Spotify
Amazon Music
Apple PodcastsIn this podcast episode, Open Source Founder & Host Dean Denny discusses why he quit caffeine after being a regular coffee drinker since his teenage years. He talks about how coffee and caffeine have been a big part of his life and culture in Australia, especially Melbourne’s cafe culture. Despite this, he has successfully quit caffeine for the past 30-31 days and shares his reasons for doing so and how it has benefited him as a founder of a marketing agency.
He also recommends that people who are addicted to caffeine should seek help to quit and explore alternative options.
In this episode, you will learn:
-
- The host’s experience of quitting caffeine after it being a significant part of his life for a long time.
- The reasons why he decided to quit caffeine and how it has benefited him as a founder of a marketing agency.
- The role of coffee in Australian culture, including its social and community significance.
- The history and cultural significance of caffeine.
- The benefits of quitting caffeine, including increased performance, better health, and reduced dependence on substances.
- The challenges of quitting caffeine, especially for those with addictive personalities, and the importance of seeking help from healthcare professionals.
Timestamps:
[00:00:00] – Quitting caffeine: My journey.
[00:01:56] – Coffee: Fuel for Life.
[00:04:26] – Caffeine: Performance, History, Benefits.
[00:06:37] – “Coffee: Anxiety, Poor Output, IV Drip”
[00:07:56] – Quit caffeine, healed dyspepsia.
[00:10:22] – Caffeine: Increased Focus and Performance
[00:11:20] – Replaced coffee with water: Huge success.
[00:13:22] – Necessary indulgences for pleasure.
[00:16:33] – Quitting caffeine, feeling better, thanks!
[00:17:47] – Improve life with better water.
Note: This podcast episode is available for free on Spotify, Apple Music, and the Owendenny.com/blog website.
Transcripts
Hey everyone. It’s Dean here. Welcome to Open Source Growth, the #1 destination for direct response advertising strategies for software as a service companies (SaaS) to help you enable T2D3 growth on your terms. Now today’s episode. It’s a Saturday afternoon. And I’m making a faux pas with my regime and it’s more like my routine anyway. Because for the past 30 days or 31 days in March. I haven’t had a single dose of caffeine on a weekday. So essentially I’ve quit caffeine.
And in today’s episode, I want to go through.
Why I’ve quit caffeine.
Why it hasn’t been as difficult as I thought at once would be. And the wild performance improvements quitting caffeine has enabled me as a founder to lead this marketing agency. Now. Caffeine is something that has been a massive part of my life. For, I think ever since I was about a 16 or 17 year old boy
My mum, especially coming from Melbourne. In Australia, we are the cafe. Pretty much the apart from like one of the other major cities, like whether it be Paris or Rome or any of that, like Australian cafe culture, especially Melbourne cafe culture has been a massive part of my life since I was a little boy. Whether it be shooting off in spare periods.
When I went to Geelong college for a latte or when I was at. When I was in Geelong when I was doing my high school. Or. Going to university and staying up in the afternoons, smashing out assignments and drinking a Piccolo latte or. Sitting at cafes with friends on your days off and chewing the fat and talking shit with the fellas.
You are drinking coffee and drinking caffeinated coffee has been a huge part of my life. It’s helped me stay up late study for assignments. To push through. It’s been a huge part of my social. Taking part in the social fabric of the world we live in Australia going to cafes.
Having your cafe, getting to know the people at your cafe, the people who serve you, feeling like you’re connected as part of the community. It’s been a point of real pleasure and excitement to work within the industry for a very long time. We’ve supported Mikro Coffee Roasters, and we’ve also supported the Kiosk Torquay.
Who are not only clients of ours, but great friends, like some of my best friends. In fact, Valeri Tkatchenko, the founder of Mikro Coffee in Torquay. He was at my wedding at not my wedding, my elopement with my beautiful wife and. A very tightly-held group of friends.
And Valeri is one of the best coffee people on the planet. His espresso has won m any awards. I think it was number two in Australia. For a very long time and some of his blends are exceptional. In fact, I’m having a break. From my caffeine detox today and drinking some of Valeri
coffee. In fact, I’m going to put a link in the description to this podcast, to both his decaf and the single origin, because they’re both phenomenal products. And I think everybody who does love coffee should be solely engaged with the Mikro Coffee Roaster brand so mad, shout out to you, Valeri..
But like ever since I was a little boy a teenager to say the least coffee’s been a big part of me and my life. I brew coffee at home. I grind the beans. I’m obsessive about whether it be a V60 or an arrow press, or I’m a French press over, there’ll be an espresso. I’ve got multiple coffee machines and multiple coffee apparatus. I am. I love coffee and a big part of coffee is caffeine. Now. I’m not sure about you. But. There’s so much. Content online from a guy called Andrew Huberman, who talks about micro dosing with caffeine. To increase your performance. And you hear a lot of other people talking about where caffeine came from and why caffeine has been a big part of our society. I heard through a grapevine as well, that the reason why.
Coffee took off in the industrial revolution was because of the fact that it kept workers on the plant. On the plants and in the factories for longer. So they could work not only six hours, but you could keep them going for 9, 10, 12, even 16 hours. And that was mainly due to people being provided with free coffee at work.
So caffeine, as it. It improves your it does improve like your level of awareness or acute awareness in small doses. What it can also do is increase your sex drive and help promote swimmer health or sperm health. However. Coffee has been. Acutely and unashamedly.
Tired. To anxiety. Too. Feeling. Completely scattered or wired or you’re completely buzzing, but you can’t actually string a coherent thought together. Today when I’m have doing this podcast, I haven’t been drinking coffee for weeks and I’m having a French press from Mikro and I’ve had two big cups of French press and I can feel the buzz. I can feel my head dotting from left to and it’s not coherent with its thoughts like it normally would be when I’m off caffeine.
What coffee also does. And what caffeine does. Is it doesn’t actually. Make you more alert? It just prevents you from feeling tired. So what’s fascinating about caffeine. From my research, is that the caffeine. Doesn’t make you more alert. It just gives you the feeling of being more alert, your work or your flow.
Is more scattered because your head’s starting from left to and if you’re anxious like myself, like any good agency owner would be because you’re trying to spin so many plates at the same time. What it can do is just keep you up longer. Uh, Worrying more and your output. It might be speed. You doing more and more pushing on into the night, but your. Quality of your output may just be as bad if not worse. When things took a turn for the worst. When I was in Bali recently, I ended up on an IV drip. Now the reason why I ended up on an IV drip is I just don’t know why. From my understanding, we went out in Seminyak. I went to a very nice restaurant. I had a burger, I didn’t feel right. I drank maybe three or four cocktails when I barely even drink to begin with.
Went out to a nightclub. Lots of people were smoking there. And then all of a sudden got home vomited had an espresso the next morning and maybe something light. My stomach didn’t really recover for two to three days. And then all of a sudden I’m in a board. Pretty much passing out in the car.
And we got some A grade medical help in Bali. And. I had an IV drip. Gastro, strop, all this sort of stuff. And. What it came down to. Was that.
Coffee was one of the main reasons why I crashed. Not only was it like spicy food. There was a whole heap of things that led to this one point where I blew up. And technically now what I have is dyspepsia, which is a minor of Gastric creating, eating disorder thing. I decided at that point, that. I’ll give coffee a bit of a detox and not drink coffee every day. In fact. Avoid caffeine altogether. That’s no, Coca-Cola no Pepsi. Max. That’s no. Super duper hardcore green tea. That’s no scotching Cokes or Canadian club and coke like that’s none of that stuff, no cola.
No Pepsi, max. No. Caffeinated deeply caffeinated substances.
And I’d give it a go for about a month. He’s what happened when I quit. Caffeine.
Because I’m blessed in the sense that I don’t have an addictive personality.
I experienced no withdrawals from having caffeine in my system. Which was an amazing thing.
I woke up. Just as tired as I normally would. I came together better though every single day. When I dropped caffeine, I felt less anxious. In fact, I felt more in control of my day. And that’s an amazing thing. And that’s what you need. When you’re leading a marketing agency, you need to feel in control of your day. That there are a million things that could go right or wrong at any given minute, don’t get me wrong. There’s winning campaigns. There’s people’s emotions.
There’s things that are inside and outside of your control at all times. And that line can be blurred between inside and outside of your control, whether it be Facebook ads or Google ads going wrong, accounts getting shut down. Clients doing wacky and wonderful things. Like things can go crazy. But I felt more at peace and what was interesting, and this is what really has me has me putting.
Putting whiskers on caffeine and caffeinated drinks, was that, my concentration I think it went up 10 X. So instead of.
Being someone who could concentrate on writing an ad for say two hours, I could power through 12 to 14 hours. I was focused. I was firing, I was pumping out the most beautiful. Delicately. Structured strategy documents. With utmost attention and focused for days on end. Without the feeling of burning out, it was phenomenal.
And. It just made me think. Wow. Like where, what other substances are in my life. And. How are these substances potentially impeding my performance. In fact, it’s been so profound. I’m now regretting drinking so much coffee throughout my entire life. If I just substituted the amount of coffee I drank with high quality filtered water.
I believe my business would be about two to three times bigger than world is today. And that’s a huge. Revelation for myself.
That’s nuts. It is totally nuts. Like I’ve never had such incredible focus. As soon as I’ve dropped my coffee consumption and replaced it with high quality filtered water. What I’ve also done is I started to focus on things like herbal teas, like lemongrass and ginger peppermint, green tea, Jasmine tea.
Don’t get me wrong. There are some amounts of caffeine in green tea and Jasmine tea. But what’s interesting is that the amount of caffeine that’s in green tea or Jasmine tea is practically non-existent when you compare it to the decaf. From what you get at a cafe. So if you get a decaf coffee,
From an espresso machine, you will often have a lot more caffeine in that decaf coffee than you do. When you have a green tea out of a teabag at home. What I’m now starting to think about is our wow. I’m because I’ve dropped coffee, I’ve got high quality water. I’m thinking really clearly I’m able to power through. I’ve got this untapped amount of energy.
Will I go back to coffee and here I am today, drinking coffee. I’m drinking caffeinated coffee. But I can’t see myself drinking caffeinated coffee in the same functional way that I did once before.
I’m now looking at caffeine the same way I look at Cuban cigars. I’m looking at caffeine the same way I look at alcohol. I’m looking at caffeine as a, sometimes substance. I’m looking at as a necessary evil which is related to the things that I love. For instance, I love. I love cognac and I love Brandy.
I have a lot of time for brandies that come out of France and Australia and in Greece but that is something that I would partake in say once or twice a month. Or Cuban cigars. I love Cuban cigars. I love Dominican cigars. I love Davidoff and Cohiba and punch and. Oh,
And Boulevard cigars. There are some beautiful cigars, Quai d’Orsay you name it. The whole habanas catalog is just delicious to myself. The Romeo Giulietta. Short Churchill and petite Churchill cigars. So damn exciting to me, but. I’m going to be looking at caffeine through the same lens that I looked through. Cuban cigars. Okay, great. I’m having a Cuban cigar. I might have a caffeinated coffee at the same time.
But that’s it done? This is a sometimes food or a sometimes treat. This is something I will not be incorporating as part of my everyday, because my business and my life is far too important to me. With respect to these substances, because these substances like caffeine prevent you from showing up and being your best self to your family, to your friends, to your businesses, to your team, to your colleagues to your priest, to your, whatever to your opposition, you. This is standing in the way of you being great.
And. I can’t. I tell you guys enough. That. I’m one of the biggest coffee advocates on the planet. I am. Absolutely obsessed with it. Like today’s coffee is a single origin coffee coming straight out of Ethiopia. It’s Berry it’s Flutie, fruity there’s savory nodes. It’s absolutely amazing. I’ve plunged it to perfection with filtered water, with my own six scoops of.
Six groups of coffee to one liter of water recipe, which I have absolutely optimized for this blend. Can you see the level of obsession around coffee here? Believe me. I never thought after dropping caffeine for a month, that I would ever be in this position because I love coffee.
But for goodness sakes, when you see the benefits of dropping this substance. You will follow suit.
If you are drinking coffee, if you see yourself as being dependent on caffeine, if you have an addictive personality.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Seek out alternatives, speak to your doctor, speak to a naturopath or any body that can help you with weaning yourself off this substance. My wife, Hannah has an addictive personality and she found it very difficult to get off caffeine. But two weeks of staying strong to the cause. Hannah’s free of caffeine use and she is firing on all cylinders. Like she is so much better for it. And she thanks me for it. In fact, her whole her body’s working better.
The way she feels in the morning, isn’t dependent on the cup of Joe that we pour for her. Like she is a happy camper. And it’s because she made one small change in her lifestyle. Guys that’s it’s pretty crazy. Like I’m quitting caffeine. Going forward. If I’m going to be drinking coffee, it’s only ever going to be decaf coffee. And thankfully the guys that micro coffee roasters have the most phenomenal decaf single origin coffee that comes directly out of Brazil. And thankfully it pairs so beautifully with chocolate.
So beautifully with biscuits, especially when you fresh..when you French press it, and I’ll even pair beautifully with my favorite Cuban cigars as well. There’s so many. There are options for you. If you are. Wanting to explore this path. I’m going to make that extension. If you are running a marketing team and you were feeling wildly anxious,
Consider dropping coffee. Drink. Better water. See how much your life improves. It’s really that simple. So if you do have any questions, feel free to hit me up. My email as always, you can find it on the show notes here. It’s dean.denny@owendenny.com. And If you are growing a software company or a marketing agency, or if you’re growing an e-commerce brand or an online platform.
And your anxious caffeine could be a massive contributor to that instead of having to smash some form of pill to deal with your anxiety. Look at your diet, look at your water consumption. Look at what you’re eating and see whether or not there is a direct correlation. With your feelings of anxiety and the amount of caffeine that you’re consuming every single day.
Because if you can address these things, I believe it or not, your life is going to improve. Growing your business is not going to be such a puzzle. Your head’s not going to be everywhere. You will be focused and I’d up. Like you would just be so geed up about life. Once you overcome that two week.
You know that two week crunch. So guys. That’s it for today. Thank you so much for tuning into open source growth. I quit caffeine. The last 30 days of my life have been phenomenal. And. Whilst I am drinking caffeine now. Believe me. I now have single origin coffee, which is totally decaffeinated from micro coffee roasters, which I’m going to encourage you all to check out.
’cause bill because the results have been so profound. That. I cannot wait. To demonstrate the revenue changes we’ve made. Simply because of dropping that cup of Joe every morning.
That’s it for me. Thank you so much for tuning in to open source growth, your number one destination for direct response, advertising strategies, growth marketing, and everything. You need to blow up your SAS company this year. I’m your host Dean Denny. It’s been unreal. I love you all. God bless. Stay safe.
And I’ll see you when I see yah. Bye. Bye.
CONNECT WITH US:
Connect with Dean Denny, host of Open Source Growth and Director at Owendenny Digital
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deanowendenny/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deandenny/
Owendenny Digital, Australia’s #1 SaaS Marketing Agency
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/owendennydigital/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/owendennydigital
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/owendenny/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@owendennydigital
Website: https://www.owendenny.com
WORK WITH OWENDENNY:
Two options:
1 – If you *already* know you need an expert to help you build predictable and scalable customer acquisition solutions to scale your MRR.
To get started, book a Free Growth Diagnostic using the link below and let us show you how we can help.
Get Your Free Growth Diagnostic
2 – If you *do not yet know* if you would benefit from our services, book a FREE 10-min chat with Dean directly and let’s talk about your business.
Have a friendly 10-minute chat with Dean
We look forward to hearing from you!
