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From Broken neck to breakthrough: the Incredibles story of Michael Hassett
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Michael Hassett got 2nd in his group in the Mr health & fitness competition and 599 out of 35000 overall.
What if your life’s turning point came in a way you weren’t expecting? That’s where Michael Hassett found himself—flat on a walk-in freezer floor, three fractured vertebrae in his neck and a broken wrist.
We trace Michael’s path from Howard Beach, New York, to Florida, where high school wrestling and Greco Romain taught him how to make size a disadvantage, using a heavier opponents weight against them. He kept a just-enough GPA and learned a new definition of POOR—Passed Over Opportunities Repeatedly.
The military sharpened his discipline, giving him the opportunity to box for US Army remaining undefeated with a total of six fights. (This wasn’t mentioned in the episode, he also had a short stent in MMA with a record of six undefeated sanctioned fights and a chance to sign as a professional fighter but ultimately turned it down)
As a professional chef Michael was managing teams, running multiple restaurants, and sacrificing weekends for a career that paid well however, required him to sacrifice time with his family. Now he guards his time, calls it self-preservation, not selfishness, and focuses on presence over paychecks.
Michael walks us through refusing surgery after the accident, bracing himself for the long road to recovery, recertifying as a personal trainer, and building a high-volume, low-load program to protect his neck while regaining strength. He intentionally put on weight to heal, then cut from 300 lbs down to 175 lbs in three month leaning on his training and whole food diet, no shortcuts. The mindset is simple and persistent: I can and I will. Today he trains mostly seniors, chasing wins that count— just being able to walk up the stairs, get the groceries into the house, and retrieving the mail. because functional freedom is the real trophy.
Now he’s pushing to be featured on Mr. Health & Fitness cover magazine, not just for the title but for the platform to broadcast a message about resilience, perseverance, and second chances. If grit, recovery, and purpose speak to you, you’ll find this story, inspiring.
Go follow Michael Hassett
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Welcome Back & Guest Tease
SPEAKER_00You're listening to the No Shot Podcast, where we discuss sports, true stories, and mental health. Brought to you by True Victory Apparel and Radio Influence. Let's get after it.
SPEAKER_04Welcome back to the No Shot Podcast. I'm your host, Santa, here with my co-hosts, T Mike and A-Town.
SPEAKER_00What up, world? What's going down? Yeah, baby. We back. It's been a minute. Welcome back to the No Shot Podcast with the dopest hosts on the planet. And we are once again brought to you by the dopest brand on the face of the earth. And we are endorsed by True Victory Apparel and Radio Influence. And we are recording out of the dopest studio on the planet in Tampa Bay, Florida. And we have an amazing guest for this episode. Guys, I've been waiting on this episode for weeks now. I'm happy we are back in the spot to get this in. We have a gentleman that we are going to introduce or introduce to the world in a way that I think most people aren't accustomed to. Too much diversity. He's done way too many things around the sun. Unbelievable story. And right now, once we finally get a good understanding of who this amazing man is, you are going to be captivated by the story. And it's going to blow your mind how God has taken him all over the place in his journey. We are introducing to you with a round of applause, Michael Hassett. Clap it up for him. Mike, what up?
SPEAKER_03How are you, my friend? I'm doing good, brother. I'm doing real good. Nice trip down here. It was nice. Easy ride? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm familiar with it. It's my old stomping grounds here down in St. Pete's. I pretty much knew right where you were for the most part.
From Howard Beach To Florida
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Love it. Love it. So let's go ahead and kill the suspense. Let's start off with where you're from, Mike, and then we're gonna jump into what our topic is.
SPEAKER_03I come from a really, really hardcore place, man, in New York City, you know, not upstate New York, but I come from a mob town. Uh John Gotti Stomping Ground Mob Town, Howard Beach. There's one way in, one way out. It's probably something different nowadays. But back then when I was a kid, that's how it was. It's German, Irish, Italian influence all the way. And my parents just didn't want to raise me in that environment. My older siblings, they grew up there, went to high school there. My big brother graduated high school there. My sisters were in 11th and 12th grade, and I just was a little kid, and they decided uh enough was enough that they would give me a better shot than my siblings had up until that point, and uh moved to Pinellas Park, Florida in 1980. And uh I started to uh have some Southern friends and and start my Southern life in comparison to what may would have been potentially if uh my family did not move to Florida.
SPEAKER_00So that's wild to me, first and foremost. How did you how'd you deal with the flip-flop in culture?
SPEAKER_03Well, I tell you, it didn't really bother me too much because I was young. I really wasn't too influenced outside of the influence in my family. And maybe a couple of my little friends on the block. You know, they played on the stoops, we would call them stoops instead of steps. Uh but now my brother, on the other hand, he was quite upset about that. He had lifelong friends up until that point, graduated high school. My sister was the same, so they they might even still hold a grudge today. I don't know, but they blamed it on me. Oh, you have such a better life than us. You know, we had to grow up in New York, and you had a baby. Mom and dad moved. Yeah, so I dealt with all that stuff for a long time, you know. But and they may very well really feel that way.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Because the age gap, you know what I mean? They had friends, you'll think of having friends for 10, 12 years, right? I just got some little friends on the street corner that I'm playing with. I pfft, I don't know no different. I'll make some new ones, right? Sure. But my 19-year-old brother, yeah, no, he he wasn't liking that too much.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's like you got like He was rooted in, you know? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Like uh definitely like sports. Sports, everything. What when uh like when I was younger, and like I look at my siblings and I'm like, mom and dad were totally different when you were than when I was younger. Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00So you moved to Pinellas County, Florida. Yeah. You started Pinellas Park. Pinellas Park. And stayed with my grandparents.
SPEAKER_01Right down here.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, right down the street. Yeah, and I stayed with my grandparents and they held the fort down for a year while my parents were closing up all the loose ends in in New York. And then a year later, my parents then uh uh reunited with us and there we went. Wa wee. So you were away from your actual parents. Yeah, for a whole year, yeah. And the house that my parents bought. My grandparents stayed there and you know took me to school and watched us, and you know, didn't need to watch my siblings, but me, I was young, and uh they kept watching me while my parents, you know, closed out all you know, selling of the house and jobs and just all the stuff that needs to be done when you're moving.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03All for the sake of a better life. All for the sake of a better for me. For and for you know, for them first and foremost, but for their new baby son, their youngest kid. They wanted to give me a different chance. The direction it was going in their mind was not the direction they wanted to go, nor did they want their baby son going in that direction either. So they moved. It was just a good
Sports Obsession And Wrestling Smarts
SPEAKER_03timing for them. Not that they didn't want to move, but just so happened it was perfect timing at you know when I was six, seven years old.
SPEAKER_00I love it. So we're six, seven years old. So let's move on from elementary into middle school into high school. What schools did you end up attending?
SPEAKER_03Uh, I went to uh Pinellas Central Elementary School where I had my first encounters like with Florida wildlife, you know, because it's like it's quite different than New York. Some of my young friends used to throw their iguanas on me. They'd throw the and I'd freeze up like, you know, like, ah, what is this, man? It gets off. It's a lizard, you know, or like a black snake or something like that. We don't have these things. So uh it was fun. Elementary school was fun. Uh, my little best friend Demetrius, we used to play basketball time. I still remember him just like it was yesterday. Uh first fight was with him, too, my best friend. That's always how it was. Basketball, he punched me in the nose, and I punched him in the nose, and we were like, did we did we just become best friends? Like, what's going on? His nose was bleeding, my nose was bleeding. Then you hugged him. Yeah, played every day after that. Yep. Uh I did pretty good in school and I went to middle school, I played in a basketball team in middle school, did well. Uh, volleyball team did well. Um, high school was uh collegiate wrestling, football, baseball, pretty much all three. Not so much basketball because I broke my ankles too many times at that point, so that was kind of off the table. Uh, but yeah, I've been in sports all those years. Uh also um I did a lot of off-season wrestling. So I like wrestled all year long. Uh freestyle wrestling tournaments, Roman Greco wrestling tournaments when I wasn't in high school. So all summer, waiting till the next year, we were still going, going, and going, driving to all these schools in Bradington and Hillsborough, Sarasota, Sarasota Riverview, where they have these big freestyle tournaments. So we were nonstop the whole time. Yeah. Our coaches uh applauded that. You don't get lazy over the summer. Keep keep going and keep going because those other guys they're working, they're gonna beat you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And for me, I've I uh wrestled in three weight classes. I didn't just uh lock in on one until my senior year. Um when I they changed the weight classes now, they would reverted back to the old way. But when I went to school, they were uh I'll start off like 171, 185, uh 189, and then 220. That's the three weight classes. In order for me to wrestle in those three weight classes, I'd stay right around 181 pounds because you'd have to weigh 184.9 to wrestle 185 or 220, and you'd have to weigh 169.9 or 170.99999 to wrestle 171. So depending on the strength of the other schedule, the other competitor, my coach would tell me like a week later, okay, you we're gonna need you at 171, or we're gonna need you at 220 or two. So for a couple of years, I wrestled three weight classes uh in a row and did quite well. Yeah, I I won a lot of district tournaments, conference tournaments, uh regional tournaments, Christmas tournaments, off-season tournaments, wrestling at three weight classes. Yeah. I took fourth in the state in Florida when I finally uh locked in. I said, I'm gonna wrestle all year at 171. So I stayed at 169 pounds and I wrestled all year and I wound up taking fourth in the state that year. So probably should have done that earlier. But I listened to my coaches, you know what I mean? If I would have locked in the whole way at one weight class, who knows? Maybe I could have one stayed a couple times in a row because I wasn't used to it, you know?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Did you ever like wrestle anybody that was like had like a clear size advantage on you?
SPEAKER_03Oh, many times, yeah, especially when I was wrestling 220. Yeah, I was wrestling monsters, man. You got up to 220? No, I was only 185. Oh, yeah, bro. Yeah, yeah. These guys were monsters compared to me, but I wrestled in I had the advantage. You could you gotta think of what it looks like. Here I come on and onto the scale, right? You're you're my competitor. You you weigh 219.999 pounds. Big, big hog, big boy, right? Whether you're for all muscle or all you're still a big guy. Here I come at 184.9 on the scale, you're talking 30 pounds or so, right? And you're looking at me like, oh, this is gonna be easy. But they didn't know that I wrestled in Roman Greco tournaments all year long for this reason because it's all about momentum and the shifting of weight. So I would use their weight completely against them. I'd be soft at first. I'd let them push me all around, act like, well, this guy's soft. I'm gonna throw. Then as soon as they thought that, they're their feet, there they go. So big throw, bye-bye.
SPEAKER_01So you throw you throw these names like Roman gecko and Greco and stuff like that. What is the different styles of performance?
SPEAKER_03Uh freestyle wrestling is like what you see traditionally. They're taking each other down, getting in referees position, point system, getting back up, reversals, things like that. Roman Greco is stand up, it's nothing but throws. Once you hit the mat, if you don't pin the guy, the ref's gonna stand you back up after five minutes. So it's nothing but throws. And I did that for my whole career, probably since the time I was eight years old, all the way up through high school. So these bigger guys, again, when they see me on the scale, they're like, oh, this is gonna be an easy one. But no, they were dealing with a kid that'd been wrestling Roman Greco, not just freestyle wrestling for 10 years, and I knew how to use their body weight against them. As soon as they start shoving on me, this is it. They're gone, man. So like flying.
SPEAKER_04Well, whenever they were like flying through the air, I bet they were like really confused.
SPEAKER_03Oh, super confused. Like what just happened. Yes, the crowds stomping the bleachers, everybody, you know, pit over just that quick, you know? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So obviously sports were a massive part of your growing up here in here in Florida. Oh, yeah. So did you attempt to take it to the collegiate level or was there a shift in regards to your house? I did.
SPEAKER_03I had I had I was the kid in school that had some like uh letters coming to my desk, you know, the teachers would bring me letters. There were some schools that wanted me. Unfortunately, I never uh at that time uh felt a need to raise raise my GPA to you know 3.9 or 3.7. Sure. You know, I kept it in the uh intentionally, it's just a foolish mistake. I kept it like 2.5, 2.8, just so I could participate in the elgible boards. Stay eligible. Make my parents happy. And and I I was happy, but I could have probably easily made straight A's in school looking back, and but I was preoccupied with girls and other things. And I my big brother was a little different through school from what I hear, always straight A's, always everything. But yeah, I had some colleges after me, but I kind of you know, you know, poor in life, we think we're uh but money, right? You say what's poor? We ought we think money. But no, that's not what it is. Poor is put you passed over opportunities repeatedly. Hey, that's what poor is. That's how you become, that's how you become poor in life. Hey, Mike, Mike, ho, skirt, try that one more time. Break that break that down again. Most people in life, if you ask them a question, but what do you think poor means? Mm-99.9% of the people are gonna tell you, well, you don't have money. Fair play, right? I mean, most people I know answered that whenever I asked them, but
Scholarships, GPA Regrets & “POOR” Acronym
SPEAKER_03that's not the case. You know, the wind might blow it one direction today, tomorrow it's blowing a different direction. So you we all get these opportunities that blow across the porch, right? And what do we say, hmm? I'll take that one. Or do you say, yeah, you know what? That one's not for me, I'll wait for the next one. The more you keep doing that repetitively, you one becomes poor in life. And what that is, is he, he or she passed over opportunities repeatedly, which makes a person poor in life. And nothing to do with your pocket. Just poor in life in general. That's even worse than being poor in the pocket. You could be happy being poor in the pocket, but if you're poor in life on life's terms, you're not a happy camper. That's a really good way of looking at it. Like at all. Like you're not a happy camper at all if you're poor in life.
SPEAKER_00What does A Town say there typically? Facts.
SPEAKER_03Message. Yeah, yeah, it is, brother. It is. And and I try to, um, when I was 20, I didn't live like that, obviously. But nowadays, uh after my story is unwritten and still in the making, hopefully, um, I I I choose to think a little differently about things, you know, and and and f focus on different stuff than I used to. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So let's lock back in on the story. Awesome. Had opportunities through sports, missed a few of those opportunities, felt a little more porn life. The analogy goes hard. So from that point on, Mike, we're transitioning out of high school. Is it college? What's the next step?
SPEAKER_03I started going to junior college and I was studying nutrition coincidentally at the time, and I was real avid. Me and my cousin, I don't know if you remember like Richard Simmons back in the day. I don't know if you know that guy, that name. He doesn't. Yeah. Like deal a meal and like all these little things that you don't know who Richard Simmons is?
SPEAKER_00No, who's that? What?
SPEAKER_03I'm not that old. But yeah. You are wrong, Mommy. But you know, he had all these uh, you know, these little cards, deal a meal and all these things, you know, sweating with the oldies. Me and my cousin, we made all these cookbooks, and uh he used to work in a wellness center in New York with uh obese women, and he swore to himself because how sad they were and the press that they were. He's got this thing like in his head, like, oh god, I don't ever want to be like that, these poor women, right? So he was like walked around at 6% body fat. He looked like a bodybuilder all the time, looked great. He was in men's health and magazines, like uh underwear model. He was a great looking fella.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And so him and I trained together all the time, and Bob was just as lean. Um, and we started these little cookbooks of mine. This is what we were gonna do. We were gonna go into the health and wellness world. Uh my mother wanted me to be a chef. I spent a lot of time with her in the kitchen. A lot. Italian mom. You know, I was cooking full meals um for my family when I was probably 10, 11 years old. You know what I mean? Wow. And my mom used to say, why don't you I could hear her today, God rest her soul, why don't you just go to culinary school and be a chef? You already know how to cook already. When I came home from the military, I thought I'd be a postman, you know, or something like that, you know, civil service still. And she's like, no, don't do that. You make a good chef. Lo and behold, I was a chef for 22 years as well. And I was training people, you know, as a personal trainer and giving them nutritional plans all the while, bosses, friends, family. Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
SPEAKER_00Again, pause. Pause, Mike. You just mentioned like 12 different lifestyles in less than 30 seconds. Okay, let's let's go backwards. Okay, we know at the forefront, you end up being a cook, but you just mentioned the military. Time out. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Let's get into that. Which branch did you jump in? I was in the United States Army. Outstanding. Yeah, I'm gonna go. Let's go. Let's go.
SPEAKER_00Let's go. Give us a breakdown. What sent you to the military?
SPEAKER_03Uh, my father was a marine. Well, yeah. When I came home and told him I joined the army, he was ready to fight. He was like, we can't do this. Once a marine, always a marine. I'm like, I just wanted to go uh and make some money and go to college as well, and it's can expand on my nutritional uh knowledge. And that was my reasoning. I never wanted to be in there for a career, but you know, hindsight's 2020. I probably should have stayed in for a career because it is a very good career. But unfortunately, I didn't. I had different plans. Uh, and then I switched out to the reserve unit. I was on St. Pete Beach for a little while, and then I was discharged from there. Uh and then I went off into the direction of being a chef, you know, shortly there after that. Not not too long. I might have taken six to nine months off, just uh running around with my buddies or whatnot. But after that, I got serious and started chefing and cooking. Yeah. I love it. I absolutely love it. And still training people and still being active in sports.
SPEAKER_04You were a personal trainer while you were a chef as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, correct. Yeah, yeah. Right. Setting people up with nutritional plans, bosses, their friends, employees of mine, co-workers of mine, friends of friends of family. Just
Army Years, Boxing Undefeated
SPEAKER_03you name it. Yeah, just not under uh uh being gamefully employed in a gym, you know, so to speak, as they're a personal trainer. I still did it, you know, all those years on the side whilst you know being uh a chef, too.
SPEAKER_00So let's let's go back and look at this with a little more hindsight. You join our United States Army. Yes, sir. Thank you for everything you've done. Yeah, thank you, sir. With that in mind, were you training guys in that arena as well?
SPEAKER_03No, not in that I I boxed for the United States Army team, though. Okay. So he's a boxer too. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot, yeah. I boxed for the Army team, and remember we used to call them smokers' meets. That's what they call them. The one base will go fight another base, one get on the school bus and go fight another base. So I really did like that too. Um Who are you? Wait, wait, wait, wait. What was your boxing record? I was undefeated, yeah. Okay, so six fights, only six, not many, but I was undefeated, yeah. Six for six. Yeah, six for six, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So we're not personally training while we're in the military. We're just beating us out of the street.
SPEAKER_03Following orders, yeah, and then going to the gym, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So following orders, going to the gym, still living a ridiculously athletic lifestyle. Then from there, the term in the military was over. And from there, the personal training side really took its precedence. At first it did, yeah.
SPEAKER_03But then that's when my mother was, you know, chattering, chattering and back in the kitchen with you. Yeah, you need a career, you know, you're just doing this on the side, so to speak. And she was right. You know what I mean? You need something to do. So um I love my mom a lot. I like to make her happy. Yeah. So that's that's what I did. Yeah, I turned into a and I didn't mind cooking either. You know, I wasn't afraid of burning or but I was quite acclimated to cooking, so it didn't bother me a bit. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Well, let's move into the to the next aspect. Before we dive deep into the culinary things, let's dive a little deeper into the personal training aspect of what you've been doing with your life. Because I know prior to all of this, there was an injury that you uh ended up having that was pretty big. But once again, why why are you so entrenched on the in the personal training world? What really gave you that fascination?
SPEAKER_03There's a lot of people that need help, man, in this world, I tell you, yeah, w with with all kinds of things, not just personal training, but w we as a people, we forget uh how important movement, you know, really is. These phones we have, computers, all these things that keep us sedentary and sitting around, you know. Some of us have remote jobs at home rather than I don't see there's anything wrong with that, because this is the age technology. But however, it leads to bad mobility, bad problems. Well, we're supposed to be able-bodied moving around, being physical, working, you know, flexibility. Uh, the longer you sit around and not do anything, you know, do you if you're 30, do you do something about it? Maybe 40, do something, maybe 50. I have people sometimes that don't do anything about it until they're 70s, and then they're sitting across from me just like you are and say, Man, I really need help because I can't even walk up my stairs in my own house. Or I need help. I can't even reach into my own. Sounds silly, you know, we're a lot younger, but to an 82-year-old, for her to be able to pull her car up and roll her window down and actually reach into her mailbox, because her mailman's a jerk and puts the mail all the way to the back of the box. What a victory it was for her after six weeks of training to be able to reach while it was raining. She didn't have to get out of the car and she can open that mailbox and reach on in there and just grab it and then show up the next morning at my door and say, Mike, Mike, Mike,
Training Others: Purpose Over Pay
SPEAKER_03yes, I got my mail yesterday. You know, that's my pay, brother. It's not, I get paid to do my job just like anybody else does, but my pay is in the victories of my clients when they show up at my door on Monday morning with a smile from ear to ear in their 70s saying, Hey, I dropped my grocery bag at Publix, and I said, Oh no, how am I gonna pick that up? And I said, You know what? Mike taught me how to squat. Let me just get down, I'm just gonna pick it up. And they'll tell me this story, and they're just simple little things, man. It's life, you know, to be functional and live longer and happier and then a life of longevity rather than dying at 65 and you can't do anything. You might live till you're 90 and still be functional. I mean, which one would we rather? I would rather live to be in 90 and being functional, right? You know, so I have a passion to help people when I see our training transition to their life, because that's what it is. I mean, training's training, that's the easy part, but when it transitions to their life as functional uh senior citizens and geriatric patients, it's it's it's a blessing, man. I'm surrounded by blessings all day. Like most of my clients are 60 to 87 years old. You know, really and they know and the willingness of these uh men and women are second to none. A lot of their husbands have passed already, a lot of their wives have passed already, but they know that they have to continue on and keep moving, they can't waller in it, or the life that they love so much will perish as well. You know, so I'm part of that. And that's why we're called personal trainers. We're not just trainers or coaches. Personal. It does get very personal over the course of time and how long you know someone, they start to get very personal with you and entrust us with things that um are sacred to them. So it's it's a different animal, it's a it's a different thing. It's li again, it's life on life terms, not on our own. Right.
SPEAKER_00That's extremely interesting. The reason why I'm digging a little deeper emotionally into that is because unfortunately, Mike, there's a lot of people in your arena that do not care about anything you just expressed. No, they don't. They just care about the money that they could potentially make. So they see people as tools. Correct. As sheep, correct. As means of acquiring funds. Correct. And they lose the personal aspect of personal training.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and we see this in a lot of places too, you know, in hospitals, doctors, nurses, it's like an assembly mill, like herding cattle, you know, so hurry in, hurry up, one in, one out, one in, one out. But personal training is a little bit different. I spend time with these people, talking to these people, uh testing these people and uh watching them uh reach goals and and breaking boundaries, you know, every day. It's a different, different feeling for sure.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So then I I guess uh kind of going back to your uh time as a chef, like kind of go go into your accident because that was that was pretty traumatic.
SPEAKER_03It was traumatic, yeah.
The Kitchen Grind And Work-Life Wake-Up
SPEAKER_03I've I've I every place that I've ever uh I've been a chef, we call it chef and you know, cook, whatever you want to call it. Um it was always high pace, there was always high volume, it was always like the hottest spot in town. There was never no place that I ever either uh just was a chef, a cooking chef, or lead chef, or ran the whole operation where it wasn't. Little bell right here, ding ding ding, you're in, and then when it's over, ding ding ding, the day's over. Like 100 miles an hour, like the whole time for 20 years, man. I never worked less than 72 hours a week for all those years straight. I never had one weekend off. Yeah. I missed my wife, my children, my pets, my doll, the fun things I like to do because we we have good intent, us men, when we have wives and kids and pets. We mean well. We'll we will work ourselves to the grave for the people that are under our umbrella and that we love. But at the end of all that, we'll sit there by ourselves and I'd say, well, at least I did when I had my accident. I said, You did I really need to make all that money all those years, Mike? Was it really that necessary? No. No, it sure wasn't. Mike, did you really need to miss all that time with your wife and kids and dogs and all the things you like to do? Did you really have to miss all that stuff too? Yeah, that's a hard no as well. So a lot of self-talk during that accident, too. You know, but going back to the accident, all the way at the end of my car, never was hurt. Maybe little burns, things like that, little cuts, but uh nothing as severe as this. Uh 22 years later, I walked into a deep uh walk-in freezer, and it was outside, which is quite normal, you know, for Florida. But if the seals are not uh correctly working, that outside ambient temperature will start to sweat inside that 22 degree negative zero freezer. That's a dry freezer, not it's dry for a reason, or it'd be that ice skating ring in there.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03Well, I tried to get my bosses to fix that thing for like eight months, only like 400 bucks, but for some reason they just did other things, you know, it's their business, they do what they want to do. And I used to say, somebody's gonna go in there and get hurt one of these days. That's what I used to say to them. So eight months later, I'm busy, I and as soon as I hit that bell, like I told you, ding, ding, ding, it's on, it's on. I opened up that freezer door, walked in there, and the whole bottom of the floor was an ice skating ring of like a sixteenth inch of ice layer. Sixteen inches? Like sixteenth of an inch. Like you couldn't even see it. I was about to say that's a real ice skating ring. You couldn't even see it if you tried. You know what I mean? It looked just like the piece of metal there. And as soon as I hit that floor, boom, I was like doing a backflip. And to be quite honest with you, instantly I said to myself, you're an athlete, you can hurry up and do a quick tuck and roll. You know, we know how to fall gracefully, right? Right. I woke up from being flay, ever been flashed in football, any of you guys or anything like that? That's how you stinger. Yes. Well, I woke up from a stinger just as quick as I had that notion of flipping and saving myself. I woke up at that same, like it happened simultaneously. The thought, waking up just that quick. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So nearly my C56N7 vertebrae exploded. I say near, I say nearly. So they were all broken, all three of them. Yeah. And apparently my wrist flew back or something like that because I also, you got the uh ten bones in your hand, and they're all like friends together. They dissociate well. You follow me? Friends that are good associates. Well, I have a it's uh disassociation, is what it's called, because I severed two of my tendons on the two most important bones in my hand. I'll keep mine on a personal trainer too, and I train myself and right. So the only surgery they could have done was a four-corner fusion on the wrist. So I I couldn't, this would be it. And I'm like, yeah, that's a hard no. So I had to change my whole philosophy in training with I don't load my body a lot. I do a high volume, less load, so I could continue on and keep training and still be in good shape. Uh and the doctor was like, Yeah, all right, that's what you want to do. I'm like, Yeah, that's what I want to do. Yeah, I'm not gonna fuse my wrist at 51. I mean, I'm 53 now. In regards to the neck, I needed this real gruesome surgery. Uh and they're all gruesome, not just spine, they're all gruesome. We
The Freezer Fall: Injury Details
SPEAKER_03were probably a week out from the surgery, and I was nearly paralyzed as well. You know, it was very Okay. Yeah, very, very close.
SPEAKER_00That's kind of an important factor drop. I was nearly paralyzed.
SPEAKER_03Very, very close call. Yeah, it almost severed my spinal cord. Part of the bone, not the disc, but part of the bone was uh I don't know the word, like I'll use the word impinged, but they used another uh wording maybe into the nerve bundles? Completely, like way deep into it. So they were like, Well, we wish you the best, but you really need the surgery. Nobody's ever healed that. I'm like, well, I'm not nobody number one. I said, I do know biomechanics. I said, I know I can't heal nerve damage, but I can put no load on my body and I could let my bones heal, and then I'll proceed with caution from there. Because with the doctor, we were a week out from like pre-op stuff. I was gonna do it because I said I'm gonna get the surgery when I'm 51. Because if I'm 71, it might be the death of me, realistically speaking, right? So I said, okay, I'm gonna do it when I'm 51, I'll recover. But we were going through the uh the pre-op stuff, and then he's like, okay, well, you know, it's 50-50. Some people die on the table, some people it's 100% perfect. I'm like, yeah, all right, you still got me. What else do you got to say? So I'm still in the office. He says, Um, we're gonna cut you in the front of the neck. I'm like, okay, that's fine. You gotta enter some somehow. So he still has me, right? I'm still gonna get the surgery. So that's why I say, What's next? He reaches in the drawer and he grabs this little tool. I said, What's that for? Uh, I'm gonna grab your um your carotid artery, just shove it over to the side. And I was thinking, okay, the arteries are strong, uh, probably. You could just move it on over. Ah, you still got me. I said, What's next after this? What do you what do you do next? He reached in that same drawer and he grabbed the tool that looks similar to the last tool. And I said, Yeah, and what are you gonna do with that? He says, Well, I'm gonna take this one and grab your spinal cord. I'm just gonna shove that over to the side. Oh. And I and I just like rolled my chair over. There was like the doorknob right there. I said, Well, I think I'm just gonna slide on over. I'm just gonna hit that doorknob. And we were going out of this building. And I said, I'm just kidding. He's like, we were laughing. He says, Mike, man, I wish you the best of luck. Let me know how it goes. I said, I will. I said, I just I promise you this. If I'm mowing my 10 acres, I fall off my tractor and I'm all cripped up, my wife's wondering where I'm at, and she finds me laying in the yard. She's gonna call 911, I promise you. And I'm gonna end up in a hospital bed somewhere in the merger. I'm gonna give him your name and number. Come cut away and save my life. But until that happens, you're not gonna see me again, Bubs. It's not doing it. So I sat in that bed for 10 months, uh, these big braces on, and I was probably 175, 180 pounds at that time. And uh on purpose, yeah, I went up to about 300 pounds, 290, 300. On purpose, but not on purpose. That was a little bigger, but I wasn't using any expenditure at all because I was hell-bent on not being paralyzed, number one, because I knew what I could do as far as transitioning my body and losing weight, been doing it my whole life, so I wasn't worried about any excess weight. I'll get to that once my bones are healed, you know what I mean? And uh that's just what I did. I I I I reopened my laptop up. I got recertified in all my personal training certifications with like four or five on top, corrective movements, uh, strength and endurance, bodybuilding, CPR, AED, uh, cut corrected a couple other ones, and went right back into the career that I was doing, you know, when I was 20, you know, 21 prior to going into the military. And then a little bit after I came home then and uh just took the first job that offered me a job, and it's been a blessing ever since. And I turned that 300 pounds of uh 40% body fat back down. Well, not right this second, because I'm cutting back down again for the magazine, but uh about 5.6% body fat at 171 pounds. And only took a year to do it. Yeah. And with that in mind, I got some pictures, I've never seen them, but I got pictures here just to show you 300-pound picture and what what 12 months later looks like when you're just applying the proper principles. Most importantly, it's I can and I will, brother. It's never I can't and I will not. There's no such thing. That's where there's a will, there's a way. That's incredible. You know, yeah, that's incredible. And I don't care who you are, willingness goes forever because there's no such thing as failure as long as you're willing to do it again. As long as you're willing to do it again and then you could strike out a million times, brother, and you keep up getting up there and doing it, and you want to hit that ball one time, you're not a quitter. You're not a failure. They're failed attempts.
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Refusing Surgery, Self-Rehab Plan
SPEAKER_00lives and elevate humanity through the power and unity of sports, positive stories, and serving others. Our hope is to one day be the world's most trusted, inspirational, and generous brand. We're dedicated to the game, the grind, and the globe. But most importantly, we're dedicated to you. That's what it means to be always true. Go to www.truevictory.com. That is www.truevictory.com to get the most inspirational wear you can possibly get on the face of the earth. And when you get there, you will use discount code Aaron Solano at checkout. That is A-R-R-O-N-S-O-L-A-N-O at checkout. Thank you, True Vic, for being the sponsor of the No Shot Podcast. Santa, send it back to Mike.
SPEAKER_04So um before we go any further, I just I want to go back to something because like I was thinking about this. When you actually fell inside that freezer and then you woke up, how did you like get up and walk out again?
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. What a shattered spine. Just stood up. I just, yeah, I walked out. I was holding my wrist like this, and my cook that was there with me. She's like, What the hell? What happened? I'm like, oh, I just fell. Yeah, I didn't really make a big deal out of it. I went upstairs, got my backpack, clocked out, uh, walked to my car. And then my buddy, who was just coming in to work, he goes, You don't look right. I'm like, Yeah, I just took a backflip. He's like, I'm gonna stay. You you look like you got a concussion or something. Because I was like a little wobbly, I guess, in his opinion. And uh he he stayed there with me. He he stayed there with me at the car. He wouldn't let me drive until my wife uh came and picked me up. And yeah, and I went to the hospital.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because like man.
SPEAKER_03Well, I probably shouldn't have done that, but I did.
SPEAKER_04So uh I guess um after that, like man. Uh I I remember you were telling me that um they didn't you had the type of concussion you had, um, they didn't really notice it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was called prolonged concussion syndrome is what it was. Yeah. And then your your eye doctor My eye doctor is the one the regular doctors they couldn't even find it, but my eye doctor with uh whatever they look at behind the eyes, he could tell that I had bleeds back there that I still had a concussion, even though I really wasn't feeling the effects, but they call it prolonged concussion syndrome, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But there's nothing they can do about that?
SPEAKER_03No, it just kind of goes away on its own, yeah. You just keep an eye on it. And it worked out. It worked out. It worked out.
SPEAKER_01But okay. It worked out. So when you picked yourself up off of the floor, you didn't feel any pain in the back of your neck.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01You just thought it was an achy pain.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I just I thought, oh, I'm hurt.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like anybody else would. Oh, that hurt. But this is back in the day type stuff, okay? So this we were built different back in the day because nowadays, you know, we'd cry and be like, I'm workman's comp, workman's comp.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, you just they wanted to fuse my wrist, they wanted to do a back surgery, and they wanted to fuse my neck, and I just got up and walked to my car and called my wife and said, Come pick me up. Didn't even go in an ambulance, nothing like that. Drove my I didn't drive, my wife drove me to the hospital, and yeah, there wasn't no crying or nothing like that. I was ready to just get back at it and do what I I was bored, if anything, you know, for those 10, 11 months because I'm used to going 100 miles an hour. So it was it was downtime, but I made the best out of it. Like I said, I got all those um new certifications, come up with a plan and back at it, man. So how long ago did this actually happen? About 18 months. 17, 18 months ago. Well, from today?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So it just happened. Pretty much. Well come on, like you just like I thought this was years ago, man. No, no, no. This is fresh, but so you just you just a couple months ago, your legs flipped up over your head and you walked out like nothing.
SPEAKER_03Pretty well, pretty much, yeah. I mean, it took a it took a lot of rehab on my part.
SPEAKER_01Built different.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, I like to I like to think again, I don't want to get too uh, you know, but we could call it divine intervention if you want. We could call it uh I was blessed in that moment. You we could put a lot of titles on this thing if we you know we choose to do so. Um I'm not done yet. You know what I mean? It's just simple as that. I'm just not finished yet. And then and my story, um, I hope it uh affects people's lives in a positive manner from this point forward.
SPEAKER_01You know, it comes back to your um your your your uh poor poor statement, right? Yeah, yeah. This time you caught the opportunity.
Weight Gain To Cut: The 300-To-171 Story
SPEAKER_03Let it fly by at all. Oh no, no, no. I'm digging my nails and teeth into it super hard, brother. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It took a fall for you to catch that.
SPEAKER_03It takes a profound moment. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, yeah. A profound moment has a profound ripple effect. You you know the ripple effect? Yeah. Put something positive off. Most times something positive will come back.
SPEAKER_01It seemed like this one slapped you in the face and kind of kicked you on the ground a couple of times. You know, but I'm glad it came. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Can you show us those pictures of uh when you like you were uh had gained all that weight and then uh now?
SPEAKER_00Santa, no one can see this.
SPEAKER_04I was gonna say, but you guys can. No shot world.
SPEAKER_00No shot world. That's right.
SPEAKER_01Can you see these pictures? Yes, let's see if we can imagine anything.
SPEAKER_00I can put them in the room. I suggest you do, because they can't see what we're talking about. I know, I know. At a boy. But Mikey's pulling up the pictures for you guys right now. We will we will react emotionally to them. Oh, yeah.
unknownI got a gallery here.
SPEAKER_00So once again, Mike, as as you're searching for those photos, you allowed yourself to gain a tremendous amount of weight. 298. That's absurd. Now, most human beings, after being as light as you were and then getting hurt badly, uh, the the whole idea of allowing yourself to do it, knowing that you were going to combat it, you just looked at that as another challenge.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, exactly. You know, I I rose up to the challenge. Yeah, that's exactly how I approached that affair. Yeah, this is the challenge, I'm up for it, and we're gonna make it happen. Just gotta wait. We just gotta wait.
SPEAKER_01Sounds familiar.
SPEAKER_03It became boring now. It really did, because I had to wait because of the injury. I could not, I re you know, I wanted to jump the gate a few times, but lucky for my wife, she's like my ground wire, so I don't electrocute myself, you know what I mean? And uh she said, No, no, not yet, not yet, just chill. And so I waited it out, and here we are today. I'm glad I did because I could have sometimes when I'm training, I hear my neck crack sometimes a little bit. Oh, yeah. Like little, but again, I don't put heavy loads on my body, so uh just I make some small adjustments when I'm training when I hear that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00You know, let's make a small adjustment as my body just yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I guess it's great to practice on yourself before you practice on your own.
SPEAKER_03Well, I wouldn't advise it if one didn't know biomechanics, you know, or anything like that, neither. You know, so I do have a little advantage in that department, thank the Lord, you know.
SPEAKER_01Well, yes. Let's let's let's rephrase that again and say anybody who's in a situation like this, please don't take it upon yourself to do this correctly. You have been notified by the No Child Podcast with this disclaimer. And we do not condone and do it by yourself. Don't do it by yourself.
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_04It's like uh those commercials are like, you know, don't do this at home. Right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. It's not recommended.
SPEAKER_00So, okay. We we've got the massive injury report, we got the massive rebound. Now we've just realized that this was a recent situation. Yeah. And I'm assuming you are still rocking and rolling in regards to being a chef.
SPEAKER_03Uh actually, no. I'm a full-time personal trainer and nutritionist. Okay, so we made the full-blown conversion. Yeah, I changed my whole career after 22 years, man. I changed everything about it. I went right back into my passion. So I said when I was sitting there having some self-talk, you know, that I need to miss all that money. Did I need to miss my family? I was like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not doing I'm not doing this no more. I got every weekend off now. I spend time with my wife. I but I it's not about the money. It's just not about money, man.
SPEAKER_01What's even crazier is how old did you say you were? You're 50?
SPEAKER_03Uh I'll be 53 this year, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Fifty three years old.
SPEAKER_03I was yeah.
SPEAKER_01You almost was paralyzed. Oh yeah. And you're up and about at 50. Love and life.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, oh yeah. Moving. Oh yeah. Like nothing happened. And competing for Mr. 2026, Mr. Health and City. At 50.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think you're in second place right now.
SPEAKER_03I've been in first almost the whole time, but you know, it's like a marathon, it's like a horse race, and I'm a competitor. Kudos to the winner, man. You know what I mean? Because whoever wins, great job. I'm not, I've learned how to be a loser far
Philosophy: Willingness, Failure, Redemption
SPEAKER_03before I learned how to be a good winner. Hold on, Mike.
SPEAKER_00Stir. I do this a lot. Yeah. Okay, I'm going backwards again. Okay, 53 years old. Yes, sir. Let's go back to the chef world, though. You, you, you, you weren't just an average chef. Like, I am looking at a fat picture of Mike, and now I'm looking at a shredded picture of Mike. Oh my word. This guy probably ate me, right? From chubby bunny to world record ribs. Look the same. Ladies and gentlemen.
SPEAKER_03This is different. Here, I don't, I don't look nothing like that no more neither. I'll show you what I well, not this second, because uh I gained some weight on purpose because I was uh lean for a long time. Uh scroll it down.
SPEAKER_01While they're looking that up, ladies and gentlemen, the 300-pound picture, you wouldn't even recognize him right now. Chubby Bunny. You really wouldn't. I mean, the way he looks right now and and the picture that that he just showed us, I swear he swallowed a basketball. For real. And the pictures I'm looking at right now. Adultus. Wow. He's not 50. It's like it's it's like a 20, it's like a 20-year-old's body.
SPEAKER_00That's absurd.
SPEAKER_03It's crazy. Shred is not the word.
SPEAKER_00I swear he's sitting at probably five percent.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like 5.2. This this one will show you a little bit better. Adontist. Like a superhero. And again, again, it's inspirational, man. I can and I will. It's to show people that well, there's a will, there's a way.
SPEAKER_01So li okay. Looking at these pictures, right? We we we we sit here and we hear about genetics, this genetics that, right? Mm-hmm. How much do you think that's genetics for you? None. None. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, he said none.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, none. It's all it's mind over matter, it's nutrition, and it's the willingness to learn and be astute, learn what you could do with your body. Your body and your body alone. Not someone else's, but what your true capabilities are.
SPEAKER_01So what we're saying is if you want something, you can work your tail off. It's not gonna be easy, but you can work your tail off.
SPEAKER_03No, my dad told me nothing hard never comes easy. Nothing worth it. Yeah, those are veins showing over veins.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Like, yeah, you showed me that picture.
SPEAKER_03And no supplements, right?
SPEAKER_04No supplements, no tea.
SPEAKER_03No tea, no creatine, no protein, creating. All natty. Straight natural. Yeah, I just all natural. Nothing out of a box, bag, can, frozen, none of that. All natural whole foods. Okay. Shooting it back again. I'm only 173 pounds. I'm not like 220, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00You were a chef. You were a chef. Could you give us an idea? Again, you made a lot of money doing it. You were out, you were 72 hours a week at minimum. Could you give us an idea of some of the places you actually performed?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was a manager of operations too at the end of my career. I'd run like, you know, six to eight restaurants at a time with up to 200 employees. So it got real crazy at the end of my career. It might be the reason why I was maybe a little lethargic when I walked in that freezer. Maybe I was a little tired or something like that. But uh I've done fine dining, the Mullethole Tavern, River Ranch Bar and Grill. I was the kitchen manager at the plantation that used to be in Crystal River, still is, where all the presidents used to go. Um started my early career uh short-order cooking at Granny's, Mama Sally's, the hen house, uh, a lot of catering, a lot of weddings, a lot of banquets, a lot of anniversaries. Um, at the end of my career, I said, you know, what the heck? Let me just put my hand in fast food because they were all um gonna hire a manager of operations, you know, over multiple uh outlets. So I said, I probably got the skill set to do that. Let me do it. So I uh worked for a company called Coney Island. I don't know if they have any. Coney Island, yeah. I ran every single one of their stores for them for five years, except for the Brooksville store. Yeah. And that's the one that we hope near. Unbelievable. Mr. John Lee, yeah, he's a real smart man. He was uh he innovates ideas and builds concepts and then he sells them, like at Cody's Roadhouse. Yes, he does he is the creator of that. And once he had 15 of them, he sold them all. And then they corporatize and now they're what they are now. But he is the innovator of that name and created that brand and sold it for bu doll dollars, you know.
SPEAKER_00But you see, how there's there's validity in us learning that about you because once again, there's an eccentricness about the way you attack things in life. It's it's pretty it's pretty it's pretty overwhelming. That's who I am, right? But but that's just it. That's so unique and it's rare. Most people couldn't endure the vast majority of the things that you've expressed, yeah, coming from obviously a difficult lifestyle as a youth, moving all the way through, maneuvering to a very brand new state, and then kind of just etching out your own route. It's it's it's an incredible story. Now, once again, whole body shattered up. Now we've officially said we are done in that world, that arena. Our family matters more. We are in the personal training arena. So why have you not gotten out of that individual space and tried to take on that more eccentric, maybe corporate world and jump in in regards to that on personal training?
SPEAKER_03Um, I do work for a big corporation called Band and Fitness. I'm a personal trainer manager for them. So um it's different because when I trained people, you know, years ago, it wasn't so technologically advanced where now it is. So I'm I've gotten used to it for the most part, but um I become very good at it in today's program. So they're gonna start stretching me out to other stores, go figure. I was about to say, here we go. You know, but I don't again, um my time is not for sale any longer. What does that mean? It means that my time is the most important thing that I own. It's it's and I don't want to say it's more important than my wife or it's more but my life is my life and it belongs to me, and it belongs to me. Um meaning this physical life. And it belongs to me and me only, and I must do with it what what I wish to do with it within
Chef Career Scale & Leadership
SPEAKER_03reason. As long as I don't harm anybody around me or harm someone's future or you know, and love people and do the best I can. And now if I want to share it, me and my wife share a life, that's because we love each other, so we share our lives together. But her life belongs to her as well, just like yours belongs to you. And we gotta come to that realization that this is a one-shot deal here. Our physical life, this is a one-time at it. So we we ought to think about that and and and do it the way we see fit rather than the way we've maybe been taught how to do it.
SPEAKER_01And I like that. And I I think that's where I am in a portion of my life right now. That if it's not benefiting me, I'm not gonna give it the time of day. Exactly. Right. It's gotta be something to where it's gonna benefit me, my family, something that I love, something that I enjoy, right? And it sounds like you found something like that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and that's not being stingy. You know what I mean? That's not there's a difference. Oh, that's mine, that's mine. That's bro. It's yeah, we have to be selfish about our own space and time. Absolutely. Because this is the only time we're gonna experience each other on this type of wavelength. It's gonna change one day.
SPEAKER_04So I I c I got a question for you. Do you think there's a difference between s being selfish and self-preservation?
SPEAKER_03Um I think self-preservation is a requirement. I think that being selfish is a uh not a good trait to uh to own. And I I think self-preservation, all of us should really dig deep into that, you know, because we uh at the end of the day, we're the one that has to do it. Nobody can do it for us. I I might be the pla I might be the platform, you know, for somebody to do it. But still you gotta be willing to do the work yourself.
SPEAKER_02You know?
SPEAKER_03I might be the delivery system to get you to your goals, but again, you gotta be willing to show up every day and do it.
SPEAKER_00So I'm gonna mix this around because I get all your perspectives, but the one thing that I'm hearing though is that most of your life has been associated with selflessness. Oh, wow, my entire yes. So there's a selfishness in the selflessness is what you're really expressing.
SPEAKER_03100%. Yes. That and that's a yeah, I haven't heard it that way, but yes, I'm very selfish about my selflessness. Wonderful. Yes.
SPEAKER_00So so expound upon that a little bit more.
SPEAKER_03Why is it so valuable? It's just that's how my parents were. I I don't I don't know any other way. And you know, and again, me me being a believer and and and and knowing there's something far greater than ourselves that makes us who we are. Um it's just my chemistry, man. It's just who I am, and I don't know how to be who I'm not. I only know how to be who I was born to be. Uh uh I might have got astray a few times, but as long as we come back to ourselves, that's what matters. You know, and and and again, a lot of times it takes a profound moment for a profound ripple effect to reunite oneself with oneself. You know, the world separates us from who we really are. We start getting indoctrinated by all kind of things that that might not be even of interest to us. It separates ourselves from ourselves. So once we find a reason to fuse back together, man, that's where it's at. That's where it's at.
SPEAKER_00That's an incredibly interesting perspective. And the more I think about that, because you know, a lot of people can take on the self-ish aspect of everything that you expressed and turn it into once again, it's about me. It's about me, it's about me, it's about me. And if you don't get yours, that's fine. You need to worry about you. More and more and more and more and more and more is better when actually less is more.
SPEAKER_03Bingo.
SPEAKER_00That's the other big thing. Less ends up being more.
SPEAKER_04That goes back to being rich in life.
SPEAKER_00The poor. Same. Right? So now that we're really getting to the those foundational principles, I've always learned that the giving of myself always gave me greater value than the taking. That's right. It's it's been a wonderful experience that way. Yeah.
Time Ownership And Self-Preservation
SPEAKER_00And you know, a lot of people think, you know what, my family's where I give. But you know what I mean. Maybe your life was built more on just not just your family. That's right. Like your family could be a lot of people out in this world. There could be a lot of people that need you. Yeah. Yeah. You need to make sure that you make yourself available for those people. And it sounds to me, especially through personal training, you've done that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. We miss our calling, I think, a lot of times. But at least I have, you know, again, because the world, you know, contaminates our minds a little bit with what we like and what we need. We get those a little backwards sometimes. At least I did. But I'm thankful that I broke my neck. I'm thankful for all the things that happened. I'm thankful for my career, not just the trajectory that my life put me on. I'm thankful for all of it because now I actually feel like um it's a near miss at this point, but I feel like I'm about ready to land on the launching pad that I was supposed to launch off of in the first place. But just thirty years later. Wow. So it's like it's never too late to start. No, it's ne never. Never.
SPEAKER_01I guess I guess the the issue is that it's more of a like you said, uh you know, the world told us this is the way it's supposed to be. And it's scary to um divert away from that, right? Because you know, the line is going this way and everybody's going this way, and then a couple of people decide to go the other way, right? And that's I think that's what separates the people that become successful, become what they want to be, or even rich in life, like you said, or the people that are going the opposite way than everybody else, right? Exactly. Exactly. I really I really like what the way that you put that out there like that.
SPEAKER_03I appreciate that. Yeah, I try to live that, man. That's that's uh it's a principle that must be practiced, you know, every day. It just doesn't happen. Now, was it because of the accident that that product uh it probably just finished it off. It just kind of said, hey, this is the accident is the icing on the cake that just kind of kind of said, Whoa, life is too short. Let's Yeah, yeah, of course it is. Yeah. I mean a turtle lives longer than we do for crying out loud. You know what I mean? An alligator lives And it takes them forever to move. And our poor dog our poor dogs that love us the best, they only live 10, 12, 13 years. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02It's uh I know these things these things are self.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Now, how about this? To cap this conversation once again, we have a gentleman in our midst right now, and Michael Hassett, that is going to be on the cover of Men's magazine. We're gonna speak that out into the world right now. So, where are we in that process? And tell us how that endeavor even began. How did this go?
SPEAKER_03About four months ago, uh, but I was um hellbent, so to speak, on uh getting into the best shape of my life that I could at my current age. You know, after the neck, you know, again, where there's a will, there's a way. It's the the road to redemption. That's what it is for me. Love it. You know, from uh near death to victory, man, from uh tragedy to triumph. You just just all the above, and I really feel that way about it. So it's the road road to redemption for me. Everything's gonna have to come full circle. So I wanted to get into the best shape of my life at my current age. And for me, I thought it was a near miss, so I signed up for this competition online and just kind of like let it go and forgot about it and was just went about my life. And uh the holidays I gained 20 pounds back on purpose because I was hungry, you know, because I just got done leaning out. The holidays at the lightest weight I've ever been since high school and probably the best shape I ever was since I was you know 22 uh after the neck injury and all that. And um, I just wanted to keep going. So I just you know went went to work and uh packed on 20 pounds, you know, because I was hungry because you can't sustain life at 5% body fat. Right. So I went back up to probably about 10, which is still lean enough, but not for a magazine, obviously, right? And I got this email, it said, our panel picked you to in the top 20 to be. And I'm like, oh yeah, just spam. What is this? Like some get my bank account, hit the link. I'm not hitting this link. Right. So I scrolled down a little more, and my and it says Mr. Fit and the um I'm like, I'm starting to remember a little bit. Like, I think I did sign up for one of these by God. So they I hit the link, and there it was. I had to finish my profile. I uploaded a couple pictures and game on. Let's go! And then I was but then as happy as I was, I was like, oh no. I gotta
Mr. Health & Fitness: Journey And Voting
SPEAKER_03lose this weight. I was loving eating those carrot cakes, man, drinking that soda. Like, you know, that stuff felt so good. And I said, now I gotta take it all back off, and here we go again.
SPEAKER_01But okay, so question. When you started all that, because it sounds like you you eat very cleanly, you you you live a pretty clean life as far as food and natural foods and things. But when you got into this, how did you feel after drinking the soda, after drinking, you know, eating all the I'm pretty sure it wasn't the greatest spoon in the world.
SPEAKER_03How did you feel? I was like, oh no. I was like, oh no, I might have overindulged a little bit. Okay.
SPEAKER_01So so you basically you felt like a little sluggish and stuff like that. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_03And which is fine for just me walking around and doing what I have to do. But when we're talking about, I don't care if you are a runway model, but by God, you better show up like 80 pounds and and fit that script because you're getting ready to get paid to do what you're gonna do. Or if you are a linebacker for the New York Giants, by God, you better show up on game day on Sunday and be where we pay you to be. So that kind of like uh feels fitting for me. By God, when I win the competition, I better be magazine tough for these photos. You're not lying. This is my uh mindset. So I'm I'm already getting ready. You know what I mean? So I'm not concerned as far as the uh preparedness. I'll be ready.
SPEAKER_00So what's the ETA on when we're gonna find out these results?
SPEAKER_03Um the top five is gonna be determined on Thursday. This coming Thursday. So it's Sunday, guys. Then the following Thursday after that, uh, let's say this coming Thursday is the 26th, I believe. Yes. Yes. Yes. And then I believe the next Thursday will be the fifth, potentially. That's the most important round so far. I've almost won every round so far as we go four rounds in a row. I've almost commanded the lead the whole time. There was a couple shifts in the guard, but I've commanded the lead for probably 99% of the time. But the most important day to have that lead is going to be Thursday night at 10 o'clock PM. Not this Thursday, but next Thursday, because that's when they determine the winner from each group, because there's more than one group besides myself. Okay. Then they take all the winners from all the groups and then slam them all together and go at it again. Wow. Then they set up two quarterfinal groups and you know, hash it out. Then they'll set up two semifinal groups, hash it out, and then there'll be two final competitors, and then it will be over on April the 6th as far as the competition. They'll let it stew, they'll let us stew on it for three weeks on who's actually the winner, and the winner will get an email on or before the 26th of April saying either you won or try better next time. And then the winner gets shipped out. Then the winner gets an all-inclusive three-day trip to their studios, the $30,000 in value, you know, for that for the professional photographers, all the stuff that they do, all the wowie stuff to make your magazine ready. Um, that's plus $20,000 check as well. Um, and the title, uh, Deemed by Globally Renowned, World Famous. Like this is not a like uh Nobody Knows magazine. This is like one of the world's most famous fitness magazines. Muscle and fitness. It's kind of like Men's Health or Flex magazine. It's muscle and fitness. It's big deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm swinging for a grand slam, brother. Let's go. Now we're chirping. Yeah. So um, and I feel like I have a good chance to uh take that title back home.
SPEAKER_00So so does America get an opportunity to vote or anything? Oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna put the link to the because it's all about the network, guys. Okay, the it's not the pictures mattered at first, obviously, because the panel picked everybody to be in the groups. You follow me? Right. So at first it was about the story and the pictures. Once the competition began, no longer is it about the story and the pictures, it's about the competitors' ability to market their product, meaning their persons, and how their network is able to deliver them to the winner's circle. Because that's what's going to happen. So we need to expand this network. The network is who the win, in my opinion. I may receive the title of it, but it's all due to the supporters who love me and want to see me win.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_03That's all it's all I give them all the glory.
SPEAKER_00So what information, Josh, do you have in front of you right now that can help get this out?
SPEAKER_04Uh you're gonna go to Mr Health and Fitness.com. I'm gonna put the link to the website in the episode description so anyone uh that really wants to support Michael getting this award can go and uh vote for him.
SPEAKER_00No, everyone's gonna support Michael getting this award.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, awesome.
SPEAKER_00There's no options.
SPEAKER_04We're gonna do that. All right. We're gonna try and help you win.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, I appreciate it, man. This is uh um like like I I if anything, I never was one to believe in destiny and fate, and I'll tell you why. Just jump out that window right now and land on your head and tell me what happens, you know what I mean? Or or go run out there in front of a semi-truck doing 50 miles an hour and come back up here and tell me how you like that. You know what I mean? You probably would be squashed like a bug down there. So I I always believe in choice and free will, you know, and that ripple effect. You what you put off, you get it back. And I'm just trying to um uh I'm trying to redeem myself, gentlemen. I re I really am. You know what I mean? It's it's a it's a road to redemption, one hundred percent. And uh, if anything will get me to believe in fate or something like that. Me watching, just sitting in first place all this while with all these guys that some of them look a lot better than me. I mean, some of them are about on gear, many of them. I mean, it's clear, you could see that. But again, there's just something that is supporting me that's just pulling me along uh within the context and confines of my network. I don't know whom, what, what it is, but there's a driving force that is quite obvious that's strong enough
Trivia Break & Florida Oddities
SPEAKER_03to keep me in the front running of the pack thus far. So yeah, it's getting excited as we get closer. It's getting stickier as we go, you know?
SPEAKER_00This has been beyond excited. This episode's been absolutely tremendous. We gotta cap it right here, but you know, before we cap any episode, we always have to jump in on trivia. Let's get to it. All right, all right. And Aaron didn't even respond, he's just sitting there. What's trivia? Exactly.
SPEAKER_04All right, so this is a uh topic-specific question. All right, which professional chef was the first to have their own TV show? Oh was it Marcel Bolston? Was it uh so that was A, B, Philip Harbin, C, James Beard.
SPEAKER_00Okay, we're gonna go with you first, Mike, on the guests.
SPEAKER_04That's a good one there.
SPEAKER_03Can you say the names one more time?
SPEAKER_04Um A Marcel Bolston, B, Philip Harbin, and C, James Beard.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna go with A, Marcel. Alright. I just like the way Marcel sounds. I'm going Gordon Ramsey.
SPEAKER_03That's option. That was option F. Always gotta be different. Always.
SPEAKER_01Alright, so what's your real what's your real guess? I was actually gonna go with Marcel in the beginning.
SPEAKER_04Alright, that's right. Awesome.
SPEAKER_00I didn't even get a chance to shoot me. You said A.
SPEAKER_01No, you said A, though. I did say A.
SPEAKER_00But I always go last.
SPEAKER_01But you chose to go first.
SPEAKER_04I did not. You go in before A Town.
SPEAKER_00I still get a dick. I still get a dick. Alright, and now, Mike, we have this terrible, terrible, goofy question that Santa has to ask you right now.
SPEAKER_04So this this is gonna test your history of the area that you grew up in. I uh which department store in um in St. Peter uh St. Petersburg put um, or actually, it was the Webb department store put St. Petersburg on the map. Which two performing animals were real attractions in uh what was called Webb's uh Webb's World or uh Webb City?
SPEAKER_00Was it I don't even understand the question.
SPEAKER_04Alright, so Webb City was a department store that put St. Petersburg on the map. That's an old one. All right, all right. So what it was uh a a chicken that would dance whenever music was played. Uh so that was A. B. A duck that would play sweet Georgia Barn Brown on the piano. A uh trumpet playing seal. That would play jazz. So which two of these were real attractions?
SPEAKER_00Which two? Yes. There's two of them. So there's an A B C and we gotta change the channel.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna go with the chicken and the duck. So one of these is not real.
SPEAKER_00I figured that out.
SPEAKER_01Okay. One of them's not real. He's going with the chicken and the duck. I say chicken and the seal.
SPEAKER_00Okay, read them again.
SPEAKER_04Alright. A a chicken that would dance whenever music was played. B a duck that would play sweet Georgia Brown. And a trumpet playing seal that would uh uh play jazz. That was C.
SPEAKER_00How is the duck playing anything? I don't know. I'll go A C as well.
SPEAKER_04Alright. It was A and B. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00There's a duck really playing Sweet Georgia Brown. Yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh, that's absolutely only in Florida, people. Only in Florida.
SPEAKER_03Only Yeah, Florida's got
Local Eats Shout-Outs
SPEAKER_03its own mind, I tell you.
SPEAKER_01Only in Florida.
SPEAKER_00And with that in mind, we are now moving on to Tampa Bay's local eateries. Hey town, drop the beat right now. Bang! And on today's episode, we are shouting out the Yard House. Yard House, the modern American gathering place where beer and food lovers unite. It's an upscale casual eatery known for great food, classic rock music, and energetic vibes with an endless fleet of tap handles featuring the best of Americans' craft and imported beers. Our globally inspired menu features more than 100 made from scratch favorites from signature starters like poke nachos and fried mac and cheese to street tacos, grilled burgers, pizza, seafood, steak, and much, much more. So go visit the yard house. And the address to Yard House is in Channel Side, baby. That's 450 Channel Side Drive in Tampa Bay, Florida, 33602 The Yard House. Go visit them. And now we are moving on to Gin Pub. Drop the music one more time. Bang. Mike, we are finishing this episode with you, brother.
Final Message: Don’t Quit
SPEAKER_00Once again, you have this amazing electric, connective, extrinsically focused personality. You've gone through a lot in your life. You are now pursuing greatness in men's health, with men's muscle. For all the things that you've gone through, give the world one final point. When it comes to dealing with all the adversity, getting back up. What is the value of getting back up?
SPEAKER_03Well, I tell you, I tell you, first and foremost, those who are chosen, guys, you're gonna suffer the most. There's no avoiding it. The ones that are chosen will suffer more than anybody. But I'm here to tell you that after the suffering comes a whole lot of joy. You just gotta wait. The joy comes in the morning. And we've heard this before. Uh, you know, willingness goes a long way. Where there's a will, there's a way. I can and I will. It's not ever I can't and I will not. It shouldn't be in our vocabulary. We're capable of tremendous feats, tremendous things, all on our own, with the help from our great Lord above. Uh we can manifest anything to happen. It's all in the mind. It might not be on our time. That's why we quit a lot of times, but it's it's on someone's time. We just gotta persevere and just keep on going. So, the best advice I could give is don't quit. Keep doing it, chase your dreams. Doesn't matter what age you are, whether you're five or fifty three, you just keep on moving. Keep your nose to the ground, put one foot in front of the other. Most importantly, just wake up and be a better version of yourself every day. Make a valiant effort to do so.
SPEAKER_00Couldn't have said it better. This has been the no shot podcast, and it's been brought to you by Radio Influence. That's our boy, Jay Floyd. You know what it'd be like. We are in Tampa Bay, Florida, and it was also sponsored by the brand. Yeah! True Victory Apparel. Mike, what inspiration? Men's health, men's muscle. Let's all get yak together at 5%. Send us out, Santa.
SPEAKER_04This has been the No Shot Podcast. Go check out the brand at TrueVictory.com and then go support the cast by rating us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
