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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.
Welcome to the Strong as F#ck podcast I'm your host, Kenny Santucci, and join us for some strong conversations.
So we made it over the hump. We've done over 20 podcasts. They say most podcasts don't even make it to the 10th episode, but here we are in my brand new gym. It's called the strength club, New Jersey, right here in Caldwell. And I wanted to bring on a guy who has a very special story. A new friend of mine, we've become pretty close over the past couple of years.
And he has been changing the landscape in New Jersey. His gym's in New Jersey, so I decided to bring him on because he has a fantastic story that I want you guys to hear and I want to share with you guys all. So, ladies and gentlemen, my new buddy, Devin Levesque. What's up, brother? Devin, thank you so much for coming on.
Thank you, my brother. Unbelievable guy. Thank you. Um, when I first saw this guy jump on the scene, I go, who the fuck's this kid doing backflips and crazy shit on a treadmill? I go, he's like more of a circus guy than anything else. And then when you get to know them, I'm like, all right, that's what it is.
That's what everybody sees. Yeah. You've done some really crazy shit. Yeah. Crazy. You're where'd all this start? Right. Cause I know, I know you've worked and I know a little bit of background. I know some people might know the background a little bit. You worked in nightlife. You got into the fitness space.
Yep. Blew the fuck up. Right. Because there's definitely a pecking order. Everybody starts to size everybody up when you're in the gym world. It's the egos of everybody works in the gym space. You came on the scene, you blew up, you were at performance house, you know, and you're doing your own thing now, you're with Jim Shark, you're a huge personality, but how did you transition from that?
Yeah. In the nightlife world into the fitness. Yeah. Well, I think it actually all started with fitness because my father was a pro weightlifter. My mother was a pro arm wrestler. So you're always in my whole life. I was doing pull ups when I was, you know, on the bar at one, you know, I remember I grew up with a gym in my house.
You know, it was encouraged to all. I have four sisters. It was encouraged by our parents in the middle, right in the middle. It was encouraged by them to get in the gym, do some squats, you know, do some lunges, do pull ups, do curls, like go outside, you know, run, go jump on our, I grew up on a horse farm, um, and milking cows, like go out, pet the animals, ride them.
And so, to me, you know All of that. Go, go down to the lake, go snowboard. That was health. That was longevity. We didn't really have those terms. That was just my life. Yeah. Um, and you grew up in Vermont, right? I grew up in Idaho and New Hampshire. Yeah. Okay. And, um, you know, I, I had, you know, like any country boy, or most, I want to go to the big city, you know?
And so, thinking that would be a better, I guess, avenue for me. And, and I quickly realized after, you know, You know, going to college out here and running nightclubs at, man, I gotta, I gotta get back on the farm. I gotta, I gotta get back to, um, wellness and get back to just making my health a top priority.
And so I put that first and then I started building businesses around that. And, you know, that's how we started Promix and, you know, I, you know, launched Sweet Honey Farm and All Day Running and, and all these different brands. But it was, it was really just around things I like to do anyways. I, I grew up.
Taking Shackley vitamins, you know, I don't know if you remember Shackley, but like my dad would have us take all these different vitamins all morning and I'm like, these are good, but I think we can create something better. Right? Um, and you know, so that, that's kind of how Promex started. Same thing with, you know, Sweet Honey Farm.
I'm like, I always wanted to have my own farm. So, um, you know, I, I found one that's close to the city, close to New York where I still get the, you know, the love of New York City. Cause I love New York, right? New York strong. Um, yeah. But I, I still have access to my farm that I can grow, you know, grow my own food and raise my own animals and harvest them, you know, chickens, cows, et cetera.
So I don't know. I think it starts with, it starts with health and it starts with doing things that you like to do and then schedule everything else around that. Cause if most people do it backwards, most people are like, well, let me have work to then maybe I can hire a trainer one day and like I can be healthy, but it's opposite.
You got to put the things you like and your health first. For me, at least, that's how, that's how it worked. You gotta put those first and work everything else in. What, what I think you've done so well, right? And this is just from the outside, you know, watching it for the past four or five years, probably even longer, it's gotta be longer than that.
I think you've done a real good job. Most people want to be in the good rooms, right? The rooms with the most impactful people. Yeah. But I think what you do so well is you get into those rooms and you become the most important person in the world. Where does that come from? Health is wealth. If you're the healthiest person and not just the strongest person, not the person with the best abs.
I'm talking healthy. Are you happy? Do you have anything going on in your mind? You know, are you personable? You have a good group around you. Are you, do you have clear skin? Do you, you know, are you happy? You know, are you connecting with not just humans, but animals? I think that's what health is. And I think that's true.
Wealth is when you can be on this planet and go about it and not. A lot of people have to overthink their health. They're like, man, I'm overweight. My skin's breaking out. I can't go to the bathroom. If I can put that aside, I can focus on other things in life. And I truly think that that's, that's wealth, you know?
And so, um, I think that's how I get to go into rooms and, you know, people, you know, come to me and, you know, they ask questions and I'm talking. People are just starting their, their career and billionaires of the world. They, they all seek the same advice. How do I become healthier? Well, I think from what I've seen, I mean, for those of you guys out there who don't know this, I mean, I've seen you with RFK, I've seen you with Gary Brekker.
I've seen you with, you know, major, I don't want to say influencers, but major people in the health and wellness space, and they're consulting with you. You know, you've kind of always lived this lifestyle, but you have no traditional. Yeah. Experiential. No traditional. Yeah. Well, I, I think it, you know, if, if I'll take an example of man, I don't believe in that.
I'm not one to be, I don't, I don't have a church. I didn't go to school. I agree. I dropped out of college. I just think there's too many excuses and people wait too long to live on the beach, right? Or live on a farm. Like there's a way if you want to live on a beach and people's dream right now is, man, I would love to have a beach house one day.
You and I could go get a tent and find a beach somewhere and we could go live on the beach. It's that simple. That's the, that's, that's the basis. But now you start saying, well, I want jet skis and I want this. Well, then yeah, you're probably, it's probably going to take you a while, but Hey, if you really, really, really want to live on a beach, you and I can do it right now.
And guess what? We won't have bills, we have a tent, we can fish for food, and that's it, right? And it's a very simple mindset, and too many people make it complicated. It's not that hard to do what you want, you just have to actually put that first. If you don't put that first, then you're living on someone else's agenda.
If you don't control your time, someone else is controlling your time. And so, I really believe that you have to take what you absolutely love. And your absolute no matter what, and I talk about this a lot, my absolute no matter what is family, health, community, freedom of time, and giving back. And if you don't have those values as a human, if you don't have your own values, they don't have to be mine, they have to be yours.
Maybe, you know, people listening, you have five different values. That's cool. But live by them. Don't deviate outside. The thing is, Navy SEALs, they don't deviate outside of their plan. They stick to the plan. Don't deviate outside of what your values are. I like to use five because it's not too many, it's not too little, but it's five values I can back into when I make decisions.
We as humans make 250, 000 decisions every week. Every week. We're at this gym opening. There's all these people here. There's cameras. There's lights. Where do we set up for the podcast? Do I buy that? Do I get this? Do I drink that? There's so many decisions and when I can make every little tiny decision down to what coffee shop am I going to based on my values.
Does this coffee shop believe in my values? If they don't, I'm not going there. Maybe Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts don't really believe my values so I'm gonna go to this little boutique one where I know the owner and he's like he or she is cool and they believe in this. Now I'm just surrounding myself with people with similar values versus similar industry.
If I put you in a room with a hundred different gym owners, you might get along with five of them. Doesn't mean you're best friend just because you're in the same industry. Yeah. And too many of us as humans, we, we, we surround ourselves with work friends. You know, people in the same industry as if, ooh, that's gonna, we're all trying to do the same thing.
No. Surround yourself with real friends, with people that have similar values. Similar values, yeah. It's, and that's what we do at Sweet Honey. You know? I, I think you've done a really good job, uh, You know, narrowing in exactly what you want. I think there's a lot of people out there and I'm sure some people are going to listen to this and it's going to kick them right in the balls.
And most people don't know what they want at it. And I think you have, you understand what your value system is. You have a, your emotional intelligence is skyrocketing. All right. Cause most people think like, Oh, I want to be successful. I have to be really smart and I have to know how to invest it. But I think your emotional intelligence is pretty fucking high.
Thank you. And you know exactly what you want. Could you explain to people exactly what you want? Because I think you have that already figured out what you want out of life. Like what is your plan? Because if you ask most people, they don't know what they want. They don't. If I, if most people, they think success, they think they know what they're.
Successes, what success is going to mean to them, and it normally is money, right? My success, and it's a serious question, everyone listening, and we have to have, I have with myself all the time, what does success mean to me? Success means to me, freedom of time, and being myself 100 percent of the time, to no matter what, to you, to the President of the United States, to the homeless guy over here, if I can be myself 100 percent of the time, I'm happy, that is full happiness, and if I can own my time.
The last 10 minutes of you and I talking, we're never going to get that back. And I think about that a lot of every single action I take in life, the drive I took here now sitting down, grabbing, you know, some deep load of it every little second I think about because I'm never getting it back. So I better be pretty, pretty serious about how I'm spending every second or it's just going to be gone.
It's going to be gone. So was money ever the objective in your life? No, it's freedom of time. Yeah, I've, I've had millions of dollars transferred in my account and I haven't been happy and I've had 0 in my account and I've been happy, right? And I think it doesn't, it's not money. It's freedom. It's how can I own my time and not let anyone else control my time?
And, and even in school, I used to get in trouble because I'm like, I'm, you know, I'm all anxious in middle school and high school. And, you know, I've got kicked out of a couple of schools and I train, you know, I transitioned to five different high schools. I dropped out of college. It was people owning my time and school is very good at teaching you how to work, but it's not going to teach you how to be a leader, right?
It teaches you how to do what everyone else is doing and you can go into a big corporation. You can let someone tell you what to do and you can follow these steps, but it doesn't teach you how to be a really good leader and do what you want and own your time. And so I was always stubborn with that. And I think back to your first question, it's it's honestly how I was able to separate and that stubbornness is what.
Helps me shine in room because I'm not, I'm sitting in a gym right now in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. I don't give a fuck. It's just like, this is who I am. Like I'm not. And I think the confidence needs to be embedded in people. And, um, you gotta, you gotta know what you want. Most people, you get, They want a hundred million dollars.
They don't know what to do with that hundred million dollars. That's a real that's a real shit Yeah, they really don't it's it's so interesting because I know you have an inner circle group You have a good join and kind of chat with you and stuff. You have the farm, you know, you have you know Congratulations on the pro mix.
acquisition But I think that's a that's a huge point is that most people don't know what they would do it if you gave them all The money, you know what I do with my money I do trips with my friends. I help my family out. I invest in my friends and fund companies. And I, I make sure that I have enough in the account that no matter what, I can do what I want when I want.
And if I want to tell someone no, I can. You know what I mean? Well, a hot topic for a lot of people is like mental strength, right? And, or, you know, mental illness. I think you have a really, uh, impressive way of showing how mentally strong you can be. You know, when I first heard you were bear crawling a marathon, I go, what the fuck is the point of that?
Yeah. But there's gotta be a level of grit. It's, it's, it's understanding. I try to do one thing every year, since the bear crawl, where, you know I think the Everest thing was just as impressive. Yeah, summoning Everest. Yeah, biking across America, summoning Everest, doing an expedition with SpaceX in Antarctica.
All these things, is this bucket list things, or are these just things you Everest was bucket list, um, Everest was bucket list. Everything else kind of just happened. Yeah. You know, and And I think with these challenges that I put myself through, it's physical, but way more mental, you know, you're, that's what I'm saying.
Yeah, I think that's what it's more mental grip. Your body's not going to give out. I'm telling you right now, the body is so impressive. The human body, if you can take care of it, it's, it's really remarkable. What I mean, you watch people on earth and how, how insane some of these snowboarders are in extreme sports.
Scientists, like the human body is so smart and it can heal. It's almost like, it's almost like we are all wolverines. Like we can heal fast. Yeah, we can go through shit. I say that all the time. We're built to, well, the brain, it's the brain that always gives up. It's, you know, yeah, my feet were frozen on Everest for 12 hours, and I'm like, holy shit.
I'm seeing people dying and I'm, you know, I'm, but the brain's not stopping. I know. This is temporary. All of it. Everything in life is temporary, even life. Life is temporary. We're not here for a million years. We have a finite amount of time and we should do as much as we can. It's all temporary, right? And, and so I think pain is temporary.
Climbing Everest was temporary. Bear crying a marathon. It's temporary. I'm going to get out of it. And by the way, if I do die, it was all temporary anyway. So it's like, if you put that mindset of, it's going to be temporary, then your brain starts to think, well, it's going to be over. There's light at the end of the tunnel.
Okay, I can do this. It's just one step at a time. Then it's calming. Marcus Aurelius has an amazing quote, The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he comes to real strength. So it's not, it's not how much you can lift in the gym, it's how can you and I calm our brain and think about this conversation at once.
Not the kid jumping off there, not the what not, how can we think about one thing at a time. That's what Marcus Aurelius talks about, that's the ultimate strength is when we can control up here, because when we can control up here, literally anything is possible, you can do anything. The world is 8 billion people.
It's huge. There's so much to do. And if you can calm your mind and control this, oh man, it's, it's, it's, it's in fit. It's an infinite. You can do whatever you want. I mean, I've, I would have never rejected. I would have never seen this as your trajectory in the fitness space. When I first heard about you and knew who you were, where did you think you were going?
I knew I was going here. Yeah. I know. I knew, I think since I was in, Military Academy. I'm like, I got, honestly, maybe even in middle school. I was like, I have a different purpose on this earth and it's not to follow the crowd. It's not to do what people are telling me what to do. It's, it's to impact people in a positive way.
When my dad took his life, I was 16 and he was the saddest human I ever watched for the last year of his life. And you know, that, that, what was that? Uh, July 18th, 2008. And what do you think was going on? Cause I, my dad passed away not too long ago. Yeah. And he was a sad guy for a long time. He was sad. I think he, I think he felt that, um, he might have lost purpose a little bit.
I think, I think men and women find purpose a lot with their family and being able to give to their family and to support. And I think he started to lose that when he was going through a divorce and, um, you know, the government was, you know. the kids away and what is, you know, requesting all this money and all this shit.
And he started to lose purpose. And I think that was a big reason. Um, some people say CTE cause he played college football, but, uh, CTE, CTE. Um, and, and I don't know, I, I, I gave a commitment when I was 16, 17, that I want to help people wake up happier. And how am I going to do that? I'm going to do it my way.
And I've seen people. Become happier when they take care of their body. Hence why I got into training. I've seen people very happy when they were in the nightclubs that I used to run. I see people happier when, you know, they come to a farm and they pet an animal and immediately your cortisol levels drop.
And so it's all, my purpose is to help people wake up happier and never see that sad face that he had. And so I didn't know how I was going to do it. I was never looking monetarily. I was looking more, um, Almost like hospitality. Like how can I help people? How can I be there? How can I listen? How can I help 'em out?
'cause that's what gives me a good feeling, right? Well, that's right. I mean, you touched on something so important and I think part of the theme of what I wanna do this year with Strong is, you know, focus on that word purpose, right? Like, I think everybody needs a purpose. And helping people find a purpose is so important because when you see people walk through life that really don't have a destination, they don't have a purpose.
They're kind of sad or unhappy. They're there. They really don't know why they get up in the morning. Right. And you know, it goes to it. Look, whatever the career is, there's people that just genuinely love going into an office and they like the structure and they like grabbing their coffee in the morning and they like going in and they like reporting to someone cause they have structure and they like being able to do that work.
There's some people that are like, fuck that, I want to do my own thing and that's my purpose. There's some people that are like, I want to live in a tent, that's my purpose, I want to make sand castles. It doesn't really matter, right? But it's like, what you want to do, what is, what is your purpose, you know?
And I was, I was thinking about this the other day. Um, cause my mom, man, she, she helps take care of the animals on, on the farm. And I'm like, Mom, you're always working, like you don't have to work, like I have people to help with this. And she's like, no, no, I want to. And I'm like, no, you, like you, I promise you don't have to.
I literally, people are doing this and she's like, Devin, this is my purpose though. I love, I like animals more than humans. And I'm like, this is her purpose. And so now rather than me getting all frustrated and trying to help my mom retire, you know, and not have to do anything, she would actually be more depressed if she stopped, she would be more depressed if she stopped working.
And I think a lot of us, you know, essentially why. You know, people are 65 and then, boom, they stop working, they start, you know, snooker, and they start going in the pool every day. And they get dementia. They're not firing their brain. They don't have purpose. Their brain starts to rot. Yeah. You've got to keep it going.
And I think it's just keep it going, but with things that you freaking love, and whatever that is, do that. No, I think it's so true. I mean, I used to work at a shipping yard in Jersey. I watched three family members pass away after other family members died. Because they, they literally lost their way. They had nothing going on and they start dementia, Alzheimer, all this stuff starts to happen when you start to lose that purpose for my mom as well.
I'm like, Oh, I want to make sure she doesn't have to do anything. But in reality, I have her come here and I'm like, take care of the gym. You're hanging with the kids. Watch people work out. They need to, I think what people, we have this mentality or it's an old type of mentality to be like, Hey, I want to make her life as easy as possible.
But in reality, that struggle that she's enjoying is the best thing for her. And I bet you she was the best mother and she used to take care of you guys. And then all of a sudden you grow up and now you're taking care of yourself. Now she has nothing to do. Well, who the hell do I take care of now? And now it's like, okay, well help them actually do that versus man, when a mom has a child and they get this motherly instinct and they started taking care of someone, they're going to have that for the rest of their life.
Hence why our moms don't stop calling us every day. Like they want to take care of us. It's not taking that away from them. It's actually giving it back to them in different ways. Maybe it's not so much us, but maybe it's with other people. And I think everyone, everyone has that purpose, but it's how can you trigger that on every.
It's the day where you feel good about yourself. You're doing what you love, you know? Well, I mean, I'm keep throwing flowers at you, but there's a lot to actually give to you because even with the company, right, you started from, I knew Albert, uh, years ago and he had the company and. He was doing some really good stuff with it, but I think you were the catalyst that shot him through the roof and made it.
Thank you. Um, it takes a team though. I mean, we're, I mean, he makes amazing formulations. He's the product guy. Yeah. He makes all, like all the products I marketed and create the names and like test them and make sure the right people have it. And like the, you know, the awareness and you can't have a company if no one's coming in.
Right. And so we're, we're perfect where we are. For me, Christie's here and she helps me like do all of your logistics shit. I'm powerful at that. And I think you were like, you became the face of the brand and really launched it into the stratosphere. Having no prior experience. So like when you first took that on, were you like, Hey, I can really do this?
Did you have full belief? I know. Yeah, I know. I, I look at, I love the psychology of humans within consumer products. I love it. I love understanding of consumers journey. Like. Where are they seeing the product? Is it guerrilla marketing? Is it word of mouth? Are they trying it physically? Was, was, um, you know, someone telling them about it?
Where do they see it? Was it an ad? Was it a, you know, an Instagram post? Was it a billboard? It takes consumers on average seven times to see a logo or a product before they actually buy the product. And so I think about that a lot within marketing. Um, and I just knew it just needed to be out there in different ways.
The thing with it being now 2025 and having all this AI and having different, you know, different tools for Shopify and different tools for marketing is you have to constantly stay ahead of the game and relevant, right? It's never, it's content, content, content everywhere. You need as much content as possible.
But then it's like, what channels, how do I get it on? And content might just be this, right? This is content, just holding the bottle and me walking around this content. So, it's, it's getting it out there as much as possible and not following what everyone else is doing. Most, most people are doing, Alright, we're gonna have, you know, SMS marketing, some text messages, some email, and we're gonna have a shitty Instagram.
And, you know, we'll post a couple times a week and that'll get out. I'm like one. I'll overdose all three of those right not to the point to Annoy people but more to the point they're there, but then it's like how can we get creative? How can I can we do pop up events can we you know fly someone out to Alaska to go?
You know you know with grizzly bears and like is it is it a different experience is there aspirational content I look at marketing Very, very untraditionally. Um, I'm not following the script at all. Um, I'm kind of just doing what feels good to me and what's authentic to me. And then, and then we make it happen.
There's too many strategy people. There's too many people like, all right, sitting in a room. All right, guys, this is a strategy for the year. What about the motherfuckers that have to execute? What about getting down to the details of making sure that ProMix is at strong right now, as we're talking.
There's someone over there with the actual packets, having the education, talking about making sure not just the bottles but the caps are here. I'm talking about every little detail. Do we have enough water to give people? Do we have ice so it's cold when they taste it? It's like, oh wow, like, is there a QR code?
Like, every little detail. Not enough people are in the trenches running their business, they're running strategy. And then they make this huge strategy. And it's unobtainable. It's so unobtainable. Well, I think there's a lot of people who always see this dream. Like they probably see what you're doing and they're like, Oh, well, he's probably hands off.
He's not as involved. But I was down at the farm. You're there. I, you're, I never not see you're on fucking the top of Mount Everest eating bars and drinking. I'm like, this guy's really dialed into the shell. And it's so impressive because even for my own brand, it's like, all right, I always have to be wearing it.
Like people are always like, you're always in your gear. I'm like, I have to, I go, I'm, I'm the guy leading the charge with this brand. I have to live the brand. But there's a lot of people who think like, when they get to your level, they were like, all right, I made the money. Now I check out now. No, I think, I think that's the biggest problem with a lot of, and everyone listening, this is a big no no.
You can't try and sell a company and expect to leave. That is going to give the acquirer a really bad taste in their mouth. They need to know, yo, I'm doing this with or without you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm telling these PE firms, I'm telling people that were interested in buying us, yo, look, you can come in, but I'm fucking, I'm doing this with or without you.
We're going to blow this fucker up. I promise you. And if you want to come on, you're very involved. If you want to come on this train, we're going to the moon. And if you don't, that's okay. The people that go into these meetings or go into a company saying, I'm going to start this and I'm going to sell it in five years and I'm out and I'm going to retire.
That is a shitty outlook. You have to want to be involved and want to grow it. If I told you right now, Hey, I'm starting a gym, I'm going to start it and then I'm selling it to you, but I'm fucking out. You'd be like, well, Deb, like I, I want you in the team and like, that doesn't make sense. And not so much to where the, the, the company depends on the owner, but to a point where they still have the support, right?
A business isn't a business. If it doesn't run on its own and grow on its own, it's really just a hobby or it's a job that we just bought. And so I think about systems when we set up our businesses where if I do get removed from it, it's still growing. I personally like to be involved. I think this is fun.
I drink this, I take this, I'm naturally using this. Why wouldn't I want to be involved in it? And it's also gives me purpose. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, I think a lot of people see companies. I hear about all the time, especially with gyms, people are like, all right, I'm going to set up this strategy and I'm going to dump it, you know, because that's what I want to do.
But I'm, for me, I'm like, well, my family's here. My friends are here. I eat, sleep, live this brand. If I was to work out, this is the way I would work out. And I think you do that as well. Like you're living on the farm. You're doing that. You're living this, uh, this dream that I think a lot of people have, but really don't know how to acquire it or don't know how to live it.
But like. You become that aspirational figure in their lives and they're like, well, I want to do what he's doing. Yeah. And how do I now go and do that? And I think that's what makes you so magnetic is because now you have a place for people to go. Yeah. You know, the farm and you're coming up with a couple more.
You got a couple more. Yeah, Nashville. We're gonna do Colorado, Nashville. Um, Holy shit. That's alright. We'll cut it out. Actually, I like it. It's good. It's a good cameo. A lot of these old ladies don't even realize they're in front of the camera. Um, yeah, we have, I have a, uh, Sweetener Farm Jersey, New Jersey, it's like 45 minutes outside New York.
I'm a member now. Yeah. Founding member. Let's go, baby. Let's go. Um, and then Nashville is going to open and then Colorado. So those would be the first three. Why the towns? Did you have Austin? You have Jersey? Yeah. Yeah. Austin. Um, it's my ranch. It's Cedar Trunk Ranch. We rented out for weddings and stuff. I might transition that into Sweet Honey.
Hush hush. You guys are the first to know. But we'll see. The reason those other cities is we have over 10, 000 people on the wait list and a lot of those people are from Nashville and Colorado. And so that's the thing with building brands. Build from within. Don't just, well, I want to be in this market cause it's cool.
No, take care. You take care of your 500 members here and you take care of those 500 members. You're not looking at the other 10, 000 people. You're saying, how can I help these 500 people? Okay. They want ProMix. in here. They want sandbags. Let's get sandbags in here. You're not just cause CrossFit's cool or HiRox is cool.
No, you're listening to your 500 people and that's how you build a brand. We're constantly listening from within and so, Hey, if sweet honey and the first, you know, founding members that are in Jersey are saying, Hey, we want to do Nashville, Colorado. Now we have a wait list. Now there's over 10, 000 people that want those as well.
Listen to them. Why would I try to just randomly go to Miami or LA? We talk about business all the time on the podcast. You know, I've had so many different people from all different businesses and that's like one of the most important things that I think a lot of people don't execute on. Is all right. I need more members.
I need more people. I need to bring in more people, but why not service the ones you have really well? And also why, like, why do you want more? You know, more is more stressful. More money is more stressful. More, more. I'm thinking simple. I'm like, hit the cap. Good. Done. It's running on its own. I have my freedom of time.
We're good. Everyone wants more, but you have to ask yourself a question. Like why? Like why do you want more? Is it to have more money? Why the fuck do you want more money? Really? Tell me everyone. I'm listening. Why? Honest question to yourself. Why do you want more money? And most people are like, Well, then I don't have to work.
Well, it goes back to what we first said. Well, then you're not going to purpose. So it's like, you're in this circle. It doesn't, it doesn't make sense. You know, and like we said before, I mean, most people it's like, if you gave them a hundred million dollars, you'd be like, all right, what would you buy with it?
I don't know. I don't know. So, yeah, you have. Okay, cool. You have a hundred cars. You can only drive one car at a time, buddy. Yeah. You know, like, what do you need all this for? Well, so for you, it's like, you've bear crawled a marathon. You've climbed Mount Everest. You've biked across the country. You've sold a company.
Most people haven't done that in 60 years, 70 years. You've done it all by 35. 32. 32. Yeah, I know, but you haven't been 35. Okay. Cool. Cool. Yeah. I'm saying like most people would love to do that by 45. Yeah. Um. What's next for you? Like, what do you, where do you go from here? Because you've done so much, right?
Yeah. You know, it's funny. I was, I was at the world cup in Qatar and I'll bring this full circle. I was at the world cup of guitar with the Royal family in a box, watching Messi score the goal for the most watch sport ever, ever game ever in history. It was like three and a half billion people were watching it.
Then I went to Antarctica and then I rode my bike across America and I did all those things back to back. And when I was in, Across America. I think I was in Arizona. I was thinking, I'm like, damn, I forgot I even went to the world cup. And so sometimes you have to spread these things out or you forget all these cool things, you know, and, and things you want to do.
So right now, I summoned it Everest, May 21st of 2024. Uh, I'm given this year just a sec. Cause I was, that was some, that was, that was crazy. Um, I'm going to do Denali next summer. Um, but right now I'm kind of just chillin this year, focusing on Pro Mix. Um, Jesse Itzler and I are going to Finland for 10 days to do a, uh, 40 saunas in 10 days sauna tour.
So with some of our buddies. Um, we have Running Man Festival later this year, which you're going to be at. Yes, I going to do a whole strong thing. Yeah, I love you. Um, and yeah, I don't know, I'm just, I'm taking this year in just to not do any crazy adventures. Not, um, you know, not climb any mountains, not do any I just want to soak in what the last couple of years has been.
Cause if I go right into it, I'm going to forget. I just sold from it. I'm going to forget. I just summoned it at first. I'm going to forget. I did. And that's not fun either. So it's like, there is a balancing act of doing extreme things and all this crazy, all these crazy things. You gotta, you gotta let it marinate for a sec.
Well, one of the craziest things I remember you telling me, we were at the, um, we're at the UFC fight and we were talking about. When you were up on Everest, yeah, and you said one of the Sherpas kind of gave you a little bit of a nudge. Yeah yeah, I mean I was coming out of the Cumbo Icefall and Man it was it was crazy There was about 30 Sherpas around us and they wouldn't let me up on the line and I go to like kind of not nudge But I'm like, I'm also up here.
I'm exhausted I got to get up as well. And everyone just kept cutting in front of me the Nepalese and Sean who I was with Uh, he's like, Garo, don't, don't, don't try to go in front, just let them go. He is like, they'll cut your line, they'll throw you in. And so I never knew that on that Bri, like, you do have to kind of watch your back a little bit.
Um, I don't think, I don't think why most people know that. Yeah, I don't either. I didn't know that. , most time you're thinking, okay, well what gear do I have? I hope I don't freeze. I hope I have enough oxygen. But there's so many other variables on Everest. It's the weather. It's the food. A lot of people get cold.
A lot of people, you get, you know, frostbite. Um, some people run out of food. Some people are up too high and they have to get, um, you know, they have to, they die. I mean, they're just too high and they don't know what the fuck to do. So, I never thought that I'd have to deal with other human interaction and debacles with them.
I think it goes back to 1953 when Tenzing Norway and Sir Edmund Hillary summited Everest for the first time. One was Nepalese, one was um, like a Westerner from the uk and everyone knows of Hil, sir Edmund, Hillary of summiting first. No one put Tenzing Norway on the, on the pedestal. And so I think the ne the Nepalese Everest is split in half.
China owns half. Nepal owns half. No one really talks about tens in Norway and I think that put a salty, you know, taste in their mouth. And so from what I hear and, um, and so I don't know, I think there's some of that. There's some, uh, this is our, you know, this is our mountain and, you know, we go first, which I respect, but like, don't cut my line.
You know what I mean? Don't push me. It was the vibe with them. Cause I, I always felt like you're hiring these guys to help you. Some it's 50 50. Some guys were assholes and some were super nice. And that's just what it is. Like some, some people were, you know, Amazing to help and they cooked amazing soup and like we, you know, we, we joked and laughed and, you know, talked about stuff, someone to come over to America and like test out the farm and stuff.
Um, and some were just like cold shoulder. And so, but I, I also think that, you know, Africa wasn't like that. South America was kind of like that. Um, Antarctica wasn't because no one lives in Antarctica. So everyone's from everywhere. But look, I think that was just a vibe. And I mean, That's not the main reason I won't go back.
I'm just not going back to Everest, because I don't like the food. The food's not good. I love food and there's no good food. It's freezing. People are dying. I was away for 60 days. Um, there was a lot of negatives, but hey, I also got to stand at the top of the world and there was a lot of positives. Yeah, no, I think it's totally impressive.
I mean, listen, I appreciate you coming out here. I appreciate you. To the opening of the Strength Club. Guys, if you don't know who he is, which I'm sure all of you do, Where could people find you? What do you got coming up? What are you cooking up right now? Find me on YouTube, we're gonna start, we got some new stuff coming out.
Uh, find me on Instagram and wherever. Um, and find me at Sweet Honey Farm, I'm there every day. When can we expect Nashville and Denver? Nashville, maybe this year, but you know, I say this year and then it's always six months later. So you had told me about it so many times and Marty and so many guys were like, Hey, you gotta, you gotta come down to the farm.
And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll eventually get down there. The day I went, I got the invite to the pro mix event. I went down and I was like, Holy shit, this is awesome. It's like right in my backyard. It's in Jersey, close enough to the city. And I'm like, no, this would be good. This would be a fun little experience.
You're a founding member. I appreciate you being a part of it. I appreciate you coming by, sipping some whiskey with us. Definitely. Like, subscribe, follow the two of us because we're going to keep doing this stuff. Uh, hopefully we'll have a couple more events coming up. With Pro Mix, Devin, myself, Strong New York, uh, and also September 27th, we booked Strong New York.
So I hope to see you there. Yeah, we're doing it. We'll be, uh, we'll have a big show. I can't wait. Yeah, it's Strong New York. If you're not there, you're square. Guys, thank you so much for watching. Again, like, subscribe, and I'll see you guys soon. Thanks. Dude, how was that? Killed it. Perfect. Thank you so much.
We could rip all day.