Life has been hectic.

Most of the writing for my book “Hard Lessons From The Hurt Business: Boxing And The Art of Life” is done, but interestingly enough, writing a 70k word book with double-digit rounds of editing while moving and dealing with a new baby is not even the most intensive part.

The book is officially available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever else you buy books from—even Target.

As I gear up for the promotional push of the book, I’m laying the foundation for a more significant marketing push. Without getting into the nitty gritty, I’ve been growing my YouTube channel and training to fight again.

I just passed 20k subscribers (subscribe here), and in January, I made enough money in ad revenue to cover nearly 2 months of living expenses. The money is a nice benefit, but that’s not why I started the channel.

Growing my YouTube channel is to reach a bigger audience and form a more personal connection with my story and content. I love my newsletter, and writing is my first love, but videos can form a stronger connection with people and make them more interested in my story.

David Perell once astutely said, “If you want to reach smart people, learn how to write. If you want to reach the most people, learn how to make videos.” It’s great advice, and it’s true.

I studied my ass off for about four months learning how to grow my channel. While I learned a lot about YouTube's technical and algorithmic aspects, the most powerful takeaway is that I don’t need a lot of fancy editing, music, or b-roll to hold an audience.

While I’m sure it’s awful for my ego, my storytelling chops are sharp enough to hold an audience. It’s quite empowering and a tremendous self-confidence boost. Yes, I need that sometimes, too.

[Side note: I’m now 100% doing the 4-week workshop for writers and people over 35 who want to grow on YouTube. Of course, anyone can sign up, but I found that most of the advice on YouTube for YouTube growth was centered around would-be YouTubers in the usual suspects of niches (Health, Wealth, Relationships, and, of course, Growing on Social Media).

I’d like to serve people like me so they don’t have to reverse engineer hundreds of hours of tangentially related content. If you’re remotely interested in the workshop, sign up for the waitlist below.

Warning, though—to deliver the highest service, I’m capping the number of enrollments at 30. This is not fake scarcity. Hop on the waitlist—or click this link to be tagged—so you know when I open enrollment.]

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All of this is a lot of work, but in 1-2 years, this activity will be more than worth it.

With that said, I’ve felt like I have the workload of 4 men but with ¼ the resources for any one endeavor. Add to that my son having another one of those pesky sleep regressions, and there was a 2 week period where I was effectively one of the living dead.

Things are solid now, but for about 10 days, it was not all good in my hood.

However, an unexpected DM gave me a gift that gave me a little help when I needed it most.

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"The mud never gets glovier."

I get 100s of DMs and emails per year with people offering me different products and services to try, many with the hope of me becoming an affiliate. Well, not always with the hope of me becoming an affiliate. Sometimes, guys want me to talk about it, but there are no free rides.

Outside of the freeloaders, I have nothing against this practice.

If the product is good, I end up using it, and the seller has no reputational issues, I’m willing to work something out because everyone wins. And that reputation thing is huge for me, especially after over a decade in this internet marketing personal branding space.

A wise man from one of my Twitter growth groups once said, “When you play in the mud with white gloves, the mud doesn’t get glovier.”

In other words, every person I lend credibility to by endorsing their product (explicitly or implicitly), also transferred their reputation to me. Despite some early missteps, I’ve managed to grow and carve out a nice little name for myself, but as an even older saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

So, assuming none of those above problems are present…

I get a great product that helps me out, the audience discovers something that could help them, the seller gets some exposure, and I hopefully make enough money to keep me from resorting to Only Fans. I’m joking—I hope.

Well, I received one such DM on Twitter during the roughest part of my son’s sleep regression, asking if I’d like to try “Morning Would.”

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With that name, I first thought they were pitching me an alternative to Viagra, but I was curious. The name is just a delightful expression of the creator's sense of humor. The product is actually one of the most unique supplement blends I’ve ever seen.

In the supplement world, it would technically be classified as a nootropic or pre-workout. That said, there is some overlap in what those two supplement categories accomplish. The guys at Morning Would came up with a brilliant idea: why not combine the best of both worlds?

Oh, and while we’re at it, we’ll make it into a delicious powdered drink you can mix with your protein shake.

The difference between "nootropic" and "pre-workout"

Before we go further, let’s make sure that everyone is on the same page about the terms “nootropic” and “pre-workout.”

We’ll start with “pre-workout” because that definition is pretty straightforward. A pre-workout is a dietary supplement to improve athletic performance before a workout. Pre-workouts aim to increase energy, improve focus, and build muscle.

While anabolic steroids and peptides are, in the purest sense of the word, a “pre-workout,” those don’t count because pre-workouts don’t manipulate your hormone profile. However, some of them have been known to contain some pretty potent ingredients that can potentially make you pop hot on a drug test (specifically, DMAA, which is a lesser type of amphetamine).

Nootropics are more nebulous. Per Wikipedia, “nootropics are natural, semisynthetic or synthetic compounds which purportedly improve cognitive functions, such as executive functions, attention or memory.”

The word choice “purportedly” is the most accurate way to say “This is difficult to demonstrate exactly in repeatable studies, but we do have studies, and we mostly understand the mechanism of action—mostly.”

Now that we’re clear on definitions let me tell you why I like this supplement and why, despite the producers taking a page straight from the 80s with the crack-cocaine epidemic and offering me a free sample, I will continue to use this supplement.

Hopefully, I won’t need to resort to criminal activity to support my new habit.

Something better than coffee?
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Babies are notoriously awful sleepers. Well, at least mine was.

He’d be up all night because he was supposedly developing a new skill, getting teeth, afraid of the dark, missed his parents, or was just being ornery and unpredictable.

Ok, cool, except it didn’t affect his daytime energy levels. He’d be up bright and early, running circles around me like he got 10 hours of sleep.

I’m in great shape and am pretty high energy myself, so toddler energy never wears me out—except when I haven’t gotten more than 4 hours of continuous sleep for days in a row.

On top of that, I’m filming content for the YouTube channel and trying to sound coherent and not look like I actually smoking crack, all while maintaining enough mental clarity to edit a book, write a newsletter, and have enough physical energy to train for a fight.

Coffee wasn't cutting it anymore.

I needed something that could support both the physical and mental demands I was facing and despite the constant jokes I make on Twitter, crack cocaine was not an option.

This is where Morning Would's formula shines. The creators—two active firefighters named who both have the same name (That’s all I can say, as they can’t use their profession to advertise the product, but it is quite awesome and lends credibility to their experience under pressure) understood something crucial: morning performance isn't just about being alert or just about having energy—it's about supporting your entire system.

While caffeine can temporarily mask feelings of tiredness and improve some aspects of alertness, it doesn't prevent all forms of cognitive decline associated with sleep deprivation. Higher-order cognitive functions may still be impaired even when you feel alert.

While most of us lean on coffee to power through our mornings, the science shows we're just masking our fatigue without addressing the underlying cognitive decline.

Research in Sleep Medicine Reviews demonstrates that while caffeine can temporarily boost alertness, it doesn't prevent impairment of higher-order cognitive functions like decision-making and memory consolidation. You might feel awake, but your brain isn't operating at full capacity.

Morning Would's formula takes a more sophisticated approach. Instead of just blocking adenosine receptors as caffeine does, it provides comprehensive support through multiple pathways.

L-tyrosine, for instance, has been shown in studies to specifically improve cognitive performance under conditions of sleep deprivation and stress. One particularly relevant study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that L-tyrosine supplementation helped maintain cognitive performance in subjects who had missed a night of sleep – something I became intimately familiar with during my son's sleep regression. (Read Study Here)

The Alpha GPC component goes beyond just alertness. Research published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine shows it can enhance both memory formation and recall – critical functions that caffeine alone doesn't address. It also makes you a better athlete and can increase your motivation. (Read Study Here)

The result is a formula that doesn't just mask tiredness— it actively supports your brain's ability to function under suboptimal conditions.

This effect is not immediately obvious, but my energy levels and mental clarity were definitely enhanced. Unlike many other stimulants, it doesn’t give you the crackhead jitters. It also doesn’t lead to a crash.

I might feel energetic with coffee but struggle to articulate complex ideas clearly.

With Morning Would, I maintained the mental clarity that allows me to break down and communicate stoic street-smart concepts into digestible content, even after those nights of recliner-sleeping with a toddler sprawled across my chest.

This brings me to the best way to use this. The morning hours are a critical window for hormonal optimization – your cortisol naturally peaks about 30-45 minutes after waking.

The problem is that most people (myself included, previously) immediately reach for coffee, which triggers an additional cortisol spike. Research shows this double-spike can, counterintuitively and quite ironically, blunt your body's natural awakening response over time.

Instead of fighting against these natural hormonal rhythms, I've structured my supplement timing to work with them.

I wake up at 5:00 AM and mix my Morning Would with 12 oz of water by 5:30 AM. That might seem like a short time, but it’s all your body needs to wake up and optimize itself without external stimulants. If you continue to rely on coffee in the morning, try putting it off for 30-60 minutes after you wake up, and you’ll get a much stronger effect from it.

And now, for the one thing I know everyone cares most about: taste.

I give the taste a 7/10. It’s not the worst-tasting supplement I’ve had, but I’d never use the word “delicious” to describe it. It’s got a bit of a salty taste, which makes sense as it’s an electrolyte powder. If you’ve ever had something like LMNT powder, you know exactly the type of saltiness tones I’m talking about.

It’s not a taste you’ll want to mask with other supplements or mix with juice, but it’s not something you’ll crave. It’s just…ok. And that’s fine because you aren’t drinking this because of how it tastes. You’re drinking it because of what it does.

If you look at the flavor through that lens, the flavor profile is a 9/10. I’ve had some supplements that have made me wonder if the benefit is worth what I have to put my taste buds through (black seed oil, I’m looking at you).

​Morning Would never makes me question that, and after a few drinks, I kinda looked forward to it. Sorta like your favorite brand of whiskey. NO ONE likes the taste of it at first, but it gradually grows on you.

With all of that said, if you’re interested in checking out Morning Would, grab a bottle at the link below (or any of the others scattered through the email) and get 10% off your order when you use discount code “Ed10”