#26: Travis Trinh - 7% Body Fat, Bowling a 300, and Being Your Own Anime Protagonist

Travis Trinh transforms from a sheltered, introverted kid to an extroverted nerd who embraces fitness, cosplay, and engineering with equal passion. His journey shows how anime influences, leadership experiences, and the Cobra Kai philosophy of "Strike first, strike hard, no mercy" can shape a fulfilling life.

• Growing up in a sheltered environment in Santa Clarita before attending UCSB
• Evolution from introvert to extrovert through college experiences and leadership roles
• Finding his path as a manufacturing engineering supervisor after initially wanting to "make cool stuff"
• Starting the first K-pop dance team at UCSB
• Bowling a perfect 300 game after consistent practice and professional coaching
• Using anime philosophy from Dragon Ball and others as life inspiration
• Applying the Cobra Kai motto as a framework for proactive living and personal growth
• Breaking down fitness and nutrition to simple mathematics: "It's just numbers"
• Achieving 10-11% overall body fat through calorie tracking and consistent workouts
• Approaching cosplay with creativity and fitness to bring characters to life
• Finding success through consistency rather than complicated systems

Don't be scared to pursue what you want to do. Failure is not going to kill you, it's just going to make you stronger. Keep life simple and just go for it.

Guest bio:
Travis Trinh, the closet nerd who grew into an extroverted nerd! Travis is also an anime, cosplay, fitness, and bowling enthusiast.

• IG: @officialT_T / https://www.instagram.com/officialt_t/

Links/resources:

• Seventeen - Rock With You w/ Untitled (dance cover)
• Seventeen - Super w/ Untitled (dance cover)
• Pokemon TCG Live (website)
• Rent-A-Girlfriend (anime - wikipedia)

Transcript

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J.R. 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of 1000 Gurus with me , your host , jr Yonagruz , where it is my mission to have great conversations with people from all walks of life and try to learn something new each time . So today's guest is a friend of mine , travis Trin . Travis Trin is the closet nerd that grew into an extroverted nerd . Travis is also an anime , cosplay , fitness and bowling enthusiast , so this was a ton of fun to record . Travis and I have a lot of common interests and values . We're about the same age , so we come from the same generation .

J.R. 0:35

We'll see each other here and there at social gatherings and sometimes dance events , but it's always fun for me to pick his brain on what he's working on and what he's been up to and learning these days , so it was fun to do so . Finally , in a formal setting , we talk about his career in engineering , anime , cobra Kai being the main character in your life , cosplay , fitness , bowling , and the list goes on . Definitely didn't get to touch upon all the topics we wanted to , but hopefully we'll be able to schedule a part two sometime . So , without further ado , hope you enjoy this episode with Travis Trinh .

Interview Start

J.R. 1:06

Schedule A Part 2 sometime . So , without further ado , hope you enjoy this episode with Travis Trinh .

Travis 1:09

Cool Travis , welcome to the show . Oh , thanks for having me , man . Yeah , I've seen your podcast like all over , so I'm like I finally got invited .

J.R. 1:15

You're like I got the invite , I got the golden ticket , yeah , yeah . No , I'm glad you were able to make it , glad we were able to schedule it . You've definitely been on my list . It's kind of just have to go through my whole list of people . But , yeah , let me go into how I know you . I've already read your bio . So basically , we met in , actually 20 november 2021 , so we'll show that video after this . But so we met through untitled . We did the 17 cover rock with you at santa monica pier .

J.R. 1:38

We're just talking about that before great cover yeah it's such a good cover and , like , my first impression of you was , well , someone told me that , like you were the oldest guy , yeah , and then normally I'm the oldest guy on the team and so I was like , oh , this travis dude , right . And then , so you know , we met there and , yeah , usually k-pop cover teams are like a majority girls , so this cover was special because , through untitled , it was all 13 of us were guys , so it was a pretty fun cover . And , yeah , I also learned that you are super into fitness and bowling , things that we talked about and things that we're both into .

J.R. 2:09

So , I feel like it was kind of like inevitable and also yeah , cosplay as well , so we'll get into that . So , yeah , anything any other clarifications on what you're up to , what you're doing ?

Travis 2:18

well , I mean currently in just normal life . You know engineering , you know interest here and there , but you know I'm really into pokemon tcg right now

Pokemon TCG

Travis 2:27

I heard yeah , tcg pocket . Yeah , so I think you know , since you invited me , it'll be an honor for you to do my evening poll right now .

J.R. 2:34

How my luck is to see how your luck is let me pull this up real quick I feel like I've only done this like once for someone . They're just like here , just touch this .

Travis 2:40

It's like okay , sure yeah , so basically you're gonna pick this pack and then you're gonna open it . Can you explain ?

J.R. 2:46

to the audience . If who's not ? They're not familiar with pokemon tcg what ?

Travis 2:49

is it ? So it's basically a mini size trading card game . It's really limited , based on the rules , compared to the normal trading card game , so the sense is so simple . A lot of people love playing it and a lot of people just like the dopamine of opening packs and potentially getting a rare card . Love dopamine ? Yeah , exactly so . I have a lot of friends who just play without even battling and they just try to open packs and get lucky , right , yeah , what we're doing right now . So this is the newest pack , what's it called ? Triumphant Light with Arceus . So we're going to click here . We're so . We're gonna click here , we're gonna click open yeah , and then you're gonna select .

Travis 3:24

There's gonna be a wheel of cards , right , so you can roll , use here and and pick one , just pick one yeah , pick one and then tap it . All , right , okay , it's gonna tell you to swipe open the top , right there . Yep , you cut it . See , did you get lucky ? I don't know what , so let's not peek , right . So you like tap one at a time , yeah , to see if you got something good . So tap , yep . Okay , there's five cards in the pack , so that's the second one I don't know who Ho Doom is Krogunk , krogunk .

Travis 3:50

Usually , the fifth card is the best one , so let's see what's up , clefable .

J.R. 3:54

Clefable . All right , it's sparkled a little . It's a good , because then I would have been sworn by people like oh no , we need Jair's luck so that you saved me . You're welcome , you're welcome . It reminds me of the first time I went to Vegas and gambled like slot machines . I did a slot machine , lost money instantly , and then I went to a blackjack table . I've never seen $20 disappear so fast . It might've been like 1.5 seconds .

J.R. 4:23

My $20 was gone , I was like what happened , and so I think it was a sign from the universe to don't gamble which I'm grateful for .

Travis 4:29

Hey , that's good , I mean that's $20 down . And then you're , like you know , hit me , hit me , bust , all right , there it goes .

J.R. 4:34

Yeah , it was pretty much . It was pretty fast , but cool . So anything else ? Any other clarifications we should know ?

Travis 4:45

Oh , I think you got it down . I mean , that's how we met , you know , and we stayed in touch and have similar interests .

J.R. 4:47

So it was bound for this to happen . Yeah Also , oh yeah . And then your New Year's Eve party last year was super fun , oh , yeah , yeah , that was super fun .

Travis 4:54

Great Gatsby theme yeah , yeah , yeah it was super fun Again .

J.R. 4:57

Lots of Untitled people , lots of other people from around . That was dope , yep , all right . So yeah , the audience will have heard your bio by now , so we'll go into our first topic . So usually I start off with new guests origin story . So

Meet Travis: Origin Story, Family Influences, Engineering

J.R. 5:10

where'd you grow up , what were your main influences and what set you on the path to where you are today ? Got you and it's like a big question , but it's like biggest influences that come to mind .

Travis 5:20

Mm-hmm . So I was born here in LA , more specifically Mission Hills up there , and lived in Santa Clarita like my whole minor life before 18 . So it was really sheltered there . My family was a really big deal . I got really close with my cousins . From my dad's side I had eight cousins like growing up before I hit 18 , so we got super close . And then my mom's side there's a few cousins as well . That was like my whole life was like family .

Travis 5:51

I had friends in school but since I lived like across the whole town and went to a school that was like 30 minutes away from my home , I didn't get that chance to hang out with them a lot during school , like elementary school , junior high , things like that . So my family is a really big influence , not just mom and dad , but aunts , uncles , grandma , sister , cousins and then super sheltered , so kind of introverted . Right when I went to college I went to ucsb is , you know , not a very sheltered community up there and that really helped me to blossom . I guess slowly and slowly became less homesick . I remember the first like two weeks of school .

J.R. 6:29

I was like , okay , only like only 10 more days before I can go home yeah , you know , but go home on the weekends , or like what did you , what was your ? Like cadence ?

Travis 6:36

when I first started at ucsb that's pretty far actually now it's like an hour and a half okay , so it's not too bad , not bad .

J.R. 6:43

Okay , so then what was your cadence for going home ?

Travis 6:45

I was going home every other weekend . Okay yeah , even though I had an aunt up there . I was the type in high school where I didn't want change . Change was scary to me , since I was so sheltered and it was like man , if I could go back to my normal life At some point I almost considered community college , because I was basically like an extension of high school . I could just stay at home , yeah . But I took the leap and went to ussb and started going home like every other weekend and then , as I got used to being away from home , started getting like once a month , once a quarter , and then yeah basically just on the break system .

J.R. 7:23

What was your major and what were your career aspirations at that point ?

Travis 7:27

So I was a mechanical engineering major . Aspiration was to make cool stuff . People always ask why did you pick an ME ? Right , it's honestly because coming out of high school , I didn't really know what I wanted to do . Being Asian , my parents are always like be a doctor , take care of us when you're older . My parents are always like be a doctor , you know , take care of us when you're older or when we're older as a doctor . Right , I'm like , yeah , no , I don't really want to do that . So I was like what else is kind of interesting ? And I liked legos , I like building , uh , gundam model kits , like growing up . So I was like I want to make cool stuff but I don't know what I want to make . So I think mechanical engineering gives me the most flexibility of going into the media industry , like special effects or automotive aerospace . So that's why I picked mechanical engineering , because I didn't really know what I really wanted okay .

J.R. 8:16

So then near the end of your college life and then going into , like the working life , was there a transition there and what was your I guess career trajectory at that point ?

Travis 8:26

yeah , again , since I was like one of the I am like the oldest on my family in terms of all the cousins , right I didn't really have footsteps to follow , didn't know what the working life is going to be like , um , so there was a transition period where , yes , I'm graduating college with a mechanical engineering degree , but I don't know what I really want to do yet .

Travis 8:48

What options are out there . Looking back , I kind of have other ideas of what I would have done , but I basically was just applying for jobs that were taking like any you know , newly grad engineer . I got a position at a company that was close to UCSB , fortunately , and I was able to get my foot in the door there and working there kind of opened my eyes on the different types of engineering for mechanical engineers and I became more of a process slash manufacturing engineer , so not designing the actual product but how to make it . And that's similar to what I was interested in , because I was like I like putting things together , I like getting my hands dirty .

"Evolving" into a Supervisor and Leadership Lessons

Travis 9:27

I don't want to just sit in the computer and just like design , design , it all , gotcha , design so cool . I still get to do it as a manufacturing engineer , like tooling and things like that . Yeah , but I wanted to get like on the field too and get my hands dirty making stuff okay , so then fast forward 10-ish years later .

J.R. 9:39

So what are you doing now ? And I know you're going back to school UCLA for like project management , right ? So what do you currently do ?

Travis 9:45

so I'm currently a supervisor of manufacturing engineers , so evolved into a supervisor I've slowly evolved into a supervisor , if you ask me .

Travis 9:54

Five years ago I got the position at my current company . Yeah , will you be a supervisor ? Nah , I don't want to be a manager . I want to be like the most technical , like the smartest chief engineer out there where I'm like go-to guy for all everyone's technical questions . But I slowly evolved into this managerial supervisor role because our previous supervisor left and I really liked how our core team dynamic was going and I didn't want an outsider to come in and get the position and change it all up . So I'm like I guess I'll take one for the team , I'll step up and get the position and change it all up . So I'm like I guess I'll take one for the team , I'll step up and become the supervisor and it's been pretty solid .

J.R. 10:28

So have you done management before then ? Or is that like why you're kind of doing project management or like getting education ?

Travis 10:34

there there was no management in terms of like professionally . Yeah , I was the founder of ss805 at ucsb their K-pop dance team , so I had some like leadership roles there . I've slowly always drifted towards some sort of leadership captain of the bowling team , intramural soccer , you know captain and Pokemon Go community up there . I was kind of leading that too , but never like a professional managerial role .

J.R. 11:00

So I was going to ask in that sense so you've had all these experiences like learning how to be a leader and manager . Were there any ? I guess ? What were the growing pains of you now having to step up to this supervisor role ?

Travis 11:10

And I guess you know you've done this in other ways , but like anything stands out to you or comes to mind , Learning to delegate , because I'm coming from a place where I'm like super technical and getting my hands dirty and going out there solving problems myself , but then when you become a supervisor or like a higher level , all your tasks get multiplied tenfold . So if you're trying to do everything yourself , it's really difficult , and I try to look out after my teams I don't want to overload them with work Then you end up taking a lot on yourself . So you really have to learn how to trust your team and start delegating that stuff . Versus all the other things I managed before were more like self-managed . Even though I was like leading things , it wasn't a whole lot of delegating stuff to other people to do . So I think that's definitely the toughest part that makes sense are the people ?

J.R. 11:59

not that this matters too much , but are there the people that you manage ? Are they younger than you , or are there some older than you ? Or what's the ? What's the vibe ?

Travis 12:05

there's a mix . I'm on the if you took like the median , yeah , I'm like on the upper end of the median , but , um , I definitely have some people on my team who are older than me . Um , my team is comprised of 10 people , including me at this point , and I believe there are one , two , three , four people older than me . Yeah , so it's like I'm like in the middle in that way . Yeah , that makes sense .

J.R. 12:31

Weird tangent what is your mbti ? Oh , shoot you remember ?

Travis 12:36

I don't remember . Okay , is that the one mbti ? Is that the one with the four letters ?

J.R. 12:41

yeah , the four letters I am intj four letters . I am INTJ or ENTJ in leadership roles . Do you know if you're introverted or extroverted ?

Travis 12:46

I'm extroverted when I do that one .

J.R. 12:48

Are you like more what's in front of you or more like creative vision , like future thinking , imagination ?

Travis 12:56

I'm the future thinking one , the creative . Okay , because I remember people thought I was really weird , because they knew I was an engineer .

J.R. 13:07

So it remember . People thought it was really weird because they knew I was an engineer . So it's like engineers are always like you know . That's why I asked yeah , that's what I thought . Are you like more systemized system ?

Travis 13:12

systematic , organized or more of the kind of spontaneous oh definitely , okay , it depends who you ask . Gotcha right . Spontaneous in terms of going and doing stuff , having fun and even work . I like to bounce around different things , but in terms of my like routine , I'm almost like systematic , like gym every day , you know .

J.R. 13:27

Yeah , I feel that okay , I don't know if that helps anyone else , but just for my context , I'm starting to get a feel for you . So then do you ? We're kind of jumping around here , but a founding story of ss805 , yeah . So how did that come about ? So one of our common denominators obviously is k-pop dance , and I started the k-pop team at uci cop . Okay , so just a weird oh , I didn't know that . Yeah , I know , founder so how did that start ?

Travis 13:50

just curious so it started at k-con . I believe it was 2013 or 2014 . Yeah , at that point I already knew of k-pop . That's why I'm going to k-con and I saw this group dancing at there . It wasn't rpd back the day , but it was like they would just play random K-pop songs and full songs and you would dance if you knew it .

Travis 14:08

And there was this group from San Diego I think it was like the San Diego Flash Mob or something like that and they were always . They were the first people I saw cover like BTS with individual members . It's like everyone else before was just dance and choreography . Right , exactly , yeah . So I saw that and I was like you know what ? Ucsb doesn't have that and I want that . So I went there and I gathered some people that I would know and I was like oh , are you into K-pop ? You're into K-pop . You guys want to get together and dance . You know , got in touch with the K-pop club , not the dance team . They helped me recruit members and then that's how it started oh , so that was the first like k-pop dance team there .

J.R. 14:46

Oh , that's cool . So you just made it happen for my story . It's I don't know if it's similar , but we had like a kcn , which is like korean culture night , and they had , you know , there's like a modern suite and they wanted to do a k-pop suite and they knew I was into k-pop . Okay , do you want to lead this ? I'm like sure . And then it's still there today , nice , since 2011 .

Travis 15:04

So that's pretty cool , so they spawned from like the KCN , exactly .

J.R. 15:10

Basically spawned from KCN . Okay , I know

The Path to Bowling a 300

J.R. 15:12

we talked about bowling a little bit off camera , but this could probably be its own episode , because all three of us are bowling nerds , it seems like , or at least enthusiasts , and Solomon wants to get into it . Yeah , I'm like beginning enthusiast yeah , beginning enthusiast but you're aspiring and same here and I'm mid-level maybe , and then travis is like super professional . But okay , well , let's just jump straight to the meat . So you've bowled a 300 before I have bowled at 300 was it just one time or multiple times , or like ?

Travis 15:35

it was one time sanctioned okay in practice , I don't track my scores , so maybe I've done it there yeah but sanctioned , like in the official league .

J.R. 15:44

I've done it one time okay , so my the meat of the question is how did you get to 300 and what helped you get there ? Because for those you don't know if you've ever bowled , 300 is basically perfection in what . How many rolls like 12 , 12 rolls , right , 12 , perfect rolls strikes . Which is impossible , not impossible . You know it's really hard . So how do you get there ?

Travis 16:10

So part of it is luck . That's why bowling is not an Olympic sport , because there is a decent amount of luck involved . Right , you could throw the identical shot right , like , two times in a row , and it's not going to do the same thing .

J.R. 16:17

It's not because I suck , it's because luck is not on my side today Exactly .

Travis 16:21

It's the luck you know . You don't know how many like 299s they're out there . 298s , perfect shots , like professionals that do it . But basically the story of my 300 is the week before in league , I bowled the back 11 .

Travis 16:34

So what that means is I got like a spare or open yeah , and I bowled 11 strikes strikes in a row to close out the game and I was like I like turned to the front desk , like turn my lane back on , I just want to see if I can do it . You know so that that was like the night the week before and then somehow I was just on the hot streak . So the week after I bowled my 300 . There was some luck involved for people who don't know bowling I did bowl like a brooklyn strike at some point , which what that means is I'm right-handed , so the ball should be hitting the head pin on the right side , right .

Travis 17:05

But I missed my shot and actually went over to the left side opposite . Interesting . And then a lot of bowlers don't consider that a real strike , you know , interesting . But I'm like , hey , all 10 went down , so that was part of my 300 . And once I got that like in frame nine or 10 or something like that and then I just finish it off I remember my last shot 11 strikes in a row . At that point everyone was watching .

J.R. 17:28

It's like the whole . Yeah , it's like you're used to the bowling . I was being so loud , right .

Travis 17:32

But it's dead silent .

J.R. 17:33

Everyone's just holding their breath .

Travis 17:34

I was like , can you guys just keep bowling ? Because , like , this is different from like what I'm used to . Right , right , right . And I ended up , I guess , is the showman to me at this point . Right , yeah , I like stood there and waited and chugged my beer . Yeah , I had like a 32 ounce beer , oh geez , right . And I was like , if you all want to watch , you're gonna watch me chug this beer first . So I chugged my beer and then gulped it down , picked up the bowling ball and it's like all right , let's go , let's do it . Threw it , got the last strike and the whole bowling center just exploded . That Damn .

J.R. 18:03

That's very Travis . That's actually it's very Travis , nice , okay . So , like we have other topics , but like TLDR , what do you think were the main things that help you get to that point Right Cause you obviously need some . Besides the luck , you need consistency and the training and like the improvement constantly . So how do you get there ?

Travis 18:22

It was a lot of practice right to become consistent enough . I was on the ucf bowling team so we had professional coaching , but that just basically gave us lane time to practice , and just repetitive practice makes permanent not perfect . So make sure when you're practicing you're actually correcting the right stuff . So get your form down , get your hours in , get your reps in , and then that's how I got there .

J.R. 18:46

Nice . So just put in the hard work .

Travis 18:48

Basically , no cheat codes , that's going to be a theme of this conversation .

J.R. 18:52

I bet

Getting into Anime & Recommendations

J.R. 18:53

Okay , so let's move on now . So the next topic is anime Cobra Kai , fitness , cosplay . So these are some of the things you wanted to talk about and you're obviously known for .

Travis 19:10

So quick warm-up question like how did you get into anime ? What is your favorite ?

J.R. 19:12

anime like top favorite anime and why got you ? Got you okay . What can I say to not be too weird here with it ? Well , I'm a nerd , so I got into anime . What's ? What else is there ?

Travis 19:17

but yeah , I mean growing up , I mean gone to . Anime is everywhere , right , toonami was a big thing like cartoon network .

J.R. 19:24

Growing up , dragon ball z and we're the same era , so I'm right there with you yeah .

Travis 19:27

So you know it was cool . It was like seeing these guys , you know fight off , you know the aliens and things like that um , giant robots with gundam . I just thought it was cool as a kid . That's how I really got into it and then I just never really grew out of it . I think the intro is like I was an introverted nerd into an extroverted nerd . Right , it's kind of cool to see how anime has evolved from being like oh , you watch anime , lame you know To where , like bro , that's a sick anime . You're at the gym and everyone's like , oh , that's a sick shirt , you know anime inspired text got into anime yeah , so just , it was just around .

J.R. 20:02

So top anime wrecks or fate your favorites . I guess not necessarily wrecks , but your favorites , my favorites , my favorites , okay my my guests should know my favorites , because I always wear this anime shirts every almost every single podcast episode .

Travis 20:17

You'll see which anime I like I know , I know , like your big one piece fan , you know , but unfortunately that's one I haven't watched yet . Okay , it's like 10 000 episodes and I'm not ready for that commitment , but I really liked there . You go there's travis we'll get .

J.R. 20:34

Oh , there it is we'll get to his abs in a bit , but all right , all right yeah .

Travis 20:38

So I mean from that yeah , dragon ball was a huge inspiration of my life and my goals now right . So obviously the easy one to say is Dragon Ball , just because it's so prominent . I also really like Shoot .

J.R. 20:57

oh yeah , me too yeah that's a good one too .

Travis 21:00

Yeah , obviously I liked gundam a lot growing up . That's why I'm like such an avid fan of building gundam models . Right now . I do have to go back and watch the original ones , but the one weird one that people might think is really weird is rent a girlfriend I watched that recently . I liked it yeah , I don't want to say guilty pleasure , because I don't watch it for the guilty .

J.R. 21:20

I get what , get what you mean . So what do you like about it ?

Travis 21:23

Just the . Maybe this isn't a good reason , but it had a really good way of leaving you hanging Of . Like when you watch Nick's episode it did , you can kind of relate . I think the main character sort of relates to old Travis , like high school Travis , who's still a little bit in me too , you know , I feel it , yeah , whereas you're not the most confident guy , or the main character is not the most confident guy and he's just a good guy at heart .

Travis 21:49

He seems a little weird at first . You know the way they introduce him , but like he's just honestly a good guy and I like watching good guys who aren't like the most popular and the most successful or whatever , like really get their shot in life right . Um , because that's why I aspire to be like just a good guy . And in that show , um , the main character is deemed like the loser or reject , and that's why he rents girlfriends . That's why he rents girlfriends , right , but he , his good traits shine through right through these weird situations that they happen to get put in right . His personality comes out and he starts making these like this rent-a-girlfriend like say , hey , this guy's like pretty good .

J.R. 22:29

Yeah , he's actually reliable . He's actually a good person , yeah so that's the one .

J.R. 22:34

I guess hot take or weird anime that like I like and I recommend nice , yeah , I'll link to the link to it in the show notes as well . It is a kind of a . It sounds very weird and then you watch , you're like okay , I can see where this is going . I will say just my own sort of critique on it and again , I also recommend . It is like it feels like he's fairly useless until the end of season one or two or something like that , and I was kind of like angry . I'm like how come he's not doing anything ? But to be fair , the focus is on the main girl , because she is like badass , she doesn't need anyone , she's like doing her thing .

Travis 23:08

So I appreciated that like she was a good , like female protagonist and I guess , by contrast , he's just annoying , but he catches up eventually yeah , I think that's kind of the part where , like , I got not hooked to but could relate to , because he is like the guy we're watching as a third person , right , you're like what are you doing ? Like you're making such a big mistake or why aren't you doing this step up . But you're like , put yourself in his shoes , right , you know , high school travis or younger travis , like man , I would hesitate , like that too . That's why I like related a little bit definitely so .

J.R. 23:39

Moving into my next question is maybe it can be combined , but like , how

Anime, Cobra Kai, and Fitness Cosplay

J.R. 23:43

has anime influenced you ? I mean , you do cosplay obviously a lot and you do really well , but also you mentioned cobra kai , so I'm curious and we can clump those together . But also , like , how did you get into cause I'm assuming because of anime , right , but what was your journey like for cosplay as well ? So I guess those three anime influence cobra , cobra kai influence , and then like cosplay , cosplay like journey got you .

Travis 24:06

So anime influence I touched base on it a little bit earlier with dragon ball , but it's basically all shonens , right . Work hard , be a good person and good things will come to you . Right . Main characters are typically not the most popular or the coolest , right , but they always have a good mentality of if I do good things , if I work hard , I get what I want or not what I want , but things happen well for you , you know . So I think that really influenced me in like growing up , you know , don't be mean , don't be a dick , right ? Just be nice to people and work hard and just keep pushing your own goals and helping others when they need help . And you know , things just roll along pretty well . And started leads into cobra kai as well .

Travis 24:46

I started watching that because I saw the product kid back in the day and it was whatever to me , but I thought it was cool that they were bringing it back , not a remake but kind of like continuation of the story . I thought the show was funny but it kind of put a twist to where Cobra Kai were the good guys versus they were being bad guys in the original movies and their motto of strike first , strike hard , no mercy . I kind of took it to heart , like that means the way that they explained it in Cobra Kai . I don't want to just quote the show . But strike first , don't wait . Your opportunity is there , don't hesitate , just take it . You know what's the worst that can happen . Right , you see a position , a job that you want , and you know you're not sure you qualify or not . You know , just apply , because if you wait too long and you finally decide to do it , maybe the position's closed . Right , that's strike first . Strike hard is , whenever you do something , commit , you know . Don't pull your punches just like fully , full , send into whatever decision you just , and then no mercy is . Don't give up , no matter how hard things can get . Just keep pushing right . Don't give up and show no mercy , not to just your opponent or whatever you're trying to tackle , but to yourself . The gym might be difficult , right , but don't like slack , you know . Show yourself no mercy and push through . That's how Cobra Kai really influenced me and that pushed me in the gym and they pushed me in the gym .

Travis 26:04

And cosplay you know I went to anime expo . It was fun and I was like you know , I saw all these people cosplaying . Let me try it too , and it was a very positive response when I first cosplayed . So that's what drove me to continue . Hey , you know , this is kind of fun , you know , making my costume , dressing up and acting out the characters sometimes and just meeting other people who are into it that that was really fun and it's nice to be like . At the convention , like people were like hey , you have really nice cosplay . You know , can I take a picture with you ? And things like that . That was pretty fun too .

J.R. 26:30

I like it . I like in hearing you like loop those together . It seems like it's easy to connect the dots that , like Travis , is the main character in his story , which is great . I respect that a lot about you and , like the other things of you , seem to do things that you want to do and that you enjoy and you make it happen . And again , just the influences of anime and whatnot . I can really see that . So , yeah , I appreciate that . That's pretty cool . Any , I guess , insight . I've had a couple of cosplayers on the show before and they kind of gave their insights . But do you have any insights or lessons or takeaways on how to do cosplay successfully ?

Travis 27:05

Got you Number one . Cosplay is like not a black and white test , right , you don't have to be the most anime accurate , you know , if you want to be like a Hispanic Goku , you know , don't say , don't .

J.R. 27:20

let people say it's not you , it's not's not , it's not you , it's not accurate .

Travis 27:23

It's not you right ? You don't have to have the body to be like you know , just do it for fun . The most . The best cosplayers are the people who do it with a passion and they really want to just um , embody the character . And oh yeah , this is my representation of the character and just do it . So that's my most . Uh , I guess advice for people who want to get into cosplay like , just take that step , like just do it . Yeah , different people cosplay different ways . Some people are crafters . They like making their armor , their clothes , their wigs and things like that . Um , personally , for me , like , what I drifted towards was like fitness cosplay , because it aligned with my goals already and it's where , like my best cosplays , I come from . Right , it might not be like the best cosplays in the world , but it will . It's what I drift towards . So that's why , if you see pictures of my cosplay , that's why a lot of fitness goes into that . But , yeah , fitness , there's the crafters , there's the people who just like really embody the character and act it out .

J.R. 28:22

You know a lot of different things you can do with cosplay nice , and that's a good segue into our next topic for the fitness and nutrition . But I wanted to add a note . Into there , too is my favorite cosplays are the ones where people combine things that you wouldn't even expect , or interpret that character , like you said , in in a way that you weren't expecting . So that's like true artistry , where it's actually a unique , different sort of thing .

J.R. 28:47

Maybe this is an easy example , but like a Venom cosplay , I saw this photo or video of this guy who had a little Venom thing pop out of his shoulder . So it's something like that where it's not Venom and it's not some sort of half . Sometimes they'll do a half Venom right .

Travis 29:05

But it's like some sort of half .

J.R. 29:05

Sometimes they'll do a half venom , right , but it's like this , like sort of thing popping out of his shoulder and it like moves around and stuff like the symbiote , exactly , exactly right . So with that in mind it's , people do cosplays similar to that or combine certain some things , or like gender benders , or like sort of like half halves . I think those are the most inspirational cosplays . Or what you do is combining , like your interests together to make that one thing .

Travis 29:21

I think those make it the artistry , more special oh for sure I definitely like those think out of the box cosplays um gender bends are always really fun , really like nice to see . Yeah , because you can't just buy the costume , you have to create it exactly .

J.R. 29:34

You can't buy this at like the halloween store exactly exactly .

Travis 29:38

So yeah , definitely the creative ones , especially when they mix things together , combining animes I . I even like the casual cosplays where you are a character , but in casual clothes yeah , or like modern day fashion , exactly , but you can see , like , where it's going inspired by that character and still the wig and the contact lenses . So you still look like the character in terms of you know your the main like of that character , but your clothes is , like more inspired by their costumes in the show .

J.R. 30:04

Yeah , it's funny because my first anime convention I did a like a group of people . We did like princess but casual street wear , but obviously so and I was Elsa , but I was a male Elsa , so it was a gender better , elsa , but it was casual clothing , and then the rest of them were girls .

Travis 30:26

So they're all doing regular princess , but inspired by like normal casual wear . Yeah , so it was really fun . So just that's pretty sick . Yeah , that's cool one . We should do blue lock this year .

J.R. 30:30

I don't know if you guys watch that I don't , but it's the soccer one , soccer one , yeah , yeah .

Travis 30:33

I heard a whole squad together and just roll up as blue lock , have a soccer ball passing around .

J.R. 30:37

Yeah , that'll be fun it's funny because for choreos we did this pasadena anime convention a year , year and a half ago , something like that and we all were . Our costume was haikyuu . Okay , I didn't even . I don't even watch . I've watched the movie randomly and it was great , but I don't watch the anime , and so I was like I don't know who number 11 is , but that's who I am , so that was fun . We did a whole set with haikyuu cosplay yeah , um , it's pretty cool yeah , okay .

J.R. 31:00

So last topic , fitness and nutrition . So

Fitness, Nutrition, and Calorie Counting

J.R. 31:04

you're obviously big into fitness and then you know we showed some photos and people check out your ig . They can get some fan service photos . But so how did your fitness journey start ? And then , like , how has it evolved since then ?

Travis 31:15

so I've always gone to the gym . Just I feel like that's what everyone , a lot of people did , you know always like in high school or like in college . Okay once I got I didn't go in high school . I was a pretty skinny kid and then when I went to college you would go with your friends .

Travis 31:30

You know , that's all the guys like let's go to the gym , you know , no one's really knowing what they do , you know , so you're just out there and it became like a routine , got a little more into , developed it because one summer I went back home and started working out with my uncle , so I just continued the routine you know , it's like a fitness program and I would go to the gym like every day after work . After I graduated college and then eventually my friend that I was going to gym with , he moved away . So we had a routine to go , you know , every other day . And then when he moved away , I was like , well , shoot , I don't know what to do anymore , I don't have the routine with him . So I started going every day because I had no one to go with . And then I started looking into like different splits and things like that how can I get you know what ? Can I work out more ? And then it just really evolved from there .

Travis 32:16

And , yeah , one day I like looked in the mirror . Well , I guess this is part of it too . Like I looked in the mirror and Well , I guess this is part of it too . Like I looked in the mirror and I was like , oh I , what happened ? You know , I used to play soccer every day . I used to be like pretty skinny and fit , but I don't look like that anymore . So then that's when I actually started getting more into the nutrition side of it , because working out and not really knowing what you do will get you stronger , but your body really reacts better to nutrition .

J.R. 32:43

Right . So I guess the question is what were your ? Why did you ?

Travis 32:45

go to the gym . What were your goals ? I see so again , you know we started off or I started off just like going to . You know , stay fit , stay healthy seemed like the thing to do for everyone , right ? You want to be in shape , you know , and not gain too much weight , you know you go to like an aesthetic sort of kind of aesthetics , but more health as well , too .

Travis 33:03

Health . And yeah , I grew up with high cholesterol as a kid , so I was always like pushed into doing sports and like fitness with my parents and , um , as I started working out more in the gym , I started like seeing the gains and oh , that's nice , so I just kept going with it you know , more for like personal .

J.R. 33:22

I guess aesthetics would be one thing , but like I liked how it looked when I went to the gym , right and then I mean , like I had my trainer on the show too and it's I think you can't really put a price tag on how you feel , health-wise right , like energy and how you feel , but also I wouldn't discount like the confidence you get with you know , respecting your body but also sculpting it to the way you want . That boosts , like it kind of transitions to everything else in your life , because if you can physically get your body to a point where you feel great , that it'll only help everything else out . Of course . I feel that too . So then at some point you you started to learn more about the nutrition side and then get into is it fair to say like more bodybuilding since you do cosplay bodybuilding , sense of body composition , right , and then you started doing that more . Was it just for yourself ?

Travis 34:10

and then you kind of stumbled into like fitness cosplay or yeah , it was more so for myself at first , yeah , and then it wasn't like . Cosplay was like my number one thing in my mind . I wasn't't working out for cosplay . But I started , like I said . I looked in the mirror and I'm like , oh , I'm getting stronger , but I'm not really liking how I look . So I just looked into like nutrition and you know the macros , calorie counting and things like that and yeah , that's how I got into the nutrition side of it and that's , combined with working out , is how I get the body I have now for cosplays .

J.R. 34:40

Yeah . So then my questions are and we've talked about this before , because I always like picking your brain on how you do nutrition and stuff . But what were some of the biggest challenges in your body composition sort of journey and maybe some of the best lessons that you've learned of trying to recomp your body ?

Travis 34:56

Got it Like . The biggest challenge at first was just getting into nutrition . You're used to just eating whatever you want , and eating was more for , obviously , to feed your body , but you eat what you want and enjoy it and just live your life that way . But in terms of nutrition for the gym , you have to start really paying attention to what you eat More . So like how much you eat rather than what you eat is like my philosophy of it . Um , so that's like the biggest challenge was starting to track the calories and macros and the biggest lesson I learned is um , don't restrict yourself saying , oh , I need to eat like this type of food or oh , you know what this , this influencer or this article says , I have to eat this type of food or do this type of thing and eat before a certain time of the day . And I can't do that . That doesn't work in my life , so I'm just not going to do it . So the biggest lesson is find what works for you and stick with it , because consistency is the number one thing .

J.R. 35:59

What do you think people get wrong in their own sort of nutrition or fitness journey ? In that sense , I have my own ideas , because people will always will talk about oh , you know what are your goals . And they're like oh , I want to lose weight or get cut or get more tone and all this other stuff . But then ask them are you tracking your ?

Travis 36:14

food and

Nutrition Mistakes & Reducing Bodyfat

Travis 36:15

what are you doing .

J.R. 36:15

And then there's a . It goes in a bunch of different directions , but what do you think people get wrong ? Mostly about nutrition . That you've learned like .

Travis 36:21

For sure , people think about what they eat more than how much they eat oh , this is healthy .

Travis 36:28

I can eat like 8 000 calories of this right yeah , or it's like they don't know how many calories because they don't track . Tracking is not hard but it's tedious , right ? No one wants to track . But people are always like , oh yeah , I can't eat french fries , I can't eat carbs , I can't eat this because that's what's going to make me fat and or not lose weight , right , and then they start eating like salads or fruits and good stuff to eat , right , but they don't track it . So they feel like they're eating all that stuff and then they're going to get healthier , but they're just eating too much of it .

Travis 37:01

And then also cheat days , because if people are too restrictive with their diets , they feel like , oh , I'm looking forward to my cheat day , I need my cheat days or else I can't hold on to this , and their cheat days basically erase all their work for the week . That's what my opinion of it is , because those cheat days , when you average it out for the rest of the week , it just ends up like netting zero , right ? It's like math , right , it's all math .

J.R. 37:24

It's super simple , it's just numbers it's like simple but not easy , but it's simple like it's straightforward it's straightforward .

Travis 37:31

I'm not gonna downplay the importance of macros and micros , and eating certain foods will help you improve certain things in your body . But to get started , all it is numbers engineer right . So all it is calories in minus calories out , and if you're at a deficit you're going to lose weight . If you're at a surplus , you're going to gain weight , and how that weight is distributed is kind of based on how often you work out and what you work out .

J.R. 37:55

But that's the basic part of it and that's why it's so simple so now more technical question to get into it for all the fitness nerds or people , I think this is one of the biggest questions . What was your so body recomposition and then body fat percentage going down for your cosplays ? What was like the most successful ? Or what was your body fat percentage for like your best cosplay when you're trying to really lean down ?

Travis 38:19

so my best body fat percentage overall has been between 10 and 11 . I do a body spec scan every summer , right before anime expo . Just see progress year over year , right , and it actually tells you like the composition , like everywhere , right , like each area , exactly . So , if you're just looking like lowest percent , like anywhere , I've gone my abs down to seven percent and I don't know how my I guess that's genetics of where it loses , yeah , but my abs have gone to just like seven percent . But like combining with my legs and my arms and everything , it was like an average of 11 10 body fat . It's my lowest cool .

J.R. 38:53

So then the big question is how do you lose fat ? Okay , right I think most people want to know that right yeah how does travis , how do you get down to ab 7% and full body 10 , 11% ?

Travis 39:05

So that's like the simple part , right , it's just math , literally , it's not like a secret . I will tell anyone who asked me what I do . First is I established my equilibrium or my uh , my baseline . So with my lifestyle I work out six days a week , you know , typically , and you know go to work and all that stuff and just keeping it consistent . I needed to eat at that point maybe like 2200 calories to maintain a day .

Travis 39:35

Right , I did that by doing my normal gym thing , weighing myself every morning and then taking like that first week's average and then track my calories for that first week of . Well , just like what do I need to survive in terms of my normal life , not because I'm trying to start myself . And then the second week I did the exact same thing , where I would eat the exact same number of calories and keep a consistent workout schedule . Again , and if my body weight average for the week stayed the same between first and second week , I know that's my baseline . So from there I just subtract 200 calories a day , so 200 calories like a bag of chips , so one bag of chips less a day . And I did it for two to three months , depending on how hard I wanted to cut , and then you get the body you want okay , so you're cutting the calories , but then do you your macros .

J.R. 40:22

Do you consider that Like ? How do you change or modify that ?

Travis 40:25

So I do modify my macros by cutting carbs and increasing protein . So I have a lot of protein in my diet and I limited my carbs down to 50 grams a day at one point and honestly that was me like following what I've heard about like keto and stuff like that and it kind of works .

J.R. 40:45

So it's more of a keto like approach to your macros a little more keto , because I'm not purely fat and you had 50 grams or whatever .

Travis 40:52

Yeah , I still have a little bit of carbs because I need to feel my like workouts and stuff and my life . Yeah , just going back and looking at like my body and everything like that . I had really strict , I guess , cut back on carbs before and then I had other cuts where I didn't limit carbs as much , talking about 150 grams a day , right , and the results are similar . My body specs would say like difference . So the biggest thing is just the calorie numbers and just enough protein for your muscles to grow . So they're looking at about like 1.2 grams per body weight per pound , right . So if you're like 100 pounds , just eat , the most is going to be like 100 120 grams .

J.R. 41:32

Yeah , might be like the other way around , but okay , yeah , I was always told at least one gram per one pound of body weight if you for your goal weight or something like that , but for girls it might be like 0.8 or something .

J.R. 41:43

I don't know if that's right , but okay , but like the protein , if you kind of calculate that , then then your other macros , your fat and your carbs , will be adjusted based on the total calories . Right , hopefully you guys can follow along with that . If you're a gym person you probably could . But yeah , I think that's the thing , cause the question is okay , if I'm just a normal person who's not Travis , working out six days a week , how do I reduce my body ? Most people want to do that , if not health . But so you're saying just track everything calories and trying to adjust it , figure out your baseline Exactly , get a slight deficit .

Travis 42:11

Yeah , Everyone who asks me . I always tell them the same thing . You don't need to work out six days a week . You don't need to go crazy at the gym , lift heavy weights .

J.R. 42:18

Unless you're the protagonist of your anime-like crevice .

Travis 42:22

But yeah , so you just need to have a consistent life . Right . Your gym routine , whether it's one day or seven days a week , right , keep it consistent . Don't mix it up like too much , because then your body's going to fluctuate and you won't be able to um adjust your calories properly . Right , if you're at a state of equilibrium with your life and you gym like the same routine every week and still making improvements , right . So pushing at the gym intensity level , right , and then you can like figure out how many calories you need per week to survive and keep your weight maintained . And then that's the most important thing , because some people are like charles , you get that body because you gym six days a week . I'm like well , you can gym one day a week and get this body too . You might not have biggest muscles , but at least you can still lose fat , because all it comes down to is eating less calories than you burn . And if it's consistent , it's really easy to track , or easier to track . If you're consistent Makes sense .

J.R. 43:20

Cool , that was pretty much it All right . Anything else on that topic before I move on to rapid fire questions .

Travis 43:26

I think that's it .

J.R. 43:27

Yeah , topic before I move on to rapid fire questions . I think that's it . Yeah , I think that's the meat of it . Honestly , like what you said , I think it lays out a good like framework of how to approach it if your goal is to lose fat . But obviously it's like working out for health is very important , working out for have good energy , but obviously , on top of all this stuff that he's already mentioned , get good sleep . You know , like hydrates . Don't stress out too much , because my trainers always say it's like how's your sleep , how is your stress levels ? Because if those are like out of whack , you're just it's an uphill battle , right yeah , like you want to set yourself up like for success .

Travis 44:01

Sleep just , it's going to help your body recover and give you energy to work out . And then obviously , stress I mean sometimes it's unavoidable but try to like mitigate as much as possible . Gym is for , like my stress relief because I don't have to deal with work , I don't have to deal with the like projects I have outside of work at home , things like that .

J.R. 44:19

I can just focus on my lifts and really helps me de-stress there too , definitely I think one thing I'll add in there and I we kind of got this from the episode with my fitness coach , which is like the consistency obviously you mentioned is key . For me , I know , or for a lot of people , sometimes the reasoning is it's hard for me to find the time to go to the gym , or sometimes I can make it and I'm inconsistent , or whatever . For me it's like I have I hired a coach , mostly to check in with them for accountability , because I'm paying for it , I have to to go four days a week , if I don't , then I'm wasting my money and I don't like wasting my money .

J.R. 44:53

So for me it's not an option to not go to the gym . I will go and I don't have to think about it . And I think my biggest advice is if you can set up your life or your routine or whatever habits you want to build , so that you don't have to think about those things it's like people don't think about showering or brushing their teeth right , it's part of their routine exactly .

Travis 45:08

And if you can leverage accountability in that to develop the routine , then you never have to think about it again yeah , I think that reminds me of , like my most important point , right um , for gym and nutrition , yeah , don't do things that you can't maintain , right ? So people set up these diets to where they're like cutting like 600 calories from their day . Or they say I can only eat like this type of food , or I need time of the day or this time of the day right , don't let that trip you up like I'm not discounting any of that .

Travis 45:39

All that can work because it can work yeah it can work and like I don't have any proof to say it doesn't work . But if that's holding you back from maintaining consistency , don't worry about it , just do what you can like . No lie , my cutting period . I'm eating chipotle . I'm eating in and out . Yeah , yeah , jersey mike's a lot of fast food , just because they already have the calories posted and the macros posted so it's convenient yeah right , um , and people like you say how are you eating in and out and still cutting ?

J.R. 46:08

I'm like it's just numbers , yeah , yeah it's funny because , like you we've you mentioned that before um , and so whenever I not a cheat meal , but when I know I can fit it in , I'm like travis is going in and out , I'm going in . Here's my , here's my 800 calories . I budgeted for this burger .

Travis 46:22

I'm good exactly yeah , and that's why I like to say like I don't have cheat meals because I don't need cheat meals .

J.R. 46:28

Because it fits in . Yeah .

Travis 46:29

Yeah , because it's . I'm enjoying the same food as wood when I'm not cutting , and I don't feel the need to need to cheat . I like it .

J.R. 46:37

Okay , ready for rapid fire ? Yep , cool . First question

Rapid Fire Questions

J.R. 46:41

. Billboard question . If you could have a sign for millions of people to see , what would it say ?

Travis 46:45

It's just numbers . It's just numbers .

J.R. 46:49

What is one of the hardest challenges you faced in your life and what did you learn from it ?

Travis 46:53

Definitely learning how to adapt to other people . You will have other people join your life by choice or by you know just life . Have insight . So not everyone likes to be treated the same . Not everyone reacts the same to how you act . So if you really want to make things work with someone , you have to be able to adapt and compromise with that person as well , not saying you know , bend over for that person , but like compromising , compromise , yeah , yeah makes sense self-inflicted wounds .

J.R. 47:20

So do you have a story about something that's gone wrong in your life that was your own fault and you can't blame anyone else because you did it to yourself ?

Travis 47:27

I probably do . I would say finances for sure , or finances and also school is two different things . Pick one Finances Finances I got used to living in a way where I didn't have to pay much rent and I had a lot more disposable income . And then when I bought my house I wasn't really used to that , you know , not having as much disposable income , and it wasn't like I was like losing money or in debt , but I definitely wasn't building money Right and I had to learn how to adjust that and account for that , because now I have way more expenses from when I didn't have a consistent mortgage payment .

J.R. 48:07

Right , that makes sense . I like that . If you could redo one thing , what ?

Travis 48:11

would it be Going back to college or even maybe even before that , when I was more into like martial arts and stuff . Just don't be so scared , I would be one of those cool like trickers , you know , people doing backflips and kicks everywhere . If I just , you know , didn't like chicken out from doing learning those moves , right , I can do the simple like 540s and stuff back in the day , but I never really got down any of the more intricate or dangerous tricks . And if I can go back and , just you know , have myself just step up and just do it and then it'd be pretty cool , nice , that's cool .

J.R. 48:46

That was me in high school . I was throwing myself around and doing tricks and stuff like that . But yeah , it was a lot of fun . Cool , If you could give your younger self advice . What would it be now ? Any age , any time period .

Travis 48:57

Don't be scared Again . This is like high school Travis and prior versus like Travis now . Like Cobra Kai , right Like strike first , don't wait and don't hesitate . If you want something , just try it . I'm not saying like steal stuff , but just commit and do it like the worst thing that can happen is you fail , and that's not even bad .

J.R. 49:15

You learn from failures , so just go for it was there something besides tricking that you would do or try if you weren't scared ?

Travis 49:23

just a lot of things , like not so much things specific , like things I want to try , but like in life , like just a mindset , whether it's , you know , going after a love interest , or that was me .

J.R. 49:35

That was the scariest thing I've ever done in high school was asking a girl out . Oh my God .

Travis 49:40

That's the biggest fear for like most guys . But yeah , just go after your love interest , go after your hobbies . If you want to play a sport , just do it . You know , don't be worried about what other people think , just go out there and do it .

J.R. 49:58

Nice , I like it . In the last few years , what new belief , behavior or habit has ?

Travis 50:01

improved your life Few years Recently . Yeah , definitely taking time to relax , right ? Sometimes I really like to pack my schedule out and just like go , go , go , go go , and never really get a chance to slow down and stop . But taking a little bit of time every day to just this is typically for me right before bed just relax and just to have like at least 15 , 30 minutes of nothing right to really recenter and just you know , don't worry about stress or anything that , just be yourself , be away from everything and just relax .

J.R. 50:33

I like that I feel like I've . I also want to do more of that , like just time , disconnected from everything , and just start up and I wind down like period after I wake up and before I go to sleep . I think that's like my ideal , but it's just too much of all right . The first thing is phone and the last thing is phone yeah , everyone like winds down and like starts to upload differently .

Travis 50:53

You know if it's if you start up with playing a couple matches of pokemon tcg in the morning to get your brain going that's all you .

J.R. 50:59

This is travis talking to himself . Hey , if you need to open up a few packs , you know , just do it .

Travis 51:03

Yeah , if you need to open some packs to get get awake , you know , then go for it right . But there's no right or wrong thing . Everyone's different .

J.R. 51:10

Who would you call successful and how do you define success ?

Travis 51:14

I would say my mom and dad for sure . They're super successful , not because they're like the most wealthy people in the world , but they came from nothing . Like my dad came from a refugee camp , right , and he was able to build a life here . He didn't know my mom like when they came here from refugee camps . They've actually met here . But coming as a refugee working his way up to become like a manager or at his old company before he retired and having even like a partial ownership of that company because he worked there for so long and the owner's like you deserve like 15 of this company or something , yeah , he , like my mom and dad , came from nothing . They're able to start good lives here in America and raise me and my sister to be the people we are right now and be semi-successful . That's success right there , like being able to not just help yourself but help others . Like continue to grow .

J.R. 52:04

I love it . If you knew you couldn't fail , what would you be doing right now ? Or would you ? What would you try ?

Travis 52:10

if I couldn't fail besides opening up more packs yes , got packs every time , yeah , and if I couldn't fail I would honestly shoot for . I'm not saying I hate my job or anything , but like a more entertaining job . I really want to be able to use my skills of manufacturing and creativity to make things for people to smile . So the job in mind is my company , doesn't ?

Travis 52:37

I'm not saying I'm gonna quit okay but being like an imagineer for disney , like you get to manufacture and create , like , really like interesting and technological things that people get to enjoy . Right , your technology , your creation is like making people smile , and that's something that I would like to try if I couldn't fail .

J.R. 52:59

Do

Favorite Hot Take

J.R. 53:00

you have a favorite hot take or something that you think most people wouldn't agree with ?

Travis 53:04

Rental Girlfriend's a good anime .

J.R. 53:06

Nice .

Travis 53:06

I like it .

J.R. 53:08

What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments that you've made in either time , money , energy , etc .

Travis 53:14

The gym yeah , I'd say like just getting into fitness and nutrition , like energy . You know aesthetics , just everything came from .

J.R. 53:22

You know being able to invest time in the gym favorite recent purchase in the 50 to 100 range that has impacted your life the most in the last , let's say , six months 50 to 100 range we can change the parameters , but it's basically like a relatively cheap purchase that impacted you recently I don't think a cheap .

Travis 53:42

That's a good question , because you don't really remember cheap purchases .

J.R. 53:46

This is like a consumerism question . Yeah , something that people could pick up .

Travis 53:50

Something that has influenced me , impacted me in the last recently . That was relatively cheap . Yeah , I don't really have a good answer for that one .

J.R. 54:01

So I'll throw in one . For me that comes to mind , it's my Crunchyroll subscription , so it's like 15 bucks a month . But since I've been on an anime binge like no ads , plus the like the ui , the experience of using crunchyroll on the app is so good compared to pirated stream sites or whatever . So like also , I have this like this massage ball thing , like for like my lower back . It's like a relatively cheap purchase , but I don't know if anything comes to mind , I'm just jogging memories yeah , yeah . Maybe we could pass it .

Travis 54:29

Yeah , we could pass out Travis only buys expensive stuff , guys . No , the most , because I don't buy a whole lot of stuff . Yeah , yeah , yeah , that's like impactful , yeah , but this phone case is pretty nice , like now . I didn't know about . I didn't have a phone case with a magnet before

Media Recommendations

Travis 54:50

that's pretty cool , nice , all right .

Travis 54:51

Last one favorite books , movies , videos , articles or media that you share , or recommend the most besides rent-a-girlfriend well , I mean not talking about cobra , kai , things like that favorite books , media , any sort of media that you recommend . I do really growing up like the harry potter . I'm actually going to see the play tomorrow . Oh , yeah , there's a play that like it's a continuation of story after a seventh book interesting , yeah , so I'm gonna see that tomorrow . But , yeah , I recommend harry potter .

J.R. 55:15

It's a light read , easy read , not too you know , when you say light , you mean like conceptually , or you mean like length or what I think length is not .

Travis 55:25

The font is pretty big . Okay , um , I'm a slow reader and I still was able to read those books . But also , conceptually it's not too deep . You can make anything deep if you really dig into it . But I think it's like a more lighthearted read and it's enjoyable .

J.R. 55:39

Okay , harry Potter . All

Ending Questions: Gratitude & Final Takeaways

J.R. 55:41

right , that is the end for rapid fire questions . We'll go into ending questions . So , travis , what are you grateful for ?

Travis 55:50

Definitely grateful for everyone in my life . Seems like a cop-out answer , but my parents recently I've been through some stressful times since the end of last year and my parents being here , my family being here to support me , has helped me a lot , and just my friends and family . Tracy , my girlfriend , is there to support me when I was going through . This is honestly some of the toughest times I've been through in my whole life since November and they're really able to support me and help me like get by until things started picking up again better again . So definitely grateful for them Nice .

J.R. 56:20

Do you have any final ask from the audience or any final takeaways you'd like them to have from this conversation ?

Travis 56:27

Yeah . So just don't be scared to pursue what you want to do . Don't hesitate , just go for it . If you're scared of failure , it's not going to kill you , right ? Like failure is not going to kill you , it's just going to make you stronger . And keep life simple , right ? In engineering we have a term called KISS . You know , keep it simple , stupid . So don't overcomicate life , don't over complicate , like your gym or anything you want to do . Just keep it simple and pursue it like it all right , travis , where can we find you ?

J.R. 56:57

any social media handles , websites , anything that you want to , if people are curious to what you're up to or want to reach out yes , so I only really post on Instagram for my social media .

Travis 57:08

So at official T underscore T and I mean I dance with Untitled , so you can find me there for the dance videos and also dancing feature in other people's dance videos too . But basically Instagram , nice , find me there .

J.R. 57:21

Cool , we love it . All right . Thank you Travis again for being here . I really appreciate it . I learned a lot from this conversation and you have a lot of great insights , so thank you .

Travis 57:29

It was a pleasure , thank you for inviting me and really had a fun time talking to you today , nice .

J.R. 57:33

Cool , all right . Final sign off from my audience . So thank you guys for being here . I really appreciate it . Remember to always be kind to other people , especially yourself , and reminder that there's always something you can learn from someone if you take the time to listen . So thanks for being here .