#132 | Sam Ciaccia & Tom DeGiuli |

In this episode of Rizzology, we sit down with the dynamic duo of Sam Ciaccia and Tom DeGiuli to dive into the world of kettlebells, biomechanics, and personal journeys that redefine resilience. Host Nicky Rizzles opens the conversation with a light-hearted banter about the unexpected matchmaker skills of his guests, which quickly steers into tales of gym challenges and the surprisingly humorous struggles of keeping calluses at bay.

Sam, a certified physician assistant turned fitness entrepreneur, takes us through her evolution from administering emergency room care to developing a versatile kettlebell certification program tailored for trainers. We explore her journey through breast cancer and how it spurred the creation of a specialized rehabilitation course aimed at helping women regain strength post-surgery.

Meanwhile, Tom shares his insights born out of the gritty world of nightlife and bartending, revealing how his unyielding passion for fitness led to the birth of his training facility. Together, Sam and Tom provide a masterclass in perseverance and adaptation, peppered with laughter, challenges, and triumphs.

Join us for an episode packed with expert advice, personal stories of empowerment, and a shared mission to elevate the fitness industry with knowledge and authenticity. 

00:00 Pivoting to Course Creation
19:03 Uniform Prep Enhances Certification Efficiency
20:56 Refining Business Through Social Media
35:18 "No Excuses, Build Your Success"
50:17 Healthcare Challenges Abroad: Diagnostic Differences
57:02 Global Insurance vs. U.S. Health Protections
01:05:58 Choosing the Right Doctor Dilemma
01:21:41 Defying Limits and Expectations
01:25:06 Competing Worries: Injuries vs. Passion
01:34:06 "Newfound Appreciation for Exercise"
01:50:17 Designing Effective Kettlebell Courses
01:56:38 "New York: Global Fitness Hub"

Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/sciaccia/
https://www.instagram.com/tomdegiuli/

Transcript

0:00

We'll talk about this after. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Hey, guys. Welcome to the show. Me and Tom love playing matchmaker. We've learned this about ourselves. The only thing Tom match makes me with is ripped up hands from kettlebells. That's all. Every time without fail. Hey, Nick. Just snatch it. Okay. And then I go. And then ripped every single. Remember the. Ah. That means you have little girl hands. I definitely do. Do you know that they make fun of me at Jiu Jitsu? They say my hands are so buttery soft. You have no fucking call. They are. What happened? You have little girl hands. I don't know. Do you lift enough? What's happening? Probably not. I'm just doing too much ghee. No, you don't. I think I'm doing too much ghee. You know, just. I gotta re. Callus the old hands. That's really what I have to do. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm taking care of myself too much. Too much self care. Cause there's not. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm just. I'm hitting all the manicure places on the weekend. I'm like, yes, please get the callus treatment. So you don't have. You don't have calluses. Great. Still do it anyway. Just get rid of what's remained. I did get the. The sand callous thing that you. The calicure. Yeah, yeah, that. That helps me from ripping. I haven't ripped in a while. Yeah, the ripping is horrible. It sucks. It sucks because he just ripped next to me. Oh, my God. I had this one little rip from a deadlift I did a couple weeks ago, a month ago, and it would not. It would not go away. It would heal. Then he would also keep training and reopening. Sick. Yeah. So, yeah, that's. That's. If you smell something. By the way, that was Kenji. That is. You smell it? That is crazy. Oh, my kibble. It's a kibble. Kibble. Damn. Yo, that is pungent. Yep. Oh, Keeps going. It just keeps marinating. Like sitting here. Like an 82. What is it? Cabernet. Like an 82. Cabernet. Just. It just keeps breathing. Okay. Anyway, Sam, welcome to the show. It's a great. Welcome to the show. I just got another hit. I think we have to get some oxygen in here. Dude. Is it like a. That's so funny. He's like a horse. You ever see the horse videos? Because all they eat is alfalfa and oats. The tail just goes up. They hit it and they just. They back down. Oh, man. All right. Yeah, that's the kibble transition. That's been. It's been a fun transition. It's been fun. Yeah. I'm surprised I haven't burned my eyebrows off. You will eventually. Oh, it's gonna happen. Yeah. It's just. It's just always something like trying to help in one area, then another area starts flaring off. You just go, all right, you know what? We're just gonna try to balance things out as best we can. So, Sam, now that we have a little oxygen in the room, welcome to the show. Thank you. I appreciate you coming through and gracing us with a little bit of knowledge. And I want to hear about your background and how you got into things. Tom, you know, as you know, has spoken extremely highly of you and told me all these amazing things about not only the business side of you, but the personal side and just how you've built yourself up to something really amazing and there's really no ceiling there. You're going to keep going. So what is, for those that don't know you, what is your background? What do you specialize in? And kind of give me like a little synopsis. How did you start? Cuz I'm curious. Yeah. So my background, I guess you would say, is I studied in school traditionally to be become a physician assistant. And at the same time I also love training and working out. So basically I started becoming a trainer at the same time as a pa. So I moved to the city and started working the emergency room and then working at a gym. And basically I just started building and growing those two careers at the same time for about a solid 10 years before it turned into anything really tangible. Honestly, it came to a head where the ER was just. I was hitting the ceiling where the progression and room for growth or the, I would say promotion isn't where I wanted to be. I didn't want to be administrative work or anything like that. So I realized as a business owner, entrepreneur, like, I don't have a ceiling, just like you said. So I decided to dive into that a little bit more. And it was a hodgepodge of things. Like, I started off training clients, I started off running group class fitness, you know, studios. And over time I became a program director and then basically started developing my own programs. That turned into a really pivotal moment in my career where I was pushing out programs. I had this whole marketing, like, plan and then like, basically no one signed up. And I was just like, what do you guys want from me? Do you want me to continue with programs? Or do you want to learn from courses, certifications? And I did a survey and 99% of the people responded, we want to learn courses. We want to, like, learned from you, from education standpoint. I was like, all right, I'm literally speaking and creating the wrong product. So I did a full revamp come 2020, I was working in the ER still, but they cut our. I was. They cut our salary and cut our work hours by like 50% in the middle of COVID sick. Which is crazy to think because as a ER professional, we are a frontliner, right? I'm like, how do you cut our hours by 50% when literally we have a pandemic? But that happened. And pretty much I freed up a lot of time to create this course. So I spent all summer of 2020 creating, developing a course, not thinking it will turn into anything. Now it's my full time career. Two years later, I launched it. I was like, okay, I need 15 people to sign up to cover my ER salary. And the first time I launched it, I had 25 people sign up. I was like, oh, I don't need my ER job anymore. Then I ran it again. Second cohort, 30 people signed up. I was like, oh, this is like legit. So I basically just continue on with that. And what it is today is courses. I have now a trainer professional certification that I run and it's my third time running it. The next one will be next week, which is crazy. And, yeah, I kind of fell into the groove of training trainers when I would run workshops. I ran workshops for like six years, just on and off. I'll do it at Central Park. Bring your own kettlebell type. Just figure it out. And I noticed that 90% of the people that were coming were coaches and other professionals. I was like, oh, I didn't realize I was drawing that type of crowd. And then more and more and more, they were just attracted to what I was teaching. I was like, okay, I guess I am the trainer of trainers. And then that's where an idea of a certification came up. Seeing the gaps in the industry and how I have, you know, experience and knowledge to help fill that gap. Not in a condescending way or not in a, like, competitive way. Just like, I just want to enhance and level up our professionals in this industry because I come from a medical background and I know how that is. And professionalism is huge. But then the level of entry and barrier of entry to become a trainer is so low. But we have such a huge responsibility for our clients to, like, help them get out of pain, help them, you know, have a good, quality life. How is the barrier of entry so low when you have such a huge responsibility? That doesn't make sense to me. So then, you know, my personality is, if I see a problem, I'll create a solution. And I had the skills to create a solution, so I did. Now I have a certification, and it's the third time running. And it's wild how all that happened and transpired in what, three years? Yeah. It's crazy how a career just comes out of nowhere sometimes when you're not even looking for it. Yeah. You know, Tom was in nightlife for a while, doing his thing there, and then he just always loved and had a passion for fitness and training, and this is his career now. And the same thing with you. And, I mean, I picked the camera up and I kind of just was good at it at the time and honed the skill and bought a bunch of stuff. Yeah. Figured a bunch of stuff out. And it just kind of extrapolates and just gets larger and larger. And I was in sales my whole life, so. Same thing with, you know, similar to you, where it was a totally different industry, but you pivot into what you're kind of meant to be in. Absolutely. It's just almost like the universe is steering you the right way. I'm actually curious. There's a lot to dissect there, but I'm actually curious of what got you into kettlebell training. Yeah. Because there's a lot of people that, you know, Tom hears the criticism all the time. You see. You see the post that he puts up, and I'll let you speak on it as well as her, but I just find it interesting when people kind of focus on that. Maybe not right out the gate, but they build around that because they either didn't like going to a regular gym and doing the standard linear type motions, or they just wanted to try something different and they fell in love with it. Yeah. I mean, my. I would say my story is not like a profound story, but I was working at a gym. It was a mixed martial arts gym as well as a. Like, we trained people for the Spartan races. Sick. And a lot of our, you know, modalities that we would use were kettlebells. And I was a coach there, and I was like, well, if I'm teaching this to other people, I probably should know what I'm doing. So I took a kettlebell certification. I did my research, and then once I took the certification after that, I was hooked. I was like, oh, this is awesome. That's when I first started learning about strength training and how to strength train and using these bells. What I love about the bells is you cannot cheat with kettlebells. Like wherever you're using them and holding them, you have to be in good position to execute that move. If not, like you ain't doing it, the bell's going, going to break out of position. So I really liked how kettle bells keep you honest in movement and then how that I'm really big on, like, how that translates in life, you know, like, if you're going to cheat your workouts or you're going to cheat, you know, you're probably going to cheat a lot in life and try to get by. Right. So I think there's a lot of great life lessons that kettlebells bring to you that I really try to show people. And plus, it's, you know, once you learn there is a skill acquisition which what I'm here for to help you with that. But once you learn the skills, like you get so much out of it and you can do it anywhere. I was going to say, I was going to ask you, just expanding on how much you can get out of them. People probably just see it as a B type thing. Oh, kettlebell swings. Okay, great. But they don't really understand how deep that movement goes. Not only in the fitness level, but daily life level. Yeah. I just was reminded of a couple that I trained. They were originally from the Netherlands and they bought an RV and they were traveling all over Europe and they hired me to train them while they traveled. And it was so cool to see of like how easily just had their bells. And then they would have RV, they'd park it up, do their YouTube series. Yeah. Exercises. And then they would move to another country and I would reprogram for them. And it was just so cool to see of like they can do this life. They can travel wherever they want and still get their exercise in and prioritize movement. Because again, as a healthcare professional, what I care about the most is about your health and whatever we need to do to have you have a healthy, moving life, I'll get you there. And kettlebells allow a lot of people. The entry allows a lot of people to get to that. With kettlebells. Again, I know there's a learning curve, but, you know, it's, it's when you're a good coach and you can teach well, it's not that hard. It's not that bad. It's very easy for commercial gyms and what people do. And to do bicep curls and bench press, like it's pretty simple to do a hammer curl or hex press kettlebell clean, nice and with good form at heavy weight. It takes a very big learning curve. So I mean, how much? And it's no offense to people because everyone has to start somewhere. But the amount of not great form. Kettlebell swings. As the most simple and basic movement of using a kettlebell, that's the first thing you think of. Kettlebell. Oh, kettlebell swing. Yeah. How many those do you see? That's a front raise and not actually a hip hinge. And all the things that you know going into it now that if that person knew how much they're shortchanging themselves and actually potentially risking injury, and then they just go, I hate kettlebells. That just never works for me. Exactly, exactly. And that's something that I really try to teach my coaches is you got to look at the kettlebell swing or any type of kettlebell movement to its foundational components. Like you mentioned, it's a hinge. Can your client hinge, yes or no? No. They have no business doing kettlebell swing yet. Right. Teach them how to hinge, get them doing that first, and then that swing will come like this. Right. So that's something that is, I'm really passionate about, of teaching people how to move well so that we can use the kettlebell. Because once you know how to hinge, once you know how to squat, just holding a bell, doing it becomes a little bit easier. But if you can't even do that, how do you expect someone to do something as complex as a swing? Right? Yeah. I mean, that's the problem everybody. You put the cart in front of the horse. You just constantly see people like Tom, for example. You see him throwing a 370 pound sandbag floor to shoulder and over, and you kind of. Brother, brother, we gotta. We gotta figure this out. Because that as soon as I smelt it, you had your reaction. Ready? Wow. Okay. Not trying to smell. You're not trying to smell that. I'm going to. I'm going to duct tape his tail between his legs. It's coming. It's coming. Woo. It just hit me. Holy, bro. I'm breathing through my mouth. This is great. Still sleeping. This is great. Hope not. This is great. Oh, man. Comes, it stays and it lingers. Quick INTERMISSION playing ELEVATOR MUSIC I'm okay. No, I'm good. Thank you. I had a margarita instead. We go, we get to the coming here. She's like, I Want coffee? I'm like, okay, so we go to Coffee Beanery, this place, and there's a Margaritas Cafe right next to it. I'm like, all right, you're gonna make the decision. Either it's a coffee or it's a margarita. And she chose margarita. I was like, yes, have a coffee today. I had a coffee and a tea today. Yeah. So definitely switching up for margaritas. Yes. It was good. It was definitely good. Oh, you're up. Thanks. So nice of you to join us, Kenji. Thanks. Just keep doing what you're doing. Yeah. Okay. Back to sleep. As you were saying. Yes. What were we talking about? I don't remember. I could have also movement. I have amnesia from that fart you're talking about. Like sandbags. Three. Yeah. So sandbag. So. So when somebody sees you shoulder a sandbag, it's not that they believe that they could just do that right out the gate. They either have that instant thought of, I can never do that type of scenario. Awesome. That's gonna blow it back and forth. They have. They have that instant thought that they can't do that, or they'll never be able to work that their way up to that. Or they just try too heavy a weight and they get injured at coming to your gym or another gym trying it, and they don't realize that it's progressionary. Well, the problem is with my gym is ego. A lot of guys try to keep up with me and they can't. And whoever's watching this, you can't. Like I tell everybody who comes to my gym, if you try to keep up with me, you will get hurt. So learn the foundations first and learn the movement patterns and then you can progress in weight. And the beautiful thing about her course and what she teaches is that I'm. For the longest time I was doing kettlebells and I was just like, I don't need a cert. You know, I already know what I'm doing. I could snatch 124, 150 over my head. Like, what is a kettlebell coach going to show me? But then she. I went to her course, her certification out in Holbrook. And what really got my attention from her was that she pushes to progress in weight. She's not the type of coach that's going to keep you here in this one weight. If you're a woman and you're swinging a 53 or 62 pound kettlebell, she's going to tell you, all right, that's it. Go up. Like this is. Do you really. I Don't smell it yet. I don't smell it either. Okay. Damn. Was that just, like, trapped under the table for you? I'm sorry, people. We should be getting derailed from my dog's farts. I think it's hilarious. Damn. All right. Anyways, that's what I was saying. So if she sees her client swing 53, 62, 70 very easily, she's gonna be like, all right, you know, we have to go up. Like, you're gonna progress, or else you're, you know, you're not gonna reach the full potential of what you're at. And going back to what I said, it wasn't until listening to her at that cert that I was like, all right, Sam has a lot to offer, and she has a lot to teach in within myself. And I've been taking her course the past 10 weeks. Her, sir, is next week. And I've learned a ton where I'm like, wow. Like, I really don't know certain. A lot of positions of what I'm doing. Like, if I'm swinging a kettlebell to keep my hips down even, just holding it in the rack a certain way, or a snatch, whether I'm coming down, like, a sports style or a hard style. And how she teaches, like, it's so much to where even big time or the strongest people ever who think they know what they're doing, she can dissect it and learn everything from a very microscopic level where it's like, she can pinpoint, oh, her hinge is a little bit off, or, oh, his hip shift needs to be this way, or his rotator cuff or her angle needs to be like this. She's so good at pinpointing it to where I learned so much from it. Every other coach that's taken her course has benefited from him as well. So that's the beauty of it. So it's the course. Then it goes into the certification to be certified in your basic company and premise of what is the best way or most efficient way to practice this. Yeah, exactly. Because, you know, I've taken all the certifications, and a lot of them are just weekend certs. And I just don't feel comfortable saying that a coach is able to coach this stuff after two days with me. So I looked back on my medical degree. You know, what did it take for me to be able to have the authority to take care of patients? And it was a didactic or, like, a learning phase and then a practical right to handle people. So you need to show your book knowledge, but that's not all it because there's a lot of certifications that are solely online and just teach or I guess test you on your book knowledge but then don't like translate it into the real world. How do you apply that to the gym setting? Right. So I was like, let's just put this together. Just like I had to when I became a PA. Do the book knowledge, which is the 10 week course. And then once you pass that, they actually show up to the cert with their passing written exam. That's their ticket into the in person cert. And I didn't realize this, but last year when I first ran the cert, the beauty about that is everyone entering into that cert is on the same page because they just been through the same 10 weeks together. They have a level of knowledge so we can get through a lot more information in those two days. So it makes it even more beneficial and efficient for the consumer because they're getting so much out of that two day weekend versus, you know, people from all different levels of experience coming to a two day event and not having anything before for to kind of help level everyone out. So I was like, oh wow, that's a, kind of like a sideline benefit that I even realized that's occurring with this model. I know it's an investment, but like that's how much I value and take this seriously. Like being a coach, a trainer. I don't see you as just a trainer. I see you as a preventive medicine specialist. I see you as someone that's going to help other humans like prevent injuries, prevent chronic diseases, prevent diabetes, hypertension, all that stuff, like take your job seriously and Meister is going to help you see yourself in that light so that you're going to bring it to your clients and be like, no, I am someone of value. I'm not just counting reps. I'm not just trying to help you do exercises, but I'm actually here to help you move well, move better and have a healthy, live your best life type thing. So I take it seriously. Therefore this, the criteria to get in is very like intense, but for a good reason. So I, as of this past year. And how did you. And I don't want to cut you off, but yeah, what are, what is the general criteria? Yeah. And then also where, where did you refine it? Course to course. Because I'm sure you've been refining it since you started. I mean everything's progressionary, everything's an evolution of business. We all have been there and you figure out something that may have worked for you initially, didn't work, or it brought the wrong crowd, just like you did your own survey of. Which is pretty crazy when you think about it because. Which is like totally in a different direction. But what's crazy about social media is, you know, we talk about the negatives a lot, but on the positive side, because there are a lot, one of the main positives is being able to do your own market research, live with the people that follow you, and actually would be the ones utilizing, purchasing or sharing, the ability for others to use your course or service. So when you can ask your. What would people give back in the 90s and 80s to be able to, like, ask them? Yeah, hey, what would you like to see? Yep. Yeah, I want to know what you want. And they just go, oh, this. Oh, okay. So there's no confusion. Instead of like putting out something that they don't want and then you're confused as to why numbers are down. Mm, absolutely. Yeah. I gave you a lot. No, I mean, I gave you a lot. It's so true and so valid. And that's, you know, I totally agree with what you're saying about social media. And I try to look at the positive. I would not have this career if I didn't have social media. We did a survey with my coaches at the certain Chicago. 100% of them were like, oh, we found Sam through Instagram. I was like, the fact that the, like, these coaches were willing to pay over $1,000, travel to another city for this certification for someone that they found on Instagram, that's wild. And it's. And it's your certification. It kind of surreal, right? It's so wild. Like, I have these out of body experiences during the certs. I'm like, is this mine? I was like, this is amazing. What? Whose event is this? I was like, oh, wait, it's mine. This is pretty fat. This event's fat. Yeah. It's so wild. Wait a minute, wait a minute. I know that logo. Yeah, right? It's so wild. And so anyways, to get to your question, when I first started the courses, they were solely just online courses and there was no, like, barrier. There's no level of entry in, like, anyone can take it. And that was fine for the courses because online it's not as many touch points. But when I started the certification, that's when I became more specific because I'm putting a lot more time, money and energy into these certifications. It's running an event, it's planning a Whole weekend event. And people who are don't see my value and don't see the value for this, I don't want them there because I've had other coaches try to like, how do I say this? Penny pinch. Say it, Let them know. Say it. Try to penny pinch to get into this, sir. And I'm just like, okay, how do I avoid this? Because it was just pulling so much energy out of me to answer those emails to explain to them why they can't have$500 off of a cert that's already like below its value. Right. Very difficult to deal with that across any medium. You at the gym, you with the certifications in your business, me on the video side of things. And to have to sit there and justify your pricing as an entrepreneur is a very demoralizing type of a feeling because it makes you feel like, am I charging too much? Do I? Is this too much? And you have to just get, come back to reality and go, no, no, no, no, no. Like my price is my price because of xyz. Their price is their price because of abc. Yeah, it's okay that we're not the same price. Not everybody is going to be the same price. There's going to be people that are higher, they're going to people that are lower and there are people that the same as you. But at the end of the day, what you have to understand as an entrepreneur is that if they can't roll with you like that or they're going to give you a problem just without even getting into the door yet. Right. They've barely even knocked. If they're going to already cause resistance, you know that that relationship is going to be more draining than it is beneficial for everybody involved. Absolutely. One of the things that I've learned recently is I have to start saying no to jobs. I have to start saying no to people. And you know, especially when you make purchases on things like the graphics card that I just got or you start thinking like, okay, 1600 and then a low, a low paying or low tier offer comes. But you know the work is going to be far more than what that job is required or that they're asking for. But you just go, 600 bucks. 600 bucks. I could just probably do it as. No, you can't, you can't do it. You have to. At some point, like you did, you started weeding people out. That is the perfect way to do it. And it's nothing against the people that can't hang at the next level, but that's the whole point. You're upgrading your business model, you're upgrading your clientele. Yeah. It just, it is what it is. This is the course price, this is the requirements for it. If you can't meet it, it's nothing personally against you, you know that we're going to be running one in eight weeks from now or something like that, or 12 weeks. If you're able to meet those qualifications by then, great. You just have to unfortunately say no, not everyone, not everyone's qualified to buy a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. Right, Exactly. But the people that are buy it. So we need those clients, we need those people to align with us. Right? Yeah. And you know, I'm really big on also offering other options, like more access point to me and my teaching and my coaches. Teaching is just going to be more expensive. That's just how it works. Right. So I just started pushing out a self paced option. If money is truly a financial. As a barrier for you from learning, I don't want that barrier to completely be cut off. But you have a self paced option. That's. There's grades. Grades to it. Exactly. But the cool thing about when. So how did I kind of weed out those people? How did you. How did you begin to upgrade the qualifications? Two things. Number one, added an application. You have to apply to get into the certification. One, because if you didn't take it seriously, you will not sit down and spend time on the application. I'm telling you, the students that applied for this most recent cert, they're sending me paragraphs of answers. I'm like, oh, they spent time on this. That means it's val. They value this. And then I upped the prices. And the crazy thing about those two factors, not only is it making more, making it more worth it of experience for everyone, but this is the first cohort that everyone. We had 10 weeks, two calls a week. Almost everyone showed up every single week up until the 10th week, which I've never happened that before. Usually around like week five, halfway people. Yeah. Drop off and you're like trying to like scrounge for people to show up this cohort. And I was like, what changed, Sam? Oh, you had an application process and it was more expensive. So the people that are here want to be here, choosing to be here and value being here. And I was like, this, this is it. And I know like from business owners afraid to go up in price. It's afraid. But if you really have good value and you have to be honest with yourself is my product of Value. Right. And if that answer is yes, do not be afraid to charge more. Right. Do not be afraid to, you know, get into that higher quality level because there are people out there that will pay in the drop of a dime because they're just like, we see it, we can do it. Seventeen hundred dollars, no big deal. Yeah, I listen to a lot of Alex Hormozi and he's fantastic. I was actually shocked. I put a clip up of his podcast that I was listening to. I think it was yesterday morning, and he reposted it, which was pretty cool. I mean, he's just, he's a lot of his not. His business knowledge is just so rich in quality. I mean, it just, it helps everybody and across all industries. But one of the big things that he talks about is that as well is, is that you have to, you have to be willing to up your price. And that was his quote that I put up yesterday, which was, if you're not charging enough, you're paying more. So you're paying more on the back end of either your time or other people to take care of extra things that you should have just been paid for originally. And it's so true. And for a lot of entrepreneurs, it is a very moment when you price up, because when you price up, you're worried that you're going to lose and you're going to, you're going to lose a lot of people, but you're going to gain that next tier level of people. It really does happen. It's so crazy. But like you said, which is huge, is the service that you're providing of quality and substance. Because if it's not, then you're going to raise that price and you're not going to see people there. But if you, if it is, then people are just going to go, yeah, no, it just makes sense. Like, I get why he or she raised the price of this. Because of the changing times or trying to weed out people that aren't serious. I'm serious. I've already seen the results from it. I get it. Yeah. I'm here for it. Yeah. You know, that's another, that's another saying of, you know, the, the cheap client is every three seconds in the photo and video world, they say, like cheaper client, and they'll go, hey, where's the money? Where's the invoice? Did you pay the invoice? Just constantly following up with the person. Then when they finally do, every three seconds, hey, how's the edit? Has the edit, has the edit. And then the More expensive client is all right. Paid the invoice. Let me know when the product is done. That's exactly. My second point is once you get into that tier, your life becomes so much more easier. It becomes so much more smooth because the clientele you're working with, they're actually nice to deal with. The people that caused me the most headache were the ones that were paying the cheapest. Yeah. The ones that ask for a consistent discount. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, how do I weed these people out? And yeah. It just makes both of your lives easier. So I'm at a place with my business outside of BAL Mechanics and running the courses and certs. My one on one clientele that I see, we're becoming like best friends because they see my value. I treat them well. We have a really good relationship. And I was like, I hope every trainer gets to have like great clients. 100. Because there's always that one client that's like, oh, I, I hate the session. And I, I would never want a trainer or a coach to walk into, like, why, why would you have to have a session like that? Like, that's not enjoyable for you and your hour. I don't care how much you, you're getting paid. Like, you should enjoy everything that you're doing. Then why are we doing it? I've had retainer clients like that. It's. The problem is I see both sides of it. I see your side without question. I do. Why are you doing it? If it's a, if it's an agonizing type of experience for you to work with this person, then the other side of. Well, it's X amount per month. It's only one time per week. Or it's only a couple times a month. You know, screw it. I'll just, I'll, I'll just do it just to get the check. But the check winds up being way more of a drain on you than it's worth. Yeah. I had a client. We touched on a. Can't even call a client if she hasn't paid me yet. But I have a client who I did a lot of work for. I gotta think of a word for this person. Horrible. I hate her. I hate her. 9 acquaintance. But a nuisance. Nuisance. More than a nuisance. This is a hemorrhoid. I said what? I said can't take it back. Can't take it back. It's on the Internet. It's going to be on the Internet. The problem, the problem is it was a quick $2,500 job to produce a podcast. The problem is this person is of notoriety in, I won't say famous, but very well known. Okay. And it has been nothing but a headache. I still haven't been paid, oh, since August Rao. And it's been setting up eight send later text messages to constantly ping, ping, ping. It's not worth the 2500. It wasn't worth the 2500 when I, when I, when I went there and I, and I had to deal with all the stuff that I dealt with in the, in the moment. But I'm gonna get my money. I promise I'm gonna get my money. No one's pettier than Nick when it comes down to stuff like that. Karma. Yeah. People like this don't care. That's the problem. People like that don't care. And unfortunately, when you're running a business, which you both get and a lot of the people listening get, you have a lot of overhead in different areas. Stinky, Stinky. And for the audio listeners, I'm pointing to Kenji Stinky. The office, the apartment, New York living. Everything is a, unfortunately is a price tag. So when you're constantly thinking about, well, when I get that check, it'll be great. It wasn't worth it from the get go. And I should have just stopped then and called it a day. But it was the, oh, just, it's okay, just a quick job, I'll get it over with. And it's not, it's always the ones that are a headache. Yep. Also, anybody listening, please learn the lesson that I'm continually having to learn from the universe. Get a damn contract. I have the contracts. I get so lazy. And that's my problem once again. Universe, universe. Just constantly kicking me in the back of the head or in the nose like Kenji's rectum. Is this entire podcast episode just the universe constantly trying to remind me of said lesson of, please stop doing work without getting paid. Yeah, please. Like, we can't keep teaching you this lesson, Nick. It's like I keep going back to a toxic ex brother. Please stop. Yeah. But here I am again going, oh, good faith. It's okay, they'll pay me. That's. They don't care. Yeah. And that's the kindness in your heart. Well, that's me, because I know that the second I owe somebody money, it's like this. It's like when I go to dinner with somebody, I ask them four times, like, what do I owe you for the check? Yeah. Like I, I got to know because I have to venmo you now? Because I'll forget and then I'll feel guilty when it comes back up, but I forget. One of my mom's famous quotes for me is, we make the mistake of believing that everybody thinks the same way that we do. And that was one of the biggest lessons I had to learn, is that not everybody is going to have the same work ethic or heart as me. And, you know, I had a talk with a client recently on the phone. Me and him were catching up and he was like, you know, you gotta understand, like, how people are. They're not built like you. They're not thought like you. Like, you know, fitness is your life. Like, this is what you do for a living. And I said to him, I go, I did not have a gym my whole life. I did not have a gym when I was a bartender working 15 hour shifts and going to the gym at 3, 4 o'clock in the morning, when I was going to EMT school, when I thought about becoming a nurse, when I was working whatever job I could to make money. Like, I was consistently training no matter what it took. And in order for me to train the way I wanted, I built my own training facility. So I hate when people say, oh, Tom. Well, you know, people don't have the same mindset as you. They don't have the same build. Like, yeah, listen, I get it. Like, you know, people go through stuff, but are you going to use all these excuses or all these obstacles to just keep you down and out, or are you going to work around them and become who you're meant to be? And that's exactly what I did. So I hate when people tell me, oh, you know, we're not built like you, but I did not have everything I have now when I was younger, and that's what made me what I am today. So I think when people try to devalue you, like what you guys are talking about, it is a big, big thing of disrespect to you and you should not be taken lightly at all. That's something that I really had to learn. Huge. Yeah. Yeah. This person, this person had said multiple times, oh, I could have gotten somebody that would have charged X. And I'm just like, why didn't you call them? Yeah, that's weird. You called me. Yeah. You had all these people on your Rolodex. Why didn't you call me? Yeah, why, why did you call me? So, you know, it's, it's. Yeah, I think it's. I think that's an old One I like smell it. I'm like, dear Lord. I'm just ignored. I've accepted. Sam's nose has officially turned off. Not only does she have fantastic kettlebell mechanics, but she's actually able to disconnect her nose from her body. It's crazy. Affected by it. Well, I also worked in health care care for 10 years, and you can imagine all of the ER smells and things. So there. There is a specific. I've only worked as EMT for six months, but I was in ers. There is this specific smell. Go on. This specific smell. It's not poop. Pacific smell. Specific, specific. No, no, you didn't say it wrong. I said I essentially. It's not poop. It's not throw up. Excuse me. It's something. I don't know if it's musty, festerness, but it's a smell that's gross. And she knows what I'm talking about. It's this specific smell. I can't describe it, but it's just there. Poop, vomit, mold, musk. Oh, my God. Little trinkle of urine together. It's disgusting. In a hot environment for a month. That's the smell. It's gross. Let me tell you something about mold. Mold freaks me out. Really. It's everywhere I went. I know it's everywhere. I went to go pick my pineapple up off my counter to cut it up. The bottom of it was molded. I just went, oh, how long has that been there? I don't like that. Yeah, I don't like it. Mold freaks me out. Abandoned ship. Don't like it. I've got a side business that I want to. I want to do at some point. Are you getting rid of mold? Give me something like that. Mold excavator word. Yeah, we'll see. Something like that. I hate it so much. I may have to make a side hustle just to get rid of it. I hate it so much. Developed. Yeah. Well, actually, I want to ask you for. I love the logo. I love the logo. I also like this. Like, it's an S. Did you do that intentionally? Of course. Okay, cool. I just want to make sure. How long did it take you to come up with the logo? You know, I was actually showing Tom the first developments of it. I would say a couple. A couple months. I was working with my friend who was a designer at the time, and I gave her some options and she really. We really like the chic design of it and how. Thank you for noticing the S in it. Love it. With the Kettlebell. We used to have an EKG heartbeat in the middle. That's cool. For the health care. But we were talking to, like, some, you know, logo and branding experts of, like, simple, keep it simple. Yeah. So we stuck with this. And yeah, it kind of, you know, it stayed. It really did. Yeah. I'm in the process of rebranding my business and I'm trying to figure out what logo do I want. I don't want the usual photo that everyone does, the little camera or the lens. You're in media. I don't want. I don't want that. I'm actually thinking of Kenji. His ears, like, and a TV in front of him. Just kind of like he's watching the tv. Yeah, I'm thinking of something like that. I don't know. I just need to. Because I changed my company name. That's exciting. I changed my company name from Rizzle's Productions to Rizzle Media Group. Oh, so nice. The group is me, but group is one. But Kenji, come on. And Kenji. Yeah, except he just stinks the room up and reloads and sleeps on the job. So I wish he would go operate the cameras. That'd be great. Here we are. Yeah. It's interesting. Once you get to the progressionary levels of your business, start somewhere and then you start to transform and evolve over time. You know, the logo that I have now, and I'm sure you can attest to this for yours as well. Not your logo specifically, but just the business you have, like this beginning inception period of. Oh, that works. And then as you start to, like, really hone in and get really deeper into the company and what you do and all these different, you know, things like the certifications and whatnot, you start thinking about the company maturing. And that was a cute name or logo originally, but now it's time to just get to the next maturities and the next phase. Yeah. So that's kind of where I'm at. I'm just. I think it was cool in the beginning. My Rizzles Productions logo. I loved it first. I fucking hate it now. It's. I hate. I really do. People go, do you have business cards? I have. I have hundreds that I just refuse to use because I hate the logo. I don't know, it just looks. The Z's are just very Indian ish. I don't know. It is. It's very, like, Z Indian ish. My. My gym sign blew off the building and ended up on my roof. So if I couldn't fix it, I was like, all right, I'm just gonna. This is my. This is like, God's sign to, like, rebrand. Like, this is it. Is that what you think you're gonna do? Oh, yeah. 100. If I ever end up expanding. Absolutely. Yeah. Definitely a rebrand. Definitely a whole structure you overhaul. But I was like, all right, this is God's message. Like, hey, Tom, I think you should just. Yeah. Throw this away. Yeah. But then pooch, she was like, yeah. Like, that was never you. I was like, yeah, I like the idea of it because, honestly, it came from a Kirby game. So I just. It was. It was me playing the game. Kirby the Forgotten. Well, it looked. It looked very video. It looked video. Yeah. I was playing for Kirby in the forgotten land, and I hit up my boy Joey. I'm like, I want my logo to look. Look like this. He's like, okay, it was cool at the time, but, like, I have that same thing. Russian area. Yeah. You want to get to the next. Exactly, exactly. So I put. You know, the sign ended up getting put back on, but that was like my sign, like a hint and like a poke. It's like, all right, you're gonna need to rebrand and change things up very, very soon. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm trying to do my own logo, and it's not working out. It's not working out. I can't draw. It's not work. Even if. Even just, like, basic lines, it's. It's very wild. When you have certain creative brain for certain things, like logo designers, they may. They may be extremely successful and creative when it comes to that area of creativity, but when it comes to video and photos, they just. They can't see the vision. That's like me. I can't. People, when I. When I'm asked, well, what do you want the logo to be? I don't know. I don't know. Rmg. Fucking just write it out. I don't know, like, just basic type font, But I like that. I try. I want to stick to that type of philosophy where it's basic, like a Nike or an Apple. Very basic. People will know the more that you continue to evolve in the brand and in the space, people will know that. Sam. Yeah. That's Bell mechanics. So it's pretty cool. Yeah, I like that, you know, to touch on about, like, rebranding and coming up with the design that will just come when it's meant to come. I truly believe that. And I have another business that I'm building now, and for an entire year, I was trying to Come up with a name and the logo and the branding, all that thing, but everything behind it. And I just couldn't put my finger on it. I called it the Breast cancer program for the longest time. And I was like, I do not want. Actually, it was called the Breast Journey for the longest time. Breast Journey. In short, it's called the bj. And I'm like, I can't name professional. I was like, I can't. I was talking to my. One of my mentors. A lot of people signing up for a very different reason. Like, wow, there's a club. Yeah. I came here for the monthly membership. Is it like. Yes. Is it like. Oh, is it like, European wax? Can I. Are they gonna punch a card for me? Oh, my God. So that was literally called the BJ for the longest time. I was like, I cannot make this public. This is not right. So an entire private. Why do I have a million followers? Haven't even posted anything. I know, right? Sitting there waiting. So when is this. When's this gonna go live? Oh, so to my point, it was an entire year named the bj. And I was like, I can't be this. And one random Friday evening, I was at my apartment, just sitting there, and it was just like, boom. It hit me. Electricity. Strong. Yeah. It hit me. And I came up with the name and came up with the branding, the logo, the color scheme, everything. Two hours. Yep. And that was it. And that's what it is till this day now. And I'm like, wow. Something that took me. It's called Her Journey. Okay. Yeah. And her stands for healing, empowerment and rebuild. And it's for women who went through breast cancer and mastectomy, surgeries, or any type of breast surgery. You know, Marina, I gotta get you in touch with Marina. Oh, I don't know. Marina. You know, Marina. Was it the one. So my. My. There's an office right over here, right? Yeah. 5 Loma Place. Or I don't know, redact that. I don't know if that's right. I gotta check. Make sure it's Loma Place in Huntington. She. Marina. And I don't mean to cut you off, Marina. You and you would be phenomenal together. Marina is a friend of mine, and she opted for a double mastectomy, and she is, like, the biggest advocate for breast cancer awareness. And. Yeah. And then she had. Oh, my God. I always. I always screw this up. She had varian cancer. Okay. Or. I don't think it was cervical. I think it was ovarian. Yeah. Marina, if you watch this. My bad. I just. I. I forget which one it was. But then she had that, and she came back from that right after. That was like a year after her double mastectomy, and then she got Lyme disease, and then she came back from that. Then she was getting ready for hyrax, and she broke her leg in the tunnel to Towers race before Hyrax. So she's. Yeah, she's a trooper. And she also does acupuncture. She is. She is formulating the first program for women that experience courting. Oh, wow. Yeah. So she. For that, she is certified. Wow. By the medical boards now. Yeah. I would love for it. She's phenomenal. You and her would get along very well for her. That's. So I'll put that introduction in for you guys. I hope you guys can make some really amazing. That'd be great. Magic. They would. Yeah, they would kill it. Yeah, I have. Awesome. I've been wanting to do some live streams at Marina, talk about breast cancer, and bring some awareness for the ladies out there and the men, ironically. I did an episode with Marina about her double mastectomy, and I was at some random tattoo parlor open house, and I was just there hanging out, and this guy and I just started talking. He was like, what's your podcast about? And started talking. I told him about Marina, and he pulls his shirt open, and he had adult. He had a single mastectomy on one side for him. I was like, whoa. Wasn't expecting that. Crazy. I wasn't expecting that. It's unfortunately so common. It's so common in what I've. I mean, I'm 36. It's so common in women under 40 now, and that's scary. And what I realized through my experience and journey is that there's really not much research out there or much help or anything to get us back into training again, because it is a huge thing that happens to your body, and you can't just go back to how you were in your training, but how do you just not negate it but also safely get back into it? So, pretty much, I just journaled my own journey. I was like, listen, I'm a clinician. I'm a strength coach. And now I personally went through it. So, like, I think I have the perfect triad and formula to develop a program. Oh, you went through it too? I didn't realize. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry. That's a big piece of information. I should have told you. Yeah. Single. Double. Double. Wow. Yeah. I got diagnosed, actually. This is a wild story. I got Diagnosed in Croatia? Yeah. You were living there or just visiting? Living. No, I was. I traveled. I packed my stuff up in 2022, travel the world, and then I was in Croatia at the time when I started seeing symptoms, so. Symptoms? I basically was bleeding out of my nipple. Wow. Yeah. And I was like, this is not right. And from medicine, unilateral, painless bleeding out of your nipple is cancer until proven otherwise. So before I was freaking out, I was like, let me just go to a specialist here in Croatia. They have pretty good healthcare there. I had a couple connects, and he basically did some tests and he was like, it's probably not cancerous. No big deal. Come back at the end of the summer and we'll do a quick removal and you can go about whatever. And this was at what point? Year wise? No, month wise. He said, come back at the end of the summer. What month was it? This was June. So beginning of the summer, two months of just like. Well, in those two months, like, not to be, you know, grotesque. You could be. Honestly, you could talk about whatever you want. I'm really not. I'm not worried about it. YouTube and their terms of Service, I don't. I mean, this is real. So honestly, I think it's very educational and, like, for women who are listening, like, don't ignore your body. Don't ignore things in your body. Because first was a bleeding. And then during the summer, my left breast just got larger and larger. Yeah. Yeah. And it was just like, something's not right, despite what, you know, they said and where they weren't concerned. So I had a client who I was training over in Croatia at the time. She was like, get a second opinion with my doctor. They rescanned me, and basically all of my, like, mammillary glands and ducts were dilated. And they're just like, there's something more going on. We need to get you in the OR and figure this out, like, sooner than later. Within a week, I was getting surgery there. How was the healthcare system over there? So. And then you were. You were obviously coming from a healthcare background. So you can really compare and contrast. Yeah. So it was definitely a challenge, but doable. I think having a healthcare background really, really helped because I knew what I was talking about. But the access to diagnostic studies is just different than what we have here in the States. So, for example, the diagnostic that they used over there is something called a cytology smear. And we don't use really cytology that much anymore in the States because it's not as Sensitive. So you can have a lot of false positives very easily or false negatives. And I truly believe mine was a false negative versus if you're in the States, they would just go in, punch, biopsy, take the actual tissue, and take a look underneath. Yeah. That's when Marina, she kept getting biopsies, and she was tired of being a pin cushion. She was just like, it's just over and over and over, they keep getting lump, lump, lump. Yeah. So the diagnostics. And then when it came down to they. Instead of doing the biopsies, we just went in and did, like, took a scoop out, and he did some reconstruction, sewed me back up. The margins were not clear. So it came back cancerous. The margins weren't clear. And the next step, if I stayed with the doctors overseas, was a double vasectomy. And I'm like, what if the margins. Maybe you just needed to go one more centimeter in and not have to chop everything off? He's like, that's just what we do here. We just. If it's there more, we just chop it off. And I'm like, I personally, I'm. I found out I'm more of a conservative patient. We're like, let me just double check and make sure that it's not all over and I don't have to chop everything off, because that also plays a toll to a female, as you can imagine. Well, maybe not you can imagine, but, like. No, I can. I can imagine. Yeah. I can imagine that. That. Listen, you. You talk about females for their womanhood. That's their breasts and men, it's their testicles. I mean, exactly. I. I could imagine, you know, if you had to castrate. You. You. You're like, whoa, whoa. Chill out. Let's not jump to castration. Yeah. So that's when I decided to go back to the States, and I went to Sloan, got five different biopsies, and all came back positive for cancer. And I was like, damn. So I needed a mastectomy anyways, but I wanted to know, because if it was just like 1 inch more, 1 centimeter more, and everything else was clear. Up, can they show that? Can they prove that? Or are they just gonna. No. In Europe. No, it was just in the US they could. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. They did the biopsies, and basically they rescanned me and saw some. Some concerning marks because we didn't do an MRI overseas. They did an MRI here, and they saw, like, five different areas where it was concerning. So they biopsied all five, and all five of them came back cancerous. Yeah. So my only option was. Oh, that's. Oh, I thought you were saying you were still going to try to see if it was maybe a section over. Yeah. So it was every. It was everywhere. Yeah. So the wild thing is I found out. So when they did the surgery in Croatia, I was finishing my time there and I was on my way to Israel and then Egypt, and the results were taking forever to come back one month because there was only one lab in the entire country to run those specific results. So I had to sit. And you can imagine the anxiety and the irritability that you have of not knowing. Is it cancerous? Is it not? And you almost feel like there's a ticking time bomb in your chest. Yeah. You almost feel like, how long do I have? And is. Is the continued waiting period making this a worse. You know, you. I mean, for me, I would think stages. So I'm like, okay, well, what stage am I in now if this is the case, versus where am I gonna be if I have to wait for this result for another two weeks? Oh, just wait. There's more to this story. Oh, God. Yeah. So go to Israel. Do my thing there for a month. Love it. Israel healthcare, I heard, is pretty good. Yes. Okay. Yes, it's very good. That's what I heard too. But then I went to Egypt afterwards and Egypt was like a true vacation. It wasn't work. So I was literally on the Nile river on a boat. You ever see Murder on the Nile? No. It's a murderous. Anyways, there's like. Is this homework now? It's just like this really nice cruise ship that they're on that everyone gets murdered. That was like the ship I was on. It's really cool. They have chandeliers in the middle of it. But anyways, so far she's only mentioned Black Mirror. Pretty crazy screwed up shows. So I love. It. Makes sense. I love it. Trying to figure things out. Murder on the Mile Mystery, mystery, thriller. I see what it looks like. Belgian slew. Hercule. Hercule Pori. I don't know how to say it. Egyptian vacation aboard glamorous river steamer Turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture perfect couples I I. Death on the Nile. Yeah. Death on the Nile. Yeah. Death on the Nile. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Death on the. Oh. 2022. They made. They remade it. Yeah. It's so good. It's an old movie too, right? Yeah. Okay. But if you look at the cruise ship. Yeah. It looks like those riverboats, right? Yeah. So I'm on that. We get along so well. So I'm on that. I'm literally on the rooftop of the riverboat going down the Nile and I receive an email. Oh, God. Subject line, DCIS, aka Ductal Carcinoma Insight 2. And I was like, they are literally emailing my cancer diagnosis right now. And I like, my heart dropped. What a slap to the, like, just the, the mood. Oh my gosh. It was like I was. It literally took the words out of me. I couldn't. I remember I was with my roommate, with this bianca. Love you, 23 year old Australian girl. Like, you know, and I was like, bianca, I need you. And I just grabbed her and she kind of knew what we were waiting for. I grabbed her, we went to the room and I just like couldn't get the words out. And I just showed her the email. And I was so. There's emotions, as you can imagine, just rushed. I was angry, I was sad. Like, why me? Like, I'm so young. Why did this happen? I'm healthy. Yeah, I'm healthy. I'm taking care of myself. Like, does it run in your family? My mom, she got it. She was diagnosed at 48. Yeah, it's. What is it, the Brockage mutation? No, we were negative. Okay. So I always said that for me it wasn't a matter of if, but when. Yeah. Because there was also a long standing history of my mom's family on her side. Marina. Yeah, family and her sister. I just didn't expect a 34. Like that's so young, you know. But if you did look at my lifestyle 10 years prior, I was building a business, I was working in the er. I was in a very toxic relationship at that time. So all of those things play into dampening your immune system to allow cancer to proliferate. And that's something that I was learning myself of. Like, you know, you need to take care of yourself because your body, your body's only the one thing that you got right. So anyways, that all happens, I get back to the States. This is now November, December of 2022, and I'm seeking care in New York at Sloan Decide we're going to get a mastectomy. Everything. Well, while I was traveling, because I wasn't in the States, I got global insurance originated from a French company. Okay, okay. So outside the United States, they don't work under the Affordable Care act, meaning if you have a pre existing diagnosis, they can deny you insurance and deny you care anywhere. Right in the States. Thank God we have that now. So even if you had a history of any cancer, any sickness, you still can get insurance, you still can get health care, right? So this is where it gets crazy. I met with a plastic surgeon here. He wrote down that my symptoms started instead of in 2022, 2021. One number changed the world of a difference for me because that was miswritten on his documentation that my insurance company. And he fucked up. Like, he was. It wasn't. It wasn't like that. You just mentioned it. It just. He actually just screwed up the date. Yep. Accidentally wrote a 1 instead of the 2. I asked them to attend the note. They were going to end the note, but it was too late. The French company was like, nope. So I kid you not, they canceled. I was. I had surgery planned on Monday and Friday before I found out that not only were they going to cut me from insurance, but they were not paying for anything leading up to that day, which I already had $25,000 racked up in bills. And I was like. I was literally looking up at God and I was like, God, I need the surgery. Because like, you're saying I had margins were not clear. This is growing and proliferating as the months go by. I was like, this is spreading. This needs to come out. Even my surgeon, she was like, sam, I'm so sorry, but, like, we need to get this out of you. Like, this is. I'm concerned that it's. It's growing. And two of one, I was going to do. I was going to put up the cash because they're like, you need to come up with. I think it was 100k. So ridiculous to walk into the OR. It's so ridiculous. And I was like, I'll figure it out, you know, because obviously my health is priority. And shortly after that, I was able to transfer. And then there was a whole, like. Because I didn't live in New York, I was staying with someone. But then my business address was in my. In Philadelphia, where I'm originally from. So I ended up able to get insurance and Philly. And about a month later, I was. A month later I was able to get the surgery in Philly and just transferred everything down there. So now I have doctors at UPenn, which is great. I love them. And yeah, it was so wild. But, like, in that entire journey, like, I grew up a lot. I learned really valued. When we're talking about energy, like, I feel like I don't put up with anything now because I was at, like, a brink of, like, tough situations that actually matter. This little bs, people not showing up or not paying me or whatever. I'm like, cut. Bye. I don't care. I don't have energy for this. You know, like, there's a lot more bigger things in life that you guys need to focus on. And if you have that distribution, respect for me, you're out. I'm sorry. So I cut a lot of friendships. I cut a lot of relationships that weren't of value. They. They were taking advantage. Because I feel like I'm like you guys, where, like, we're givers, we're helpers. We want to just pour, pour, pour into people. But I poured into the wrong people. You pour into the wrong cup too often. Poured in the wrong cup too often. So that really taught me a lot of, like, no more of this. You know, I'm preserving my energy. It's for sacred people, sacred space, and that's it. Right. Moving forward. So huge learning experience, Very stressful. But, you know. So anyways, getting into the whole origination of this conversation was while I was recovering from the surgery. My instructions were wall walks. Don't move for four weeks, and then you can start training again. I was going to ask you, so what was the hardest part? Getting out of that surgery and trying to get back to your lifestyle? Fatigue. Managing fatigue. Yeah. Because there are days where you would just be so tired that you just don't want to move. And I told myself that no matter what, show up at the gym. Even if you sit there for five minutes and do nothing, just the act of showing up at the gym and sitting there is a win. They tell that to people that are depressed. Just get out of the house. Yep. Just get out of the house. Yep. Because the second that you get out of the house, you just feel a little bit better. You may not feel 100% better, but you do feel better. You get a little fresh air, you see some people, you see some faces, and then you go, but you can go back home. Exactly. You're depressed and you're constantly isolated. Same. Same situation. Just get there. Yep, exactly. So that's what I did. It was a week after my surgery, two days after I started walking. And then a week after my surgery, I went back to the gym, and I was just doing some reaches, rotational movement, just getting some rib cage movement, getting some legs. I couldn't. My heart rate couldn't go up a certain degree, and I couldn't lift heavier than 5 to 10 pounds. So I kept under the doctor's orders, but I didn't not, not move. Yeah. Movement is medicine. At the end of the day. Absolutely. So I just did those range of motion. And then when I was able to handle more, I did more. And when I was able to handle more and I would do checkpoints, I'm like, all right, can I plank today? Nope, that did not feel good. No planks today. Move on, next exercise. And I just built up and gradually, you know, built from there. So I basically journaled that entire experience, hoping that other women could benefit from, because not everyone has the experience and the knowledge of a clinician and trainer to know what to do, especially coming out of surgery. Right. So that's where her journey came from. And the cool thing about her is it's her. But healing is the first phase. It's three block programming. First phase is healing. So it's a lot of movement, mobility. Second phase is rebuild, which is your strength phase. And then the third phase is empowerment, which is. There is strength and power phase. So it's a nice, like 12 week, like block cycling that kind of gradually gets you back to training like you did prior to cancer and everything like that. So, yeah, that's how that kind of all developed. Super difficult. I commend you because it's very. It's a very tough journey that a lot of people won't understand unless they're in the shoes. And it's. It's just a blow to. To you as a human being. So I've seen it quite a few times, just third party, thankfully. I'm very thankful that it has been that case. But watching Marina, I mean, constantly have to alter her training and do it. I mean, she wants to do jujitsu and I'm just like, I don't think you can. You know, I just. I don't think you can. She has implants and she was saying when she was recovering, she would go into the sauna and they would burn her from the inside. Oh, my. She didn't. Yeah, she didn't realize that they'll heat up and now that she has no fat tissue in there that she'll actually. She'll actually start to feel the heat of the silicone burn her from the inside. Oh, no. Yeah, she had the. She had the draining. She had the draining tubes and all that stuff. She had a horrible infection after her. She been through the ringer. So when I hear these journeys and then, you know, I put her clip up on TikTok. And even to this day, women are still commenting. I'm going. I'm going through this right now. I'm about to do it. And it's just. You realize that there is not enough information out there. It's. Unfortunately, I hate to make it the male versus female thing, but it's a lot of male doctors that don't understand the female's perspective of being in that situation, how they're gonna feel physically and emotionally coming out of that. It's just a. And I don't wanna speak for your experience, but from what I've heard from Marina and others, it's just kind of like a. Here's your pamphlet. Good luck with everything and do xyz, don't do this and Let us know if something changes type of scenario. Yeah. And that's. That's sad because that's a. That's a really tough thing to go through. Yeah. I mean, you have to get with the right doctor. It's because, again, my experience and being on the other end, both ends of patient and doctor side, there are different types of doctors. There's conservative doctors. Are you still. This isn't my first room. I'm just making sure you're. You still on the screen. All right. I'm just making sure you're still on the screen. Ready, bro? I'm ready. Damn. Sorry to interrupt you, Sam. I just want to make sure that, you know, Shifty McGee over here is gonna. In order for me to get out. I have to be like, don't hit my camera. I know. Have I ever hit your camera? No. I'm not worried about it breaking. I'm worried about it being out. Don't worry about me breaking. Out of frame. Never out of frame. In frame. In frame. Now I'm in frame. Okay. Sorry. But so, like, finding the right doctor, because I've learned that, you know, even medicine and recommendations is not black and white. There's gray areas that you can play in with. That's another conversation for another time. But the doctor that I originally saw, a plastic surgeon here in New York, it was the message of, like, I was concerned about the aesthetics, obviously, because I'm young, I'm not married, I don't have kids yet. And I was like, I want this to not come out botched or looking weird or looking like they're fake. And he basically made a message and said that you're just lucky. You should be lucky that we're able to get this cancer out of you. And the aesthetics is really not as important. I was like, that's not good enough. I didn't ask for this. That's not what she wants. Don't do. Don't say that shit. I didn't ask for this. You think I'm coming to here. I at least would like a little reassurance that you're going to do your excellent, excellent work to make this as great and as natural as possible. Yeah, absolutely. So I had that conversation. Luckily, I did not go with him. And then my plastic surgeon. He's a doctor. Blow him up. I honestly don't remember his name. Who's a doctor? Blow him up. TikTok, do your thing. Find him. But I will say, though, my plastic surgeon at UPenn, Dr. Josh Fosnot. Like, I forget that these are not real. Like, they look. These are. Yeah, they look so real. And he did so such a good job with, like, so much care and, like, not only, you know, the aesthetic, but matching and everything. And I'm just so grateful that he was someone that cared. He would sit with me and just present pros and cons of certain things and be like, what do you want to make? This is my. This is my wisdom on you. But, like, ultimately, it's your decision. And he just made me feel really comfortable. And I just feel so bad for patients that don't have that experience, experience with doctors, because that's not fair to the patient. They're not asking to be there. You felt heard. Yeah. Which is super important when you're going through something like that, especially. Absolutely. So I'm very grateful of how the situation happened and I ended up in the hands of him. But, you know, if anything, just be an advocate for yourself. Seeing doctors always get. This is advice from a clinician and a patient. Always get a second opinion. I don't care how serious or how not serious the surgery is. The procedure, what it is. Always get a second opinion. Because nine times out of ten is probably gonna be different, and you need to find which one aligns with you more because both are probably good decisions. It's just which one you feel more comfortable with. Right. So quick. On the whole. Because there was a whole debacle on should I get chemo or not? Because it took a while for everything to come out. The cancer did spread. It went into my tissue, went into. Into my lymph node. And one set of doctors were like, textbook. You need chemo. And I'm like, okay, what's the. And again, with the medical background, what is it? The. The devil. Red. Red Devil. The Red Devil? Yeah. The what? Scare. I forget it's called. But basically, I saw that on a video today. A dude's dude's going through it right now. Documenting it on Tick Tock. I was like, I hate that. I hate seeing that the name of that one. But yeah. So one set of doctors were like, textbook, to be safe, you have a lot more years ahead of you. You should do chemo. And I'm like, well, how much is chemo really going to decrease my recurrence rate? And then when we narrowed it down, I literally was that patient. I was like, show me the studies. I can actually read them. So, like, show me the studies that you're giving me this information for. And it came down to 2%. It was going to change my reoccurrence by 2%. One surgeon, she literally in my ear said, you should be grateful that you have that 2%. I literally was like so close to cursing her out. I was like, are you kidding me? The audacity to tell me that that's my choice to make. So I talked to another who is my now current oncologist and he was like, it's up to you. You know, 2%, it's small. When you do anti hormone therapy, that's like 50% decrease. So. So you gotta wax and wane. Like, is it worth going through the chemo? Some women it will be maybe to me not. And it wasn't for me. You know, I didn't want to put myself through that if it was just going to decrease, maybe decrease my reoccurrence by 2%. Yeah. Huge maybe. Huge maybe. Huge maybe. Did you change your diet at all when you were going through that? Did you, did you opt for a more ketogenic? Because they say that that helps a ton with cancer. Yeah. No. Okay. Like I ate pretty clean. I still eat pretty clean. By all means. I'm not like none of us. Yeah. But even the ones that claim to be saints, they're pigging out on the side. So here's the thing with ketogenic. I actually did ketogenic before. Not for this reason. It's a little bit harder on women. You have to cycle a little bit more with carbohydrates, but it's just a little bit harder for us. And to actually stay in a ketosis state is significantly hard. Right. Especially like high output, high energy people. It can be, it can be challenging. So I know for me, the effort to put myself into to stay in ketosis wasn't worth it. So I was just like, let me just eat healthy. Like literally, if you look at my grocery hauls, it's meat and vegetables. Yeah. Well, Tom came in my life, so it's a Little different. What'd you bring? Pasta, chicken fingies. Chicken fingies? Pastas. Ben and Jerry's chips. B&J's, right? B&J's. So that's been, that's been a little challenge of like more or less self control and restraint of like, you can't eat everything that Tom eats, Sam, because it's not good. And my body reacts and responds to it. Not well, his doesn't. Mine. Mine does too. Mine definitely does. At some point, you know, I'm. At what point? What's your max? I think I true, truth be told, I think you just out. You out train a bad diet. Yeah, basically. I used to lean your whole life, right. I used to eat vegetables a lot. And my mom says it all the time. Like, you used to eat vegetables a lot. And I think just like the, I think just like the stress of everything. I think when covet happened, I was my heaviest. I was like 2, 210. I was eating burgers every day, every day. And I was working out twice a day because I had nothing to do. So I think progressively over time the involvement of the stress of the gym. And also I just love food. I think it's like more of like. Yeah, I just love food. It's just like the life giver. I love it. I mean, I like vegetables, I do. But the life giver, it's the life giver. It's not the first time I've heard this about him. It is a life giver. Cello used to bring him burgers when he was lifting. And when he first opened the gym, especially, dude, I, I, they were thinking of putting a like a to go window inside his town dud. I get hungry, especially with my classes at night between like five and eight. Like that's dinner time. I will walk across the street and go get pizza. I don't care. I need food. I need to eat or else I get really irritable. And yeah, my clients, they don't want that. Thank you, Tom. Yeah, no, they don't want crazy. But no, I think now it's just, I mean, I don't like to consider myself an anomaly because I don't want to give myself like that, like praise. Like, I feel like I'm like cocky, but like, it's just, it's just I'm confident that you know that. Yeah, I mean I am not like your average coach. I'm not your average athlete, your average person. So like we were talking about it in her, her lecture, like, my RPE is 10 all the time. Literally. But I can sustain that. Obviously. Not everybody can do that. Not everybody can. I'm shocked. His CNS holds up. Every single time I see him training. You know what I do? I look for signs of CNS fatigue on him. Yeah. And I'm like, maybe he doesn't recognize, but I look for. I haven't found it. Yeah, I thought it was a skin. Thing going on, but now he's just really all gas. He's just all go. It's crazy. It's just. But I'm keep an eye out for that, cuz I'm like, he has to stop at some point. I don't know. I've known for a few years now. There's no stopping. There's no stopping. You can't. You can't beat Father Time, but you can defy him for as long as you can. I was rolling last night. His young kid, eric, he's probably 20, 21 ish. And as we're warming up, they're doing a move where I put up, they're on top, and I'm. I'm trying. They're trying to pass, and I slip a butterfly hook in. And then they put a reverse butterfly in on my leg. But then they pin it to the ground and then they like walk the leg out. So your legs are like this while they're doing it to you. And I said, yo, I'm just letting you know you're going to hear some crazy noises because I'm not warmed up yet. And we're just drilling. So as he's doing it, all you hear is me going, he's laughing. And I said, eric. I said, eric, don't get old, brother. And he just goes, I'm gonna try it. I said, you know, I said the same shit when the old guys at Bev's told me, don't get old. And I failed. I have a feeling you're gonna fail too. I said, it's not that I'm old. My body's just been through a lot now and it's just. It's making some crazy, creaky, crazy noises. I tried to teach her Jiu Jitsu one day. Did not work. I laugh the entire time. She was laughing the entire time. Trying to show her, like, how to get out of mountain. Like what? Like different positions. There are like Americana Kimura. You were just like, knee to the butt, come down, scoop the leg, frame, frame, get out of the way. Arms in, no extended limbs. Oh, speaking of extended limbs. And I want you to. Hey, yo. Hey, yo, bro, what's up with you, man? I said limbs, not appendages. I. Bro. I learned to not extend my limbs. Arm creeps on the Internet. I learned not to extend my arm because I had a rib injury and I had, like, a little floating rib pinch injury. So this dude, Hajin, Hajin, if you ever watch this, you're a fucking savage. Hagin is this just paramedic that is built like a house, and he just. He's a purple belt. Just shows up after everyone's done drilling so he can just roll and he goes right into it. He literally sat. Did knee on belly to me. And I. This is before I really knew these things. And I went to push him away, and he just goes, oh, free limb. And he snatched my arm and just cranked an arm bar and I just went, oh, okay, don't push away and give them limbs. So, yeah, no free limbs. So, I mean, with myself, I just like to defy like I am. When we first started seeing each other, we first started hanging out, what was the thing? We were talking about rebels and you were like, five different things. Oh. The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin. So I consider myself a rebel because, you know, I elude myself from the mainstream things and I have my own gyms. Yeah. Gretchen Rubin. It's a good book. I want to look up. I want to get the rebel definition. Yeah, yeah. Read it out and see if you resonate. Since you've known Tom for four plus. Years, see if it resonates. Let's see. Let's see. Was it hot? What is. What's the guy's name? Gretchen. It's a girl. Gretchen. Oh, Gretchen. Okay, Gretchen. Sorry. Sorry, Gretchen. I'm a ma'am. It's ma'am. It's ma'am said that. The Taylor Report. Yeah. He goes to me. I can't say this on YouTube, but he goes to me before. He's like, all right, I'm ready for the. I'm ready for the. I'm ready for the shoot. He's like, I'm up. I said, what do you. What do you. What are you thinking? He just goes, I'm up for anything. I said, anything. Well, I got a dress in the back of the car. It's ma'am, what is it? Upholder. Rebel. Questioneer. Questioner. Questioner. Questioner. Yeah. So Obliger. Obliger. Upholders respond readily to outer and inner expectations. Discipline is my freedom. Questioners question all. Did I really say Question questionnaires? I really say that. Wow. Questioners question all expectations. They'll Meet an expectation if they think it makes sense. Essentially, they make all expectations into inner expectations. I'll comply if you convince me why? Obligers meet outer expectations, but struggle to meet expectations they impose on themselves. You can count on me, and I'm counting on you to count on me. Great clients, rebels resist all expectations, outer and inner alike. You can't make me and neither can I. Yeah, that sounds about right. So I consider myself in that line of. I consider myself amongst those people because people tell me every day, all the time, you can't work out every day. You can't do what you do every day. Why give me the reason why I can't do that. I think they're thinking of normal physiology like the average human being. And I'm Super Saiyan, but I'm. But I built myself up to get that way. Everybody is normal at some point. You have to build up to that. I would argue though, to debate and not debate negatively towards you. I would argue that you are an outlier, though physically you are an outlier. Because there could be somebody that trains not the same as you, identical in some ways in intensity level, maybe in a different vertical, but they just don't have the recovery that you do. Yeah. I mean even dudes that I know that take gear, like heavy gear. Oh yeah. I've worked with guys on roids multiple. Dude, they can't. I. They don't train that way all the time. And even if it's. Even if it's heavy gear, focused on more performance based versus bodybuilding, where they're trying to just gain size, they're just trying to be able to move weight and recover faster. So what it would be like a test. It would be test and growth hormone type of a. Of a cycle. Yeah. And I mean the genetics definitely play a big role in everybody's biology and everything. But you know, could I have gotten it from my father who's like a six foot two lumberjack? Yeah, absolutely. But. But with that being said, I need to monetize on that. I need to take advantage of that, of what I have. So if I am trained the way I am, it takes time to build that up. And I've been training since I stepped on the. On a mat when I was 10 years old. And the video I just posted today on Instagram when I first did my 150 fat bells, I'm struggling, I'm shaking. It took me almost four months to go from. For people who are watching to go like this to this, to lock out confidently. Yeah. Your Bench. Your bench is one of your weak points that you have said, right? Oh yeah, but now it's, it's getting to the point where you're working on it. Yeah, it's getting to, to that. But, but that stuff takes time. So with myself, am I an anomaly? Yeah, but I have to consistently do that and people can say all the things that they want. My mentality is different. I challenge people in the best way because I'm more of an aggressive, tenacious type of challenge. Oh, I can't squat this weight. Why? S Shout out to S my accountant and one of my really long time clients. I appreciate you. Yesterday he, I told him like, all right, if you can do one rep, if you could do two reps at a weight, you can most likely go up in weight, whether it's 10, 15, 20 pounds. If you do a one rep max and you do two reps, that pisses me off because that's not a one rep, that's a two rep, that's a two to three. So I told him yesterday, you constantly do the 106 pound. Fat Bells do the 124. Oh no, I can't do it. I can't do it. Oh, I can't do it. Why? Why at least care this one day to hit a pr, at least do that. And he did it. When you're spotting somebody with that, if I have to like go like this and help you get your elbows up, it's not a rep. But him, I followed him the whole time. He was perfectly fine. Yeah. So he was like, huh, huh. So when people tell me I can't do this, I can't do that. Why question it? Like she was saying second opinions or a more conservative patient ask questions or think outside the box. Why can't I do that? Me, myself? Why can't I work out every day? Why can't I push myself to the absolute extreme and fuel up and sleep the way I can? There are times I'm on four or five hours of sleep or sometimes I get 10 hours, it doesn't matter. I do not use that as an excuse. I do not use that to belittle myself or take myself out of what I'm ultimately going to become or what I am. So it's very an aggressive sense. And listen, no, absolutely not. It's not for everybody. No, but it is for anybody. That's the difference. Anybody can walk into my spot, get strong and lose weight and build a bulletproof mindset, but you have to allow yourself to get there. If you don't it's never going to happen. I would rather go in and fight in a jiu jitsu match or in a cage or in a strongman competition in another complete country. I'd rather go in there and do every single event, which I did. Every single event. While the guy who beat me in Jersey quit. The guy that I lost to when I did the qualifier, he quit. Something wrong with his back. Whatever, he quit. I'm not quitting. I don't care if I come in last place. I don't care. I'm there because I have heart and I want to continuously do and show up and show people. Listen, I'm here. I may not be the best, I may not be the strongest, but I'm here. I'm not going to quit. And I wanted to. After 12 hours of sitting around just to compete for 1 minute, 1 minute, 4 minutes of work and a 12 hour day, your nervous system just heightens up and it goes down. It's an adrenaline dump. But I didn't quit because I choose to defy. And I think, I think everybody needs that. You need to do to defy every single odd that is against you. She does it. She's done it multiple times with big lifetime situations. You've done it. Multiple successful, powerful people have done that. But that is the 0.1% of the world. But everybody needs that mentality. Everybody, that adrenaline dump, that constant. Like it's the jiu jitsu tournaments too. I think that's why people get injured, dude. Oh, it sucks. Oh, my. It's the same thing because you're. Yeah, you compete six minutes and then. You'Re waiting three hours. Yeah. Going to your match. It sucks. Wild. It sucks. I used to do that all the time and I got sick of it. And you know, I never got hurt in competition. I just got hurt in training. But yeah, like, it sucks. You have to just like worry and, you know, you're not warmed up anymore. You have to get cold, you smell, you're musty, like you're hungry, you're dehydrated. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, it sucks. They want to, they've, they've been mentioning for a while that they want me to compete and I'm just kind of. Like, you should definitely do it once. You should definitely do it once. No, no. Yeah, I, I would have to compete at my current weight. I'd have to compete at the 200. So I'd be the heavyweights. Do at least once. Do at least one. I will do it once. I, I don't know, at least once. I don't know if I'll do it once at blue or purple. Do it blue. Do it blue. Because my, most of my competitions were at blue. Do it blue. All right. Yeah, yeah, we'll see. I, I went against a couple of the guys that are this weekend. You're gonna do it? All right, I'll do it. Just give me a second. Warm up. Okay. Doing right now. Am I going? There's one tomorrow. There is? Really? Yeah. What is it? Which Naga. Naga tomorrow. They wanted me to do IBJJF in next month because I like gi, I like wearing the GI competitions. But I mean, I'll tell you, man, I, I feel like I could do pretty well, but I just, I get very worried about injuries because I know that I'm gonna go 100% because I'm gonna feel another person going 100% against me. And it's not that we don't do that at Sarah's because there's a lot of high level guys that I roll against and that I can compete with. But I feel like that's a different type of scenario where there's a plastic trophy on the line and everybody wants the plastic trophy. Yeah, yeah. See some crazy. It's, it's very. You have to weigh out your risk to reward, you know, competing. Yeah. Like you get notoriety, you get people like, oh, well, he's this, he's that cool. But even in Jiu Jitsu, adcc, the Abu Dhabi Championship Club, I think that's what it's called. That is the best submission grappling tournament in the world. And it happens every two years. You're only get, I mean not only, but it's a lot of money. You're, if you win, you're getting paid like 30, 40 grand. I'm not sure why Craig Jones came along. He did the CGI. $1,000,000. If you win that, that is a way better ticket. And I'll tell you what I thought. I thought people that snapping limbs for a million dollars and they really weren't, they were, they were going hard, but they were not going as hard as you would assume that they would be going when they do $30,000 versus a. Million, it's a life altering challenge because that six minutes could change your life, your, your career. Because Jiu Jitsu fighters are people who do any type of physical work or trainers, coaches, athletes. You pop your meniscus and it's never going to be the same. My ankle's been never been the same since I heard, since that kid hurt it on me, fell on it. It's my ankle snapped underneath us. Yeah, yeah. And you know, I popped my meniscus when I was wrestling five years ago. That was why I stopped Jiu Jitsu. Because that mic to you. That's why I stopped Jiu jitsu, because, you know, I'm like, I'm limping. Oh, I don't want to limp. Oh, I don't like this. Somebody's got to help me. I got to go like this. No, don't like that. So. But it's a life altering decision to go into a really big competition. Yeah, you could. You could beat everybody and win a million dollars, but you could also destroy. Destroy and explode your knee. And that's it. You're done. You need surgery. You ever seen what a heel hook looks like when they. When they. When they snap a leg? No. So he'll hook is basically. Oh, wait, no, no, I can't see. I can take care of the snap. Well, you're not gonna do. You're not doing it, so you don't have to worry. This injury is never going to get you unless you do Jiu Jitsu. No. You want to look at it? Do you want to see it? Can't see it. I'll show you. You sure? I'll show you. I shown the one you. You showed me. Which one was it with Craig Jones? No, no, no, no, no. It's not gruesome. No, it's just like, snap. Yeah, you can hear it. You go, no, I can't. I can't look at it. You don't have to. I'm okay. So there's no. There's. There's no voice. There's no. There's no voice on this one, but you'll see. I heard. I heard that. I heard that. I heard it. Yeah, I heard it. So basically, what a heel hook does is you're taking. I felt that. You're taking the ankle. You're wrapping around your forearm or your elbow. You're getting a gable grip finger. Yeah. Fingers over the thumbs. And you're contorting this while hipping in. While driving with your hips into their knee and just destroying their kneecap right in here on the inside. A lot of spiral fractures. And there's an inverted heel hook, which is where you get the arm around this ankle and you do the same thing, but now it's going this way. So externally, internally, then when you roll. The way to get out of it is you have to get the leg over, but you both start Rolling. And if you roll the wrong way, you'll just explode. Your knee. Yeah, Just going into it. Yeah. Gosh. Good time. Yeah, it's fun. It's great. So when people grab my leg, I just fucking. I go, I guess I go, yeah, it's not. Don't do that. Yeah, no, for real, don't do that. And some guys, you have to tell them. Listen, like, I don't. If you. You have to verbally tell people, especially Nogi. I don't know leg locks. So please just do ankle lock. Yeah, just go slow. Just go. Or just go slow. We have an instructor at Sarah's. He's. He's awesome. Brian. Brian's the very. He's a old school black bell very. Like, he's like that guy that you go, hey, Brian, love you. And he like flips you off and I go, thank you. So sweet. Yeah, he. Whenever we roll together, he goes for knee bars all the time. So I told him, I said, yo. He grabbed my leg. Do a knee bar. And I went like this to him. I went, hey. I said, no fucking knee bars. And he goes, what do you mean no knee bars? I'm yelling at the black belt to tell him not to do something. I said, no knee bars. Don't do that. I was like, I'll do. I'll tap right when you grab my knee. Just verbalize it. Knee bars are disgusting. Ugh. Explain a knee bar. Explain. Knee bar is basically like an arm bar. Oh, this is interesting. So kettlebell arm bar, what they teach when you're. Is it before Turkish get up or. Is it a shoulder activation? So it has nothing to do with the get up. Okay. All right. So then laying on your side. So it's just. They just use it as an activation drill. I thought that maybe it would be like something towards the Turkish get up. So, you know, basically you're bringing the arm up and you're bringing the leg over, right? And it's like an arm bar. You're rotating the bell. Right. Basically the same thing as if a jiu jitsu arm bar because you're on top of the person. You're grabbing them. You're, you know, have your legs over it and you're bridging up, breaking the elbow. The knee bar is the same thing. It's a little bit more intricate to get into, but you're basically wrapping around. You could wrap your. Imagine if I have like some. Somebody's leg, you could wrap around their leg and just snap it and break. Yeah, essentially you're just hyper Extending the knee the opposite way. Yeah. Yeah. It's not fun. I don't like that my knee doesn't go that way. Yeah, don't do that. Same. No, thanks. Don't do that. Yeah, it's very interesting. Yeah. It's just crazy when you start looking at it, like, all the different ways that you're able to submit somebody, and that's really. The chess game. That's jiu jitsu. It's pretty crazy. Yeah. You know, you have to. You have to have a great offense as. As. As well as a great defense. You have to be able to counter these things or know the second somebody grabbed, like, somebody tried to grab me for a heel hook last night. That kid Eric, actually. And I literally just. Eric. And I just. I literally just pushed my foot through and put it onto the mat. He can't heel hook me now, so I stood up. So then you got to worry about them putting you into single leg X and taking you over. Now that you're standing over them and they're kind of deep into it, and they have your Achilles in it. It's pretty crazy. It's fun. Yeah. And it's chess. Kettlebells for Jiu jitsu is the best. Yeah, it's the best thing you could use for that. Even, like, the kettlebell arm bar, I guess. Like, you could. You, like, definitely for shoulder activation, but also just like, maybe like, weighted load or even, like a. Just to show people the feel of, like, how it would be to be in certain positions with your arm extended or with your hips in alignment. Because jiu jitsu, it's not like a linear thing. Thing at all. At all. You're contorted in so many different ways and your body and your shoulders. So. So many ways. I never even thought my body would be in. In positions. The craziest thing, like, a Turkish getup is perfect for that. You know, even just doing, like, a heavy, technical standup or even, like, like having somebody on your back and just standing up with them. I've done that. I love Turkish getups. I think that they're awesome. Well, you're. You're new to. But I'm getting better. I'm getting better. Yeah. Getting. Because I'm learning through her course with it. Yeah. She got me onto the getups when I first. I. So with kettlebell training, I never had instruction. I just taught myself. It wasn't. Figured it out. Yeah. It wasn't until her that I'm like, all right, you know, now I have a coach and a teacher to really help me and what I need to know, like what I said at the beginning and because, you know, I had the ego. Oh, I don't need a cert. But no, I. It's learning from her and everything that she teaches has been so beneficial. And when she taught me how to do the get up, I did not understand how many steps there were in this movement. I thought it's like, okay, I just sit up and I get up and I get. I sit in a lunge and that's it. I haven't done one in a long time, but I would assume so if you start with your totally on the back, right. You start totally on your back. It's the extension, it's the elevation, right? Roll to elbow. Roll to elbow. First like this, come behind, corkscrew to hand, foot, like, right. You would come and you would like leg sweep, put the foot underneath. Then you would. To half kneeling, windmill, half kneel, come back. Then you would. You're on one knee, right? And then the next movement would be to stand. Yes. Okay. Yes. Yeah. So it's a. It's a good job, nick. It's a 12 step process. I bell, get that shirt off. Give it to me. It's a 12 step process. Six steps up, six, six steps down. Yeah. I did not know that. It's very intricate. So before, you know, before being coached by Sam, I'd never did them and I. They were just, you know, hard to do. But then now learning them, I go, I can appreciate this a lot more. I can appreciate this movement because it does feel great. The best one was, I don't know what I did like a couple months ago, but I think like, I lifted up the bar on the landmine. I think, like dropped on my hip a certain way and I had back pain. I was like, ooh, this doesn't feel good. I've been going through that tight hip back pain now. Oh, well. So what she showed me was a. Basically a windmill, but my kind of a windmill, but my right leg was locked out and sitting back into that hip as I put my elbow down to the floor and sitting back, getting into internal rotation. Okay. That helped out so much. After that, I was like, wow, that, like, it loosened up my back so much that it felt really good. So that might be good for you. Yeah, I have to. My. My hips have been in shambles. Actually, that was what I was going to say would be fantastic for jiu jitsu, though, is that helped me out a lot that all of the movements that can help you with Bridging. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that's what I find. It's not that I'm lacking in that. I just find that I lose a lot of momentum and power in my bridge, my hip bridges, because I have stronger. I've got stronger glutes, but stronger glutes. It's stronger glutes. Yeah. I'm glute dominant. But we all wish to be that, huh? Nick at Rizzles. No, I'm joking. All of a sudden, you have a million followers now. Yeah. Oh, my God. This is even live. And for some reason, I guess the window being open, everyone heard me. No, it's not the fame I wanted, but just keep sending them. I find that, like, that's a problem for me is my. My. My glutes can bridge, but my hips can't keep up with everything because I never did the hip bridges or any. Any of those. It's just they're so weak in comparison. But I'm thinking in bigger movements when I should be thinking in smaller movements to get my hips up to. Up to snuff to complement the bigger move. Yeah, yeah. It's my own, you know. How do you squat? I'm curious how. Yeah. Show you video. Yeah. Let me see. Because I feel like squatting. I use squats as an assessment, and squatting gives me a lot of insight of what's happening at your hips. Have to get a fucking assist. Because I was looking at, you know, Tom's. And Tom's, like, he just lives in pelvic and femoral external rotation. Yeah. And then when I put him in a position that requires him to internally rotate, it was significantly hard. So it kind of included my. Yeah. Hypothesis of him. I was like, he needs more. And not to get too sciency, but internal rotation helps promote glute lengthening, which we need. External rotator lengthening. I want to see. Oh, sweet. That's. That was when I was doing squattober. Oh, wait, do I press play? Okay. They're reviewing my squat right now, people. Yeah, those glutes. She's smiling. She might have tips, and she's. She might be like, wow, bro, these are really good. Yeah. Better mobility than me. Your ankles? Yeah, no, it's really good, actually. Yeah. Yeah. Like, so what I look at my glue. Dominant. Huh? What I'm looking at is first just seeing overall, your movement and then looking at your feet to see if anything. Usually if there's tightness, your calcaneals, your heels will kind of come in a little bit more. Mine do. Mine do. Come a little bit, lift off a little bit. But I also do. I also definitely don't wear the right shoes. Yeah, I wear these. I wear these. These beaten down Adidas that have heel wear from me scraping my dumb caveman feet on the sidewalk instead of lifting my feet off the ground. Caveman feet. So the only thing I see, if it doesn't call you any problems, is at the bottom. At your end range, you do have a left hip hike. Your right pelvis is a little lower than your left. You can see that there. Yeah. So a lot of the times it's due to just like a natural, like, right pelvic rotation. But ultimately, if it's not bothering you, nothing bothers you in your squats. And things are not, like, feeling weird or wonky or your back's not hurting. They feel. Well, my lower back is hurting, but. Well, actually. Oh, it's crazy you mentioned it. So weird that you would say that because that's exactly what I'm feeling right now. Wait, am I supposed to need a cane to get up? Yeah. No, My hips are tight, but I. So I did some stretching with Pliability, the app. I don't know if you remember it. You probably remember it as Romwad. Romwad, man. Pliability. So I've been doing the Pliability, and when I do it religiously every day, which I haven't like, but when I do focus on doing it every day, my lower back pain goes away. Or if I use my so Right. Which a lot of people say is. Oh, I love the so Right. And there's a lot of people say that. It's amazing. I love this. What is this? It's that. It's that, like, that, like, I don't even know how to use semicircle. You're seeing it in the. In my. With the two prongs, the two horns. It's like a U and it digs into your soaz. Oh, yeah. It's horrific. Some people say that it doesn't actually get that deep, but I feel like it does. Hurts. I feel like it does. If it helps you, that matters. And when I lay on it, I do feel my lower. Do you feel your back open up when you. When you lay on it? Wow. Okay. It's more of a sensation when you put one horn in and leave the other one off. You can lay on both of them, but it kind of like evenly distributes the pressure. But if you. Only if you hang one in and the other one's outside of your body, it's Pretty intense. Like pretty intense. Yeah. Well, I'll show you. But yeah. This is so. Right. I like it. Yeah, they came out with a lot of stuff too. Like so neck. That's right, dude. So that's what I needed. I'm going to challenge you to take a next step with your. Oh yeah, okay. I've seen this before. So it's great to. Challenging me. I'm challenging you. Challenge me. It's great to stretch every everything out and to kind of reset. But you're gonna go back to what you're used to. Right. So training in that new position and building strength in a new position is what's going to get you lasting results. Right. So what do for my squat? What do I change? I would, I would play with not necessarily going for like your heavy PR weights. I would play with actually adjusting your foot of having your left foot back and having your right foot. Foot slightly forward. Forward and possibly elevated so heel elevation. With like a five pound weight. Like a squat weight that you're lifting. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Like standing on a floor. Yeah. I thought you were saying you're gonna squat with five pounds. I'm like, no, I didn't say I. Could do that too. No, I'm really working a sweat up here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With like a five pound. Exactly. And kind of so a staggered stance. But how deep? Not necessarily stagger. Cuz so if my feet are. If my feet are squared off like this. You're saying like that? Yeah, very minimally. I mean I would say let's say like two and a half inches. That's about right. Like two and a half inches. It's not like that, I promise. Like, let's just. I'm just saying arbitrarily, like not full staggered but like half. Right. And my dumbass is always like under the bar and I'm just like where my feet at. Like I'm sitting there and then after a half, half a minute of reshuffling my feet, I'm like, no, now that's too far. That's why I love the monolith attachment. Oh yeah. Cuz it's just right there. Right? It's just right there. You get under it, you lift, you go right into it. You don't have to move, you don't have to. Yeah, you can set your feet and then just. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But playing with that squat variation to see, because basically it looks like your pelvis is slightly just rotated to the right and it makes sense. Working. Yeah. Broking out of that, that rotation and that stress in there might be causing what you're experiencing. So re trying to rotate your pelvis back to the left. Just changing your stance. That might help a bit. Cool. Right. Plus or minus the heel lift, but definitely play around. Or you can do. Do you do a lot of single leg work? Like Bulgarian splits? I used to. I don't really do a lot of isolation training like that. Now I've been getting ready for tactical games. Okay. Which I have to stop saying that because I have to, like, actually hit the gym consistently to get ready for it. I be doing more jiu jitsu than tactical games training. I'm going to go to the range this weekend. I got to shoot. But yeah, I. They have a whole programming. Okay. That they put out. And one of them was front squats recently, which you could actually probably see my front squat and tell me that. Yeah. It's good or bad because this was when I was squatting every day for the month of October. So that was an interesting challenge. But the front squats is new to me. I don't really do front squats. So it's. It's. It's definitely a little bit. I like doing it with the rogue cambered bar. The Duffalo bar. The curve. Here you go. There's me just doing my thing. The curve bar is really cool. Sits well if you. If you. The Buffalo bar, whatever it's called. No. Chris Duff. I think Duffin. He was from kabuki strength. Oh, yeah. And created the Duffalo bar. Everyone started taking over. I have the rogue one. That's a more recent one with my hip tighten. Yeah. I mean, you can see more of it. Exposes more of your heels. Like not having that access range at the last phase because your heels slightly go up and turn in there. Also. I would. I mean, again, looking through your sweatshirt, I tried your ability to posterior expand not only in your hips, but in your upper back scapula area is also important. Be able to hit that. Hit that range. Yeah. So for this, we just call. Can we just call her the mechanic for this? Honestly, I would still recommend trying that different stance to see and film yourself. Because you may not feel it, but seeing the difference of your hip. The hip hiking to see if that helps. I'm still doing it there. Rotation, not as much, but you're also front squatting. Front squatting. I hate front squatting. That was front squats. Keep you honest, man. Yeah, that was front squats. And then a little bit here. You still see a little bit there. Yeah, that's. Yeah. That was front squats. And then after that, they had you do front squats with 40% of your one rep max. But step ups 2010 each leg. Goodness. Kettlebells do so many. So many front squats. That's why I like with front squats, with the barbell, I'm just like. I do do it with the. I'd rather do it with the kettle bells. I think it's more comfortable. It's. It's fun when you're doing it with complexes. Like when you're doing clean squat lunge. Like you're having them in the rack here. It's not fun. She goes, it's not fun to me. Oh, God, no. There it's doing. I don't have good position. I don't have, like. Get that mic in front of you. I don't have good position or range of motion. You can extend it out. Extend it out. Look. Yeah. Wow. Nick, you got the fancy. A little scissor arm. Truthfully. Okay. Side note, truthfully, how this goes, truthfully, I wanted to get four of these, but this is a $450 mic arm. Yeah. And Bionicle, this is the one that Joe Rogan has. I think it's cool. 450, though. We're pushing it. That's 100. I think that that suffices. That suffices. That suffices. So that's why we kind of have a little Frankenstein now. Sneeze right in the microphone, blow everyone's ears out. Let him know. Yeah. Oh, you ready for this subwoofer? Bless you. Thank you. Yeah. The double bell complexes are fun. They're cool. I like the double complexes. I'll tell you what my problem is with. With the double bells that you have me do. The problem is you're really good at them. I appreciate you. Yeah. You did double 80s. Like, nothing the last time you were at. Yeah, it's been. And I don't really train like that, so it felt. It's impressive. Dude. Thank you. Imagine if you did. I know. Get closer to me. The more, you know, get closer to me. It'll happen. I know. Just. I'm holding out. I'm waiting on that. Holding out. I'm waiting. I'm just like, oh, I guess I'll go to the gym when Tom opens the gym. Closer. I'm just like, oh, is it this month? No. Fuck. Okay. I guess I can wait another month. Yeah. The problem with the double complex is it goes back to my dainty hands. I. Your little girl hands? Yeah. I get too much Rippage when I do it, that's my problem. Well, it's because you're not doing it consistently enough. But also you're the, you know, the technique and hat like me. So I think, I think they just slide in my hand a lot versus turning the wrists. How tight's your grip? Pretty tight. Loosen it up. Yeah, yeah. But I feel like it slides more if I loosen it up. Let it like literally when you're doing bells, imagine it just free balling in your hand. Yeah. Excuse me. Yeah, just let it, let it go in your hand because it'll jump. So like when you're doing cleans, literally when I let go and release, it's. It starts here and then when I release it literally jumps to my fingers and there's no. So like try a looser grip. That might help and not be as much. Because that type grip is really what causes a lot of that. And there's different styles. There's two different styles. You could do it. You could do it sport or hard style? Hard style is what she teaches in her course. It's, it's. I would say. What is be more linear. How would you describe it? Between. Rigid. Rigid. It's more rigid. Yeah, it's more like. Yeah, stiffness. Creating stiffness. Creating power. Creating force. Yeah, very like, yeah, very rigid. Very straight line, I would say. And then sports style is a little bit more leeway. You're, you know, you're coiling to each side in a way. I like, you know, I like sport in certain senses. When I snatch, if I'm going really heavy, the most I could do with the heart style. What she teaches is like a 106 or 124 to really come on that snap down. But as I go heavier, I need some type of rotation. Especially all that momentum coming down. It's like a, it's like a, it's like a boulder just like straight shooting down and you're stopping it. So when I'm up, I think I've talked about this, like just having that slight rotation and not like gripping it so hard. Cuz she's right. If I grip it so hard, it's going to destroy my hands and it's going to switch in and out. That's why my calluses. It's one here, one here, one here, one here. But I'm just going heavy on all these. A callous. My entire hand is a callus. Yes. Sucked to be choked out by you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Someone's getting choked out. They're like, wow, his grip Is crazy. But why is his hand so callously? It's like being. It's like being choked out by a pumice stone. How is this exactly, really so funny? Are his hands made in volcanic ash? So funny. But, yeah, I actually haven't had a ripping since. Oh, man. Now you said it. I know. Over on the wood. Knock on the wood. Doesn't mean I'm not. Doesn't mean I'm not gonna train. No, I know. It's just. It's over now. Just over now. Just tape and hope for the best. I've done the tape route at your gym. It. It. It's. It's a tough one. It's a tough one because I'm gushing all over the. All over the next bell. You need stronger hands, Nick. I'll try. All right. Back to. Back to Sam. So. Oh, man. I think. I think ending on two really cool points for you, I think one is I wanted to just know initially what it was like writing that first course, and then obviously your next certification is three weeks from now. You said literally next week. Next week, yeah. So I want to just go from what it was like to create and craft this course, and then obviously now going into the next certificate. Gratification, the emotions and whatnot. And then I'd like to end on you telling everybody how they can find you and all the. All the fun stuff of putting. Putting more people on to some amazing stuff. Cool. Yeah. So when I first was organizing and designing this course out, I kept trying to put myself in the consumers and client shoes of, like, what would they benefit from? What would I benefit from When I'm taking a course and I know all of the kettlebell education out there, and I kept thinking, what's missing? And something that I'm really good at is looking at the why, the what and the how behind the movement patterns. And I found that has been really beneficial for not only my clients, but for myself to be able to explain and then be able to quickly troubleshoot when things go wrong. So I was like, how can I incorporate this into a course? So I literally just started taking notepad and just writing down, okay, step one. I organized it in a fashion of doing movement patterns. So I do, like, deadlift. I have a swing. So each chapter is a movement pattern. And I just go into the details of, like, how to execute, how to troubleshoot, and then essentially how to coach it. How to take someone from zero that doesn't never heard of a swing before to actually swinging pretty efficiently. And then I just repeated that next chapter. Next chapter, next chapter. So that was the origination of the course. And then when I launched it out, I went through the cohort and it was great. There were lectures, but there wasn't any practice to it. So I always take feedback from my coaches now coaches, students at the time, and they're like, we would love a movement session. So now we have breakout groups where we get to put into practice the theory that we're learning in the lecture. It's awesome. And this is. This is over zoom. Yeah. Okay. Over zoom. Yeah. Two days a week. And then. Then the cert is. Is in person. The cert is in person, yeah. So how the cert came to be was the kind of what I was telling you before. The mindset of me feeling comfortable as someone being able to teach kettlebells to someone else. There needs to be a lot more involved than just an online version and just in person. So I was like, let's hybrid it up, put two of them together and create this whole. So now that you know, they have 10 weeks of theory and practice, and then the two day in person just kind of seals it up and puts like the bow on top. And that's exactly how it's been explained to me is like, when they come to the in person, in person cert, it's just like, oh, that makes sense now. Something that wasn't clicking, they finally get it because it's that in person experience. And you know, the cert that has evolved. I've ran it two times. This is my third time. And even between Cert 1 and Cert 3, it's been adjusted. So the organization, like, what do you start with first? I did skills testing first. The second cert, I didn't do skills testing first and I hated it. I'm like, this is way too much. And just trying to make it based off of feedback surveys that I get based off of what I think is going to be a great learning experience. But what's always in the back of my mind is how can I make this a good, effective learning experience for my students, that they'll actually take the information home and apply it to their clients? Because that's what I care about the most, is can you take from me and actually apply it to yourself and your career? If the answer is no, I'm not doing my job right, and I'm just another certification out there because there's a lot of them there. It's like, great, I learned this, but I don't know how to apply it. Yeah, people Just stacking certifications without actually. Yeah, it's just about the letters. Yeah. And I'm not like, yeah, you get the certificate and all that stuff. But what I care about the most is can you take these concepts and be able to apply it to your own training, your clients training? And I feel like this model and this approach is the best way to do it and, you know, encompass the entire learning experience. When you think about learning, I learned when I was in college. Motor learning, motor skills. Like, it's. All senses need to be engaged. Right. Visual, audio. What's the other one? Sensory? I don't know. I mean, like, can you smell? Learning? I don't know. Probably not. No. You shut your nose off. Yeah, I shut my nose off. That's why she couldn't think of it. She shut her nose. But, like, being able to see. Oh, read. That's what I was thinking. Vision. Vision. Appreciate you. I got you. I'm educated. I swear to see, to hear and to listen. The three senses out of five, maybe six, depending on how you feel. But. Huh. But. Yeah. So encompassing all those senses into a learning experience, I really feel like it's going to help someone make it concrete in their own practice. Frequency, repetition, you know, and understanding those three things is really going to help you. So essentially, that's how I created the cert to be what it is. And I'm sure this time next year it'll be involved, evolved into something else. Is it annually or is there a couple certs biannual? Okay. Yeah, I have two certs a year. For right now until we get. It's a lot. It's a lot of work. Yeah. And I'm cool with two certs a year. I was like the first time last year I was like, let's do like three a year, once every month. No, no, no, no, no. I'm cool with two a year for now until I can get some coaches that can run the cert and I don't have to run them all. Then I'll be more comfortable running more. So it's not me traveling all around the world and teaching everywhere. So where do you. Where do you plan them? New York. It's all in New York right now. Yeah. So I just moved back to New York in August of last year. Hey, prior. Yeah, prior to that. Prior to that, I was. I did it in New York and then I did in Chicago, and I was just going to go around to different places because I was living in Mexico City at the time and I pretty much. But then when I moved back here. It just makes more sense to be here. It's the hub of fitness. Right? And I live here. You think there's the hub of fitness? More so than la? Thousand percent. I hate la, so I just want to make that. No, no, it's different. Listen, I've been to la, I have a lot of friends in the fitness industry, la, and it's just different. LA is more home training, it's more entrepreneur building out your own online business, all that stuff. But like the training culture and the fitness culture of going to gyms and all that stuff is not as big as here. Like I've been to major cities around the world and I still stand by New York is the fitness. Fitness hub of the world. Yeah, like things trainers that I've talked to overseas, they're always looking at us and what we're doing here in New York. Yeah, I like the gyms. I mean I'm not a Brooklyn guy per se, but I like the gyms that you guys have. There are definitely some exclusive, really cool looking gyms that just seem. I guy I know was at one recently and I just looked at it, I was like, damn. Not top of the line equipment, like big airy windows and this and that. But do you know where. I don't know, I have to look again. I have to see. Maybe he put a post up on it. But yeah, I don't know. I just feel like there are some cool gyms, you know, Dog Pound in the city. You see these different, like little cool niche spots that you don't really see, you know, on Long island, besides Tom and a couple of other more, more tailored gyms to the training. You see a lot of push F45, you know, like the franchises, Orange Theory. I feel like there's more private label gyms in the city and in Brooklyn. Yeah, absolutely. I mean the demand is there. There's obviously there's so many people in the city that you can make. Let me tell you a funny story. You can make a specialty gym. Go on. Out of everything. So everything. So back in 2020. Yes, wait for it. There is a gym that was going to open up in Union Square that was a. I would say, I don't want to throw out this term, but a dominatrix gym, I'm just gonna drop it there. And basically I knew that this was opening because they reached out. They wanted to paint me choke holding a male in between my thighs as the entrance photo. Oh, mustard mommy. Literally. Do you know my biggest mistake in. Life was doing that Photo. No. Me saying no. Me saying no to that opportunity. Opportunity. I'm like, damn, that would have been so cool. Like, my kids, like, oh, mommy, like, got painted. Triangle choke. See? How long would you. Did. They were just gonna use your image or they wanted you to model choking a man for extended periods of time. Yes. Damn. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and I'm like, what type of gym is this? What type of gym is this? What is happening? I just had an Instagram account. Okay. Can I. Should I not say it? You should say it. What is it? Say it. You want me to tell you? Yeah, sort of. Sort of. I'm nervous. Involves bondage. There's a new Instagram account that Bells and Bond. Kind of. Basically, yeah. Oh, Bell Biomechanics and Bondage. Exploring theories on how kettlebell movements and bondage restrictions intersect in biomechanics and human movement. K. Bell bdsm. I've heard of occlusion training, but this brings things to a whole new level. What's occlusion training? Blood restriction. Yeah, training. So you would. Oh, that's where you, like, tie. Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah, I used to do that with John Meadows programs. Yeah, I used to do that for quads. You do like 30 reps heavy weight. They're supposed to put it in the clinical space, too, to help, like, optimize. Because it rushes the blood in after you're done. Yeah. Pretty crazy. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How long would that painting have taken? I don't know. I didn't get that far in conversation. I was, like, uncomfortable. I'm getting choked in a triangle choke for, like, I don't know. I. So the reason I said no is I didn't feel comfortable showing that image on men. Cuz I didn't feel like that towards men. That I need to choke hold them in between my legs. And puppy, he's like, all right, dad, let's go. I know you've farting up a storm. You want to. Hi. He's going to come say hi to her. Just you just ignore him. Don't stare at him either. He's so cute. I know. He just doesn't mind, like, man. Hi, sleepy head cutie. Is he being nice? Yeah. Yeah. You being a good boy? He likes his girls. He's stealing your girl right now. Can I pet you? No. Nope, nope. Don't do it. Leave him alone. Hey, buddy. There you go. Yeah, you're right. I told yo. Hey, hey, yo. You can say hi to her. What's up, bubba? You can say hi to her, cutie. You cutie boy, we ending on bondage gym. Kind of about bondage gym. I don't know how we got there. All right, so Sam, now that Farty's up, how can people find you? Okay, Tell me, tell the world. And she's not taking inquiries for triangle chokes. Definitely not. If you ask her for that, you're going to get a DM from Tom offering. He'll do it. Yeah, I refer all of those free. I'll do it though. Someone literally asked the other day. I did like a Q and a AMA on my. And they're like, how do you handle or manage like the Internet trolls? And I was like, I send them to Tom. Yeah, Tom gets them on. He gets to handle them. Literally. I can lift heavy, but I also. Know how to fight. Yeah. How do you, how do you find me? Instagram. My personal account is Scassi S CIA ccia. And then I have Bell Mechanics, which is Bell. Underscore me Mechanics A. Hi bub. Yeah, sweet. And that's how you can find me. Or Bell mechanics dot com. Okay. That's my website. Dot com. You could talk, you could. You could potentially pre qual for the certifications down the line and all the training and the courses and whatnot. Tom, how could people find you? Tom? Tom. Julie. D E G I U L I. You can follow my gyms page, the Strength Factory. I host classes, I host sports, privates, private training, personal training instruction workshops. You can also follow my online page. I'm actually trying to grow right now. It is the De Julie method and that's it. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you for gracing me with your presence and you as well, Tom, for hanging out. I always love hanging out. We're gonna do. We'll do more I think, I think once I get this live stream up, I think Some Q&As would be fun and I think that's. That would be a good time to just do stuff like that. And it's just cool to get the information out there, background stories and whatnot. Definitely linking you with Marina. That's not even. Please. Yeah, you guys have to, yeah like spearhead some like agreed projects and. And helping the community that goes through that. But I really appreciate you. I appreciate you, Tom, for connecting us and anybody that is interested in anything that Sam has talked about, Thomas, spoken about. Follow their pages. The links will be in the description as well. And do the damn thing like share, subscribe, all the things that help me to continue sitting down with amazing humans like Sam. Tom, on that note, I appreciate everybody for fucking with us. But for now, peace. Peace.