Dave Schmulenson is better known as The Schmo (@theschmo312). He is a sports journalist, interviewer and host of the podcast “The Triple C and Schmo Show”. He joins Chris Van Vliet inside the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about how he got started as a sports interviewer, what he learned from conversations with people like UFC President Dana White, Logan Paul, Mike Tyson, Colby Covington and other sports stars, how he came up with his character “The Schmo”, how he feels about comparisons to Nardwuar, who his dream interview is and much more!

This will be the first time that a lot of people will be hearing you as David. A lot of people only know you as The Schmo.

“So I grew up in Chicago in the 1990’s, I am a 90’s child. My favorite sport was basketball and my childhood idol was Michael Jordan. I think he is the greatest athlete of all time. When I relaized the dream of being a basketball player died in high school, the next best thing would be talking about sport.”

You created this character. Where did this begin and how many different versions have there been?

“I would say that the original version of the Schmo always lives on but I have adapted it. If you don’t adapt then you die and change is inevitable. So I am a goof, I was always the class clown and made jokes. What you see is an extension of myself, but I can get away with crazier things when I put the glasses on. I grew up doing impressions, I do Borat and I do Austin Powers. Me and my roommates were goofing around in Los Angeles, I put on the glasses and a jacket and one thing lead to another. The idea of the character began with things like that in 2015.” 

Did you ever fear that people would not take you seriously?

“At that point I had stopped caring about that. No one would take David Schmulenson seriously. I wanted to go the traditional broadcasting route, I dropped off tapes after graduating and would not hear anything back. When I moved to California in 2012, the NFL Network and Fox Sports were starting up. I would do whatever I could to get my foot in the door, which I think a lot of people are afraid to do. I think an accumulation of many factors lead me to create a character to mock the system and say look, if you don’t want to give  David Schmulenson a chance then I will do it in character.”  

Who was your first interview as The Schmo?

“I believe it was with Rick Neuheisel. I met him on a Southwest Airline flight and I had the glasses. So I am on the flight and I told him what I was doing, I was doing The Schmo thing while being on USA Today. I went to his living room and that was the first one. But the first guest on The Schmo and The Pro was Jerry Hairston Jr.”

Did you ever think about going into stand-up?

“I think that I would be doing myself a disservice if I did not do stand-up. At some point I will do stand-up as The Schmo, it is 100% on the cards.”

Who is on the bucket list of interviews for you now?

“Michael Jordan is number one. The only UFC fighter I have not interviewed is Conor McGregor.”

Why hasn’t this happened yet?

“I have my conspiracy theories but it will happen someday. It took me a long time to interview Khabib but it happened, he did have to retire first. Everything in life is timing, a lot of things haven’t happened on my time, but you have to be patient.”

These last 2 years have been strange for interviews. I say if you do a Zoom interview then you don’t meet them. What do you think about that?

“If you meet someone that you have done a Zoom interview with then it is like you have met and talked to them before. Ironically this happened to me in Dallas recently. The Venezuelan Vixen [Julianna Pena], she and I have done Zoom interviews before but I have never interviewed her in-person until last weekend. We have had the familiarity, but it has to count for something.”

A lot of interviews are asking questions to get a headline. You are just asking as a fan and out of curiosity.

“For sure. And I think that with that, the headlines will come. The other journalists and sites take the video and spread the word and the sport grows. But asking the right questions? I’m not too worried about it.”

So let’s say you are about to interview me. How does the pre-interview conversation go?

“Great question. I try to keep it as short as possible because I don’t want to give it away. When the glasses are on, I am in character, when they are not then I am not. All I say is ‘When I put these on I am the Schmo and you are the pro. Are you ready to go?’ I want to say as little as possible, because I want to catch them off guard and get the ebay out of them. If they want to talk after the interview then cool.”

People only see the tip of the iceberg with you. What is the rest of the iceberg?

“I am really good at business and brand marketing. A lot of people can call themselves a social media expert, but if you can start something from scratch and you believe in yourself and do whatever it takes, that is what it is all about. I love to wake up every day, watch sports and make people laugh.”

Have you seen many Schmo imitators?

“Oh all the time. Also Helen [David’s wife] laughs at me all the time, but there are a lot of journalists doing what I am doing. If you are copying someone though, you are 2 steps behind who you are copying.”

What would you say has been your greatest Schmoment?

“Mike Tyson is up there along with playing basketball with Floyd Mayweather. When I met Goldberg for the first time and he grabbed my neck and said ‘You’re next!’ It was like my childhood came to life.”

What advice would you give to someone who is trying to get into this?

“You have to be able to take a step sideways or step backwards to move forward. No event is too small, find out where the closest regional scene is and do it for free. I have struggled so many times to make money, but if you love this then you will find a way.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for right now?

“Good health, my inner circle and for good human beings.”

Featured image: The Scrap

Brian Cage (@briancage) is a professional wrestler known for his time in Lucha Underground and IMPACT Wrestling and is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling and Ring of Honor. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about his recent debut at Ring Of Honor’s Super Card of Honor, when we will see him on AEW television again, what his typical workout looks like, his Redcon1 supplement stack, signing a developmental deal with WWE in 2008 and why they released him, losing his Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship to Tessa Blanchard and much more!

Most people look at you and think that you are a bodybuilder, how close do you think you could be to stepping on stage?

“You know, that almost happened this past week. My wife did it recently and she is crushing it! So we were like well let’s go and do a show together. Originally, we were prepping and she got pregnant, so we had to cancel that. Years later, she finally did it and did great and wanted to do it again. I got the itch out of nowhere when I was training in a gym over WrestleMania weekend in 2017. I just got nostalgic about it and was like well why not? But then I pulled my hamstring so it didn’t happen. 5 weeks with no training legs and no cardio is a long time.”

So what is the biggest downfall of being this big all the time?

“People online will ask you for extremely detailed fitness advice and expect a one word answer. They will ask like ‘Hey, how do I look like you?’ And they expect me to just say something like ‘Drink honey.’ It’s awesome that they are serious about it, but face to face you know who is serious and who is just looking for the answer that they want to hear. But they hear that you gotta work hard and are like ‘No how do I do it fast and simple?’ It’s like learning a foreign language. You have to work at it and if you take time off, you lose it.”

Are your meals clean every day?

“Not as clean as they used to be. I felt like because I ate so clean for so long that it was not as much of a shock because I had to make less of a change. But I am more free to loosen up the diet a bit, it’s mainly sweets. If it’s a baked good you can’t get anywhere, I’m like man that looks good. But if I have a big match coming up I’m like no, not today. It’s pretty much steak, eggs, rice, oats and protein shakes. I’m also taking multivitamins. I don’t eat as much vegetables because they go bad instantly, and if they go bad then the meal goes bad.”

So you post these throwback photos where you look like you could be in a boyband. When did the shift to The Machine start?

“I graduated high school at 150 lbs and it took me forever to get to that picture, which was about 200 lbs. I made my debut in wrestling at over 200, but it was a sloppy 200. I looked great in a shirt but not out of it. To build up to the size I am, it took me about 10 years. It was mostly through wrestling, I am not a bodybuilder trying to wrestle, I am a wrestler who happens to like bodybuilding. I competed and did 5 shows throughout my wrestling career. I wrestled every weekend, then on Sunday get up, do cardio and hit legs.”

We saw you at Ring of Honor recently so I’m guessing it won’t be long before we see you back on AEW?

“Right, I feel like you are correct. I know there are a lot of rumours regarding ROH and what’s next. There’s stuff that I know and stuff that I don’t. Hopefully we will be doing both at the same time, and I will be a part of both. I will never say no to work, I love this business and having amazing matches. If I’m taking an indie booking, I want an awesome and fun match. I don’t want to feel like I should have stayed at home, I want to be stoked.”

Well I imagine it’s cool when kids see you in real life.

“You never know what kid will be seeing you for the first and maybe only time. I hate cancelling, it’s a small thing in your life but it’s a big thing for them. Whenever you meet a fan and see how much you have touched them, it is still shocking. It is cool to see that magic happen.”

Who did you want to line up to see?

“In wrestling it was Shawn Michaels. I also waited forever to get Triple H’s book signed, but he had to cancel. I was waiting in the parking lot for this book to get signed, he wasn’t even there. I never got to see Shawn either, but I would have loved to. We were pretty broke growing up, so we didn’t do anything. I went to my first wrestling event in high school, but I knew since I was 10 years old that I wanted to do this.”

We all have that first benchmark where we are serious about our dream, what was yours?

“My first match was against Chris Kanyon. It was one of the greatest moments of my life. He was so great and helped me out so much. That dude was so influential and such a good dude. He gave so much to wrestling and would excel so much more if he was around today. Definitely he is not talked about as much as he should.”

So what’s the next thing where people were like you are actually doing this?

“I remember getting my first extra spots. People said ‘Oh that’s cool, but if you don’t get signed then it’s over right?’ It doesn’t work like that! Kanyon helped me get into Deep South and I was there uncontracted. My mom hoped that would I get signed or stop, but they moved to Florida and I moved back home. I got signed eventually and it was great, but then when I got released she asked if I was going to stop.”

A lot of people would think that you ticked all the boxes back then. What was the reason WWE gave you when they released you?

“Well, I was waiting on a raise, I was due for one. I was told I would be getting a call and going on the road. I missed the call from the office, but I am stoked and I call them back. They say ‘Hey Brian how’s things going?’ I’m like things are good and I’m trying to play it cool. They then say that they are coming to terms with my release. I’m not trying to be a smartass here but I legitimately asked if they had the right number. It didn’t even cross my mind. They gave me the reason that I am a little bit too indie and I need to get some more experience. So I have to go to the indies to get more experience and not be so indie? Hmm, ok that makes sense!”

So you go to TNA, did WWE ever call you back?

“They did call to say that they were going to do Tough Enough and bring me back for it, but then they took me off of the list. They invited me down and wanted me on NXT, but then they changed their minds again. I asked what happened and they said ‘You are average at best and we are no longer interested.’ They sent that in a text and I was so heated. I kept it as professional as I could, there was a lot I wanted to say. I got back to them saying we might work together again in the future. But actually, that was when my desire to go back to them went away. My life professionally and personally excelled when I let go of that. They reached out to me several times and people would reach out to them about me. They talked to me a lot of times about try-outs and it never happened. When it finally happened I turned them down because I had just signed with AAA and Lucha Underground. They were shocked that I didn’t want it, and that felt kind of good. There was some small talk, but it never really went anywhere. I ultimately wanted to go to AEW because there were so many people I wanted to work with there. If I stayed at IMPACT, I feel like my ceiling would have been capped.”

Do people still mention that you put Tessa over?

“There are people who try to mention it. First of all, they act like it was the only time, I beat Tessa all the time. They act like it was dominant, but she got a lucky roll up. But I get it, it’s an easy go to. But I think she is hands down the greatest in the female division of all of wrestling. I have had intergender matches before, that gives you better experience and standpoint of it. But that girl is really good!”

But you had no problem wrestling her and some people did.

“I get it, I’m not the biggest fan of intergender wrestling. But at the same time, I am excited about the challenge of it. With my stature and my size, it is more lopsided, but I want to show that I can work with anyone.”

I remember at Double or Nothing in Las Vegas that you were meant to be on that show.

“I was so stoked because it was a well kept secret, which is very rare. I was IMPACT World Champion at the time, and they had the issue with it. They had the most to gain from it and they [AEW] were going to really let me shine. They wanted me in the Battle Royale and no one was going to beat me. But because IMPACT got word they canned it. I got to make my debut a year later, but it was in front of no people.”

I imagine you got a lot of offers along with AEW.

“Several companies were interested and gave me verbal offers, nothing physical. I tore my bicep before Hard To Kill and was supposed to have a match with RVD, which was also supposed to be my last match. I decided I was going to sign with AEW, but IMPACT was going to offer me another contract in-person for me to look over. I get there and they are trying to figure out how they can work around it. I get back from my match with RVD and it was so weird and so quiet in the back. What’s going on? I look at my phone and it’s all ‘Brian Cage signs with AEW.’ At that time I hadn’t signed with AEW and they said they will email me a contract later. I am injured at this time, so I am damaged goods. If IMPACT wants to sign me then cool. But now IMPACT thinks I have signed with AEW, maybe they don’t want to sign me and maybe AEW don’t want to sign me. I was furious. Tony Khan said they still wanted me here and I am super thankful for how he handled it.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My family, the gym and that we are signing the papers on a new house.”

Molly Bloom (@immollybloom) is an inspirational keynote speaker, entrepreneur, podcaster and bestselling author of Molly’s Game. She is best known for her memoir, Molly’s Game, which was adapted into an award-winning film of the same name by Aaron Sorkin. Bloom’s memoir chronicles her journey from college student to LA waitress to building and operating the largest and most notorious private poker game in the world. Her games featured hundreds of millions of dollars and players like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, A-Rod, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. She joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about her amazing story, becoming a mother for the first time, how she built up her poker game in Los Angeles and New York, what she learned from it, the importance of resilience, her new podcast about Olympic scandals called “Torched” and much more!

I’m so curious, when you go to a party, how do you describe yourself?

“It’s like my least favorite question. It is so difficult to sum up and it’s hard to explain. I guess it depends on how in-depth we get into the conversation. If someone on an aeroplane asks ‘What do you do?’ I say I am a writer, because that was the last big thing that I did. I try to not go back into it because there is a lot to go into.”

Do you ask them if they have heard of Aaron Sorkin?

“Well it is such a convenient thing to say ‘Have you seen the movie Molly’s Game?’ But there is really no way to pull that off without sounding like a jerk. That is the efficient answer but I have not really found a way to say it without being pretentious.”

A lot of our life is about identity. For you, your early life was about being an athlete.

“Yeah that was my early identity. But then it turned into going to law school, and then it turned into running a poker game. But there were people that I was around where that [running a poker game] couldn’t be the answer. I would say that I was an events planner to my boyfriend’s family. But it would be nice if I could have a simple answer to these questions, but that is not the way that it has gone.”

Do you ever think about what life would be like if you didn’t get injured on the ski slopes?

“I try not to but it is unavoidable because it is the question that I get asked the most. ‘What would you do differently if you could?’ I get asked that almost every single time I am on stage. It is an impossible question.”

Everyone has a what-if moment? What was the dream when you decided to move to LA?

“Mine was so simple. I literally wanted to take a year off before law school and I wanted to be warm! When you are skiing, you spend your whole life freezing your butt off, I just wanted to go somewhere where it is warm all year.”

Going back to that first poker game, what did you think this would all become?

“So I knew that my boss was out with celebrities and billionaires, I had the sense that they would be a big deal. But I had no idea who was going to walk into the room and how that was going to feel. I went home and googled things like ‘What do poker players listen to? What do they eat?’ I had no idea that Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire were going to be playing there. Beyond that there were politicians that were household names and other people that just have so much influence on the world. I had that moment of being mortified and out of my depth. But as the night went on, I was fascinated. It is a dream to be a fly on the wall in these rooms and have this kind of access. I have always been curious to learn about these things, having that access was so compelling.”

So taking this back, you were a server. You say in your book that you were a bad server but good at reading people?

“Oh gosh I was the worst server that my boss had ever seen. I got fired.”

How did that springboard into poker?

“My boss took pity on me and took me on as an executive assistant. I started working for them and he said that I would serve drinks at his poker game. I didn’t think it would change my life but it did. As it went on and I worked more poker games, I saw it as an incredible opportunity to network and to build this relationship and learn about entrepreneurship from the mouth of the masters. I was just intrigued and to be honest primed for a rebellion. I put everything into skiing and school, but it didn’t seem like it had gone anywhere. My brothers were doing big things and I was ready for a non-conventional path. I had given up my social life and was in the library on Saturday nights doing my homework. Seeing people betting $100,000 on a hand, it was very compelling.”

At what point did you start to realize that what you were doing was not necessarily above board?

“The first indication was that I had my money at one of the banks in Beverly Hills. One day they said that they are going to close my account, told me to empty it and that I am not allowed to come back.”

Where did that come from?

“It was a small town and I was depositing these cheques saying poker account. I guess they thought that I would be a liability to them. I had attorneys and I thought I was walking that line, but after that moment there was an indication that this was not above par.”

How long were you running these games from the very beginning to the very end?

“It was 8 or 9 years.”

I imagine when you do it for that long then you presume it is fine.

“Right. And you see people running the games at their own house, you just think that it is fine, it’s a poker game.”

Was it a huge surprise when it all came to a screeching halt?

“Yes and no. I was running the games in LA and then expanded to New York. I was then contacted by a family from the mob, and it made it clear where this was heading. The feds seized my assets and my account was -$9 million. I had been assaulted, threated and had a gun in my mouth when I refused to do business with the mob. In 2011 I just went away and the feds took all of my property. They said unless I could prove I was making it legally then they could keep it. I wasn’t making it illegally, but I wasn’t a target for the investigation. So I went away and for 2 years I tried to put my life back together. I finally moved back to LA and 7 days after I got arrested by 17 FBI agents holding guns. They then handed me a piece of paper saying ‘The United States of America vs. Molly Bloom.’

How much of a percentage of the movie would you say is in line with what happened?

“I would say 95%. I am shocked at how much Aaron actually stuck to the real events. Aaron made us all smarter and funnier than we are in real life, and some parts he did take creative liberties with. But the stories about the events and the players are all how it went down.”

What made you decide to write a book that ultimately would p*ss a lot of people off?

“My life was ruined. So I got arrested, but what the feds wanted was for me to be a confidential informant. They wanted me to wear a wire and to listen in on the politicians and the people from Wall St. I didn’t feel that was something that I could do and feel right about it. I felt like I made the choices, and I had to deal with that. Everyone thought that i was going to prison, but I had this great attorney who advised me on what to do during that year. I did community service and I went to rehab, drugs were a part of my story. We played it right and I didn’t have to go to jail. But there I was, 35 years old, no network and millions in debt. What do I do? I had to take control of the narrative and get my life back. Otherwise I am living in the mountains with my mom and my grandma, and that’s not an option.”

So how did Aaron Sorkin agree to make the movie?

“I had this shortlist of people who could make this work. Aaron was at the top of the list because he is my favorite writer. I relentlessly tried to get a meeting with him and watched all of his movies to see what would resonate with him. When you meet with someone, you can either resonate with someone or not. But he loved the story and decided to write it, direct it and make it his own.”

How did your life change when the movie came out?

“[before] I felt like I would walk into a room and people would whisper [about me]. Then it would be like ‘Oh my gosh that movie is great. It really paints you in a different picture.’ I then had a lot of opportunities come my way like being able to speak about hope and redemption. All these things I had been through now became this platform to share these inspirational messages.”

What was behind the decision to name Player X as Player X?

“Player X is a composite of multiple players. Aaron and I have no desire in taking anyone down or making them look terrible. This is a movie.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My little girl, for you Chris and for my mom.”  

Featured image: NPR

Derek Frazier (@thederekfrazier) is a television personality known for appearing on Big Brother 23 where he was the runner up. He is also the son of legendary boxer “Smokin’ Joe” Frazier. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about the lessons he learned growing up as the son of a legend, his match with Muhammad Ali, what he learned from being on Big Brother, what’s next for him, the time he boxed against his dad, who he would want to face in a celebrity boxing match and much more!

When you have a last name as famous as yours, how do you step out of that shadow and become your own man?

“So being Smokin’ Joe’s son and being the youngest, it is a legacy with a lot of pressure. But growing up, I knew I wanted to make a name for myself. My dad knew I liked entertainment, I get my sense of humour from him and my loudness from my mother. When you put that together, you are going to have a good time. I remember being like ‘Dad I want to be on TV.’ He would try to find ways for me to get onto commercials or ways to like learn the business. But once I got older, I was like I have to be on TV. I did a casting call one time and did MTV Made, most embarrassing thing! Guess what I was made into.”

Was it a boxer by any chance?

“Yes! So I got made into a boxer and it was just, I looked a hot ass mess. I had a tongue ring and was a 19 year old mess. But I did that because it was my way of branching out. I remember years passed and I had to find my niche. Then my father passed and I was like well I have to make a name for myself. From the ground up I have been trying to work, so I put in this casting tape and tried out for Big Brother. Randomly I got the call, low and behold, here is Big D on the screen and I am a star overnight.”

How did being on Big Brother change everything?

“Of course when you are on Big Brother you are in a vacuum so you don’t know what is going on back home. Being in the house, I remember being like ok, all I can do is play this game and lie and manipulate my way to the end and pray that nothing has changed at home. But when I came home, this is a lot. I got ‘Yo Big D I love you!’ But then ‘Hey Big D f*ck you!’ But it was definitely a quick change, but I think being Smokin’ Joe’s son helped me in the limelight and how to approach and understand people. Having those parents definitely helped me in that limelight.”

I imagine when you are on the game there are people that hate you. Then when you get home it’s like ‘Wait, I thought everyone liked me.’

“I really thought that I was doing so well. But I am from Philly, so blunt, no filter and a gay black man, we just say whatever. I got home and my roommates were like ‘We will wait until you get home, there is a lot to tell you.’ People see what you say onscreen, just take that and run with it. There were things that people were shell shocked about, wanted me to apologise about. I never expected it, but because the cameras are on 24 hours a day, people see me at my worst. They are watching you and listening to everything. Even if you are joking or if you are sad, you come home and I thought I was joking. It was definitely an adjustment, but I was happy that my roommates helped me to adjust.”

So if I am going to go into the Big Brother house, what advice would you give me?

“So my first thing would be make sure you have plenty of outfits. Not outfits for eviction night, but just to be sitting around the house. You might look back and go ‘Damn I wore that shirt every other day!’ I wore black a lot, which the producers were tired of, but I’ve got to look skinny. Also just remember that things that you would say with your friends, people watching might not understand. Be yourself but a dark joke might be funny to your friends, but a million people watching might not think it is. Don’t forget to have fun too, leave your mark so that people remember you.”

Did you ever think about following a career in boxing?

“I was thinking about it, but my dad was like, no! My dad wanted me to focus on going to school and life. As he told me, being a boxer, you have to dedicate everything to boxing. There is no party life, no social life and no 9 to 5. You have to eat, sleep and breathe boxing every day. There’s the gym, running, watching videos, ice baths… It’s a lifestyle and you can get hurt. My dad was like you are not doing it. I used to train, workout and had a few amateur fights, but my dad didn’t want me in this lifestyle. It’s not like I didn’t know what I was doing, but I just needed a lot of work.”

What are some of the other lessons that he has instilled in you?

“I have learned so much on how to be humble and how to have respect for everyone. A lot of people are so disrespectful at times and don’t have love. My dad had such a big heart, he taught me how to be myself and how to hold myself professionally. I am so thankful for all of that, there are not a lot of people who instil that at a young age. When I wanted to have my ear pierced or have my pants hang off my butt, my dad was like ‘That’s not happening.’ These kind of things he has taught me will stay with me forever. He also taught me how to care for those around you, because they will be around you forever.”

What is your one go-to story about your dad?

“I would say my one go-to is there was a time where I told my dad ‘I’m going to kick your ass!’ I remember being like that and he was like ‘OK sure, we gonna go in the ring.’ We got in the ring, I had my hands up, threw one punch, and the rest was history. He knocked me out and told my mom that I fell down the stairs. I’m like OK, now I see why this man is dangerous. He didn’t hit me full force, but hard enough that I was out for the day.”

What could have possibly angered you enough to get in the ring with Smokin’ Joe’s Frazier?

“I think there was something I wanted and I didn’t get it. I was like ‘You never let me do anything, I’ll beat you up!’ I’m there thinking I am hot sh*t and can do what I want, but I learned my lesson real quick!”

I saw that Floyd Mayweather paid for your father’s funeral. I think that might surprise a lot of people?

“Floyd Mayweather, he is great, he always pays respect to the people that have been there since the beginning. The whole thing with the UFC fighter, I didn’t really get that. I wish he kept it in the boxing ring, because right now the sport is struggling. Boxing is something that should be around forever, and right now we don’t have the youth names to keep it going.”

Some of the biggest names in boxing right now are Jake and Logan Paul.

“That is a f*cking joke! I would love to f*ck them up, literally demolish them. To me it’s a joke in itself, I think that is because of social media. People don’t understand that someone could go on social media and call out someone, have no experience and then get out there in the ring. I understand the money and entertainment, but I like the old school feel of where it should be. I don’t mind celebrity boxing matches for charity, but a real match on pay-per-view, it should be the people who have put in the time to work their way up. So I don’t respect someone who has had 3 fights and then gets in the ring with a legend. No one is perfect in boxing, you are going to lose fights as well as win them. I have no respect for Jake or Logan, and that is coming from a Frazier.”

So what is your plan now?

“I really want to get back on tv. I want to do some of these competition shows, there are so many out there. Big Brother, I might want to do that again, but I want to wait until All Stars. I would love to do The Challenge on MTV, there hasn’t been a big guy on there in ages, I feel like that isn’t fair. I know other big guys that work out and can throw around 500lb deadlifts, sometimes it’s not all about endurance. If not, I would like to do Amazing Race with my best friend. I love hosting too, if I get a microphone, get ready for a good time. I’m 5 foot 11 and I am 330 lbs. I can run, sprint and hit. It’s been 3 weeks getting back into the gym just in case anybody calls me. You can be a big person, but you can be a good looking big person. I took off 9 months of working out, that first week kicked my ass, but now I am sprinting and I can go again.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My mother, I can wake up every day and the support that I have.” 

Featured image: Enquirer

Johnny Gargano (@johnnygargano) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE and NXT. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Dallas, TX to talk about why he decided to let his WWE contract expire, becoming a father for the first time with his wife Candice LeRae, why they named their son Quill, what he learned from working with Triple H and Shawn Michaels, his thoughts on AEW, why he wants to retire at 40, his prediction for the Cleveland Browns 2022 season with Deshaun Watson and much more!

What is the most amount of sleep that you have had since becoming a father?

“Probably the 3 hour flight that I took from Orlando to Dallas that I took today. That’s the most continuous sleep I have had. Babies make a lot of noise!”

So the first time you bring your baby home are you like ‘This noise, is it a good noise or a bad noise?’

“Normally I would freak out. But luckily we have the internet and I’m like ok this is normal. If it was like the 1990’s, I can’t imagine my mom doing this with me making all these noises. At one point I was very gassy as a baby, I believe I made a face and my mom thought I was dying and rushed me to the hospital!”

How do you split up the duties?

“Well we don’t. Candice does a lot of the feeding because, well you know, she has the milk farm that the baby is eating from. I try to handle all of the diaper changing, I know. My dad, he is very proud of the fact that he never changed a single diaper. At this point, I can’t count how many I have changed. It can be every hour or every 15 minutes.” 

How does it feel being here on WrestleMania weekend? 

“I don’t even think about it that way, I have been so disconnected for so long. When I left NXT in December, I haven’t done anything wrestling related since then. This [WrestleCon] is my first foray back into this and it’s really fun. It’s fun to come here and during this period of my life I am going to be very picky and choosy about what I want to do and where I want to do it. But to show up and see so many people, I think like everyone in wrestling is at WrestleCon right now, it’s so weird.”

You recently did the interview with Renee where you explained everything. Now that it is out there and people have had a chance to digest it, how do you feel about it?  

“I feel very content [about leaving]. It was just a time period in my life where that chapter was closed as well as I could close it and end that story the right way and to get to thank people. I thanked people that don’t even work for the company anymore. I had no restraints, I just went out there and spoke from the heart, it was not scripted. To be able to do that, as I said in the Renee interview, that is an incredible amount of trust. That shows the relationship that I had and continue to have with the people in NXT where they trusted me to go out on live television with a live microphone. I could have said ‘I am signing with this place.’ and slammed down the microphone. I could have literally done anything. But I have way too much respect for everyone in that building and for that company. But now I just want to go and do my own thing, make my own choices and see what is out there. You get a rare time to let your deal run out, a lot of people don’t get that opportunity they are just signed for years and years. I knew my deal was coming up and I just wanted to have this time to reassess things.”

You really had that rare opportunity, especially with everything going on in the last 2 years with COVID and everything. You have really bet on yourself.

“Yeah and it’s on a t-shirt too!”

At what point did you realize that things had changed for you and you thought that maybe you weren’t going to renew your contract?

“I think the last year I kind of knew that. I had accomplished everything that I had wanted to in NXT. That’s not to say I couldn’t have gone to Raw or SmackDown and done other things. I just knew that I didn’t want to re-sign, but there was always that option of maybe I do want to re-sign. I had made my mind up but there was always that 1% chance that I could, so there was a 99% chance that I wouldn’t re-sign. But I feel like when Candice got pregnant, that was when that 1% went away. I don’t want anyone to be in charge of my time during the time period where I am with Quill. I don’t want to be sitting at home and have a Connecticut number call me and say ‘You need to be at this show.’ Or ‘You need to be at this appearance.’ I just wanted to have a clean slate, leave and either come back in the future or go elsewhere.”

A lot of people would go ‘I have a baby on the way. I need to be in the most secure place possible.’

“Right, and that is where the whole betting on yourself thing comes from. I am kind of just hoping that this time period where not only from a physical standpoint but a mental one where I can step away from wrestling and get a refresh and be out of that bubble. I don’t want to say learn to love it again, because I have always loved it, but to reignite that passion to a maximum amount. And I also want to be in the best possible place for Quill and for Candice.”

Do you think about what you want to do after wrestling?

“It’s hard. Obviously the name Johnny Garagno in wrestling will always be beneficial money-wise. People will want to pay to see me wrestle, meet me, learn from me. In reality I have a job for life. I could go back to WWE and be a producer, be a coach, train people. [Chris asks if the WWE door is still open] I mean I hope so and I assume so, I have a great relationship with everyone there. But I have said that I want to wrestle until I am 40, and that is only 6 years away. So I only have 5 years to maximise whatever I want to do in this.” 

Since you didn’t win the WWE Championship, is winning the NXT Championship that big moment for you?

“For me during that time, yes, that was my goal. My ultimate goal and the moment I could dream of. But being from Cleveland, we are built to be underdogs, so I am looking for that next mountain to climb. I feel like I am constantly doubted and looked down upon, and I get that it’s a Cleveland mindset. If someone tells me ‘If you go to Raw or SmackDown then you will fail.’ I feel like I can do this or that. If I believe in myself and bet on myself, but is that what I want? I don’t know.”

What do you feel like was the moment where WWE went ‘We can really do something with this guy in NXT?’

“I feel like my match with Andrade at TakeOver Philadelphia, which was the first time that I main evented a TakeOver. I feel like that match was the one that solidified them of like wow! Seeing the reaction, the praise, that was what got them. But what got them there was that me and Tommaso vs. The Revival was very, everyone loved those tag team matches. I felt like that opportunity came when me and Andrade did an opening match on a house show in San Antonio. It was right before WarGames in Texas, and Hunter was there. I looked at Andrade and I said ‘hey man, let’s just go out there tonight and go nuts and kill it!’ Of course Andrade is always game, I love working him, he is one of the best in the world. But we went out there and we tore it down, and I feel like Hunter watching that match live he was like ‘wait a minute.’ I had hired a nutritionist and looked shredded, and you kind of need both. You need to look a certain way and act a certain way, it all got to that perfect storm that lead to TakeOver Philadelphia.”

I am so curious as to the moment where you and Candice first had an interaction.

“My dates are all wonky, but I think the first time that we interacted was 2013? 2014 maybe? We interacted at PWG All Star weekend, I think that was my PWG debut. Me and her cousin started talking because I think she had a Samsung phone. I kind of slyly chatting up her cousin so I could get in there. Candice had an iPhone and thought that was better and I’m like ‘No it’s not.’ Then I tell her about the show Catfish, which she had never heard of, so I find her on Facebook and send her a link to a Catfish episode. The other play I did, we were on Facebook messenger and she said ‘Why don’t you text me, here is my number.’ I sent her my number back and said to text me, I sent the first Facebook message, it was her turn.”

What was the first date?

“So it was in Illinois, we were working for a promotion called Dream Wave. We snuck away and we went to a Subway of the hotel. We are there eating, look out the window and we see our friend Trent and he is coming to Subway. He comes in and he realizes what he is walking into, but it is too late then.”

You are known for your wrestling gear designs. Which one was your favorite?

“The Iron Man one will always have a special place in my heart because that was where I won the title at TakeOver New York. The Spider-Man/Venom gear and the Wolverine gear are also ones that I like.”

What do you think is the biggest thing you have learned from working with Triple H?

“I mean Triple H has a tireless work ethic. He and Shawn are great at the small details and seeing the big picture in itself. It was so good to pick Shawn and Hunter’s brain about things. Hunter was great at making home stretches mean so much more. I mean look at that match with Andrade, we had it going a certain way and he was like ‘How about this?’ and he made it 10 times better. I am so lucky to have a rolodex of great minds in my back pocket.”

Everyone online assumes that you are going to AEW, but are you just keeping your options open?

“Definitely, I am keeping my options 100% open. I watch everything, you can watch my YouTube video where me and Candice are watching AEW, NXT and Elimination Chamber while in the waiting room. I just love wrestling and want everyone to be successful. But right now, I don’t know where I fit in the wrestling landscape. I feel like the landscape changes on a weekly basis, you don’t know what will happen next. A new company can pop up, someone new can be in charge, it literally changes on a weekly basis. I feel like I am in a pretty good position where I can sit outside of the bubble and view everything. Because right now, I don’t know where I fit in.”

Take us behind the scenes when you got called up to Raw. It felt really rushed and there wasn’t really a plan.

“It was [rushed] and it wasn’t [planned], not that I know of. I told the story on Renee’s podcast, but I was in Cleveland when I got the call that I would be on Raw the next night. I had to call Tommaso to run by my apartment to pick up my suit and my gear, I literally had to fly from Cleveland to Lafayette, Louisiana. So I didn’t know what was going on, and I know you have to be ready for everything, but I feel like I work better when I have a plan. That was why I worked so much better in NXT, I can commit to the long term stories. I feel like wrestling is best when you plant that flag and commit to how you are going to get there with the long term story. It just feels like there was no long term goal in place. But for me in that time period, I felt like there was more I could give to NXT. To have that match with Adam Cole over NXT weekend, that was the goal. I like my chapters to have a clean ending and have closure. Until I get that, I wasn’t able to fully commit.”

Do you still want that WrestleMania moment?

“Of course. I don’t know when or if that will come. I have said numerous times that I have a great relationship there, but what sacrifices am I going to have to make to make that happen. But I would hate to be on the road and miss Quill’s first word or walking for the first time. Me and Candice only plan to have one kid, so we only have one shot at this.”

Who came up with the name Quill?

“It was a Candice choice. On her phone she had a screenshot of a baby names website and she had the name Quill screenshotted in 2017. 5 years ago we decided on the name Quill. All we needed was the boy, and the boy came.”

What if he wants to be a wrestler?

“I believe that you should let the kid make their own choices. I will support Quill to the end of the world. If he loves wrestling, hates wrestling, wants to be a contractor or a firefighter. I support him 110%, it is his life, his choices, I am just his dad and I am going to back him whatever he does.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“Family, health and time.”

Embedded images: Instagram

Lolo Jones (@lolojones) is a 3-time, 2 sport Olympian and World Champion, social media influencer and reality show star. She joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about her podcast called “Gold Metal Loser”, her career as a hurdler in the Summer Olympic Games and as a bobsledder in the Winter Olympic Games, the lessons she has learned from defeat, what a typical day of training looks like, why she wrote her book called Over It: How to Face Life’s Hurdles with Grit, Hustle, and Grace and much more!

I love that post you put up the other day. You mentioned that Tom Brady has unretired and you feel great.

“Yeah you always feel good until you go out onto the track. Tom Brady feels great right now but wait until he gets onto the field and people start hitting him again. I love what Tom Brady is doing right now, because he gives me a perfect explanation of what I am going through right now. People are like ‘Oh are you retired?’ And I go ‘I am on the Tom Brady retirement plan.’ Once I say that, people back the f off and give me some space. So I could be retired tomorrow or I could make another push, who knows?”

I feel like you are still training your ass off though.

“I am but I am not posting so much, I am tired of the hate and tired of being forced into retirement. I’m kind of doing my own thing and seeing what my body can do. So I am not making any commitments for an Olympic push, the next Olympics is like 2 years away because of COVID. I’m just wanting to see if I can get back to hurdling injury free. But it’s a grind and a hustle and I love it. If I wasn’t retired, I could come home and eat a whole cake. But I am doing this track thing so I have to be still very diligent in my actions.”

I mean you have been living and eating like an athlete for pretty much your entire life.

“Yeah but bobsledding gave me a bit of a break because I had to actually gain weight. I was able to live a little more for that, I could eat cheeseburgers whenever I wanted to and eat pizza and not feel guilty about it. However, when it came to training I still had to train my ass off. When it came to competing in track and field it’s like being a wide receiver, being very light and agile. Then going to bobsled, it was like I was a line backer, I needed the muscle mass. It was just a different mentality.”

So can you walk us through a typical day of Olympic training?

“Most people assume that we wake up at the crack of dawn Rocky style and running the stairs. But today my training was at 11am, so I woke up around 9:45. Once I go to training, it is 2 to 3 hours of running and weights, and then take a break for lunch. I will then do some yoga or pilates after. It’s one hard workout a day and then a softer one later on.”

What does recovery look like?

“I am like a cat, I sleep a lot. This past weekend I just slept through it all and watched TV. It was amazing and it was glorious. I am a napper, how do people not take naps?”

So on competition day, what gets you up and ready to go?

“Competition day is different because sometimes you taper before a competition so you are well rested. Also you get paid for competition, who doesn’t get motivated by money? The practices are like homework, but the competition is like an exam. It makes all the hard work worth it if you win.”

At what point did you realize that you have the talent and this crazy work ethic and you could be the best in the world?

“You never really get to that point. I have broken records and have made summer and Olympic teams, but I still have doubts of if I am good enough. When anyone starts a dream, we all hinder ourselves by wondering if we have what it takes. I am telling you from me, from someone who has tasted every elite experience, you will always have those feelings. It’s just about overcoming it and not taking it for granted. Maybe other athletes are super confident, but I don’t know, I have made it through grit and not giving up and putting all my effort into this.”

You’re a podcaster now, congratulations on this! How did you come up with the title?

“So my podcast title is Gold Medal Loser, for people who don’t really know me, I was one hurdle away from winning the gold at the Olympics games. I hit the hurdle and it cost me everything. People have teased me on social media for it, but if I didn’t do that, maybe I wouldn’t have competed in both the summer and winter games. I have used that failure into extreme motivation for me, so I hope that others who have gone through failures can use this to inspire them. Every guest who I have had on loves the title.”

Do you look at 2008 Beijing as a failure or a bump in the road for everything that happened after that?

“I can look at it as both. I would have loved to not hit that hurdle, but if I won the gold medal then I would have been out of the games years ago. But because I hit that hurdle, it was fuel for the fire for so many years. An Olympic gold medal would be a huge honor, but being a summer and winter Olympian is badass. Only 11 people have done both, there are thousands who have just done one. I know how that sounds but there are thousands of people who have competed in the summer or winter Olympics, only 11 have done both. It’s a pretty cool stat, so if I’m inspiring the masses, I have a real life story.”

I love the theme of your podcast. What is the biggest lesson that you have learned from that failure?

“I don’t know. You know, I think I am still not over it. Sometimes I will be washing my dishes and I will be crying and be like no I am over it. I don’t know, honestly, not what I have learned but how tough I am. I can get teased from that for years, recently I put up a post and someone commented ‘I don’t want to train with her, she didn’t win the gold.’ 14 years and I am still getting this! It just showed me how strong I am to continue to deal with the nonsense. Life can not break you, instead you can use these things to show how tough you are and achieve great things from failures.”

When did the abuse first start happening?

“It wasn’t until later on. When it first happened I was America’s sweetheart, everyone loved me and had my back. But back in 2008, social media was not really a thing, I did not have Twitter at the Olympics. But in 2012, there was Twitter and Instagram, and I saw how people changed with social media. My comments became less positive and more negative, people realized that the more they were negative, the more they would get the likes and go viral. Most of my fans were cool, but there were some that were just trying to get into the spotlight. When I got 4th at the Olympics in 2012, people were furious. They were like ‘She should give her sponsorship money back.’ and ‘She’s a washout.’ I had spinal surgery the year before, but people are mad because I couldn’t win an Olympic medal. My teammates were frustrated that I got the publicity, but they were not active on their social media to get publicity.”

You can’t control what people say on social media but you can control how you react though.

“Yeah sometimes I let it slide, but if I am feeling feisty then, well you know. If you have a good comeback, you can shut a troll down, it just depends on my mood.”

When did you start getting noticed for reality shows?

“I think it was when I did Dancing With The Stars. I was the first one out, an 80 year old lady beat me! But I got a knack when I realized I could make more money on them than for the Olympics. There is no prize money for the Olympics, which is crazy as it’s a billion dollar corporation. They say it’s non-profit but there is, and the athletes get none of that. World Championships, if I win track and field it is $60,000 and bobsled is $10,000. That’s not a lot of money for a whole season of work, and the World Championships are every 2 years, so cut that prize money in half. When I saw how much I made on Dancing With The Stars, I’m like I can make this! When the pandemic hit I just tried to get on anything to survive.”

If someone wants to follow in your footsteps, what would you say?

“Don’t do it [laughs]. There is no money in it, pick a different sport. Learn to throw and catch a football, make it in the NFL and make millions. The practice squad alone makes $500,000 a year, track athletes do not make that. But seriously, my advice is that it will be a long road, don’t get too confident in victories or too hard on the losses.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for right now?

“My health, my loan car because my current car is leaking coolant and my teammates.”   

Embedded images: Instagram

Featured image: New York Post

Stephen Petasky (@stephenpetasky) is the CEO and Founder of the Luxus Group. Prior to launching Luxus, Stephen spent 10 years as the president and owner of retail grocery stores, bringing years of experience and entrepreneurship to this new industry. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about what to look for when buying a vacation home, what makes a good Airbnb and a bad one, his favorite places to vacation and much more!

I’ve been looking into the real estate market, but right now the prices are like gas prices! Is now a good time to get started?

“That’s a great point. To be clear our business has multiple prongs from the vacation aspect. We develop inventory, we do some luxury Airbnb, we have a large co-ownership fund where investors pull together to buy property. People ask if there are good buys out there, but good is a relative term. Good is comparative to what you can achieve. So there are some good Airbnb’s, but the 2010 to 2019 cycle was where you could not mess up a buy. But now you have to be surgical, and people are now getting multiple bids for their property. It is not impossible though, and as the capital has accelerated, so has rental rates. The demand for renting safe havens outside of hotels and cruise ships has also accelerated, that is down to COVID. I think you can get good rates, but it’s the capital appreciation that will take longer.”

You have been doing this since 2007 when most people didn’t realize that this was a possibility. What got you interested in this?

“So Airbnb was founded in 2008 and didn’t really get its wings until about 2010 or 2011. We were in 2007 and we were not in the rental space at the time. My wife and I had our first son and we love travelling. We were committed to still doing it and we were not going to stop because we now have a child. We looked at our options, and hotels are ok, but not as romantic if there is a child sleeping in the same room as you. Renting homes had an inconsistency of the pool not looking right or you know, homes just didn’t look right. We looked at buying a second home, but we couldn’t afford it and didn’t like the restrictions. So then the idea came of what if we had 20 second homes that we could travel to at any given time. Obviously we needed $20 million, so we were very short! So then we thought well what if we brought a load of our friends in, which is not a new concept, but we are one of the few that have done it on this scale. We shared these homes with 18 friends and family and it just snowballed. Our friends told their friends and we built up a collection of vacation homes.”

So what do you look for when you look for a vacation home for Luxus?

“Just as a quick side note, Luxus is Latin for luxury, it is not a ripoff of Lexus. For us, when we are shopping, there are a couple of things. Firstly, there is the balance of capital appreciation or Airbnb rentals, and the second is how much we will enjoy it. Nothing against $250,000 properties, but we were looking at what type of vacation we would enjoy and would want to spend time in. So we looked for that balance of appreciation, could we rent it on the market and what felt good. Do we want to be by the beach, by a golf course or in the city? That weighted scale makes us want to pull the trigger.”

So you are saying it’s ok to spend more if it’s in a place that you would want to go vacationing?

“If it’s your first time and you are dipping your toe into this, pick something you want to stay in. You never know, one day there might be a global pandemic! Our clients actually got to move into these at that time. So pick something you love, worst case scenario if it doesn’t work, at least you can enjoy it.”

Can anybody work with you?

“From an investor perspective it used to be open, but it was very restrictive to Canada due to security. We don’t have any open funds right now, but we are spreading the word more. We have a YouTube channel to try and educate people more, and we are trying to open this up to impact more people’s lives.”

What’s on the YouTube channel?

“The YouTube channel is posting 20 minute snippets and provides people with free content on buying homes, selling them and everything in between. We are just dumping the free content out there. It’s called The Luxus Group on YouTube.”

What would you say is the biggest mistake that people make?

“I would say that the biggest mistake people make is buying on emotion and not having the proper diligence. A vacation home should be an emotional purchase, but if people don’t spend enough time doing their diligence, they will suffer. The real estate agent can say ‘Oh if you don’t but it today then it’s gone…’ Then you write this 7 figure cheque, and 2 days later you get buyers remorse. Fortunately I don’t have that, because even if I miss a deal, we always balance that scale. We check all the boxes and it really makes people more informed.”

With everything that you have done with your business, what do you think is the best advice that you have received?

“I would say, gosh there have been so many mentors, but be in it for the long game. It is hard to do things fast in the real estate game, so look for the long term gain. Any time I think I can make a quick buck, is it right for the long game? You don’t want to burn a bridge for a quick win. If you think about the 20 year plan, you will get there, just don’t sacrifice your integrity and ethics.”

How do you balance your professional and personal life?

“Success is relative too. Some days you feel successful, sometimes not. But with family, when you don’t feel successful because of the market or a situation, keeping family close helps. There is no perfect balance, but there is harmony in the imbalance. I can be stuck at work, but it can mean longer time away with the family in the long run. There is no ideal way to do it, but I think that kids are so smart. Keep them in the loop and they will understand.”

Some people listening to this have never travelled! Can you give us 3 destinations that this person needs to go to?

“Hawaii, you can’t go wrong there. I think any lake country right now, places like Idaho and Montana, anywhere where they are close to water but in the safety of the United States. Then I would probably say Vegas, it’s had a good run but now it is really coming into its own as a city, not just the nightlife.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for right now?

“The people around me, our health and my family.”

Featured image: CIO Look

Amy Dumas (@machetegirl), better known as Lita, is a professional wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer. She joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about returning to WWE at the Royal Rumble, her match with Becky Lynch at Elimination Chamber, how she got back to being herself again after being Lita for so many years, what her breakout moment was in her career, what she learned from traveling with Edge and Matt Hardy, her WWE debut in 2000 with Light Heavyweight Champion Essa Rios, what her first tattoo was, being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and much more!

Did you think that you would be back in WWE?

“Nope. Nope [laughs].”

So how did all of this come together?

“So the Royal Rumble is fun, watching it and being in it. So I did the first one, it was monumental and historic, I had to be a part of it. I was asked 24 hours in advance, I had not trained at all. I had to take a red eye, spend all day in medical to get cleared. The last time I had touched a ring was the last time that you all saw me touch a ring. So I was like nervous in all the wrong ways. I was still glad that I did it, there was only going to be one first Rumble. I am glad that I did it and I was happy to see all the girls, and I had a good time. But when I got the call this year I was like yeah I want a redo. I had a proper heads-up and had been training. My motivation was that it’s fun and I wanted to see my girl friends, so I was good nervous going into it. I was happy with it all, thought that was all and it wasn’t it all.”

So you were training just for fun? 

“So they gave me 6 weeks’ heads-up. I wasn’t in the ring before, no one apart from Nattie goes in just for fun. I train if I am training for something. I did Twitch through the pandemic and I met a bunch of people. I connected with a drag queen named Pollo Del mar who is very involved in the wrestling community. So we connected and they connected me with Dark Sheik, who then connected me with Hoodslam, which is a Bay area wrestling promotion for misfits, there are no boundaries. I had a crew, I could train with them for the Rumble. In those 6 weeks, I wasn’t only training, but I was having fun. I went into the Rumble feeling pretty good.”

You went in looking like you had just wrestled the day before. I guess it is like riding a bike?

“It did feel like that. I didn’t know how it looked, but it feels fine. I don’t watch my stuff back but I watch the clips on Twitter and it looked good, I was happy with that.”

But it was just supposed to be a one-off?

“Yeah and I was happy for it. As I was coming out of Gorilla position, WWE 24 was following me around for an episode too, and there is Johnny Ace. He is like ‘What do you think about wrestling Becky [Lynch]?’ And we have been trying to [wrestle] and fantasy book that for years. I think she was more serious than I was, I thought it was a fun thing we talked about sometimes. There was no way I could say no to that. Even though it was 3 weeks from the moment that he asked, I would have liked 3 months. Gearing up from yeah it’s fun to a title match, 2 totally different training regimes. But you take the opportunity when it is there. This is what is happening now, and you just go with what is in front of you.”

I would imagine that you had a bunch of stuff planned out that in your “regular life” you had to put on hold to have the match with Becky.

“For sure. Even just leading up to the Rumble, my schedule has been pretty flexible, Zoom orientated and easy to work around. Because it was so short, I felt like I just pull all of the good and let the delayed connecting flights [not affect me] and roll with it. But it was just, I don’t know, it was novel and I was doing this thing. I felt similar to when I decided that I was going to be a wrestler.”

Now you are back and feeling good, is WrestleMania on your radar?

“It’s not not on my radar. I just know how everything there, and nothing has changed, things are changing last minute and all the time. But I will be there, if nothing less than to watch it. But am I scouting and looking at different matches and combinations? I just feel more connected to them than I did before. We have all talked about going outside the bubble and not worry what is going on over there, and that was how I felt when these opportunities just fell into my lap. But it was really inspiring to sit down and talk with all these girls at the beginning of their career. I feel really good and proud if I have had my last match.”

Do you feel like you can now rewrite your exit from WWE?

“Yeah totally. I’ve had these one off appearances since I left my active career, but nothing meaningful like that was the last thing or this is how people will remember me. It was things with Heath Slater or the opening match at Evolution. I had fun spots, but nothing big. This just felt different.”

You have obviously broken a ton of barriers, but what was the first one where it was like this is something special?

“I think it was, and it gets replayed often, but it was me and The Hardys vs. Test, Albert and Trish [Stratus]. I was just kicking those dudes asses, I had no business doing it. These are 6 foot 5 people and I am hurricanraning Test and jumping onto Albert, women were not seen being that physical before.”

You have spent all this time as Lita, but who is Amy?

“So when I retired, it was like a reinvention of Amy. Lita is going to be on pause and will take a nap. If I had an interview when I was actively wrestling, they would ask me ‘So what do you do when you are not wrestling?’ I remember thinking that I had to make stuff up. It sounds boring if I say ‘I eat, sleep and breathe wrestling and I am either doing laundry or I am in a ring.’ That is what my life is, but it doesn’t sound cool in an interview, so I would make stuff up. But now I am not wrestling, I love the aspect of not having 2 days being the same. I like getting out of my comfort zone and seeing what the future holds. I decided to go exploring around Latin America. I wanted to meet people, work on my Spanish and surf, that checked all of the boxes.”

Did you have a moment in WWE where you were like ‘I don’t want to be here anymore?’

“It was more ‘I think I don’t want to be here.’ And it was at the time where my contract had a year or 6 months on it, whenever they start talking to you. I remember not being as excited when my music hit, just being like ‘Well that’s my music, time to go to work.’ Even being on the ramp, that was a weird feeling. It wasn’t how it was supposed to feel. I felt like I was punching a clock and I never want to do that. I remember asking to be taken off of the live events because I needed to figure these things out. They started asking contract negotiations like what do I want financially? I’m like well that’s not how I want to think about this, I just want to figure out if I still want to be here and we can work out everything else after that. I remember not missing it and it feeling more right. I have done more than I ever thought I would do in my career, so maybe it is time to get out. So I didn’t feel fear, I am ok if I fall on my face for this next chapter. It felt like I was missing out, my friends were getting married and having baby showers and I stopped getting the invitations. It was like ‘She is out of town, so it’s cool.’”

Did you have a final match in mind? I can’t imagine that the way it ended was the way you wanted it to go?

“I mean I was happy to work Mickie James, but in my mind it was a good long match and we hug at the end of it. Here’s the title, you see it’s in good hands and I am out of here. It just hurt my feelings, I was very vocal about it. I went to my producer, to the head writer and to Vince. Then I went back to my producer, back to the writer and back to Vince. I’m like ‘Is there any way we can not do this and we can do it in a pre-tape later?’ I’m like can I just have this match. The answer was ‘You are a heel, this is what we are doing, you’re giving it to someone we want to boost up, and that is what you do when you leave.’ I was like what did I do to have this ending? They are like ‘You are looking at it wrong. It’s business, you are a heel.’ I remember saying ‘Alright. This is the last time you get to pull my strings and you are pulling them hard. I’ll go out there and because I am a professional, but I want you to know that this hurts my feelings. I know that this is business, which doesn’t involve feelings, but I want you to know as someone who has broken their neck for this company, this hurts my feelings.”

Was this just a product of the time because women’s wrestling did not get to the level where it is at now?

“Right, especially now with perspective, that’s what I chalked it up to. That’s where we were then and it wasn’t really given a lot of thought. It was like ‘Oh here is a thing that can stoke Cryme Tyme for 5 minutes.’ It wasn’t really given a lot of thought, but now we are here.”

I remember watching that Cryme Tyme segment and I felt insulted as a fan.

“It was one of those things that was so hard. I would get asked about it by fans or by interviews or whatever. You’re not trying to air your dirty laundry or go on these rants or carry negative energy with you. But it wasn’t a thing where I could spin it so it was like ‘Yeah it was great, it was hilarious.’ I was just like it’s a bummer. They would keep talking about it, I’m not going to keep piling on but I hear you.”

When you think of Lita, what is the pinnacle of your career?

“Gosh there’s just so many. It felt like I was almost getting there and my neck was broken in 2002. I knew something was terribly wrong and I couldn’t move, but I thought it was my collarbone. I was getting crazy momentum, but then I was sidelined. But then I got into another good pocket, but I tore everything in my knee. I wasn’t fully out, but I couldn’t wrestle for like 6 or 7 months.”

Looking back at your previous run, it is obvious that you can still go.

“I don’t know. I think it has been cool and inspiring seeing Edge come back after all that happened with his neck, and he can still go and knows how to engage with the crowd. It is tempting, but at the same time, I don’t know, I feel conflicted. I feel proud of what I did with Becky and everything is good and get out while it is good. But at the same time, there is that part that says well how much better would it be if I trained for it. If the opportunity falls in my lap again, but I don’t want to force it. It might happen, someone might call me out on TV and then I answer.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for right now?

“My 19 year old dog, the ocean and the close friends that I have.”    

Embedded images: Instagram

Featured image: Esquire

EC3 (@therealec3) is a professional wrestling known for his time in WWE and IMPACT Wrestling where he is a 2-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Orlando, FL to talk about Control Your Narrative and what exactly it’s all about, the backlash he received after hiring Austin Aries, why he banned superkicks and Canadian Destroyers at his CYN show, what his workout routine looks like, his earliest memory, his WWE release and much more!

So you said you had to reschedule leg day because you almost died! What happened there?

“We were coming off of our first live event, which was a great success and we had an amazing time. But the next day we had a pre-production meeting, a narrative seminar, that took a lot out of us mentally. The following day we had a shoot with Pro-Wrestling TV for Free The Narrative 3, there are a lot of responsibilities in that. You are performing and you are producing everything that is going on. There is a great team around you, but you need to make sure that you are around everything. So there is that and the fact that we are fighting a fake culture, so much happened with exhaustion and the physicality of the training to look super f*cking jacked and ripped. At the end of the day I was laying down after a very successful day, and I felt like I was almost dying.”

So you said to yourself ‘I am not doing legs?’

“No, what I did was I decided to reschedule it. Instead I actually took 2 days off. I ate like a pig, but then I was feeling worse. Then it was a deload day with legs and moving things around with my coach. I had to rearrange things again to do this, and here we are.”

There are a lot of comparisons with Control Your Narrative to Fight Club. Do you think these are justified?

“Absolutely, because we stole a lot of ideas from it. No doubt about it. There was one comment ‘Someone should tell EC3 that Fight Club is satire and he shouldn’t try to be Tyler Durden.’ I said ‘Professional wrestling is satire, so you are making my point.’ I am aware, I am so self-aware.”

Can you explain The Rant Room?

“The Rant Room originated because it sounds cool in my mind. In the first feature we did I always thought that if we were creating an army of men, there would be this room with a camera, almost like a confessional. They would walk into the room and just rant and get it out. It started as that, but then I am watching social media where people are making all these horrific statements to people I know. There is nothing you can say to me to hurt me, but when it is people I know and have the best intentions, these horrible things are being said that no one would say to their face. In essence, maybe I rage tweeted, but I initiated The Rant Room. You can choose 3 minutes in the rant room, pay $100, and say anything to a wrestler of your choice and they can’t do anything about it. The backlash we received was because we were using The Rant Room to get money, which I am. But if you want The Rant Room and you don’t want to pay a cent, I will give it to you too. You won’t do it to people’s faces, you are a coward.”

Oh really?

“Yeah so we were in Orlando and someone asked me if The Rant Room was real? I said it was and they asked to talk to Austin Aries. I said ‘sh*t! OK, I don’t know if he is here.’ The one problem is that The Rant Room was initially just meant for me, and bringing other people into my insanity was not the best choice, but those that support it were behind it. So Austin agrees, we find the guy and I bring them into the room. For those 3 minutes, all the fan did was talk about how good of a wrestler Austin Aries was and how much he respects him. After a while, the fan said ‘I wish you would just stop tweeting your opinions so much.’ Austin asked why and the fan had no justification. I’m like I think this is good. What I learned is that face to face, different opinions can find common ground and peace, and maybe that is what The Rant Room is for.”

People have strong opinions about Austin Aries. I experienced that when I had him on my show.

“That’s what I don’t get. How do you know what someone thinks or feels if you don’t know what they think? Or actually listen to what they said?”

So what made you decide to bring him into this promotion?

“He reached out before it was decided that we were becoming a promotion in the sense of having television or live events. He said ‘I dig what you are doing and I would love to be a part of it.’ Here is a guy who is a former world champion and one of the best wrestlers in the world. He went away for a long time on a journey of personal discovery, and that is a story worth discovering. We had a phone call with him and it felt good. We looked at the ups and downs, and while he has opinions, there is nothing cancellable. It seemed logical and safe, and if I am bringing in a world champion, he can teach the younger generation. He is a leader and a locker room leader, and I respect that. Do I agree with him on everything? Probably not. But I can live with the fact that we have the same vision.”

So for those that don’t know, what is Control Your Narrative?

“To Control Your Narrative is to tell your story, that is my intent to it. But we ask people what it means to them and I am fascinated by the responses.” 

I know I have said this before but you are a former IMPACT World Champion, you had a great run there. Then you go to WWE and they don’t know what to do with you.

“NXT was cool but I was never meant for NXT. When we were called up, it was very rash and very unplanned. Our vignettes were shot in our homes, and we were called up as a group. Then I am a mute even though I am capable of speaking.”

When they brought you in they clearly didn’t see your promos in IMPACT. 

“The people that brought me in knew I could [talk], but no one would speak up because one man’s opinion rules.”

I’m going to ask you a general question. What are your thoughts on pro-wrestling right now?

“I don’t like it. It doesn’t engage me and I can’t watch it.”

You mentioned that the turning point was when Goldberg beat The Fiend?

“It was. I know Windham and he has a super creative mind. I know how much he put into creating that character. That was so outside the box, so impressive and so not WWE. It caught on like wildfire and everyone was into it. Then people saw that it was diluting. But the way that he created and he gets defeated on a grand scale, that means something. To watch him put his heart and soul into it and it’s like ‘Let’s have Goldberg beat him in 3 minutes.’ At that moment, I knew whatever I did then it wouldn’t matter. If that didn’t work, then what will?”         

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“Health, family and everybody within Control Your Narrative.”      

Embedded images: Instagram

Megan Olivi (@meganolivi) is a reporter and host for UFC and also a sideline reporter for the NFL on FOX. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at Wynn Las Vegas to talk about how she got started as a broadcaster, majoring in Political Science in college, landing her job with UFC, how interviewing Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar changed the course of her career, meeting her husband Joe Benavidez, working as a sideline reporter for the NFL on FOX, the best advice that Dana White has given her, being on the commentary team with Joe Rogan, her favorite UFC fight of all time and more!

I don’t think people realize the full scope of the things that you do. They see you on UFC for like 20 seconds and think that it’s an easy job.

“Yeah, that is exactly the reaction from a lot of people. They think that I am either reading a teleprompter, reading a script that someone else wrote or that someone is in my ear. I write 100% of my own scripts and I memorize them all! There are no teleprompters in our world, it’s a lot. It’s live TV so we do a lot of pivoting, nothing ever goes exactly to plan. Sometimes you will prepare for 2 dozen things and only get to do 10 of them. Sometimes they will say ‘Hey all that work you did, you’ve got to throw it out.’ And you have to think of something new in 5 minutes. It’s about being ready for anything and being prepared and on your toes. You may have to fill for 24 minutes if all the fights end early, you have to be a part of that. But also there might not be time to get all the stuff in that you worked really hard on. So it’s a broad scope and a lot that goes into it.”

I don’t think a lot of people realize what goes into it all. So what does a “typical” pay-per-view day look like to you?

“So I will base that answer off of what happened last weekend. I do rehearsals of the intricate hits that you see, they have to be timed perfectly with the cameras and the fighters walk. We rehearse those so that the fighter looks so perfect when they are in position. I arrive at 10:30 am, get hair and makeup, go into rehearsal. If I feel like it needs it, I will edit the scripts and start memorizing as much as I can. The rest of the team then comes in, we try and get some food and then we just hit the ground running. The fights start at 3, which is pretty typical for west coast pay-per-views. We don’t stop, I left the building at midnight, it’s a long day. I will contribute to commentary, do reports and interviews. I also host a post-show for ESPN after the fights, so it’s a lot of different roles and variables. It’s a long day, when I get home I try to just eat 17 tacos and go to bed.” 

How many different ways have you found to ask “How are you feeling?” Because that is what we want to know as the audience.

“That’s a good question, you definitely try to phrase things differently. But it has a lot to do with each person’s individuality. Some people you can’t just dive right in, you have to ask them something to make them comfortable. But some will just want to get in and out, so you will have to cut your words down and get the bare minimum so you can get the right wording and they can get out as well. There are so many things involved, but it is about how they are doing and what the future holds. You don’t see this in other sports, there is always another opportunity. But after a fight it is uncertain, so if I can get them to truly express themselves, I know that I am doing my job.”

You only have a handful of questions, like 2 or 3?

“Yes and that is what hard. On TV you have like 2 and a half minutes, which is not very long. If you are doing something for digital, or another platform where you can have 5 minutes, it’s amazing. But if you are on TV and an answer goes super long and you are getting wrapped, it’s killing me that I can’t ask this final question. Sometimes I will try and sneak it in, but it’s an art. People don’t realize that there are these time windows and figuring out where I can go from here, there is a lot in play.”  

You have interviewed Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor, how much have they changed the course of your career?

“Oh my God, I can confidently say that I would not be in the position I am in if it wasn’t for Conor and Ronda. They didn’t judge me on my age or my gender, they just judged me on how that conversation was for them. The first conversations went so well that they wanted to do it again, that is the highest honor. To be there for their career journeys, it means a lot. Those interviews go viral, and to be that platform where they can be their best selves, that means the world to me.”             

Taking this way back, you went to school for political science. What did you originally think you were going to do for a career?

“I don’t know really, I thought I might manage political campaigns. I also thought about going to law school after that too, I just really enjoyed learning about the political landscape of our country. Not just modern times but how it was formed. I quickly realized that sports broadcasting was a real possibility. It wasn’t that I thought I couldn’t do, I just didn;t realize that it was an option. I was a die hard Yankees and Giants fan, my house was very sports dominated, but I never thought to consider it. Once I did start to realize it, then it became a possibility.”

But there are not thousands of jobs available for this.

“Right, which is why I wanted to get a degree. It was like well this helps me stand out from the pack. But I started out from the bottom by getting coffee and printing out scripts. I started out on the morning shows, so I would get the 4:12am train to New York City. I would get home and then go to classes in the evening. It was how can I set myself apart? Education is huge, but so is hands on experience and not thinking I am better than anybody. Part of the journey is learning every step along the way. Sometimes they are the thankless jobs, but we need all of them.” 

People say you need real world experience, but that is not easy. How did you get your foot in the door?

“So I applied to all these different news networks and congressmen’s offices. The only people that responded to me, I started in the summer before my sophomore year, said that they only take seniors. That is not always doable. People who responded said I was very gung ho so come on in. It was about non-stop movement, and it is not easy to get these opportunities. There are a lot of different avenues, but just keep trying, learning what you like and what you don’t.”

When did you start to block out the criticisms? With the industry that you are in, there is a lot of tweets, and not all of them are nice.

“I’m fortunate that most of them are kind. But when there is one that isn’t great, that is what sticks with you. I would be lying if I said it doesn’t affect me. If it’s about how I look, that is easier to ignore. I am fortunate that I don’t get a lot about my intelligence, because those are the ones that sting. I try to block it out but I am only human, I can tell you that nobody will be a harsher critic of me than myself. But it keeps me going and I strive for perfection, you can’t get that on live TV though.”

How did you find out about the UFC opportunity?

“So I worked in New York City, I was in grad school and interning. My boss was connected in the UFC world, so I started meeting people at dinners. It happened that a group of people had a videogame party and they said that there was going to be a post-show for the UFC and they were looking for a co-host, and they asked if I could do it. I said yeah, I was not ready for it, but I worked super hard and was part of the pre and post-shows.”

Did you ever think that you would be married to a fighter?

“Oh God no! I grew up in a house of combat sports athletes, but I never dated a fighter. But when I dated my husband, it was different.”

What changed?

“He is not your typical fighter. Everyone who has gotten to work with him adores him. You would never know in a million years that he was a fighter. But he was so good to be around, was never mean and he was just the best.”    

What is it like working for Dana White?

“It’s interesting, but he finds a way. Look at what happened with COVID, people made fun of fight island, but then we did it and it was amazing. He made it work and made it an option where it wasn’t before. He finds a way and that is why the UFC is the way that it is. It is great to have that as a leader and it’s like well watch this!”

What is the best advice you have gotten from Dana by talking to him or just watching him?

“I think it is by watching him that fear doesn’t hold him back. He bets on himself and the people around him, and it shows that he has the best people. We don’t have many employees and they are all very young. I think as a broadcaster it gives me the confidence knowing that I am talented due to the confidence that he has.”

How did the NFL come about?

“FOX has been amazing. The original UFC partnership was with FOX, and 4 or 5 years into it I was a reporter for them on big fights. I got the call to do 2 NFL games as a try-out and go from there. I needed the UFC’s permission and Dana couldn’t have been prouder. The first game was the New York Giants, who I grew up watching. I did a post game with Ely Manning, and I used to wear an Ely Manning jersey all around college. I had a game the next week, they gave me more games and it just went from there. It wasn’t that I was good at UFC, it was that I was a good broadcaster, and that meant a lot to me.”       

So where does it go from here?

“So I am super fortunate and want to keep doing what I am doing. I want to be the best storyteller in sports, whether that is producing shows, I would still love to do a morning show too and fill up the weekdays a little more.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things that you are grateful for right now?

“My health, my family and opportunitues.”

Embedded images: Instagram

Featured image IMDB

Have we just seen the first proof that the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury, is heading back into the world of sports entertainment, bringing his unique skillset, arrogance, and charisma back into the squared circle?

If the recent social media posts from the World Heavyweight Champion boxer are anything to go by, then the answer would be a resounding yes.

Fury has regularly taken to Instagram of late to share updates on his training regime, and in typical style, he was bullish about his performance. “In the gym, guys; smashing it, absolutely smashing it.” He proclaimed to his 5.4 million followers. However, moments later, he revealed the outfit he wore at the 2020 Crown Jewel to the camera. “He’s coming, the Saudi Arabian King is coming back. Get up there, my boy, some big news coming. Hold tight.”

Although Fury hasn’t yet revealed what that ‘big news’ is, he’s certainly thinking about heading back into the WWE as his wife Paris went on to reveal on BBC radio over in England that he’s in constant contact with Vince McMahon.

Fury’s first foray into the wrestling ring came in the Middle East at the second edition of the Crown Jewel event, which has been held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, since 2018. The Brit took on Braun Strowman in a battle of the giants, with the boxer coming out of the thrilling eight-minute contest as the victor. Fury struck Strowman with a hard-right hand that led to a count-out; it infuriated the ‘Monster Among Men’ who, as reported by Bleacher Report retaliated by power slamming Fury after the winner had been announced. It left the door open for a rematch as wrestling fans were pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Gypsy King.

The WWE contest in Saudi Arabia came just ahead of Fury’s second fight in the trilogy against Deontay Wilder. He not only re-established himself as the WBC World Heavyweight Champion, but he also elevated his status to become one of the true greats of the modern era in boxing. Although the middle fight of the three between the Bronze Bomber and Fury was memorable, the third was even better; leaving many proclaiming it was one of the best in history. Fury won the bout with an eleventh-round knockout, the fifth knockdown of an epic encounter in Las Vegas, setting the Brit up for a chance to unify the belts. Next up for him is a mandatory defence of his title against Dillian Whyte, a fight in which he’s the favorite to win in the current odds from Ladbrokes. Should he overcome the challenge of Whyte, Fury is also tipped to win potential future bouts against either the holder of the remaining heavyweight title belts, Oleksandr Usyk, or previous champ, Anthony Joshua. The pair square up against each other in a rematch, with the victor looking likely to take on Fury in a winner takes all clash. Another option on the tip of people’s tongues is a possible bout with the heavy-hitting UFC Heavyweight Champion, Francis Ngannou, which shows how much of a draw the Gypsy King is to everyone in combat sports.

Whatever Fury decides to do post the Whyte bout, he’s already proven that his personality and talent are the ideal combinations for the WWE. Although he won’t be able to revive his rivalry with Strowman, who has now left the organization, there’s plenty of time for him to get back into the squared circle and forge a career outside of the boxing ring.

Featured image: Wikipedia

Mark Jindrak is an actor and professional wrestler known for his time in WCW and WWE. He chats with Chris Van Vliet about the crazy story that lead to him becoming a wrestler, training at the famous WCW Power Plant, being a member of “The Natural Born Thrillers” in WCW, WCW getting bought by Vince McMahon, what the reaction was like for Shane McMahon backstage at the final Nitro, being an original member of Evolution with Triple H, Ric Flair and Randy Orton and why he was replaced by Dave Bautista, finding success as a wrestler in Mexico under the name Marco Corleone, his current job grading sports cards and more!

You recently posted that you were back in the ring for the first time in 4 years. Was that in Mexico?

“It was almost in Mexico. It was in Loredo on the first night and the next night in El Paso. It was 4 years, but I have gotten into the ring a bit here in Knoxville. Kane and Dr. Tom Prichard have a school here, so for a couple of nights I did some drills and stuff. At my age, the bumps are limited. I ran a few miles everyday, made sure that everything was good. But I wrestled and everything was good, I missed the ring. But it’s crazy, it’s been 4 years but I didn’t feel like I had skipped a beat. It’s weird, time goes on but things don’t really change.”

Your physique doesn’t appear to have changed. You are just as jacked as you were in WCW!

“I felt like I looked the part, and that was important to me. As long as you look the part, age is just a number. I aim to improve my body another 25% for my future dates too. If you are training not to wrestle for a few years, you workout but not to an extreme level for the ring. For 3 years I just trained to maintain a halfway decent body. Once I trained to get back into the ring, I knew a lot of things would change. The diet, stretching, I would always stretch all day, people thought I was weird. But stretching is very vital.” 

What did you weigh in your body guy peak?

“Around 250 – 255 with not much body fat. I think I could have held 290 and still looked halfway normal, if that makes sense.”

If we take this way back, what did you want to be when you grew up?

“It was always geared towards sports. Growing up in New York, big Yankee country. I loved Reggie Jackson, but I was also into basketball and football. It was all about sports, sports, sports, always. I was division 3 basketball and went to college in Rochester. It was good competition and I blossomed into a more elite athlete in college. Once I started getting more of a man body, that was when the wrestling came about. I didn’t peak until my late 20s.”

You trained at the WCW Power Plant. What was that like?

“It was alright. It was tough but I was definitely ready. The try-out itself favored an athlete that was more well-rounded. I could run efficiently and had good endurance, agility and speed. I was big, but I was well proportioned. At 240 lbs I could move like I was 220. But as I got bigger, I looked more like I was 280. It was just the way I wore it.”

So what do you think the big break was for you in WCW?

“I think it was Vince Russo in the fall of WCW. Ratings were diving and all the ex-WWF guys were draining the payroll, they were not producing anymore. So because of that, all of us young guys got a chance. So basically that was our break, the new blood came in. Breaking out on TV was kind of easy, imagine starting a new day of school with 7 friends. We probably got some heat because we were too cliquey and stuck together, no one messed with us. When you are solo, some guys will help you and some won’t. But nobody really messed with us, we held our own.”

How did you all find out that WCW was being bought by Vince?

“There were always rumblings backstage. Then it was at the Panama city show where Shane came. There were rumours and we heard about it before, but there was uncertainty on whether it would actually happen. I wasn’t on the show, but I did a dark match before we went to TV. I remember coming backstage and seeing those guys there and I’m like wow this is crazy! The crowd was sweet as I had the first match there so I got a pretty good pop. I felt like I had a good chance, great body, young and not a lot of overhead. Guys like Luger and Kevin Nash were on bigger contracts.”

Do you remember the reaction to people seeing Shane backstage at Nitro?

“Yeah it was kind of a mixture depending on which wrestler you were. I was a fan of his and I thought it was cool, he seemed like a pretty cool dude. Shane was exactly the guy I thought he was. Some guys were marking out a bit and wanted to start the butt kissing right away, others had the big guaranteed contract with WCW so didn’t really care.”

I felt that it was unfortunate that a lot of the guys that were on Nitro, such as yourself, were not getting a lot of airtime.

“Yeah, I think it was because a lot of us were green. But again, when you are 6 foot 6, and WWE was still the land of the giants. It wasn’t until about 2003 when Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit started winning the championships [that it changed].”

Was it you being friends with Randy Orton that lead to you originally being a part of Evolution? 

“I don’t know. That I don’t know. We were just becoming friends in Louisville. I had flown up to Stamford with Orlando Jordan, they told me what he was going to be doing and that I would be in Evolution. Randy was joining Evolution as well, and that was when we started to become friends. We started going to the gym together and we continued our friendship on TV, which turned into a brotherhood. He and I became good friends and started travelling together, which was fun. But I think eventually it got to be too much fun so I got kicked out of Evolution, but it was great times. In my opinion he is easy top 5 of all time wrestlers in WWE.”

So how long was it from pitching to you being in Evolution to it being decided that they were going to go with someone else?

“I’m not sure of the timeline. I always envision the timeline of we became friends and then they set us up on TV. I think I was doing Heat matches, I don’t really remember. But even though I was part of the group, I was getting scared about it. They would do these polls on Raw, and I remember Jerry “The King” Lawler being like ‘Who is the next member of Evolution?!’ Then there was this poll of Test, Kevin Nash, Jericho, big stars, I can’t remember the names. I’m like I’m the next guy, but they are having these polls and hyping it up. I was not that known, I felt that they were hyping it up real big. Also I never really connected with Triple H. I always felt that we had the relationship where he was the older brother and I was the annoying younger brother. Orton and I together were 2 immature guys who loved having fun. We always rented cars and guys would zoom out the arenas to get to the next city. I remember Bob Holly going ‘We can make it in 2 hours 45.’ But me and Orton would took our time, stop at a WalMart, get a Slush Puppy, something stupid, but those times were fun.”

“When it became time to get this group together, Triple H would get us together on the house show loop and it went from me and Orton having a great old time to car rides with Triple H and Ric Flair, which was cool. But our young bunch, it was cramping our style. Flair wasn’t though, Flair was cool. Triple H said in the documentary Ruthless Aggression that he wanted to kick me out of the car, throw me over a bridge or something. But it makes sense, we were young kids like ‘Are we there yet?’ Flair is still a kid in the heart of himself. The car rides were meant to be talking about the Xs and Os of the group, but it was immature hour for me and Orton. The only thing missing was Triple H being like ‘I’m going to pull this car over!’ Ric Flair would ask us about the girls we met.”

I’m sure Ric wanted to meet the girls too.

“Yeah but that wasn’t the direction that triple H wanted to go. It was more supposed to be talking about business and stuff. After a couple of loops and car rides, he like many who rode with me, wanted to kick us out or something.”

So was it Triple H who said ‘Sorry Mark.’ Or Vince?

“Well you see in the documentary too, for me it was a relief to hear. Triple H said to Vince ‘He is not for the group.’ And Vince said ‘Yeah he is.’ Triple H also included Ric in that, but Ric never had a problem with me. Triple H was the one who put the axe to it. We had those vignettes where we were in the suits, and they filmed it. I guess he knew that I wasn’t going to be in it, so it sucked. I was so immature I didn’t really know what was going on. When you are young you feel like you can create anything you want.”

You have to look back now in hindsight at that missed opportunity.

“Oh absolutely. Every time I now see Batista in a commercial or movie I think about that, but we are different kinds of wrestlers. He might have fit the enforcer type better than me. Looking back now you can always say what if? But then I went to Mexico.”

You’re a huge star in Mexico.

“Yeah I flew under the radar for a bit due to a name change, I was Marco Corleone. The one thing in that documentary that they express, and they have to do it, is that if I wasn’t in Evolution then I was roadkill, but it wasn’t that way. I got released, but shortly after that I got into Mexico.”

What brought you back to America?

“I was on a Mexican soap opera. On the network we were on, WWE came on the same channel and we would get pushed to the side. The syndicate we were on got way less ratings. In 2017, I relaized I am getting older and nearing 40. My son was 1 year old at the time and Mexico was getting more unsafe and the value of the Peso was going down in value. I almost made the same as when I first got there, it sucked. So I decided to make the move right before the pandemic, so it all worked out, it was time.” 

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My family, peace of mind and faith.”

Featured image: Pro Wrestling Fandom

Los Silva (@loshustle) is a self-made millionaire, keynote speaker, and founder of SVG Media, one of the largest influencer and athlete marketing agencies in the United States. He chats with Chris Van Vliet about the power of building an online brand, how he started his first business on eBay, the biggest mistakes that most people make on social media, why people need to stop saying “I Can’t” and start doing what they’ve always dreamed of and much more!

I was doing a deep dive on your Instagram before we came on here. It’s impressive what you have built for yourself as both a personal brand and this being your thing. You build brands for people.

“Right. Everyone thinks that I am an overnight success, but I have been in the digital marketing space for over 20 years now, I feel old. It’s funny because I saw an ad recently that said ‘I have been doing marketing consulting since Apple AirPods came out.’ That’s hilarious. I’ve been doing this since WordPress was a thing.”

Some people try to post one thing a day for 30 days and they only get like 16 more followers. What do you think is the formula for growing your audience?

“It’s just consistency, that’s the truth. My Twitter got hacked so I had to restart it and I now only have 12 followers. I had to do the same with my Instagram too, it was Los Silva and now it’s Los Hustle everywhere. It became a trademark but I am not exactly a hustler. But right now as it stands, we are creating a large amount of content for our brands. I look at content and if I regret one thing, it’s not doing more content sooner. We are putting out 3 Tik Toks, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts a day. It hurts your feelings to get 100 views on one platform, but I am being consistent and sticking at it. I understand that you need money to start a business and it might not be the best use of your time, but it can create a moat around your business for later on.”

There’s this assumption that if you have tons of followers then you are crushing it and you live in a big mansion. But the reality is most of those people are barely getting by.

“For one of my businesses for a few years our model was to use influencers. It’s still one of our divisions but with different influencers. We used to use fitness influencers with 3 – 5 million followers, I’m like these guys are raking it in. But no, nothing like that at all. They were a few steps above broke, they were scared to sell and didn’t know how to create content. Frankly, a lot of them were also lazy. Being a creator doesn’t necessarily make you want to be an entrepreneur or hard worker. With these guys, they are just gorgeous so things would come to them. At any stage, it is hard work, but so is digging ditches, being in a restaurant, work is work. If you want to excel, you have to do the hard work.”

So how can you make money on social media these days?

“If you are a creator, then it’s the affiliate deals and stuff like that. But it depends on your brand. If you are a makeup brand, you might use Sephora and try to build up your makeup line, I would build a brand. If you are a consultant then it’s all in the DMs. You could create a poll in your stories, or use testimonials from free work. You can create some amazing calls to action from your stories and say ‘If you are x,y and z…’ and put out a poll and DM all the people who say yes. You could put out a call to action saying ‘I am looking for 5 people who are looking to do this.’ and see who responds in the DMs.

Taking this back, where did it all begin?

“I have never had a job. When I was 20 my buddy John and I, we used to go out at night and stuff, we started to sell video projectors. We were making $480 and we were rich. We were selling on eBay and we were balling! So I also looked at what other high margin things I could sell and one of those is speakers. I asked Bose if I could be a reseller and they said yes as long as I don’t sell them anywhere else. I may or may have not done that and became a very big distributor on eBay. But then eBay slapped me and I didn’t know what to do next. So I started contacting architects for designer houses and cold calling them. I would offer to install something for free to get the deals from the AV . I didn’t get a dollar from that for 9 months. The last call I did was for Ethan Allen, which got me money and I made $100,000 from AV. I didn’t know how to install AV, so I got a company and white labelled them for installation and built that company.”

So where did the shift to social media come from?

“Before social media I bought ads. I bought display ads on every platform and built funnels for every agency. Back in the day a lot of people did product launches where no one would sell from the back of it. So through webinars I learned to monetize the back end and make a percentage from it. I got started with that, and when social media came, I got big because one of the businesses wasn’t producing content anymore. He got lazy and was chilling in Hawaii, and I got so annoyed by it. He owned a supplement company so I made like 60 videos about keto. That got me into people following me and I started to work with influencers and made content about helping people. I just then got to it and started speaking. I originally wanted to be an actor, I lived in a garage in Miami where ants would eat my food. So I was then like f*ck this and went back to business.” 

You chased this other dream of wanting to be an actor and then gave that up. What was that like for you?

“It was simple, I had no food. It was something I wanted to do but I always knew that I was going to be an entrepreneur. So I went back and started to think about what else I wanted to do. That was the hardest thing, I was buying everything and doing every course, but you are doing it all half assed and it all fails. So I commited to LinkedIn and it became a big thing for me in that moment. That then took me to other marketers who were doing this other thing, so I would go over there. I just stayed in the marketing realm and accidentally learned to do all these things. 18 years later we are here.”

A lot of people don’t want the hourly wage or the 40 hour week. What’s the first step they can take to start their own business?

“I’m going to say something that most people won’t. Go and get a job at a place that does something similar. I wouldn’t want to start this by myself again. I would go and learn what to do. If you don’t have much cash flow or a skill set, give yourself some breathing room. Realize that you won’t get rich quick and you are doing this to make your own way in life.”

How do you realize the best way to monetize your audience?

“It depends who you are. I’m assuming a lot of people who want to do this have an agency or are a speaker. The speaker would sell consulting of that vertical, the business can sell their service. The famous face can sell a brand deal for a better rate, or create their own product. Coaching, consulting, they are all the same business. I would focus on how you can create revenue in the service space, but then create a course when you have more of a following and more of a continuity.”

What has been the best piece of advice that you have been given along your journey?

“I think it’s a quote that ‘If you stand for nothing then you will fall for anything.’ You will be tricked on every situation e.g. if you just want to make money. If you have a goal and you want to support others, then it works. If your goal is just to make money, I can see that and it puts me off. So If you are supportive and helpful, people will want to talk to you.”

Can you talk to me about the advice that Magic Johnson gave to you?

“It was a few years ago at an event where Magic Johnson was speaking and I was fortunate enough to be close with the people backstage at the event. I asked him, because he had a similar situation to me, ‘What do you do when you know that in one of these businesses you need to start firing people?’ He said ‘Los. Winners win, that’s it.’ I came back and I fired half of my office. You are only as good as your bad player, and I had a lot of bad players. All the people that stayed, their workload stuck and it made us realize that we were more optimal. It’s hard to tell someone they suck, but sometimes you have to do it, because it is hurting you more than it is hurting them.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My health, my girls and my wife.”

Featured image: Medium

David Arquette (@davidarquette) is an actor, director, producer and professional wrestler and former WCW Champion. He is best known for his roles in movies like the “Scream” franchise, “Ready To Rumble”, “Never Been Kissed”, “Eight Legged Freaks” and many others. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at his home in Los Angeles, CA to talk about Scream 5, whether his character Dewey Riley was every considered as the killer, the evolution of horror movies, what his first big break in acting was, his marriage to Courteney Cox, winning the WCW Championship to help promote the film “Ready to Rumble”, why he started training to become a professional wrestling almost 20 years later, his documentary “You Cannot Kill David Arquette”, his infamous death match with Nick Gage and much more!

When you look at yourself as an actor, how do you think you have developed from the first Scream to this new Scream?

“Oh man, there’s just so much life experience that happens. At the beginning there is kind of like a naivety. But I don’t know, there is an element of being green, fresh and new, there’s this confidence. But the more you act, the more it is about finding those real, honest moments when you can embody the character and tap in. There were some moments in the last Scream that were so emotional, I feel like it makes people uncomfortable when a man shows and screams emotion. But when the stakes are high, you can get really emotional. They went with a safer take, but I would have liked to challenge the audience with the more emotional one. I have all this experience with my parents dying, all of these things that were playing on my mind.”

Yeah there are a lot of subtle things that you do in your roles.

“I learned a lot about acting from wrestling. Just being in the moment and being real. The thing about wrestling is that it is so over the top, when you can find the real moments and tap into them, you are really angry and the audience feels it, that’s really powerful stuff. It’s a lot harder to do that technique than people think.”  

When you first read the script for Scream, did you flip to the last page and go ‘Oh my God! My character is still alive!’?

“No, my character wasn’t supposed to live in the first one. Was Craven brought me back.”

So there is footage out there of Dewey dying?

“Well Dewey sort of gets killed and stabbed in the back in the first one. Wes is like ‘We will put you in a gurney, see if you make it and you put the hand up.’ So thank you Wes. He was amazing and a great mentor in all sorts of ways. There were a few times where we were having discussions on where the script was going. I was always suggesting [dying]. There are a lot of red herring moments, and I always thought it would be one of the biggest ‘What do you mean!’ moments. You always try to look for those moments to surprise and shock the audience.”

You’ve embodied so many characters throughout your career. Do you sometimes forget who David is?

“No, along the journey of life I have made a lot of wrong turns. Luckily I have come back safely, but that’s part of it, figuring it all out. Staying focused, channelling the flow, that is my focus. Drugs, alcohol, pot, I can’t do any of it anymore, because it gets me out of the flow. When you stay in the flow, you start to see magical things happen. I was beating myself up for so long that it was hard to not do that stuff anymore.”

So how do you explain to the people who are not wrestling fans the whole Nick Gage situation?

“So there is this thing called the deathmatch [laughs]. And if you get offered to do it, say no!”

So they ask ‘Like a deathmatch? Do people die? There is ultra violence? What is that?’

“I didn’t know what the ultra violence thing was. They were like ‘This is the ultra violence part.’ I’m like, ok. You should have seen what was supposed to come next. I was supposed to go through a barbed wire wall, there was a bunch of stuff, but I didn’t care. I was asked why I wanted to do this, and I was like well it’s getting pain to numb the pain. What I learned doing the documentary was that I was beating myself up mentally, but why? That negative voice is my biggest enemy. I was drinking beers to quieten it down, but you have to think of other ways.”

With something like WCW it is so fast paced. They write stuff that is for the moment, but we forget that this stuff is going to live on forever. I feel like that was the space you were forced into for 20 years.

“I still stand true to the idea that I was one of the first fan champs. I got to live my dream, but the fact that I was an actor sort of taints it. But I wouldn’t change it for the world, and I respect the wrestlers for what they do. Seeing them do it all the time, when you do it all the time your body is used to it.”

There’s a lot of celebrities that do just one match. What made you decide that you were going to be an indie wrestler and tour around and make this a thing?

“I wanted to find out why the fans got so mad at me. I wanted to figure out what is wrestling. Also, I just wanted to experience it and go to my hotel room and it not be there.”

Were they booking you like an indie wrestler?

“It was a little bit different because I was shooting the documentary. If I am using the footage then I wouldn’t be paid, sometimes I would. There were a few places that treated me right. Even though I am a former champion I was a green wrestler, I took a different approach to it. If you come in with all these demands, it just takes away from it all.”

I heard that when you were training to be a wrestler you had a ring in your backyard. Do you still have it?

“No, I gave it to Jungle Boy. He’s such an incredible dude. He and his dad and the family came over and we hung out in the ring.”

But you got trained in your own backyard by Peter Avalon?

“Yeah he’s just amazing. In the first training session I puked my guts up. That was just from bumps and being out of shape, he was giving me real wrestling training. In one of my first matches I cracked my ribs and then I had do a match with RJ City. With cracked ribs, just coughing or sneezing is painful, never mind taking bumps! I had to get an MRI because it was so painful.”

A lot of people in their 40s would start training, feel it hurt and go ‘I don’t need to do this.’

“Yeah but I had already started it though. The lesson I learned from the deathmatch was to not beat myself up so much. I had started drinking at that time too, but it was like a therapy for me, I learned a lot.”

I feel like people didn’t really understand this. When you said on talk shows that you were training to be a pro-wrestler, it was almost like you were the butt of the joke.

“Yeah and I see that a lot. It’s like I am Bozo the Clown making people laugh. Even my wife was cringing at it. But you have to know where you are going and what the point is. Once you go on the journey, you have to redirect and go after what you believe in. But I know that the people will catch up and think that it was cool. I was trying to get Cody Rhodes in the film too, it was right after all the AEW stuff was coming together. I wanted to have a match with him, I thought it would be funny to be like [as Cody] ‘You disrespected the belt to my dad and I’m gonna pay you back.’ That was my pitch to him. But we had started this documentary way before [AEW] and then this explosion in wrestling happened. I still don’t think that Hollywood takes wrestling as seriously as they should. Look at what The Rock is doing.”

What advice would you give to someone who is looking to move out to LA and become an actor?

“Well right now there are so many avenues. On our phones we can shoot a movie with cinematic mode. You can edit it and everything. But if you want to get involved in acting, there are some great coaches and plays. Or put on your own play, rent the theater. If you are determined and won’t let anything stop you, then start. Do what you love and post what you love, it will resonate and people will understand. Everyone has a story and everyone wants to tell it, but unless you tell it then no one will hear it.”

How do those knives work in Scream? They look so authentic.

“Well sometimes they have just the handels, sometimes they are spring loaded. The worst is when you get stabbed with the retractable one and it doesn’t go, that hurts. Sometimes it can be CGI and sometimes it’s rubber and they make it look better.”

26 years later you are still getting royalty cheques?

“I guess so but they are not as big as they used to be.”

As a former WCW Champion, what is your favorite match?

“I’m not great with that stuff. But it might be the Hogan one at Bash at the Beach or the one with all the motorcycles. I was an old school wrestling fan, I liked Junkyard Dog, Andre The Giant and The Macho Man. But my favorite is probably Ricky Steamboat vs. Macho Man from WrestleMania 3.”

What was it like trying to get footage from WWE for the documentary?

“I went to them really early on, because I wanted to do it with them, no deathmatches involved. But they were not interested and did not want to do it. I had a really bad experience where there were general managers of Raw and Scream 4 was coming out. I contacted Triple H and was like ‘This could be cool.’ I went out there and I don’t know, I was in a bad place and going through the divorce. It was in New Orleans and I ended up staying out all night. My voice had gone, I went out and tried to get heel heat, but I was off script and I’m pretty sure I p*ssed off Vince. I didn’t mean to, I have the upmost respect. But no one smartened me up to not do this, I was thinking it was like a house show, but it was Raw. It was a bad move.” 

Did you approach AEW?

“That was the upsetting thing with AEW because a lot of the guys in AEW were in the movie. I wanted to do a match or something to promote the movie. They were like no, but I think it was TNT. They were trying to charge me.”

TNT was going to charge you to wrestle?

“No but it went through to the publicity department and it was like it costs this much to promote. We were looking to advertise on the shows or something within AEW, but they looked at it as ‘We charge this much to promote something in the ring.’ That was depressing because I knew how much it meant to the guys.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“My children, my wife and my health.”

Embedded images: Instagram

Featured image: IMDB

Rylee Meek (@theryleemeek) is an entrepreneur, coach and podcaster. Rylee is the host of The King’s Council Podcast and the founder of King’s Council Coaching. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about how to be the CEO of your own life, the importance of balancing the 5 power pillars of life (spiritual, mental, emotional, financial and physical), why he always finds time for the gym, how to become a better communicator, why he believes that how you do anything is how you do everything, the best advice he has ever received and much more!

Anybody that looks at you will think you make time for the gym. You are super busy with everything in your life. How important is making time to go to the gym for you?

“Oh super important. I am a big morning routine guy, more so rhythm than routine. If I can’t get the blood going in the gym then my mind juices can’t get going. Also we have only got one body, if we can’t operate that well then we can’t operate business well.”

What do you think is the difference between a morning rhythm and a morning routine?

“I think that a routine is such a negative word. Maybe that is just me, but it’s like a budget, We have a negative connotation to certain words. With a routine it’s like here we go again… I choose to call it a rhythm so it helps my mindset shift from the routine.”

We all have these moments in life where things change for us. What was your big bang moment?

“Oh man. So at the age of 15, and I have been an entrepreneur since the age of 15, but I took a job for one day. This was a “job” where I was getting an hourly wage. I thought I would make some money and eventually buy a car like all high school kids want to do. I worked an 8 hour shift at minimum wage, which was $5.15 an hour at the time. So I worked 8 hours and got like $40. There was no way I was doing that again. I walked out feeling frustrated, not that they valued me at that amount but because I allowed them to value me at that amount. That’s the day where I’m like I am not doing that again. I looked at ways that I can bring value to the market and I’ve been doing that for nearly 20 years.”

So what was step 1 in this process?

“It was the environment. I grew up in a small community with 1,000 people in the entire town. I knew I had to be intentional with my time because there were not a lot of entrepreneurs I could gleam from. So once a month I would drive up to Minnesota and attend these events called Success Training Seminars. I just got in a room with like mindsetted people, they thought differently but had the same goal in mind, which was progress. I seeked out these groups, found mentors and read books. My journey was 5 hours each way so I listened to CDs and audited my thoughts. Why did I think this way? It was mainly down to the way that I grew up. If we think ‘Why do we think that way?’ It’s probably down to what an aunt’s friend said when we were younger.”

How did a Craigslist ad change your life? Do you remember what it said?

“Oh I will never forget what it said! I was coming off a failed business venture at 24 and wondering what to do next. So I had a business valuation company, a fitness center, I was just seeking new opportunities. I literally had $673 in my bank when I saw this ad. It said ‘Work 3 days a week and make $10,000.’ I thought yeah, right! But the ad did its job and got me to click on it. That ad opened my eyes to a new concept of selling and have never heard of before. It completely blew my mind in leveraging my dollars and my time. Ultimately, it has changed the direction of my life.”

A lot of people want to start their own business. What are 3 things you would say that people have to do to start?

“The first thing that anyone can do is set up an LLC [Limited Liability Company]. Do it. People think they need to figure out a product or a service or how to sell it. Just set up the LLC, it’s the easiest part and a box you need to check. It’s great to get into the routine of checking off the boxes and you feel accomplished. It costs $160 to set up an LLC, then get the bank account and you are in business. If you don’t know what to sell, seek out a mentor or a coach and look for opportunities. People say ‘If you follow your passion then you never work a day in your life.’ I say that is BS. When COVID went down, I looked at what I can bring more value to a market place and package it into a way that people wanted it. They say ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.’ No, but I can put salt in its oats so that it is thirsty. So set up your LLC, look for opportunities and bring your passion with you.”

You talk a lot about the 5 power pillars. What exactly are those?

“OK so we got mental, emotional, physical, spiritual and financial. I really believe that these pillars, we need to be operating in life like a CEO would operate a company. CEOs have marketing, fulfilment, HR… If you are thinking about running a company, you adjust the levers and control the ship. You aren’t necessarily doing it all, but you are leading the ship and directing it. If marketing struggles, it all suffers. We host these events called CEO of Your Life where we promote the health of these pillars. Then you can put yourself in control of these positions. People call it the work/life balance, but if you are balancing then something is losing. I believe that it is a wheel with 5 spokes, if one spoke is broken, we are limping around because the wheel won’t work.”

What do you think is the best advice that you have ever received?

“Oh man. The best advice I have ever received? I didn’t exactly receive it but I learned it. At 15 I learned that I need to be around certain people and be intentional. This is why we have these neural pathways, because it was the environment we grew up in. When a baby shark is born and never taken from a fish tank, it will never grow from its birth size of 8 to 10 inches. But if you take that shark and put it in the ocean, it will grow to 15 or 20 feet. This is because the environment affects the growth. If you don’t like where you are, you have to change your environment. Time is your most valuable thing, not time. Where you invest your time is where you will reap what you harvest.”

You are a fellow podcaster. What is the biggest thing that you have learned since you started your podcast?

“So I have done 2 podcasts. The Sales Conversion Podcast, which is now on hold, selfishly I did that to learn from people. I generated decent 7 figures from inviting people onto the podcast and then doing business together. It was an incredible experience. It was being intentional of me having products and services, inviting people on and doing business. A lot of The King’s Council episodes are solo episodes. I am very intentional about what I am talking about, for example the 5 pillars. It is about going from student to teacher to master, where you can teach it. It’s been epic in learning and teaching people and has taught me a lot about preparation.”

I end every interview talking about gratitude. What are 3 things in your life that you are grateful for?

“Standing here right now doing this podcast being alive and being here now as number one. Number two, being grateful for life in general. Thirdly my spouse, she has been incredible.”

Image credit: Instagram