From Glitter Beards to Life-Saving Videos: Iron Sanctuary's Journey

Ever wonder what happens when a bearded, tattooed guy starts wearing glitter and red dresses on social media? Kevin (aka Iron Sanctuary) reveals the wild journey that took him from construction worker to viral TikTok sensation with millions of followers practically overnight.

What began as comedy videos parodying "five-minute crafts" during early COVID lockdowns evolved into something far more meaningful. Kevin shares how radical transparency about his struggles with mental health and addiction created deep connections with viewers who felt seen for perhaps the first time. "I spent a lot of time trying to give as much of a view into my life and be as vulnerable as possible," he explains, "because social media is very skewed."

The conversation takes a powerful turn when Kevin reveals that his recent return to creating raw, authentic mental health content has literally saved lives. "Six separate people have messaged me and said that was the day they were going to check out, and they didn't because of that video," he shares, highlighting what true purpose feels like after a period of feeling lost following health scares and stepping back from competitive bodybuilding.

Whether discussing his "do it anyway" philosophy that builds mental resilience, the brotherhood of the traveling red dress that somehow got Papa Roach's lead singer into women's clothing within five minutes of meeting, or the challenges of taking yourself seriously in a world gone mad, this episode delivers equal parts hilarity and heart. As Kevin puts it, "Life is absurd. You have to embrace the absurdity, otherwise what are you going to do?"

Connect with this bearded mental health warrior across all platforms @IronSanctuary and discover his clothing line "Fighting Mental Illness, One Rep at a Time" or his approach to fitness coaching that addresses both physical and mental wellbeing.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:18

Welcome to Mod in Mod Welcome to.

Speaker 2 0:22

Moderation because Rob fucked it up. I get to start episode 69, plus I'm going to say 5.

Speaker 1 0:30

I don't know man, I know you're a little shy. You're a little shy on that number.

Speaker 2 0:32

It's shy, 6, doesn't matter who cares. At this point no one's fucking counting, no one's like oh, let me go listen to episode like 75. I mean, they don't give a shit.

Speaker 3 0:43

How the episode like 75 I mean, they don't give a shit. How's it? How are you, how you two doing? I'm doing pretty good. Yeah, rob, just got my camera fixed on chrome, so I'm like, yeah, I'm over the moon right now that's what I said.

Speaker 2 0:51

You're doing nothing and rob helped out iron sanctuary here. Fix this camera that's been busted for how long? How many months?

Speaker 3 0:58

uh, it hasn't worked on Chrome or Edge or whatever. In like six months I've been having to use Firefox, which is not bad, but it is an absolute nightmare Because the other part of the Firefox thing is I have to click allow on the camera every single time.

Speaker 2 1:19

It's one of those little things that shouldn't bother you like at all, but it really fucking does. It adds up every time it does.

Speaker 1 1:27

This is exactly why I don't wear my glasses, though. Is that then people realize I'm smart and they always ask me to fix things?

Speaker 2 1:33

yeah right, glasses, I got a monocle. I've got a monocle in my hand, right?

Speaker 1 1:37

now there we go. The chain broke off you know who never had a monocle, mr Peanut.

Speaker 3 1:44

Well, I was going to say the Monopoly guy. Oh, monopoly guy, damn.

Speaker 2 1:47

I don't know. Those are the only two characters I know, mr Peanut had a monocle.

Speaker 3 1:50

The Monopoly guy never had a monocle.

Speaker 2 1:52

The Monopoly guy never Interesting.

Speaker 3 1:59

I guess I could see that.

Speaker 2 2:02

It's that Mandela effects. What's the? What's that one? That comedian was like in the, the, the, the, the, shazam, shazam, yeah.

Speaker 3 2:09

It was Shaquille O'Neal, was in Kazam Was in.

Speaker 2 2:15

God, what was it? It was, I want to say Kazam. It was Kazam.

Speaker 3 2:28

But there were two. I can't. I don't remember exactly what the other part of it was.

Speaker 2 2:31

There were two movies that came out around the same time they're like yeah uh, sinbad, sinbad, yeah, that's what it was. Sinbad, but he, but that didn't exist.

Speaker 3 2:35

Yeah fucking man o'neill is kazam, and then you have shazam, which is zachary levi.

Speaker 2 2:40

Oh there is a movie shazam yeah, it's the superhero movie oh okay, all right, right, all right. No, that okay. So I do know that one man it's. I feel like somebody just says something at one point and then just like fucking I don't know game of telephone, whatever, it just gets transferred around eventually we're like yeah, sure, that sounds good, how old are you guys?

Speaker 3 2:57

I'm 33 okay, so do you remember that? That uh rumor that we all heard about Marilyn Manson before the internet? Yes, yes.

Speaker 1 3:05

Which one?

Speaker 3 3:06

The ribs one.

Speaker 2 3:08

The ribs one. He removed two ribs.

Speaker 3 3:10

Everyone knew about that, even though one. It's not true, it's completely untrue.

Mandela Effects & Urban Myths

Speaker 2 3:15

I figured it probably wasn't true. It seemed like some bullshit. He's just really flexible.

Speaker 3 3:19

He can do it, but he just didn't have to do the ribs. Like you know, he can do it, but he just didn't have to do the ribs. But what was crazy is that that that was such a widely known fact even though, like the Internet, was not in any way what it is now. There's no way that could have been spread like wildfire like it is.

Speaker 2 3:36

That's a good point.

Speaker 1 3:37

I feel like that just goes to show how rural I am. Is I never heard that at all? Oh, interesting.

Speaker 2 3:43

Really goes to show how rural I am. Is I?

Speaker 1 3:43

I never heard that at all, oh interesting really well, here in america, misinformation just spreads.

Speaker 2 3:47

What internet or no internet, it doesn't matter. Yeah, that's, uh, that's how it is fucking great. Well, anyway, iron sanctuary, why don't you introduce yourself a little bit?

Iron Sanctuary's Origin Story

Speaker 3 3:56

now we've got the maryland mancer and talk out of the way, yeah now that we're properly, uh, lubricate, warmed up, um, so it all stretched out. So, uh, well, my name is actually my name is kevin, uh, but everyone knows me as iron sanctuary because that was my username on on tiktok when I blew up shit. I don't, I don't know where to start. I I there's a whole lot man, I could talk for hours or I could talk for 10 minutes, um, but I do social media, um I, uh, I have a clothing line called uh, fighting mental illness, one rep at a time. Um, I do online fitness coaching and, uh, I put glitter and christmas ornaments in my beard. One year, in 2019, and five years later, here I am I've always seen the red dress thing.

Speaker 2 4:44

That's what, like Scotty, scotty K fitness was telling me about getting the red dress on.

Speaker 3 4:49

I don't, you can see, you can't see, it, right there you see that red right there.

Speaker 1 4:53

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 4:54

Two new red dresses.

Speaker 1 4:56

You didn't dress up for us?

Speaker 3 4:57

No, I didn't, we're hurt. Yeah, I know. Well, see, there's a ritual before putting on a new dress and displaying it to people, so I got to follow that one.

Speaker 1 5:10

Oh, that's fair.

Speaker 3 5:12

The last one. I had quite a few of the same dress and I had one that I kept at home all the time and then I had one that I kept with me when I traveled because, you know, I'd get random people to wear it. I've got, you know, a bunch of influencers to put it on. I've got Jacoby Shaddix from Papa Roach within five minutes of meeting him, I got him to put on a dress. I mean Nate's worn the dress, scotty's worn the dress, chris wore the I mean it's sisterhood of the brotherhood of the traveling red dress. Essentially, um and so, uh, I always, I always had two of them and something happened in a move and I cannot locate either of them.

Speaker 3 5:55

Oh shit which is very sad, because the one that jacoby wore um was the one that, like everyone else wore, and so it had, like it, held this. It was like everyone wore that specific dress, and I'm sure I'll find it eventually, but so I have that start at the same time.

Speaker 1 6:14

You just find those missing left socks from the dryer, the what was? That rob it's, you'll find, at the same time that you find those missing left socks from the dryer.

Speaker 3 6:22

Yes, yes, exactly the red dress. It wasn't just the red dress. So what started was right. At the beginning of COVID, I did a series of videos the five minute crafts and when I was doing these I was overweight and hairy and bearded and funny looking and funny.

Speaker 3 6:46

I'm still funny, but some people say I was bearded I was more relatable, I guess, so I was funnier, um, but uh, I remade a bunch of those videos because you'd have some like skinny girl wearing a crop top and a skirt she made out of a hoodie. And then the next scene is me in my bathroom mirror with my gut hanging out, wearing a crop top, hoodie and skirt that I made. And it's the fun, because the first one that went so crazy viral, it was like me and the camera in the mirror and I looked at myself for the first time in the camera and I just started busting up laughing and I was like I'm sorry and and people laughing and I was like I'm sorry, and and people loved it and I was like all right, well, there's a bunch of these that'll do really well and they, so I did. I did like seven or eight of them over the span of like the first three weeks of COVID and each one of those got minimum 15, 20 views they were getting like a million views within an hour.

Speaker 3 7:45

They were going so crazy viral that some of the influencers that were like popular at the time, like the really big ones like brent riviera or some other guys that were really, really big because of youtube and fine were like copying my videos and I was was like, wow, I got these. You know 20, 30 million, uh, follower people copying my videos and then their little followers would come on my video and see it afterwards and be like you're just copying this person. I was like I posted it three weeks ago.

Speaker 3 8:16

And, but I gained like two or I think I gained like 3 million followers within the span of two weeks and it was absolutely insane. I had never gotten that many people like it was I, because I had gotten to like one and a half million right after, right after christmas, because I was doing the glitter beard stuff and and that blew up and then it was right at the exact same time as the, the government, the world, shut down, everyone's stuck at home. Yeah, and that's when those videos were going out and it was just a perfect storm and so, so a lot of like some of them, I turned like a pair of sweatpants into a dress. There was like a bunch of other ones, um, that I did and like I made a little skinny black dress and and, and there was like so I did a bunch of those videos for a while and then, you know, eventually there's like no more of them to do and, uh, I ran out of like the five minute crafts to remake. But then the red dress that was the, the one that everyone wore.

Speaker 3 9:20

There was, uh, it was a video idea that I had where I was going to put on a dress and I was in. This is when I was in prep for my first show, like I just started losing a bunch of weight and I got really fat. Obviously when my wife was pregnant, beginning of COVID I gained like 70 pounds and then I lost it all over the span of six months and like two or three maybe it was probably like maybe closer to four or five weeks before my first competition. Maybe it was probably like maybe closer to four or five weeks before my first competition I started kind of putting some of those outfits back on and remaking the videos and I looked way better in them. Now, you know, at that time, uh, it didn't look as funny but like my legs were all like lean and everything and and uh, the dresses made my ass and my leg look legs look fantastic.

Speaker 3 10:01

And there was always comments about my legs, like I don't skip leg day and all that kind of stuff, and I was like yeah right and so, um, I remember, uh, there was a video that I was gonna make and it was me, and uh, and um, I can't remember the guy's name, but we were like we were both in prep for the same show and I was like, let's go do an entire workout in the gym wearing matching red dresses of course and he's like that's everyone's first thought when you're thinking right.

The Red Dress Phenomenon

Speaker 3 10:32

And so he's like all right, let's do it. So he comes out and we do the video and it's funny, we make a bunch of tiktoks, we do it uh, an instagram video of it and everything, and. And then this was before Reels. And then, like three or four days later, I saw a video on TikTok and it was a girl wearing the exact same red dress and she's like all jacked and she's like I still look swole though, like it looks good. And then I stitched it and the next clip is me, like peeled to the gills, wearing the exact same dress, and I'm like I got the same dress and then it's like, but like I think I might look a little bit better in it though. And that video exploded. It was like 10 million views and I was like that was funny, right, because I was like, oh, my God, that's so funny I have that it wasn't just like the like dress, it was the exact same dress.

Speaker 3 11:31

And so, uh, of like I don't know exactly what happened after that that got me to get someone else to wear it. I think someone came out to the house to collab and I was like put on a dress, because I got everyone else put on the five minute craft dresses and stuff and then, like the uwu e-girl skirts that I had, um, but uh, in a maid outfit, oh, I wore all kinds of stuff, but the red dress in particular is like where that originated. And then I just started bringing it with me everywhere and every time I collabed with other creators I'd have them put on the red dress and and it was great because everyone was such a good sport about it. There was was no, like, oh, I'm not putting on a dress, like, and I think part of that comes from like, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's an entertainment thing, right, like it's funny.

Speaker 3 12:11

You don't typically see that as often. And then the other part of it is like you got me who's got a beard and I didn't. I don't think I had a face tattoos when I started, but I do now. It's like a beard, I'm covered in tattoos, super muscular, um, wearing a dress. Like people just found that so like, like, not comforting, but just so like it was just nice because, like it was the complete opposite of what you would expect. Um, typically, and so that's that's where it went, and then that's great. Um, typically, and so that's that's where it went and then that's great. I haven't put on a dress since christmas, but, uh, I should definitely, uh be definitely filming some stuff with the dresses soon.

Speaker 1 12:51

Yeah, I'm disappointed you didn't make liam put it on when you met I didn't have it with me, I wasn't.

Speaker 3 12:56

uh, I was thinking about bringing it, but with how much stuff that we had going on, and on top of that I tweaked my back.

Speaker 2 13:05

That was just my first time going, it was wild. There was just shit going on. Everywhere you go in there's like a cage put up. They're like lift that weight. Yeah, like fucking music's blasting, like it's just like more weight, throw it on. That it was. It was something, that was really something. But I've seen like now you kind of like it seems like you know you as your content shifted, seems like a little bit you know more. Since then you've been deaf. I've definitely seen some of your videos that I've really enjoyed, like definitely doing some. I don't know how to describe words of encouragement. I don't know exactly how to. How would you describe some of the the more recent content?

Speaker 3 13:43

um, I would say, uh, a little bit like higher quality of content that I used to make so for for quite a while I just did, um, I did funny stuff, but I've been always very open about my own struggles with mental health, with addiction. Um, since the beginning, like, I've basically had this looking glass into my life since I started on social media because I didn't know how to play a character and I didn't know how to keep that separate from social media, so I just put it all into one and people really resonated with that. They felt seen, heard and understood and felt like they weren't alone. And then, as I continued to grow in followers, I doubled down on that and I spent a lot of time really trying to give as much of a view into my life and be as vulnerable as possible, because I felt like I had the uh, like I had the responsibility to do that, because social media is it's very skewed.

Speaker 3 14:52

You have different faucets of the internet that are it's all a high right Highlight reel, you know. You have like their life is all good, it's all great, they're doing all these cool things all the time. And you have, like, these families that are like, oh my God, their family's so great, and obviously there's some stuff about certain families that have just recently come out that are like it's all, it's all made up right. The internet is fake, like none of it's real, and so I always, I always really liked the fact that, like I just kept it real and, um, and people, people would always come up to me and after they talk to me like, wow, you're exactly like you are on the internet, like in person. I was like I don't know how to be any other way and and I spent quite a bit of time especially when I launched the clothing line, really uh focusing around mental health and focusing around sharing my stories and uh talking about like what things that I've done to help get through certain aspects of my life, what I'm struggling with currently.

Speaker 3 15:53

I used to do life updates and these the life like I would just give an update on my life and I get like a couple million views on a life update and it it was, it was all just normal shit. Like you know, I had a rough week and like this happened and or, or when I was giving updates on like the pregnancy and stuff which made sense, that was like a whole ordeal. They named my child before she was even born. Um. The internet was crazy, right. My wife got pregnant right as I was blowing up, so everyone was invested. My daughter's name was baby sanctuary before she was born.

Creating Authentic Content

Speaker 3 16:27

But like in between, like it's funny too, because when you go to my page, if you scroll through you, you can't really look at it and be like, oh, this is a fitness page. Or like, oh, this is a mental health page. Or oh, this is a comedy page, oh, this is a family page. Like I've never liked the idea of a niche. I've always just posted what I wanted to post when I wanted to post it. And over the last two years I I shifted pretty significantly into the fitness space because of competing. You know I've done seven shows and I lost all that weight. And then I started doing online coaching and a lot of my content was centered around uh, not like I mean fitness, but like the gym and that aspect and like the connection to mental health. But then it started getting further and further away from the mental health side of things and more just into the fitness side of things and creating cool edits and the coaching stuff. And then I realized and my wife brought it up a few times is that I stopped making content Like I used to. I stopped making like talking videos in the mirror. I stopped creating the content that most people started following me for and only started doing just this one style with another video here and there. That was kind of the old stuff and and uh. And then after I had the hospital stay last year after the show I almost died. I was in the hospital's blood sugar thing and then, um, and I decided I was done competing. I felt like really really lost for like the last I don't know six or seven months and I don't know if you saw my video after the Arnold. But having that many people come up to me and tell me how much my content has helped them, like the transformation video I did, you know three, four years ago, obviously a bunch of weight loss I've had so many people message me and say that video got me to start working out and I've lost like 100 pounds. Like I've had. I've got at least a thousand DMs from people over the last year of saying something similar they saw my transformation and they decided they could do the same thing. And they of saying something similar they saw my transformation and they decided they could do the same thing. And they've shown me like they sent their transformation and then also being a coach being able to do the same thing.

Speaker 3 18:32

But what was the biggest like made the biggest impact on me is the, the amount of people that have talked about how my videos on mental health and my struggles, or just like the, like, the motive, not necessarily motivational stuff, but just like, uh, I guess, um, the uh, the getting on the same level with the people in the video, like the videos, the way we're doing them is like having a conversation with them the, the amount of people that have told me that those videos have saved their life. I've had the last one that I just posted. Um, I, I think I haven't checked today, but I posted it three or four days ago and six separate people have messaged me and said that they were going to be done. That was it. That was the day they were going to check out and they didn't. Because of that video, wow, and I heard so many of those similar stories from people at the Arnold that it reignited that drive to really focus on the content. Being how it was supposed to be from the beginning is for other people Cause a lot of what I was making was because what I it's cause it was I was wanting to make, you know, cool edits, the gym stuff, like, and which was good, and it did well.

Speaker 3 20:02

And it's it made like I mean it was cool but like good and it did well. And it's it made like I mean it was cool but like it didn't resonate and with that, everything stopped growing, like the account stopped growing, people weren't, you know, reaching out, no one was buying any of the merch, like no one was seeing my stuff. And I got really frustrated for a while because I'm like what am I I doing wrong? And it's because I stopped making content that helped people. And since doing that, the creative juices have flown like crazy. We just filmed a couple videos this morning. I've got probably 14 of those talking videos filmed, edited, ready to go and ready to post Because they're making a difference.

Speaker 1 20:43

Right, that must feel amazing.

Speaker 3 20:46

I feel like I have like my purpose figured out, like I mean, I'm in that video too that I talk about. Like my purpose obviously is my family and like my businesses and stuff, like my purpose outside of that, because for the last couple of years it's been I want to get my pro card. Well, that's not in the cards. So like what was next? There was nothing, there was no. What's next? It's like, hey, let's get back on the path that we were on before yeah, she goes to show you life isn't a straight line, right?

Speaker 2 21:14

you know there's like a bunch of not even close.

Speaker 2 21:17

You're often. It makes sense. I mean, mental health is a something you know, rob, you've talked about it, your own struggles with it. It's something a lot of people uh struggle with. Like I, I never really know exactly, you know people ask me. I'm like I would love to be able to help, but I'm not a therapist, I'm not an expert, I've never really struggled with mental health myself, so I just I don't really know what to say, but like I, I understand it's a, it's a major problem people are dealing with.

Speaker 1 21:44

Especially in today's economy and stuff.

Speaker 3 21:48

Oh, I think COVID brought to light the pandemic or the epidemic. The pandemic brought out the epidemic, I guess, of mental health, because I know a lot of people have been like you know, up until that point they're like, oh, I haven't had any issues with mental health Really, because you work all the time, constantly. You never have time where you're not working, so you've never had to sit by yourself and think about things like that's one thing that a lot of people have. Uh, I've seen a lot of people make videos about, talk about that when there was nothing to keep them occupied and when there's nothing stopping them from the what, the intrusive thoughts. There's no distractions. There's no distractions. You don't understand how bad it can be when you're in your own head and when you're not in your own head because you're distracted by everything, then you, you know you could sit there and say that you're totally fine, because you might be.

Speaker 2 22:54

but as soon as distractions are gone, it's. There's nothing else but you and so you just find like sharing your story and just kind of like trying to help people. You know realize that you know like influencers are people and that kind of like trying to help people. You know realize that you know like influencers or people and that you know that sort of stuff. And you know, I was just wondering like is there anything else that you kind of do that you find helps, like you know that resonates with people?

Speaker 3 23:15

I mean there's that, but obviously like the funny shit, I think, I think my, my sense of humor.

Speaker 2 23:30

There are facets of my sense of humor that are not postable.

Speaker 3 23:32

I like the way you put it, not because they're bad, right, but just because of the way my brain works, I will think of some fucked up shit that I think is really funny, and it's usually centered around my own shit, right like my, my best I. I might make a video about it. My best friend, um, died last year and he had to donate. He donated his organs, um and uh, and then, you know, cremated him and stuff, and. But when they're doing the donation of the organs and stuff, I asked the nurse I'm like, hey, like we're donating some of these organs, but like I mean, my boy was packing some heat, do you think you can uh donate, donate that or whatever. And then I made a joke at his, at his uh memorial service, that the ashes that I had in the bracelet on my wrist were from his dick and they're on my right hand. It's on my right hand and so, like every time I'm, you know, it's like he's helping me and his memorial service.

Speaker 3 24:37

But to make it funnier, his memorial service was at a comedy club. He wanted he had already planned his funeral everyone wanted to. He wanted to uh everyone to wear hawaiian shirts and uh do improv, because he wanted to be a comedian, and and so that's what I did, and everyone thought it was hilarious. Obviously, there were a few people that you know didn't find it as funny, but they weren't as close to thunder as I was, so it's all relative, right his humor and like that's great.

Speaker 3 25:11

But like there's like I'll think of shit like that sometimes just off the cuff and I'm like I should probably not say that out loud I can see why you'd be a little hesitant of you know, sharing yeah, I made a joke.

Speaker 3 25:24

I can't remember where I was. I was at the chiropractor and I made a joke about um, someone was talking about aspartame or whatever, like how aspartame is bad for you, and I was. I was like I've smoked asphalt off of tinfoil, like I'm really not worried about what's funny. You say that because we we talked recently about there's like a guy on on tiktok.

Speaker 2 25:42

He's been. He's been doing pretty well, like I don't give a fuck foods, and his whole thing is. What's funny? You say that because we talked recently about there's like a guy on TikTok. He's been doing pretty well, like I don't give a fuck foods, and his whole thing is he sits on the bucket and he's like I don't give a fuck that they say that this is in this. I used to do all these hard drugs and like all this.

Mental Health, Motivation & Doing It Anyway

Speaker 2 25:57

Right that sort of shit, and like people are like thank God, I needed this, like I just needed to hear this, like you can cite studies and be like actually it's fine, but sometimes you just need a dude on a bucket saying I used to smoke a ton of crack and I'm still alive, so the carrageenan in your food is okay, like you know.

Speaker 3 26:12

I feel like that actually helps people what's funny is I actually have a few of those videos filmed, like I filmed them and I might refilm them because, like, the emphasis on certain things aren't as good, because I like the energy wasn't in the video, but like thinking about those things like that's, yeah, some people need to hear that shit. They're like, yeah, they get too locked up in the oh my god, like this thing says that it's bad for you. Well, I mean, everything is bad for you, everything is killing you. Yeah, like every, you're gonna die anyway. Like the way, I'm not gonna stop drinking diet coke. I don't diet dr pepper. Like, I will drink diet guess what? Because there's two options. Okay, there's regular dr pepper and diet dr pepper.

Speaker 2 26:54

I'm not gonna drink dr pepper because but no, they, but they always say like just drink water, like water is not the option, it's one of these two. These are the two I'm choosing between or crystal, light crystal light in my water.

Speaker 3 27:04

I will drink water, but I will put crystal light in it so you know what you just got. Sometimes you gotta what's that? Where was that? It was an snl skit where they were sitting at a table and, uh, they were eating these foods and she's like that's not organic, like I can't believe you would eat non-organic things and then just start snorting lines of coke off the table like what? Like yeah, oh no, I did it again that's fine.

Speaker 2 27:32

It's an audio podcast. They don't need to, they can still hear you hey you can cut it up.

Speaker 1 27:36

You can cut it. Oh no, we leave all of that in. Everybody sees our fuck ups.

Speaker 3 27:40

Hey, you know what. That's fine. You know what I like. When that happens, though, you know what there's certain things especially with. I look back at some of the content that I used to make, too, and you can see where I bust up laughing at the end of the clip, and I never cut it out. Yeah, it's like fuck it, why not? Like that's what it is. That's like it's that whole thing about being real, about shit and like breaking that barrier between like an influencer. I always hate, hate that word. Yeah, I don't know why I hate that.

Speaker 2 28:09

You should hate that word. It's very valid to tell. If someone asks you what you do and you say, um, I'm, I'm an influencer. Like no, like fucking. That's terrible.

Speaker 3 28:18

I hate that I always, uh, now that I have like multiple businesses, it's nice. But like, oh, I have a clothing line. Or like, yeah, or you, you know, I do online coaching, but I it was funny because people would ask me sometimes they're like, what do you do for a living? I was like, oh, social media. They're like, what do you mean? And I'm like, please, don't make me, please.

Speaker 2 28:37

I will say anything but influencer. I will literally say anything.

Speaker 3 28:42

I hate it but I mean, it is, it's just, it's just the verbiage. I think, as someone who does, that is why we don't like it right. Yes, because the other part of it too, is that when I think of influencer, I think of exactly the the image of an influencer you would think of before you became an influencer. Like yes, you're like yeah, no, that's, I don't like that. Try out this new product with me.

Speaker 2 29:07

I hate it. I got my taxes done and they were like oh, so, like what do you? I was trying to tell them. They're like oh, so you're an influencer. I was like, yeah, I guess that's fine if that's what you gotta put I'm an on-screen entertainment persona.

Speaker 1 29:20

Thank you very much, yeah or or.

Speaker 3 29:22

Oh, I do porn I would honestly rather say that I think I would rather say yeah, but yeah, I've always like with the, the humor thing, I'd like I don't know, I just I think so many different things are funny. Yeah, and I'm really glad that I have social media to have that outlet. You know what I mean? I think, uh, just especially over the last couple of years, is that my brain has always been like this. It's always been this like create, create, create, create. Like I have notes and notes and notes of video ideas. I've got probably two or 300 drafted videos that are like probably really good videos that I haven't posted yet because I just there's so many ideas constantly and I think I, until social media became like a thing that I could use, uh, I never had that outlet, like I couldn't. Like I ran a construction company before I did social media. It's like my own business. I started it because, like I think that's where, like it was a more of a. It was like I liked creating and building shit.

Speaker 1 30:28

Okay.

Speaker 3 30:28

And social media gives me the ability to do that and see something tangible that doesn't take seven months and 45 change orders.

Speaker 2 30:39

I can see that. Yeah, I totally feel. I mean, before that I was like I think this is kind of funny. I think that's kind of funny and that's kind of how my social, my social media, started as like gym skits, just like dumb gym skits. Cause I was like, oh, I think that's funny, let me make that. And then it kind of transitioned into like nutrition over time but like, yeah, it's just a creative outlet, that's fun. I push the humor in my videos a lot because there's a famous philosopher. He's like life is absurd. You have to embrace the absurdity, otherwise what are you going to do? We're on a fucking giant space pebble right now, orbiting through nothingness, and we're going to be worried about all these little things in our life.

Speaker 3 31:23

Don't take life so serious. You can't. I know people that do and they're miserable. They say they hate life. They know they're like nah, okay, cool man, that sucks, man, I'm sorry. Oh, you don't think that's funny. That sucks for you because all these other people think it's funny and they are happy.

Speaker 3 31:42

Yeah, man, it's just like laughing yeah, but it is good that not everyone's like that, because it gives us the ability to do what we do, because if everyone were like that, then I think the the it would be way too oversaturated yeah, yeah, I mean it's you don't want everyone to.

Speaker 2 32:02

We don't be a monolith here, you don't. You don't want everyone to be. We don't want to be a monolith here. You don't want everyone to be just like you are, but like I can never get behind, like just the people who take them the Steven Seagals of the world. Let me put it that way If you've ever heard the stories behind Steven Seagal someone who just completely takes himself seriously all the time that sounds horrible.

Speaker 2 32:21

It sounds, did you? Okay? So we were talking about, talked about snl and snl. If you ask like I was watching this whole thing if you ask anyone who's on snl when steven seagal was on and you ask them like who is the worst guest, every single one of them will say steven seagal, because he wouldn't do like any of this. Like they would try to come up with skits where they he would poke fun of himself and he would say no, I can't do that and he just wanted to beat everyone up. That's this whole thing. When he went on, he's like I just want to beat everyone up on the show because I'm a tough guy and I can't show like any sort of humor like that. It's fucking snl. Like how do you go through your life, taking yourself that seriously.

Speaker 3 32:54

It's, it's which is even funnier too, because I can't take any of his fucking movies seriously. Not at all. They are fantastic movies, but I cannot take any of them seriously oh shit, man, there's.

Speaker 2 33:07

There's whole like youtube channels dedicated to people who just like watch steven seagal movies, like that's all. They just react to that and laugh at it because it's just it's. It's become a meme at this point.

Speaker 2 33:17

It's like yeah, fantastic oh shit, well, uh, before. Okay, so we've been recording for a while. There was something I actually wanted to get to before we go and that was motivation, because this is something I've been thinking about a lot and recently I talked about in a video the sort of what I guess you call like toxic motivation. You know some people will get out there like, hey, badass, get up, what are you doing? You know, like yes, like the David goggins and even like even more extreme than that, just like the most extreme, and like I'm gonna ask you. I wanted to ask you like what your thoughts on that sort of thing for me? Like I just see it, like yeah, it works for some people to get started. Like it, maybe it gets them, gets them initiated into like exercise and stuff, but like long term, is that going to motivate you 10 years down the road?

Speaker 3 34:07

I'm skeptical of that oh, that scared the shit out of me. Rob near the cat I was like what is that?

Speaker 3 34:15

um, my thought is that it's that type of motivation is like a slap in the face but for for like a realization which I think some people need. Like, yeah, I try to steer away from that style of stuff because there's so many other people that do that, but just recently I posted one, uh, and it was in regards to coaching, and most of it was because I had so many people sign up at the beginning of January and then by the end of January, in the middle of February a lot of people, I'd say probably 30 people. It's too hard, I can't do it, I can't afford it. And I was like, ok, like why? Because one.

Speaker 3 35:01

I'm frustrated, because it's like we put all this time and energy into building this plan for this person. They have a contract that they've signed, they committed to this period of time, because I can't help someone in a month. Like, if someone wants to make serious change, it takes time, right, and so I'm not able to do my job because they gave up. And so, like there's a bunch of time wasted on both sides and money. Like it's a bunch of time wasted on both sides and money. Like it's a nightmare, right, and so in that instance, it kind of like it the fact that I was dealing with that with a smaller scale. I'm like this is probably how this is definitely happening across the board, not just with like coaches, but just with people in general starting something and then giving up, like you know, two, three weeks into it, and then giving up, like you know, two, three weeks into it.

Speaker 1 36:03

And so the video that I made was like uh, uh. It was like that you want to get in shape and you want to lose weight or you want to, you know, get to the goals that you want to get to, but the fact is that you're not going to, and that's like. The hard truth is that so many people are never going to reach the goals that they want to reach. They're not, and there's especially with social media giving you terrible.

Speaker 3 36:10

Well, there's terrible advice right on social media, but the biggest reason is the follow-through and that's where, like, the motivation thing just kind of goes away, because you can be motivated from a video like you can get motivated from that david gog. It's like who's gonna carry the boats, burn the ships, whatever the fuck.

Speaker 3 36:24

It is right, right get off your ass, like you need to. Like you're a grown like. I actually did one. I was like, oh, you don't like vegetables, you don't like drinking water, like you know, you're a grown adult. So I think, I think some people need to hear that sometimes they need to hear that, like hey, you're a grown adult, you should figure your shit out, uh. Or having the, the, the. Like hey, I know you want to do these things, but you're not going to. And I like that aspect of it because it's more like oh okay, fuck you, watch me the reverse psychology sort of aspect of it, where there's like, yeah, I am gonna do it.

Speaker 3 36:57

I'm exactly with social media. Yeah, I had so many people I made jokes so I was like I'm gonna do social media, like okay, I'm gonna do bodybuilding. Like okay, I'm gonna do bodybuilding. Okay. Well, guess what? Both of those things I've done incredibly successfully, partly out of spite, right, spite is a great.

Speaker 1 37:15

I was gonna say liam knows all about spite I will.

Speaker 3 37:19

Yeah, I am, I'm very, very spiteful, but but the other part of that is just because, like, I like that, like the concept of hearing that someone doesn't believe in something that I'm going to do and then just say, okay, well, I'm going to do it anyway, like I don't need someone's belief to be able to do it. And so there's both sides of like the motivation side of the motivation thing, but like that whole concept of like aggressive motivation and and like that style of things might work for some people. I just can't, I don't know, I can't be mean either, like A lot of my like I try and be as inclusive as possible and I try and be as like motivational, without without being motivational, if that makes sense, just getting on the level with the people of where they're at and helping them along, which is why I like doing coaching. But people need tough love every now and again. I need it, I mean yeah, I get that.

Speaker 2 38:20

You know the tough love aspect of it. Sometimes you just need somebody to be like, hey, you can just do this.

Speaker 2 38:24

Like you got this I have balancing that with being like hey, I understand you have all these challenges, I get that Like, but also then having some tough love, that kind of balance like this and it depends on the person, right, somebody will need a little bit more of this, a little bit of that. So, like I never really and you're talking about the motivation, like that kind of dissipates over time. At first people, like you said, they sign up, they're excited, and then a couple of weeks goes by and then you know, four weeks goes by and they're like I just I don't, I don't want it, this is too difficult or whatever it is, for whatever reason, and and maintaining that is is really hard and I like trying to talk people through that Like I don't know, I don't, no one knows what the answer is, like you know people still, you know we still, we still fail, but like trying to figure that out. That's definitely one of the things I've been focused on.

Speaker 3 39:09

Yeah, it's the, the concept. I have it written on a. I have a glass black white, it's a blackboard, but it's a glass board in my, in my gym downstairs, and it just says do it anyway, because because that's what you got to do really, and what I found, especially when it comes to the mental health side of things like the lack of motivation, right, like if you don't have motivation to do something. A lot of that stems from, like, how you're feeling mentally, whatever, right, when I do things that I don't want to do, when I get up, when my alarm turns off, when I eat the food that's on my plan, when I make the content that I said I was going to make, even though I don't feel like it.

Finding Balance & Discipline

Speaker 3 39:48

When I edit what I need to edit, when I do every fucking rep that I need to do, every minute of cardio, every time I have to get up and change a kid's diaper, cardio, every time I have to get up and change a kid's diaper, like I do it. There's like there's a lot of things in my life that like I have to do because they're non-negotiable. I can't like not change my kid's butt, right, but I don't want to do it, obviously. But when I do all of these things, when I'm consistently doing all the things that I don't want to do, everything starts to feel better. I start feeling better about myself because I'm like, oh, I'm doing this even though I don't want to do it. No one, there's a lot of things that no one's forcing me to do, but I do it anyway because I like the feeling of doing something that's hard.

Speaker 1 40:31

I like getting through something that sucks and then, once that box is checked, it's no longer on your mind.

Speaker 3 40:37

Exactly. And then I'm like, oh fuck, I can't wait to do that again. Like finishing a hard workout, right when you look at through like a crazy leg. I get anxiety when I do legs Cause, like when my back's not messed up, I'll train legs to like throw up, like I will push Right and I I like every time I get to the gym on leg day, especially if I'm training, like with my coach oh my God, I'm like I don't want to do this.

Speaker 3 40:58

But then as soon as I'm done, I'm like, oh, I feel amazing, like I did this thing that was so difficult, that was hard that I didn't want to do and then I was zero motivation to do. That's like within prep for a show to like. Motivation's gone like three, four weeks in and then you have eight weeks of just do it anyway and being able to do that, being able to get through something like that and staying disciplined, what that does to your motivation, what that does to your own, like the brain chemistry, like if you look at the research and the studies based off of how like uh, how that affects the neurotransmitters in your brain and everything like the dopamine response, consistently doing that stuff, just everything starts to improve. It's not just the one thing that you're doing, like mentally you're becoming significantly more resilient and then it just sets you up to be able to do more shit.

Speaker 2 41:53

That's harder, yeah I think getting into that routine is kind of something that's definitely helped me, where I'm just like, okay, now I have this kind of schedule where I work out, like at this time, and after I do it I know I feel better. I've done it a bunch of times, just so many fucking times I've already done it, so, like I know what has to be done and like you know, and again, like you said, I feel better afterwards. There's a little bit of like accomplishment. I did it. I did, you know, work out at Lakes today, you know. Then take my daughter to the museum, run around, come back here Like she naps. I film podcasts, I, you know, do videos, all that stuff. And if I do all that stuff I feel a lot better than if I just sat around and did nothing all day.

Speaker 3 42:42

But I do think it's important to to like on date. Like for me, if I have a rest day right where, like or like a family day, I still have the things that I do, like I'll get up, I'll do cardio, I'll eat my meals that I'm supposed to eat, but I like. It's funny too, because it's the same concept. I'll force myself to not do the work shit. I'll force myself not to go in because I have a thousand videos to edit right all the time, and so I'll force myself hey, I'm not going to edit any videos today. I'm not going to respond to emails. Like, I'm not going to do these things. Yep, I'm going to spend time and enjoy time with my family. I'm not always super successful with that because it's almost like you have to do things in moderation.

Speaker 2 43:20

It's weird. That's like one of those things.

Speaker 3 43:25

I think I've heard that somewhere before.

Speaker 2 43:27

I'm not sure where. No, I don't know either, but I just wanted to point that out.

Speaker 3 43:32

Well, that was a very good observation there, liam. I think you should start a podcast. But yeah, it's like being able, being able to, because, like, when I'm not doing that shit, like everything's just messed up, everything's out of routine, everything's out of whack, I feel like shit mentally, physically, like nothing goes right. But when I, just because it's it's so stupid, because a lot of it's so simple, right, it's not right. Oh my god, this is going to take so much time and effort, like no, it's just get up when your alarm goes off, follow the things that you said you're going to do. But it does make me feel significantly better about when I was growing up and how my dad would always get up super fucking early. He was always the first one up. He'd be up for like two hours before everyone else and I was like I remember when I first started trying to like wake up in the morning, I was like God, how does he do that? That's like ridiculous. Well, he was military, so like he was conditioned to do that, right, but after he retired he still did that. He didn't have to do it. No-transcript when.

Speaker 3 45:01

When you look at someone who does all those things, you're like, oh, I wish it was so easy. It's fucking not like. It's not easy to do those things consistently. You have to like force yourself to do it. And so when I look at like people like, especially like my dad, I'm like, wow, he forced himself to get up every single morning and do the things that he said he was going to do, and he always followed through on the things that he would say he said he would do. And after having conversations with him, I was like, wow, he like no, that wasn't just easy for him. He had to make a point to do those things, and everyone does, yeah it's.

Speaker 2 45:38

It really is just kind of finding that balance of I have to push myself to do these things even though I don't want to do them. Once I get into kind of the flow of it, it gets a little bit easier, but it's never easy. It's never going to be easy. It can be easier once you've found that routine you have, but it's never going to be easy Exactly, yeah, like routine you have, but it's never going to be easy exactly yeah, like fuck it, fucking life man. There's all this shit going on and you gotta you gotta take it seriously, but not too seriously. And everyone's yelling at you to do different things. And here we are, fucking on a podcast yelling at you to do things yeah or don't, it's up to you.

Speaker 2 46:14

No one's forcing you to do anything yeah we're not your mom, yeah, I am your daddy, though I know it's weird and I wear a dress and I have that too.

Speaker 1 46:25

It's gonna be whatever I want yeah, exactly, and all the glitter in the beard. How much of a mess does that make, doing the glitter beard we've moved every year I've done it.

Speaker 3 46:33

Um, it's a nightmare. There's still glitter in my basement from when scotty and john came over when we did all the glitter stuff oh stuff, yeah, I do decorations in my beard.

Speaker 1 46:42

I've never done glitter.

Speaker 3 46:43

The glitter is the absolute worst the, the, the um, beardaments and the ornaments and all that stuff. The first year we did it I went super crazy. I mean the first couple years I covered my entire body in glitter. One year never doing that again. Dude, it was the middle of winter in washington, a house that had the half size hot water tank and there was seven of us covered in vaseline and glitter. It was, yeah, just clip that part right there and that's the. That's a video, one of itself, just that, seven of us in the middle of winter covered in vaseline and glitter.

Speaker 1 47:18

But uh, yeah no, it's a no, it sucks.

Speaker 3 47:22

I used to love it. It was great, it was so exciting to do, but the cleanup is just an absolute nightmare.

Speaker 2 47:30

I bet, well, yeah, I mean if we'll make sure, because we always forget to do this. So I just want to make sure we do this. If people wanted to see more of your glitter beard and whatnot, where would they find that material?

Speaker 3 47:44

only fans, um. So so just iron sanctuary on tiktok, instagram, facebook, youtube, snapchat. It's iron sanctuary, um. And then if you want to see the glitter stuff, you just type in glitter and you'll find it. If you look for that on Google, you'll get to another site, but I'm sure you'll enjoy that one as well, and yeah.

Speaker 3 48:10

I mean, we talked about the clothing line too, which is ironsanctuaryshopcom. Obviously, we have the clothes fighting mental illness, one rep at a time. Quite a few designs that are coming out, Some new ones that are not gym related, like intrusive thoughts and it's all in your head. We also have a design that says fuck suicide. On the back. It has the statistics, which are being updated because unfortunately, those numbers are higher this year, and online fitness coaching, ironsanctuaryfitcom. I don't know if you do coaching, Liam.

Speaker 2 48:43

I don't do. I've never gotten into coaching. It's a whole beast on its own that I'm like. I don't know if I can dip my toe into that just yet.

Speaker 3 48:52

It's okay, I will take all of the clients from you, send them my way.