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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 is powered by Celsius. Now, whether you're in the gym or you're on the run, or hey, you're just doing a podcast, grab yourself a can of Celsius and live fit. So this is a shameless pitch for strong New York. September 27th, right at the Glass House on 48th and 12th Avenue, we are throwing the biggest fitness and wellness event this city has ever seen.
Every year it gets bigger and bigger. This year we'll have 5,000 people, 80 plus brands, and you will be there. So make sure you get your tickets@strongnewyork.com. It's that simple. Alright guys, welcome back to another episode of the Strong New York podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Santucci, and as always, thank you guys for joining.
Uh, do not forget, it's very important, and I'll stress this many, many times from now till September because we have strong New York coming up. New York City's one and only fitness and wellness expo. It is a chance for you guys to come out, if you talk about community, if you're one of these people, whether you're a brand, a business, a gym, uh, a personality, if you talk about community, while this is the biggest fitness event for New York City.
So come out, come join us. It's gonna be one hell of a day. Um, you know, you don't wanna miss it. We have classes all day long, stuff you could jump into. Competitions. We have some of the best speakers from the, uh, you know, doctors, nutritionists, trainers from all over the globe coming to talk to you guys.
We also have the classes going on. We have, uh, expo floor with over 80 brands and 5,000 plus people. So you don't wanna miss this. If you are into running yoga, juujitsu dancing, fuck If you just like walking around, this is the event for you right? In New York City. If you like Comic-Con, if you like, uh, fanatics Fest, if you like, uh, the Food and Wine Festival, well this is that for fitness.
So come join us at Strong New York this year on September 27th at the Glass House on Forti eighth and 12th Avenue. I can't make it more convenient. I can't make it any cheaper. Get your tickets today because they're on sale now. With further, we're no further ado. I got my man Tom here. Uh, we, how do we who connected us?
Uh, Nathan Hyland. Nathan. So, uh, a gentleman, uh, who works in the fitness space. Mm-hmm. He's all over the place. I mean, he does a little bit of everything. He's over in France right now. Yeah. Doing American gladiator shooting. Is he one of the, him and his brother? Actual, he's a contestant. He's a contestant.
So I, a buddy of mine is one of the gladiators. Oh, is that right? Yeah, he's like a big W like, um, like a wannabe WWE guy. He is like a wrestler, but he's, uh, okay. He's, um, he's one of the gladiators, so that's pretty cool. Well, I, you know Nathan has a twin brother. Yeah. Yeah, I know. They look alike. I'm like, bro, what are the chances?
Yeah, I know, right. If nothing else, they'll want two good looking guys fighting the gladiators. Of course. You know, why not? Well, they, you know what they never had in gladiators that it was so successful in WWE is tag team action. I don't watch tv, so I, I don't know. But you were a little bit older than me.
You remember? I remember watching American Gladiators and being obsessed two and a half decades, bro. At least. Yeah. But you look great. And this is what we're here to talk about, guys. Keep, keep, keep talking. I want Tom to expose all his secrets because this gen, what are you, 63, 62? I'm older than that, bro.
65. Older, 67. I'll never tell. So somewhere between 65 and seven, because you're not seven. I'm, I'm going into my seventh decade. I'm not there. I'm going into it. Yeah. You look incredible. Let me tell you how many fucking people, whether they're clients of mine, friends, family who don't hold a candle to you and let's get, let's dig into this a little bit.
Mm-hmm. Because my mom. Who is a little bit old, not much. She's a little, maybe four, five years older than you. And she's been saying that she's old for 20 fucking years. 20 years. I'm old. I, that's, that's problem number one. Exactly. And this is what I wanna start to impact, and this is what I want you guys to understand, is you're only as old as you tell yourself you are.
Mm-hmm. I remember being 20 years old, 19, 20 years old, I was working down at port work and the guys who were 40 years old looked like absolute dog shit. Fat, bald, degenerate. Sure. They looked like shit. And I feared being come turning 40 so much. And I said, I just, I, I don't even wanna make it to 40, if that's what 40 looks like.
Yeah. And that was the only representation. It's probably worse for even you like what you thought 40. Um, it could, it could have been because, you know, I, I grew up, um, Irish Catholic, Italian, and eating, you know, pasta and all that, but. But the meals were prepared at home and we sat down to a dinner at five o'clock.
If you weren't there at five with the hat off, shoes on, you didn't eat. Mm-hmm. Kind of thing, you know? But portions were different. We went outside to play, you know, it, it was a different society then, you know, back in the fifties and sixties and seventies and actually growing up sort of Irish Catholic and Italian.
I went to a Catholic Catholic schools and that's where the beat down started, you know, society. You got beat up a lot. Uh, I got bullied quite a bit. Really? Yeah. What, 120 pounds in high school. Okay. Yeah, that's victim weight right there. And you know, I was into art. And drawing. And I was, I Oh, were you really?
I was an art major in college. That's really, that's something most people don't know about me. Everybody see, but that's where you, you probably have this creative side to you. That's why I love what I do. Yeah. Because it allows me to be creative. Yeah. Like, that's why I do the shirts and I do the event.
And I do the gyms. Exactly. Because now I, I get to combine these two things that I love the gym and art into one. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, you know, for me that was, I thought where I was headed. Mm-hmm. You know, but the beat down being bullied and beat up, you're head bashed into the, into the lockers at school.
And I was like, you know, my father was like telling my older brother, you get him lifting weights, boxing, I don't give a fuck. You do something. And so. What I did was I joined the wrestling team. There we go. I did. 'cause I needed to move, you know, I needed to make some moves and I started lifting weights and back then, uh, Frank Zane, Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, um, those lifters back then.
It's like, fuck, look at these fucking guys. They're monsters, you know? But, so I combined working out and wrestling and the guys that were beating me up, I had to challenge them and it, and it worked. The problem was I went from being bullied. I became a bully. I'm like, oh, this is great. Sounds like a guy enough.
So, but that's what happened. Yeah. But then, you know, drinking drugs, jail, a a lot of things. A lot of things. So you went down a road? I never went. No. So. I was picked on to a point where like I felt bad for other people getting picked on and I wanted to, like I had, everybody always called me like Howard Stern for, because I always had this band of misfits around me.
I had all the misfits. He was a misfit. All yeah, well, all the artsy people and all. Sure. You know, kind of weirdos and shit. I kind of hung out with in high school and in college. Um, where I didn't fit in in college was that I was going to the art building when there I went to Montclair State, New Jersey and the art building.
Um, there was all these fucking blue hair. Anybody you see protesting now they're probably were in the art building at my school. Um, and they all made me feel like I didn't belong then, because I would go really well. 'cause I wrestled in college. So I would go in like sweatpants and a t-shirt or a hoodie.
Like, I never, I never did the theatrics of the art world. Like I never like, you know, pierced my fucking nipples and got a bunch of tattoos and like just that. Extreme. Like, oh, wearing fucking leather and shit all the time. It's just like, it's too much. The beauty of being a guy, I think is the fact that, like, it's always low maintenance.
I wore, I wear the same shit now that I've always worn. It was always like shorts, sneakers, t-shirts. It's a less stress, less stress, less stress. I like cool. I love art. I love, I love tattoos. I love, I love the R form. I love graffiti. I love all that stuff to put it on my body permanently, I don't want to do.
Um, but at the same time, I think there's a lot of people who just like take it to another level as a, as a form of expression. They, they kind of, they have to wear it and they show it and it's like, you know, well, yeah. My feeling about that is that they're looking for attention. Of course. Yeah. Look at me.
Yeah, yeah. I'm different. But actually you're not, you know, and all these fucking idiots who have this, like, they wanna pretend like they're goth dressed in black, where the fucking face mask still, like it's, there's COVID that actually did anything. Those are the same people that were doing it in the sixties and the seventies and the eighties.
Right. That whole gothic, all these people who are like so blown away with, um, Kanye being like anti-Semitic and using the um, the SWA sticker and stuff. Mm-hmm. There have been like metal bands that have been doing that since Oh, yeah. Forever. Yeah. Right. And I'm like, I don't really think a lot of these people, I mean, it's crazy to think like, oh, here's.
A black guy who's doing this. It's more for shock value. You know, Motley Crew was doing it. Guns N Roses did it. Ozzy, Ozzy did it. Yeah. Black Sabbath again, all these guys were always rocking that shit. And it, I think it's more for like, Hey, we're so different. We're so on the outside. I love, I just, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, I went with a buddy, went to go see, uh, Pantera.
Metallica. Did you really? Yeah. And everybody in the audience is like a fucking biker, white trash, fucking, you know, all this shit. And I, I feel like it's more for Shopify. I, I couldn't imagine. Maybe I'm just so far removed from that thought process that like anybody could really think like that. Like living in New York City, you choose to live in a melting pot of the world.
Mm-hmm. If you truly believe you should move out to fucking Pennsylvania or Ohio, where like, that's more wildly accepted here. It's like, I love New York. I love New York for all the same reasons. I hate New York. I love the people, but I hate all that. That's being honest. Yeah. That's being honest. I love all the people, but I hate all the people.
I love that it's so culturally diverse, but like there are so many people who are just fucking stupid. And New York is, well that's, that's in general terms. But, you know, looking at you, you know, with your creativity and you probably love getting up on stage and speaking and speaking like, you know your truth.
Yeah. Right. And you know, most people, like, you're cutting your own path. Mm-hmm. I see that, you know, you got a podcast, a couple of gyms, I think you want to probably expand, but you're into, you know, creating the logo, creating the hats, doing all that, you know? Mm-hmm. And I, it, it takes a, it takes courage. It takes a lot of balls to just do your own thing and not give a fuck what anybody else thinks.
Because if you start listening to other people. Then you just become sheep. Yeah. And you get slaughtered. Well, and that's the thing, so a buddy of mine was trying to help me get a couple more brands for the event and he was, uh, he's like, yeah, you know what? One of the guys said that your brand is a little too aggressive.
I was like, I think he's a little too fucking soft. I go, what do you mean my brand's too aggressive? What? I go, they, he has his product at Equinox. I go, Equinox gets a ton of shit for having these risque pictures and shit. Like a couple years ago they had like this woman breastfeeding as like their huge billboard ad here in New York City.
And I go, you're worried about my brand that I have a fucking Panther on the shirt. I go, that's too aggressive for you. I go, but a woman breastfeeding in front of people. It's like, listen, I think it's just life is beautiful. It's great. I don't care. I don't want my wife with her tit out, you know, on a billboard somewhere.
Yeah. But you know, you, that's more extreme than a fucking cartoon pimp. But you have the courage to say, you know what, go fuck yourself. Mm-hmm. You know, I don't need that. What's And what's aggressive? Yeah. What's aggressive. Yeah. Yeah. You know, what is aggressive, like, because you don't like it. Mm-hmm.
That's aggressive. Yeah. You know. So, Tom, give us a little bit of, uh, background. Like what you've done after you had this whole stint, like you got locked up, you got in trouble, you know, you kind of chain gang. You ever been in a chain gang? No. Chain gang. Thank God. You ever see the, you ever see the, the, how long, wait, how long were you away for?
Uh, the most was, uh, just three months. Three months. But, you know, but I wanna, I don't wanna do three minutes, but I, you know, um, I watched this part of it was in the Navy. The Navy, they asked me to leave. That was a troublemaker in the, we were dealing, this was back in the seventies though, remember? Mm-hmm.
You know, so I was on an aircraft carrier. And, uh, I was 18. My father kicked me out of the house and, you know, so I was like, uh, I tried college for two weeks. Mm-hmm. I'm like, what? Where'd you grow up again? Springfield, mass. Okay. That's right. Western mass, you know, so, um, tried college for two weeks and I'm like, what the fuck am I doing here?
I'm here because I wanna please my parents. You know, I didn't really have a good job. I had a job, but, so I went down to see a recruiter, joined the Navy. I want some adventure. I want, you know, but the, the fighting and the drinking and the drugging, you know, uh, continued in the Navy. Mm-hmm. You know, we would bring on pounds of pot onto the ship.
We'd go across to Europe and to the Mediterranean and trade it for hash, you know. So what do you like better? Hash or, uh, um, what was your drug of choice? Um, it was just smoking weed. Yeah. Really, you know. Making joints about that big and just focus, you know, just, yeah. On the flight deck, I was on the flight deck, smoking, you know, getting high, watching them launch, uh, F four phantoms.
That's pretty sick. Yeah. I'll tell you what, one of the coolest things I've seen in the last two years, did you see all the footage of right before they bombed Iran recently, that bomb self bomber. Oh, the, the B two bomber, dude. And it had the, the two bombers on either side and then the fighter jets on either.
Yeah, probably I think, uh, maybe, uh, Raptors. Yeah, yeah. Or yeah, yeah. Badass Man, that's fucking sick. That's bad ass. I'll tell you what, since I was a kid, since I first saw Top Gun, I was obsessed with that. Me too. Like the whole me too fighter jet. You know, that gives me like goosebumps, you know, but Well, you got to see it firsthand.
Firsthand, you know, and these kids, you think about it. These guys, or I call 'em young kids 'cause they're 23, 24, 25, 4. Yeah. Flying F fifteens, B two bombers, raptors, you know, fifth generation, uh, fighters. And are most of those guys coming out of like, um, the Naval Academy? The Naval Academy? Yeah. You gotta get appointed.
Yeah, you gotta get appointed. You're not, you're not giving a fucking $4 million plane to an idiot. Well, let me tell you, bro, let me tell you, you know, 'cause I was on the ship for a few years, a carrier and I would hop into an F four Phantom. They don't have phantoms any anymore, but I'd see, uh, seeds. Pot seeds.
Mm-hmm. In the seat. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so these guys are like, and they're, they're young guys. They're probably up there taking a hit. Yeah. Well, some of the smartest guys I know are, you know, they like their cocaine, they like their, yeah. Whatever, you know, so they're, they're just like, they're you and me.
You know? Everybody needs a release, like even now. Yeah. I think so. For me, I've never, ever in my life, I never, I was never a big drinker. I was never, I think the first time I smoked pot or like did any type of, like, at the time, illegal substance, I probably 33, 34. I was always pretty straight edge uhhuh. Um, my drug of choice was always women.
Um, but uh, as I've gotten older, you know, I found comfort in smoking a cigar and microdosing like mushrooms and shit. Have you tried any of that? Uh, I think I, I, I haven't, you know, the, the only mushrooms I'm doing these days is uh, lion's mane, you know, and for food I this morning. Did you really? I, so I, I do the Laird Hamilton.
Yeah. Yeah. Um-huh. Mushroom, mushroom coffee. Yeah. Yeah. And I also do the everyday dose mushroom coffee, so the Lions, Maine and all, um, what's the ashwagandha? Right? Yeah. All that. Like, I love those formulas. I feel great on that stuff. Yeah. There's a company out there called Mud Water. Yeah. I like them. Yeah.
I, I get their stuff, you know? Yeah. And so that's, you know, nutraceuticals are, I don't believe in supplements. I don't, I don't do supplements, but I do, you know, honey turmeric, uh, lion's mane, those kind of natural things that are coming from the earth, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Right now I'm still flying a, a jet in a helicopter for, for Sean, you know?
Yeah. And he's, he just, he just got a new jet. You can't, huh? You can't graze over that. You gotta, you gotta tell. Oh, oh, well, we'll, we can talk about that. So this is why we're here. Yeah. That's why we're here. I mean, this, you're not just a handsome young man. Right. You got Well, I, I am. Yeah. I think I have a great story and, um.
My third book that's coming out when I go to Everest is from Zero to Hero Made in America. And I've traveled around the world and I'm always grateful to come back here. We have it so fucking good here. We don't realize it and don't tell other people. We won't believe it. Isn't it crazy? Like I was just in London and I loved it.
It's great. As soon as we were done, I was working over there. I go, get me the fuck home. Because you don't even realize how good we have it. Oh yeah. There are so many people. It's always these like old fucking rich white ladies who are bitching about how bad you have. They have it. Oh yeah. And I go, you have it better than everybody else.
On the backs of old white men. You guys have been able to fucking protest and do the shit you're doing. Oh, yeah. Shut, shut the fuck up and enjoy it. Shut the fuck up. Oh, yeah, yeah. We're, we're so, we're so spoiled. That's what it is. And that's what I say the problem is, is because we have it so good that we're creating our own problems.
Yeah. Right? Oh, yeah. Because you haven't, because if you had a real problem, like if you were in fucking East Africa or something, and a lion was chasing you had no goddamn water or food, then you'd have a real problem. Then you wouldn't wake up every day and be like, what am I gonna protest about? You'd be like, I better get outta here before that fucking animal comes and eats me.
Oh, uh, you're, you're a hundred percent correct. You know, I, I'd like to say that, um, you know, cancer is a mountain, obesity is a mountain. Mm-hmm. Um, school is a mountain. Mm-hmm. Educating yourself as a mountain. But these fucking people here, they, the only mountain they wanna climb is the couch. Yeah. And they need to get off the fucking couch.
Yeah. I mean, I'm on one one now. I worked out this morning. We get what you're saying. Yeah. I got a little workout in today. You know, Uhhuh, I got up this morning, I, I, I said this a couple times. I sat it on a podcast a couple weeks ago. If you're not up by six o'clock, seven o'clock every day. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
You're wasting your fucking day or you don't really have anything going on. Yeah. If you are, if you are hungry, you better get your ass outta bed and start fucking doing something. I don't give a shit what it is. Yeah. Start sewing, you know, shovel shit. Do whatever it is. Anything. Yeah. Do something to make your life a little bit better because I think this depression and loneliness and all these fucking problems, if one of my friends called me up on a Saturday or Sunday and goes, Hey, you want to go protest?
I'd be like, you need to go get a fucking job. Or have a like some sort of Thank you. Yeah. Some sort of other hobby or something that you're working towards because this is a waste of your fucking time. And I know there's gonna be people out there who are like, oh, well protesting, I get it, but we're not mo look at all the shit we've been protesting for the past couple years.
Mm-hmm. And what has moved the needle? You know, we, we elected Trump. That's what is moving the needle. Yeah. And we don't have to get into politics, but Yeah. But it pushed everybody to one side. It did. And what I'm, and what I'm saying is like, there are so many people who are like you, you're just looking for the same people who protested Black Lives Matter with the same people who protested with Ukraine are the same people protested with the fucking Asian hate or the, and it's like they're just professional protesters and you're not really doing, you're correct there.
You're correct. Yeah. There. And you're, you're not really doing anything. And you, it's just comes off so disingenuine because you're just like, you're, you're, you're a, a freedom fighter for nothing. For nothing. Yeah. For nothing. And there's a lot of people out there like that. And I'm like, there's a sense of urgency to my life.
You know, I got up at five 30, you know, did my, I do my, uh. My water. Himalayan salt, lemon, cold shower, coffee. The lad, Hamilton, you know, I put GH in it. Mm-hmm. Turmeric, cinnamon honey. Manuka honey. And um, little bit of cream as well. Journaling how my day's gonna look. What are you journaling? Like what? Like what, what do you feel?
Fears now? Fears. I fears love, ambition, drive, motivation. But I don't, 70 years old. You've seen a lot of the world, you've seen a lot of history. You've seen America change over the Yeah. Last couple C um, couple decades. What do you think your purpose is now? Like you've done a lot. You, you, you fly planes for Sean Hannity.
Yeah. Right? Yeah. Um, and you do it for other people as well, right? No, just Sean. Just him. Just Sean. I mean, I was at the airlines, you know. Okay. Uh, I became a captain and I flew with mm-hmm. Naval Academy grads, air Force Academy grads, and I'm the guy with no college blank diploma from high school. And they're like, how the fuck did you get here?
You know? Uh, one guy saw me in the hallway before I went into class and I was wearing a rugby shirt. 'cause I did play rugby, you know, and fucking small for rugby. Yeah. I was a hooker. What's that? I'm literally and figurative, figuratively. Um, but it said Notre Dame. Mm-hmm. And this guy was, he's walking by and he's like, he's like, Hey man, uh, did you go to Notre Dame?
I said, no. He's like, where'd you go to school? And I said, I didn't. I didn't go to college, and he's just like, oh. Kept on walking, you know? But I went on to become a flight engineer there then to the right seat. Then I became a captain there, and these guys are like, how the fuck did you get here? Like, hard fucking work.
Mm-hmm. I showed up early and I stayed late. Yeah. And I studied my ass off. And so I'm like, fuck, if I can do this, you know, I can do anything. And I was always kind of quasi into health and wellness, you know? Mm-hmm. It kind of saved me, but also taught me how to be a bully. Yeah. You know? See, yeah. I never gravitated towards the, the bullying side of things, but for me, I, you know, it, it saved my life.
It made me understand a whole lot more about life. Um, yeah, for sure. You know, I was heavy as a kid and I didn't understand why I had to search for that y and then. My pursuit of trying to get myself better. Now I go, alright, now I wanna share this with everyone I can and get them better. You know? Why were you heavy as a kid?
What was just Italian Catholic from New Jersey? Like my grandmother reward us. I actually just had, uh, this kid on such an impressive dude. Um, his name's Dom Ione. He owns Raw Nutrition. Okay. Huge in the, in the, in the fitness space. Um, great company. He grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, and he was a heavy kid too.
And he went on, he was studying to be a doctor and then started this whole nutritional company. Um, but very impressive guy. Now he like runs all the time. He's jacked. He looks fucking great. Um, you know, he's partners with Chris Bumstead, who's like the biggest bodybuilder in the world right now. Um, but he was saying the same thing, like we were rewarded as kids.
Like my grandmother, if I cleaned my plate, she'd gimme more and be like, clean that plate too. And I would do it. And I got really heavy. And then I was like, whoa, this is what, then I started reading muscle magazines and started getting into all this stuff. And I go, wait, I'm not supposed to be eating cake and coffee and doing all this shit and drinking soda.
One of the first things I tell everybody is when I was heavy, when I was like 13, 14 years old, I remember looking at, I forget what magazine it was, it was like muscular development or something. Mm-hmm. And it was Ronnie Coleman or Flex Wheeler, one of these guys crushing two bottles of soda, like with their hand, like popping the top off.
Mm-hmm. And they're like, you shouldn't, it was this whole article about how you, there's no nutritional value to soda. You should never drink soda. Mm-hmm. Um, and I think there's a lot of people in the nutritional space, in the fitness space now where you're confusing people and being like, Hey, well, like if you're just drinking it for the calories, I don't think there's a purpose to soda.
If you want to drink it, fuck, go ahead do it. I mean, people do dumber shit than that. When I gave up drinking soda as a kid when I was younger, within two weeks I dropped like 10 pounds. Sure. Like I went from drinking soda all the time, you know, having a lunch and dinner and all Sure. To cutting it completely outta my diet and losing 10 pounds within a week.
I used to, I was so fat. My legs used to rub together here and I had like, basically like acne and uh, yeah. You know, shit all over. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Psoriasis and stuff. When I started to clean up my diet and do all that, went away. Change your mindset too, right? Absolutely. What's going on? And I, but now I'm like looking at myself differently.
I remember like having these brown stains on the inside of my legs and I'm like, within weeks they were, it was gone and I was like, holy shit, my skin cleared up. Everything felt better. I'm like, wait, if I could do that by just cutting out desserts and soda, what could I do if I clean up everything? Start eating right?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it changed. And now the way people treated me, like people treat, everybody says like, oh, there's a fat phobia is definitely a thing. Like you always, everybody wants to be around somebody who's in shape and inspiring and looks a certain way. Like even for myself, like, I mean, I try to look as good as I can.
And even you, like, I want to be around older guys and older women who like are in shape. 'cause it's just inspiring. It's, it's achievable. Yeah. But being in shape, you're a business owner. When you walk into a room, people treat you differently. People treat you differently. You're gonna make more money, you're gonna grow your business.
They're like, look at this. You know, look at that. Yeah. But it says a lot about somebody when they're in good shape. Right? It does. Because you have grit, you have tenacity. This guy's putting in the work. Putting Yeah. And it's hard work. Yeah. Yeah. When, when 95% of the population is out there. Sitting on the couch mm-hmm.
And overeating and, and doing all those negative things. You are putting in the work. You're getting up early and there's no excuse anymore because now we have all these drugs and stuff. We understand so much more about biology. You know, for years I never understood certain aspects of like the craving side of it.
And I, this is why I sympathize with a lot of people who are overweight. Sure. And I tell people, I go, listen, if ozempic and, uh, GLP ones is the only way that'll kickstart or, uh, catalyst your diet program or your healthy lifestyle, then use it. Don't use it as a crutch, but use it to kickstart your, your life so that you could end up where you need to be.
Hmm. Every one of these people who is like prof being fat, you know, the, um, what's her name? Lizzo and all these people. Mm-hmm. They're all taking Ozempic now. They're all trying to lose weight. They were all just too fucking lazy to actually put in the work. And now they're, you know, how I feel about that stuff.
What? Right. The GLP and, you know, give them an apple, give them some hard fucking work. Yeah. And let's go. Yeah. I people see the, the, the drug companies and the food companies, they know how to coerce us. Mm-hmm. Right? They do. Yeah, of course. And I think they're really taking advantage again, you know, of people that are severely overweight and they want, most people want the shortcut.
They do shortcuts don't work. Mm-hmm. They don't, if you want to take care of this and look like this, you know, put in the work. Mm-hmm. And it's achievable. It takes longer. It does take longer, you know, but you're gonna come out the other side better. Well, one of the examples that I tell people all the time is when I was, years ago, I was on television and.
Same time was on television. I actually had a full-time job in New Jersey working at a shipping company. I worked at Port Newark. Mm. The like the Bon Jovi song. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So I was working on the docs, um, and the money I made from the docs I treated differently than the money I made in television, simply because the money I made from doing some of the stuff that I did in television, they would just give me money.
Like I didn't have to work hard for it. But the stuff that I made on the docks, the money I made on the docks, I had to break my app. Like I hated it. Yeah. So it, it, to me that was like blood money. And I was so frivolous in spending the money that I made on television. On television. 'cause I didn't work for it.
So when people work hard for something, they treat it differently. And then the stuff you do, they didn't. It's so true. So like when you actually achieve something on your own mm-hmm. And you work hard for it, it just means so much more to people. And I think. A lot of parents nowadays and I think not so much you maybe, I guess your generation.
How old are your kids? I have a son who's 31. Okay. So yeah. Your son's about that generation. Yeah, gen Z. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they were brought up with this idea that like, and correct me if I'm wrong, I mean I probably not your kid, but I'm guessing most of his friends and people he grew up with, it was just like, oh, well if you didn't win, well, you should get a participation trophy.
I remember hearing that when I was a kid and, and they're like, well, everybody should get a trophy. I'm like. I don't want one if I didn't earn it. Like that's stupid. Yeah, right. Like you Yeah, yeah, yeah. You depreciate the value of somebody winning. Now if everybody gets the same trophy, it, it's, and that's why we have a soft society.
When, when my son was, he was, he was kind of gifted, but he lacked motivation. He played, uh, varsity baseball, varsity football, and varsity basketball. And I'm like, you need to start mentoring. You mentor other. You see anybody getting bullied, you mentor them. You know, you are looked up to, as one of these top athletes at your high school, you need to do something.
You know? But I was actually mentoring his friends, you know, that were, you know, uh. Top level athletes in high school. Mm-hmm. You know, and they're like, oh, Mr. Mr. Fabs is jacked. You know, I was, yeah. And I was, I I went back to competing then, you know, and so I, I actually have this photo of Jack Lane when he was like 23 in a picture of me when I was 52.
And we put them side by side and I'm like, huh, I look better than Jack. Right. And I love Jack Lang. Yeah. You know, he's got this great saying, you know, the only thing good about a donut is the hole, you know? So, but I mean, he started just with a chair and a dog and on tv. Yeah. And doing calisthenics movement.
And, you know, that's, you're going back to what's my purpose? My purpose is to, I want to change the health and wellness industry by helping people move better. To live longer. And that's, you know, and I realized that when I started climbing mountains, you know, I thought it was like all I'm, I'm all jacked up and a piece of cake and, you know, it kicked my fucking ass.
Yeah. Mountain climbing. So you, I mean, you have such a great story. Like, you, you fly Sean Hannity around, right? Yeah. You know, and, and I'm sure you've seen some pretty cool shit with him and heard some pretty wild stuff. And you, you trump on the phone and, you know, I mean, just, you know, but the, you know, the biggest thing for me is it, it's cool doing that and there is a coolness factor.
Mm-hmm. It's hard. Flying jets is hard. You have to be like super disciplined and you gotta be on you. Yeah. You have to be on your game. Yeah. You know, there's things going on in the industry where you heard of the Air India crash. And the one did, wasn't there one guy who walked out? Did you hear about that?
He was, yeah. He was sitting at one of the emergency exits. Yeah. Right there. And he got tossed out somehow. But, you know, things happen and pilots have to be focused ready on their game Knowledge checklist, you know, the, the whole The whole show. Yeah, the whole show. So I took one flying lesson 'cause I would love to get my license and I took one.
You can fly, you're sharp. I'd love to, I'd, I just don't have the time right now to like, yeah, but spend the hours, it's like 300 hours or something. Uh, it depends on what you wanna fly a helicopter or a fixed wing. You know, fixed wing is less expensive, but just one of those, like small cessnas or something.
Yeah. But I went out to Long Island. Oh, okay. And the check the checkpoints and all the, you know, preparation before, should you go on the North Shore flying around? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was just like, holy shit. Like, it's like a, I mean, it's second nature I'm sure to you, and people have done it for a long time, but, well, it is, it's um, I like, I like helicopters.
Sikorsky's better than jets. Jets has a coolness factor, but helicopter more fun to fly. Right. It's fun. I'd love flying in the city landing at the Heliports. Yeah. And I've, I've, I've flown all over the northeast with the helicopter, but the jet, I've flown all over the world. And, um, yeah. You have to be hyper super focused on what you're doing.
You have to be passionate about it. It's hard work 'cause it's constant. Mm-hmm. Meaning constant studying constantly. Like, I have a trip tomorrow in Sean's jet, you know, I'm doing a demo with my product to a company in Dubai at 6:00 AM and then 10:00 AM I'm taking Sean's jet out to Cincinnati, you know, and I'm like, I'm gonna, but I'm You're flying in Dubai?
No, I'm doing a demo. I'm doing a demo via Zoom. Okay. With a company Wellness First they're, they want to collaborate with, with my company, you know? Yeah. So tell us a little bit about what you're doing with that. Oh, total motion. 360. Yeah. Yeah. Because of the, the mountain climbing and I felt inadequate.
Inadequate. And you think about how many people would love to look like you. People younger than your age and younger who'd love to look like you and you felt, but they can, bro. Yeah. Yeah. I know. But like, that's, that's my point. Like, here you, because I feel the same way. I look at myself in the mirror, I'm like, ah, you look like shit.
You gotta keep working harder. There are people who are sitting on a couch who haven't moved their whole fucking life. I tell this story sometimes. I had a guy come in a couple months ago, sold his company, worked for a hedge fund, ton of money. Ton of money, and he's like, uh, just gimme the workouts and I'll, uh, I'll do 'em myself.
I go, buddy, you're 44 years old. You haven't worked out a fucking day in your life. You think me handing you a workout, you're gonna do it. I go, that why I am here and why I make the money I do. It's 'cause I keep people like you accountable. Yeah. I go, so you need to come in here one day a week. That's all I'm asking you for is one day a week, come in here and work with me.
I go, and then from there, we'll, he goes, no, no, no. I wanna do like five, six days a week. I go, here's what I'm telling you. You went from never doing anything. Sure. Now tomorrow you think you're gonna do everything. It doesn't work like that. It doesn't work that I get, you have money and you think fucking, it's just gonna fall outta the sky.
But this is something you actually have to fucking break your ass for and work. Yeah. Right. Was he, was he listening? No. No. He never came back. He never came back. Never came back. And that's why I, sometimes I charge a premium for first session because I tell people, I go, we're gonna evaluate where you are as a per every, because everybody thinks they wanna work out till they get to the nitty gritty of what they actually have to do.
And I try to make it fun for people. I'm like, Hey, listen, just take it easy. Have you push the sled, do some fucking, well, uh, let's teach you how to do pushups. Like things that you shouldn't doing. Yeah. But it's hard. I know. It's, it's, I know. No, no matter how you speak it. Mm-hmm. You have to push them. And they don't wanna be pushed.
They have the money, but they don't want to invest the money mm-hmm. Into themselves. It's an investment. I, if you wanna like, Hey bro, if you wanna live to 64, 74. This is what you're gonna do. If not, get the fuck out. I tell because it's hard work. I tell people all the time, like I even have clients and stuff who are like, why?
Why doesn't this happen faster? I go, well, it can happen faster if you dial everything in. I go, let's just say on a scale of one to a hundred that you giving a hundred would be like you eating everything. You should be eating, getting all the right sleep, working out, you know, to a relative point of failure.
Um, and doing that pretty consistently for months on end. Sure. I go, you'll get there faster. I go, but here's the problem. At best, at best, you're giving me 70%. Because you slack off, you grab some fucking peanuts and some snacks day, probably 40% in reality. Yeah. And then you're, you're not sleeping as well, and then you went out to dinner and you're like, well, I have a little bit of a dessert and blah, blah, blah.
So now it's like that ni that a hundred percent that you thought you were doing is diminished down to at best, 70. Yeah. So I go, let's just say you're getting 70% over the course of time. That's better than the 40%. You're 20%, you're actually doing Sure. You know, so how many, how many days could I rack up and get as close to a hundred percent as I possibly can?
And there's, most people aren't doing that. I'm not even doing that. I'm not either. I don't think I've ever given a hundred percent to a day. Yeah. You know, but I, I look, I take it in, um, 1% or less than that increments. Mm-hmm. Like per week. Yeah. You know, and. It's, I'm reaping the rewards because those little micro winds, I'm, I journal, I journal them in, you know, and I'm like, oh fuck.
You know, yesterday I do a lot of grip work, kettlebell work, carrying mm-hmm. Carrying loads and, and my mind is like, I'm climbing Everest. Yeah. That's where my mind is at. So I gotta keep when it starts getting painful. Okay. This is good. This is good stuff. You know, I'm doing a lot of back work, pullups, you know.
Pushups, all that stuff. Plus I use my, my product, my product as well, which is the 360, the total motion, 360. It's a, um, so we didn't really talk about that, but it's, I think people know the landmine. Mm-hmm. Right. It's a very similar product to the landmine. Similar. Mm-hmm. I made it lighter. I patented. You have your own custom barbell custom.
Mm-hmm. It's custom. And that's why this company, wellness First is interested in it. It, and I'm franchising the, the, uh, the business. I just got a new prototype. Mm-hmm. But, you know, I have, I have a, a purpose and a mission throughout this, the past four decades. Right. I've really dialed in nutrition.
Movement. And I keep working towards that, and I'm like, wow, something's fucking going on here. You know, because, um, I get invites from people and they wanna know and they wanna hire me. And, you know, those types of, you know, when you start stepping into your purpose mm-hmm. Things start happening and you have to keep, keep, it starts to feel good, it starts to feel good, but the journey's been long, but it actually started at the airlines are like, and pilots are the worst big egos, you know?
Really? Oh, fucking, I'm like, you know, I could tell you some stories, but they're like, doctors, you've worked with doctors. Yeah. These talk about egos. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, they're getting women throwing themselves at them. Right. They're, it's like, oh, he is a pilot. Yeah. You know, it's one of those careers that you like, but now when you're a fat fuck now, bro.
Yeah. What, what the, you can't even get out of the cockpit now. Yeah. What the fuck? You know, so back then. Uh, guys were coming up and they're like, Hey man, what are you doing? I used to bring my meals with me, bring them with me on trips, and I was training, I was training hard and I was trying to win this, uh, natural universe, you know?
And so I was dialed in. I was dialed in on the flying, and I was just super focused on me and what I'm doing, right. And that's when things started to happen. Um, I needed to write a book and I didn't know how to write a book, but I'm like, oh, fuck it. I'll try it. You know? So a six month project took two years to put something together and, you know, and all that.
You have. And then I got invited. Your third book, right? Uh, I'm doing my third book now from zero where, you know, I was the three dimensional loser. Mm-hmm. I was. And through high school then. Um. Late teens, early twenties until I found aviation. And aviation was like, if I want to be a badass pilot kind of thing, you know?
'cause I just kind of gravitated towards that. Then I gotta stop doing all the bullshit. Yeah. I think, I think that's what most people miss in life is a purpose. Right? For me, my purpose was, I truly believe that there was a point in my life that was very low. Uh, I, what was that? What point was that? Around 2011, 2012, I had gotten canceled, um, over some shit that never happened.
Um, I didn't understand why this was happening to me. Um, it was a very low point in my life. At the same time, I had torn my pecs so I couldn't work out, or at least I couldn't do the body stuff. I had broken up with my girlfriend at the time I moved outta the apartment we had. It was just like, everything felt like it was imploding.
Um. I was going through at around the same time I was going through a lawsuit with my old gym, with my partners and stuff. So it was just like, you know, problem after problem after problem. It's like, I, I tell this story a lot. I opened up the cabinet in my apartment, the bathroom cabinet, and I had a bunch of like, medications and stuff in there.
You know, I lived with another guy at the time who had a bunch of shit in there too. Mm-hmm. I'm like, if I just take all this shit, I'll just fucking pass out. Or I could go outside and go for a run. And I chose the run. You chose the run. Why did you choose? Why? Why, what? Because fitness has always saved me.
Yeah. Fitness has always made me feel better and I said, what could I do to make myself feel better right now? Like, not for the rest of my life, but what could I improve right now? And that's what I did. I went outside. And my arm was in a sling and I was just like, lemme just try to walk as fast as I could.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and I went out there and when I got back home two hours later, 'cause I went for like a two hour walk and that's what I love about New York. I came back in and I sat on my bed and I just started to write down ideas and things I wanted to do and part of the mission of like strong New York.
And it was, this was like through the shit I've been through the shit I've seen other people deal with. You know, I lost my cousin a little earlier than that and I didn't under quite understand why that happened. Yeah. He was a younger guy. He was only like 33, but he was like a brother. We were very close.
Um, so all this shit kind of happened all at once. My grandmother had passed away and I'm like, fuck man, this is crazy. I don't know, I don't know why I'm dealing with all this right now. You know? There was a reason for that. Yeah. And I said, I go if I could focus on myself and improve my situation right now.
Then maybe I could eventually help other people do that. And that's part of the idea behind the whole strong New York thing. Sure. Strength is something that everything everyone needs. New York is like this kind of cool, like you put New York on anything and it just makes everything a little bit cooler.
Um, but I was here and I was like, if I can make strength important to everyone here, if I could get people to focus on themselves, then this could become viral and everyone will get into it. So now looking, looking at the world as it is today, everybody thinks strength is cool. Like strength is a hot word.
It's like biohacking and shit. Oh, oh yeah, for sure. Right? So everybody's like, oh, I'm strength training. I'm strength training. Everything's strength. Pilates is strength and running strength. And so I was like, fine. I don't care what you fucking think. Strength is. Strength to me is improvement. Strength is like when you're down and out and you have nothing.
How good are you at your worst? Right? How strong could you bay out at your worst? So the whole idea behind Strong New York was like this idea that if I could get other people to do whatever type of workout they want to do, but communicate with other people and build this idea of like improving themselves, then that would be my purpose in life.
And I think a lot of people don't ever get the opportunity to figure out what their purpose is. Well, there are opportunities out there and you have a great story. Mm-hmm. And your story will influence others that they may think that they don't have a purpose. Mm-hmm. But you're innately, you're born with something.
Right. But society, what I've learned, it's the beat down. You know, I was medicated as a child because I was a happy kid, little kid, you know, I was happy and I had these dreams of Jacque CTO and, you know, this great adventurer, and I wanted to be my own type of modern day adventurer. I did, you know, but, um, school, family, society, you know, getting bullied, you get, you get the beat down, so you're like, ah, nobody gives a fuck about me, you know?
And I didn't think I'd make it past 21. Yeah, no, me either. You know, during all the, the Black Lives Matter stuff, and I, I have this conversation with one of my clients who I absolutely love. She's, you know, one of my, probably my best friend because I see her every day. We bullshit all the time. She's black chick, we're the same age, you know, she's great.
But one of the things I said, I go, I grew up in Newark, New Jersey, so when people are like, oh, this white privilege, they're like, oh, you and I go. You know, I, I wish I got to experience some of that. I go, I am fucking white trash from, from Newark, New Jersey. I go, you don't realize. I go, I got bullied and picked on for being fat and all.
And nobody gets picked on more than anything. If you're fat, you women don't want to have anything to do with you. Exactly. Unless you have a ton of ma money. Yeah. And I didn't have that, you know, and so I was like fat awkward, you know? I was into comic books, like I was the quintessential loser. And just like you said, from zero to here, like, I knew that about myself though.
I looked in the mirror and I, I was like, I, I don't know what else I could, I could be wrong. That could be wrong. But see, I think you had some sort of epiphany where I'm better than this. I'm, I'm gonna go for a run. And that maybe was the catalyst that, you know what, but then you put pen to paper. Mm-hmm.
If you're journaling about gratitude and, Hey, I have these ideas, and putting pen to paper. Yeah. That's what starts it. Then you're like, you know what, Hmm, okay, I'm gonna take another step. Mm-hmm. And then another step and keep going. And here you are. Yeah. Right. And that's, that's a hard thing to do. And I'm, I'm not jealous.
I used to be, but I'm not jealous of people who've had it better, who've had, you know, everything I've ever wanted to do. My father's shit on when I wanted to wrestle, he goes, what do you wanna wrestle here? It's a fucking loser sport. Then I was like, I wanna go to the gym. And he's like, why are you going to the gym?
I said, losers go to the gym. What? Yeah. He goes, he's like, gay guys go to the gym. You don't go. And I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? I was like, I'm like, Arnold goes to the gym. What the hell? Like my father's shit on everything. When I opened my gym, my father's shit on that, when I was on tv, my dad shit on like I was, nothing was ever was, but I always was.
He jealous? I, I don't know man. 'cause you were starting to do things differently. Yeah, I think that's what it was. I think he just didn't understand like if he, if he had it his way, I would've been a cop in New Jersey. That's what he would've loved for me to do. Just listen to what he said and become a cop in New Jersey.
And I always did the exact opposite. I always did something different. And he hated that. Like he didn't have, my dad loved having control. He, he was in the Marines, he went to Vietnam, all that. Oh really? Yeah. And he wanted to have control. He wanted us to be the fucking soldiers. And that's it. And. Um, I didn't wanna do that.
I was, I guess, as rebellious as I could be with Right. Uhhuh within the confines of my family. Um, and I kind always danced to the beat of my own drummer and wanted to do my own thing. And, um, yeah, I think that, I think that's an unusual based on, based on my experience, you know, people follow others and that's a big problem.
And it's hard to go and cut your own path. It is, but that was my point, that like, I had no guidance and no support. Like my mom was, would always, and God bless her, I mean, she didn't know any better. She'd always be like, whatever you want to do, just go do it. But like, I didn't have anybody when I opened my first business, dudes, I didn't have, I'm, I'm, so what I am jealous of are people who I meet who are like, oh, my mentor helped me with this.
I had this person who's guiding me, or I had a parent that really gave a shit. You had, you didn't have that? I don't really have it. Like looking back, I had a lot of people help me and friends who helped me and my older brother was very supportive of everything I did. But like no one could answer the questions I had when it came to like the finances of running a business.
Sure. And the legal side of running the business. And so I fucked up a lot. You know, my first two gyms I fucked up. But even go exercising and working out, I kind of just like pulled it outta magazines and just took a shot. And I always just kind of did, if somebody was like, Hey, you could do anything. But I was always told you can't do anything.
And we had no money to do anything. Yeah. Yeah. All my friends in high school, like when they wrestled, like there was like not as many as there are now, but there were wrestling schools you could go to. Like my little brother ended up going, he's two years younger, he got to go to like this other wrestling school where he got, you know, you go to see a private coach and you get better at something, you get better.
I never had that. Yeah. I'm like, fuck, that would've been great. 'cause I could have been better than I was. You know? So little opportunities throughout the years, I'm like, man, I wonder what I could have been if I had one person be like, do it this way or help. So I always had to figure it out on my own. So now he, and, and that's okay.
Yeah. It's just taken me longer to do it than other people. But you're only 40 years old, bro. 42. But yeah, I agree. You know, you know what I'm saying? I I hear you though. Yeah. I, and sometimes I get on myself because I'm like, fuck, why haven't I figured out? Like, I was sitting with this kid who was here, you know, he's 32, 33 years old.
He made his first million when he was 27. And now like, fuck, how, what did you do? What do you understand that I didn't understand? Was that, that kid, um, I, the guy who was telling you who has a nutrition company, so by 27, yeah, he's a millionaire. And I'm like, fuck, that's great. That's pretty cool. Like here I am at 42, still trying to figure it out.
Um. Hey, I'm still trying, you know? Yeah. I'm, I'm still trying to figure it out. But's, that's the thing where longevity Yeah. Gives you more time. Yeah. You know, got a little bit more runway, but there's a sense of urgency always. There should be anyways. Yeah. There should be anyways, you know, you're, you're doing you and keep doing you and you just gotta shut out the noise, put the blinders on and say, you know what, go fuck yourself.
Yeah. This is what I'm doing. And you, and you grind. Yeah. You grind every day. You know, um, it, it will, whatever you're seeking will come. Yeah. You just can't give up if you give up. You're done. Yeah. Right. You're done. Yeah. Right. And I, you know, we hit rock bottom two years ago with, with cancer. My wife and the, the business, you know, started floundering and we had to divert all the money towards, um, oncology and treatment and all this stuff.
And I'm like, oh, what the fuck? You know, poor. I did the pity party. Poor me. You know? And, um, then, then I just snapped out of it and I'm like, fuck it. Let's go. Let's go, let's start training harder. Let's start, you know, all these things. And we had a miracle show up like two months ago where Rhonda went from, she went from her own zero, she was below 80 pounds and practically dying in my arms.
Mm-hmm. And to where she went to see her oncologist. And her latest PET scan was not, you're in remission, but no evidence of cancer. No evidence. It was in her, it was in her lungs. It was in her C two and C3, and her skull throughout her bones and everything. And I'm like, what the fuck? But she started following more like what I do, you know, juicing.
Um, see people get so freaked out when you start telling them there's natural pathways of kind of clearing some of this. You can't say a hundred percent obviously, but there Right, right. No, I get you. You know, but you have to, you have to Do you? Yeah, I do Tom Fabry. Mm-hmm. I don't care what other people think.
I don't care what the doctors think. Yeah. I, I have a knowing based on decades of research on me mm-hmm. Trying this, trying that, you know, I told you in like in my early like 2021, um. I was doing, uh, some steroids for about six months. Mm-hmm. You know, um, Diana Ball and testosterone, you know, and, and I got some heat from my family and I'm like, okay.
You know, that embarrassment. Yeah. Like they're, what the fuck are you doing? You know? And I thought it, that was the path to get stronger and bigger and compete and all that. And I didn't know what I didn't know. Yeah. But I learned over time, I don't even need sup supplementation except something that we were talking about earlier, earlier.
Lion's mane and, um, turmeric and, you know, uh, manuka honey, the best honey that I can get. Well go back to your, your wife. She, uh, you know, there's no trace of can, like what do you attribute that to? Mindset. I think mostly mindset. Yeah. Uh, being grateful. My feeling is that the body has the ability to heal itself.
I thousand percent agree. And if you have this mindset of, uh, I'm sick, I don't feel good, I'm gonna, you know, all these negative thoughts. Right. Say if you're fearful of something, most people are fearful of getting up on stage, right. Most people. Mm-hmm. And what happens? They get butterflies in their stomach and, you know, they'll break out and hide.
Oh, you're gonna make, you're gonna make yourself sick. Yeah. Or I make myself healthy every day. I'm strong, healthy, I'm young. I've been saying that for decades. Yeah. And it's kind of because people were looking at me like, you know, they'd ask that question, how old are you? And I was just like, I'm not, I'm not old.
Society will tell you if you hit a certain, uh, milestone, oh, you're moving to Florida, you know you're gonna do, you're gonna retire, you're gonna do this, you're setting yourself up for death. I really, truly feel like this. Yes. Like people always tell me, they're like, oh, are you gonna, are you gonna move outta the city?
I go, for what? What the fuck am I moving? Well, it's kind of hard to live in the city as you get older. I'm like, for you, not for me. Yeah. You know, I'm like, there's, I think what's harder is going out to the suburbs and being by yourself and being lonely. At least here in the city. There are other people my age who are still trying to live life and enjoy life.
Sure. You know, I'm not saying people in the suburbs don't enjoy their life, but there's a lot more opportunity to kind of. Live a more fruitful life. I think in the city there's just more going on. People gravitate towards the city because they want that excitement, they want that environment where people are.
I, I think you're correct. You know, if you, if you travel throughout the world and you say, I'm from New York, they immediately think that New York City in New York City is the mecca. Yeah, yeah. Of the world. It still is. I mean, that's why I put my event here, because I go, at one point or another, I don't care if you live in Cambodia or Bangladesh or wherever you are in the world.
If you ask anyone, would you wanna go to New York one day, they'd be like, yeah, great. Oh yeah, I'd love to. That'd be amazing. I wanna see New York. Yeah, right. If you said, Hey, do you wanna go to Cincinnati, Ohio? They'd be like, for what? What the fuck? Fuck would I go there for? I know. To see the reds. Yeah. So I'm like, I, I'm here, there, but it's any city.
Like I was just in London over the weekend. I love London. I love London. And Saturday night I was like. We just got done with the event and it was like nine o'clock and I go, I'm gonna go to Central London. I'm gonna go check this out. I had a great night. I went by myself. I went to go have a steak. I went to the uh, RI hotel, the Bulgar Hotel.
Oh really? Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, have dinner there, had a great steak, then went upstairs, had a cigar. It was awesome. The, it was one o'clock in the morning, place was jumping. I go, I would've sat in my hotel kicking myself in the ass that I didn't come. Sure. I encourage everybody to, if you're sitting around and you are like in this depressed state and you're kind of miserable, get up off your ass, go to the gym.
Go out, go be around other people. Even if you're alone. Yeah. Go do something, you know, leave your life a little bit. But see, people are afraid of people. I know. I know. You know, there's that fear of, oh, they're looking at me, I'm outta shape or what? Whatever the fear is, you know. People imagine it. Mm-hmm.
And it's in their own heads, you know, and you just have to shut out all of that, you know? And, and I do. I don't, you know what? I don't care what people think of me, and people are gonna think of me anyways. Yeah. You know, or not, or think I'm an asshole, or, well, that guy's fucked up, or whatever. What I tell people is that most of my clients too, I go, it's all about preparation too.
Yeah. You know, one of the things that I learned from, over the course of the last couple years, having the events, we've always had somebody speak on motivation, especially like Navy seals and stuff. I, I'm fascinated by those cases. Mm-hmm. Right. In any type of military personnel, because there's such preparation that goes into any execution of a mission of any sort.
And you run through these drills and you're like, all right, if this goes wrong with that goes wrong. What did we do wrong? Not, oh, we fucked up. It's like, what did we do wrong that we could correct or prepare for? So when I go and I am presenting my business to somebody, or I'm trying to sell somebody on or building out the gym, I try to prepare as much as I possibly can so that I don't have this sense of like, poor me or I didn't do enough.
Right. I try to do as much as I could. Right. Do the work. Yes. Do the work. So now when you walk in the room and you look a certain way, people are gonna treat you a certain way. Exactly. So you prepare for what you want. Exactly. You can't blame the fucking rest of the world for being like, oh, they called me fat.
They made me feel like this. They made me feel like that. No, you made yourself feel like that. And I say that all the time because it's, that's a true statement's A because if somebody says something, I'm like, I didn't do that. Right. Or I could have done that differently. Yeah. I always that that idea of extreme ownership.
Jocko will Jocko Willink. Oh yeah. And I love that idea that like, it's not everybody else's fault, it's your own. So I try to assume all responsibility for anything that goes wrong with him. Like for instance, a guy saying like, I could either get offended and be like, oh my God, he doesn't like my brand. Or I could be like, I love what I do.
I spend countless hours redoing the same fucking logo 101 times. There were 55 different renditions of the same thing. I love it. So he could go suck my ass. I don't give a shit if he likes it, I like it. But if I, if I wasn't confident, if I didn't spend the time and the money and the effort on doing exactly what I wanted, then I'm like, oh, poor me.
I, he doesn't like what I did. I don't give a fuck. I did everything I could up to that point. And if I failed, that's fine. I look at Juujitsu the same way. Yeah. Like I train as much as I possibly can, and if I get out there and somebody kicks my ass, I'm like, I'm gonna go back to the fucking lab. Figure out what I did wrong.
Exactly. And try it again. Not, oh, poor me, I lost, oh, he's better than me. No, I'm like, no, fuck that. Yeah. Yeah. I, I gotta just train more. So with, with that, you know, with your logo, you know, it's, you created it for you. Yeah. You, you have a purpose, so you're gonna put in a hundred percent of your effort and your heart and soul into that.
It's not about consumerism, it's not about the sale. So that's why New York strong and your gyms, and, you know, because. You're a hundred percent in. Mm-hmm. You're all in. Yeah. You know, you're not working to please other people. You wanna please yourself first. Yeah. That's, that's true. And then you find your tribe through doing what you love.
Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. You find the people who are into your shit. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and 'cause then when you're inauthentic, when you're not authentic to yourself and you're not do, but you're lying. Yeah. You're lying to you and the public. Yeah. And, and people see that. Yeah, of course. Yeah. It's so important.
I, I, I talk about that so much. Um, you know, I've had, I hired a marketing company and they're like, well, maybe we could make the brand a little bit more user friendly. And I'm like, yeah, but then I don't wanna wear this shit. I know. I mean, if somebody could help me try to find a good balance between what I love, but I just said three weeks ago, I went to a Metallica concert.
There were 85,000 people in Philadelphia at this football stadium listening to this band that came That's older than me. Yeah. Oh yeah. You know, and I go, what I thought was cool in high school, I think is cool now. Yeah. You know? Oh yeah. That same music that, that, that skulls and the bullshit, like, oh yeah, I love all that shit.
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's still cool. Yeah. I, and I'm guessing I do, the 85,000 people that were in that stadium thought it was cool too. Oh yeah. A hundred, a hundred percent. So I like that genre. I like that stuff. And I, I always just lean towards that. That just, to me, it just feels very me. Yeah. I get that.
Yeah. You know, um, like personally for me, um, van Halen was, you know, oh, love, you know, what's your favorite album? Do you have a favorite album or do you have like a song? Um, I, you know, I'm a, I'm a big Eddie Van Halen, but David Lee was fucking badass, you know. Um, I liked, I liked every version of Van Halen.
There was, I loved Sammy Hagar. Love Sammy Ha. Yeah. Dreams is, you know, oh, great. The, the, the video with the Blue Angels and, and, and all that it, that music, you know, eruption and, yeah. And all that stuff is like fucked. That's so badass. When, when I was in high school, we were burning CDs, me and this buddy, and on every CD that I burn, I was like, dude, I gotta have some Ben Halen.
I love Van Halen. Yeah. Remember the, the first time you heard it? I'm like, what is that? Yeah. I remember being in High Well, dreams, I heard early on because, yeah, I guess I was like, that came out in what, 92, 93? I had an al, I had the live album. It was like the 93 live album or something. Okay. Okay. Was it with Sammy Hagar?
Sammy Hagar. And it was the picture of like the front yard and the statue of Jesus on it and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I played that fucking Did you really? I couldn't wait to get my license because I'm like, I wanna drive around and Blast Van. Like, I love, that's one of those bands where I was just a, I would say Van Halen, Bon Jovi, guns N Roses, like when I was in on, yeah.
Oh, that shit's the best. It's good stuff. You know, I Good stuff. It Mo you know, there, there's something to music where you get this feeling, especially when you're working out. Mm-hmm. You know, I, when I'm doing my thing, I either listening to a book, you know, like maybe a Jocko book or, you know, um, um, a lot, a lot of different books or I'll put on a play set and I just go to town.
I just go to town, you know, and I'm grinding and I'm grinding and I'm going through the pain and it, it, the, the music though. It's a little bit of a distraction, but it keeps me focused. No, it keeps me focused. There's nothing I like more than teaching a class or being in a class. And especially in the city, it's very hard to find some, a class where people are, aren't playing top 40 bullshit.
And if I walk in somewhere and they play any type of seventies, eighties, metal music, I'm like, I found my home. There you go. Right. I love that shit. Yeah. Yeah. It it, it's good stuff. It's good stuff. Yeah. You know, so, um, you know, where we're at today is Nathan Hyland is my business consultant. Mm-hmm. You know, he's a young guy.
He's few years younger than you, I think I was gonna say, I think he's like 37, 38. Yeah. He just had a baby. Okay. You know, and uh, he named his baby Cairo. I'm like, Cairo, that's you. My parents named me Tom, my brother, Mike, and Billy. You know, I'm like, I want a cool name like that. Yeah. You know, but he's like, yeah, I've been over to Egypt quite a bit and all this stuff, you know, and we're running on time here, bro.
Yeah. I think we're, we're wrapping up, right? Okay. He can say that. Yeah. No, but okay, you, I want you to finish. Um, and you know, he was telling me about his wife, Mary Kris, that, you know, they just had the baby, but the baby is gonna be used on, uh, the Huggies. Shit already. Yeah. Already for that. I'm like, I'm like, bro, I can do the depends, you know, put me on the, you know, put, put me as a poster child.
Um, yeah. Nathan's such, like, he's one of those guys. He's, he's, he's good. He's a solid guy. He's solid. He knows the business very well and I'm like, I'm like Richard Branson. I don't know the difference between net and gross. So I'm gonna delegate. Yeah. Yeah. That's why, you know, I'm gonna delegate. Yeah. I think it's so important to know your strength and like, I mean, Christie's with me everywhere all the time because I, I'm at a point where I can't tie my shoes without her.
I mean, she's so organized. I was actually with my buddy Tyler last night, and he has a young lady that works for him and she's, she texted me this morning, she's like, Hey, we're gonna do this, like, setting up other meetings and stuff. But I think behind every great man is an even better woman. And Exactly.
Mary Chris, I met through working with, uh, Michelob. She's the one who introduced me to Nathan. Oh, really? Yeah. That's how I met him. And she's, she's on the Chris Helms Worth app or something? Yeah, the center, center work, uh, stuff. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So he works with them. Um, but she's great. I mean, she's again, another like rockstar in my opinion, in the industry.
Yeah. Stuff. Yeah, he's, he's great. And he's even better with her, so. Yeah. Yeah. They're a great team. So they're, they're getting me to where I need to be because of Nathan. We're expanding, you know, I'm very confident and he's confident about this, uh, company in Dubai Wellness first. Yeah. They want exclusivity on the product, distribution and sales, and we're franchising.
And so, well, hopefully we could do something at the event. I mean, listen, I tell everybody I created this thing to help people. You know the people who need your product and you need those, that clientele. And it's just a, a way to aggregate and network and kind of create this incubator of, you know, people in the health and wellness industry who are, if you're looking to improve, I mean, this is the place, especially here in New York.
And that's in s September? September, September 27th, because I think I'm, we're going to Dubai in October. Well, the Muscle Show. No, that's November. The Fibo show. Oh, Fibo show. No, that's October. No, Fibo happened already. Oh. Do one in Dubai, but I think they're doing one in Dubai. Oh wow. Okay. I'm gonna have to go to that too.
I look for excuses to go to Dubai. I love that place. Well, listen, I think that's all the time we have, right? Am I good man? Did we go over? Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, shit. You sure? Okay. Alright. They, they, they're, they're getting tight around here. Yeah. Um, guys, as always, thank you so much for joining us, Tom, thank you so much.
Thank you. Pleasure. You have an incredible story. I, I could sit and chat with you I know for quite a while. Yeah. We, we, we should go grab, drink some mushrooms and I'm for that. I'm up for that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, guys, thank you as always. Like, share, subscribe. Um, hope this was as fun for you as it was for us.
Again, don't forget to get your tickets too strong. New York this year. As always, we are powered by Celsius. I crushed too while we're sitting here. Um, and again, as always, right, strength is what you are at your weakest. So get strong, have great people around you. Do what you need to do to get strong.
Prepare yourself and uh, we're out. We're out. Thank you all. Thanks bro. That was awesome. Appreciate it. Thank you. Great team. We got here. Appreciate all of you. Thank you.