- I like that. Hey, you can sing; I like that. He's got a sweet voice. ♪ I get so emotional, baby ♪ - Maybe that was my calling. - Yeah, I think you missed that, man. - And here I am at PCA talking to Adam Levine. And this is, without question, the most enjoyable thing that I'm gonna say all day. - Yes sir. - The League of Fat Bastards. - Thank you kindly. - You gotta tell this story. How did that happen, League of Fat Bastards?
- Okay, so I think the best way to introduce the whole concept is to firstly understand our mission of why we exist. 100% of the reason why we exist is to make a positive global impact on men's mental health. The name League of Fat Bastards, very simple, comes from our belief that we need to find a new way for men to chew the fat, right? So chewing the fat, little bit of an Aussie colloquialism, - Ah, chewing the fat. - It's sitting down, and chewing the fat, having a conversation.
- We're chewing the fat! - We're chewing the fat right now, man. - Right now in real time. - In between you singing and sort of serenading me and telling me how nice I smell, which I love. It's all good, and I appreciate that. So, seriously the whole brand is predicated 100% around supporting men's mental health. It's a very serious process that we go through.
We do that primarily through organizing a range of on-premise events, where we will bring in high profile individuals, sportspeople, personalities, and get them to share their journey that they've been through so that it can start to normalize that conversation amongst the men that are there. So the other really important part of what we do, Drew, is that we give back 40%, that's 4-0 percent. - Four zero?
- Four zero percent of the profits that we make from the sale of our cigars to NGOs and organizations that support war vets, that support first responders, that support nurses, medical staff, EMTs- - All those trauma people. - All those individuals who are of service to others but are suffering themselves. - So we believe that there's an opportunity for us to use the camaraderie around cigars as a way of creating a movement to help others deal with that trauma. - Beautiful.
- That's the core mission, man; that's what we're about. It's very simple. - And with that being said, if that's your purpose, if your primary purpose is not to sell a pile of cigars- - No, you're wrong! Our primary purpose, and I'm gonna swear, is to sell a shit-load of cigars. Because the more cigars we sell, the more profit we make, the more money we give back! - More money you give to the cause, yeah. - Oh my God, I wanna sell
millions of cigars. - So how'd you get onto cigars in the first place? - So, yeah, interesting story, I started in cigars being a passionate cigar smoker when I was 25 years old. I'm 53, thank you very much. - You look good. - Thank you very much. - Yeah, nicely done. - Thank you. And I was living in London with my wife at the time, and it was the heyday of the Cuban cigars, and I was living in a very famous street called Jermyn Street, J-E-R-M-Y-N, where JJ Fox [James J Fox] is.
And I remember going in there for the first time. I was blown away. Long story short, that passion continued all the way through, but the reality is that in 2019, I had a very severe mental episode, myself. I had a breakdown, and I was suicidal, and it was a very difficult period for me. But part of the recovery process, believe it or not, was some lessons that were told to me around how to get through that. A couple of those were things like, "Adam, stop and smell the roses."
"Adam, don't be afraid to be selfish "and take some time out to be kind to yourself." "Adam, find an opportunity to declutter your life. Make things simple."
And amazingly for me, I was actually able to achieve those things when I was sitting and enjoying my cigars, stopping to smell the roses, obviously appreciating, being mindful about the 300 hands that touch the cigar all the way through the process, enjoying conversations with men, other buddies who were cigar aficionados or cigar connoisseurs. And so, when I got through the other side of that process, I suddenly thought, hey, why don't we do something positive?
Let's do something different with cigars. Why can't we use that as an opportunity to create a movement of people who want to help men get through life, and live their best life into the future? So that's what was the instigation. That's how we started it. - When did you start this? - We officially launched in the U.S. on the 17th of February. We've been distributing for a little while in Asia out of Singapore, but it had been a two-year project.
I think we're probably the only cigar brand that's been produced over Zoom because I was in Australia and Joya, as you know, up in Nicaragua, and it was the back end of the pandemic, so there was no travel. So Juan Martínez is just the most amazing individual. That family is fantastic. I can't tell you how appreciative I am of them and what they've done. They're great people.
They, basically, would send me samples, and then, Juan and I would be on the Zoom together, and we'd actually be talking through the blends. And we did that through about sort of 10 or 15 different blends, and we came to what I call the Goldilocks Blend. So it's something- - This is the Goldilocks Blend? - That's what I call it. - The Serie L. - Serie L. - So the Goldilocks Blend, Serie L, we're gonna have a Serie O, we'll have a Serie F, we'll have a Serie B, yeah?
- But the Goldilocks Blend for this, for me... Well, you tell me. - No, I'm impressed. - You tell me. - This is a delicious cigar. Immediately my brain starts going, okay, who's making it? I have- - Well, it's Joya that makes it. Joya de Nicaragua, right? So they're the manufacturers. So it's got a 100% Nicaraguan filler and binder, so mixture of Estelí and Jalapa filler and binder. It's got an Ecuadorian Habanos 2000 wrapper. - It's yummy. - Thank you so much, and that's the idea.
The idea was, and I call it Goldilocks, so I wanted it to be an everyman cigar because importantly for us, given our mission, we wanted to be able to cater for both those individuals who were rare cigar enthusiasts, and those that were serious cigar enthusiasts. So someone that would enjoy cigars on an irregular basis wouldn't find this offensive. They would say it's approachable.
They would say it's not- - Well, you're not gonna get blown away if you've never had a cigar, and you end up having your first. If this is your first cigar, you're gonna love cigars for the rest of your life. - Thank you. I really, really, really- I can't tell you how much effort was put into that. - That's accessible. I think that's all about, creating something where you can discover the joy of cigars. It's interesting because Joya de Nicaragua, the joy of Nicaragua. - Absolutely.
- You're talking about, discovering the joy of cigars. And we've had more than a few people sit in that chair and repeat the mantra in this industry: This is not a cigar. This is a moment in time shared between friends. That's gold! - Absolutely. - Especially if guys get real. - And that's what I wanna do. I wanna take it to the next level because the camaraderie in the cigar sector and the cigar industry is strong, as you know, right?
So for us, for me, it was an obvious avenue for me to use that camaraderie to provide the education and to provide the opportunity for people to then open up. The problem is that guys get together, you know, we'll have a drink, we'll have a chat. Sometimes things come out, sometimes they don't come out. But as you know, in a social circumstance, it's interesting.
He or she who talks first generally sets the tone of the conversation, and so our aim is when we have our guest speakers and we go deep quick, it brings that mood into a serious state where it's deep quick so people can open up. We also provide, interestingly, online resources where people can actually, you know, go to read a little bit about, understand. We're gonna create actual physical location resources where people will be able to get information.
So we want to create this community where not only are you enjoying the cigar, not only are you learning to open up, but you actually have additional resources that can go back as well, right? So it's a closed-end solution. - Chewing the fat. - Love it, man. - Beautiful. What a great idea. - Thank you so much. - What a unique angle on what cigars can do for people. - And d'you know, it's funny you say for. So this is a really interesting concept, and everyone should try this.
So we all go through shit times, a 100%, right? We all have a shitty day. There's all that crap happens, and we say, "Oh, why the hell did this happen?" You know, "Oh, woe is me, woe is me." You know, "Why me?" Rather than saying, why did this happen to me, I think we need to change that and say, why did this happen for me.
So you look at a circumstance like we went through, or I went through, and I sort of say it was a terrible, terrible dark place, but I look back and I say, well, why did this happen for me? And I can see now why it happened for me because it gave me the opportunity to create this amazing brand and to start to do some good in the world. You know, when people say they finally found their purpose? - Yeah. You found your purpose. - I reckon I have. - That's beautiful.
- And quite genuinely, and I love it. And it's so important to me to be able to be passionate and interested in something. I can't believe that we can, that I can do something like this and also create some good in the world. Like it really fills me with joy. I've got- - No, it's terrific. It's terrific. It's League of Fat Bastards. 40% of the profits, sales of this product are going to support those that have been traumatized in our emergency services. - Correct, those that serve us.
- Veterans, people that have served us. We're gonna serve them back, give them an opportunity to talk. Oh, and look at this! - Boveda. - They're packaged with Boveda! - And we do that, and I have to say, the Boveda company, how do you pronounce it? - I say Boveda, but we don't care what you say. - You don't care? - No, you can say- - the "B Company." - The B Company. - The B company, the big B? - The big B. - The big B, the one we all love, have been amazing in their support for us. - Be the B.
- Be the B! (laughs) I gotta say, seriously, the crew that you guys have got are fantastic. They're a great team. They're a hundred percent supportive of what we're doing. We actually deliberately decided in this, and I'm gonna take a big risk right now- - Go ahead. - And open this box. Ah, look at that! So we have in here a large 69. - Yeah, it's good. And it's still supple; it's hanging in there. - So what we decided though, was to put the large bag in, Not the small.
A lot of retailers will use the smaller sort of bags, which is fine. - But they can repurpose this. They take it out of this box, they put it in their humidor, they can- - Exactly, it's gonna last for a long time. Talk about repurpose, it's very interesting. I saw a photo from someone who had bought a box of ours, and I saw them with a whole range of cigars in one of the League of Fat Bastards boxes, and I thought that was so cool.
People are reusing our box because it's a nice cool little box you can- - It's a very cool box. - It's got the, you know, the magnetic sort of open. But for us, you know, the humidification process is actually quite a serious business because number one, it's about quality, right? So in my mind, people can get interested in the cigar because of obviously our mission and what we do, but people will come back and buy the cigar because it's a good cigar.
And part of that is making sure the product we deliver to our customers, to our clients, is in perfect condition, is maintained well, and clearly, the right humidification is part of that, particularly as we're shipping around the world and moving things around. So, our partnership with Boveda is super important, and we really do appreciate it. - What a privilege for us to be involved in this. You know, we love Juan Martinez and all the people at Joya de Nicaragua. They're class act.
I'm thrilled to have a chance to meet you and talk about this very unique angle on what cigars can do for us. (groovy music)