The Future of Veteran Healthcare—Why ODIN Stem Cells Could Become America’s Stem Cell brand | with Nico Seedsman

[00:00:03] Hector 1: Hello and welcome to another episode of the how to scale a business podcast. My special guest today is Mr. Niko Seisman. He is the founder and CEO of Odin stem cells. Nico, thanks for hanging out and welcome to the show.

[00:00:16] Nico: Hi, Hector. Thanks for having me on, man.

[00:00:18] Hector 1: So tell us because I want to get into sort of what you guys are doing and what you guys are up to because you guys are doing some really cool stuff, but I'm curious how someone gets into a space like stem cells and all that So what's you know, what's the highlight version of that?

[00:00:31] Nico: It's so random to everyone else, right? And to me, it was just like, it was just logical. And it just kind of logically happened. I, , joined the military when I was 17 in 10 days, 17 being the line. I joined as an electrical engineer in the Navy. I did that for three years. The whole time I was doing that, I trained for special operations is like my interest and goal. My parents wouldn't let me join unless I chose something educational, so they had to sign the line as a custodian, , until I was 18, right? So, I did that. I trained the whole time in there like a savage, and I mean like a savage. By the time I was 19, 20, I was training 15 or 17 times a day and leading a reconnaissance team in the infantry, because in the Navy, I transitioned just before three years into the Army.

[00:01:14] Nico: And I never really learned how to stop training like an animal and pushing myself like an animal. I got into the SAS at 21. You're a Delta Force, , Delta Force, still Team 6, we're, copy and pasted off the British SAS. We had our own in World War Two, under a different name, but we ended up calling it the SAS as well.

[00:01:33] Nico: , I did that, , because if I was going to do anything, I was going to do the very best. Found myself very, occupied in multiple corners of the Earth. Gone in and out of Afghanistan on combat deployments constantly until, I'd done three in a row in two years, just constant kill capture missions around the clock and no downtime.

[00:01:55] Nico: My downtime was like learning the next epic iteration of, Course , before going back to Afghanistan or, you know, one of them was de conflicting airspace to jets to drop bombs. Then another one was like training a combat assault dog that would come into combat with me, hunt dudes down. , and I just had a habit for biting off more than I could chew always and just living life till it's fully extreme. Near the end of it, at that third deployment, I started feeling this sense of exhaustion to the core that I couldn't describe. It was different than I'd ever felt, like, from just feeling tired. One thing led to another, and over the next two years, I would get diagnosed with chronic fatigue.

[00:02:33] Nico: Chronic fatigue would then turn into fibromyalgia, intermittent healing and just general pain, kind of like you're halfway house of autoimmune. , I got major depression, major anxiety and full blown PTSD, , I also picked up multiple viruses and dengue, rostrum fever and Epstein Barr active in my system.

[00:02:56] Nico: Specialist said I've got at least like four or five others that we don't have names for. , and so I was riddled with them. My nervous system ended up shutting down, eyes twitching, , and parasites were all through my body. I had TBI to the brain, blast traumas, and I had all the symptoms where I couldn't really remember short, medium, or long term, couldn't, cognitive function wasn't there.

[00:03:20] Nico: , I had heavy metal poisoning to make things worse from just eating lead, I think. , and radiation poisoning and, if you want, EMF and all these things. , it was pretty catastrophic. And then, you know, I got out and things got really bad. And then one thing kind of led to another where I just eventually was permanently sick.

[00:03:40] Nico: First year out, I was about 10 months sick. , next year out, I say I was eight months, but that probably wasn't true because what had happened was I was just permanently sick and I normalized being sick. So, I was in a permanent state of absolute exhaustion until by the end of that second year, I just was constantly with a, , bacterial or viral infection between beds and toilets and trying to stay alive.

[00:03:59] Nico: , and then I got a couple of months left to live and through the serendipity of. You're listening to podcasts and this and that. I met the owner of a stem cell clinic in Colombia and they kind of put me through as fast as they could. met the chief medical doctor there in 2019 and she said, look, Nick, you're pretty far gone.

[00:04:18] Nico: So we might not be able to save you in time. But I'll let you have a shot at trying to save your life. And I can't guarantee anything. I'm not even legally allowed to if I could. She goes, but I can tell you that I'm a 100 percent success rate with every autoimmune patient that's ever walked in here. And I said, well, I'm going to die anyway.

[00:04:33] Nico: So take my, fucking money. And, , you know, stem cells weren't as advanced as they are now. So I took it and then in the next three months, I kept getting worse. Like I kept going close to that finish line of death. Like it was pretty damn bad. And then it just kicked in. Like I couldn't sleep anymore. We were on drugs because I was shaking. My body would. It was like just permanently shaking I couldn't even use my voice for conversations with people like going to a cash register was a big thing to me to get like cancer tuner or whatever, just to still whatever man to survive.

[00:05:04] Nico: , So yeah, it kicked in And then I started getting better, and all I wanted was to not die. But what ended up happening was I regenerated all of that, everything I just mentioned, over the next year and probably a half to get the full spectrum because I had to get three separate treatments of stem cells because they gave me too much at once.

[00:05:20] Nico: My body would start thinking it could, it would start writing checks. My body couldn't actually cash. It would start thinking it could do stuff and heal and do certain things and That it wasn't actually going to be ready for, and they nailed it. I'm going to be honest, they fucking nailed it. And it didn't just regenerate to a stable level.

[00:05:36] Nico: It completely eventually regenerated everything. Now, here's the interesting part. I had things that I didn't really care about on the relative spectrum. I didn't actually. Care about my hearing loss and my tinnitus and my bruxism, , my shoulders that I couldn't turn a steering wheel with when I left because I was so worn through, my knees were worn through the kneecaps as well, , like challenges with my broken right leg, foot and ankle, , lower back and neck would both often just seize and I would walk around like Lego, and, you know, left inguinal hernia, all these other random injuries, right?

[00:06:11] Nico: Well, I didn't even get localized injections. It ended up healing all of them. So, everything that I've just labeled was completely regenerated by stem cells over the next couple of years in total. Just took a little bit because, you know, you do the damage and it's regenerative and like the hand of God, so it doesn't happen overnight.

[00:06:30] Nico: And that there is my ground zero for how I got into stem cells.

[00:06:38] Hector 1: And was it always something that you saw a business behind or at what point did you go? Well, I think this is something that. not only are you just going to start a business, but it seems like it's become your path, like, you know, you've sort of taken up this flag and are running at the

[00:06:54] Hector 1: front, maybe even taking some arrows when did that sort of path start?

[00:06:58] Nico: I created a foundation called, Worry Refit and refits a term for the military. But like, if you get an old ship that needs to be updated and iterated, it'll go into a refit like in a bay. Not only will I get cleaned and administrated, but it'll also get upgraded with all the newest technology, et cetera.

[00:07:14] Nico: I'm very passionate about veterans getting access to this. I was like, this is fucking bullshit because all they do is give us charge medicines. They give poisons and just like the same shit you give someone an emergency and they just keep giving them your emergency medications for like a year or two years, three years, five years, basically until these guys die.

[00:07:30] Nico: Right. And we're seeing the effects of what you do when you give people that. , on a grand scale, right? Has a lot to do with the suicides and homelessness. But how do we measure the quality of life between homelessness and suicide, right? In which no one's trying to. So it's just people just trying to stay alive on these triage medicines.

[00:07:46] Nico: And I think it's bullshit because I was pretty much left for dead. I was abandoned by doctors. , and I lost a lot of faith in doctors. I actually realized doctors are pretty, pretty useless for the most part. I'm kind of looking forward to AI taking most of their jobs. , There are some spectacular ones out there that are like quasi scientists that will shine through, and they're the ones that sort of believe in holistic approach and regenerative medicines, and not just. Regurgitating information from the book. I created this foundation to combat all that nonsense, to get regenerative medicines into veterans. And what I did was, I actually got, I found myself in some rooms where I was speaking in rooms of billionaires, and I couldn't get donations. I could have everyone in the room cry.

[00:08:24] Nico: But I couldn't get donations, and it was pretty frustrating for me, actually. I had all the support in the world from people who gave a shit, but getting donations was quite challenging. , because people in America say they care, they don't really care, unless they're direct family members involved. It's just evident and objectively evident.

[00:08:40] Nico: That's very self evident. You know, you've got one day to celebrate veterans and then you've got like whole months to celebrate, whatever it is, whatever name your race and demographic. Right? Like, and it's mostly because veterans are pretty old people post service let down through treatment.

[00:08:54] Nico: but also because it's like. They don't have the enormous amount of money that a lot of these other demographics do, so why pander to them? Let's call it what it is, right? that became frustrating. And then I sent our mutual friend, Alex Marica, he was like, hey Nick, I want to get stem cells done.

[00:09:09] Nico: I'm like, alright, well, this is where I'd go. I've sent a bunch of people there and they've had amazing results. They really care. Like, I'll take care of you. He's a friend of mine. And he did, and they did. Then, without even thinking about it, I'm hiking Badiloche Mountains in Patagonia with Alex. , and he's hurt like a little bit. He was still in the elementary phase post where he was climbing a mountain. this guy couldn't climb a mountain before He couldn't climb a mountain. He couldn't, play tennis. He couldn't do all these things.

[00:09:33] Nico: That's why he went to get stem cells. And I'd kind of forgotten that he'd asked me because so many people asked me for stem cells at this point. it was wild. Like he was able to completely climb the mountain. And then this year, he ran an untrained marathon Athens with me, original, and then he went, parasailing or whatever it is the next day, like it was nothing.

[00:09:51] Nico: And so anyway, after he did his sales and had the immense results, he was playing tennis again, you know, he was down to the point where he was playing with his left hand because he couldn't use his right anymore. Doing everything now, he's on the court, played paddle with him, all this stuff, he comes to me and he's like, all right.

[00:10:04] Nico: Asked me a whole bunch of questions. He's like, what if I want to start a stem cell company? What if I want to win the brand in America? And I'm like, Yeah, I do this, this and this. He's like, cool. what if I wanted you to run it and be the space in the story? I'm like, let me sit on it.

[00:10:16] Nico: And I sat on it for a few weeks and came back and was like, I'm in on this condition. Like veterans get helped. This is my objective. My objective is to get this in accessible veterans affairs and serving military. Prevention is better than cure, right? It's in their interest to do it as well. It's a preventative medicine because if you can stop the turnover of soldiers because they're injured, then you literally, you have way less of a HR problem trying to recruit.

[00:10:41] Nico: And you also don't lose your most experienced guys as prematurely. And I want it in those and I want it not just in America because everyone follows America. I want it in Australia, Britain, Canada, et cetera, all the guys I fought with. It doesn't matter how I get there. That's what I want. And he's like, done.

[00:10:57] Nico: So we decided to, build a company. Now we're completely blowing it up and it's blowing up faster than we can even, like manage it. it's at the point where even accounting becomes a challenge at the moment because it's a lot.

[00:11:08] Nico: , and we're doing that just because I just, you know, I'm pretty good with teams, commanding dudes, good morale, et cetera. But it's also like we're choosing genuine heart opened people. That are advocates that interact with potential patients, people who truly give a shit. Like, actually give a shit.

[00:11:25] Nico: They're not pushing you to make a decision because they want to make money. They're just, hey, when you're ready, come. We got you. This is this. What else do you need? You need this? All right, this. They don't need to be sold regenerative medicine. It sells itself. they need to be educated, informed, and feel safe and comfortable in what they're doing for their future because this is all out of pocket for guys, right? And just that combined with like 3 principles of price we're simply cheaper than others. We're over generous. So we, kind of under promise and over deliver significantly and the success, the efficacy and safety, we're just. I know we accidentally built a company that probably will become the brand of America's stem cells.

[00:12:02] Hector 1: you're like when we just accidentally happened, I want to get, I want to get into the tactics of that. This is an incredible story. And Nick, just want to honor you and appreciate you because it seems like you found a need, there's a demand there and it seems like your partner, Alex had found a way to.

[00:12:17] Hector 1: commercialize or monetize it in a way that isn't make you, you know, a piece of shit, which is, I think is a big challenge, in today's world. So

[00:12:24] Nico: I'm not sure if it's that much of a challenge. The pharmaceutical and the medical industry are so far ahead in the game as a piece of shit, That it's just like, all you have to do is just keep your nose, it's about you, like, there's shit over there, it's not even that hard to sidestep the shit, because it's like, those guys are balls deep in it, and shamelessly too, by the way,

[00:12:44] Hector 1: we get back from break. I want to ask you about some of these tactics and how someone might be able to take, you know, what I've called like an impact driven or a purpose driven, company and really make it successful and scale it. And so we're going to get into that, right after this quick break. Hey y'all, today's episode is brought to you by Amplify Media and we are a podcast and content production company. Well, we like to think of ourselves as like the media entity your business because chances are you probably have a passion, a product, a mission, a message, some sort of service that you're trying to get out to the world, but you might not have the time, the team or the tech skills to do it.

[00:13:14] Hector 1: Well, if that's the case, we can help go to amplifymedia. com. That's A M P L. A f y media. com. You can also check the show notes for the link. And with that, let's go back to Nico. So Nico, I'd love for you to share with the listeners, as you reflect back on the journey of the organization in the business, Is there sort of a linchpin? Is there, you know, keystone sort of thing that when you look back on it, you go, well, it's because we did this, that we were able to have some success and sort of this, you know, kind of allowed sort of the rest of the things that come together. Is there one of those that emerges over another?

[00:13:49] Nico: Not getting attached to cool titles. Everyone wants to be, are we doing this, we're getting a medical, we're getting into this. I just looked at all the pieces and kept making strategical decisions as I'd have the next conversation. There was no rush. to make money per se in the first 2 to 3 months as there was to get the formula, right?

[00:14:11] Nico: Because once it's set in stone and you become a medical company or a medical company, you're treated as such by the law. What we worked out is we didn't want to be a medical company. We wanted to be a management services organization. we wanted to be legion. We want to be all these other things that we just made far more sense because as we worked out what people needed, what was missing thought strategically, again, just laying out all the cards on the table and making, the next most logical decision and not being attached to anything or any of the work we've put in so far as a result of that.

[00:14:41] Hector 1: was that changing like a business model? were you guys already down one sort of business model and had to, pick up and change? Or was it that you just kind of foresaw in The strategy and the planning phase

[00:14:51] Nico: yeah, no, the business model just kind of kept shifting as it needed to. It was a dynamic model. We were a dynamic company. that was it. Like if you're a startup, you're dynamic. Do not get held bent on being something. Everything might just change. And then the other secret of success is there's a book called Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, and I like Jocko because he speaks my language, right?

[00:15:14] Nico: He's SF guy. And the two key things in that book for anyone to think about reading it, it's a good book, great stories to iterate these points, but he's Two things were extreme ownership, obviously, which is like anything that you touch or interact with that does not go wrong is your fault, take responsibility.

[00:15:31] Nico: So, therefore, prevention is better than cure. Know that anything that may go wrong is your fault. So, you make sure you've got your shit in order for everything and every decision. Like, look for every nook and cranny things go wrong. The other one is simplicity. And this is a huge special operations term that I think Samoans get wrong.

[00:15:47] Nico: In business, they chase a butterfly. They start getting distracted by another butterfly. Like, cool, we can chase two. You can't chase two butterflies, especially when you're starting company and, and you're not taking advantage of the value of a small team at that point, which is you're really dynamic.

[00:16:01] Nico: that butterfly can take random turns and you can pivot as well. So keeping it simple, and the simplicity for us looked an awful lot like every time my team wanted to go on a tangent to something else, we'd be like, hey guys, no, no, no, we just do stem cells. come back to the center, we just do stem cells.

[00:16:17] Nico: That is it. And as a result of that, man, do we fucking do stem cells? Good. Do we take care of people? Good. Do we have the best cells? Do we have the best doctors? Do we have the best relationships with our clients? are we truly able to give a shit and give our undivided attention to the clients?

[00:16:33] Nico: Yes. Simplicity. I think everyone's trying to do too much, trying to do too many things, trying to juggle too much stuff and just have faith in God or whatever you have faith in other than yourself, obviously. and just whatever intuitively comes up or is meant to come up or comes up at the right time, or if you don't feel like you have an answer immediately, just sit on it a little bit. Answer will probably come out as you keep digging and having more conversations with the next person and just asking around. There's like a natural flow to the way things get resolved rather than just locking and grinding a decision right now.

[00:17:03] Nico: I don't have to make decisions that are immediate. But here's the thing. when I learned about a lot of commanding in the, special operations was, it's like, you know, people, you know, they used to have this thing for the general army. They used to be like, it doesn't matter if you make the wrong decision or the right decision, you just make a decision.

[00:17:17] Nico: No, no, no. Special operations don't get that luxury. You're in command, make the right fucking decision or you will not be here any longer. God willing, it's by, being kicked out, not by getting everyone killed. So it's like, use your intuition and everything you have at your disposal to make the possible best right decision you possibly

[00:17:33] Hector: is its own. I mean, that's its own three, four hour episode that I'm sure we can go into. But one of the other things that you mentioned is, the leadership. And I'm, curious how you've, enabled your team to sort of take up. I would imagine the same sort of mindsets and perspectives and ethos and energy that you have because, I would just imagine that, in order to grow as you guys have, you can't be doing everything.

[00:17:56] Hector: So how have you sort of instilled that into the team and leveraged, you know, that part of it?

[00:18:01] Nico: authenticity of the underlying core of everything that I touch and do in my entire life is linked to authenticity and truth, when my words, thoughts, and actions are aligned, it's the definition of integrity, but it's also the definition of authenticity and truth. And what I recently discovered for the Buddhist and Hindus, it's actually the definition of joy. Authenticity, they know I'm not screwing around, they know I'm not, whatever I say is what I need, even if I don't have the best information at the time to articulate it the best I want. and just being genuine and treating everyone genuinely. And then on top of that, the people that I take on board, for the most part, I've had long term relationships with, the hardest things to find in the civilian world when I got out was actually loyalty and integrity. you can find confidence. Good luck finding loyalty, integrity, and competence. Now, I've had to sit on relationships for two years, three years, maybe more to find that unicorn. And I know a lot of unicorns because I can smell loyalty and integrity from a mile away. And then I watch it indirectly get tested over a long period of time.

[00:19:02] Nico: So taking people that have got loyalty and integrity, key found more important a high level of competence, and then finding the highest degree of competence that complements them. They have is how I got the team members to reciprocate whatever I was bringing to the table or whatever we as the founders were bringing to the table.

[00:19:18] Hector: Yeah, it seems like the seen that organizations seem to take on the spirit and mindsets and just they seem to embody The leader, you know, as sort of a an extension of them. And I would imagine that you've done a good job with that.

[00:19:35] Hector 1: as we kind of round out here. I'm curious.

[00:19:37] Hector 1: You're looking forward. You're in a industry that who knows what's going to happen or where it goes. just imagine that you're dealing with so many more moving pieces that Perhaps are, out of your control, whether it's regulations or legislation or technology, like there's all these, moving pieces that, , I'm curious how you guys look at the chessboard, if you will.

[00:20:01] Hector 1: And, from a strategic standpoint, what your perspective is on how to sort of make sure that you guys are going to where the puck is going to be down the line.

[00:20:11] Nico: a principle that I got taught from a very, I'm going to give him credit here. Ken Murray, he wrote the book, Training at the Speed of Life. He invented something called Simunition with another guy. Just paint rounds that go on your rifle, which means you're allowed to train realistic training. And he worked out that the military was doing a whole bunch of, and police, disservice to training people because it wasn't real. Some people running around, it wasn't a real human being. It was just like fixed targets. There's no humanity in it. But there was also no humanity in the way you interacted with it.

[00:20:39] Nico: Person that was a bad guy, it was also the other side, there was no humanity with the way they were interacting with their team members by yelling at him, screaming at him, doing this and that. It wasn't the way you would build up a human to fight next to you. And he kind of overhauled that, , and brought in a lot of principles that kept a great amount of people alive. a lot across the entire last 10, 15 years of war and whatnot. the biggest one that sits with me is this, thing that used to say is what's important now, what's important later. And if you apply that to absolutely everything, when you've got a lot going on or too much going on or big decisions to make.

[00:21:09] Nico: It's like it allows you to immediately prioritize what you actually need to take care of right now. so you don't get too caught up, like, so what's important now? Well, the puck's here now. I've got to deal with that now. But I'm also thinking a little bit ahead, but my priority is now. My priority is, all right, well, that's done.

[00:21:24] Nico: You know, I've got this next wider space. Well, and now I'll make a decision about the medium thing. Cool. And then, oh, something short term has come up. Well, that's important now. So it's like, being able to balance that. And for some reason, one thing kind of leads to another and it makes a very logical decision making like I know where we need to go the company.

[00:21:41] Nico: We're already having conversations about because it becomes naturally. The difference is like tactics and strategy tactics is on the ground. You know, you're in combat, you're, coordinating a team to flank a position or whatever it is, right, that you've seen in Saving Private Ryan and whatnot. Strategy is the commander deciding where to put what units and what tasks to get done. And you're really just important now, it's important later, okay? Tactics is pretty important now, that's under control, cool, now I can focus on strategy. And for strategy for us, I'm able to see these pictures of what's our greatest threat. what's our threat that we haven't seen yet? Like, I'm able to see a medium term threat and put out that fire before it even occurs. Like I did this week, I took on two new guys for operations. I'm like, they're like, we don't have a problem. I'm like, but we're going to here and this is our next.

[00:22:27] Nico: Threshold challenge that won't even come up like I've cured it before even comes up. So then I've got to see the next one. , and then they've also got to see way ahead of what happens if an RFK comes in and just opens up the floodgates. What happens if, the insurance companies get involved all of a sudden, it won't happen overnight, probably happen, but I want to be damn well ahead of the game where I'm sitting pretty.

[00:22:48] Nico: and then while I'm doing that and having those combos, I'm able to immediately someone text me and go, Nick, we've got this problem and go bam, straight back into tactics, which important now getting little tactics, right? Supporting the team. I need that team to grow with us to take on more responsibility as we grow to meet that big strategy.

[00:23:04] Hector 1: a man, so much to unpack and so much that we've, done in just a short time. I want to let the listeners know, and I want to give you some time to talk about, the company and the websites and stuff, but is there anything that we, didn't hit today that you're like, damn it.

[00:23:17] Hector 1: want to make sure I say this before we, wrap, whether that's a point, a lesson, a story,

[00:23:23] Nico: yeah,

[00:23:24] Nico: the error of. triage medicine. Let's say rotating triage. Never ending rotating triage. Medicine of America is pretty much dead and you've been betrayed and really misled by that. The error of regenerative medicine is real. There's infinite amount of testimonials out there by famous people, healthy, people of all different types and varieties and demographics that you can go look at with infinite amounts.

[00:23:49] Nico: It's real. If you've got a loved one or someone that you care about and you, know, other than cancer, as I understand they're doing clinical trials for cancer. So no one will say whether it does or doesn't yet, but no one will treat cancer at the moment because no one wants to take the liability.

[00:24:02] Nico: It's just, it's too much for any medical staff, right? There's a risk. But for most other things, it's worth having a conversation about. So if you've got problems yourself, you've got loved ones and whatnot, go talk to us, go talk to anyone. , really it like I just told a doctor from like, I don't have a competition here, man.

[00:24:17] Nico: It's like, just do infinite good money, you know, and prosperity will follow that. But it's, you know, if you've got a loved one or yourself that's suffering or whatever, just go down the rabbit's hole and someone will take care of you. And this, infinitely works. I've seen so many cases that are examples just like mine.

[00:24:35] Nico: It never actually ends, apparently, and they get their quality of life back, or it saves their life.

[00:24:41] Hector 1: Yeah. Amazing stuff. If listeners want to get more connected with you or, you know, the services that you guys provide, where's the best place to go?

[00:24:50] Nico: So, what I'll do is, me personally, I just do Instagram. . So I'll give you that later. It's just easier if they just check that out of a podcast link. And then the other one is the website for Odin Stem Cells. And that's just Odin, like the god, O D I N stemcells. com. and you can even find that on the Instagram if you went in there.

[00:25:08] Nico: I've got it in my bio.

[00:25:10] Hector 1: Amazing. Yeah. We'll link all that up in here as well. Nick, thanks so much for hanging out today. All of you guys, you guys go back, listen to this again. I know I'm going to be, we appreciate you hanging out. We'll see you on the next one.