Rizzology
Welcome to "Rizzology" - The Podcast That Unveils Authentic Stories.
Step into a world where authenticity reigns supreme. In the "Rizzology" podcast, your host Nick Rizzo sits down with an eclectic mix of individuals, each with a unique journey to share. This show is a captivating tapestry of life's remarkable stories, perseverance, and new learning experiences, all interwoven with fun and laughter.
Whether you're seeking inspiration, motivation, or simply a good chuckle, "Rizzology" has you covered. Tune in for a rollercoaster of emotions, from the heartfelt and motivating to the side-splittingly funny.
Join us on this unfiltered journey where authenticity and raw honesty take center stage. Every episode is a testament to the real, raw, and wonderful stories that make life so fascinating.
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Rizzology
#101 | Amir Lamdan |
Amir Lamdan is a nutrition coach, strength and conditioning coach, and Serra BJJ brown belt.
Join us as we unravel a gripping narrative that begins with a newfound love for sports broadcasting at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, only to be dramatically redirected by world events. Staying in the U.S. instead of moving to Israel, our journey takes an intriguing turn to Cozumel, Mexico, where working for a jewelry company not only sharpens sales skills but also leads to an immersion in a vibrant and youthful community.
Ever wondered about the allure of the Alaskan luxury jewelry market or the behind-the-scenes dynamics of high-value sales? We transition from tropical Cozumel to the icy elegance of Alaska, where Alaskan cruises set the stage for a high-stakes retail environment. From revitalizing a jewelry store in Ketchikan to making jaw-dropping sales, this chapter is filled with captivating tales of affluent customers and breathtaking landscapes. The journey continues with a return to New York, driven by health challenges and personal loss, leading to a transformative foray into the culinary arts and martial arts training, highlighting resilience and personal growth.
What drives someone to pivot from high-pressure jewelry sales to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and working with elite athletes? In this episode, we delve into the unpredictable and enriching paths of martial arts, teaching, and navigating the impact of COVID-19 on gym operations. Discover insights into building trust with professional athletes, balancing personal and professional growth, and creating a strong personal brand amidst numerous challenges. Through engaging stories of perseverance, strategic networking, and the importance of a solid support team, this episode is a masterclass in turning life’s unexpected twists into opportunities for personal and professional success.
https://www.instagram.com/lamdan.strength.nutrition/
https://www.instagram.com/buff.on.a.budget/
Where is Connecticut?
Speaker 2:School of Broadcasting. So Connecticut Schools of Broadcasting is a A little coaster, thank you. It's an affiliate, I guess, school. They have them like branches all over the Northeast and it's more of like a trade school. Okay, so you're learning everything hands-on every day by radio hosts, hands-on every day by radio, uh hosts. So, uh, that's, that was like my first stint out of uh high school, right like, and did you enjoy it? I fucking loved it, because you know, for me, I'm not like trying to boost my own, but I feel like I I'm a person that learns by doing School was not for me, I was very ADD and I didn't think about so it's a crazy long story. But 9-11 happens, and then, yeah, I'm old, so 9-11 happens I. 9-11 happens and then, yeah, I'm old, so 9-11 happens.
Speaker 1:I remember 9-11.
Speaker 2:No, but like that's when I was graduating high school, doing the math.
Speaker 1:Now I'm doing the math, yeah.
Speaker 2:So then I was planning on maybe going to Israel, because that's where my family is, that's where I'm from originally, and obviously after 9-11, I was like, eh, let me stay around here. And I started going. I was like, all right, let me find something that'll ring with who I am instead of just wasting money. A little resonance, yeah, and I've always wanted to be in sports broadcasting or be involved in sports on some facet, and my athletic ability wasn't really the way I was going to do it, hence why I'm good at jiu-jitsu, because you don't have to be athletic to be good at jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 1:Let me just put everybody on record real quick. He is good at jiu-jitsu. He beats my ass every time we roll.
Speaker 2:No offense, you're still a white belt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not. It's not that hard right?
Speaker 2:he's like oh, he's still doing this dumb shit okay flip exactly, but you'll learn over time you know yeah and and your athletic ability will make it helpful for you to get better leverage in certain situations where I'm a big guy and I have to like really use my strength but like wedging myself under someone where you're a little smaller, a little more athletic you can get on.
Speaker 1:I'd say I'm short. You are shorter than myself, I get it's a good connection with the elbow to elbow to knee. I'm real tight like that Exactly.
Speaker 2:So anyway, anyway, so go. So I started doing that and then, uh, I really enjoyed doing that, but there's no money in broadcasting, like in the beginning of your career. Yeah, it takes years and years.
Speaker 1:I mean, how long did it take howard stern to really start making loot? What was he working at some shitty radio station upstate new york or something that.
Speaker 2:Detroit, upstate, new York, I'm sure Washington DC, he did, I remember. So you know, it wasn't really for me and at the time my mom had actually moved to Mexico to work for a huge jewelry company. And so she's like come down here, make some money, take a break, you know, from the industry, I guess, because obviously it's very stressful. My house was being sold at the time, the house that I grew up in. So I was like, all right, let me give it a try. So I went to move to cozumel, mexico, and, uh, at 19 I was selling jewelry like ten thousand dollar pieces of jewelry to people coming off cruise ships.
Speaker 2:That authentic jewelry like real pieces, yeah, like diamonds, tanzanite.
Speaker 1:That was always honestly that was always my question when I see those spots, like at the touristy off the cruise ship type spots is the jewelry real? That's what I always. My dad bought a Bama Mercier watch in the Bahamas and he and I have it and every time I look at it I go. I don't even know if this fucking thing is real, it's probably real.
Speaker 2:Okay, Most of those are sort of come with a certificate of authenticity. So I did that and then I was like, all right, this is. You know, it's kind of like a fun lifestyle because you're living in Mexico, You're in your, you know, turning 20. And there's a lot of young other people around and you know Carlos and Charlies and Senior Frogs every day.
Speaker 1:Where are you going with this story?
Speaker 2:So you learn to like, adapt to the situation right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's I think, and you probably had a great tan all the time. Oh, dude, it was great Looking cinnamon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so adaptation is my biggest strength, I think. And so there was a lot of. The company was owned by an Israeli family, and so one of the cousins was around my age and he had traveled. You know, after the army, a lot of Israelis like the kid they'll decompress by going to travel around the world. It's very popular. You know, you're going and you're serving in the military and then you want to go and see the world a little bit before you start your education.
Speaker 2:And so all these guys that were a group of friends from Tel Aviv. Israel had come to live in Cozumel and work at the company. Israel had come to live in Cozumel and work at the company. So when I came, it was immediately like blending in and being able to like make friends. And I wasn't really speaking Hebrew as much growing up here, because most of my friends obviously spoke English, but you know, it allowed me to rework my verbal skills in Hebrew. And so one of the general managers in an area called Costa Maya. He was like one of my neighbors in the complex we were all living in. It was literally like Melrose Place, like an outdoor complex. Everyone's in their early 20s and 30s and like you walk outside, you get on your scooter, you drive to work and this is mexico.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and cozumel, beautiful, the most gorgeous island you'll ever live on I visited cozumel on a cruise one time, but I was young, yeah, really get to like, actually understand it or really see what it was like. You know, all I remember is super blue, crystal blue water, and it was just amazing. I feel like a lot of people have a very misconstrued idea of what Mexico actually looks like. You know, because I don't know if it's the picture that's painted by governments or what have you, or just news stories. Tourist companies, you know, yeah, tourist companies. So I don't, you know you. You hear, because I have another buddy, anthony, who is a barber up here and he has spent a lot of time going back down to mexico and he says it's unbelievable beautiful, he loves living down there. So then you start hearing all these stories of people that actually do it and you go something's not adding up, because I'm told that it's not that great people are saying it's awesome.
Speaker 2:I guess it depends where in mexico. So cozumel is an island. So, first all, there's no crime, or very, very, very little crime. There's no major crimes because you can't go anywhere. It's like cheers. Everybody knows each other. Yeah, literally. So you know obviously there's the main strip, like the main avenue, where all the touristy things are, and then you go into, like the island itself, and you know you have like your rotisserie, chicken places and the taco places that you pay like 30 cents a taco.
Speaker 2:I don't know what they're exchanging right now, but I'm sure it's probably 60.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly A double Probably still pretty cheap.
Speaker 2:I mean, bro, I was living in a two-story flat and it was like $450 a month rent, rent. It was out of control. Like six, like huge, over a thousand square feet, that's dope. It was amazing like five streets from the beach that's awesome, man just get on your moped. Two minutes later, you're at the beach super cool that you guys experienced that yeah, so what leads me to now?
Speaker 2:the next thing is is now I got offered to go to Alaska, which is where, like all the biggest ticket items go, because the cruise ships only go there from May until September and the cruise ships cost like the cost per ticket is insane. Back then Just still. Now I can't even imagine what's it popular?
Speaker 1:Is it Alaska?
Speaker 2:Cruise cruise. So let's go in mid-july and let's go norwegian cruise lines norwegian, that's right, or or hound america. You're probably going to pay close to five thousand dollars a cabin and that's for, like, the regular basic yeah, I had a customer. They were paying like 30 grand a night for their cabin. There's like cruise ships that have just outdoor cabins, no, like interior Mad cold. Well, it's not, it's not that bad. It rains, it rains, it rains. Oh my God, what is it?
Speaker 1:Juneau, Alaska is like the main hub, no.
Speaker 2:Ketchikan, Skagway and Juneau are, like it's called, the Inner Passage.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I'm looking right now. Glacier Bay, skagway and Juneau yeah, from Seattle Washington Seven-day cruise. It was $10.75, and now it's $6.99.
Speaker 2:Well, now you're getting like a week, a night or a week. That's for a Per person.
Speaker 1:Oh, that'd be per person. Yeah, but that's for a sailing June to October.
Speaker 2:Okay, listen, it is. It's pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, where are we? We're in early June. I guess Now is the season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, free at sea up to $3,400 off. So I guess that's why Probably no one's fucking traveling right now. No one's going to Alaska right now 479.
Speaker 2:Bro, I might just have to come around to Alaska. Yeah, no, it's beautiful, dude. Yeah, it's. So if I was going to take a cruise like to see like eagles and glaciers, oh man, definitely like.
Speaker 1:You feel like you're in another land, like actually just another dimension, completely different world.
Speaker 2:It's so different, like here, how we have pigeons, that's how there's eagles.
Speaker 1:There's eagles hanging out.
Speaker 2:Everywhere, everywhere.
Speaker 1:I prefer the eagles over the rats with wings Like here you go on a walk and there's deer there.
Speaker 2:you go on a walk and there's bear.
Speaker 1:That's the one thing I'm not messing with. I'm not messing with a bear, I'm not doing it.
Speaker 2:But it's definitely something else. So you got the offer to potentially go up to alaska, and then we were rebuilding this location catch a can that had been used like. So the company had 30 locations all over the caribbean st thomas, st martin all over the virgin islands and this is the, and this is the jewelry company, the jewelry company that sells, yeah, everything okay high-end watches, high-end diamonds, everything.
Speaker 2:So they brought us to catch a can to like re-blossom the location. So they gave us like insane pieces, brand new showcases, so we're like putting this all together. And they were like grouping us as employee, as salespeople, like with other people, to like put showcases together or count jewelry or put displays together, whatever was needed to. You know, you're opening up a brand new jewelry store and the person they grouped me with was this gentleman named bay, who was from senegal, africa, but when he was young he had moved to france, learned how to become a chef and then became a chef down in the Virgin Islands because his cousin was the jeweler. So his cousin, who was like the sickest jeweler I've ever seen, man, this guy could mount a diamond in an hour, like nothing. You bring him in like the people are like getting on the ship and you're making like a last minute sale and you're like Abdu, I need you to mount this now. And he's like bro, busy.
Speaker 2:I'm like no, no, no they're on it, please, yeah in like two seconds, he's like and this guy's fingers, bro, were completely torn apart from like oh, I'm sure you know, obviously doing the gold, and he didn't give a shit tradesman, anybody that is in a trade like that you just tell like dudes that work in plumbing dudes that work on construction sites, everyone, everyone's got very distinct hands, okay, so now I'll tell you my biggest sale in the company history was a 34-carat yellow diamond and a 124-carat tanzanite.
Speaker 1:And so, for reference, give me a breakdown of what that would cost.
Speaker 2:The sale was $870,000.
Speaker 1:Damn. And they're just coming off of a cruise. Yeah, someone just coming off a cruise, just spending 800 grand.
Speaker 2:This woman had like six carats in each ear and like five carat stones in each ear. That amazes me.
Speaker 1:What is the lure to just buy expensive items when you already just dropped loot to. I mean, listen, take away from the fact that there are some people that just have stupid money and they just, and the disposable income is exactly, it's like what my salary for a year? It's like. There's like, yeah, fuck around and just spend this and this and you're just whoa man. But I don't know, you know, even like in my dad's situation, my dad was an iron worker. He didn't really, you know, have loot like that, but he bought a bomb mercy. I remember it being like at least three, two to three thousand dollars on a trip to the bahamas it's like damn man, if I could tell you, some people spend money like and was it?
Speaker 1:were these people like hard sales or did you know that she was the?
Speaker 2:easiest sale I've ever had. I showed okay, so you have to understand this is a woman that has gigantic jewelry right blinged out, so she's got. She had six carat d flawless, which was like the best characteristics you can have for color and clarity for a diamond.
Speaker 1:Six carats is obviously sounds like the kind of woman that asks for a blood diamond. She's like I need.
Speaker 2:I don't want the blood free diamonds yeah, I don't think she gives a shit. You don't give a shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think she just wants the size her earlobes are crying with having to keep that rock in there.
Speaker 2:I bet, I bet. So you see that and you're like big gaudy jewelry. You know, one thing that I would say separated me from a lot of the other salespeople is the fact that I come from New York, from Long Island. I grew up around all kinds of people people with money, people without money, people of different color.
Speaker 1:Melting pot of society.
Speaker 2:So it was easy to connect with people coming random people coming off cruise ships and so that first you know, shell cracking that was was fairly easier for me than most people and so big ticket items, I wasn't scared. I would like literally just take them. We had an $11 million pink diamond.
Speaker 1:Okay, 11 million pink diamond. And now, when a diamond is pink like that, is it naturally pink? Yeah, so it's naturally pink. No, no, no, natural pink.
Speaker 2:If you infuse, you're paying like a couple. Yeah, no, you can infuse color into anything. Okay, so you're talking like multi-million dollar piece, right? So now you're taking that and you're just putting it on someone's finger and you're like, hey, you're wearing, you know, 10 million, 11 million. You know you don't give them that kind of price because they'll have a heart attack, but you're wearing a multimillion-dollar piece Like how does that feel? And you know, even though they have that kind of money, they've never experienced that kind of thing. Well, now you're like giving them an experience, right, which is what it's all about, for you know, if that's why they're on the cruise Now, you're giving them like a memory for for for life. And now they're going to be like much more open to spending big money with you, right, because now you've you've created a connection with this person.
Speaker 1:And you're also anchoring the price too. It's like a sales tactic, too Correct, anchoring high to have them think about that price and be like whoa, okay, and you get it out of the way right then and there. And now they're thinking about what do I have to do to get this, or what can I do to try to haggle and this and that, and now I at least know the price. It's a very interesting sales tactic of just throwing the number out there. It's same thing with services. Someone says you just go, well, this usually costs X. You know, what did you have in mind? And then, oh well, that's the number that they're going to keep thinking about now. It's very interesting, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:I feel like you're better off trying to start high and then work your way down. And then also, you know, you show someone something like that and then they can be like oh, this guy's got some serious hardware I can work with, this guy's got some serious hardware I can work with. And I can tell you that I've sold this guy who was a landscaper out in California. I did this similar thing with him. He had this gigantic yin-yang diamond ring.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, and.
Speaker 2:I'm like this guy's got it.
Speaker 1:This guy's got it yeah.
Speaker 2:So I pulled him, I pulled like a 15-carat stone out and showed him that, and then he's like, oh honey, honey, boom, boom, boom. And I dude, I got him for 300K.
Speaker 1:Damn.
Speaker 2:This guy bought a five-carat diamond, two two-carat diamond earrings, a four-carat diamond bracelet.
Speaker 1:You had him with the credit card scanner. You're like, and you do what? Yeah, landscaping. Landscapingping yeah, landscaping a lot more lawns to cut, brother, that's gonna be crazy.
Speaker 2:So so anyway. So then, because of that success, we myself and then a couple of other other of those salespeople we got moved into this region in mexico, because the alaska season is is exactly that it's a season. So in october they take everyone out, they move them to the caribbean for january to april, so you get like a month break in between you just had the best of both.
Speaker 2:It was it was really nice. So then I went to this area and we had a ton of success there and this, this guy Bay ended up coming to live with me and, bro, like the food that he would make was just out of control, like I would be sleeping because we would work four days and then rest for three days, he would like take chickens and like break them down and make some stocks and sauces from scratch, scratch and go fishing and bring back shrimp and this had to do with the French background.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, so I learned how to really put food together. Fast forward, multiple years now living with him back and forth in Alaska and Mexico. Now living with him back and forth in Alaska and Mexico, I'm in Alaska and I dislocate my shoulder and I just completely wreck it. How did that happen? Went for a loose ball and someone dove on my arm and just completely detached out. Oh man, still to this day. It's fucking wrecks Anyway. So I started taking a ton of anti-inflammatories because I was working. I was in Alaska for work, did?
Speaker 1:you have the sling.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, it was so bad, bro, I couldn't even put my like. I'd have to like put a collared shirt on. It was just miserable, and my bosses didn't care. Like I'm one of the top salespeople, they want you out there, man. Yeah they need me.
Speaker 1:You're only as good as your last sale.
Speaker 2:Exactly, If anything you know. So I started, you know, pumping myself with ibuprofen and all these you know painkillers to help ease the pain, but it ruined my stomach. I couldn't eat anything I would eat. I would like be in a fucking huge sale and mid-sale I'd run to the bathroom to go throw up because literally, anything I was gonna say.
Speaker 1:Was it actually just throw up coming up, or was it? Was it like the lining of your esophagus yeah, so like a heartburn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what it's called was is malabsorption, so the gland in my stomach that produces acid wasn't producing the acid to burn the food, so the so like some food was digesting and through my intestines it would just sit there like a rock yeah food, and then it would wind up coming right back up, correct?
Speaker 1:so that's not fun.
Speaker 2:No, it was, that's not fun it got to the point where I started to. You know, blood started to come up, and so that's where I was like you know what, no amount of money is worth it, and I like literally just left Alaska. I told my bosses, and they weren't happy about that, I'm sure, and so I went home and got all the testing.
Speaker 1:Which, might I add, though, real quick. It does suck that they didn't understand that, because it's like how many years did you work with them? And that you put 150 in and just because, like, you're having some serious medical problems, they just don't. They don't want to lose their guy from selling for them, but it's like yo, I have to take care of me.
Speaker 2:Yeah because I I mean, I literally couldn't sell dude. I was like in the bathroom multiple times today. It was pretty brutal and but that's where you know, like okay, so, and then I started to like realize this is not going to be long term just because of the people yeah that I'm with right the environment.
Speaker 2:So I went back to mexico, I did another season and during that season was when everything changed. So, uh, one of my best friends from high school, his sister, was murdered like in cold blood while she was in school in Arizona. And so I was in Mexico and watching a movie and I get a phone call and I'm like holy shit, you know what do I do here, and like three days go by like no sleep just thinking about you know what, what I'm supposed to do. And so eventually I'm like again, you know, at this point I'm like managing one of the super stores in the company in Cozumel, and so I'm responsible for like 20 plus employees and you know $5 million plus of goods. So you know, you don't just put in any manager for that. And uh, so I bounced, I came home. That was like the right thing for me to do.
Speaker 2:I couldn't call my friend to say sorry. You knowend jewelry store on Fifth Avenue that like clients like Michael Jordan, allen Iverson, the CEO of CVS Pharmacy, like big-time clients and like I come back after like four years of not living in New York, orork, or like just coming visit short and haven't seen like all these people so long and it's like come into this house like to pay shiva call and like this is how you're seeing all these people that you grew up with and haven't seen in four years, and like it's like the most bittersweet experience. And then her dad's like oh, you know, I want you to get more. He's like I want you to come, sorry I yeah, you're whispering.
Speaker 1:I was like I want to make sure your levels are good.
Speaker 2:I was like he's whispering. It's dark and ominous story that's okay.
Speaker 1:It's all about storytelling. It's the broadcast.
Speaker 2:It's the broadcast you're doing good so, uh, so, in short, he offers me a job to come work for him in the city and then, like at that time, I already kind of knew that I wanted to start going to culinary school.
Speaker 1:That was the reason you wanted to go to culinary school because of the guy that you were rooming with in the Caribbean.
Speaker 2:Yes, and also, you know, I was having such digestive issues that I needed to learn how to eat, like how to you know and which leads me I'll talk about it later but like how to cut weight, you know how to help your food be more digestible.
Speaker 2:And so, through that process of going to culinary school and learning how protein breakdowns work and things of that nature, I started to you know test recipes at home. And at the time, that's when I started training martial arts, also because when I'd come home. So I have a half sister and half brother who are 15 and 16 years younger than me, and so when I had come home, I was in my early 20s, 24, so they were like 9, 10 years old. So they were doing karate at a local karate school and I would, you know, chaperone them around and the guy that owned the karate school was like a super high level black belt from south africa. This guy warren levy, multiple time national, like pan-american champion, cool, um, and he's like come train with me, come train with me. So I was like, all right, let me give it a try sure why not.
Speaker 2:You know why not? I have. No, I had nothing. I was living already so far. I had disconnected from my friends for not completely disconnected, but you know it's not the same when you're not spending that kind of time with them. They had gone to traditional colleges and done the traditional. Let's get fucked up in college and, you know, figure out our lives afterwards. But you know I had already done that. You know, figuring out like, okay, I'm going to be working towards that.
Speaker 2:Food, you know thing, food, you know thing, and uh. So while going to culinary school I was working for my dad who had like a shipping store in the five towns and we would have the food network on all day long and everyone would come in. Who watches the food network and I would talk to the customers, and then it's a very religious area, so so they also have food restrictions and I started to like talk to people and eventually I started like a small private cooking service and I would, you know, do Shabbat dinners or small bar mitzvahs or parties that people paid pretty nice money for. You know I'd come in, do two, three hours worth of work.
Speaker 1:And you're bringing all the food and everything and you're doing the prep work.
Speaker 2:Everything there. I don't have to, like you know, rent out a place and and it was working out. You know, I was training martial arts, I was working for my dad a little bit, I was going to school, you know. So I was, you know, dabbling in a little bit of everything and you.
Speaker 1:This is karate, not bjj, this is karate this shortly after I started bjj okay, because. What was the reason that you switched from karate to BJJ so?
Speaker 2:I was walking across the street on a rainy day and some guy ran over the curb making a turn, hit the curb and almost hit me. So I banged the car and was like what the fuck? And so the guy came out of the car.
Speaker 1:Isn't that funny. He's the one who fucked up, you're the problem, bro. You almost hit me, yeah, like you almost killed me. How dare you tell me what I did wrong, exactly?
Speaker 2:He's like a small guy like you. He's got a little complex A little complex.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. I'm going to leave. Y'all can listen.
Speaker 2:So you know it's wet and I'm like, all right, I'm going to fucking head, kick the fuck out of this guy, but it's wet. So if, like I slip, what's going to happen? Hit your head backwards, whatever, he's going to jump on top of me, who the hell knows. You know we get into a little verbal argument. It ends he goes on his way, I go my way. The second I get into the office I start looking up gracie jiu-jitsu and you know, like brazilian jiu-jitsu and watching videos and learning about and literally like four stores down from my dad's store was like a gracie certified training center. Now I know how a lot of people perceive like the online.
Speaker 1:Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. I'm a white belt, so I don't know any of these rumors. I started at Sarah's and I'm just hanging there now.
Speaker 2:No it's listen, it's. They're monetizing Jiu-Jitsu as best as they can, which is fair play, you know they're monetizing jiu-jitsu as best as they can, which is fair play, you know. But it was, and I will say like they have a great, great foundation for understanding concepts of jiu-jitsu. You know you're going to learn basic concepts that are going to help you. You know how to retain guard, how to mount somebody, how to maintain the mount. But it wasn't like I was learning the dvds online. It was like at a school yeah, you're still.
Speaker 2:You're at an actual physical location exactly so you're still like getting partner, you're still getting real work, um, and then it became where I was just, you know, beating up everybody, and then I, the karate play, started a jujitsu like mma class, like a nogi class. So I was like, all right, let me do that too. So I started going there and but there was like taught by a purple belt, which was at the time look, you're talking 12, 13 years ago purple belt was like a big deal, yeah. So it was like good technique, you know. But again I started to like be more dominant there and I was training this kid from queens who was a professional fighter, who happened to be training under matt and ray oh sick and he didn't really vibe with the crowd, I guess At Matt and Ray's spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think he was a little bit. His expectations weren't met, which sometimes when we set expectations for things, we can get disappointed when we think about how something's supposed to be and it's like, oh, that's the reality is not so much. I thought I'd be a brown belt by now. Well, you got a little, you are, you're a shitty belt. You are a shitty belt. You're a shitty white belt.
Speaker 1:I thought I'd be a brown belt by now. That's the only shit is. I'm trying to get a coral belt, but I just gotta keep bleeding on the white belt and eventually it'll turn red. I can help you. Yeah, thank you, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:so yeah, so you know, so this guy kind of like gave me like the motivation, kind of go train at math. Like I'm like how bad could it be, let me go see what this is about. So that intersected with me opening up my gym in Belmore, which was very close to the Levittown location, and so it was easy I would coach classes in the morning and then I would go train in the afternoon class, or I would do the morning class and then go work with my clients.
Speaker 2:Like, depending on my schedule for the morning, and you know it was really nice because Sarah's had like a really nice openings for afternoons or morning classes or night classes. The night classes I didn't start to do till obviously the gym had been more of a functioning business. The gym had been more of a functioning business. But you know, just working with like all you know now is not as much unfortunate. You know it is what it is. But you know, back in the day, you know we're talking five years ago, before COVID Levittown was like, you know, mma, mma. You know all the guys were trained there aljo al, matt vola, weidman, you know, uh, marab, I mean every tuesday night was like jason rau. Nick ronan, uh, anthony pal, I mean like endless big names that like Jason Rowe.
Speaker 1:Nick, ronan, anthony, powell I mean like endless Big names that are just dominant at what they do Lim Pete Sell, just guests.
Speaker 2:You know, Stipe Miocci, it just never ended. It was. You know, when you talk about humility, like you want to talk about humility and humbling yourself, you walk into Sarah's on a Tuesday night at Levittown and you will be humbled, guaranteed, guaranteed. And so, like you learn right, you know you're going to learn.
Speaker 1:Listen, man, I started. When I first started, uh, I saw no other white belt do what I did, which was I was at every mixed class. Yes, I was at every mixed class, intentionally 100. And then, once I've heard about the comp class not that I don't have an intention of competing. I'm just more nervous, though, about injuries in a competition, because if a dude's gonna go 110, I have to match that energy, otherwise why am I here, of course. So now, if he's gonna do 110, I gotta go 110. He's not gonna give a fuck about letting me tap, but most dudes are not going to. They're not gonna be respectful about that shit. So it's like you have to just have that mindset. But even though I didn't have those you know, thoughts of doing that yet gary doing the sunday competition class, I said, all right, let's go get thrown into the fire like. I know I'm gonna get get my ass kicked, but it is what it is.
Speaker 1:And it's funny because I see the drop-off rate from people that join the gym to just like you don't see people anymore. And I look around sometimes and I go where's everybody that I started with? I see maybe three or four people that I started with, and I look around and I go. I've only been here for a, you know, a little over a year. Now a year and a month like what happens to people in that four year, five year span. They don't need from people that started five years ago is what I'm saying. Like they just life, I think. I think life is a lot of it, but I also think, going back to humbling, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that is a big thing. Like another dude that I know shouts to Rishi he's the hom he said he used to train at Matt's for a long time doing jujitsu and he said that place has a very, very funny, great way of weeding out people that don't belong in that type of field, and I think a lot of it has to do with the people that don't want to admit that they got tapped or don't want to admit that. I'm like bro, I rolled with Anthonyony, gary one night, trotta, a couple of guys, bro, I got tapped like 30 times, 40 times in one night and anthony was probably 20 of them. So and and I put that online, I went, I learned cool, like it is what it is like, am I sore as shit? Without question, does my neck feel? Great, yeah, they cracked me this way. At least somebody cranked me the other way, get me right back into alignment.
Speaker 1:Do something, do something. But I went into this understanding the mindset that I'm not the baddest dude. I'm not the baddest dude.
Speaker 2:As long as you go to Sarah's, you never will be.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not the baddest dude. I'm not going to be. But listen, if I can give some people a run for their money and I can learn as I do it, great, and I think I've done a decent job at doing that so far. But, like you said, it's a long journey.
Speaker 2:And I would say don't even think about giving people a run for their money, Think about just being able to survive against some of the most dangerous people.
Speaker 1:I think about Robert Downey Jr all the time in Traffic, thunder Survive.
Speaker 2:Every time in the back of my head when someone's choking me up, survive.
Speaker 1:I'm like come on, I'm choking Breathe, I can't. He's choking me.
Speaker 2:yeah, but I agree without question you know, those are the moments, though, nick, that when you're being mounted or being choked and you have, like, you understand that you're actually safe, but it's just so uncomfortable, oh yeah, and you, when you can be like, okay, slow down, let me me. You know, get an underhook, get a frame, whatever that needs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, try to almost get like my feet coiled up to try to do like a bridge or something, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:You know, there's plenty of situations where I try and I understand that and I've said this to a lot of people that are thinking about joining. It's like the first time somebody takes your back and like puts their arm around your throat, that primal instinct of just going whoa, whoa kicks in. But then after the third, fourth, tenth, twentieth, you're just kind of like okay, let me see if I can work my way out of this, and you feel comfortable because you know when, god forbid, you ever have to actually use the shit. Now you're just like oh, okay, I've been here before like a thousand times. Okay, here we go, butt to the floor.
Speaker 2:You're trying to figure things out yeah, I'm what I was just going to say on top of like yeah what I. So I I teach a small program in east rockaway by me because I do live a little bit far from the academy. So you know I wanted my son to start training jiu-jitsu and so I started a jiu-jitsu program in one of the martial arts schools near my house. And one of my guys, this guy Jason I told him last night, so proud of him, because in the beginning he would like second, he would be in a bad position, he would just tap so fast. And last night he was put into rear naked, chokes, triangles, et cetera.
Speaker 2:Because we've been working defenses and you could see the confidence level in his ability to stay calm. Just to be confident in yourself that you won't overreact in a situation is huge. Owning a gym for many years I've had people you know obviously come in after a full day and sometimes they're dehydrated or their blood sugar is low. And now they're doing a hit circuit or lifting heavy weights like dead lifting and you know they they black out or they pass out quick, you know, and you're like whoa, what the fuck? And you start to realize like it's just because their ability to manage stress was like so poor that when something, when the body started to, getting overloaded, overloaded stimuli or stressors issues immediately, yeah, it shut down.
Speaker 2:Versus like I would you know you'd be like, okay, let's grab a. Would you know you'd be like, okay, let's grab a cold compress. You know, stand him up, get his breathing regulated, stuff like that, where I think that's what jujitsu teaches you is how to stay calm under certain situations like that.
Speaker 1:It's been a lot of times where, even with rolling with you truthfully and when I roll with Johnny twice last week, johnny's a savage. He's so good.
Speaker 2:He embarrasses me and I'm twice his size, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean it's crazy. So I'm rolling with Johnny and even when I roll with you, there are certain positions that I'll get into. Where he was doing I don't know the choke name, I'm still trying to remember half the shit but it's like when they grab underneath not a bread cutter, then where he comes around the side like that.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is a bread cutter.
Speaker 1:So he was doing a bread cutter to me, but he was doing it slow, like trying to just like he would just every time I'd buck a little bit, he would just like sink it a little slower. But even when I'm like sometimes I'll be on, someone will be on top of me and they'll start going for the choke around the neck and your head's kind of out to the side, but you're losing your ability to breathe slowly, having the, the wherewithal to just go chill like it's all good. Because there are certain times where your breathing starts to become compromised and you start to have that, that um, that not anxiety attack, that reaction, the fight or flight, yeah, oh, and you just have to kind of just bring it back down and talk yourself off the ledge like yo, you're good. The second that you go, you're out of it. So just see what you could do and the second it starts getting a little dark.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're good for sure. The second the lights start looking like someone didn't pay the bill.
Speaker 2:You know so, speaking to that, you know, through your journey you will. There will be breaks. You know so. During covid, obviously, I had to take a small break. So when I first came back to sarah's, I was going up against, uh, this guy pete, one of the purple belts, and he put me in a cross collar choke and I was like passing his guard and I was like completely yeah, disrespecting the collar choke, like I knew it was there. I just yeah, you're just like, and all of a sudden I see like the lights start closing on me and I'm like they're like oh my god, it's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, turn on the light.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, oops, my bad. I'm like that won't happen again, so again. But that's the beauty of jiu-jitsu you learn to adapt in all kinds of different situations and you know going back to right. So, having the gym like covid comes in, I had to shut everything down. I had the option to maintain my facility and pay the rent, which I was like no thanks, let me close up and then I can reassess the situation Were they jacking your rent up at all.
Speaker 2:So it wasn't that he had jacked my rent up. So what happened was when COVID. So I have friends in places in the government, homeland Security. So when COVID started to happen, you know, communication with those people started to open up real, real fast. I'm sure that's what I'd be doing, well, you know. So, you know, through certain people, I found out that, hey, this is going to be like at least 90 days. Yeah, you know, don't expect anything less. It's not going to be two weeks to slow the spread. It's going to be a little while. Yeah and uh, I was always caught, you know, I was always on time with my rent and I have a. I had a clause in my lease that allowed me to exit my lease as long as I was, you know, continuously paying, paying and it's called the good guy clause.
Speaker 1:Yep, I have that, I have that with my rent, that makes, and I made sure, especially with after coveted, like that, I'm like, yeah, man, we gotta have that in there absolutely. And then, of course, the landlord comes back. They're like, well, you know, if you give us three months of notice and this and that, I'm just like, hey man, shit, shit gets crazy like that again I'm packing everything up and I'm leaving.
Speaker 1:You'll never hear from me again, bro. Exactly, I pay my shit on time, but like something like that, the world ending like in that way again. We're not doing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not playing around, so so. So I had like, as soon as the government was like all right, march 19th, gyms will be closed. So I called my landlord that day. I'm like look, I'm just letting you know ahead of time. I will not allow myself to get into like some kind of three or four months back-ended rent where now I owe you $20,000 and I haven't had the ability to bring income in, and he's like oh, don't worry about it, I won't do that to you, you know, we'll figure something out. Now, nothing against him as a human being, but yo, dude, everyone's got to look oh, don't worry about it, I won't do that to you, you know, we'll figure something out and then Now nothing against him as a human being.
Speaker 1:Yo dude, everyone's got to look out for themselves. Sometimes you will expect that money. Let's be totally honest. You're not going to be like, hey man, yo you're just a good guy, fuck it Like we're good.
Speaker 2:It's like nah, again going back to communication being super important, this is something I learned from my coach, like communication is everything. And yeah, I was consistently throughout the whatever they call it the pause communicating with him that like, hey, here's the situation. Like I don't want to be paying you X, y, and again he's like, don't worry about it, we'll make whatever necessary arrangements. And then, june, when everything started to open up again and gyms were supposed to be in like phase four, and then like nothing, yeah, and they were like everything's open except gyms. Yeah, interesting, the next day he calls me. He's like what do you want to do? Because this is not you know. He's like if you want I'll, you could pay me the back last next four months. I'm like, no, I'm like I'll get my stuff out by the end of the week.
Speaker 1:don't worry, worry about it. Yeah, I'm a fit young lad. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:I was like I called a bunch of my clients, they got a fucking truck for Home Depot and I put everything in my garage and now I coach all these clients out of my garage.
Speaker 1:Oh, you still do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, that's cool, yeah, so, like being at think that's going to be coming in the near future, because of now things are really starting to blue bloom nicely. Um, uh, with you know I one thing that when I had my gym, I was always helping people with recipes, obviously for my culinary background and how to bring and not just my culinary background but my issues with digestion, you know like, and over time, like, I understood like, hey, there's certain underlining things that most people are dealing with that you can, you know, triage with certain things and you're going to get a huge, you know, small hinges, swing big doors kind of effect. And so when I started to do that, you know you get a good buy-in right. Like it's like you tell someone, hey, you know, start taking fish oil more regularly because it's going to help.
Speaker 2:Or something that maybe most people don't use is black cumin seed oil. So black cumin seed oil, super high anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, super super effective for performance. Does it have to be the cold-pressed one? No, I use an oil that's not, I don't think it's cold pressed. But, um, about tablespoon like you give somebody small doses, one a day, one tablespoon a day or, uh, you could take it in a capsule depends on the, obviously the size of the capsule and you get a huge, huge benefit from that and people start to see immediate relief. You know, like someone who does jujitsu, you give them something like that, they're going to immediately feel the relief in their joints, right?
Speaker 1:because that's what I need, truthfully, my elbows. They make so much noise since I started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like something like black human seed is, is money for that you know, obviously you you have your like. You know creatine, protein powders, fish oils, curcumin, curcumin, glutamine, like stuff like that that are based on you know necessity, like if you take head injury. I think everyone should be taking creatine, but I guess dosage would be based off of like if you you a sport or take headshots, because I work with some UFC fighters, so being at Sarah's you create relationships like this. And one of the fighters, charlie Campbell, who I've been working with now for a little bit over two and a half years. He's a lightweight in the UFC.
Speaker 2:That starting with him immediately, like giving him the black seed oil he felt you know some drills that I had learned. So my strength and conditioning coach, his name is Will Chung and he comes from so his grandfather is Hwang Keys and he started a martial art called Tang Soo Do, tang Soo Do yeah, mudo Kwon. So you know Chuck Norris is a black belt in Mudo Kwon oh sick. So give you like a frame of where it's a Korean martial art and his background with that and then learning. He was one of Pavel Tatuin's first kettlebell students and taking you know principles from his grandfather and Pavel and like integrating that into strength training for longevity. That's so cool, pavel is dope man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I mean that dude's a brick wall. Oh my God, just swing and swing. He was on Rogan. He was talking about everything that he did. He was like super serious, he's talking about everything that he did. He was like super serious, he's great. Well, pavel's very serious.
Speaker 2:But that's where I think you know, certain people vibe with certain, some with others and not you know, and that's where, so, like, obviously, I think I generally am doing it out of the good, out of my heart. Like you know, you have people, especially, like you know, there's Sarah. You got UFC champions right, so you're going to have oh, let me take a picture with you, let me. And then there's a ton of strength and conditioning coaches at Sarah's and they're all really good, sorry, and they're all really good. And it's like, oh, let me help you with this, because you're gonna see gaps in these fighters training, because they're just fighters. They're not. They didn't go to school to understand nutrition or or strengthening.
Speaker 1:Some of them did, but most of them didn't most of them were athletes and they got told what to do.
Speaker 2:Correct the corresponding coach correct and so there's gaps in areas. So it's like you see a gap in one of the fighter area and you're like, hey, look, you know, I genuinely would love to help you. Forget about the fucking money. Like you're a professional fighter, like this is. And I think and this is what what's helped me, um, with working with NFL athletes, working with UFC fighters, is understanding that they're just people. Like they are putting their lives on the line for a paycheck there's no guarantee of a paycheck and that sits on the back of their mind, just like if you or me didn't have our rent lined up.
Speaker 2:And I think people you know most general sports fans or people in general look at athletes and like, oh wow, he's living his dream, I mean.
Speaker 2:But there's a price that comes with that dream when you have so many people put you on a pedestal.
Speaker 2:So like I know, obviously, uh, a lot more ufc fighters just training at sarah's throughout the years, and I do nfl players that I've worked with, but I can tell you they're very similar in, in a sense of like hey, it's hard to trust people and those circles are usually generally very small.
Speaker 2:So when you can earn their trust and build their confidence in some. So, like working with charlie, he was having some issues that I gave him like one or two things that gave him such a big bang for his buck that he was like, oh, this guy knows what he's talking about. And then he was working with another string coach at the time and I could see like there was some gaps in what they were doing, and not because what the guy was doing was wrong, because he was doing, you know, zurcher squats, which is very common in a strength in wrestling or jiu-jitsu. But the load that you're putting on a fighter who trains wrestling and jiu-jitsu and fighting you're striking, yeah, like and strike yeah I know what you meant, yeah you're, but also like then mixing all those things together in session.
Speaker 2:So he's doing his wrestling, he's doing his jujitsu, he's doing his striking, and then he's also doing mma sparring and now you're like loading him up with heavy loads, the ability to recover. You're not helping him on the nutrition side, so the ability to recover is so minimal that he's getting almost nothing out of those next two days of training. So that's where I was able to just relate to someone like Charlie, who, you know, I trained jujitsu and I, you know, now I'm in my forties, but when I was in my thirties I was, you know, power lifting in my gym and then going to jujitsu in the like I would in my 40s. But when I was in my 30s I was powerlifting in my gym and then going to jiu-jitsu. I would do my workout and then immediately go to jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 2:Some of the guys would make fun of me because I'm deadlifting heavy weights, and then they're like oh shit, are you going to deadlift me next? I'm like no, I'm here. The point of training, first the weights, weights is so. That way, when I come in, you're not using your strength and you're pretty fatigued, Correct?
Speaker 1:That's what Jocko talked about when I when I first started jujitsu and he said that he that's what he likes to do, so this way he's not using muscle to get a lot of the moves and this. And that I said, oh, that makes a lot of fucking sense, I am a bigger guy, you know. I know you've laid across my chest. I know he's a bigger guy.
Speaker 2:So you know you want to be technical. Obviously you're going to use your power, just like small guys can.
Speaker 1:I have to lean into it sometimes. My grip strength and just my ability to leverage certain areas.
Speaker 1:It's like you know, there's plenty of times where I've had somebody's head and it started as a choke, but now they've either worked their way around it's like all right, I can keep sitting here and crank them, or I can just like try to figure something else out. I usually just let go, I just go here, you go, all right. Yeah, let's just do something else, because I'm not going to sit here and just keep ranking on your neck for no fucking reason. If I'm not going to get a move, it's not actually a move.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah. So like that ability to just take, you know, I guess, small. I don't want to say like take what's given, but like take small pieces of yourself and you know, not overloading somebody, and giving them like really good quality, whether it's a supplement, a protocol or a training protocol, that they can easily follow and you're not like overbearing it's, you know. So we have a drill that's uh called the seesaw drill, where you're just in a squat position, you're alternating your heels.
Speaker 1:So you're alternating your heels out.
Speaker 2:So you're in a squat position, your toes are 45 degrees and you're pumping your heels up and down. Oh, just like this, yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, gotcha, but you're in a squat oh, that's interesting. And it burns. It's like a dorsiflexion reverse, correct that. And it burns. It's like a dorsiflexion reverse Correct that's cool.
Speaker 2:But what it does is it pumps the hell out of your ass and your quads Really. So someone with a lot of knee or lower back pain, you can get them to stay, like you know it's a horse stance that you're pumping and you're getting a ton of blood flow into that area. So someone that has a knee injury, for example, you get them something to do, like this guy's gonna. So what you're gonna do is we're gonna set up in a w footing. How we do w is we're gonna go v heels together 45, now a heels out 45 and then toes out 45, and that's going to show you how to get into a perfect squat every time. Right, so that's cool. So now slight, no, just a little higher, because you're going to blow your legs up from there and now alternating heels like you're passing air through a balloon, but like so as one comes up. So you're passing air on a balloon.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh yeah, you feel it. I don't want to sweat, so that that's.
Speaker 2:That's a good one.
Speaker 1:Like you get people all right. Evan, I know you're gonna. I know you're watching this. Evan owns og training the, the hit classes that I go to in the morning. If I see the seesaw squats, I'm sending, I'm sending them in for the fucking residual, I'm gonna send like.
Speaker 2:I sent my man a check. That's the Will Chung. That's a Will Chung. That's awesome. That's from my coach. But that's where it's like again learning things along the way whether it's the food that I learned to cook in culinary school, to the issues that I had with my stomach and how to adapt.
Speaker 1:Well, it's about bridging everything, all the knowledge base. I mean, that's what you're supposed to do in life. Theoretically, that's really what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to take all of our experiences that we've learned, all the networking, everything that we experience and do on a daily basis, and bridge it all together and be one thing. That's what I used to do when I when I was selling at Best Buy a long time ago. There were guys that sold the upper tier home theater systems, there were guys that sold the regular ones and there were guys that just were shitty salesmen. So I knew not to hang out with the shitty salesmen.
Speaker 1:But I would take the upper tier guys. Everyone sold differently, so I would literally just go hang out with one guy, then I'd hang out with another, then I'd hang out with them.
Speaker 2:And I would just take everything that they do that works and I would adapt it to the way that I sold and it just worked yeah so I got the best of everything but you also, again you're putting your your own personal yeah, you're putting your own flair on it, your little spin your own personal, your personality, you know, and that's where I don't have one of those.
Speaker 2:No, you have a great person, thank you. But you know, and that's, I think, um, you know, obviously we all think it's going to take a lot less time than it does. It takes time, but I think that's the beauty of life is like going through. I think going through those things you know, having the gut issues and sometimes it, you know, flares back up, it's like a reminder of like hey, okay, you know there's a purpose to what you have to do, not just for, you know, financial benefit or to help you know this person or that person. But how can you elevate yourself through that experience of working, you know, with? You know NFL all star or elite UFC fighter. Or you know, one of my I would say my best learning example would be my client Allison, who's my longest running client and six years ago she had a stroke and like lost all function. And you know, I'll take a concept that my coach shares with me and I'll share it here and how I was able to help her.
Speaker 2:So our body, if you think about it, works like a kingdom. Our organs, our heart, our liver, those things go down. Your castle has been taken over and you're probably going to lose your kingdom. So we, always our brain, our natural human function is to protect those things on a daily basis drinking water, eating, sleeping, et cetera Then our limbs and things of that nature would be like the people that live right outside the kingdom, like right outside those castle walls. If they get in trouble or get hurt that can compromise the safety of the kingdom. So as long as you're taking care of everyone in the kingdom, everyone outside the kingdom and even the people all the way the furthest into the woods, your tippy toes, because when we go into frostbite, first thing we lose our tips of our fingers. So someone like Allison I had to just get her to connect to her fingers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the dexterity back again.
Speaker 2:Just to get blood flow in there by pressing or having a hold and learning and understanding like, hey, you got to work into out, sometimes not just out to end, yeah, you know, which is a lot of times how you know, pressing heavy weight, sprinting really hard, that's out to end. And that's where my coach will like he's his, comes from a very long line of martial arts but also practices internal martial arts, so he, you know, uh, uses the revolving door method, like if you can turn inside, you're going to turn outside. So like, whether you're striking or trying to rotate someone and sweep someone, if you can do that from the center of your abdominal wall, you're going to have your legs are going to rotate much stronger, much more rapidly Because everything's connected anyway, correct.
Speaker 1:That's why it's almost like flattening somebody out. You take a lot of their force and their will away from them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or just breaking someone's posture right Like just holding the back of the head.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do that all the time when I'm in a weird position and I'm just like, okay, back of the head time. You know how many leg locks I've gotten out of. I'm grabbing the back of someone's head. I'm like, all right, so we can either sit here all fucking day or you could let go of that leg Well, that person.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, because here's the thing. That is a defense, I guess, but it's not a substantial defense.
Speaker 1:I know I'm supposed to strip the legs and open up, but sometimes it's not there. It's not there, but that neck is. Hence the shitty white belt.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. You got to look for it, you got to be patient, you got to breathe, you got to relax. It's there.
Speaker 1:Ryan, there's a lot. There's a lot going on right now. A lot going on A lot going on.
Speaker 2:Listen, that's where, like leg locks, being at Sarah's, you have a whole different appreciation for leg locks, because a lot of gyms don't focus on leg locks like we do. You're a 10th.
Speaker 1:Planet guy, they do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but even then you've got to understand the lineage we have here, whether it's Anthony teaching now but before Anthony it was Jason, and Jason obviously coming off of not just being a black belt under Matt but also training under the Dan Hearn group Death squad, death squad, yeah I mean Jason, I would say, was probably one of the staples in that group, along with Gordon and Gary Tonin and Eddie Cummings. As long as I've been going to Sarah's, jason's been going to Donna's Well, not now, obviously, because he owns his own academy.
Speaker 1:I know Gary is telling me he used to train there too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gary also. So you're not going to see, even at a 10th Planet place, you won't see, they don't. I'm not trying to say that 10th Planet doesn't have great technique, I was going to say let's start some beef right here. Well, it's not. I mean, I think the beef has been going on for years. I don't think I'm starting anything.
Speaker 1:I just think that.
Speaker 2:I mean look, there's a whole curriculum that goes behind the down-to-earth system system. So the fact that you know we get that, we got that second hand through jason, I think is a very rare thing. And now obviously you get it from anthony and you know manny and you know manny's coming on next week. Yeah, so that you know like there's so many good, so many good people.
Speaker 1:I roll with many before. It's bro. It's so controlled and relaxed, he's like just hanging out, just him having fun. I just feel like he's just chilling.
Speaker 2:Yeah you know, I used, uh, I used to think like you had to. You know, just try to be better. Yeah, but it's not trying to just be better, like finding ways to, you know, putting yourself in bad situations, but sometimes that becomes not fun. Yeah, so someone, this guy, mike Fowler, who was here yeah, so he talked about, you know, not being a mouse that tries to, like, hunt the cat, not being a cat that tries to hunt the mouse, but more of the cat that's having fun with the mouse.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Luring it in Correct. I've done that a few times now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you're going to have that. Have to take something, by the way.
Speaker 1:no, no, it's no big deal just if I I every now and then like I'll give somebody the opportunity to mount and I'll do that one where you send them right back to the same side that they went.
Speaker 2:Love that. Oh, it's so good and I've done I've done the.
Speaker 1:I've done the flower sweep a few times. Nice, yeah, I try, but I, but I'm always like they'll put a leg up and I go, oh shit, it's the wrong side.
Speaker 2:I don't do that side, no, but you know, and that's I get you know again, being a white belt, that's going to. It's like, hey, okay, you got to learn how to.
Speaker 1:I asked Eric how to do something on an opposite side and he just goes. Nick, I'm a brown belt on one side.
Speaker 2:I was like, fuck, I that too. Yeah, I think. Look, I don't. I used to think like, oh, you have to drill both sides. But that's not the reality of life. In general, you know, as a strength coach, people are always like, oh, I need to work both sides. No, you don't, because you don't wipe your ass with both hands, never. You don't eat with both hands. You don't drive with both hands. You don't do a lot of things with both hands and actually the majority of the things you're doing, you're not doing with both hands, and especially when it comes to sports. So if you're a good baseball player, you throw with one hand dominantly. You're not like a multi. You're not throwing the ball with both hands, so the same thing with basketball.
Speaker 1:Like, yeah, I do throw righty and I hit lefty, well, that's, that's okay, I can hit righty, but it's not, it's not excellent, not the same and I'm not saying you can't build it up.
Speaker 2:So, um, I have a friend who is a striking coach at black house out in california and he trains under dan inosanto, who is very into filipino. Is the the guru of filipino martial arts, right? So jason um helps, teaches me some kali. So what is that? Kali is uh like stick fighting. Okay, cool, um, filipino martial art. So you learn, like holy shit, I have so much more dexterity with one side over the other. Oh yeah, now you're going to build, obviously, the dexterity on both sides and it's going to help you in sport, but you're still always going to fall back to your strength side, your right hand, your, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:That's how I feel when I do the clubs. The right side feels great, the left side's kind of wonky.
Speaker 2:Exactly. But if you worked the left side for a long time it would feel a little bit better and over time it may come to a more neutral place. But if you did the same work with the right, it's going to immediately it's just gonna be immediately go to a much higher place than the left is, just because your brain functions better on that side yeah and you know, you have to understand that I'm trying to play into it.
Speaker 1:Good, hey, man, you want, hey, you want to work. Good on that side, let's just keep it on there.
Speaker 2:But that's where it's like. Don't think that you know you're a white belt on one side and a brown belt on the other. You're, you know whatever I reckon that you're a white belt on both sides I mean, let's say for myself, I'm a brown belt.
Speaker 2:you know, and I don't even look at my belt like at this point, if, even if I got a black belt, it doesn't matter. You know, there comes a where you're going to get to and you're just going to be like all right, this is my schedule, this is when I get here. You know, I have two kids, so like I have clients out here, out east, then those are the days that I'm going to Sarah's. Like I'm not, I live out in Hewlett. You're not going tonight, right?
Speaker 1:What's tonight, 6.30. You're going to tonight's class. What's today, friday no.
Speaker 2:No way.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I figured maybe you're already up here. You had your mom pick up the kids, that's what.
Speaker 2:I'm saying, friday is like hey, family night, that's good. So that's where it's like, yeah, you gotta be able to adapt and just work it in when you can and you know, like my wife is the best because she's cool with me hanging out and doing the training and obviously it just has probably an understanding that this is your industry and what you're involved with yeah not only, not only does the training help you physically, mentally, everything like that, but it also is potential networking connections that you make over time.
Speaker 2:Yes, for sure, I think. But like you said, the networking connections, but like for me, because I teach also, so it's like hey, look it's, I'm reinvesting it into myself.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm not going to just teach and not continue to learn in in my and it's the same thing in my field, like I'm a strength and conditioning coach. But I have a strength and conditioning coach that's just way fucking smarter than I am and I know that he's constantly, constantly growing and improving himself and digging into realms that, like I would never dig deep into. And that's, I think you know. I think that's what the beauty of this podcast is. Or, like, what you're doing is like you have so many different people coming in here and giving you their input and that's where, like why, you know, I said, hey, you know I'd love to come because, hey, I had a podcast and I had, like Jim Miller, miller, ufc fighter.
Speaker 2:Or like this guy, rich sadiv, world-class strength coach. This guy's a multiple world-time deadlift record, sick, like this guy's 185 pounds, 700 pound deadlift, okay, 50 years old, okay, just to give you an idea like world record holder. And it's like you, you, it's hard, it's hard to like bring in people that are interesting and you know that you can connect with, cause it's not just are they? You know what do they have to offer, what can they do for me? You know what I mean? It's there has to be some kind of like actual connection and uh, I just like hanging out with people.
Speaker 1:I just like hanging out talking, hearing about life, things people have gone through. Yeah, cause it's just everyone's gone through a lot of similar experiences but a lot of very different experiences. So it's like we can, we can co-synergize on certain things that we both have gone through. You know, like being a white belt, you were a white belt at one point. I I thought, um now, so you know things that we have gone through, we understand one another on, but like living in Alaska, living in the Caribbean, doing all these different things, forming your business, having to break down your business because of COVID Like that was me for a little while. So, like, up until that point, now we're back to that synergy of like understanding each other, and then obviously we go into different, different realms of experiences. Again, it's it's just a a cool. It's a cool way to do that. And there's a lot of people that start these things which you've seen. They start podcasts, they do things and you know you could, you know I mean listen, and that's okay.
Speaker 1:You could. You could, like you said, you could bring in very interesting people and if the synergy isn't there, as a person, you know it doesn't resonate with the people don't want to listen or they don't care. It just is what it is. I mean listen. I always use Joe Rogan as an example, because that's the podfather, that's the man, so he's had people come on that just didn't work. That's okay, it's just an episode. It's an episode and maybe those people come back on years later when maybe they just were uncomfortable and they just didn't want to talk much or what have you. Maybe it was Joe, maybe he just didn't fuck with them. Whatever it is, maybe they come back on or maybe they don't, but maybe the next episode was a banger.
Speaker 1:I go into this with very neutral expectations. I want to hear about people's lives, their backgrounds, just hang out, because the things that you've gone through through not only can that maybe help somebody that's listening and shape their experiences with something that they're going through, but maybe they utilize your services too. Maybe they say, oh shit, I need help with exactly what he was just talking about, or it's programming or nutrition or this, and that like it's just a way to bridge the networks and get everybody closer as well. That's what I always try. Do I always try to put people in touch with one another? I'll give you an easy example my boy Tom, who I was at his gym earlier today, the Julie was at Tom's spot today.
Speaker 1:We were doing some content filming for All Black Everything and while he was letting another supplement company know that he's not working with them anymore and he's working with All Black Everything, that guy just so happened to be leaving the company at the same time, just happened to be leaving the same company at the same time, and the whole black everything may be in need of that guy. So I said, all right, let's put it all together here. Here's his resume. Like, let's try to just synergistically, synergistically get everybody in tune if it works great.
Speaker 2:If it doesn't everybody no worries we tried.
Speaker 1:I like bridging the gap of networks for people. If somebody I'm the guy, I'm the guy that I hear somebody has has a, a fucked up hamstring or a bat, I got a guy. Let me, let me get you in touch so you're not in pain anymore. Let me get you in touch with my guy see if he could help you out. Or oh, you need a body work, you need body.
Speaker 2:I got my guy Like.
Speaker 1:I'm the guy that's got the guys and I want to always help people out with my network. And it's not that I intentionally build my network, it just unfolds because I like people. Yeah, it's personality.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know there's plenty of people.
Speaker 1:I don't fuck with that. I don't ever want to see again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, your back, that sucks. Yeah, exactly, I ain't giving you my guy For sure, but I think you know, again, it is personality and I think that that's how you're going to. You know, evolve yourself by consuming all these stories and you know, seeing how you can vibe yourself in that direction and how it can work for you or not.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, listen, you take it every single day, every single episode. You take it with strides, a grain of salt. You have fun doing it.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know, I did a live podcast at high rocks oh cool uh last saturday and yeah, that's right I didn't know how it was going to turn out because I used my old is my new board that I use for all my audio stuff, but I have my old board that I used, which is still it's 1100 on the board. I have my old board that was more so for videography, photography, videography and cinematography where, like actual audio, guys will have the boom mic and they'll just monitor the audio through that. I was using that for a podcast, yeah. So just because I love the, the, the clarity of the tube amps that it had in it and all the different features, so I said, fuck it, let me bring that with one camera. Yeah, and I didn't want to bring these mics because these are too sensitive, so I bought two shore mics which are microphones that you have over there.
Speaker 1:It turned out great like everyone said they absolutely loved the raw hanging out chilling in the moment podcast and I said, all right, I gotta do more of those. Yeah, I gotta go to events.
Speaker 2:Maybe I was just gonna say stuff like that. Just hang out, that's honestly, and also because you're getting raw emotion, yeah, from like hey, you know, when you're in an event, your senses are way more heightened. So, like now you're getting interviewed, you're you're gonna give better answers. You're gonna be more enthusiastic about those answers, as, as the interviewer, you're you're going to give better answers. You're going to be more enthusiastic about those answers as, as the interviewer, you're going to get better.
Speaker 1:You know better content and it's funny listen like these are raw. I don't edit these out of. Out of I've done. This is going to be 101st episode, 101, cool. So out of 101 episodes on this. And then I had 11 episodes with my boy, tyler, and I had an additional 70 episodes with my boy, john, originally with our first podcast that we did together. I've only had to maybe edit two podcasts, three podcasts, because somebody just said some shit and I was like dude, I can't have that out there. That is crazy.
Speaker 2:I was thinking to myself I'm like this motherfucker, better fucking edit whatever I need him to edit. Nope, I'm just kidding. No, it's raw.
Speaker 1:It's raw, it's going out there. I'm not worried about it jumping on my table and crazy shit.
Speaker 2:I'll be like, okay, that's getting edited all, right now I know how to edit it immediately say something you fuck up and you go yeah, blow it ass into the fucking microphone I'm keeping it farting.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so it's, I've always, I personally. It's, I've always, I personally. That's why I've always resonated more with podcasts that are more raw, that are more just the cameras cut on. That's why we just started talking yeah, the cameras cut on the boards, you know what I'm saying? Like the board's going for the audio and we just have a conversation and it just flows into it, versus like hey guys, this is Nick and welcome back to Resology.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, bro, I don't want to do that, I want to just be like they're hanging out at the end of the table and we're just hanging out right here.
Speaker 2:So, and I think this honestly like so back to my experience of, like, trying to do a podcast, that's where I failed is I didn't have the.
Speaker 1:I think the connection obviously again going back to connection, of like being able to have a conversation with someone when you're trying to like worry if the audio is working in on the phone call, Because every now and then I look down here, I check your camera, I check the wide camera and I check my camera to make sure everything's still recording, make sure the levels are good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's also like, that's the thing. Even though you're doing that, it's still because there's almost because there is is so much around. It's like you just tune it out, yeah, versus like one camera or or the sorry, don't apologize okay or the or the board being like directly in front of you and like you looking at all. It's just like okay. Let me just take a look I've had plenty.
Speaker 1:I've had plenty episodes where I I'll be talking for like 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and I'll look and the camera their camera is not recording I'll be talking for like 20 minutes, 30 minutes and I'll look and their camera's not recording and I'll be like great.
Speaker 2:Great, you got to get on.
Speaker 1:You got to go. You caught me monologuing oh dude, it's so bad, it's like, and we're back. No, well, that's why you have a fail safe of a wide camera. Yeah, you know, I've learned to build these different things, but my smaller, so I wasn't able to have this much freedom and space in there. So that that was part of like the learning process of like this one.
Speaker 2:Now it's like, wow, okay, now I can actually have everything cohesively in like a nice area yeah, but, and you know, not only just it looks better here, but on the outside, looking in, the production level is much higher because you have and you know, I think again integrating your videography. You know, even though this is a podcast and you're a podcaster, it's like no, you're, you have excellent, excellent videography skills, thank you. You understand, like you know, I went to broadcasting school, so you understand, like, okay, wide shot, you need a head shot. You need a, yeah, a shot from here. You know, you need lighting to make sure my big ass, forehead, forehead, isn't fucking. We have the lighting.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm sure I'm shining like a fucking. That's okay, it's all good, but that's what I'm saying. Like those things that you did, that you're bringing in from your other experiences, makes this experience more potent, and so then this now becomes a greater piece of content for you to be able to use and other avenues, and it's going to draw other people in and over time, like hey, and then the next, joe rogan, like hey, you never know, man, and what I have to, I try to.
Speaker 1:I try to just set the expectation that this is going to be something great at one at at one point in time. You know I'm on episode 101, that's all you know. I've got 2,700 episodes to catch up to joe, like you know, because I use him, as the truth be told, I use him as the benchmark, absolutely not just because of like who he is as a person, but I mean monetarily, the caliber of guests that he come has, come on and the. It's so crazy because I was talking to my mom about all this I I told you before we started Contract shift different clients in and out and whatnot, and I'm coming to the realization on one front, that I have to continue building my personal brand. That's really what I have to do.
Speaker 1:You know, even with my Instagram stuff, for the longest time I only put up things that, like I did with clients here and there, I didn't really just take photos to take photos or take videos to take videos. Or if I wanted to do a piece on one of the guys at Sarah's and just say, yo, just give me like a little biopic or something like that, I didn't do it because I wasn't getting paid to do it. And when I first started all of that side of things, it was really with the intention of this. I bought a camera because I wanted to vlog. I bought a camera because I wanted to do day in the life videos and become a youtuber, and not necessarily like a jerk off youtube yeah, that's like stroking their ego. I wanted to share my people, my experiences, because, just as I'm in sarah's now with the ufc guys and all the mma fighters and the jujitsu artists and practitioners and whatnot, just as I I'm in there.
Speaker 1:My background was bodybuilding. For the longest time I mean I was with Flex Lewis, kai Green, sergio Oliva Jr, like all of these huge fucking names in the industry that outside of that industry people just think they're jack dudes. But if you're in that industry you know that's oh, that's a dude that I have to wait two and a half hours in line just shake their hand for four seconds. So I wanted to showcase my experiences with them and this and that. But then it turned into hey, can you shoot this promo video? Hey, can you do that, hey, can you do this? And I was like okay, and so that business blossomed, while my personal brand fell to the wayside.
Speaker 1:Because you're getting paid, you're like okay, keep going that absolutely so now say all that to say I'm back on the grind of we have to shoot things and do things, because we're gonna grow ourselves now and we're gonna grow our page and our channel, where I don't know if you know the buttery bros. You know the buttery bros, yeah. So they came on my podcast. I'm very good friends with heber marston. Jules is their graphic designer and fucking awesome guys. They're really great.
Speaker 1:Something that they said to me which stood out to me in our conversation was they said we were shooting for CrossFit Games, we were shooting for all these companies, and it's like we just felt unfulfilled and in certain ways, I definitely understand that, because they kept just project to project and then when there's not a project, there's no project. But instead they took their skills and they created the youtube channel and they said let, we're gonna make a really cool channel where we do videos and these brands come to us and go hey, can we just sponsor the episode? Yeah, just be a key. If we send you this, will you be a part of the team and just like, talk about it on your page? Yeah, dude, and it's like and that's look at Mr Beast.
Speaker 2:He's literally just got companies throwing money at him. It has nothing to do with what-.
Speaker 1:Nothing to do with it and I'm not saying that I'm going to be a buttery bros. I'm not going to say I'm going to be Mr Beast. I'm not saying I'm not. You never know. I have no idea what's going to what in turn very cool with just working with my client, staying low-key and doing that, and I still want my low-key time. So I have the two phones. I've talked about that many times, so I'm still very keen on having that side. But now it's like I'm back to the point of thinking in that buttery bros, mr beast, okay, we have to really continue to hammer this out. Get interesting people, hang out with them, talk, give people value yeah, have them understand different things or teach them things. And then now do the live podcast. Hang out in the set. In the moment.
Speaker 1:I think the coolest thing about that live podcast was that you had people competing in high rocks behind us, they were just fucking racing behind us while we're just hanging out and talking and in a world or a sea of inauthentic human beings, just being authentic, being yourself, hanging out, unedited, un-bullshit, filtered. If I fuck up on a word, I fuck up on a word. Yeah, I think that there's a lot that people connect with on that front, because we're so tired of being fed yeah, absolutely a perfectly glistening picture of everything when that's not the case. I say all that to basically say that no, but that's I think you know.
Speaker 2:Like you said, you know people want more real, people want more raw. You know working so and I'll just finish on this like getting we have more to talk about.
Speaker 1:Do we have to leave to go trick up your kids?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have more to talk about, do we?
Speaker 1:have to leave to go check up your kids. We've got like 25 more minutes. I wanted to hear about some of the stuff that you were doing for the food prep.
Speaker 2:So we'll end on that, and then you're coming back for round two. Alright, no problem, we can get into some of the food.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe I want you on round two.
Speaker 2:So, in short, not settling, settling right, like, yeah, so being someone that for a long time helped people cook or eat better, and then it was like how do I utilize this like passion that I have for helping people eat, but you know like, or someone would come over always, always, I'm like the house football season sunday's at my house.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean I'll be uh waiting by my phone during football season for that I got a brisket and then smoker as we speak. I'll be waiting for that text like hey, nick, come through, I'll be like a nice piece. I'll be like oh my god, I'm already outside crazy coming to class on saturday morning.
Speaker 2:I'll bring in a nice don.
Speaker 1:I'll eat it while I'm while I'm getting my ass kicked matt'll be like is that barbecue?
Speaker 2:sauce. No, it's blood. But you know you were always the house. You were saying, yeah, just taking like that. Even throughout high school like now that I look back at it like high school you know whether it was eating or partaking in other things, we did it at my house, camaraderie man, yeah, it's a tribal feeling and that's where I think you know learning like.
Speaker 2:I had an opportunity to work with the Jets Okay, that's what I wanted to get into performance nutrition, because everything I did with my cooking was to help me perform better, live better, and I'm a big jet fan, and so I was like, all right, it's a bitch to drive out there, but it's like you gotta you gotta go for what you want, regardless of the situation.
Speaker 2:Seize the opportunity exactly so I I uh I went through the interview process. I got hired, but I turned the opportunity down because the money that we talked about this before we went on like the money, wasn't the greatest. But it's like, well then, how do I still keep the opportunity? So then I started reaching out to players directly, to players directly, and because of that like because I was able to like get on the phone with a manager or then, eventually, the player and have a conversation about like who I am and what my abilities are and my experiences and what I can offer, then that was like they like were okay, let's just figure out the numbers, cause we're like super excited about this, you know. And now you know whether you know, and that, even though I was like working with Charlie before and other other people like that helps my buy-in with my other clients also, cause now it's like, oh, he definitely knows what he's talking portfolio expands yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know again, just like, how much can you put yourself into what you're doing? I think that's the more in, the more I, you know, grow up and you know, now, trying to, I've, I guess, created the foundation for my businesses, whether the strength training or the nutrition coaching or the meal prepping. It's like now I can. So, like now, for example, I sponsored Manimal's event with bone broth Nice, so like now, moving forward, I'll eat like bone broth for his events Nice, so like now, moving forward, I'll be like bone broth for his events. Like I know someone that I can continue that relationship with. That doesn't cost me a lot, but I'm providing value.
Speaker 2:Some people may not understand the value and some people be like wow, this is great, and how do I get more of this? Wow, this is great, and how do I get more of this? And that's where, again, you know, like, just, I think it just like jiu-jitsu, it's a journey man. You gotta like go through hard hardships and go through shitty times to figure out like, okay, maybe now, now I can put my, my energy and discern, like what I need to be focused on more than just like that looks cool, like shiny, bright, bright, shiny object syndrome. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I became I became very, uh, stagnant in my career path for probably the last uh, eight months and uh, and the last month, the last couple of weeks have woken me up again to month and it's really put me back in the driver's seat of just taking control, taking charge and fostering those relationships. Because for a long time I had a lot of people that I have networked in a lot of different industries and I didn't as a business owner, I failed myself because I didn't put myself out there. I was so accustomed to people just hitting me up hey I need a video, hey I need this, hey I need that, or hey, I need some marketing strategies, or blah, blah, blah and I'd just be like, okay, cool, and like if we had a conversation we didn't follow up with it. I just kind of like, okay, they'll hit me up, they have my number.
Speaker 1:But you have to remind yourself that that's not being a go-getter, that's not, that's not, you know, championing, championing your business, that's not taking it at the helm and going no, no, no, like I need to stay on top of this relationship and continue to grow it.
Speaker 1:And this is easy to get stagnant and comfortable man. So I'm glad that I've learned this lesson now, versus another year or two years or three years, whatever have you and then you're sitting there really just going what happened, whereas it was just kind of like a drifting period of, okay, we're shooting the same videos for the same company and we're doing this, we're doing that. It's like great, I'm happy that, I'm happy that the check comes in every month, and it's great, but it's like we're not growing. We're staying very stable, which is good, but not so if you don't have five of those companies that you're working with, I mean, what happens when they go back? And so you learn these things, and every business person has that has that pitfall that they have that we're either going to take this challenge and rise now and change things up and do things a little differently and really be a business person and not that you're going to be more salesy or whatnot, but you're going to offer value.
Speaker 2:Oh, you have a company.
Speaker 1:Oh, you have a business, oh, you're not out there like that on socials or whatnot. We have to give you a name, like we have to put you out there. So this way, not only are you paying me and I can help you, but the help is actually going to be more sales or more exposure or your own podcast or what have you. So the new thing for me is getting back to that point of reaching out to people and like really reaching out, just be like hey, yo, I, I know we, you know we. You have companies, you have this, you have that, you have this person that probably needs stuff done. If there's ever anything that I can help out, if there's any value that I can add and, in return, work a relationship out where we're doing something regularly, let's do it, because when I lost that, you lose your edge. Yeah, you lose your edge and you have to claw back a little bit to get it right back, absolutely. You know, because there was a long time in the bodybuilding world. I was just so busy that I mean I didn't have to reach out to anybody. And skills or not, what have you which is like my name was at the forefront for the list of people to hit up, and it just happened that way. Front for the list of people to hit up, and it just happened that way. But by kind of just letting things fizzle out because one person or one company comes and they're them, they're the majority stake of your attention and you lose attention on the other ones, it becomes tough. So I'm rebranding the company, I'm rebranding myself. I'm not just doing the production stuff. I it was rizzles productions, was the company name for a long time. I think that that was cool for when I started. Now it's going towards more media group Rizzle Media Group, because I wanted to.
Speaker 1:The whole drive is to be a group. Correct Is to have people that work for me. Yeah, because, just like you said, you have a strength and conditioning coach. You are a strength and conditioning coach, but he probably fills a lot of the gaps that you have as a strength and conditioning coach, whereas he may be learning different things that you know are beneficial to your clients. It's like, well, now I don't have to worry about that side. He's killing it in his field and he's working with me on this, so now I can focus on the things that I'm good at. On the other side, whether it's the chefing it up or the behind the scenes of networking and calling out to the individual players and whatnot. So having the team where everybody does what they're really good at, that is what scales a company, not me slaving away doing oh, the shooting, the audio, the editing, the coloring, the drone work, the this, that the relationship building. It's like you spread yourself thin. You can only be good at so many things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think also along the way whether it's a group, but maybe having pillars in your life, good at so many things. Yeah, I think also along the way, you know, whether it's a group, but, you know, maybe having pillars in your life, like whether it be a coach or you know a nutritionist, you know, like you're saying, just being able to rely on other people because you're grounded in yourself.
Speaker 1:Also, you're not all over the place scattering, because it's tough man when I'm out at shoot sometimes and I have a backlog of edits to get done. It's like it would be. I know people hire me because of my vision with certain things, but if I have a team that I, they understand the vision it's okay, so much better yeah. So it's like I can be out doing things and the edits are getting done versus. Yeah, and that's a tough pill to swallow man. Yeah, it's tough because you have to relinquish control to gain more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. That's. The biggest part about being a business owner is learning how to work on the business, not in the business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I've been in the business since it started. So I'm at that point where I'm like, okay, even with the podcast, I want to have a guy that handles the audio and the cameras. And I want to do I want to get back to doing the live. I only did a couple of live streams. It was way too much work, though Cause like this is enough. And then I hooked the cameras up to this and I had the the I had. This is my old office. I had my desktop here with the camera switcher'd switch it back or I'd switch it to this. It was like too much to try. That's a lot.
Speaker 2:And I'd be reading the chats.
Speaker 1:And you're trying to listen to the person. I do what I'm trying to do, which is like actually be a host. Yeah, that's awesome, so it just became too much. So I'd like to have somebody that is off camera doing their thing like a Jamie, and you will, yeah, in due time, get in touch with you if they want to reach out.
Speaker 2:They want to talk to you about either your services or just see your page so, uh, the food, the food stuff is uh buff on a budget because everyone's got a different budget.
Speaker 1:I'm on a fucking budget right now these prices are killing me a hundred something dollars for a bag and a half of groceries. It's fucking brutal. I think peanut butter is 90 bucks now.
Speaker 2:That's what I feel like you know, just to touch on that, like I think that's where my services are starting to be utilized more and people are starting to realize, obviously, like how you know whether you're in the combat space or in the bodybuilding space. Like you know, supplements cost a lot of money. You know food costs a lot of money. You know food costs a lot of money. You start to learn how to like eat right by learning, like, okay, this I can supplement with this food. Or you know, like, for example, the black cumin seed oil. You know that thing hits so many things, so like you don't have to take fish oil or other things that maybe like vitamin c.
Speaker 1:We better stop whispering when you're giving vitamins. He starts whispering when he's doing the gems.
Speaker 2:Black cumin seed oil, the black cumin seed, or like, for example, liver supplement. You know, like organ supplements, right, what? Heart and soil? Uh, I go with paleo valley. They have an organ complex that I really like.
Speaker 1:Okay, heart, brain and liver, and it's good yeah, I mean the like actually feel a difference, or is it? Is it mostly placebo?
Speaker 2:um, I would say I would definitely. You know. So like as a parent of two very rambunctious boys, I definitely feel the difference and being able to still do jiu-jitsu. Yeah, you can definitely feel the difference when you're not on your protocol versus on like, for example. I usually don't do back-to-back days of jiu-jitsu, so yesterday was Six days.
Speaker 1:I was wrong Six days a week Back then.
Speaker 2:I could Like, 10 years ago, your age, white belt, no blue belt, purple belt but now like. Now it's like. First of all, I got to mind who I'm going with and like I'm flattered that you roll with me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you should be. No, but you know it's that because you have some restraint. You know, like dude, I fucking I've had to hurt some people, unfortunately, or just like completely walk away from rolling because I'm going to really hurt somebody intentionally Sometimes it's intentional, sometimes it's not I have to tell you that once we cut these cameras off, I'm gonna tell you a quick story. All right, yeah, um but yeah, I lost my train of thought.
Speaker 1:No, I'm kidding what I was saying you used to you.
Speaker 2:You can't train back-to-back days yeah, so like yesterday, I went to kickboxing and no gi, which I really hardly ever do. No gi now.
Speaker 1:I don't think I've ever seen you outside of a gi.
Speaker 2:So like Tuesday, thursday I'm teaching. So Tuesday night, thursday night, I can't go to the no gi class. Thursday afternoon, I'm able to now, with my schedule, sometimes get over to Sarah's. So yesterday I went and I did some kickboxing rounds with Joey Beans. He's a monster and bro. I just like everything hurts.
Speaker 1:He's a monster man. I roll with him and I go please don't hurt me. I'm like, please don't hurt me.
Speaker 2:Beans is probably one of the best people at Sarah's like long term, like has always been, you know like there's people that, like like Palosino, over the last three to five years, I would say, has erupted, but before that he was normal, I could roll with him and I could have an opportunity to do anything Now it's just not even fun the way he shoots across your neck with a rear naked, or your jaw whatever, yeah, but he got my jaw in one and my mouth was open around this thing.
Speaker 1:I went like this. I said dude, my dental is not that good, we're not doing that.
Speaker 2:I said I'll take the fucking tap. I'm good, please, but again, you know. So that's, that's where you learn how to quickly be humbled yeah, man, I'm cool with it.
Speaker 1:I'm cool with getting humbled. It's cool with me. So it's just. Do you want to shout out the strength company? Yeah, so it's just lambden strengthening, that's as I was about to say, it's lambden.
Speaker 2:I want to know the pronunciation of it well, in hebrew it's lamb done, lamb done, lamb done. No, it's lambden strength and nutrition. And I, you know, I've been trying to be a little bit more uh, active with my content. Now I got, I'm working with this kid. He's a football player, so we're doing a lot of ota stuff getting ready for he had a killer baseball season. That's awesome. Went all conference Right out of the kid. Yes, awesome Getting text messages.
Speaker 2:Building up champions, bro. Bro, I got a text message from his dad the other day that he's like, he's like, he's fucking mauling people. I'm like, let's fucking go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it, I love it. I got brisket on Saturday, yeah, so I appreciate you coming through hanging out with me. Dude, for real, you're the fucking man we'll definitely do this again, you let me, dude you let me know anytime.
Speaker 1:The studio's always open to have you come through. Chill, maybe we'll do a live event somewhere. It'd be, it would be great. Everybody. I'll put all your social links in the description. I'll put everything there thing there. But I appreciate everybody for listening to the episode. I hope you guys learned something. Please share, like, subscribe. Yeah, it helps to grow the channel, grow the numbers, do all that, uh, but for now I appreciate all y'all for fucking with us, but for now, peace.