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Edwin Veguilla: Welcome to the Total Oxidation Management podcast. I am your host, Edwin Veguilla. Today we have a very, very special guest that we're going to be doing a series of his life and his journey. This young man sitting right next to me, is literally the person that pioneered and revolutionized the use of ascorbic acid, vitamin C. First one and only.
His reluctance and drive put him in the position of starting his own company with $4,000 out of his garage, which he grew into now a global with a capital G company. He's faced tremendous amount of adversity and challenges, and he's basically known for turning those challenges around, which we're going to talk about some of those challenges and turning them into a positive, not just for him, but for the people that surround him.
His company has created hundreds of life-changing products and helped millions of people at this point over the past 34 years. He is the author of You're Not Aging, You're Just Oxidizing. He's known for his legendary leadership and to the point now that he is turning over his company to his team that helped build it and to carry on his enormous legacy.
But it is my absolute pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, to introduce to you the husband, the father, the musician, the fearless leader, Mr. Tom Porter.
Tom Porter: Hi, Edwin, and thank you. I appreciate being here with you. And I appreciate your interest in everything. We're going to start this podcast by just explaining why this podcast was started and why it has evolved.
Edwin Veguilla: I've been a humongous fan of Tom for about ten years now. I think I talk to you about that a little bit when I first got into the beauty industry. I've been wanting to meet him for ten years and never had the opportunity. About three months ago, I walked into these doors because I, my original thought was, I'm going to go into the direction of starting, a product line, because I'm passionate about that.
And I think there's a need for, for better men's lines out there. I came in here, met with some of the team members and literally sat and the young lady was like, I've been wanting to be Tom for ten years. I've talked to Missy for a long time, wanting to meet you, and we just never, like time, which is never right. Which is kind of weird how it just never connected. But we were able to get that meeting. I walked in and I was literally just looking at that point for a mentor, someone that would say, here's how I did it. Here's everything you're getting ready to do. Wear a helmet. Get a helmet this size because you're going to bang your head quite a bit. Here's what you should do. Here's what you should not do. Give me some advice and think about that. The size of his heart that he is the president of a global company and took me and someone that is an entrepreneur up and coming no name yet and offered to help me build my own name. Help me to become a part of his team and just guided me, you know, like who?
Edwin Veguilla: Who doesn't know what it's like. Let's be real for a minute. Who doesn't nowadays? No one. Everyone's so self-interested in what they can do for themselves. But not you. And then I started studying more about you and started reading your book and started basically reading anything I can get a hold off about you. And the more that I went into the rabbit hole that it is vitamin C, and you're convinced of that and everything you've created, the more fascinating I became. So, then Tom and I decided, you know, we had a conversation. The questions were really good. And again, we should share this with the world because this information literally will help millions of people, people that are in the process or in their business, people that are maybe struggling with skincare issues, maybe hairdressers that are struggling with not getting the results of things that they want.
Edwin Veguilla: It goes back to oxidation and what he's dedicated his life to doing and the company. And that brought us to this moment that I've been waiting for. And it's so surreal. I can't even believe I'm sitting here right in front of you talking. So, it leads to my very first question, Tom, why do you feel that it's so important to help mentor up and coming entrepreneurs like myself?
Tom Porter: I don't think that came from me. I think that came from you. I think that in my world, especially in business and beauty, I have the opportunity of being in other paths to cross. And I think that what we have to offer unique. We are a very open, transparent company that, we like to share. We felt we've had a great message or important message, but it's been very difficult to reach the world, and we chose it. It evolved, but we chose to introduce an entire technology through hair salons, colorist salons, and that is a very difficult channel to introduce new technologies.
Edwin Veguilla: It's and the fact that it's changed so much over their past 34 years. And I've been on that ride, you know. And now as I'm getting into this, you guys have actually that have watched my YouTube channel, have seen me basically go from day one to up until now and, and just all the turmoil of kind of emotions, uncertainty and one thing that I got from you when I sat in front of you, you literally I asked you and you probably don't even remember this, but I asked you at the time, were you scared at any point? And you said, not for a second, like I knew it was coming.
Tom Porter: I didn't say not for a second, but I bet I said no.
Edwin Veguilla: You said no, but I never got it down. Did not for a second. You said I would not be that confident, but because it makes it sound.
Tom Porter: I was obsessive, scared. You know, when you use the word scared, you had never felt that. What I thought was scared. I have felt mostly, when am I ever going to feel free of the financial responsibilities? It's a good way to put it. It was. When is that balance going to be in place? And that really has been the struggle. Business is different than, you know, if we were a large corporation, heavily funded, and your research and development found the technology, you've got the funds to redirect and support that. Just as now we're able to redirect funds from successful sales to other new products to bring new technology, continue expanding the technologies from the basis of the ascorbic acid.
Edwin Veguilla: The vitamin C that you spoke of, which I know that right now the book's not available for the mass market, and it will be again.
Tom Porter: We went through three printings back in the year around 2000, and it was distributed mostly through the salon industry. There are people out there that have those copies and we're, you know, we've gone through so many attempts to update, revise, and I keep coming back to we probably should just introduce the book. As it was, because so much that we talked about at that time for sure has now either been confirmed of trends that I saw and so had over a year ago. It was vitamin C, the core. And so, my attitude is your total oxidation management. If we just approach life through a total oxidation management perspective, that simple shift can really change your decisions. And then I'm like, from the moment that I get out of my car to drive, I'm like, I'm oxidizing. I'm oxidizing, constantly in my mind. And I never thought about that.
Tom Porter: Even today, we're a little bit on the education side that really people should know what water does and the basics of oxidation. I am confident that I will figure some way to weave that in, and we're going to have to. It's the journey. It is, and it's the journey which in which everybody can have that journey from their own perspective.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah. Once you figure out oxidation and understand what it is, you can manage it.
Tom Porter: Yeah. And why wouldn't you want to learn how to slow down your aging? Why wouldn't you want to know how to make something in the salon look better or make your hair look better, or your face? Well, I guess my goal of life is longevity. So, I want everything to last longer. Well, that is anti-oxidation. That's really what oxidation is. The speeding up of the oxygen compounds around us right 23% of our air. So, we're constantly exposed to it and we're oxidizing all the time. That's one of the things that when I was introducing, I actually did an ad, which is I'm no scientist. And I don't even profess, nor do I, I just want to share information.
Edwin Veguilla: And one of the interviews that I was watching that you were talking, the young lady there was talking to you, called your scientist, and you kind of pivoted it a little bit into that.
Tom Porter: Well, I'll tell you the reason. It's a pretty fundamental reason I avoided science in high school and college. I found ways to get out of science classes. So, I did not understand the chemistry tables. Everything I've learned was through business in the labs from the chemists. Fortunately, we have chemists surrounding us and actually, I wanted to give credit. You in the beginning introduced me to as the founder. I actually discovered a man's technology, Dr. Keith Ault.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah. Which we're going to talk about, which happened within two days of meeting my wife.
Tom Porter: Yep. And it was our first date, and it was very interesting. He was the scientist. So, I had the opportunity to share what he learned and discovered with the world. And then I got to also, that's when I got to take it over and do things that nobody ever would have had ever done. And we're going to do this. We're going to try it this way. We started figuring out the fundamentals, and that's really what we like to share.
Edwin Veguilla: And it goes back to your wiring, because I truly believe in nobody else or no other pair. I think you and your wife are such a perfect pair for that, for what you guys decided to do.
Tom Porter: Thank you.
Edwin Veguilla: But it goes back to my fascination with you from forever ago, and it just increases the more that I get to know you because of I was talking to him about this. You're like 5 or 6 different people and one. I think sometimes it might be hard for some people to understand you because you are a poet and an artist at the same time. You do have a scientific mind. Do you not know that at all? You know that now from you guys, you are sharing it with the world. The fact that your leadership abilities, the fact that you put all this in a blender and that's just a very good term, you put all this in is probably the best. And anyone that has worked in our organization would tell you that is a very good turnaround, because it's a constant change in order to grow a technology and really not even grow, we had to blaze the trail.
Tom Porter: Yeah. And the way I characterize it, you might find this interesting. I characterize my journey as though I were dropped in the middle of the forest. And literally just dropped. And I started blazing my way out. And we create paths and find little clusters of people that understood. And they would share it a little bit. And then I kept blazing and creating new trails.
Edwin Veguilla: You created your own path.
Tom Porter: And we just created a lot of different paths. There wasn't anything we've tried, let me tell you. I even heard his reason today. There are so many paths that we have blazed. Many of those target markets don't even know about it. You were in a conversation today about tattoos. You and I both just saw a gal who has prevented any scabbing. And she didn't lose any of the layers from peeling just from the technology. So, she got total oxidation managed.
Edwin Veguilla: Absolutely. So, the paths continue. And that's why it's so fascinating again because when I was talking about the blender. You can put all of this in a blender and then you come out right. Tom comes out and Malibu C comes out.
Tom Porter: I've been in the blender all along, but there are things that people can take from that because before all this and that's why this podcast is so important. That's great to me to share.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah. It's almost like holding the way I envision it when I think of you. And as I'm trying to develop my own style and so the things that I want to create. Yeah, it's almost like you are able to fish in all these different directions, which no specialty in any of these, but you're managing all of them, you know, almost like you're the leader of the orchestra. And even though you don't have like, expertise in all these different areas, you gained it in your path, and you learn a lot by the hard knocks of life.
Tom Porter: It's the only way I could learn, you know what I mean? I wasn't a very good book learner. I had to learn from my experience.
Edwin Veguilla: So, my thought is, I really want to boil Tom down to the foundation and figure out his journey and what have been the things that have triggered him to become the man he is today. What set? That drive. What set? That relentlessness? What set that heart of gold to give to people? What set all these things. That's why I ask you about Deb. Deb obviously has played a huge part in influencing a lot of your decisions. It's a partnership, how you manage things, you know. So, what else was there to get you to this point? Looking back and that's just incredibly fascinating. Let's get into that. Where do you go? Where do we start? Let's start with your childhood. Let's start with that. Talk to me about your childhood. Like, okay, what was your house?
Tom Porter: Something just came to me as you were talking about all of the different things. Actually, what crossed my mind was when I was about four years old. And I was in my home, TV was knew it was about 1956.
Edwin Veguilla: Oh my gosh.
Tom Porter: In the relatively small town of Tennessee, Columbia, which is just south of Nashville, down I-65, the 11th president of the United States was from there, James Polk. And so, my childhood was spent there. But on that TV, what came to my mind when you said that? And maybe this is where it started. There was a show called Captain Kangaroo. And my generation, I don't think you could have come through my generation widely in America without watching Captain Kangaroo. He sort of controlled all of us. He was the first one that talked to the children, and he had a side part of the cast that was Mr. Green Jeans. And they would create out of the trunk. They would go to the trunk and put different hats on. It was just full of hats. They would just keep trying on hats and be that character for a little while and then take another hat and put it on. And that was my favorite part of the show. Every time they did that, and I think I aspired to be all of them.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah, that makes so much sense.
Tom Porter: I was inspired to be all of them. And as a result, my son will tell you, I don't wear hats. I've never worn hats because you are labeling yourself at that moment. And that's fine if you want to do that and brand yourself. What I wanted to be all of them. So I didn't want to restrict by wearing a hat to be that part, to be that particular category at that time, which here's a journey to one thing that I haven't even answered, and I've saved it for this very moment to when we talk about entrepreneurship, when we talk about leading people the right way and all the things that you have to do if you want to create success and across the board, you truly have to wear so many different hats. And if anyone has ever managed anything, you can't just be one person.
Edwin Veguilla: You were even a salesman for a while. And you were door to door salesman. If I'm not mistaken.
Tom Porter: It was my first job. So that was called the Fuller Brush Company, and I was a Fuller Brush man at 16. Just got my driver's license, and I'm out driving in the neighborhood to my town, walking up to the door, knocking on the door. And I was selling cleansers and brushes. So, it was a pretty weird.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah, and you were a door to door salesman. If I'm not mistaken. It's true that you went into this. We're talking 16 later till 34 is when you actually start the company with Deb.
Tom Porter: You're absolutely right. You see what I'm talking about? I was a connection. There are so many things and that's a strong connection. You know what? You know what I remember, though, was the most significant experience was when I went up to a woman's door. I remember it was a long walk up to the front door. What we call cold calling knocked on the door and I had the screen door open. She opened and she said yes, and I told her I'm her Fuller Brush man now, and well, is there anything that she needs? Because I don't know who the customers are that were buying before me because of the man who was trying to cover the whole town, and he just couldn't. So, he put me in a few neighborhoods to keep his business going. And he got a piece of that, and I was his Fuller Brush man. So, this woman was closing the door telling me no, that month special was brand new to the world, and it was a toilet bowl cleaner that you put in the back of the tank that would clean the toilet bowl. And so, I within seconds blurted out, I got a way to clean your toilet, and you don't have to clean it. You're lying. And she opened the door, and I sold her. I well, I walked away from that door and thought, if I can sell toilet bowl cleaner. Which is an oxidizer, ironically. I was selling and she said, you're very good.
Edwin Veguilla: You taught me. You connected me to that. Well and we have done that good. You start at 16. You're doing that. Let's say you're valuable because I wanted to ask you about your high school. Ironically, you said you that you avoided science classes, and there were certain classes you didn't like.
Tom Porter: Yeah, math and science.
Edwin Veguilla: Which is what you do, you know, in a way.
Tom Porter: You know, I thought everything was algebra and everything was chemistry, and that was complicated to me. No one, I guess, I never was exposed to. I'm not going to put it off on other people that were responsible to explain it to me. Yeah, but I couldn't connect the dots.
Edwin Veguilla: So let me ask you this, because before we got to that, I wanted to ask you about like extracurricular activities that you really enjoyed and subjects you enjoyed when you were actually in high school.
Tom Porter: In high school, I was the trainer of the football team.
Edwin Veguilla: So, the medic, okay.
Tom Porter: I was short, you know, so I didn't have height and I was the youngest in my class. I'm a Labor Day baby, so I was the youngest. You know, my mother decided to put me in, probably to get me out of the house. I understand the story is that when I went off to school, she rolled over and put her hands up and was exhausted.
Edwin Veguilla: Really?
Tom Porter: Yeah. So, I think that I was a busy child. Because just so much energy that I must have had and I still do. I have some energy.
Edwin Veguilla: Actually, when I describe you, I'm like, he's kind of like me in a way, but like the Energizer bunny, like he is. You have so much energy. Which is one of the things that we're going to get to now, today. But I want to talk about like, what do you think? How do you think you create that? Like, what are the things that you've done to give you so much energy? So, we'll save that for a different topic because that's when we're going to get into like your diet, lifestyle, working out. So, let's go back to high school.
Tom Porter: So great experience in high school. In college I just I had one goal I wanted to get out with a degree. And I figured out along the way I needed a 3.0. So, when my friends were studying their textbooks, I was studying the university in Tennessee. I ended up that was the story that I didn't finish the winter. UT okay, because I wanted to go where none of my high school friends were going. Because you want to be by yourself. I wanted to start over. I had a great experience. I wanted a fresh start. Well, once I got there, I found out why none of my friends went.
Edwin Veguilla: Why?
Tom Porter: It was just not a good experience. It was like, why am I here? This is a not where I want to be. So, I then went back to my hometown, to a community college at Columbia State Community College, and then went to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, which is the main campus. So, that's my story in college.
Edwin Veguilla: So how did you get to IU?
Tom Porter: IU was many, many years later. So, I can tell you the quick story if you want the quick story or you want to wait for, you know, just how the journey went. Do you want the quick journey of my journey, or do you want to talk about that in each segment? Because I can tell you pretty quickly. So that it helps you understand. And I appreciate you even being interested in this, it's so nice of you. When I was young, I wanted to have an interesting life so that it was I got to be part of the character of life instead of reading about other lives. It was really important to me since I was young.
Edwin Veguilla: What do you think sparked that?
Tom Porter: But I'll add, something came to my mind, so I'll say it. When my name was Tommy. I'm a Tommy. As a child, that name was used in a lot of books. And I think that because my name was in a lot of books, it may have influenced me because you already saw it there. Like he was a Tommy. And, so you visualize yourself in there. I must have. Tommy was in a lot of textbooks too.
Edwin Veguilla: You keep yourself in books. So that answers the big question for me, that makes a lot of sense. However, I don't read books except for research. I'm not a novel reader. I don't read any stories, which is the topic we're going to talk about because you're very action oriented. Even if you fall, you'll pick it up on the way.
Tom Porter: Oh yeah. Right. I'm like, let's write an action plan. Let's execute it.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah, it makes sense why you've been in work on this. A lot of things you've been able to do.
Tom Porter: Well, thank you.
Edwin Veguilla: But earlier in your life back to you being influenced by books then television. You mentioned television earlier. Absolutely great experience in high school. You start selling books or I'm sorry, not books.
Tom Porter: Brooms. That's what I was selling. But they did introduce shampoo and conditioner because you also needed that for your bathroom. Okay. But that was the focus.
Edwin Veguilla: Okay. That was secondary. It was cleansers mostly. So, that's 16 years old. Everything before that. What do you think one of the big questions that I ask you actually, and we can probably do a whole segment on this earlier on what's about your biggest influencer. Because that's what I'm trying to figure out. It's like all the things that you have encountered in your path up until right before, like really right before you get up to that point, what are the different things that you developed in your whole life up to Deb, obviously, because there was already things you had built up that attracted you to her and vice versa. So, your dad starts off and I asked you this before and you said so, who has been your biggest positive influence. And you said without hesitation you said my dad. And then later on in life you mentioned other names that we're going to talk about later.
Tom Porter: It wasn't my dad when I was young. In my youth, the male influences around me, my dad was, of course, my closest role model. He was the kind of guy that I hoped my son would be and is. So, I had a great role model. I don't think we had that great a relationship because I had an older brother and he got that relationship.
Edwin Veguilla: How many siblings you have?
Tom Porter: I have an older brother and then a younger sister. I'm a middle child. And that explains a lot. So, my older brother blazed the trail and made it a lot easier for me.
Edwin Veguilla: What's the age difference between you guys? Three years?
Tom Porter: Three years.
Edwin Veguilla: So, you felt it a lot of times, like, your dad basically gave him a lot more that well, he was there first, so he was doing the things first.
Tom Porter: And I tagged along.
Edwin Veguilla: And you weren't the baby either, right?
Tom Porter: Yeah. Well, I was, because it was eight years before my sister came. It was two, just the two of us. And so, she came along later. And that was okay. Listen, I got to go to a lot of play. I was the bat boy, so I got to be on the baseball field earlier than most kids would on the field, you know? I got to be a part of the game that a lot of my friends didn't get to be a part of until we played ball. So that kind of, you know, but then I got to know my dad really about, 21 or 22, when I was 22 years old, about that time I was living in San Diego, California, and I made the decision because we weren't close. And I realized this is all on me. This is my choice. And so, I decided to get to know my dad. And we really became best friends.
Edwin Veguilla: I can just from our conversation, I can already tell you you're wired totally different than any of your family members because another conversation you and I had is that family members would probably appreciate you saying that. You did say, and I related with us so much because I feel like, oh, I was worried a lot like a couple of people in my family. But hopefully, you know, in different aspects because you say there is nothing when you start a company, you're like, there's nothing as far as selling to my family and I'm not interested with that at all.
Tom Porter: That is multilevel. I don't know if you've ever been invited to someone's house. I have, and their next thing you know, they're selling you on being in multi-level. And I knew very early that the last people I wanted to be dependent on for my well-being was your family and friends and friends. Those are the last people that I want because they're my family and friends. Yeah, that isn't who I want to be. My customer in that. No, I wanted to build, you know, my extension beyond that so that eventually when. I was very blessed, though, that my parents and some others, after you, in just a small correction. I'm sorry if I misled you. It was $5,000 we had. It was $5,000.
Edwin Veguilla: $5000. So that's still a ridiculously low.
Tom Porter: That $5,000 was the all the money I had that I had accumulated in a retirement diagram, because I was, an executive director of the YMCA in those years. Do you want to know something funny? You know, that was my title, and I'm finding myself with my retirement as well.
Edwin Veguilla: Are you really? I mean, it's free, then you get it. So, let's go back, So, go back to your role model because I really want to get that solidified.
Tom Porter: There was a man that was my scoutmaster. I was a Boy Scout. I was very fortunate to be in a very active troop and all but a few of us who started together in Cub Scouts all within one year attained Eagle Scout. And that was really important to me. So that was a big part of the influence in my life. And so, the people around scouting were a big influence, I guess. And then beyond that, it was church that I was involved with. I was part of the Presbyterian Church. I was, that was important to me, that gave me even, you know, a lot of opportunities to meet a lot of people share a lot because that brought people together from other areas. So, that's probably, other than military, I think the Boy Scouts actually, hopefully even the Urban Scouts have that opportunity to still experience that part of the major in the world. It taught you basically survival skills, survival, how to trust your own and sent and learned to cook. That's where I learned to cook.
Edwin Veguilla: Oh, learn to cook over and open fire.
Tom Porter: And that made it a lot easier to learn. And it was easier to mess up. I've never seen so many different canned goods in one pot. And then name it, and you get a whole new to eat it for less, and you end up with a whole group of 30 people around you that think it's the best food they ever had. But of course they're starving. We're out camping. Everything went in, as long as it is ground beef and beans and macaroni and cheese and you put it all together, it's got to be good. It's carbs, protein and fats. You're going to call it random ditty or something crazy. So, it's disgusting. And but it might be really good. You know, you never know when you're camping.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah. So, you go from that obviously that I needed to hear that. That makes a lot of sense.
Tom Porter: I think that taught me a lot of skills at school. And our traditional education does not teach you off the bat. Kind of how to trust yourself, how to be in a situation where you're comfortable and with others and brothers being with other guys that were on the team together and, had goals together and had to take a piece of land and within 2 or 3 days you turned it into your own little community. You build railings, you build, latrines.
Edwin Veguilla: And what's interesting is that's what prepared me. You in starting the company for trade shows. It's so crazy. It's setting up booths and taking what you had and trying to, you know, build us the setting. It's a pop up. Yeah, because I've actually. Ironically, when I was here a couple weeks ago, that's what they were saying. It's like Tom's the only president of our company that you're going to see. Actually, if he ever goes to the show, he will be putting up the stuff himself. And so, they don't let me go anymore. But they used to, though. Oh, I did it all you used to do at your show.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah, they have shared in that experience, and it's wild to think about that. You learned that as a child.
Tom Porter: I did, from being a scout. That's right. You know, I don't know that I've ever connected the dots. So, thank you for bringing something, thank you about that. I mean, think about how everything's kind of back to that blender and you keep putting into that blender. The one piece of all of that that was woven through it, it started in Scouts when I learned that I loved the water. That's when my experience started. I found out I loved the water, my high school had no swim program, so I would have been a swimmer if it had, because I was a swimmer. So, I then became a lifeguard, and probably one of the most interesting conversations, how one little conversation can change an entire life is one of my best friends, Ricky Martin, who said, hey, Tommy, I'm going tonight. I've signed up for senior life saving to be a lifeguard. You want to go? I'm like, yeah. So, I went, there were about eight of us that went through Red Cross senior lifesaving training and just blew through it, that was easy for me. I was 15 years old, so all of a sudden, I'm a lifeguard. Well, the woman who taught said, hey, I'm going to start a class next week that you can actually get certified to teach people like what I just did to you. It's called Water Safety Instructor. So, the next week I went to that two-week program, started and went through it. So, all of a sudden, I am someone who is certified not only to lifeguard, but to teach people to lifeguard. Well, that became my entire career in swimming, I was the aquatics director. What's interesting is Ricky and I both turned it into our careers to the point that now I am fortunate to be able to manufacture one of the largest distributed products for swimmers.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah, for care of hair, skin, other things about oxidation.
Tom Porter: And so I took that and went through all kinds of having an aquarium shop experience with a buddy of mine that we started together in Nashville, Tennessee. He actually started it, and we were the first aquarium shop in Nashville, Tennessee. And I did not know that. And that's where I learned all my water chemistry that I have been teaching to professionals for 34 years. All came out of the aquarium shop. It didn't come out of a textbook. That's what I was sharing earlier about experience I couldn't learn in chemistry. I couldn't learn in a chemistry class. I don't learn well from textbooks and especially a bunch of symbols, you learn by doing. I couldn't learn Spanish easily or Latin. I took two years of Latin and so can I get it out? Well, fortunately I got enough about the derivatives that it's been helpful for me and the other, languages of Spanish and others that did have a Latin root. So, there was a little value there, but I couldn't, you know, like Spanish. I need to live somewhere where people are speaking Spanish to learn Spanish constantly. It's got to be there for me. It's like surfing.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah, you need to keep doing it.
Tom Porter: It's like playing golf. You keep falling. Otherwise, you're going to fall in front. I mean, you need to do it often enough that you're good enough. So, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master something.
Edwin Veguilla: Which makes sense because you are definitely a different learner. Makes sense why you've taken a different approach. So, you basically fell in love with education at that point.
Tom Porter: Leadership I don't know that I fell in love with education. I think I found that I could communicate complex information somewhat simply. Somewhere along my life, I realized that I was able to communicate the complexity as I see it and simplify, and it's probably my need to find the logic behind it because I operate everything out of logic. Yeah, it's very true. It's the only way I operate is. And if you were to ask me, my son would tell you if he was asked, you know, what religion did your parents raise you? And he would probably say, cause and effect, cause and effect. That is what is simply our religion and total oxidation management.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah, he was totally raised. And then you made reference to poems.
Tom Porter: Yeah, songs. The one line or I guess it's two lines that came out of probably the song that I wrote. That's the most important to me is the key words in there is I live my life the way I want to remember it. I have it actually wrote down, right here. Well, and then because we're going to be in this part of, you know, those were where all this led me was trying to simplify it. Know I had the need to simplify. You know, people ask me about my religion, and I explained to them that after researching and reading a book by William James called The Varieties of Religion, when I read about so many of the other varieties and saw the commonalities and realized all of them are pretty much based on the same principles. I finally got to the point where I remembered, I think it was probably the fourth grade that I learned something, and it was very simple. It's the energy cannot cease. It only changes form. Right? All of a sudden, I realized that's good enough for me for death. Yeah, that just tells me energy can't stop. I know it's energy in here. So as long as I know it's not so easy, I don't need to know what it's going to look like. Yeah, I do not need that. I'm not going to spend my life on this earth trying to figure that out. And create some image of something based on what I see in this dimension. So that's one reason it inspires me with that because I, I am not looking forward to, you know, the next chapter I'm not looking forward to leaving is more what it is, but I my goal is I hope that I'm in balance. So that when I pass on, my energy passes on, that it's in balance because I think that's a much easier way to travel.
Edwin Veguilla: That's so fascinating. I've never even quantified or even thought about that. And when you're looking at your thought process now and your thought process as a child, looking at books and getting influenced by your name, being aware and you're thinking, I really want it's like I see myself at some point being someone that they read about, that they learn from, someone that's actually contributed towards something awesome, incredible to our society. And now your thought process is more now is my energy.
Tom Porter: I'm hoping that everything that I can build can continue to grow, and I've left it good enough that it surpasses anything beyond me now.
Edwin Veguilla: Oh, for sure. I mean, it's wild and it's the information to, you know, when you're dealing with truth and a little bit different perspective. It's something that you can't lose.
Tom Porter: You know it will never change because it's truth. And it maybe it's just another way of looking at it. That's what Total Oxidation Management became I think I put some things together and all of a sudden, I mean the way the name Total Oxidation Management, Tom came along, there was a woman named Loretta Winters who was leading the Malibu C salon division, and I was talking about wanting to have an education department, and I wanted to call it Ault, for which is Doctor Ault that I mentioned earlier in the conversation, out of respect for him, because I really appreciated his technology and I thought it would be anti-oxidant lifestyle technologies. So, I proposed that, that his name was Ault. But the Ault work, it was a tribute to him. And Loretta came back to me and said, no, these are your visions. The way you see it, it's your perspective. And I think we should call it total oxidation management. And I actually thought, well, if I'm going to hang my name on anything, I better be on oxidation. It's what I represent. And going back to those days of lifeguarding, I didn't know any of this. None of it. And I have to tell you, I loved to oxidize. When you put air, sun and water together, the oxygen in the water, the H2O. And the air. The 23%. When water dries on any material, especially with the sun is what causes it to dry fast, it speeds up the oxidation of whatever it is, whether it's our skin, whether it's a piece of metal, whether it's just hair, anything, everything that's in on this planet.
Edwin Veguilla: Which is ironic because everything that you fell in love with at first was literally what is oxidizing us as human beings, the water, being around smoke, campfires, being around the sun all the time and loving it. I mean, and then you were all about it. The sun was speeding it all up.
Tom Porter: Yeah. Now I avoid the sun. You know, it took me a long time to turn it around. It was one of those things that as I kept learning more about oxidation, it was all of a sudden something that was so important. But I still like to oxidize, I've got to tell you that. And still, there are times in my life that, there's pleasure being out on the boat. But now I'm more covered. It doesn't feel as good as you get older.
Edwin Veguilla: Oh your skin burns more, doesn't it? It doesn't have the same feeling. So let me tell you something that's really, it's going to blow your mind. I think I'll share this with you. What's this waiting for? This. So, one of the things of what made me fall so in love with what you call oxidation management, which changed my life. So, I'm a liver transplant patient. So, I told you about that, right?
Tom Porter: Yes.
Edwin Veguilla: So being a liver transplant patient, like, really brings a couple of things for life into a different perspective. I have to say for life you're actually at a higher risk of getting skin cancer, and your skin is far more sensitive than any other human being because of that medication that I've been on since I was 11 years old. So when I started learning about oxidation and what it does and really dove into that, since I started actually using Malibu C, I was waiting for this moment to tell you, since I started actually using all this on my face, all that redness and stuff that I usually get that I'm talking to you about. I've seen a humongous improvement. It's actually more tolerable when I go outside and I have that on my face.
Tom Porter: And now you understand what to think about that.
Edwin Veguilla: And now I understand what's going on. So, it's my skin's oxidizing at a higher level because of the sensitivity. And what's happening is the vitamin is donating an electron to normalize as a free radical, which you've probably heard about free radicals. Everybody keeps thinking, you know, these free radicals, they've got all these visions of it. It's really simple.
Tom Porter: Yeah, it's where an atom has oxidized. At some level it is oxidized. And if you ask what is the oxidation. It's like a spark, a combustion where it's too much of a good thing, too much oxygen to put it very simply.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah.
Tom Porter: But when you have that it, it causes it to lose an electron and it's no longer in balance. So, in our bodies that has the ability to run around trying to steal an electron from other atoms around. And that unfortunately it has the potential of stealing it, but it can't absorb it. So now it's created another free radical because they're free, they're no longer in balance. And that's essentially how cancer is formed. And you know, what's interesting is it's a lot like in our society, in a community where a drug dealer or somebody that's, you know, it's not necessarily the right approach for survival and longevity. And they become toxic and start influencing others. And it starts creating a cancer in a community. So what vitamin C is not vitamin C because vitamin C now is becoming a category. Vitamin C by true definition pure is ascorbic acid. And that is everybody needs to know that is the ingredient. It is not magnesium ascorbic phosphate. It is. That's ascorbic palmitate. It is not all these variations that have a shelf life that's longer. Yeah, theoretically, but it's not the compound of ascorbic acid. It all is derived from it. But they, they synthesize it into something else. And when you, you already are grasping, just for you to put that together. In fact, so much of our conversation that's so exciting is you're figuring things out yourself. And what I continue to do that, one day there will be and we already have it available there will be on the table salt, pepper and C. We provide that and we use it to consume and to use it all day long. I use it constantly on various things. If you're using Clorox in your sink. You clean it. If you just finish it with one little hit and wipe it on, and you have no Clorox on you, so you're not oxidizing anymore instead of trying to rinse it off or soap and water, which is an oxidizer.
Edwin Veguilla: I just brought my mind, my when I first got into the hair industry. I kid you not, I think it was. I think it was my first week in school. I literally contemplated not going back. We got into bleaching, so it's called back then, my skin being so sensitive because of my medicine that my hands got so bubbled.
Tom Porter: That's right from the bleach.
Edwin Veguilla: And the more I put water on it, the worse it got.
Tom Porter: Exactly.
Edwin Veguilla: And I had no idea why up until now, this moment.
Tom Porter: You just figured that out right now. Oh my gosh. And do you know that many of the some of the best educators that have ever educated for the Malibu C Total Oxidation Management Technology started with us because we saw their hand stories. That's why that's where it started. It wasn't the hair, it was the ability for them to continue to do hair in the salon because they figured out the cause and effect of the chemicals and our technologies.
Edwin Veguilla: Yeah, that's why that was just like maybe, oh my God, sometimes I don't think about it. It was the same day. The same day that I met you, that I came in. You'll see it on video when I put them together. Prior to me coming here to meeting you, I was at a meeting with a bunch of transplant patients. Going back to that.
Tom Porter: You guys have a support group?
Edwin Veguilla: No, I've never met. I've never actually like.
Tom Porter: How did you get in a group of this group?
Edwin Veguilla: When I decided to go on the journey that I've been postponing forever, I got enough courage to do it and went into that path. One of the things that I've always wanted was to help people give back support, tell my story, help others tell their story, and how their story can help other people.
Tom Porter: I continue to respect you know, which is the part of everything with us.
Edwin Veguilla: So, I volunteered, and I had never been like strong enough. I want to say like emotionally to go into that path and get in front of people and talk about it. And they invited me and I went that same day and they were all talking how they when they go outside, they're going to wear these big hats and these big glasses because and I hadn't even at this point because I've been I was 11, I'm 30 now. I had just avoided my whole life, avoided this sort of where everything this so sensitive and they were talking about how they're terrified to get on the sun because they don't want skin cancer, they don't want all this. And as we're talking like it just brought the whole moment back, it's like, oh my God, I have to go back to those people and tell them about it, that they need to get some vitamins. You know, they get Malibu C, let me tell you it everywhere else.
Tom Porter: And it goes to the extreme. We should all have it. If there was radiation. We keep hearing about, you know, we could have radiation bombs and radiation. All you need is the Malibu C technology. Not all you need, but. And that is something that, is an extreme statement, and I could be challenged on it, but I can feel pretty confident that I know that if you stayed covered, you would have significantly you would have to continue to reapply, because what happens is the vitamin, to that free radical that I was sharing with a few minutes ago. The ascorbic acid has the ability to donate the electron. That's how it works. It is that simple. That's what's happening on your skin. The ascorbic acid is not reflective. It doesn't absorb. It doesn't reflect the light. What it does is the action that happens in the skin. As it happens, the vitamin just normalizes with an electron. So, it keeps it from happening rather than try to just block you. Because when you're trying to block, you're using a lot of chemicals. Now, I'm a I do have respect for zinc oxide of any. You know, I have most respect for the hat you were referring to a moment ago that they were talking about. And yet I said earlier in this conversation that I don't wear hats. Where I wear hats is outside. I wear the and that is who I am. If I'm going to associate with a group, I'm a boater. I'm a water skier. So that's where you know, I, I'm the one that, you know, would like to water ski with a hat on. So, we water ski late in the day as the sun goes down. My wife, who's also a water skier, she gets so cold because we don't go out until the sun's going down. And she's a petite woman up on a water ski. She'll get out of the water and go. There's a little chill in the air. So, we would go and we go out late in the day.
Edwin Veguilla: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Because of the oxidation in 2001 when my transplant happened. My whole life would have been transformed. And then furthermore, the scarring piece of that, what they were talking about to the scarring, you know, I, I've carried my whole life this humongous scar. And they were all talking about this group, and it was like it brought back a lot of memories and a lot of issues that I've dealt with at this point. And but they're getting ready to go through that. And if I would have known three months ago what I know now, I would have been like I have a perfect solution for you guys.
Tom Porter: And you know, and I would say, you know, it's her solution. It's a logical step to help keep the cells normalized. There's no cure here. There's no solution here. It's just going to help the body. Would you be interested? I'm sure you would be interested in why I even did this.
Edwin Veguilla: So obviously. Cliffhanger. We're going to talk about that in the next sub dagger in the next series. Thank you.
Tom Porter: This was nice doing it 101. I think from here on, we're probably going to be talking. I'll be in Malibu, California. You will be in Indianapolis, Indiana, which is where, most people don't realize is where our factory and all of this, actually, all the technology came out of research in Indiana. So, people that are looking for US, companies in the US technologies and US discoveries, you can't get much more homegrown than Muncie, Indiana. Because Ball State University, that's the story of the walnut. It was on Ball State University.
Edwin Veguilla: Oh, I can't wait to hear about it. Okay, guys. Stay tuned. And we'll catch you guys in the next episode. Which will be coming out here very soon. Be well be well, guys.
