What happens when success on the outside doesn’t match how you feel on the inside? In this episode, Sarah sits down with Mike Gostola, entrepreneur, TikTok strategist, and mental wellness advocate, to discuss his powerful journey from high-stress business ownership to online freedom. Mike shares how chronic stress, burnout, and gut health issues affected his life, how the gut-brain connection transformed his well-being, and how he now helps others reclaim their health and build online businesses. They also dive into how TikTok is changing the game for entrepreneurs and why mental health needs to be part of the conversation in business. If you’re feeling stuck in survival mode or looking for ways to grow online without burning out, this episode is for you.
📌 Key Takeaways:
✔️ Burnout & The Traditional Business Trap – Why making millions didn’t equal financial or personal freedom.
✔️ The Shift to Online Entrepreneurship – How Mike transitioned from construction & cabinet manufacturing to online business success.
✔️ The Gut-Brain Connection & Mental Health – Why fixing his gut health changed his mindset, stress levels, and relationships.
✔️ TikTok & Digital Marketing – How Rock the Tok Academy is helping entrepreneurs grow through short-form content.
✔️ Breaking the "Suck It Up" Mentality – How men can shift from ignoring stress to taking charge of their mental wellness.
💬 Standout Quotes:
🗣️ “I was running a business that made over $500K a month, but I was so stressed, I couldn’t even enjoy it.”
🗣️ “I used to believe stress, anxiety, and gut issues were just part of life—until I learned that they weren’t.”
🗣️ “Most of us are walking around in survival mode, thinking it’s normal. It’s not. And we need to talk about it.”
⏳ Key Moments in the Episode:
⏱ 00:00 – Welcome & introduction to Mike Gostola
⏱ 05:20 – The reality of traditional business: stress, overhead, and financial struggle
⏱ 12:45 – Making the leap: How Mike transitioned from traditional business to online entrepreneurship
⏱ 18:30 – Discovering the gut-brain connection: The mental & physical impact of stress
⏱ 26:15 – The turning point: How fixing gut health improved focus, relationships, and business
⏱ 33:40 – The power of TikTok for business owners & why short-form video matters
⏱ 40:00 – Breaking the “suck it up” mentality & encouraging men to take control of their wellness
⏱ 50:20 – Final thoughts & how listeners can take action
🌟 Notable Mentions:
✔️ Rock the Tok Academy – Mike’s TikTok training program for entrepreneurs
✔️ Amare Global – The mental wellness company that helped Mike regulate stress & gut health
✔️ Gut-Brain Connection – The science behind mental wellness & physical health
✔️ The Power of Community – Why who you surround yourself with matters in both business & life
📢 Call to Action:
✨ Feeling stuck in survival mode? This episode is your wake-up call.
✅ Subscribe & leave a review to help us keep these conversations going.
📌 Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it!
💬 Join the conversation—tag Sarah on social media & tell us your biggest takeaway!
🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify & YouTube!
Welcome back to Taboo Talk with Sarah, the podcast that breaks the silence, fosters hope and talks about the tough stuff. So you never have to feel alone. We have those conversations that matter, but the ones that don't always get talked about, but really, really should.
And today I am really excited to welcome someone who's not just making waves in the mental wellness space, but is also a fellow Amari brand ambassador, a leader in social media strategy and a passionate advocate for helping people reclaim their mental and physical health. Mike Costola's journey is one of massive transformation from owning a traditional business to becoming a full-time online entrepreneur, mentor and digital creator. While he still renovates houses from time to time,
His real passion now lies in helping others take control of their health, reduce their stress and create more freedom through online business. Originally we connected through mutual friends, Chris and Susan Beasley. And I've been inspired by the work Mike is doing, not just in mental wellness, but in leveraging platforms like TikTok to help entrepreneurs build their brands and online businesses as the founder of Rock the Tok Academy.
He teaches business owners how to maximize their impact using TikTok and short form content. Today we're driving into his personal transformation, the gut brain connection, the shift from traditional to digital business and how entrepreneurs can navigate an ever changing online landscape, particularly with stuff that's been going on lately, especially with all the uncertainty around what's happening in that digital space.
Mike, welcome, welcome, welcome. It's so great to have you here. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on Sarah. It's a pleasure. So you started out with a traditional business before stepping into the online space. What inspired that transition and what were some of the big mindset shifts you had to make when moving from your bricks and mortar traditional businesses to that online space? Cause it's a big change.
Yeah, it was. And, you know, it was a very like a staged transition, if you will. Like it wasn't like a kind of cut the cord and went right off. But originally what brought me to it was as a traditional business owner, my business was in construction, cabinet manufacturing mainly. And it was really economy dependent, Depending on how
well the building industry was doing in my city reflected how well my business was doing, obviously. So there was a lot of up and downs and it became a real roller coaster ride. And as a business owner, you've got your overhead to pay, which includes your staff and your rent and your power bills. And a lot of times there was, I had to make all the bills before I could pay myself. And more often than not, at the end of all those bills, there was nothing left for me.
Even though we were doing, you know, 200 to $500,000 in revenue a month, I had $189,000 overhead as a minimum a month as well. So a lot of times there was the money just wasn't there. Right. So, so I started, I had been in the online marketing space for several years and I was just dabbling more of, more of a way to get my products paid for, for some health and wellness products, you know, not really to make any extra money, but then I was like, okay,
I've got a tool here that can help offset what's happening with my traditional business. So I started to invest in myself a little more and I actually, the business seriously. And I took some mentorship and started just applying the strategies that I learned and was slowly able to increase my presence as I was doing my traditional business. And then things started to grow. it to the point side hustle became the main hustle.
Yeah, well, they kind of leveled each other out almost, right? And then I was making, with my roller coaster ride income through my traditional business, my online business matched what I was kind of my average, right? And I was like, okay, there's some potential here. So let's put a little more gas over here because this is becoming more consistent. So I kept pushing and then eventually,
And in 2020, my online income had surpassed what my average income I was bringing in from my business. We all know what happened in 2020. you know, we don't want to do again. We, know, I was, it was at the point where I was like, okay, like our business, our traditional business is going to really get hit by what's happening in the economy right now. If they're shutting everything down.
And my traditional business, was partnered with some amazing guys, but we were very top heavy. We had more chefs in the kitchen than we needed. So I said, guys, I have an opportunity here to change directions and make a shift. I've got this security, you guys run with the business. And I actually had my shares of my business over to my business partners. Most people think I'm completely crazy for doing that, but I wanted to make sure that that business could survive and succeed.
because we had put so much effort into it. And my business partners had let me build my online business alongside of our traditional businesses. They knew what I was doing. So it was just, it was a mutual agreement. said, you you guys run with the business, I'm gonna go this way. So that was, you know, the transition that really made the shift and the mindset shift that hit when kind of the day I didn't have to go back to the shop.
That's when the real kind of the reality hit in like, okay, now I really got to pour into this and, you know, just the,
When you have a traditional business, when it opens at 7 a.m. and it closes at 5 p.m., you have these set hours, right? So when I shifted to online and I didn't have hours that I had to shift, so I had to completely shift how I operated and my mindset of like, okay, if I don't show up and do work every single day, because I had 35 staff and I could show up and work, but everything kept going with my staff, right? And I was just managing and making sure
you they had their supplies, they had their schedule, whatever it was. But now it was, okay, you have to make your schedule, you have to show up and do all the work, right, to start building. that was the biggest mind shift. then, you know, working on that, just personal development and energy was one of the biggest things during that shift, just to keep the focus and the belief because the online world, I mean, it doesn't matter what business you're in, it's a roller coaster.
Right. it doesn't matter whether it's bricks and mortar or online. a business owner is stressful and difficult and challenging. It's rewarding too, but, making that shift from having these are my hours. I go into the office, I do my stuff and I go home. When you're actually in that online space and quite often you're working from home.
You've got to put in those, these are my hours. This is one I do. Cause and we've said it with our, our online church and a few other online things that we do. It's really, really easy to go. It's also really easy not to. So you've got to have that, that discipline to actually make you do the work. Now you've built up. Especially when you're at home, you'd be like, well I could just, you know, take the dog for a walk or.
I can do that. Yeah. You know, so it's, it's a mind shift shift where you really have to, you know, just put, put, put your, business cap on, even though you're at home and just say, okay, these are my office hours, even though I'm at home, I'm going to get this done. But what's great about it is, you know, when you're working from home, you save the commute time, your overheads covered. There's real no overhead other than your regular day to day, right?
Um, so yeah, it was an interesting transition, but, um, one of the toughest things was, was keeping that consistency at first, for sure. Yeah. Cause you've, you don't have those structures in place that you used to, so you've got to put them back in. You're not seeing, physically seeing maybe people every day, right? Like, so it's like, there's not that traditional reminder of what you needed to do every day. And then, you know, like, yeah, it's, it's, it's an interesting transition, but
You know, the freedom that it offers is, unbelievable. Once you, get it dialed in. Yeah. Speaking of getting things dialed in, you've got an incredible presence on, Tik Tok and through Rock the Tok Academy. You've helped lots of people get their, their brands and their businesses out there with short form content. Yep. So do you want to talk a little bit about that? And there's been some uncertainty with.
with TikTok in America in recent times. How did that impact your business and businesses of others who rely on that platform? What do you think's going to happen there?
Okay, so first of all, start, so with TikTok, when I originally went over to TikTok, this was in 2022. And at first I was like, I had made my kids delete it off their phone. I was like, that's an evil app, nothing to do with that. know, was traditionally, was building traditionally on Facebook, you know, and Instagram where most people were building their online businesses. One of the mentors that I had worked with,
and who had helped me transition from my traditional business to online, he was doing a live and he was talking about the power of the TikTok algorithm and how it can get you in front of new eyeballs all the time. And I was like, well, that's interesting because as an online marketer, that's one of our biggest challenges. I had spent tens of thousands of dollars on Facebook advertising to draw eyeballs into my online business. And it was profitable.
but it wasn't duplicatable. When I was bringing people into my team, I was like, you you could do this, but you got to spend a hundred dollars a day and go through all this. And they're like a hundred dollars a day. Are you crazy? Like it just, weren't willing to do that. Right. So when I heard my mentor talking about tech talk, talking about their algorithm, I was like, well, you know what I should, if, if, if this guy who's generated a hundred million dollars in revenue through online marketing is talking about this, I should listen. Right.
He just might know what he's talking about. Yeah, he might know. And he's literally helped tens of thousands of people build businesses. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to go over there and I'm going to take everything that I have learned about attraction marketing, actually using marketing strategies to attract your ideal prospect. And I'm going to take that, what I've learned, go over to TikTok in short form video. And it was interesting. The first few videos were painful and laughable as everybody's are because we're learning something new, right?
And I just started playing and you know, my kids were laughing at me and they're like, what are doing dad? Like on TikTok really? And I, know, the first week I was like, oh, well I made 50, a hundred followers. And then I started to figure out, okay, how to really use the attraction marketing in the short form video. fast forward 30 days, I had 132,000 followers.
And I had like hundreds of people joining, asking, know, what do do? How can I work with you? Started having people buying my products. And I was like, wow, like this, this is unreal. So I did this, you know, and I was sharing with my team, you know, in network marketing, social selling, we all have these big teams, right? And we had this system dialed in on Facebook that was working really well for people.
And I kept sharing in my team chat and on team calls, what was happening on TikTok. And they're like, yeah, you do you, you do you, whatever. You know, we've got our system style. We don't need it. And this is where I was in my traditional business. When I first heard about online marketing, was like, yeah, you do you, I don't need you. I've got this, it works, right? And we fix it. Right.
And a lot of times, because people don't want to maybe take that extra step and learn a new skill or add another thing to their plate. They're just like, no, this is working. I'm not going to do anything. So we kept going and my team kept growing and things kept happening. kept, you know, dropping little hints on our team calls. And finally, my upline or our upline, she, she you know what? Can you, can you just hop on the call and do a training for the team and just show them what's possible?
Like, absolutely, I would love to. So hopped on and did that call and all of sudden I had, you know, sidelines reaching out like, Hey, do you want to do a quick little collaboration with my team to help build? Like, absolutely, let's do this. So I did some, couple of 30 day runs with a couple of sideline people inside of Amare. And it absolutely took off. The company literally, we created product shortages on TikTok when we came on as a collective.
And from that point on, this was, took about eight months for me to, for them to like, okay, Mike, we're listening. We'll go to TikTok. Now our team averages 7,000 to 13,000 enrollments a month through TikTok. I think my upline or our upline is real happy she decided to listen. and yeah, it's, it's, it's been an interesting ride. And yeah, like you said, you know, there's been some uncertainty with, TikTok lately and
Truthfully, I don't think it's going anywhere, especially with the new administration that's coming in with the amount of money just in the US alone, it's in the hundreds of billions of dollars that it's bringing to small businesses. So it's in revenue generator, which is unlike any other social media platform before, which is another reason why I think it's gonna stick around, right? Because there has never been a time on social media where people
you know, open a social media app with the intent of making a purchase. Whereas 78 % of TikTokers has, made a purchase on the app. It's like 85 % or higher that say they get inspired to learn about a new product and explore more about the product on the app. So it's, it's opened up such a business opportunity that I'm confident it's not going anywhere. Again, it's going to be, it'll be a roller coaster until they figured out who's going to own it, whatever it is, whatever the situation, but
It definitely, it caused some uncertainty in the industry. And a lot of people are like, well, we'll just, you if it's going away, let's just go back to Instagram. But the people that stuck around and have didn't, you know, they kept their blinders on. I talk about this all the time with everybody in my business. Like, you know, horse races, they have the blinders on their horse so they can only look forward at what they're doing. That's what I say. Put your blinders on. Don't worry about what's happened over here or over there. Just move forward. The people that have
you know, did that through this whole turmoil with, with the Tik Tok, their business continued to grow. Right. So, so yeah, it's, mean, none of us have a crystal ball, but I'm pretty confident it's still going to be here. Yeah. And I love that the putting the blinders on cause the world's busy and noisy and it is so easy to get distracted and pulled away from your purpose. And.
We sometimes need to block out that noise to just focus on what really matters. Cause when we don't, that's when we get all kinds of problems from stress, anxiety, cause we're worrying about everything. Now we start running external forces impact ourselves, right? Yeah. And we forget to do those things that we know to help combat those external forces. Something you and I are both quite passionate about.
is the gut brain connection and managing stress and anxiety to help us to live better lives. So do you want to have a little chat about fun stuff that's happening with Amari or how you first came to using the products and the difference that they've made in life and other knock on effects that being involved with that or noticing the effect that
getting your stress under control has had that strengthening those connections between the gut and the brain has had in your life. Yeah, for sure. So I'll start with, you know, what brought me to Amare Global. Originally, what brought me to Amare was the, the, the team that was building the business opportunity. didn't understand the gut brain connection at all. I was intrigued by it. I kind of, first one I heard about, I kind of laughed. was like, you know, what are you talking about?
Like that sounds a little woo woo, right? Because it's not something we're traditionally taught about, but I was- you have that science background. Right, exactly. So I, because of my traditional business, I had dealt with a lot of stress. Like we talked about earlier, you know, traditional business ownership, you can't turn off, right? Like you come home and that business is still there. You wake up at 3 a.m. that business is still there. You wake up at 7 a.m. and you're exhausted and that business is still there and requires you to show up.
So when I first started exploring Amare, the lady that introduced me wasn't actually Beck, it was Dawn and she was an occupational therapist. And she said, know, like, I know what's going on in your traditional business. You should just try this product of ours. Just give it a test, right? I know you're exploring the business opportunity, but you need a product experience. And I believe that you need to be a product of the product to actually sell it.
So at the time I actually couldn't even get the products in our country as you've experienced when we were opening globally. So I was like, okay, well, you know, I'll buy some off of you, send them up. And I gave them a try. And at first I was like, okay, well, this is just another kind of health and wellness product. You know, I was running quite anxious all the time. I was stressed. I was always awake at 3 a.m. like staring at the ceiling, you know, just why can't I sleep? Right? Waking up.
sometimes more tired than I was when I went to bed. And it was, you know, about 20, 20 days or so after introducing the mental biotics, the fundamentals pack. we didn't have our viral products that we did when I first started. Um, I'm all right. So I, about day 20, I was like, I feel a lot different. Like I'm not so edgy. I'm not so reactive. I always chalked my edginess and my reactiveness to this is like,
who I am, my dad was kind of short fused and reactive. Like this is just, it's in my blood, right? And I didn't understand that how cortisol impacts it, know, like dopamine, serotonin, all these things that I had never been told, you know, because during my traditional business, I had gone to see psychologists. had done, you know, I did the Tony Robbins things. I was trying to do all the mindset things to help with the roller coaster ride I was on so I could actually show up. Cause I was noticing I wasn't showing up.
as a good version of myself for my staff. And they were, actually got to the point where my staff wasn't even asking me questions because I was so reactive. Well, you know, system was so dysregulated. I was in fight or flight. Yep. 24 seven fight or flight. And, it was mostly fight that I was in not flight. Yep. And that impacts everybody around you, right? Your family, your coworkers, your friends.
anybody I came into contact with probably feeling the energy coming off, right? So yeah, was around that three week phase, I was like, you know what? Like just, don't feel so reactive. I don't feel so snappy anymore. And progressively as I kept consistent on the probiotics and the prebiotics, it's just my sleep improved, my energy improved, my mood improved, my clarity improved. And I was like, wow, there is...
there's really something to this because again, like I said, I had tried all the other things and I would get a little progress and then I would slip back. Like I could never get everything to stick. And what I didn't understand originally was that was internal. It wasn't in here, but it was actually down here, right? So, so that was, know, and now it's been, I ended up importing the products for two years before they opened in, Canada. And I was paying.
the exchange rate, I was paying duties and I was paying shipping and I actually paid, I worked at a, it was two times the price of the product, but what it was doing for my life was worth it for me. So fast forward to, you know, back to now where I was going to step away from my business at that time, I was in like, you know, that was 20 months now of using the Amari products.
And to make a decision like that, you know, to walk away from a business that I had spent years and dedicated my life to building, right. I was able to just make that transition in a very smooth and it wasn't anxious. I wasn't stressed about it. You know, I had clarity on what I was doing for the business, but my body was working in favor with me as well. Yeah.
Right. And not being stuck in that fight or flight. And since then, you know, not only has, has my finances improved because of my business, my online business, but my relationships have improved with my kids, with my family, like my, parents, with my wife, with everybody around me, because again, I'm not stuck in that fight or flight thing. And I never realized, you know, I always thought, you know, it was just, again, I was a high energy person, little reactive, but I didn't realize it was anxiety. But when I look back,
to when I was like 12 years old, I look at these things where, you know, was an anxious person my whole life and I didn't realize that, but then I started looking back to you as a child, I was on antibiotics all the time. I didn't understand that when you take those pills, they wipe out everything, not just the bad things, but they wipe out all of our good bacteria too. So it's been a really interesting journey and discovery about how, you know, when we work on ourselves, you know, internally and mentally,
Yeah. It's, an ecosystem that, that, you know, when you have them working synergistically, you can just become a much better version of yourself. Yeah. Cause our body's actually designed to work in homeostasis to have everything nice and level. We're not supposed to be running on that stress engine all the time. We're not supposed to be in fight and flight all the time. And one of the problems when we are.
of the blood from our gut gets diverted to our muscles so we can fight the threat or run away from it. Part of the problem with that...
serotonin, our GABA, quite a few other neurotransmitters are actually manufactured in our gut. So when our gut can't do what it's supposed to do, our whole nervous system just goes, I can't function this way. And that does have, when we're physically suffering those effects, then it has that knock on effect to our mental health and to our relationships. So like you said, getting, getting your gut right.
actually then got everything else. Right. And I had a similar experience to you of fundamentals was actually what we started on. Now I've been a massage therapist for 25 years. I also have a bioscience background. So I specifically went looking for something, knowing that I have a maladaptive stress response. So I do the fight flight thing.
And then I go straight into freeze. My body just goes, nah, I'm shutting down. I'm checking out. I'm not, I'm not playing anymore. Right. I have three little kids, the oldest of whom was diagnosed with MS and it's like, okay, I need something that's going to help him. I also need something that's going to help me be able to be there for him. And that was when we found Amari and specifically fundamentals. Yep.
with a lot of things in life, it's, is getting those, those fundamentals, those basic building blocks, right. That then has that knock on effect. Yeah. It's interesting because you know, we, what, what we don't, a lot of people don't realize, especially in construction, right? Like I come from 25 plus years of construction on job sites, primarily working with men where
We don't talk about mental health. It's suck it up buttercup and get your work done. And don't talk to me about your crap, right? So, you know, was, it was what we, what we don't realize that we're doing when we're doing that is the long-term impact too. And I never understood that. Like I was, you know, again, just living like this is who I am. This is how I'm wired. Had I kept going on that path,
that I was on six years ago, it's now been since I started using the products. I don't know, I honestly don't know where I would be. think I would have physically crashed by now because what I've learned that when we're stuck in that, that high level of stress and fight or flight for too long, we start getting into adrenal fatigue and then we'll start, we start getting into long-term health impacts that were,
going have even more trouble recovering from. So I'm grateful that like, was almost like, you know, divine intervention that it came into my life when it did, because it, it changed the trajectory of where I was going. I was, I was going down. was, I was going down. Yeah. And like you said, blokey blokes in the building industry, talking about emotions, we don't do that. No, it's great that you've been so
open about what your experience was and that you can see where you would have headed if things hadn't changed. Yeah. And that was one of the things that, you know, really had me take off on TikTok because I got polarizing with that message. was like, yeah, sure. Suck it up, buttercup. And this is where you're going to end up. And I started getting men to be like, maybe there is something to this. Right. So, and that was actually how, because my, one of my,
the mentor that had encouraged me to go over to TikTok, know, there was the, can you be that little bit polarizing and shake that tree a bit, you know, to get some awareness out there. And that's what, you know, that was really, it was an interesting thing because mental health, me improving my mental health is what took me to TikTok to then help men with their mental health and it further impact because the women also,
I was speaking to men in my message, but the women were picking up because they're saying, my goodness, that's my husband. Yeah. Like this is you, you, are talking about my husband and I would love to see this improvement in him. So when you can shake that tree a bit and educate people, you can really start making an impact. And that's the thing. And that's part of why I started this podcast was I see people struggling with the same issues and yet we don't talk about it.
We don't talk about emotions. There is a significant number of children suffering with mental health disorders with all sorts of problems. There is a lot of special needs kids in the world. And yet we don't talk about that. And we don't talk about the impact that it has.
when a child is is ill in whatever form that is, we don't talk about the impact that that has on the whole family. We don't talk about what's going on. So it's like, we need to have those conversations, because when we have those conversations, and we find that common ground, that's when we can then move forward. Yeah. And it takes people like us to talk about
Well, whole gut brain connection thing, because so many people don't know about it because I mean, I get a little controversial here, but the system doesn't want us to know about it. I think like when we look at our foods, we look at all the preserves, we look at all the junk that's put in our food that is working against us. You know, we, can bring people the unfair advantage by learning that, you know, you can, you can improve yourself mentally by
actually working on your internal health, like your gut health and your physical health together. It's, and it's something that, you the world needs to hear about because we were fighting an unfair battle in my opinion. I agree. We don't get told a lot of stuff or we give away control to, to others. It's like, not the experts know, know better than, than we do. And in some respects they may.
You know your body, you know what's going on for you. And we have to start asking when we're saying significant rises in cancer rates. So they're at one in two and one in three now that people will have cancer at some point. read not that long ago that they're tipping that by 2050, the rates of autism spectrum disorder and all of the associated
I call them all the other letters that go with that. ADHD, all of those, they're tipping that by 2050, the rates of ASD and all the associated sort of will be one in two. So my brain goes, what the hell have we done? Yeah. a increase in such a short period of time. There's something going on.
Yes. A hundred percent. it's you mentioned- that we're a bunch of stress hits. Right. Exactly. I was going to say the same thing. Like we have to start questioning why, you know, when, we were in, school, wasn't the autism rates, the ADHD rates, the like the adunitas that, and, and it's just like the, the, the rate is just going and that number you just shared with me, I hadn't heard that that's that's staggering and that's scary, but that is a direct-
sign that, okay, there's something that human beings are doing that is different, that is impacting us internally. Well, what are we, what are we ingesting? Processed, refined garbage, right? Yeah, there's not the nutrient value in our foods that there once was. And there's all sorts of reasons behind that. Yeah. But there's also things that we can do to help with that. fresh seasonal local.
It doesn't have to be as difficult as it is. friend of mine is very fond of saying steer clear of the center aisles of the supermarket. Cause that's where, where a lot of this stuff, but we live such busy, crowded time, poor lives like that. We go for that convenience stuff and I'm guilty of it too. Yep.
And I'll feel like I'm that balance. Yep. And you know, I'll find because I've shifted, you know, I've added obviously the supplements, but it's also through the education of the supplements and the learning about the gut brain connect. I've really worked on my diet, but I'm human and I slip like we all do. And I'll, yeah. Or my, my, mine is potato chips, right? And all this.
of the things that really changed. I used to stress eat a ton, like in my traditional business. And my wife and I would joke about it. She'd be like, you're stress eating. And I'm like, yeah. And I would find the bottom of the bag of the chips, the big bag, right? And I knew while I was eating that, that I was going to feel like crap the next morning. I was going to have some indigestion, a little heartburn. But while I was eating the food, I felt good.
And I didn't understand at the time that I was feeding the bad bacteria that would give me a quick little hit of dopamine, quick little hit of serotonin, but then it would follow up with the inflammation and the cortisol and I would be right back where I was. Right. So I I've shifted that out, but like I said, every once in a while I'll slip and I'll go back and I'll eat that crap. Right. And then I'm like, Oh wow. There's that feeling again. And it doesn't take much to, to, disrupt that again with, you know, the
just feeding those bad bacteria. So it's, been an interesting journey. And you've, along the way you've learned to listen to what your body's telling you. And that's the funny thing. Our body constantly tells us what we need, but it tends to whisper before it shouts at us. And if we can start to learn to listen to those whispers, it doesn't have to scream at us. But so often we either.
don't know what it is our body's telling us. We haven't made that connection between when I eat that, I feel like that. Or when I do this, I feel like that. Or when I'm in this particular space, I like that. haven't made the connections between what we're and result. A lot of us just chalk it up to that's life. That's how I feel. What am I supposed to do? You know?
And it's interesting, like, you know, my doctors never talked to me about not once when I went to my doctor for stress and anxiety. And, know, at first, like I thought I was depressed. I went to Google and I self diagnosed myself with depression. then went to the doctor. But then I was like, okay, I need, I need to do something about this. So I went to see a doctor and I went to and then actually my father suggested a psychologist and they, they, came.
turned out that no, you have a high level anxiety. Well, not once did any of those professionals ask me about my diet. They wanted to give me pills though. Yep. And that's where Western medicine is brilliant for acute problems. So if we can do surgery or give a medication to change those things, we're really great at that. But chronic long-term.
problems, not so great with, and don't always want to look at it. But yeah, it's the, don't listen to what our bodies tell us. And
It's hard to make those changes or hard to make those connections between what's going on. And a lot of people aren't trained in nutrition or aren't trained in the effects that stress has on the body and what to do about it. would, I would argue that the majority of us aren't educated that way. Yeah. So I have an unfair advantage being
I was trained in that way, but I also had chronic health problems in my younger years and it taught me to listen to my body. got three nasty viruses all at once. got glandular fever, balma forest fever and CMV and my immune system packed it in. ended up with chronic fatigue and
was that, yeah, we don't know what to do. And chronic fatigue was, so this is in the nineties. So when we were just starting to understand how autoimmune conditions work, how, this and some things, and what we can do to, but for a long time, it's like, there's not that much we can do. And I went looking for, for dietary responses for
exercise and I worked out, I got really good at managing my energy in the, I've got a finite amount. So I choose what I use it on. Right. And I still do that. There'll be the, I've got 10 things to do. I've only got the energy to do five. what are the, and
No, I don't have those same kind of problems anymore. haven't for a long time. Yep. But then having my son diagnosed with an autoimmune condition, I was like, all right, here I know what to, what to do. But had I not have had those experiences, had I not have learned the lessons the hard way, I wouldn't have even known what to go looking for. Right. So.
Yeah. So it's great that you noticed that what you eat does have an effect or that what you're doing has an effect and that you've seen those, those changes from listening to your body. Yeah. I'm grateful. I, I, said yes to, to, my friend to, to try it, you know, to, experience it. because yeah, like I said, like I don't know.
where I would have been because I didn't understand what was happening internally. And I just, I was, I was, I was the prescriber and subscriber of the suck it up, buttercup mentality. This is life. Just deal with it. So often that's it. It's the, this is just how it is. And there's so many things that we do. Well, that's just normal. Isn't it? That doesn't everybody have those.
And everybody's stressed. Everybody's tired. Everybody's a little anxious. It's not, it's common, but it's not normal. No. And that's the thing. Normal had a sociology professor once who said normal is a bad word because it's negatively defined. The only way you can say what's normal is by first saying what isn't.
But then there's also the, just because everybody has it, doesn't mean that that's how it's supposed to be. Right? Yeah. So.
But yes, or just because everybody thinks, you just suck it up and get on with it. It doesn't always work. Nope. I would argue that nine times out of 10, it doesn't work. Maybe even more like the suck it up buttercup. They just, doesn't work because that's not, we, we can only, you can only, I don't care what you're dealing with. Like you can only bottle it up so long before.
The human body is just going to say, I can't do this anymore. And it's going to impact you in some way or another, be it your relationships, your work, you know, just like your, your, your happiness overall, which then is going to impact everything around. Right. Yeah. There's just so much we can shove into that bottle before the cork explodes somewhere. And you said you, you were quite angry and volatile. That was how.
You're wanting, so when you- was my calling method for the elevated cortisol pumping through my system. And I didn't realize that like, that's just, that's how it came out. I was reactive. I was snappy and it pushed people away. it. Yeah. And I, it's interesting. That's one of the first ways I noticed that I'm out of balance or that I'm getting stressed is when I start snapping at the kids.
or little things that wouldn't normally bother me. I know that crap out of me. Okay. And when I start finding that it's like, okay, what have I done? And yeah, sometimes these days it'll be, yep, I haven't had my happy juice for a couple of days because I've gotten busy or I'm so excited now that we have it on the ground in Australia.
because it used to be, and unfortunately it's still this with, with fundamentals. I'll order it. It takes six weeks to get here. Cause Australia is a long way away. didn't realize it was taking that long still. Wow. Sometimes it's between four and six weeks. okay. So yeah. And you know, it's been interesting too, because it's, it's easy to
slip on routines. mean, we're human, right? And I've had that as well. It's like, oh, like I'm feeling like I have some tells, some triggers like that I can tell when things are slipping, right? There's little things like, oh, I'm reaching that reactive point. And same situation like, oh, like, you know, I've been having my nootropics, but not putting the mental biologics in it.
because I just wanted the flavor. Like I love the flavor of our, of our, our nootropics, right? So there was a time and I always liked to, uh, you know, just validate what I'm doing. So I took a little time off, off the antibiotics and I started to say, okay, here's these tells coming back. My emotions are, are much more up and down. and then as soon as you, start bringing that back and balancing the microbiome, you can, I could feel it leveling back out again.
And I like to call it the unfair advantage because no matter how healthy we eat, it's, it's for me, especially like, you know, being busy, it's the, eat on convenience a lot of time. And then when we eat on convenience, we're typically not eating nutrient dense, fiber dense, healthy foods, right? It's, it's a lot of process for refined sugars and additives and dyes and all the things we shouldn't be eating. And then you start to notice it. So.
when we can give ourselves that a little unfair advantage in one delicious little drink every morning. mean, it's, that's why I like to call it the unfair advantage. Cause you can literally like just have a drink. That's brilliant. Yeah. So you like, you know, like it's just, you're adding that, that those probiotics, the prebiotics and the phytonutrients that the body needs to combat all the other environmental things that we don't have as much control over. Yes.
Cause that's the thing we, we can only control just so much. We can't control what happens out in the world, but we can control what, how we respond to it and what we do about it. Yep.
Here at Tabri Talk, we're quite fond of talking about stuff that doesn't generally get talked about. And we've talked a little bit about it today, the mental health aspect of things and that shift in attitude from suck it up, buttercup to actually, I'm going to deal with some stuff and talk about it. Is there anything else that you think really needs to get talked about?
That's a good one. You know, it's a
I think it's just that what we've talked about, a lot of the points that we brought today, how everybody's kind of walking around on pins and needles, how there's all these learning challenges that our kids are seeing that didn't happen before. It's just, think we need people to take a step back and think, this isn't normal. So we need people, we need shows like this to help educate. And I think that's the missing link right now.
for the world is the education. So I think that's what needs to be talked about more right now is because people need to know, like there is a better way. You don't have to take the pills that are gonna flatline you, right? That are just gonna, the serotonin selective, what is it? Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, those SSRIs, right? I talked to so many people and that's what my doctor wanted to put me on. And what I actually said no to is I have,
chronic back pain and they were gonna give me the same pills for anxiety. I have it in my pantry still, cause I never touched it. Because when I brought it home, was the same stuff another doctor had given me for my back pain. was like, what is going on here? So I didn't take it. Cause I didn't like the way it made me feel. And there's such a lack of education because...
Our doctors are taught to prescribe pills before they're taught to look at the root cause. We are very good at putting band-aid solutions on gaping wounds or treating the symptoms, but not getting to what's behind it. Right. Exactly. Yeah. So yeah, we need to start looking at what's really going on, what's behind it and...
listening to the clues that our body and our spirit give us. Cause generally if we're out of whack physically, we're going to be out of whack mentally and emotionally as well because they're all linked. Yeah. Yeah. No, like you say that it's interesting because when I got my mental health in, you know, stronger, when I stopped stress eating, you know, coming home and smashing a bag of chips or finding the bottom of an ice cream pail.
started to lose the weight that I was trying to lose that I couldn't lose either. Right. And as, as the microbiome shifts, the cravings shift. it's, it's such an interesting journey that again, there's just such a lack of education on that. need to just get loud about. Yeah. Because I know for me, the more I've learned, the more I realize I know nothing. And we are discovering more and more all the time, like 20 years ago.
when I started in massage, well, it's closer to 30 now, we were told with cancer patients, don't touch them with a 10 foot pole. We now know more and we have trained oncology massage therapists working alongside doctors, which is amazing. We've learned there's actually more benefit than harm and listening to that, cause it will help cope with the effects or
When nutritionally stuff changes all the time, but we're not taught the knock-on effects or we're not taught. We didn't know once upon a time, the gut brain connection wasn't something that was talked about 20, 30 years ago because we didn't necessarily understand those connections. We've learnt a lot and we keep learning.
a lot and we need to keep pushing that and questioning cause sometimes what we think we know when a new discovery happens, it's like, Ooh, yep. That bit's still true, but this changes things and we need to be able to, to go with those changes. Like I suppose the odd saying wise person knows when they don't know the wise man knows when he knows not.
I love that. And there's so much more out there and it's, questioning and talking because so often our own light bulb moment out, that's what's going on. That happens in a conversation with somebody who sees things differently to us or has different experiences and different understanding to what we do. Yep. A hundred percent.
keep talking all day. Me too.
So, and I have really loved talking with you and as being able to just be, be honest about all the stuff that's, that's going on. Cause a mental wellness journey, again, that's stuff we don't talk about. we're told that we're, we're taught not to, right? We're taught to, again, you know, this, that, that's a personal problem. Keep that to yourself. That's why this podcast is called Taboo Talk.
Well, originally I was going to call it shit we don't talk about because always you talk, yeah, kick that to yourself. We don't talk about that. Yeah. That name was already taken. So I was like, what's another word for that? Taboo. Those things that we don't, we don't talk about because they, so yeah, that was part of it was the, and see the beauty of that.
get to talk about anything I want to. There we go. So do the people that come on, which is really great. So thank you again for being here and for sharing your journey. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. So if there's anybody who wants to connect with you and learn more about Rock the Talk, Murray or anything else, where's the best place for them to find you?
So best place is my Facebook profile. Just Mike Gostola. I see I've got my wife's name on from our last presentation here. it's Mike Gostola. on TikTok. I keep my name open so people can find me. We have a group called TikTok Growth for Network Marketers and Social Sellers if you want to learn how to leverage TikTok. And of course, Sarah and I are always here to support anybody who wants to talk Amare and really discover how...
optimizing the gut brain access can really, really give you that unfair advantage. So I really appreciate you having me on and sharing the story because like we've said, it needs to be talked about more. We need more people sharing these stories. So because there's people out there that are relating to it and they haven't had a voice and they need our voices to help them move forward. Definitely. And that's what we're here for.
For everyone listening, I hope this episode's given you new insight and inspired you to take that next step in your journey. If you enjoyed the conversation, please subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs it and leave a review. And until next time, take care of yourself, take care of each other and remember your story matters. So please keep telling it. Thank you everyone. Take care. Thank you. Bye.