16 "You Can Place Them Anywhere On The Head" and "There Are A Lot More Water FIlters Than I Ever Would Have Imagined"

Guest 1

[00:00:00] My boss pretends that I'm a clinical trial supervisor, but I'm not actually employed as that. [00:00:04][4.8]

[00:00:09] I went to uni and studied psychology, and then I finished uni and I was a cleaner, and that was actually one of the best jobs that I've had. And then I worked in a call center and a restaurant at the same time. Again restaurant. One of the best jobs I've ever had. Very fun. And then I worked for the probation service, which was a very chaotic place and maybe not want to work there anymore. And so then I discovered during that job that there are people who work with people who have drug and alcohol problems. So then I moved on to doing that instead.

And then whilst I was doing that, I realized I didn't want to do that anymore, because doing jobs where you're basically a therapist for people, but you're not trained to be a therapist is really hard. The expectation of the the people who are wanting the help from you, because then they don't have access to what they actually need. They want it from you, and you can't actually give it to them because you don't know what you're doing. You're not trained, so you try your best, but then it's like, this is a bad set up. They should actually just be getting therapy, but they're not allowed to get therapy because they're smoking cannabis. So I got kind of burnt out with that and decided to go back to uni and do my master's in cognitive and Clinical neuroscience. It was really interesting. And so now I feel a bit more like I'm doing a role where I'm helping people, but they're not expecting me to be a therapist because the thing I'm giving them a different treatment isn't me. We have been studying a brain stimulation treatment for depression, which is called transcranial direct current stimulation. And it's a type of electrical stimulation.

So it's a noninvasive brain stimulation technique, something like ECT. Electroconvulsive therapy would be more invasive because like a lot of electricity. But this is just a little tiny bit of electricity. There's already loads of research basically, which has led researchers to understand that playing electricity in your brain, in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on the left side, helps you not be depressed so much. Well, it helps some people. It doesn't help everybody. So the clinical trial we're doing is like a randomized controlled trial. So some people get the real treatment and some people think they're getting the treatment. So they get like the the CBO. So tDCS is just a form of brain stimulation.

The tDCS that we do is in like at this specific place. So the front left and right. So normal tDCS machines are just two electrodes, and you can place them anywhere you want on the head. But the machine that we now use is like a specially designed one for depression. So the electrodes are set into a headset, then you just put it on your head and they're in the right place, so you don't need someone else to help you do it. So you have to have the treatment five times a week for the first three weeks. And then depending on the length of the trial, then have it 2 or 3 times a week for another, however many weeks. So in the original trial I worked on, it was six weeks in total, so you'd have to go to people's houses five times a week, put this cap on their head and get the electrodes in the correct place and stuff. Then Covid happened. We had to shut the trial down. So now how it works is that we essentially do everything by video call and we teach people and then we like post them to stuff and we teach them how to use it. And it runs from an app on your phone. And then we we stay with them for the first session for the full 30 minutes, just as like a precautionary thing. And just so they can ask questions afterwards. But they're not. Normally nothing happens and then they just do it in their own time. For some people, this device like really works. And it's really fascinating seeing people change because you see them over quite a long period of time. You see them for like a few weeks while you're doing the screening activities, and then you see them periodically at like over ten weeks. And then if they go into the second part of the trial, you see them after another ten weeks, and then after three months and after six months, you know, these same people feel like, oh yeah, but in that first little bit, if the device actually works for some people, it's just like obvious.

You're just like, right, they can sleep again, they get up in the morning, they're like eating food. They're like smiling. They're saying that they like want to chat to their friends and they're just like, wow, this is. Crazy. Spoke to a woman today who had basically been depressed ten years. She'd felt like she hadn't come out of it, and the device really worked for her. And she's just like, she's still just amazed. She's just like, oh, what just happened? So spent ten years not being able to really do anything, no wanting to do anything and filling sound. And now join the gym. And I'm spending time with my children and smiling and feeling positive. And it's really nice because something I didn't really see in my drug and alcohol job was people getting better very often. But like they saying, you've changed. You've changed my life because that bit the trial. So that is very nice because it's like, wow. Yeah. Life again. That's really lovely. [00:05:25][316.7]

Naty

[00:05:32] Hey folks. It's Naty. We'll be back with more right after this break. What the hell is my job? [00:05:41][9.2]

Guest 2

[00:05:42] Paper route. Dishwasher. Pizza cutter. Radio. Like, literally worked at a radio station. Retail? Yeah. Definitely retail. That's kind of age 16. Prior to really realizing that I needed to work for for a living. And so that was probably the first time was was Best Buy in the stores just a couple years there until I went to corporate. So I spent about seven, almost eight years at Best Buy as a whole. I was a jeans guy. I was a corporate guy. And so like business casual and then jeans became the normal. So that was jeans everywhere. And I don't have much hair. So I, I rock the I rock the hat all the time. I always dabbled with eBay. Like I used to literally like tungsten rings.

I bought these from China and sold them on Amazon and eBay and end up having the wrong sizes and too many of the wrong styles and P90x and jerseys, and sold these things on different marketplaces and jerseys. Specifically, I would drive down to the Metrodome Vikings stadium here in Minneapolis, and I was selling these jerseys to tailgaters, not door to door, but from tailgate to tailgate. I was just trying to figure out how to make some money so I didn't have to, like, be required to have a job. Job. I just had this itch, right? This desire to like, why do I have to go to school like everyone else? I don't want to go to school. I want to build something. You know, that was just here. It is burning. So I grew up with a dad who was always home. He watched us play sports. He helped us with homework always. But we didn't have a lot of money growing up in a small Midwestern town. My grandfather, he did very well and he just seemed to be working all the time. And so there was no sexiness at all in terms of like, owning your own business or entrepreneurship. I didn't really care, I didn't know, I just I just saw this dichotomy.

And so I never considered it. But the ages of 20 to 23, when I was working for Best Buy at the corporate office, I began to talk to so many business owners that I was selling to. So we sold everything that Best Buy had in stores directly to businesses. It was a sales role I learned to sell in stores, but then cold calling and building relationships that way came at the corporate. And so one of my clients was selling water filters. I was selling filters to him, and he recruited me for years, like two years. And so along that journey, I eventually went down to see him 100 miles away, literally. And because I'm a drummer, I brought my drums with he. He plays mandolin. So we had this like jam session this first time we've ever actually met in person, and it was really neat. And so then I'm walking around his warehouse going, there are a lot more water filters than I ever would have imagined, like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. I'm like, what are these things? And it clicked. Between our conversation, I realized that I had a whole bunch of water filter customers already, including him, and I realized all of these other filters I could probably sell to my other clients. And so we struck up a relationship where instead of working for him that he was trying to get me to do, I said, you know, let's just try this as a side hustle. And so that was an 18 month deal, and I got paid $0.25 for every filter I sold, and we would sell thousands and thousands of them. But then it got to a point where I was like, we we need to go full time. And and so then I did literally make the 100 mile drive one way to where he was two days a week.

I never in my life would have imagined an opportunity to help someone build a business that they trusted me to be a part of, to grow the way we did. We took it from $3 million to $50 million in like 5 or 6 years. It was incredible and did things I'd never thought I was capable of and was given opportunities I never would imagine. But I was so driven to make that work that I forgot about my new bride and my new kid and, you know, and so my life went down this path of success, of chasing it. And it was hidden under the guise of, I'm providing for my family until I had, you know, gained 40 pounds and, you know, was traveling all the time. And I had end up having two instances of infidelity. And so I carried around that crap for, for years, it created anger and anxiety and eventually, you know, to a point where I just wasn't fun to be around. And so I had to make a change. And when I got physical with my child, I realized I had to do something different is when I decided to start counseling. And so that was like the beginning of the journey. And so eventually it led down this path of community and having other men in my life and Christian businessmen that I could relate to. And so eventually I told my wife and it restarted this whole new journey of rebuilding our marriage. And she started counseling. She swore she would never do counseling in her life, and in her life continue to change as she continue to unpack some of the trauma and just crap from her childhood. The way I think, the purpose in which I serve, and my motivations for getting up and, and, living life, have completely changed so you can get lost in this, this journey story. But yeah. [00:10:41][299.3]

Naty

[00:10:42] Hope you liked the episode. Please help us out by reading us, sharing with your friends, or buying us a coffee. Buy me a coffee.com slash. What the hell is my job? It costs us money and time to be here for you at the start of every single week, so please consider supporting us. See you next time. [00:10:42][0.0]

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