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Being STRONG is more than just how much weight you can lift.
The Strong New York Podcast is dedicated to inspiring you to become your strongest self- in the gym, in business, in relationships and in life.
Join Kenny as he sits down with his strong as fuck buddies and shoots the shit on what it takes to be strong willed, strong minded and physically strong. Season one features everyone from entrepreneurs and local business owners to doctors and industry leaders in the fitness and wellness space.
With over a decade of experience, Kenny Santucci has made himself known as one of New York City’s top trainers and a thought leader in the health and wellness industry. After transforming his life at 15 years old through fitness, Kenny made it his mission to transform the lives of those around him.
Kenny has trained some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jon Bon Jovi, Liev Schreiber, and Frank Ocean, and has been tapped as a fitness expert sharing his training approach with Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Runner's World, SHAPE, Well+Good, among other publications.
Kenny is the creator of STRONG New York, NYC's only Health and Fitness Expo. Strong New York is an immersive day of workouts, wellness experiences, panel discussions, and inspiring conversations with the best in-class wellness professionals, industry leaders, and change makers who are sharing their expertise on today's hottest wellness trends and first-hand experiences on how to optimize your overall health and life.
You can find Kenny at The Strength Club, his private training and group strength training facility in the heart of Manhattan located on 28th and 5th Ave in New York City.
This episode of Strong New York podcast is powered by Celsius. Now my favorite drink is now a sponsor of the Strong New York podcast. So I'm very excited about this. And they just came out with this mango lemonade and I absolutely love it. So if you haven't tried it yet, grab yourself a can of this and live fit.
We are already a rock and roll. Welcome back to another episode of the Strong New York podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Santucci. And today, uh, we have a gentleman here. I call him the Shakespeare of Westchester 'cause I've never heard my bio put so well. Last week we did a podcast together, uh, his podcast and it was absolutely, uh, what what I will say about this gentleman is that he got me more vulnerable than I ever have been on a podcast without even trying.
It was very good. So without further ado, my guest for today, Mr. David Regina. Thank you my brother. When's the last time m call you, David? It's a mix. So, you know, my government job, a lot of them call me David or call mom. I'm in trouble is David. But a lot of people refer to David and I think that Regina just rolls a little bit better.
Dave, Regina. Yeah. You know what I mean? But you're a fucking thick bastard. What do you, Hey, what are you doing? What am I doing? Yeah. Um, in terms of what? Everything. Alright. So I take, uh, and Jim, I mean, well, I'll give, I'll give you the supplement rundown. Okay. 200 milligrams of test Okay. A week. Okay. And I work out like a dog.
Yeah. Where do you work? Where do you train up there? Uh, 24 Hour Fitness. Okay. Which is, you're better than a 24 hour dude. I'm not gonna lie. I'm getting, I'm getting a little bit upset with them because I asked for. An additional kettlebell. It's not like I asked for like a new machine. Yeah. I said, Hey, like we have a 50 and a 70, you mind getting like an 83 and a hundred, or whatever it is?
Mm-hmm. And they were like, oh, we don't have emails to request. I said, where can I request an, you know, where can I request this? And I started thinking of you immediately 'cause I'm like, wow, something like this. When you own a gym, you can easily go up to the owner and they would make something happen.
Especially a place like that. Yeah, dude. So I'm looking around all these members and stuff, but it's a little shaky. I gotta be honest. So they basically told me no. Um, yeah. And, and we're like, yeah, we don't even have emails, we have internal emails. We can't give it to you. So shout out 24 Hour Fitness. Um, yeah.
Better fucking step their game up. Um, I just had a member in Jersey hit me up. Now the gym's brand new. We have all brand new shit. God bless you, sir. No, all good, all good. I Right. We gotta be respectful in here. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so one of the members was like, dude, I need 110 pound dumbbells. I'm like, well, you could buy 'em and leave 'em in the gym, but of course I'm an idiot.
And I bought 'em. You bought 'em? Uh, and it's like, I mean, it's like a dollar, $2 a pound or something. What was it? Like 500 bucks? Yeah. They're expensive. Fucking dumbbells. Yeah. $500, but whatever, because I, I genuinely want people to be happy. I want to facilitate the best possible experience. Mm-hmm. Because I truly believe the gym should be the best part of your day.
After I left your place the other day, I actually Googled where, uh, iron Vault was. Mm-hmm. I wanted to check that place out. Have you ever been there? Yeah. The one in Scarsdale or the Yeah. There's one in Scarsdale and one in Stanford. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I, I've never been to one in Stanford. Really? Oh, Scarsdale.
But you've been to Scarsdale? Yeah. Uh, what do, what do you think of that place? I've been there once. Yeah. Um, it's more like young kids who are fucking Yeah. iPads and bullshit. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't wanna bash anybody. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? Um, I had a good workout there. Yeah. I think they have dope equipment.
Yeah. Um, but I think their, their price point, I think they were like a hundred bucks a month, so it seemed Okay. It seemed reason. Yeah. No, it's not bad. I, like, I was just talking to somebody about the gym space. A buddy of mine's opening up a beautiful space. Mm-hmm. Spending millions. I don't know how the fuck they're ever gonna make that money back, but they're spending millions building out this gym in Jersey and they have two already.
And each rendition of what they've built has gotten bigger and bigger. This next one, he said the budget was gonna be 5 million. I bet him $500 that it's gonna be well over 5 million because I saw the renderings. Yep. His electricians. My electricians. So I know how much is going into that. I know what the equipment costs.
Anyway, he's building this out, this space and they have everything. Mm-hmm. And I think it's just so important to facilitate that, you know? Mm-hmm. You know, that experience for people, but having the right audience is just as important as building out the gym. Yes. And when you have a space where people feel comfortable, I would pay anything.
Right. Like, if there was a gym that I loved going to and that had everything I wanted and I didn't have to worry, wait for equipment and things like that, 500 bucks. Mm-hmm. A thousand bucks. Like, what was the, what's the most you would pay for? Like the, I I mean, honestly health is wealth. Yeah. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
I mean, you, you know, a little bit, we spoke, you know, off camera, I think last week. Um, I, I was. Riddled with Crohn's disease from age of 16 years old. Yeah. Um, so health changed my entire life. Um, I was very stressed kind of coming up. Um, and the Crohn's really took, took a toll on me, man. I lost like 40 pounds.
Uh, I was like 190 pounds, went down 153 pounds in four months. Mm-hmm. Um, and then that was the time I was always like, confident in my head, but I hated my body. And, you know, I slowly had to like really believe in myself. Mm-hmm. And I just went to the gym and I started like lifting weights and I was like, oh, wow, I'm lifting weights and now my stress is being reduced.
Um, and then that kind of like really sparked my interest into health and wellness and I started like, changing my body. So, to really answer your question though, to me it's, I, I can't put a number on it. Yeah. Yeah. 'cause it really, truly changed my life. But I will also say this, whether you have money or you don't have money, like fitness is accessible wherever.
Wherever. And make, and that's what I make the fucking investment. Yeah. I tell everybody, make the investment now. Great segue into, we had touched on it when we were doing your podcast, Crohn's Disease. Mm-hmm. I don't know. Fuck all about it. Yeah. I, I've heard of it. Mm-hmm. Give us a little deep dive or a kind of quick synopsis and then how it affected your life and was there a point where doctors were like, oh, you have Crohn's disease, you shouldn't work out.
Yeah. You think about it 20 years ago, I'm sure that was some of the, uh, the rhetoric you've probably heard. Absolutely, man. So, um, yeah, no, I, I love talking about this stuff. And, and Crohn's is like, it's either you heard of it because you know somebody with it, or you've never heard about it in your life.
Yeah. It's an inflammatory bowel disease, so it's all internal, so you can't see anything outside. It's, it's all, you know, in, in the intestines. Um, but basically your, your intestines are filled with like white ulcers. Mm-hmm. Right? And now those ulcers kind of open up, so when food gets into that digestive track and into the ulcers, you feel this internal pain that you really can't explain.
So that started happening to me on like a. Uh, micro level, I'll say. Okay. Started feeling a little discomfort here and there. In high school? In high school, yeah. Didn't really know what was going on. Dude. Within months. I mean, it was almost like those maybe 15 ulcers turned to like 15,000. So anything I would eat, I was either throwing up or going diarrhea and it became super uncomfortable.
'cause no one wants to talk about going to the bathroom 15 times a day. Yeah, yeah. So I went to the doctors, they put me on like 15 different medications. I was on 18 pills of prednisone a day. So. Here's my thing. Like, do, do you develop it? I mean, how, where do they say it coming? So they say it's partially hereditary.
There's not too much science on, there's not a proven science on how it's developed. Mm-hmm. But stress and hereditary, do most people get it early on in life? No, they, it's, it's typically old white Jewish men. Really, like that's the demographic, right? It's gotta be something in the diet. Right. Dude, I don't know.
And I never, I grew up, you know, Italian. Yeah, I was gonna say, my mom was mom's Jewish, dad's Catholic. But we grew up very Italian, like Italian culture and it's gotta be the fucking ho bread. I mean it, I think it's the hol bread because I love it and I stay away from it. 'cause it Could you say olive bread or ho bread?
Hol. Oh, olive bread. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean both. When you say that I don't, I don't want eat olive bread. That sounds terrible. No, olive bread is Italian is good. Yeah, that shit come on. Shit. Can he say Tucci? Whatcha talking about? Yeah, but there's also, what's the other shit? Um, you know, there's a lot of Italian food.
I'm, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, no, so I mean that's how, that's really how it started man. And it wasn't until like, after all these medications and stuff, they couldn't figure it out. They were avoiding the colonoscopy. And I'm very much like, do the colonoscopy. But at that time, when you have a 15, 16, 17-year-old kid, you don't wanna like put 'em under.
So they were doing the endoscopies, which are super uncomfortable. I bet. Try sitting up. 'cause they didn't put me out for this one and they stuck a camera down my throat and they were like, oh yeah, well, like we see it in the esophagus. So you have your large intestine, your small intestine, your colon, and your esophagus.
Mm-hmm. Is like how the inner workings is. My Crohn's disease was. Everywhere. So they saw it when they went in the endoscopy through the throat and they saw it when they, when they did the colonoscopy. So does this stop you from, like, were you hesitant to eat more because you're like, every time I eat this happened?
I did. I did three or four months of Pedialyte and Ensure was my diet because I, and chicken broth, yeah. I couldn't digest anything and then I started logging this stuff. 'cause these doctors, they weren't figuring it out quick enough for me. So this is really what started my passion for health and wellness because.
I was like, I need to figure this out. And the doctor was telling me like, he was a good guy, but he was like, yo, you're gonna live with this for the rest of your life. I'm like, no, I'm not, dude. Like, I'm, I'm not. And I started reading books. I actually read, uh, uh, the bodybuilding encyclopedia. It was one of my first one, my, it was massive, but it was one of my first one, one, it wass my first books.
I'm like, all right, like, let me try to figure this out. So I attached working out to reducing my stress, and I was a basketball player coming up too. So during this time I was trying to get recruited for, for college. You played basketball. You look like a fucking middle linebacker. Yeah. But I was 153 pounds, dude.
And I was a shooter. I grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. I was one of the only white boys, and I was a shooter. Like that's what I did. Yeah. Um, but now people look at me, they're like, yeah, dude, you're in the NFL. I'm like, ah, okay. All right. No problem. Uh, but no basketball player my whole life. So at this time, man, it was, it was critical for me because I wanted to go to college to play basketball.
I'm going on these, um, these college tours and the coaches are telling me, yo, dude, like I watched your highlight tape, like your top five in the state of Connecticut, but you're frail. You're skinny. And I hated that, Kenny, when I tell you it was the most offensive thing, it still affects me to this day. I was actually just talking to Mike Turnow on his podcast.
Uh, the body dysmorphia that I still have is, is crazy. Yeah. So it's not until like I see a video of me pushing weight or maybe like me next to somebody mm-hmm. That I think is a decent sized human being that I'm like, oh wow, okay. You're not still that 153 pound person. Uh, so I started logging everything that I would eat, and I created this diary for myself, like, okay, grilled chicken, go to the bathroom.
Two and a half hours later, oatmeal go to the bathroom three hours later. Uh, that's reasonable. Like, like I did that right. And then I created this whole diet for myself that ended up working for me. Pairing that with Remicade was the medication. Um, and that kind of like turned the corner for me. Um, and I started to go into remission about a year and a half later.
But I was not able to like, put on muscle because I was so malnourished, man. Like, anything that I would consume, even when I was getting into remission is still coming out. I mean, I never had a, a hard stool. Everything was always diarrhea and blood really. And I always thought that that was normal. And then, like, it wasn't until like I started talking how often you talk about your, your Yeah.
People. Like, it's not really a common thing. So when I started like realizing this, I was like, oh, wow. Like there's blood on my toilet paper, there's blood. And when it really got nervous, like when I got nervous, you know, when you eat corn? Mm-hmm. Like you see the corn. Mm-hmm. I would eat any food and see the food.
I'm like, nah, something's off. So your body's not breaking down anything. Yes. It's just like, go, it's, it's so irritated within the digestive tract that it just like comes out. So it was crazy. It, it was really, really crazy. And there was times, man, I, I actually remember being like passed out on the bathroom floor.
I was throwing up. I was so dehydrated and I was going diarrhea. And this is all in high school? High school. Yeah. All in high school. So then finally I went to Bryant University in Rhode Island. And I actually ended up having to come home because I was still having so many, like flareups. They call it flareups.
Even though you go into remission, to think about Crohn's disease and why they call it Crohn's is it's chronic meaning forever. Mm-hmm. So although I was in remission, something could flare it up. And obviously you're drinking and you know, you're doing all the college things, which none of that is good for you.
You can't smoke, you can't drink, you can't have alcohol like, or caffeine. Like anything kind of triggers that. So that's kind of what, what started the journey. Fast forward now, man. What? 20 years and just, just a couple months ago. Mm-hmm. I go in for a colonoscopy. Right. How often do you do, and I get this every, every two years.
Every two to three years now. Okay. Just to kind of keep check on it. I'm waiting for the doctor to come back and tell me, yo man, you're living like a champion. 'cause that's really how I feel. I stopped drinking in 2024. Like, I made like all good life decisions. My diet is on point. Um, and he ends up coming back and he's like, yo man, like I'm a little concerned.
We got six polyps here, um, that they saw in the colonoscopy. They're all like larger than four millimeters, which happens to be like the size that they start to get a little alarmed. Right on the paper. High risk colon cancer. I'm like, are you kidding me? It was just terminology that they were utilizing.
Mm-hmm. But my point in saying that is, even when I saw that on the paper, I didn't believe it. So he tells me, I'll get back to you in a week. My dad, literally, he was with me. 'cause you know, you get put out so you need a driver. He's like, oh, it looks like we need to up your life insurance buddy. Like, he was trying to make a joke of it, but we're both like, wow, is this, this is crazy.
Still going on. Um, and it comes back a week later and he's like, not only was this like a misdiagnosis, because he thought he saw a white lesion. He's like, you're in such deep remission now that I can't even see the Crohn's. And I said, no shit. Thank you. That I'm into leadership and I'm into God and I'm a faithful man.
Yeah. Because if not, I would've developed fucking more, more ulcers than ever from that. You know what I mean? Yeah. But think about what you would've been like had you have not developed that. Right. Right. Because a lot of people are like, well, I don't wanna spend that much, and it's really hard to eat all that protein and mm-hmm.
But. Literally eating the diet that everyone says you should eat. Yes. Has basically saved your life. Saved my life, but also I, I'm, I don't really do well with carbs, so at that time, oatmeal was kind of working for me, but I really don't eat carbs. I have a little fruit in the morning. Um, and on the weekends I'll have carbs.
But like, typically my diet, I mean, first thing in the morning that I'm eating is four eggs, tomato, avocado. Mm-hmm. Um, before, uh, before that I have my protein shake after the gym, um, then I'll snack on like what do you in the gym? Uh, it depends, like if I drop my daughter off anywhere between like five 30 or seven 30, depending on the day in the morning, I'm a morning guy.
Um, you know what they say about people who go to the gym the first thing in the morning, right? What Jack? They're the whole fucking deal. Oh, yeah. Or the real deal. You no one who goes to the gym that early is unsuccessful. Mm-hmm. I, I mean, I believe it. I believe that's been my whole life though. Like that, you know, whole no snooze mindset, right?
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my dad had me waking up when I was. 12 years old, I was in Fulton Flowers. Uh, that was my first job. And then I was on the golf course at 6:00 AM at 13. So like that, that mindset kind of was with me. You know, my father was huge into work ethic. But, you know, just to go back to the point of even when the doctors were talking to me, man, there's one thing that like has always remained the same.
And like even when I get fearful in life, there's a Michael Jordan quote, and it's like, work ethic eliminates fear. And it's so true. Mm-hmm. Because although I was fearful, even when the doctor was talking to me just a couple weeks ago or a couple months ago now, I just kept working. Yeah. Like I had the limiting belief in my head, and the self-doubt still tries to creep up on you, but as long as you keep moving forward, for me, that's what changed my life.
People were telling me I was skinny, and I'm like, all right, cool. No problem. Going to the gym. I used to have a best friend and you know, he used to bench 180 5 for three. And that was like a dream to me, dude. 'cause I have a memory where I put 180 5 on the bar and I put the clamps on. My brother, who's five years younger than me, was spotting me.
This thing came flying down on my chest, Kenny. I could not get it up. And I can't even turn it off me because now the clamps are on, almost killed myself. Like, that's how ridiculous it was. Um, so that was like the first milestone. But my, my point is like, I just kept, I kept going. Mm-hmm. Kept going. And not only did I do 180 5 for three quickly after that, then it was 2 25 for five, then it was 2 25 for 10, 2 25 for 20.
You know what I mean? And I just kept going. But that work ethic thing clicked. What could you do? For five right now, for five. I, I really don't, it's the heaviest, I really don't bench that heavy. It's crazy. Like, I, I can do like three 15 for 10. Okay. Um, I could do 365 for like, I don't know, like three by myself.
Um, but if you respond, I mean, maybe we'll get 3 75. Do you ever hit 4 0 5? Uh, yeah. For, for one or two. Damn. Yeah. What about this guy over here? He looks like a Mike Press. Shout out Mike Press, my brother. He look like fucking shout out to to sherry for the connection, man. Yeah. Right. She made this, this whole, she made the connection.
She made this whole thing happen. You know, Nicole was pretty pissed at me 'cause she's like, I made, I introduced you to Dave. I was like, no, you sent me his Instagram and said I should have on my show. I was like, Sherry actually just put, put us in touch. Shout out to Nicole though. Yeah, she is. She's the best.
A wonderful person. She's the best. She keeps asking me to come on. I was like, but nobody wants to hear the word bro. 7,000 shout out to bro. So you said you're on, uh, 200. Mm-hmm. Uh, milligrams or milliliters. I don't even know. C test. Um, it's phenomenal. I get it from CVS $10 for three months. Really? Yeah. Do you ever think about, 'cause my big fear is always like blood clots and shit.
Mm-hmm. You know, and because it does thicken your blood. Yeah. I, I mean, honestly, so I haven't, I haven't been on it that long. Mm-hmm. Um, but when I went and got tested, I don't know if it was a mix of the Remicade or whatever was going on. My levels were at 2 75. I'm like, I look like I've, I'm on like that.
My level should be like 1500, 2 75 for a man is ridiculous. You're almost a female at that point. Dude, I had less than 200. Mine was one, what was it? 1 65 Chris? One 70. Wow. Yeah. So you were, you were I was, I was basically a woman. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to be, at least I would've never left the house.
Yeah. So I had a good set of hits on myself. I, uh, the, the only thing I'll say about it, and I, I've experienced with it, like in the past younger, but like, not really knowing what I was doing. Yeah. And then I would do it for like six weeks and then come off of it and like, you know, I never measure anything, but now I do it like measured.
So I, I go to um, uh, Greenwich and he measures my blood every, like three, we, uh, three months. Okay. And we just keep going from there. Question, have you ever thought about, 'cause this is a big. Issue I'm dealing with. I'm like, just in case I ever want to have kids. Mm-hmm. They're like, well, when you're on testosterone, it lowers it, if not depletes it all together.
Mm-hmm. Have you thought about that? Well, I have a daughter. Right. I do have a 4-year-old. Uh, but also I want my children. Yeah, I was gonna say you have a girlfriend? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely want, she's gonna start putting the fucking, she already has shout, shout, shout out to my wonderful girlfriend, Catherine.
Um, she, she really is incredible. I'm not just saying that. Um, but yeah, I mean, I, I think it's a thing, but also like I, I've done some research on the amount that I'm taking. Yeah. And it's not a lot in comparison. And also you can reverse that. Yeah. So, well, here's what I always think is crazy when you think about.
The years mm-hmm. That a lot of the people that we've admired, the Stallone, the Schwartzenegger, all these guys, they all have multiple kids. Yep. You know, I'm sure they've all gotten good stuff. Yep. And there's our guy, my audio's too. Um, was I too, too close. That was screaming in your ear. Um, you think about all these guys, I'm like, how the fuck do they all have kids?
After being on gear for so long? Well, they're on hard stuff too. Like, and to put it into context for people. Right. Like I even have some bodybuilding friends. Yeah. And you know, I tell people I'm on 200, they're like, dude, 200, I'm on 2000. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's why you look like that. Yeah. And it's not a bad look, but it's what they're going for.
Mm-hmm. But like, for what I'm taking and what I'm doing in my life, um, I think it was the dose was between Yeah. 160 and 200 milligrams. So my doctor shout out to Dr. K. Um, she, uh, when I've asked her for more, because I got some bodybuilder friends who are like, dude, you're pussy. You need to get out off.
Yeah. They're like, you need to get out. You need to get your levels over a thousand. I go over a thousand. I go, I'm, I feel great at 600. Wow. You know, I'm over a thousand now. That, but my levels were so low that I felt like utter dog shit. That's I. And that was fucking miserable. So when I got on something, I was like, this feels better than mm-hmm.
You know, I could ever imagine. So I couldn't imagine with two, uh, thousand or 1200, it was like, you ever do anything else? You ever do a show? A show, like a bodybuilding show? Yeah, I do a podcast show. I'm here on this show. I've never done. No, no, never. Never. What do, what do you think? Like, I, I feel like, I mean, I'm sure you're obviously like myself.
I mean, you've been training for a long time. What do you think of the, the blowup of like the bodybuilding world and the fitness scene? I. Like, what's going on right now? Like every kid out there. I love it. I love that these kids are into it. Um, but no one, I feel like nobody's actually competing. They're just all posing on social media.
Yeah. I, I think the discipline and, and like work ethic piece is what I question nowadays because everything is behind the camera, which is cool if you're using content in the right way. I think it's great, but also I think like things are just like, it's never big enough anymore. Right? Like traps back in the day, it looked a certain way.
Now they're on HGH and so I mean it almost like you wanna look like a robot. Yeah. And if that's your gold, then that's cool. But I think like we have to just get to a place in society, like is that really healthy? Right? Because the overall goal of all of this stuff is to be healthy and to have like. A, a decent lifespan, right?
Like you have your health span and your lifespan. Mm-hmm. And apparently the health span is only at age, like 63 and they say after the age of 63, everything, like your body just starts going down and, and the lifespan now is only at like 76, 77 years old. Mm-hmm. So from 63 to 77, I wanna live a good life.
Now, kids that are in their twenties and even early thirties, and even teenagers now. I would question like, if you're going for the gold and that's your goal mm-hmm. And like, you're willing to die on the sword, then do your thing. Yeah. Yeah. But I feel like a lot of people, to your point, it, it's just getting a little bit too much in my opinion.
Yeah. Uh, whereas I like to see, man, I, I saw this one kid in the gym and he's a boxer, uh, and he's probably like 20 years old. Man. Never pulls his phone out. He's sweating like a dog. He's, he's super setting, he's hitting the bag, then he's going to dumbbells, he's doing swings. And I just went up to him. I'm like, yo, man, like, you're gonna be official.
Yeah. Like, whatever it is that you, and then he told me, oh, I'm actually like competing for like, you know, some, some boxing gold gloves and stuff. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, well, you're gonna make it because like, no camera guy is following you around and you're just getting gritty. Yeah. You know, so I I You're doing the work.
Yeah. Yeah. No, I, uh, I think it's interesting that everybody, we were talking about this the other day, how the fit or getting more fit. And then the people who aren't doing anything are getting even worse. Mm-hmm. Right? Because there's so much more that you could doom scroll on social media. You could not work out, you could drink, obviously, you know, marijuana and all this stuff is now, you know, deemed not as deadly as they once thought it would be.
Uh, or thought it was. So people who kind of drift to the left are drifting further to the left. And then you have all these people drifting to the right who are getting super into it. Mm-hmm. And I think the level of competition when it comes to bodybuilding, you're seeing these bodybuilders looking better than ever.
Yes. If you're playing a sport, like we were talking about Lance Armstrong the other day, and I said, this guy was crucified for doing the same thing that everybody else was. Mm-hmm. And I was just listening to Rogan and Chris Williamson and they were talking about it like the people who point the fingers.
Right. So we're open about it. We're both like, yeah, I'm on test, you know, I'm a fucking older guy. Mm-hmm. You know, and everybody's like, you're not that old, you're 40. I'm like, listen. If I make it to fucking 80, great. But chances of me making it to 80 are fucking slim to none. And I wanna feel as good as I can up to that day.
Yep. Whether it's tomorrow or fucking 40 years from now, I wanna feel as good as I possibly can. And when I wasn't on it, I felt like dog shit on it, I feel great. So mm-hmm. Fucking mind your own business. Yep. You do whatever the fuck you want. Mm-hmm. So, but I was saying that, um, a lot of these people wanna point fingers at everybody.
They're like, well, look what he's doing and he's wrong. That is the biggest fucking red flag to me. Like anybody who's willing to attack somebody for doing something that if you were in your, their shoes, just put yourself in his shoes. Mm-hmm. Just put yourself in one of these guys who even arod when everybody was crucifying arod.
Now we know there was a ton of other guys doing shit. If somebody's paying you 20 million a year. What else do you want me to do? Mm-hmm. HGH, testosterone. Let's say cops too, like, I think cops, they get a bad rap. Dude, I know one cop that got literally fired and told to leave the department because he was on testosterone.
I'm like, I want cops that are on testosterone. Why wouldn't I me fucking, do you know what I'm saying? Like, why, what are we, what are we doing? Go to go two blocks over right here. Mm-hmm. You see the cops around here? Yeah. They're not saving anybody. If I was a crim, if I was a career criminal here in New York City, oh God, this is the best time to do it.
Oh boy. You have all these fat fucks running around. Their clothes don't even fit them. I, they probably couldn't find their gun under their, you know, so Yeah. I want somebody who's jacked up. I don't care if it's a guy or a girl. Right. Jacked and be a cop. Yep. Yep. You know, and when they. When they talk about defunding cops, I was like, wait, why don't you pay them more?
If you want something to improve, you put more money into it. Mm-hmm. You don't take money over it. Right. Right. Yeah. You know, if you wanna improve the skills, it's like, as, as you, as people come outta the military, I know they do it, but there should be more of a push for people and be like, Hey, well you're comfortable in this situation.
Yeah. Why don't we pay you more and make you a civil servant? Mm-hmm. You know, I think, but also to that point, I mean, and to bring it back to fitness, like those are the types of jobs. I do think that there should be some level, right. To get the, to get the job. You have to pass that physical exam. So you should have to remain in that physical shape and, and, but they lower the bar.
But this is the problem I think just in leadership, right. I'm, I'm big into leadership, as you know. Mm-hmm. Um, for me, changing my body was the first thing. That gave me like leadership skills in life. 'cause I finally did something that I wanted to do and I wanted to achieve. But now once I got there, it wasn't like, oh, I'm gonna fall off.
Like now, I, sometimes I get motivated 'cause I walk into my, my daughter's like pre-K class and I'm like, I know I'm the most Jack dad. Mm-hmm. You know, like, it's gotta be a personal thing. Did you see that viral video? It was an audio clip that everyone, every guy I know used was, they asked, um, they asked these predator, these childhood childhood predators, they were like, what do you look for?
Why do you attack certain things? Mm. And they were saying that they don't get black white girl, boy, they don't care. They look at the father, the father. And I would like, I think about that, that thing runs through my head every day. Mm-hmm. Now, I, at my gym, I have, you know, uh, in Jersey I have kids classes and stuff.
Mm-hmm. So I have moms. I love that, by the way. I absolutely love that. It's the fucking best hour of my week. It is exhausting to like, keep up with them, but I'll have 10, 15 kids in there and I think about that. I'm like, I got all these moms and kids leaving there. There's definitely some fucking creep who lives in that town.
Yeah. And you think about it, you're like, all right, if I had to react, you know, what would be the first mo? And you, the, your first instinct is to kill. Mm-hmm. You know, but the, I get what the, those guys were saying, it's, if you see somebody. You are like, this guy can't defend himself. Well, if you're, if you're a natural predator, that's who you're going after.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I, but that's, that's the point. I mean, I think there's a bigger, a bigger theme there, right? Like taking control of your body mm-hmm. And taking control of your mind is you now taking control of your life and now you could help other people. You said something that I love, like your body is your business card.
Yeah. Right. When you walk in the room, people are gonna judge you regardless. This is a very judgmental society. We all do it whether we want to admit it or not. So why wouldn't you want to represent yourself to the fullest? Now, you don't have to be the most jacked person by any means. Like fit body is what, what it really is about.
Mm-hmm. I was actually upset with myself because for a long time, man, until I got with, um, pat Damiano, when I told you about him on my, on the, on our podcast, um, he, he's. He's been instrumental man. He is, he strictly, strictly functional fitness, uh, but a lot of kettlebells. Mm-hmm. And I could do it, I could bench 2 25 for 25 reps, but the second I started kettlebell swinging, my back was messed up.
I couldn't move. Yeah. Like now I started incorporating the world's greatest stretch, like Yeah. Doing some functional things that actually translate to living with my daughter. Right. Like carrying her and helping her on the swings and carrying groceries. Like, that's the type of stuff now I'm like, obsessed with.
Yeah. Well, part of the reason why I share my story was I could do, I mean, thank God, you know, I do jiujitsu. I could still do CrossFit. Like last summer we jumped into a CrossFit competition. I felt great. Mm-hmm. I could compete with everybody. I can move pretty well. And I want to continue to be able to do that forever.
Mm-hmm. There's a lot of people who are like, ah, I can't do any of that. My back hurts. It's like, well, yeah, your back hurt too, but you need to go through that like pain cycle and get on the other side of that. And then things start to feel really good. It took me like 10 weeks. I kept texting him every week like, dude, this is bother me.
This is not for me. This is not for me. I don't know if I can do it. And it wasn't until like week eight or 10 that things started to really switch. Yeah. And that's when I tell people, for everybody out there who's afraid to go to the gym and they're like, I don't deadlift because it hurts my back. I don't kettlebell swimming 'cause it hurts my back.
You have to go through that one. Find yourself a fucking halfway decent coach who knows what the hell they're doing. So they could walk you through that process. But there will be some level of discomfort that you're gonna go through because if you've never used your body in that way. There's, there's that hump you have to get over.
Yep. Yep. And I tell everyone that, especially mobility and all that stuff, I, I love, I swear by anything unorthodox because you never know how you're gonna need your body. Mm-hmm. You know, it's, it's great. I, I wanna be jacked and shit too, but you can't just do body building. Mm-hmm. So I encourage people to do other shit.
What made you start wanting to do that? Um, I think it was the circle that I was in, to be honest. Like a, a lot of the guys that I, I run, um, ACE Action cultivates excellence. Yeah. With, uh, especially my, my business partner, Sean Nan, um, and like my guy, Joe K, Nick Mete, these guys, they were all. They're smaller than me.
Mm-hmm. Physically, but they're bowls, man. They're strong. Yeah. Like, and then I'm watching them in the way that they were like able to sustain their fitness level throughout a workout. Mm-hmm. While they were swinging a bell. And I did 10 reps and I'm like, dying in the back. It didn't feel good for me. And they leveled me up in a sense of like, wow, okay.
Like, I think I'm in good shape mm-hmm. But I'm really not, like, I'm not functional. Right. That was the word that I was, I couldn't touch my toes. I couldn't, yeah. Butterflies, I couldn't do anything. Mm-hmm. Um, but I looked good. Right? Like, in the picture, I looked great. Yeah. Um, so I would say my environment leveled me up, you know, and, and the community that I'm a part of, man, we, we just, we're just into everything.
We, I mean, kettlebells is one thing. We do the bodybuilding thing, like some of, some of 'em are doing high rocks and CrossFit. It's, this is, it's a scope of everything. So when we put ourselves together to do a workout, it's literally a perfect mix. And I just wanted to get through it. Like, I wanted to be able to do that type.
Well when it, when it becomes a lifestyle, which it should for most people. Mm-hmm. You want to be as diverse as possible. 'cause sometimes you get tired of doing one thing. You wanna try something else. Mm-hmm. Tell me a little bit about your, uh, ace. Yeah. Your company. Let, let me take a sip of the cel. Lemme, lemme know what you think.
Mm-hmm. I didn't do the co I did the strawberry passion for Oh, this is fire, right? Good. Oh, this is, this is delicious. I don't give a fuck what anybody says There are. Like, you could get, I love your tag. I don't give a, people say You're gonna get cancer from this, then don't fuck too much. Don't drink too much.
Don't eat this, don't eat that. Like, if you restricted everything, you'd be a miserable in it. Mm-hmm. So there needs to be some level of like, I absolutely love the flavor. Yeah. It tastes, I I enjoy Celsius in the morning. It's a nice little pick me up. Oh, it's got chemicals in it, so does fucking everything else.
Mm-hmm. Your, your apple that you eat in the morning has fucking chemicals on it. Ah. You're so spot on. Pick and choose your fucking bottle, your battle. I agree. Now, if you're drinking 28 of these things a day, it's probably not the best. Right. But if you're having one or two or seven like Kenny, I'm sure you're fine.
Um, but it's true because like, even, even organic fruits. Who's to tell you this is really organic these days. That's a whole different, I just watched a whole video crazy on like organic. Mm-hmm. Right. Just putting that sticker on it. Yeah. They say, Hey, it might be a little bit better, but it's not guaranteed.
Right. That's, you know, so it's, it's made from the same way. They're just slapping a fucking sticker. Yep. Yep. I trust the government about as much as I trust the fucking blowing that horn. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah. So to bring you back, man. Um, and thank you for asking about that because it's a, uh, it's a huge passion of mine.
It brings me a lot of, uh, purpose and fulfillment these days into, into men's leadership specifically. Uh, but my life was a mess, man. Like around like 2017. Um, I just wasn't doing the right thing. I got married young at the age of 24 and I was just, why? What, why? Yeah. I asked myself that too. You're a handsome guy.
You should have played the field before. You know, I gotta be honest. I'm not a field guy, Ken. Really? I'm not at all. I'm not at all. And I'm not just saying that. Um, I, I, like, I. Being with one woman. Okay. I like being in a relationship. Yeah. Um, I like building that connection and mm-hmm. I, I really can't explain why, but like, I've always been a relationship guy.
Um, so what was the demise? So you get married, what was the demise? Um, I mean, probably me, right? Like, I got a question. Yeah. Yeah. I have a question because I, I've been diving into this a little bit, and I think there are men and women mm-hmm. Who hit the gas pedal sometimes. Yeah. They're, I like this person.
And then you kind of freaked that person out. Were you the one who was like, all right, let's, let's do this faster than we should, or No, no, no, no, no. By the time, by the time we got married, we were together for five, six years. Okay. Uh, yeah, we got together in college. Um, and again, I just wanna be clear, like great relationship co-parenting.
Like always kind to each other. So there's no like bad blood. I'm, I'm very comfortable talking to her about this. Mm-hmm. Um, but yeah, man, I just, I made a lot of bad decisions. I made a lot of bad decisions, like I was married and now, like, instead of, you know, getting attention in my relationship, um, I wasn't getting that.
So I found myself like in the clubs and running around New York City and Oh, so you were doing things? Yeah, yeah. Just doing things that I shouldn't have been doing, chasing so else. Yeah. And then like, I wanted, you know, I wanted to get my life together and it was, it was just too late. Mm-hmm. Like, it was just, it was just too late.
So I take ownership of, you know, all the things. And I think a lot of guys these days too, man, like, stop blaming other people. Mm-hmm. Um, look in the mirror, right? Look at yourself, see what you could have done better. Uh, so yeah, at that time, time I was drinking a lot. Go ahead. I tell people that a hundred percent.
I, I just was away with a couple friends this weekend. A couple people come to my gym. Both women. Uh, they were engaged when the guy asked them, they both said, I really wasn't ready to do it, but I said yes anyway. Wow. And they were, they, they said the guy was pushing a little bit too much and they just said yes, and they waited till like three, four weeks before the wedding and called him off.
Wow. Yeah. That's tough. Yeah. So it's like, it wasn't even that point of infidelity. Mm-hmm. Either, you know, up around or anything. It was just like, this really didn't work. And I think there's a, there's definitely a struggle that this societal pressure that I think a lot of people feel to get married.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure. Um, so I mean that paired with, you know, doing a lot of drinking recreational drugs mm-hmm. Not doing the right thing. That, that, that's what caused the, the demise. Um, but where do you think that stemmed from? 'cause if you wanna be with one person like Uhhuh, where, where do you think she lost her attention?
Well, I think at that time we were just not in alignment. Right. Like. I remember conversations of like, oh, you ready to settle down and have children? And to her point, she was like, no, like, I don't want that yet. I'm like, oh, okay. Like we're gonna like travel, like do things. She's like, no. Like, not really. So like, is she the same age as you?
Yeah. Um, so it was just like things that just weren't really in alignment because honestly at that time I probably would've settled down and have children and stayed outta the clothes. But then we had a conversation and she was like, Hey, look, I want you to keep living your life. So I kept living my life and ended up like.
Do making bad decisions. Mm-hmm. You know? So I think that's kind of what started it. And then by the time, like it came around, there was a, a really pivotal moment, um, with my mom too, in, in 2017. She's been sober six years, uh, but she was, you know, addicted to drugs and alcohol for the first 28 years of my life.
Um, and she's a hero of mine, man. She's still with us today. And she speaks all over at AA communities and she's no shit. She's, yeah, she's the best. Um, and I shout her out every opportunity I, I have. Um, but she was really going through it, man. We thought she was gonna, she was gonna basically pass away and there was one, like really, really dark night.
And, um, I basically poured all her Xanax in my hand and I told her to take 'em. Um, and she started crying and she was like, you want me to pass away? I'm like, no, I don't want you to, but if this is gonna make you happy, then, you know, uh, this is what we gotta do. And I said, unless a higher power can save you, there's nothing that I could do for you.
She takes one pill. This is a woman that's been taking 10 to 12 a day, right? Paired with alcohol. Her eyes roll to the back of her head, her head. It hits the headboard, and I'm like, oh my God, she's dead. Your mother, my mom, I get a little bit closer and I see that she started to breathe. I'm like, well, let me let her sleep, because she hadn't slept in days because she wanted to get sober.
That was the first thing, right? So like anybody out there that's trying to get sober, if you want it, that's the very first step. You can't help anybody that doesn't want it. She wanted it, so I let her sleep. About five hours later, she knocks on my door and she's like, David, I'm ready to get sober. I was like, oh my God.
Like this is way higher than me. Right? And this is how like my, this is how my faith journey really, really started. Because from that day forward, I no longer, it was no longer about me. It was a higher power that I felt was really guiding us. Because if that higher power just saved my mom and we're able to turn this corner, what else is on the other side of life?
Mm-hmm. So I pair the bad decisions with that moment with my mom, that really changed the trajectory of what I started to do. So that very next day we got her into a, a home. She went in there for 30, uh, sober house. Uh, went in there for 30 days and never touched a drug ever again. When we sat her down, it was like the saddest thing.
'cause you're leaving her in this like, institutional building. Right above her was the Serenity prayer. So again, like God was right there. God was never really a big presence in my life. My dad went to church every Sunday and I never went. Mm-hmm. Like never, never went. Your mom's Jewish? My mom's Jewish.
Yeah. So I was baptized in Bar Mitzvah a mess. Right. Like I didn't have any, like I, I didn't have any. God. Well, plus, I mean, having a parent, that's an addict, right? You're dealing with this other shit. Yeah. You could have easily had a hundred excuses to be a fuck up. Right. And, and so then I literally made the decision the next day, like.
When I went to the gym, I was like, instead of listening to rap music, that quickly got me exactly when I was listening to rap music. I was started doing the things in the clubs. It was attention from women, it was money, it was drinking all drugs, everything. I said, let me like turn something else on. Lemme try a podcast.
And 2017 like podcasts were a thing, but it wasn't like really that big thing. Not like it's now. Yeah, yeah. So I listened to like this Ed Millet, Tony Robbins podcast, and while they were talking. I started getting like these sensations, like they would say things that like would just hit me and I'm like, what the hell is this?
Ended up having a great locked in focused workout from that day forward. I never listened to rap music in, in the gym again. Then slowly I started to like, implement the things that they would talk about into my personal life. That's how I built like habits and routines and making my bed and saving money and doing all the things that you're supposed to be doing as an adult.
Mm-hmm. Um, and then from there I changed my whole life, man. I changed my relationships. I changed my financial situation. I always had a good job. Like, uh, working was never a thing for me. I was always a hustler. Always a hustler, but like my relationships and everything else was trash. So I ended up changing my life.
Started the podcast 'cause I wanted to help. Yeah. What year help was 1718. So, no, no, I didn't start the podcast till 2019. Okay. Um, and I think we had the first drop January 6th, 2020. That, that's like ringing a bell for me. Um, but that this was a significant period of time of me like consuming. Podcast, right?
Mm-hmm. And like feeling, oh my God, like I can actually help somebody else now. 'cause if I did this with my life, I could probably help somebody. So fast forward, I do an episode with Sean Nan and that episode was very different, man. Like we didn't have any like crazy platforms or anything like that. Like it was just, it was just a regular conversation.
But we started talking about the vulnerable things. Like I shared the story like that. He's telling me how he battled depression and anxiety. And there was a moment in college that like he had to crawl out of his car at the gas station 'cause he thought he was dying. But it was really just a panic attack.
That episode ended up doing 10,000 downloads. Oh shit. We're like, what the heck is going on here? But we were just having a normal conversation like this, but we started to talk about the vulnerable things. Were you pushing on social media at the time too? Yeah, but like I didn't know what I was doing.
Yeah. Yeah. Like I would just like cut. But the game was way different. Yeah. I was just like posting to post or whatever with no like real intent. So Sean and I had this conversation, which is crazy. This conversation that we had just only happened like a year and a half ago. 'cause I did 150 episodes on the podcast.
I had a local market, no one else wanted to listen to it for whatever reason. Then Yahoo does a story, a episode 1 56. I'm at two 20 now and it was like pme, there was an extreme jump from episode one 50 to 220. Yeah. Um, so Sean comes on episode like 180, we have that great conversation and we were like, whoa, this was way too good.
And the feedback was too good. We gotta do something. So we created this company, action Cultivates Excellence, and in the past year and a half we've, we've done, uh, two leadership summits, which are three day experiences. All wellness based. Um, but not only the physical, it's also the emotional piece and tapping into the guys' minds.
Mm-hmm. We've done, um, about 25 leadership dinners and workouts, really building a community. But the gold of ace is very simple. We bridge the gap between masculinity and vulnerability. Mm-hmm. Because it's very easy to sit up here and be the strong physical guys that we are. Yeah. But it's very hard to get a little bit deeper and to talk about the nonsense in your life that's going on, and talk to another man that's like, oh, I know exactly what you're going through.
Let's try to figure this out together. Mm-hmm. So all these jack dudes started getting behind us and we started like building this entire community to where it's become a leadership organization. Mm-hmm. And we've just attached everything that we do to leadership. So it's not only the body, it's, it's also the mind as well.
What did that first kind of meetup look like? So you and this other guy mm-hmm. Were like, Hey, we're gonna start this group. Take me through that. Yeah, so like what, like were you like, so we, the two of you guys went to fucking dinner and invited some other guys. So before the podcast we met at a, a networking event.
So we meet at the networking event and me and Sean are both like, yo, we gotta do something because we just kind of vibed. We like hit it off. Yeah. And it was just a great conversation. So I'm like, all right, cool. Come on my podcast. Then from the podcast it was like, yo, you wanna work out together? And he was a big cold plunger.
I'm like, ah, I've never really cold plunged. I take cold showers. That's some habit I've been doing like for years now. Mm-hmm. But the cold plunge thing, I don't have a plunge in my house. I'm not like spending money on ice. He just does it. Yeah. He's like, yo, come to my house like tomorrow. I'm like, cool, let's do it.
8:00 AM It was a very, like, one would put something out, the other one would take action on it. Yeah. Yeah. Like we were saying things and doing it. And then after the podcast Sean goes, yo man, are you familiar with like summits or retreats? I'm like, I've heard of them. I've never been. He's like, dude, I've been to one.
And it was like phenomenal, great experience. Did a lot of breath work, and like mindfulness body. I said, yeah, I'd love to go. He's like, which one? Uh, I, I forget which one he went to. Okay. I don't wanna mess it up because, you know, send you to the wrong place. For sure. I'll let him speak on that. Um, but I was like, yeah, like I'd go, he's like, no, no, no, no.
Like, you need to lead one. I'm like, lead one. He's like, yeah. Like exactly the conversations we're doing paired with our connections and the lifestyle that we live is exactly what men need. Mm-hmm. So I'm like, alright, throw up a story on Instagram. Anyone interested in a, uh, three day men's retreat thing goes crazy.
By crazy, I mean like 50 guys that like, we're all like strong guys. We're like, yeah, like, I'm interested. What's up? This, this, uh. Female ends up listening to the episode and she's like, Hey, I, I listened to your episode with Sean. Um, you guys were talking about some really great things. I saw this poll on Instagram.
I operate like 160 acre property in New Pulse, New York. Would you want to do it? That's so I'm like, cool, let's go check it out. Yeah. We happen to check it out on my 34th birthday. It was October 26th, 2023, and we go check out the property. I mean, this thing was beyond beautiful. Yeah. But something weird happened.
I remember walking in the door with Sean. We sat at this table, this huge extravagant table with a million dollar chandelier on there, and I felt normal. And he's like, how do you feel? I'm like, I feel like a. I'm supposed to be here. Yeah. So we go outside, Ken, and we record ourselves with a, with a cell phone, three day retreat.
It's gonna be a transformational experience. We're bringing out guest speakers. We're on 160 plus acres in New Paltz, New York. More details coming soon. Tickets range anywhere from 1500 to $3,000. We had zero, we had nothing, but we believed, like in our, in ourselves, in our product, and like we could get connections.
So we ended up having like Joe Girardi come out and, and, uh, talk to the guys in a real intimate setting that, yeah. The Yankee. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No shit. Yeah. So he was, he's connected through a family friend of Sean, so we were able to like, pull some cool connections. We had Dia mania Lingos, who was a former VP of the UFC.
She was great. Um, this past one we had Mike Chernow, Jake Zeer. 'cause this was now the, the second one that we did. Um, but it just stemmed from there, man. It stemmed from like the lifestyle that we live and then also the belief in ourselves and being able to create this community. So the very first one, I think we wanted to sell like 25 tickets and we sold 18.
So I, yeah, I mean, it was, it was phenomenal. We both lost a couple thousand dollars, but like the impact was crazy. For sure. Crazy. So from that, and we, we recorded it all. We had guys that were documenting it, everyone was reposting it, it looked, it looked incredible. Mm-hmm. The feedback that we got was like, now what?
Like you did this great summer, like what are we gonna do? So Sean also owns, um, he's a managing partner of Sale House in Tarrytown, which is a restaurant right on the water. It used to be the old Sunset Cove. I don't know if you're familiar in, in Westchester? No. But I fucking love it up there. Oh dude, it's beautiful.
I love it. I love Tarrytown. Like, uh, yeah, you gotta come Halloween. Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow. The Halloween town. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so he was like, dude, like we could do like dinners. He's like, I used to do them with like 10, 15 guys, but like now that we're together, we could probably like build this thing out.
So now every month and every month since then, we started offering a leadership dinner. Just 50 bucks. You come pay and it basically pays for the staff and the dinner. Um, but we do. Uh, an introduction of everybody. So guys get up in front of the microphone in front of 40 other guys. They get to get a little uncomfortable.
They work on their public speaking. Um, and then the real, like gold of Ace man is what we call bbds vulnerability breakthrough developments. And this is where we break out with like eight or 10 guys and we start talking about the things that we're really struggling with, like when I was going through my divorce or, you know, battling this, uh, health issue.
Like this guy's battling addiction. This one, he doesn't know how to be faithful in his relationship. This one sucks as a father, like, I want to get better. There was just one common theme though. Every guy wanted to grow and the conversations that were happening in that room were not only staying in that room, but guys were like holding each other accountable.
Yeah. And it just became this accountability thing. Like if you and I were to clock in right now, and like you told me about a serious problem, like, I'm gonna check in on you. Yeah. Right. Like, 'cause now we have established a relationship, so that's exactly what it was. And we've ended up building this community of like.
Like they, they look like killers. Dude. We got like Muay Hai fighters in there. I mean, we have, uh, first responders, we got attorneys. Most of those guys are the most fucked up guys in here. We got doctors. I mean, this, this, this organization spans crazy. You, you see a lot of people see when we post and like we're screaming into the camera and dude's got six packs and they're jacked and you know, good looking guys.
But what they don't see is like us sitting around a fire pit, like writing our things on napkins that we're releasing for the year and we're no longer identifying with the negative belief or the, the self-doubt mm-hmm. That we struggle with. Right. Because no one wants to post that. 'cause that's corny.
You get involved in that network, you see this, you're like, wow, I have to do it. And then from there, the business relationships started to blossom, man. 'cause like when you, what we found business was never a thought for us. Like that wasn't what we were doing it for. But if you and I are able to get vulnerable together and now I trust you and I know you own a gym and you're a trainer, why wouldn't I wanna send people to Kenny?
Yeah. Right. So everyone just started branching off doing business together. So we're like, wow, we got a real network. Like this isn't just like networking event, like this is now like really transformational stuff. We're seeing guys that literally, one guy, he came in and he was, he was on drugs and he tried to go to CVS to pick up his prescription the day of the summit.
He couldn't pick it up. He was like, damn, I don't wanna be late. He just took, uh, a shot in the dark, came and he's been sober ever since. Not only did he get sober, he lost 75 pounds. He's a licensed mental health counselor for Yonkers. Uh, he works with Yonkers Police Department. Like we got really high level individuals that are coming That's great.
Transforming their lives. Uh, so that, that's kinda, I could hear even just the way you talk about it, you're. You, you now have a purpose. And I think that's what a lot of people miss in their life. They feel like they don't have a purpose. And I think purpose is figuring out where you fit into society to service other people.
Mm-hmm. Every job, every industry, you're servicing other people. If I make this, can, I wanna make the best possible product mm-hmm. That I can to service people. I'm tired in the morning, drink this product, you'll feel better. I work at this studio. I want to service people, I wanna make sure they have the best experience.
The cameras are set up and I give them a product that they're happy with so they can move on with their life. I think it's so important, and I could hear it in your voice, it's like, this is what you are meant to do, but I think everybody can get this. And there's this phenomenal, phenomenal analogy, right?
And it, it's, it's faith-based, but it's very true in your life. What you don't choose is what God will use. So the struggle that you're having in your life, right. Me, with the Crohn's disease, me going through the divorce. Mm-hmm. Me, you know, dealing with my mom coming up, that's the thing that I'm helping people with.
Those are all things that I wouldn't have chosen. Mm-hmm. Right. And I'm sure for you, if you were to think of the things that you didn't choose in life, I was Yeah. That's the thing. Yeah. That God will use to propel you forward. Now, whatever God you believe in, that's, that's fine. Mm-hmm. Uh, but for me it's, it's heavily faith-based.
Um, and I think passion and and purpose creates fulfillment. Mm-hmm. Right? Like a lot of people, they, they don't connect the dots with that. But when you're doing things that you like to do, that's gonna spark something. And I think also we miss a lot like that little voice in your head. That's for a reason.
Mm-hmm. And too often we like are like, eh, that's a good idea, but I don't think I can pull that off. Or, that's too big of an idea. Like I don't think I can do that. I'm sure you creating strong New York before you created it, you started to have that little voice in your head like, yo, you should do this.
Well, I'll tell you what, the first one we actually did, what was it, 2016? Chris? Yeah. But in 2015, I always say it started in 2015. 'cause that's when I started like writing down the idea. I mean, I'm like this, I had the idea, I started the LLC in 2015. So when I tell people, I'm like, yeah, like it takes a good year and if you tell somebody, oh, this idea will take you a year, they're like, I need to do it faster.
But in reality, like I didn't set out for it to be what it is. Right? Like I could only dream of that, but. You have to start crafting that idea. Mm-hmm. It's pretty impressive what you built. I mean, that's, it's very hard, and I think a lot of people probably see that you've built this community and this, uh, way to help other people kind of grow in every aspect of their life.
And they're like, well, I wanna do that too, but. I don't think you set out to do this. It kind of just happened for you, dude. I, I mean, after the first summit we didn't really know where we were going with this. Yeah. We wanted to do it and then it like was so success, so successful, but we realized very quickly we didn't have a plan in place to like keep it going.
'cause we didn't think about it. Like we just wanted to do something together. Mm-hmm. We did it, but it was so transformational for people. Yeah. The dude, the testimonials, I look at them all the time. I mean, these guys are sending text messages just off of coming to dinner again. Mm-hmm. Hey, I've been struggling with this for 15 years.
I don't know what it was about this community. I just came and unloaded and I feel better than ever. Dudes are battling, uh, whether it's drug addiction, porn addiction, being unfaithful in relationships, things that they're not comfortable talking about. They come to this community, they're able to release it and it's like.
No one's judging you and the other guy across from you. Oh, he actually struggled with it too. And if he didn't struggle with it, he struggled with it. Yeah. And it's just like this, this domino effect. And dudes struggle. I mean, it's, it's not easy to be a man or a woman in today's society, but guys have a lot of pressure on them.
Mm-hmm. You know, like we have to, if, if you're a leader of your life, there's a lot of pressure, right? Like, you gotta be financially stable, you gotta be a good partner, you gotta be a good father, you gotta be a good boss. You gotta do all these things and you gotta be a good person. And, and sometimes, uh, I think that overwhelms individuals and they end up like self-sabotaging.
Mm-hmm. So we're there to help men who have potential and we try to bring out that personal excellence in them. 'cause everybody has that inside. But you have to, I think, like you gotta take that step and like get involved in a community. I think the stress is so. Great on people right now. It presses down on guys, I mean, throughout history.
Mm-hmm. We see it that it gets so bad that it drives people insane and they do shit that's unfathomable. Mm-hmm. And you'll never see a woman knock on wood, shoot up a fucking school or a party or whatever it is. It's always guys. Mm-hmm. And I think that's stress. That's a good point. Are are they nuts?
Sure. Is there a couple screws loose? And you could probably trace it back to their childhood somehow. Absolutely. But I think it's so great on guys that they're like, fuck it, I'm taking everybody with me. Mm-hmm. You know, and it's fucked up. But we all are fascinated with these stories. The fact that there are so many documentaries on serial killers and you know, these guys who blow up.
Schools and buildings and all this shit. There's something that fascinates us about it. And I think there's a part of all of us that knows that. Like, God, if it got too bad, I want to think that I could swing the other way. Mm-hmm. Just like you did. Right? You're like, I could, I come to this fork in the road and I gotta make a decision here?
And a lot of people do some fucked up shit because of that. And I think my whole personal journey, and what I do it strong is if you are working on yourself and you're building yourself and you're like, I want to get better at all these things and I'm gonna keep trying and keep trying. And if we give people like, Hey, there's a light at that end, the end of the tunnel, if you keep going down this road, then there's less of that shit.
Mm-hmm. There's less of that. Like, fuck, I'm thrown in the towel, I'm just gonna go awol. Mm-hmm. But if you give people hope, if you give people a direction, if you give them purpose, then I think there's less of that shit. And that's what my. Event is trying to do the gateway drug into a lot of this shit is the gym.
Mm-hmm. And that's why I'm so hell bent on the gym. Mm-hmm. And I try to get everybody to the gym, whether it's older women, which is a huge demographic. And we're, we're gonna try to tackle this year with strong New York because I feel like a lot of women hit that wall at like 40 or even 35. And they're like, well, there's no use for me anymore in society.
So now, you know, but in reality, no. I want to help you find that better version of you and live a healthier life. Since my mom has been, I dunno, 55, I've heard her say, well, I'm old now, so it doesn't matter. Mm-hmm. It's like, no, you've been saying that for 20 fucking years. 20 years. You've been saying you're old.
20 years you said, oh, I'm, you're gonna die tomorrow, 20 years. Mm-hmm. So there's a lot of people who like just throw the towel in at a certain age. And it's like when you give them direction, when you give them outlets like you have, walk me through like, how many summits have you done now? Um, we did. That was the third one we did.
Okay. Yeah. So now you've done three summits. Wait, no, second one. I'm sorry. Second two. Yeah. Yeah. So with these summits, what, what's that weekend look like? Right. Because we build out events and stuff all the time. It's like, what does that weekend look like? How do you keep people engaged and how do you give him enough time?
One of the things I think, 'cause I've done plenty of this shit. Yep. I've been to Tony Robbins. Mm-hmm. I think he's the fucking goat. Oh dude. He's the best. Have you ever been to one of his? No. I, I mean, honestly, I just consume so much of his content. I feel like he's been a mentor of mine. I paid him $0 Yeah.
To get mentored. I fucking love him. I love him. But, and there's a lot of people, all these bullshit, but it's like, you know mm-hmm. He's their own. Um, but I think there's a fine balance between giving people like those opportunities to mingle and stuff. Yep. But also giving them their free time. Mm-hmm.
Because you absorbed all this information, let me go off on my own and kind of think about this networking and let it sit thing, you know? Yep. So, uh, yeah. So we have, uh, three, three main, uh, I guess purpose points of the summit. Mm-hmm. Challenge. Learn, serve. 'cause we believe that if you're doing those three things every single day, you're going in the right direction.
Mm-hmm. Might not change your life right away, but you're going in the right direction. Mm-hmm. Um, so the three, those three things we do something challenging, right? So it's fitness related. That's typically us getting in a cold plunge or a cold lake. There's a lake on that, uh, a estate there. Um, so you do it every year at the same spot?
Uh, we did it and now we're, we're transitioning. We're actually going to Windham Mountain in October, which is gonna be super dope. Windham Mountain. Yeah. Um, what's the place? Catskills up in Catskills. Yeah. What's the place called? Yeah. Uh, I can't give you the name. Okay. Not, not public. I'm just saying like, I don't really, okay.
I don't have the name. No. I, there's a kid I went to high school that owns a place up there. Oh yeah. Yeah. Wow. That would be amazing. Yeah. If it's the same guy, it probably, that's hilarious. Yeah. Oh yeah. We should talk more on that. Uh, I can just, I have it. I just, um, it's not coming on the top of my head. So, uh, challenge, right.
We do something physically hard. Um, so we work out together in a community and we also do the coal plunging and we also chop down trees. We're doing all that. Then we learn. I love that. Then we learn, yeah, we bring in the experts and we're able, we call that expert led trainings, elts, and you know, that's like guys taking notes, but you get a one-on-one or a one on.
15 with Joe Girardi, like how many people are doing that? Like, not right. You, and you're tapping into like the knowledge of these experts that are much higher than what we're doing. Mm-hmm. Um, so that's the second piece. And then serve man, that, that's, that's the biggest thing too. Like, you know, being able to serve another guy, you think like, oh, how am I gonna serve this guy?
Just listen. Like, just give him the floor, ask him what he's struggling with. Mm-hmm. So we call those the, the V BDS that I was talking about, the vulnerability breakthrough developments. So those are the, our three keys. Uh, but when the guys get there, man, they get their like, uh, room assignments. We give 'em great swag bags.
Um, you know, and a lot of different, like, companies are now on board with us, which is, which is great. Mm-hmm. Um, so I'd love to talk to you more about that, that type of stuff too. 'cause I think there's a lot of collaboration that we can do. Yeah, I'd love to. Yeah. No sponsor one or something. Dude, it'd be great.
Um. So they get there, they get the, the swag bags. Everybody's like kind of co-mingling, and we open it up with a conversation between Sean and I. Um, and we, we basically allow everybody to go around the room. Why is it that you're here? You just paid 1500, $3,500 here. You have two choices. You go through the motions or you dive all in.
Let's talk a little bit about your purpose. So everyone goes around the table and we kind of have that discussion. Um, and then we made a really bad decision, man. We had everybody cold plunge at six 30 at night, which is terrible because you cannot sleep after that. Like Yeah. You know, you're endorphins wake, you right the fuck up, are rolling too much.
Uh, Sean is a phenomenal cook, so he, he actually has been cooking. Hopefully we get him away from the cooking, but it was so startup level, like, yeah, yeah. You know, you have this big gourmet kitchen, but you got the guy that's leading the summit actually cooking the meals too. So he's cooking prime rib and pasta and the, you know, just, we're breaking bread with everybody so we have a great meal.
Um, and that's typically day one. We'll bring in one speaker. And then day two is like the, the really jam packed day. We basically wake up at like six 30 and it doesn't stop till 10 o'clock at night. But to your point, we give a lot of guys opportunities to network with each other. Mm-hmm. Right. Like you never met Mike before, so now you guys kind of hit it off.
You guys both are construction workers or whatever it is. Yeah. You guys both own companies now. There's a lot of the networking. By day three, it feels like you have just gone to college with these guys, right? Because you, you're going through the Rucks and we're doing two workouts a day. We had Pat Damiano lead all the workouts with the kettlebells and stuff like that.
So everyone is just building this brotherhood and, and that brotherhood is like a real community now. Um, and then by day three, man, it's like one, you, you, you want to get outta there, but you're like, oh, I could stay here. All, all, yeah. All, all week. Um, but, but the reality is, you know, it comes to an end. Um, and the guys, man, they, we've gotten testimonials from guys crying, big, motherfuckers crying while they're leaving.
This has just been the most breakthrough experience for me. Like, I'm so excited to get home to my family, to like show the new me and they leave like, like they, like they're this and it's nothing that we're doing, right? Mm-hmm. Like the guys are all doing the work and we always say we're nothing without the community.
'cause the reality is, you know, that like, if no one shows up to your event, what do you got? Ken? Zero. Zero. People believe in you. That's why they show up. These companies believe in you. That's why they sponsor you, right? Mm-hmm. So it's, it's all like driven around community and, and I mean, the only thing that we say, 'cause we're not for everybody.
A lot of, a lot of people in today's world, they're okay with complacency and that's okay. That's just not for us. If you want to grow not only physically, but emotionally, mentally, tap into that real masculine, that modern leader and be able to be a little bit vulnerable on things. No one's telling your business anywhere else, but if that's you, you need to be with us.
Yeah. You know, I think that, like I, I've been to a couple of these, uh, the one that sticks out in my mind, uh, you know Jay Faria? Mm-hmm. Fucking love it. Yeah, I heard that. And we became buddies years ago. We met at a, a fitness event, very similar. Um, but he does his own like kind of men's retreats and. I went twice and both times I left on a fucking high.
Like I could do anything. Right. And I think it's so important. I almost like, I think of it like training the mind, right? The same way I go to the gym and I feel like pumped up and my body feels good when you leave. Something like that. Same way I felt when I left Tony Robbins. I'm like, all right, I could do anything.
You know? You, you now broke through that ceiling in your mind. Mm-hmm. And you're like, all right, now I could start leveling up and do another shit. I think it's so powerful. Um, I think there's a lot of people who look at a lot of this shit and they say, oh, well that's lame. You got a bunch of guys crying, blah, blah.
Why would I pay $3,500 from it? But in reality, you really can't put a price on what you get from this. Mm-hmm. Do you think you could have done this and created this mm-hmm. Without having gone through the struggles you've been through? I don't, the personality that I am, man, I'm very stubborn, Ken. Mm-hmm.
Very stubborn. Like if you told me to tap something, in my mind I was always built like this. It's like you told me to go make 10 jump shots, like I'll make 10 and then I'll go to 15. Mm-hmm. You tell me to go work out in the gym, do a set of 10 repetitions on chess, press incline, I'll do 15. Mm-hmm. But when it came to my relationships.
I'm snapping. When it came to like any other thing or any other aspect in my life, I did not have the same discipline and the self-control that I had physically. So it wasn't until my life came crumbling that I had to make that switch, and I had a very, very life-changing moment with my therapist who actually told me that exact analogy.
He's like, dude, if, if I tell you to go do 10. 10 bicep curls like you could do 11. Right? I'm like, hell yeah. He's like, so why is it in your relationship when your girl is pissing you off? Why can't you just stay quiet for an extra minute? Just start there. Dude, the light bulb, I'm telling you, the light bulb went off in my life and I'm like, I'm already doing the thing.
Like the thing that most people want is to be physically fit. Like I already have that, and that skill is no different if I were to just translate it, right? Mm-hmm. But discipline doesn't translate. You know that very well. I mean, I even heard a, a great analogy, was it Kobe or Tiger Woods? Yeah. That they were just talking about, right?
With the, with the discipline. Mm-hmm. Same thing with Michael Jordan. The most disciplined human being in the world when it came on court. That has another aspect of their life. He's got a gambling problem. Yeah, he's got a drinking pot. But if he applied the same discipline to the basketball court, we wouldn't be having that conversation.
Yeah. So when I was like, wow, you know what? I wanna be a leader of my life. Not only a leader of my body, everything that I touch, I want to try, and I'm still very imperfect. Let me, let me be very clear, but everything I touch, I want to have that same level of intention and focus. Yeah. What are you, 37, 38, 35, 3 5.
Damn, bro. I looked that old. I just put just for minute my fucking beer. No, but you said 32, so I, I was just taking a guess. I'm bad at math. Um, but the, uh, no, I, I think it's super important to go through the struggle and I think that's where people kind of get lost. Like they're going through the struggle and it's a, you have, I, I told you about my time.
Mm-hmm. You, there's, you can make a left turn and go down that road and fuck everything up. Or you could, you know, kind of do things that'll service you and do things that'll help you. And being a master of your own life, it doesn't happen overnight. I mean, I, listen, I admire these, some of these younger guys in their twenties and stuff who clean up their life and do it at a younger age, but it's never too late to turn it around.
Um, where could everybody find the next, when's the next retreat? Uh, so next one is gonna be October 3rd to fifth. Okay. Um, and it's actually right after your event. I think it's like literally the next weekend, right? It's the next weekend. It's crazy. Yeah. Um, yeah, we'd love to have you come out, man. That would be, oh, dude.
I, dude, that would be, I mean, yeah, I'll be on a high hopefully from like, yeah, well, you're either gonna do that or you're gonna be like, bye-bye. Because I just had this event. I mean, what, what's, uh, what's sellout for you? How many, how many people? Um, so we're, we're taking 35. Okay. So we, we are expanding a little bit because the hotel that we have does sleep 35 very comfortably.
Okay. Um, well, I mean, listen, I, I would love to. You know, if you wanted to upsell or something or like have a, a table or maybe even pass out flyers or something, we'll have a bunch of people who I know for a fact could benefit from a lot of this shit. Yeah. Oh, that, that'd be great. Um, but so we, you, you can get that information, um, via the website, a sanctuary.com.
Okay. Um. Everything isn't finalized yet, so not everything is up. We have a deposit lock in that's only 300 bucks. Well, everybody thinks as soon as you throw this up, you have it all figured out. It's like, oh, no, no, no, no. We work and through all the pieces. Well, the biggest thing was okay, we needed to secure the spot.
Yeah. We got a couple sponsorships in place with some companies that we know, and we have like one or two speakers that we know besides that we're still building this out. Yeah, yeah. But we know it's gonna happen and it's gonna be extremely successful. Yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, all the details will be probably finalized like the day before.
You know how that Yeah, yeah. Oh, trust me. I know. Um, but yeah, I mean they, uh, people can leave a $300 deposit, um, which, you know, kind of just locks them to save their spot and Yeah. We wouldn't make it non-refundable or anything like that. Like, we're not in this at all to make money. Hopefully we break even on this one.
Yeah. That's the goal. If we can go green, great. But like whatever, um, they can find me on Instagram at Dave Reg, REGG at the end. Um, and you know, typically my Instagram is where I kind of filter, filter everything. But are you a TikTok guy? No. Yeah, I didn't see it. I went, I went, uh, you know, it was crazy. My most viral video had like 190 million views.
What? Yeah. 190 million. So this guy, uh, what, what's his name? Cab Kaby. Kaby. He's a African guy. He's like a Cabby Lane, I think his name, what is it? Kaby? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I, in 2020 I put an egg here. Remember that challenge? And you had to like crack the egg in your bicep? Yeah, I did it and it, the egg cracked into my phone.
Literally covering the phone with the egg yolk. Right. So it was like the most hilarious thing when I posted, I got like 5,000 views on it. Yeah. Cabby takes it. And when I popped it, he makes a rendition of the, of the egg popping into his face and he drops that egg on his head. Yeah. So this video ended up getting bought out by like, um, America's Funniest Home Videos.
I'm like all these, all these things. So yeah, like I have like one viral video. Why am I telling you about that? What, what did you ask me? I asked if were a TikTok. TikTok. Oh yeah. A TikTok guy. So, no, I'm not a TikTok guy, but he actually got more famous off my video. So that's typically how it works. I mean, since we're sharing stories, and I guess we'll finish with this, I took, uh, Conor McGregor has this spray that, like pain spray.
Mm-hmm. What's it called? Chris? Title, title. Mm-hmm. And it's like a pain spray. And I'm running the New York City Marathon like three years ago, and she had a can of it, and I go, gimme that spray. And I like, just sprayed it all over my body in the middle of the fucking, I was like, she's like, what hurts? I go, everything, everything.
Like, everything. So I'm spraying all over it and Connor reposted it got like 4 million views or something. Dude, it's so funny. Yeah. But knowing myself, I'm not really a TikTok guy. Um, Instagram is, is typically where I'm at. And I'm, I'm on a, on a, I'm on a space now, man. Like I'm really trying to provide valuable content to me.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, because I just know it hits like, even, even from this podcast, like, I love podcasts in general because you have conversations that typically people are having all the time, but this is on a recorded mm-hmm. Platform and it lives forever. Uh, so a lot of my content is like podcast clips and you know, my guy Mike Press, man, he, he's the one that, that does all my content.
Yeah. Uh, well, dude, listen, I think. A lot of people already hit me up about our podcast. It definitely opened up my world a little bit to me being a little bit more vulnerable. So I appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely. Um, but yeah, hopefully we'll see you at Strong New York. I'll be there not before then. Uh, if I could help with anything, lemme know guys, you know where to find them.
Thank you for tuning in, uh, like, subscribe, share with a friend, and always stay strong.