Optimal Performance – What You Need To Know To Be Your Best With Dr. Craig Koniver

Episode #712

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TRANSCRIPTION

Doug Holt  00:01

Hey, guys, welcome back to another episode of the Powerful Man Show. I am joined by a very special guest, Dr. Craig Conover. So, guys, if you don’t know, Craig is a health and human performance expert in nutrition and science driven protocols for performance and longevity. Who doesn’t want that, right?

He has overseen more NAD plus and peptide therapies than any physician in the world and counts fortune 100 CEOs, professional athletes, a list Hollywood actors, special forces, servicemen, as well as several members of the Powerful Man among his many clients. So I know there’s so much more to that story. Craig, thanks so much for being here.

Craig Conover  01:18

Thank you for having me, Doug. Yeah, I love being able to talk about these different topics. So excited to be here.

Doug Holt  01:24

Yeah. Most of our audiences, you know, Craig, are going to be men between 35 and 55 average, right? And we have guys on all the other sides as well as women that listen to this, most all businessmen. And so I guess let’s start out with let’s talk about the importance of managing your health. Men tend to manage their business. They get optics on how the business is going and all those other things, but they rarely take time to actually check in with their health and wellness.

Craig Conover  01:56

It’s true. I think men have this hang up or procrastination. The saying that we see in medicine is women will come in trying to prevent, be proactive in many ways way more mature than us men. And for men, it’s like we have to have a gash in our arm. We have to be massive injury to actually want to take care of ourselves. I think it’s changing. I mean, I’ve noticed over particularly the last five or so years, men seem to be waking up to, you know, we all need help, right? I mean, this is what it comes down to. We all need help and from an accountability perspective, but we all need help in learning about ways to optimize different realms of our health and well-being.

Doug Holt  02:41

Yeah. Analogy. I use Craig for the guys that we work with. I ask them, hey, look, is your performance worth a million dollars plus? And they usually scoff at that because they’re like, well, yeah, my take home or my company’s net is well north of that. And then I’ll ask them like, look, if you invested a million dollars in a racehorse, a million dollars in a thoroughbred racehorse, are you going to be feeding it crap food or are you going to be making sure it’s got the best food and the best medical care possible? Yet for some reason we don’t do that for ourselves.

Craig Conover  03:12

Well, I think my common denominator with patient, my patient base, you kind of summarized it, is really the achievers of the world, people who want an edge and for better or for worse, a lot of that mindset comes from a place where I’m going to work harder than anyone, I’m going to grind it out. I actually figured out how to be super successful with very limited skill set for most people. Right? It’s just, you know, how to do things other people don’t. And so we don’t tend to want to be in this place where we’re saying, oh, we may need some help. And I think it’s harder for the high achievers to say, raise their hand and be like, wow, I didn’t know I could actually feel this better or have this much energy until they’re willing to be a little bit vulnerable.

Doug Holt  03:55

Yeah, well, absolutely. And one of our men who is heavily involved in the movement, the Powerful Man, recommended you to me and you and I started working together and I was really interested in peptides at the time and we’ll get into that in a little bit. So guys that are interested more the cutting edge information that’s out there. But I can speak for myself. I’ve got two young kids, I work in multinational. Time zones are all over the place. And I’m looking for something that’s going to allow me to be healthy, have some longevity so I can stick around and play with these kids long term, but also optimize my performance.

Craig Conover  03:43

Yeah, I’ve been fortunate enough to be in this realm. I call it performance medicine just in part because I don’t totally align with the functional medicine doctors. To me, in many ways, functional medicine, it’s going in the right direction. But a lot of functional medicine doctors, it’s the same mindset as the pharmaceutical medicine, really, which is conventional medicine, which is patients come in, they start going over what’s going on in their life. And the doctor is literally sitting there thinking of, well, let me start with this prescription or these prescriptions. They get started on prescriptions.

If those have side effects aren’t working, you just add on more prescriptions. Then you start doing lab work to kind of chase these numbers about where you think you’re supposed to be. But at the end of the day, most people are not feeling better, they’re not making progress in that system. And for better or for worse, the functional medicine doctors, many of them replace the pharmaceuticals with nutraceuticals, but it’s the same approach.

And so I tend to come from a place, and a lot of it is by making a lot of mistakes over my career. But learning from those mistakes is what I think people are most interested in, particularly men. The demographic that is really listening here is performance, right? Performing your best at any age. We all want to have reassurance that the things we’re doing, the behaviors we’re engaged in, are going to lead to long and healthy life. But that’s somewhat abstract. I’d rather come from the vantage point. Let’s get you performing at your best and then just keep that going over and over and over.

Doug Holt  06:04

I love that. Craig in the news, a lot of guys talk about this idea of testosterone, right? So for those that don’t know anything about that, can you give me a little speak to me like I’m a five year old on why it’s important for men our age to consider testosterone?

Craig Conover  06:21

Yeah, I mean, if we start from the beginning, though, very basics. Testosterone is a hormone. What is a hormone? It’s a signaling molecule. Right? So by definition, we have different glands in our body that release these messengers, call them hormones, travel around the bloodstream to exert an action. Right? In the case of testosterone, we make testosterone in our testicles, but also our adrenal glands.

Testosterone seems to be, for most men, and I can say this overseeing a lot of testosterone therapy, including myself, personally. I’m 49. I’ve been on testosterone a good 15, 17 years, so I’m very familiar with it seems to be, in my opinion, a core or foundational therapeutic intervention that most men should try and engage in.

And I say that because if you look at over time as men, we make less and less testosterone as we get older. And I think testosterone gets a bad rap. The connotation of testosterone being only for bodybuilders or bro, guys from the gym looking to get big muscles, there is an element to that. If you overdo it, manipulate those hormones. But testosterone is crucially important for your nervous system, I think, and I’ve experienced it again personally, professionally, when I get tired, when I get cranky, when the world is a less easier place to navigate, my testosterone tends to be lower. I think testosterone helps us feel safe, confident, fun. It helps us laugh, helps us engage in a world that can be very stressful at times.

So in the short term, men who engage in testosterone replacement, we can get into how you even figure that out. They report a higher quality of life and as well, and a big point I always like to make with men is low testosterone in men is the number one risk factor for heart attack, stroke, depression and dementia. So really big things. So it’s one of the first things we talk about with all of our male patients. For sure.

Doug Holt  08:13

Yeah. So it’s not about just about feeling good, but you’re also talking about longevity and other health precursors just to make sure that you’re around a little bit longer.

Craig Conover  08:20

Yeah. And I think it affects the nervous system. So it’s going to help you sleep better. Right? And we can’t do much if we’re not sleeping well. It’s going to help you be in a good mood. Life is very stressful. I think we’re living probably one of the most stressful times in humanity. And so navigating that if there are some tools, and it seems to be from my observation that when we get men’s testosterone elevated, we’re not talking about a specific number, but higher than at the bottom end of the reference range, men start to feel happier. It’s easier to laugh, it’s easier to want to engage in your life. It’s a great tool for that.

Doug Holt  08:54

So I can picture a guy listening to this right now and he’s like, okay, well, how do I know if I have low testosterone or high testosterone? Where the heck I am on the spectrum? What do they do?

Craig Conover  09:05

Yeah, so I mean, just statistically, as men get into the third decade of life, certainly the fourth decade of life, their testosterone is going to be declining. This isn’t every man. There’s exceptions to rules, but in general, once you hit that and what men are going to experience, one, they’re going to get fatigued. It seems to be a fatigue that comes on in the afternoon, 03:00, 04:00, have trouble keeping their eyes open. They feel less confident. They feel depressed or irritable or edgy. They may be starting to feel anxious.

These are all signs that the testosterone may be declining. Libido may be going south. They may not be recovering as well in the gym. Just don’t have that endurance or vitality. All of those things can be linked back to testosterone. Doesn’t mean they’re all specifically from testosterone, but many of them are.

And so when men start to feel that way, I actually like it for men to be proactive and start checking well before they’re feeling bad. So you can develop a baseline and the easiest way to do is get a blood test. There’s different measures of testosterone from saliva to urine to blood, but blood is the most commonly tested. We have a reference range that we usually check for two things total testosterone and free testosterone. And then based upon that, we line those up with the symptoms to understand if someone is in need of trying some testosterone to help themselves out.

Doug Holt  10:20

What’s going to be the difference between total testosterone and free testosterone?

Craig Conover  10:25

Yeah, the way I think about it, the free testosterone is only 3% to 5% of the total, but because it’s free, it’s not bound to a carrier protein. It’s free to bind the receptor and be influential. So it’s a really good question because I find men’s energy level and their symptoms to be more closely correlated to a free testosterone than a total.

So the scenario a lot of times is you’ve got a guy say he’s 38, his total is say 450 or 500, kind of on the lower end, but in the middle. But the free testosterone is 7, where it should be 25. And they complain, oh yeah, I’m starting to feel tired, I’m not myself, I don’t have that zest. Well, they might be a good candidate to again try testosterone to see if it works. For them it’s always a trial.

Doug Holt  11:11

Do you ever recommend men, and this is a common question guys will ask in the threads in our private community about natural ways of increasing testosterone or do you do those in tandem?

Craig Conover  11:22

You can. I mean, my experience there’s different nutrients that people have tried over many, many decades. Right? So some of those big ones would be pine pollen, acetyl, L-carnitine, certain B vitamins, certain botanical herbs from – I’m blanking. But I’ll think of it, there’s a couple that people Tribulus is one that’s what I’m thinking. That seems to promote testosterone production. The trouble with the botanical herbs and the nutrients is while they may work, they’re not very robust and so it can be very subtle or hard to pick up on if they’re working, right?

And so the way I look at it is if someone has the symptoms of low testosterone or lower testosterone, it’s worth doing a trial of taking some testosterone just to kind of get a sense of how you feel. Because within four to six weeks of using some testosterone, I’m not going to say it’s perfect, but someone will get a sense, are they feeling better? Whatever that means. And that to me, is the most direct way to understand how testosterone is working for them.

Now, some men say, I don’t want to take testosterone, rather try all these natural. Therapies trouble is it could take six to twelve months to start kicking in for you to have a sense. By that time your testosterone is probably way lower and you’re probably feeling worse. So to me, I’m not saying testosterone is right for everyone, but I do like people to try things.

Doug Holt  12:38

Got you. As I said earlier, one of the ways that we got connected is that one of the men within our movement has been using your services. Loved it. And they knew I was going down a deep rabbit hole down peptides. When I got interested in something, I dive right in.

Craig Conover  12:56

Good.

Doug Holt  12:57

And I know that you’ve got a vast experience. Can you describe what are peptides, first of all? And why should men even consider looking into them?

Craig Conover  13:03

So peptides are just chains of amino acids. So all naturally occurring molecules that we put together in some novel combinations. We’ve been using peptides about six, maybe seven years and we learned about them from the competitive CrossFit community, actually. Right?

So you had a community that wanted an edge, was looking for RESULTS, but was tired of the harsh effects of the anabolic steroids which can work, and can work quite well in tandem with testosterone even. But they come with some harsh side effects. So we got started with these, what we call fitness peptides which are really growth hormone releasing peptides.

And a peptide most of them are injected. So they’re injected with a very small needle under the skin. Once you inject them they travel up. In the case of the growth hormone releasing peptides travel up to part of your brain, the pituitary gland where it signals you to put out some growth hormone. Well growth hormone being an anabolic hormone like testosterone, helps to rejuvenate tissue, helps healing mending of tissue, things like that.

So most people, again if we limit it to these growth hormone releasing peptides it’s going to help their recovery, help their sleep, help them lean out a little bit but also get stronger. So it’s a very positive experience for them.

What’s really amazing about peptides is for the most part we don’t see any negative side effects. There’s a couple which we’re aware of but they’re very, very, very safe. And so since that time when we were using just the growth hormone releasing peptides this whole field has blossomed that we have peptides for your immune system, for your nervous system, for your mitochondrial health, peptides for inflammation. And what we found is putting peptides together, stacking them synergistically just like people do with no tropics or nutrients, whatever. We get way more out of them.

Doug Holt  14:46

Yeah. So I’ve been transparently taking one of the sleep mixtures that you sent to me for the last few weeks and as a lot of the guys know watching this show I’ve been traveling a lot so getting very little sleep. But my wife asked me before we got in here is I was telling her, I was like, yeah, I haven’t been sleeping as much because of the demands of my time but I feel the quality of sleep is so much better. Is that something you experience with a lot of people?

Craig Conover  15:13

It is. We’re looking for efficiency and so the way I think peptides work on many levels. By nature they’re small molecules so they’re going to be able to kind of hit the receptors of the cells and help with cell communication or cell to cell communication. So it makes your system more efficient. And so that way you may not sleep as long but your sleep for example may be more efficient. You’re getting more deep sleep, maybe more quality REM sleep. And so you’re able to then need less sleep but feel better. Which is amazing right? I mean who doesn’t want that?

And again that’s what these peptides and so they’re multifactorial. People are sleeping better now, their workouts are better, they’re getting stronger, they’re leaning out their thought process. A lot of it’s about the narrative we tell ourselves anyway. So if you can get some momentum and start to feel better, it’s really amazing how you want to work with that momentum.

Doug Holt  16:02

Yeah, I mean I know for me, because I’m running so many events and like yourself, I’m working with high achievers and these are very, you know, guys at the top of the food chain in their industry. I always have to be on top of my game. When I’m traveling and I’m moving time zones and all these things are happening even with 5, 6 hours of sleep, I feel as if when I wake up, I feel refreshed and I feel like I’m on top. Especially I got a three year old and a six year old and when they’re up, daddy has to be on. If I’m in the house, they don’t understand. Dad’s tired.

Craig Conover  16:35

Yeah. And again, that’s what I like about peptides, is for the most part, there’s no silver bullet. Right? There’s nothing that works for everybody. But for the most part for people who try peptide therapy, they really are satisfied with getting some benefits. And what we found is for a lot of people, particularly high achievers, they don’t know how good they can feel. Right? Because the high achievers have reached this place in their life where they’re successful in many realms. It’s like, okay, I’m doing the best I can.

And then they get a little push from the peptides, like, whoa, I got 15 more percent energy. That feels really good. And then they’re like, wow, is there even more here? Right? And I’m believer anything is possible. And so that’s why it gets really interesting once we start kind of moving those kinds of hurdles out of the way.

Doug Holt  17:20

Yeah. If you think if you can get 15% more energy, I mean, any businessman, if I told you can get 15% more out of your business, they would jump all over it. But the business only grows in my experience, as far as the leadership, whoever’s running the show. So as CEOs and owners, it’s really important for us to be on the top of our game to make sure that the business is thriving.

Craig Conover  17:42

Totally. Very well said. I totally agree. Yeah. And to your point though, I mean it’s the same thing I find very successful men in many ways for women who have a hard time taking care of themselves because they feel like they’re being selfish. Right? It’s very hard to say, hey honey, can you watch the kids for an hour while I focus on me? There’s some restraint there. And I think the same thing with super successful men is like I can’t take time out of my day to focus on myself because I’ve got so many people depending on me. But the reality is if you don’t take that time and be the best version of you, it’s very hard to be of service to others.

Doug Holt  18:19

Yeah, that’s one of the first things we teach the guys is take care of yourself first. You got to when you’re on the plane and something’s going wrong, the oxygen mask falls forward, they don’t say, hey, run around and put it on everybody else, because you’re useless. You pass out, you’re useless. You take care of yourself first, then you can help so many more people.

Craig Conover  18:40

Yep, very true.

Doug Holt  18:42

So I know, Craig, a lot of the guys listening to this also are married or have partners. And I know you also work with women. I know we didn’t talk about this beforehand, but I’m just curious, at what time should women start looking into either peptides or some kind of hormone therapy?

Craig Conover  18:58

It’s a great question. Again, I think it’s better for people to start seeking and learning and kind of going on this exploration earlier and not waiting for symptoms to come in. Right? We can work with at any stage in the process. But it seems like for women, too, women tend to, again, I think, more mature, the more advanced species of the two, for sure.

But their hormones, particularly premenopausal women, there’s more cycling going on. It’s a little bit more complicated than men, who tend to be more straightforward. We can get a lot of work done with just testosterone replacement, for sure. Not that that’s the only game in town, but for women, it gets a little bit more complicated. You now bring in thyroid hormone and progesterone testosterone as well. The adrenal hormones, cortisol, DHEA, pregnant, lone, they seem to matter more. And so for women yeah, I think we like people to just do a baseline check, kind of see where you are.

And then for us, it’s really important that people, and I know this applies to your community is being really authentic, like, being really honest with yourself of like, I’m not feeling as good as I can. I think it’s very stressful to live in the world we live in with our cell phones, all the messaging, all the demands, all the toxicities, from pollution to what’s in our food supply. It’s hard to get the best nutrients. We can’t absorb things well. It’s very hard to be your best self if you’re working with just the confines of yourself.

And so these are just tools. We all as humans, we all have tools we rely upon, and we work with a lot of women. And what’s interesting and actually is probably the most gratifying is when we work with couples and they’re doing this together, they want to be their best selves together and so they can challenge and push each other. It’s awesome.

Doug Holt  20:40

It makes complete sense. Can you give me a couple of symptoms that a woman might experience that would indicate that, hey, obviously we want her to get a baseline? We want the guys to get a baseline first. But a symptom that a man would see that he could kind of nudge his wife and say, hey, babe, I love you, and I think this is a route we might want to look into.

Craig Conover  21:02

Yeah, that’s a great question. I think what’s kind of blossomed over the last, I don’t know, five to seven years? Is declining or insufficient thyroid function in women? There has to be an estrogen component to that because we see it way more common in women than men. But what that feels like is brain fog, inability to maintain a healthy weight, feeling cold, dry skin and feeling constipated.

And I actually see most women needing to, at some point in their life, actually get on some thyroid hormone support, whether that’s thyroid itself, which will be the end result for many women, or some thyroid helping, supporting nutrients like tyrosine or even zinc, selenium, things like that.

But it’s become such an epidemic for women that low thyroid stands out and low thyroid seems to be or thyroid itself seems to be the Linchpin hormone for women. Meaning if we don’t get that corrected really well, it’s going to be hard to get the other hormones balanced. And so again, for men listening and women, brain fog, inability to lose weight, constipated, cold, dry skin, those are the symptoms that stand out.

Doug Holt  22:12

Yeah, I hear that all the time from the mothers, brain fog in particular, and then weight gain and blaming it on being a mom. But most likely it’s just going to be aging as well, I would imagine.

Craig Conover  22:25

It’s the aging and the question, the $64,000 question is obviously, why is this happening? Well, I think it’s several things at play. Mostly it’s living in a very stressful time, exposed to a lot of stressful things that are hitting our cells, hitting our physiology, and we just have a hard time keeping up. And it seems to be happening at a faster rate for whatever reason. I would argue that some of it is declining nutrients in the soil. So the food we are eating is just not as nutritionally dense. Therefore, we don’t get the critical nutrients and we tend to feel more tired than we emotionally eat. We pick the wrong foods, we get more sedentary. I mean, you can go on and on. It’s a vicious cycle.

Doug Holt  23:03

And working with the people that you work with I’m going to change gears, go back to the guys here for a second because they want to fix their wives, of course, but at the same time, they need to take care of themselves. What are some of the common denominators? You see, we talked about testosterone replacement therapy as being something a lot of guys want. Looking into some peptide therapy. Is there anything else that you see from an overall performance standpoint that men should or could be doing?

Craig Conover  23:33

I think what I see for most men, it’s cognitive, right? I mean, sure, there’s the physical aspect where they’d like to do better than gym, recover faster, look good. But if we get down into it, I think for most men, it’s actually being really present, being really focused, being able to recall good, their memory good, so that the things they do and the tasks they have in their life, they can really stay on top of.

And so those cognitive tools would include testosterone, would include peptides, would include you mentioned in the beginning of this NAD therapy. There’s a lot that men can do to get their cognitive enhancement, for lack of a better term. And there’s a lot of great tools that men can do. And I think that’s number one. Right? That’s what I see is being really sharp because for most men, they define who they are by their careers and the work they do. And if you can be, whatever, 10, 20 30% sharper and more robust on that realm, that makes you feel really good.

Doug Holt  24:34

Oh, absolutely. Some of us need all the help we can get.

Craig Conover  24:37

I think we all do.

Doug Holt  24:41

So Craig, you mentioned NAD+ again, and I’ve seen that a lot in the kind of the forums and the communities that I circle in. Can you tell us a little bit what is that and why is it getting so much publicity?

Craig Conover  24:54

Yeah, so NAD at the very basic level is a Vitamin B3 derivative. So it’s a chemical cousin niacin won’t go bore you with the whole story, but discovered in the 1930s and found to be helpful with two main things, which was addiction and really our substance abuse and schizophrenia.

If we fast forward to more modern day times, we’re now using NAD for cognitive enhancement, for help with PTSD, anxiety, depression, and even just physical being our best. And so another kind of basic element to NAD, it’s the stuff or the substrate that our mitochondria uses to make ATP energy. And while there’s many facets to that, a lot of signaling NAD for most people seems to be where we can make an intervention, add more NAD to their system and they’re going to get a lot out of it.

Now, we’re big believers in using NAD, as injectable, so we administer it as IV or even through peptide shots injecting on their skin. And that’s because the molecule is very hard to absorb orally. Doesn’t mean you can’t, but just from a bioavailability standpoint, we get a lot more out of it IV and injecting it sub Q. And so we’ve done a lot of work with NAD. And people ask me all the time, what is the one thing, if I had to pick one thing that I would use or turn to, it’s still NAD. And that’s just observing people. I’ve observed so many people, thousands upon thousands, having transformational experiences using NAD for sure.

Doug Holt  26:24

Yeah, I’ve heard a lot about it and I see it popping up there. Seems like there’s clinics that are popping up in every corner when I go through. Is NAD one of the – I’ve never done it or I’ve never experienced it per se. Is it one of those things that you go in once a month, once a week? How does that work for being administered?

Craig Conover  26:43

Yeah. So we kind of pioneered the protocol here, and so we recommend a loading dose, particularly with IV loading dose of five treatments in ten days, you could do five in a row, you could do two at a time, whatever, but five and ten days to get people started. And then most people after that one treatment a month seems to keep their NAD levels where we want them to be.

And again, that’s just based on our observing people over the last, whatever, seven, eight years, we’re fortunate enough that we’ve been able to work with NAD longer than most. And so my bias in it comes from a place of just I’ve watched and seen kind of the magic of NAD in the last few years. Like you said, we have a lot more people utilizing NAD.

So we’re learning from that. And we recognize that doing an IV is not always pragmatic for people. One, they may not want it, might not have access to it. So we’ve come up with some alternative delivery mechanisms where people can do small NAD shots at home. We have NAD nasal sprays, rapid dissolve tabs. We want to avoid the oral route if we can, but we’re looking for ways to get it into the system because it’s really powerful.

Doug Holt  27:48

Gotcha. Obviously, and this is more from a practical standpoint, I was talking to my business partner who’s based in the UK. If somebody’s looking at getting treatments like this or exploring treatments like this, you know, I’m assuming they’re not going to be doing an IV at home.

Craig Conover  28:08

Right.

Doug Holt  28:09

They would come into a clinic like yours, and you have clinics all over if I’m not mistaken.

Craig Conover  28:14

Well, we have sort of we have our clinic here in Charleston, South Carolina. Then we also have a very busy clinic in London, but we train other practices around the country. We have a network of about 250 practices now worldwide that come and do training with us, where we just open up the playbook and say, hey, here’s how you can do it, here’s what we have observed.

And so we kind of check them off in terms of being able to offer it and administer it this way. So, yeah, I mean, we just want to be able to reach as many people as possible. And so on our website, we have a whole map, interactive map, where people can search and see, you know, in their area. And it covers most of the states now.

Doug Holt  28:54

Fantastic. You guys up in Canada at all? Or is that possible in Canada?

Craig Conover  28:57

Canada? No. Canada is a little bit weird from what I’ve heard. I don’t know how much NAD they’re allowed to import to use. I know it’s not very big yet, so.

Doug Holt  29:11

Our Canadian brothers can make their way down to the States to a clinic near them.

Craig Conover  29:17

Yeah. And it’s growing like we’ve been open in London for about 18 months, and now it’s really they’re a couple of years behind us in terms of embracing these technologies, if you will. And so it’s becoming popular over there in Europe and the rest of the world for sure.

Doug Holt  29:31

Okay. And as you look forward to the next, let’s just say it’s year, when you look at human performance and what you’re working on, where do you see this trend going?

Craig Conover  29:39

It’s a really interesting question. So I think what I have observed this is probably going to be contrarian to what most people are thinking. But I think what you see from a lot of the influencers and people who are promoting optimization, health optimization, I think where I disagree with them is that health and performances become very stressful for people, right?

Like if you’re not fasting and doing high intensity workouts, cold plunge, sauna, doing all these things every day, you can’t be your best. That feels very heavy and stressful to me, right? So I actually think the better play is finding balance and what we call coherence in your life, right? And making sure, you know, that sure you’re going to sleep and sure you’re going to do the things you want to do, but you got to do it in an enjoyable way. You got to have family time, you got to take time for yourself. It can’t be too serious and it can’t be all high octane all the time, right?

And I think for the high achievers that’s challenging because they’ve gotten to be very successful in life by having their foot on the gas all the time. Right? But I think the wisdom that I’ve learned is you got to put your foot on the brake, you got to slow the car down, right? You just have to allow to have downtime to learn how to be present. And that balance is very important with putting your foot on the gas.

And so over the next year, what I think is going to happen, people are certainly embracing these contrast, therapies right cold plunge sauna things more and more, you can do them at home, there’s a lot more use of that but understanding how to find balance even within that, right. I think it gets a little bit out of hand with people saying you got to do these things all the time to be successful. I don’t believe that to be true at all. It’s everything in moderation, including moderation.

Doug Holt  31:21

I love it. And just again for transparency, when you and I first started talking, I had read a book on peptides. I bought some peptides, I was looking on how to mix them myself. And guys that are out there going, man, I don’t want to deal with this. You made it super easy for me as a busy guy. I was traveling around the world, they came already premixed in syringes that were super soft. You helped answer my questions about my concerns on the road.

Craig Conover  31:51

Well, we learned over time that again, when we first started like I was saying, we were using one peptide at a time. Then we learned, oh no, what if we’re using 3, 5, 7, 15 peptides at a time? Works really well, but no one’s going to take the time to give themselves three, six, nine shots a day. And so we came up with a way to premix the solutions of peptides together and then we took it a step further for our clients that we prefill syringes. Right? We want to take the thinking out of it. Right?

So I’ve come up with about 18, maybe a few more different protocols, peptide protocols that we can utilize based on people’s goals, whether it be fat loss, whether it be sleep, call that our flow peptides skin things we call glow for the immune system, all kinds of things. And then we take the thinking out of it. We use the best peptides because we have a lab that makes them and we use the best dosages just based on our trial and error and researching it and then watching how people do. And we have great success.

Again, it’s not for everybody but peptides are – the way I think about it is an older model is okay, you need your vitamin D, you need your fish oil, you need the B vitamins, you need these things because you’re deficient that’s well and good. But no one really feels different from that. You don’t feel much different from using vitamin D. And so it may help you in the long term, it’s not certainly not helping you in the short term. Feel anything? Peptides will do that.

Most people after a few weeks of peptides, they feel a boost, they feel the benefits. That’s what we’re looking for. We’re very busy people right? We need to feel things. And that’s what we’re about is doing therapeutic interventions that people can feel that are positive.

Doug Holt  33:23

Well yeah. And again I think it was brilliant that you just made it simple for busy men and women. We have so many constraints on our time and people pulling on us and to have six different peptides or six different things you have to do is just too many. You might start off strong but you drop off. And so keeping it super simple allows it to fit in your lifestyle.

Craig Conover  33:44

Yeah, and I’ve been fortunate, I’ve had to learn. But I mean like you said, I work with a lot of the peak performers in the world of people who are high octane. And the messages that I’ve received from them over the years has been, listen this is your wheelhouse. You tell me what to do and make it as straightforward as possible and I can be compliant.

And so we really try to help guide people that, right, is that we can be here to be their partner, help answer questions, but also help guide them through open doors. I live life through direct experience. This is how I learn. I think this is how most people learn. Unless you’re willing to try something, how do you know? I could read about it all day, but if I stand on the sidelines, I don’t really know.

And so for me, I want people to have access to whatever is safe, if it’s clinically appropriate and let’s try it and then we can ask the question how’s it working? Right? Just like with nutrition, there’s a million different diets. I have my opinions, but if you’re interested in a vegan diet, go for it, try it, see how you feel. I don’t think it’s going to work as well as more of a mixed variety, but hey, I’ve been wrong lots of times and I’m happy to be wrong when people are actually feeling really good.

Doug Holt  34:51

I love that. I love how approachable you are, Craig, and using your experience as well and your knowledge. For the guys listening to this and some of the women, we get a lot of emails from the women that will listen as well. If they want to pursue this route, how can they reach you?

Craig Conover  35:07

Probably the easiest thing is we’re about to make a change, a big change in our website where we are releasing a very comprehensive telemedicine peptide program that’ll really start in the United States but it’ll make that experience really comprehensive for people where we’re going to be working with people through telemedicine and do it in a really robust way. It’s not quite there yet, we haven’t announced it yet, but it will be in hopefully the next week or so.

Easiest is to go to our website koniverwellness.com, it’s one word, K-o-n-i-v-e-r Wellness.com, and then just reach out to us. There are several places to reach out and then we’ll get back to you. We pride ourselves on being really relatable and hopefully we can get back to people. Accessible is what I’m looking for. So we can work with people.

What we love doing is going on journeys with people, building relationships. There’s so many amazing tools from peptides to testosterone to NAD, to all kinds of new and upcoming therapies, but ultimately what brings us joy and value is we can build relationships with people and help people in those journeys.

Doug Holt  36:12

I absolutely love it. It’s been, I’m just beginning and I love the experience so far, Craig. And guys, I will be reporting back on my experience to you guys. I know several of you have already been asking me and so I’ll give you guys some updates as we go through. And guys, I’d like to hear the questions that you have and maybe I can twist Craig’s arm, get him back on future. So Craig, thanks so much for being on.

Craig Conover  36:35

Thank you, Doug. No, it’s a pleasure to work with you. It’s neat to see how you’ve responded and look forward to a lot more of it. So thanks for having me on.

Doug Holt  36:42

You’re welcome. Guys, as we always say, in the moment of insight, take massive action. And we’ll see you next time on The Powerful Man Show.

All right, guys, that’s a wrap for this episode. But as I always say in the moment of insight, take massive action. You see, there are two types of men that listen to a podcast like this, those that go on from one podcast or show to another just hoping things are going to change and realizing that they’re going to be in the same place month after month, year after year.

You see, I was this guy so I completely get it. You may just not be ready. But there’s also a second man, a second man that listens to a show just like this. And this is a guy who takes massive action so they can shorten the learning curve, compress time, and get RESULTS to be the WOLF. See, WOLF is an acronym for Wise, Open, Loving, and Fierce.

Now ask yourself, which one am I? And just be honest with yourself there. And there’s no judgment on my end. But if you’re ready to move from deactivated DEER mode, which is Defend, Excuse, Explain, and React to activated WOLF, Wise, Open, Loving and Fierce, then go over to thepowerfulman.com/grow. And go there now. In fact, I’ll make it super easy for you. I will even put the link right in the description here so you can just click it and go over there now to learn more. Guys, in the moment of insight, take massive action. Go from deactivated to activated, because like I said, life is too short for average and I’ll see you on the next episode!