Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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.
We're cracking open a Celsius here. Damn, those babies are good, but I have a gentleman here. Um, I'd like to eventually be able to call him a friend. I always say I have a special friend on, but this gentleman we had just met actually about 10 minutes ago, uh, he came highly recommended by a very well respected friend.
So David Guillaume. Welcome to the Strongest Buck Podcast. for having me. I said, uh, and we all found this.
I feel like we already hit it off just in the 20 minutes we were talking. Yeah, yeah. We've known each other for
a while. This handsome guy walks in. I'm guessing he's like 30, 35 years old. And he tells me he's 40.
And I said, listen to me. This is what happens when you live in LA for 40 years. And this is what happens when you live in New York for 40 years. I'm gray. I'm going bald. This guy's got a full head of black hair. He's handsome as shit. Because the best set of teeth. I thought he was a fucking model or something when he walked in.
How'd you get into you know? Vitamins, I mean Yeah Well,
so there's a liquid vitamins. Yeah, there's only really two things I've done in my life and pretty simple I from the age of 15, I started to learn spirituality and Kabbalah and
take me through that because at 15 I was watching WWE wrestling.
Yeah, we're the same age.
We grew up in the same way. I actually was almost semi professionally playing poker and I was gambling and I was in the stock market when I was 15. So, I just had a lot of energy and there's a lot I wanted to do and achieve. Who
the hell were you hanging out with?
Yeah, I don't know what it was, it was just I felt really ambitious and I wanted, school just wasn't enough for me.
I borrowed a little money from my dad and kind of went off and it was doing really well, but Having money at that age just wasn't healthy. So an uncle of mine said come learn spirituality. I'm like, yeah, I'm not sure What's your background? You're Jewish. I'm Jewish, but I anti religion Dog anti dogma like don't tell me what to do.
Yep, but I went to the seminar cuz I was curious blew my mind. I'm like Kabbalah is basically for people who don't know it's universal spiritual wisdom that explains the soul's purpose in this world, right? So you're learning the spiritual laws of life and now you have a framework to make decisions to be successful.
So I got really deep into it. I went to UCLA, I graduated early and at the age of 19, I said, I'm going to devote my life full time to charitable work. And I just traveled the world teaching Kabbalah, like four seminars a week, different city every night. 20, 30, 000 hours of private coaching and I did it all for charity, uh, at the age of Holy
shit.
Yeah, so
I didn't make any money doing it, but the experience of being You were
a way better guy at 19 than most
people are at 60. Well, I felt this calling because I saw a lot of wealthy people eventually want to go into this work. You grew up pretty wealthy. I'm guessing. Not middle class Beverly Hills dude.
No, I wasn't in Beverly Hills at the time. Oh. So I'm watching that show as
a kid and you're living
that dream. I was just watching the show. I was living in like small town called Newberry Park, middle class, nothing crazy. My parents immigrated from Iran, 82, I was born in 84. Um, so, and at the time I had money that I made, I'd even put my brother through medical, poker and gambling stock market.
Yeah, it was, we were doing well back then. How were you such a prodigy at it? It wasn't, part of it was the time was during the dot com boom. So everybody was making money. So you were playing online? I was playing online. Yeah. Oh shit, okay. So it was right around like the time of AOL and like, So you had the dial up service.
Dial up service. I was trading through like Charles Schwab on the dial up service, yeah. At school, like I would go into the library and have laptops set up. But
like, somebody had to teach you. If you asked me what the stock market was at 15 years old, I'd be like, I don't fucking know.
Yeah, so I'm very self taught.
So I've learned that anything you want to learn, Yeah, you can just call it in and learn it and 10 years fast forward 10 years After at the time I got married to mary ruth. We both didn't have any money Um, we were broke. I came from charity. She came from a different city coming in with a lot of debt We decided to create a health and wellness kind of like where'd you guys meet?
We met at the kabbalah center So after her brother 17 year brother suddenly passed away and father suddenly passed away and the trauma of that They don't know what It was a heart condition, um, that they didn't know about, and, um, How
far apart were the two deaths?
So, she was 12 when her father passed away, and then she was 18 when her brother passed away, and I think we met at, um, When she was 23, so, and after that passing, it was just her and her mom.
And then the markets crashed in 2008. They had a lumber company, so they went into massive debt. They had a huge lumber company, like 100 million a year, 300 employees. And they, that got them into personal debt. And they were looking for answers. And that's how they found spirituality, they found Kabbalah, and then that's how we connected.
We became best friends and then we got married at the time. Do you still practice Kabbalah? Oh yeah, absolutely. So it is probably the biggest part of what I do. My business is more my hobby. Yeah. It's my creative side.
How much, how much do you get paid? I mean, I'm sure you grew up playing poker and stuff and some guys who probably broke your balls about Kabbalah.
Yeah I mean we're saying before the I've never heard of it other than the whole madonna thing Yes, is she even still a part of that? Yes
very much. So really so yeah So so madonna and there was a time I think early 2000 where all the celebrities were studying publicly And then people just didn't know what it was But it is so powerful like when you learn kabbalah You just learn how to live life and immediately miracles happen and it actually supports every religion You Or if you're atheist, you don't believe in anything, Kabbalah is powerful for you.
Is it mainly in Southeast Asia? Like, like, where is It's funny, I started my social media like, what, seven, eight months ago? I didn't have any following.
Yeah.
And I just started to post content, uh, because I was only teaching privately. And, uh, it took off, and my audience is all over the world. Every religion, I would say probably my biggest audience is in Asia.
Uh, I think Buddhists, Hindu, Muslims, Christians, like they really relate to it and they sing that this wisdom is making them understand even their religion and spirituality on a deeper level.
Really? Yeah. So, For me, I grew up very, I don't want to say sheltered, but we never really left New Jersey and I grew up very Catholic Italian.
So we were always taught being Catholic and Italian was the only thing that ever mattered. We were the best at everything. When I got to travel more in my twenties, early twenties, 21, 22, you know, to 28, I was traveling a lot. When I went to Southeast Asia, Singapore, Thailand, New Zealand. And you see how these people live, and they're very, you know, Buddhism, kind of spirituality.
Uh, they truly believe in the idea of, you know, treat others the way you want to be treated. It made me start to think, I'm like, I feel like I was getting lied to my whole life. Like, like it made me, not to say I'm not Catholic anymore, but I don't really practice. I don't go to church anymore. My mother thought it was the worst fucking thing in the world.
But I said, I go to me, it's like, yeah, it's, it's great that you know, people have a faith. But I think being more spiritual, I think is what Society's kind of drifting towards now because I love the fact that like people have traditions like I have plenty of like Jewish clients Who still you know hold?
The Sabbath very yeah very Strict, but I tell everybody I go as long as you treat other people good The same way you want to be treated. I think that holds true for every religion. Every religion says, Hey, just, just be good to other people, you know, and I think that's, that's what I like. And that's where I became, I would say, I'm like, I feel like I'm more spiritual now than I am.
Yes. Catholic. And that's what a lot of people are saying, because you think of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad. They, no one. Aim to create a religion. Even Christianity didn't start until 300 years after Jesus passed away. Religion is more of a construct that keeps traditions in place, but it doesn't give people everything that they're looking for.
People are looking for the spirit, the soul. People are looking for the why. Why was I born to this family? Why do I have these type of relationships that have so many ups and downs? Why can't I find my soulmate? Why can't I find my purpose? How do I connect to true certainty? Most people are looking for certainty through Xanax or through drugs because it taps you into a little bit of this energy but only momentarily and then you're back down into a black hole.
Our soul can actually tap into an eternal Xanax if we choose to live by the soul's spiritual laws.
What do you think that is? What do you, what do you, why do you think we question it and feel that there's got to be some definitive answer? Like, what do you tell people when they ask you that?
So it's interesting.
I, I started to travel in my early twenties and I started to teach in the Philippines. And the first time I went to the Philippines, which is a 95 percent Catholic country, that. I went and I think we had like 700 people come for the seminar. Everybody was looking for, it was like, it was on reincarnation.
Something that actually didn't really mix well with Catholicism at the time. And 700 people came, it was on the news, it was on TV, and Everybody was hungry and thirsty for spirituality. Here in New York, about 15 years ago, I taught at, I don't know what it's called, one of the most prominent Catholic churches here.
They asked me to come speak. This 80 year old woman comes up to me after my seminar and says, In 80 years of being Catholic, only today do I really understand what the Creator is, or what God is, or what this energy is. Because Kabbalah explains it to be a universal force of goodness that can, that is trying to enter your soul, but you have the free will to let it in or not.
God cannot, this energy called God or the Creator cannot coerce itself into your life. So, if you want your soulmate, or you want wealth, or you want healing, This energy wants to come in, but there are things you have to do spiritually to earn that energy from coming in. You have to create the vessel for it.
Yeah,
so what does that look like? Is it, is it a certain level of discipline? Is it certain values that you have to uphold? Like in Catholicism, they have the Ten Commandments. So you have to follow these rules. You to go to church. What are, what are the expectations of someone
who follows what you do? So Kabbalah explains that the creator has a certain vibration.
So imagine we had to say the creator has 10 qualities. Let's say these qualities are, you know, certainty, not having any fear, compassion, um, not having anger, like all the negative qualities transformed into positive would be the creator. And our soul comes to this world with spiritual baggage that we are meant to transform, and by transforming it, then we unlock all the miracles.
Our soul even chooses the parents that are perfect for us to see what that baggage is. So, for example, if my soul comes into this world with anger issues, This is from a prior lifetime. I will pick parents or I'll pick a family that will be conducive to make me angry or to awaken what's already deep inside my soul so that I can transform it and then that creates the vessel for the soulmate to come in, the wealth to come in, all these things to come in.
The reason why people aren't accessing. The things that they want in their life. It's not because they're not smart or they're not talented. In fact, I've noticed talent has almost nothing to do with accessing the things you want in life. It's because there's a set of spiritual baggage of negativity that they brought to this world that they have not transformed yet.
Either they're not even conscious of it because a lot of people are blocked. They don't want to see what's going on inside of themselves. They have a lot of trauma, either from this life or past. Or they see it, but they have a hard time actually going through it, or they don't even have the tools of how to deal with it.
So Kabbalah kind of gives you the here's how you find it. Here's how you deal with it. And here's how you transform it and then immediately What's meant for your soul starts to come to you. See people are going out there trying to grab at stuff Is this is this my is this the relationship? This is my love life.
Is this my success? Like I started a vitamin company. I had no clue That I ever wanted to have a vitamin company But the way it happened was, I was walking down the street in Manhattan. It was after 10 years of teaching spirituality for charity. So I didn't have any money. But now I have a family. And we're in debt.
And I can't even put food on the table. And I had this like victim consciousness of, I've taken care of thousands of people, why isn't the universe taking care of me? And I was sad for a year thinking about this, as a victim. And then I realized, wait a minute, my soul came to this world to transform this very thing.
I needed this whole setup to feel like a victim, to feel betrayed by the universe, or God, or however, so that I can choose Within me to be the opposite and at that moment I made a decision I'm going to be happy as if I'm a billionaire I'm gonna be happy as if I already have kids I'm gonna be happy as if I already have everything and I shifted this Consciousness seven days later.
We came up with the idea for a liquid vitamin That idea came down because I made a shift in my mind to stop being a victim Had I waited another year the company would That idea wouldn't come down for another year, but I tell people it's like there are people who are waiting to come into your life amazing souls There are some people who can't have children these souls are trying to come in because if you want it it means it exists trying to be part of your life.
There's so many good things that are trying to come into our lives, but we haven't created the space to let it in because we're still operating vibrationally through different negative vibrations, right? Being a victim, being angry, having blame. If there's one person out there you're blaming for something, you're blocking your soulmate from coming in.
If there's one judgment you have about your dad that you haven't fixed, or something your mom did, and now she's passed away, I don't know why I'm using the examples, maybe the audience can relate to it. Your mom has passed away, but you have this like hatred and some unresolved issue. That's blocking you from Your business attracting the right clients and being wealthy.
I agree. It's all connected. I think I, I 1, 000 percent agree and maybe I'm a little bit more Kabbalah than I thought. I'm pretty sure you
are from the conversations we've had.
Yeah, because I totally agree with that negativity. I, I always say, and it's on my website, I always say like, the gym's my church.
Like, I think more clearly, I operate a whole lot better after I get a workout in. After you do a workout, right? After I do a workout. And even for me just to like, calm my nerves, get into that, you know, Kind of flow state or zen state. Like I love and go going to do jujitsu. I could go for a run. I love doing things that'll help me kind of level me out because there's days where You get in this mindset and if i'm blocked off and I have this negative energy and That You know bleeds out into the conversations with uh, whether i'm emailing somebody or i'm in front of a client It doesn't matter like that will start to manifest in so many different ways and it's this trickle down effect But I also believe in the reverse right if I could get if I could get myself to feel good if I could get into this flow state of creativity and you know, um Kind of openness.
I think Life just, you know, kind of feeds back to you. And it's this idea of like opening those doors and letting in those, those good vibes. Like, I'm a huge manifestation guy. Like I love writing ideas down and I'm like, you know, you, I think a lot of people nowadays because of social media are jealous, envious, angry towards other people.
And they carry this around. They don't even realize it. Correct. You know, they
subconscious jealousy.
Yeah. And they're like, why is this person have this? And why is that person have that? And I'm like. If you would just focus on your own shit and stop watching everybody else's shit, then you could do it too Like i've noticed that You know people think I have a hundred things going on because I have you know I'm opening up a new gym and I have this event but I just keep my head down and i'm like All right.
I need to take care of all my shit I don't care what the fuck somebody else is doing. It really doesn't matter and I think There's a level of spirituality there. There's a level of whatever religion you want to say you're a part of I think that's what More people need to do and that's kind of why I started doing the event was I go Well, there's all these people who want access to all these things and they want to live a better life I'm, like, all right My job on this planet was to help them through physical movement.
Yes.
You know, and I enjoy that, and I love that, and it brings me joy. So I'm like, alright, how do I bring that to more people? And I was like, alright, well I guess I just have to have a big event to do this.
I love that.
Yeah.
What you're saying is If I break it down to its cabalistic spiritual component is the reason why when you go in a run you go to the gym Or you'd start to take care of yourself It's so powerful is because you're forcing yourself at that moment two things are happening energetically One is you start to feel whole because after you work out There's this chemical reactions inside of your body and soul that make you feel like you don't need anything.
You have it all right Mm hmm When you have this vibration that you are whole You and you don't need anything, you begin to attract whole people. You begin to attract whole miracles. You begin to attract the abundance that represents this feeling of being whole. Because lack attracts lack, and wholeness attracts wholeness.
So a person who starts to move their body, they begin, the creator begins to infuse them with the energy they need to make this movement, and then they feel godly, they feel whole, and that's why you attract miracles. So this is the spiritual root of why everything you're saying. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, I, I definitely think, and I say this all the time, I, I feed off people's energy.
Like, when I saw you in the hall, I'm like, oh, you know, there was just something warm about you, you're easygoing. Thank you. There's definitely people, when you meet them, you're like, something, I don't know what that is. Even if they don't talk. Yes. They don't have to say anything, but somebody walks in a room and you get there.
I truly believe in vibration and chemical response when you're in front of people. And that's why I hate about doing anything on a zoom call or, um, you know, through a phone because you never truly get to. Feel that yeah vibration. Yes between you and another person unless you're in front of them Think and then you could really evaluate who somebody is think about
Kabbalah explains Like how you pick up people's energy is first just by talking with them
Yeah
Second when you eat with someone and you like actually break bread or you have a meal with someone Energetically your soul starts to intertwine when you kiss someone these are levels of it And then when you have into intimacy or intercourse with them, the souls actually begin to become intertwined So for example, if someone was telling me Uh, that they, um, they were intimate with someone just after a few dates and right after having sex with them, they had all this anxiety.
And the reason Was this a woman? Huh? Was this a woman? A man was telling me this. Okay. And he was explaining to me how actually this woman You know from her own prior traumas and whatnot. She has a lot of anxiety.
Yeah. Yeah
So what happened was just from the kissing or the intercourse he took upon some of the negativity that's in her soul And that's actually the the challenge with as we get closer to people and we become intimate with them We start to bring on a lot of their spiritual baggage and it intertwines with ourselves So if you actually spend time Or become intimate with someone who's anxious, you'll see that your days afterwards, you'll have anxiety as well.
I 1, 000 percent believe that for sure, because the, the women that you, you want to spend some time with tend to not be the ones you should spend your time with. And I've learned that lesson too many times over.
Well, you can't, the, the Catalyst explained there's really three things that men look for in a relationship.
And probably the biggest one is there's subconscious desire on the man's soul level that says, Will this woman bring me more? Peace of mind and less drama or less peace of mind and more drama and this is probably the number one filter besides aesthetic beauty which is important for every man feel that he has chemistry is Will this woman bring me more or less drama?
And if you think about it and women have their list to spiritually But for men, it's, I feel like that
list is a little bit longer. Well, I, he's got to be six, five, two 20, it's got to make 17 million a year
after or before tax. Yeah,
probably after taxes.
So, So there is this, there is this energy that men look for, which is like a very peaceful energy.
And, um, and, uh, I forgot, how do we, why, why did we get into this one? We're talking, we're going on a couple of different topics.
Well, you were talking about the
three things that like most, that the man looking for. So it's aesthetic beauty.
Yeah.
Then that's where the chemistry is. The second thing is that they feel that, um, there's peace, less drama.
The second thing is, the third thing is that their partner. Believe and trust in them and their ability to bring energy down to this world.
Well, that's exactly what I was saying before. Like, even just with my staff, you know? I'm like, I just need you guys to trust me. Because I have everyone's best intentions.
And I need less bullshit. Right? Like, I talk about this all the time. I go, here's the table. I go, there's 80 things on this table, and they're all bullshit. How do I clear them off one by one? How can you guys help me clear this off and whatever you need to help me clear it off? I'm happy to help you with that.
Yeah, I go but don't come and throw more shit on the table Because this is my table and I have to take care of it and you're involved in this So I want to make your lives better. So help me clear this the fuck off. That's beautiful, you know um, because in reality like as you do get older you have I don't know about you.
I mean you live in la you probably got a fucking nice chill surfer attitude about you for me i'm, just like New York is already a lot.
Yeah.
Right? Like, you walk down the street, even just yesterday, we were shooting some content on the West Side Highway. This fucking drug addict idiot trying to start a fight with me, my buddy, Christy, there was a bunch of us.
And I'm like, what is going on here? Like, I really want to just take him and throw him into the Hudson River, but then I'd be in trouble. Um, but you're like, there's already so much anxiety and stress and shit that could go on in the city. You So I'm like, I, how do I lessen that? How do I take more stuff off the table?
And like the last thing you want is at the end of the day to come home to somebody who's like anxious and, you know, has anxiety and you're like, hold on, I've been dealing with this shit all day. Can we just like,
correct,
chill, shut the fuck up and watch a movie or something. Correct. You know,
correct.
It's, it's interesting because the thing that, Whatever you focus on, you'll achieve. And I've realized the greatest pursuit is our consciousness, which is pretty much the energy we put out through our thoughts, words, and actions. So kind of like this, this, this consciousness of ours is the palace and we have to protect it.
Yeah. And even if you're in an intense city like New York, the more you develop your consciousness to have certainty, to have internal peace, to feel whole inside, that is how you overcome this Consciousness. Energy of the city instead of the city's energy overcoming you. Yeah.
No, I had my I always think about who do I run into on a daily basis that I admire them that I'd rather be more like them and less like the people.
I don't want to be right and any and this is why I treat everyone the same and you know, Christie could attest to this whether it's the cleaning guy at my gym or my landlord or my attorney. I treat everyone the exact same. Only because there are so many admirable qualities about everyone. Even the guy when I park, where I park my car, older gentlemen, always just in such a great fucking mood.
I'm like, here's this guy works in this fucking basement of this garage every day. It's miserable. And he's always like, Hey, how you doing? And I'm like, I want to be like this guy. What the fuck are you on? What are you taking that you're in such a great mood? And then you see somebody who has a ton of money and they're just pissed off kicking rocks through life, you know, and you're like, How are these two people, one is so successful, one has I'm guessing not much, but he operates on a different frequency than this guy.
Right. Um, and I want to be more like that. And I don't, I don't, like to your point, it's like, I don't think it has anything to do with success or talent or any of these things. It's just how you operate through life and how you vibrate through life.
Well, it's so beautiful what you said, because think about what is darkness for people?
Why are people in a bad mood? Kabbalah explains like when you're, when you see somebody in a bad mood, Or is very sarcastic, or is very judgmental. It's not a result of them not getting what they want. It's actually a result of them getting too much. Yes of what they want Because they're like a spoiled kid.
Yeah, right So if I have an eight ounce cup here and somebody pours 12 ounces of water, I have a mess So too much energy that can't fit in my soul Creates darkness and chaos and actually how you know Someone has received too much energy from you is they don't appreciate you. It means you've given too much It's not it's not it's not that you haven't given enough.
And so the idea is like our soul is a vessel So imagine like a light bulb a 60 watt bulb can hold only 60 watts of energy If I'm a 60 watt bulb, my soul is a 60 watt bulb and I crave a thousand watts of energy, right? Some people want this type of relationship. They want this kind of financial situation.
They want this kind of respect They want people to respect them They're asking for a thousand watts of energy. But they're a 60 watt bulb. If that energy came in, we have a short circuit. We have an explosion of light and then darkness. So the universe is ensuring you don't get short circuited by keeping those things away from you.
Our goal, spiritually, is to expand our consciousness and then that expands our vessel. So every time something happens to you that you don't like, every time you're disrespected, every time you have a failure, every time a deal falls through, every time you get cheated or betrayed or you go through some kind of death, that's This darkness is an opportunity to expand the soul from 60 watts to a hundred to a thousand
and
the minute you put out there you want something.
So like let's say for example, you're putting on this event or you're opening up a new gym that energy of hey, I want to get bigger. I want to receive more. The universe hears the calling and what you immediately experience for the next three months are Challenges that actually break down the old you and it's painful and it actually looks like you're going backwards
But
it's trying to destroy the old vessel To give you this new vessel that can hold the energy of the new gym or this a new event with this new relationship or whatever you're trying to call it.
But when you go to the gym, you actually go to break the old you. You're not going to get a massage. Massaging your muscles don't make them bigger and stronger. You breaking the muscle, making it weak and destroying it is what gives
you the new vessel. I know. I, I am a firm believer. I mean, that is the basis of everything I do.
I think any trauma that you've been through, any hardship. You know, no one wants to hear a story about somebody who's had an easy life, right? Everybody wants to hear how you've overcome something and the beauty is in that breakdown To the build up. Yeah, you know and You know, i've had a lot of shit happen in my life.
I've lost money. I've won money. I've you know lost family members suddenly And I never looked at it and I, and I've always tried to look at it as like, not why did this happen? I'm like, I'm so lucky that I had them up to this point. Like when my dad passed away, I was like, Oh my God. I'm like, yeah, of course I'm sad.
I didn't want him to go. But at the same time, I'm like, I'm way more lucky, I guess, than most people who don't know or never met their father or whatever. So I'm like, I'm, I consider myself pretty fortunate. Um, From that moment on, I want to operate as if like, okay, I, I lucked out in life. This was a good thing.
You know, yes, I lost something, but it now allows me to understand what it feels like. And now I could be empathetic towards someone else. I could operate on a different higher frequency because I know what that feels like because I've been through that. I know what it feels like to be fat. I know what it feels like to be broke.
I know what it feels like to lose a parent. So I, I use those things as a platform to help other people now. And I think life is all about service. How much could you help other people? And if I've never gone through anything, it's like, what, what life experiences do I have to share?
That's beautiful. You said something very powerful and the Kabbalah explains that when a challenge occurs, it's actually not good or bad.
Until you label it a certain energy. So there's, there's, there's a, there's a chaotic and a miraculous energy in everything, equally, everything, every relationship you've had, for example, in the past, let's say you just dated somebody for two years and it ended and you're telling a friend that relationship was such a waste of time.
I wish I never met this person. If you say that energetically, you actually have to repeat the relationship because everything that the universe and the creator sends us is to elevate us. And when we say something is good and we extract the lesson from it, then we never have to repeat it, and we actually, that good becomes part of our soul.
Mm-Hmm, . If you see the bad in something, or you think that was a waste of time, you connect to the negative side of it and then you will have to repeat that le relationship so that you have to experience the lesson again. And the reason why for a lot of people, exes keep coming back, or the same type of relationship comes back, or with a different person, or you feel like you're having a groundhog day scenario, maybe in your career, is you haven't done two things.
One is what you said, seeing the good and appreciating what happened fully. And extracting, why did the creator send you this person or this situation for you to grow? Like, if you don't learn that lesson and apply that lesson, then that relationship or that failure will have to be experienced again.
What you mentioned before, and that it might, All time biggest pet peeve is like victimhood.
Yeah, everybody's like well this happened It's like do you realize how many people have it's so much worse than you Right, like there is all you will always find someone who's had a shittery hand shittier hand dealt to them so Knowing that that there's someone out there who had it worse than you. It's Be thankful for what you had and move on, you know, you can't live in the past.
It was really cool. I went to um, Austin about two weeks ago And this dude who's out there, who's teaching this shooting course that we went to, um, was a former green beret. And then he worked for the CIA and he had this crazy kind of military background story. Um, and we're driving in the truck. We're driving this Humvee out to the, the shooting range.
And he had said to me, he's like, Ken, he goes, you ever notice how much bigger the windshield is than the rear view? He goes, that's what life's all about. And I was like, Oh, that was fucking great buddy. I was like, that was really cool. I was like, he goes, you only need to look back every once in a while if you need it.
He goes, but the windshield's big enough for you to see everything that's in front of you. And I try to instill that in clients and, you know, People in my life all the time because I'm people every time I think about like, oh, this went wrong and that went wrong. I'm like, it's holding me back from looking forward, you know, so I, I think I'm into this shit.
I love that. What do we, the audience who's listening to us now,
what are the challenges that they go through?
I think everything, everybody's going through the same thing. I think right now in the life and in the world, there's like so much uncertainty. It's like, I, I had said this multiple times, you know, people are so freaked out about this election.
On both sides. Why do you think that is? Well, because I think every, I think the average person's an idiot for it. Because it's like watching the WWE. They know what the outcome is going to be and we're all here holding signs and the audience being like, oh I hope this one doesn't win. It's almost like bullshit at this point.
Like politics is so staged and it's such Manufactured bullshit. It's like every it's a money game like everything else in life. So people are feeling uncertainty anxiety Yes, and they really they really believe they're like, well if Trump wins, it's the end of the world if Kamala wins It's the end of the world and I'm like This happens every four years.
We talk about this implosion of the country. Yeah, and people live in this anxiety. I'm like, all right, let's just say it does happen in November world falls apart Don't you want to enjoy it up to that point? So I'm I'm under the impression. I'm like, listen moving forward I'm looking out the, the window and I'm hoping that everything's great, you know, and I don't think anything I could do.
Everybody's like, your vote matters, your, I'm like, oh, sure, my vote matters. I, I don't worry about that stuff, I control my universe. There was a really cool thing, uh, I forget who was talking about it, but, especially here in New York. You could be on 32nd Street, there could be a bomb goes off on 31st Street.
And you won't know about it till the next day when you see it in the news. I'm like, if it's not happening in your world, like people get so worked up about everything that's going on around them. But it's like, if you could control the universe around you and the people around you, why don't you just make everybody around you happy instead of trying to like, everybody's trying to pick something that's untangible and they have no control over.
And that's what they're going to focus all their energy on. But if you just, Worry about the people in your life on a daily basis. I always think about getting in a cab Be nice to the driver be nice to the you know The people you work with being if you could manifest then your day is Ultimately a lot better than it would have been had you have been an asshole there
Besides running the business like the my last 20 years has just been like private coaching and there's been a common theme I've seen in all of the most successful people and And Kabbalah explains like there's two realities.
There's the reality where The rules are, yes, if this president comes and this will happen and that will happen and it's up and down and it's uncertain, that is a reality. And there's rules. There's chaotic rules to this reality if you choose to live in it. But there's actually another reality. And very few people choose to live in this one, but if you do, you have complete control over your destiny and over everything.
The most successful people live in this reality, which is they could care less what's happening with the economy, with politics, with up or down, they could care less about history, they just know that everything depends on their consciousness and what they do. So for example, I remember like in our company, I think after COVID and we had this huge like growth, every, every brand was flat to down.
And The economy was hurting and then we had kind of like this recession coming and everyone was telling us. Hey, look, consumer spending is down. This company is not going to grow this year. And there was a thousand reasons why this was going to be our worst year and I thought to myself, I said, okay, uh, I get it.
And all my peers and my colleagues are saying, Facing this like suffering I said to myself and I said this to the staff to our employees We have like a hundred maybe eighty staff and I said to the executive team I said look I have I have I'm the least experienced person here. You are all smarter than me You have all finance degrees.
You've been in CPG and wellness for 10 20 30 years. I have none of that But what I do know is that we can all decide now what destiny we want to live in. Because if our frequency, our vibration, our certainty, and our desire is unified and on the highest level, then we may be, we're going to rise above the laws of recession, the laws of chaos, politics.
There could be a civil war and we will still grow and be successful. Somehow, energetically, we'll bring all the right people. clients, the right customers will come up with the right innovation. Elon Musk has so much certainty that his certainty and his biography talks about this causes laws to be changed to fit what his companies need.
His certainty draws down wisdom to engineers to come up with products that have never existed to be able to colonize Mars. He creates realities. He's not the effect of them. And what's really powerful is each one of us. Again, I am probably the least talented person in the room and the least educated when it comes to many of the rooms I've been in.
I've realized, and all of us are the same, you can create whatever reality you want. So if you're, if you're, if the president That you don't want comes into office That probably means that you have an even better chance of creating the destiny You want if tax laws get changed and are very unfavorable to you Have certainty because it means you're gonna make ten times as much money in your company and you taxes won't matter for you You can have whatever you want Stop looking at the external BS.
Yeah,
that is making you feel you have to be the effect of it.
Yeah No, I totally agree. Well,
here's the last one I would tell you if eight billion people in the world thought you were the worst human and literally like thought The worst things about you if you are conscious, this isn't the right place.
You've spiritually earned your soulmate You'll get your soulmate look at serial killers in prison. They get married. I see serial killers and like I saw one Documentary, I was like a Ted Bundy type person. Yeah, and he's getting married There's a beautiful woman and I'm like if a serial killer in prison with that reputation Can have a woman write him a letter and say I want to marry you.
Yeah, you have a good chance in New York City No shit. Despite the nonsense going on in your life. Yeah, that's consciousness. These serial killers
have a lot of
certainty
It's, it's insane. I, you know, you see things like that and people are like, I can't find a date. I'm like, well, that's why you can't find a date because here you are.
It's always like, poor me. I got the worst end of the stick. Ted Bundy can find his soulmate, so can you. He had a couple. I don't think he just had one. I don't know
if it was Ted Bundy. I don't know if it was one of the soul killers.
Uh, he was the good, right? Wasn't he? He was a good looking guy. Yeah, he was a good looking guy and he had like, A couple of women send them letters and shit.
Lucky bastard.
Yes. And then people say it's hard to date in New York City.
Yeah. Hard to date in jail. I'm sure. Sure. They're not too forgiving over there. So you have this great understanding of life. You know, you really, you know, impress the hell out of me with, you know, kind of your whole, um, you know, thought on life and understanding what, you know, What happened?
You were married, you guys have this amazing company. Yeah, I married my best friend. What was the company worth? It's a
unicorn. It's a self funded unicorn.
Okay.
We got, so we got to that status.
So here, now you have this amazing company, you have this Beautiful wife.
Yes.
You have this great understanding of life.
Yes, and now you're single
That's funny. I've first time i've probably spoken about it. Uh publicly, but yes, I married my best friend who is Still the woman I love more than anything in this world. I always say i'd give a kidney for her I respect her more than anybody in this world and we have an incredible relationship friendship and connection And you know our souls evolved about a few years ago, and we just decided to stay You Friends and business partners and co parents and that's what it is today.
Yeah, so single life is fairly new for me And I talked to so many people I've talked to so many people sometimes I say well what happened or what went wrong or if you know so much and you have all this experience like How what chance do we have it? I've learned that So many things and everyone's so unique, but our souls go through journeys.
And the most important thing is to realize like people come into our lives to help us grow, to help us elevate, to help us experience the best part of ourselves and divorce or separation, or if a fit what people consider a failed relationship, you can never look at it this way. The most important thing is to communicate, to learn these lessons, to treat To respect people because you're never going to treat well someone you don't respect So it really starts with finding the reasons to respect like every day I remind myself the thousand good qualities Mary Ruth has and we communicate so well And we have so much respect and love for each other Like why can't that be I see so many people with their their ex business partners or ex friends or ex girlfriends or ex wives or husbands There's all of a sudden All the trauma comes out, and there's this animosity, and they want to destroy each other.
And so, for us, you know, just, and I, this is actually the first time I've ever talked about it, and I probably will talk about it more as it becomes more appropriate, and to kind of give spiritual tools around it. But this experience has been such a powerful one and, um, neither of us look at it as a failure in any way, but an evolution in our growth and our soul's journey, which are all of us are going through.
Yeah. No, I think how much of how much you, you think the, uh, the idea of marriage is or was more of a societal pressure, because I believe in, you know, I don't think you have to, um, make it a legal thing, right? I don't think it has to be brought to that point. If you enjoy spending time with somebody, just do that.
So like, how much of it for you was like, hey, we need to do this because this is a societal norm? Because you guys feel like, you guys seem like you operate at a different frequency, where you don't allow those laws, or those social norms, and those standards, to even affect what you guys are doing.
Right.
Every soul is different,
In any relationship is that love, that unity, and that respect, whether you're legally married or not, this, this is less important to the relationship, spiritually, physically, emotionally, intellectually, you have with each other, and most people I've noticed through, again, I've probably done 20 to 30, 000 hours of personal coaching, um, um, I've noticed it's just there's a very avoidant Communication style for most people and they're having a hard time talking about what they want what their needs are Working through challenges, not taking things personally, and that's what's causing so many relationships to break up, but then to repeat the same kind of relationships.
It's not a problem to separate. Once your souls have done what they need to do with each other, there are many soulmates, there are many fragments of souls that are waiting to come into your life to help you grow. And by the way, you could actually be with the same person for 70 years, but new souls enter their body.
and elevate your experience. So it's not that you have to leave the person or the person leaves you, but new souls are coming in through the people you're with now, because a soulmate is a soul. It's not a person. So if you're with, if you're married now and you don't think you're with your soulmate, there's a level of spiritual work you could do, which a new soul will enter the body of your husband.
And literally your husband will wake up and be different the next day. So Kabbalah explains all of these dynamics. And the truth is, if a person feels called to be married, A person feels called to be in a relationship that's legally bound. There's a, there's a reason why they feel called to be so.
There's a reason for their correction process or their souls need that if a person says, you know what? I just want companionship I don't think anything be legally married But I will be in a monogamous and loving and and have respect we can grow with each other And that's what they feel called to do.
That's what their soul needs at that moment Like we can't judge and we can't fit everybody into a box.
Yeah. No, I agree I think everybody when I meet people and they're like, well, you're 41 you're not married as I avoided my first divorce
A lot of people say, Oh, that's a red flag. I've actually seen more men enter healthy relationships and marriages later on, maybe in their late thirties or early forties, because they've evolved so much.
Like who you are now versus who you were at 30.
If I got married at 27, 28, when I thought I was going to get married, I would have absolutely been divorced. You know, um, like who you're with at that point is completely different than somebody I'd be with. Right now. Correct. Um, you know, I have two uncles who were married in the 70s and 80s, got divorces and they got remarried in their 60s and they can't be happier.
Right. You know, so it's like the person that you are in your 30s and 40s is different than the person you're going to be in your 60s. You know, you hear about people who get divorced late in life, 60s, 70s, you know, there's so much life to be lived. And you got to just enjoy every moment. And I don't think there's any, like, I feel zero pressure to be like, you have to be with someone.
I, I think that's where a lot of people go wrong is they feel like I can't travel through this life without anyone. I think I'm fortunate enough where I chose a career where I get to do things like this. I get to meet new people. I get to be out with a lot of people all the time and I'm in an interactive with people.
If I just sat at a fucking desk all day and I'm like, It's on a computer. I get where that anxiety would come where I'm like, I need to meet somebody because I need to share this life with people. But I, I have so many great people around me. I don't, I'm, there's no real pressure. Um, so Mary Ruth, this company, you guys started, you guys were dead broke and then you grow it to this unicorn.
And you don't know shit about vitamins. I don't know the first thing. I
learned, I remember in the early years I was 30.
Yeah.
Um, and I was still part of the non profit world until like, 7I was until about 9 or 10pm at night and I would come home and I was watching YouTube videos on supply chain, on marketing, on design on Facebook marketing, on Amazon, on packaging.
I learned everything in the Late night hours on YouTube for three to four hours a night. Okay, so you do know, like, I mean But I learned it online, I mean, I had no formal experience whatsoever. No, no, I mean Our packaging, which is like this icon It's literally, like, one of the most iconic logos now in the, in the health and wellness space.
I, I shared this story yesterday. I took a photo of Mary Ruth. I went to some guy from India on Fiverr. I paid him 5. He made it into a caricature. I went on Canva for 9. I made a logo and a label and it was a 15, 20, uh, what would normally cost by half a million to a million dollars for a packaging company to come up with cost us 15.
And that is the same iconic logo we have now in 180 countries and all around the world. The CEO of Whole Foods said to us, Mary Roots is brings this logo and this design, this aesthetic brings warmth back into the vitamin aisle. Again, this is a 15, 20 experience. That's it. Anybody can do it. Were you conscious of what you were doing or were you just like, ah, really not a clue.
I mean, we, we were just trying to sell a couple bottles a day on Amazon to pay our bills and I think like that first month we made like 500 bucks or a thousand bucks and we were like crying from Joy. I'm like, we made money while sleeping. Now we can maybe get out of our hole. We were. Our debt payments were like 30, 000 a month, and we were behind, six months behind in rent, like, we were about to get kicked out of our apartment.
I was sleeping on the floor, we couldn't even afford a bed that was big enough for both of us. It was, it was crazy.
So, I think people, if they're questioning, if they're like, well, should I go on Amazon and get me some Mary Ruth products? I mean, look at this guy's fucking hair and skin. If I was gay and I had to share a gesture, I
for sure would.
I was sharing, I mean, obviously there's genetics, but I, I, We're like a well known family brand, right? We're number one in kids. We're number one infant, toddler, big with women.
From somebody else. And I'm sure there's a lot of the people that I hope watch this show like myself are business owners or, you know, you're trying to create a brand.
You know, I've been lucky enough to meet the guys who, You know, started Celsius and, um, huge, massive brands. Great case study on entrepreneurship. It's, it's so impressive because you're kind of like brushing off, but I'm like, I, I've literally been chipping away at this event and my brand for, 10 plus years and I'm like When the fuck is this thing gonna hit or if it ever does hit?
I I was fortunate enough to meet a gentleman who has a an alcohol brand him and his father started this company called jefferson reserve
I've heard of that.
Yeah, it's a it's a whiskey brand. Yeah, and they had it for like 20 years They started in the early 90s and they couldn't get it off the ground suddenly like the Changed up the recipe a little bit.
They started doing some other marketing and it took off after, you know, a couple years And I was like, what made you hang on for so long? Like most people be like two three years in you know, like they were dumping money into the thing. It's not going anywhere.
Yeah
You kind of hit right away. Yeah Like what do you attribute that to it?
Yeah
I think in the first year we did like half a million of revenue. I think the year after was two and a half. Third year was five. And we hadn't hired any employees yet. So it was just me. So it was
just the two of you?
Me, Mary Ruth, and my mother in law. It was like the most incredible woman in the world.
We were all living together, by the way. Like, that's how bad it was. Like, we were, I was living, I, I've lived with my mother in law my whole life. Like, that's how. Oh shit. We, we couldn't afford anything different. And I, I had to take care of her. Well, we were all living together because her husband passed away.
Her son passed away. Everyone went in debt. I'm like, we're all in this together So yeah, so it was just the three of us until we hit 10 million of revenue, which I think happened in the fourth year We didn't hire one employee We just said the three of us are gonna figure out how to run every part of this business I remember when my first child was born, I was answering customer service emails on Amazon during labor.
Like, I, it, because if you go 24 hours without answering, you get penalized on Amazon. So we had to hit these quotas, and I'm literally in the delivery room. She's like, I don't know. Five, six centimeters. And I'm like, let me just try to get this last one out before the deadline hits. Like that's how our life was shit.
And I mean, you were making 10 million, 10 million of revenue. It was probably at that time, you know, 2 million of profit. Okay. But here's the thing you learn. Even when we hit. 100 million of revenue. Yeah, we were personally broke. Yeah. Yeah, when you're running a business as you know You could have the most successful brand but I remember at a hundred million of revenue Like I looked at my bank account I'm like, I don't know if we're gonna be able to pay tuition like this month.
Like that's what that's what it was Like
well people always think like oh, there's all this money coming in I go. Yeah, but you don't know how much is going out
Oh, it's going out. Yeah, like people our employees like oh my god, we're making so much money. I'm like No, like this money goes right back into Insurance and supply chain and inventory and legal bills and it's endless so it's really not until like you Begin to maybe sell a brand or kind of raise money in certain ways that you can Can't capitalize on that.
But yeah for the first eight years. We didn't even enjoy any of the fruits of that
I was with a buddy of mine last night and he was um I don't want to share his too much of his information, but it's pretty public that he sold part of his company and He's like I didn't have any money Till we had an investment company come in come in and buy out half the company.
That's right He's like otherwise I was fucking broke and he goes at that point I got such a lump sum of money that I had to buy homes Correct because then the government's going to take over. So he bought a home in austin He bought a home in la and he's like, yeah You Now I'm broke because now those homes aren't as worth as much as they were.
Yes.
So this, this is, yeah. So people think like, Oh, you have all this money and, but it, it, as soon as you start making it, and I think this is part back to the spirituality thing. I was just as happy days when I kind of focused on what I wanted out of life. When I was broke as if, you know, the day I had the most money in my life, you know So it money really doesn't change it.
Obviously, it makes life a lot easier You're a lot more relaxed when you have it, but at the same time it's having it now you're like well now I'm gonna lose it Correct so much more different kind
of fears. Come on. Yeah different kind of problems and challenges come on Yeah, so we did something that is actually Eight years after we did that we sold a minority stake and this is all public for me we sold the minority stake to a private equity firm and they were amazing they came in and There are a lot of bad stories and negative stories on private equity, but we interviewed like 50 of them We found the right partner and they've been incredible Two to three years later instead of selling the company We decided actually to go raise money to buy it all back and this actually closed three weeks ago so I can talk about it We raised 3, 000 You know, a sizable amount of money and we bought back our whole company because we want to be like one of the few bright vitamin brands left in this world that are not owned by a conglomerate, not owned by like big pharma and maintain the quality and care behind the products and the consumer.
So we took a bet on ourselves. It was risky, but basically, like we own the whole company again, and now we're going kind of that extra. Extra mile to see where we can take it.
That's awesome.
Yeah, so we I've learned that because I told us a marathon like I'm like we could just sell and Each of us live the lives we want for eternity.
She's like, yeah, but what's the uncomfortable thing to do? So
what does that look like for you? What is that like? Because everybody has this dream everybody wants to this get rich and then I could retire and live this life But what is that life because I believe that life Is all about service you want to be and purpose right and your purpose is to help other people Yeah, so like would you create another company?
Do you go and fucking retire on an island? So like what does that look like?
It's a great question So this is what i've learned and people can say stuff but until they really experience it It's not you know, exactly what the business does for me is it accesses my creative side But i'll tell you the business does not make me happy making money Having money and having the nicest things in the world Literally the novelty wears off after 10 minutes.
Of course. And then you have the nonsense you have to deal with. Right? My friend who bought a second home in Malibu, everyday he's complaining about the gardener's not coming, and this happening, and the soil erosion, and the nonsense, and the salt from the water is eroding. It's not, it's constant nonsense.
He was happy the day he got his Malibu home, and then he suffered for years afterwards. So, the novelty wears off. This business is really, you know, I made sure it's a hobby. I only make sure 50 percent of my time goes to it because it's to help me stay creative, stay sharp, but it does not create fulfillment.
My fulfillment comes from the spiritual work that I do and also the charitable work that I do. Every soul that you can give the tools or energy, and I know this is what you do to health and wellness, to make them become the best version of themselves, Then whatever energy they create in the world goes back to you.
And that's what generates your fulfillment. So my thought is, I want to affect, I want to be able to help as many souls as possible. Give them the tools they need. And all the light they generate comes back to me. And that's what I'm excited about. And that's why I started social media recently and all these things.
And I have like a master class that I created all for charity. And I have like 4, 000 people a month taking it. And the miracle stories I hear on a daily basis. Is what is fulfilling.
I, I 1000 percent agree with that. I truly believe hands down that whatever good I could do for other people is going to come back to me.
If I could help somebody make money, if I could help somebody, somebody move their business forward, I want to see other people win. And I think if I tell anybody I have a superpower, I actually want to see other people win because And that now lets me know that there's somebody out there who's like, whoa, this guy really helped me out.
Like I, I, I love knowing that there are people out there where I'm like, I did everything I could for that person and I hope they're doing well with it because it's, it's going to come back to you. Always. Yeah.
Always comes back. And even the little negative things we say about people when no one's around or the judgments that puts energy out there.
That always comes back. A hundred percent. I always tell people I'm like, The thing we should be most careful of is evil speech. Try your best to minimize There's ten types of evil speech, but definitely talking about other people Even if you think it's justified, even if you think you have a good reason to do it, if you shut your mouth And stay silent.
This is the number one wealth generator. This is the number one way to become famous This is the number one way to become respected in this world. Keep your mouth shut.
Yeah,
stop saying negative things about
people Well, I I think I mean I definitely talk a ton of shit on people for sure But openly into their face because but if you tie it you're saying it to their face Yeah, like I mean, there's definitely people out there.
I'd love to kick in the back off a bridge somewhere. Um, But you know, and yes, I do believe i'm justified for some of it. Um, Only because I've always said this I operate with no malice like I We were putting together this event and I really want to see people when I the first question I ask whether we're hiring a sponsor or I'm selling a ticket I say how can I how could I use this event to benefit your business in your life?
Because I want to see you win I do and when somebody mistakes I'm like, you fuck. I'm like, if I could get away with punching you in the face, I would. Um, but that's kind of how I operate. Like, I always hope that people operate the same way. Like, you should want to see other people win. Because when you act The opposite when you don't want to see people win then people don't want to see you but people feel that oh, yeah And you yes a hundred percent you feel that
subconsciously then they avoid you as well, you know something I learned a spiritual concept Which is you know, we try to do so much for people but at some point They hurt us.
They disappoint us. They don't show up. There's no reciprocity. I've learned this concept of invoicing the creator. So what I do is I'll give my time to someone and then I'll say, and then I'll expect nothing from them to return, but I'll send a spiritual invoice for the universe and say, this two hours I spent, I need you to pay this bill through some kind of miracle in this world.
The problem is when you're looking for it from the person, that's what creates the resentment and the limitation.
No, I agree. I think there's very few people, uh, you could, you could expect that from, but you want to, and I always try to surround myself with as many people who think the same way I do. So I, that's a great place to finish cause I'm so glad we got to meet.
Um, yeah, this was awesome. This is a lot of natural organic. I mean, we literally just met seven minutes before we walked in here Um, so I appreciate david. You're one hell of a guy. Thank you so much for coming by. Uh guys if you uh, Haven't checked them out. Uh, mary ruth's organic mary with organics in my company or you can get my content on instagram Yeah, David Guilhem is my handle.
I mean, come on, then who doesn't want to look at this guy all day long? Right, guys. Thank you so much for checking out the strongest podcast. Uh, like, subscribe, do all those things, share with your friends, tell them all about it. Uh, because hopefully we'll, uh, we'll keep this going. So thank you guys.