Butchers, Belly Fat, and Breaking Addiction with Kevin McCann

Meat it’s whats for dinner! Kevin McCann has a deep infatuation with meat fabrication that started at the Culinary Institute of America. His first day of class with Tom Schneller got him hooked.

After various jobs, including a time with DeBragga and Spitler where he learned what the best restaurants in NYC were ordering for their menus, his career got fully in motion during his apprenticeship at Fleisher's. Having a background in cooking and cutting really allowed Kevin the opportunity to appreciate the bigger picture while training. There was literally as much meat as he could possibly cut, and he was already formulating utilization ideas to complement the vast array of cuts they taught him to isolate.

And by pure dumb luck, Kevin found a co-op of farmers in Madison County, NY that were in the process of opening a butcher shop but didn't have a butcher. He created their entire fresh meat, deli, sausage, and further utilization programs, and they continue to grow and thrive to this day. With that experience now in his belt, and with the confidence of seeing it work in a small city, Kevin and his wife Yeonmo opened McCann's Local Meats in Rochester, NY in 2015. They source their animals from within 60 miles of their shop where it’s all grown hormone, preemptive antibiotic, and steroid free - 100% grass fed beef, pastured pork and poultry. McCann’s also acts as a restaurant and they have a robust soup and sandwich menu, various prepared foods sold by the pound, and offer the option to choose anything from the fresh case to be cooked on site. The power of self-love and self-forgiveness on Kevin's journey

He’s also a member of the U.S. team for the 2020 World Butchers' Challenge taking place in Sacramento, CA! In this conversation, Kevin discusses his radical health transformation, how he overcame the addiction-filled lifestyle of the restaurant industry, and how he balances a terrific family with a terrific career running his own butcher shop.

Episode Highlights

- 1:30 - Why is there a butcher on the show?

- 2:47 - Why sourcing meat matters

- 4:10 - Competing in the World Butchers’ Challenge

- 5:44 - What Kevin brings to the butcher business that very few do

- 7:36 - Next level dishes at Kevin's restaurant

- 10:42 - The differences within bone broth and its benefits

- 15:55 - Kevin's major health and fitness transformation

- 20:26 - Living a pain-free existence

- 24:24 - Overcoming the culture and addictions associated with the restaurant industry

- 34:45 - The beauty of getting sober

- 36:45 - The power of self-love and self-forgiveness on Kevin's journey

- 39:10 - What does it mean to be beautifully broken?

- 39:38 - Advice for those looking to get off drugs and alcohol as a venting mechanism

- 41:34 - Advice for aspiring restaurateurs

UPGRADE YOUR WELLNESS

Silver Biotics Wound Healing Gel: https://bit.ly/3JnxyDD
Code: BEAUTIFULLYBROKEN

LightPathLED https://lightpathled.com/?afmc=BEAUTIFULLYBROKEN
Code: beautifullybroken

STEMREGEN: https://www.stemregen.co/products/stemregen/?afmc=beautifullybroken
Code: beautifullybroken

Flowpresso 3-in-1 technology: (https://calendly.com/freddiekimmel/flowpresso-one-on-one-discovery)

CONNECT WITH FREDDIE

Work with Me: https://www.beautifullybroken.world/biological-blueprint

Website and Store: (http://www.beautifullybroken.world) 

Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/freddie.kimmel

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@beautifullybrokenworld 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (00:00.11)
I think people underestimate how important something simple like breathing is. Understanding from a, just from an energy on how to get through your day standpoint, being able to take nice, big, deep belly breaths, just how much that can help you re-energize and revitalize throughout the course of your day, no matter what you're doing, moving your body and finding some kind of regimen to put yourself through.

to clear your mind and expel some of that energy and thought process is good.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (00:33.325)
Welcome to the Beautifully Broken Podcast brought to you by AmpCoil. I'm your host, Freddie Kimmel, and on this show, we discuss the common thread survivors share after walking through the fire, the practitioners making a difference, and the treatment modalities that deliver healing back into the hands of the people who need it most. Witness the inspiration we gain by navigating the human experience with grace, humility, and a healthy dose of mistakes. Because part of being human is being beautifully broken.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (01:05.295)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the beautifully broken podcast. We are here with special guests today all the way from the Rochester area. Mr. Kevin McCann. Kevin, good morning. Howdy folks. I gotta ask, you know, we've never had anybody from, we've never had a butcher on the show ever before. And Kevin is not only a butcher, but a connoisseur, I would say of the art.

of this craft. Kevin, can you just a little dip the toe in the water on what it is you do at your establishment? Kevin we bring in whole animals from farms within 60 miles of Rochester. We focus on 100 % grass-fed beef, pastured pork and poultry. We break everything down in-house. We cut and grind fresh cuts for the case every single day. make

full range of sausages, deli meats, charcuterie, prepared foods, rendered fats, bone broths. We try to as much as possible utilize the animal as close to 100 % as probably humanly possible. Wow, that's incredible. I feel like just from growing up in Rochester, New York, that that is the only establishment doing that to that extent. Yeah, I mean, we're certainly the only game in town as far as whole animal. I mean, there's a lot of other

you know, longer established butcher shops that are doing some more, you know, industrial style commodity meat. You know, that's a, a legitimate business, model if that's the thing, you know, but we are pretty proud of our practices and why we're doing what we do. Yeah. And obviously, you know, this audience, you know, total disclosure, people definitely on this show, all whatever 20,000 listeners are looking for that elite experience when they go into their food. Cause they understand how important it is.

not only the quality of the nutrition they're getting, but the energetics of the animal and how it was raised, how it was cared for. Can you speak a little bit about that as far as the sourcing that you do? Yeah, you know, I spent quite a bit of time touring around different farms in the Western New York area. I was lucky enough that, you know, I apprenticed for some really great butchers and got an idea for some great breeding.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (03:29.774)
ways to go about breeding animals, feeding animals, ways to go about the grazing process and so on and so forth and things to be looking for on farms. So I did, I toured around Western New York, I got in touch with Cornell Cooperative Extension and they were super helpful as far as an initial step of looking around and getting in touch with farmers and sort of walking around their properties with them. And nowadays, we've just been...

in the four and a half years, developing great partnerships with them, bringing in great animals, watching the great work that they are doing on their properties and how it manifests itself in meat and food that we put into the case. Incredible. on and then on a personal level, you know, you've got this great business model. Very, very like you said, like a snout to tail. You're really using everything of the animal.

And then on a personal level, you've got some pretty high skills as far as being a butcher goes because you've been selected for a very special team. That's, that's true also. Yes. mean, it's true that I'm on the team. it's true that I, I like to think that I, have a little bit of proficiency at what I do, but, there's a lot of really talented butchers all around this country, all around the world really. But, the, team itself is for the world butchers challenge in 2020.

which is a really cool opportunity both for the city of Rochester to sort of be represented, but also for the United States and the craft of butchery in this country to be able to, you know, kind of throw down and put ourselves out there, you know, on a worldwide level here and against countries more used to having that corner style butcher shop and used to bringing in the local animal and used to these practices that they never sort of got rid of in the United States. sort of in this

resurgence of. So it's a pretty exciting thing, know, some really talented butchers on the team from all across the country, you know, Austin, Texas, with Brian and Hawaii with another Brian, Travis, up in outside of Seattle, and both Danny and Paul in Sacramento. that you know, the six of us are really going to go after. this is the US butchers team and coming from a place of total ignorance.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (05:49.339)
What does someone at that level of the game bring to the butcher shop that's different from anybody else? Well, I think the nice thing as far as this team goes is that you have people who are in various different forms of butchery. You've got people who work in more cut and wrap style facilities that are in conjunction with slaughter facilities so that they're

really kind of working directly with farmers to, to cut and wrap for that farmer or to be able to go to farmers markets and other direct marketing opportunities that those farmers have. But you also have, you know, another team member who's involved directly with the agriculture and, more of a vertically integrated model with regards to the raising of the animal, the actual pasturing of the animal all the way through to the sale.

which is sort of an interesting, whole aspect of this, meat business that I think, can get lost as the actual raising and feeding of the animal. And then you've got a couple of guys involved in some, you know, specifically retail, operations, like what I run here in Rochester. And then, you know, you've got a couple of team members who are involved more in sort of a local grocery, type operation. they're.

their operation involves not just the meat, also local products of all kinds to be able to provide like a full resource to their community. Whereas, you know, what I do is sort of half retail butcher shop and half sort of restaurant. So. And I just remember, you know, I remember always doing lunch breaks from my dad's engineering firm growing up and

And our, you know, what we did for lunch, we went to Wendy's or we'd go to Arby's or we'd go to McDonald's, know, Ponderosa, classic, classic. it was always one of those things where you would like go out and have these huge lunches. And I remember being so tired after lunch and just fighting this like fatigue that was overwhelming. You felt like kryptonite, you're holding a big chunk of kryptonite is Superman.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (08:11.474)
and it just would wash over your body. And since I've cleaned up my diet, you know, obviously exponentially beyond clean, I don't get like that. I don't feel tired. And maybe you could just paint for the audience, some, couple little example dishes that you offer at your restaurant because they really are next level. My wife is Korean. So we do a lot of Korean inspired dishes like the bibimbap that we offer on Tuesdays, right?

Korean cultures, when you have a protein on the table, it's typically fairly limited. The majority of what you're eating is a soup and some vegetables that they'll refer to as namul and some rice. And so this dish is all of that. There's some pickled, there's some fermented, there's some sauteed, and there's some raw vegetables in there. And there's a fried egg and there's...

some marinated, cooked off beef. And then there's the, rice. And, you know, it's even though it's, it's a significant amount of food that comes to you. don't necessarily walk away from that meal, that bowling ball in your stomach, feeling that kryptonite that you're talking about. you know, and then there's the ramen that we do on Wednesdays. you know, we, make the bone broth and house, we, you know, simmer them for.

gosh, like 36 hours to really get a full extraction of nutrients and, you know, collagen, gelatin, and, you know, all of those great, nutritional properties out of the bone itself. And then, you know, take some of the meat. Yeah. Some really wonderful fresh noodles, cabbage, beans sprouts, again, a nice soft boiled egg that goes in there. And, you know, again, it's.

It's another one of those style of meals that you could have as much of or as little as you want, but it's there's some really great regenerative properties to it to help you through your day. Yeah, no, it's it's clearly it's clearly next level and there's like an energy and a buzz when you walk into the restaurant and it's just a really, you know, it's a really great place for anybody who haven't hasn't been in your in the Rochester area. You know, we'll definitely link that in the show notes where you can go. Maybe some like

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (10:35.178)
some of the specialties on certain days of the week. If something speaks to you and resonates, you can get in there. Kevin, another area I wanna just talk about, you just mentioned bone broth and you've told me before, you where you can make it two ways. You can make something where it's just complete and like emulsified, I think you said the word was. And then there's another way you can make the broth. it's much more light, like a bullion almost. And can you just...

Give us a difference on what those two look like and the benefits. Yeah, I mean, like there's a, I'll refer to it as, sort of a French technique and more of an Asian style technique. You know, both are coming from the bone and typically with this French style technique, what we do in houses will roast the bones, will brown them off and sort of that, that, that browning quality of the proteins that are left as well as, this sort of

cooking of the bone. It takes it through sort of a cleansing process as well so that you can just cover it with liquid and you can simmer it low and slow. know, in culinary school, they'll refer to it as a lazy bubble, right? This simmer. So that a little bubble of air will come up every second, maybe three or four. And what you're doing at that point is you're allowing any fat that's left or any

impurities left in the bones, any residual, pardon me for saying it like this, any residual blood or anything like that that's left, you're allowing that all to rise to the top. And you can skim off any of these impurities that you'll see start to sort of pool at the top so that they don't cook in. And after the cooking process, after the whole resulting stock has been made,

the fat will all rise to the top. can skim that all off and what you're left with. It's a very gelatinous, jiggly, certainly nutrient rich, wonderful, clear, lean broth. Okay. And it has a nice roasted flavor to it. When we do it in house, we literally do it just bones and water as a means of keeping the flavor profile very, very sort of, you know, baseline so that

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (12:55.027)
You can take it in any direction that you'd like as far as flavor profile, as well as, you know, people have different tolerances to salt and, you know, potential allergen issues with, you know, things like onions or carrots or, you know, herbs or so on and so forth. So we leave it very basic. And then the second way to go about it is, is this, this bone broth, like what we do for our ramen, where as opposed to roasting the bones, we blanch them, we keep them raw. We cover them in water. bring that.

water to a boil, right? And we let it boil for about five minutes. And that essentially accomplishes that same cleansing opportunity that the roasting does where any impurities that are going to exist in those bones are going to boil off because it's all on the surface. It's all going to boil off right away. And then you discard that initial water and then you recover the bones.

And then as opposed to simmering them, you boil them heavy, hard, not a lazy bubble at all, a rather aggressive bubble. And that mechanical action of the bubbling will allow any of the fats that are there to be emulsified into that liquid and therefore become creamy, milky, rich. this is, we get a lot of questions with regards to people with how it is they should use like

knuckle bones as opposed to marrow bones. And the knuckle bones work great for that lean style roasted stock. Whereas a couple of marrow bones will certainly be beneficial in this milky style bone broth that I'm discussing, where all of the nutrients that are in that marrow will benefit and be a part of that finished product. Beautiful.

I'd love to get that one of those pathways painted out and maybe do you guys do you guys put out a blog through the restaurant or anything like that you ever put out recipes or directions for things you might make there? It's more of like a the recipe thing a number one it takes time and my wife and I super busy with the business as is but it's also we believe very much in like this direct one-on-one interaction this this

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (15:17.475)
personal connection with our customers. So we would much rather have in the moment a conversation with a customer to help guide them through these things, through written recipes, through text messages, through emails, through all of these things. There's some nuance that can be lost. So we would much rather be able to have it in the moment, get through any questions and talk through a process with a customer right up.

It's it sounds like that might be an amazing masterclass to like run like a bone broth workshop or something within the kitchen. It sounds like some that's something you could sell an event for. Sure. Yeah. So I want everybody at home who probably is not watching this on video every once in a while, we've got a beep here and we've got a little stopwatch calendar going in the back and there's people occasionally walking by with a with a carry dumbbell or someone doing walking lunges and Kevin's in the gym right now because

Kevin is also in the middle of a huge, huge health transformation. You're going through a huge shift in your body and everything that's going on. Can you talk a little bit about that and let people know where you're at and what's going on? Yeah, I mean, as far as my thing goes, my wife and I, we've got two kids. We've got a son who's gonna be turning six in December. We have a daughter who's gonna be turning three here in November.

Right after our daughter was born, we kind of looked at each other and said, you know, there's a lot of work we need to be able to do individually to be able to ensure that we're going to be around to see these kids grow up and to set great examples for how it is that they can live their lives. so we, you know, we initially started doing some keto and tried to sort of affect some change through diet. And we both saw quite a bit of success.

You know, we dove deep down the rabbit hole with that. uh, you know, uh, we're finding, uh, uh, you know, reading all kinds of books and all kinds of blogs and finding effective ways to, make that work for us. Obviously having a butcher shop, uh, and the access to, you know, uh, really great sources of fat, uh, that was a diet that was pretty accessible to us. Um, and we both saw some initial success with that, uh, some great weight loss.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (17:41.451)
and my wife sort of turned that into a hobby that she really enjoys with, with running. she's actually training for her first marathon coming up. She's done all kinds of five Ks, 10 Ks, half marathon. and so that's really become, a driving force for her. but we also both joined a gym and you know, we started in a, a CrossFit based gym and

It started both of us with personal trainers. A lot of these trainers and lot of the members were customers of ours that would come into the shop all the time. And they would play the long game with us. They'd say, if you ever want to work out, if you ever want to start to get actually healthy and not just eat a bunch of fat all day long, we can probably point you in the right direction. And so we finally did.

You know, we, we've been working out specifically with our personal trainer for a little bit over a year now. I'm down 123 pounds myself, since starting keto, you know, it's involved lots of the gym that we're in now is not a CrossFit specific gym. It follows some CrossFit ideas as far as intensive, movement, as far as full body movement and working out.

You know, my, my coach is a very strong believer in what you are bad in is some things that you should probably focus on and, muscles that are larger can, be focused on more than muscles that are smaller. So we do a lot of leg work, since, you know, those are some of larger muscles in the body. And it's become this idea of, of not just working out and of not just changing a diet, but of this.

this phrase that was, I was really dubious about at the start, but has become everything that my wife and I sort of involve our life with now, which is this, this lifestyle change, right? You know, not, you know, anybody can say that they're going to go on a diet. Anybody can say that they're going to start working out, but you know, these are things that seem fleeting and, have lots of, of exit doors. but.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (20:01.816)
If you're going to kind of commit yourself to being healthy in multiple different ways and kind of shape your life and how it is you go about it, minute to minute, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, then it's something that it isn't a struggle every day. It's what you do. And that's sort of what we're in the middle of right now.

That's impressive, man. 123 pounds and a lot of changes, including food and diet and nutrition. And I'm sure you understand how many, how many slices of the wheel you need to, to alter and change and shift to make progress like that. 100%. I mean, I've never ever in my life, you know, I played sports in high school, you know, did lacrosse, did football, uh, you know, skied a lot golf quite a bit. and you know, I'm

I had a back surgery. I had a major debilitating injury that I thought was going to affect me for the rest of my life. I thought I was never going to be able to be active. I thought I was going to sort of always be in this pain management scenario for the rest of my life. And if you ever asked me if I was going to back squat or deadlift or, you know, do a 15 minute.

four distance row like I did today in the class, like I would have absolutely laughed at you in the face. And instead I'm living this incredible pain free existence due to, you know, putting my body through some stressors and some rigors and becoming stronger and, you know, developing my body to be prepared for things, you know, before any of this, I could walk down the sidewalk.

you know, catch a weird dip or a weird step and it might throw my back out and I could be out of commission for two weeks. And, you know, uh, an eight hour day, uh, standing at the block and cutting meat felt like it was, uh, you know, uh, uh, terrible feet at the end of the day. And now, you know, an eight hour day, a 10 hour day, a 12 hour day, these are all accomplishable tasks, you know, uh, you know, dropping, uh,

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (22:19.998)
you know, body fat, putting on muscle mass and developing even in my early stages of this whole thing, some kind of endurance and, you know, getting some lungs in me and getting some self-confidence from all of that. It's really made a huge difference. That's amazing, man. It's super, super inspiring to watch from the other side. And just so everybody knows on the podcast, me and Kevin have known each other for over 20 years. We went to undergrad together at SUNY Brockport and

And all I can do is smile and laugh in amazement at all the things that have happened for us in our lives. How these crazy, crazy paths. Now we were just, were both music theater or we were in the drama department. There was no music theater at SUNY Brockport. And we were very much coming up together and did a show together. did Alice in Wonderland. Never forget.

first one. Yeah, yeah, the first one and then and then many, many other like, you know, combinations, whatever it was with director actor co starring in productions, concerts all over the campus, you know, live improv companies, you know, local theater. I mean, it was really it was really amazing just like how much how much stuff we were involved in in college and it's just I mean, there's no way because the

shows only like an hour that we could tell everybody all the craziness that happened. And to give you there a fair amount of craziness, but to give a scope and pull back. It's amazing. We're both alive. It's amazing. We both are doing very, very well in our individual endeavors, have a pretty good grasp, I would say on reality for some moments in life.

being not so grasped in reality. And it's just, it's incredible to watch life unfold. And what I want to know is, you know, so, let's just, let's just do it because there's, there's so many paths we could go. If we're to look at the path where you've got all this inspiration coming out of college, you know, all the possibilities and, and where you're at right now, um, was, was definitely like not imaginable.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (24:44.383)
If I had told you, well, Kevin, you're going to own like a very successful organic butcher shop and the connoisseur of fine cuts of meat. Probably, probably not. But what element as laughable as me going to a gym? Yeah. I mean, but, we, know, what, what element of like emotional pain and trauma took you off the rails and like, tell us a little bit about the like

some things that took you down and order for you to like find this new direction because this is you know, it's about being broken. So if you can just illuminate on some of those, you know, some of those areas of your life. Sure. You know, I mean, it's funny how the industry that we met each other and in theater, you know, you're, sort of trained to explore, you know, motivations, explore these emotions.

explore through character development, a lot of both positive as well as a lot of negative things because the negative things that people have to go through are often the more entertaining to witness and therefore make better stories. yeah, and going from theater into the restaurant, the food industry, there's a lot of stress. There's a lot of failure. There's a lot of

concern with, you know, in theater, you know, are you going to make it? Are you any good? Do you, are you going to be in the right place at the right moment? and you know, I did the New York city thing and. Fuck me if, if I did anything good with it while I was there, you know, I, I, I served tables and, at the Hollywood and Times Square, but, know, I might've gone to like one workshop. I might've gone to one.

audition. And a lot of that was fear, know, fear of not being good enough. I came from this, this wonderfully small pond where I was a fairly good sized fish at the Brockport theater department. And, you know, had all of the opportunity that I could possibly gobble up. And you go to New York City and you're just a fucking speck of dust on some handrail of some obscure

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (27:09.504)
the stairwell of a subway station that's never used. you know, and so that's very real moment of realizing that you're either incredibly driven to do this and you're willing to take the risks and put yourself out there for what it takes or it might be time to really kind of do some self-evaluation and move on. And so I did that and I got into the restaurant industry and I've spent a lot of time recently specifically

going back over and doing some inventory internally about all of the problems that this industry can really present to a person, both physically, spiritually, mentally, intellectually. And first, physically, mean, it's a lot of hours. if you're a server, it's still a lot of hours on your feet. You're still carrying food around.

You you still have to hustle quite a bit if you're in the kitchen and you're in the heat and there's fire and there's knives and there's heavy lifting and there's lots of weird bending and your life really exists in like this three square foot existence, right? With lots of grease. And not just what's going into your body, but what you have to kind of move around and like, you know,

of stability you got to find being able to move around in that. you know, and then, you know, all of the mental stress that goes with it, you know, in some cases, especially in the kitchen, you're not making a lot of money. You got an old school fiery chef that's raining down, firing brimstone on you because, you know, you put a dish in the past that wasn't up to par or your mise en place wasn't, you know, set up properly.

And he's giving you shit about that or, he or she for that matter, I apologize. or even, you know, you, you, you didn't set your station up well enough and you're in the middle of service and you're, finding yourself in the shit. You know, there's no way to get out of it other than to dig yourself out. And then you get into the extracurriculars of the industry and you know, all of these, these outside influences of drugs and alcohol. And I was, I was already deep into all of that.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (29:32.131)
before the restaurant industry. The college experience was something that I very much lived and very much enjoyed in the moment. that, I'm pretty lucky really as far as it goes, because you and I knew people that did not come out on the other end of it in a very good spot. And both of us were able to curb usage and

to find ways to sort of, in my case, at any rate, I won't speak for you, but I was able to find ways to become a functional user slash addict in lots of ways. And that continued for years and years. And in lots of ways, I may have chosen the restaurant industry, if I'm being honest.

because the drug testing policy is so low and it's such an embraced piece of what goes on, right? And it's not like I was doing crazy hard. It wasn't like I'm blowing lines of cocaine and, you know, shoot heroin in my arm on a daily basis, you know, but there was lots of alcohol abuse. There was lots of marijuana abuse. Certainly there were pills. Certainly there were powdery substances, you know, that I was snorting up my nose of various kinds.

And, you know, it was just a part of what you did to play hard and work hard and maintain the ability to keep going. But through that, you you get into some emotional stress. And I was in a long term relationship going through college when we were together at Brockport and, you know, ended up getting married, which was probably an awful idea for both of us. It seemed like

very much like you get out of high school and you're like, okay, let's go to college. Cause that's the thing to do, right? And you, you go out, you graduate college and you've been with this person for a period of time. And you're like, well, I guess the next thing to do is get married. Instead of really kind of thinking our way through it. We just did the, seemed to be the logical step. in retrospect, it was awful for both of us. I was not an adult. I was abusing drugs and taking the easy route out on everything.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (31:54.551)
In lots of ways, she was enabling that and not achieving everything she could either in the process. So we got divorced. And so, you know, you got this emotional loss that you go through and deal with that did not help the drug usage. If anything, it gave me more of an excuse. It gave me more of a barrier to hide behind. And so I did it. I did that for a while. When I went to culinary school, it's funny that I am at where I'm at.

because I went to culinary school for every possible wrong reason. I went to get away. I went to hide. I went to not be around everything that reminded me about this relationship that had ended and to be able to do drugs and anonymity. And what I ended up doing while I was there was developing great relationships despite my best efforts, developing great relationships.

Developing some great work ethics and developing some great industry contacts and found something that I really enjoyed in appreciation of surrounding yourself with people who are of a like mind, who have a like desire to want to care about and create great food and great experiences and take care of people. But it wasn't really until recently.

that I've been sober now for a little bit over four months, haven't smoked pot or done really any other hard drugs in many years. it was certainly, you talk about loss, you talk about struggles, you talk about finding bottom. There were ebbs and flows, there were peaks and valleys, there were times that felt great but weren't.

there were times that were awful, but really kind of weren't. And kind of looking back on it now as I have two kids, as I have 13, 14 employees that I'm trying to help figure out how to take care of, you know, a healthy marriage and this, healthy lifestyle that we're trying to create for our family. It's interesting to look back on and sort of take

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (34:18.779)
to draw upon our theater experience this motivational investigation about what led me to these behaviors, what led me to these thought processes and what is different about that now and is helping me choose these more productive processes and thoughts and activities. Kevin, is it?

You know, when you, when you, when you wake up in the morning and you get ready for your long day, cause I know how hard you work. You know, do you have, do you have moments of just complete gratitude for the, the, the, the portion of the mountain that you've climbed so far and your beautiful family and this incredibly successful business and being on the United States butchers team of America. I mean, does that, does that bring you to tears once in a while? You know, I.

I woke up early on Sunday, invariably now being sober. I don't sleep as much. My brain doesn't shut down. It just wants to go. It's yeah, it's unfettered now. So it's like, let's make up for lost time. And so a lot of times I journal, but instead I didn't really have anything I was specifically thinking about this past Sunday. And so I got up and I just decided to go. I just wanted to move, sort of dealing with a little bit of a nagging oblique issue. So I didn't run, I just walked.

And being able to walk allowed me to kind of really look around and it was such a gorgeous morning. The sunrise was beautiful. The way that it was interacting with the clouds, there was a nice breeze. There's a little dew on the grass. I personally was the life hero of eight separate snails that were crossing the road, saving them from what would have been utter doom from getting driven over.

for my cars, I helped them get to the other side of the road. But it was like, yeah, and I got done with four miles and I walked into my house and both my kids are running around in just their underwear like maniacs and there was hot coffee in the pot and my wife's gonna go for her run, we're gonna tag out and I'm gonna feed them breakfast, we're gonna do our thing and yeah man, life's great. You just gotta let it be, you gotta appreciate it for what it is.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (36:43.515)
just roll with it, And what degree of what, what about the emotional component, Kevin, where's where has, where has the power of self love and self forgiveness come into your journey? you know, probably for the first time, maybe ever I'm in a comfortable spot with who it is I am, but it's also probably the first time as an adult that I've been clear headed enough.

to feel like that's a statement that I can even think about making in any kind of truthful manner. I've been in general for 20 plus years. was on a daily basis. I was inhibited by some form of chemical or another. Now it's, I used to say I'm high on life because that's all I can afford. Now I'm high on life because that's what I choose and it's a hell of a lot more potent than I would have expected before.

Yeah, I mean, being a good dad, being a good boss, being a good husband, being a good person just is very, gratified. Yeah, it's incredible, man. Well, I'm so proud of you and what you've done and, you know, not only the business and success you have, but the life that you've created. always makes me smile because Kevin and his family are always posting pictures of morning 5Ks and runs and

fitness events and you know pictures in the like like he said the cross-stay CrossFit style gym in Rochester and and and then to walk into the into the butcher shop you know it's just it's a it's a beautiful beautiful establishment it's a great place to go sit down and eat so I I highly recommend if anybody's in the Rochester area or if you're in the New York State area and make it make a trip

You know, get up there and just go experience what it's like to have somebody so committed to, like we said in the beginning of the show, like eating the full course of the animal, taking all the energy from what that being brought into the earth and then you're using it to up level. So I just, think it's a great, great place. appreciate that. Of course, dude, of course. It's a, I'm such a fan and

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (39:05.212)
You know, everybody in the community loves it. I, you know, I usually close out with a couple of questions and I'm going to hit you with these. know you're going to do great. What does it, what does it mean to, you to be, beautifully broken? accepting your own flaws, accepting your own imperfections, accepting, the fact that, at all times you are a work in progress and to never really be.

Never be complacent, never be satisfied, but to continue to strive. And if you could, if you could leave a little piece of advice for all the people out there, I know I slung tables for 11 years in New York city at Alastair Dastiner the whole time I was there singing and waiting. And some of those days where you're just like totally soaked through sweat and your uniform and your, work outfit is like,

It stands up on its own from the ketchup and mayonnaise that's been wiped all over it. And you know, you're at the end of a hard shift and you just, there's nothing left in the tank. you know, if, if you can imagine that avatar, that person who's just like breaking rocks in the restaurant industry, what advice do you have for them to possibly look at some of these things that compliment the body, food, diet mindset, exercise, as opposed to turning to

Drugs or alcohol is the off venting mechanism. You know, I think people underestimate how important something simple like breathing is. Understanding from a, just from an energy on how to get through your day standpoint, being able to take nice, big, deep belly breaths, as opposed to shallow chest breathing. You and I learned that from vocal training and so on and so forth.

just how much that can help you sort of re-energize and revitalize throughout the course of your day, no matter what you're doing. Finding range of motion and making stretching a piece of your day, whether it's through, you know, athletic stretching or yoga or, know, how whatever that form takes, but moving your body and finding some kind of regimen to put yourself through.

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (41:27.529)
to clear your mind and expel some of that energy and thought process is good. Beautiful. And then one other, one other question I'd like, I'd like you to just to offer this, this, this audience, if there are any other, you know, aspiring restaurant tours out there, what information would you give them if they're looking at something like that? prepared to be poor.

a long time be prepared to put in more hours than you probably thought were possible. And enjoy every second of it because very much like with my kids how everybody always says, they grow so fast. Well, so does so does sort of your opportunities to either be successful or to fail. And you have to be in the moment you have to

be present and be able to be clear of mind, put yourself in great positions and surround yourself with great people and be smart enough to not try to do everything yourself, but to coach, train, develop, uh, to bring in people who compliment what you're good and terrible at. Like my wife does for me. mean, I don't know how I got so lucky, but it seems like everything that I'm awful at, she's wonderful at. and we,

I wouldn't be anywhere like we talked about emotionally, professionally, personally, anywhere without how that piece of the puzzle has helped, you know, having that great compliment. Beautiful. And where should people look you up to experience, either to follow the, the team USA or, to check out McCann's sure. McCann's is, McCann's local meets.com.

Instagram or Facebook, we're on Twitter. know, McHenry's local meets.com. Like I said, Rochester, New York 739 Clinton Avenue South. And then Team USA is through the Butchers Guild of America. You can look up the Butchers Guild of America.com or excuse me.org. The Team USA Butchers of America has a Facebook page and the Butchers Guild has an Instagram page and

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (43:51.665)
You can also get a lot of great information through one of my teammates podcasts, which is called the Meat Block podcast. His is Travis Doxtel. And that's sort of like a fun little industry kind of romp through meat, through food, through various topics of the day and a lot of great information about how to help support us as well as what we're in the midst of getting done as well. then, you know, there's a GoFundMe page and there's various other

things that we're doing to try to raise money to help fund this whole adventure that we're going on here. know, it's there's 16 countries competing for world domination here. It doesn't come cheap. We got to travel. We got to practice. We got to buy animals to practice. have to have uniforms. You know, we've got to do all of these things and we're all putting money out of our own pockets. You know, I

that gets lost when we say that we're trying to raise money. We're all spending our own money. We're all personally invested, but we're also looking for people to help us reach this goal. Beautiful. Beautiful. And then the other, ended with like five, but Rochester has this gem of not only an amazing director, but theater performer within its midst. Mr. Kevin McCann.

Are you will there be a time calling it out on this show that you entered back into the ring and either direct or perform in some in some theater? It's an itch I will definitely scratch. I was very close to doing something on a smaller scale here very, very soon with all of them that I'm involved with currently and the kids being what they are. I just don't have the time right now. It would be fair to.

business or my family, it will happen. Very cool. Very cool. Mr. McCann, thank you so much for being here. We honor you. Your 123 pound weight loss, your incredible business model that's giving back and has really zero footprint. The beautiful family you've created. It's an awesome story and I think it's something people will

Freddie Kimmel and Kevin McCann (46:12.697)
They're really gonna jive this episode, man. So thanks for just sharing and being so candid on the show. You got it, buddy. Thanks for having me. Namaste. Ladies and gentlemen, you made it to the end of the podcast. Now in a world where the average attention span is less than 10 seconds, we just spent almost an hour together. And I think this is the beginning of something really beautiful. Now one way to support the podcast is to head over to freddysetgo.com and check out my newly launched page,

Freddy's Faves, where I've linked every five-star product and healing modality you hear about on the show. Most offer significant discounts by clicking the link. And please know, it doesn't cost you anything extra, and at the same time, they support the show through affiliation. So, check out Freddy's Faves on freddysecco.com. This episode of the Beautifully Broken Podcast was brought to you by our sponsor, AmpCoil, upgrading the vibrations of hearts, minds, and bodies

all over the world. Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's show, head over to iTunes and leave a five star review. Grabbing a download is like giving this virtual thumbs up that we're doing it right. And if you want to connect with me, shoot me a message on Instagram at freddysetgo.com or at freddysetgo. That's all for today. Our closing, our closing, the world is hurting. We need you at your very best. So take the steps today to always be upgrading, whatever it takes to move the needle. Remember, while life is pain, putting those fractured pieces back together is a beautiful process. I'm your host. love you. Namaste. Have a wonderful day.