Todd Abrams is a very driven individual, with a high desire to succeed, a resilient work ethic and a passion for mentoring talent and building great teams through his own personal experiences.In the role as CEO of ICON Meals Todd oversees the direction of the company, delivers the strategy for growth and profitability and executes on this plan. Todd also manages the Sales and Marketing functions of the company, with a focus on building the ICON brand through a variety of marketing mediums and strategic partners.
Along with his tenured background in various Executive roles, Todd Abrams is an IFBB Pro Men’s Physique competitor (International Federation of Body Building) and competes among the best athletes in the world for this division. Not only has Mr. Abrams, been entrenched in this competitive landscape of healthy eating, diet and fitness industry for many years but he lives it daily and has a unique understanding of how the body works, “the science” and the various effects of food, diet, and training have on the overall performance and output for success in business at the highest levels.
Ray Care:
The Overcome and Conquer Show is presented by The Project. The Project is a full immersion, 75-hour experience designed for men who know in their core they are not living up to their fullest potential.
Ray Care:
Rather than waking up every morning ready to dominate life, the mediocre man rolls out of bed and slides into the same unfulfilling routine they’ve unhappily been in for way too long. The Project is for men that have lost their internal flame and motivation to conquer. It’s for men living an unfulfilling life that lacks excitement and purpose, sound familiar? Then listen up.
Ray Care:
The Project is specifically designed to challenge you mentally and physically. We push you to the ledge of self-limiting beliefs, and prove you’ve got much more in the tank. We kill the bitch and unleash the beast. We uncover the demons that hold you back, and turn extreme pain into superpowers to dominate life.
Ray Care:
In the end, we turn mediocre men into modern day knights. We forge a brotherhood and bond that levels you up as a better husband, father and friend, but The Project is not for every man. In fact, it’s not for most. For men who are okay with being in a rut and achieving less than their fullest potential, The Project isn’t for you.
Ray Care:
If you’re not willing to put in the work to fix what isn’t working, The Project isn’t for you. However, if you’re done white knuckling it through life, living one day at a time with no sense of purpose and are willing to do what it takes to improve, The Project holds the key to unlocking the next chapter.
Ray Care:
Graduates of The Project join a brotherhood of modern day knights and become the authors of their destiny. They had their fire reignited, and reclaimed dominance over their family, fitness, finances and faith. If this resonates with you and you want to learn more, we encourage you to apply today at www.mdkproject.com/ocshow.
Speaker 1:
Everybody wants to be on top of the game. The problem nowadays is, people want to get dropped off at the top of the hill in one day.
Speaker 2:
It’s that I overcome mindset, that makes all the difference.
Speaker 3:
See, the way we’re taught is, you’re given a call, you’re going to scratch. You’re going to bite, you’re going to dig, you’re going to do whatever it takes to get to the top of that mountain.
Speaker 2:
That unequivocally, is how I have managed to keep myself moving forward and finding success.
Speaker 3:
Two seals, one mission. The Overcome and Conquer Show.
Jason Redman:
Welcome back to the Overcome and Conquer Show. We are just crushing it. Dude, it’s like Hump Day, slaying camels every single day. That’s what’s happening out here.
Jason Redman:
Dude, I got to tell you, I have more people reaching out to me, trying to tell me it’s the end of the world. I didn’t believe it until this morning. This morning I had an end of the world moment. You know what happened?
Ray Care:
What happened?
Jason Redman:
Dude, I went into my pantry and the light had burned out. I got all the kids down there. There was a lot of crying and sorrow. I didn’t know what we were going to do, dude. I mean, the pantry light was burnt out.
Ray Care:
[inaudible 00:03:06].
Jason Redman:
How many Redmans does it take to change a light bulb? Fucking none, because you can’t get any light bulbs right now.
Ray Care:
That’s [inaudible 00:03:13].
Jason Redman:
Yeah.
Ray Care:
You should have told me, I would have pull out the snare trial.
Jason Redman:
It was surreal.
Ray Care:
On a serious note, I’m not going to lie to you man. I’ve been working at my… I call it my Dojoboom. I’m not going to say, because he’s the one here now, where I worked out at. I’ve been working out. Yesterday, I did 1,020 pushups in an hour. Again, I did one Wednesday with Mitch and I did it yesterday. What I did was you, you’ll love this, Jay.
Jason Redman:
Dude, I thought you were going to send me a reminder. I forgot about that.
Ray Care:
No, it was pathetic. I pulled out the old armor, not the new armor.
Jason Redman:
Your reminder was pathetic, that’s what was pathetic.
Ray Care:
It was, but I had 20 pounds in a body armor. I mean, we went back to like old days of… I busted the dust off the old stuff. I did 47 sets with a body armor on. That’s like I think 799 reps.
Ray Care:
Then I had to take it off and do the last 13 sets slick. It was pathetic. The point to that was, is with everything going on, you just got to constantly fight. That’s why I’m doing this. I’m doing this every couple of days, because eventually one or two things is going to happen.
Ray Care:
We’re either going to break as society, or we’re going to come together to get stronger. That’s why I’m doing it. Fuck you coronavirus. Yeah, so I’ve-
Jason Redman:
Yeah, baby, love it. I’ve been telling people the same thing, man. You got to be working out. You got to get it on. I mean, you know what’s really funny is… actually Dr. Gabrielle said this the other night. You’re seeing a lot of people that are saying, “Oh, well, I can’t work out at home and I can’t eat healthy.”
Jason Redman:
The reality is, is it you can’t or you won’t? The reality is, anybody can work out at home, man. There’re so many online workouts out there, how to work out with your body weight, you know?
Ray Care:
Yeah.
Jason Redman:
That’s merely a choice. You are choosing not to do it.
Ray Care:
Funny you say that, because our guest who we’re going to get into in a minute, has the solution… boom, to eating healthy. I’ll tell you what, because I can speak for myself, you and Ryan, the producer, as the man behind the curtain, we all are doing it.
Ray Care:
I’m getting better fucking shape than I’ve been in a long time. When the Olympics come back, I am going to enter for calisthenics, because I am the calisthenic king right now.
Jason Redman:
Calisthenics.
Ray Care:
I am doing the grinder PT, just like we did back in the old days and I love it man. I’m getting lighter, I’m getting leaner. I mean, the gentleman that we had the other day just said, “Hey Ray, send me some pictures, because you are so much more built and shredded than Mike O’Hearn. I want to post them all over my site.” I said-
Jason Redman:
That is [crosstalk 00:05:46].
Ray Care:
… “Okay.”
Jason Redman:
Dude, my Instagram thread has been inundated with statements like that. That Ray looks better than Michael O’Hearn.
Ray Care:
I know.
Jason Redman:
Kind of weird.
Ray Care:
He’s going to kill me.
Jason Redman:
I’m going to enter for great hair. I think that is a category in the Olympics. That’s what I’m going in for. This shit’s going to be out of control by the time we’re done with all this.
Ray Care:
I love it.
Jason Redman:
All right, man. Well listen, obviously everybody out there is in the middle of the corona craziness, Kung-Flu. The reality is though, man, this is merely another bump on the radar of life and we’re going to get through this. It’s going to be amazing. You guys need to stay on your path, moving that body.
Jason Redman:
You need to stay positive and you need to reset it man. We need to come together, so stoked. We’ve been getting some great feedback on the shows that we’ve had. People loved the Rob O’Neill show. Man, we had so much great feedback on that.
Jason Redman:
I know Robbie is out there. He’s still getting it on every day, just like we are. Anyways, that’s what’s going on. What else are you doing besides 1,000 push-ups? Cranking it out, [inaudible 00:06:51] Ryan, what are you doing bro?
Ryan Davidson:
Man, I went to BJ’s today. Everybody was wearing masks.
Jason Redman:
Like Halloween masks?
Ryan Davidson:
No, like the mask. It was crazy.
Jason Redman:
As it should be. I think this thing is still developing. Originally they’d said, “Hey, six feet apart. You’re reducing your chance of getting it.” Now they’re starting to think that it’s a little more [inaudible 00:07:16]. Hey, whatever it is, I think the bottom line is, if you follow the rules that are out there, we’re all going to be fine, man, so-
Ryan Davidson:
Yeah, I didn’t want to go. I’m staying at home most of the time. I mean, it’s pretty boring.
Jason Redman:
Yeah, us too. We got to plan a big grocery trip coming up, man. Having six people in my house, man, we’re going through some food [inaudible 00:07:35].
Ryan Davidson:
Yeah, you are.
Jason Redman:
I’m in heaven. I ordered a bunch of mirrors and I walk around all day looking at myself.
Ryan Davidson:
[inaudible 00:07:44].
Jason Redman:
Dude, I think you should have like 24-hour Ray “Cash” Care TV. Like it should be on. Like everywhere you go. You should show people how amazing you are when you go to the bathroom.
Ryan Davidson:
See that?
Jason Redman:
I’m telling you. I mean, we’re getting into some maybe gray areas, but even in the bedroom, bro. I’m just saying. I’m just saying, I think you could have a huge following here.
Ryan Davidson:
All right, I never thought I’d say this in my entire life, but I’ll tell you, you need to clean it up and let’s move on. Come on.
Jason Redman:
Hey man, I’m here to help. I’m here to help. All right guys. Well enough of that, man. Let’s get into the show. I’ll tell you what, what we’ve been talking about is how do you stay on track? How do you stay on course? What this show is about. How do you overcome and conquer every obstacle that is out there?
Jason Redman:
The guest we brought on the show is an amazing individual, because has overcome and conquered in so many areas of his life. Setting the example. He is going to provide you with some opportunities, so that you can stay on the path. Our guest is recognized as an individual and an entrepreneur.
Jason Redman:
He is a leader, strong problem solving abilities. He’s able to bring people together. He’s able to bring collaboration, which is a critical thing, especially when you’re an entrepreneur, when you’re trying to collaborate. He is an incredibly driven individual. He is recognized at the highest levels fitness.
Jason Redman:
He actually has won the Pro Men’s Physique Competitor for the International Federation of Bodybuilding. He is recognized around the world for his physique. He is a family man, he is a teammate.
Jason Redman:
He runs an amazing company. I’m not even going to get into that company yet. I’m actually going to have him tell you what that company is. I’ll tell you what, this company is a nationally recognized brand. It also… I’d be tipping my hat, if I said the other relationship we have with it.
Jason Redman:
Guys, he is recognized for nutrition, fitness or an overcome and conquer mindset. It is our honor to bring onto the Overcome and Conquer Show, Mr. Todd Abrams, CEO and Founder of ICON Meals. Welcome to the Overcome and Conquer Show.
Todd Abrams:
Awesome. I appreciate the introduction, Jay. Thanks for having me on guys. Love the playful banter before. Ray, I don’t know, I got some really weird images in my mind right now, that I probably need to go see therapy on after this. I-
Ray Care:
Yeah, you won’t be the first or the last. That’s all right, enjoy.
Jason Redman:
I saw Todd sign up for the Ray “Cash” TV live feed 24/7. I mean, he’s the first one on the list.
Todd Abrams:
I’m [crosstalk 00:10:26], definitely.
Jason Redman:
You could even sell individual feeds, Ray. Like the bathroom feed. [crosstalk 00:10:33].
Ray Care:
They might even be tied in, maybe up for grabs against Tiger King now. I don’t know.
Jason Redman:
Oh God. Oh my God. You’re so [inaudible 00:10:41].
Todd Abrams:
That-
Jason Redman:
Wow, that threw me off. [inaudible 00:10:44]. Todd and I have had a few run-ins. We’ve had the privilege of learning from each other. I learn a lot about nutrition. Todd and I reached out, I don’t know how long ago it was. Well, we met through [inaudible 00:10:58].
Jason Redman:
Todd is recognized worldwide for his fitness expertise, his relationship with Mike O’Hearn and all these amazing athletes. I actually had the privilege of training Todd twice. We did that in California and then we did it up in Venice. I will tell you, the first time, it was a rough start.
Jason Redman:
The second time… this is what I love about Todd, and this is what I love about the word of the day, what we’ll get into. Is he came back to work, because the second time that I PT-ed these guys, we did a little COPT on the beach, if you know what I mean.
Jason Redman:
With HPLT, with Brian Mason and the crew. I mean, Jay, it was hell week for about 2.5 hours. I mean, I threw it all at him. Todd just… he just kept asking for more, some way to come back. As I-
Ray Care:
He was delivering a, “Thank you sir. May I have another?”
Jason Redman:
Yeah, so my point to this is, when you’re making your jokes, make sure you understand, Mr. Abrams there’s going to be around three.
Todd Abrams:
No way.
Ray Care:
Don’t make me put that thinking cap on. I was trying to get big Mike O’Hearn out, but him and [inaudible 00:12:07], but they wouldn’t come out. That’s okay. They’re good at what they do. They’re the best in the biz.
Todd Abrams:
Those boys would be some big boys, big seals on the beach, so-
Ray Care:
They would, man. That’s more like big giant… just killer whales. I mean, and they’re shredded to the bit. I don’t know what else. They’re just so massive.
Todd Abrams:
Tigers.
Ray Care:
They are. Dude, [inaudible 00:12:26] arms are ridonculous, man. His arms are bigger [crosstalk 00:12:29].
Todd Abrams:
He has small children in those arms though.
Ray Care:
Yeah, no kidding.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Ray Care:
I walked up to him in LA and just flexed on him. He was like, what the fuck? I was like, “Hey.” He was like, “You must speak Cash.” I was like, “That’s me.”
Todd Abrams:
Love it.
Ray Care:
Well dude, we are honored, Todd to have you on.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Ray Care:
Right now I can’t think of a better time than… I mean, even for us. I mean, we are first off… I mean, for those who don’t know yet, obviously we released it on the last episode, but ICON Meals is now the midrail sponsor for the Overcome and Conquer Show. We want to say thank you for that obviously.
Todd Abrams:
Yes.
Ray Care:
We want people to know, man, that ICON Meals is an amazing solution. Right now in this crazy crisis, people are afraid to go shopping. People don’t know what to eat. There is a lot of people that are stressed eating, they’re chowing down on carbs. I mean, I’ll be honest, man. There are going to be people that come out of this crisis-
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Ray Care:
You’re going to see them after not having seen them for six weeks, couple of months and you’re going to be like, “Holy shit. Did you eat your couch?”
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Ray Care:
I mean, that’s the reality. Guys, here is a perfect solution, in ICON Meals. Todd, tell us about what you guys are doing with ICON before we get into it.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Ray Care:
I just think people need to know.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah, I believe. First off, I think 100%, we’re just glad to be in a position [inaudible 00:13:51] blessed to have the company that we have and to be able to provide value, and try to make an impact right now with everything going on. Right.
Todd Abrams:
From that standpoint, we’ve upped our supply chain. We’ve sort of secured more logistics and things, because yeah, we’ve seen a huge spike, especially over the past two weeks. Production volume has gone up by one to two times our daily volume.
Todd Abrams:
That just speaks to, I think a lot of people at the start were… with the stockpiling and everything going on. As you said, a lot of people I think were in their comfort zone for so long and were going to be doing what they were doing. Maybe they thought that meal prep and preparing and stuff was sort of an inconvenience or whatever and not a necessity.
Todd Abrams:
Then all of a sudden it hits, they realize that it’s only one of a few options left. I think it’s… you see all the Uber’s and everything doing all the home deliveries and things right now. I think the big thing with us is really about what we’ve done in the past speaking volumes to where we are in the situation today.
Todd Abrams:
What I mean by that, Jason is really, we can make a lot of choices. We had this company ICON Meals for almost for four to five years now. A lot of the things that we did way back, were things that cost us a lot more money. They are things that I was questioning why we did, because we could make X doing this.
Todd Abrams:
It was where we didn’t cut any corners. Where a [inaudible 00:15:11] inspected the facility, means we have an inspector that lives with us inside. We have her for three and a half years, but it’s not the easiest. It’s like having an IRS agent or like your TSA, where they’re in your shit every day.
Todd Abrams:
They’re making sure that everything is what it’s supposed to be, from temperature testing, from packaging to ingredients statements, to cooking to this and that. You’ve got all the different things, from listeria and pathogen testing going into it on a daily basis, actually in different labs.
Todd Abrams:
My point of telling you this and the audience is, it’s not apples to apples. There’re so many people in this industry, that have come into this industry in the meal prep over the last… I’ll call it a couple of years. Man, if I knew four years ago what I know now, I wouldn’t be in this industry.
Todd Abrams:
It’s not the easiest business. My point of stating that is basically, all the things that we’ve done and put in place on the safety measures, on the quality assurance, on the packaging, for those that haven’t seen our packaging, we use something that’s called a vacuum seal. It’s a Cryovac technology that basically removes oxygen from the packaging.
Todd Abrams:
In today’s environment, that’s one of your safest options. Having food delivered to your home, but having something that is sealed where there’s no pathogens, it’s tamper-proof. Until you remove the actual seal and no oxygen can get back in the meal, well, what does that mean? Coronavirus can’t get in that meal and no virus can get into that meal.
Todd Abrams:
It’s actually interesting. We were on a call yesterday with a large, large, large… one of the largest cancer companies… providers that provides medicine and to doctors, and to surgeon and surgery rooms and all this.
Todd Abrams:
They came to us, and the only reason they came to us is because of watching our videos on our safety, on our HACCP, on our quality control and our inspection. The ability to have individually delivered meals to these doctors in the hospitals, that only that doctor or that nurse or that practitioner would actually open the seal themselves. That’s the key thing.
Todd Abrams:
Before this company was going in, they had a daily budget for food allocation and stuff to all these doctors and all these first responders. All of a sudden, none of these guys… it doesn’t meet the actual legalities of what they’re doing now. The doctors don’t want it.
Todd Abrams:
From ours, we actually just got passed by compliance that they can use our meals in these facilities. They actually remove the seal themselves. It’s only them touching it. You have all that social distancing and everything else. Again, that played a key part.
Todd Abrams:
Going back, looking at what we’ve done over the past few years, I think is really key now. Also, just from a safety concern, man, like even my wife not walking in grocery stores. Like you said, you got a family six, I got a family of five.
Todd Abrams:
My 20-year-old and stuff is home. They’re crushing it right now. It’s just much more convenient to have options that I know were either brought home or we’re delivered to your home or something.
Todd Abrams:
That I feel safe with my family, and other people can conveniently get… tear open themselves, but not have to worry about, “Hey, who touched that food before? What happened in that food before? Et cetera. Who was that driver that delivered my food before?”
Todd Abrams:
When FedEx delivers that food, it’s an isolated perishable food container, sealed, every single meal inside that container is sealed. Again, I think many of the measures that we’ve been working on for the past four or five years really came to fruition, and came to light now under this crisis.
Ray Care:
Todd, I didn’t mean to cut you off, Jay. Something that I just want to add on to here, because this is one of the main questions I had for you when I was looking… because there are a lot of different companies that do the same thing that you do.
Ray Care:
I did my research. In my eyes, you take the most precaution to limit out any of the contributing factors that could cause harm and there is a million of them. The question I had and what I think a lot of people don’t know about is like, I remember when I first talked to you, I tried Factor 75 or something before.
Ray Care:
I didn’t like the food, no dig on them. They didn’t give me the information that I needed. Like, I’ll give you an example. I thought that when the food came, I had to eat it immediately. Then you told me… and what I want you to tell the audience is, especially with what’s going on, is the duration if it’s frozen and you keep it frozen and/or like me.
Ray Care:
What I do is, you know me, I have freezers full of it. Then I pull a couple out for a couple of days. Can you tell the audience how long the freshness and the duration is, whether it’s thawed or unthawed.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah, so just for clarification, we have 32,000 square foot facility that we operate out of. In this 32,000 square foot facility, believe it or not, we don’t have one freezer. Okay, so there’s not a freezer. Nothing goes out frozen from us. Everything goes fresh, right?
Ray Care:
Yeah.
Todd Abrams:
One of the key things as well as with any meal company, if you’re under inspection, it’s a cycle of how the food comes into your kitchen, how it’s prepped, how it’s cooked. Then how it goes to cool before it’s plated, before it’s sealed.
Todd Abrams:
Many other facilities actually plate food in a warm environment, which is totally counterproductive, because you’ve cooled food down. You’ve brought the temperatures back up, it’s plated. Then it’s gone back here to cool it. If you’re walking in our facility, you walk through one way.
Todd Abrams:
There’s one door in, you go through a series of sequence to come out of the other door. Food for us, under the Cryovac, under the vacuum-seal technology has 12 days shelf life. All self studies that we did with the actual lab, all the meals came back between 12 to 21 days, that’s fresh.
Todd Abrams:
That means you get your meals from us, you put them in the refrigerator, they’re fresh. We put an expiration date or a best buy date of 12 days from the date they’re cooked. If you choose to freeze them like you do and many people do, I do as well, put them in the freezer. You will get six to eight months plus shelf life.
Todd Abrams:
Under what’s going on today, that’s what I’d recommend people doing. The average consumer with us typically buys online 24 meals. That’s typically going to be one week fresh. Most people maybe five to seven meals a day in that range. They put their breakfast, et cetera.
Todd Abrams:
What we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, is many people buying many items that are called favorites or whatever that they might choose. We’re telling people, “Put them in your freezer. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen.” We don’t have the shortages on beef right now.
Todd Abrams:
With us, we don’t have the shortages on anything. From a supply chain, looking at it, we’re still adequate. Again, taking those measures and putting them in the freezer. Again, six to eight months. We’ve had… even before this, many, many people do that. We have people that travel overseas.
Todd Abrams:
What do they do? They freeze the meals, they put them in a box and they checked them as luggage. You come into Mike O’Hearn, when he went to Italy and stuff. 84 meals, they come down the turnstile and he’s got meals for two weeks. Again, on that, I think that’s much better.
Todd Abrams:
If you look at some of the other companies… and we used to do this, you get a clamshell container, you got three days, three to five days maximum shelf life. You can’t freeze the meals, because they’d be full of freezer burn. You lose all the ingredients and the taste and everything.
Todd Abrams:
From that standpoint, yeah. With the technology that we put in place, my question for any meal company would be… I don’t know if you’re in the meal business, you should be using a Cryovac machine or some sort of modified atmospheric pressure, so-
Jason Redman:
God, I think… man, I just listened to all this. I know that there is a ton of people out there right now, and their ears are all perked up. I guarantee they’re like, “Holy smokes, man, this is what I need.” What I’m hearing as you talk about this, leads us right back into the word of the day.
Jason Redman:
I think it’s fantastic. We asked you what your word was and you said, “My word is relentless.” It sounds like you guys have done such an amazing job, being relentless with your quality controls, with your safety parameters.
Jason Redman:
Obviously you’re relentless with the standards that you set for your company, to be able to provide this high quality food, but in safe packaging. Which now more than ever-
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Jason Redman:
… people are looking at. The word for the day is relentless. Captain Care, would you give us the definition and then, Todd what we’ll have you do-
Ray Care:
Sure.
Jason Redman:
… is tell us your thoughts on that, related to your life in your company.
Speaker 5:
Sure. The word of the day is relentless. Relentless is unyieldingly severe, strict or harsh. Which I think falls into exactly your parameters of what you do. With not only your business, but life, Todd. Can you go ahead and give your definition of the word relentless?
Todd Abrams:
Sure, yeah. For me, relentless means never quit. I don’t have quit in me. It’s, keeps going. Never quit. Never gives up. That’s in any aspect of anywhere in my life. It’s never been easy for me. Nothing has been easy. The fitness part of it, it’s never been easy. We go way back. My nickname in high school and growing up was lumpy.
Todd Abrams:
I wasn’t the fit guy. Guys, so nothing’s ever been easy. On the relentless side, it’s been with me for a long time. That anyone asks me, “Hey, what’s your word?” That’s my first thing that comes to my mind. I just don’t have quit. It’s something that I instill in my kids as well. Anything they start, they’re going to keep going.
Todd Abrams:
There’s no, “Hey,” easy way out. From that aspect, it’s something that again, I think plays into the entrepreneurial side of where it involves risk. People will be like, I’ve never had a job. I’ve always had my own, and that’s taken a lot of risks from day one. Again, I think it plays into even the mindset of many people.
Todd Abrams:
Many of our listeners today with the mindset of, “Holy shit, I’ve lost my job. Or I’m at work right now.” I’m six weeks or I’m four weeks, where people have been… like all in Dallas, everything’s shut down. You’re quarantined, you’re home. From that standpoint, you got to have the mindset. It’s the mindset that’s going to get you through.
Todd Abrams:
Jay or Care was talking about this. It’s not only what we’re doing in my business, I feel blessed, because we can provide value and impact people that are in this position right now. Again, to get through this thing that we’re in, it all goes back to, you have to be relentless.
Todd Abrams:
You’ve got to… on your show, you got to conquer. You’ve got to conquer your mind, because your mind is going to carry you through. Then with the people that you’re with in your home, my four other people, I have to have that vision.
Todd Abrams:
If I’m there sitting in stern and talking negative shit, what’s going to transpire to everyone else in there? It’s my business as well. I got 80-whatever for employees. If I’m talking, “Holy shit, man, I don’t want to get it, this and that.”
Todd Abrams:
What’s going to transpire to everything through…? It’s me as that leader. I have to be relentless. I have to have that clear vision and that’s going to portray. That’s what I’m looking for when I go to build any team.
Jason Redman:
I love it. I love it.
Ray Care:
Yeah, awesome.
Jason Redman:
Todd, I have a question. Let’s take away the huge business. Let’s take away the family right now.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Jason Redman:
All right, let’s rewind. Let’s go back, because you said… was it lumpy or chunk? Whatever it was.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah, lumpy.
Jason Redman:
What I want to know is… and what the audience wants to know is, what made you this person? This just didn’t happen overnight. You didn’t just wake up and go, “Shit, I’m going to make a multimillion dollar business, and be on the cover of multiple magazines and be the godfather of Michael O’Hearn’s kids.” I mean, what made you the man that you are today?
Todd Abrams:
I think way back, I was… loved sports and stuff. I grew up playing junior hockey, grew up in Canada. It wasn’t the football and stuff that we have in Texas today. It was hockey, lacrosse and pretty much everything else and partying. Drank a shit load of beer and stuff as a kid and blah, blah, blah.
Todd Abrams:
That’s pretty much how I lived my teens. I pushed the envelope and I think fitness was always a piece of me. Sure, I was in the gym and we threw around the weight and stuff. Again, I knew nothing about… I’ll call it being intentional on my diet and being intentional.
Todd Abrams:
I was just going through the exercises, different things. We’d go to the gym and then we’d drink a 12-pack. That was pretty much because I didn’t know any better. Then growing up… I guess when I was 18, something like that, 18, I had a real severe case of mono. When you say mono people think, “Whatever, hey.” Like today, a virus.
Todd Abrams:
I got my ass kicked basically, even two days. I was put in an intensive care. They almost did a tracheotomy on me. I was in intensive care, with only one person allowed to be in there. I was in the hospital for I think almost 40 days.
Todd Abrams:
I came out weighting almost 40 pounds lighter. I went in weighing like 250 something. I came out just over 200 pounds. The amount of muscle mass and everything that I had lost was a total change. Then from that aspect of… I’ll call it a life occurrence happening.
Todd Abrams:
That was when really, I never went back to being lumpy. Sure, I was supposed to go to school and play hockey. Then after that happened, I couldn’t just because of… I still went to school, but because all the muscle loss, I lost different things.
Todd Abrams:
I never played junior hockey up there. Again, that was a turning point for me. Going from lumpy to, hey, not overnight the fitness guy, but starting to take nutrition and different elements of… I’ll call it life, a lot different.
Ray Care:
I love it. What’s funny is, Jay actually had mono in the seal teams too. It was called Ranger School, where he lost 40 pounds, but-
Jason Redman:
Believe it or not, I actually had mono in bootcamp.
Ray Care:
I had it [crosstalk 00:28:04].
Jason Redman:
I wasn’t kissing my bunk mate. Somehow I got it, man. Dude, I lost a ton of weight in bootcamp.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Jason Redman:
I probably lost more in bootcamp than I did at Ranger School.
Ray Care:
High school, lacrosse for me. Senior year, I had it.
Todd Abrams:
There you go.
Ray Care:
My coach thought I was on drugs, because I was tired and I couldn’t figure it out, yeah.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah, and I don’t remember anything. In the hospital, I remember two things, Demerol and morphine, and that was freaking-
Jason Redman:
Wow.
Todd Abrams:
That was bad. It was pretty, pretty bad. It was crazy, but I don’t remember too much of it. Just see some crazy pictures, so-
Jason Redman:
Wow, so what led you down this road, man?
Todd Abrams:
Yaeh.
Jason Redman:
I mean, obviously it kind of started the path of fitness for you.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Jason Redman:
Being a little more… how did you word that? It was great. Being a little more intentional.
Todd Abrams:
Intentional, yeah.
Jason Redman:
Yeah, with your diet and your fitness.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Jason Redman:
When did you start to think to yourself…? How long was it before you were like, “Man, I really like doing this. I really like the nutrition. I like giving advice.” You started getting into the professional world of this arena.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah, so people think, Jason a lot of times like… I know Ray knows this better than anyone. It’s anytime you see a drastic change and someone hasn’t seen you in a while. They’re like, “Oh, steroids, drugs, this and that.” I say… that’s a key point what you’ve said, because I was 18 when I got that mono.
Todd Abrams:
Really from 18 to almost 30, I was still just… I’ll call it skinny fat. That’s the guy that just said, “Whatever.” Relaxed, enjoying life, still enjoys drinks, not hot on a diet. I’m still hitting the gym, but it’s not the kind of focus, clarity and intention that really got me.
Todd Abrams:
I got my pro card in the IFBB at I think 36. For me, I still remember the date. It was like, 32 or 33 years old. It was in a New Year’s Eve. I told my wife… we were all drinking and partying. I had still two kids at this time. We’re at a Breckenridge new resort. I said, “Hey, I’m going to do a men’s physique competition.”
Todd Abrams:
This was just when it started there and she was like, “What are you fucking talking about?” Like, “What’s going on?” It was at that point basically, I started really trying to understand more about diet. Was in the gym hitting harder. Literally in those two years for me, going 32 to 33, I went and did my first men’s physique competition.
Todd Abrams:
If I showed you those pictures, I was probably 190 pounds, but rip to the bone and something triggered where I enjoyed it. I didn’t do well. I placed like whatever 8th or 10th. Came back, did another show, ended up winning the next show. From there I went to nationals in Pittsburgh. I got my pro card.
Todd Abrams:
When I got my pro card, I was like, “Holy shit, this is where this is.” The difference between me and then what I was seeing on stage and stuff. That was really when… I’ll say like 35, so I’m 45 now. Basically for a 10 year, 12-year period, it’s the first time, Jason, that I really took it seriously.
Todd Abrams:
In that 12 years, I fast tracked the reason, because I became so focused. I think this is key for people in life, not just bodybuilding or fitness. I became focused. I became clear on what I wanted, with intention behind it.
Todd Abrams:
I say that, because I think so many people… especially people now, they’re really vague. When you’re vague, it allows uncomfort and then it allows excuses to come in and pull you off what those goals are, what that target is. When I became focused and dialed in, I’m like that freaking pit bull that’s that relentless.
Todd Abrams:
I’m just going to keep going, keep going, keep going. When I made up my mind, it doesn’t matter what food, et cetera, you put in front of me, that’s what I want. Again, I think those are the three pieces that really helped me to move forward into this. Then being able to see the changes… I mean, not happen overnight.
Todd Abrams:
I want to be able to impact other people, because I know what I felt like before. I know along the way, obesity is like rapid. Obesity is huge in our society and just overall health. I’m not here trying to knock you and be the biggest guy in the world or anything. I just want… for me, it’s been longevity.
Todd Abrams:
I want to be there for my kids in the long term. I want to still be working it when I’m 80, 90 years old and I want to see my grandkids and stuff. For me, it’s all been health and longevity. That’s again, like Mike O’Hearn preaches that. Again, me and Mike are great friends and stuff, but it’s not all what people think.
Todd Abrams:
Like people always say, “Hey,” steroids with Mike and stuff. Perception is not always reality, because people don’t understand. The uneducated mind, like just why do we have people even freaking out so much today in here? Because they’re uneducated.
Todd Abrams:
They don’t know. It goes back to that, that risk element and stuff. Again, that’s sort of… so long explanation for that. Basically, the past 10 to 12 is really when my passion and everything else sort of lit up in that arena.
Ray Care:
I love it. Hey Todd, so I’m a couple of years older than you. What I love about you is, it seems like the older you get-
Todd Abrams:
The better, yeah.
Ray Care:
… the better you get. Or like a fine wine.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Ray Care:
Jason, all of us, I mean, we’re all on that same sheet of music. What advice would you give…? Because here’s the thing, I used to always just try to give advice to kids. Like kids that want to be seals, kids that want to do this.
Ray Care:
Now, like especially with you, what would you give men? Older men, what advice would you give them if they want to start getting into bodybuilding, being more fit, being more intentional with things? What advice would you give them? Because you’re a plethora of knowledge. I’m 48. Tell me what I need to do to look like you.
Todd Abrams:
Huh? Well, you already know the key things, Ray. You do the main things. Like anyone, I say first off, a lot of people… and for me, I’ve got another… like I’ll call it passion project, but dad-bond stuff. People are always talking about, “Hey, the dad bond and this and that, the beer belly and stuff”
Todd Abrams:
That pisses me off, because it’s like for me, I have a responsibility and accountability to my kids to be the best version of me I could be in all aspects. That includes physical. I don’t be the fat guy, the 300 pound guy going into my kids’ school and stuff. He’s not happy with me and I embarrass him and stuff.
Todd Abrams:
I want to be the kid freaking kicking my son’s ass, I love it. Going to the gym with my son, right now in our garage, squat and seeing him trying to squat and doing 400 pounds. Or benching or deadlifting or doing whatever. That drive that I’ve had and he’s grown up seeing me have, that he wants to do it on himself now.
Todd Abrams:
At some point, I can’t take my head and put it on his body. I’ve tried to be the best teacher and the best parent and the best leader I can be, to help, an example I can be for him. When I see that fire up in him now, I fucking love it. Like it’s awesome.
Todd Abrams:
The key thing for older man… a lot of people say, “Hey, can you help me? Can you coach me?” Well, but they have in their mind ingrained, they want the fucking magic pill. They want that pill.
Ray Care:
Yeah.
Todd Abrams:
It’s not that pill. I say, the first thing that anyone needs to understand, is you need to go to a doctor. I say, “Get your lab work done.” What I mean lab work, it’s not just for, hey, you’re going to get all this fun stuff that’s going to magically make you freaking turn into this unicorn or stallion, whatever, okay?
Ray Care:
Yeah.
Todd Abrams:
I wrote an article way back. It’s about, you don’t understand anything until you understand what’s in your blood. You have to get your blood work done, because someone can tell you, “Hey, you can go eat this and that and look like Mike O’Hearn,” but you’re not going to. You could go on Mike’s diet, but you’re not going to get Mike’s results.
Todd Abrams:
You have to understand what’s going on internally to you first. I just did something. I’m freaking 45, but I didn’t know that I was allergic to three things that I absolutely love. I didn’t understand that I potentially have GI issues in my gut. They were causing the inflammation and stuff.
Todd Abrams:
This freaking lady told me that, guess what? My number one thing in the world probably to eat alone, is damn freaking peanut butter. She said, “Guess what? You’ve got a slight allergy to peanut butter, that’s probably causing you something.”
Todd Abrams:
I’m like, “Holy shit. Well, I’ve eaten 45 years of peanut butter.” There’s different things, but you have to understand perfectly, what is in your blood? Like, is there thyroid things going on? Is there kidney things?
Todd Abrams:
Is there liver things? Is there this or that? Because they’re all intertwined. Then once you have that back, let’s look at… okay, fact statement. Any male that is 35, 40, 45 depending on where you are, you have to look at your different levels, your hormone levels. Your tests, your growth, your other things.
Todd Abrams:
When I say test, it’s not, hey, to be some big bodybuilder, any guy should be having a higher testosterone level. You go to the normal doctor and you say… the doctor going to tell you, “Hey, you’re great.” Or a general practitioner, “You’re 200 to 300.” Bullshit, right?
Ray Care:
Yeah.
Todd Abrams:
An optimal level is probably [inaudible 00:36:24] 700 or 700-1000. People are going to argue, I’m not going to argue, whatever. I feel damn good, when my test level is about 700 plus. To me, it’s not about, hey, going and being stronger and stuff. Sure, that’s going to help, but it’s mental for me.
Todd Abrams:
It’s feeling of balance and it’s a feeling of clarity. It’s a feeling of me being able to optimally perform where I should be performing, but based on knowing what’s going on inside my body. That’s the other thing. Again, I’ll just call it biohacking, but hacking your damn body. Anyone that’s not trying to do that, I say, “Get pissed off at me, but you’re a fool.”
Todd Abrams:
I want to live longer. I want to have longevity, I want to be able to be the best version of me. If I’m not taking advantage of any biohacking that’s available to me, that’s just things going on in my body that I can do to optimize my body, then to me, it’s dumb. Understand what’s in your blood.
Todd Abrams:
Go to not just the general practitioner, but go to a hormone doctor that understands everything. Then looking at… I say, a lot of guys and older people, men and females, I find have been to the traditional doctor and are taking a bunch of freaking over-the-counter bullshit medication, that they don’t necessarily need to be on a lot of the time.
Todd Abrams:
Again, we’ve found a lot of that. I’d say, “Go look at what your natural paths are. A lot of that can be fixed with just what you eat in your diet. Once you have your lab work and stuff, you can work on your diet and then look at your exercise routine.” A lot of people say, “Yeah, you go to the gym.” I say, “Okay.”
Todd Abrams:
Here’s what I love, Ray. I love this about you. When we train, you’re going to freaking die before you’re going to leave the gym. That’s the same with me. I see there is a parallel to the gym and life for me. There’s always been this, Jason and Ray. To me, my gym time is my time. It’s my therapy.
Todd Abrams:
I wake up early, like 3:30 in the morning, in the gym. Out of there by 4:30, not selfish. Before everyone else, that’s my time. Then I do my other stuff before other people get up. In that gym, if I have a business partner or anyone that wants to do business, a joint venture, whatever, I say, “Let’s go train.”
Todd Abrams:
All of a sudden, as soon as I ask them to train, half the people, they’re like, “Oh man, 10 years ago I used to do this, or I used to do that.” Or “Hey, I have this arm injury.” I’m already here, and fucking excuses. Guess what? In the gym, I’m going to get fucking excuses.
Todd Abrams:
That then correlates to how those individuals for me, are work in business, are going to deliver, are going to just do different things. To me, that’s a direct correlation. The reason I tell you guys that, is because it’s parallel. If I’m working out at the gym and I want to be the best version of me, am I really kicking my ass?
Todd Abrams:
Am I doing the reps? Am I putting in more weight? Or am I just going through the motions to say, “Hey, I went to the gym today?” All these people that are doing cardio and stuff, and they’re talking on their cell phones or having conversations, I say, “You’re not doing anything. Get off the fucking machine.”
Todd Abrams:
You’re not doing anything to better yourself. You’re just going through the motions, because you’re validating these bullshit excuses in your mind, that it’s doing something for you. I think that’s a lot of the things. A lot of it goes back to what we talked about earlier, was mindset, right?
Ray Care:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Todd Abrams:
You have to be strong in the mind, and you have to have that focus, that clarity. Be intentional in every aspect of what you’re doing, to be a better version of you,
Ray Care:
Man, no, that’s all spot on, Todd. I mean, awesome. Well listen, before we get into the next question, we’re going to take a break, because we want to… obviously, the Overcome and Conquer Show has some amazing sponsors.
Ray Care:
Todd, you may have heard of our midrail sponsor. They’re an amazing nutrition company by the name of Icon Solutions. We’re going to take a real quick break. We’re going to do our midrail and we will be right back.
Ray Care:
Hey guys, this is Ray from the Overcome and Conquer Show. We are proud to announce that ICON Meals is our midrail sponsor. ICON is an industry leader in Cryovac meal technology. What does that mean guys? You are going to get the freshest meals delivered to you, next day service. Another key factor of why I love ICON Meals is they have two menus, guys.
Ray Care:
They have the signature menu and the custom meal. If you’re like me and you need more protein or less carbs, and you’re on the go and fitness is your life, you can make a customizable meal and/or if you’re just looking for the standard, healthy meal choice you can. Everything is organized for you.
Ray Care:
Ladies and gentlemen, ICON Meals has taken all the work out of it. All you have to do is put in what you want and they will provide what you need. It doesn’t end there. They also offer popcorn, seasonings, coffee, cookies, crispbread and gift cards. Guys, check them at www.iconmeals.com.
Jason Redman:
Todd, before the break, you made a statement about focused workout. I think you went deep into that. I would just love for you to tell people… and this doesn’t have to be a really long answer.
Jason Redman:
Todd Abrams, when you go to the gym, how long typically you’re in the gym, how much time do you devote to cardio? Are you tracking every meal macro that goes into your body? I mean, how are you producing…? Obviously we talked about understanding your body. That’s the most critical thing.
Jason Redman:
Obviously, everybody has a different variation of macros that works for them. How are you making that balance between weight training, the cardio you need, what level of cardio and then those macros?
Todd Abrams:
Yeah, I think it goes back to… I’ll call it, you have a bunch of resources. They’re all tools in your toolbelt or arrows in your quiver. You pull different resources, or you use different tools to get different results. For me, I’m not the guy that’s going to be… and this is where me and Mike O’Hearn differ.
Todd Abrams:
If we go with Mike O’Hearn in your two or three-hour workout, then you’re going to methodically go through things that break down your central nervous system. Really, for me though, I’m training by myself or with someone here. It’s going to be 45 to 60 minutes. We’re quick, we’re supersets, drop sets.
Todd Abrams:
Me and Ray have trained with [inaudible 00:42:11] a couple of times. It’s a quick workout. Again, it’s an intense workout. The cardio, I don’t do cardio every day, Jason. I think a lot of people feel that cardio is the tool that’s going to get them the results, and it’s not.
Todd Abrams:
It’s not necessarily. Look, if you understand nutrition and you understand your diet, you’re either three things. This is for all your listeners, and it should be real simple. You’re either in a calorie surplus, you’re maintaining, or you’re in a calorie deficit. If you want to gain weight, guess what? You got to be a calorie surplus.
Todd Abrams:
If you just want to maintain where you are, you need to eat those calories. If you’re in a calorie deficit, you’re going to be losing weight, but so many people think… they’ll say “This is the back burner or it’s the cardio.” They try to overdo cardio, but then they’re eating in a calorie surplus.
Todd Abrams:
If I’m going to go into doing a show or have a photo shoot or something coming up, or have one or have one of Ray “Cash” Care’s Navy Seal bikini workouts, then I want to look real good for it.
Ray Care:
Yes.
Todd Abrams:
I need to add some cardio in. Again, for me, all that cardio is doing, Jay is putting me in a calorie deficit where I’m going to lose fat. For me, I’m going to do it strategically. I don’t want to get into the discussion of, “Hey, fasted cardio does whatever.” What works for me is, yes, I do fasted cardio.
Todd Abrams:
Typically, I don’t eat before I work out as well. It’s a big difference between me and Mike and we could argue night and day. My body, how I like it to react and I feel better, I train fasted as well. From that standpoint, I’m going to do fasted cardio.
Todd Abrams:
If I’m going to train and have to do cardio later, I will do it right after. Why? Because I’ve got my up. Everything that I’m going to hopefully burn that… use that [inaudible 00:43:48] fat as energy, stored energy, as an energy output. That’s my cardio. My diet is pretty much… the biggest thing over those 10 years is delving into my diet and learn every day as well.
Todd Abrams:
You’d say, “Hey, do you count 100% of your macros?” If I’m going to do a show or a shoot, I will count my macros through My Fitness Pal and stuff. I’ve been doing this long enough now for me, that I don’t necessarily need to count every macro. The big thing for me is, I know how my body responds and this was going back to getting your blood work done.
Todd Abrams:
I know that my body doesn’t process fats as efficiently, as different other sources burns you. I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t gotten my blood [inaudible 00:44:28] and my genes and all this done. For me, I wouldn’t react well to a pure keto diet.
Todd Abrams:
For me, I know where I need to be if that’s… my main thing that I control is, I try to get minimum in for me, 250 to 300 grams of protein per day. That’s just what I need. That’s typically going to be 1.25 times or one and a half grams of protein [crosstalk 00:44:50].
Jason Redman:
What’s your [inaudible 00:44:50] right now, Todd?
Todd Abrams:
Yeah, I probably weigh about 225 right now.
Jason Redman:
Okay.
Todd Abrams:
It’s in that range and that’s what works for me. The first thing I tell anyone, is if you want to start leaning down… most people and especially men that I work with, I find under eat on protein or they believe they’re eating more protein. As soon as you start to add clean sources of protein in on a higher level of more grams per day, you will see your body lean down.
Todd Abrams:
For me carbs, my maximum, like on a high carb day for me is probably only 200 to 250 grams. Typically, I’m only eating probably 150 grams of carbs or less per day. I strategically put those around my workouts. That’s what works for me. If I overeat on curbs, I feel lethargic. I feel tired and different things.
Todd Abrams:
Not getting to the long answer, I just know what works for me. It’s a higher protein, moderate to low carb, with moderate fat. If I’m eating let’s say 3000 calories or less per day, my fat’s going to be under 100 grams, typically probably 90 grams of fat, split over 6 meals or whatever.
Todd Abrams:
I’m just guesstimating, Jason, but I know. I know what [inaudible 00:45:56]. I know what’s ticking. I’m pretty as… well, I call it boring. I pretty much eat the same damn meal. A lot of people say, “Hey…” they all the time say, “Hey, and your ICON Meal is working.”
Todd Abrams:
I’m like, “Well fuck, that’s all I’ve eaten for basically five years.” I typically… a minimum of three ICON Meals a day, but probably three to five per day. Again, I know I’m boring. I’m a chicken or steak guy and vegetables, so-
Ray Care:
Do you get a discount on the meals?
Todd Abrams:
No, but I know someone who does, so-
Ray Care:
All right, I have a question for you and I love this. I call you and pick your brain on fitness all the time. From what I know of you, Todd, you are a focused, driven individual. The question I have for you is, it’s a two-part question.
Ray Care:
What are your current goals, ready? Here’s the big one< and where do you see yourself and ICON Meals in five years? Yeah, that’s what I want to know. Where is the vision going?
Todd Abrams:
Sure.
Ray Care:
Where are you going?
Todd Abrams:
Yeah, so for goals for… I guess if you want to say goals for me and ICON Meals, ICON Meals is really to be able to… so I’d say we’ve just got into this facility. Four years we’re operating in a 12,000 square foot facility. Just this past year, we got into this 32,000. I said, “Hey, this is version 2.0 or the next evolution.”
Todd Abrams:
We have the space, we have the room to grow. We are adding to our team. We just added a big food scientist/formulation guy. From that standpoint, really being able to build a larger footprint and impact more people on what we do.
Todd Abrams:
I say that, because I believe that we have a tool that can impact people, that can change your life, but also a convenient solution. How will this morph five years from now? I see us growing, like we’re only in US right now, right?
Ray Care:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Todd Abrams:
Growing to have a global footprint, but also, I think we’re constantly working on packaging. We’re constantly working on how we can do different things with meal formulation. How we can use food as actual medicine. What does that look like? We work with some organizations that have been testing keto and stuff with actual cancer patients, diabetics and stuff.
Todd Abrams:
Again, how can we have that larger reach, larger impact? I think like right now I say, “Hey, why are the guys treading water?” I don’t mean financially, but like treading water in the ocean. Like the cruise ships and the speedboats are going by. I mean, hey, maybe not cruise ships right now.
Todd Abrams:
The speedboats are going by and they’re not seeing us, because we’re not firing the flares up. It’s the guy that’s on the paddleboard going by two miles an hour, that sees us tread water. What I mean by that is, only the people that know about us right now, are the ones that are buying from us.
Todd Abrams:
There is a couple other companies doing a million plus meals a month. That’s huge. We do somewhere in the range of 100,000 to 150,000 meals a week right now. From that standpoint, the growth is unparalleled. Looking forward to being able to grow that and to impact more lives.
Todd Abrams:
For me personally, it’s a bit of giving back. What can Todd Abrams personally do on a daily basis to extend value to other people’s lives? That’s where my fitness ties in my passion. I believe fitness is a vehicle of change.
Todd Abrams:
Again, if I could have an individual that maybe is crushing it in entrepreneurial or ventures or whatever as such, there’s no reason why they can’t crush the fitness element. That’s another key takeaway I think is, if you’ve been successful in any area of your life, let’s say you’re like a great person with money.
Todd Abrams:
You’ve made a shit load of money and stuff, but you’re frigging 300 pounds and overweight, to me, if you’re capable of doing that with the money, you’re capable of changing your body, because it’s the same decisions and same mentality that gets you there.
Todd Abrams:
You just need someone to help you get on that track. Again, for me, giving back is also on the relationship standpoint. For me personally, I’ve been married 22 years, together for 26 years with the same wife.
Ray Care:
She’s awesome.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah, she’s good. Yeah, but from that standpoint, I think I have a ton of value that I can add back even to… and a lot of people come to me for relationship stuff. Again, it’s how can I give back and be able to be a contributor, to be a giver to provide that gene for a bunch of people?
Ray Care:
I love it.
Jason Redman:
All right, Todd.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Jason Redman:
Man, awesome, dude. I think you guys… well, I think the word’s going to get out there, about how relentless you guys are with the production quality of the food. Obviously, we’re going to be pushing that out also. Before the end of the show, we’re going to be telling everybody where they can go to get their ICON Meals. Right now you guys need them.
Jason Redman:
I know Ray uses them, I use them, Ryan uses. I tell you what, it’s a godsend in my crazy schedule. Even right now, it’s so nice to be able to go grab a meal where… like Todd talked about, I mean, getting the right amount of protein and carbs and good, solid food. Todd-
Ryan Davidson:
I have to say something about it though real quick.
Jason Redman:
Producer Ryan, jump in. Oh, sure.
Ryan Davidson:
Yeah, sure. He has a UPC on all of the meals. Like, if you’re trying to track your macros and everything, you can scan it in any app and it will pull up everything. I think that’s really cool.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah.
Ryan Davidson:
It helped me a lot. I mean, I’ve lost 30 pounds basically as an ICON Meals.
Todd Abrams:
That’s awesome. That very nice.
Ryan Davidson:
It’s good food.
Jason Redman:
You are looking damn sexy.
Ryan Davidson:
Yeah, I’m working out.
Jason Redman:
I will say on this quarantine, I’ve been checking you out.
Ryan Davidson:
Yeah, being relentless.
Jason Redman:
Did that get awkward?
Ryan Davidson:
No.
Jason Redman:
Hey, so Todd, we have a question we love asking people, because it really gives great insight into who they are, what their values are. It’s kind of a fun question, but I know you’re like all of us, me and Ray and some of the other influencers, [inaudible 00:51:31] were on airplanes all the time.
Jason Redman:
Maybe not right now, but obviously when the world picks back up, we’ll get back to our platinum, diamond and elite status, with us flying all across the country. If you were on an airplane for 10 hours, and you could have anyone in the world alive or dead sitting next to you for that flight, who would you want to sit next to you and why?
Ray Care:
You can’t say me.
Jason Redman:
For the laugh, that’s-
Todd Abrams:
Who would I want to have?
Jason Redman:
Yeah, we didn’t give you this question before, did we?
Todd Abrams:
Right, I don’t know. I’d probably potentially say-
Ray Care:
It wouldn’t be Mike O’Hearn, because he’d take up two seats.
Todd Abrams:
No, I think probably one of the people I’d say is either… potentially Tony Robbins or John Maxwell. The reason I’d say Tony Robbins… and people say, “Hey, probably. Yeah, whatever. Tony Robbins, big inspiration.”
Todd Abrams:
For me, when I meet someone… and when I’ve done a lot the reading and stuff over the years with Tony Robins, but I’d love to get to know the inner workings of what got his mind and his levels to where he’s at. On the motivation, on the mindset and on the drive behind, because he’s someone that operates on another frequency.
Todd Abrams:
He does not operate on a normal person’s frequency. When you’re doing something for 14 hours with 10,000 to 20,000 people or more, and motivating them and all the different elements. He’s constantly been a student of the game and he’s learnt so many different pieces, that he then takes and he’s contributed to add value to others.
Todd Abrams:
I’d love to really get in that mind and just understand sort of that 40-year journey of him. Going from where he was, through all the different components. That’d be a hard condensing in 10 hours, but I’d love to have that conversation.
Ray Care:
I’ll tell you what, I’m fascinated with Tony Robbins also, just because of what he’s built. I mean, hands down. I mean, there’s virtually no one out there that doesn’t know Tony Robbins as these gigantic motivational, inspirational speaker.
Ray Care:
As a motivational, inspirational speaker, I mean, he is what I look to. How do I create a billion dollar enterprise like that guy did? I mean, he just was smart. He knows how to engage an audience. He knows how to build great products that scale.
Todd Abrams:
Yeah, and then also with all the charity work he does, and the philanthropy with the different organizations as far as feeding people all across the world, that just really interests me as well. That’d probably be my number one or two.
Jason Redman:
Okay, love it, man. Well listen, we have had an amazing show. I mean, I don’t see how people right now could not want to purchase some ICON Meals, knowing the levels that you put. I was fascinated at the beginning when we asked you that, and you talked about the standards and obviously having the FDA rep right there in your facility.
Jason Redman:
Anybody out there… I know it’s something that I’ve thought about. I mean, a lot of people are pushing for us to go out to restaurants, because we’re trying to support the restaurant industry. I know one of my concerns is, man, you’ve got people that you don’t know. Are they asymptomatic and they’re touching your food and stuff like that.
Jason Redman:
Whereas you guys obviously have the controls in place. Todd, tell us where people can go. Tell us where they can find you. Right now, I guarantee there’s people itching to buy some ICON Meals.
Ray Care:
Oh, yeah.
Jason Redman:
Tell us all about that, where they can go to get these meals and to learn more about you.
Todd Abrams:
Sure, you can go to iconmeals.com, is the web address. On social media anywhere, just ICON Meals. I encourage people to… you can also use the show code we have set up for you guys, to help save money for your listeners. I think we have our OC Show set up, that they can go and they can see money.
Todd Abrams:
Also, take advantage, guys of following us on Instagram. We do a ton on Instagram on a daily basis, as far as just different promotions, different savings and stuff. We’re trying to help people as much as we can right now.
Todd Abrams:
If there is a different code published that actually saves you more… and we’re trying to do a lot with free shipping to help people right now and stuff. Also, I’d encourage you guys to go and follow us. Then also sign up for our newsletter, because we’re doing a ton of different content on a daily basis.
Todd Abrams:
You’re getting different added value, not just from us, but from many big personalities and experts in the industry, which will help you in this time of quarantine. Again, take full advantage of that.
Todd Abrams:
As well on the safety standards, you can go Google ICON Meals, you’ll find a ton of YouTube videos, other reviews and things. You can see a lot of the different processes that we undertake in our facility, that’ll give you a little bit more in-depth information and sort of guidance and you can see for yourself.
Jason Redman:
I love it. I love it. Todd, if they wanted to follow you individually, you put out some great content on your IG. One of the things I love you, man, it’s the same thing with Ray and I, were both big on family and I know you are too, man.
Todd Abrams:
Oh, yes.
Jason Redman:
You are a great role model for people out there. I talk to so many business individuals who, they’re good at business, but they’re not so good at family. They’re so focused on the one thing, and how critical it is to have balance. I think you set a good example. If they were going to follow you individually, where do they go?
Todd Abrams:
Sure, they’d follow me on Instagram or social at toddabrams. Again, putting a bunch of fun content, but I just try to lead by example and lead from the front, so-
Jason Redman:
I love it.
Ray Care:
Amen.
Jason Redman:
That’s what it’s all about. All right, man. Well, this has been another amazing episode of the Overcome and Conquer Show. We’re going to wrap things up, Todd, with a little thing that we always do at the end. It’s a little bit of a motivation. We used to call it two minutes of motivation, but I think every time we go about four minutes.
Jason Redman:
I guess we’ve got to change it to four minutes of motivation. We take the word of the day and each one of us gets an opportunity to just rattle off real quickly, about 30, 45 seconds of what that word means to us. One of our last guest said, “Oh, so you guys take all the good content and then you leave nothing for the guests.”
Jason Redman:
When they said that, I was like, “You know what? That’s a great point.” Todd, as our guest, relentless being your word, you get to go first with relentless. What it means to you. Just shotgun off the top of your head, close the show. Why that word is so critical to you.
Todd Abrams:
It just means never giving up, never quitting. One of my other words I would use, but it ties to relentless is, I say I live in excuse-less life. That’s tied back to relentless. In life, people are always buying or they’re accepting excuses, and you can’t freaking accept your own or anyone else’s excuses.
Todd Abrams:
Never quitting, you keep trying, 100% like the pit bull. You’re just nonstop, nonstop, nonstop. Doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, you’re working on your mind constantly. You relentless in any area of your life.
Jason Redman:
I love it. Ray, me or you, baby?
Ray Care:
I’ll go. He covered it all. Listen guys, it means just, it’s never fucking quit mentally, physically, emotionally, socially, or spiritually. Stay strict. Stay true to yourself. If you believe in something, do it. Like I tell everybody, do what you love. Love what you do. Never quit, sir.
Jason Redman:
All right guys, I’m going to wrap it up with relentless. It is the relentless, overcome mindset that gets you through life. I talked to so many people about setting that course. You have got to stay the course. I don’t care what storm comes along in your life, whether it is negative people, whether it is COVID-19 crisis. I don’t care if you’ve got an injury.
Jason Redman:
Relentless means you are staying the course, you are driving forward. You will never quit. You will find a way over, under, around or bam, right through it, you will get to the other side. That is what Todd Abrams is about.
Jason Redman:
That is what ICON Meals is about. That is what Ray “Cash” Care is about, Producer Ryan and the Overcome and Conquer Show itself. That is another amazing episode of the Overcome and Conquer Show. I am Jason “Overcome” Redman.
Ray Care:
I am Ray “Cash” Care.
Jason Redman:
We are out. Boom.
Speaker 6:
Thanks for listening to the Overcome and Conquer Show. Tune in next time and please remember to subscribe on iTunes. Please visit, overcomeandconquer.com.
Ray Care:
The Overcome and Conquer Show was presented by The Project. The Project is a full immersion 75-hour experience, designed for men who know in their core, they are not living up to their fullest potential.
Ray Care:
Rather than waking up every morning, ready to dominate life, the mediocre man rolls out of bed and slides into the same unfulfilling routine, they’ve unhappily been in for way too long. The project is for men that have lost their eternal flame and motivation to conquer.
Ray Care:
It is for men living an unfulfilling life, that lacks the excitement and purpose. If this resonates with you and you want to learn more, we encourage you to apply today at www.mdkproject.com/ocshow. Boom.