Stop Playing Life on Hard Mode: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Peak Performance with Clifford Stephan

Clifford: And so we're kind of trying to basically make this men's health movement disguised as a beer commercial. We give you everything that the beer commercial promises minus that little out drink in it. And guess what? You can still have the beer that tastes exactly like a beer without the alcohol.
Intro: You are listening to the seven-Figure Leap podcast. We're here to leverage rich relationships and smart strategies to take your business to the next level. Here's your host, Dustin Reman.
Dustin: How can you better leverage your personal story to grow your business? I am really excited for this episode of Seven Figure Leap Today.
Dustin: I've got a special guest, Clifford Steven, and so Clifford and I actually know each other because he's in the podcast Profits Accelerator currently. and. If I would've met him, maybe a year ago, I would be his client too. because the work that he does is, is super relevant to me. And I think a lot of people
listening to [00:01:00] this as entrepreneurs and so, we'll save that for a little bit later.
Dustin: I'll, I'll let, Clifford kind of ease into. His own story and why the work that he does today with Boo's vacation is so important and so relevant. Clifford, I'm really grateful to get to kind of be in this forum with you today. I, we spent a lot of time on Zoom, doing, coaching and talking about podcast guesting, so it's really fun to have you here as a guest on our show.
Dustin: So, first of all, welcome and please just, yeah, take a minute and, introduce yourself. Let people know a little bit about your background, and we'll dig into your business and talk about the work that you do at Boo Vacation.
Clifford: Great. Thanks Dustin. Really appreciate you having me on. Really excited to have this conversation.
Clifford: I am a 53-year-old entrepreneur, grew up in Silicon Valley. I designed employee and executive comp plans for pre IPO tech companies in the Bay
Area for 20 years. And before that, in high school, started playing water polo, soccer, tennis, and yeah, real, real social, real extroverted.
Clifford: Started drinking in high school. We had a blast. Went to college, got a degree in nutritional science, [00:02:00] more, more drinking, got into corporate and yeah, more drinking. So not alcoholism, but yeah, kind of just really extroverted, really driven about events, really about my boys. And we had a hell of a time and yeah, kind of flash forward to early forties and yeah, my degree in nutrition, total health nut really kind of, that was a big piece of my identity.
Clifford: And yeah, managing my business, having a couple kids kind of juggling a social calendar and trying to pick up belly fat. I had really bad sleep problems. I had sleep apnea. I'd been diagnosed a couple times, tried the ccp. PAP machine didn't work and. As a business owner, I had the time and space to really kind of dink and duck with a lot of different health protocols and supplementation and was kind of always on the cutting edge of that and really poured into that and eventually kind of hit the wall.
Clifford: I was not looking to get smarter with my drinking. Drinking was great. We had a good time, but yeah, kind of learned some lessons there and as I was [00:03:00] uncovering every last stone, that was kinda the last one I turned. I listened to a four hour audible book. Alcohol lied to me and it kind of inspired me to take a rule break.
Clifford: Me and my buddies had always addressed our alcohol use by, you know, cutting out January, dry January or maybe February if we wanted a shorter month. but never really kind of got anywhere with it. And ultimately this really just becomes. Really scratching my own itch and really backing into health and performance, especially men of success that kind of get to where they wanna go.
Clifford: And then, I think the operating system around alcohol and fun friends, events and a reward system can kind of get stuck. And it's an necessary item to kind of reboot if you wanna enjoy what you've built and, and keep it for as long as seemingly possible and, and still have a good time.
Clifford: So that's kind of the origin story of boo vacation. So after 20 years of. My consulting business, I, kind of just poured into this after I fell into this, accidentally after, yeah. Taking a year off and finding out that everything I was doing worked really well. It was just outta sequence.
Clifford: and then I learned more about how alcohol, you know, [00:04:00] with age and wear tear is pretty predictive and not very pretty and, saw a massive need. And I wasn't looking to start booze vacation and start hammering dudes, but I was, I was literally just. Trying to have basic conversations with buddies I've known for decades and be like, Hey, this book on Audible is pretty cool.
Clifford: Like it's pretty eye-opening. The guy's entertaining. Check it out. You know, I'm not saying don't drink, I'm not saying whatever. And it's not, you know, I didn't, I wasn't pushing sobriety 'cause my friends weren't alcoholics. But yeah, we were in that gray area and I, nine times outta 10, I couldn't even have the conversation.
Clifford: And so they're like, no, that's cool man. I'm good. And, I kind of knew Where this was headed and it was nowhere good. And so I was like, okay, somebody's gotta be the asshole here, kind of talking about it and how do we do it in a relevant peer related way, not pointing fingers.
Clifford: And so yeah, it's kind of, sent me down this rabbit hole of Yeah. Jumping into marketing. When I was never in a marketer guy, I was kinda more of corporate, designing, telling companies what to pay their employees and executives. So, yeah, but it's been, [00:05:00] super fun and, who knew that basic Health 1 0 1 is, is highly effective versus, you know, the medical system of, prescriptions and pills and surgeries and side effects.
Clifford: So
Dustin: yeah, get some really great results. Something you said. I just have to ask this question. So you say you grew up in Silicon Valley. I think most people say that as sort of like, Hey, I, I moved to California after my college, and I grew up in the sense as like, did you actually like grow up in Silicon Valley?
Dustin: Like that was where your family was at?
Clifford: Yeah, no, literally like Sunnyvale, apple, Cupertino, that was like, it was all like cherry orchards and stuff. I bought a house for like 30 K in the early seventies, and now it's like two and a half and like, it's just, yeah, just right in the heart of it and it was just kind of this crazy area that just kind of mushroomed around us and Yeah, the corporate playground was amazing. Yeah. Like, I mean, all the events, all the money sloshing around all the, corporate parties I was. a kid in a candy store, had a, had a great time, really good socially, and I was in hr, so I kind of wanted
Dustin: to, to double tap on that.
Dustin: 'cause it's, ultimately part of your story, right? And it's ultimately part of where Boozer vacation came [00:06:00] from, because it's not even an allegory, whatever it is. Like, you literally were like, grew up in this culture of like high growth, invest, you know, money, that like every, all this stuff's happening around you.
Dustin: I imagine the kids you go to high school with, you know, are like. The sons of and daughters of entrepreneurs or tech, you know, executives and like, that's a fast-paced, sort of like fast moving, environment to be in. And I would
imagine then sort of part of that culture is the partying, the drinking, the hanging out, and, and there's a lot of, exciting things, to do, when you grow up in that environment.
Dustin: and we're gonna spend most of our time today actually talking about. The work that you do specifically like and, and how this applies to people's lives. But I do wanna just slow down a little bit and just talk a little more about how this business came to be. 'cause it's really interesting business and you talk about it in a really unique way different than anyone else I've heard talk about this topic of like alcohol use.
Dustin: so you had a. sounds like a really successful corporate career or actually entrepreneurial career, but more in that corporate [00:07:00] space with the compensation, tech world, that you were in. And what I heard in there. Usually you sort of have this personal awakening in a sense where you are like, Hey man, I'm not an alcoholic.
Dustin: My buddies, I don't view them as alcoholics, but. I'm getting older, I'm having kids. Things aren't, bouncing back as quick as they used to. sleep has become a problem. I know there, you know, maybe some sort of like underlying anxiety and stress and all this stuff you're starting to feel it as a 40 something year old guy and husband and dad and all the things, which I can definitely relate to.
Dustin: What do you think, because it sounds like a really pivotal point and where this business was sort of born was you picked up this audio book, alcohol lied to me. Were you seeking that? Like how, like, because that seems like a really pivotal part of your story, would you consider yourself quote unquote sober curious, which is a, big, you know, buzzword nowadays, online.
Dustin: So yeah, I'd love to know more about that period. And. How this sort of conversation opened in your own mind, and then you started kind of easing into it with your buddies, and then ultimately you launched a whole business around it.
Clifford: Yeah, [00:08:00] so I wasn't looking to get smarter with my drinking. Like I said, I was really just kind of trying to optimize, you know, continuing to have my beer drink it too, and how, how can I, how can I work out the diet and lifestyle equation to, balance that out?
Clifford: I think it's pretty common for guys, especially men of success, by definition. You're pouring into your business, with suboptimal, you know, kind of habits and yeah, it starts to show up and, you know, normal's normal, right? Mm-hmm. Like you're used to kind of dragging ass and you're used to looking and kind of feeling like crap.
Clifford: And that was definitely my case. I was, I was super, you know, even though I was doing all these health protocols, I was pretty foggy. my sleep was atrocious. I was still trying to work out, I was still trying to be on top. I was managing a bunch of clients. Google and, you know, Motorola and Juniper and Kaiser Permanente had massive clients.
Clifford: And yeah, it was just, things were not trending in the right direction. And again, you don't notice it as much when you're at 60% than when you get to back to a hundred percent. You're like, yes, whoa, this is like way better and, easier. and [00:09:00] yeah, Sober curious, I think is a term for females and maybe some introverted guys that don't have friends, but you know, any, you know, sober and curious are, two hot words that we would never use.
Clifford: it's not even about being, curious about sobriety. It's really about. What have you built? How long do you wanna keep it? How long do you wanna enjoy it? And do you wanna go out in a painful predictive? whimper is really kind of what this is about. This is just a simple conversation around, what do you need for health?
Clifford: You need sleep, diet, and fitness. And that informs your sexual health, your, brain health, your cognition, your energy. Your hormones, your look and feel, your body composition, and as you get older, your body gets less good and so you could continue to drink less like I did, like I went from, you know, drinking more liberally to more like two or three drinks on Friday and Saturday night, as I got older.
Clifford: But that was still enough to dysregulate these key systems and so. It's really about, it's really a gift to share with people because like I said, I think a lot of my peers and I we're kind of in the [00:10:00] subset. The younger generations are kind of whatever they have weed and dating apps and different things that we didn't have, or legally.
Clifford: and then the older generation is like, yeah, they're kind of out of the game. But I think. Kind of that 40 to 55-year-old demographic is really that inflection point where, yeah, you've kind of got the levels of success, you've checked off a lot of the boxes with your, you know, your zip codes and your families and your, you know, your vacations.
Clifford: But it's really about are you enjoying it? And, and it's really, it sounds kind of lame, but I'm really advocating for the guy that has it all and it's like that poor guy that has it all. Because I look around, I see in Silicon Valley, I see in Southern California, I see wherever I go. they're not living.
Clifford: they look great on paper, but their blood work sucks. their sleep is, you know. They're dragging us during the work week. Their weekends are hectic. They're not present with their families. And again, it's not a judgment, it's just the reality of the machinery of your, of, you know, when you're not sleeping well, when you're, you have a leaky gut, you have stomach problems, you're picking up [00:11:00] prescription pills with side effects.
Clifford: It's very predictive. And this is an inflection point where we can massively improve 99% of issues because it's diet and lifestyle related, and you can't. You can't make any money updating your diet, lifestyle and, and impacting changes in these key and critical areas, whether it's your blood pressure or brain fog or depression or anything like that.
Clifford: If you're, you can't reregulate if you're actively dysregulating. So, I was really kind of trying to have a conversation. 'cause yeah, I'm not gonna say, Hey guys, you wanna try sobriety? Are you sober? Curious? Like, that's not in our vernacular. It's really like, Hey, how long do you wanna kick ass for? And or do you wanna like go out in a painful whimper?
Clifford: And, it sounds kind of harsh and like I'm over the top, but the reality is, you know, you've been drinking for 20 years. You have belly fat, you have, a CP pap machine. I mean, you, you got high blood pressure. These are all pre disease symptoms that aren't getting better, they're getting worse, and you have a, a shorter and shorter time.
Clifford: And so, you know, abuse, vacation, in essence is kind of a [00:12:00] three to 12 month break. And you're playing offense, not defense. You have a plan, you know what you're gonna say. you're actively reregulating these key systems of health to get as much gains as possible. So you're looking better, you're feeling better, you're screwing better, you have more money, everything's easier.
Clifford: Yeah, it's a little, it's a little bit twilight zoning when wanna bail the party at 12 and not stay there till three in the morning. It's, it's, there's different games, but it's ultimately a trade off. And so it's really just about protecting your empire, protecting your sanity, and having flexibility, like, like I said, it's not sobriety.
Clifford: It's not like you can't go back to having a couple drinks, but it's about resetting that program because with tolerance and age and wear and tear and less time and, and more responsibility, the health and performance can really spiral and can really paint you into a corner.
Clifford: And then once you kind of get into that medical system, things are real expensive. Mm-hmm. They're not very effective and it's not very fun. So we're all about having a good time and enjoying what we've built. [00:13:00]
And you know, like I said, I think one of the many epiphanies I had is what got me to those levels of success.
Clifford: These killer parties and networks and these, big scions that I partnered with that floated a ton of business with me. You know, what got me there? Is it what's gonna keep me there and it's gonna help me enjoy it? and that's just a reality. So it's about kind of updating the operating system and, Learning how to do these things, learning how to get back to a hundred percent. So when you ask the guy that's not a hundred percent, what do you want? It's gonna be a way different conversation than the guy that's stuck at 60% dragging ass and just kind of trying to get his cookie at the end of the day.
Dustin: Yeah, think one of the most important, frameworks or paradigms that you shared, and it's something that I can relate deeply to. We'll get more into my story here shortly, but. This idea that when you're operating at 60%, especially in this environment of like, I'm an entrepreneur, I've got family, like, I'm always tired.
Dustin: I'm always on the go. I'm always stressed like that. That kind of becomes your, that's just kind of who I am. It becomes part of your identity. What you don't ever [00:14:00] realize. You don't realize you're at 60% because
you haven't felt a hundred maybe ever, or at least not in years. You know, and you don't, know the difference, right?
Dustin: When you don't have that contrast, you just don't know what you don't know. I think someone once told me. They were talking about alcohol particularly, but like kind of all these things you're talking about. We fall in this category, like a lot of times we're playing life on hard mode and we don't even realize it.
Dustin: Right? Like, so if you think of video games, you have like, you can click on hard mode and you realize it's like way harder, it's way different than the standard mode. And a lot of times we put ourselves on hard mode with different lifestyle choices that we're making. And we don't, we just don't know the difference, right?
Dustin: And so I think I really like the idea of what you're advocating is like a vacation. doesn't need to be a permanent choice, but like if you get enough space from your current lifestyle and you get to kind of try on a new lifestyle or some significant changes in that lifestyle, then you can tell the difference and then you can make an informed decision about what you want to do from there forward.
Dustin: Right? You may like, you know what, I actually like the 60% mode [00:15:00] and I like going to these parties and drinking and like then you're making a conscious choice. But I think especially as entrepreneurs, We just kind of default ourselves into this hard mode or the 60% effectiveness mode without ever realizing we're in it and we don't know what it feels like to not be in it.
Dustin: And so we can't make a good choice about the lifestyle, you know, choices and, protocols and things that we're living
Clifford: that's ultimately what this is about, is giving guys a choice. Yes. The current system that I see within myself and peer groups is.
Clifford: The choice is to drink less and cut back, or take off dry January when you're sick and picked up 20 pounds and there's nothing going on. Yes. And then right. Super Bowl Sunday rolls around and, or I'm drinking wine instead of beer, or I'm only, you know, all these lame choices. And the reality is, and I, figured this out intuitively, but then, you know, obviously all this information has come out, but.
Clifford: The typical dude's gonna need three to six months just to get their brain back online. Yep. You have a shun in prefrontal cortex. You have a rewired neural circuitry for constant negative states. not even when you're [00:16:00] drinking just throughout the day. High anxiety, low mood, and you lack discipline and impulse control.
Clifford: You're tanking testosterone directly. You have extra belly fat, which is estrogenic and, you're, you're not sleeping well, so you're not optimizing these hormones. So that's also drive and libido and, and. The I ability and enjoyment of doing hard things. So you just get softer and softer and it's really nebulous because it's like everybody's doing it.
Clifford: It's in all your shows. Mm-hmm. I don't drink that much. I don't drink as much as Bob does. And so everything's fine. But you don't realize the impact it has. And it's, again, it's not about taking a break and moping around in your basement. It's about actively getting after it. It's about still being social, and it's about really intentionally fixing these systems as quickly as possible.
Clifford: Metabolic health has taken a, beating your brain's, taking a, beating your gut's, taking a beating. you're carrying aches and pains. you haven't been working out. So it's really about. Resetting that, and then the wrapper and the mindset and that the shared meme of boost vacation is, it's a flex.
Clifford: I'm taking my health seriously. I'm living the life of the beer [00:17:00] commercial without the bad blood work, boner problems and BS that all the other people are so. That's the reality. It's just about, you know, getting yours and it is, kind of a selfish thing, right? You're like, Hey, you're in this crew, all my buddies, this is how my buddies roll.
Clifford: I'm kind of going against them. I'm doing these things differently. So I kind of feel like an imposter. Like, why am I going to bed on time? Why am I, Bailing early from the party. So, you know, if you don't reregulate these key systems, you're gonna feel like crap.
Clifford: Any, you're still gonna feel like crap, you know, you're just not gonna be as stuck in some of these unconscious loops. So you really have to get back to a hundred percent as quickly as possible and, and start. Really kind of updating the operating system and figuring out a game plan, or it's very easy to kind of just get sucked back into mediocrity because that's kind of how most dudes role and that those are men of success, you know?
Clifford: So that's kind of the crazy part.
Dustin: I mean, I just share a little of my own personal journey around this topic. So I've done 75 hard three times and I did it in 20 21, 20 23, 20 24. And [00:18:00] so 75 hard, if you're not familiar with it, it's a lot of stuff, but for 75 days you're, you know, working out twice a day, drinking a bunch of water reading, and one of the things you do is give up alcohol and.
Dustin: I did that three times. Those are probably the only three times in my adult life. Well, I know those are the only three times in my adult life that I had went probably more than a week, let alone, you know, a month, or in this case, almost three months without alcohol. So I did it three times. and I had this conversation last weekend, and I'll kind of, I'll get to that here in the story, with the campfire around some successful dudes, as Clifford would say.
Dustin: But I was reflecting on that. I'm like, man, I did that three times. And so. On day 75, I'd be like, damn, I feel really good. You know, like, I've lost weight. I feel clearheaded, like my business is always doing better. I feel like I'm really connected with my family. and then on day 76, I would like throw it all out the window and like go get blitzed and just, you know, like, oh man, I gotta exhale now.
Dustin: You know, because the mindset I took into it was, it's like extreme, extreme, extreme changes all at once for a [00:19:00] short period of time. and I guess I didn't know at that point I didn't recognize until the third time the major change in there was actually the reduction of the alcohol, right?
Dustin: Like, 'cause I already worked out, I already drank a lot of water. you know, I worked out more. I read more like I was making lifestyle changes overall, I. Absolutely. I was like, man, I feel like this is probably the main thing if I want to admit it. so the second time around I kind of did the same thing.
Dustin: And then the third time around was last year and I got to day 70 about day 70 I think. And I'm out to dinner with my wife and, she's having a glass of wine and obviously I'm not, 'cause I'm wrapping up the program and she's like, what are you gonna do when this is over? And I'm like. I've been thinking about
this.
Dustin: I was like, I got a buddy who's in this, a men's small group with me, and he basically took his own booze vacation. He was like 90 days into it. He's like, Hey, you're already gonna be 75 days in. He's like, just do me a favor. Do yourself a favor. He is like, just go to 90. Like, that's it. throw away all the other 75 hard things on day 76, but just keep the alcohol thing for two more weeks.
Dustin: Right. It's like, and that brought us into like [00:20:00] Halloween. So there's some like, eh, I don't know, man, that's not, this is like the time I like to really, you know, socialize. Oh yeah, me too. I told my wife, I'm like, I think I'm gonna keep this up till, you know, the end of October or whatever. And was interesting for me emotionally was like, she's like.
Dustin: Oh, that's amazing. And I'm like, that's amazing. I thought she was gonna be like, you're lame. We're gonna be going to these parties. You know? and then she's like, no, that's amazing. I think that would be, love that for you. I think that would be great. and I think she was really encouraging me without telling me what to do to, like, why don't you Yeah.
Dustin: Extend that part a little bit so that I think, you know, to go back to what you said, Clifford, I can make a conscious choice. It's like, I have an engineering background, so like, let's change, let's get rid of all the I I'm changing too many variables at once, right? So let's just for two weeks bring the normal lifestyle back into it, but just keep the alcohol part on break and then you can make a choice, you know, two weeks later.
Dustin: Is this actually making enough of a difference that I should, you know, extend the vacation? in my case, what I found was it was an extremely enlightening two weeks. I realized that like all the good stuff I had been [00:21:00] feeling about the 75 days was pretty much all. The alcohol part. Right. and so I personally, and I know this isn't something you prescribed for guys, for me, it became clear that like the cons of this, substance were way outweighing the pros.
Dustin: And I was starting to find there were much less pros because now I put myself in social situations and all these other places where I felt like I, I wanted to drink, I'd done it without it. I'd been to the concerts. I'd been on like literally vacations, you know, intimate times, all the places where that would've been.
Dustin: on my menu, I'd already done a lot of it. and so I, decided I don't wanna do this anymore. For the next 30 days and the next 30 days, and now sitting here with you Clifford, about 16 months later. You know, I haven't drank since my 45th birthday, which was July of 2024, and feel amazing.
Dustin: I know all my blood works better. I know I sleep like a baby, and that was never the case since I was as far, literally as long as I can remember growing up. and so like many, many great things have happened as a result. The last thing I'll say, and I wanna give the [00:22:00] mic back to you and, talk more about the work you do at bus vacation to help people like me.
Dustin: I was literally last weekend, three days ago as we record this, I was on an annual camping trip. I think I've been on this for 22 years. It's a lot of people that are people I kind of grew up with in high school. and other people have joined the group. I got some family members in there. It's a hunting trip.
Dustin: It's mostly a drinking trip. And so every, every year we get together, it's camping, campfire, everyone's drinking. We play bags or cornhole. And when you lose a cornhole match, you gotta go to the losers' log and take some nasty, you know, alcohol that someone's brought and you have to chug it. Like that's, the environment.
Dustin: And these guys are 40 to 80 years old at this point, but that's what we do. Of course I don't do that. And I didn't do that last year 'cause I was in the same period of, last year I had 75. Hard as the excuse. I was like, ah, I'm not drinking right now. 75 hard this year's just like dudes, I don't drink anymore.
Dustin: And it was amazing some of the conversations that came up around that where people kind of like late night campfire with the beer in their hand being like, man, I think I really need to try this. I feel like shit all [00:23:00] the time. I think half the guys there are on CPAP machines, you know, and some of them are entrepreneurs, some of them are more blue collar workers, but.
Dustin: they've all hit that 40 and up. They're all guys. They all have families. They all have pressures in their life and. think they're kinda looking at that beer can of like I used to think this was the source of the fun. It's actually the dudes that's actually being here, you know, and I wasn't trying to be an example to them and frankly I'd have preferred it if they never asked me about drinking at all.
Dustin: But, you know, they notice, and they start asking me these questions. So I dunno. That's a long way of saying I super relate to what you've shared. I believe it, I've lived it in the past 16 months. I really would encourage anyone listening, especially if you feel like you're a driven entrepreneur, you kind of
have alcohol there as a, a way to check out, chill out, relax, these sort of things that you've ascribed to it as like beneficial.
Dustin: Like what's the worst that would happen if you took a break and you could objectively see if that's true, right? And then you can, choose to pick it up, not pick it up, change how you use it in the future. so that's my story, Clifford. And thanks for. Give [00:24:00] me three or four minutes of your interview here to share that, but I think it's super relevant because I'm your ideal client.
Dustin: I told you that like, if I would've met you, 16 months ago, I would've been on this because this is what I needed. Tell me if someone's listening and they're like, I think I do need a break. I think I do need a boo vacation. I'm not sure how to do that. How do you guys actually help people with this?
Dustin: what's the business? Behind this mission that you're on, and like how does this work for guys that would need this help just want to know more about how to get this help.
Clifford: Sure. And I'm gonna react real quick to your, experience. 'cause there's a lot of shared epiphanies there. So for starters, like I said, the brain chemistry is a skew, right?
Clifford: And when guys cut back, when they take these short breaks. You're playing defense and you're waiting for day 31, or, oh, I got this event. Or you know, you're looking at the social calendar, it's like, Hey, I can't do six months. I got this wedding, I got this thing. Yes, yes. And so why is because alcohol's benefiting me and I know it, so I'm [00:25:00] gonna make it short.
Clifford: And so that's why we're kind of trying to in the health and performance piece to be like, Hey. We want you to get to the end and be like, not sure. Right. And so it's, not about not drinking, but it's about really changing that up. And so the length really does matter. So yeah, like even the, two and a half months still gives me a little bit of heartburn.
Clifford: 'cause most dudes, they're just gonna be getting their brain back. Mm hmm. So I hate to have them start eroding their discipline and increasing their stress and screwing up their sleep. So it's, it's not like, Hey, I know alcohol's benefiting me, or, I know it's not. It's like, Hey, I'm gonna take this break and it's an experiment and I'm not saying it's right, but I'm just gonna do it and I'm gonna take a big boy break.
Clifford: It's not gonna be one month, it's gonna be, you know, four to six months. It would be a good, good primer and just kind of explore that. And the other thing I'll say is. Yeah. if you've been drinking like me for 30 years and I took a one year break, do I have alcohol perfectly figured out?
Clifford: No. Like, do I still have some drinks? Sure. Do I take another one? Yeah. Do you pull them outta your pocket. It's a tool you can use. Yeah. [00:26:00] Whenever you wanna look and feel your best. So you got, I'm turning 50. I'm gonna go be surfing 10 foot waves in Nicaragua. I don't wanna get my ass handed to me.
Clifford: I, I'm gonna do this. I got this big event or I got this big project. And so it's a tool you can use. And guess what? The more you do them and the longer you do them, the less you drink. Yeah, that's, it's a very simple equation because you're better at it. You know how to reregulate your health quicker.
Clifford: You're enjoying the benefits of it. There's still flexibility with other things if you want. And so that's a, big piece. And then, yeah, you know, your experience. that's cool that your wife was supportive. I get a lot of guys who are like, Hey, you need to have fun with me. What do you mean we need to have, this is how we connect.
Clifford: Like you need, right. So wives will actually, kind of give my buddies crap once in a while, which is unfortunate, but it's not about them, it's about you. Exactly. It's about, you know, how you're gonna show up. And then lastly, guys don't always wanna. Be under the spotlight.
Clifford: Hey, why are you doing this? And, you know, blah, blah, blah. they don't wanna be that asshole, but that's why the booze vacation exists. So it's like, hey, it's a, flex. It's fun, [00:27:00] it's an experiment. And yeah, we're the ones that are gonna be looking like the guy in the beer commercial, not, you know, not the guy on the couch with the remote.
Clifford: you know, with 30 pounds on his belly. And so it's really like bringing this brand and awareness and this vehicle. We're like, no, I'm on a vacation. I'm busy vacation. Check it out. or don't, like, I don't care. In your twenties and thirties, your buddies will give you crap in your forties and fifties.
Clifford: They're kind of, yeah. They're having those conversations. They're like, dude, that's cool. That's, you know, and I'm like, If you wanna draw a line to anything you want, anything you don't want, it's the guys that are smarter with their alcohol use are the ones that are gonna get it.
Clifford: And the ones that aren't are gonna be pissing up when with their physiology. it's just a reality. But, you know, like I said, I think it's not about like just jumping into this head first, but as far as how to get started, you know, like I said, I think it's just, it's just starting to have an honest, questioning and, kind of looking under the hood.
Clifford: Because like I said, I think when you're regularly drinking. You're kind of regularly looking and feeling like crap and you're aging faster. And so playing done with [00:28:00] your alcohol use forces you to kind of play dumb
with your health. And so it's like, Hey, belly fat, no big deal. CPA machine. Blood pressure medications.
Clifford: Yeah, I feel like crap. Or, oh, I'm not gonna go see my doctor. He is always trying to push a pill on me. And so. It forces you to play dumb with your health. And so we're kind of trying to Yeah. Kind of basically make this men's health movement, you know, disguised as a beer commercial, you know, and really kind of, we give you everything that the beer commercial promises minus that little, you know, out, you know, drink in it.
Clifford: And guess what? You can still have the beer that tastes exactly like a beer without the alcohol. Yeah. And so you could, so it's a perfect crime. So it's really about kind of having those conversations. You know, initially this was, this was for everybody, and it was just really kind of voicing that, hey, this isn't a dumb idea.
Clifford: This is a cool tool, and anybody can do this. Who actually does it? The guys that have the most to lose big shot VCs, commercial developers. that's the reality. The guys that have the most to lose and often [00:29:00] oftentimes with this mindset, you know, they have the most to celebrate.
Clifford: They have more vacations, they have more events, they have more sales meetings. And guess what? They go faster down the other side of the hill. And then it's like, for what? And then all of a sudden all these things that are super important aren't important anymore. 'cause they're dealing with, you know, dialysis or arrhythmias or, or whatever it is.
Clifford: So it's really just kind of, Yeah, taking stock and figuring out where you're at. 'cause like I, unfortunately, and again, I don't want to be the, the negative Nelly, but most dudes ain't at 70%, especially if they're crushing it, the more they're crushing it, oftentimes that's more wear and tear. And so it's really about taking stock.
Clifford: I think we have a men's health assessment. it's like three minutes the reality is. We can tell way more about your health and where it's headed and ultimately your performance and outcomes than any doctor ever could. Because just by simply looking at how long you've been drinking, some self-reported stuff around your, diet and your weight and your workout stuff.
Clifford: But this stuff is all very predictive. And [00:30:00] again, it's alcohol's so good at eroding your diet and lifestyle and that's really how you're gonna make your money or lose your money and. Socially acceptable level, socially
acceptance of it is really where guys kind of, there's a ghost in the machine there that's kind of like, a trip and it's a spiritual journey and yeah, you gotta kind of sack up and you have to kind of be the, the guy that's doing things different.
Clifford: And so. we wanna be there rolling with them and, these guys have their crew, they have their playbook and they're getting games quickly, and everybody's like, Hey, What happened to your face? Like, I see your, you know, I can see your like jawline now, and you don't have like this, like jowl here and like, your skin is clear and why are you kicking my ass in basketball when I always kick your ass in basketball?
Clifford: So it's, it's really about, you know, again, it's not like I'm saying this is the perfect solution and there's, trade offs to everything, but it's really, ultimately it's like. Looking and feeling and performing at your best and having opportunities to, yeah, kind of check it out so you have more of an informed opinion, especially if you have more to lose.
Clifford: And so, [00:31:00] yeah, we have a lot of materials and resources around just kind of taking stock and it's not about, again, hurrying up and going, but it's like. Packing your bags, making sure you have your story straight, know, have your plan. You have your n nas, you have your, you know, you have your, game plan.
Clifford: You know how long you're gonna go for, you know, what you're looking to do. And when you have that, then you start playing offense. You're not on back on your heels, making lame excuses. And when your buddies give you shit, you caving or you you're making these lame excuses.
Clifford: So it's really a, a flex it's like. Your buddies are gonna give you shit either way. So it's like, do you wanna like be like, oh yeah, you're right. Or you want whatever, dude? Yeah. No, you'd hate it. Don't do it. No. You, you'd hate it. Forget it. Like just, you know, it's all about playing the game and, but it's really crazy, we get guys that lose 60 pounds, that have bad blood work, that don't, their doctors are like, Hey, what's up here?
Clifford: Like, I guess I'm taking off the statin and I guess I'm, you know, you don't need the blood pressure medication anymore. How'd you get all this muscle? You know, it's like, [00:32:00] really compelling the results we can get in months, not years. Yeah. it's such a big disparity between, kind of trying to work out a little extra harder and eat a couple extra kale salads here, but still have my, vendor weekends and all that.
Clifford: So Some guys that are doing things differently. So you have your own crew and posse, so you're not feeling like an outcast or, or anything like that, of, and then helping you kind of process it. Because like you said, you've kind of, referenced this, but It's kind of a mind-bending experience and yeah, it's not the perfect solution, but looking and feeling and sleeping better and waking up feeling good and, and having that productivity so you're not skipping workouts and time with your kids, is it, it adds up pretty quickly and it ultimately is, yeah, it's a massive gift that we want as many guys to do versus, hop in the medical system and, and take a lot of cash and, and really, you know.
Clifford: Duct tape up a lot of stuff that doesn't work too well.
Dustin: We'll tell people as we close here in a second, about how to take the assessment. So if they're [00:33:00] curious about this, they just wanna kinda get a baseline and understand these different factors. maybe answer some questions that their doctor doesn't think to an ask them, or they dodge or they avoid.
Dustin: we'll tell how to do that. and I know your business is evolving. Clifford, you know, kinda the opening question here is like, how do you leverage your personal story to grow your business? You've about your personal story. I've talked about my personal story as it relates to the work that you do. So a booze vacation.
Dustin: If someone ultimately like takes the assessment and they're like, I really do wanna do this and I want to like. Do it in a, in a powerful way. Like, I wanna do this, you know, with support, I guess, is it a coaching program? Like, tell me a little more about how booze vacation supports people who do want to take that
four month break, that six month break, not just from alcohol, but taking that holistic look at their health, their mental performance, all the things that tied to that.
Dustin: But like, how does, is Booz Vacation a coaching program at its core? It's,
Clifford: yeah. Yeah. It's kind of education, awareness and coaching and you know, again, depending upon where people are at with their health and habits and [00:34:00] age, can some guys pull this off? Sure. But I think oftentimes it's, pretty important just to kind of, again, you can stop drinking and you can
start making inroads with your diet, fitness, and, sleep, but the mindset and the operating system, I think needs a lot of, you know, yes, you need to make sure your head's screwed on properly or you continue to kind of play the old scripts
and. We can make this just really easy and really quick and really transformational. And we want it to be easy.
Clifford: We want it to be accessible. We want it to be a flex, and we don't want guys feeling awkward and having these conversations, and my wife's giving me crap and she doesn't, you know, getting all in their head. It's like, no, no, no. It's not about anybody but you. And this is total normal. And so just kind of having, yeah.
Clifford: That shared experience. It sounds kind of whatever, but it's really critical. It's really what kind of keeps the head screwed on tight and no second guessing, and it just, it just makes it 10 times easier. So yeah, there's coaching and happy to help. We have a free [00:35:00] assessment But yeah, it's really just about sharing this gift as, much as possible and, helping guys not get stuck because yeah, like I said, their metabolic health, their sleep. you're impacting so many different things that. It stuck after dysregulating them for decades and being older. And so if you're not intentional about it, and fortunately, like I said, I kicked the crap outta myself for decades and was diligently working on these things.
Clifford: So every experience that a guy's gonna have, I've already had and, and kind of. Figured out and, worked it out with our crew. So that's what's cool about it. Yeah.
Dustin: and as someone who didn't know this existed and wish I would have, you know, like I said, 16 months ago when I was really starting to get serious about taking a break, which eventually became an extended break in my case.
Dustin: I was just reflecting as you're talking Clifford, about the importance of coaching mindset. Just someone to be like, that's totally normal. Like, yeah, this is probably gonna happen three nights into this, or this is probably gonna happen at your next event. Or your wife, you know, may say something like this to you and here's why that's coming up and here's, you know, how you can address that without kinda losing your, [00:36:00] your rhythm here.
Dustin: I really would've benefited from coaching on this journey. And the difference between this time and the other two times that I took a break and did 75 hard is I had a pseudo coach, you know, this guy named Dez, who's in my, group, my small group that I'm in, in front row Dads, I kind of said this earlier.
Dustin: I'm like, I'm approaching the end of this. I'm telling the guys in the group, Hey, you know, I made it through 75 hard again, you know, kind of
feeling pretty proud of myself. And he's like, Hey, this sends me a side text. Why don't you just, just keep the alcohol part up just for two more weeks. Just hit day 90.
Dustin: Then I'd love to just hear, you know, what you're thinking about it. He didn't put any pressure on me. That was the little seed that got planted. Then I'm like, I could do that. You know, it's kind of a challenge to me. Like, I could do that and I did it, and then I'm like, Hey, there's something to this, you know?
Dustin: And then, and then he had, he was about a month ahead of me in the journey. So in a sense I had him as a peer coach. but not everyone listening to this, I bet there's a lot of people are like, yeah, I could really take a break from booze. I could really need to like admit that.
Dustin: My body's not the same as it was 20 years ago. The [00:37:00] stress, this sleep issues, the, prescriptions, all this stuff I'm dealing with, I want to be able to objectively know how to be better. They probably don't happen to have a des in their corner who's 30 days ahead of them, who's pulling them along and so Clifford can be your Des Right.
Dustin: Clifford And, the, crew he has at Booze vacation. Can help guide you through this, coach you through it, make it as fun as possible, and really help optimize the experience for you. and like I said, I'm really, really grateful you're doing the work. Clifford really grateful to get to know you through our program and, help you get this word out because I think especially in entrepreneurial circles, this is a acute need and it's, again, we're not prescribing.
Dustin: Don't drink or do drink or whatever, but be able to take enough of a break to know the difference so that you can make your own choice, right? And that's ultimately what we're trying to do here, and it becomes more and more important as you have more and more roles and responsibilities on your back, as an entrepreneur.
Dustin: So Clifford, again, thanks for being here as a, going away present here. I definitely wanna make sure you tell us about this men's health [00:38:00] assessment and like how people can take this first step coming outta the interview today, if they wanna know more about how this would work for them.
Clifford: Yeah, absolutely.
Clifford: And yeah, I think the navigation's important and especially when you go back to drinking, like, having a game plan, figuring it out and what to expect.
Right? And so one last quick thing I'll say is when you're regularly drinking, you know, you're in lower, constantly in lower states, and so it improves your states with a little chemical boost and you have set and setting with your buddies on the weekends, but when you're not and you're feeling good, and then you have your first drink, that's a depressant.
Clifford: it's gonna lower your state. Yeah. And so you have to keep chipping away to like lower your state before you start making your money. So those are the one of the many epiphanies that you'll, you'll see where you'll be like, Hmm, I might not wanna turn this machinery back on.
Clifford: You know, so that's kind of some of the stuff, but it's a lot of stuff that you can kind of experiment with and what those lines look like. but yeah, check out boo vacation.com/quiz. There. There'll be a popup that'll show up. Again, this is like a. Quick 20 questions, three minute [00:39:00] quiz, kind of fun, kind of funny, and then the report out is really, really well done.
Clifford: And it gives you kind of a sense of a methodology and, and kind of like I said, if you have any of these key systems of health that aren't at optimal levels, your sleep, your diet, your fitness, which most guys don't, and you're regularly drinking, not only will you not be able to restore them, but they're gonna start pulling down these other systems.
Clifford: And so you're just gonna have all these weak links. You're gonna start playing whack-a-mole with a bunch of different stuff and, and working 10 times harder. So we wanna make it easy. We wanna make it fun, we want to kind of gamify it and trying to be that beacon, you know, you don't have to be the guy banging the gong, but it's a big deal and it's guaranteed results.
Clifford: And it's, it's a, a cool little experiment to do that. I believe every, every guy needs to bust out. you know, the alcohol is the, leading edge of the spear, but then it's really about once you kind of get past that, you have kind of a longer runway set. Then it's really like, all right, let's fix your sleep so your diet's a little bit more intuitive, and then you take all this extra time and.
Clifford: Time and energy and, dial in your, [00:40:00] fitness and then all of a sudden we get, exponential gains. So it's really about you hitting the ground and running as quickly as possible.
Dustin: Yeah. and I'll say even as someone who, at the time I met Clifford, had already not drank anything for, I don't know, a year almost probably, or maybe at least eight months.
Dustin: I took this assessment and I found it super helpful and insightful because as he said. Alcohol is the leading spear. It's probably the one thing that dilutes us the most and be able to understand the bigger picture and all these other things that affect our performance as middle age guys. but it's not the only thing.
Dustin: And so even if you're like, Hey, I haven't drank alcohol my whole life, like, but you made it to this point in a conversation and you wanna optimize your performance as an entrepreneur, as a husband, as a dad, as a, as a volunteer, all the, the roles that you live in life. Yeah, go take this assessment. It's free.
Dustin: It's, pretty entertaining, to take, but it's also gonna ask you some questions that I bet you haven't thought about ever, or, at least for a long time. So I'd encourage every guy listening to this to go take the assessment. boo vacation.com/quiz will take you right there. and then you have the option of.
Dustin: Having a 20 minute [00:41:00] call and kind of unpacking the results if you'd like. and then if you want some support and you do wanna make some changes to your lifestyle, you know, that's what they do, as a coaching service, for people as well. Highly recommend it. I've gotten into Clifford personally. He is an awesome guy, as I'm sure you could tell in this conversation.
Dustin: and just a great entrepreneur too. So, someone to have in your corner for sure on your lifestyle and your health. but also just someone who really gets it and understands, you know. life as an entrepreneur. in fact, from birth, I grew up, I grew up there, uh, you know, in Silicon Valley, in that environment, which is, pretty wild.
Dustin: The first person I've met, that that's true for. So anyway, Clifford, thank you so much, man. Lose vacation.com/quiz. Go check out that assessment, find out some more about yourself and, start to optimize your health and your performance. Thanks again for being here, sir. I appreciate the work that you're doing.
Clifford: Thanks, Dustin. Appreciate you. Take care.