Ever caught yourself pondering the inner workings of the fitness industry? How about the intricate balance of maintaining a clutter-free workspace while separating personal life from work? Join us for an intriguing conversation with our guest, Sam Siegel, where we explore these topics and more. We share our experiences with content creation setups, our passion for fitness, and the significance of a good workout routine. We also delve into our favorite sandbag training and its contribution to jujitsu skills.
As we navigate various intriguing topics, we touch on the complexities of family dynamics, the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship, and the importance of personal growth. During our discussion on fitness, we expose the harsh realities of body image in the fitness world. We also share insights into the challenges of online fitness coaching and stress the importance of authenticity.
Lastly, we get personal with Sam's stuttering experiences, how it has marked his life, and communication skills. An enthralling discourse ensues on personal growth, evolving skills, sobriety, and even the possibility of moving to new locations. You wouldn't want to miss out on this insightful episode packed with genuine conversations and personal experiences! Whether it's reflecting on family ties, exploring the possibility of a location change or discussing stuttering, it's a rollercoaster of topics with different twists and turns. Tune in and join the conversation.
Ever caught yourself pondering the inner workings of the fitness industry? How about the intricate balance of maintaining a clutter-free workspace while separating personal life from work? Join us for an intriguing conversation with our guest, Sam Siegel, where we explore these topics and more. We share our experiences with content creation setups, our passion for fitness, and the significance of a good workout routine. We also delve into our favorite sandbag training and its contribution to jujitsu skills.
As we navigate various intriguing topics, we touch on the complexities of family dynamics, the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship, and the importance of personal growth. During our discussion on fitness, we expose the harsh realities of body image in the fitness world. We also share insights into the challenges of online fitness coaching and stress the importance of authenticity.
Lastly, we get personal with Sam's stuttering experiences, how it has marked his life, and communication skills. An enthralling discourse ensues on personal growth, evolving skills, sobriety, and even the possibility of moving to new locations. You wouldn't want to miss out on this insightful episode packed with genuine conversations and personal experiences! Whether it's reflecting on family ties, exploring the possibility of a location change or discussing stuttering, it's a rollercoaster of topics with different twists and turns. Tune in and join the conversation.
So I used to have a microphone like that and the issue is then it's blocking half of my vision. It didn't do like the scissor arm underneath, kind of like the cool little mechanism that you got going on. So what would happen is I'd be talking to the guest but I'd have like half my vision blocked by the microphone. So I was just like it's so distracting just being able to look like that. So now this is the good one. It's a very good mic arm.
Speaker 1:My thing is I need to get the grommet, sort of like that, drilled out in the table. I need to get that to put in here, because this is kind of it's good, serves its purpose, but it's like weird. I don't like how it like encapsulates me. Yeah, I feel like I'm trapped. I don't like that. This is dope setup, yeah, and I appreciate you. It's. It's been. It's been years in the making. I mean it's this, all this stuff didn't just happen overnight. It's expensive shit, it's. It all serves a purpose for my content creation business slash, podcast slash, everything and it's. It's been a good time accumulating all of the gear and learning how to use it all and just writing down that I gave Mr Kenji his pill and put my phone on. Do not disturb.
Speaker 2:Well, dude, like I told you, you know like when I saw you on the side of the road yesterday fucking what 8am in the morning, yeah, I was like no.
Speaker 1:but dude, you and you and future wifey were coming back from OG.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, by the way, evan, a big, big dude like my, legs are so freaking sore, but that was good workout. Yes, it was very good.
Speaker 1:It was definitely a good workout, it's nice, you know. So like the Tuesday like that, I don't love. Okay, I don't love the Tuesday like that. I've read a lot of people said even Kim said it on the mic yesterday Tuesday like day is kind of like man. So Tyler and I usually take off on Tuesdays, right, but the Saturday ones I'm like hit or miss. So since I've been doing the jujitsu, since I've been doing this type of type of workouts, I've definitely neglected my legs. Yeah, because it's very hard to do jujitsu when your legs are super sore, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so today like work out and so on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I mean when you wrap your legs and you pull guard and you wrap your legs around somebody and you're fighting to keep your legs locked as they're fighting to pull, peel them off. Yeah, I mean, if you're already sore man, your butt cheeks are gone. Oh my, God.
Speaker 1:I can't clench anymore. It's over for me, but it was definitely a good workout. I've been trying to incorporate more of those. I really want to do sandbag training. So training is nuts, yeah, man. So Tom did shout to the homie Tom, tom does all of the crazy, crazy lifts and he does a lot of functional training and I've done sandbag stuff with him. But to get better at jujitsu, I almost want to just start doing more of that sandbag gritty, tossing it over the head, over the shoulder, dropping it down. You know, practicing the wrestling shoots like the drop knees, shoot ins. You don't do like five reps each side, then again go all the way back and forth, back and forth.
Speaker 2:But your grip strength is gonna be unbelievable. I've had that shit too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll be honest with you, my grip strength is pretty crazy right now.
Speaker 2:Forums are absolutely dude right now. Compliment you, but your forms are fucking bulging at your arms.
Speaker 1:No man, it's, it's. It's been quite the. Just seeing where, like the, the strengths of the training that I've done previously to now, it's kind of crazy to be able to see how, yeah, like the raw grip, the raw grip with no wrap, deadlifts that I was doing for years, how, like, I'll grab a G and I'm just like, wow, I'm just not letting go. It's gonna take a lot for you to get me to let go. I was, we were doing rounds a couple weeks ago and like one of the brown belts came over to me and I, just before I roll with everybody, I just say what's sore on? You talk to me like because I, you know, god forbid, I listen. Upper, upper belts especially. I don't expect to get these motherfuckers. I'm very humble when it comes to. I'm like, whatever man, I expect you and if I get them in a move, I look at them and I go you're gonna flip me at any second. Right, I'm just about to get thrown off off of you in two seconds.
Speaker 2:Is it the same as like a karate thing, where you just like work your way up in belts? Yeah, yeah, I've never, I've never, really, so it's like four.
Speaker 1:So so it's four stripes. I don't know if it's four stripes, I believe it's four strips each belt. So it's four stripes as a white belt and then, after your fourth stripe as a white belt, the next promotion is a blue belt blue, and then it's white, blue, purple, brown, black, okay, and then they have coral belts. But coral belts are, I think they're, they're black belts that were like for over 30 years, yeah. So it's like the great is the Gracie family. That's the only people that have the fucking goats yeah the goats of the Jiu Jitsu.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so the brown belt, we start doing rounds and he comes over to me and I and I I'm supposed to lock my guard up. So he's kneeling in front of me, I wrap my legs around him and I get my one grip in and he just looks to the dude to his left and he just goes oh dude, who let grip strength in here? He's like yo because, like I'm just, it's mainly what I have. So I have to play into my strength versus play into your weaknesses. I'll get better with the weaknesses as I go, but one of my strengths is just I'm gonna rip you down, I'm gonna break your posture down and do the best that I can and this and that it's pretty crazy. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't need no straps anymore.
Speaker 1:Now, man you know I gave up straps a long time ago I gave up straps, I gave up belts. Yeah, you know my my guy James down in Florida, the strength. He's like strength conditioning coach, but he's also the doctor that I worked with for nutrition when I was bodybuilding. He told me a long time ago when I first started work with him, the amount of people that he sees with curvatures of the spine. Oh, it's insane because they're just because they're just ranking years of just belt use for no reason, for no reason.
Speaker 2:I see it all the time. I'm like yeah, even though you were in a belt, you have shit form, like yeah your spine is gonna collapse at any second, right now. Well you're by.
Speaker 1:I watched these dudes not only at OG, but I watched these dudes at all the gyms I've seen. I've been to every gym and these dudes will just like crank down a belt and they'll go and do shrugs, or they'll crank down a belt and do bench press. I'm like, bro, reason for it, bro, what are you doing? Like your body has to learn how to brace against your own core. You can't just like expect this piece of leather to just be there at all times for your stomach to push against and give you a little bit more support. Just doesn't work like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, if you're not able to lift up a set of dumbbells without a belt, chances are the weights a little bit too heavy for you. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's insane, bro. Like every time I see it I'm like what the fuck you're doing? It's a man like the fitness industry nowadays, like you see a lot of fucking bullshit out there you see a lot of bull.
Speaker 1:You've always, we've always seen a lot of bullshit. I feel like you see a lot of bullshit, more so now because of the spread of information. It's so vast, I mean, it's so easy to just see everyone's an online coach.
Speaker 2:Now, everyone's an online coach.
Speaker 1:Well, every every year you're in the game a little later now. I remember later, yes, I remember when I was doing, when I was competing, there would be a. There would be a dude who barely competed once and he'd start giving fitness advice. He'd start, he would just start oh, I'm selling my program, I'm selling this, I'm selling that. It's like bro, what, what are you selling?
Speaker 2:You got to have years of experience and a lot of other people dog.
Speaker 1:You got 14th yes, out of 15. You got 14th out of 15. And all of a sudden you're a coach yeah, your, your, your ability to coach somebody else. And then what drives me mad about stuff like that is not only is it scary that they're going to give advice to other people, not only on the nutritional side, on the strength training side, where they really have no business giving any of that advice zero. And you have to come from a different side of it sometimes, because everybody starts somewhere. Every top coach started with no clients. Every top you know person had no research that back them at some point. So it takes time to to get all of these accolades and all of this knowledge under your belt. So I get it.
Speaker 1:But it's like, bro, you got 14, let's say, you got 14th out of 15th place at a local show wasn't even a national show, local show 14th out of 15th. And you're going to start telling people how to do all these things and you're going to tell them how to take steroids. You have no fucking right to give any information on steroid use. Doctors barely have any, any ability to really give advice on steroids. They don't even know the compounds and what it is. There's a very select few that actually study compounds and understand what test trend all these crazy drugs in the long run. Now I think test is good for kind of going on a rant, but I think I think test is. I think test is good for people that are like listen, I'm 32 years old, my test levels are about 550 to 600. They fluctuate every time I do my blood work.
Speaker 2:That's about average.
Speaker 1:I mean my guy down in Florida. He's an actual, I mean he's a doctor, he. He studied this shit, he knows what he's talking about. He said he'd like to get my levels up to 800 at some point. But we had to fix my high iron levels first because the test is going to increase the coagulation or the thickness of the blood Right.
Speaker 2:I think coagulation was the first. That's why you're eating the way you are right now, in order to increase that a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you know what I? I? It's funny because I donated blood and I felt better instantly and then mentally I felt sharper again. I just felt good. And then I stopped eating a lot of red meat because I was too nervous. I was like, oh, maybe that was really what it was and it's like no, you just have to. You keep eating your red meat, you keep doing your thing, but you have to just understand that you're going to have to donate blood more frequently.
Speaker 2:I see I see a lot of people out there that do like an animal based and they're having red meat essentially with every single meal. Yeah, and like I'm not going to lie to you, I tried that for like a month just to see like what the hype was about, and I had to get my blood work done because I was having a lot of like random dizzy spells, like I would be either laying down the couch, right, you know, for a little while and I would get up and I'll just be like Whoa and like I'll kind of take. I would honestly kind of kind of have to take a step back a little bit. So I started to incorporate a little bit less. Like I will still have my red meats, like I freaking love red meat, but I will not have it every single meal like how I used to. And you know I was a victim of I wouldn't even say like a victim. I was just trying something new that I saw and I was like I have no idea how people do this.
Speaker 1:I think it's good to experiment. Yeah, as long as it's not drug related, I think it's good to experiment and try different things. Yeah, there's a lot of people that try veganism because they primarily they do it for the, the animal abuse and you know that type of stuff. It's like just buy your, just buy the meat from a humane ranch or farm. You know, don't buy it from Costco. You know where they beat the shit out of the cows and then they kill them. It's like, or you know, I'm saying like that's lower quality meat. There's tears to this shit, just like tears of cars, just like everything. There's levels. So it's like you know you're going to spend more for it to be done regeneratively and have a farm that actually takes care of the animals, does everything properly, make sure that they're outside and safe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like there's too many levels to it. Also, it's like there should be, oh yeah, one or two types of meat that you're getting. And that's it. Like there's so many different, different fucking levels.
Speaker 1:There should be grass fed and grain finished. Yes, or there should be grass fed, grass finished. That's it, there's really no other.
Speaker 1:There's no other reason, but, but. But. The issue is there's a lot of loopholes through governments. There's a lot of loopholes through, you know, all these large corporations that get tax write offs and benefits and exactly pocketed all this type of type of money. And I don't even know the fucking beginning of it. I really don't. I know that this is what's going on because it's very apparent, but I don't even know where it starts. Like, what's the head? Where's the head of the snake? That's the question that you start to ask yourself. And it gets crazy because you know, you're, you're, you're thinking about what they're doing and and and pumping these animals. I mean I, white oak pastures is another all natural ranch and farm that does a lot of good, not out east, I don't know where they are actually, but they put up a video about a Tyson chicken rep coming out and saying like, oh yeah, free range, they only have to be outside for like 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's exactly what I was going to say. I think like the qualifications for it to be classified as something are not as big as we think, like I think in order for a plate, like for some meats, I think, in order for them to be like a grass fed beef or something like that, I just think there has to be like a patch of grass around them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's basically it. Well, the same thing with the chickens there. I've said this before there are far too many eggs there's no reason for there to be that many eggs. There's no reason for there to be regular eggs, jumbo eggs, brown eggs, white eggs, organic eggs, that's just it. There's just organic, then there's organic pasture raised, then there's organic free range and there's regular free range, regular pasture raised not be a box of eggs.
Speaker 2:It's 99 cents and then a carton of eggs at 699. Wow, you must have found a deal. I've. You must have found a deal.
Speaker 1:They're like $9 for the pasture raised organic.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, $910.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, bro, that's. Crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's not, it's not like, but like. There should not be so many levels to it. There should not like. There should not be so many clarifications of what the fucking egg is. You know what I'm saying? It's insane.
Speaker 1:Let me see Farm tours. Here you go. White Oak Pastures is the farm that I was talking about, just trying to find an address. They're just. They're giving me their life story. I don't know where they are.
Speaker 2:I'm also.
Speaker 1:I'm also very oh Georgia 101 Church Street, bluffton, georgia.
Speaker 2:That is not, at least that is not out of town.
Speaker 1:Down south is not. I buy, I buy from. I haven't bought from them yet I buy from. What is the name of that farm? It's regenerative farm. It is forced in nature. They're in Texas. Okay, so I buy from them. They have really good bison. They've really good bees yeah, it's really good. They got bison rib eyes. They're. They're fucking delicious. So good for you to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is man, you know there's a study that just came out recently that said that animal protein and meat has cancer blocking properties because of a certain amino acid or fat profile in it. I mean you start to see all this research and you start to see people that switch from going to veganism. Like I was saying earlier, there's a lot of people that go to veganism because they have the abuse of the animals. But then a year or two years in, you know, you start listening to guys like Dave Asprey, you start listening to guys like Mark Hyman Dr Mark Hyman pharmacy podcast really good podcast that I listen to often. You start listening to them talk about what, what happens to your health as you do that type of a diet.
Speaker 2:It's also not like a sustainable lifestyle, in my opinion. I mean, I find that keto is not really sustainable.
Speaker 1:I find, I find that you know veganism, all these extremes. I mean, the only person that I think I've seen continue on the journey of the diet that they've set out for is Jordan Peterson's daughter. Yes, yeah, so she does a lion diet. So, jordan Pearson, what a fucking guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Jordan Peterson is the homie Super smart. He's got to be emotional at times too, Listening to a shit.
Speaker 1:Super smart, super deep, nosy shit. Very didn't enjoy his book. Didn't like the book. I did the audio book.
Speaker 2:Again to reading. I've already booked it, I don't even know how long.
Speaker 1:I buy, I keep my. My issue is I keep fucking buying books and then I just don't even get to finish it. I see a book online on Amazon like oh, it's on sale. This is great. It's like, bro, you haven't read the 50 other books that you have sitting in your bedroom.
Speaker 2:I buy a lot of entrepreneurial books that I really got to open. I haven't really opened them, but yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, jordan Pearson, what a guy.
Speaker 1:His daughter, his daughter Mikaela. She had horrible rheumatoid arthritis, horrible Like it was debilitating. She had a ton of issues. Was her diet lion diet? She's sweet, that's what she. That's what she calls the diet. It's called the lion diet. I have to look up exactly what it is, because it's different than carnivore. I think she just actually just eats like a stakes. That's all she eats. Yeah, cured her, cured her rheumatoid arthritis cured. There's something that goes to say for something that when you see something like that, it's insane.
Speaker 2:Isn't it insane how it died. I could curse a bro I have, um, it's actually funny. We're talking about, like doctors and everything. I have the utmost amount of respect for people, right, like you know medical field, right. Whatever it is the amount of people that I have been told who have had doctors Tell them say, hey, like I've had arthritis for a little bit, doctor will tell them to stop exercising. I'm like what the fuck? Yeah, I'm like. I'm like, I'm like you can actually improve your condition by exercising, but if you stop exercising it's gonna make it worse because, like, what are you doing, you know? Like to strengthen the areas, bro, like there there's so much now you start having the areas regress around.
Speaker 1:Not only you having an issue with the first part. But now you're the muscle tissue that you've worked hard to. You know, let's say it's a knee. You know, now the muscle tissue around the knee is gonna start regressing and having issues and like you need.
Speaker 2:You need to Strength train in some sort of way to cure these things. And the amount of doctors I hear say, oh, like you're not allowed to do, like what the fuck what did I go for?
Speaker 1:I went for I Went for a hamstring injury. I went to a doctor for a hamstring injury years ago. Yeah, it was like so off I just got an insurance again. Like I didn't have health insurance for like four or five years.
Speaker 1:I have a story that they tell me this but I just remember it, I just I just got, I just got health insurance and I wound up. I was having an issue. Every time I did like a lying leg curl, I would get like almost like a sharp pinching pain in the back of my leg not my knee, but it was like the hamstring and I've always had it. But it was getting worse. I was like what is going on with this and I you know, I they take x-rays which let's, let's be honest x-rays I'm gonna do shit.
Speaker 2:I need to see the tissue right, I know we need to see the issue, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:but because of how the insurance companies work and the doctors work, they said no, no, no, we have to do x-rays first, then, after we send you to, potentially to a PT, then maybe we'll be able to Prescribe to go get an MRI. I'm like, wow, healthcare systems fucking ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then you're paying like 900 bucks for both the extra day, it's really hot things. Yeah, it's insane.
Speaker 1:Oh, whole fucking spiel. I don't and I know. All I knew was the MRI to tell me hey.
Speaker 2:They happen to me a couple years.
Speaker 1:You don't have a tear, you're good, don't worry about it. I think it's just a weird little thing you got going on any paying $2,000 on top.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, I'm getting fist fucked.
Speaker 1:It's great, great time. So anyway, so the doctor, he, we do the x-rays and I come in. He comes in. He's just like first off fat dude comes in. Like wow, already lost all credibility with me, bro, like.
Speaker 2:There should be a test that they have to do.
Speaker 1:Every there should be a test for cops. I love I have a lot of friends that are law enforcement and Most all my friends that are law enforcement are in good, really good shape. Yes, yeah, all my friends that are law enforcement are really good shape. But I the amount of out of shape, fat cops that I see Y'all need to like. Get it under control.
Speaker 2:How are you someone down?
Speaker 1:How now you're how you expected to chase somebody down? How are you expected to overpower a criminal? Nope, if they're gonna fight back, cuz you know they're gonna fight back, yeah. So how are you expected to overpower a criminal if you can't even grab somebody and and and put a little force behind it to have it's. It's insane, and and then you want, but then we wind up going narrow on cops.
Speaker 1:Then you wind up going to more lethal techniques because you couldn't control somebody with it without any of those. Now You're resorting to the next level of what I have to do to like Before we get to a gun, right, so it's fucking crazy. Same thing with doctors. You lose all credibility with me if you're a cardiologist and you're fat, it's like. So you're gonna tell me not to eat that right. You're gonna tell me fat is bad, right? What have you been eating If you're?
Speaker 1:gonna if you're not eating fat, what are you eating? Cuz, buddy, buddy, you are out of shape. Yeah, like I don't know, if you just don't.
Speaker 2:I'm like, listen to you what I'm in good shape and you know you're not like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's, it's absurd. So he comes in, he's fat, I'm like whatever, I'm already, I'm already just like okay, and he just goes. So, like you wrote down that you have a pinching sense, a sensation, does it happen all the time? And I said no, it's just when I do a lying down leg curl. Yeah, I said probably when I get about 140 pounds, it starts to, it starts to pinch. He goes. I got a solution for you. I said, what's that? He goes, stay under a hundred pounds on the leg curl and you won't have that problem. I go. That's not fixing the problem.
Speaker 2:That is telling me to just stop doing this is why I took an hour out of my day To come see.
Speaker 1:Yeah it was ridiculous, bro. I was like wow, dude, this is crazy. I said I can't wait to never come back here again. Yeah, that is insane. That just tell me. Hey, you know what, if it hurts at 140, just do it at 100. It's like that's not an answer, that's more more so, just like a cop out.
Speaker 2:I went to get my blood worked, like a little over a month ago. I want to say and it was because of the reason I told you I had just gotten off of you know, like animal-based right. So I, I I go to get my blood work done. And she asked me if I take any you know, like PD's or anything like that, you know supplements and stuff like that. I'm like no, the only thing that I take Is creatine. And she thought she thought that creatine was a pre-workout supplement and I Kind of just like Like I looked at her, I was like is not a pre-workout supplement and everything that she said after that I completely Discret hey, you just came, but I can't believe anything you say you get creatine naturally from certain foods.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, like it is not a pre-workout, yeah my mom I mean, it's my mom insane.
Speaker 1:It's my mom. My mom's not a doctor, but my mom's my mom's in the real estate industry and entertainment industry for movies. So it's like, yeah, she used to think that creatine was a steroid, like she. But but that's the spin that people, people put on things.
Speaker 2:I think back when you can take a pre-workout if you want to, but it was the dude that killed his family?
Speaker 1:the wrestler. What was his name? Chris Benoit. Is that Chris Benoit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so I think it was Chris Benoit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know they, they make it see. Oh, he was like a fitness addict and he was on create. I remember they were saying he was on creatine and all these different types of stuff.
Speaker 1:It's a natural research supplement but this back and this is like I don't even know when. He died years, because I think he killed himself After he killed his family. Yeah, but he, chris Benoit, he died in 07. Yeah, so I mean this is when the, the sports and and and health market was just starting to boom. I mean I remember going to buy supplements after school because I thought I needed an inch or workout, intra workout carb and I thought I need all this shit. I'd read the magazines. I'd be like yo bro, muscle, take halo, bro, this shit's gonna be that, this I'm gonna pack on the size.
Speaker 1:So it's like you hear these stories and you hear these things. Or our parents at the time hear these things and they have no education To back it, they have no research, they just hear it. And I, this is a problem back in 2000, I think. Nowadays people are more skeptical of everything that they hear, mm-hmm. But they hear it and they just go, oh shit, okay, like that's a steroid and yeah. Then you hear your son wants to take creatine. You're like, well, that that was what Chris Benoit was on and he went crazy and he killed his family. It's like, no man, that's not how it goes and, and, and and again.
Speaker 2:This was this was. You know, like the PA that I had, she was like maybe 50, 60 pounds over way to and I'm not. I'm not, I'm not trying like shit on her, but like after she told me that I was like why would I listen to you?
Speaker 1:I gotta be honest with you. I'm tired. I'm tired of hearing like fat shaming. I'm tired of hearing all these different terminologies. I really am.
Speaker 2:I'm really tired of it because you know, it's like you have to be so careful what you say now.
Speaker 1:I know you do and I'm so tired of hearing it, especially online, man, because you know what man? I was fucking fat, and I was fat because of my, my father.
Speaker 2:I was two back in the day.
Speaker 1:I was fat because my father and I was fat because of my lack of energy and exercise ability. I didn't know what to do. I would just plug my face and guess what? I was unhappy. I don't truly believe that people that are overweight are actually Genuinely okay with it, like when there are people that say I'm cool with just being heavy. I'm cool like, oh yeah, love, I love my big body.
Speaker 2:It's like no, no, no deep down, deep down, there hurt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, deep down, because I remember, I remember I was miserable, miserable man. Girls wouldn't look at me. I just I felt fucked up, like I just everything hurt. I was. Everything felt like it, everything felt like an exhausting task. Just to like walk and do things and this and that, like you know, I wasn't 900 pounds, but yeah, but being in 10th grade and 270. I mean that's big bro, that's fucking big. So it's like I'm tired of people just like going oh, you're fat-shaming if you say this or that. No, no, no. Like if you're 40 in real, if you're 40 to 50 pounds overweight and you work in the medical field or you work in an exercise Science-based field.
Speaker 2:I don't have. No, I have.
Speaker 1:I have no respect for anything that you say, because you Are. I'm practicing what you're preaching. If you're gonna tell me to do XYZ, I don't believe you, because if you're doing that, I don't want to have those same results.
Speaker 2:I'm a firm and you know this kind of goes into like the fitness industry too. I'm a firm, you're like believer as a whole that if you are a coach whether it's in person, online, right Like, whatever it is you should be a person that someone wants to look like. Yeah, I truly like and and, and you know it's like. It's like you hear all these people nowadays like, oh, like it. You know it all comes down to like how happy you are, right like, you want to look good, right, like, but you know like you want to feel good for yourself. It's like no like. If you are giving somebody fitness advice, you should be a person that they are striving to be like, and if you're not get the fuck off Instagram giving advice, yep, I'm a huge like, very and, and I'm not I'm not as vocal about it, but it's just like you know, obviously, right like. This is a space that you know you and I have now where it's like this is a safe space.
Speaker 1:Exactly it's a very safe space to, safe space for, for being real. Exactly, there's a safe space for it.
Speaker 2:But if you're a coach, fucking look like one. And if you want to be a coach, right, but you don't necessarily look the part right now, get yourself in a shape, document your story and then be a coach. But you have to know like what the fuck you're talking about too, you know. So that is, that is where I stand on that, and it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a huge thing. Now I see it's like all over social media oh, this is my transformation. That I did in two or three months and I'm like you did not do that in two or three months. Stop trying to reel people into your community because you're doing that and quote unquote right, two to three months. It's like no, be fucking real with yourself. If that took you over a year, say it. You know it's okay, so it's. You know there's just like a lot of bullshit out there, man.
Speaker 1:So I don't have you seen that dude goob. It calls people out for like faking their yeah, I didn't realize he follows me. Yeah, I've realized he follows me.
Speaker 2:No, I have super dope. I love these. Does that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that he exposes people like that.
Speaker 2:And and also it's like. It's like as, as you know, like as a coach I am not afraid to admit I am not the most jacked or, you know, shredded person. You know like that you'll ever see, but I have a story that I've gone through that I know how to document and I know how to get people to where they want to be. It's like you don't have to be absolutely, you know, like Absolutely, you know shredded out of your mind, right, but like you have to at least like know what the fuck you're talking about, or be on some sort of journey in order to get to when you want to be. Well, that's just kind of way I see it.
Speaker 1:I believe what it comes down to is you're a walking business card, yeah, especially when you're in a fitness base. Exactly, you're a walking fucking business, especially how everything's online nowadays.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, your appearance is what people are gonna see and that's what's gonna decide whether they're gonna work with you or not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, not only is it gonna be. I think there's a lot of people that overlooked that, unfortunately, because me personally, if I ever hired a coach, they better be Damn well light years ahead of me, because that's where I want to be and that's where you want to learn from.
Speaker 1:I want to. I want to be like. I want to be like damn, I had you develop your quads like that, how did you don't yet rounded shoulders like that. That's why John Meadows was such a mentor to me. Like I looked at John and now, granted, I knew he was on steroids and I knew I wasn't taking anything. Yeah, so I knew they're Fucking Kenji howling right, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you good. So I knew that there were things that he was going to accomplish. Whether he was 30 years into his lifting career and I was 10, it didn't matter. Like there was just certain things that my body was not gonna be able to Do, but I could still tailor the training style and those ways to evolve exactly tailor the information that he was giving to me For me and for the people that were training with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not training like professionally, like you guys you know you do, but training like I had training partners over the years. Yeah, people that just went like, no, nick, you go hard in the gym or we do this, we do that. I would love to just train with you regularly. Yeah, and people you know that you have training partners for a couple of months, maybe a year or so, and then they fall off, whatever it is. But it's cool that we you know, most of the people that I, most of the people I train with, weren't ever on shit. I'm trying to think I Would say about 80 to 80 to 90 percent of the people that I've trained with over the years. They weren't on any type of PED.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was cool because we all grew together, like my boy, my boy, ped Boy. Ped is a fucking freak. I mean, he's a young kid. He started training with me when he was like 20 something years old yeah, young kid and I mean Matching me on a lot of lifts. After six, seven months of lifting with me, I mean we were both throwing up the 130s on shoulder presses 140s. I'm looking at him. I'm like holy shit, this fucking kid is like some serious year up, four years younger than me and he's out here just dog it's doing 280 pounds over his shoulder, like.
Speaker 1:And I'm just sitting here like oh, this took me a long time to get to this point, I'm like goddamn more, more.
Speaker 1:I mean, we're benching, were rowing heavy, deadlifting 500 it was. It was. It was fucking crazy and it was fun. Man, it was always cool that I was able to get like people like that. He's fucking, he's behind you shaking his ass and having a tantrum. You know it's funny. I talked to Vinny because Vinny's on his weight loss journey for for the wedding and just in general and one of the things that I told him. I said listen, man, you're, you know you are gonna get married. This is the same thing I'm telling you and you know this yeah, you're gonna get married, you're gonna be a father one day. No, like, be the example, bro, you the example be the fucking example, the man don't, don't, don't be the soft dad bod.
Speaker 1:It's like I got. I got friends that have you know. I know he listens to the podcast, so does his girl. I love you guys. You know that I'm not gonna give names because they already know who they are. But his girl got pregnant and like he gained a ton of weight and he's hits me up all the time. He's like yo, nick, what do you think of this? Or what do you do for this? We're gonna do it. My dog, you just got, you just got to go to the gym. Stop, I said, and then he'll post it. He'll post that. He's out the dinner with her. I'll be like bro, you know I gotta give you tough love son. Like, have you been on point with your diet, are you it? Oh, well, you know what she wanted to go eat and this and that I'm like bro, I'm like dog, you can't.
Speaker 1:You can't just eat because your girl's eating because she's pregnant, it's.
Speaker 2:Two is like six to twelve months of like Dedication towards it and then, yeah, like you learn how to maintain that, obviously right, but you know, it's, uh, that's, it's. It's. It's actually funny because if there's ever someone like who wants to work with me, right, I, I usually I would say most of my clients are between like 25 and like 45, I would say Like, a lot of times the reason why they come on board is because I say, hey, be the example, and that's like the line, that's like you know, yeah, you're fucking right, like I, I Need to be the example for you're like my kids, right, you know my future family the fat dad.
Speaker 1:Is that what you want to be? You want to be the fat out of shape dad. We're all the parents, like all the fucking other kids, and I want to be when I have kids one day.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna have you played sports when you were younger and you actually, like, looked into the stands and saw a dad that was in like decent shape, very rare, not a lot, right, it's not?
Speaker 1:a lot. It's, it's, it's. What I'm saying is like I want to. I want to be looked at as like the Superman of the block. I want to be.
Speaker 2:I want to be looked at the. I want to be looked at the psycho like same way.
Speaker 1:Do you see so-and-so's dad like in the garage at 7 am Doing sandbag tosses and training for Jiu-Jitsu at Like? Bro, I'm training for war. The war that's never gonna come, I'm training for it.
Speaker 2:I'm ready to go just fucking out there like pitch dark, so I don't even rise again, dog.
Speaker 1:I'm doing walking lunges down the whole block. I'm, I'm, I'm tossing the. I'm tossing trash bags to the garbage truck as it's going by over my, over my shoulder.
Speaker 2:I've always I've always like wanted to be that dad eventually who like takes their 13 year old son of the gym with him at like 5 6 am In the morning, like that. Like that is what I want to implement in him. It's like it's like I also just feel like If you are in shape and you walk into a room, there's like an immediate Respect factor there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there is like there's no doubt about it, right, and yeah, well, because people recognize and I've heard this before, but people recognize that the hard work is being put in, that this is somebody that's disciplined. Yeah, this is somebody that takes care of themselves, because not only to just attractive to people. It's attractive people and it's and it's intimidating to a lot.
Speaker 1:It's very intimidating because not only do you have to hold yourself accountable on a daily basis, but you have to get your nutrition right. You have to get your exercise right. Yeah, and there's no. You know you can slack sometimes, but the slacking to work ratio, the work ratio is always way higher A lot of people, a lot of people say 80, 20.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of more like in 90, 10.
Speaker 1:You know, this past week I need to take off. Yeah, it's fine, that's needed. You too much? I definitely ate too much. This with this past week, okay, but once you get back, oh, yeah, no, I know this, but I know this and I I know what I have to do. It's like I just I ate food, I ate too much fat, like I ate too much. I bought almond butter like I was going through the almond butter like fucking syrup, like it was that it was.
Speaker 1:I just ate their peanut butter, that's why I can't have it in the house. I bought peanut butter cups. Yesterday at at Uncle Giuseppi's slamming, I brought peanut butter, hello Kenji, hi fathead, hello you love Sam. Yeah, I bought healthy peanut butter cups because I was like all just put in the ninja creamy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I make my protein ice cream and shit like that. I think you're the thing. Oh, my game changer. And I was like I'll just put in the ninja creamy and call it a day and this and that. And then last night I was fasting after the meal with Kyler, yeah, and I start walking into my bedroom To go to sleep and I was like I'm the peanut butter. I was like those peanut butter cups are in there, aren't you like fuck? And I walked over and I had a little bit of sea salt chocolate that was in there still and I went I'm about to fucking binge a little bit and I had the sea salt chocolate. I had a handful of the healthy M&M's.
Speaker 2:I'm the only Saturday night. Sometimes is needed.
Speaker 1:You know what man I was like I've been, I've been so on and I've just been. My body's been taken a beating. My body's been taken a beating just from everything. And this past week I just I didn't feel like training. I went to OG. I went to OG on like it was like a Wednesday yeah, no, it was Thursday, it was the back, it was the pull day. I went there. I'm not joking with you, I just I know you've been. I just wasn't in the mood. I just wasn't in the mood to train. I got there, I started doing, I started doing the face pulls. I was like, all right, it was 11 minute station. I started doing the face pull for five minutes, five and a half minutes, All right. And then I switched my partner, who was actually Tyler's cousin. I switched my partner and she goes to the face pulls and I go to the bent over row with a T bar.
Speaker 1:And I do that, and then afterwards I just look at her and I'm just like, yeah, I'm dipping after the station, I'm over it.
Speaker 2:She's like, really, I was like, yeah, I'm low key, happy I didn't have a partner yesterday. I was kind of able to just kind of do my thing.
Speaker 1:Did Erin train with you.
Speaker 2:She, yes, but she was next to me and she didn't have a partner.
Speaker 1:Oh nice, so you just got to just chill out and do your thing, Yep yep, I was.
Speaker 2:I was, I had to rest out to some sets. I was like, yeah, like if I had a partner right now.
Speaker 1:So that's the thing, the thing that. So the thing that with like the OG and the hit workouts and all the stuff that you guys do with Vinny ISI and orange theory but orange theory is mostly cardio based- it's like half and half, but it's mostly cardio.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:I've never taken an orange theory. I see that it's mostly the more, the more so.
Speaker 2:I've been there now five years now, on like a part time basis, obviously, but like, the more I coached there, the more I realized, like it's a workout you go into and I'm not bashing it by any means, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's it's it's bashing.
Speaker 1:You wouldn't work there. You would hate you. It's a great.
Speaker 2:It's a great place for people to build, like you know, like an overall community and like a solid foundation, and look I'm right. Yes, but at some point you really tend to plateau after a little bit, because it's not a place where you really go for true strength training.
Speaker 2:And if you're doing too much cardio, all of the weight that you're losing is going to turn into skinny fat, like I'm always a believer that you have to do orange theory. If you're going to do orange theory, of course you have to do orange theory. And another thing on the side, as far as just like a strength training, in order to really see the progress.
Speaker 1:To reap the benefits of what it is, exactly, exactly, yeah, I mean. That's why I try to switch it up. I try to do a lot of different things. I just signed up for a yoga spot doing a little yoga. It's an actual yoga phenomenon.
Speaker 2:You will feel like a million bucks after it too, especially if it's like hot yoga. Yeah, you'll feel a million bucks.
Speaker 1:After it, you do hot yoga there. They did Yin yoga, which is nice because it's a lot of hold. Yeah, holding the position. It's almost like the Pliability app, a lot of purpose.
Speaker 1:You hold the positions long, a lot of core. Yeah, we've held the pigeon pose for like four or five minutes. It was nice, man. It's good. It helps me because I get beat up, man, for Jiu, jitsu and stuff like that. You need to recover properly. Yeah, man, the comp class that I'm going to take a 10. It's a fucking heater bro. It's a badass class.
Speaker 2:Dude, you look fucking phenomenal. Thank you man, honestly, man, I kind of want to say to you, I remember being on my couch 2020, where I was maybe a month away from going south and we just kind of looked at each other. We were like where the fuck is life going to take us from here?
Speaker 1:Bro, I told you yesterday I still don't know. I have no idea. The evolution we both had, man it's like it's really fucking fun, it's crazy how it works out, man, it's crazy how just life kind of just puts the tiles in front of you and you just got to step on them.
Speaker 2:Surround yourself with the people that you need to be surrounded by, too, in order to grow.
Speaker 1:You have to make sure that you don't get caught up with being surrounded by wrong people, because that happens a lot. There's a lot of people.
Speaker 2:I have cut out many people from out. I wouldn't even say cut out, it's just like you just naturally drift right. But I definitely don't make that much of an effort toward people that did not serve me in the past anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's extremely important for people to know that too. And so it's funny because I have this debate with somebody that you know. Okay, I know you know who I'm talking about. Yes, I have this debate with him constantly because he gets irritated and upset when people may not may necessarily not want to fuck with him anymore, like they just don't want to be around him, and I have to constantly reiterate his version of the argument is well, I guess I see loyalty differently and I go they don't want to be around you.
Speaker 1:Why would you want to be around them? Exactly, this is what I'm saying. It's like he thinks of it as like a loyalty issue. I have to explain that it's not Loyalty doesn't exist. It barely exists anymore. But it's not even that it doesn't exist. Like I'm loyal to my homies, we keep it real with each other. I got their backs. There is loyalty that does exist.
Speaker 2:But there shouldn't have to be a loyalty though, because they're your boys.
Speaker 1:Exactly, but what it comes down to is it's not necessarily a loyalty thing, it's a if I hang out with somebody for if I'm, I've cut out friends that I've been friends with for fucking 10, 15 years if I hang out with somebody, all the time and the time that we spend together starts to become painful, liability, irritating A liability because they can't watch their fucking mouth, annoying, stressful. I just don't want to be around you anymore. This has nothing. Now it doesn't matter how long we've been friends. There's like a fake, there's like a fake title that this individual believes and I love him. I do.
Speaker 1:You know, no one's perfect. I'm not fucking perfect, he. We're not perfect. He's not perfect. We're all far from perfect, but you know, it's a matter of understanding the quirks that everybody has, and if people don't want to be around somebody that has those quirks, or doesn't want to interact with them on a daily basis, you, as that person, have to accept that, or you have to understand that maybe the things that I'm doing, or maybe the way that I act, they don't want to be around me for some reason. Like it's truly as simple as that. The issue, though, is like it's almost like an excuse thing, like oh well, because we've been friends for X amount of years, we should just be friends forever. It's like doesn't matter, it doesn't work like that.
Speaker 2:Just because you dated someone for a certain amount of time, you're going to remain friends with them at late.
Speaker 1:Exactly the fucking thing. That's exactly the point that I gave him. I was like Joe just because I dated a girl for five years or four years, it doesn't mean that, oh what, be friends, that's it. But once we don't like each other anymore, it's like oh well, we've already been friends, we've already been dating for four years.
Speaker 2:Let's just hang out. Let's just hang out, let's just keep it going.
Speaker 1:It's like no, bro, I want nothing to do with you. Go enjoy and ruin someone else's life.
Speaker 2:I have more respect if someone comes to me and says, hey, we're not on the same wavelength right now.
Speaker 1:Well, now, that's the issue because the people that the people don't say that to him. They kind of just fucking go like, like he's, like he's a side chick, you know what I'm saying? Like they go stem, they do all this fucked up shit, like I got no problem. I'll tell you exactly how it is If I'm given the opportunity. There's been plenty of friends where I just been like, hey man, I'm good on this. Like we're not, we don't fuck with each other, no more. It's cool, it's fine. Best of luck in the future. Don't worry about it. You don't have to hit me up anymore. I just I find that there's just these fake titles that people and people just hold on for far too long. It's like you have to understand. It's almost like a respecting to yourself, like these people don't want to be around you. Stop hitting them up, stop reaching out. It's like it's. It couldn't be more clear, brother. It couldn't be more clear.
Speaker 2:I it's funny to mention that I kind of got into an argument with my mom about this, because obviously we're like Mama Seag, yeah, like when it comes to the wedding and everything, it's my fucking day If I don't want to invite my third cousin that I haven't like, like I'm sorry but and and and he's not going to watch this or whatever, but like like my mom's brother.
Speaker 1:You're not getting. You're not getting the invite dog.
Speaker 2:Don't tell him this Like it's like my mom's. Send him a link, send him this timestamp, my mom's a step brother that I literally haven't seen in like seven, eight years. She's like yeah, like you have to invite uncle. Does he ever reach?
Speaker 1:out to you? No, never. He never says happy birthday Like. See, what's weird is, the older generation looks at it like a paycheck. They look, they look not paycheck. They look at it like a, a charity check.
Speaker 2:I have this conversation with my dad as well, because I'm not really close with my dad's extended family. I don't know why there was. Just we were very, very different people. Yeah, very different people. He's like yeah, like I think it's on you to mend, you know, like the relationship I'm like why is it on me to mend my relationship with my uncle, who is almost 65 years old, a grown ass man? It's on him to fucking, like I, like I don't have anything to do with that anymore. Like if he wants to mend the relationship, he could fucking mend the relationship. But it's like, you know, you know, going back to the thing you know, with my mom, I'm like ma, it is my wedding. I'd rather invite more friends that I'm close with now than than anyone who doesn't serve a purpose in my life anymore. There's no reason for it. What are they going to do? We drop $100 in the envelope and say here you go.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the thing A lot of parents look at it like. This is their dues for being friends with these people. For years my mom has spoken this way about like other people's weddings and when they, when my cousins were getting married and other people my mom and my aunt and the older generation they were just there. Every time they were just like, well, we went to so and so's wedding for their daughter. So now it's like almost like they owe us. It's like, yeah, but I don't want them there, I don't fucking know them, I don't care.
Speaker 2:And it's also. It's also like the sense of you know, just just, uh. I guess it's like they're proud to say, like that's my brother, he's going to be at your wedding for my son. I'm like ma, it's my fucking wedding. I'm 28 years old. If I don't want to invite someone, I'm not going to invite him.
Speaker 1:I think it's more so. They're super proud of you for getting married. They want to show. They want to show both you a little bit, which is cool, I get that, but it's like I don't want, I don't, I don't need to do that to people I don't even talk to.
Speaker 2:I don't want to go up to random people in my wedding and say, hey, I haven't seen in eight years, you know like how you do it. Like I hate that small talk where it's like hey, you know how's everything going. It's like oh yeah, you know, I mean there's going good, and so.
Speaker 1:I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example. It's a little bleak, it's a little dark and some people may not understand where I'm coming from on this, and it's okay.
Speaker 2:I'm, I'm. I'm going to know exactly. You're going to know I'm coming from it, it's okay.
Speaker 1:So me, my dad and I, we are more friendly than we are father and son Just always have been.
Speaker 2:I'm on a very different brain wave and brain length than my father is.
Speaker 1:I've always played chess where he's playing checkers type of situation. You know that I'm kind of very similar in that situation. Yeah, so, um, my grandfather died recently my dad's father I haven't seen the man in. I want to say it's got to be at least eight to 10 years I've been in a family. They were nasty to me when I was a kid Like we're talking nasty, like locking a child in the basement away from everybody. Now, the basement was my dad's room, so let's like I don't want to seem like it's Harry Potter where I'm in a cupboard, but you know they would just like shut the door and keep me downstairs because they didn't really care that I was with the family, Like that. That's the type of people that these, these people were and they didn't like me because I was my mother's son. You know they didn't like that.
Speaker 1:My dad was self-destructive after he got his MS. Uh, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Diagnosis, yeah, that he has MS diagnosis, and they didn't like that. Uh, my mother and him. My mom tried everything to help him get better but he just went on a self-sabotaging spiral nasty human being and drugs and alcohol and constantly. And my mom divorced my dad and, instead of him just calling it a day and understanding that he was part of the problem, he dragged my mom through the mud. My single mother since I was two. Dragged her through the mud financially, legally, with bills and all that shit that could have went to me at a college fund where I wouldn't have to have paid my college and could have made a lot better financial choices for me later in life. But he didn't care. It was about tarnishing, it was about being a fucking dick. That's really what it was.
Speaker 2:So I think at that point it's like a pride thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it's a pride thing, but you know what man Like at some point. You know this is not a. This wasn't a stupid man. That's the crazy thing. There's a man that got a degree from St John's yeah Smart, yeah Smart guy. It wasn't like a stupid guy. So it's like this was. This was someone that was being spiteful, that's what this was. So he, my grandfather, died and you know he was like oh, I'll let you know when, the when, the mass is this, and that I just told him. I said, listen, I don't feel comfortable going because I haven't seen your side of the family in years, never close with them, never close with them. What am I going to do? I'm just going to walk in there, go to the casket and say I said I'll come by and see you dad. I said I'll come by and see you and pay respects to you. That grandpa died. I said, but I'm just there's no reason for me to go Some point.
Speaker 2:you don't owe anything to anyone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so fast forward. Now we're talking like Thanksgiving. This is most recently, yeah, and I try to. I can't see my dad every day, but I try to go. I try to call him every day because, you know, I just wanted to keep in touch with him. I want to do the right thing as a son, even though he hasn't done the right thing as a father for a long time, if ever. Be honest with you. He bought my affection a lot. Just because he bought me a lot of things Doesn't mean that he was a father, bro me and you are on the yeah, I'll get it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're a bank.
Speaker 1:If you act like that. And listen, you know all kids are manipulative, all kids want things. So it's not like you know, I was a little fucking kid your dad's going to buy you an Xbox, or he's going to buy you this or that. They're exciting. But now you look back on it and you're just like, wow, it was just like him buying my affection versus like actually bonding with me and being a father Absolutely Crazy. So, uh, we were having a conversation, we were talking about Thanksgiving and I said you know, my aunt, my, my, uh, my, my cousin's husband is going to deep fry turkey. And I said, I think we're also going to have a regular turkey there too. That grandma, you know, mom, mom's going to make this and that. And he made a comment. He's like oh, the Rizzo women. They just get off scot-free again with no work, with no work at all.
Speaker 2:And I said it's a small dig, but it's just like I said. What does that mean?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what does that mean, rizzo? Women have cooked. For the entire time I've been on this planet, they've cooked everything's giving me.
Speaker 2:So I don't know, I don't know I don't know what that means.
Speaker 1:He's like oh well, they never, I said. I said let me just, and I listen. I had to speak to my father like this, and it's just, it is what it is. I had to speak to him like he was a punk at a bar that I had to like get a message first. I said yo. I said let me, let me just make this very clear.
Speaker 1:I said watch your mouth when you talk about my family. I said the side of the family that raised me. I said your family didn't raise me. You didn't raise me. I said my mother and my grandparents raised me. I was like so before you try to take a dig at them, I said watch your fucking mouth. I said because I'm not playing with you right now. I said I'm not playing with you. I said don't, don't, don't. And he's like mumbling a little bit. I said no, no, no, no, no, no. I said that was not the time to speak. You listen when I talk to you right now. I was like because I'm coming at you as another grown man, not your son.
Speaker 1:I said if you are going to make digs like that, I said do you think I take digs at your family whenever I can. I said I don't fucking. I said I asked about your family, right, all the time he's like, yeah, I go. Do you honestly think I fucking care about any of them? I said I don't, I don't care. I said I care about the family that raised me, that brought me up, that supported me, that showed me love when I leave your house crying. So let's be very clear If you're going to speak about my family, don't say anything negative. I better not hear another negative word out of your mouth for the rest of your days. Don't ever say anything like that again.
Speaker 2:I said he feels like because he's your father he kind of say whatever you know.
Speaker 1:Kind of feels like whatever. But and I said to him I said how long has it been? And he's quiet. I said how long has it been since you've been in this family? Long time I go exactly, so you don't know what the fuck you're talking about. I was like so let's end it like this Just say yes, son, I understand. And he mumbled a little bit. I said no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. My mother that has broken her fucking back to keep us afloat all these years and has not been easy. You do not dig and drag it hurt through the mud because you are feeling spiteful that you guys never worked out. I don't fucking care, bro, I don't care who you are.
Speaker 2:We have very similar family dynamics and you know it's, you kind of know how I have like three different sets of parents in a sense, like just kind of it's, it's, it's, it's, it's fucking like all over the place. But, um, you know my uh.
Speaker 1:I wish my mom found somebody. To be honest with you, I wish my mom found somebody. I wish my dad had found somebody. Maybe it would have saved his soul a little bit. But he's such a bitter man at his at his age currently and he just. We have nothing in common.
Speaker 2:We really don't have anything in common my dad and you know Scott, right, Scott, Scott's the one who lives right here.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't think I've ever met anybody yeah yeah, yeah, my dad lives in Jersey.
Speaker 2:Okay, scott lives right here. Scott married my mom when I was like less than a year old. They got a divorce when I was like 12. But he essentially stayed my dad and he raised me and you know, me and my dad have always had like this weird um, um, I'm trying to think this, this like weird dynamic in a way where, like I think he knows that like in the past he's gone wrong about certain things and I still call Scott dad, still, like I still say hey dad and like bro, well, whenever I come home, that's where I go.
Speaker 2:I go up to Huntington because I feel I feel most at home with him and I just I've just always honestly, like I've always just had my dad has always had this sort of like jealousy towards him because of the fact that he actually took the time to raise me. Even though my mom and him are not together anymore, I still consider Scott's family my fucking family, like that's where I go home. To right, my mom she moved um Pennsylvania, bro, middle of nowhere. Like if I, if I mom mistake, mom, mistake mom, if you're watching this, I absolutely love you to death and you're my person. But if I ever lived where you live, my mental health would go to shit in like not even two weeks. It's so so.
Speaker 2:Pennsylvania is the armpit of the Northeast, not because it's bad and ugly, but because it's the middle of new I have this theory that, like Pennsylvania, should be a state where, like that's, like the designated state, like for everything to just like go wrong yeah.
Speaker 1:You know like you put up.
Speaker 2:You put up like a great wall, like around the board as a Pennsylvania, just let everything happen at Pennsylvania because there's nothing else there.
Speaker 1:It's like I will never forget when we picked Kenji up when he was a little puppy. We picked Kenji up and we drove home from Minnesota and COVID just started. We had no idea what was going on. My mom kept going do you want to stop at a hotel? I said nope, 23 and a half hours. We go and write home straight through. I don't know what's going on, but we go and write home. Yep, straight through, drove through.
Speaker 2:We hit Pennsylvania at like three, four in the morning, if that you got on this highway and says like in 400 miles exit right, like that's literally all what Pennsylvania Dude let me tell you she was falling asleep driving my mom.
Speaker 1:She was in the front and it was raining out like lightly drizzling and it's dark. We're in a rental car.
Speaker 2:There's no lights on the road.
Speaker 1:Nothing on the road. And I kept hitting her in the back of the head. She wanted me to keep. She wanted me to keep tapping her in the head. I just kept hitting her in the back of the head. She was like six, six, five hour energies deep, Like nothing was working. It was. I didn't have the rain, the rain shit yet, so I couldn't give her cases of.
Speaker 2:That's the point where I'm like blasting shit in the car, my head's out the window trying to manage it.
Speaker 1:Well it was. It was fucking bad and it was sketchy man. It just looked like the middle of nowhere and it just lasted forever.
Speaker 2:It just didn't end.
Speaker 1:We're like, when are we going to get out of this fucking state? That's so scary. Pennsylvania for you, pennsylvania, yeah.
Speaker 2:But anyway, my my, yeah, like I've. I just always had like a weird dynamic with my dad. I mean, me and my dad are Better now than how we've been the past. I mean, like there's been a lot of you know, you know like Constant ups and downs and everything like that. You know he does a lot of things that, like I don't necessarily agree with you no advice versa but I also think it's because he's never lived with me full time. Then, like he never really knew how to like raise a son. And again, I don't, I don't, I don't have any, I don't have any. That was the word I'm looking for. I don't have any like like Vicious.
Speaker 1:Dillings toward that right any, any crimes or qualms.
Speaker 2:Exactly he he was. He was watching his son grow up from a little bit of a distance right, but like, like me and him, now I I have more of a fatherly dynamic with Scott.
Speaker 2:I like there's nothing wrong with that right, like dad like you know, like you're still my dad and I love you and everything, but like there are certain things that we will never see, I on, because you never truly raised me and never truly know, like, how I operated, you know. So there's there. There's just a lot of different things, you know. As far as, like a family goes in, you know, I I just wanted to Pennsylvania. I was there for Thanksgiving. My mom she lives there with my Stepdad bro, the middle of nowhere. It's just fucking insane I am. But me and my mom have gotten to the point where, like you know, because the fact that I'm not able to take a plane to her and it's like a 12-hour drive I see my dad and Scott more than I see my mom and she thinks that I'm more obligated to them and I'm like, ma, you raised me as a single mother for yeah, you know like I'm indebted to you I love you to death.
Speaker 2:I love you to death. You, my person. I call you every single day. But you know, she kind of has like an insecurity feeling towards it and and this was the reason she moved into the middle of nowhere, my stepdad. So they lived in. Fuck, did they live? Savile out east, my stepdad is a guy school, but it's kind of the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's a I. You know, I moved out there and like the middle of high school I didn't know that. Yeah, so, yeah, so I, I go up against metal. I. I went to East Meadow until I was in 10th grade and then I moved out to Savile and I actually went back and forth because I just didn't really know like where the fuck I wanted to be. Bro, it was nuts, but anyway, they moved in the middle, no worries, because my stepdad just kind of wanted to be like away from everything, right, and I think my mom truly still like wants to be here, but like I feel bad because she doesn't have me, my sister there. My sister lives with Scott. Okay, that is her dad, so but my mom is very like Insecure about the whole thing where she's like I just feel like you're more obligated to your dad.
Speaker 1:You know this and that.
Speaker 2:I'm like mom, not more obligated, it's just like he lives right there. Yeah, you know like it and and and this right Long on will always be my home. Like if I ever say that I'm going home I'm sorry, like I'm not going to Pennsylvania. Yeah, I'd like I want to come, you know, back home along on and it's just it's. It's always been a little bit of like a weird dynamic in terms of that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, you know how that is and what is she doing in the middle of middle of Pennsylvania?
Speaker 2:She, she works from home. Okay, Um she still works for the law firm that she worked at in Sevo, but, like now, she does it at home. Okay, there are things around. I mean, it's like a small town, it's just very interesting.
Speaker 1:Oh, I, whenever, whenever somebody just moves to the middle of nowhere, I run, that it's like, and they and they're not retired.
Speaker 2:They're not. Yeah, I posted I didn't have any.
Speaker 1:They didn't have any attachments to that specific area. It's always interesting to hear like what's the thought process? Like what do you, you know? Did you know anybody there?
Speaker 2:I think it's more like a retirement thing for them. Um, they're not anywhere close to being in that stage of life yet, but they have like 25 acres of land.
Speaker 1:It's funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, so, yeah, so they, yeah, so they have my dog right.
Speaker 1:What it cost them 40 bucks, the 40, 20 acres bro.
Speaker 2:So it's so exactly funny. So so like they have the new Finland right. Yeah, my stepdad. So like the house came with like 11 acres, my stepdad bought the additional 25 around it because it was also like hunting land Cool. He didn't want any of the hunters and think that my dog was a bear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because she literally looks like a fucking grizzly bear. That's good. So he like he bought all, all, all of the land around it and man, like it's nice out there, but like I, I could just never live out there. It's funny because their neighbors across the street like they live up, I mean, like a gigantic hill there from, uh, mesa Piqua, okay. So how the fuck does that happen? Like how do?
Speaker 1:you end up out here. Yeah, man, you know what I? I'll tell you what man I want to buy. I want to buy some property, Montana, bad Bro, I want to go to Montana.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to buy some property in the country where it's like never been there.
Speaker 1:But I just know that that remoteness is gonna be nice. Now, whether that's a full-time thing or just somewhere that I go to just Recharge and just get away from life, yeah, I think that the second, the ladder of the two, would be the one that I choose Absolutely, but I just I've, I've found that I need to detox just mentally, more often. I need to.
Speaker 1:I can't you woke up hey bub, I need to Be without the phone, I need to put it on airplane mode, I need to turn the electronics off. You know, the other day I was feeling, uh, was it Friday? No, it was, it was Thursday night. That Thursday night I just felt off, like I just I felt like I just needed to just chill and I didn't want to do that. So what I did was there's an app called endel. Endel send the check and I put it on and it's a bunch of ai driven soundscapes and I've had it for a while before.
Speaker 1:All the, a, the, the ai buzzword boom, and I've had it for a few years now and I've used it for the sleep Especially. So I put it on my home pod at night and just does sleep soundscapes and it's just very nice, very, very relaxing. It's very nice. But, um, so I put it on the. They had like a just an afternoon relaxation mix. I did that and then, uh, I started building my Legos. I put my phone on, do not disturb, I put it on the other side of the room. I started building the, the Legos that. Shout to mr Lombardo that, uh, he brought me as, uh, he was my guest earlier this week and he just brought me Legos and, uh, the gauntlet, the infinity gauntlet, because he knows I love Thanos and everything. And so I was just sitting there and you know what, man, after about an hour I just sat there and I just went wow, this is nice yeah it's nice to just not having to talk to people on your phone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, just like not have to talk to people on my phone. The tv's not blaring at me at. Thursday night football was on. I couldn't give two fucks. I was like what if?
Speaker 1:I don't care and I was just sitting there and I was doing the, I was building the Legos, and I was like this is why I like magic, the gathering. To be honest with you, this is why I know Vinny's hooked on it now. This is why I love magic and I'm getting so many people into it, like Anthony's playing it now my buddy Jeff in Florida, he's hooked on it. He plays with his wife. He got a bunch of his friends He'll you know involved with it. I believe I like it because it just it takes that digital feel out of it and it's cards and you're sitting there and you get to craft a deck, you get to hang out you get to just chill.
Speaker 1:And there's, you turn your phone off or you, if you're using it as a life counter, you just put it in the middle, you put it on airplane mode, but you, just, you just dissociate from that world. Because I say it all the time, man, the scrolling and the nonsense and the I, I, I am trying to be a content producer, not a, not a consumer. Yep, don't want to consume.
Speaker 2:I'm still. I'm still in a I'm I'm. I'm still kind of in a phase where, like I'm still trying to establish I'm, I am still trying to establish better work-life balance. Like I have 60 fucking clients and I do give out my personal phone number. I, I, I think it's. I don't want to. I think you afford another phone line.
Speaker 2:So that's what I've been thinking about and that's exactly what I was gonna say. Is that, like I sometimes have to explain it on my bro, like it's fucking 9 30 at night? No, no, no, no Tuesday. This is what I will get back to you tomorrow morning, unless it's like a diehard emergency, which which it's not you'll like.
Speaker 2:Like no offense, you're not doctor, exactly exactly, exactly, it could wait until the morning and really I have to explain to Aaron. Sometimes I'm like, yeah, I'm sorry, you know, listen that and it's, it's um, I have been thinking about getting another.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty sure what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna I'm gonna use this as my business line, this phone, because everyone's got this number, yeah, and I'm gonna get a personal line, yeah and I'm gonna, and you just give it to your, give it to friends.
Speaker 2:What was?
Speaker 1:friends, my mom, yep, my people, and that's it. Yeah, let's get in it, because then, once I turn this off, I can. I can keep all my business apps on there.
Speaker 2:It was a big mistake that I did at first, because if I were, I was, like you know, booking a sales call, whatever be like okay, like what's your number, you know I'll call you this and that, and then like a text number from my number and then boom, it was just like not stop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not stop. You have to. You have to be able to have that work you have to have work life and you know what the other thing is.
Speaker 1:That's, that's super important you have to have. You have to keep your your space in your area tidy, like that. Yeah, because, because an untidy space Creates havoc in the mind. Yeah, just then you're unmotivated. I know y'all can see this mess behind me. I'm figuring it out. I'll tell you what. To be honest with you, there were papers like stacked up to the left of my desk and Friday I just said I gotta tackle these. I know I have edits to do. I said but you know what I got in here?
Speaker 2:You gotta be.
Speaker 1:I said I have to get it together and I got and dude, it's clean over there. Now you gotta be mindful of your workspace. Guess what? Oh, I feel so good you can take a deep breath.
Speaker 2:You just go. Oh my god, I feel so good that everything's gone. So when I started working from home, this was so. I quit my job in March, right, so I? I.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that.
Speaker 2:That's when I left the head coach position. So I stepped down to March and I started to work from home and we have a one bedroom apartment. I don't you know, like I don't have an office right, like she has a desk in the living room right. And it's very, very, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have been working from, like, the kitchen counter forever, Like I will sometimes go to Starbucks or other wherever it is, but I finally got.
Speaker 1:Starbucks workflows Cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. But like I Finally got like a small desk for our bedroom now and you know, like I'm gonna work from there, which I'm not a huge fan of, but like it's kind of where I have to go for now. It was funny because I have to be in like a certain element in order to get like a certain amount of work done. So I Go on Amazon. I'm like, hey, aaron, like I'm gonna order these cool lights or whatever, like in case I ever want to film something on your bedroom, right, like and and.
Speaker 1:Aaron's like no.
Speaker 2:I don't want our room to look like that. Like, babe, it's a small light that you put in a bag when you're done with it and then that's it. But it's just like I need. I need to be like in a certain element in order for me to work. Why?
Speaker 1:don't you get an office man Office space is cheap down there.
Speaker 2:It is cheap, but at the same time you at rally. Yeah, yeah it. It is cheap. At the same time, um, I am Trying to save up to open up my own spot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I get that, so yes, I yeah, but you gotta start somewhere. I mean, if you're the office, if the gym, if the gym is, if, if, like a gym concept is too far out right now, if we're talking like two, three years out, yeah, like you have to start doing Instead. It's gonna help your productivity now. But the issue, I'll tell you, the issue that I had, the issue that I had when I was doing all my edits and everything in my room, was my productivity technically was through the roof. Yes, but I never fucking left, so my mental health went down.
Speaker 2:I spit so. So here's the thing I spend a lot of the week Filming content, right. I spent a lot of the week training. I probably spend about maybe 10 to 12 hours a week on my actual business, because everything's already kind of set right. So it's like I don't know if an office space is like that Necessary in terms, but there are days, there are days, bro, and like this is the thing about being an entrepreneur as well. It's like there are some days where I go to my desk and I'm like I don't know what the fuck on it, like I have no idea what the hell to do today. Oh, I do that all the time. I.
Speaker 2:Okay, I do that all the time and I think it was I'm not gonna say worse it, it, it. It's about school. It took place more when I first started, when I was like kind of on my own for the first time. I was like I have no idea what the hell to do today. So now I'm Finally, after a year, starting to establish a consistent workflow of things that I actually get done during the day, but a lot of it doesn't need an office, so it's like yes, I know, but you feel better when you go somewhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, it feels you feel better. That's why I'm trying to go to like a starbucks more and really that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:So oh nice you're on kanji, I'm like Purshing a road.
Speaker 2:Do you know where that is? No, I'm kind of in like the north hills area, which is a little bit more expensive now Because it just keeps on growing and growing and growing.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, bouge. Okay, bouge, I see you out here. I don't know. I just I've always felt like, you know, my mom pushed me to get into office. I think she also wanted me to get the fuck out of the house, but my mom pushed me. She's like they get the fuck out. My mom pushed me to get into office and that was another issue. Man, when I lived at home my room in the garage, my two areas she had control of the living room, like she had control of her own office. She had her own office in the house. He had her bedroom the, the main big living room. No one said it was like the couch that nobody sits in.
Speaker 1:It's like I would just sit in my room. I'd be laying on my bed all day. Yeah, I was like, oh my god, I gotta get the fuck out of here. So yeah when I trained. When I transitioned into getting an office though I did find that I got more shit done I also felt more professional. That helped me feel Like I could just tackle anything. So it was, it was a different, it was definitely a switch up in mindset. It was.
Speaker 2:I get an office I want to have at least like a barbell rack or just like some sort of dumbbells in there. In case I ever wanted to do like In a person session too, I could just come back and say, hey, well then you need a bigger spade, but that, but now you start getting into that.
Speaker 1:So I would say just yeah, like this right here is like 500 square feet, maybe a little under.
Speaker 2:It was perfect, because you have to podcast.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's perfect. Yeah, I just fucking fire I think that's perfect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't, I don't need bigger than that, but I'm going to at some point. So it's like I it's been steps. My last office, which you never came to, that was like 190 square feet. Could you imagine? Could you imagine all of this? All of this stuff was in there. It was, it looked big on the podcast videos but and people come to my office They'd be like oh, it's oh, no, no, no, no, it's okay. Say what it is. It's small, it's okay. They, I didn't need big space. Now I do. Oh hi Kenji.
Speaker 2:Do you plan on hiring like a team on? Do you at any point? At some point, I would like to yeah. What do you what? What would be the first thing?
Speaker 1:I would like to have an editor position, I guess. Yeah, I would like to have an editor because it becomes very tough to get a lot of extra edits out. Yeah, in a timely manner, when I'm running around and trying to balance everything else on the business. My issue is I've tried to have, I've tried to have or, and another shooter could help too. I've tried to have people come through and show me, like, show me that you're ready to work, show me that you're ready to expand with me and do things.
Speaker 2:I think it's hard at this stage. Like to train someone on that too. It's like you don't want to train someone.
Speaker 1:I don't mind training somebody up I really don't but like you have to show me that you're ready to rock Everybody that's everybody that I've given like sort of an opportunity to. They just yeah, they get wishy-washy and they don't fucking follow through.
Speaker 2:They gotta have some sort of experience. I guess too, yeah like no, I don't think fields, but uh no.
Speaker 1:How to turn the camera on. Yes, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:How to turn the camera on just yeah, with all of the, with all the advice you give me, that's so. That's actually something I learn how to do now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good, you know YouTube. I tell people a ton like YouTube. University is free. I could just go on there. You have a question? Search it up, look it up. That's what I do still. I still use YouTube for fucking questions I have it's an interesting field to be in.
Speaker 2:Man Like I am still learning every single day about how to operate certain shit. The content game is like just consistently evolving and I I feel like right now I still struggle with a little bit, like you know, like the confidence aspect Not in terms of what I'm doing, but I mean you know me like I grew up With a terrible stutter. It's like, how do I overcome that on camera? It's like do I implement my stutter naturally into the videos or do I try to Wait for like the perfect one?
Speaker 1:I think the most important thing is you just keep it real. Yeah, like you always do, have, always have. I think you just keep fucking guy. I think you just keep it real and he's crazy. You just like to come sit and hang out when you do the podcast. Yeah, I know you're looking at sam. Yeah, um, I think you just gotta keep it real Like it's. So this is. This is a conversation that I've had with rain recently. I had a conversation with rain and I just said guys, I'm tired, I'm tired of us like shooting the same thing over and over again. Yeah, it gets boring. You want to involve so boring. Yeah, I tell him all the time, it's so boring, so boring to just shoot the same thing.
Speaker 1:And just get repetitive every shoot that they do with their people at the olympia and stuff like that. It's the same thing over and over again and I'm just like guys you got, we gotta do different things. We have to tell stories, we have to keep it real like we have to do it with your eyes closed at this point with what you're doing.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah and and listen, I could. I could fucking do that and collect a check and then call it a day. It's easy for me. But I don't want, I don't. I need to, I want to. I want to see a ROI for the brand, and I'm not the only content creator. I said this. This needs to go for everybody that's on the team, because there's me, there's dudes in Nashville, there's dudes in Texas and there's, uh, california and I think somebody's in florida now. But it's like we have access to all different types of people and areas and this and that under the umbrella. That is monster energy. We should be knocking it out of the fucking park.
Speaker 2:It should be a brand and it's just and and and it's just generally.
Speaker 1:It's just like, hey, just go film so and so at the gym. Like just go get content of somebody at the gym working out in this and that's like that's mindless. I could do that, but I don't want to do that. I want to film fun stuff. I want to build, I want to. I want people to look at a video that we do with the brand and go, holy shit, that's fucking. Can't we do some cool shit?
Speaker 2:and like it's a challenge for you because essentially, it's your job to make the brand stand out. Yeah right, and it's like, when you have a certain brand right, like that stands out, like that right, that's who people are gonna gravitate towards, and like that's the thing with the online space. It's like what can you do to differentiate yourself from other people?
Speaker 1:and that is something I'm still consistently learning every single one, well, it's hard because what I mean, what are you gonna and it's nothing against you personally, but what are you gonna bring to the table versus the next 10 trainers? And you have to, and you have to really think about that and you have to lean into those. You know what, what is, what is, what is it me versus 10 other videographers?
Speaker 2:I've said this multiple times I'm not the best videographer on the planet, yeah but far from it. Yeah, but I'm not the worst.
Speaker 1:I'm nowhere near the worst. So it's like so I have to be able to play into my. I know that there's more people that are bad Then better, so it's like I have to play into these strengths. I have to be able to like well, I can run and gun very easily. I can do this, I can do that, I, I do everything, I literally everything. So it's like you know, you have to be able to bring these skills to the table and and and showcase these skills that set you apart exactly the hardest part for me has been, like trying to and I'll even know, because I've I've been getting conflicting advice on this.
Speaker 2:It's like Do you have a specific niche or do you not? Then it's like I can confidently say right now I do not have a specific niche. I get a lot of clients through, like through, you know, at the group fitness industry, right, obviously right, because you know, like that's where I came from. Um, I have a wide variety of clients. They age from like 25 to 45, but a lot of them have completely different goals. A lot of them have completely different experience and it's like, okay, if that is going well for me right now, that is what I'm going to continue to stick to.
Speaker 2:The second I apply toe, that's what I'm going to niche down on something, because I want to work with people who are very similar to me and not necessarily in terms of like physical attributes, right, but like I who have very similar stories as me, right, like I came like bro, I used to be very, like overall insecure about myself, used to be very insecure, I don't know why. I just always was. I think I had to deal with, you know, like the stutter and everything like that. But I want People who are consistently looking to evolve and become the best versions of themself. Whereas if I have to constantly reach out to you, hey, like, did you get your work out today? Like, no, I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1:Like, sure, then the money doesn't matter at that point, exactly like I bro.
Speaker 2:Bro, I I have cut off many people that were paying me 300 400 a month because of the fact that, like it just became a hassle. Like I wasn't, I was not happy coaching them. Like, if I have to be a life coach to you, that's where I draw the line. I'm not a therapist. I am. I am not a life coach. I'm giving you all the tools that you asked me to give you in order to be successful. It's up to you now whether you want to use those tools in order to go do it or not. I do Weekly check-ins. That's all I need. I should be able to talk to you once or twice a week and you should be able to handle the rest of the week on your own. I should not have to text you say, hey, you've gotten like two, two training sessions in the last like three weeks. What's going on? Like I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1:So I'm a handhold. That's exactly. That's how.
Speaker 2:I can. So, like now it's at the point where it's like you know, it kind of goes back to contents, like how can I make that known in my content of the people who I want to work with, and it's just a consistent evolution.
Speaker 1:It's a numbers game. It's like girls man, it really is and bro like.
Speaker 2:If you look at my Instagram, I don't have a shitload of followers, I like are either 3700 followers. Yeah you know, like my views are organic, which is great, but it's like now it's just like the growth aspect, which is the toughest part of being an entrepreneur, especially, especially, especially, like an online fitness coach, like I enjoy the challenge, right, but it's like I Consistently think and try to evolve in terms of like ways. I don't necessarily think of If that makes sense.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what man it's. Just it's a, it's a numbers game and it's about a matter of posting and just yeah. Yeah, it's just because eventually I go through times where I yeah, it hits and you get a lot of views it could.
Speaker 2:Subscribers it could be two or three videos that literally.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, but my biggest advice would be is that Instagram's dead platform though? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it has been for a long time. Take talks away to go.
Speaker 1:Take talk is, but my whole thing is. Youtube is where you're gonna see the return so that's, that's.
Speaker 2:Yes, I do have a YouTube page. I haven't started posting on yet that that is more long term, that is more long-form content, right like this.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, this this, but you could also do short form with shorts. They have, they had, they copied reels and tick tocks and shit like that. Everybody fucking swagger jacks each other. They all jerk each other off. It's crazy and they all pretend like they're different. You're all the same, but YouTube is the one that you'll actually. The viewership is like real, like you're actually building a.
Speaker 2:Base, yeah, whereas I gotta get more to YouTube and yeah, where is it?
Speaker 1:I don't really go on in a lot like in general. I mean, I pay for YouTube premium. I'm on YouTube all day. Yeah, I'm on YouTube all day. I have motivational videos. In the background, I have Different studies and I have a bunch of different things that I listen to constantly funny videos, this and that. Then I'm posting Podcast clips. That I'm in the YouTube studio because I'm checking subscribers and my analytics are, and this and that. Listen, I just, I just post, I just post videos like tick tock post it.
Speaker 1:I have fifty five, fifty something thousand on tick tock. I've fifty some thousand. And has that equated to subscribers on YouTube or listeners to the podcast? I don't think so. But it's brand recognition. People would. People may recognize me. I mean, you know you get, you get three point four million views on a video, like one of my videos got that's my face out there in front of three point four million fucking views.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a lot stage I'm gonna stage right now where I'm learning how to film myself, because in the past I had my contact guy shout out Josh, um, josh, who is, who is? Who was very, very good, right, like he decided to go back to school and everything right. So, like his time is a little bit, you know, but I I'm learning how to use my camera. I'm also learning how to film like from my phone as well and, yeah, I I struggle with consistency at times, but it's like that's. That's kind of where, like, my dedication is gonna be now, in terms of just like consistently posting once or twice every single day and making that a non Negotiable. You know, like in my schedule, yeah, that's, that's, that's when I post twice a day on YouTube.
Speaker 1:I was up like a hundred subscribers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in a week it's just volume, it happens so it, just you got, just you guys just keep posting.
Speaker 1:You got to keep doing, build an audience build an audience so that's really what it comes down to.
Speaker 1:Um, I know we got, we got a little. We got a couple minutes, like maybe 10 minutes left, yeah, just because I got to run to that class. But we're gonna. We'll do another episode, without question, but I want to, I actually want you to get a little bit into the speech impediment. Yeah, I, I wanted to. Now my question to you really quickly is Is that something that is a lack in development or is that something that is on the side of, just like an actual, he's say, in, inhibitor on the mental side?
Speaker 2:They say it's neurological. Okay, um, I Will say this I did countless years of Of speech therapy countless years, I want the therapy probably until I was like maybe 13, 14, 15 years old. It didn't help a single bit. Okay, as I got older, um, I would say so my first few years of college were at uAlbany. I would say by. Like, my sophomore year at uAlbany is when it really started to kind of fade, and I wouldn't even say it fades. Now it's just like I learned how to manage it. Um, do?
Speaker 1:you feel it coming on. How do you what happens Do? Is it just? Is it just like you're getting hung up on like a phrase your vocal chords?
Speaker 2:just get stuck. Oh, interesting, um, and like it's funny, because what I interviewed for the orange theory job at first I interviewed for being, you know, like behind the desk or or, or at least I thought I was being interviewed right behind the desk. And then when I got to the interview, it was with the regional fitness manager and he was like, all right, so like I want to be a coach, right, I'm like oh yeah, and like at the time, like A class was going on and I was like, wait, like a coach, like like that guy's doing he's a kid. I was like, um, I, yeah, I guess so, and, bro, I think that's what really did it for me Is now I can confidently say, like five years later, 37, 3800 classes, rather, whatever it is, I've been on a mic in front of thousands, thousands of fucking people and I think that really helped me.
Speaker 2:But the thing is, if you put me on a podium in front of a group of people, I will start like crazy. The thing with orange theory is that people are not necessarily looking at you, they are hearing you and it's an element that I enjoy and I don't even like, like, think about this other, but it's, it's, it's yeah, man, it's um your vocal chords get stuck. I think a lot of it could be from stress, and anxiety, yeah, nerves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what. That's definitely nervous. It sounds like right out the gate to me.
Speaker 2:I like it's funny because I used to stutter on um, on, on. Honestly, like the most common letters, I guess I would say, like I could never say my name Sam back. Really, bro, someone ever asked me my name. I'd be like, and they'd be like what? Like you forgot your name, that that was my biggest fucking pet peeve. Like no, I didn't fucking forget my name.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I'm just having an issue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me work through exactly and, and, and, yeah, bro. Well, yeah, dude, but like my ass is.
Speaker 1:People are kind of merciless man. They just they don't. They don't fucking get it. They don't understand when somebody is different. They don't.
Speaker 2:I used to ruffle my feathers. So much Ruffle, my fucking, I'd be tight. Yeah, no, I didn't fucking forget my name, douchebag.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's what happened. Oh yeah, that's what happened, big guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know it's um, it is I, I I'm proud to say that it's like a part of my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I think you do very well, though I don't you know, thank you comes out every now and then, yeah, it's, it's, it's it's. I think it takes like an extra second or two to just get the word out. It's not a big deal.
Speaker 2:And I don't realize it, but I speak very fast at times. I think that also causes it a little bit where, yeah, it's okay, long on the town.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's what it's right there with you, baby, but, um, I think when that happens and I have to go back and like repeat myself to someone, that's when I like start to overthink things.
Speaker 1:And yeah, you know it's almost like you're thinking that you're going to Do yeah, so it's preemptively training or triggering your brain yes, like we're gonna. We're gonna fuck this word up.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is in the back of my head where I'm like fuck, all right, like here it comes, here comes and that boom. But it has gotten a lot better. Um, I would say like when I was in college it really started to improve, and definitely when I started coaching on the microphone like they just I wouldn't even say like a went away, but it definitely like really improved.
Speaker 1:Why do you feel like it was an improvement in college? What? What challenged you? Was it group projects? Was it like what challenge?
Speaker 2:No, I honestly just think as I got older, it got it got easier. Yeah. So, scott, right, my dad used to have Terrible start out when he was younger and he just kind of gave me some advice. Like along the road he's like, hey, you just have to stop, think, breathe and then speak. It's okay if you speak slow. Yeah, you know so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's why I have to remind myself of the podcast which I've done over the years. I used to hate dead air, like right here ready. Yeah, it's like what did? I used to hate that. Yeah, hate it. I don't care anymore. Yeah, you just gotta. You honestly have to just Okay to think about shit. Yeah, like sometimes when you get a question or or you, you don't really know where to go. It's better to Pause. Pause Versus going and just adding a bunch of filler words, which is just really your brain just having a fucking shit.
Speaker 2:That's really what it is your brain just going. It's OK, because a lot of people have to think before they fucking speak nowadays. Yeah, they do.
Speaker 1:So it's like your brain going where's that word? It's like running around on fire. It's like where is the word? And you're just sitting there going uh, but versus just being able to just stop for a second think. I saw a video of Elon Musk, which I loved. Love Elon, saw a video of Elon yeah, big fan.
Speaker 1:I saw a video of Elon Musk talking and I don't know the actual interview or what he was on stage for, but he was being interviewed and they were talking and I guess he was talking about. The guy asked him a question about being blackmailed in terms of they don't want him doing or saying specific things because it goes against their narrative or whoever was, I guess, funding some of his business or whatever. I couldn't be very wrong about it. But he basically said if you think that you're going to tell me same thing with Dana White lately, he's like you think you're going to tell me what I can and can't say and do that. He just he's literally just stopped for a second. He just went go fuck yourself. That's it. He's like go fuck yourself.
Speaker 1:But the way that he stopped Ron Organic baby, that's it the way he stopped, thought about it and he said yeah, I'm going to say this Like it. Just he gave himself that second of thought process and he went yep, it's correct. Fuck you guys. Ron Organic, that's how you got to be, and you know podcasting and getting in front of camera and being on the mic at Orange Theory. I believe that all of these things definitely help.
Speaker 2:Instagram content Instagram content man yeah.
Speaker 1:Instagram content talking to a camera. Talking to cameras hard man, it's fucking hard. People don't realize until they actually have to do it. They don't realize Like when I first started the podcast. It's very difficult, man, even as somebody that's in the video field.
Speaker 2:You're a master at it, bro what? You're a fucking master at it?
Speaker 1:I am not. No, I still got plenty of time. Let me say this.
Speaker 2:Let me say this and I'm going to say this is fucking camera, the way that this man has evolved ever since. I have grown. No, ever since that I have met him. The way that this man has evolved is admirable. Listen to this fucking dudes podcast. It's real. It's the realest shit that you'll ever hear out there. Seriously, be fucking proud of yourself. I appreciate you, bro. Do not discredit any of that. No, I know, I know.
Speaker 1:I talk shit, I play shit down, I play shit down.
Speaker 2:We were on my fucking couch in the middle of COVID and we both had no idea where the fuck we were about to go. Look where we've been.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, it's a crazy journey, bro. You just you learn so much. Isn't it crazy how it's like four years ago. Four years ago, it goes quick, it goes quick. Man, I've been having a great time.
Speaker 2:Remember my birthday at slate Bro me and Vinnie fucking Irish exited.
Speaker 1:Yeah, understandable, we do we do Yo. Vinnie knew Vinnie was waiting for me to do it, is that?
Speaker 2:23 or 25? I think it was turning 23.
Speaker 1:Real quick. I'll tell you this because Vinnie was waiting for me to Irish exit, because he knows, Sometimes you have to no, no no, it's not. Sometimes I'm always dipping.
Speaker 2:I had a wedding. I had Irish exit.
Speaker 1:If nothing's going down, I just start looking around. I'm just like I'd rather be in my jam jams. It came a long way to it's no offense to anybody, but I just I'd rather be in my jam jam. So we're having a good time, it's cool. It was a wild night too. It was a wild night, so we were chilling and Vinnie's looking at me and I go what? What are you looking at me like that for? And he goes you about to dip, aren't you?
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I went. I went yeah, I'm about to dip. And he did. I said do you want to do this with me? I said I don't usually do this Uber back or take the railroad, the train. I said I don't usually do this. I said so if you're going to do this, you got to do it exactly the way. I say Sammy's birthday. We're out of here.
Speaker 2:It was like that I swear.
Speaker 1:He goes. He goes. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Sounds good. I said all right, cool. I said we're stopping for pizza and sour patch kids though.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So you and your other boys, they were all in the dance floor. I think we were downstairs. You're all in dance floor at this point, so I walk over and I go Vinny, you ready, I go. It's fucking crazy in here. Let's go, let's go.
Speaker 2:We're all dancing every good time.
Speaker 1:I went yo, I got to hit the bathroom. Vinny, you want to go to the bathroom? I said yo, sammy, I'll see you in a bit. Yo, we're just going to go to the bathroom real quick. Yo, cool, cool, cool, cool. We fucking. I was like we walk right out of the front door.
Speaker 2:I don't think I noticed until we were about to leave. I was like what?
Speaker 1:the fuck you didn't notice for like an hour and a half. I texted you, you texted you go. Yo, where'd you guys go? You guys went to the bathroom. Right I go. I went, dog, I'm in bed. Y'all are still there. What the fuck are you doing? Still there, we?
Speaker 2:were reckless back in the day, bro. We had some fun nights.
Speaker 1:I just I you know what man I like going out. I just always wound up liking being home more.
Speaker 2:I'm such a homebody, I'm bro. I'm such a homebody now.
Speaker 1:I've just, I've always been man Like even I mean, you were very similar. I get invited out by girl. They're like oh, why don't you come out to do it? So I just go. Well, now, especially because I don't drink I'm just like what the fuck am I going to do there?
Speaker 2:So that's the thing is, I don't really drink a lot either. It's like a lot of my friends down south, but I love them to death, my fucking, literally best friends down there. A lot of them really like to drink.
Speaker 1:It booze a lot down there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just like. I'm just not really like that anymore. Everyone's not really like that anymore, which I actually really like, you know. So it's like we, we are much more of homebody people, but I could also, I could also go somewhere and I could be fine, Like, like if I'm going somewhere.
Speaker 1:I'm the only thing to do. There is drink.
Speaker 2:I can't, I can't get on board. Yeah. But if someone ever like peer pressure me, it was just like one shot on my bro. I said, no, I'm fine yeah.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no. I hate that shit. No one's peer pressure me to drink. I'm dude, I've been. I have been sober since March. I feel good, I'm just and especially because it doesn't need it.
Speaker 2:No, it doesn't need it.
Speaker 1:Especially because the ups and downs I've had, just like with the common entrepreneurial, just emotional roller coaster ride. If I was drinking it would be even worse and it's just like oh man, I'm so happy I'm not drinking.
Speaker 2:It's hard when I don't know what you got to do, but it's it's. It's it's hard when you're working for yourself and money isn't necessarily guaranteed. You know like you are banking on yourself and bro like when.
Speaker 1:I listen to the rain contracts. The rain contracts retainer. I get paid every month by rain. That's amazing when I quit my job, but but but, rain is one thing. You have to work on other areas as well, of course. If you get complacent, you're just sitting there like, well, I got rain. It's like that. That's when you fall behind and then all of a sudden, everything just falls through.
Speaker 2:Yep, Yep. But when I quit my job at back in March, my mom was, like you really need to do this, Like really need to do this, Like I'm scared. And I'm like, mom, like you just have to fucking trust me here, Cause, like I knew what I was capable of. Yeah, it's like and, and bro, like I, I like I'm not. I'm not. I'm not saying this like to be like, oh, I did it, but I hit six figures in like 10 months. You know it's like I knew what the fuck I was doing. You know, it's like like sometimes you just have to take that risk for yourself.
Speaker 1:You have to. You have to be able to see the vision of where you're going to, and that takes time. I mean you have to, you have to visualize and you have to believe that you're going to get there too. That's like super important.
Speaker 2:The hardest thing for me was overcoming that disbelief that I might not get there. But I knew what I was capable of doing, just because of what I had started before I stepped down. I was like, hey, like I could really blow this up.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You know so you're doing it bro.
Speaker 2:That's it, I'm trying to man it's, it's, it's a constant evolution of a game.
Speaker 1:That's it, man. That's what this is all about. This is life, this is business. This is just everything.
Speaker 2:Life is fun sometimes when you really think about it.
Speaker 1:Well, not, not, not sometimes life is fun.
Speaker 2:Life is fun Life. I. I like I would say this life has become fun for me because of now that I work for myself and I'm able to kind of dictate how I live my life. Yeah, like if I wanted to go on a vacation, I could do it and I could work from wherever the hell I wanted to go. It's nice.
Speaker 2:Like life, life has really took a, life has really taken a turn. Like and I can honestly say, if it wasn't for the pandemic, I don't know if I would. I don't know if I would be down there and you don't know if you might still be here and I love Long Island.
Speaker 2:I. I I actually got into a fight with my sister about this, because last time I was on Long Island I was like I was like I was like look what this fucking place has become. And Laura's like you grew up here, do not say shit about Long Island. I'm like, yeah, you know what you're actually right. But man, like I don't know, if it was for the pandemic, like if I would be here right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I I coached for our steering up, you know, so I don't know.
Speaker 1:Things are wild, man. Everything happens for a reason. And listen, if you stayed on there forever, great. If you don't, you come back, great. Like it doesn't. There's no, there's no. I'm sorry for you to come to Raleigh, yeah man, I'm cool with it. Like they made, you know, fucking Charlotte sound like the second coming of Christ. I was like, bro, it's, it's like, it's a, it's a city, it's cool.
Speaker 2:Like it's a nice city yeah.
Speaker 1:Man, it's like stop peer-pressuring me to try to move down there. My buddy tries to get me to move down to Florida every day. I love Jeff. I love you to death bro.
Speaker 2:If you listen to this I know his wife actually listens You're a true long Islander though. You, you, you, you, bro, I'll tell you right now Licky Rizzles is going to be the mayor of this fucking. I hope not. I need to look out, man. I've seen him wave to every single person we've passed in the last 24.
Speaker 1:You know, I just fuck everybody. I fuck everybody. I want everyone to just be happy, have a good time. It's scary.
Speaker 2:The shit always beautiful. He's an emperor. It's what it looks like.
Speaker 1:It's my boy. I poked him in the eye when we were fucking. I'm sorry, you're beautiful. You just ran right into me. Um yeah, I don't know. I may stay on Long Island forever. I may not. I don't know. As this grows, I could technically do this anywhere and if, as I'm getting paid, on this.
Speaker 2:You have a team in other states too.
Speaker 1:Man, as I'm getting paid on this, maybe I move somewhere else. I don't know if I'm moved to North Carolina. I mean, I don't think. I don't think I could do it. I don't think I could move to North Carolina.
Speaker 2:I think I think I was tired of the New York lifestyle and I just needed something slower. It's okay, you know, so that's why I mean it was either there. So I was looking at North Carolina, denver, denver is okay. And at the time, older is nice, yeah, and at the time Tampa Florida was not as expensive as it is now. Tampa is cool. I was looking at Tampa. It's a lot of bouginess now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know if I could look at Tampa. I'll tell you what?
Speaker 2:Texas, fucking bro Austin. I went to Austin.
Speaker 1:Austin is cool. I was in Austin.
Speaker 2:Austin is cool. It was hotter than it was 140 degrees, but it was fucking awesome.
Speaker 1:Imagine having him down there.
Speaker 2:Fucking hate it.
Speaker 1:There's some key to breeders in Texas. I'm like, how did the dogs survive? He fucking hates that shit. He's miserable. Yeah, I think if I was going to do anything on the East Coast I would probably move to Fort Lord or Doe because it's like so close fire. Yeah, like I can get a lot of work there. I can go to Miami if I wanted to.
Speaker 2:Not far.
Speaker 1:You know, I feel like I need to stay on coasts, I feel like I need to stay near the where the water is, just because of where I grew up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's the thing is like Raleigh is more like central North Carolina. The one thing that everyone always asked me down there is like hey, like, what was your favorite part of that living on Peart? It's like I had a beach 10 minutes away from me. Right, right, like going on a beach meadow. I had the biggest fucking city in the world Right there, what.
Speaker 1:International hub for travel for airplanes and whatnot.
Speaker 2:And, bro, I miss the cheesy things. Like I miss being able to go to a Yankee game on a Tuesday night if I wanted to Food Food, yeah, but those are really it Howdy East. I'm also a person, persons, I'm a family. For a long period of time It'll be fun, yeah, just because of like my upbringing. So you know, moving 500 miles away just really opens up your eyes. It's like I consider myself to have grown up down there because I lived for the first time alone down there. Right, I was 24 when I moved down there, which is like a very it's a weird age because, like, you're kind of in the middle of, like, okay, you're done with school, you're done with, you know, college baseball it's like okay, like what now you know. So it was an interesting way of kind of, like you know, developing my own life where I didn't really have the guidance of other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, we're going to get into that. We're going to get into that next time, absolutely.
Speaker 2:When you come back up again. I don't know, but I will come up soon For the wedding.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. You come through before the wedding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I was going to say we didn't even get into online, so you know it never happened. Yeah, it was an hour and a half bro and one year really good friends with someone who just kind of talk.
Speaker 1:But that's how it's always been. That's what it's meant to be. It's meant to just be us just chilling, chopping it up, hanging out I love that it's all good vibes, organic talk.
Speaker 2:This is the best house it's going to be.
Speaker 1:I always ask if you could just plug yourself to the camera, let everybody know how they can touch base with you this and that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Instagram. Instagram is samysig, s-a-m-m-y, s-i-e-g, and there's an underscore at the end. That is typically where I do all of my stuff right now. Again, I'm still evolving to YouTube. I do have a TikTok and it's under the same thing as Instagram as well.
Speaker 1:Always be branding. Gotta keep it the same, always be branding. Yeah, yeah, sammy, I appreciate you coming down chopping it up with me, you, the fucking homie Always. I believe this is going to be episode. Oh, mom's, do so ready? Hey, mom, we're I'm finishing up a podcast. We're live Live right now. Okay, lay back. I believe this is going to be episode because I told last on the last one, I did an episode with one of the black belts from Sarah's. He teaches at Sarah's. He's not like actually I don't think he's like goes there all the time. Very good, dude A little while for my taste, like just to throw it out how it was. So I'm trying to like edit the podcast. So this is going to be episode 76 and then John's episode. I keep pushing it back because I just haven't felt like anything.
Speaker 2:yet 76, baby, Look what. Look what you've done in 76 episodes.
Speaker 1:And then I did 70 something with John Panetti, and then I did that was a fucking awesome podcast that was great man, voice and Rizzles, rajole Brothers, rajole Brothers with Tyler, all good man.
Speaker 1:Now we got Rizology. So this will be episode 76. Like, comment, share, subscribe, all the fucking jazz. I appreciate every single person that hits those buttons because it does help with the algorithm. It helps me continue to sit down with amazing people like Sam and just hang out, shoot the shit and hopefully y'all got something out of an hour and a half. If not and it was just Mr Kenji, I mean, that's a benefit too. So you see his fat head on both sides of the table.
Speaker 2:Sorry for episode two. We could chop some more up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bro, It'll be great man.
Speaker 2:We got a lot of stories.
Speaker 1:We got a lot of stories A lot of life stuff yeah. But I got to run to class. You have to go to the Ranger game tonight. That's going to be amazing and fun. Let's fucking go Ranger Now. Peace.