Robert Kress Functional Pharmacist, Newburgh, MI (2025)

12/01/2025

Contemplate.

I like breaking it down as con-Temple – with the temple.
But the real question is: what is your temple?

For some, it’s a church.
For others, a prayer room, a puja corner, a meditation cushion.

I’m not a church-goer, but I’m highly spiritual.
Back in college, something big shook my life and dropped me straight into contemplation mode.

Many nights I would wander the streets in East Stroudsburg- to get away from the college "happenings" back in my apartment- to be alone, I’d end up at a small church.
No sermon. No mass. No production. I don't know if I even know what denomination it was or even cared.
Just an unlocked door and a quiet, empty space.

I’d sit there and, looking back, I realize:
that was my temple.
Away from the apartment, away from the noise,
it was the one place I could actually hear myself.

Over time I learned: to truly con-template,
you don’t need a church—
but you do need a temple.
A space within you, supported by the space around you.

So if you keep saying you don’t have time to sit, disconnect, and think…
maybe it’s not just a time issue.
Maybe it’s an environment issue.

These days, my temple is the woods.
It’s my front porch in the morning,
breathing in the quiet before the day starts. 🌲🕯️

Your temple might be a park bench,
a corner of your living room,
or the driver’s seat of your car before you walk into work.

Where is your temple—the place that lets you actually be with yourself and truly con-Temple?

and I just realized, after East Stroudsburg, I ended up going to Temple University, 🤯

The messages are always there

⸻

11/30/2025

We’re told to “have a vision” like it’s a GPS for the soul. 🧭

And it is powerful to know what you want to create—
to feel the future you’re calling in, to sketch the architecture of a life that actually fits. 🏔️

But here’s the quiet trap:

When the vision gets too sharp, it stops being a compass
and starts becoming a pair of blinders. 👁️‍🗨️

We script the “perfect” day.
The “perfect” launch.
The “perfect” version of who we’re supposed to be.

And while we’re busy chasing that polished future,
we walk right past the small, unpolished doors life keeps cracking open. 🚪

The offhand conversation you “don’t have time for.”
The client or project that doesn’t fit your brand deck—but lights something up in your chest. 🔥
The delay, the detour, the missed turn that forces you to grow a skill you didn’t know you needed.

There’s a strange intelligence in the way things show up.
Chance encounters.
Glitches in the schedule.
Opportunities that arrive slightly off-script, as if reality were nudging you with a half-smile:

“This way. Trust me.” 🌀

So yes—hold a clear vision.
Aim your life like an arrow. 🎯

But keep your eyes soft enough to notice the ravens on the power lines,
the “coincidence” that keeps repeating,
the invitation that doesn’t match your plan but hums with familiarity—
like a memory from the future. ✨

Because sometimes the step that doesn’t look like part of the plan
is the exact threshold you have to cross to live it.

Today, ask yourself:

👉 What opportunity is standing right in front of you, quietly knocking,
that you’d usually ignore—just because it wasn’t in your original storyboard? 🌱

⸻

11/29/2025

If I’d had these tools and this level of support 20 years ago, I’d be much further along — and I would’ve saved tens of thousands of dollars in trial and error.

This is the stuff I wish someone had handed me at the start.
It’s what I believe every pharmacist needs to know before they begin:
• how to think about which labs to order and when
• how to structure and name a high-value initial consult
• how to map a simple 90-day plan from “interested” → “actually seeing people”
• and how to do it with support, not in isolation

That’s why I created the Functional Pharmacy Launchpad.
It’s a focused, 30-day container to give you a real starting point and a real taste of what it’s like to work with me more deeply.

I put this out here to give you a strong launchpad…
but make no mistake — I genuinely hope you’ll see the benefits of working with me beyond this.

I’m in this work every day:
👥 with patients
🧬 with clients
💊 and with pharmacists like you, helping them grow real functional & lifestyle practices.

If you’ve been on the fence and you know you’re meant to be doing this work:

👉 DM me “LAUNCHPAD” and I’ll send you all the details.

Only 10 pharmacists.
Intentionally priced under $500.
Designed to move you from “I’ve been thinking about this for years…” to “I’m finally in.”

11/29/2025

Rethinking Purpose

On Thanksgiving night, I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole and landed on a special about Socrates. 🌀

Truth is, I haven’t really studied much of Socrates’ actual work.
The closest I’ve come over the years has been the character “Socrates” in Dan Millman’s book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior. 📚

But in this documentary, two simple ideas landed deep:

1️⃣ Question everything
2️⃣ Do what’s meaningful

That first one… question everything… yeah, that’s been me my whole life. 🤔
I’ve always questioned the “normal” way of doing things—often to the point where I wondered if I was just being contrary.

But when I heard those words, something clicked:
For the past year, I’ve been quietly reorienting my life and work around meaning.

Not “What should I do next?”
But: What feels truly meaningful and aligned right now?

And all I can tell you is this: it’s been the most rewarding year personally, emotionally, mentally, and financially—and it’s been a blessing to my nervous system. Truly medicine. 🌿🧠

You don’t have to have a perfect purpose statement.
You just need one honest moment of:
“This matters to me.” ✨

⸻

If you’re:

💊 A practitioner who wants more meaning and value in your work and life, or
🧔 A man who finds himself in a similar place, wanting more depth, direction, and grounded support…

…and you’re curious what it might look like to work together—

👉 DM me and I’ll answer any questions you have and see if we’re a good fit.

⸻

11/28/2025

Pharmacists: if you’ve been on the fence, this is for you.

You’ve taken the courses.
You’ve listened to the podcasts.
You know you want to do more with functional & lifestyle medicine…

…but you still haven’t really started.

A lot of the time it comes down to this:

“It’s a big investment. What if I’m not ready? What if it doesn’t move the needle?”

I get it. It is a big investment.

But rest assured—my programs are built to actually get you moving forward.
I’m in the work every day:
👥 with patients
🧬 with clients
💊 and with clinicians like you, helping them grow functional and lifestyle practices that are real, not theoretical.

That’s why I created the Functional Pharmacy Launchpad 👇

For 30 days, you’ll get a focused way to move from “interested” → actually doing the work:

🔹 Labs Don’t Lie (But They Don’t Tell the Whole Story)
What labs to order (serum, GI, hormone/adrenal), when they matter, and how I tie labs + story together in real practice.

🔹 Functional Visit Flow Starter Kit
How to structure + name your initial consult so it doesn’t just sound like “a visit,” but a high-value experience that naturally leads into coaching/programs.

🔹 90-Day Quickstart Map
A simple, realistic roadmap from “I want to do this” → “I’m actually seeing people.”

🔹 30 days inside my live calls & trainings
(usually $299) so you can watch the method in action.

🔹 One 60-minute 1:1 consult with me
(normally $350) to apply it directly to your cases, offers, and next steps.

Total value is around $1,650.
For this Black Friday experiment, it’s $497 (intentionally under $500).

🟠 Only 10 spots. Weekend only.
This exact bundle won’t be offered again—these trainings will live inside my higher-level programs going forward.

If you’ve been waiting for a smart, lower-risk way to step into this work and feel what it’s like to be in my ecosystem…

👉 DM me “LAUNCHPAD” and I’ll send you the details.

11/28/2025

You ever notice how the trees already figured this whole “healing” thing out—and didn’t bother to tell us?

Walk through the woods in the fall.
Some trees are still clinging to their leaves like,
“Nope. Not letting go yet.”

Others are naked already, totally unbothered.
Same weather. Same season.
Different nervous systems.

Some trees live low in the valley—
protected by hills, houses, softer winds.
Others?
They’re those wild pines up at tree line,
getting hammered by every storm
and somehow still standing there like ancient priests of “Bring it on.”

Now… imagine that’s you.

When you’re burnt out, anxious, inflamed, and hanging on by a thread,
you are not meant to be the tree on the mountain ridge.
And that’s not a moral failure.
That’s biology.

At first, you’re meant to be the protected tree:
• less chaos
• more nourishment
• fewer demands
• more roots

Food that stabilizes you.
Sleep that actually lands.
People who don’t drain your soul just by existing.

As that foundation comes back online, something shifts.
You start to tolerate a little wind.
A hard day doesn’t knock you flat.
A difficult text doesn’t define your worth.
A flare doesn’t mean you’re “back at square one.”

You’re not the stoic pine on the summit yet.
But you’re no longer getting uprooted by every breeze either.

And then—for some people, in their own time—
comes the mountain-tree phase:

The wind still howls.
Life still throws its weird plot twists.
But you bend without breaking.
You feel the hit…
and there’s this quiet part of you that just knows:

“I am rooted. I am not this storm.”

Here’s the Alan Watts / John Perry Barlow twist:
You’re not trying to become that tree.
You already are.
The blueprint is in you.
All we’re really doing is removing what’s in the way and feeding what’s true.

So maybe the question isn’t,
“Why am I not stronger?”

Maybe the real question is:
“What kind of tree am I right now… and what do my roots need today?”

Because healing isn’t about becoming someone else.
It’s remembering you were a forest the whole damn time. 🌲✨

----

11/28/2025

Do you remember this? 🏈🐕

Watching my dogs roughhouse in the yard today, kicking up leaves and joy like it’s their full-time job, something in me dropped back 45+ years.

I was suddenly that kid again—Thanksgiving in Jersey—
meeting up with my cousin Pat and the neighborhood crew.

We’d play backyard football until we were soaked in mud, grass-stained, maybe a bloody nose here and there…

then pile into Thanksgiving dinner like a pack of ravenous little mongrels. Dirty. Happy. Fully alive.

And here’s the thing:
that wasn’t just “fun.”

That was nervous system medicine.

On the drive to Kay’s today, I passed an apartment where a bunch of kids were playing soccer on the court.
A few blocks later, I watched a car pull up, a door swing open, and a gaggle of kids explode out of the house into the front yard—
laughing, chasing, tackling, totally in their bodies.

Their energy was going where it needed to go.
That’s regulation.
That’s resilience being built in real time.

Somewhere along the way, a lot of us men traded that in for “being responsible,”
for screens, schedules, and sitting still while our nervous systems quietly fray at the edges.

Here’s your reminder (from two happy dogs and a kid in Jersey):

it shouldn’t take a holiday to remember what roughhousing, play, and being outside does for us.
But if Thanksgiving jogs your memory—good. Let it.

This week, give your nervous system what it’s been craving:

Get outside.
Move.
Play.
Maybe even roughhouse a little.

Not just for the boys.
For the man you are now—and the boy who’s still in there, waiting to be let out to play. 🐶🌲🧠

11/27/2025

When the world stands still (a Thanksgiving note)

My first Thanksgiving away from family was 1995, in Jackson Hole, WY.

Little townhouse off Millward Street. Snow King to the south. The Tetons watching over the north and west like old stone elders. 🏔️

That morning I stepped outside with my chocolate lab, Hannah.
A fresh foot of snow. ❄️
Bluebird sky. 💙
Ice crystals hanging in the air. ✨

No phone. No rush. No pharmacy line. Just silence.
Just presence. 🕯️

At the time I was managing a busy retail pharmacy. I’d gone West looking for something the East wasn’t giving me:

💊 Less stress
💊 Less “prescription for the side effect of the prescription”
💊 More space to breathe

That Thanksgiving morning, standing in that field while Hannah dove nose-first into the snow 🐾, I felt two things at once:
A little lonely… and completely at peace.

Later that day, I went to a friend’s house— a bunch of other 20-something wanderers, all far from home, bonded by snowboarding, skiing, and the love of wild places.

Fast forward a few trips around the sun. ☀️

Today, I’m extra grateful I get to spend the day with some of my favorite humans. Kay is cooking an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. There’ll be laughter, mess, dishes, and that good kind of tired at the end of the night. 🧡🍽️

But here’s what I’ve learned since Jackson Hole:

Silence doesn’t have to be a whole day.

It can be:
🚗 Three breaths in your car before your shift
☕ A quiet sip of coffee before everyone wakes up
🚶‍♂️ A slow walk between obligations where you actually feel your feet on the ground

My Thanksgiving wish for you:
May you find one moment today where the world stands still—
no pushing, no forcing, no “catching up.”

Just gratitude. 🙏
Just presence. 🌿
Just you, exactly as you are.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends. 🦃
I’m grateful you’re here.

11/26/2025

Something switches internally when you know someone has your back.

You stand a little taller.
You take bolder steps.
You stop waiting to “be ready” and start moving with what you already have.

What actually switches on is:
✨ A sense of confidence
✨ A deep knowing that you can do this
✨ The feeling that whatever’s held you back doesn’t run the show anymore

Back in 2004, I opened my own nutritional + compounding pharmacy pretty much on a whim. No big team. No perfect plan. Just a sign that said “Nutritional Pharmacy,” a lot of self-study, and people I could call when I needed help.

I wasn’t doing it alone. And you don’t have to either.

If functional / lifestyle medicine is your lane, you bring the heart and the skills.

I bring:
🧭 20+ years in the real world
👀 Eyes on your cases, offers, and workflows
🤝 A structure and community you can lean on

Right now is last call for my 2025 pricing + 11% off with code ELEVEN on consulting, mentorship, and signature programs.

🔗 Details & options: link in bio
📱 Questions? Text me: 313-420-7564

11/26/2025

When I Finally Learned Not to Wait on My Supplements… 💊🌲

For years my pattern was the same:
push through overwhelm, skip the pauses, then wham — sore throat, foggy head, zero energy.

My old move?
Load up on immune supplements and try to out-muscle my nervous system.

I still use support — vitamin D, orthomune, all the good stuff —
but now I know: the real medicine is rest, silence, and space.

It’s not about “how fast can I get better?”
or “I don’t have time to be sick.”
That’s us being slaves to Chronos time — the clock, the boxes, the back-to-back obligations. ⏰

I’m learning to live more in Kairos time — and that's exactly what my training was this month for my implement, elevate and ascend, as well as my mythic man training -the right time, the moment that expands when I’m actually present.

One big tell for me? My markers.
If I look back and see I haven’t been getting into the woods like I am here, I know I’ve skipped my active disconnection.
This isn’t “exercise” for me. It’s silence. Regulation. A full-body downshift.

So now when I feel something coming on, I:
📲 Reschedule what I can
🛏️ Choose rest over hustle
🌲 Protect my markers

Supplements support.
But honoring time, space, and what my body is asking for?
That’s what actually heals. ❤️

⸻

11/26/2025

You are already perfect as you are.

In pharmacy we’re trained to live in the “next”:
👉 the next certification
👉 the next credential
👉 the next course, module, lab skill
👉 the next version of ourselves

We’re almost never present. We’re always seeking.

Honestly? That’s garbage.
A lot of what gets sold as “becoming your highest self” borders on psychospiritual babble.

You don’t need to become someone else.
You don’t need 10 more letters behind your name.
You are already enough as you are.

And from there… you can still grow.

What we’re seeing inside this work:

We’re seeing profound changes in the pharmacists who engage and do the work.

👩‍⚕️ One pharmacist, not even with me for a month, just sold her first $2,500 package.

👩‍⚕️ Another pharmacist is racking up consults even while she’s on vacation—and upselling those consults into programs.

This can be you.

Same profession. Same degree. The difference is they stopped holding themselves back and got support, structure, and a framework.

If functional / lifestyle medicine is your lane, you don’t just need more info.
You need a way to:

🔹 Integrate labs into the patient’s story
🔹 Build real offers and workflows
🔹 Have a coach + community while you implement

That’s what my 1:1 consulting, mentorship, and signature programs are built for.

Right now I’m running a Pre-Black Friday special:
Use code ELEVEN for 11% off:
– 1:1 consulting blocks (2025 pricing)
– Mentorship (2025 pricing, 2026 TBD)
– Beyond the Labs / Functional Pharmacy University + Grow & Content Vault
– Implement, Elevate & Ascend
– Signature Program Build Mentorship

If you’re feeling the nudge:
👉 Send me a DM with “CONSULTING”, “MENTORSHIP”, or “PROGRAMS” and I’ll point you to the best fit.

You don’t need to become a new version of you.
We just peel back a few layers and build from the pharmacist you already are.

11/24/2025

Sometimes life feels exactly like Jimmy Cliff’s “Sitting in Limbo.”

Jimmy Cliff passed on, he was truly one of the greats, when I heard I was in a state of intentional disconnect, and this song came to mind

Not forward. Not backward. Just… in between.

We’re taught that limbo is a problem to fix.
We push, hustle, force, manifest, will our way out of the in-between.

But what if limbo isn’t a defect in the system…
What if it is the medicine?

When Jimmy sings,

“have some time to search my soul, they’re putting up resistance, but I know my faith will lead me on,”

he’s pointing to the quiet space we’re usually trying to escape:

The pause where we finally hear what our soul has been whispering.

The resistance around us that clarifies what really matters.

The trust that something deeper is moving, even when life feels stalled.

Limbo can be holy ground.
The place where you’re not who you were… and not yet who you’re becoming.

You don’t always have to fix it, force it, or figure it out.
Sometimes your only job is to stay present in the “in between,” let life rearrange itself, and allow your faith to walk you forward when the next step appears.

If you’re “sitting in limbo” right now, maybe you’re not stuck.
Maybe you’re being given time to search your soul. 🌿✨

------

Robert Kress Functional Pharmacist

12/01/2025

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