Jay Cutler is a bodybuilder and known for being a four-time Mr. Olympia winner. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at the Wynn Las Vegas to talk about his legendary bodybuilding career, how Joe Weider became his mentor and changed his life, competing against the greats like Ronnie Coleman, Flex Wheeler and Dexter Jackson, how he became the first person in history to come back and win Mr. Olympia after losing the year before, the life lessons he learned from bodybuilding, his training schedule now, a crazy story about buying entire cows so he would have enough meat and more!

On his impressive size:

“It’s funny, when I walked in you were like ‘Man look at the size of you!’ If people saw me when I was on top and 60 or 70 lbs bigger, that’s when I was really noticeable. But yeah I am still getting stopped and now I think I am more recognizable for the face.” 

On what he weighs:

“I weigh about 230 lbs, but at my peak I was over 300 lbs. I would step on stage at about 260, I’ve been 270 and 250, I’ve been all over the place. But I think my best is at the 250’s. A lot of eating, a lot of training and a lot of years, that was how I was over 300 lbs towards the end. I was 240 as a teenager, but then I cut down to 215, and gained up to about 260. That’s the thing about bodybuilding, we transition up in weight, then we deplete calories and body fat in order to get to that weight where everything shows and there is definition. You compete in a day, it’s like the Olympics, you train for that one event, and that’s it.”

On looking great but not feeling great:

“No definitely not, especially with the dehydration, that’s the hardest part. I was a 2 and a half gallon a day drinker up until just before the competition. I cut water down to the minimal, and then zero for the last 24 hours. It makes you feel very delirious.”

On where it all began:

“It’s a little different how I started. I was interested at 12 years old, I saw books on it and started working out in high school. We had challenges in school, everyone wants to bench press the most, I was the strongest kid in my school. My family has a concrete business, which my brother still owns. We did concrete basements, floors, that kind of stuff. On the weekends that was what I would do, so when I toyed with the weights, it gave me that look, and I was naturally lean. Not a lot of my family attended college, my older sister is the only other one. I wanted to go to college, at the time I was pursuing criminal justice. I didn’t want to be in the concrete business, at the time it was like I was going to eventually take over. So I did that from 11 to 18, but I knew there had to be a better way, I didn’t enjoy it. The work was hard in all weathers, and with the family business you don’t just do 8 hours a day.”

Early gym memories:

“I started college in the fall of 1991. I enrolled at Gold’s Gym on my 18th birthday. In the gym, I would train from 8 to 10 at night, because I had college during the day, and that was a huge stress relief for me. My family were like ‘Yeah you can go to college, but when you come back you will be here at the concrete business.’ I didn’t want to do that. I wasn’t really sure I wanted to do criminal justice either, but when I was in the gy I didn’t really think about it. For those 2 hours I switched off, and my body just came alive. The weights came up, the arms and legs just exploded and grew like crazy. When you are that age and people start looking at you, it starts to fill your ego. I wasn’t the guy who got picked on at high school, I was popular, but still unsure in what I wanted to do. I got a coach in the gym and started to compete, and I was doing well. So when I placed 2nd in my first contest, and I was hooked.”

When Jay Cutler made it:

“When you are on the cover of a magazine, and your mom is in the grocery store aisle, because the magazine was in every grocery store… Here I was standing with a hot blonde girl, I had made it. How much money you make doesn’t matter, I didn’t get paid for the cover, but it opened up so many avenues for me. I started a small mail order company, I had one t-shirt design, signed 8 x 10 pictures, autographs… If i made $400 a week, I was rich, this was in 1993.”

On jobs before bodybuilding:

“I was working a job, but my dream was to be sponsored by Joe Weider, who was the guy who brought Arnold Schwarzenegger from Austria. I did golf course maintenance, I was a line cook and I worked security. The line cook got me a great deal on chicken and eggs, I bought 30 dozen eggs and had 20 egg whites for breakfast.”

On eating a high calorie diet:

“10,000 clean calories is very hard to get. I was on about 6,000, people love to exaggerate. I would buy a whole cow at a time, 140 lbs of chicken at a time. What is nice about living in Massachusetts is that I could go to a local butcher, see a cow hanging there and say ‘Ok I want this part as burgers, this part as steaks…’ I literally bought a whole cow at a time, that would go in one freezer, and I had a separate freezer for my chicken. All I literally did was eat, sleep and train.”

On moving to LA:

“Joe pushed me, he wanted me closer so we could shoot all year round. I moved to Orange County, California in 1999. Joe gave me a raise to move out there, and I woke up with a smile on my face every day after that. My career went from just finishing Mr Olympia in 1999, where I finished 15th out of 16. Then I moved, 6 months later I won my first show, the Night of Champions. Next year I came 8th in Mr Olympia, then the year after it was 2nd.”   

How it feels to finish 2nd in Mr. Olympia:

“It doesn’t feel bad the first time, it felt amazing, especially when I was nearly dead last the year before. But when I was 2nd more and more, I was 2nd 4 times to Ronnie Coleman, there is only one position to go to win. I was appreciative and I was respectful, but I wanted the title. It wasn’t like I was trying to beat some guy that doesn’t deserve it, Ronnie won 8 in a row. He was a great challenger, to come 2nd to him is an honor.”

On Jay Cutler’s training mindset:

“I say all I do is eat, sleep and train everyday, but there is something very methodical in thinking about what we do. When I finished shoulders one day, on the ride home I was envisioning myself the next day going through my back workout the next day. I knew the rep ranges and the weights. But you mentally prepare like it’s robotic, and you zone everything else out. When I train, I am so zoned in that I don’t hear the music. I was able to go into the gym and beat my body where it was enough, then go out and feed it.”  

On what the gym teaches you:

“Discipline, organisation and commitment. There’s so many things like knowing there is a workout to prepare for, meals to prepare, sleep to prepare for. You have to have your mind in that space to improve. It is such a great guideline for business and for life. The structure that bodybuilding has taught me has helped me so much outside of the gym as well as inside it. Unless you workout, have a routine and are dedicated, then you wouldn’t understand. The best part of my day is still training. I could go and see The Rolling Stones or go to a Raiders game, but I just want to go to a gym. Some people go to a bottle to get their relief, I go to the gym. It can be consuming though. I wake up and categorize my day while I do my cardio, I don’t go on social media then.” 

When it was time to step away:

“There was a guy that beat me called Phil Heath, he actually won 7 times. It’s funny, I remember seeing him at a show when he was amateur and I said ‘This guy is going to be a future Mr. Olympia.’ Some believed me, some didn’t. I ended up helping him to get paid and support his bodybuilding career. But little did I know that he would beat me [laughs]. I was the proud mentor, I was ok with him winning. I tore my bicep 3 weeks before the contest he beat me at. So I still competed, but I knew it was time to take a step back. Reviewing the pictures afterwards, I realized I can’t compete with this.”    

On what Jay Cutler is grateful for:

“My family, my health and my happiness.”

Embedded image credit: Instagram

Melissa Santos is an actress, bodybuilder and ring announcer known for her time in IMPACT Wrestling and Lucha Underground. She joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at the Wynn Las Vegas to talk about why she started her OnlyFans account, what her husband Brian Cage thinks of it, her return to ring announcing for IMPACT Wrestling, her comments about Brian Cage and AEW, the preparation behind her first bodybuilding competition, moving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and more!

On first meeting her husband Brian Cage:

“I remember when I first met him it was really shocking. Him and John Morrison were probably the most shocking, they were the most like ‘Wow, these guys are wrestlers, this is what a wrestler should look like.’ But yeah Brian John were surely the ones, and Brian just kept my attention. So yeah there is now a marriage, a baby and a move to Las Vegas later…”

On moving from California to Las Vegas:

“During COVID, California got restricted, like super restricted. And as parents, I couldn’t keep my daughter inside all day. No parks were open and it just went on for so long. It was really hard to find a day-care so I could go back to work and do stuff. So we were like ok, where can we go that is not as restrictive and has some freedom, so we found Vegas. I love Cali, and I don’t miss all of it just yet, I’m still new here in Vegas and there is so much to do here. Not yet, but I always go back.”

On starting an OnlyFans page:

“I wasn’t expecting to make the announcement. I had some new management that was like ‘Hey. We can do this and this for you, and we can organise you as this model. But we can also handle some stuff for you and put some content together for you for OnlyFans…’ They just kept pushing and they work for influencers and stuff. Also they helped me out with partnerships outside of that so yeah, this is good, let’s do this. I have a partnership that makes it better for the fans. I didn’t want to do it on my own, I needed to get that push. Brian was like ‘Babe do it! I want to see you out there being so hot!’ My husband just put me out there on a little pedestal.”   

What does Brian think about the OnlyFans page:

“Yes he loves it, he approves some of the content. [Chris asks if he is taking the photos] In some cases, yes. He’s all like ‘Oh my Gosh, this is perfect this is great.’ And I feel like because he is a man and men know what they want to see on Only Fans, he’ll approve the content, so here we are.”     

The popularity of her OnlyFans:

“It was like one day in and I had over 100 subscribers, this was at 6 in the morning, it hadn’t even been 24 hours yet. Every time I go there are more subscribers, it’s amazing. And they are sending me tips and messages thanking me, well you’re welcome. You will see a lot of me, but you will have to subscribe to see it. It’s a lot of me, but not in a way that you will be used to. It’s been nothing but positivity.”

On staying at home more:

“COVID really changed a lot of things for me. As a mother, someone has to stay home. I can’t leave my child at home with a bowl of good and some water and come back in a couple of days. I’m her mom and the parent that is always with her, so things changed. After becoming a mom, I had to re-route my efforts. And then when COVID hit, everyone had to re-route. But slowly, things are going back to, or becoming what they are but in a different way now.”

On getting into bodybuilding:

“Not exactly. I just always loved fitness, I just never thought that I would do the bodybuilding. The diet is so restrictive, I mean so restrictive. You understand the disciplines that come with it if you lift weights, so you can transition a little bit easier to bodybuilding. I needed the structure, and I wanted to learn something new, so it’s very different. I learned what works and doesn’t work for my body. Also, I learned about peak week, which is the week of the contest, and that was the worst. The water loading, the depletion, I was on zero carbs for 3 weeks too. I went from 137lbs to 112 lbs. Fats were every other day, so some days were just protein, it was horrible.”  

On speaking out about AEW not using Brian Cage enough:

“I’m his wife. I’m not going to be like ‘Oh I wish things were different…’ No, f*cking use him more! I love my husband, he is my favorite wrestler. That’s how we started talking, I called him my favorite at Lucha Underground. There are not many people that look like him. I want to see him more like I used to. At Lucha Underground he was used all the time, at IMPACT he was the champion. I’m not saying ‘Hey. Let’s make him the champion!’ I just want to see my husband more. He comes out on the first episode of AEW and he f*cking ripping ladders apart. He is doing like the body guy stuff and you don’t really see that anymore. You see more like the cruiserweights. For me, yes I am biased because he is my husband, I want to see more of that. I did get heat because I am spicy, I’m very straightforward.” 

On the heat that Brian got:

“I found an article, because there were a lot of articles written about him. I got really spicy when I shouldn’t have. But then he got all the heat for that, he didn’t say anything. I do feel bad for that because he loves wrestling, loves AEW, loves Tony Khan and loves being there. A lot of it came from the love of being involved. But because I am loud I got him in trouble, but it’s hard man.”  

On returning in-ring but mainly as an announcer:

“Yes, but I am not against doing wrestling stuff. I have done stuff with Brian, but it has to be momentary. I can’t go up against a female wrestler, they are killing it right now and doing more than the men mostly. So I can’t compare myself to that, but I would love to work with someone like Havoc. I’m not against it, you can never say never.”

On what she is grateful for:

“My healthy body, my family and I was raised to believe that I can.”

Embedded image credit: Instagram

Featured image credit: Wrestling Inc.

Brad Lea is an entrepreneur, speaker and a leading authority on web-based training. He is also the host of the podcast “Dropping Bombs with Brad Lea”. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios in Las Vegas to talk about his path to success, why you need to be true to yourself, the difference between being a salesperson and being a closer, the best investment he’s ever made, what he’s learned developing training courses for Grant Cardone, Damon John, Tony Robbins and others.

Where it began:

“I don’t know when it happened, but I appreciate it. It’s not that I am trying to do it, I have someone follow me with a camera all day. I believe that authenticity is key, so I don’t try to think about what to say, I just say to film me being me. Whether that’s me talking to employees or talking to customers, just answering their questions and film it all, then put a few up on social media.”

How to build your brand:

“That happened around 3 to 4 years ago. Well 4 years ago I started to build an account, and I started to think to myself what could I say and what should I say. I would try to think of something clever and try to think what people would want to see. But it got to a point where it was so stupid, because I’ve got to put so much time and effort into thinking about what to say and what do people want to hear. So I just got tired of it, and told my guy at the time ‘Listen, I’m not going to think anymore. From now on, just get here at 8am, turn on the camera and roll it the whole day. If I am in a meeting, then film the meeting.’ We just started filming me being me and we started chopping it up, and that was when people started to come. If someone is trying to build a brand, just be you, film you and put that up.”

How Brad is different to how he was when he was younger:

“Today I am a little more convinced and a little more confident and valuable than I was before. So before that I was naïve, lost and searching for the way. I didn’t like myself too much, I was a little too insecure. But I was still the same person, I wanted to make an impact but I didn’t know how. I am still that way now, but I’m a little more sure of myself.” 

If someone took your money away, could you bounce back in 5 or 10 years?

“I would say I could in 3 or 6 months. Now I know the formula, which is relationships. The new currency and the new formula is relationships. People say ‘It’s not what you know but who you know.’ But in reality it’s ‘Who knows you?’ Why am I in this beautiful studio getting interviewed? It’s because you know me, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

On mentoring:

“I literally learned from everybody. To me a mentor is someone who puts their arm around you and says ‘Come here buddy, let me show you the way.’ Nobody did that for me, they still don’t. I try to do it for people, that’s my social media, I am virtually mentoring people. But to me, mentoring is free, to spend my time to help someone build something, I normally want to be paid for that.”

On people being scared to lose money:

“That’s because they don’t know how to get it. I can teach anybody how to get $300,000 to $500,000 in a year easy. It’s in life, but sales will be a part of it. Sales related jobs are the highest paid jobs. I can teach you how to sell clothes and persuade people, personal branding, marketing, and you can work for another company, start your own, or work for one of my companies and you will make 7 figures a year. So why don’t people do that? They don’t have the right information. Even if I show 50 people before them who have become a success, they are like ‘This is a scam.’ This podcasting thing is bullsh*t, it’s a waste of time, why would you do that? How easy is it to start a podcast? It’s easy, but why don’t people? People make excuses, but it boils down to what other people will think and say.”

On the worst job he has ever had:

“The worst job I ever had was the best job that I ever had, which was fighting fires in Oregon. I was told to get a “real job.” So I applied, got the job and thought that I was going to fight forest fires. In reality, I got these backpacks filled with water and squirt stumps that were smouldering. The firefighters were there at the front, and I was the dipsh*t at the back with a p*ss bag. I pictured myself with a flannel shirt, wolf and an axe. But it was hard labour, going up and down mountains and getting hit by trees. I got some poison oak on me and I said to another guy ‘I can’t make it up.’ He took off his shirt and he was covered in it and said ‘It’s part of the job, let’s go. Everybody gets it.’ So I said screw that and I quit. That was the worst job I had, but it taught me that hard work was not the answer. The pens who work the hardest are generally the poorest. The people they are working for are the ones making all the money. I went home, saw an ad in the paper for sales and I made 4 times what I made fighting forest fires. If I didn’t get that job fighting fires, I wouldn’t have appreciated the job in sales so much.”

On adapting to the sales world:

“I was pretty good automatically, because I was curious, empathetic and outgoing. I asked a lot of questions because I was interested. Also I was excited and enthusiastic, and enthusiasm sells. When I was 6 years old I was selling candy bars. I remember saying to the houses ‘Do you know a good roofer?” They would ask why and I would say ‘because once you taste these you will go through the roof.’ I was selling them out and when other kids couldn’t sell theirs then they would give them to me. When I got the sales job, the first thing I learned was to actively listen. Most people don’t actively listen.”

An example of active listening:

“When I taught sales, I would bring out a quarter, a dime and a nickel. I would say to my students Bob’s mom has 3 kids. The first one is Nicholas, I hold up the nickel. The second one is Dimitrius, I would hold up the dime. Then I hold up the quarter and ask what’s the third kid’s name, and they would never get it. Quarterless? They didn’t get it. After the third or fourth time, they would get it. But I would get it the first time, because I am actively listening.”   

On what is stopping people:

“Usually the breaking point is that they don’t value themselves and they worry about other people’s judgement. If you want to leave your job to chase your dreams but you’re afraid, think about this, why would you be worried about leaving something you don’t want? Are you afraid to reach for what you want? Is that OK? If you have a soccer ball in your hand, but you want the football, you have to let go of the soccer ball. You have to let go of what you have to get what you want. If you don’t sacrifice to get what you want, then you won’t get what you want.”

On the fear of taking that leap of faith:

“Well what’s the worst that could happen? Are you going to die quitting your job or asking for that sale? You don’t die, that’s when you become cautious. I have been broke before, it’s not that bad. There are loads of opportunities, it’s just about getting it again. I’m afraid of physical things. One time there were 3 dudes trying to beat me up, I’m afraid of that. Michael Chandler ain’t around me all the time. Things like going to prison, I’m afraid of that. I was asked to sponsor a skydive, then they offered me to jump, why would I do that? Why would I jump out of a perfectly good airplane? If the plane was going down and we are throwing out parachutes, then I’m jumping.”

What he is grateful for:

“Health, family, love, capability and that I get to open my eyes each day.”

Featured image: Brad Lea

Robin Black is a mixed martial arts commentator and analyst, former MMA fighter and glam rocker. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Los Angeles to talk about how he went from front man in a Canadian glam rock band to MMA fighter to now MMA commentator and analyst working for Bellator, UFC, Karate Combat and many other companies. He discusses his one-minute breakdowns on social media, his friendship with Joe Rogan, making his fighting debut at 39-years old, the power of reverse engineering and more!

Where the love of martial arts started:

“I have always thought of myself as being built around martial arts. I was the weird little kid who was hyperactive, odd and saw things all differently. Martial arts gave me a little bit of structure, made me a little wiser, and that was always my purpose. But I sang in a rock band with tight pants and that was really fun. Martial arts was the route of it, but when I saw you last, I was a singer in a rock band who wanted to fight in a cage. My motivation was I want to learn about martial arts and obtain some kind of mastery. Now I talk about it, analyze it and it remains a route in my life. The job part, I was just trying to figure it out.”

Early critics:

“When I first started talking about fighting on television, people would post this picture of me with crazy hair and clothing and go ‘Look at this guy.’ I was thinking, are they trying to make fun of me? Because I think this looks cool. I did my hair, I did my makeup, because I thought it was cool. It was an odd reflection of society that people thought I would be embarrassed by that. I did that on purpose. So it was a part of a strange path, at one point I was a hairdresser while I played in a band. Then I am in a band and learning from good producers, then it’s art, then it’s fighting and then it’s tv. It’s all the path of being an artist.”

Turning his life around:

“I had a seizure while I was on tour with the band. When I got back, I went to the doctor and he told me I was doing way too many drugs, and that I had a hypoglycaemic seizure. I was doing speed and all sorts, but it was the days of vodka and red bull that caused the spike and the seizure, people can die from this. I went home, the doctor told me to clean up, and I started diving into martial arts deeper, and that became the hard shift in my life. That’s the origin story of me and how it happened.”

Not wanting to out-stay his welcome in the music world:

“I used to go into these bars, and I would look around and this guy would be there. He had the same hairstyle as me, but receding, and he had a gut. He would tell young girls ‘I used to play in a big rock band.’ I would look and be like, is that where my life is heading? I had the big turning point and dove into the martial arts. Within weeks I decided that I’m going to fight a guy in a cage. The only way you can do that is to go through the process of try and fail and try and then succeed.”

On making his MMA debut at 39:

“I got in, and that first fight I fought really hard, but I got beat up. I had a cut on my eyeball, I wore contact lenses the fight because I can’t see without them. That’s not really allowed, but I did it. I had a cut in the shape of my contact lens. I had paralysis in my cheek for like 5 months. From my eye to my tooth, it was numb from being hit repeatedly. I have resigned myself to thinking that this will be the memory of the fight and it’s permanent. I was hoping that it wasn’t going to affect my face, because the feeling had gone, but months later it came back. People say they admire anyone who gets into a cage, I admire anyone who gets in a second time. The first time in your mind, you will go in, land a jumping spin kick, the ring girl takes you home and you get the call from Dana White. The truth is that you get punched in the face and fail at the things you are good at under pressure. I got in there 8 more times after the agony, and that I am proud of.” 

The power of reverse engineering: 

“My parents really drove me hard. No one in my dad’s family graduated highschool, his father could only spell his name, which was Ed. Things had to be a certain way with my parents, my dad sacrificed being my friend to be my teacher. My mother instilled the idea that anyone can do anything very early on, I really believed that. At one point I wanted to be the first man to walk on Mars, I was born in 1969, so shortly after the moon landings. My dad broke it down and said ‘Ok, to go to Mars you have to work for NASA. You have glasses, so vision might be a problem, so you can be a scientist. To be a scientist, you go this way and apply at NASA.’ The idea of working for NASA became a real thing at 6 years old.”

On online critics:

“I don’t try to get involved in a lot of negativity, but if I do, I try to understand. [Someone said about me] ‘This guy is a failed musician, failed fighter and now a failed analyst.’ I don’t think you understand the thing. I think that travelling around the world and making records with genius producers and fighting in a cage, if you are seeing that as failure, you’re not going to play. I think we are incorrectly viewing the universe, don’t react to it, see the person. What is the anxiety? and what is the disconnect?”

Analyzing MMA:

“I’m trying to learn, like really learn. Being a martial artist since 7 or 9, so around 40 years, you start to understand how the humans move. Along the way, I hit plateaus where something didn’t make sense. So I spent a lot of time just reading or thinking by watching a lot of fighting. I try to see what is happening, physically, emotionally, chemically, psychologically. The further along I go, I have these periods of tension. When I go through this, I make these breakthroughs, generally it is the language of sport is very incorrect. The way we describe fighting, is we do it in the way we think a sports commentator would, and that’s not truthful. The guy does not have knockout power in his hands, no one does, it is just flesh and bones, you channel the power. We don’t notice it, but it isn’t truthful. If you start to learn MMA through that language, you learn the television interpretation of the thing. It’s fine if that’s what you want to do. But my goal is to understand it, so the language becomes a barrier, because it is limiting. Once I started to reject that, it started to become tension and a barrier. I love Rogan, but I muted his commentary when UFC was on. I would put it on mute and listen to classical music, and I did that for years! Soundbites and narratives begin to dominate our thinking, what we don’t grab is that Joe is brilliant because he is an individual. If you copy Joe, you are not an individual. So everyone commentates the same way, because they have a steady diet of the language. You have to reject the language and explore. It is really difficult, but you have to study it.”

On what he is grateful for:

“That my wife is my best friend, that she is carrying my future child, and that I get to do this every day.”

Featured image credit: Combat Press

Chris Long is a retired NFL player, 2-time Super Bowl Champion, podcaster, and philanthropist. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about his identity shift to life after the NFL, growing up the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Howie Long, his podcast called “Green Light with Chris Long”, winning back-to-back Super Bowls, his charity work to get clean water in Tanzania, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, becoming a father, raising his two sons and much more!

On forgetting the microphone is on and being yourself on his podcast:

“It’s easy to forget. But it’s better to forget, because if you do, for the most part you are going to be yourself. If I was on TV, the cameras are there, you know it’s live and all that stuff. When I am podcasting, it’s good and bad. When I played, you knew instantly with the crowd if you made a good play or not. But when I am podcasting, you don’t have that. So that’s the one thing that I am trying to break is knowing how people felt about the podcast, it’s a nice feeling when you just let that out into the world.”

On the Green Light podcast:

“Green Light to me, well green is my favorite color. I have a green truck, I’m wearing a green hoodie and my shorts are green. I like the color, but also we talk about pretty much anything that I want to talk about, which is pretty much the whole point of podcasting.  We just turn it on and whatever we talk about, we talk about.”

On early sporting memories:

“ So I first started playing soccer. I was on a team and didn’t score the entire season, but that’s not my fault, I was the goalie. I started with football at about 9 or 10, but I was above the weight limit. Although I wasn’t big, I was tall, so you’re going to weigh more than the other kids. I was pretty bad at football for a long time.”

On playing defensive:

“Honestly, it was probably in middle school football years. In 7th grade I got the ball out of the bag and I tripped. My coach didn’t give me the ball ever again, which spoke volumes. Actually he gave the ball one more time, I made 12 yards, but I got held back for a holding penalty. The fact that I was 6 foot 3, 255 lbs and I could run, but I still wasn’t getting the ball, that said everything I needed to know about my prospects as an offensive player in the future. In high school my dad told me to work on my guard more, and defence just happened. I loved third downs and the atmosphere of that, whether it’s in college or in the SuperBowl, it’s all the same to me.”

How do you replace the buzz of football in retirement:

“You don’t. To me, it’s an unrealistic expectation. I remember my college coach telling me ‘Don’t go into the next phase looking to replace football, because you will never replace football.’ If I go looking for that same feeling I got on 3rd down sacking a quarterback, I will be disappointed. If you do some inventory and look at why you play football, for me it was the satisfaction of the grind and the competing, that was the feeling that you loved. That feeling is hard to replace too. But that feeling of we have just busted our asses for 8 days, we are tired, sore and people are writing articles about us. Maybe we didn’t have a chance to win this game, but we went out and we won it and I was a part of it. That’s something you can try to replace, maybe it’s the work, the comradery, the satisfaction. But you never really replace that one thing, and if you accept that then I think it will be ok.”

On how to handle retirement from football:

“There’s no like, this is the next room. The next room is retirement and then maybe obscurity. If guys want to disappear then they can really disappear. There is no ‘I can work at this job for the next 40 years.’ If you are the best at your industry, it’s very likely that you will be able to do it for a very long time. It’s nice when your head hits the pillow and you know that you have the next 30 years figured out. But I don’t think I would be able to do that in some alternate universe where you get old and just keep playing football. But if you approach retirement and the next steps in the right way and with realistic expectations, you can beat retirement. So many guys struggle with it, I do too, but the next game is life. That’s why certain guys struggle, because it is so different to football.”

On when it was time:

“I wasn’t sure, and even down to retiring I wasn’t sure. A decision like that isn’t like ok, now it’s time. I think the craziest thing is that if you have the luxury of not getting run out of the league, which can happen to all of us. I am sitting there in my 11th season and feeling burned out, not by the football, but by the politics upstairs and downstairs. There’s the GM’s and the coaches trying to run you out of the league because you are an older player and cost more. You just get burned out, and I think the bottom line is you will get to a crossroads, and you don’t know when it’s going to be, but you will make that decision. Every other decision you make as a football player has been made for you. Everyone’s career and how they feel about it is different, I just woke up one day and said what I loved from Monday to Saturday I didn’t love any more.”      

On the longevity of Tom Brady’s career:

“It’s really weird. I get that he has played for as long as he has, but he is a quarterback. I wouldn’t want to get drilled a couple of times a day. Playing defensive and linebacker is likely having a bunch of car accidents every week. When I look at somebody like Tom, he is the greatest of all time, maniacal about his body, he placed himself in a situation where he can play longer. He is very intentional about everything that he does, and he has a 15 year plan. I watch him and I am amazed by him, but it doesn’t surprise me.”

What he has learned from Tom Brady:

“I would say that from watching him I have learned that he is not this scary guy who yells at people from the side-lines. He is a great teammate, really welcoming and a warm dude. He is a great guy to have around the locker room. You have seen the way his brand has changed now he has moved from New England to Tampa Bay, it’s like when a kid goes to college and never got to do anything fun in high school. I think that’s what we are seeing with Brady now, we get to see what he is like and it’s what teammates knew he was like years ago.”   

On how to keep your kids grounded:

“It’s tough. My dad didn’t have anything growing up, but had more as an NFL player in the 80’s.We make more money now than they would ever dream of making. But I think it helps that I have been through it, as far as how do you grow up relatively grounded in a situation where you could be an asshole. I don’t think it’s right, but you could easily fall into that trap. I have insulated my kids from making them feel like dad is special. But I think also reinforcing, whether it’s through service, or through experience, that not everyone lives like you do. Those are little things, and it does become hard to stay on top of it. One thing you think when you become a parent is that you will be focused entirely on how you raise your kids. But you are still figuring life out yourself, and you are a parent. That is one of the biggest surprises is that you can’t build a schedule on how to raise your kids, you kind of just have to work on the fly. But I think the person you are and the example you set, inevitably they will pick that up, so the pressure is on me. That and sprinkle some things into their lives so they don’t live in a bubble.”   

On one player that always gave him trouble:

“Bryan Bulaga was a guy that I really had trouble with. I never beat him for a sack and I had one of my worst games against him. The Packers came to play St. Louis, they came into town and I just had a bad plan for Bulaga. There are not a lot of games where I can say ‘I did not beat that guy.’ Bryan is a great player in the league, he really gave me fits.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My family, my health and good weed.”

Embedded image credits: Instagram

Featured image credit: Bleacher Report

Ryan has been in the real estate industry since 2010 and is also a YouTuber and the host of the podcast “The Ryan Pineda Show”. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at the Wynn Las Vegas to talk about how to build your side hustle, what it takes to flip your first house, how he built his social media following from 0 to 900k in 18 months, why now is the right time to invest in real estate and much more!

On where it all started:

“I always knew that content was important, and I have always been active on Instagram. I post stories and try and do some cool little videos here and there, but it was a hobby. When COVID hit, I was like, ok where is the world going here? What can I do to do something with my time? I thought that TikTok and YouTube, they are only going to get bigger, this is where the world is going. It ended up being the right bet, for me it was the ebay thing that ever happened. I got to sit down and look at the world for what it was and I’m like, the world is going digital. Now I am all in on the digital side. Because if you win where, whatever you have physically, will win too.”

Growing the brand:

“So my plan was to put out two YouTube videos a week and one TikTok a day, and let’s see what happens. Sure enough, we started getting traction, so I doubled down. I ended up doing a YouTube video every day, which is not easy. Then I started doing TikToks, that starts taking off. So what would be the optimal amount of content if there was no restriction of time or money? If I can do the optimal that fits my time and my schedule, I think we can get the best results, and I think I have finally figured that out. I’ve tried YouTube from two videos a week to one a day. We currently do 5 videos a week, and that is the sweet spot.”

The power of hiring:

“One of the big things in business I learned early was that there were a lot of things that I didn’t want to do. When I started flipping houses, I never once fixed a house on my own. A lot of people tell me ‘You Should do it yourself, get your feet wet and know what you are doing…’ No, I’m not swinging a hammer, that ain’t me. So I always hired. I did this while I was playing baseball in Canada, and while I was playing, I was flipping houses, you can’t do both unless you know delegation. So it was kind of natural for me to do that, and as I started to build more businesses, it was very easy for me to repeat this throughout industries and businesses. You hire people and give them a process to follow. As long as you hire the right people, then you will succeed.”

On the hiring process:

“I didn’t either, but you don’t hire 10 people in a day, it’s a gradual thing. I started off by filming my content myself, if you watch my earlier videos, they are all in my dining room. My wife edited them, because she didn’t have anything to do, and they just started taking off. I was like, this is moving, so I need to hire someone. I hired my first videographer and paid him $3,000 a month. The plan was to put out 3 videos a week and I would pay him 3 grand a month. Some would be in the office, some would be a house flip, whatever. So that worked, so I hired guy number 2,3,4 and it just goes on. We now spend about $40,000 on wages, but the return of investment is phenomenal. If I could spend 100 grand, I would do it. But right now, we are doing the optimal of what we can do.”

Why Ryan likes doing multiple things:

“I get bored really easy, which is why I have all these businesses and challenge myself. I don’t know if I will ever be the guy who can just grow one business to crazy levels. When I have talked to other business people and asked them ‘What does it take to go from 1 million to 10 million, then to 100 million…’ They say to me ‘Well Ryan, very few have multiple businesses that they are getting to that level, they focus on one.’ I couldn’t do it, I would get bored focusing on that one business for the next 20 years. Also I don’t want to put in the work to do that, I don’t want to go public and have stockholders. It’s better for me to just chill, have a few businesses that make millions, and I am good with that.”

No risk no reward:

“I think the moment you decide you want to flip a house, you have to understand that there is risk with everything that you do. I think that is the biggest thing that holds people back is the fear of losing money. It could be contractors screwing you over or the market. The fear of the risk scares people. But if you fail, what’s the worst thing that can happen? If you’re young, who cares? You’ve got the time to recover. It’s not like you’re older and you’ve got 4 kids, if so, I get it. I was 25 years old, had no money, I had nothing to lose. But if it doesn’t work, I am still broke. If it does work, that upside is so great! What is the risk of doing nothing? It’s staying in the same spot for the rest of your life.”

Why the time is now:

“I think that has never been a better time to flip houses than today. The market is so hot that it is easy to get bailed out, if you try to flip in a downmarket, you have the risk of not having a buyer and having to drop the price. I have not had to drop the price in a long time, I’m getting 10 or even 20% more than I thought. Right now there is so much room for error in today’s market. If you are looking for a deal today, now is the best time to start.”

Why flipping is better than renting out:

“My philosophy is that most people are trying to get passive too quick. They are buying a rental here and there and accumulate a load over the long haul, but it’s not going to make you rich quick. What I teach is to master flipping houses, because if you can do that, rental is the same thing. But instead of selling the rental on, you choose to keep it. If you have the skill of flipping houses, you can do anything in real estate. Most people who start, they are not making a lot of money. A rental might make you $200 a month, but life is the same. If you flip, you can maybe make $40 grand, and that is life changing.”

On when he will stop:

“I always get asked the ‘When are you going to stop?’ question. And there isn’t really an end to this. I just want to get better and grow. Right now if I am focused on social media, that is what I will try and do. A couple of years ago it was the flipping business. There will come a point where I am happy with social media and my focus will shift, it might be to my family. But I know I can get better every day, there is always a way to get better, but people just get too complacent.”

On one of his failures:

“My first big failure was back in 2018. We were speculating on the market, actually it was similar to how it is today, super hot, we were making more money than ever. But going into the winter, they decided to raise interest rates. Being younger and only seeing interest rates go down and down, I was like ok, whatever, who cares? Well people care, and when they raise the rates, people stop buying. I got stuck with a ton of inventory on deals that were not great deals. I thought that the market would be good and bail me out, but I ended up losing $500,000 on those bad deals. That was tough to swallow, you think you will make a million, but you lose half a million. But my investors did not think less of me, they thought more of me. They saw that when it hits the fan, you will still do what you said you were going to.”

What are the first steps:

“You have to look at your budget, and say to yourself ‘How much money am I willing to put into this business.’ For me, I bought a good camera and I did it all myself. We get some momentum, so I hired the video guy. Yeah $3000 a month is a big commitment, but it started snowballing. Right now the iPhone is incredible, you can get high quality videos with your phone right now. You can buy a $20 microphone and a $30 light from Amazon and you basically have what I have.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My wife, my kids and my employees.”

Featured images: Instagram

Featured image: Kivo Daily

Scott Thompson, better known to fans around the world as Carrot Top, is a comedian an actor who has been making people laugh for more than 30 years and he joins Chris Van Vliet for this interview at the Blue Wire Studios at the Wynn Las Vegas. Carrot Top talks about performing his show 6 nights a week at the Luxor Hotel and Casino, how Jay Leno and The Tonight Show helped him get his first big break, the art of prop comedy, how he has been able to achieve such longevity in show business, the best advice he has ever received and much more!

On being nervous about the Las Vegas residency:

“Absolutely, I was terrified. I was a road guy and then we would do a residency for like a week or two. We would do two weeks, go on the road and then come back, it was kind of an in and out thing. They offered me the full time residency and I was like, hmm I’m not doing that, I’m a road guy. But I took it, and now I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

On the advantages of being in one place:

“Oh it’s great. I have done this for so long that I have built in an audience, so I am lucky in that regard where people actually come to see me. Back in the day it was [people saying] “We couldn’t get into Cirque Du Soleil, so we went to see Carrot Top.” I still ask every night if people have never seen my show and a lot of people stick their hands up, have never seen my show. It’s cool to get those new fans.”

On playing every night:

“I get the same thing that the audience gets, it’s a rush. That’s what’s so great about performing in front of a live audience, you get to feed off of the energy of the crowd, so every night you get that same kind of energy. Also I get to try new things, we just did a Halloween bit last night. Having a show every night gives me a chance to play around a bit and try the new jokes.”

On how he crafts his jokes:

“The whole idea of any kind of joke, whether it’s a standup joke or a prop, there has to be a beginning and an end. There has got to be something funny and something clever in a sense. For Halloween I did a bit where I said “Because of COVID I played it safe this year, and instead of giving out candy I gave out COVID shots. I’m then there with a pumpkin [mimics vaccination]. So it’s funny, it’s current, and I say “If you feel funny in an hour it’s from the candy and not the vaccination. So there’s the start and the nice big punchline at the end.”

On possibly shaving his hair:

“No, never. I’ve shaved my balls but I have never shaved my head. I love my hair, having hair is like my power. People have asked me if I would cut it for a movie, and of course I would. But now they can just CGI it, bald cap it or whatever.”

On who was the first person to say he was funny:

“I think it was my mom, she would always tell me that I’m funny. Then as it went on, I would make my friends at school laugh. My dad had a great sense of humour, he was very funny with his humour being so dry, he had great timing. He would tell his jokes with all the neighbours, I would try and recreate it the next day in school and would get in trouble. One of the first things I came up with was at 10 or 11. We were at a campfire, there was me and about 20 other kids, and the police came and said we had to put the campfire out. I said ‘Well why not? We are next to water and sand, two things that can put a fire out.’ They thought I was being funny, I wasn’t but my friends were like well he is right. What should I do, go to the woods? I started thinking of observational humour after that and really admired comics who also have the observational humour.”

On his first show and getting started:

“I really don’t know how I did, but I remember my first time. I was in college and there was an open mic night. My roommates came back with this flyer, I was like let’s go to this. They said ‘Go? You should be in it!’ I’m like what do I recite poetry, play an instrument? They said I should tell jokes. I told all the old jokes from my dad, it went great. They kept doing the open mic nights every month, and the third time I actually told a few original jokes, but ended with an old joke so I could end strong. My jokes were mainly about college, where I would make fun of the school, the parking and the teachers. There was then an open mic night at a comedy club, so I auditioned. The lady there said I was good, but talking about college isn’t going to work with a diverse crowd, so I had to widen my act. That was when I started using the props. I had a neighbourhood watch sign, which I had stolen and drawn a logo on it, my logo. The hard part is the logo, now I had to write the act. I walked on stage with the sign and said ‘Sorry I was late I was in the neighbourhood. How good is the neighbourhood watch if you are not watching the signs?’ And it killed. The lady said to me can I do more of that? I said, ‘What, stealing signs?’  She said yeah and it all just kind of went from there. The more props I had, the more time I could do.”

On Jay Leno:

“He gave me a lot of opportunities, I was on that show about 30 times. They loved me there and I loved them, I just had to call them and I got a set. I got lucky at the end of the tv bubble, now I don’t know who watches television anymore.”

On his favorite prop:

“One of my favorite props was a paper cup and string phone. I said they should make a new version, and my version had multiple cups. There was one for call waiting, there was one for conference calls, a clear cup for caller ID. It was my closing bit for ages. There has to be some cleverness to it.”  

On possibly stepping away:

“I don’t feel like I am near retirement age. I still have 5 years left on my Vegas deal, this is all I really know how to do. It’s either this or try and guess people’s weight at the fair. But I don’t have any desire to stop, everyone knows it’s when you or no one is enjoying it. If no one shows up to my shows, then I know that’s it.”

On his pre-show rituals:

“Lots of drugs [laughs]. No, there’s not really a lot of prep. There is a different ritual between road shows and host shows. For the Vegas shows, I get there 2 hours early, I have to get there early, music going, soundcheck, maybe rehearse some new stuff. Then there is the meet and greet, shot of espresso, shot of Crown Royal. Then I have a chat with the crew and go ‘Let’s just all do the best that we can.’” 

On advice to aspiring comics:

“The most challenging thing was to become a young comic in 2020, unless it’s all on Zoom. But the best advice I would give is to have as much time on an actual stage to hone in on what you’re going to talk about. You have to know what you are going to do for those 5 or 10 minutes. You need to know what is your craft, is it political, dancing, juggling? I wasn’t originally a prop guy, but I had something with visuals, so I made it my thing. I had what I wanted to do in my head. There were a lot of shows where it didn’t go well, everyone does.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My health, my hair and my family.”

Embedded images credit: Instagram

Darby is a skateboarder and professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He talks about the obstacles that stood in his way on his journey to become a pro wrestler, how skateboarding has influenced his style, his friendship with Tony Hawk, why he thinks fans relate to him so much, how he created his finishing move “The Coffin Drop”, his match with MJF at AEW Full Gear and much more!

On what airport staff think when they see Darby arrive with the face paint:

“They think that I am a rockstar or something like that. Then they start questioning me, because sometimes I am carrying my thumbtack skateboard. The TSA actually let me through with the thumbtack skateboard. It’s crazy, but they are cool with it.”

On doing things his way:

“Yeah it was always the plan. For me to do things on my terms and to get as far as possible on my terms, because money is good, but dignity is better. I feel that I have kept my whole dignity intact on my road to success in AEW, which is amazing. But yeah, this is what I dreamed of, having a ring in my basement and a skate ramp. I have lots of crazy sh*t here, I just bring my friends here and we just do crazy sh*t.”

On if AEW is happy with him still skateboarding:

“They know that I am filming a new skate video right now, and I am about done with it. I’m actually coming out with a Darby Allin collaboration with Deathwish Skateboards, I have their logo tattooed on my cheek. So they are coming out with the Darby Allin skateboard and I wanted to put a video out for it, so they know, and I know my own limits. AEW is my top priority, and I can’t show up to there with a broken hip.”

On where his worst injury came from:

“Skateboarding, by far. It’s kind of a crazy story. I was going down this big hill, and I hit a crack at the bottom, my elbow went into my ribs, I thought I broke my ribs. Then my kneecap smashed into the wall, I was laying there and I thought I had broke everything. I was laying on the ground and then I see I am laying in a red ant hill. It just got worse and worse, I thought I broke my wrist, and I had to wrestle next week, it was f*cked up. I was contemplating going to the hospital for 3 hours. I was like if I cough up blood then I will go, but I didn’t, so I didn’t go.”

On his personality and his best quality:

“Realness. A lot of people are fake, a lot of people play something on tv, but in reality they are the most boring thing, their personality is like watching paint dry. But with me I feel like it’s like oh sh*t, he’s legit. What you see inside of the ring, I am even crazier on the outside. To me, wrestling is therapy, and the fans see that and take notice to that.”

On if he can still continue with his crazy style in the future:

“Yeah I feel great and my body feels great. We all know that I am straight edge, but people don’t know all of the work that I put in to feel healthy. There is the stretching, the eating right and taking care of myself. Plus I feel like I don’t give my body time to rest, I am either skateboarding or something active. That was the one thing that Tony Hawk told me, he’s like 54 and killing it on the skateboard scene still, he says ‘Just don’t stop. Because the moment that you take a break, that’s when everything starts to feel like sh*t.’ So after I have this crazy match, I’ve got to go to the skatepark or I’ve got to swim or jump out of a helicopter, whatever I have to do.”

On his vice:

“I’m an adrenaline junkie. I legit get sketchy if I don’t do something every day. I’m like I’m being lazy or I’m f*cking up or something. 

The scariest Coffin Drop he has ever done:

“I would say the one to Ethan Page when I had him in the coffin. There was little room for error, and the moment I broke through the coffin, you see the spikes sticking up, I could have easily impaled myself. I could have hit my head on the rim of the coffin too, but there was zero room for error. People were like did you practice that? I don’t know how you practise that, you just gotta [do it]. I didn’t know what was going to happen to Ethan, I crashed through the coffin and all I hear is him screaming. I’m like well I guess I f*cked him up. The cameras are not on him while he is in there screaming.”

On where The Coffin Drop came from:

“I think I was bored of watching people do 450s or Shooting Stars. I was like, I don’t want to fly to look pretty, I want to fly to hurt, so I just started falling backwards. There is zero room for error, people do the 630s with the double front flips, I would hate to do that. I would hate to think every night I can’t slip, if you f*ck up a Coffin Drop, you’ve got issues, it’s pretty easy, you just fall back on someone. A lot of it is adrenaline, I’m not going to do a Coffin Drop cold turkey. I think lots of skateboarding got me ready.”

On how he found out about the CM Punk match at All Out:

“I was talking to Tony [Khan] on the phone, that was it pretty much. You don’t believe something until it happens, and then once I cut that promo about the best in the world that aired in North Carolina, I knew that it was a done deal and it was go time. That was the high pressure moment ever, because I knew everyone was going to be watching him because it’s such a big thing. Seven years, holy sh*t that’s a long time. For him to leave wrestling the way he did and to come back, people were not sure if he ever was going to come back. So when he did, and I was the first opponent, I was so nervous. I was in a zone, and I’ve been in a few zones in life, but like I was in a zone that day where I was like it’s not going to get more nerve wracking than this. It’s cool to get moments like that because it does make you mentally stronger. But it started hitting me hard because I remember when he left wrestling in 2014, it was the same year that I started wrestling. At the time he was my favorite wrestler. Besides the whole straight edge, it was the punk rock and I don’t give a sh*t what you think about me attitude. It was cool as a kid watching him, but then it hit me. When he left, I was a dishwasher and dude, life is a trip, so I got a little teary eyed before that match.”

On if CM Punk specifically chose Darby as his first match:

“I don’t know I have no f*cking clue. I just know that he was a fan of my work prior, but I don’t know if he said ‘Let me have him.’ But it worked out, and there is always one return match back. That’s a good thing to have for the resume and life in general, I had a lovely time that night.” 

On teaming with Sting:

“Me and Sting have grown so much together outside of what people have seen on TV. Our personalities outside of the ring, we’ve come so close and the fans don’t see that part. Originally, he was supposed to come in for some cinematic matches and I went to his house in Texas where he had a ring set up and we started rolling around and training and I convinced him to actually wrestle in front of a live crowd. Nobody gets to see those moments behind the scenes. It’s just us talking. ‘You got this. I’m training with you and seeing what you’re doing, let’s fucking do it.’ Double or Nothing against Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page meant a lot because we never thought it would happen. He gives other people confidence and it’s cool that I can help go, ‘You got this.’ It’s cool to do that in all aspects of life.”

On where he would be if AEW didn’t exist:

“Dude I have no idea, and that’s the trip, that’s why I don’t take anything for granted. I work my ass off when it comes to promos, outside of wrestling. Whether it’s Dark, Rampage, Dynamite, when I come to work I am in the zone. I like to be alone, I change in Sting’s locker room, he has his own room. Not because I think that I am better, I just don’t want to be caught up in the dramas. AEW has been great, and I just want to treat it with respect.”

On what he is grateful for:

“The spot I am in at AEW, that I can walk and to kill MJF on Saturday.”

On MJF’s comments in a recent promo:

“Personally I don’t care, because I’ve put that out there into the world, what he’s already said. If you want to do that, go and do that. I think if something happens and you’ve talked about it, then it shouldn’t be an issue. I think if you haven’t talked about it and they say it, it’s like oh what? But it’s cool, I don’t give a sh*t. I just care about the pillars of AEW stealing the show, and no one is willing to go through what I go through to push the story.”

Embedded image credit: Instagram

Featured image credit: Daily DDT

Dr. Greg Wells is a wellness advocate, scientist, TedX speaker and best-selling author. He talks with Chris Van Vliet about not only WHY we need to sleep better but HOW we can sleep better. He focuses on the science behind sleep, little hacks that anyone can do to get a better night’s sleep, how sleep affects other aspects of your life, how to sleep, eat, move and think better with 1% changes.

On the science behind sleep:

“I feel that in the past 10 years people are really looking at how to do better and feel better. Sleep is at the forefront of what everyone can do. We all sleep, we do it every day, hopefully, and we can all sleep so much better. So many people are struggling with sleep. Just to get us started, one of the things so fascinating about sleep is that we have discovered what is known as a glial lymphatic system. It is a network of vessels inside the brain that literally pump fluid through the brain as you sleep. It cleans out bacteria, viruses, broken down cells, waste products, then pulls them up to a network of vessels that are just on the inside of your skull. Then it drains them into the lymphatic system of the body, which is how we dispose of all of these things that we don’t want. The brain is literally washing itself out every night that we sleep, so it’s the fundamental thing we need to do to keep our brain healthy. There’s many other things too, but that is the coolest advance we have seen probably in the last 10 years when it comes to sleep. The imagery around it is amazing, we can see this happening live with some of the cool studies that have been published. It is absolutely amazing.”  

Is 8 hours enough:

“There’s a wide range for all humans. Some can do fine on less, some could do with a little bit more. What we have learned is that there are sleep cycles. In these cycles we go through stages and we cycle through those throughout the course of the night in 90 minute increments. On average, we like to get 5 cycles a night, which is roughly 8 hours. The research is quite clear, any less than 6 hours, or 4 complete sleep cycles, the risk of all cause mortality starts to go up. Many things are involved there, but a lack of sleep is associated with it. I always say bare minimum 7, I get that sometimes you won’t get enough and sometimes you need to sleep in. It’s all about getting the balance.”

On people who can’t get to sleep:

“Yeah the mind is racing and you are staring at the ceiling but you can’t shut your brain off. I think that is a symptom of the way we are living these days. We are going flat out, and there’s so much to do. There is looking at your phone, put it away and can’t get to sleep. One of the biggest things I think you can do is to not look at your tech for the last hour. These are these things called books, you can take a bath, talk to your partner. Think of all the things you can do to unwind. We need to give ourselves that chance to unwind and to settle, instead of sprinting to the finish line and staring at the ceiling.”  

On having an evening routine:

“The morning routine has gotten so much traction recently, but to win the day, you have to get a good night’s sleep. I recommend 3 times 20 minutes of unwinding, experiment and try things out, see what works. There are some amazing yoga poses that can calm you down, you can do slow breathing, communicate with people. These are all awesome things you can do.”  

Optimizing your sleep space:

“Humans have a structure inside the brain that is very sensitive to light. When any light, from the sun or a screen, goes through our eyes, that goes through your eyes, and can penetrate your eyelid. That light then hits the back of your eyeball, shoots electricity back to your brain. That electricity then makes it hard to sleep. Make sure your bedroom is really dark, you can invest in blackout blinds, or just get some paper. Make sure your alarm clock is covered up and your phone is covered up in the bedroom. Once the room is dark, keep it cool too. If your body is cooler by 1 degree than the day, it releases melatonin and can help you sleep better. Those are a couple of tactics you can do to help you sleep better.”

On how to get the kids involved:

“We kind of treat it like a digital sunset in our home. The whole house has dimmer switches installed, I am not moving for 10 years. I wouldn’t have done that in the previous apartment, I would have just been hacking my way through it all without spending any money. It does take time, we dim all the lights and have all the electronics set to a timer to night mode. It took us a while, but the concept of slowly decreasing the amount of lights and downshifting as a group works. When it’s time to sleep, I read a story and the kids are out. One of the things we did to get the kids to buy into the system was to get the kids to write their routine on the wall. They like to see the routine, follow it and see the next steps. From there, it was just so much easier for all of us.” 

On training to sleep better:

“So from 0-6 months of having kids, it’s a disaster. You don’t know if you can get through the next hour. There is a glimmer of hope where it looks like you can get through one sleep cycle without dying of fatigue. But slowly, it gets a little bit better. The key thing for those who are not good sleepers, you can train yourself to sleep better. The human body can adapt, when you lift, you get stronger, when you run, you get faster. We know that we can adapt, we just need to be consistent enough to nudge ourselves towards better sleep. If you stick with it, and it took me 6 months to notice, it is absolutely worth it.”  

On how a good night’s sleep can benefit you in a lot of ways:

“It all cascades. If you get a good night’s sleep, you make better decisions on the food you eat and eat better. Then, you feel better and more energized, you get a workout in. Get the workout in, you lower your stress level, then you sleep better. We can create these upwards spirals by working on these areas. Get the sleep down, work on the nutrition, then the exercise. This is a multi-year project to make you live longer and better. It’s not easy, but it does add up.” 

On boredom and what it can do for you:

“I love boredom, I think it’s awesome. Within 2 minutes when my kids say they are bored, they are creative and thinking of ways to entertain themselves. Because we have our phones, we are constantly engaged and never bored. But the problem is then it inhibits our creativity, our strategic thinking and all of the things we need to do to live life. I love the idea of using technology intentionally, but also unplugging. I have 1 hour a day where my tech is unplugged, the best time is during dinner with the family. We need a little bit of time to be bored, your mind wanders and then boom! There is something new you can create, you won’t get that if you are constantly distracted.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My family and their health and happiness, the ability that I can do what I want and I get to connect with cool people.”

Featured image: Speakers Spotlight

RVD is a WWE Hall of Famer and is well known for his time in ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling). He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios inside the Wynn Las Vegas to talk about his legacy, his CBD brand RVDCBD, his wife Katie Forbes, his Mount Rushmore of ECW wrestlers, the best advice he learned from Paul Heyman, almost jumping ship from ECW to WCW, his relationship with TNA Impact Wrestling and more!

On meeting his partner Katie Forbes and his social media posts:

“That’s what’s funny. When people ask ‘What happened to RVD?’ I mean it’s not many, but you are not famous if you have some haters. So those comments come across, and they stand out because they are different. I’ve definitely been showcasing more every since I met Katie Forbes. She’s a party girl, she’s fun and she’s awesome. Together, we make such a good couple, because we are open and we are honest as much as we can be. Of course, I have taught her a lot, because I have more life experience than her. But that’s something that’s cool. We went on a Cardi B cruise, Katie loves Cardi B, if you see a Cardi B video you wouldn’t be surprised. This big producer, Q, I think he produces Megan Thee Stallion, he VIP’d me and we hung out in this jacuzzi with all these girls shaking their ass and stuff. We posted a video of that, it went viral. It was then I realized how much of an impact I have on social media. Because then, IMPACT [wrestling] started writing that into the script. Specifically, I’m putting stuff on there which you wouldn’t know unless you follow me on social media. IMPACT must have thought I have a pretty decent following.”

On who gets recognized more:

“I do. I totally get recognized more, but I don’t think I get looked at more. A lot of times we will be walking together, eyes will go to her first, then a second later it’s like, RVD?!”

On the relationship with WWE:

“I don’t know what will come of the relationship with myself and WWE. Even the merchandise that they make with me, I don’t know about it until it is out. It’s always been that way. Before I started collecting action figures, I used to sign them from the fans. I’m like ‘Oh I’ve not seen this one before.’ Now I have to get them all. There’s so many, I am obsessed with something when I get into something. There was a third party conflict though. I gave a third party permission to make an RVD action figure. They are called Heels and Faces, their work is really good. I didn’t know WWE was doing anything with me, but at the virtual San Diego Comic Con, Heels and Faces made their announcement about my figure. But also Mattel was making an announcement on the same day about an RVD figure, and I had no idea. WWE got a hold of me shortly after and made me cancel the first one. It’s understandable, but I just don’t know. People ask me if I’m going to be in the videogame, I don’t know, I have very little to do with it. They are just using my likeness.”

On if he can still wrestle:

“I definitely have matches left in me, I don’t know if they will be in WWE or not. I think probably, why not? But at the same time, there might be a why not I don’t know about, so who knows? I go with the flow.”

On his relationship with Vince McMahon:

“All along throughout everything, I have kept in touch with Vince [McMahon]. I know we have a good relationship. Specifically when certain things happen, there was something that got thrown around and got back to me that [Mark] Carrano said I was part of the concussion lawsuit against WWE, complete bullsh*t. It seemed in the moment to stop me from doing something I wanted to do. Very shortly around there, I talked to Vince and didn’t mention anything about it. There have been rumours that WWE had told me I could never wrestle for them again because of concussions, most people believed that was true. I don’t usually feel obligated to correct people when they are wrong, because you hear everything. But I have never talked to WWE about any concussions. That was some bullsh*t that someone pulled out of some divorce papers when the evil ex was being real nasty. At the time, she was saying that I was faking double vision, which throughout Headstrong was documented. But to get more money, my ex said I should have been working full time like I did in 2003. So that got out there and people think it is true.”

On showing up to WWE while still being signed to IMPACT Wrestling:

“Paul Heyman reached out to me, I then reached out to Scott D’Amore, and they gave me permission. I’m not afraid to do something that hasn’t been done before. I was hoping I could wrestle too. I was in my gear, I was ready, I thought I was going to run in, do a frog splash and all that stuff. But that all changed at the last second. Then I was like really upset, you get your hopes up and start compromising. But you get it.”

On when he first really felt like RVD:

“It would be at some point in ECW. When I first went there, I was very shy and didn’t want to be anywhere around a microphone, this was in 1996. I would run from the promo room and hope that Paul wouldn’t try and drag me in there. I didn’t know how to sell tickets by you know ‘Come and watch me! I’ll do some cool moves!’ My voice wasn’t even that mature yet, I sounded so different. But the more I did it, the more over I was getting. But when I won the TV Championship from Bam Bam Bigelow, that was when I crossed that line, and Paul told me that. The next show was at Queens, and I am trying to think of an advancement of my next cool move. So I ran some ideas by Paul and he said ‘I don’t think it matters what you do tonight, those people are going to love you.’ I was like, ok, whatever. I had no idea what he meant, but from then on the reaction was totally different. I felt like a superstar, I felt legit, and it gave me the confidence to say damn, what I am doing is working.”

RVD’s ECW Mount Rushmore:

“Sabu, of course. It’s hard to decide between Tommy Dreamer, Taz, Sandman, Raven. I would put Taz up there. Is Paul an option? But if it’s just performers, I would add Dreamer too.”

On nearly jumping to WCW:

“Yeah, I think that’s a pretty well known story. I went to a show that they had at Savanna, Georgia. I was living in a town nearby and ended up having a conversation with Eric Bischoff. He saw me at the time and he gave me the details. He said he wanted to give me a 3 year progressive contract and to think about it. But right after that, it got out and everyone thought that I was going to be leaving. It was after that the Mr Monday Night angle came from. Paul had sweetened the pot, because I had been left off of the first pay-per-view. But now, he was going to center the whole company around me and being wanted by all of the other groups. I was supposed to go to WCW, but instead I went to the WWF and was trying to do all the things at the same time.”

On People’s reaction when he left ECW:

“For me, it was like ‘I can’t believe you are leaving us.’ Looking at it now with this much age and this much experience, you never know what someone else is going through. But at the time, we can be judgemental, and I was feeling like going why are you guys giving up? I wasn’t giving up, I didn’t understand that. The answer was to blow ECW up so we don’t have to go anywhere else, and I thought that was possible.”

Some “RVDology”:

“Everybody has their own values. Almost every single conflict, and there are no absolutes, is because of a mismatch of values and a void of respect for the other person’s values. Whether we are talking about wars, animals, anything. For me, it’s easy to understand people’s perspectives. You don’t know someone’s values and everyone has their own importance, who am I to judge that? What if you like blue and I hate it? It’s like we are in the first grade, and some people never leave that state of mind. For some guys, that is what it is like in the locker room. For me, just being ok with that, but I still will be judgemental though. We all think that the way we do things is the only way to do them.” 

On the most asked about match in his career:

“It would probably be when I beat John Cena at One Night Stand and won the championship belts. If they ask me what my favorite match was, that match was great. Cena is great and great with that crowd, which were incredible. Besides all that, the story and the build-up was everything since 1996 and maybe before. Me and every fan in that building were fighting for what I believed in, which is why they wanted to see Cena go down, or they riot.”

On the One Night Stand Crowd:

“I don’t think anyone knew exactly how that crowd was going to be. I knew it was my crowd and they were with me, but I couldn’t have predicted that they would feel so much that way and be like ‘F*ck your t-shirt.’ What are the chances someone would do it and they do it again and again. But I had no idea it would be like that, John knew he was in for a rough night, but he was super cool and he had fun with it.”

On what he is grateful for:

“Katie Forbes, the universe and we are getting married in 8 days.”

Featured image: Wikipedia

Embedded images: Instagram

Chris Hutchins is an entrepreneur and the host of the popular podcast “All The Hacks” which you can listen to wherever you’re listening to this podcast right now. Chris shares with us some innovative ways to get cheap flights, free hotel stays, advice on how to land your dream job, how to start a successful podcast, clever investing hacks, and much more!

On where the hacks started:

“I feel like I wish I had a good answer for this. I blame my parent’s memory, they don’t remember many entrepreneurial stories about me as a kid. But I think the optimization game started in college. I realized I could take a bunch of people to Mexico for free because I had loads of frequent flyer miles. My parents had enrolled me into the United Airlines frequent flyer program as a kid. When I got to college, I had these miles on my account and I went to Cabo. I was pretty broke but I didn’t have to pay for it. That opened my eyes to everything, I then got a credit card to earn points and it just spiralled into optimization into everything.”

A hotel hack:

“I’m not sure if I have a favourite. One interesting one, which is really easy, and I’ve got loads of positive feedback about it. So when you book a hotel, book it with the hotel. Don’t book it with TripAdvisor, book it through the website. Then email the hotel, tell them you are excited to come and let them know who you are. Also mention any special occasions. I’ve had 20-30 people in the last month come back and say that they got some upgrade or free gift. Every message was so magical, it’s not a lot of effort and it works. It doesn’t always work, but it’s an easy one.”

Some flight hacks:

“Definitely don’t wait until you are within 14 days. At that point, the price doesn’t seem to come down. Somewhere in between a month to 2 months out is the optimum. All the ‘Buy it on a Tuesday at 4am…’ myths are just myths. Also use your miles if you can. You could book a ticket and the day before, a business class ticket might come up for $250 in miles. If it does, cancel your ticket and get a great deal last minute. Miles are good far out and last minute, cash is good anywhere in between.”

On starting his podcast:

“People often think that things are not possible. I started my podcast 5 years after I thought about it. I kept telling myself, does anyone really want to listen to this? Is it going to be worth my time? Finally, someone interviewed me on their podcast and said ‘So, tell me about this podcast.’ I respond ‘I haven’t started a podcast.’ He said ‘I know, because you’ve been saying it for 5 years, it’s about time you did it.’ Now I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner. It’s great to say yes and just see what comes your way.”

On some time hacks you can use:

“I started realizing the concept of distraction. Before I was like, ok, stay focused, don’t get distracted. Now I realize that the opposite of distraction is traction. If you are distracted, you are not making traction to what you are caring about. I was challenged to start time boxing my day. So instead of having an endless to-do list, make time for it. You can make time for playing games on your phone too, just make sure you are being intentional. It’s about priority, I broke my foot recently, and I didn’t have time to go to the emergency room, but I did make time.”

On finding your passion:

“My brother in law used to be a professional golfer. He did it and he hated it. He now works in sales and is an amateur golfer, but he loves golf. One common misconception is that your passion has to be your day job. A lot of people play musical instruments, I’m not going to quit my job to play the piano to be a pianist though. A lot of people think their passion has to be work related, and it doesn’t. But if you want to, you should jump in and see how you can make that happen. There is an abundance of side hustle opportunities out there.If I want a job, I will find the company I am most excited about, and then I am going to go all in on it. It doesn’t always work, especially if you don’t have the right skillset, but there is nothing better than an employee that is so passionate about your business. I’m not going to overlook skills, but if there are 2 people and one is so passionate, I’m taking them.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My daughter, I found a company that can let me explore my passion and I can now walk without an air boot on.”

The All The Hacks Podcast can be found here.

Images obtained from Chris Hutchins’ Instagram.

Mirin Fader is a senior staff writer for The Ringer and a New York Times bestselling author of the book Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP. She talks about how her dreams of becoming a professional basketball player shifted to becoming a writer after an injury, how she got her start covering sports, her ability to get to the heart of the story, what her writing process looks like, how anyone can become a better storyteller and more!

On her love of feature writing:

“I didn’t want to be a beat writer, I didn’t want to be a breaking news person. That’s a hard path on its own. I just fell in love with long form writing and features, and I still believe that those stories matter. For me, even though that wasn’t a popular desire at the time, I didn’t care. This is what I wanted to do and I was going to go after it wholeheartedly.”

On her first dream of being a WNBA star:

“Yeah, I know, but I didn’t get the memo that you have to be tall to do that, and I am 5 foot exactly. But it’s such a hard road, and the joke in my family is that my mom would say ‘When you get to college you’re going to grow.’ That never happened. But I did push it as far as I could, I was that girl with the ball everyday. I was obsessed with basketball, I really wanted it. But it has just informed everything that has happened afterwards in my journalism career.”

On where the love of writing began:

“It happened in my first year of college. I was playing for Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, and I was just having an awful experience, it was so clear to me that basketball was ending. So I took this women’s writing class, and the professor was just talking about women’s writing and reading, and I’m like wow I love that too. I thought maybe I could do something with that. Just seeing one door close and the possibility of another door, it just kind of planted the seeds. Leaving a sport is really painful, I feel like dealing with the loss of identity and things like that over the course of that first year. But I started thinking that there is other stuff out there. But you never think of that as a child, you are 10 years old and you want to be the next Diana Taurasi, you don’t think what’s next until you have to.” 

Where the writing career began:

“I think the best advice I always have is if you are waiting for the answer to come to you, it just doesn’t. You have to go out and do stuff, experience it and see if you like it or if you don’t like it. I did apply for a lot of internships, and I didn’t get most of them. But I did get one in broadcasting with ABC in Burbank. I didn’t like it at all, I hated being on camera, but it was good practice. That experience made me figure out what I wanted to do and what I didn’t want to do. It’s funny because no one wanted to hire me to get the experience, it’s like the chicken and the egg. How do you get experience to get the opportunity if you can’t get the experience? So I had to do a lot of free work. I did obituaries, which has nothing to do with sport. But it was doing things like that that started it. I finally got that chance at the Orange County Register. I would just pitch every Monday to them. The stories were not interesting, little league, high school and junior college, all the things that nobody else wanted to do. But I have this dream to be a features writer, it’s not sexy subjects but it’s a start, never think an assignment is beneath you.”  

On where the big break came from:

“Ironically my big break came from one of my biggest disappointments, which was getting laid off at the OC Register after 4 years. At that point, I became a full time freelancer for ESPN and for Bleacher Report. A couple of months after that, Bleacher Report asked me if I wanted to go to Lithuania, because they wanted me to profile LaMelo Ball. His dad had just pulled him out of high school and sent him to play professionally in Lithuania. So I went to Lithuania for almost a month, and it was a big story. It was very controversial what was happening with LaMelo at the time. When I came home, it was the career driving story, and I got a job at Bleacher Report after that. Finally I got the job! I felt like I wasn’t going to make it, I was doing so many stories for both Bleacher Report and ESPN, but neither would hire me for over a year. Finally this moment happened, and it changed everything.”

How to write a feature:

“The first thing is just reporting. I have to talk to so many people who are close to the person, including the person, before I start writing it. It’s the art of reporting and the art of writing combined into one. I will usually talk to 20 – 30 people, but for the book on Giannis I talked to 221 people. I think first it’s about being super relentless in your reporting. Secondly, I think of it like writing a movie. What are my best scenes and what are my best images? It involves a lot of thinking and organising before I even write a word. I feel like writing is the least important part of it, that sounds crazy but it’s true.”

On trust:

“If they don’t trust you, then you don’t get the information, and you have nothing to write about. That’s why I say it’s an art before you get to the article. A lot of people don’t want to open up, because they are famous and they don’t want to put things on the line. For me, I just try to write human based stories that empathize with the person. I feel thankful that they do share their most vulnerable moments, and that is what makes a feature story so successful. Can you make a feature story that shows someone super vulnerable as opposed to just being an athlete.”

On her interviewing style:

“I don’t ever lead with sports questions. People know that I am sincere. Of course I ask about sports, but right off the jump they know I am trying to find more about them as a person, and not just as an athlete. I think people are really shocked that I want to know about them and where they come from. But trust is not gained in the first 5 minutes, it requires a lot of time to get to know their story.”

On advice for aspiring writers:

“It sounds really corny, but it’s true, be you on the page. I think a lot of us are taught to look at our idols and to emulate them, which is true and worthwhile. But at some point, you don’t want to sound like somebody else. I think a lot of my early writing sounded like people that I admired. When it sounded like them, it took away from what I sound like on the page. I think saying be you on the page makes me say I do have a voice, and it’s time to find out what it is. You do that by taking risks and trying to be a bit more confident, even when you don’t. Finding your voice is the best thing that you can do.”

On the phrase ‘You’re only as good as your last article?’

“I do [believe that] but I am working on that. It is very toxic. Because I am a former athlete, that phrase was ingrained into me in my childhood and I feel that with my stories. I’m in the process of learning that it is not healthy. Sometimes you do an interview, they are having a bad day, and you just didn’t get what you needed, or access was shut down, or maybe I wasn’t good enough that day. But it is hard because I am a perfectionist and I am hard on myself. I do feel that way, but I will let you know when I have an answer to that.”

What makes a great story:

“I think a good story hits you in some way. You don’t have to be emotionally affected and on the verge of tears, but you have to feel something. I want you to come away with some feeling. The next time you see that player on TV, you might remember ‘Oh when he was 7 I remember…’

On what she is grateful for:

“My family, my hands and food.”

Featured image: The Press Enterprise

Here! We! Go! Thank you so much for being with us for another solo episode. I say this with a great deal of love and respect for all of the guests I’ve had, but these kind of podcast episodes are my favorite kind, because we get to hang out one on one like this. Based on all of the amazing feedback from our last one, which was the “What are you waiting for” episode, it seems that you really enjoy these too.

So I think it only makes sense that we start doing these maybe a little more often. I don’t really have a schedule, maybe twice a month, maybe once a week, you let me know! Don’t worry, the interviews are not going anywhere, I just love the opportunity to hang out with you one on one. So if there’s something you want to hear, send me a message… either on Twitter or Instagram or shoot me an email, it’s cvv@chrisvanvliet.com.

Where it begins:

So if you haven’t noticed, I like to ask a lot of questions. It’s kinda part of my job, but I’m also a naturally curious person, I always have been. I feel that Tony Robbins nailed it when it said the quality of your life is a direct result of the quality of the questions you ask. Perhaps we should do a full episode on that topic? Everything you have in your life is the result of a conversation that you did or did not have with somebody. If you don’t ask, the answer is always going to be no. But a question that I like to ask when I first meet someone is: “What juices you?” “What drives you?” “What EXCITES you?” I think their answer says a lot about that person. I’m sure right now “What juices me?” “What excites me?”

What are you passionate about?

Passion is the secret sauce of life. Sprinkle some passion on anything and BAM! It immediately gets taken to the next level. If you’re passionate about your job, all of a sudden it doesn’t feel so much like a job anymore.
Throw some passion into a relationship, especially one that may have plateaued…. and oh man, you better hang on if you know what I mean.

But there are so many people who are living with zero passion… for anything. Perhaps I am speaking directly to you. I love this quote from Helen Keller who famously wrote “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” Or NOTHING at all! In other words, if you’re not on this daring adventure that life has for you, you’re not even living. I’m not saying you need to go out and quit your job and start filling your day with the thing that you love, but what I am saying is you need to start being intentional about doing the things in your life that really light you up.

If you love art…. make time every day, even if it’s just for 5 minutes to draw or paint. If you love baseball, why has it been so long since you threw a baseball or played in a league? And If you love comedy, start writing down some material and without telling anyone, go on stage at an open mic and do it, inject that passion into your life.
Start feeding those things that make you feel so good when you do them. Those are the things that put a smile on your face no matter what’s going on in your day, it’s always going to light you up.
Now I know what you’re going to say. “But CVV, I don’t have time for that!” Really? But you have time to watch all 9 episodes of Squid Game?!

For all the “I’m too busy people” by the way, have you ever done a time audit of your day? A lot of people say they work 10 or 12 hours a day, but if you were to sit down and actually write out what you do each day, I bet we could find a whole lot of free time where you’re really just scrolling on social media or sending stupid memes to your buddy. Nothing against stupid memes, I like them, I’m just saying, stop pretending you are so busy.
Want to start living a better life? Just add some passion to it. It’s that simple.

And if you don’t know exactly what you’re passionate about, lean into the things that make you happy. Like REALLY happy. Start doing more things that get you juiced.

Passion is the secret sauce of life.

I hope there was something in here that resonated with you and is going to make you take action today. Take that first step. I know the first step is always the hardest, but after that, it’s like a snowball rolling down a hill.

We’ve got so many more solo episodes like this to come, but until then…

Be great, be grateful and we’ll see you on the next one for some more insight!

Tony Nese is a professional wrestler for AEW (All Elite Wrestling) and is known for his time in WWE as part of 205 Live. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Orlando, FL to talk about talking a contract with AEW, the opponents he’d like to face there, being released from his WWE contract, winning the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 35 against Buddy Murphy, when he started becoming interested in bodybuilding, why he eats ice cream every night, being a father and much more!

On bulking up:

“When I started wrestling, I was 120lbs soaking wet. I wasn’t going to get bigger over time, I think my body was done with height. But I had to get bigger if I was going to look believable on TV. I just started following tons of bodybuilders who had stories like that and needed to put on size. For a lot of them it was just eat, eat, eat, don’t worry about what, just eat. After a session, I would go to McDonalds and get a Double Quarter Pounder, 10 piece nuggets, a Fish Fillet sandwich and a triple thick milkshake. At night, I would make a stack of 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and I would set an alarm for every 2 to 3 hours. I would wake up, slam down a sandwich and then go back to bed.”

On signing with All Elite Wrestling:

“Thank you so much, this is awesome. It’s been a blessing, I am very happy. It’s funny, I got invited to go [to AEW]. They were like ‘Hey, we are in Orlando and we know you’re in Orlando…’ I’m like, yeah absolutely. I had been there before, during my 90 day non-compete just to hang out with my friends. I have tons of friends and people I have travelled with in that company. Everyone was super cool and super nice with me and I think they liked me. But then they invited me to Orlando, and it was literally 10 minutes before they went live on the air. I got pulled aside and they were like ‘Hey, would you be cool to sit out in the crowd, and we just keep showing you on camera?’ I’m like yeah sure, TV time, I’ll take it. So I just sat out there. At first I was like, is the house low? Then he explained it to me and I’m like that’s awesome. From there we got to discussing things, and it was super cool how they treated me off the bat and brought me in as a star. I am so appreciative of that.”

On who is his AEW dream opponents:

“I mean there are the obvious ones. You look at CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega. But I can’t wait to get back in the ring with Alex Reynolds, John Silver, Ethan Page, these are guys I have wrestled on the independents. We hit off there and our chemistry was amazing. I can’t wait to be able to have those matches we had in front of 100 people, but now in front of thousands. But it’s an open field, one week I could be wrestling an extra, but the next it could be CM Punk.”

On his time with 205 Live:

“Yeah it would get frustrating at times. To us it would never make sense. We would pitch all these ideas, we thought it would be awesome that every once in a while you bring a guy onto our show that’s a name. It would help the 205 Live brand and the talent. I would understand their mindset [on that], but they would do other things I don’t understand and it would get you frustrated. Why wouldn’t you want to help everybody? I kind of feel like they had that core group of people where these are the ones we are going to care about, the rest of you have to hang in limbo. That’s just how it felt, maybe that wasn’t what they felt, but that’s how it felt while I was there.”

On what 205 was like and what could have been:

“We would always say that we were in this wrestling purgatory. Even though I was there, when it comes to the company’s decisions, I’m on the outside looking in too. This is all speculation, but it seemed like they had an idea for the show. It was Triple H’s idea, it was his baby. He wanted the show to have a yearly tournament, win/loss records, all that stuff, he wanted it to be a different feel. As soon as it was announced that the cruiserweights would be a part of Raw, that was where Vince was like ‘No, it’s my show now.’ All that other stuff went out the window. We even joked about it, we said ‘This is Raw light.’ We got our backs against the wall and after all the stars had competed. So Vince had control, but after a while he was like I’m done playing with this toy. He gave it back to Triple H, who was like, you’re Vince’s boys now, you are tainted to me. This is my speculation, but it feels like Triple H didn’t care about it either. We were in this limbo of the show has to be booked, but they were just like whatever, put whatever on and just move on. No matter how much we would fight, they were just like have a good match, and that’s it.”

Winning the Cruiserweight Championship on the WrestleMania 35 pre-show. Did it feel bitter that it wasn’t on the main card?

“Not necessarily. There were times where it would cross my mind of well it’s the kick-off show, but it is what it is. To WWE’s credit, they did very well in treating me and Murphy like we were on the main show as well. That whole week, I felt like I was a part of WWE and not on some sideshow. That was really cool. After the match, Vince was in Gorilla, he stood up and said ‘That’s how you start WrestleMania.’ I don’t care what people say, that’s cool.”

On if he knew he was going to be released:

“I had one year left on my contract, but I knew [I was getting released]. As soon as they moved us to be a part of the NXT roster, me and Ariya Daivari were like it’s just a matter of time. We got these new contracts to the Raw roster is a normal contract, but to the NXT roster is like a whoa contract. We were on the least cared about show in WWE history, and they just kept releasing and releasing. So we knew when it was time to look at NXT, we were going out the door.”

On what he wants his new character to be:

“So the premiere athlete is still going to be who I am and what I represent. But I do want it to be a little bit more of a serious thing rather than ‘Hey look at my abs.’ I love being booed and flexing, but at the same time, I switched up my look to where I am wearing more branded stuff. In WWE, I was just trying to pop by getting gear that just looked good. I wore a jacket because they told me I needed something up top. They said ‘You should wear something, but don’t cover up anything.’ For 1 show I wore a He-Man type thing, but nobody thought it looked cool, Vince said ‘Is he wearing a bra out there?’ Straight after I heard that, I threw it into the garbage. But now, I think this is getting old and it doesn’t represent me, I want to be taken more seriously. I want to be my own brand, that’s the attitude I’m going in with. I still will be kissing my biceps and flexing though.”

On nearly giving up on wrestling:

“Absolutely. The way it goes is the year before my try-out, that was my lowest point. I was working the same companies over and over, then do it again next month. Nothing was happening with WWE, so I started getting frustrated. I started talking with my wife and said this will be my last 2 to 3 years. It looked like I was going to be a personal trainer for the rest of my life, but my wife said ‘I would rather live in a cardboard box than have you give up on your dream.’ That was when I decided I would be with this girl for the rest of my life, but also it sparked me. I did one more push, this time with a whole new attitude. I reached out and got a spot as an extra in Buffalo in October. Scott Armstrong watched my try-out matches and said ‘If it was up to me, I would send you to Florida tomorrow. But it’s not up to me…’ I said ‘Can I tell people you said that?’ He said ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ I hit up everyone and said that to them, that’s when they emailed me back and said could I do a try-out in January. It all just turned around from there.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My family, my opportunities and my health.”

Featured image: F4Wonline

Joe is a bestselling author and the founder of Spartan Race. His new book called 10 Rules of Resilience: Mental Toughness for Families is out now. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about growing up in Queens, New York and working for some of the biggest mob bosses, how fitness changed his life, why it’s important to do hard things, why people are scared to get uncomfortable, how he founded Spartan Race and bought their competitor Tough Mudder and much more!

On having a difficult childhood:

“It is a crazy story. I grew up in Queens, New York, ground zero for the movie Goodfellas. A lot of organized crime took place and I wanted to be a tough guy. You grew up in that neighbourhood and everyone around you that has money and nice cars are tough guys. Also, they probably went to jail, because if you went to jail it was like earning your stripes or going to college. At a young age, like 8 or 9 years old, you start thinking could I do it? I got to go to jail. If you grew up in a neighbourhood where everyone goes to Harvard, you start to think ‘Am I smart enough?’ Here it’s the same thing. But my mother goes into a health food store in the 1970’s, and she meets a Yogi from India. He convinces her to stop eating raviolis and maybe become a vegan. So she leaves the health store and that’s it. She’s a vegan, she is going to meditate and teach yoga.”

On going to college and his first business:

“Not long thereafter, my parents get divorced. My mother is bohemian at this point, no one understands what she is talking about, including my sister and I. She moves us to Ithaca, New York. It is much more forgiving and much more open minded, it’s very hippy-ish. I go back and forth between living with my mom, but I really want to be a tough guy. Somehow I end up going to college, which was never part of my plan. Somehow I weaselled my way into Cornell University, and when I graduated, my friend convinced me to go to Wall St. At the time I had a business in Queens, I was cleaning pools. My customers were all the bosses or families of bosses of the mobs, I had 700 customers. My friend was pushing me, but I was making $250,000 a year with my pool business. I feel like a tough guy, I own my trucks and bulldozers, feeling good.”

From Wall St. to racing:

“Fast forward and I end up selling the business and go onto Wall St. I build up a pretty sizeable business trading equity and bonds. I wasn’t feeling very healthy on Wall St, I was very stressed out, so I went back to what my mother said. So I started doing some yoga and eating some plants. One day, I just start running up and down the stairs at my apartment block, and I stumbled upon this thing called Adventure Racing. There were these crazy races that went around the world, and the crazier the race was, the more interested I was. I can’t tell you how many ironman’s and marathons I did. If there was a race and it was challenging, I was interested. I had so much fun that by the early 2000’s, I was thinking it would be great to get out of Wall St and to do this as a business. It would be great to get people out of their comfort zone and get them to do something healthy.”

On early mistakes:

“I started it, but I couldn’t get anybody to come. Who would want to run a 350 mile race? That’s insane. My marketing was wrong, my product was wrong, and I would lie to people. I would say ‘Hey, come up to our farm in Vermont. We are going to have a BBQ weekend.’ I would wake you up at 5am and they would ask me why? I would respond ‘Well we have to carry the BBQ up the mountain.’ I would crush people by lying to them. Afterwards, they would say it was crazy but they loved it. But I turned it into a business and eventually that business became Spartan. Now we are in 45 countries with 1.5 million people a year taking part [pre-COVID]. We bought out our formidable competitor, Tough Mudder. I was fighting with them every day. Now, I am working on a TV show where I go around the world for the last 25 days. I go to business and beat the sh*t out of people [laughs].”

On what people say when they think about signing up:

“The people on the fence [about doing a Spartan race] will say ‘I got to get in shape first.’ Actually you have it all wrong. If you were going to get in shape first, you would already be in shape. Most people don’t do it, look at obesity rates and diabetes rates. At our core, we are motivated by the avoidance of discomfort. The thing is, when you sign up for this hard thing, then you do the work. Then it is more uncomfortable to not do the work.”

On the importance of being a Spartan racer:

“Some people go to church, some people identify with the place they work for. This is a really healthy community, 10 million strong that will do anything for you. In the middle of a race, they will stop and lend a hand. To be able to define yourself as a Spartan vs. a Hell’s Angel, it’s pretty good.”

On the new book: 10 Rules For Resilience:

“People need more resilience. It’s really a family book, I got the wakeup call 3 years ago, my kids were being asked by me to carry kettlebells through the neighbourhood. I used to make them carry rocks and all kinds of stuff just for exercise, sometimes in their pyjamas. Some lady pulls up and screams ‘Do you know him? Are you ok? Why are you carrying that?’ I said ‘Ma’am, they are my kids.’ I didn’t want to get in a fight, but it occurred to me that she hasn’t seen kids walking outside in like 15 years. Kids don’t go outside anymore, you can’t blame her. So I thought I really have to write a book on how to get kids outside of their comfort zone. They have to fail more and we have to stop over-parenting and overprotecting. Otherwise, you end up with kids that are obese and depressed.”

On what he is grateful for:

“My family, that I get to do this and I am alive.”

Featured image: Forbes