An Inspired Chat with Brandon Bird of Melrose District

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Brandon Bird . Check out our conversation below.

Brandon , we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
A few years ago a friend asked if I wanted to start a race team with him. Not knowing what I was agreeing to I said yes. It happened much sooner than expected. We’ve been racing since May of this year and have even begin running a side business where we offer track days. It’s incredibly stressful and as fun as it sounds. It brings me joy. However, I still derive more joy from the family that I come home to every evening. Im blessed in that regard.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Brandon Bird and I am best known for launching and running Golden Rule Botanicals in Phoenix Arizona. The company sprang from a personal journey to meet my own seemingly intractable health needs using less harmful (and natural where possible) options than had been presented to me. We are especially well known for our vast catalogue and quality control regarding Kratom. Because this business also meets personal needs, our brand has a singular ability to empathize with and therefore cater to the needs of our clientele. We’ve enjoyed an unbroken string of 5 star reviews for over a decade and routinely found ourselves at the top of vendor lists alongside much larger companies than our own.
I’ve worked with our state legislature as a liaison and independently on several issues that I found pivotal to public health issues in Arizona. I’ve assisted harm reduction and educational organizations in the process and have participated in the passage of important legislation. I’m always interested in public health issues and always willing to lend my effort if I think it’s warranted and I think I can help.

I help manage a track day company with my racing team, we partner with major tracks in Arizona to create fun, affordable and safe performance driving experiences that cater to all skill levels.

I’ve lived a very diverse life experience and like to think that’s made me somewhat less stupid than I otherwise might have been. I’m grateful for the things that I’ve been through as much as the gifts I’ve been given. It’s allowed me to relate to people wherever they are at -and not in a plasticine or condescending manner. It also allows me to avoid at least one form of suffering -ingratitude.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
I swung the first punch of any kid in our class. It was only 6th grade and none of us had ever been in a fist fight. We had all the posturing, pushing and trash talking you’d expect of typical adolescent abrasion. But no one had really fought. I was a very small, autistic and somewhat traumatized child who’d been uprooted from an idyllic life in California by a tragedy. I got picked on plenty. Then a pair of kids began picking on my brother too. The next time they tried that I swung a wide, probably slow and lame haymaker at one of the bullies. He barely ducked the punch but I remember the look on his face, “oh crap”. He was not willing to take it all the way. I was. He backed down. I got Saturday school for it. I never became a cool kid. I was as small and dorky as ever for the rest of my k-12. But it was understood I was not a soft target for actual bullying. It certainly was not the end of friction with my peers. But I saw the way other kids got it and felt I had an easier time thanks to my strategically unhinged rep.

What fear has held you back the most in your life?
Time. Ive always had this sense that the clock is running out. Even when I’m far ahead in life for my age, this nagging sense of the increasing scarcity of time has suborned my will. I have to remind myself that I’m quite happy with the life I’ve been given and that it’s only against an imaginary and idealized counterfactual life that I feel behind. I know this is true but I still must convince the observer in my mind to behave as if it’s true.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Oh my closest friends would definitely use this question as an opportunity to troll me. That’s the sort of close friends I have.
I could perhaps envision what they would say after all the jokes and after I prodded them to take the question seriously. Hopefully they would say what matters most to me is helping people. It sounds trite and is trite. I just hope it’s also true.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
Yes. I have an entire category of disappointment to answer this question with. I fell very hard in my mid 20’s when my back went out and medication and pain made school impossible. My entire life, career and education came to a crashing halt. It took years to build back. And once I returned in full force, I made the mistake of taking my previous losses personally. I didn’t want the great new things that I could have. What I wanted was the things I had lost back.0. That was a mistake. Sometimes what’s lost is lost and that’s ok. But it took me a few years to stop seeking redemption where I’d had loss and to instead explore the boundaries of what was available to me. All the great things that came in my life then were new things, not re-acquired old things. I had destroyed those things and holding their glued together fragments in my hands brought no satisfaction whatever.

Contact Info:

• Website: goldenrulebotanicals.com, PTOTrackDays.com
• Instagram: JRR_Tall_Can, GoldenRuleBotanicals_, and PTO.Track.Days
• Other: Best reached via Brandon@GoldenRuleBotanicals.com