Life to the Max Podcast
Welcome to 'Life to the Max Podcast,' where resilience meets inspiration!
Join us on a transformative journey through the life stories of remarkable individuals, including Quadriplegic Army Veteran Maximilian Gross. In this empowering podcast, we dive into tales of triumph, courage, and the human spirit's unwavering ability to overcome obstacles.
Our show is a celebration of diverse narratives, from awe-inspiring achievements to the darkest of traumas. 'Life to the Max' is a testament to the power of living authentically, no matter the circumstances. We believe that everyone has a unique story worth sharing, and we invite individuals from all walks of life to join us.
Discover the profound meaning of living 'Life to the Max'—a concept that resonates differently with each storyteller. It's a journey of perspective, resilience, and finding joy amidst life's challenges. Tune in to be inspired, motivated, and reminded that there's strength in every story.
Ready to redefine what it means to live life to the fullest? Share your story with us and become a part of this uplifting community. Because, at 'Life to the Max,' every story matters.
SHARE YOUR STORY!
Life to the Max Podcast
John Cerasani: 2000% Raise Double or Nothing
Intro Track:
Green Thumb - Murfee
https://open.spotify.com/track/5iBOPNbvuETK411hQigh07?si=2d38b5bc1e13422d
Join us as we kick off the new era "Life to the Max" for an electrifying conversation with Instagram star and casino aficionado John Cerasani. Ever wondered how a high-stakes gambler balances the thrill of the casino with motivational content that resonates with millions? You’ll hear all about John’s social media interactions with celebrities like Jimmy Kimmel and Micheal Jordan painting a vivid picture of the shifting landscape of modern fame. We’ll also explore how younger audiences are redefining entertainment by choosing platforms like YouTube over traditional TV, making this episode a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the evolving nature of celebrity influence.
In a heart-wrenching yet inspiring segment, we recount the journey of a promising football player whose career was tragically cut short due to nerve pain. Get an intimate glimpse into his life at Notre Dame, the grueling practice routines that contributed to his injury, and the emotional toll it took on him. This discussion goes beyond the individual story to highlight the broader implications of spinal cord injuries, underscoring the importance of early detection and the resilience required to overcome life-altering challenges. Personal stories of overcoming adversity further enrich this episode, drawing powerful parallels to the struggles faced by those with severe injuries or illnesses.
Finally, we explore the life-changing power of social media in both personal and professional realms. Learn from John's journey of building a successful company from scratch, leveraging social media strategies to achieve a half-million followers on Instagram, and maintaining authenticity amidst the chaos of fame. We’ll share thrilling tales of celebrity encounters, the complexities of trust in relationships, and the significance of staying true to one’s purpose. Plus, don't miss the sneak peek of the upcoming YouTube series "Bombshell Blackjack," promising a unique blend of gambling fun and engaging company. Join us as we remind you to live life to the fullest, no matter the odds.
I, we're just trying to get by. Just a couple of puns all trying to get by. Just a couple of teens all trying to survive. Live to the max, cause you don't live it twice. Couple green thumbs all highs and highs.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the new era of Life, to the Max podcast. I'm your host, the Godfather, maximilian Gross, and today I have a very special guest, john Sirisani. This guy's blowing up on Instagram. He's doing great things in casinos. He's probably pissing off a lot of people, a lot of casino owners, in Vegas, but I got the freaking man. The freaking man is here right now. John sir is on. He makes a fucking noise happy to be here, man.
Speaker 3:This is pretty cool setup you got here. I don't think I've ever been to a podcast studio. That's, uh, quite the setup it's usually like if it's at a home it's usually like in the back room of someone's basement, not like the main freaking living room.
Speaker 2:So pretty cool I thought you would be, because, like you're like, you're like all over the place you're hanging out with, like these influencers and youtubers.
Speaker 3:It's crazy dude, it's, it's been a, it's been a wild ride, buddy, and as things like continue to expand. And as things like continue to expand, it's like I'm getting new layers introduced to the mix. You know I have OK. So, for instance, I have a 16 year old son. All right, I got Jimmy Kimmel following me, I got Nick Cannon following me, I got Bert Kreischer following me. You think my son gives two shits? No when Bryce Hall, the 24 year old YouTuber, starts following my son's, gives two shits no when bryce hall, the 24 year old youtuber, starts following my son's. Like dad, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:So we're hitting different audiences, man, and I think it's, uh, the combination of the motivational shit that I started with, which is pay to set your set your own ceiling, but also I've introduced this gambling content, which isn't even about gambling, it's more of a lifestyle thing with hey, do whatever you want in this world. I have to have a hobby. That's gambling. I didn't get rich gambling guys. No one, no one, no one ever thinks I did. But but that content, combined with each other, really expands to a pretty damn wide audience. You know what I mean yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 2:It's crazy to think that, like a bunch of youtubers are at these high stake like blackjack tables. You know, I mean I I didn't expect that, but that's where you're gonna find them that you know it's it.
Speaker 3:It's funny, man. I I gambled with um, this guy, steve, will do it. Uh, last last february is a popular guy that was on the. You probably do. You know who that is. He was one of the.
Speaker 2:NELC. Yeah, the full set clock is right there, bro.
Speaker 3:Oh, do you know who he is? Okay, it's very clearly you do.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I know who they are Well, so I did some shit with him and it was fine. And then just recently, the Bryce Hall guy. It was kind of funny, though these guys don't listen. If you're my age and you know how to gamble, there's certain things you follow, certain ways to go about it. These guys don't give a fuck. And I'm just sitting back watching them. It's like, especially Bryce. It's like, dude, there's no way you're ever going to win. Casinos must love you the way you gamble.
Speaker 2:How old are? Uh, how old?
Speaker 3:what's like the age difference of the people you gamble with, Like these kids, like you know, it's funny that you say that, man, because, like I said, I, I feel like a good look for me, bro, is hanging out with, like people my age or older hey, if you know, if burke kreischer wants to hang out, those guys have got a couple years like, hey, this is cool. Um, I don't know how much of a good look it is for me to be hanging out with these guys half my age, but uh, I gotta tell you though, man, social media doesn't give a shit. Sometimes, man, dana White hangs out with him. He's, he's older than me. So you know, it is what it is, and it's funny.
Speaker 3:The new social media is the mainstream. You know, you said, like traditional platforms, right, like when I grew up OK, for instance, when I grew up, I would watch Jay Leno, conan O'Brien and David Letterman. I start following Jimmy Kimmel. You think my kids give a shit. I even had somebody comment that would just wait five years. People were like you are going to be more famous than Jimmy Kimmel, and it got me thinking they weren't saying me and I'm not saying it to be like saying I'm more famous than Jimmy Kimmel, I mean, he hosts the damn Oscars but what I'm saying is the social media stars is the future, bro? Like, do you know anyone under 30 that watches Kimmel or Fallon? No, it's people my age watch it. When I was my daughter's age, I was watching Letterman and Conan O'Brien. They ain't watching these guys anymore. So there's definitely a shift that we're right in the middle of, and it's already happened, but I think it's going to even be more so 20 years from now.
Speaker 2:You make a really good point because, like YouTube is like the new news.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Youtube is what people like to watch. They get their news there, wherever channel they follow, whether it's like conservative or liberal, whatever they choose. And people don't like watch regular news on the tv anymore. They go to youtube, they go to their social media apps you know their instagram and then they figure out what's going on well, yeah, and the damn the damn traditional media with, with the news too, it's um.
Speaker 3:I had a guy that I'm friends with that um was a producer at cnn of all places. He's actually a very conservative guy, but he was a producer at cnn and and he said, listen, man, once we start giving like both sides of the view, or or or whatever, we have to lean into the liberal crowd, because if we do anything conservative, we lose our liberal followers. And, and fox news probably feels the exact same way. And you got this emergence now coming all the way around, though, with companies like news nation that are saying, hey, we're not going to lean either way. So it's it's kind of all happening in full circle and you know, I think social media again is is um, you know, I think a reflection of that yeah, these kids are doing great things it's amazing
Speaker 2:yeah I feel like I was watching uh adan ross and donald trump with my brother yesterday. I couldn't fucking believe that I'm like this guy's interviewing. Interviewing on donald trump pretty cool it's like crazy right you know they would think like a freaking reporter from cnn would be interviewing him but now I have some kid that was chilling in his basement decided I'm gonna make a living off being a Twitch streamer and doing reacts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, isn't that funny.
Speaker 3:Well, dude, and until my Instagram got popular, I didn't even know who these guys were. Okay, so Saturday night we're at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas Actually, this was Friday night, excuse me, literally, what are we? Tuesday, four days ago, and it was like this kind of cool moment for me, not like a pinch me kind of thing, but it was like I kind of observed what was happening. Okay, a regular celebrity by the name of TJ Lavin. He hosts the Challenge on CBS, a very popular reality show, used to be a BMX biker and all the X Games guys. He's around my age, okay, you know.
Speaker 3:He follows me on Instagram. He's like, dude, you should come out and play blackjack with me. He's on one side of me, bob Mennery, part of the Full Sun guys, on the other side of me, and then Bryce Hall's on the other side of me. And it was like, not like an orchestrated thing, we all just only knew each other because of like, really because of my Instagram page. I think Bryce and Bob might have already known each other, but it was just kind of like a cool thing. You're sitting there, these are people you wouldn't have met otherwise, and before we know it, we've got a crowd of 20 or 30 people around us trying to watch us play blackjack. It's like that's kind of cool.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean, especially when a guy like TJ is there, who's a mainstream, very known person.
Speaker 2:And people are asking me for pictures, just like they're asking tj for pictures I've been pretty fucking cool you know it really is. Uh well, let's back it up and let's go to the origin of johnson, right, let's? Uh, let's do that. So you're born and raised in chabert right chabert, illinois baby illinois born and raised and how did uh your life progress from, like you know, growing up to adolescence to going to college?
Speaker 3:so football really was always the driving force in my childhood and, uh, really a lot of my life. Uh, my dad was a high school, the head high school football coach at schaumburg high school. Um, he, my, my had an older brother that was five years older than me. He was a very good quarterback. Um ended up getting a scholarship to play at Wisconsin in the early 90s. That ended up not working out for him there and he ended up switching over to Indiana State and starting a quarterback over there and you know it's fine. And now he's a high school football coach and high school teacher and in a line in high school, line in high school.
Speaker 3:And, um, you know, for me it was a little bit different because I'm unlike my brother, who was a normal size guy.
Speaker 3:He's a big, six foot one, six foot two or whatever quarterback kind of build. I, I was a, I was a foot taller than everybody started, like in first first grade, like, like I look like the fifth grader playing with the kindergartners at the damn playground and uh, and not only that, I was more athletic than most people too. So I'm a foot taller, more athletic. It was very obvious that I was going to be really good at football when I got older. I couldn't even play football until seventh grade though, because in Schaumburg the little leagues did it based on weight class, so the kids wouldn't get hurt. So if I would have played in third grade, I literally would have been playing against eighth graders. You know just, even though you're both, you know 100 pounds, the eighth graders kick your ass if you're nine. So my dad wouldn't let me play, but he let me play in seventh grade, and even then I had to play line because I was so much big.
Speaker 3:I wasn't built like a lineman and built like a freaking tight ender linebacker, but but the way it was set up, so you're on the line that well that they made you because they they didn't want, you know, some kid that's bigger than everybody getting the ball, so they made the bigger kids play line. It was. It was a rule, um, they'd have a weigh-in before each game and if you're over a certain amount you weren't allowed to get the ball or be near the ball. Here you had to be a lineman and, uh, you know they did it to protect the kids and maybe that made sense or whatever. But it wasn't really till ninth grade, um, that I got to play off off of the line and, um, my dad wanted me to follow in my brother's footsteps playing, um, playing quarterback, and and that was fine. But, um, sophomore year, the varsity taught we didn't have a varsity tight end, so they moved me up to tight ends fucking knew you were tight I fucking knew I called.
Speaker 2:I was gonna call it man. I was like either d on defensive end or tight end right and I fucking knew you're gonna be a tight end. You, you're like. You look like Grog.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I think for sure, although nowadays, brother, I don't. Even these tight ends are like. I'll tell you a funny Jason Kelsey story in a second. But I moved on and I've been good at tight end and you know was huge, and sometimes I look at the I was too big to play quarterback and I kind of laugh at myself and look at guys like Cam Newton and you know they're fucking their biggest six, five, two, 70 playing quarterback. So I guess I could have but but it worked out for me. Playing tight on man, I got a full scholarship to Notre Dame. I was in high school fighting Irish.
Speaker 2:That's right man.
Speaker 3:That's right, man. High school, all American, and yeah, that's pretty much my story had a little bit of adversity at Notre Dame, but uh, I ended up transferring to Northwestern University, um.
Speaker 3:Swiss universities man brother, I'm gonna tell you right now, dude, I had the best of both worlds going from Notre Dame to Northwestern. First of all, northwestern was freaking good. It was the mid-90s. They were really good at football and um I uh to this day, just because of perception right, notre Dame's good at academics and good at football, northwestern's good at academics and good at football. Right, and both of them are. You could arguably you know the same on each of those categories, although Notre Dame traditionally is better at football, but they're both big-time programs, right. And to this day, brother, if I tell people I played football at Notre Dame, they're like holy, holy shit, you must have been a good football player. If I say I played football at northwestern, they say holy shit, you must be smart. And as a guy in his 40s, would you rather be thought of as smart or good in football?
Speaker 2:so you know I would say uh, good at football.
Speaker 1:All right well.
Speaker 2:Notre Dame. I mean, they were good last year too.
Speaker 3:They're good period. But I got to tell you, dude, it wasn't until probably the last couple of years, with the social media shit, that I was reminded how big of a deal it is to play football at Notre Dame. Dude, people treat you different, like it's bigger than saying you played on an NFL team. If I would tell you I went to Ball State and then played a couple years on the Eagles, people would be like, oh, that's all good for you, man. Oh, you played on the Eagles, I played at Notre Dame, nothing about the NFL. So I played at Notre Dame. They treat you like a different fucking person, man, like I'm not kidding you. People really, really love that shit. And I just had so much other shit going on in my life, buddy, I never really even talked about it as an adult. I wouldn't tell people I went to Notre Dame. Where'd you go to school? Northwestern, okay. Next fucking subject Did you play a sport? You're a big guy. Yeah, I played football. Okay. And then the conversation would end there because I was very blessed and fortunate.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, man. A lot of good football players come out of Notre.
Speaker 1:Dame.
Speaker 2:But we were on the phone like a week ago and we were talking about how you decided to walk away from football a little bit because of a nerve pain that you were having. Can you elaborate? Yeah, man.
Speaker 3:So there's one damn thing I kicked myself in the ass for a nerve pain that you were having and you're not. Can you elaborate? Yeah, man, so, um about? So there's one damn thing I kicked myself in the ass for my dad would always tell me it was a blessing in disguise never being my football career ending early. But, um, so my senior year, um, we sucked my senior year at northwestern like I should have. Went to the nfl the year prior. Uh, we had a new head coach. It was just stupid, like his guy's name's randy walker. Rest in peace. But he came over from miami of ohio and he wanted to make a point to the program and he's a hard-nosed guy and we would just beat the shit out of each other in practice every day, dude, um, like I'm not gonna tell you some of the things he'd be in jail nowadays for, some of the things that he was having us do. But rest in peace, though the hard nose football coach is different from mentality back then. Let's just say, ok, he was the last of a dying breed with that stuff. But and I'm saying that in a positive way, really but, dude, you would have OK, okay, there's a.
Speaker 3:There's a block in football called the iso. All right, it's when you have a fullback lineup behind the quarterback in an eye formation and a running back behind him. Okay, the quarterback hands the ball to the running back and just follows the fullback into the line of scrimmage, while on the other end of the ball the linemen are blocking other linemen. There's nobody to block the linebacker who's three yards off the ball, except for the fullback that's three yards off the ball the other way and the linebacker's job is to meet that fullback in the hole. It's like an isolation block so they run as fast as they can into each other like this All right, the running back. And if the fullback wins, the running back runs behind him and, you know, hopefully goes and scores a touchdown or something. Well, when you do that, block leverage wins Not just the biggest baddest guy, it's whoever gets lower because you got to get underneath the person's pads.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, randy Walker was such a such. Again, I'm saying it was positive. I'm friends with his son jamie, if jamie's hearing this by any chance in his, in his uh what, and his wife um tammy. But uh, we would run that damn in practice every damn day. All of our, all of our fullbacks ended up freaking, getting concussions and hurt. So me and the other tight end were both pretty damn good.
Speaker 3:He ended up playing in the NFL for a couple years actually, and so they said we're going to just go with a double tight offense. Okay, good, more playing time for us. I don't got to split them. Two tight ends will be on the damn field. Well, the thing is we still have this damn isolation but ISO block in our formula. But how are you going to run that with two tight ends when you don't have a fullback? Well, actually, john, no, you're going to move into the backfield and play fullback when we run that play. Okay, I'm pumped up. I never played fullback before. I'm 6'5", 270 pounds, and you know linebackers are typically 6'1" and, and you know linebackers are typically six foot one and, uh, you know they're in the big ten and have been playing this since they're freaking eight years old probably, and here I am six foot five and I started playing the position at 22 years old.
Speaker 3:And, uh, we're gonna run as fast as we can into each other and remember the low man wins. If you're six foot five, that's too tall. To be playing fullback, all right. That's why linebackers and fullbacks are usually five foot eleven to six foot one, really period, for the most part inside linebackers. So, slowly but surely, to win that, to win that fight, I started dropping my head. Okay, because you got to get lower. Before you know it, I'm running to the line of scrimmage at a 90 degree angle with my hips, with my head just straight down and running as low as I can to the ground. Now, rule number one in football is if you never have your head down because if you get hit in the top of the head, your spinal cord's in a straight line okay, whereas if you have your head up, you get hit here and you get hit in your face mask. Yeah, you might, you know, screw up some muscles in your neck if it's hard enough, but that impact is in your face mask. Yeah, you might, you know, screw up some muscles in your neck if it's hard enough, but that impact is protecting your spinal cord, yeah, okay. Well, you know it takes its toll throughout the course of the year or halfway through the year and I start getting tingles in my damn leg and I'm like what the hell is this? And I just kind of dismiss it because there's something in football called stingers and it's scary, but it goes away, it's. You usually get them down your arm. You only get them down your arm and your arm goes numb for four seconds and then it comes back. It's a pinched nerve, okay, and it's not pleasant. It's not pleasant, but if you're gonna play these positions, no, it's freaking scary, scary the first time you get one, and anyone that's placed the positions I'm talking about was exactly what I'm talking about. Well, my dumb ass starts getting into my damn leg. I don't think anything of it. And again we have a head coach that's once bad ass players out there and we fucking sucked. By the way, we were like three and eight that season. Nobody gives a shit about Northwestern football that year. There's nobody ever in america has ever said hey, how about that 1999 northwestern team? They sure, they sure were tough. No one's ever said that. Um, so year ends and I'm getting a physical for the blue gray all-star game was on christmas day and to go play in this thing and it's for seniors that are graduating that you know are supposed to be going to the NFL. I end up going to that. There's two all-star games. There's the Senior Bowl and the Blue-Gray game was kind of the second one I didn't make. The Senior Bowl is more for first and second round draft picks. The one I was in is more for middle round to late round draft picks and that's the when I was in. So, just to give you a perspective, I wasn't going to be, like you know, some first rounder here. But, um, I, uh.
Speaker 3:It ends up, uh, just randomly in the physical. Everything's fine, anything bothering you, just anything we need to know. Just casually. The doctor says that I go. Ah, not really I've been doing getting this one thing down my leg the last six weeks.
Speaker 3:It's describing it to him. You touch my shoulder here. I feel it in my ankle, he goes. Wait, so I'm pressing this right now on your shoulder. John, you said you're feeling your ankle. I go. Yeah, he goes. No, I go. Well, it's a stinger, he goes. You don't get stingers in your leg, buddy, I go. Okay, got an MRI, didn't pass the physical. They said well, we got to get this checked out before I approve you to go play in this game. Got the damn MRI, me and my dad and the head athletic trainer at Northwestern, you know, went to meet with the doctor for the MRI results shortly thereafter and he pointed out this contusion to my spinal cord. Okay, and he said you're done. He goes listen, man, there's nothing wrong with you. But if you keep playing football, it's just a matter of time, because if you see this gray area here, it's weakening, so it's weaker than everybody else's and it's just a matter of time before that thing snaps and you're in a wheelchair the rest of your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, spinal cord injury is no joke. That thing snaps and you're in the, you're in a wheelchair, the rest of your life. Yeah, man, spot awkward injuries. No joke, look at me, man.
Speaker 3:Well, that's buddy. That's why, when we were talking man, you know it's like. Can I just tell you something since we talked?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure okay.
Speaker 3:So I told you my mom was in a wheelchair. She had, she had multiple sclerosis. We talked about this off off camera and my mom's, my mom's amas at that time of my life was progressing, you know, it was getting a little bit worse and worse, and so the idea of being in a wheelchair with this thing and no one was going to take that risk, you know. So you got your dreams of playing a man. I fall gone. But you're also like, thank god they did this physical and we didn't find out when it snapped. You know what I mean Like. So you got that kind of going. But then since, since I'm hearing you talked, I'm on an airplane going to Vegas last week, last Thursday, and I fly United, I fly first class and they have all these damn movies and shit on the back of the seat that you can choose from and whatever.
Speaker 3:I must have seen this thing on there the last 10 times I've flown, always scrolled right past. It didn't know what it was about. Okay, because the title doesn't really show what it's about and I'm like, eh, you know what, I'll watch this one today. It was about I forgot his damn name. I'm following him on Instagram too. I forgot his name. I'm following him now, but Instagram, too, I forgot his name. I found him now, but the stunt double for Harry Potter. Okay, while they were filming Harry Potter, he was doing a freaking stunt perfectly healthy guy, just like you were, and I still am all right, buddy, there you go exactly.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's just a roadblock love it, buddy, I'll tell you what man you might be the healthiest person I know mentally every time we've talked um, but it was a situation where where is perfectly healthy living this life as as a stunt man for in in hollywood and um, he snapped his vertebrae and it put him in a wheelchair. So, just just like that, you know what I mean. So I don't know if the algorithm of life is talking to me, buddy, because they knew me and you were talking, they were gonna have this, but something made me watch that fucking movie the other day, brother. So anyway, buddy, yeah it's a it's.
Speaker 2:It's a crazy experience. Being a spinal cord injury like just learning a whole new life. It's basically a paradox. It's like your life is slipped upside down and you have to learn everything new and you have to rely on a bunch of people. So it requires a tremendous amount of patience. You know so, but I am grateful every single day I wake up every single day and I'm grateful to be talking to you right now, man.
Speaker 3:I really am. Thank you, man. You got you got to watch that movie. I think you're going to have a lot of relatable things with him. Thanks for having me here.
Speaker 2:Of course, yeah. So this pain that you had, what did it feel? Like your foot fell asleep.
Speaker 3:It didn't even. It wasn't even a pain, it was just. Whenever you hit me on my shoulder or my neck, I felt the sensation in my ankle. So there's only one.
Speaker 2:Do you still feel it?
Speaker 3:No, no, they don't feel it. That's fine, in fact. In fact, I got the itch when I was about 26 years old, a few years later, to say fuck it, let's go play in the nfo. And uh and uh, I started working out for it and I like gotta hurt my ankle once working out. I'm like you know what fuck this? I'm too old. So that one I actually regret a little bit. I should have. Just I know, because to this day, dude, I'll wake up off a dream in the middle of the damn light. It'll be like this detailed shit, dude, it didn't even start happening until I was in my 40s, by the way, you know what I mean. Yeah, like that, I decided to go back and play and then I wake up and realize, wait a minute, I'm not 28. You know what I mean. Yeah, but uh, brother, I don't even know what position you're talking about. Gronkowski, fuck Gronkowski. How about these other guys like Jason Kelsey?
Speaker 3:Travis Kelsey oh yeah, travis Kelsey, the Kittle guy on the 49ers.
Speaker 2:Fucking the guy on the Ravens, Mark Andrews.
Speaker 3:Brother, these guys are like fucking power forwards and small forwards in the NBA playing tight end dude. I don't even know if I can play tight end right now.
Speaker 3:Well, I was with Jason Travis's brother, jason Kelsey. We're playing blackjack together and uh, and he was a center for those that don't know and he just retired from the Eagles and I'm like, ah, dude, I ran a four seven in college. I don't even know what position I would be able to play in the NFL right now. And he goes dude, I ran a 4.7. He's the fucking center. So I don't know man, I think I probably would have had to gain 30 pounds and play defensive tackle or something.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we got a little past your origins.
Speaker 1:You grew up in.
Speaker 2:Schauburg.
Speaker 3:That's right, you went to all these colleges. Yeah, man.
Speaker 2:You attended football teams and all this stuff and then, what degree did you get in and how did you like progress from like where you were to where you are now? Okay because, like you're a fucking star.
Speaker 3:Thanks, man, I appreciate that. Yeah, we went from um. So it was december of my senior year in college when this happened and this is actually my fifth year, because I stayed an extra year for football, so I was actually done with school Now. My plan had been to play in the NFL. So that just gets turned upside down in December. So, okay, well, what the fuck is? I was going to just train for, hopefully getting drafted, and it didn't work out that way. So now I don't have a plan. And didn't work out that way, so now I don't have a plan.
Speaker 3:Luckily, at Northwestern University they have an outstanding as I'm sure most good colleges do have a very quality career services center. So I go on to the career services center and just start. They had companies coming in to interview seniors. I just start putting myself in time slot after time slot with every damn company that I thought might be interesting. And there was this one damn company man, it was an insurance company, um, and uh, I never forget it to get the the manager. His name is don mano, he sits down and sits across from me and the first question he asked me is like so what attracts you? What's what attracts you to being in the in the employee benefits? I didn't know the fucking employee benefits matter. I have like 12 interviews over two days. I didn't even know what they did, but I'm blessed to have taken that job because it was that interview with that guy that he started speaking my language and that was to make money.
Speaker 3:And my dad was a high school gym teacher. You know, we grew up in Schaumburg. We had we're middle-class family. We definitely weren't rich, so we kind of always wanted that money. You know what I mean. Like I remember one of my friends had a fricking new Mustang when he was 16 and we thought he was so damn rich you know what I mean and we just didn't have things like that and anyway. So I was driven by money and I'll never forget. He told me I should be. If I do what I should be doing, I could be making one hundred grand by the end of my second year at the job, and the base salary was only 30 grand though. So he was explaining it to me in terms of how commissions work and renewal commissions and things like that, and all I heard was I have a real opportunity to make a hundred grand in two years and that's all I could hear, because we thought my dad was pretty damn well off and he was probably making about that as a, you know, tenured teacher at Schaumburg high school and, uh, you know, public school teachers in Illinois are not underpaid, they get paid pretty well and he was probably around that amount, maybe a little bit less at that point, but $100,000 in my head. I had that $100,000 in my head.
Speaker 3:Well, I also had a job offer with Accenture. It was called Anderson Consulting back then. They changed their name a few years later and the job offer there, I want to say it was more than the $30,000. It was like $52,000 or something like that and there was no commissions.
Speaker 3:And when the environment was explained to me, it was about team settings and working on different projects and these big accounts that you're going to get and all this stuff and you're going to work under the umbrella of this person and you're going to learn from him, and then you could advance to this. And I asked him the same question how many years in until I would have the ability to make 100 grand? And it was not in two years, a long time. And it wasn't me dictating when that would be. Either it was other people making that decision for me versus the insurance sales environment. You're controlling your own future, man. If you get, you get good at this. Guys, I'm trying to be out of this. You know what I mean. You could sky's the limit on what you could make, so I took the risk.
Speaker 3:You know Accenture was a they're called again Anderson. Arthur Anderson was a very big company, very known in Chicago Downtown office right in the loop. Holy shit, you were at Accenture. That's the job, bro. Um, I took this job with Great West Life and Annuity that no one ever fucking heard of. Um, they're based out of Denver. Literally nobody knew who the fuck they were. And um ended up being great for me, man, because they they taught me how to sell. We took professional sales courses which really, even even then, was the end of a dying breed. A lot of companies didn't really train their sales reps anymore. These guys sent us out to their home office for two weeks. We did role playing, sat in classes, and that's the best skill set I ever had really learning to sell.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. Yeah it is. So let's fast forward to the social media guru you are. When did that start?
Speaker 3:So it started about a year and a half ago. I um, I started posting because I was trying to, um, I had decided to write a book, okay, and the book was really going to be just me dusting off of a book that I had written 10 years earlier. So this is 2021 and I I went like, okay, I could do the 10th anniversary of my book it's called Paid Training that I wrote back in 2011 with a new perspective on it. Well, I thought I'd go start talking about it on social media, maybe be on some podcasts, get a little energy around it and have shit else to do. It's during the pandemic, right? Well, as I started rewriting the book, the book was nothing like the original version. So I decided you know what? I'm going to make a whole damn new book and didn't really have a name for it.
Speaker 3:But during one of the podcasts one like this, where I'm somebody else's guests they asked me about how I left corporate America to work for myself, and the question was surrounded by money. And they asked me about how I left corporate America to work for myself, and the question was surrounded by money. Okay, did you make more money? Did your salary go down? How long did it take you to make more? And I go you know what? I actually gave myself a 2,000% raise when I did this and it just came out right off the top of my head and the guy goes what? And then we all started thinking about it and I started doing the math in my head. I go, no, I it literally. I kind of just threw it out the tongue and cheek. But no, it was about a two thousand percent raise. Like literally gave myself a two thousand percent raise for doing the exact same job. The only difference is now I was up on top of the org chart and not making money for other people. I was making it for myself.
Speaker 3:And the more I leaned into that, the more I started thinking about how I could help other people, things that I picked up along the way that they ain't going to pick up. Dude, they're not going to pick it up either. They're not going to realize the scam of corporate America keeping people as little pieces of the chess game to make someone else rich and protect the king. You know what I'm saying? They might never even figure that out, which I figured that out at the age of 27 when I started my company, but then also when you're out on your own little things along the way to make that company successful. When you're competing against bigger companies that have been around for 100 years, have 200 offices around the world, have 20,000 employees Shit, how are you going to compete with them? Dude, you're one person. You don't have any capital behind you. You're working out of your house at your damn kitchen table. Well, you know what, buddy, that's for me to know. The client doesn't have to know that. Shit. Do little things Like.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to name my company after myself and draw attention to the fact of how little we are. I'm gonna give it a big name. You know what I mean. And we're not gonna say I'm working out of my house. I'm gonna get a freaking box at the ups store and I'm gonna call it suite number 300 with this fancy address. You know what I mean. You know and this is fucking 2005, bro that I'm doing this shit. I mean nowadays, get the fuck out of here, like between fucking voice over ips and how easy it is to make a website. Now I mean shit. You could make yourself look like you're a billion dollar organization, dude.
Speaker 3:You could go buy paid media spots and bullshit, Dude do a press release on Yahoo Finance about how cool you are, Like none of that shit really existed. It might have, but not. It wasn't as easy to do as it is now. I'll tell you that much. Yeah, man, I mean that's what I did. So in promoting 2,000% raise, the social media kind of started taking a life of its own on, where the social media aspect not only became more fun, it's more popular.
Speaker 3:You know, not everyone wants to sit there and read a book, buddy, Not everybody wants to tune into a podcast. As you know, it's hard to get people to sit and watch a whole fucking podcast. Social media is a lot different, man. And once you hit that algorithm with Instagram like for me, for YouTube, I post a podcast. You know who's watching that podcast? People I told about to go watch it, or people from my Instagram that I told to go to YouTube and watch it. You know what I mean? That YouTube algorithm I'm not on it yet, I don't know. Maybe there is an algorithm that that works. I don't. I don't know it yet. But Instagram, I've already hit that algorithm and I put a reel out there. Not only is it going to go to my half a million followers. It's going to go like to new people too, and then they're going to follow me because of it. I mean, how cool is that?
Speaker 2:that dude. That's amazing. How is it like, how do you think it would feel you behind 500 000 people? Can you imagine that like you, and then you look behind and you're like there's 500 000 people that follow me dude.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna tell you right now, bro, I didn't think it was even fucking real, like when I was, when I was at about a hundred thousand followers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a big deal, but I kind of questioned a little bit of it because I had used the social media company at one point to help me try to grow my shit and never do that by the way, anyone that's listening to this, because they're all full of shit I'm pretty sure one of them sent me like a bunch of fake, like bot followers. So I always kind of questioned how many people are real. And as it's grown, it's become very clear that it's fucking real, because I can't walk down the fucking street without a person coming up and saying hi to me. Like, if I see a person come up to say me and my dad send your shit back and forth every day, dude, you're the fucking funniest guy on the Internet. That's a real person that I could see telling me this. Not, it's not a bot, you know. You know what I mean. So and that happens literally every time I leave my house now, which is which is pretty fucking cool and wherever I'm at in the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, like you're, you've reached fame and like fortune. Thank, you. It's like really it's inspiring.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Because you did it on your own merit. You know, and I'm just wondering you have the life man Obviously like when you were with all those chicks, bro. I was like get the fuck out of here, man. I was like get the fuck out of here. I was like what the fuck? I was like John, you're not going to invite Max. What the fuck is this? You're like say hello to Max everybody. Next, time.
Speaker 1:I'll remember that.
Speaker 3:We're going to have to remember that. Shout out, max. What's up? Max Dude, you should have told me this two days ago. I was filming, I was filming. So when's this going to air? Probably the next couple of weeks, yeah.
Speaker 3:Probably We'll do this at probably in a week, all right, so this might be out right around now-ish when this is airing, or it's going to come out very shortly. You'll like this. I'm doing a YouTube series called bombshell blackjack, where I just have a random pretty girl just sit down with me and play blackjack and they don't really know what the fuck they're doing and it's just combining, just, you know, fun to watch with blackjack. So tune into bombshell blackjack next. We only have three episodes right now, so I don't know we'll see how those go. We'll see how those go before we do a fourth let me uh, let me get back to this.
Speaker 2:So, so you reach fame, fortune, like, and like people like see your life and like, wow, this guy's cool, he's awesome and some people might be envious. Do you know what I mean? So when you wake up in the morning, do you feel like you've reached your purpose, you've reached what you've wanted, or do you feel like it's just beginning?
Speaker 3:good question. Um, I I'll tell you what man. Um, a lot of times people ask me okay, so where are you going with this? What's your, what's your fucking plan like? Okay, you did this now, now what? And I actually just got into a big argument with a guy named bradley in las vegas. He has a podcast that I was just on and we we almost went to blows with each other because he wants you to sell courses. He goes well, you're doing all this shit, but you're not making any fucking money on it. So what the fuck are you doing? And I go listen, motherfucker. All right, here's what I'm doing. Look at my fucking DMS right now. I got 20, probably in the last week, with people telling me I changed their fucking lives and how much I motivated them to do something with their life.
Speaker 3:And it's not by me yelling, pay me a thousand fucking dollars and I'll toughen you, the fuck up.
Speaker 3:It's by me literally just being me and um, whenever I hear about any opportunities to monetize or or anything else, it's just like, yeah, I'll look at it, I'll entertain that idea, but if it's going to do anything to sacrifice the brand and that brand being not, not, not monetary brand, that brand being that people are digging this and it's changing their lives, and if I, if I um, undercut this is not the right word but like, if I undercut myself in that value proposition by taking away my credibility with anything, dude, dude, I was just fucking doing a?
Speaker 3:Um, golden nugget online casino just paid me to fucking do it, put a reel up, and I did it because it was on brand and it was fine to give a couple bucks and there's a promo code if you want to get, you know, fifty dollars, a slot player or some shit like that, and it's fine. I'm glad to have done it. But it's like, even then I was like posting this, I'm not even comfortable posting this. It's like because I don't, I don't need to make money doing this. You know what I mean. But I still did because I'm brandon, I have a fine relationship with them and stuff, but but it's not like a priority for me at all, man.
Speaker 3:So so you know I I'm kind of just thinking out loud while I get to the answer of your question, which which is you know I, I do think I've made it in the sense that I've served a purpose, you know what I mean and I do think that if I was gone tomorrow, you know know, a year from now, people will still talk to me because of the stuff I've done and that's the stuff I've done in the last year and a half, Not the stuff I did that made me millions when I was younger, the fact that I was like helping people.
Speaker 3:So as long as I could keep growing that and reaching a wider and wider audience and doing it my way, I mean I think I'm going to keep doing that. I mean right now, bro, I get pressure from people to you know it's an election year. You know I'm getting pressure from people to you know, fucking speak up, dude. Everyone knows you like Trump and it's like, first of all, you don't know that I never commented about that and, yeah, I said it was fucked up when he got if he tried to assassinate or the guy tried to assassinate him, but I would have thought it was just as fucked up if he tried to assassinate biden or obama.
Speaker 3:You know exactly like you know it's crazy and and I say all that because it doesn't matter how I feel about politics, it doesn't matter how I feel about a lot of things. This page and what I'm fucking doing is trying to help people be the best version of themselves. Okay, so whether I like Trump or Kamala Harris or or, or you know, fucking some guy walking down the fucking street, doesn't really fucking matter. I want people to be the best they could fucking be. You know Jimmy Kimmel is a great example. You know he follows me and I posted this thing about hey, jimmy Kimmel follows me Kind of made a joke about it.
Speaker 3:Well, go look at the comments of that fucking post. People hate Jimmy Kimmel, that are lean on the conservative side, and I don't really know why. Nor do I fucking care. That's not what this page is about. This page is about being the best he could fucking be, and you got a guy out of him that's dominated the industry he's in. He's got a fucking TV show on ABC. Okay, that's pretty fucking successful for a person that's chosen to be a comedian in his life. You know what I mean. You can't take that away from him. So, whatever the fuck you try to do in your life, you try to get to the top of that motherfucking mountain, and that's what we're doing here. Period.
Speaker 2:So you definitely made a purpose. You know what? Something comes to mind with what you just said. Something comes to mind with what you just said. So for my podcast, the reason why I started it is because I wanted to share my story. I wanted people to feel grateful for the little things they have in life. You know, breathing Breathing, I thought, was a right, not a privilege, and it got taken away from me. Man, you know, and what I always tell people is it's like, uh, people are like, oh, do you want to? You're gonna make shit to the money. You're gonna be famous one day. You're the only like quadriplegic podcast, your host, and I'm like dude, it's not about the money, it's about the journey there you go.
Speaker 3:That's what it's about. Yep, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I love that it's I'm here to inspire and motivate people yeah, I don't need, I don't, I don't need your freaking promo code right, I don't need you to tell me if I like trump biden, rfk, jr. I don't fucking care.
Speaker 3:I'm here to motivate people, people who are having a bad day, because it could be a lot worse all the time, Brother, when I walked in here this is the first time we've met in person, right, we FaceTimed a couple times but I got this feeling over me, not because of you and the wheelchair, not even about you. It just reminded me of watching both of my parents passed away and I don't know. It just reminds me of stuff that I saw my dad taking care of my mom. That, as an adult now looking back, you know.
Speaker 2:You all right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like you know, as a kid kid especially you don't realize what's even going on. You know what I mean and like what you just said, dude, like I'm leaving here, I'm leaving here in an hour and I'm going about my day. This is every day for you, man. You know what I mean and then you're still doing this. You have a smile on your fucking face and you're still doing it, you know. And it just reminds me, dude, of like things I probably didn't realize as a kid that my parents were going through with my mom and shit. And keep doing what you're doing, brother, it's good shit yeah, well, dude, it's.
Speaker 2:It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you honestly and I appreciate you coming from Vegas to go do this podcast in Illinois because I know you probably have a busy schedule, but definitely a great conversation with you. You're an amazing guy, I've got to say.
Speaker 3:This is my first time in Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow for everyone that doesn't know, because I know most of you don't know, even if you live in Chicago. It's this little town that's this big right outside of Schaumburg, but I've never met anyone that actually lives here. So people actually live in Sleepy Hollow.
Speaker 2:Dude, you gotta do something for me. You gotta take me gambling with you, you wanna gamble. Yeah, I'm down.
Speaker 3:So let me ask you a question, man, so okay, so what's your instrument? The quad father? Okay, so I'm friends with somebody else, just totally randomly, as a radio host, and and he, he calls himself the quad father too. Is that like a funny, like paraplegic joke? You guys all call yourself the quad, the quad father. It's kind of funny. But but he, he's, he uses his arms. So what does quad mean? This quad?
Speaker 2:so quadriplegic means you can't like quadro, so he's a tetraplegic. So a quadriplegic is a person that is paralyzed from the neck down okay I'm paralyzed from the neck down in the worst possible spot, the cervical one, spinal cord so I usually about 20 to 15 percent of people die stay alive really with that accident. So I'm just trying to live my best life, you know, yeah yeah, well, I'm looking at you.
Speaker 3:You got the military stuff, uh, behind you. Man, I mean, that's pretty, pretty dope. You know, when I talk about, like my growth on social media, um, you know you lean into different things that the audience you know. You know you listen to people. Okay, what was popular? Why did people like comment so much on this one? Why did I get DMS about that? And it's like, oh shit, I didn't even know.
Speaker 3:And I have this affinity toward, or they have definitive towards me. I should say law enforcement and military folks just love my fucking page. Dude Like you would would not believe. And Max, it's the funniest thing, brother, I put out a damn reel because I talk about like not being a W-2 employee and working for yourself and people be like you're shitting on W-2 employees, quit shitting on them.
Speaker 3:So I made a reel. I would never do a reel like this now, but I go hey, guys, if you want to be a w-2 employee, go be a w-2 employee. My dad's a teacher. Hey, if you're a cop, go be a cop. I'm not.
Speaker 3:You know, maybe this page isn't for you. I'm talking about people in sales that want to go be entrepreneurs. That was originally who I was talking to. Well, I start getting flooded by people, like in fucking law enforcement, being like listen, motherfucker, we all follow your page and you motivate us, not not only because a lot of us have side hustles, we're trying to learn from you, but also just motivates us to be good fucking people. We think the damn same way. And, uh, it was that that point max. I only had about 50 or 60 000 followers. It was that point, at that point, with just little little moments like that, that I said you know, I really got something here, man, I got something here brother you know what does it take to like transition from a wt w2 employee to like you're being your own boss?
Speaker 3:yeah, well. So, first of all, people are starting to use terms now that I say all the time that like don't really gen pop. Well, so gen pop was around, but I don't think anyone was using it as effectively as I did. Now everyone's saying it and, uh, I'll get people to say it come up to me like I got a guy coming through. He goes dude, you took my term. I always call, I always call non-high limit people gen pop. I go, yeah, but when you said it, no one heard you. I say it all the time. Now people are, people are all saying it um, but the other thing is a w tour, and I don't think really anybody was saying that before. It can't be a W-2-er and it was really born across the idea that, hey, man, if you're a W-2 employee, dude, just so you know you're never going to be rich. The system ain't set up for that buddy. You can't get rich as a W-2. So just face the facts and a lot of people don't like that.
Speaker 2:But it and a lot of people don't like that, but it's really morphed, morphed. That's pretty true.
Speaker 3:You're bending over backwards for a guy you don't even know people don't understand that if you're a W2 employee, it's not just your relationship with your boss. There's a governing board, there's a board of directors at that organization that the CEO needs to answer to. And you start making too much money, buddy, they're going to be like why is that guy making 600 grand? Replace him with this person. And you know there's hot shot sales people out there right now that are thinking to myself no, not me, I'm too valuable. Okay, buddy, until you aren't, until you aren't. So the whole term. So people in the comments, people that would come at me disagreeing with me, people would start commenting against them, calling them W-tours. You're a W-tour, you don't understand. So it's really take a life of its own on man.
Speaker 2:Don't you just love trends, Dude? It's so funny.
Speaker 3:I think people just think it's funny. Don't put W-tour Fucking love trends dude, it's so funny.
Speaker 2:I think people just think it's funny. Don't put w2 or fucking hilarious. Yeah, all right. Well, I have a one more question for you. Yeah, what is the craziest bender of like gambling you've ever been?
Speaker 3:on? Um, let me think about different ways to answer that could have. I could talk about a bender between january and march of uh, 2020. That, yeah, well, it's three different trips where I just got destroyed in the bahamas and vegas, and vowed, vowed, that certain things and, uh, certain things in blackjack do not mix on vacations and never do that again because, uh, oh, my god, my God, it was not good. But, um, I'll tell you what man I had.
Speaker 3:Uh, I referenced this, this story, earlier, but it was just a really, really cool three day period man and it was in Vegas over the Superbowl this past year. Um, superbowl was in Vegas and if you've never been to the hosting city, um, during a super bowl weekend, you should try to experience it, even if you don't got tickets to the game, just because, like, everywhere you damn turn there's a celebrity man, everywhere you damn turn. And I got invited to play in this blackjack tournament. But there was a celebrity blackjack tournament, but I didn't really know what I was walking into and I only got invited because burt Bert Kreischer was hosting it and he, he follows me and thinks I'm funny, so, so, but we get there and man, it's cool man, I'm just like fucking Baker Mayfield.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, and uh it was awesome bro and Showtime Pettis, the UFC guy. I'll never forget it. I didn't know who he was, dude, fuck yeah. So now I'm friends with him so I feel funny even saying this but I didn't know who the fuck he was. And he came up to me and had his girlfriend take a picture of me and him, and then I'll remember exactly what happened. I don't think he either posted it and tagged me or or we exchanged information at some point and then I realized who he was and I'm like that's pretty fucking cool, cause I was still kind of in that growth phase at that point and I still am.
Speaker 3:But when you got guys like that coming up to you, it's pretty fucking dope, right. And then just the whole series of events that weekend and then stuff that didn't even have to do with that particular party, we turn around and I'm at, and then I'm at the Aria, then I'm at MGM a couple days later and, fucking, charles Barkley is on the other side of the High Limit Room later and, um, fucking, charles barkley is on the other side of the high limit room and he's betting pumpkins. Dude, let's go over to see what he's betting. He's got a crowd behind him around about. Obviously the pumpkins are 25 000 chips.
Speaker 3:He's playing two hands 25 and 25 and I could guarantee you, if someone's doing 25 and 25 like that, it's probably because that's his cap at the casino. Casinos can't cap you all, all right. So who knows, maybe he would have been doing 100 and 100. Who effing knows? But he was doing 25 and 25. And that's pretty fucking cool. Well, 10 minutes later, a guy comes up to me at my table and wants to get a picture with me and, by the way, again, I'm half the followers at this point that I have now, bro, and things have grown really fast. So he comes over to get a picture with me.
Speaker 3:And I go oh cool man, who are you here with? He goes oh, those guys over there. Anyway, he was part of Charles Barkley's entourage the guy that wanted the picture with me just happened to be buddies with him and was part of Barkley's thing but followed me on Instagram and wanted a picture with me. A picture with me. I go wait, you're with those guys. He goes yeah, charles is one of my good friends. I go get the fuck out of here. He goes you want to meet him? Barkley gets up and leaves his table, walks over to mine and somebody caught this on camera too. It's like we're both big guys to kind of meet in the middle of this crowd of people and dab each other up. It almost looked like one of those things like staged it, like I saw which direction he was walking and cut him off, but it, but it wasn't. He was walking to me. Um, so it was pretty. It was pretty cool man. So so that happened that weekend. Um, and uh gosh, I think I ended up winning a hundred grand that weekend. So that was definitely up there.
Speaker 3:Another one is Foxwoods casino in Connecticut. Recently I won a $300,000, um blackjack tournament. David Ortiz, big Papa, what's his name Big Papi, big Papi, yeah, big Papi. I don't know what I'm talking about. Big Papi was there and talk about a big motherfucker dude. That guy is big dude. He made me look little and I guess he was 100 pounds heavier when he actually played, but he's gigantic. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:So those are the two that would immediately come to mind I guess.
Speaker 3:So, um, I uh, I have a oh, actually one more one. Another time I'm at the bahamar. This is actually when I was on one of my benders that I lost a couple hundred grand. This is between january march of 2020. I'm at this table post fucking malone's. Next to me, michael Jordan walks into the fucking room. Scotty Pippen's in there watching us play. It was like literally remember that show on MTV back in the day, the Surreal Life? It was like the Surreal, like where are we right now? It was fucking cool, and the only reason I was in that room was because I was betting fucking 20 grand a hand before they all came in. So they were clearing everyone out, but not the asshole betting 20 grand a hand that's that's freaking amazing.
Speaker 3:That's that's crazy he walks in and uh, he's got the suitcase with him and uh, it's like a briefcase and I go up to him. And I go because I we're in the bahamas, right so.
Speaker 3:I could lead with that. I'm from Chicago, he'll like me. Then, if I'm from Chicago and a lot of people try to be too cool for school for that shit, no, dude, don't like go up to him or whatever. Listen, motherfucker, you got a chance to meet Michael Jordan. Go fucking say hi, because it's not like if you're cool about it, you guys are gonna end up being buddies, just like. Hey, that guy was really cool, let's start hanging out. No, dude, this is your one chance. This is your one chance. You're probably gonna get pal. You might want to say hi to him, you know? Um, so I did, and we talked for like a couple minutes, but uh, but post malone and uh pippin were there for a long time. Jordan kind of just came in and out. I think there was like some celebrity golf tournament in town or something. That's why they were all there those are amazing stories.
Speaker 2:Honestly, and uh speaking of honest, right, uh, since uh your fame and fortune, uh back then like uh, how do I explain this? Okay, so back then it's easier to trust people is it easier to trust people.
Speaker 3:Now it's the same so the trusting people part, you know, for new people I definitely need to pay attention to it. You know, you have people kind of up here out of nowhere. I think I'm a pretty good gauge of character. I think most people are. You know, it's figuring out that distinction right. Most people aren't just like trying to rob me or something like that, but they might have ulterior motives of wanting to be around me. That leads to some kind of business venture or something like that.
Speaker 3:And it's hard because that distinction then, you know, becomes all right. Is that the only reason you're here, or did you just now? We're friends and now you're presenting with a business idea. You know what I mean? It's hard to, it's kind of hard to decipher. So I kind of just stay away from doing business. Like, I made this rule about a year ago and I ain't doing business with friends of mine anymore. So you want to be my friend? That's great, and choose one because we ain't doing business together. One of the things I think in that same kind of context, though, that I've kind of figured out about myself is that's just become really clear is I've always been kind of an inclusive person where, like you know if.
Speaker 3:I'm having parties or something. Hey, everyone's invited hey, oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 3:Come on, come on, come on. And you know there's people in your life that aren't going to be happy for you, dude and um, just as a it could be even family members, bro, and uh, you know, you look back in your life and it's like, okay, here was a sign, here was a sign here. This guy only wants to be my best fucking friend. When times are kind of shitty, like when it's good, he's not really like that excited about her. He's, he's rolling his eyes. When something good happens, he doesn't want to hear about it. It's like you know what dude fuck that good happens or he doesn't want to hear about it. It's like you know what dude Fuck that man, fuck that. You want to be on this fucking train. You got to be positive, bro.
Speaker 2:Period Positivity always wins.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. But it also always amazes me, dude. It's like okay, these are your friends that you grew up with, or these are your friends that, and someone keeps going up. Do you want some stranger to go up? Someone's going up, motherfucker. Would you rather be a stranger or a person you're associated with? I just don't understand it. Yeah, you know, that's crazy, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's insane. What's insane, too, is the influencers you have met and all these YouTubers and like Bob Menderley, yeah. I'm a huge like N like Bob Mundry. Yeah, I'm a huge Flake and the Nell Coy Foulson fan. I, I, I. When I was in the hospital and my girl left me, all I would do is just watch their videos. Really. I would just wait every Monday to watch their videos. Man, it was just insane, it was, it was.
Speaker 3:Let's see if. Let's see if I'm going to try this. I've never done this before, but he does it to people all the time, so I'm going to try it. If it works, what do you think, bree, is he going to answer? I don't know, I'm going to do a FaceTime. He might not answer a FaceTime. He might be taking a shit or something. Let's see if he does.
Speaker 3:If he does, he's sick man, but yeah he's gonna see me with the headphones on and be like what the fuck? Whose podcast? This is john quit using me for clout. Hey, can you hear me? All right, listen, man. I'm on this guy's podcast. Um, he is. Did you start following me because of bob, or?
Speaker 2:no, my brother, my brother what's that?
Speaker 3:my brother he wants to know if he owes you money, tell me, he owes everyone money. All right, listen man.
Speaker 2:All right here this is fucking insane. I'm going to bring it over by you, max.
Speaker 3:This is fucking insane. Hey man, hold on. Sorry, I'm going to bring it over by you, max, hold on. You guys want to check it? Yeah, all right all right.
Speaker 2:All right, buddy, here you go. What's up, man? My name is Max. I'm a huge fan of hey, buddy, good to see you. I'm a huge fan of Nelk, dude. I uh, I got paralyzed from a car accident when I was in the military in 2016 and I started, uh, my brother showed me the channel when they had like 500,000 subscribers and I was like, dude, these guys are so funny and they made my day because my girlfriend left me, like when I got paralyzed, and I just kept watching them. You're watching them. Fuck her, yeah, fuck her. You're right, fuck her. Fuck that bitch.
Speaker 3:Yeah, dude, yeah dude, I'm sorry to hear that All that, that happened. I'm sorry to hear all that happened. No, it's, but it seems like you're a big Nelk fan and not a Bob Metairie fan here. What's going on? What? I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Are you trying to use me to get? I'm going to join your group for a minute. I'm sorry You're fucking at my back. I'm just. I'm sorry I didn't watch Bob Metairie when I was in the hospital. My brother did introduce me. Now we're homies so I appreciate I wasn't asking for that, but I really appreciate that honestly. Yeah, man, thank you for answering. Yeah, I'll tell him you missed him. Alright, well, I'll tell him you missed him.
Speaker 3:I'll tell him All right, bro. See, bob, this is Bob forgets. Sometimes he goes back and forth, so he'll be with NELC and he's doing full send right now. But he likes to be his own brand too, because his relationship with NELC is in and out.
Speaker 2:Well, do that. It just made my fucking year there you go buddy.
Speaker 3:Holy shit man, there you go buddy, god damn it.
Speaker 2:All right, dude, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate it. Honestly, I really do. I really hope the algorithm helps and I'm able to get my word on the message. You know, I want to get the new era of Life to the Max out. I used to be pretty quiet on the other podcasts because I had a co-host and we ended up going separate ways and I didn't think I could do it alone.
Speaker 3:Well, for people listening too. One of the things that's interesting about Max that I didn't even really realize was when we talked last week. So you got a big, big mouth like me or a big mouth like memory that can't keep our mouth shut. Well, when you talk to Max, there's plenty of opportunities to chime in. Well, as you explained to me, your diaphragm is part of the paralysis, so it takes a couple seconds. You're all there mentally, but the words can't come out fast enough because of his breathing. And it has to be one of the most frustrating things when you're talking to a guy like me, that doesn't shut the fuck up. John, let me finish the fucking sentence.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's frustrating because I want to yell. Like you too, I can't yell, you know what? I mean yeah, but no, it's a. You know, I wouldn't trade, trade my life for anything and I'm I'm happy god gave it to gave this position to someone that could handle it right on brother, guys, there's a lot of people that can't and there's a lot of people that are like just upset with the world and I choose to say fuck being upset, fuck the devil taking over.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna make the best yep, right on, brother, keep doing what you're doing, buddy so, without further ado, look into which camera is him?
Speaker 2:camera two, look into camera two. Tell the people where you're at your handles and tell them you're living life to the max, bro.
Speaker 3:At John Sarasani on Instagram is where I'm most active, but at John Sarasani on TikTok, at John Sarasani TV on YouTube. Now, you can go to at John Sarasani on YouTube, but it's going to be like pictures of my kids and like my parents' funeral and stuff like that. But if you go to at John Sarasani TV, you're going to see the content that you're looking for and uh, listen, guys, 2000% raise has has brought me into different things and uh, today's going to be one of those memories for me. Buddy, thanks for letting us do this.
Speaker 2:Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 1:Just a couple of points. I'll try. Just a couple of puns all tryna get by. Just a couple of teens all tryna survive, live to the max, cause you don't live it twice. Couple green thumbs all heights okay, just a couple of puns all tryna get by. Just a couple of teens all tryna survive, live to the max, cause you don't live it twice. Couple green thumbs all heights okay. Lights, camera, action. Hold the bullshit Smile, I'm out.