Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 288 - Thanksgiving is coming! What do I do with my Diet?

Episode Date: November 18, 2019

Today we are laying out some tips, tricks and hacks you can use to stay on your diet during Thanksgiving! Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 15% off your order! ➢Quest Nutrition: https://www.questnutrition.com/ Use code "MARKSQUEST" at checkout for 20% of your order! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

And Seema, I hate to admit this, but you're looking pretty damn good lately. You're looking like a snack over there. I know. You got any room for any snacks in your nutrition, in your diet? I know you're trying to keep everything pretty clean. Well, I mean, yeah, I kind of have room. You know, I kind of overdo the snack thing. But like, I do like the Quest cookies because, again, they have a good amount of fiber.

They're not something that like I really tend to overeat on, but they hit the spot. When I need something that can get me some little sweetie, sweetie, I like those. Those are good. Yeah, and for people that struggle and have a hard time with snacks, I would recommend this is something that you do at the end of the day. That way you go to bed, you're satisfied, you had something sweet, and you can turn over to something new and start a new day what do you got over there did nsema say sweetie sweetie i was losing it over here yeah he did if you guys want some of that sweetie sweetie goodness head over to quest nutrition.comcom, enter promo code MARKSQUEST at checkout for 20% off all the

sweetie sweetness. So we're just watching a video on the sheer force value of meat because the Piedmontese meat is so tender. We're trying to figure out, you know, how are they able to, you know, make the meat like this? And the video we just watched basically just explains that, you know, by kind of slicing through the meat, they end up with what they call a sheer force value. And apparently, uh, the certified Piedmontese, they do a great job of keeping that meat super tender. So very easy to cut through, which makes it easier to chew. Yeah. I've had a lot of

different types of steaks. A lot of, uh, steaks I paid good money for that just were not tender at all. That's the most disappointing thing ever, right? Yes, because you're paying good money for steak. You want it to taste good. You want it to be tender. So it's impressive that they're doing all this with their meat. Yeah, it's great. They're putting the information out there too. And again, they have information on how to cook, which I think is great. Having a cook guide is really important. And on top of it, you know, we don't want the meat to be like hard and dry. You know, there's really nothing worse than having

a steak that's like that. And so they have tender meat that has tons of protein in it. And it's very lean, much leaner than a lot of the other meats that are out there. And I think they're just doing it with those jacked Nebraska cows. Andrew, where can they find out more information about Piedmontese beef? Certified Piedmontese has a crazy deal exclusively for our listeners. Head over to piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com. Enter promo code POWERPROJECT. That'll get you 25% off your order along with free two-day shipping on all orders of $100 or more.

So you guys know I've been messing around with a lot of fasting, you know, for the last two or three years. And the way I initially started fasting, because I'm a former fat guy, was like I couldn't like fast fast. I needed like some kind of food. I needed like MCT oil or I needed just something. And so I started using Perfect Keto. They have a MCT powder. And then in addition to that, they have a regular MCT oil. And I've been utilizing that in my morning coffee just to kind of give me some sort of, just so I'm not starving to death, just to give me a little

something. And as a lot of people know, the MCTs, they convert to ketones a lot faster than just other types of fat that you might eat. And the chocolate powder, the chocolate MCT powder is great. I don't know how they did it. I don't know how they made a fat into a powder that can mix up super easy, but it mixes up really easy into like yogurt, mixes up really easy into my morning coffee, and I enjoy it a lot. Cool. So you feel like good energy after you have that? Yeah. I feel some good clarity, some good energy. And then I can, I'm able to fast until, you know,

one o'clock, two o'clock. I'll have that at like 8am and something that kind of carries me through at least midway through the day. Cool. Nice. And Seema, where can people find this? All right. So help yourself with your fasting by incorporating Perfect Keto MCT oil powder by going to perfectketo.com slash powerproject and use code powerproject to get 15% off your MCT oil and Perfect Keto products. Is it called a dojo? It's not even called a dojo. It's called a school. Yeah, a gym or a school, yeah. But no, that would be kind of cool, though, I think.

I think that would be sick if, like, did, like, a Waza versus Wernick or Aries versus Wernick or something local. But there are a lot of local tournaments in and of itself. You end up meeting up against each other anyway. Yeah, you end up rolling with other people in Sacramento. What about Cobra Kai? Like, do you guys mess with them or...?

Cobra Kai, no, no one really fucks with the cobra kai they they're dirty they don't play by the rules um i went to a cobra kai school and i got wrecked so no one messes they got a sick logo for their dojo it's a snake and something else right it's cobra it's a cobra it's a cobra it's a cobra what's called a brain fart. Did you get that thing fixed and everything? We're good, yeah. Oh. It's so annoying that that happened, but at least it happened before we started the podcast. It's so funny.

The internet broke again? It's just Chrome broke. We should start our clock. Our new and improved. Oh, but check this out. I could actually adjust it to be on. Where's our new clock in the cloud? Oh, wait.

No, maybe I can't. It's right there, but that's a little thing. That smaller is better, man. Smaller is always better. Yeah, ladies. It's how you use it. Yeah, it is how you use it. Something like that, right?

I don't know. That's what I keep telling Stephanie. If y'all don't know what we're talking about we got a new little clock that's actually working and it's like a fifth no like a tenth of the size of the other clock and it just it works like a charm it does its job and it's simple and easy to use

yeah thanks for all the Patreon you know thanks for dumping money into our patreon we appreciate it now we can get a fancy clock god damn you know what it smells like absolute shit around my house like it smells so fucking bad and my friend came over yesterday or last night yeah he came over last night and um he's been a friend of mine for a long time and he was just blown away by the house and he loved it and everything and i go dude i was like i know that you grew up in the country you grew up on a farm i'm like is it always gonna

fucking stink this bad out here he's like that's country living man he's like you gotta live he's like you gotta enjoy it and then he's like no it doesn living man he's like you gotta live he's like you gotta enjoy it and then he's like no it doesn't always smell like this this bad but he's like it will smell that bad for a while i guess it's like fertilizer or something one of the farm local farms is using and uh so the only reason why you smell it at that so i only smell it at night it's not like that in the it still stinks in the morning but not nearly nearly as bad. But I guess it's because of the atmosphere and the pressure, the temperature change and so on makes it a lot worse at night. But can't open up the windows, nothing.

It's like it's really, really bad. It's almost like you're going to barf. Did you guys think about that when you were getting it? No, we had no idea. We didn't know anything about, we didn't know anything about that. That's why you guys got such a good deal. Yeah. Yeah.

It smells like shit every night. Oh my God. It stinks. It's bad. It doesn't, it smells, it smells really foul. Like it doesn't just smell like poop. Like if it was just fertilizer and just smelled you know a little bit like some poop i don't think i would be that like blown away by it but it's bad it smells like something's

dying or something yeah that just reminds me of baker's field i've been to baker's field a few times and every time you drive through baker's field it's disgusting does it smell like shit because of harris ranch is that where har? Is Harris Ranch that way? Absolutely. Harris Ranch. Just explains to me. Has like a million cattle. We'll just think Harris Ranch like beef. I don't know if you've ever seen it in stores or whatever.

Oh, okay. We wouldn't know because we only know about the best. We only know about the Montees. It pales in comparison for sure, but they do have a gigantic farm as you're driving to SoCal. And it's just like, ah, shit, here it comes. It's near Kalinga. Is that the right word? I'm such a kid.

I know, me too. But I think that's probably why they named it Kalinga. Yeah. Kalinga. God, it's funny. You were thinking of Kalinga i was like what we went different ways with that one but anyway yeah yeah it's fucking stinks anyway my friend came over and he was all hyped up uh about my son's truck he started looking at it and he you know pops open

the uh pops open the hood and he's talking about the engine like he knows a ton about cars i don't know shit i don't know what anybody's talking about him and jake are going back and forth and my dad's talking about it and they're everyone's all excited and um my friend he's like man he's like i can't believe he's like i had the same he goes i almost had the same exact truck in high school he's like damn it he's like i had the same he goes i almost had the same exact truck in high school he's like damn it he's like i can't believe it he's like you have any idea how many chicks i banged in the back of this truck jake jake was like huh jake was like what oh god well yeah was that it he just that's my dad my dad hit me on the arm. My dad was like, I was good.

My dad didn't care. Jake was like, huh? That's funny. But yeah, they all worked on the truck a little bit together, and we fired it up. We went for a spin. And then the reason why I had my friend over last night is we're going to try to figure out what to do with our land. We don't have any – people keep asking us, like, did you buy it for the land or what are you going to do with the land? And we're like, we don't know.

It just came with the house. We really bought it for the house, not so much the land, but we'll figure out some stuff to do with it. My friend was saying, hey, we could build a track and you can go out there and do your 10-minute walks. The kids, because I have a lot of kids in my family, they can race dirt bikes or four-wheelers or all that kind of shit out there. That's the kind of stuff we're going to put on there. He was asking about cows and stuff, and we're like, no, we don't want to be managing no cows,

but we'll get some chickens, and we'll get a garden, stuff like that. That land is big enough for another super training gym. Yeah. Well, that was supposed to be a secret. Uh-oh. Yeah, I was going to build a super training there, and it was just going to be for me and you. Oh. That's it.

Hey. Hey. I approve of that. Yeah. Oh, and Andrew. Oh, sorry, Andrew. I'll pay for half. Okay. I'll pay for Oh. That's it. Hey. Yeah. I approve of that. Yeah. Oh, and Andrew. Oh, sorry, Andrew. I'll pay for half. Okay.

I'll pay for half. That's close. Or actually, since it's three of us, we can go thirds. How much is it? I don't know. I haven't mapped it out yet. Just say yes to everything and then send the bill later? Yeah.

I'm excited, though. We're going to get some four-wheelers and shit. I had some of that stuff when I was a kid. Oh, cool. My relatives had some stuff like that when I was a kid too so and my friends had shit like that when I was a kid

so we ended up you know jumping on some four wheelers here and there and doing all that thing it was fun that's sick

I've never done any of that stuff before so yeah it's cool I think I rode a three wheeler like in junior high and I just remember like this is terrifying oh yeah those will flip over they don't make those anymore I don't think I rode a three-wheeler in junior high, and I just remember being like, this is terrifying. Oh, yeah.

Those will flip over. They don't make those anymore, I don't think. I don't think they even make them. One wheel in the front, two wheels in the back. Right. Yeah. And you turn even just slightly, and that back wheel is coming off the ground. Wow.

I did not like it. No. Anyway, freaking Thanksgiving's coming up. Yes, it is. Oh. I love it when you do that. That was great. I love that noise.

It's really great. You know, it's interesting. I sometimes just think of the weirdest stuff. I was just thinking the other day, like somebody made that noise. Like somebody created that, right? And then somebody else heard it and then it ended up in like every song. Yeah. But I just think it's interesting what people create, you know,

and what people's minds think of. Where it goes to or how it ends up somewhere. Yeah, and so I was talking to Settlegate the other day about it, and I kept making that noise after everything he said the other day. And he was laughing. and so I was like isn't it weird you know how you know Albert Einstein discovers the theory of relativity

and somebody else discovered wah wah wah that's a weird thing to think about but it's an important thing to contemplate more people probably heard the one one one absolutely know what the hell albert einstein's talking about right yeah man yeah and where the mind goes when you think it's it's so distinct that you just can't help but

just remember every instance where you heard that's it we're gonna put in some of our advertising everybody knows it too i mean i would imagine my parents don't like understand like that it's not a meme but like they don't understand that part of it yeah but i'm sure they've like i'm it's on spanish tv they have to use it at least five times every commercial it's one of those sounds where your ears just perk up what is it too is it like horns or something like what is it yeah i think so how do we find it isn't like a like what song is it from even i mean it's i know it's in songs yeah but the origins of how do you search for it how do you spell it yeah is it yeah is it with b's or like what letters do you even use? We can't continue.

You got to go to talk about Thanksgiving. Everyone's like, why do they keep doing that? Okay. Hip-hop DJs were influenced by Jamaican sound systems such as the Kilimanjaro and Jamaican-Americans such as DJ Kool Herc. A Jamaican and Jamaican-American such as DJ Kool Herc incorporated rap to make a mixtape. The air horn then became a new hip-hop attention signal for global artists such as Pharrell and Kanye West. Well, they could have named literally any rapper there. But they're just calling it an air horn. Jamaican roots, huh?

Yeah. I'm not surprised. Kanye West? What Kanye West song? I don't remember any Kanye songs. Well, actually. Meh, meh, meh. Yeah, I'm kind of like, where did that ever come in?

Had to have been a high energy song. Oh, no, wait. I'm thinking of Drake. It's in a Drake song. Like a sprained ankle I had nothing to play with. It's in the beginning of that song a sprained ankle i had nothing to play with it's in the beginning of that song i think yeah yeah the fact that you just remembered that like wow no it's in there i think impressive huh uh i think it's in the beginning of that song dude can you are you gonna find this andrew i'll find something me me me anyway what are you guys doing for Thanksgiving you turkeys

Hashtag dad joke That was a good one Pretty sure I'm going to two households So an aunt and then A lady's family You're going to eat twice Going to probably end up eating twice That's a huge

Conundrum because i normally do at least two houses at least sometimes three who do you give the bigger or who do you receive the bigger plate from both because you don't want to be rude but then like you kind of know like if you if you eat too much at one you're not going to eat as much at the other one. And, you know, I mean, for me, I know my mom's, you know, plates are going to taste the best, but that's usually the second one that we visit. Oh, you sure you want to say this live? Yeah, that's fine. Okay.

Yeah. Everyone knows Mama Martha gets down. Okay. those mama martha gets down okay but this year we actually don't have to travel anywhere because we somebody my sister had joked not joked around but like kind of teasing like hey whoever has you know whoever got the most recent house has to host the next you know big get together and we passed on it last year just because like oh there's no way like we can't we can't host everybody yeah yeah and then this year was like hey babe like what do you think like do you want to you know thanksgiving she's like okay and i was like oh shit all right well she said yes and like let's let's now let's text my mom and my sister

like hey we're thinking you, we're kind of excited. What do you guys think? And then right away both, oh, that sounds great. I'm like, oh, no, it's set in. So did you ask that question for intending to hear a no? Yeah, yeah. And then the way I text, you know, I was just like, oh, you know, but if you guys want to do something else, it's totally cool. Like if it's inconvenient to come all the way out here, like no big deal. Like we're not like we won't be offended. And right away they're like, no, it's totally cool like if it's inconvenient to come all the way out here like no big deal like we're not like we won't be offended and right away they're like no it's cool

and and the the main reason i wanted to really host is because like i i want to smoke a turkey like i'm going to cook a turkey on my my pit boss smoker so i'm like really like excited for that because like turkeys suck okay like I don't care I've never had one out of a smoker that had been you know smoking for like pretty much suck I mean like you know you can get some like skin and some darker meat and stuff I think it's pretty good like on that on those parts but the rest of the turkey it's just really dry it really is so what I'm hoping is like I cook like the best turkey that anyone's ever had, right? And then I pull out the Piedmontese tomahawk steaks and say, you guys enjoy that?

I'm going to have this. Just have everybody be upset at me. Do realize that. You peasants eat that. Yeah. Once you do this and once you have a host of great Thanksgiving, every Thanksgiving from this point is going to be at your place. If the turkey comes out good and people love it, I'm all with that yeah i don't mind at all just something to note yeah

although as families grow our house is not the biggest house so yeah i'm already trying to like strategize and play tetris with like furniture and stuff to figure out where i'm going to put everybody uh straight up there's going to be a a table in the gym like that's where somebody's somebody's going to eat there they get to they get to eat with a gigantic mirror and maybe hit some squats i don't know yeah yeah no one no one ever cares though you know i think no i think it always works out okay yeah there's always like you know you always everyone has the one relative with the backhanded uh you know compliments or backhanded comments i should say uh you know where they're like oh there's a table over here but like it'll happen like once or twice and that'll be it yeah

like why is there a table in your gym yeah yeah send the kids to eat there they'll eat anywhere although yeah no the kids aren't getting a table. They get to go outside. That's true. They can eat on the ground or outside with their kids. But it'll be cool. They'll eat on the ground. Yeah, it's just basically like immediate family. But that's already 30 people, so we'll see.

But Thanksgiving's one of those holidays, man, where it's like it's that and Christmas where everyone's like, what do I do? I want to eat, but I can't because I'm on my diet. I know. Everybody loses their mind. I can't be on a diet right now because we got Thanksgiving coming up. So it's like, what's the point? Yeah.

No. And people just, they really get crazy about, like I've been talking about no carbs till Christmas. And then people are like, well, what about mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving? Or what about stuffing? And I don't know, like those things are, they're pretty good, but like, uh, they're not, they're not like game changer for me. Like I can certainly, I could certainly deal without them. I, I guess I understand why people get pumped about them, but they're kind of, I don't know, they're just not that great of food. Yeah.

And I don't really dig turkey. I do like stuffing, but I mean, you're just kind of eating a bunch of like mashed up bread or something, right? I don't even know what the hell stuffing is. Stuffing? It's like the insides of the turkey and some other shit, right? I mean, it tastes pretty good, but like, I don't know what the hell it is. and some other shit, right?

I mean, it tastes pretty good, but I don't know what the hell it is. It's just, I don't know what the mushy, mashy part is, but the part that's a little bit crunchier even is just like croutons. Right. Exactly, and see my... I'm visualizing that.

I'm still fasting, so this is not good. But it is like visualizing well it is like it is like still fasting so this is not good but it is like croutons but then it's like the like guts of the chicken or something right something like liver and weird shit it's supposed to be but nowadays yeah people just use whatever yeah like out of a box right it's not as it's not as though not as authentic yeah you know um i mean all of all of you guys can speak to this since i like i have like an african thanksgiving there's a lot of cultural food there that i'm not eating during the rest of the year you know there's jollof rice there's a goosey soup there's ghost pepper there's goat pepper soup there's all of this stuff which is like you don't get to have during the year right it's not like so so i mean getting nigerian

food is kind of not easy it's not yeah it's not the easiest it's not something you're eating every day so you know some people are probably like i don't get to eat a lot of this food that we have at thanksgiving during the year i don't cook it up because aunt so-and-so makes this specialty thing better than anybody right yeah do you want to skip out so-and-so's so-and-so or how can you navigate those waters i think we should figure that out yeah uh just really quick on spotify there's a playlist just called songs featuring the air horn oh wow yeah there's perfect there's tons man oh my gosh yeah tons of drake uh madonna nikki minaj anyway yeah there we go tons but oh my god i mean i know we talked about this the other day but you know i i utilize a lot of fasting when it comes to that

man yeah because like like the day before and the day before like two days before thanksgiving i'm already eating a little bit less food right in preparation for what I'm about to do. Getting ready for the extra, extra fuel you're about to throw down. Yeah. Yeah. Because like, there's a lot of food that I don't usually typically get to eat. And it's sometimes it's really just a nice treat to be able to get to have it rather than totally skipping it. That's one of those things that I know I'm going to do this year. Yeah. You know, I mean, you guys got to kind of pick your battles, you know, and I think as long as you go in with a plan, then I think you're going to win. Now you just have to have

a plan. If you plan to not mess up and then you mess up, I think that's like worse. Like, why not try to set yourself up for success and say, okay, I know that I'm not that strong-willed. I also feel like there's really no reason to be that strong-willed at this time of the year because I do want to enjoy my family. I do want to enjoy these foods. And so therefore, I'm going to go in with a game plan that allows me to be successful.

Okay, here's a couple rules surrounding that week. So say like starting on the Monday before Thanksgiving, you cut back on your carbohydrate intake a little bit. Maybe you mess around with a little bit of fasting and then that Thursday dinner comes or whenever you guys celebrate Thanksgiving, then you have at it. You fucking go for it and you eat as much as you want and you eat the dessert and you get everything and maybe you uh walk some of it off afterwards but you just you let loose and you got the football game on and you just you just go for it so it's like you know whatever whatever way you're going to try to go about doing it just make sure you're you know setting yourself up uh in a position where you can actually uh excel rather than you know being you know thinking that you're going to try that you're going to stick to this plan because you may not, you might fall apart. It'd also be like

Andrew eating his tomahawks. It might be a great idea to like, if you're going to bring some food to, or if you're one of those people who needs to bring some food, bring something that like would maybe fit your diet that you like, like some meat or something that is good, but it's also healthier because if you really are one of those people that you're like, like some meat or something that is good, but it's also healthier. Because if you really are one of those people that you're like, okay, those are trigger foods for me. Once I eat this on Thanksgiving, I'm probably going to take leftovers home and it's going to turn into a weak thing. Then just bring your own stuff with you so you can share it with others. And then you can just kind of stick to your stuff and, you know, stick to what you want to do.

Yeah. Or just load up on the stuff that you can have. Yeah. Eat before you go is another good strategy. Eat before you have to even get there. Just get some food in your stomach so you're not so starving when you get there. I think that'll be hard for a lot of people because there's like, oh, we have to get ready or we got to prep the food that we're bringing. And then I just know for us, it was always like, okay, we're going to really get hungry so we could eat more at Thanksgiving. Yeah. I can still be able to eat a lot.

Yeah. But I just know that like, oh, don't. Like I've heard like, oh, don't eat because we're getting, you know, till later. I used to do that. Yeah. Or like try to sneak the rolls or something. That's what I would do. Sneak the rolls?

Yeah. Like bread. Oh, wow. Like try to run up and grab a piece of bread that you're not supposed to have until dinner, but it's right there. I don't see what the big deal is, but apparently it was a big deal. Protein shake. Throw down a protein shake before you go.

Anything you can do to mitigate it. If you care about that, if you can do to to you know mitigate it and if you care about that if you don't then just go for it but i'm going to bodega bay and i'm really looking forward to it i'm going on monday and then just stay in there and until i get kicked out i saw that text i'm getting the fuck out of here i'm getting out of here. That was hilarious. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It should be fun. You know, I plan on doing a lot of walking and stuff like that. It's just there's not much going on up there, which I actually like

because it just gives me an opportunity to just chill the fuck out. So I'm looking forward to it. I'm excited. I like being around my family too. So we have a lot of family members and there'll be kind of a lot of people coming and going throughout the throughout the days that we're up there so i look forward to that as well a bunch of people from like new york and stuff too no no one from new york uh that's that's a little too much uh moving around but yeah just a lot, just a lot of my fam in California.

And then we have friends. And we got – it's interesting when you find, like, a vacation spot, you end up seeing people that just happen to go there too. And we've run into a lot of friends, family friends, that just happen to – that they go there all the time as well like andrew goes there you know quite a bit and so um you just kind of you're like oh shit like you live like two blocks down the street from me i didn't know you go to bodega as well but yeah it's a destination for some people so we end up meeting and running into uh all kinds of people which is

which is a lot of fun and then you know to me the holidays are about are about kids and we have a lot of kids in our family so you know sometimes that can that can be a lot because there's a lot of little ones running around but i'm excited for that there's some uh some of my nieces uh that i haven't seen in a while so i'm looking forward to that as well you guys have a lot of kids in your families as well or no i mean growing up you know mexican family we we multiply like crazy i didn't want to say so that's all right it's it's uh it's not a stereotype if it's true um growing up yeah that that was actually like one of the uh like well, Thanksgiving and Christmas were some of the best times because all the cousins would get together and we'd have like Madden tournaments or like Street Fighter tournaments.

Like we literally like have like a whole like tree and everything. So there's tons of us now that they're, you know, we're all grown up. Like we don't see each other as much, but like in our like immediate families like yeah my my sister has four boys my brother has three girls we have one girl and then stephanie's brother has one boy so like there's yeah and that's just the immediate family so there there are quite a bit of kids uh everyone's waiting for us to pump out some but pump them out yeah yeah yeah so i mean not as much as it was when i was a kid as far as having more cousins around but yeah we have some little rascals everywhere yeah not that many for me actually yeah just my cousin she had three boys

and that's at least here in the states i think that's the only ones from the next generation below us, but there's a few in Nigeria. Like we have a lot of family in Nigeria, so there's a lot over there. It's not over here, but it should be fun. Yeah. It's always great. Like seeing a lot of people you haven't seen. And it's crazy. Like it, every Thanksgiving, it just makes me realize how much I don't have contact with my family. Yeah, I know. It's a really sad thing to really think about because as kids, we used to all be tight-knit. But, I mean, it's not like everybody does this,

but our family just kind of, at least if they weren't the nuclear family, just fizzled out. Yeah, it's weird how that happens. And yeah, every year you're like, oh, I should talk to some of these people more. Not everybody, but I should talk to at least some of them a little bit more. And then you never really... You always say, yeah, we'll talk, yeah, every year you're like, oh, I should talk to some of these people more. Not everybody, but I should talk to at least some of them a little bit more.

And then you never really. You always say, yeah, we'll talk. Yeah, I'll give you a call until next Thanksgiving. It's the whole we got to hang out this summer. Yeah. It's kind of the blessing, though, of having family is that it doesn't matter. You know, like if it was a friend and you continued to abuse them that way you know you probably would never talk again but because it's

uh family or i mean i guess you can get that way sometimes with a really close friend but with family it's like every time you see each other it's as if you never left and you start talking about stuff and um you know i i also find i also find it interesting that I can get up and talk in front of people and do different things, but then I'm kind of socially awkward and sometimes don't know what to say or how to act around other relatives. I don't know why, but I'm not much of a small talker anyway, like not much of a guy to like be talking about like the weather or or anything like that. And so it's it's hard for me to like engage and get rolling on a conversation. And I'm not interested in that much stuff.

That's a big problem for me. Like if I guess I guess I'm interested in more stuff than i realize but i'm i'm not interested in like a lot of things that are just like going on sometimes so i'm not gonna like i don't know all of a sudden start talking about like pop culture or what's going on in afghanistan or something like i just don't even know what's going on unfortunately i i should i should probably be more aware but i don't really know So I ain't got much to say when it comes to a lot of that stuff. Now, if somebody talks about like what they do for a living, I always find that really fascinating.

Um, not for any other reason than just to like learn more about it. Someone's like, oh, I'm, I'm a, uh, contract attorney. And I'm like, okay, well, what does that mean? You know, I want to like, you know, hear more about it or it doesn't matter what the business is. I'm always kind of like does that mean you know I want to like you know hear more about it or it doesn't matter what the business is I'm always kind of like oh that's kind of neat and I just sit there and think like okay that's pretty cool that's like how that's how they that's how they make their money that's how they that's how they sustain everything like okay that's cool you know but other than that yeah I got nothing to say for some reason yeah no

small talk is very tough for me too because like I usually just end up talking to that person and learning about them. That's my tactic. If anyone wants to know the tactic of how I maintain conversations with most people, it's I ask them questions about themselves and I let them go. I just let them roll. That way you're off the hook. I'm off the hook. You're like, so anyway, let's talk more about you. Yeah, but like I'm actually, but the thing is I just don't, I just let them roll. That way you're off the hook. I'm off the hook. Like,

so anyway, let's talk more about you. Yeah. But like, I'm actually, but the thing is, I just don't, I don't do that just to do that. I do that because I'm actually interested. Like, right. Like, you know, if anybody's going to talk about something, usually they're really interested in talking about themselves. And a lot of the time, for some reason, people don't ask other people much about themselves. So when someone can get rolling and you can learn about them, I like that. Like learning about what they do, deeply about what they do. That's actually really interesting. I'd rather talk about that than, I don't know, some random shit that was on the last reality TV show or something like that.

I can't do that. I like talking about the family, too. And, you know, somebody starts talking about, you know, Uncle So-and-so. And then you're like, oh, I didn't know he used to live there. And like, I like learning more about the family because then it gives me better insight into, you know, like who I am and where I came from and stuff like that. And when I went to New York last summer, I talked to my uncles quite a bit about my grandpa. And I've always been fascinated

by my grandfather, but I was asking a lot of questions about, um, like what he was like to like work with because he, he kind of, he kind of had like a, I think a lot of parents, uh, have this happen to them where they work really really really hard during a certain period of time in their life and they're like they don't have time for their kids like they work their ass off and yeah they do spend time with the kids but not much because they're always uh working well my grandpa was like super focused in on his work he worked from home so he could be with the kids but the kids always annoyed him he was always always grumpy. Not always grumpy towards them, but he was a hard ass. And then anytime the kids, he always wanted the kids to work on the cars with him.

He had a used car lot at his house, and he always wanted the kids to work with him, but anytime they worked with him, he'd be frustrated with them because they didn't know how to do certain things, or some of them just didn't want to get like dirty. You know, he'd have he'd have grease and oil, you know, all embedded into his fingers every day of his life because that's what he did. He was a mechanic. And, you know, so I was asking some of them, I was like, well, how like what was he like to like work with and stuff? They're like, he was a maniac.

Like he like he was he like to like work with and stuff? They're like, he was a maniac. Like he, like he was, he was impossible. Like he was a perfectionist and he couldn't, you know, couldn't do anything with him. And I was like, oh, okay. Like, I don't know, just learning like stuff like that. Um, and they said he had like a really short temper and I'm like, short temper. I'm like, okay, my brother, Mike had that. I'm like, that, that skipped me me but I do want things a particular way sometimes not everything but I am that way with some stuff and I I try to be aware of that and I try to be like okay I I should be easier to work with I should give a fuck more about people I should pay attention to what they're doing and what they're saying and so it just gives me some good insight into uh my own life I guess. Yeah. You know, it's really interesting. You say that, like you saw a lot of similarities between you and him, right? Yeah. So I talked to my mom all the time, obviously, but there's one

thing. Cause like, I knew my dad, I didn't spend much time with him. Right. But she says I'm a lot like him. And I was like, well, okay, that I don't know what to take about that and there's just this way that first off he talks um that i i'm just apparently just very it seems that i don't care a lot of the time like that's just a trait i've always had like a lot of people will think i'm not interested in something because i'm just really chill about most things and she's like why he did that all the time too but i didn't even pick that up from him it's just a trait like really just things just like roll off my back and i just don't give a i don't care and i didn't get that from her because she cares about a lot of things so it's just interesting i guess

the way things pass down even if you're not around that person a lot. It just could be your genetic nature to be that way. It's so cool. No, it is. I'm similar in some ways. There's certain things I just don't really care that much about. I literally don't care that much about them. I've had people say,

it doesn't seem like you care about anything. It's like, well, no, I do. I care about people say, like, it doesn't seem like you care about anything. It's like, well, no, I do. I care about some stuff, but I like to be even. I like to be kind of even keel. Like I don't like to get way too high up on anything. I don't like to get way too down about anything. When things are going really good, I think something else is around the corner. That's. You know, not like I'm looking for it. I'm not searching for it. Um, things relatively speaking are, uh, they always feel like they're getting better. Really.

I feel, you know, really good about everything, but I also know that like, I'm going to wake up and not feel great. I'm going to wake up and, and have days where I feel amazing and everything's perfect. And I'm just super happy. I'm in an amazing mood. My wife's an amazing mood. My kids are in good mood. Like there's a bunch of, there's a lot of days like that, that happens more often, uh, than it doesn't. Right. But at the same time, I don't like to get like overly, uh, excited or worked up about anything in either direction, whether it's high or low. How about you, Andrew? How are you with that?

I used to be real pessimistic. Is that the word? I think so, yeah. Glass is half empty. Yeah, just like it started with sports too. Like, oh, the Kings are doing good, but man, they it started with like sports too. Like, oh, the Kings are doing good, but man, they always blow it in the third quarter. So I'm not even going to get excited for this. And that would like roll into.

Oh yeah, we talked about that with like allergies. Like, oh, here we go. It's allergy season. Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to get an allergy. Oh yeah. Oh, so-and-so got sick. I, damn it.

Okay, I'm going to get sick. And what would happen? I would be so-and-so got sick. Damn it. Okay, I'm going to get sick, and what would happen? I would be totally fine, and I would get sick. I used to, and like I said, that would roll into the rest of my life. Like, I don't know. I got a new job. Like, oh, this is cool. I got a new job, but I'm probably eventually going to wear it out or whatever it is.

So that was terrible. it out or whatever it is so that that was terrible um thankfully like it just took a handful of good things to happen for me to be like you dumbass like just think positive and then honestly like even up up until like the uh the charlie rocket episode like i would still have some doubts of certain things and then after that episode i was like man like i'm on a winning streak like no matter what like my fiancee locked herself out of the house the other night and she's like i want a winning streak i'm like yeah wherever you were supposed to go like maybe it just wasn't meant to be you know um and then now like just with some some shitty things that have happened in my life you know to me they had to happen for a reason.

So I'm like, there is no such thing as a bad experience anymore. 100% absolute. You can't tell me anything different. During the Meathead Millionaire Summit, everybody had something bad happen to them that they turned into something extremely positive. So now, I'm living that life 100%. Like everything is like, it has to happen. Um, we, we were hoping to, because we're engaged right now and we were hoping to kind of set the date and have it happen to be in November. Um, schedule got weird and it didn't work out. Had we went and got married, I probably

wouldn't be on this shred again tip right now. Like, and who knows where this is going to lead to now? You know, I mean, for sure it's going to lead to better wedding photos because you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So as, as, as happy as I would be like officially being married, like it's going to be even better when we do tie the knot later down later on down the road so yeah now the cup is is always it's not even half full it's 100 full i think what you said there dude is like the the whole you used to be pessimistic right yeah i don't think like you were always that before then though but like i think things start out super small it could start out with like one day you're at baseball practice and your coach said something and it got you thinking in a pessimistic way. Right. But you just had that one thought. But then that one thought trickled and trickled and became more and it turned into a literal personality trait and it's the way you are.

It's the way you are. That's why I think it's so important to like guard the way you think. Yeah. Like, and your self talk because that self talk can, will turn into an actual trait. When it turns into a trait, it's so hard to reverse, but you have,

which is fucking awesome. But that's why it's like the things you think are so important. I think a lot of times we don't even realize how negative we really are, you know? And that's, that's why you also have to protect yourself from outside influences because it's like dude negativity i got that part under control like i don't need your help i i tell myself plenty of bad things

every day or talk myself out of stuff every day um and so you have to kind of protect yourself from yourself and you got to protect yourself and it's hard to do that all the time. You know, it's hard to be conscious of that all the time. But there's a lot of things I think that happen that you just don't even really think about. You're thinking like, you know, I'm going to stop drinking when I get out of college. You know, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to get on a better diet as soon as I move into a better apartment because this apartment kind of sucks. I can't cook here. Right.

I'm going to, you know, be better this way or better that way when you move here or when you do this, when you do that. And you probably won't. There's because there's not really there's not truly an excuse on why you're acting that way or why you're doing what you're doing currently um there's there's not a legitimate reason for it you know there's a big difference between a reason and an excuse like if you are if let's say that you are way off your diet and you gain some weight and but somebody just died you know it's like well that's that's a legitimate reason like that happens to a lot of people uh or you were sick so you got off

your diet like there's there's reasons right and then there's excuses and you got to be careful that you're not telling yourself a bunch of uh these little these little lies and just allowing it to happen to you all the time because that's super negative too yeah and then so like you know being a pessimistic it's it's sort of like uh it's totally pessimist yeah there you go pessimisticism is it's just a straight up this is gonna sound mean but it's a loser mentality because you are you're predicting that something's going to go bad and then therefore you're like i know it's going to go bad so i'm just going to accept it now and start heading that direction right now you know like it's such a shitty place to be in such like a mindset to be in but i mean yeah like i was there like i would literally like will bad things to happen

whereas now it's you know you can do the opposite right it's not even that like yeah like you're right you know if you assume it's gonna go bad okay if it does okay whatever i thought it would but yeah i called it yeah i knew it but you unconsciously told you guys yeah yeah but you unconsciously make decisions like small decisions that you probably don't even realize you'll make those decisions and it will end up going bad because it's like you're not, I'm not going to say thinking yourself into the right direction,

but if you're not even positive about it, you won't make positive actions to try and achieve whatever it is you're trying to do. So it's just, yeah, that, if you're listening and you think you're a pessimist or you act that way you got to change that yeah it's just like what charlie said you know you you click on that frequency and you start receiving you know that that positivity or the uh you start noticing you

start seeing these little windows of opportunity that you wouldn't even be paying attention to unless you were thinking more positively yeah and you're tuned into that frequency that was that was that episode was fucking great you guys need to positively yeah and you're tuned into that frequency that was that was that episode was fucking great you guys need to go back and listen to that one yeah someone that talks a lot about this stuff actually messaged you guys about this guy today you probably know dr joe dispenza no i don't i don't know if i know who he is dr joe dispenza he i'm sure i probably come across them if he's talking in this light because i look at all kinds of people that do this stuff yeah man he's one of those guys who like he he himself it's gonna sound wild but like part of his story is that he had like a horrible injury

where a bunch of like his discs were messed up in his back right doctors wanted to give him surgery but he went in like he he just like was like no i don't want the surgery and he legit like over time was just like visualizing and thinking about his vertebrae going back into place blah blah blah and after a period of months or whatever he was okay you know who he is yes yes and it sounds wild but he's helped a lot of people with stuff like this he wrote the book you are the placebo yes he wrote that book that's a good book yeah and all of your brain and if you're a pessimist you have to read that book or do what i did which is listen to the audio book huge huge for me like uh oh he was on um on with our boy Impact Theory. Why is his name escaping me again?

Tom Bilyeu. Oh, he was there? Yeah, he was on there. Sick. Yeah. But, yeah, I don't know if there's... Oh, I have seen this guy. Yeah, I just wanted to pull something up.

Just so you can see him. But, yeah, that book is crazy. I haven't read You Are the Place i should he yeah he he he shows the um the study where like they took um like 10 elderly people who are walking in canes wheelchairs and whatnot and they're like hey you're just gonna live as if it was like 50 years ago and then they they gave them like newspapers from 50 years ago on like old tvs only old tv shows and they're like hey just talk and pretend that you are currently living this in in this year whatever and then by the end of the study like they were out like playing football like nobody even had walkers and it was just everything was all mental for you know

because yeah like like oh when you get older you're supposed to have a hurt back and blah blah and whatnot and they believed it and then flipped that around. And all of a sudden now they believe that they're 50 or whatever, 30 years younger. And it's like they start acting like it. It's just wild. Yeah, man. It sounds kind of dumb, you know, in some ways to like have all this, you know, weird positive self-talk.

But I think it's important. I think it's, you know, it's huge. You're on your way to the gym and, uh, rather than fucking around with your stereo and doing whatever else you're doing. Um, why not just take a second? It doesn't take long at all. Just take a second and just tell yourself, I'm gonna have a great workout today. I can't, you know, I can't wait to get to the gym. Like it's going to be awesome. You know, there's some sort of dialogue like that, you know, I can't wait to get to the gym. Like it's going to be awesome. You know, some sort of dialogue like that, you know, it doesn't have to sound the same way every time you can come up with different scenarios or I'm going to have a really good practice today, or I'm going to, you know, I can't, can't wait for an opportunity to take that test.

Cause I studied really hard for it. Things like that. I think just that little, that little bit I think can really help, really help push you over the top. When it comes to sort of like willing things to happen, you used to hear, they used to say like Michael Jordan would just take over a basketball game. He would just will it to happen. Well, he didn't really will it to happen because he didn't only use his mind. There was a lot of physical activity that went into that.

And if you go back and watch, you know, his career, like he lost a lot of games. He won a lot of games. He was super clutch and he was super calm, but he had an amazing skill set that his skills were so high that when the game was on the line, he knew exactly what to do. that when the game was on the line, he knew exactly what to do. And because he seemed like the only guy on the court that had the guts to at least pretend like he knew what to do, then he was the guy. That's the difference between him and probably nearly everybody else on the court is he believed in himself enough to know, like,

I'm going to make a fucking decision with this ball, and I don't care what anybody else thinks about this decision. Even if it doesn't look like the right decision, I'm going to make it right, because even if I miss, I'm going to go after that ball as if my life depended on it, and I'm going to rebound it, or I'm going to tip it just enough so it gets to somebody else or it goes in like, I don't give a shit. I'm making a decision and the decisions that I make may not always be right, but I'm going to force them to be right.

But just the fact that he had the guts to be the guy who was like, yeah, I'll, I'll be the leader. I'll, I'll do this. Yeah, we lose, it's on me. If we win, it's on me. I'll take all that pressure. And so, you know, a lot of people just think, oh, he like, you know, he willed it to happen. But it's a combination. Yeah, he did will it to happen.

He had a lot of willpower. He had a lot of self-belief. And he was probably, you know, shutting out a lot of self-doubt yeah and it like it's he definitely was i guess probably the hardest worker on that team almost every single year that he was there if not every single year um but it wasn't just like yeah you're right it wasn't just like him thinking about it and you know visualizing or whatever but he legit worked harder than everybody because of his belief you know know, it wasn't just, it wasn't just cause he worked hard

all the time. He believed in what he was doing so deeply that it caused him to be that great. So you, you need both. Like if you have a program, if you're working out in the gym, you can't just come and just work out every single day. You need to, you need to have positive self-talk and you to reinforce what you're doing to make sure it lasts, make sure you like all of the hard work you're putting in because a lot of some days it just might not feel so good. So,

yeah, if I didn't, if I didn't believe in the plan that you guys have written out or not written, but like have told me thus far, I don't, I wouldn't have been super stoked to wake up at two this morning. So yeah, there's a lot of belief that I have in you guys. Yeah. Andrew, why do you think that you have read a lot of books, but maybe have not taken the advice? And why do you think Charlie Rockett's advice

landed on you particularly well on that particular day any insight into that that's a great question i i wish i could answer it i'm maybe just before you weren't ready for it there's yeah i actually in semen i were just talking about this when it comes to following and unfollowing somebody yeah i know right uh i'm gonna follow everybody yeah like uh like a picture could just show up on your feed at the right time and the right moment, and it just happens to be the right picture to where you're like, all right, dude, I'm done with you. Unfollow. Obviously, it's somebody that you're following, so whatever. At one point, you were at least digging them.

With the Charlie Rocket thing, I think it was just a handful of things um i wish i could nail it down to one or two but i think it's just having him here in person hearing his story uh and just like the way he carried himself and obviously a book you can't like go up and give a big hug to like i mean technically you can but it's not gonna hug you back uh yeah i i think just having him actually here in person really really did it like if i would have seen his nike commercial it would have fell flat it wouldn't have affected me at all uh but i think just the fact that he was like in the area and he was like yeah i'll come i'll come on y'all's podcast you know the way he talks uh yeah yeah that that was just really cool um and then yeah dude i don't know like uh when it comes to books you know sometimes they they they hit sometimes they don't like i would say the uh

i mean you know i'm a huge aubrey marcus fan i would say the joe dispenza book affected me more than aubrey mar Marcus's book did. And his was super simple. It was just like a couple things per chapter. Like, hey, this is what I do. This is why I do it. And here's what you should do. Or here's your homework, basically.

And it was great. I did learn a lot of things. And I still implement a lot of those in my life. But it wasn't as impactful as the placebo book. Yeah. Maybe the placebo book was more, sounds like it's more general rather than Aubrey Marcus's book. Sounds like it's more specific and it's like, this is what I've done. This has helped me and I really hope that it helps you.

I've done this has helped me and I really hope that it helps you the placebo book sounds like it's something like some of these practices and some of this information can help literally anybody yeah kind of more like that right yeah yeah and then the uh Stephen Pressfield book um the war of art yeah not the art of war everybody they always hit me up like oh my god this book's gigantic I'm like that's the wrong one it's a small book that was another huge influential book in my life um whereas another one called uh something like real artist steel or some shit like that something like that yeah that one i don't even remember anything about it i'm like i was so pumped to to read that book and it was garbage not garbage just for me it did absolutely nothing and i can't tell you why one did better than the other

yeah no that makes a lot of sense though but the thing is the the the line that's going through all of this and what you're saying though is that you were currently you were always seeking out something you were always trying to seek out some type of information that might have helped you out you read read one book. It wasn't that great. You read another book. It wasn't that great. You read a third. It wasn't that great. But that fourth one hits you for some reason. I think a lot of times when I'm going through some of that stuff, I find like maybe something didn't hit me before, but I read something in another book that reminded me of something I read before. And then something just clicks and something hits for me. But it's just because there's this consistent, you're consistently seeking things out, trying to better trying to learn more and that's why if

you never did any of it then you would have just been screwed yeah so would i would have been screwed too you know yeah don't get me wrong like i actually i i hate reading i do not like doing it like i have a hard time following words on the line like I get a little dyslexic, but I actually see the bottom word on the top line as opposed to left and right. So I do audio books. And so I think that's why also having people here is huge, like Bedros Koulian. That was very impactful in my life. So would I have had that same or would he have had that same influence on me if i read his book no he wouldn't have however having him here listening

to him did now the book might which is again what you're saying like time and a place or like just certain things have to be put in the right uh right order in order for it to actually do something for me. Yeah, and then there's like interpretation, you know, interpretation of what you saw or what you read. And we all interpret things very differently. If we were to watch something that was really cinematic, if we were to watch like a movie uh that people you know people view like gone with the wind or something people view that that this is like one

of the greatest movies ever right um you have a lot of experience with like photography and stuff andrew um but all of us probably have similar uh experience with um movies, right? And like our understanding of like cinema, right? Well, all three of us are going to have a way different, we're going to remember different things from the movie. You know, all three of us can remember different things. And you say, hey, what really stood out to you? Now it might be a little common theme, right?

What really stood out to you? But how far off are we going to be versus, you know, the kid that graduated from, you know, film school, right? Yeah. Or someone that just loves the art of cinema or somebody that studied it or whatever the hell, right? They're going to look at that and they're going to be like, you fucking idiots. Are you kidding me? You like the fact that, yeah, you you like this scene like that scene was garbage that didn't even you know that wasn't even shot that well it wasn't edited well it's terrible let's test it right now your favorite part of

once upon a time in hollywood i got mine right away i got mine it was at the yeah i got okay so mine was when he threw the dog food at the at the hippie that broke in i like the that's one i like bruce lee ah there you go i got three different ones all right that was good though the dog thing and the flamethrower was crazy flamethrower was actually that was really good i was just like what the fuck bruce dude when he threw the fucking dog food, it just wham, right in her face. Yeah. I was like, yeah.

That was awesome. That was so good. But I think your previous education and stuff matters a lot, your perception, and then just like where you are in your life, like sometimes just not ready to receive stuff. So that book that you said that you weren't that interested in, it'd actually be interesting for you to go back and listen to a little bit of it because I bet you, you'd go, oh so that book that you said that you weren't that interested in it'd actually be interesting for you to go back and listen to a little bit of it because i bet you you'd go oh my god like it said this this oh shit no oh wow i'm gonna write oh my god like there's a bunch of stuff that you probably

people say that all the time they see something in a movie like that like was that always there did they always say that or uh somebody director's cut like yeah come on somebody read a book and they're like what like i didn't know that was uh you know in this book or yeah but it's just because you changed and you matured and you grew and you you know but the cool thing is i i agree 100 within the scene that you're always you're always in search of something and that's crucial because you could have gave up first couple books could have been kind of dumb and you could have been like oh fuck this reading thing yeah i'm not messing with it yeah i don't even know where that came from i just remember like anytime there was a barnes and nobles or a bookstore and again i have

to reiterate i hate reading like i do not i don't do i don't maybe i just don't know how to read yeah but every time there was this you know or going to the library i would get super pumped and i'd always go to like self-help or uh like the educational side of things i would never go to the uh what's the fake one it's fiction fiction because non-fiction non-fiction is real okay so i would never go to the fic like i never read like harry potter or anything yeah i thought like oh man let's just watch the movie or whatever like i've never watched those but yeah like i would always yeah and uh speaking of uh bedros i liked what he said he's like you know you always hear people talk about like oh i've read a hundred books this year he's like dude that's not impressive he's like you're not going to retain any information you're going to have like you know uh different views combating each other

he's like how about you read 10 books a hundred times that's impressive i'm like okay i'm gonna gonna go back and read a couple books then yeah study it yeah yeah why we sleep i gotta touch up on that one again. It's time. I'm still surprised you haven't watched any Harry Potter movies, but that's beside the point. Yeah, it just missed me. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't my thing.

I didn't like Lord of the Rings either. I didn't get it. You are weird. Harry Potter is really good. It is. Jasmine's really into it. I should probably give it a go. Harry Potter is really good. I watched Tang tangled the other night

oh yeah how was that part of it the cartoon one yeah it was good yeah i mean the parts that i saw i think were pretty good i told you about fuck no too late what's up no like um oh me and my lady have a guilty pleasure it's not so guilty for her but it's weird for me i'll watch twilight with her like uh when the when the cold comes around we'll go through all three no four um yeah and it's like i wouldn't watch it on my own but it's very enjoyable it's it's quite it's it's quite dramatic i'm vampire We're talking about vampires, right? Vampires and werewolves. I'm totally team Jacob because Edward's a creep. But this is the one where the vampires twinkle at night, right?

Yeah, they twinkle in the sun. They twinkle. The sun doesn't hurt them, but they'll sparkle. That's why they don't go out in the sun because everyone will see that they're a vampire because they sparkle. So, Hey, Hey, you know, what's funny.

That story. No, that story is quite hilarious, but I saw breaking Dawn with me and my homie. We're like, it was like four years ago and it came out in theaters and we're just like, let's go watch breaking Dawn. So we're these two dudes.

We're probably the only two dudes in theater. We want to watch breaking down. We're like, bruh, so the only two dudes in theater we want to watch breaking down we're like bruh so much action breaking what it's called twilight saga breaking dawn oh okay sorry i think actually we saw breaking dawn part two yes breaking down part two uh anyway weird but it is what it is i am who i am it's pretty funny we're not accepting of it no yeah you really shouldn't be no no man no man should be enjoying the twilight that we're on the step two yeah a little bit closer of helping you out yeah that's anyway yeah where where weren't we uh we weren't talking about books and i had just mentioned that you know Bedros was saying it's more impressive to read,

I think 10 books, a hundred times versus a hundred books. Cause you're not going to be able to retain, you know, some of the, the views and stuff. Andrew, were you around successful people as a kid at all?

Uh, I, I always looked at my, my dad as somebody who was super successful. Um, he worked extremely hard. He worked all the the time like he had the flu he would never miss work and then when I started like working and I looked at my paychecks and I'm like dude my dad gets more taxes taken out of his checks than I actually make total right like. Like I just remember being like, damn,

like that guy makes a lot of money. Um, looking back now, like, you know, he wasn't the most successful person. He's always working for somebody and he loved what he did, but he always wanted to do his own thing and he never made the jump.

they, they, did you ever hear him talk about that all the time? He never, he'll to this day, he'll never admit that like he didn't, that he was too afraid to start his own shop or something. He was a body man, so he was into cars and he worked on them. And even still to this day, he talks about, like, maybe I'll start taking some side work at home.

And I'm just like, all right, man, you've been saying it my whole life. So you think that impacted you? The idea of doing my own thing definitely did. And seeing that he loved his job, I didn't understand it at first. I was just like, I don't understand. Like, dude, I fucking hate school. Like, I can't. I if I could not go or like I always make an excuse to like be sick or something um I couldn't figure it out like why I couldn't be consistent with school and then when I started working I was like dude I hate my job I don't understand like when is it ever going to turn on for me to where I just become this uh responsible adult that never misses work that goes that shows up every single day and then I realized one day it's like, Oh, he loves what he does. That's why he does not miss work, you know? And so now as a photographer

and then, you know, podcasting and stuff like, yeah, you, you can't keep me away from, you know, this building now because I love what I do. So it impacted you positive in one sense where you were like, well, I should figure out, you know, one day to, were like well i should figure out you know one day to to do something that i uh love to do but maybe also impacted you slightly in a negative way to where you heard some of his negative self-talk on why he didn't leap and jump towards those things yeah yeah no absolutely yeah it's like um not a therapy session but i'm just trying to no it's all good because where it all came from yeah because like i i i have good credit because i saw how not to treat your credit with my brother and sister like both of theirs got

torched right away i'm like whatever they're doing i'm not gonna do that and it's the same thing with like you know alcohol like oh like there's something, I'm not going to do that. And it's the same thing with like, you know, alcohol. Like, oh, there's something there. I don't want to be like that either. So that was another reason why I didn't drink, you know. But yeah, and then family members. Unfortunately, I'm not as close to all my uncles and cousins on my mom's side. And that's a lot of, well, not a lot.

A good portion of them are still in mexico and then the ones that are here they're they almost all only speak spanish but even with that said they're all really successful like they have like crazy like businesses and stuff like they own tons of properties and whatnot but i didn't grow up around them you know unfortunately i wish i did um so even though i did have successful people around me like i i didn't really like you know dig deep and hang out with them that much and i mean other than like i mean my parents did do like some uh like what's the uh not direct sales but like mlm yeah that stuff and then so like i would see what like some like older people that were in that like type of business that would make a lot of money

yeah and be like oh okay but you know you know that obviously never led it led to anything you know it's funny that you first off it's funny that you asked that question because it got me thinking too like what is it that why did i and why did we end up going down that rabbit hole of like learning about i guess not just self-development but just teaching yourself things right and for me that that didn't happen until like later like my mom is an engineer or whatever she's a successful academic she has a great job not whatever man yeah that. Yeah. That's amazing. No, no, no, no. I'm not trying to even downplay what she's doing, but, um, that was the direction that I was heading until I met some people that were doing network marketing. And I started like talking to one of the upper people in that. And then he told me to read a few of these books. And then when I did, I was just

like, what am i doing like that like that was one of those things that led me down that rabbit hole to think like in an entrepreneurial way you know doing something outside of the box that i was already doing it in so it was because i was exposed to those individuals it wasn't because i just magically went to the library and found some that stuff it's because they told me hey check this out let me know what you think um so yeah no that that that in and of itself it's like if you're if you're around successful people not just successful people just like people that are doing maybe some things that you want to do or somehow around them that makes a massive difference yeah and i i know uh this is for sure for mark and myself like i i kind of always felt like

i'm not gonna i'm definitely gonna be doing something different like i'm not gonna like clocking in and out like you know working for something like that like i'm not put here on this planet to do that did you feel like that growing up too no until I like started volunteering at the hospital and then I started being just like really disliking how like they just looked and worked but at that point I was still like well just got to suck it up and get used to this until I like you know started I guess reading some of those other entrepreneurial type books. Yeah.

Cause then it kind of opened up your mind to be like, Oh, there, there is another, it's actually possible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I know Mark says it all the time. He's like, yeah, I kind of knew that, you know, I was destined for something weird,

something different. Yeah. I just saw my dad, you know, wearing a suit and tie all the time. And I was like, uh, I definitely don't want to do that. But then I also saw my dad wear a suit and tie, you know, every day for 19 years and then get, you know, booted out of the company. Um, you know, right before he was like eligible for all these other, you know, retirement and all, all other kinds of things, if he would have worked there for 20 years. Um, so I was all these other, you know, retirement and all, all other kinds of things, if he would have worked there for 20 years. Um, so I was like, ah, you know, it's like,

that doesn't, it appeared that like, uh, I think, I think, uh, job security is, it's kind of false, you know, unless you have really, unless you really have developed yourself. And that's why I tell people all the time, you know, make sure you're working on yourself as hard or even harder on yourself than you are on your job. Because, you know, if you do get thrown out on your ass, I mean, we don't ever know what's going to happen here at Slakeshot. Maybe I have to get rid of 10 people. Like I would not want that to happen, but you never, you just never know. Right. Like I would not want that to happen, but you never, you just never know. Right. And, but if those 10 people that I let go, if they, uh, acquired a great skillset while working here, then yeah, there's a lot of hard feelings and it sucks and my dad be really smart and be able to transition without slowing down at all into taxes and real estate and working from home. Because that was kind of part of the problem with IBM, too, is that he wasn't around that much.

And so my mom was like, well, maybe you can figure out something to do from home. And I think at that time he already did taxes uh on the side and so he just started doing that more full-time and took on more clients and I got to see that I had you know I've talked about it before but we had weights in our basement and on the other side of the basement was my dad's tax practice and so I would you know see him interacting with those people all the time. And I kind of learned, you know, some entrepreneur type stuff, I guess, at a really young age just by kind of being around him. But I wasn't around like, you know, anyone who was like crazy successful. My parents did really well.

My dad made some good money for sure. I mean, we were like, you were like upper middle class around that range. But I mean, other than my dad, it's like the rest of the family was just more normal. They were like teachers and things like that. I definitely grew up with an abundance of stuff. So like directly next to me, I had my dad who was successful,

but I don't even really think that the success part of it mattered that much to me although i was fascinated by it i was like fascinated by the fact that oh if you just like if you work this hard then you can just end up not not hard it's the wrong word uh if you work this like intelligently because a lot of people work hard sometimes the hardest workers that anyone ever sees are immigrants and they have three jobs, but they don't make any money, you know, so it's not just working hard. It's, it's working hard kind of with what you have, the skillset that you have and, uh, being able to really, you know, monetize that. But like kind of seeing that, um, from my dad, you know, it, it, it made me kind of

wonder about, you know, the power of money and what it can do. But more so than that, what I was surrounded with was just happiness and fun and love. There was just a fucking abundance of it. Everyone was super happy when we would get together at my grandfather's house. We're always so excited to go to his house and to meet up with my cousins and see my aunts and my uncles and stuff like that it was just it was like um i mean i it was almost like when you're a kid and you go to your friend's birthday party remember how fucking pumped you were for that yeah like your friend invited you over for milk and cookies or some shit or invited you over because he's having a party or you're uh they

rented a trampoline or something and you'd be like super pumped i felt that way all the time every time i went over my grandparents house i felt that way so that was something that that that probably had a larger impact on me than anything like Like that was my view of success is like, whatever, whatever this setup is to be like that happy, I want to figure that out. And again, most of my family members are like teachers and, um, just kind of regular jobs. So I guess my point is on that, like, you don't have to be, uh, you know, balling, You don't have to be super wealthy to have enough financial freedom to where you can be really fucking happy every day. That's kind of what I grew up around. That helped a lot.

That makes sense, right? Again, back to that Meathead Millionaire summit um rob and dana were just like yeah like we we're good right now and you know yeah we want to make x amount of millions but if that means like something changes like maybe we're just fine right here you know they were cool with making less if that meant uh they can still remain as happy as they are right now like is x amount millions more going to make them happier or is it going to kind of take away from this and that? And there's like if it does, then we're good.

Yeah, you start to sacrifice your relationship with the people that are close to you and start to sacrifice friendships and stuff. And it's like, eh, some of that doesn't sound great. If you have to burn some people because you work really fucking hard and they can't handle that, that's,

that's a little different, you know, that there's going to be people that are kind of burned up in that line of fire. But other than that, then yeah, you have to really think, you know,

take a step back and, and think to yourself, is that, you know, is it really worth it? Cause what are you going to have a bunch of money and then be like by yourself yeah that doesn't sound very fun yeah yeah and i know you're pretty comfortable like you know talking about like money stuff right um i remember there was like a i don't know if it was a study or whatever it was but it was like after something only like it was like after something only like was like eighty thousand dollars a year i think it's

like 70k okay um like after that like you know money doesn't give you more happiness but i mean mark you've you've blown well past that i mean do you agree with some of that all of that none of that i don't um because i mean going going going to Tesla must feel pretty good, right? It does. It does. It feels really good. Um, I, you know, I went from zero, so I don't have a reference point of making any other dollar amount. You know, I, I went from nothing to making a lot. Like I, I didn't have a, um, I didn't exist as far as the, as far as, uh, income taxes are concerned pretty much for a pretty long time. I was kind of off the books

for many years. Uh, and, uh, you know, when I think about like, yeah, like, uh, you know, kind of making, uh, that kind of money, I guess, you know, my wife and I had some points in our life where she was working her way up the ladder and where she was making money. And we were probably in, you know, in, in that neighborhood and, and making even quite a bit less. I mean, even making almost half of that, we've been happy the whole time. I mean, we really have. I mean, there's, I remember, you know, um, like it being a big deal going out to eat, you know, it being a big deal going out like we would go out somewhere nice, you know. And I remember that being a big deal.

And we were like, you know, it's going to be like 120 bucks like this is going to this is going to hurt a little bit. You know, I remember doing that kind of stuff. But that was still fun i guess just like not having to worry about bills at all it's like you're kind of amazing and then plus for me i have like i have way more money coming in than i do going out so it's like i see like a check will come or something you know uh i don't even know how we get paid half the time but i've seen some checks before uh from say like a company like elite fts because they order you know slingshot products we'll see a check like that come in and that'll always be significantly higher than whatever other bills we have so in that sense it makes you feel great you know it

makes you feel really good but i mean you know you know, it takes money to make money. You hear people say all the time and we have, you know, a payroll here that's expensive. You know, on a it's very it's just we have we have expensive payroll. We have expensive. We have a lot of expenses, period, just overhead and and and things like that. period just overhead and and uh and things like that so um as you kind of move up i guess the point of the 70 000 thing is is that you'll you'll probably most likely you'll probably most likely kind of be sliding on a scale that uh is probably similar almost all the time lifestyle inflation yeah lifestyle inflation and it's like,

even, even if you made a hundred million, you probably did, you probably made some decisions to make that a hundred million to, uh, you probably hired more employees or spent more money on marketing, or you probably did something to make that spike happen. If you're able to keep it to just like five employees or something, then employees or something, then you really did really well for yourself. But a lot of times, there's a lot of other things that you're going to implement that will cost you a lot of money, and so therefore, you're not running off with as much. Well, I mean, yeah, you got to spend money to make money. So are we going to get a new podcast crank or, like, what's going on? You can't do it yeah yeah um i remember so this was like when i it was pretty close to when i first started um here at st and at that time charlie zamora was here and i remember he just kind of looked at me he's like hey man like what's your goal i'm like

what like yeah what are you you know what's what's your main goal like especially here with the company like you know what's going down i'm like ah that's a good question i remember i felt so dumb you know i was just like shit how am i supposed to answer that like my goal was to get here like you know now i'll figure it out and i just remember telling him like okay if i had a goal it would be just to make enough money to where i don't have to worry about it i was like i know that's that's a little like uh vague yeah vague and you know because it's not really like well what the hell does that mean you know but it's like yeah like i i want to go to the grocery store and i don't want to worry about it um i do want to

go to like a nice restaurant and not look at the at the prices i want to know that the mortgage is not gonna like oh shit like we have to pay that. So that means like, oh, okay. I got to try to even limit like how fast I drive because I have to make the gas last longer. Like I don't want to be there, you know, like that's, that's to me, that's what it means to not worry about, you know, having, you know, how much money you have in the bank or whatever. Right. Like I just, I want to even more so I want to not know how much money I have in the bank. Like that's how much money I want to have, you know, in a weird way.

You know, like that's how much I want to not care about money. And the important thing there is for people to figure out what that number is, because people are fucking terrible with money. As like broke as I've been, I haven't actually personally been bad with money. like broke as I've been, I haven't actually personally been bad with money. Um, and like people have huge car payments to make and people have loaded up their credit cards. I mean, young people, they, they should not have a credit card. There's really, there's not a lot of reasons why I can think why you would have a credit card. People, you know, people that are listening to this, they probably already have car payments, but you shouldn't have fucking car payments you should have a car that you could if you do have a car payment it should be very very minimal i know people have 700 800 car

payments i'm like oh my god i'm like even i don't want to have that you know because i i just i mean i always buy them outright but even when i was, I would just buy the shittiest car that I could afford, and I'd buy that outright. You're going to have to live a certain way for a while if you want to really get to where you're trying to go to. You're going to have to live—I know it's the American way to live beyond your means, but you need to kind of live below your means. I mean, it reminds me so much of training. When we're working out, like I don't want you to go for a 705. If I'm coaching, I don't want to go for a 705 deadlift if 705 is your max. I want you going for a 705 deadlift when I'm pretty damn positive

you can pull 725 on any given day. You should always have reserve. You should always have, they call it something in the tank. It's probably about something in the bank. You should always have a little extra. You should always have. But I think when I start to think back about the kind of money that my wife was making for a while and what we lived off of,

it was also kind of a long time ago and stuff like that too but um yeah she i mean she's a smart you know she did really well with the money that we had and um you know people that are young they need to really be careful you know credit card just don't buy anything that you can't just outright purchase uh it's such a dangerous dangerous fucking thing and then you know student loans and stuff oh my god you really get yourself into a into a fucking hole with that stuff and that's unfortunate because i feel like i feel like people are are kind of suckered into those not suckered into them but like they just don't know

that how how hard the impact will be there yeah they're sold kind of like with the, what's it called, MLM stuff? Like they're sold on the dream if they invest all this money or at least get a loan for all this money. And the problem is they don't know what their dream is. And that's a big issue. And like Charlie asking that question is great

because if you ask somebody what their dreams are and they don't know then you can pretty much guess what's in their bank not a whole lot you know what i mean there's probably some yeah yeah there's probably a lot of probably a lot of zeros in there yeah but it's important that you i mean people should be people don't like to talk about death and they don't like to talk about money and should be talking about both because people do die and you'll have to deal with it and you have to figure out a way to fucking sort shit out from there and uh money is going to be something that you'll have to deal with probably on a daily basis until you figure it out to where you don't um but if you don't talk about it and strategize for it then how are you gonna just like we're doing with uh abs for

christmas we have a plan you know we we got like we're doing with abs for Christmas, we have a plan. You know, we got something concrete that we got going here that's going to get you abs underneath that Christmas tree. Oh, man, I can't wait. It's going to be fun. One thing to try and figure out or hash out, though, what you said was really important was trying to be happy with where you currently are, even if you're trying to move forward because, you know, you were mentioning how there's always that grass is always greener type of idea, right? Like once I make 60 K I'll be happier. Once I make 80 K I'll be, once I make a hundred K I'll be happier. Right. But you got to figure out how to be happy with when you're making 30 or 40, you got to figure that out because it's like, it's not, you're not just going to be

happier when you make more. And so many people that we've talked to on this podcast that are extremely wealthy have mentioned like, yeah, I mean, I started making this much. I wasn't much happier until I Tom Bilyeu until I switched to working in health or whatever. And that's what I wanted to do. That that happiness has to come before, I think. Absolutely does. One hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. that that happiness has to come before i think absolutely does 100 yeah um yeah and growing up nobody ever talked to me about money at all like it was not a thing but that's because yeah everyone

around me didn't really have money to be talking about right like so it was never really there my nephews asked me a lot of funny questions oh that's awesome yeah they're they're they're just i mean they just hear what they hear you know and they're like you bought tes. Yeah, they're just, I mean, they just hear what they hear, you know? And they're like, you bought Teslas? You know, they start asking a bunch of questions and it's just, it's hilarious. But I like to, you know, it's a great opportunity. It's a great learning opportunity, you know, rather than be like, oh, don't worry about it, you know, or be weird or not talk about it. I just tell them, like say, yeah, well, uh, I,

you know, created, uh, created, uh, an invention. It's a commodity for people. People really enjoy it. They like it. Uh, I started a website and we work really hard at, you know, you guys have been to slingshot headquarters. You guys seen like, you know, Andrew and you've seen all the people that work there and stuff. And we take pictures of the products. We make videos of the products. We spend marketing money. The products are made and, you know, and developed. And we have the customers in mind and, you know, we, we ship them. And so like, I just try to explain a lot of it to them and some, and like, they'll usually

stop me and they'll ask like another question or they'll even be like, oh yeah, I helped ship those out before because they have helped us with certain things. They've helped put stamps on stuff and they've helped carry packages here and there. So they kind of know. And I think that they're inspired by it. They're like, this is cool. And they always ask me about lifting. Both of them, they always try to wrestle me and beat me up. Every time they see me, they both punch me as hard as they can they're getting

strong that's their first thing i don't know why i never asked for it i don't i mean i never told them to stop but they love to just haul off and just punch me as hard as they can kids do that i know like with like you're so jacked and they come over and they punch me as hard as they can i'm like i don't understand what's happening yeah i'm like so with with Jess she you know she she'll give me a hug and then she'll like squeeze as tight as she can and then like when she was when she was little it was like oh yeah like yeah that's a really good hug but now she's she's she can like reach around and lock and then she can squeeze and I'm like all right you're gonna have to stop doing that because like my back's jacked up and you're getting really strong.

She's going to suplex your ass. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to end up, yeah, right over her head one of these days. Yeah. I don't know why kids do that. But doing stuff for her and then my nephews too to like kind of incorporate them into what I do. Like, you know, that's huge because my brother-in-law, you know, he has his own business and it's awesome that they get to see that.

But I think me and him are the only ones that are doing something outside of the norm of like, you know, working the eight to five Monday through Friday. So I got to think of ways to like, you know, like just incorporating that into their, like my life into theirs. And like a cool thing happened the other night. We were watching, you know the monday night football game two examples actually now that i think about it but the the halftime thing was uh a preview of the new star wars series that's gonna be on disney plus and the first face you see is tate fletcher oh yeah yeah and i'm like oh like hey he's been on our podcast he's like what like yeah he's on monday night football and you know star wars and whatnot and then as we were going to bed um i seen

uh my my parents and my sister had seen mark on tv and so i sent the pic the picture from your instagram and i'm like yep that's him that's the guy i get to i get to podcast with every day it's like oh my gosh that's crazy like you know so it's just cool to to find like little ways to kind of plant seeds into my nephew's head since just be like yeah like this is what I get to do you know it's it's really cool but I got to find more ways to do that with photography there's there has to be a ton of things that you can do with them. Yeah, well. Cameras are fun. They're fun, yeah. And then, you know, but it's like if they're not into it, maybe they're into books. And it's like, boom, here's the War on Carbs.

Yeah, I took that picture on that book. Yeah. Like, open up Jackton 10. Whose name do you see above Per Bernal's name? That's right. That's my name. Or start lifting with him. Yeah, that's definitely the biggest.

Take him on some walks. Yeah. yeah oh yeah i took my my nephew uh joshua out on a walk and nice yeah exactly like what you said mark he just we wouldn't i mean he talks a lot but like once we started walking man he was yapping away it was awesome you're like listen kid let me tell you the story about how i got my abs i can can't wait. Yeah, that's what, Grandpa again? Like, no, no, no, you don't understand. I told Nsema that I couldn't get abs, and he made fun of me. And they magically appeared.

I didn't make fun of you. I told you you're ridiculous for thinking you couldn't get them. He belittled me. There we go. Better. Ridiculed me, yeah. Where can people find you, Andrew? At IamAndrewZ on Instagram, better ridiculed me yeah where can people find you andrew at i am andrew z on instagram and shred again is going to drop possibly next week oh my god yeah yeah that's going to be an ig tv

series where you can click follow and all that good stuff no way yeah way yeah really where can people find you natty professor at nsemaeang on instagram and youtube by the way since Andrew reminded me to do this there's smooth panther videos on my youtube channel there's another one coming this week if you want me to stretch you to sleep go watch those videos right now I'm serious it's great to stretch

before you go to sleep so I know but like it sounds really gross I made it sound that way on purpose yeah I was just picturing my butthole. Getting stretched and then. Is that, were we not? I mean, there are some stretches that will. It's a good thing we're not still on the air.

Yeah, that'll, you know, mess everything. Yeah, because the sponsors were just like, nope, we're pulling the plug. The butt plug. I'm at Mark Smelly Bell on Instagram and I got a new YouTube, so go check that out. It's at Mark Smelly Bell as well, or Mark Smelly Bell. Type that shit in and it should pop up. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength.

Catch y'all later.