The Meat Mafia Podcast

Mills McQueen is a filmmaker and entrepreneur, passionate about health and wellness. He is the CEO & Founder of wellness companies Mineral Health, Mycro, and media brand Ceremony. Last week, Mills launched Dos, a potato chip brand using only potato, salt & tallow for a healthier, more flavorful snack. Combining his branding expertise with a commitment to quality, Mills has created a unique product that stands out in the market.

Key topics discussed:

- Return to traditional nutrition and art, emphasizing single-ingredient foods and authentic connection.
- Impact of modern technology on human connection and attention spans.
- Building authentic brands through long-form storytelling and genuine customer relationships.
- Anti-conformist approach to life and business, focusing on constant reinvention and personal conviction.
- Challenges and successes in developing products aligned with a health-focused nutritional philosophy.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Return to Tradition in Nutrition and Art
(02:00) Rise of Long Form Storytelling
(03:00) Class System and Consumption of Art
(06:00) Re-evaluating Healthy Food and Business Practices
(07:00) Building Authentic Brands through Content
(09:00) Entrepreneurship and Ethical Marketing
(13:00) Anti-Conformist Approach to Life and Business
(16:00) Developing Products with Authentic Conviction
(18:00) Importance of Naivety and Simplicity in Business
(26:00) Gratitude and Friendship with Founders


*** LINKS***


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Connect with Mills McQueen:

Instagram
YouTube

Connect with Mineral:

Instagram
Website

Connect with Mycro:

Instagram
Website

Connect with Ceremony:

Instagram

Connect with Dos:

Instagram

Connect with Meat Mafia:

Instagram - Meat Mafia
Twitter - Meat Mafia
YouTube - Meat Mafia

Connect with Noble Protein:

Website - Noble Protein
Twitter - Noble Protein
Instagram - Noble Protein

AFFILIATES
  1. LMNT - Electrolyte salts to supplement minerals on low-carb diet
  2. The Carnivore Bar - Use Code 'MEATMAFIA' for 10% OFF - Delicious & convenient Pemmican Bar
  3. Perennial Pastures - Use CODE 'MEATMAFIA' 10% OFF - Regeneratively raised, grass-fed & grass-finished beef from California & Montana
  4. Farrow Skincare - Use CODE 'MEATMAFIA' at checkout for 20% OFF
  5. Heart & Soil - CODE ‘MEATMAFIA’ for 10% OFF - enhanced nutrition to replace daily vitamins!
  6. Carnivore Snax - Use CODE 'MEATMAFIA' Crispy, airy meat chips that melt in your mouth. Regeneratively raised in the USA.
  7. Pluck Seasoning - 15% OFF - Nutrient-dense seasoning with INSANE flavor! Use CODE: MEATMAFIA
  8. We Feed Raw 25% OFF your first order - ancestrally consistent food for your dog! Use CODE 'MEATMAFIA'
  9. Fond Bone Broth - 15% OFF - REAL bone broth with HIGH-QUALITY ingredients! It’s a daily product for us! Use CODE: MAFIA

Creators & Guests

Host
Brett Ender 🥩⚡️
The food system is corrupt and trying to poison us... I will teach you how to fight back. Co-Host of @themeatmafiapod 🥩
Host
Harry Gray 🥩⚡️
Leading the Red Meat Renaissance 🥩 ⚡️| Co-Host of @themeatmafiapod

What is The Meat Mafia Podcast?

The Meat Mafia Podcast is hosted by @MeatMafiaBrett and @MeatMafiaHarry with the mission of addressing fundamental problems in our food and healthcare system. Our concerns with our healthcare system can be drawn back to issues in our food system as far back as soil health. Our principles are simple: eat real foods, buy locally, and cook your own meals.

When you listen to our podcast, you will hear stories and conversations from people working on the fringes of the food and healthcare system to address the major crises overshadowing modern society: how do we become healthy again?

themeatmafiapodcast.substack.com

Mills part 2
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[00:00:00] One of the things I love about you and why I think dose It's gonna be this perfect combination of your cinematic background, but also Just your touch on like the refinement of getting the products right is you have this reverence for a return to tradition Yeah Which I think shows up in the product like the way you're trying to tell these stories and things like that And I'm curious like as a founder that fingerprint is all over this brand like where does that come from?

Where, where does that return to tradition come from? I think from a lot of things happening that are unique to us as a generation, which is like, we're seeing the rise of, of computers thinking for us and like being addicted to things in our pocket and like missing connections with people. I don't think like we talked about, like healthy food is not a new thing.

You know, hundreds of years ago, not even hundreds of years ago, 60 years ago, food was healthy. You know, even going to a, a diner, a greasy diner was better than a lot [00:01:00] of the things that you can eat on Cesar Chavez. Um, I have a hypothesis and I think you know this hypothesis and perhaps you were leading me a little bit, but I believe that everything is original or nothing is.

So this return to, well, this return to tallow snacks or this return to nose to tail supplementation is not a new thing. It's just a remix of something that previously happened. And so. Our generation, um, is distinctly given this opportunity to say, okay, you can go further into a place of where you lack consciousness, or you can return, or we can be the reason that people return to the arts as the highest form of creation of expression of, of sharing, of being something that we all connect on.

So I firmly believe that although there is a, Overwhelming, uh, sense of shortness in our attention spans [00:02:00] and what we seek out. And, you know, cinemas are, are, are, uh, Mad Max Furiosa is, is on pace to do. I have, I had one of the worst Memorial Day openings in 40 years. And like, um, although there's perhaps evidence to support otherwise, I believe that we're at the precipice of a time where people Go back to seeking out long form Storytelling and the highest form of art being storytelling and the class system is no longer being divided by wealth Uh, but being divided by who has an acumen and an appetite for art so if you are somebody who is of A I don't perhaps class system isn't great.

It isn't great. But uh, if you are a well educated Educated Uh, a beautiful connected person with your community, yourself, your family, then you are somebody who consumes art from the highest form. And you're somebody who seeks it out, who funds it, [00:03:00] who, uh, who incubates young people to make art. And if you were somebody of a lesser prestige, then you S then you consume AI created content.

You continue to spend hours on Instagram You have, uh, A very limited understanding of what is happening in the world from a that is good Because you don't seek out that information. You are you are You are satiated by Crap, you know so that return to tradition is that I think I always thought in pictures I always thought in little vignettes and in films and I grew up on the films of the 60s the 70s the 80s and the 90s and You That was an exceptional time for cinema, and for art, and for our country.

And those stories are not fables to me, they are like, [00:04:00] they are inspiration and things to aspire to, and they are my upbringing. And my upbringing is not my niece and nephew at dinner on their iPads. It's like, Unable to focus, unable to sit through a meal because they don't have whatever the game is that they play, you know?

In my place in Mexico, if I go out with my friends, they, they, their children draw and And use crowns and like show people the art that they're working on and I'll take it home with me back to the America and like Doesn't make any sense for me to take it to anybody in my family be like, hey, this is this is what it is But I do it anyways because I'm like, hey, this is Um, we have created this system of, of, of numbing, of, of, uh, reducing our young people's aspirations because we believe that the world is doomed and that's just what it is.

But through art and through things, and not maybe not through any things like tallow fried potato chips, but [00:05:00] maybe the stories around it and the brand and the creation and inspiring people to do something novel, uh, can lead to a better place, a better world, a better future. Connection with our community.

That's so well said. Yeah, I really do feel like there is such a strong connection between the way that we feel about nutrition and the arts in general. Which I guess makes sense because food is an art form. But I think we, as humans, we just assume, oh, because technology is progressing, we have to constantly be iterating on what we think is healthy, therefore it's not healthy.

And I think the same thing is true with, with the arts and businesses running paid advertising versus long form content and connect true authentic connection to customers, where I think what Harry and I've been realizing the last two years is, what if we actually had things figured out like 50 to 70 years ago, maybe we should have never changed the things that were working when it comes to nutrition, eating single ingredient foods, us sharing a table together, putting our phones in another room and just connecting and asking you how you are.

And I think about, I think business is the same [00:06:00] way. I've been re reading Shoe Dog, um, by Phil Knight because it's one of my favorite books. And I think about when, uh, before it was Nike and it was Blue Ribbon, he was, him and his team were going from track meet to track meet, connecting with the athletes, shaking their hands, being connected to them.

And they've built obviously a multi billion dollar business. And I think you are kind of that example of what you're doing at Dosed. It's, it's a return to tradition from a nutrition perspective, but also with the arts and the content that you're putting out, where I don't imagine your brand peppering Instagram with paid ads.

I, I see you just continuing to create this amazing long form content where customers really get to know you. And I would recommend that anyone checks out your YouTube channel to really see, um, like the manifestation of what we're talking about here, because those videos are incredible. Yeah, thank you very much.

And, uh, obviously you're in, uh, in a couple of them. So people will get to see both of you, which is great. Our acting prowess. I think that if you are, uh, [00:07:00] a business leader, then who wants to make something, you know, product, digital product, or physical product or software that reaches an audience, then you have a responsibility to create something.

advantageous to the world and I think it's certainly not the the the shared belief system of of Everybody but perhaps certainly not of of entrepreneurs trying to create things What we're for we're we're ways away from my hypothesis Being able to test my hypothesis whatsoever when we approach brands say hey Don't spend two million dollars or spend two million dollars on your campaign, but carve out You know, 10 percent of that to create six episodes on YouTube so that your content can live in perpetuity.

You can own the channel. Somebody could find it in 10 years and watch it like watching the entire series of Mad Men or, you know, Creating something unique to you in that way, which eventually, which doesn't beguile a customer to become [00:08:00] your customer, but just inspires them to become a part of your lifestyle.

Um, I think we're, we're, we're certainly a ways away from that, but we're early. You guys tested it. You're still, you're still gonna do it. You have interesting stories. Um, I don't care and don't buy things because I see it in an Instagram ad. Never. So why? Would I create a business that it needs to rely on something like that to connect with an audience?

And I'm not like, you know, I'm not I'm beholden to my own Desires for how big the business can be and eventually I might come to a point where I have to choose between the lesser of two evils and Who knows what media will be like in that point where somebody's like we're gonna take this from you and we're gonna Acquire it from you because you haven't touched these channels that we can absolutely just rape and i'll be forced to like make a decision on how uh How genuine [00:09:00] I am to this conversation today like how genuine I am to the things that I share with the you know the world in that I believe that storytelling is the highest form of expression and also the best way to connect with your community larger um So I, I love that you, I love, I love it.

I love that we, we, we chat. In this way, because your conversations with people on this podcast are incredibly unique to the meat mafia, like the people that you bring on and their stories, them being farmers and like, you know, even Allie Schaefer here on the other day, like her unique story to becoming almost a incredible lobbyists for the, the, the movement of psilocybin as a form, as a form of healing for the world.

So it would be extremely. Good, and for the greater, for the greater good for you guys to continue to build an audience that [00:10:00] grows in size because what you share is so, uh, advantageous across the board for the world. Food, somebody on here who is crazy enough to say, you know, storytelling is the future, and somebody crazy enough who's to say you should be putting your knees and your hands in dirt every day, you know?

Like Austin is a place is a is a is a small city with big city problems and like big city things don't solve a small cities Problems for with the small cities big city problems but there are thousands millions of acres around for us to like connect with the earth again and figure out how to Bring that into a city, you know, are you hopeful that other founders can kind of tap into this appreciation for storytelling?

And honestly, the way you're describing it, it's like really an appreciation for the beautiful elements of life that are just unique to each our own. Yeah. Like are you hopeful that people [00:11:00] can get away from this model of just like industrialized, it's a very industrialized model of doing business right now.

So is there this enough, um, you know, actual material there for people to start to care in that way. I'm just hopeful, you know, I think the world definitely, uh, still exists because of optimists and because of optimism. Otherwise it would just be a dark place. So, um, I'm hopeful in that the same way, uh, I'm, you know, floating down the river in the Amazon, uh, getting ready to arrive to a, uh, a very, Secluded tribe to like take place in a in a 10 day ceremony.

I'm hopeful in that that That opportunity is gonna be just as impetuous as the story that I'm telling to answer your question, you know, like Yes, I'm hopeful because how do we connect with people when we're first meeting them? We tell them stories about [00:12:00] ourselves, right? Like, how do you and I, how did the three of us become friends?

Well, this is where I'm from. I grew up playing baseball. We went to the BAPSM college and played baseball together and became best homies. And now we have this podcast. Wow. Story. Like I would buy noble because of that story rather than three scoops and in your protein, boom, I feel better, better, better, but boom, you know, like cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.

So it just takes a few, Just as it takes a few bad apples to like, ruin a whole bunch, like it takes a few good apples, a few trailblazers, a few creators to be like, we're done being the generation that consumes things because we're beguiled by the people that sell them. I love that. I feel like Harry and I both view you almost as like the anti conformist.

You're genuinely one of the most unique humans that we've ever met. And I feel like what's amazing about you is I feel that you have just such strong conviction behind your beliefs and the way [00:13:00] that you live your life. And I think that comes from you really knowing who you are very well. And I'm just curious for the listener, because I think there could be some nuggets in there.

Do you find? Is that something that you think you were blessed with? Is that something that you've cultivated over time? Because I think that there are a lot of younger people that are just constantly looking left and right at what other people are doing and they're ultimately living a life that they don't feel like is in alignment with who they are.

So as someone that I feel knows themself incredibly well, I would just love to dig into that a little bit. I think I'm just constantly reinventing myself to become the person that I want to be. And, um, I fail so frequently that it is become, uh, I've, I've become a person who never fails to fail and, uh, that is unique in that.

people who want to figure out who they are fail and so they thus default to who society wants them to be. Um, it's not innate. I think it's innate within of all of us to be ourselves. [00:14:00] Unfortunately, it's no longer innate because of the world that, you know, we, we grew up in. I think if you're, if you're sheltered from, uh, the systems that the society has been in place and that you're always able to, and always able to wake up every day and make decisions based off of what you want to accomplish, then, then sure, like, You'll uniquely be yourself.

Um, but there's a pressure to be something else. And I think you have to give less of that words, um, to honor what it is that you want to become. Um, and I'm not, I'm not, uh, a man to be followed. I am certainly a man to be, to, to lead. Um, but, We all have to decide that the beat of our own drum is a lot stronger than the beat of somebody else's and That makes for living a life Worth living and like [00:15:00] fulfilling.

Mm hmm. I Yeah, guys, I just have tried so many different things I think that is certainly innate like Because of who I am because of who how I was raised You I have just been like, I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna get my ass kicked, and I'm gonna keep trying, you know? I'm gonna try this other thing that I like, that I have interest in, which is also like, it's a double edged sword, right?

I think that's the right analogy, because like, I'm not the expert at one thing. I'm like, I know a lot of different things. Yeah. But it's helpful. I mean, I think a lot of that, uh, we had a conversation with the guys from mana, the shoe is eat company. We're just talking about conviction and like conviction comes from the heart.

And if you're doing something with your heart driving it, like at least, you know, that your conviction was high and that, that whatever you do, if you fail, it wasn't because you had a little bit of doubt in there that led you astray and led you to kind of not put all of your effort into it. Whereas like a lot of [00:16:00] people, I think just like.

Don't act because yeah, they don't know where to source their conviction from shout out. She legit. Is that not something? It's a miracle. Tell her tell her tell our parents that we consume a black tar from Live resin, is that what they called it? Dude, I Don't even really know what it is. But the minerals in there's or wild Yeah, they would be a great brand to connect you with that wants to tell stories.

That's a good idea There were they based Australia. Australia. Yeah, the Ned's Buds. Yeah. Ned's Buds. That's the next brand. The Ned's Buds. Yeah. What would it be? Uh, I don't care for cannabis, but that's a good, that's a good, uh, I mean, for medicinal purposes for people that need it, then certainly something.

Or like headphones. Headphones would be good. Yeah. Or a combination of the two. Yeah. You order headphones and you get like a little. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So as, with you guys just hitting the 100K mark on [00:17:00] the, uh, Nose to Tail powder, protein powder, um, what do you, uh, distill, what two or three things do you distill the growth to over the last, you know, from January 1?

I think that the fact that we were naive in the beginning to start was incredibly beneficial. Yeah. Like the willingness that you have of. Hey, we don't have CPG experience, but we're just gonna roll up our sleeves and figure it out And we know that we're resourceful and have enough people that can help support us I think that was a huge thing too.

I find that I think when Harry and I were both younger We almost let perfection get in the way of just starting something even with the podcast There was nothing that we know now that we didn't really know at 2019 in the context of nutrition There's just so much pressure at least I was putting on myself to not create something.

Yeah And, um, I think having that core foundation through the Meat Mafia that led to Noble. gave us a lot of confidence where it was media first, product second. And I think to your point, that's the way, [00:18:00] that's the way that a lot of these businesses are going to continue to progress is like create amazing, authentic content.

And then actually if you listen closely to your audience, they're going to tell you the product that they want because we were just getting so many questions about protein powders and supplements. And Harry and I just said, we should just be building something in line with our nutritional philosophy.

And then I think the third thing would be for me is, um, Just how much you can compound by bringing on the right team members as well, too we we hired a fractional chief marketing officer and a fractional CFO that are competent in all the things that hair and I are not competent in in the aspect of CPG and They've just helped scale everything so much and it's just excited We're excited to just think about where we could be six months from now twelve months from now because I remember Being on Twitter in the early days, consuming, not creating, and seeing these people that I looked up to that would post little screenshots of their Shopify revenue and being like, oh my gosh, if, how incredible would that be if we had a product of our own?

And now we're at that stage two years later, [00:19:00] and I don't know, I think a lot of us just downplay how much you can achieve within a year just by having kind of the right gust of energy and momentum in the right direction. Amazing. Yeah, I think simplicity too wins in the end. Definitely. Just keeping things simple.

It's the only thing I could possibly add. It's like, yeah, I think what we did well, what Brett was saying, is just like going and just being super naive, but then also just kind of falling back to not overcomplicating it. Just trying to set up a system that works and run with it. So yeah, keeping it simple.

This is up from here. Yeah. Yeah. And it's profitable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Big time because you're not spending a hundred thousand dollars a month. No, no. I think You guys aren't wasteful. You can't be wasteful. You can't be wasteful, not at this stage. It's like even though we raise, we just always have that mindset of like, Are we operating decisions as if we had zero dollars in the bank account because this whole world of venture capital Backed companies as wild like just the decisions that you're making because you have these funds and it's almost [00:20:00] not even real business You're almost operating from delusion right or from something.

That's not real Yeah, it isn't sustainable either and who wants to operate that way like we grew up inspired by businesses that were profitable Not by businesses that grew fast and yes, just kept cash calling and cash calling and cash calling, you know? Yeah. Well it's gonna be really interesting seeing cause the last 10 years of entrepreneurs have benefited from zero interest rate, zero interest rate environment.

Basically meaning that like money's free, all these investors are looking to invest as much as they possibly can. So it's like anyone, and this is a knock on anyone 10 years, but I think it's about to get a lot harder and you are going to have to really understand like Your customers in a more intimate way.

It's not just gonna be throw ad dollars here, ad dollars there. It's gonna be who is actually buying everything, every single product, piece of product. Um, and it's probably gonna be a slower game too. Yeah, I agree. And speaking of like, being inspired by things in the 90s. We're all [00:21:00] wearing Sofa? Oh yeah.

Seed oil free America. Which is, uh, a direct rip off of D. A. R. E. Um, thank you D. A. R. E., please don't come for us. Um, where we are creating vintage inspired PSAs, replacing drugs with seed oils. Again, the blend of familiar and new. Um, and then, you know, hopefully making things with brands like you guys who are not, like, directly a replacement for seat oils, but of the same opinion that these things should not be circulated and sold to the consumer.

Um, the back of the shirt is very cool too. Maybe we'll do it as the thumbnail? Yeah. Yeah. We'll do something like that. Yeah. And, uh, this will be a video. Mechanism to create something like editorial for dose and for you guys like maybe the goop of the carnivore space if you will telling stories selling products and like Connecting with a wider audience.

Maybe somebody who's not ready to give up on their canola oil, [00:22:00] but it's still very curious You know, they're bi curious C oil and tallow Well, I think too it's it's not just merch with an amazing message I the way that I take it is like you know You want the merch to be really aesthetic that people just want to wear even regardless of the message, too.

It's almost like how Dose is solving for taste. It's like the merch is the same thing. It's just very aesthetic. Yeah, that comes from a place of like wanting to create beautiful things, right? Like, I just want to create beautiful things with you guys, with, with the brands that are on the client side, with our own brands.

Uh, I just think the world benefits from beauty, you know, and this is something like, I don't know the last time I wore a graphic tee until we made this and you know that was like in the design phase like What is going to lead to me wearing this actually? Because I want to wear something that i'm going to make and I created such a small run of it just to you know Figure out if people really dug it and thus far, you know, people really dig it.

So maybe we'll make some more Do you see a [00:23:00] good uptick of people like if you wear this shirt out in the wild people that are asking you what the Acronym means. Yes, definitely. And you know I was with some great Uh, successful dudes who are friends of mine who inspire me on Sunday, who are not in this space but are in, you know, the spaces of the future.

And I bring the hats, and everybody leaves with one of the hats and wears it out. It's cause it's a familiar and new thing, really. They grew up on D. A. R. E. We grew up on D. A. R. E. So they see that association with D. A. R. E. They put it on and they're like, you know, D. A. R. E. taught us about drugs that we had no idea.

Existed and instead of like Instead of curbing our appetite for drugs. They were like, what are these drugs, you know? and so hopefully sofa doesn't do that where it doesn't teach us about cedols that we don't know about it because I do think that There's a really quick easy association. It's like, you know that thing that made you feel like crap.

It's because of cedols So let's take that out and replace it with tallow or with butter or with ghee And that can be the you [00:24:00] know, that can be the the motivation the story Of this shirt, you know, I always think about Sorry to interrupt. I always think about when we're creating things, like, afterwards, when the curtain, you know, comes down and we're up there on stage, like, what do we want people to ask us about, of, about why we made that?

And for this shirt and for this movement, um, I, I think I, I, I'm confident I want people to ask me to just be like, you know, WTF, mate? Like, this is a, this is a, a crazy idea and Dare is gonna come for you and blah, blah, blah. And I'm just like. Well, we'll have fun until that happens, you know? Yeah. At all.

Good publicity. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's almost like you got like the three prongs, the content, um, and education piece, the physical product space, and then merchandise too. So, it's a, those are great three stools right there, man. But, dude, we're, um, super grateful not only to be friends with you, but some of our favorite episodes are sitting down with founders like you that really have the conviction and the balls to do something that [00:25:00] people have want to do.

Want this thing to exist or wish that it existed But maybe they don't have the charisma to do it themselves Like just the willingness to kind of put a lot of things on the line to will a product into existence And I think the world just needs more people like you with that mindset and just very appreciative to be friends with you and finally Have you on the podcast as well?

Yeah, and you guys check out them at the beginning of I think I bought a food truck on my YouTube. Oh, yeah. To see our acting debut. Yeah. It was so much fun. Yeah, it was great. I'm gonna get an IMDb page for that. Well, it wasn't SAG, so you won't have that. But we, I think that was, uh, November, late November, after Thanksgiving of 2023.

And I think I was telling you guys that the chips would launch December 13th at that time. So, today is May 29th, 2024. So, don't give up. Keep on. Everybody keep, keep on keeping on. Keep, keep, keep. Yeah, just keep going. Just keep going because eventually you will launch tall fried potato chips in two weeks.

Dude, lo launch [00:26:00] day is gonna be epic. Yeah. Yeah. We can't wait to support in our small y. Thank you for having me on, gentlemen. Dude. Appreciate you. Yeah, thank you. You heads buds. You got me? Yeah, you got me. Spit balling, . That such.