S12E162 John James Staniszewski/Fungitarian - From Nightclubs to Mushrooms: One Man’s Fungitarian Revolution

Harry Duran 00:00:00:

So, John James Stanisiewski. Did I get that right?

John James Staniszewski 00:00:03:

You nailed it. Perfect. It's impressive on the first time.

Harry Duran 00:00:08:

Creator of the fungitarian lifestyle. Thank you so much for joining me on the vertical farming podcast.

John James Staniszewski 00:00:14:

Absolutely. Pleasure to be here.

Harry Duran 00:00:16:

Where's the home for you?

John James Staniszewski 00:00:17:

Home is Chicago.

Harry Duran 00:00:19:

Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:00:19:

So right now, home for Chicago for now. And then next week I'll be in Vegas and living there for a few months and potentially going over to Florida. There's many vertical farming opportunities coming my way right now, so I'm kind of leaving myself open to be where I can be of most service at.

Harry Duran 00:00:40:

So is it more like a nomadic lifestyle for now?

John James Staniszewski 00:00:42:

Yeah. I've decided to take up the nomadic lifestyle and, you know, live out of a few suitcases. My girlfriend lives in Vegas. I will have a place to stay at, but since we do travel so much, it just feels that way, you know, everything's packed properly to travel the right way.

Harry Duran 00:01:01:

Were you raised?

John James Staniszewski 00:01:02:

I was born and raised in Chicago.

Harry Duran 00:01:04:

Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:01:04:

Yeah. So I've been out here my entire life. My family's got really deep roots here and yeah, I've dealt my whole business and success before mushrooms. Being very involved in the Chicago scene. You know, I used to run nightclubs back in the day and.

Harry Duran 00:01:24:

Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:01:24:

You know, and I've been a gym owner and personal trainer, nutritionist. And so I've had hundreds of clients all around the city. And I've just made some really, really good connections being in the city and promoting the city. I've been everywhere and, you know, I love it here.

Harry Duran 00:01:39:

Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:01:41:

One of my favorite places in the world.

Harry Duran 00:01:43:

What's your earliest entrepreneurial memory?

John James Staniszewski 00:01:45:

Oh, man. I guess entrepreneurial. I don't know if this is entrepreneurial, but I've been working since I was 11. I realized that you can get money carrying people's bags at the golf clubs.

Harry Duran 00:01:57:

Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:01:57:

At the golf courses. And I was like a caddy for a summer and then I started it. So I worked at my family as a fast food service restaurant out here.

Harry Duran 00:02:09:

Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:02:10:

And I started working there at like 13, busing tables and sweeping and doing that kind of stuff. But I realized though, at like maybe 12 or 13, that if I went the extra mile and gave a little bit extra service and brought them a little bit extra catch up that I can incentivize my tipping. And so I started getting tips when it, you know, you're in a fast food service, that doesn't happen, you know. And I realized that there's a level of service that you can give that will give You a return. And that's kind of really, you know, where that idea started. But working that young made me realize that I never want to work for anybody. So I haven't had like a real 9 to 5 job, I don't know, since I was like 18 years old. I was the first old banker for like six months. And then I was like, okay.

Harry Duran 00:03:02:

Not the nine to five kind of guy.

John James Staniszewski 00:03:04:

No, not for me, my friend.

Harry Duran 00:03:05:

Yeah, I had to learn that the hard way. I was in corporate for 20 plus years.

John James Staniszewski 00:03:08:

Oh, okay.

Harry Duran 00:03:09: I wore the suit. I was in New York City. Yeah. But also I was, my first love is house music. So I grew up DJing. Like, I still got my turntables here in the office, my techniques. Growing up in New York, like, you know, I was there for the birth of hip hop. And I had, you know, I was like 15, 16, I was going to parties and I was staring at the DJ and I'm like, I want to do that. And so basically I just learned how to like beat match and, you know, making mixes. And so it's still a passion of mine. Still got my soundcloud up.

John James Staniszewski 00:03:43:

Right.

Harry Duran 00:03:43:

So when you mentioned the nightclub scene, I mean, I was like, that was my, you know, coming of age in like late 80s and 90s New York City.

John James Staniszewski 00:03:52:

I mean, no better time or place to be. I. If I, you know, people always ask, where did you go back to? And it was like 80s and 90s.

Harry Duran 00:04:01:

Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:04:01:

Nightclub scene. Era of expanding these cities. Because Chicago, I mean, our big thing is house music.

Harry Duran 00:04:07:

Oh yeah, for sure.

John James Staniszewski 00:04:09:

You know, like going to Sound bar and all these other places. Like, house is huge here. And so, yeah, like, that's just another thing. Like the summertime we go hard, you know, it's like as many festivals as we can squeeze in, as much house music as we can listen to. And yeah, I'm a big fan.

Harry Duran 00:04:24:

How did you get involved in the scene?

John James Staniszewski 00:04:27:

Really? Just, you know, personal training didn't pay. Like 18, 19 years old. And so when I was at the gym, one of the buddy, one of my guys there was a bouncer and he was like, dude, don't worry. You just need to look jack and stand there and you're good. It's like, doesn't get crazy. And I ended up being able to get a job before I was 21, you know, and so starting at like 19 years old.

Harry Duran 00:04:53: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:04:53:

And then so by the time I was 21, it was like, okay, I already got the whole idea of the club scene. Now I can kind of bartend Now I have my leadership skills, so I can implement that. And then it just kind of went from, like, one spot to the next. And I ended up becoming the head VIP host and ran the largest nightclub in Chicago history. They opened up this place called Castle, and, I mean, you know, having 25 bottle servers. You know, like, the Bulls players would come in and, you know, popping bottles, base of spades, $200,000 tables, like, you know, the whole thing. So, like, that's really what got me into. It was just the. The sick money, you know?

Harry Duran 00:05:34:

Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:05:35:

Like, it was just. It was unbeatable. And then, you know, when you're training, it's like, you're not super busy when you start, so you got time.

Harry Duran 00:05:42:

How'd you finally wrap that up? And what was the signal for you that you needed to move on?

John James Staniszewski 00:05:45:

Yeah, so I wrapped it up in between this, where I was, like, still partying all the time, and then I found out about bodybuilding, like, competitions, and I decided I was like, you know what? I'm gonna turn. You know, I was really. I was already really fit. I was already like, you know, everything was okay, but I was like, all right, I'm gonna. I'm gonna go next level. And I, like, just quit drinking, quit partying, and just dedicated, like, three months into getting ready for this show. And, like, the got down to, like, 5% body fat and the richest I've ever been. And during that time, I just realized that, like, I could still work and not drink and, like, not party and. But then that gets old really fast.

Harry Duran 00:06:26:

Yeah. Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:06:27:

And it was like, okay, well, I can't drink and bodybuild, so I have to pick one. And I fell in love with bodybuilding, so it was, like, a natural thing to just. And once I got into that market, I ended up getting around more people, and so training kind of just started elevating, and I was like, okay, I can compensate now with clients. Three clients, instead of working at a bar for six hours.

Harry Duran 00:06:51:

Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:06:52:

You know, and so that's really what transpired it. And I just really wanted to be a lot healthier, you know? Like, I wasn't always this Mr. Fungitarian Fitness, you know, like, that just. I was always into it, but I partied my ass off, my young.

Harry Duran 00:07:07:

Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:07:07:

You know, and your body was, like, in.

Harry Duran 00:07:10:

Probably in conflict, like, hey, dude, you're trying to get fit, but you're also drinking, so you're sending mixed messages to your body, like, you know, washing your creatine down with a beer or something like that.

John James Staniszewski 00:07:19:

I was like, am I gonna eat dinner tonight or should I just drink my calories? I was like, okay, that's kind of how it had to be. And I was like, yeah, that's, that's enough. So, yeah, after I got out of that party scene, I went really, really hard on the personal training and the bodybuilding and, you know, I became a bodybuilding coach. Even during that, I had like 10 first place competitors. And it went, it was amazing. You know, it was a good run. I was a sponsored athlete for a supplement company. It was going to the Olympia. And then, you know, during that, though, the crazy thing about it, and that's what I'm trying to convey with so much health, is that, like, even though that was the epitome of hell, it was the best I ever looked and the worst I ever felt.

Harry Duran 00:08:00:

Oh, wow.

John James Staniszewski 00:08:01:

And so it was like, I'm taking all of these things and doing all these supplements and all this, and it's like you're just switching what you're doing for so called healthy, you know, and then that's when I woke up to all of this. And essentially so at that point I was, you know, competing heavily, like deadlifting, like 500 pounds and like all that kind of crazy stuff.

Harry Duran 00:08:25:

Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:08:26:

Slightly tearing my L4, L5 and.

Harry Duran 00:08:29:

Okay, and what was that that you cut out for?

John James Staniszewski 00:08:33:

I got prescribed a bunch of opiates.

Harry Duran 00:08:35:

Oh, wow.

John James Staniszewski 00:08:35:

And so it was, it went from like five a day, 10 a day to 20 a day.

Harry Duran 00:08:40:

Wow.

John James Staniszewski 00:08:41:

Like that for like two years straight. And I couldn't figure out how to get off, you know, while still. Like, I take like 10 of these things and go train 10 people, you know.

Harry Duran 00:08:50:

Wow.

John James Staniszewski 00:08:50:

Made me feel like Superman.

Harry Duran 00:08:52:

Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:08:52:

And then that's when I realized, like, oh, everything I learned in bodybuilding was kind of a joke. Like, all these supplements are a joke. Like everything's. And now I'm addicted to these pills because I didn't chill and I should have relaxed and rested, you know. And so that is when I found magic mushrooms. And I use magic mushrooms one night and took my opiate addiction away instantaneously.

Harry Duran 00:09:19:

Wow.

John James Staniszewski 00:09:20:

Yeah. So just in one night. And my whole entire world opened up and changed. And that was my, like, call. I had a come to God moment. God was like, I'll save your life. You saved the world with mushrooms. So from that point on, there's a lot more to the story. But it's essentially that was the catalyst that shifted everything for me. And when I woke up free of not having to take this substance, it's a miracle, you know, I'll do whatever you say.

Harry Duran 00:09:45:

Yeah. Had you previously to that ever had what you would maybe call a spiritual experience?

John James Staniszewski 00:09:52:

So yeah, I've always been a spiritual person, whether it be focusing from a religious standpoint of looking at God. I grew up Catholic and so I've always had that. But my mother was a very spiritual person. Like a hippie spiritual person.

Harry Duran 00:10:09:

Yeah, yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:10:10:

Tarot cards and zodiacs and all of that stuff. Yeah, yeah, I had that upbringing as. So I always knew that there was more out there. Right. And like reading my zodiac signs my entire life to me, you know, so it's like, you know, you get to see both spectrums and then for a period I kind of just felt, I just didn't care. You know, I fell out of it when I was in the nightclub stuff. And then that's what really brought me back into loving it and studying, you know, the universe and God and where we are spiritually. And so I've studied, you know, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity. I've looked to, you know, the different metaphysics of essentially what is capable with our mind and how we transmute our thoughts into energy and that energy then transfers out to other people and then taking that understanding through a lot of self help books, you know, I, dude, I didn't read a full book Till I was 26 years old, you know, and the first book I read was the Laws of Success by Napoleon. And I took that and with it.

Harry Duran 00:11:15:

You know, you're like, oh, user guide, got it.

John James Staniszewski 00:11:17:

Like dude, there's a manual. Oh my God. And so that like transpired everything and I like that would, I would say is the biggest catalyst for me and my success is that I took that as a hundred percent belief. Yeah, that's the truth. You can do that. You can set your intention, have a definite purpose, call upon it, prey upon it and you're going to attract that energy towards you. So I use that and you know, now I respect all spirituality, I respect all religion, I encourage it. I teach people through mushroom ceremonies and working with them on coaching, whether it be microdosing or whatever it might be, but to find the God for you, you know, find whatever, whatever that might be. But know that there's this invisible, intelligent, infinite source that is there to call upon if you decide.

Harry Duran 00:12:10:

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like when you're ready and open to it and if you've invited it in a way, either through your life choices or because you know, you've decided that, you know, it's time to have that conversation, I'VE been on a spiritual journey probably for 20 plus years, but.

John James Staniszewski 00:12:24:

Oh, nice.

Harry Duran 00:12:25:

Yeah. So it's like the first book I think was. That cracked it open was Deepak Chopra's the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.

John James Staniszewski 00:12:30:

The great one.

Harry Duran 00:12:31:

Yeah. And so it just kind of just spiral from there and then that's. I always tell people now it's gonna be hard to outwoo me at this point because I literally have gone down light workers, rabbit holes, like pyramids. Like what's under the Sphinx? Like, dude, you know, thank you, Harry.

John James Staniszewski 00:12:47:

Thank you. I'm so with you. Like, I. And I feel bad sometimes now because, like, people come up to me and start saying it and it's like, all right, cool. So now I know you're gonna go down this rabbit hole next. You're gonna. You're gonna turn that way. It's like this never ending journey where it's like I explore it now. You can't spend your time always learning. You need to spend your time living.

Harry Duran 00:13:10:

Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:13:10:

You know, living what you have taken in and then embodying that. And I think that's the hardest part.

Harry Duran 00:13:16:

Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:13:16:

Is coming back to those reminders that miracles happen every day and that you should have like a five set of miracles that have happened to you, because it's all happened. You all seem to like the unbelievable. And it's like, draw upon those every time you forget, you know, like.

Harry Duran 00:13:33:

Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:13:33:

Remember.

Harry Duran 00:13:35:

Yeah. My current fascination is the reality creation and like multiple timelines and just how they're all existing at once and how you're just. You just have to raise yourself to the vibration of the timeline where what you want has already happened.

John James Staniszewski 00:13:46:

Correct.

Harry Duran 00:13:47:

And then you live as if it's already happened. And it's kind of like the Esther Hicks vibe set as well. And so me and my partner have been having some conversations about that as well. But I think it's. The more you open yourself up to it, I think there is some integration that you have to do. Because I've done like ayahuasca ceremonies and it's like, it's a powerful thing. But like, then the real work comes after where you have to figure out like everything that just came in. Like, what are you going to do with it and what are you going to change about your life?

John James Staniszewski 00:14:11:

Absolutely, man. I couldn't agree more. I follow that philosophy as well, because people don't realize that we're actually living in the past dependent on words that have set traumas into us, that can't allow us to push forward into this dimension. Because we are set on timeline leaps, you know, and it's getting past that and realizing that you're allowing the world to keep you stuck in that loop. But with the ayahuasca, with the mushrooms, it's so powerful and it's so much that if you're not integrating and you're not like journaling while you're doing it and then getting around other people, like, what I see all the time is other people have those profound moments. They connect, they get back to it, but then they go back around and the five people closest to them all are still stuck in this matrix and living this game. And they're like, what are you talking about? Like, and then you disbelieve all of this belief that just came to you. And so integration has to be a part of any ceremony and a part of your life. Because it's just. It's so much. You're never going to get it on the first time, you know, like, it's never. It's not a one and done. It's a forever learning process, you know.

Harry Duran 00:15:21:

Although the people that do the ibogaine, they do the one and done and they're just like, I'm good.

John James Staniszewski 00:15:27:

You know what, dude, thank you. Yeah, thank you for saying that. Because it's.

Harry Duran 00:15:32:

I haven't done it.

John James Staniszewski 00:15:33: I

've heard, like, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed and studying it. I.

Harry Duran 00:15:38:

But it's for a big time, like, PTSD type stuff. Well, really, like for people that really need that, like, you know, reset.

John James Staniszewski 00:15:44:

For me, it's for the attic, you know, it's for therapy.

Harry Duran 00:15:48:

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

John James Staniszewski 00:15:49:

No, it's for the person that can't let that cannabis addiction or whatever the addiction might be. Like, sure. It, like, you know, I've talked to countless people about it. It's a miracle. You know, I've talked to a friend that's like gotten off a heroin. Who's had heroin in the house that like went back and just threw it away, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's. That doesn't. Yeah, that's not.

Harry Duran 00:16:09:

Yeah, that's not.

John James Staniszewski 00:16:10:

You know, so there is really big breakthroughs coming with that and I think the United States is really going to lean heavy into that. I know Texas is working on bringing ibogaine therapy for people and so that essentially could be the one and done. But it was on my to do list in like the next. Sometime in the next year.

Harry Duran 00:16:29:

Oh, wow.

John James Staniszewski 00:16:30:

For sure. Just the only one I haven't done yet.

Harry Duran 00:16:33:

Yeah, we might have to Have a follow up after that.

John James Staniszewski 00:16:35:

Yes, 100%.

Harry Duran 00:16:39:

So how has that affected. I love this podcast because I can just ask whatever I want.

John James Staniszewski 00:16:44:

Yeah, that's super cool. Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:16:46:

But I, and I just kind of follow my own threads and usually the listeners along for the journey. But like how has this journey, this personal spiritual journey for you affected how the outside world interacts with you?

John James Staniszewski 00:16:59:

You know, I've always been a weirdo, so in all reality it was for me I've been on this like universal timeline where all the things that I want to embody and do have just been ahead of time, you know, and like mushrooms was one of those things. But so is reality. You know, I've been doing Wim Hof for almost a decade. You know, like, okay, yeah, you know, I've been in this for such a long time and you know, the reality is caught up to me as I say it is like now it's socially acceptable and it's a normal thing and everybody does it and it's like. But back then it wasn't. But I think that's what separated me above and that's why people worked with me. They know I'm getting up early and I'm going and meditating and I'm going to go on, you know, do 10 mile walks so I can be spiritually connected to God more. And I'm going to fast for 72 hours or, or I'll do it five day, you know. And so I think over time the world has just become more of that. So it's been more acceptable and open. But no, dude, like seven, eight years ago, goofball, you know, it was just like, oh, okay, what are you doing? It's weird.

Harry Duran 00:18:07:

Who have been some of your mentors along the way along this path, man.

John James Staniszewski 00:18:11:

Like my three go to that I always tried to or four I guess to draw back onto is Michael Singer. He's fantastic. The Untethered Soul. If you've never read it, David Goggins.

Harry Duran 00:18:23:

Oh yeah, he's just a beast.

John James Staniszewski 00:18:26:

He's just a beast. You know, you can't listen to him and not want to go run or do something.

Harry Duran 00:18:30:

You know, he's pushing the limits of what's possible or even should be done to the human body. But it just shows you like, you know, how much of it is a mental game.

John James Staniszewski 00:18:41:

Oh yeah, man. He breaks all. And that's what I'm saying. The book isn't about how to or his story isn't about fitness. It's not about working out. It's about the mind.

Harry Duran 00:18:48:

Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:18:49:

What is actually capable from just a regular person.

Harry Duran 00:18:51: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:18:52:

I think that's the biggest message that you can get and embody is that, you know, you're not special. You know, he's just another normal guy. Marcus Aurelius.

Harry Duran 00:19:00:

Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:19:01:

I read Meditations by Marcus almost every day. And so, you know, it's all different facets. But for me, I always tell people that in this life, I have a lot of cool friends and I have a lot of cool people, but I want to draw upon grandmasters. And even if I've never met them, they're my best friends and my mentors, you know, because I can call upon their books or their ideas, because that's what I know that I wanted to embody. And at the time, I didn't have that network of people that I could call upon and rely upon. So you then end up wanting to. You know, I'm a big believer that you are the five closest people that you surround yourself with.

Harry Duran 00:19:42:

Jim Rohn. Yeah. Classic clip. Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:19:45:

You know, and so I realized that I can just embody them.

Harry Duran 00:19:49:

Yes.

John James Staniszewski 00:19:49:

Like, the character that I want to be is part of them. And like, in different instances, I can call upon the Goggins. I could call upon the Michael Singer and surrender. I can ask, you know, Marcus Rious, what's the philosophy in this lesson?

Harry Duran 00:20:02:

Sure.

John James Staniszewski 00:20:02:

You know, and so that's. Those have been really big mentors to me along this path. And I mean, plenty others. But definitely those three you mentioned, the.

Harry Duran 00:20:13:

Fourth you were considering.

John James Staniszewski 00:20:14:

I know, and I lost it because Marcus Aurelius stepped in. But the other one, which I guess it's not a mentor, but if I've read every single one of his books, but it would be Napoleon Hill.

Harry Duran 00:20:26:

Yeah. So it's interesting. Are you a Chat GPT user obsessed.

John James Staniszewski 00:20:31:

My partner on that, too.

Harry Duran 00:20:33:

Well, it's funny because my partner created. She loves ChatGPT, and she's also a fan of Napoleon Hill. So she created this chatbot, and I'll share it with you later offline to kind of test it out. But it's essentially, it's called Hill's Mastermind.

John James Staniszewski 00:20:49:

Okay. No way.

Harry Duran 00:20:50:

It takes, you know, it takes the concept of Mastermind.

John James Staniszewski 00:20:52:

Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:20:52:

Napoleon Hill. Right. And what you do is you feed it. Like, in her case, she's got like, you know, some famous authors that she likes. She's got, like, you know, I think Tony Robbins in there, and she's got some people who do ifs work and off the back and just like, really inspirational people from a wide range of disciplines. But essentially, you set up your council, and it's ideally someone who's got a lot of public knowledge or a book or something. So if you say David Goggins.

John James Staniszewski 00:21:18: Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:21:18: Marcus Aurelius. Right. Napoleon Hill himself. Right. And then just kind of you have these people, and then they're in there, and then there's this exercise where you do some free writing about stuff that's happening, and then you give it to the council and they just start chiming in, like, that is so cool. And they start talking to you in their voice. And so, like, she gave me one, and I have, like, Joe Rogan in there. Hey, bro. Like, and then it's like, they respond because of they. There's enough canon.

John James Staniszewski 00:21:48: There's enough and that.

Harry Duran 00:21:49: So they'll respond and they'll give you guidance, and they start to kind of interact with each other. So.

John James Staniszewski 00:21:54: So great.

Harry Duran 00:21:55: Yeah. I feel like she's onto something with that.

John James Staniszewski 00:21:56: She's definitely onto something with that because. Yeah. I mean, dude, if I could sit down with, like, five of the greatest people I know every night and go over my bullshit.

Harry Duran 00:22:03: Yeah. Oh, well, you'll be able to do that soon. Soon. So I'll definitely. I'd love to you to test it out.

John James Staniszewski 00:22:10: Oh, dude, that's incredible. Yes. I'm so on board.

Harry Duran 00:22:13: So when did the, like, you know, you were obviously experiencing medicinal mushrooms, but when did it all start to come together for you in terms of, like, that this could be something that could be the future for you in terms of a business or. What were you seeing with the world? Indoor farming. I'm curious when that came on your radar.

John James Staniszewski 00:22:31: Yeah. So the world of indoor farming really didn't come onto my radar until, like, two ago, three years ago. I've been doing this since January 2018.

Harry Duran 00:22:41: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:22:41: And it really just became to be a really, really good mycologist. And I basically, like, locked myself away for two years and just did nothing to grow mushrooms. And then I realized I wanted to grow a mushroom that I had the most influence on. And that would have been cordyceps, because it helped fitness people. And so I knew if I grew it, I could sell it. And so I became a master of that. But then I got a calling. I was meditating one day and I got a download. It was like, dude, you need to save the world. You're not going to save the world with supplements. Like. And so I was like, okay, well, I got to feed people. So I went and bought a mushroom farm in Missouri called Mississippi Mushrooms. One month before COVID and tried to bring it back up to Chicago and it was an epic fail.

Harry Duran 00:23:25: And were they using. How are they growing it?

John James Staniszewski 00:23:28: So they were growing it. They converted an old chicken farm. Old chicken farm into other. Like, they converted the chicken houses into grow rooms. And it was basically just this, like, big open barn. It was wild. But they had equipment that could produce up to 200, 250,000 pounds of mushrooms a year.

Harry Duran 00:23:47: Whoa.

John James Staniszewski 00:23:47: And so I was like, they have to close their business because the city bought their lot and is putting up something. And I was like, all right, this is our sign to get out. And I was like, all right, cool. Like, I can take this and I can get going. Right? And it was on its way to Chicago, like the day the announcement happened. And so I have like 60 grand worth of equipment on trucks with that need forklifts and everything to get it off. And that happens. And all of a sudden everything starts closing down. I had to go rent out another two, like, forklift excavators and send them to my buddy's horse farm, like an hour and a half away from Chicago because he had a barn with extra storage. And we stored like 4,000 square feet worth of equipment.

Harry Duran 00:24:36: Oh, my God.

John James Staniszewski 00:24:37: I was like, fuck. Like, what the. You just told me to go buy all this equipment. Like, oh, man, the download for it. And I was like, oh, God. So I didn't worry too long though, because I was like, okay, well, maybe this is a sign that it's like going to come later. And I got to focus on growing cordyceps.

Harry Duran 00:24:55: Sure.

John James Staniszewski 00:24:55: And so I went back to doing that because I was doing really good and I was obsessed with it. I loved it.

Harry Duran 00:25:00: So how are you processing the cordyceps? You're processing them, like, drying them and then grind them down into something?

John James Staniszewski 00:25:05: Yeah. So, I mean, no, I was selling them fresh because there was other people around the country that wanted to take it and process them, also dehydrate them as well.

Harry Duran 00:25:13: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:25:14: So if they wanted to try, they can get it dry or they could get it fresh. I didn't. I was getting ready to get into the supplement game and going to do features and products. And then like a month after that happened, I was. I got a call from a friend and they were like, hey, do you know there's a mushroom farm down the street from your old gym? And I was like, get out of here. No way. So I go drive to the gym and I like, type in the address. I'm like, fuck, it's a 10 minute walk. Kidding me. And Walk down the street and there's this old warehouse. It's like a 6,000, 8,000 square foot warehouse. Yeah. There's like three dudes growing mushrooms in like one room in the middle of the ghetto in Chicago. And I was like, what the. But they had mushrooms producing. And I was, oh, cool, you guys grow gourmet mushrooms. And I ended up coming in, talking with the guys and found out it was. It's my current partner, you know, and he wasn't there at the moment. I met him later. But they were like, yeah, you know, we used to grow mussels here. And I was like, what? I was like, okay. And then so I found out it was like a indoor mussels farm that was being an intermediary between the east coast and the west coast.

Harry Duran 00:26:31: Oh, interesting.

John James Staniszewski 00:26:31: Trying to supply high end restaurants in Chicago. But they didn't care about the quality, they cared about the price. And so the business went under, but he still had the lease. And he was like, well, I've got these contracts with restaurants. Would you go if I had them for you? They were like, yeah, sure, why not? And so he's just trying to grow mushrooms, but has no experience, no mushroom nothing.

Harry Duran 00:26:57: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:26:58: But he's an engineer, aquaponics.

Harry Duran 00:27:00: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:27:01: And so he had that going for him. And I was like, okay, cool. I checked it out. I came back a couple times and I was like, hey, man, I need space, you know, I need space to grow these cordyceps on a bigger scale.

Harry Duran 00:27:13: Yeah, yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:27:13: And you know, wrenching stuff's weird right now. I see that you have a problem with your mycology, with your mushrooms. I was like, trade me time for space. And I was like, let me get this in order, you know, like, what.

Harry Duran 00:27:26: Did you notice that was they were.

John James Staniszewski 00:27:27: Doing wrong the SOPs, the way that they were cleaning everything, spraying bags down with, you know, like, it didn't make sense. Everything just didn't make sense. And he was like, a 50% contamination rate on all the grass. And I was like, dude, this is not how this is supposed to be. It was like, no, you know, contam happens. I was like, not like this.

Harry Duran 00:27:48: Yeah, yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:27:49: And so I just noticed like, all the little. Because none of them were mushroom people, like, loved eating psychedelics, but they didn't know anything about mushrooms. And I was like, okay. So I just came in and started doing proper technique on inoculations and creating grain spawn and then making sure the field capacity on the bags were the right way. And how are we cutting the bags? How are we stacking them, you know, like getting into the nitty gritty.

Harry Duran 00:28:13: This is all stuff that you learned on your own, right?

John James Staniszewski 00:28:15: This is all stuff that I learned on my own that I then finally got to apply onto a bigger scale.

Harry Duran 00:28:21: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:28:21: You know, and it was not a lot. It was like £500 a week, you know, in comparison, like, it's not that much. But it gave me the basis that I needed because I had the language. Right. Because I think all learning comes down to having the language. If you understand the language, you can understand how to implement on different scales. And I've. I know, I've just always been like a thinker, like that I can expand out. And so, you know, at the time, I didn't know anything really about my partner. I just knew that he was like, down to like, grow mushrooms and like, yeah, get into this. And we ended up chopping it up some more. And, you know, I was like, hey, man, I'm trying to save the world here. Like, I'm trying to grow a million pounds of mushrooms or generate a million pounds of soil. And I found out that he was a high net worth individual and actually had some funds to make that a reality. And I was like, dude, I remember sitting in the old, like half of an office on a beat up chair and it was like, dude, if we could just manufacture mushrooms, the whole process, and bring them down to a commodity level price point, we can then penetrate the grocery store market and own the whole thing.

Harry Duran 00:29:33: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:29:33: And he was like, fuck, thank you. Right?

Harry Duran 00:29:37: Like, he wasn't. So what was he thinking at the time? Where was his aspirations?

John James Staniszewski 00:29:42: Like, it was like, he knew it could work. He knew that there was money in it. He, you know, but I don't think he saw the full potential, like, the full, like, I mean, I'm talking industry, I'm not talking business.

Harry Duran 00:29:55: Yeah, yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:29:55: You know, and then the more we talked about it, he realized it as well. And it was like, yeah, like, I guarantee that this isn't a trend. This isn't like, it's not just gonna fade away. And so the lease was coming to an end and we got probably like 20 more restaurants at that point. And we were doing good. And so we weren't really making money, but we weren't, you know, we still had customers, so that was good.

Harry Duran 00:30:21: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:30:22: And then essentially we're like, all right, dude, we're gonna go full sun. Like, let's do it. Let's create the biggest mushroom farm that, like, we possibly can. And basically put his life savings and my life savings into this. And we moved and went. A little caveat. One week before we're about to move to this, like, beautiful, like brand new 5 year old, 35,000 square foot building just a little bit outside the city. Had everything, the loan, everything was perfect. It was insulated. Well, they canceled our lease. They were like, no. And somebody else came in and I'll bid you. So in one, we had to go find 40 to 50,000 square feet to go rent out.

Harry Duran 00:30:58: Oh, man.

John James Staniszewski 00:30:59: And our guy was like, fuck, what the fuck? And he found like three other places. And we ended up picking the one that we had because it had a better like, tier layout that I knew we could convert it, but it was like, fuck, this building. So old. There's no four drains. There's like, there's so much that like, yeah, yeah. But I have learned how to adapt a building to what I need from home.

Harry Duran 00:31:25: Where'd you learn that?

John James Staniszewski 00:31:26: Doing this, Like, I'm just. There wasn't another option. We weren't gonna get another building. We were gonna, you know, so it.

Harry Duran 00:31:34: Was like, you had to make it work.

John James Staniszewski 00:31:35: Had to make it work. It was either win or win, you know.

Harry Duran 00:31:38: Oh, yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:31:38: Along the line. And so no pun, B, whole side. And you know, it was like, oh, like. And then that's when, you know, you were saying, you know, when did I learn about vertical farming and getting involved? It was like the first year I started to finally get more farmers because, like, everyone was excited. You know, we built the whole place out in like four months and had mushrooms growing in six months. And then it was like, oh, that's when everybody started coming, you know, USDA farmers around Illinois. It was like, okay, cool. There's like the big thing going on. And, you know, people were geeked up. We were doing mushrooms and everything else. And, you know, it really kind of transpired to that. And I'd say back in like 2022, once I started working with different, like, foundations in the city and I started talking to their farms because, like, I was like so annoyed the first year. I was like, dude, everything is wrong. Like, business keeps breaking. Like. And like, once I realized that, it wasn't really just so much us that it was like, this is what it just means to run a farm.

Harry Duran 00:32:44: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:32:45: More than anything. And it was like, you know, there's just fucking problems that are actually just projects. You're just continually working on projects.

Harry Duran 00:32:52: Yeah, yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:32:53: And so I got a better grasp of it and then I started realizing I already knew the food problem in the country was Terrible. But I didn't realize it was the issue of growing the food and getting it to the people that was also the problem. Because I thought. Yeah, no, not though. I thought I knew it and. But I didn't realize that also even within the vertical farming space, they still weren't doing the job.

Harry Duran 00:33:12: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you ever heard of a book called the Secret Life of Groceries?

John James Staniszewski 00:33:16: Oh, no, but it sounds awesome.

Harry Duran 00:33:18: Yeah, it's awesome and sad at the same. Because someone who, as I got into this space as well, I read it and it just kind of, you know, exposes like, the underbelly of, like, food and how it's transported and it's got a bunch of different examples.

John James Staniszewski 00:33:31: I'm writing that down.

Harry Duran 00:33:32: Touches everything in terms of, like, shipping and the trucking industry and how they're. Yeah. So it's all these. This underbelly of, like, food that no one thinks about when they go to the grocery store and they're just like. It's just. Just there on the shelf.

John James Staniszewski 00:33:44: Oh, yeah. It makes you have such a deeper appreciation for it.

Harry Duran 00:33:47: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:33:48: And also, like a little grossed out.

Harry Duran 00:33:50: Yeah, a lot. So, yeah. You're figuring this all out. Things are breaking them, but you're figuring out that you're realizing that these aren't problems. These are just projects that need to be addressed.

John James Staniszewski 00:34:01: Yeah. And you know, at this time. So we have 50,000 square feet. Right. And we manufacture everything, because I call it from sport to spork. So it starts with us creating the cultures, getting the strains, making the grain spawn, making the bags, cooking them, inoculating them, incubating them, fruiting them.

Harry Duran 00:34:24: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:34:24: Packing them, delivering them, like the whole shebang. We did it. We realized the only way to make this a profitable business was to do it all ourselves. We didn't have a playbook. We didn't have a blueprint. We didn't have a. This is how you do it. Because we also didn't have the money to spend on.

Harry Duran 00:34:40: Yeah, yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:34:41: You know, so just like, let's hopefully just grow the mushrooms and cross our fingers that people will buy them at that point. And so we started with 258 foot by 20 foot shipping containers vertically stacked on top of each other.

Harry Duran 00:34:53: Wow. How high did you go?

John James Staniszewski 00:34:55: So we had 30 foot ceilings. So just double stack. So about. Okay, well, 16ft high with the blocks, it comes out to about 17ft.

Harry Duran 00:35:03: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:35:04: And then we have a platform in between where mushrooms get brought up on racks and then they get stacked into the room.

Harry Duran 00:35:10: Okay. And so.

John James Staniszewski 00:35:12: So we started. Yeah. Go ahead.

Harry Duran 00:35:13: Yeah. So then obviously, was indoor E Con your first indoor indoor ag tech was my first Chicago.

John James Staniszewski 00:35:23: Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:35:24: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:35:24: They asked me, and that actually transpired there.

Harry Duran 00:35:26: Oh, that's right. I did see you there. Yeah. You were on a panel. That's right.

John James Staniszewski 00:35:29: Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:35:31: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:35:31: That's where it all first kicked off. And then the only reason I saw you again this time was because there I ended up meeting my girlfriend, who is a H VAC engineer.

Harry Duran 00:35:40: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:35:41: And she essentially helped introduce me to the rest of the vertical farming world.

Harry Duran 00:35:46: Yeah. What was that like? Like seeing what else is happening in the big, controlled environment space. And because you were, you know, you were just, you know, you got your blinders on, you're figuring out mushrooms, and you got to make this work. Was it helpful for you to kind of just eye opening or just like.

John James Staniszewski 00:36:01: Oh, it was so eye open. I felt so much better about myself.

Harry Duran 00:36:06: I was like, oh, wait, that's funny.

John James Staniszewski 00:36:09: You guys all don't make any money, but you had $50 million. Like, how did you not make money? You know? And so once I went there and I started talking to other people, I mean, can I be really frank?

Harry Duran 00:36:21: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:36:21: And stuff on this?

Harry Duran 00:36:22: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Cool.

John James Staniszewski 00:36:23: Yeah. So it's just a bunch of fake people pretending that they want to help the world by creating and using their smarts or technology that actually isn't growing more food. And so what I realized is that, like, people are trying to do a good thing, but they're not actually implementing. And, like, I don't see more food because of you guys. I see more ideas and more capital being raised.

Harry Duran 00:36:45: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:36:45: And that's when I realized I was like, vertical farming's bodybuilding.

Harry Duran 00:36:51: This is the first time I ever heard that analogy. So you're gonna have to, like, put the pieces together for us there, because this is fascinating.

John James Staniszewski 00:36:58: Just because you think it's so good, you think it's helping you. You believe that what you're taking and doing and listening to is the real and right advice. But then when you get to the nuts and bolts, it actually isn't helping you, serving you, or making you money.

Harry Duran 00:37:10: Interesting. That's wild.

John James Staniszewski 00:37:13: Yeah. So, yeah, once I got to the tech one, I realized that this industry knows nothing about mushrooms. And so I was just like, you know, the sore thumb in the room. And I was like, okay, cool. I think we have a lot to offer as far as education to this industry. And I think if I can come in from all my years of failing forward and experience that we can get real people together who actually do want to make an impact who have also other experience. Because that was the other thing that I've seen is that there's a lot of consultants out there or a lot of people that can consult, but they don't have any working experience, you know, and that's like tough. How can you say you can grow?

Harry Duran 00:38:00: That's interesting.

John James Staniszewski 00:38:02: Meetings a week, but you've never done it. Like I get you conceptually get it, but conceptually getting something versus doing it is too difficult things.

Harry Duran 00:38:10: What was your take on. What was your take on what you had seen elsewhere? Because I know, I think you mentioned Smallhold as well. And I had Andrew on early, early days when he was just taking off. So we had a really great conversation. Obviously he since left the company. He's got some stories I'm sure that we'll probably only share with a beer enclosed behind closed doors somewhere. But what was it for you to like to see and meet other mushroom farmers and see other projects that had received like millions of dollars in funding?

John James Staniszewski 00:38:37: Oh, I was like, oh shit, I'm doing this wrong, you know, I was like, oh fuck, there's so much more money out there and I'm trying to chase the wrong money. And I think that there's people out there that will avantly get it because I actually have a right plan that something that's actually making money too.

Harry Duran 00:38:52: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:38:52: You know, so I can bring to them that. But going and meeting other mushroom farmers, like, dude, I was locked away in a warehouse for like three and a half years working seven days a week straight and I didn't look up, you know, and so like getting out, you don't realize what you've done, you know. And of course I got in a room with other people and it was like, yeah, we're producing a thousand pounds a week or oh, we just figured out this new extract. I was like, I produce like £20,000amonth. You know, it's like I didn't realize how big that was. I didn't realize how big a deal it was. And so getting around other mushroom people, I just saw that a lot of people get really excited because there's so much potential and so much opportunity.

Harry Duran 00:39:32: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:39:33: And like I've already done the shipping across the country, making a product line, trying other new products, getting in different formulas or, you know, it's really seen that just because you have the idea doesn't mean it's going to go through. And I think that because there's no experts in this industry yet that it's really Hard for people to get a base. And I think a lot of people are wasting their time and money, you know, more than anything.

Harry Duran 00:39:59: So talk a little bit about the business, where it is current day and like, who you're working with, who you're partnering with.

John James Staniszewski 00:40:06: Yeah, absolutely. So I actually have a funny smallhold story for you.

Harry Duran 00:40:09: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:40:10: Yeah. So we. It was like 2024 Expo West.

Harry Duran 00:40:16: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:40:17: And I'm, you know, I've got 50 containers rolling, but I'm not making anything at this point. You know, it's not there. All the big contracts haven't hit yet, and I'm just like. And so I ended up making the food line fungitarian food. Fully cooked oyster mushroom meals that are frozen.

Harry Duran 00:40:34: You know, where did that idea come from?

John James Staniszewski 00:40:37: A problem which was we had so many extra mushrooms and we needed to figure out a solution. Had a restaurant ask us about doing some shredded oyster dishes for their fancy Mediterranean restaurant. They did it. They were fire. But regular people weren't going to eat it.

Harry Duran 00:40:51: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:40:52: And so I came up with the idea to make it like simple for kids and moms, like barbecue and Asian and this and that. Because at farmers markets I was trying to cook fresh mushrooms for people, but everybody was like, oh, the texture. Oh, the texture. So I was like, all right, cool. Let me slice it in a way that's going to be like a pulled porkish kind of idea. And then that way the flavor and the texture will be perfect. And that's really where that transformation transpired. And then fungalian transpired from me being in the fitness industry so long and working with people who are vegans and pescatarians and carnivores. And I was like, okay, well, a bunch of people need an identity. What are they? They're fungo.

Harry Duran 00:41:26: That's funny. Okay, so you're at the Expo now?

John James Staniszewski 00:41:28: Yes, I'm at the Expo. We better. I put our last like $10,000 on going to the expo.

Harry Duran 00:41:33: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:41:33: And I was like, I'm gonna get a deal.

Harry Duran 00:41:35: Like, hands down, again, no plan B.

John James Staniszewski 00:41:38: No plan B. And so we go and like whole foods lights up, sprouts lights up, get a couple other west coast contracts. And I was like, crushed it, right? That doesn't make money right away. Yeah, it doesn't. That's like a ten month thing, you know, by the time you do paperwork and stuff. And so one of the people from Smallhold found out that we were there, came there, it was like, hey, listen, we're trying to save our national contract. Can you support supply the Midwest regions of Whole Foods and like, tomorrow, you know, And I was like, no shit? Yeah. I got a couple extra thousand pounds of mushrooms setting, no problem.

Harry Duran 00:42:20: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:42:21: And so literally it hit and it's like, you know, they handed us like $60,000 contract, you know, and then that hit. And then four weeks later, the 150 chains in Chicago hit. And so in like six weeks, it went from like 40K to like 180K, you know, and it was. Every mushroom was sold and everything was dawn. So like, technically, small holds loss saved my business.

Harry Duran 00:42:47: Wow, what a story.

John James Staniszewski 00:42:48: Yeah. Wild.

Harry Duran 00:42:51: Have you had any connection with any of the folks there or the team there after?

John James Staniszewski 00:42:54: I think I messaged Adam once on LinkedIn.

Harry Duran 00:42:58: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:42:58: And we connect with their other people that are on their team now.

Harry Duran 00:43:01: Sure.

John James Staniszewski 00:43:02: You know, but it's all different. It's all a whole different industry, a whole different group now, you know, and then. So where we are at now and who we're working with. So at that point, the chains in Chicago took off. Fresh time, first time market peaks, fresh market, Whole Foods. And we got Meijer added on as well. So that was like over 150 locations. Like, right now we're in about 320, 350 grocery stores.

Harry Duran 00:43:32: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:43:33: That's our bread and butter. You know, do food service. I do restaurants still.

Harry Duran 00:43:37: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:43:38: But the whole position was to like, okay, I got us in 100 restaurants. And. But it's a nightmare. They're terrible to work with. And so the whole position was to get into grocery stores. And as that happened, we just kind of transferred some of those clients out and then focused on grocery stores. So we still service maybe 30 restaurants, 40 restaurants, and then we were in 10 farmers markets as well.

Harry Duran 00:44:01: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:44:02: You know, that's how we really built up the brand. But that's not priority now. I don't need to build that up anymore. So really, the company is transitioning itself into a wholesale mushroom business.

Harry Duran 00:44:14: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:44:14: Right. And we've always said from day one, like, if Cisco wanted to come in and just take everything and like, okay, yeah, getting mushrooms out to people like that. So we have the last 25 containers there. They're going under construction right now. And we will hopefully have those done in like, eight weeks. And at that point, we'll be producing another £10,000amonth. So we'll be at about £35,000amonth out of that facility.

Harry Duran 00:44:41: Wow, that's great. Nice job.

John James Staniszewski 00:44:44: No, thank you.

Harry Duran 00:44:44: Super cool. What's a tough question you've had to ask yourself recently?

John James Staniszewski 00:44:49: Oh, how long can I do this for, you know, I thought because like I'm on a new wave now, there's like more going on. And so it was like I thought once I hit that profitability that it was like all my problems were solved and like things running good and like the factory. Yes. But I'm at it ten times harder than I was then now.

Harry Duran 00:45:17: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:45:18: You know, and it's just a different format and it's, you know, that's the question I ask is, can I go at that level for this long? And the answer I keep getting is yes, you will always find the inspiration.

Harry Duran 00:45:28: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:45:29: But it's because all of these new opportunities keep coming and, you know, dangling the carrot in front of my face and I see more opportunities to be of more service to more people.

Harry Duran 00:45:39: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:45:40: And that's the main mission.

Harry Duran 00:45:42: What does success look like for you?

John James Staniszewski 00:45:46: Having 10 million fungitarians? That's it. Yeah, that's my goal.

Harry Duran 00:45:51: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:45:52: I want 20, I want 10 million by 2027. It's a big one because I believe that's enough of a percentage of a population to actually make impactful change.

Harry Duran 00:46:00: And these. How would you define a Functarian?

John James Staniszewski 00:46:03: Someone who consumes mushrooms on a daily basis as part of a high functioning, well balanced diet. Whether you eat meat or you eat plants, you become a part of the fungitarian family.

Harry Duran 00:46:11: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:46:12: And so whether you take mushroom supplements, whether you garden your mushroom blocks, you use mushroom compost, whatever it might be, you know that they are the infinite source on this planet and they are here to help and guide us and give us the information that we need. But to encompass this all embodied lifestyle of like what you and I were talking about.

Harry Duran 00:46:34: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:46:34: Working on that spiritual practice and incorporating nature into what you do and realizing that you have this symbiotic relationship with what you grow and especially with what you put into your body. And if you could be putting these superfoods into your body, you're probably going to feel super.

Harry Duran 00:46:47: Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.

John James Staniszewski 00:46:49: You know, so that's, that's really what I see it as because I believe that I have the opportunity, which you don't get in another lifetime, to be able to gear people towards a new food.

Harry Duran 00:47:04: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:47:05: Like for the first time ever, kids are now learning about a new food that never existed in abundance or new supplements that have never existed. And that, you know, that's where I'm focusing more on the younger generation, like 24 to 35. They're my buying power. Right. And I have the high end athlete and the wellness mom and all that stuff. But the real focus for me is getting it back to kids. Because, you know, what really stemmed it for me was being at Farmer's Market.

Harry Duran 00:47:34: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:47:34: And parents being like, oh, no, they won't like it. Oh no. Like, no, you're ruining their dreams. Yeah, stop it. And so I realized I needed to make it fun for kids and really go back in. But I see just the level of issues that we're having within society of more autism, more ADHD and all of these problems that weren't at the levels or ranks that I was when I was a kid. And I'm also an ADHD child that was prescribed medicine and never taught how to learn and all of those things. It's like, I think there's a huge opportunity for kids to connect more to the earth through mushrooms. Like, I'm really working, trying to work with the Chicago school to get a fifth grade class all on a research study taking lion's mane for three or six months so that we can see. I already have parents doing it and giving me the results that their kid is like going up and speaking in front of class and like actually listening and conf. Like, and so that's really what I do it for. But it's once we can get them to realize, like, if every parent in America realizes that their kids should take you a brain boosting supplement, that's going to make them focus better instead of taking Adderall.

Harry Duran 00:48:42: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:48:42: Well, we're winning. Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:48:44: Yeah. That's very admirable. I love that you shared that. Thank you. I like to leave some time at the end of these conversations for any messages you have for the indoor farming world. There's a lot of, like your fellow leaders that listen to the show and always trying to increase this sense of collaboration, you know. And I know some of it was spoken about at indoor adcon. I think it was a bit of a wake up call. This most recent one where, you know, we're seeing the plenties of the world and the bankruptcies and everyone's kind of like having this rude awakening that maybe you actually need farmers to run farms. Maybe. So I think, you know, I don't know what you saw in some of the talks, but it seemed like that was the trend that people were mentioning. So any thoughts you have in to kind of continue like this feeling of collaboration?

John James Staniszewski 00:49:31: Yeah, absolutely. And I think I, you know, I was a little upset, but I realized you got to fail first to understand how to do it.

Harry Duran 00:49:36: Right. Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:49:37: And I think that's what they all needed to go through because the industry is so new now and I think people are taking their lumps and refocusing and prioritizing the people. And I think if we can draw the right minded people together that we can focus on doing projects that are actually going to benefit the human, not going to benefit, just our pockets. And I see and I met so many cool other people there that inspired me to be like, oh wow, you guys are really doing regenerative farming. You are giving back to the community. And so like they're out there and I think we as an industry need to come together more because there's enough, like there's enough for everything.

Harry Duran 00:50:22: Of course. Yeah, for sure.

John James Staniszewski 00:50:23: You know, and it's like why, you know, I met a partner there now that I'm working on and doing consulting and it's like they were my missing puzzle piece and I was there missing.

Harry Duran 00:50:37: Oh, nice.

John James Staniszewski 00:50:38: You know, and it's so I do think that if we as an industry start putting the priority on are we producing more food at a lower cost and it's getting out to more people. Other than that, why are we doing this?

Harry Duran 00:50:53: Yeah. How have you grown as a leader since starting this all?

John James Staniszewski 00:50:57: Oh, man. Unbelievably, you know, like I'm 14 employees. Like it's insane to. And that was honestly one of the coolest things that I've seen within this. And that's why I want to, I guess. Yeah. That's the message I have for farms and other industries. Like what worked at my facility was that I did everything.

Harry Duran 00:51:20: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:51:21: There wasn't an employee around that like didn't like I timed every task, my ability. And then I would hire people bent on what they could do and let them know this is the time frame. I don't expect you to do it like this, but you should get this. And when you have a leader within your facility who has also done everything and knows how to do everything, that leads a level of expectation upon themselves.

Harry Duran 00:51:46: Absolutely.

John James Staniszewski 00:51:47: That they know that. Well, just because he's the boss, he could still do it.

Harry Duran 00:51:50: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:51:51: You know, and then so within that, putting that leadership into other employees and other workers and to know that my guys have seen me go and do deliveries during rush hour in Chicago and like whatever it takes to make it work. And I believe that just seeing how important that is for them for me to go above and beyond and to set that I care more than anything, which makes them care more. And I won. I try to tell this all the time and my employees know it. So all a Lot of them have been with us from day one, you know, and it's. They stay because they believe in my dream and I believe in them.

Harry Duran 00:52:39: Yeah.

John James Staniszewski 00:52:40: And they know I can't have my dream without them. And I tell, like, that's it. They're so. They're just as important in the whole thing. I can make a good business, but I can't make good people. And so that's the toughest thing that I've learned in all of. And I've hired and fired a lot of people, you know, and I think that's the biggest problem that I have seen. It's not the businesses, it's the people that you're putting in these positions. Because I'd rather have somebody that knows nothing and wants to learn everything than somebody who thinks they know everything for sure, you know. So, yes, it's really made me grow as a leader and I, you know, it was the best schooling I've ever got. Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:53:21: I'm sure there'll be more lessons to follow afterwards.

John James Staniszewski 00:53:24: So much more. So much more. It's a never ending learning.

Harry Duran 00:53:27: Yeah. Well, thanks for coming on and thanks for making the time. I know we had to kind of reschedule some stuff, but I do remember like the panel and. But it was really like getting to hear the whole story. Indoor icon where I was like, oh, this is a really good story. And I think you're very charismatic and I think it's important to have like voices like yours in this industry. I mean, I started the show in 2020 without knowing zero about vertical farming. And I'm just educating myself through these conversations. I was just curious. I just want to know. So I just wanted to like, learn more. We're just only recently we just, you know, redid our outdoor garage and so we've got some shelves in there. We got some LED lights and just kind of basic growing our seeds. But I'll have to kind of pick your brain about some mushroom ideas. So, yeah, if you want some mushroom.

John James Staniszewski 00:54:11: Tips, don't worry, we'll send you out some blocks, you'll be able to get it going. But yeah, that's super cool, man. And I'm glad it's inspired. Inspired. And I'm sure so many other people get inspired from hearing this and hearing the truth, you know?

Harry Duran 00:54:20: Yeah, that's it.

John James Staniszewski 00:54:22: Just give them the real.

Harry Duran 00:54:23: Yeah. Well, where's the best place for folks to connect you and learn more?

John James Staniszewski 00:54:26: So I have a new E Commerce page coming out. Fungitarian Life.

Harry Duran 00:54:31: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:54:31: Launching May 1st. You can find me on LinkedIn John James Stanzewski, Mr. Fungitarian or on Instagram, Mr. Fungitarian, we'll have make sure all.

Harry Duran 00:54:40: Those links, I think you sent them over as well, that they're all show notes so everyone can just find those there.

John James Staniszewski 00:54:45: And yeah, that's for one more. I'll just do one more plug. It's my Fungitarian life community which I'm launching the best bioavailable mushroom tinctures and gummies on the entire market.

Harry Duran 00:54:55: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:54:56: And they're alcohol free so that they can be given to kids as well.

Harry Duran 00:54:59: Okay.

John James Staniszewski 00:55:00: The mushrooms are shaped like. The gummies are shaped like mushrooms so that kids can have fun with it. But we've really realized a lot in this industry and I just, I guess want to say one more thing on it. You know, not all mushroom supplements are created equal. And we are doing a lot of extensive research learning how they absorb into the body and realizing that the format that we're consuming them in isn't absorbing the best that it should. And so we are coming out with new ways and new formulas through different technology and sonication processes and adding the right ingredients and doing the right processes so that these mushroom tinctures and these gummies can be absorbed by almost 70 to 80% more than any other regular tincture. And so the Hungarian Life page is going to be a community page with. It'll have other stuff on Facebook and social medias where anybody can come and talk about their experiences, how they've benefited and how it's helped them and how they decide to fund the carrying.

Harry Duran 00:55:56: Nice. Yeah, that's gonna be fun. Make sure we check that out. Definitely sign up for that. So that's exciting.

John James Staniszewski 00:56:01: Well, yeah, thanks.

Harry Duran 00:56:02: It seems like the learning's never going to stop.

John James Staniszewski 00:56:05: You're right, Harry, it's not.

Harry Duran 00:56:07: We'll put a ribbon on this conversation, but we'll definitely be tracking your progress. I appreciate your time, John.

John James Staniszewski 00:56:11: Yeah, Harry, thank you so much, man. Really, really appreciate.