting. Mommy's like, how am I gonna make it? You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So great. I'm
JT 15:34
sorry, I gotta get out quick, right? Like, if that's the thing, if it's your idea, yep. You know, there's a good chance that it could be somebody else's idea to write and they just haven't, maybe there's an unprofitable consequence of habit. Maybe they got great ideas, too. And they want to make a joke. But did you have any experience? You mentioned the marketing role, but did you have any any experience in creating something like this? An app? Absolutely
Jesse Carrajat 15:59
not? No. Leadership? Yes. You know, overall, kind of like leading departments toward a goal? Yes, I would say it's probably one of my best strengths. But I think a good leader knows his blind spots. And for me, I know what my weaknesses are, you know, details, implementation, tasks, saturation, things like that. Not not my cup of tea. So I made sure I went out and found people that could do those things. So you mentioned, you know, who's the team are up on my words on how do you build a team, I've partnered with an amazing team, on the fitness side of things. They're called the the playbook, creator group. So they're partners with me, not in the traditional sense. But we're working together to kind of bring the fitness app to life. And then on the community, the habit change those things. I went out and did a lot of research and partnered with a great organization called Mighty networks, that just allow you to create your own experience. And then, you know, as a leader, I kind of bring those two together, I bring in people that have, you know, skills and giftedness that, you know, that I need and just kind of assemble a team. And then, you know, bring in some coaches and, you know, a lot of times you're just following your gut, you're following instinct. And I feel like God's put a lot of really awesome people in my life that I'm very blessed to be able to turn to and say, Hey, do you want to get involved in this? And so far, most people said, yes. Because I think the mission is a good one. And we're just super excited to bring this thing to life. The end of the month.
JT 17:28
Yeah. So that said, right, December 31, both apps drop. And I know, we spoke about, like, you've got this, you've got this idea of the tribe. Right? And that's gonna be is it? Is that the one that's gonna be on the mighty? The mighty cause?
Jesse Carrajat 17:44
app? Yeah, that's right. So mighty networks will be the framework to be completely random, ultimate experience. That's right. Sure. Sure.
JT 17:52
When you meet when you decided to make this, because now you're putting out to the world, right? And so you're, you're putting out your story, your vulnerabilities, this thing that you've been struggling with, out into the world you come from a corporate world is where an image of things is, is it's important. Was there any apprehension of going Hey, man, I'm about to pull the curtains back on, on on everything. Oh, my God.
Jesse Carrajat 18:16
Yeah, apprehension, that's probably the best word I have. Anxiety, dread. But, you know, it's, you're exactly right, JT. And in quote, unquote, corporate, it's like, you know, you're you're building, I had a boss that always said, you're building your own personal brand. And everything, everything you do, every meeting you have every interaction you have, especially with people higher up the chain, it's, you have to be mindful of it. So in a sense, you're manufacturing this brand. And then you're also you're very mindful of your career trajectory, you know, hoping that it's it's building and it has coherency. And it lands in a place that ultimately provides comfort at the end of life and maybe a little bit of luxury, right? When I abruptly quit a and then G decided I'm going to come out and come clean and say, you may think that I've been healthy and successful all these years, successful defined as probably like promotions and income. Well, guess what? I've been binge drinking. I've been using alcohol to cope. I haven't been the best husband. I haven't been the best father. Right. I mean, apprehension, yes. But just fear right? And I'll even say this, when when we really started getting momentum and getting altom Fitness off the ground. I had a lot of conversations with some of those people that I just mentioned, you know, the playbook group and mighty networks and set my you know, my friends, people that are involved actually working on it. And I was kind of kicking and screaming, saying, I'm not telling my story. I don't need to, you know, I don't I don't want to share these things. And it wasn't even because I was afraid of judgment. It's because I just wasn't ready. You know, I hadn't decided and I'll share this on a post simile note, you know, I think one of my son, my biological father died when I was when I was young and he died have died of AIDS. And it took me a long time to be able to even share that, too. I think one of my one of my fathers as a parent, one of the one of the main things he did, I think wrong, was he was very open. And very, he shared way too much with my brother and I about his life. And I think he inadvertently kind of gave me gave us permission to experiment and to mess up and to make mistakes. And when I started all time, I had in my mind, I told my wife for the longest time, I'm never talking to my children about about my past, because I don't want to inadvertently give them permission to do anything like that. I don't want to signal to them that it's okay to go out and make the mistakes that I made. It's okay, in some senses, but not the ones I was not flipping trucks and, you know, driving drunk and getting in fights and things like that. So, you know, but I think I got very wise counsel, that said, Jesse, you know, your story is very important for anyone that's going to trust altom to care for them, because we're dealing with sacred stuff. You know, you know, at the other end of, hopefully, someone jumping into ultimate fitness and getting the help they need is like a deep purpose driven meaningful life. And that sacred stuff, and you know, how could they trust a company if the founder himself is not willing to come out and say, you know, here's my story, right? So I'm still getting used to it. I'm sitting here on this podcast with you. So clearly, I'm doing I'm doing it.
JT 21:31
Yeah, no, I
Jesse Carrajat 21:33
get it. It definitely rushed it for me.
JT 21:39
And I can even, you know, be vulnerable about most of the mistakes I made of, of expressing or sharing too much. But but at the end of the day, this is a you're part of a team, right? So when you talk about your friends, and, and even your family members, and everyone has to be on board, right? Like it's, you know, meaning you, I'll see myself but when you start putting these things out there, you're putting out not just your business, you're putting out your family's business, too, right. So things that happen behind closed doors, and yeah, that is a very difficult thing. There's a ton of your right to connect with people. I think it's necessary to be authentic. If it's not your experience, and it's not your experience. And that's that's fine, too. You know, you're like, I even felt like when I started looking for help, and I would find people that were there, let's just say their consequences were more severe than mine. That I'm like, I'm I'm, I'm almost a half as drunk too. Like, I'm not like, you know, like, there's people that you know, like, I'm because some people will look at you like, if you saw a job like you still like work out. You still did stuff. Like how bad was it? So it was this weird, weird thing. Like I kind of felt like I had a foot in both doors a little bit like on a positive and a negative side. But so yeah, I'm just getting my whole point is I agree, I think it's necessary. I can't say it gets it continues, it will get easier to share all those things. But But 100% necessary.
Jesse Carrajat 23:10
And you know, psychology very tricky. And just to comment on something you said there. When you compare yourself to other people, oh, I'm not that bad. So I can I can keep doing what I'm doing. The tricky thing is, I wonder and it's hard to unpack this, but I wonder if all those years, I was such a high performer on the professional side, on the fitness side, and everywhere else to give myself permission to drink. You know,
JT 23:35
listen, I worked out more. I mean, as Jessie, I actually worked out more and harder. This This isn't gonna be a popular thing to say, when I was drinking, because it was even if it was subconscious. It was a way to like make up for the things I was doing. Absolutely. Or at least try to. And there's a weird mix this whole pain pleasure mix of, of over indulging in something but also over indulging in things that are really hard on like the fitness side and you'll see it you'll see people that get sober and they go on. You know, the ultra running community is just loaded with people that have just picked a different way to I don't even I don't know if punish yourself is the right word. Some of them will say they'll say to me, they'll say like, I've just picked a different way of doing it. But what's your thoughts on pain pleasure, and how it's fit into your life? Having still been successful, but doing this thing that is completely detrimental?
Jesse Carrajat 24:42
Yeah, that's a that's a good question. I don't know. Pain and Pleasure. You know, I don't I don't really know. I don't really know. I haven't thought about that. And I had to talk about that in that framework. Honestly, what? What's yours
JT 24:59
Well, I'll say this. So for me, and I think most people, it's, it's this loop that constantly goes, alright, so I do something that brings me pleasure, short term, alcohol, we're gonna use alcohol on this. When I come off of that, I feel like crap. And and then the reason I probably did it in the first place is because I'm uncomfortable in my own head, right? I'm not always comfortable in my own life, just just every day life, which most a lot of people aren't, I just happen to find this thing that cured that really quickly. My actions would bring some shame, whether anybody knows about it or not, like, you know, if I wake up, and I'm like, you know, wheeling my recycling container, the road and it's making way too much noise. It's, it's, it's my weekly reminder of what I've done. So I don't feel good about that I don't feel good about being a father that shows her kids that this is how you do things, I don't feel good about being a husband, that isn't always present, or is just not behaving doing the things that my idea of what a good husband is. So you feel bad, right? You feel pain. And then you've got this thing, you know how to fix it. Yeah. And so and physical fitness does the same thing. You feel good. It's just, it's just takes longer and it's, it's work, it's not cracking the
Jesse Carrajat 26:42
bottle, you made me You make me think about. So not a while ago, but say five years ago or so I wrote on a whiteboard. In my garage where I worked out. It's kind of a framework, but just pictured a traditional Venn diagram. And on one side, I wrote control. And on the other circle, I wrote, release. And then I wrote all of the things that I tried to do to control my life. Not realizing that life is pretty much uncontrollable, right, but time blocking, you know that when I sleep, how I work out, trying to be trying to be affected, I just relisted all of these things that I actively put, you know, either mental capital into our actual time into to control my life. In the middle of the Venn diagram, I wrote, present just the word present. So another side, right release, what are the things that I do to to to have like a release, when I spent all that time trying to control my life, burn myself out, stress out, I feel uncomfortable out of control in kind of like pain, right? And what do I do is I jump right over to the release side, which is whatever yours whatever your vice is, right? For me, just like you the off switch was a beer that got heavier and heavier and heavier. It could be, you know, like, what they call it death scrolling on Instagram. Yeah. Could be for me, actually, for a little while there was watching, like, mixed martial arts, I realized that like, I would sit there and watch it and stay up late at night, because it just occupied my brain off of the things that I didn't want to think about. But point is without sorry for droning on, but it's like, my goal in life is to live in the middle, like, just live present, where I'm not trying and fighting to control my life, but I'm also not actively trying to, like release some of the stress and pressure. And I unfortunately, you know, it was probably five years ago, I wrote that on the whiteboard, and I can't say that I've ever made a dent in that. Because also, I'll give myself grace, you know, we've had more kids and I got promotions at work and all those things, and I'm coming out of that season of hyper busyness but that presents just being present. Just being in the room that I'm in not somewhere else, not in an email or undone task or somewhere just like sitting in my living room with my children and literally just being there in every sense of the word that that sense of presence. That's that's the goal right? So when you talk about you know, pain and pleasure I I flipped it a little bit there and into like the control and release, but it's kind of it's kind of similar, the release would always probably, yeah, pain, and then I'd rebound and try to control to make myself feel better about the release. And then it's just a vicious circle.
JT 29:23
Yeah, you probably know people that just seem content, right? Life just seems like easy, they find the joys and things. And I can honestly say that the people I talked to that kind of struggle with these things, they're not always that person. Right? They're the ones that can kind of I don't know if that's a dopamine level. I know everyone's got it, you know, a different level, like their homeostasis at different places with dopamine. Some are just lower So they're always kind of looking for that thing. How much of it? How much of your past whether that be the time in your Marines losing your dad, just your lifestyle? How much do you think plays into that always kind of looking for this, this this release?
Jesse Carrajat 30:20
Yeah, you know, I could say that kind of the the arc of my story is really it's just when my father died and you know, I got a DUI join the Marines right around right around 19 years old, actually, 20 years old. I feel like every single all of the energy in my life, everything that I've ever done, up until now has been around redeeming myself to myself. And I've never felt any talk about you know, dopamine, things like that. I've never felt still, I've never felt content, I've never felt satisfied. I've even when I when I look in the mirror, despite, you know, people around me telling me that, you know, I'm a good guy, etc. When I look in the mirror, I'm still sprinting to try to make up for, you know, things that happened 20 years ago, right. And that's just my nature. And I'd love to get in a healthier place. And I think that I will, and I think ultimate fitness is will help me with that, right? But I've never been that guy that you describe guy or gal that just feels content, and just kind of satisfied and still, and I would love to be I would love to be that way one day. But we shall see.
JT 31:29
Let's see. But even accepting that right? Like, hey, this isn't where I am. But in helping myself. I'm going to try and help others along the way. Exactly. And there's something to be said about that. Because I've had people say, hey, you know, you just got sober, you're you're improving your habits. That's great. Why do you have to get on a mic and talk about why do you have to try and start a start a nonprofit? And, and have whatever, whatever it is you're doing? And I don't know, I don't know what the answer is one of my coaches. I know it's no, no, go ahead. Your coach said
Jesse Carrajat 32:04
what now one of the one of the ultimate coaches that just joined the team, I think might have answered that for us, JT, he, he's coming on board. And he said, You know, I've spent my whole life searching for purpose and trying to ask myself what my purpose is. And maybe my purpose is to help other people find purpose. And I think that that's, that's beautiful. I think having maybe a hardwiring a DNA, like, like me, and presumably you have searching, and innovating and driving and seeking. I think it has its weaknesses. And those weaknesses are what we're talking about. It's hard to turn it off. But I certainly think it has strengths that could bless other people, which is you're going to create something like you've done, and hopefully like I'm doing that is genuinely going to help other people. So it's a it's a blessing and a curse. And hopefully it blesses other people.
JT 32:55
I'm sure it will, man. I mean, you've given me a little look under the hood of of what you got going on as far as the ABS and I'm excited for you, I think. I think guys are creating something really special. Thank you, you know, this idea for us. And I think you guys will share this. It's it's a shared purpose. Through connection and challenge, right? You're building a community of people that are like minded, you're connecting them through the app. And, you know, you're you're, you're gonna look back, I truly believe this, you're gonna look back. Whenever a year, five years, 10 years from now and go, Hey, man, I, I started this thing on December 31 2023. And look, not just how big it's got, but look how many people it's helped along the way. And it's one of the most selfish things we can do. It sounds ridiculous to say, but when when you start getting those messages about the positive change, it's it That in itself is addictive, because you're gonna feel like oh, for me, it's the cost of admission, right? You get yourself together, you got to start helping others. If not, you're you're just
Jesse Carrajat 34:12
what's the point? Yeah, my my co founder, Justin says if you want to keep it, you gotta give it back. Big thing he says so it's, it's gonna be it's gonna be great. I mean, really, in a publisher mentioned the show, but we want to make we want to make pursuing things like this fun, you know, it's like we want to make a difference but we want to just kind of flip the script and put it on its head and be like, Look, things like alcohol, they're hard they're tough but like let's get together Let's rally let's get let's get fit while we're doing it. Let's jump in community. Let's do challenges with awesome prizes. Let's, let's just get better and let's make it fun. And don't be don't be ashamed to admit that this thing whatever it is, it could be alcohol or something else. But these things grab a hold of you and then they they grow insidiously and they hurt your life and we want to make it fun. So if anything a year from now to kind of use that, you know, I hoped that ultimate fitness combined with you know, any other organization, you know, yours and others, it's like, let's address this thing and let's make it more make it more acceptable to say that you need to jump in community to get the help you need, you know, and that's, if we could say that a year from now that we're slowly kind of disrupting the status quo when it comes to recovery, then that's a win.
JT 35:23
Yeah, yeah, man, I fight that word. Honestly. I've said the recovery world, we're just because it's, we are all fighting this thing, right? I mean, the cell phones that the social media the work addiction to gambling, the pornography, like all of it. And, and sometimes when I see that, where people like, that's where they that's where they push back a little bit. I go, No, no, no, you don't understand that. We can have fun with this. But at the end of the day, this is fucking killing us. Honestly, if we look at us, as a country, what it is doing to us, wherever people are gonna, like, man, you're broken record, we have the highest rates of addiction, anxiety, depression, preventable diseases and suicide. Yeah. And if you think that's, that's, you know, just a coincidence, because of all of the access, we have to these things that give us the short term pleasure and allow us to disappear from our normal world and not actually deal with life. You're mistaken. So that's one of the reasons I'm so excited about what you guys are doing because as funny as it can be. It's, it's, it's necessary, because I think there's a lot of people struggling out there. I know, there's a lot of people struggling. And we need we need some alternatives, man, we need to call them fitness. We need whatever else is out there to get this, hopefully, started addressing some of these things. Yeah,
Jesse Carrajat 36:53
agreed. And that list you just threw out there suicide, you know, depression, all those things. I mean, what alcohols that last I checked the the fourth leading cause of preventable death in the United States, whether it's like auto accidents or actual sicknesses that come from it, and then that list that you mentioned, you know, we're both veterans think about how disproportionately that list impacts veterans, right? It's, it's, it's just, it's so needed to, for people to get the help they need. And your right terms, like, you know, recovery, even alcoholic, all those types of terms. I think, for some people that they are taboo, and it prevents them and I was one of these people from stepping forward, people don't want to believe that whatever they're fighting with now in this season, is permanent, or that they need to call themselves a label, like in recovery, or alcoholic, or whatever it is. I will say this right now, ultimate fitness, will never ever reach the amount of people that an organization like Alcoholics Anonymous has reached, it's it's changed millions and millions of lives. And I know people who are walking testaments to the power of that program, but it's not for everybody. And what I hope is that ultimate fitness and any other organization that's kind of stepping out and say, No, you can do it this way, too. I hope it reaches those people who AAA is not for. Because there are millions of people out there that just don't, don't prescribe to that. So between the labels, and everything else, I just, you know, again, a year from now, I hope we breaking down a lot of barriers to get people plugged in and, and get the help they need.
JT 38:27
It will and it can be in conjunction with right like there's that's one of the things I always felt like AAA got me sober. So I will always give it credit, like it's done amazing things for me. But there's other things out there that I think you can get have a lot of positive impact. You know, I've always said like, you know, a 12 step, everyone should go through 12 steps, because you just start you start figuring out why you do the things you do or at least you become aware of them and that doesn't mean you're going to change them but yeah, I think everyone's approach to it can be different. It can be a combination of things but but at the end of the day it's a group of people that don't want to do this thing that they've been doing for way too long. What that thing can be any thing Yeah, right. And that's where the power is. That's where the connection comes from. You know, if I talked to somebody now and and whether they got you know, I'm coming up on five years and if they said I'm I'm sober, I don't care whether it is from AAA or if or if it was white knuckling it like where however they did it man I'm I'm already impressed by and connected to him. So yeah,
Jesse Carrajat 39:47
my co founder Justin is a is a big proponent of AAA he just hit his four year mark a couple days ago. Beautiful. So exactly. However, however you get the help you need. Good to go. You know, if you're combining something like that with something that we're doing fantastic. Come on in, let's go. But Openhand what, however people need to get the help they need. Let's go. That's it.
JT 40:10
Yep. Yeah, I love it. You also have a podcast first one. This is your first episode is going to drop after hours as this episode comes out, but I want to make sure that everyone knows the title. It's Live Fit break free podcast is who the host yourself and myself
Jesse Carrajat 40:31
and co founder Justin Mays ours Yep, Live Fit break free. His origin stories are first episode that drops tomorrow, followed by my origin story The following week, and then we're going on from there. But yeah, it's, we're super excited about it tomorrow. It's 4am. drops. So tune in.
JT 40:50
So we're gonna we're gonna have links to that in our show notes. And I'll put it on social as well. You know, is there anything about the apps themselves that you want to make sure that we cover Jesse? Yeah,
Jesse Carrajat 40:59
I do. So I think just understanding because anytime you have two different apps that are integrated, I think it's good to have an understanding of what the experience is going to be like when you're engaging with it, right. So we'll separate them verbally here. So you have the ultimate fitness app, and the ultimate tribe app. So on the fitness side of things, when when you actually have a subscription, you're gonna get access to both simultaneously. And those two apps talk to each other. On the fitness side of thing, we've got some amazing programs that are really designed to appeal to anybody in their goals. It could be someone that's just a beginner to resistance training, it could be someone, we have one called Foundation's, which is you don't have a lot of equipment. So we want to make sure you can use gravity bodyweight, things like that, all the way up to like really like high performing like functional training, strength training, you know, half marathons, things like that multi week programs with daily workouts with workout counters and trackers and community, there's a whole bunch of things in the fitness app, it is just straight up a bonafide fitness app that I would put up there against any other fitness app that's out there. And I know that because the group that's helping me make it makes fitness apps that are just some of the top rated. So then you have the tribe app. And the tribe is really where all of the heart and the passion around ultimate fitness is. And that's in the habit change the transformation, the community, just kind of bringing people together, we have private spaces for certain topics, you have quarterly dry challenges, prizes, courses, we have a flagship course called the AF 30, alcohol reset, that's a day by day, push notification with video, text information resources to help you get from wherever you are, wherever you find yourself with drinking to at least 30 days, dry or sober. And then from there, it's up to you where you go. But if you want to keep on that journey and go 60 days, 90 days, or even a lifetime of not drinking abstaining from alcohol, we have spaces and resources in the tribe app for that. So in short, you have two apps that communicate it's part it's one kind of cohesive experience, and it's designed to help you get more fit, and cut back any negative habit that's holding you back towards living your best life.
JT 43:05
Right back to Matt again. I'm right. I'm right back to it. Beautifully said man I'm Yeah, I saw like I said I saw it a little bit. But I am really excited to dive into this thing. Give it a go myself. See what the tribe looks like. So yeah, very cool.
Jesse Carrajat 43:25
Thank you. Appreciate it.
JT 43:28
Alright, brother, is there anything else you want to cover before we we call the day I know you mentioned your kids being sick, but you yourself are coming off a night of have some sickness yourself. So I don't want to keep you on here too long.
Jesse Carrajat 43:42
Now. No good. The only thing I'd leave off with is just expressing gratitude. JT. I mean, I appreciate you. You hooking up with me. I think we have a similar mission. And I've really enjoyed my time with him. So thanks for giving us the time and space to talk about ultim I really appreciate it.
JT 43:57
Yeah, thanks for thanks for coming on. And I have a feeling this is just me. One of many conversations here. So sir, thanks.
Jesse Carrajat 44:03
Thank you.
