Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1192: Mind Pump 2019 Year in Review
Episode Date: December 26, 2019In this episode, Sal, Adam and Justin reminisce and review the highlights and best interviews of 2019. Mind Pump gets sentimental and reminisces over the highlights of 2019. (1:41) Adam becomes a fat...her! (4:00) Recapping the best moments of the Mind Pump Live events. (9:37) Justin’s once in a lifetime opportunity to fly in an F16 Thunderbird. (13:41) Adam’s neat experience visiting Organifi Headquarters. (17:15) The impact of ‘train the trainer’ talks. (18:43) Will Sal write a book?! (19:21) Mind Pump’s Top 10 Guests of 2019. (20:10) #1 – Bishop Robert Barron. (21:33) #2 – Mark Manson. (25:02) #3 – John Brenkus. (28:07) #4 – Joe DeFranco. (31:07) #5 – Nir Eyal. (34:30) #6 - Marc Weinstein. (37:29) #7 – Raja Dhir. (39:42) #8 – Sanjay Rawal. (41:32) #9 – Dr. Arthur Brooks. (43:52) #10 – Dr. Jolene Brighten. (48:05) Least impactful interviews of the year. (52:57) Most surprising interviews of the year. (58:35) People Mentioned Bishop Robert Barron (@bishopbarron) Instagram Mark Manson (@markmanson) Instagram John Brenkus (@johnbrenkus_) Twitter Joe DeFranco (@defrancosgym) Instagram Nir Eyal (@neyal99) Instagram Marc Weinstein (@warcmeinstein) Instagram Raja Dhir (@wildraja) Instagram Sanjay Rawal (@mrsanjayr) Instagram Arthur Brooks (@arthurcbrooks) Instagram Ryan Holiday (@ryanholiday) Instagram Tommy Caldwell (@tommycaldwell) Instagram Dr. Jolene Brighten (@drjolenebrighten) Instagram William Hyde (@the.avid.dabber) Instagram Dr. Stefanie Cohen, DPT (@steficohen) Instagram Brandon Harris (@jawzrsize) Twitter Doug Bopst (@doug_bopst) Instagram Mike McCastle (@mikemccastle) Instagram/Twitter David Goggins (@davidgoggins) Instagram Related Links/Products Mentioned December Promotion: MAPS Aesthetic ½ off! **Code “BLACK50” at checkout** Visit Organifi for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** Mind Pump 1165: Bishop Robert Barron on Physical Fitness, Satan, Evolution, Psychedelics & Much More Mind Pump 1050: Mark Manson- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mind Pump 955: John Brenkus- 6x Emmy-Award Winning Creator, Host, & Producer of Sport Science Mind Pump 1035: Joe DeFranco Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked - Book by Adam Alter Mind Pump 1140: Nir Eyal Mind Pump 957: Fyre Festival- The Story Netflix did Not Tell with Marc Weinstein Mind Pump 1022: Raja Dhir- The Truth About Probiotics Mind Pump 992: Sanjay Rawal Mind Pump 1175: Dr. Arthur C. Brooks The Pursuit | Netflix Mind Pump 1155: Ryan Holiday Mind Pump 1115: The Amazing Adventures of Tommy Caldwell, Star of Netflix’s The Dawn Wall Mind Pump 1045: Dr. Jolene Brighten- Beyond the Pill Mind Pump 935: All About Cannabis with Leafly.com’s William Hyde Mind Pump 1075: Dr. Stefanie Cohen – From Venezuelan National Soccer Team to 4X Bodyweight Deadlift & 22 World Records Mind Pump 962: Jawzrsize Inventor & CEO Brandon Harris Mind Pump 1110: Doug Bopst- From Felony to Fitness to Free Mind Pump 1015: Mike McCastle- Four-Time World Record Holder & Acclaimed Performance Coach Mind Pump Free Resources
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If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.
Mite, op, mite, op with your hosts.
Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews.
In this super awesome Christmas episode of Mind Puff, we do a year of review.
We look back at 2019 and we talk about all the awesome things that happened
for us in 2019. We talked about.
Great year, Sal.
Adam becoming a father, that was the biggest thing that happened. That was really awesome.
Talked about some of our live events and how they impacted us. Talk about the time
Justin went up in an F-16 and got his brains scrambled.
It was insane.
We talked about Adam's trip to organify, I was going around training trainers and then we talked about our
top 10 favorite interviews of the entire year. This is a great reference episode.
If you're trying to figure out which interviews you should listen to, listen to
this episode because we break down our top 10 most impactful, important podcast interviews that we did in the year 2019.
Also, I want to remind everybody this month, and it is ending soon, because we are towards
the end of the month.
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That was a really sweet post you did last night, by the way.
Oh, yeah, that was very good. You got me all emotional.
Oh, I didn't. Did I really? Yeah,. You got me all emotional. No, I didn't.
Did I really?
Yeah, you did.
I meant it.
I meant it.
Well, you know, I responded and then it didn't post and so I was like, oh, oops.
So you never posted it?
I did it this morning.
Yeah.
Put an asshole.
No.
No, I was, I think we everybody was kind of in that feeling coming to the end of the year and you know, talking about the things that we have done within the business outside the
business.
I think we've all been in this place of gratitude.
Which makes for I think a really cool time to talk about our review of 2019, our annual review of the episodes that we've done in recap
of the business on things that have happened in and outside of the business, but most importantly
to go over the, you know, we had 50 guests this year.
We cranked them in a bit this year.
Well, I think the year before we actually even had more, but the quality of guest.
Yeah, almost every guest was phenomenal.
There were a few there that were like,
most of them, the vast majority were exceptional.
Yeah, and so this year it's gonna be a little more challenging
and I feel like to narrow it down.
Narrow down to our top 10 because they were.
I mean, everybody really was,
as I'm looking at the list right now,
I'm like, man, those were a lot of really cool interviews.
It's crazy since I've met you guys,
and the reason why I did that post is,
I was sitting back and thinking about just the past year,
and how much growth I've gone through personally,
and really realizing that since I've met the three of you,
I've grown more in the, you know, almost five years I've
known you guys than I did in the previous 35 years. I mean, such a fast, rapid rate of personal growth
and it's because I'm with people who I trust, who are honest, who are good. It's really hard to find really, really true good people.
Self-aware. And just to hang out with you guys, it requires me to do that way myself.
So it's been awesome. And this year has been a very transformative year, I think,
in a lot of different ways. One of the biggest things that happened in 2019 that I thought was
amazing was Adam became a father.
Yeah, Adam. That had to be the biggest...
That is the biggest thing. Man, when I first met you, you were, you would, you know,
kind of lean towards the side of not even wanting kids. There was a lot of, a lot of the ways you
talked about that were like, I don't even, I don't even think I want them. Now, getting to know you, I knew you were not put on the surface to not be a father, for
sure.
Once I got to it after about 30 seconds of getting to know you, this guy was made to be
a dad.
I knew that that was something that had to happen and now look at your dad.
Yeah, I was just listening to an interview that somebody did on me last week and we talked about
Maximus and one of the questions they asked me about was you know you and Katrina were together for eight years before you had a kid
They're like what what took you so long or was it you know, I said ah
You know a lot of people thought it was like a commitment issue thing for me that
They really didn't know me if you really know me you kind of know my childhood background and a lot of my motivation
where that came from.
And I didn't want to bring a child in this world because of a lot of my own insecurities
of having fear of, I don't want to stress over money when I have a child or bring a child
in this world.
If my wife wants to stay home and be with our son, I want to be in a place that I can
support the family, okay?
If we decide that we want to put him in private school, I want to be able to do that.
I want to be able to take him places and travel.
So there's a lot of things that kept me from wanting to
Have a son right now and when I as I started to get old in any time in the last 30 something years
And as I got older I started to realize there might be a possibility that I I may not become a father who knows
And it was crazy the way it all worked out for Katrina and I because when we first started
Trying to have a kid, honestly, there was a part of me that I didn't want
to get pregnant yet.
I didn't want her to get pregnant yet
because we weren't quite there in mind pump yet
where I felt comfortable that, okay, we're here to stay.
You know, truth be told, as confident as we've all been
since day one, you know, I was waiting for a place for this business to be for me to feel like, okay,
I feel like I can, we're not going to, my pump's not going to stop in the next three to five years, no matter what, right?
We've built a foundation now where I feel confident in that.
So yeah, the way it all unfolded was really amazing.
It was awesome to watch. Did working with him being around three fathers help
or impact you in any different way?
I don't think so.
I think what you guys have provided along those lines is,
I mean, it makes me excited to have,
you know, three other men that I respect a ton in that area as far as I respect
you guys for a lot of reasons, but you're all exceptional fathers for all different reasons
too. That's what's really unique. You know, Doug's got an incredible story as far as him
being a father, Justin, as unique with his two boys and you with your son and daughter
and then going through a divorce and with I mean you guys have all
taught me so many things in different ways and have been great examples of how to be a great man and a great father
So but I don't think that's motivated me more or less to have a child
It's always been the the money thing and security and that is always's been a big thing. It's always been the big thing for me.
And Katrina, I knew after a couple of years of being with her,
I knew I was gonna be with her for the rest of my life.
So it wasn't even a question of is she the one?
It was really more about where I was at
or where we were at currently in our journey
on if it was gonna work out timing.
And what I love about her is we both,
we're always that way with it., you know, if it happens,
and it happens in the time frame that she still wants
to have a child,
because for her it was kind of a cutoff,
like, hey, I don't want to be having a kid at 40,
like that's too late for me.
So if it doesn't fall in line with where you're at
in your life,
and then we had,
and that was a big pivotal point in our relationship,
you know, about two and a half years ago,
or three years ago now, or her and I had probably
one of the hardest times in our relationship
when she was getting closer to that kind of cutoff
of when she decided I'm not gonna have a kid after that.
And I was still at a place where I'm like,
I'm not quite ready to have a kid yet.
And we really struggled with that.
And I know there was a lot of outside pressure
from family and friends around that time. And I think that added to it. But we did.
We finally had we had this talk and it was an incredibly reassuring moment for me in
our relationship when she said, you know, I pictured my life without you and with another
man and family and what that would look like and then I
pictured what life could be like with you if we never had kids and I'm quite
confident that I don't I would rather not have a kid and be with you for the rest
of my life than to pursue a relationship with anybody else and have a child and
a family and for me that was all I needed to hear to feel good about us and going forward.
And then, like I said, it all just kind of happened
and the way it unfolded, timing wise.
That's awesome.
That was one of the highlights, for sure, of 2019.
Some other highlights were some of the live events
that we did throughout the year.
And for me, in particular, was the,
we did a dinner with some of the guests
that attended one of our live events.
And we got to meet people up close, hang out with them.
That's why we had this dinner.
So we only had, I think it was five or six people
that were there as part of the dinner that were,
you know, because when we had these events,
there's a hundred, two hundred and fifty people.
We only had five people at this
dinner. But so I got to meet people and really talk about
talk to them and hear their story. And, you know, there was
one couple that sat next to me where the guy was really
struggling to lost a lot of weight. And he was really struggling
with, you know, continuing to move forward. And I gave him
some advice to tell him to put a scale in the closet, told him to bump up his calories, build muscle, you know, continuing to move forward. And I gave him some advice, I told him to put a scale in the closet,
told him to bump up his calories,
build muscle, you know,
the typical things we talk about.
And I got an email from him a few months later.
And his body progressed,
he feels far more comfortable with what he's doing
and he's much better ease.
And it was so nice to be able to make that impact
in person and to hear from people.
That was a big one for me.
Did you guys have a favorite live event out of all of them?
I mean, one of the things I think we all agree on
is that though every time we do one,
even if it's begrudgingly because we're so busy
with everything else in the business,
it's like, oh God, we gotta go out and do this.
Every time we go, we go, fuck man,
these things impact each of us individually so much and remind us of why we are
putting a very impact yeah and so we end up loving them always did we do Denver this year
yeah we did that was my favorite Denver wasn't Manhattan Beach what was the one down now lay the
other location there but that was close by it was Manhattan Beach wasn't it wasn't that dark
yeah Manhattan Beach yeah so that was my other favorite. That's my favorite too.
Yeah, I just think that the energy, the crowd, like we just had a lot of fun at that event.
We were, we were on on that one. I feel like if all, on all the alive events,
you know, I have critiques of, you know, either myself or us collectively when we, when we come back,
of either myself or us collectively when we come back.
And I felt we were the best at that of it. Well, and I think to the format of it was very much more
of like, what do you guys want this to be?
Because you guys are leading the questions
and then we're kind of responding accordingly.
And so sometimes the conversations got deep
and it was powerful to hear people's story of how
they're able to turn things around, how we've been able to impact them on some way that
we didn't even know.
And man, that was always humbling.
That's always a humbling experience to be a part of somebody's journey to find their
way back to health and wellness and just how the impacts to family and then how that propels them forward
in their life somehow.
That's what's the most I get out of those live advances
just to hear people's stories of how they've either found us,
how they've either applied what we've taught them,
how they all interact with each other,
find each other and then create more community
from what we talk about on the show.
It's pretty incredible.
I like San Francisco a lot, but for selfish reasons,
that was the first one that I had.
Your family.
Family, that's right.
I had a lot of family there too.
That was a fun one.
A bunch of cousins and my brother was there
and they got to see us in an element.
And I felt so proud, right?
Cause you want to do well in front of you.
You had like your own little laughing meter over there.
You know, Sarah laughing proud over there.
Every time Salisajou is like extra loud laughs out there.
Oh my God, that's so funny.
We're gonna come in every live event for them.
I'm gonna pay for them to come.
All right.
So that was a lot of fun.
And we had this year, the best guests that we've had ever, in my opinion, part of it,
the size of the show, it allows us to draw, yes, that have more power or cloud.
So when we were smaller, it might have been difficult to get some of these people on
show, but before we get into that, I also wanted to mention, like, going up to Travis Air Force
base. that I also wanted to mention, like, going up to Travis Air Force Base.
Oh, yeah.
And just getting the once in a lifetime opportunity
to fly with the Air Force Thunderbirds
was just the most incredible experience I've ever had.
That was this year.
So thank you for that.
What month was that?
Do you remember what month that was?
No.
Early in the year.
February or March.
Yeah, it was pretty early in the year.
What I remember about that is he's just
and came back the next day. And I'm like, how was it?
And he goes, it was like every single cell exploded in my body.
Because inside of me got strong. And I said, bro, I said, will you ever do it again?
He goes, no, I loved it, but I'll never do it again.
It was a crazy experience.
Yeah, I've had enough time to wear it.
Now it just seems like the most amazing thing I ever did, right?
You know, you know, it was very challenging.
But it's just like, I think for me it was the impact of the ritual, the formalities,
like the just the welcoming environment that they provided.
Doug was able to come up with me and got to see a lot of like the, you know, the formalities
involved with it. And just I had so much respect and admiration
for people in the service.
And it brought that back in me because, you know,
you just realize what everybody else is doing out there
to, that we're benefiting from.
Whatever happened to the video of you,
and then they send you a video.
Why didn't she show us?
I did.
We did.
Did you share it with us?
I got to watch it.
Yeah, no, you put music to it and everything.
Yeah, I tried to make a highlight reel of it.
Did you put in the part where you threw up?
That was way later.
So it was like, the camera at that point,
you would have to go through us just chit chatting for.
You almost up there for an hour and 10 minutes.
You almost made it, right?
And then they couldn't do any.
So they were just circling.
Yeah, at that point, my body just had, was like, no, no more.
You know, I can't handle any little sudden movement.
Well, the thing that I thought there's the look right there.
Yeah, I think they had the playing too.
How did they cut that?
I was such the perfect, that embodies what I felt like.
How did they fit your cakes in that suit?
Oh, you should've seen me trying to,
because when you put these straps over your legs,
you have to squat down and then like,
it's really hard to pull them up,
because it's so tight, because they want it like.
Yeah, almost, yeah, like,
almost like you're cutting your leg off tight.
Well, you know what,
one of the things that I thought it was so memorable
at that being the outsider looking in
and being jealous that I didn't get to go do that,
was I didn't realize how special that was.
Like there's people that spend their life-
Oh, the people that service the planes don't even get to do that.
Well, it's, I mean, that they spend their life
in the Air Force, and they never get a chance to fly in one of those.
And so the honor for you to get to even do that, I mean most people will go their whole life,
even being connected to the Air Force and never get to do that.
No, you're absolutely right. I actually went the next day because they're still doing this
air show and I just wanted to go back there and watch them, you know, do their thing in real action
because I had such a new respect for it
to begin with.
But then I was talking to like old vets
and we were in this like B-52 bomber plane
and we're just chatting and then Courtney's like,
hey, he just went up in an F-16
and the guy just looks at me like, tell me all about it.
Like he was like fascinated by it.
I'm like, you were like in the wars.
Yeah. It just has nothing compared to that.
You're right.
And this is Air Force, right?
Air Force.
Yeah, man.
So that's freaking, I think that's awesome.
Yeah, that was a powerful thing that I got to experience.
So I was pretty excited about that.
Now you know, you saying that,
so now you're starting to spark some things that, you know,
like, I'm trying to think that this will be good to try
and think each of us individually that went off
and did something like, you know, I recently went down to meet with organify and their team and see their new their new location and
That was a really neat experience for me going in there and we hadn't we hadn't been by organify and I think
Two years I think it had been and even then was a big deal back two years, I think it had been. And even then was a big deal.
Back two years ago, we went by there and like,
you know, saw their operation and their team
and there was quite a few people that listened to the shows
were, oh, wow, that's really cool.
You know, I was really cool.
And it was a cool experience.
But this last one, it felt way different.
I mean, there was people that worked there
that got jobs with Organifi because they listened to the show, they
heard the commercials, they've reached out to Organifi, they got the entire place were
not only just fans, but they were, I mean, when I walked in the door like everybody kind
of surrounded me and wanted to hear, tell stories about Mind Palm Center.
Yeah, it just was a really, really cool, humbling, amazing experience.
And because it's been, there was a two-year gap between the last time that I went around
that team, I could feel the difference.
And so it was just confirmation of how much impact that the show was made and how much
it's grown over the last couple of years.
So that was a really cool experience for me.
Last year I had the opportunity to do a lot of sales
trainings for trainers in the fitness space.
And that was really cool because it brought me
to my fitness roots, you know, working
with and training trainers and being able to make a positive
impact and, you know, getting in front of them, teaching
them the communication process and showing them that we value the hell out of what they're doing.
I felt really good to do that. It was great to get in that space and get in the gyms and see these people and give me that itch.
You know, I mean that itch to get into the gyms and train people again or whatever. It was really fun.
What about, I mean, can you talk about being reached out to about writing a book? I mean, is that happening?
Yeah, I don't know if we can necessarily talk too much in detail, but getting a publisher
reach out to get into the process of talking about writing a book to represent this amazing
company, that could be a huge opportunity for exposure and just a new chapter, you know,
no pun intended, right? It's a totally new different thing. It's something that we haven't done.
As part of Mind Pump, we've used other forms of media. We'll see what happens. It's always been
something in the back of my mind, like something that I've wanted to do, so that's going to be
pretty exciting. Haven't started it yet, though, so I'm sure when I do my year review next year,
I'll be able to talk about with an experience
that was all of us, of course.
But anyway, the guests were phenomenal.
That's what I was.
When I look at the year of guests,
and we did almost 50,
we did almost 50,
I wanna nail down to the top 10,
and we have to agree first on the criteria.
Like what, and some of the things I'm thinking of,
and you guys can add or take away from it.
Yeah, obviously to me,
I won that was enjoyable, entertaining.
Like it's gotta be entertaining for me
to list it in the top.
Can you, can we say most impactful to us
that could be up in the entertaining part?
Well, yeah, that's,
well, I think the impact would be another category itself, right?
I think entertainment is one thing
and then impactful, or like the best response our audience had.
That's another one that should be in there.
Impactful for the audience.
Right.
And then I also think that we should try and recall and remember the ones that we felt we did the best as far as
skills.
Yeah, our skills said the way the conversation went.
If we got things out of that guest that maybe somebody else did it, like I think that should,
maybe like best new information presented as well,
because I can think of a few examples of that as well.
Yeah, well they really, again, impacted us.
Yeah.
Where I felt like my mind was blown.
And what's funny is that the ones that I'm thinking
all tend to fall in this category,
like the ones that were most impactful for me
also tended to be the most fun
and also tended to have a great audience response and as a result it was also one of our better.
So throw a name out there, throw one right out there. For me and EZ number one is Bishop
Baron, number one for me. And that maybe part of that now there's a few different reasons why.
Number one, this was the second time we interviewed Bishop Baron. And I remember the first time we did it, there was a bit of, there was a discussion
as to whether or not we should even have a Catholic Bishop on our show where a fitness
show. And I remember the discussion was, you know, hey, we're a health show. Spiritual
practice is a part of health. This could be very beneficial to, to our listeners. I personally was kind of on this spiritual journey.
I had a lot of questions myself and I thought interviewing someone as highly ranked
as Bishop Baron in one of the most practiced religions in the world would be valuable.
I think there'd be some wisdom there.
He's also an exceptional speaker.
So we thought, okay, let's do this.
But it was a bit of like fear, right?
We didn't know what the reaction would be like
Yeah, or we get backlash like what's the deal are people gonna get mad that it's not a fitness episode that it's you know religion or whatever
And the reality is Bishop Baron
Especially the second interview gave us one of the largest
Download boosts that we've ever seen we we we saw a huge
audience come over to listen to our
podcast who might not have ever heard of our podcast. We also had, I saw a huge response
from our audience and not from Christians, who people you would expect to say that was great,
from people who really had no interest in Christianity, but we're very interested in self-improvement,
say that they took some bits of wisdom,
not necessarily converting,
but really they got bits of wisdom from that podcast.
Yeah, that was the interesting part.
And I think too, just the way that he presented
a lot of his ideas and based them off of like old philosophers
and authors, and you know, he's just like
such a well-read individual
and like such a great communicator.
And so I think that it was just refreshing for people
to hear somebody else that was that intelligent,
be able to deliver like a spiritual message.
So he didn't make my top 10 list.
Interesting.
But the only reason why he didn't
is because he was on it last year.
And because we've already interviewed.
So when I made the top 10 list this year, because there's people and, you know, like Max
Lugavir, who I agree with, I'm harder to make the list.
Right.
The second time we're right.
So, and, and, and I, but I definitely agree he should be in yours because I know it's
been a major impact aside from just the great interview in your life and your journey and
where you're at currently right now. So, but I now. But I mean, the biggest, the best compliment that I had gotten up until that point,
or that I had gotten for interviewing was that interview.
Remember after we were done.
They did, which is another reason why it belongs in that top table.
Oh, yeah. We went outside and one of his, one of the guys that runs his production company comes outside.
And remember, Bishop Baron had been interviewed by Dave Rubin, excellent interviewer,
Ben Shapiro, excellent communicator.
He'd been on mainstream media.
One of his, the guy that runs his production company
comes outside and says,
you guys interviewed him better than anybody else.
What a huge compliment that was.
So, and so I agree, but that's what he didn't make mine
because I tried to narrow it
down to people that this was their first time on our show. And because he made last year's list,
I didn't put them on the show. And it was already really hard to narrow down to 10 people.
But I agree with you. And that was an incredible compliment. And along the lines of
incredible compliments, that leads me to someone who made my list
For sure and would be one of my top people that I would present out there and that's Mark Manson
And for multiple reasons that interview I think stretched me as an interviewer the amount of
Homework research that I did on him that I'd already done on him because I already read multiple books of his.
I was also really excited because I know a lot of people
in the podcasting world was going to be interviewing
or has interviewed him already, some of our peers.
And so there was a part of me that wanted to do a better job
and be able to take him places that's somewhere
that nobody else had heard.
So, and I thought we did a great job there.
I thought we got things out of him that nobody else did.
And in fact, at the end of his book tour,
after he had done 150 interviews.
He mentioned us as one of the first things.
He took his top five.
He said he did 150 interviews and listed our interview
with him as one.
So, that felt really good to get that confirmation
after the amount of work and effort I felt
that we put into that interview.
So that would make sense.
So that's how it happened.
I got some comments from people who had heard him
on other podcasts and said that they liked him
on ours the best.
I also learned from his podcast.
He's a very wise individual.
There's a reason why his book was one of the top selling books ever
definitely in the last five or 10 years. And it was because it's filled with wisdom that's echoed in
stoic principles, it's echoed in religious practices and cultures. And he's got, I think he communicates a message
that a lot of people need to hear and it resonated
with a lot of people.
That's why I sold so many books.
And he was fun.
He was super fun.
He got up and played so relatable.
He played Justin's guitar.
Yeah.
That was my favorite part.
Yeah.
I mean, he came in wearing a heavy metal shirt.
I don't know if it was like iron maiden or something like that, but I was just like, oh,
you look metal too.
And it turns out he plays guitar, turns out like he's super,
you know, easy to talk to and like he just started jamming
on the guitar with these freaks.
Biggest thing I took away from his podcast,
from his interview was when he said that after his book
hit a milestone in sales, he got depressed.
And it wasn't, he got depressed because he had been driving
so hard to accomplish that to achieve that. Yes, whole life. Once he hit it, he got depressed because he had been driving so hard to accomplish that, to achieve that.
Yes, whole life.
Once he hit it, he was left without that driver, that sense of purpose, and he went through his
period of depression. After achieving the best success, you could ever imagine, which, what a great
lesson to hear from someone, right? Take that and learn that.
Yeah, he said, you know, and I think there's going to be a common theme with the people that
And I think there's gonna be a common theme with the people that we all individually pick, right?
Or is the people that are great storytellers
always make for good podcast guests.
And he was such a great storyteller.
Like you said, he's got a lot of wisdom with what he writes.
I think we connected really well with them.
So for me, that's the first name
that I'm gonna throw into the hat
is like it's gotta be in the top 10 for me
because it was all around win.
Yeah, for me, and you guys picked some really good ones.
I totally love both those interviews.
I also liked, you know, this one's hard for me,
because, you know, it's a follow those up.
I could make a lot of reasons for, you know,
some other candidates, but for me, John Brinkes,
because it was this year, I was like,
was that last year or this year? I guess it was this year, I was like, was that last year or this year?
I guess it was this year, but it was a surprise guest.
It was somebody that kind of came through our area,
hit us up and we're like, wait, who's that?
Oh, he has the guy that was part of the show,
that sports side show, I love that show.
And he came in, he's so polished,
he's just a great, he made my turn also.
Yeah, he just, and also like we had just barely any time
to kind of like scramble to prep for him, you know, coming in,
but we were, we watched one of his TED talks
and he was talking about, you know, women in sports
and he had such a contrary idea to, you know,
what I have thought, but he presented his argument very well.
And so I just thought that I wish I had more time with him to be honest.
So I feel like we didn't have the best interview with him,
but if we had a follow up, it'd be amazing.
It still was good though.
It was good.
You know, like he made my top 10.
I feel like John is good no matter what.
The guy was so polished and so confident and clear with his matches, which is what I took away from it.
For me personally, I wouldn't consider it
one of the top 10.
Oh, he didn't break your top 10.
No, it was a super impactful for me personally,
but the part that I did take away from it was
how well someone can present themselves.
And that's, John, I feel like you put John anywhere,
you put him on stage, you put him on radio, whatever.
Turn on the lights and the guy is going to just present himself exceptionally well.
And what I learned from that is because we have no training in media, none of us do.
We're all just practicing, podcasting even today.
Watching him, it helps elevate my game.
Like, okay, look at this guy.
Presence is not so comfortable.
See, the part that Justin's talking about, the way he talked about the difference
between women and men and sports was so interesting to me.
And.
It's probably because of sports ball.
Yeah, no.
And make sense why it's in our top 10 and not yours.
He is like a, for like, there's like a couple people
we're gonna get to as probably as we get further down the list
that you, I could easily, you could sway me
into pushing him out and pushing somebody else in.
But he's like, he has to be in my top.
And that's how strong I felt about it, because it was,
I catch myself every once in a while with an interview
where I'm like, intently listening.
Oh, is that one of them?
Yeah, where I wanted to know everything you're saying.
Yes, I just want to, like I could have just sat there
and been okay, not saying anything,
and just listening to this guy,
keeps sharing what he's talking about and been enthralled by the entire conversation.
And so when I, when I'm very aware, when I have moments like that, like, oh, wow, that was a good, fun interview.
He was one of those. I think it's a must listen.
For even somebody who's not into sports, I think the conversation was really enjoyable. He's polished, like Sal says.
He absolutely goes in my top 10.
So who would be?
I got another one for you.
And this one because we,
every once in a while will meet a guest.
And we, it's like that,
what's that show?
Step brothers were like,
do we just become best friends?
Yeah, yeah.
Every once in a while we'll meet someone,
Mike Matthews is like this,
Max Lugavir is like this,
where? Right away you meet them and you're like
We're friends right away and this person. I'm about to name was just like this and the reason why this was so impactful
Was because this is a person that we all followed and listened to for years before mine pump was even an idea
I'm talking about Joe to Franco
Joe to Franco was somebody that all of us looked up to, listened to, I consider him.
We all consider him one of the best trainers ever
in the world, he's exceptional,
but he's also a real dude, he's down to earth.
And the part that blew me away was when he showed up,
he was a fan of ours.
And that's when I, the first time I felt like,
wow, I think we're starting to reach a lot of people
when Joe DeFranco is saying he loves our podcast.
He's in my top 10 also.
Yeah, me too.
Yeah, it was, it's just like he said,
it was like, dude, we just become best friends
because it's like us represented on the East Coast.
You know, it's like, where have you been, man?
Like, yeah, I've been a big fan of his ever since.
I found him in college and it's just,
it's surreal actually to, you know,
be connected to him now, you know, as an adult.
So I'm stoked that we got to have him on the show.
And then we had him again because, you know,
he's just that awesome.
He's a funny dude down to earth, super smart,
but he's one of those people who's,
this is what makes him so exceptional is he's,
he knows what the hell he's talking about
He's incredibly intelligent and well versed knowledgeable, but he presents it and easy to understand that is a ton of wisdom
Which makes him effective full of wisdom super effective. He's not just a smart guy. He's full of wisdom
No, he he definitely made my list
Also and for those reasons like and the reason why
max uh... bend uh... you know uh... jordan
you know we have some we have math use we have some regular is that we're on
again this year that won't be in my top ten and it's not because
uh... they just because they made it before and then we've already now become
not fair to keep put them up there yeah right there there they're because they're
good friends of ours now they'll now. They'll probably be lifelong friends of ours.
We have the utmost respect for them
as not just as podcasters or business entrepreneurs,
but as people, human beings.
Joe DeFranco falls in that category now.
This was the year that we made that connection in bond.
So for sure, because of that,
and because I think it will become, or it already is,
a relationship like the other
people that I was just listing off. He makes this year's top 10 for that reason. It may not be the
most like for somebody like, oh my god, it was the craziest great interview. Well, for us,
the impact and the importance of him as an individual, just for that reason alone, I think he makes
my top 10. Now, I have another one that I want to name.
I don't know if he's going to be on your side.
So you get to go out of order.
I don't know if he's going to go in.
Oh yeah, it's got him and me.
I'm like picking what he's doing.
Oh, go for it, go for it.
Come on, you save mine.
I'll save mine.
You use yours upright there.
And we can't double dip.
Yeah, guy.
So you don't play sports.
He doesn't have rules.
He lip-pays by over here.
I already got a passable.
I'm gonna have a run over rules.
So we all agree on that one.
Another one that I think we might all agree on
that is definitely in my top 10 list.
And the main reason why,
and I think Dan Well should be in all of our list
because we talk about this on the show a lot,
that we are comfortable with our paradigm being shattered.
And we are very quick to say that we don't have all the answers
and when we're wrong, we admit it.
And on the show, I have referred to the book Irresistible
and I, Gin, and unplugged probably a thousand times and been teased about it.
And to the point where I could probably be borderline fear mongoling are on your own.
I like mongoling.
Mongoling.
Fear mongoling.
You fear someone so much to become mongoling.
There are lots of mongols out there. I could be so bad that because it, I think it impacted those books impacted me so much
that it really did scare me like, oh my God, I got to be really careful about my kid and
tech and what do I do?
And then when we have, we have near I L on the show and Completely completely blew all our minds right and because he was the complete counter to that message
To the point where and I wouldn't say it completely relaxed me on the other side because I still I still think that Adam out there
As he was just a is a must read in a very important book. It's just now provided me a nice
is a must read in a very important book. It's just now provided me a nice balance
of the complete opposing argument
and what supports that side really, really well
and now feeling really confident in hearing both of them
and agreeing with both of them.
I find that I have a really nice understanding
and balance of how I want to approach raising my son
and the tech in my family.
So that episode and not to mention another one of those really enthralling conversations.
He dispeled a lot of myths.
I mentioned how kids are more depressed and he said, actually, they're not.
We mentioned the problem with tech and he said, actually, and he presented to research
and he explained himself very well.
He made a very compelling case.
And basically the case is, yes, you should develop practices around technology, but technology
is not causing the problem.
It's a symptom of some of the problems.
And it was pretty, it was, I must have said you're blowing my mind to him.
I think five times during the episode.
I'm down.
I learned not to say hijacking around him.
That's a trigger.
No, did he make your rises top 10?
Yeah, he did.
He did.
And to be fair right now, I was going to take one
by no salad, probably, rather talk about the one I was
probably going to mention, which is probably above this.
But in terms of where Adam went with that,
I think that this was like the start
who actually introduced us to near AL,
which is Mark Weinstein.
And the reason why I pick him,
and I don't know if he's in your guys top 10 or not,
but I just found that a very entertaining podcast,
which is outside of what we normally talk about,
it was literally the timing of it actually worked out
to where it was relevant for once.
You know, like so the the fire festival, if you guys are familiar with, you know, the Netflix
documentary about that, it was, it's very pop culture, which is not something we cover
like very often, but it was just, it was fun to get an insider look at like everything else
that they probably didn't even bring up in the
documentary and I feel like a lot of people enjoyed that episode as well.
Oh yeah, you got to hear what actually happened at the Fire Festival from a guy
who was there and his video interview because that was one of the first ones
that we recorded and put up on YouTube. It flew. It was and people were
commenting who'd never heard of mine pump. They were just commenting about the
whole thing. Fire fire festival documentaries already exploded
It was a great conversation
Mark was very open. He was very forthcoming. He was easy interview great conversationist
Didn't make my top 10, but definitely was one of the was definitely a good interview
I really really enjoy I'm with you say he didn't make my top 10
But I could make the case for it too.
And so I understand why he's up there for Justin.
And that one was actually, I was really proud of that one.
That was something that I actually caught
that documentary.
I saw him talking on the show.
I then started to follow him, reached out to him,
and then got him to come on the show,
and thought this would be a really cool challenge
for us to Justin's point.
Like it was during that time when we were really starting
to move out of just fitness guest all the time.
Like last year was like all fitness guests
for 90% of our interviews,
where we were really pushing this year
to kind of stretch our boundaries and go outside that.
This was an area where I thought would kind of challenge
all of us. It was the different type of guest.
It was during that when it was all hot and popping.
So I was really curious.
And it was interesting.
And Mark was a really good storyteller and did.
And so it was, it's up there.
It's a fucking, it was a great one.
It didn't make my top 10 only because it's,
it's hard to make the top 10.
It was all the great people.
Right.
And is it my turn now?
Yeah, go.
Let me have the ball.
Um, this next person I picked because of the pure quality
brilliant information that they provided on the podcast.
And I got a lot of messages from people who said
it was one of the best podcasts they'd heard
on the subject of the microbiome
and how probiotics affect the body.
This was Roger Deere.
He was young dude comes in brilliant
and he breaks down how the microbiome works.
He breaks down how probiotics work in the body.
He communicated it very well.
It's a bit of a high level podcast.
Because it just has my top informative podcast.
It was, it was made my list for sure.
I got lots of messages from people who are like,
this was the best episode on that topic that I've ever heard.
Again, it's a higher level episode.
Yeah, it didn't make my top 10
because I don't think the majority of people,
it was almost too heavy, but I agree with both of you
that talk about it for me.
You know, I was another one of those guests,
for I'm just like hanging on every word he said
and like, it was all new information for me. I think that's why I got so sucked in. No, I was another one of those guests from just like hanging on every word he said and like it was all new information for me
I think that's why I got so sucked. No, it was it was brilliant, but it didn't make the top 10 for that for that that reason
I just feel like it was too high a level for oh, I loved it man
I was and I learned you know
Microbiome is something that I'm always very fascinated about and it was you know
I got to sit down with someone actually learn things
He was communicating things that had not learned before.
Like how probiotics actually work in the body,
how they're studying different parts of the human body
and how they have their own unique microbiome fingerprint.
If you're interested in gut health or mental health
and the effects of the microbiome,
that is an episode for sure you need to listen to. But again, it's high levels. You might
need to listen to it more than once.
So I have some obvious ones that I feel like should come in the list, but I'm going to
pick one of the other ones on my list. I don't know if Major Guys is list. And again, I'm
staying with this theme of kind of paradigm shattering interviews for me
or people that are counter what our message is.
Like I really liked that.
And especially if we did a good job of interviewing.
And that is Sanjay Rual, right Rual?
Oh, he's on mine.
Is he on yours?
He's on mine.
Yeah, I loved this guy.
There's a few people that we've met.
You know, we talked about people that we meet
and that we click and we're like, oh, we're just friends.
Then there's like a couple people that I've met
who I genuinely think that they are among
the best people in the world.
Just pure, good people.
He was one of them.
Like it was, he's a long distance runner.
That's why I picked it because it's so counter our message.
I were so the anti-run marathon type guys
and to listen to him share his story,
his kind of message and presenting that,
it really, again, gave me the other end of the spectrum.
I know I've already got my own information
on the support my thoughts and beliefs on marathon
running and just running in general for your dominant way of exercise to hear him from
the complete opposite share, his beliefs and his thoughts and ideology around marathon running.
Really was...
He sold me so hard on the meditative transformative spiritually
transformative potential effects of grueling long distance running. I mean the way he talked
about and explained it and how it became a part of his spiritual practice and how it was
part of a spiritual practice that he a group he belonged to. You listen to him talk and
like that makes perfect sense and I can definitely see the I can definitely understand the transformative effects that this is had on you and he was the reason why he was on my top 10 Adam is because he was completely unexpected.
I did not oh yeah that was another one of those guests were we almost didn't do it yeah I didn't expect it to be that exceptional and phenomenal of an episode. And when he left, I felt like uplifted from talking.
Definitely an episode you need to listen to for sure.
That one was awesome.
I guess I'll talk about Dr. Arthur Brooks.
Oh yeah.
Because again, as far as us debating whether or not to really make that happen this year,
we're like, eventually maybe we'll be able to catch him on a time where it's more convenient. We had just watched his amazing, the pursuit, his document,
or Netflix. I just thought, and I am not big on politics. In fact, just hanging out with
you enough has gotten me to dive in a little bit more and get, you know, more, like interest in that direction at all.
I used to be repulsive to me to even like talk about it with people
because it's so polarizing. And I just thought that, you know, that documentary that he created was just so
well done and brought it back down to, you know, the roots of, you know, what we all need to be,
you know be focused on
and how we can better society by doing these simple things.
And I thought that meeting him in person again,
my mind was blown that he, first of all, knew who he were,
was connected to Bishop Baron,
and then we go down there and then he listens to our show.
Like that just, it was crazy.
That was like, I was super ready to fangirl over him
and then he was doing it back to us
and I'm like, this is weird.
Like this is so crazy that someone that I became
a massive fan over, because I watched this documentary,
then I started reading everything that he wrote
and I'm like, this guy is incredible.
And then we meet him and he's like,
oh, I've been listening to you guys for two years.
I was like, holy shit I've been listening to you guys for two years. I was like holy shit his talk
At that event
Had all of us into all of us got emotional
Listening to what he was saying and because of that powerful
It's obvious we did not order these in from one to 10 to one being the best because I think this one
We probably would agree would be our number one guest of the year for all of those reasons.
Yeah.
I thought we did a good job interviewing.
I thought the whole, uh, we almost surprising.
Yeah, we almost didn't go.
So it surprised the shit out of us, the experience with fan response.
Yeah, I think that he would for sure be up there.
One thing that he said in his talk that blew me, that just blew me up, I don't care if
you're spiritual religious or, or, or not. It was just such an impactful thing.
As he talked about the value of fathers in particular,
having a spiritual practice for their children.
So he's making the case for it and he says,
you know, when you're a child,
the biggest, strongest, you know,
toughest person in the world is your dad.
And for a lot of us, that's very true.
It was for me as a kid.
I know, I know objectively,
my dad is not the biggest toughest,
strongest dude in the world,
but when I was a kid, he was.
I, I 100% and to my kids, I am.
I know my kids,
I remember when my son was five years old,
he asked me genuinely ask me if I could pick up the house.
He literally thought,
can you lift up the house?
You know, because when you're that age
and you see your dad
He is the strongest person in the world and then to see your father
Bend his knee and bow to someone else to a god to a spiritual practice
What a powerful message you're sending because you are the most powerful person now What are you sending that message to your child is hey even the strongest most powerful person. Now what are you sending that message to your child is, Hey, even the strongest, most powerful person in the world bows down to this,
this belief that we have, regardless of what your religion,
why give me chills talking about when he said that, I think all of us were,
I looked to the right and left and I said, Oh, we're all fighting tears right now.
What a powerful, powerful message. The other thing he said in his talk was that
the opposite of love is fear and that for me struck really home
because I was left with so much fear
for my divorce carrying it into my,
into my current relationship.
And for some reason, I always thought
the opposite of love was just hating anger.
Hating anger, hating is no, it's fear,
it makes perfect sense.
You can't love 100% if you're fearful.
And so you need to,
and to love fully is to be completely vulnerable.
What a powerful message.
What do you talk about?
What do you talk about?
What do you talk about?
Moral courage and standing up for the people
that you disagree with,
the importance of that.
I mean, he had so many quotes or stories he told
or I think that just, I think it hit everybody.
So he's, he's gotta be and everybody's top 10.
Now, for the last one, since we're at 10 right now,
and it would be your turn?
No, it wouldn't be fair for you to make your 10th
because you got to go.
So this last one, I think we should all make a case
for somebody different, and then we should agree
on that last person, right?
So I'm sure we all have somebody on the list
that is different from each other.
So the first name I'm going to throw in the hat
that each of us can, and then we can decide
and agree on one.
I feel like Ryan Holiday has to make my list there again. And I know that it may not pass by you guys because it might be too closely related to like a Mark Manson as far as what that interview was
like because very similar. They both pull from stoicism. They both are popular authors right now, young guys.
Even though their message is not the same in some areas, it's similar. They're friends
themselves. But again, just a fun all-around interview for me. I felt like we did some of our best work
with him. I thought we asked some really cool questions.
I think we got to take him, he's another guest
that's been on a lot of these other podcasts
that we know and that are friends of ours.
And I took a lot of personal pride in trying to get him
places that nobody else had.
I thought we did a good job there.
And then also really liked him.
So that would be a personal make.
I like that one.
I enjoyed that conversation with him for sure.
And I appreciate the books he's put out
and what he's doing, impacting people with his message.
But I would probably vote for Tommy Codwell, mainly because,
I mean, his story in general is just so crazy.
So he's on my list, too.
Yeah, so it was such, I mean, you story in general is just so crazy. So he's on my list too. Yeah, so like it was such, I mean,
like you get to see it in his documentary
and if you read up on him and he's been on multiple interviews,
but I felt like we were able to get a lot more details
of like his capture and you know,
he really like got intense when he was like reliving that
and like telling that experience to us.
And I just got like sucked in.
And it was just a very engaging and entertaining ride that we had with him.
Yeah, those are both, I think those are both really good.
I have a third person that's different.
And this person has been on our podcast more than once.
So I know that doesn't fit your criteria at them.
But the reason why I'm picking this person is because each time we had this person on,
the first and second time,
we've had such a massive response from our audience.
In particular, our female audience,
and I feel like that they often,
we need to talk to them a little bit more
about some of the stuff that we're not necessarily experts in,
that affect them, things like their hormones and birth control.
And this is Dr. Jolene Brighton.
Dr. Jolene Brighton.
She's exceptional at what she does.
She communicates things the right way.
And when we have her on the show,
the outpouring of support we get from our female audience,
like thank you so much for having her on.
Oh my God, I love her so much.
Thank you so much for you three dudes to address my God, I love her so much. Thank you so much for you three dudes
to address an issue that has nothing to do with you guys,
but has everything to do with just women.
Thank you for doing that.
And I don't know if the first time we had on the show
was that last year, was that 2018,
or were they both this year?
I think they're both here this year.
Oh good, so she qualifies then.
Oh really?
So she was last year.
That's actually why she didn't make my top.
Because I did that.
I kind of went like, okay, that's somebody
who probably made the last year.
I think Doug might be right.
I think she was both times this year.
Dr. Jolene Brighton for sure, if that's the case.
Yeah, in my case, I would kind of lean
in that direction as well.
It was very, again, this is information
that I think everybody benefited from.
You know, men included and it was just a good insight.
And her, it's just so much research has been involved, you know, with her.
And I just, I appreciated like every part of that conversation.
Yeah, this is her, her, if you want to learn about the effects and from a doctor, right?
So the effects of birth control on the body, she communicates well.
She communicates really well.
Very well.
She's extremely likable.
She's going to be, you know, we taught, we told her, hey, we want you on the show relatively regularly because
we liked her so much.
So I think she should definitely be.
I can concede to that being our 10th one because I'll go with that.
I actually did think that we had her up there last year already.
And if we didn't, that alone makes her a top 10 for sure because she is, she's one of
those guests that, especially if I'm talking to a female, I say you have
to listen to this episode. There's so much valuable content for a woman that you have
to listen to it. And I think, like you said, too, that lots of men can benefit from it,
too, but it's like a must listen if you're a woman and you haven't listened to that episode
of ours. Oh, I consider it one of our core episodes
of the list. Yeah. And her social media and the way she communicates
to our audience, so valuable.
I mean, her Instagram is, Instagram is a hard platform
to make really valuable.
And she does a really, really good job doing it.
Do you guys think we should name some of our least favorite?
Or do you think we should leave this out?
You know, I was glancing at the list
and there's got this year was, you know, there was a year
where I felt like we had quite a few that were kind of like weren't we're not episodes.
But even when I look at some of my least favorite, I wouldn't say that they were their bad
or like I didn't like them or, you know, they just, they just, it's hard to make the top
10 or the ones that were just super amazing. Probably one of the least impactful for me and let downs was
William Hyde. And that was, I think it was a blame that on Sal. I think that was one that
he thought it would be great to have somebody who was an expert in what did we think he was an expert?
Was that it was that our cannabinoid?
So here's the problem.
He's a scientist.
Now here's the reason why that was a problem.
I had contacted.
I had contacted, no, hey, listen, I had contacted, I think it was leafly to have them send us
an assurant.
As a scientist on cannabinoids, they didn't send us to scientists. They send us the scientist on cannabinoids.
They didn't send us to scientists.
They send us the podcast host.
A bud tender.
Yeah, and when he started talking cannabinoids,
Adam and I were both sitting there going,
we've communicated what you're saying,
right?
You're not telling us anything new.
Right.
Wasn't bad, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't.
No, but if we're gonna try and categorize
a handful of what I think
or worst, that one would be mine that I thought was just kind of, I got one for you.
And this was just, it was a rough interview.
It just seemed so formulaic.
It was so hard to pull this person out.
Stephanie Cohen.
Yeah.
You know, not a bad person, but she came with the pages of notes and it was so hard to pull her out of that.
Well, that was the one that I wasn't there.
I wasn't there.
That's a factor, but on top of that too,
I think there was just so many walls.
There's way too many walls coming in.
Well, we can't talk about this subject,
we can't talk about PEDs,
we can't talk about transgenders in athletes,
and I'm like, well, those are the interesting things.
What are we left with here?
Yeah, that was tough.
So I wasn't there and you guys told me that.
So this is a first person that I ever remember
that's ever told us we can't talk about something.
Yeah, like I don't, normally everybody's,
oh, whatever, you know, take me wherever you want.
Yeah, we haven't had too many guests
that have given us rules on what we can and can't ask them.
No, and it was, there was at one point,
I almost found like,
did she get her notes too?
She had notes.
The first time I seen that.
And I also haven't seen it.
I think she might have been nervous.
Honestly, I think she might have been nervous.
Yeah, that might be on the case.
And but at one point, I think she even took something
that I said to offense.
I felt like she got a fin,
which I wasn't saying anything offensive at all.
I don't remember what I said.
I can't remember exactly what it was,
but I asked her a question and she was almost like,
oh dear, she had this look on her face like,
oh, I think you might have taken me the wrong way.
But it wasn't, it was, and that one let me down
because I'm really looking forward to interviewing her
because she's such an exceptional chapter.
She's revered by so many people.
Yeah, yeah, so that one definitely makes the bottom,
top of the bottom list.
It's top of the bottom.
Oh, man.
Let's see.
I mean, Brandon Harris for me, it's just, it was ridiculous.
Oh, I forgot about that.
Like that, I mean, that belongs to me.
Poor guy, I felt kind of like a bully bringing him in here.
You know, it's like, oh, the idea was like,
let's see if, you know, we can challenge you a guest a bit.
Do you remember what, okay, so I remember what happened here
and I think the reason why it has to go on this list
and why this was a good, good for us though.
I'm glad we did it because there was a point
where we thought, okay, you know,
maybe we should bring guests on things that we think
is absolute bullshit and let's fucking hammer them
on the show.
Let's bring them on the show.
That'll make for great entertainment.
People are gonna love to hear us do that.
And what ended up happening with him
is we actually really liked him as a person.
Yeah.
And then all of a sudden, genuine guy.
Yeah, he is a really good guy with good intentions
and just happened and is making a lot of money
off some gimmicky bullshit fucking item.
Right.
But, you know, I think he comes from a good place.
His intentions were pure.
I think that's, we all read into that and it was like,
then it can turn in like,
We're not bullied.
Yeah, this doesn't feel as good.
I mean, it was fun to kind of joke around about it
and like how silly the product was and whatnot.
But a worthless episode.
Yeah, but it was worthless.
Worthless episode.
It totally was.
Yeah, 100% you could skip that episode and be okay.
Yeah.
And I would never recommend it.
I don't know why we did it.
I forgot all about that episode.
Yeah, yeah.
That was what you're right, though, was good for us
to test that out.
Yeah, we should never do that.
Because we were, remember, we were going back and forth
for a while, like, you know, this is what we need to do.
You gotta get more controversial.
And we were, I remember he wasn't the only person.
I was reaching out to some other people
that I knew were kind of promoting a bad message
or bullshit and the intention was,
we're gonna bring him on there and fucking hammer him.
You know what I'm saying?
They're gonna come on because it's exposure for them.
So it's gonna be a no brainer for them.
Come on then we're gonna get on there and be hard.
But what we realized was it was like we are trying to be a dick
and we didn't want to be a dick.
We're not bullies.
It didn't feel right because we like to miss a person.
And not only that, but you're on our home turf.
We're gonna bring you on.
We're gonna hammer you.
It's like, we're not bullies.
You know what I mean?
At the end of the day, I'm sure that works well for other media companies.
You know, there's other people who make a living.
Like, hardball or something.
Yeah, do me on it.
But no, especially if somebody nice who's not gonna defend themselves in a way
that's gonna make us, you know,
unbocus to get that type of,
that's how I felt.
I felt like this guy is not gonna like throw a punch back,
so this is not gonna be fun to sit here and be a fun.
There's a podcast that we did interview that surprised me,
because I didn't think it would be that great,
and really didn't, was Doug Boepst.
I didn't think it was, I thought it was gonna be good.
I thought I was gonna turn into another one
of those Brandon here.
Yeah, I thought it was not gonna be a good episode,
but he's such a nice genuine guy
and that conversation was pretty good.
And I left with that going,
oh, that was better than I thought.
Well, it was so surprising
was how well it was received.
The audience, like,
they did.
Oh man, they loved that episode.
Well, I was like, wow.
The reason why I think that is
is think about all the shit that he had been through and
and himself and
admittedly
Called himself at like talk about a very authentic. Yes. That's what was very author
I mean, I mean some people on here are totally being honest some people that we we like or that we enjoy episodes a lot
Sometimes they're just polished like We already mentioned that a couple times
that some guests are good in entertaining
because they're good at what they do.
They're good at talking on camera
and they're good at presenting a great story.
And that doesn't, it's not a knock on them.
That's fucking awesome.
That's what makes them great.
But then there's some people that you just like them
because they're fucking real.
And they're just all of themselves,
all, and they present their flaws.
This is who I am.
Yes, I was an asshole or an idiot or I didn't know better.
And just honest, yes.
Very very.
And so that's what I got from his story was that,
it wasn't, it definitely wouldn't make my top 10.
I, in fact, I thought it was also going to be one
that was kind of like, whatever.
But what a really genuine good dude
with a pretty crazy story.
And I think that's why that was nicely.
Another one like that, well kind of like that.
Like we had him on Mike McCasill was one that I actually
really enjoyed that conversation.
I loved his,
definitely exceeded expectations.
Yeah, he was a real coach. you know, he he like he was a
trainer's trainer and he was able to do these feats of strength that were just it
seems impossible. And you know, you've seen a lot of this on social media of people
getting drawn into the hype, you know, the hype. There's a lot of these guys out there
that are, you know, just hammering themselves and doing brutal things that, you know, people rally
because it's so impressive, but it's like, man,
like you're killing yourself out there,
but the reason why he's doing things,
the way that he's training for these,
the message behind what he's doing is,
I just felt like it's so much better.
Do you guys remember how that all came out?
Do you remember how we even got him as a guest?
Why we got him as a guest and he just said,
No.
Cause he was mentioned, I know that I heard his name
from one of his clients that was trying to cross
Antarctica by foot.
Yeah.
And so he trained him and mentioned him on Joe Rogan,
but then I think you followed up and then.
So what made me pursue him, you introduced me.
I started following him after you brought him up.
What made me pursue him was at the same time, we had David Goggins team had been reaching
out to be on our show.
We've had quite a few people saying you got to get David Goggins on the show.
I've listened to his interviews.
I'm not a fan of the show. And so I've listened to his interviews and I'm not a fan of the message. I've just,
it's not, it's the motivation pushed through, you know, Navy SEAL type of message, which,
of course, I've talked about before that it's just, it's not my favorite message to the fitness
community. I think it feeds more into. It's overrepresented in the fitness space.
It, and that's my point, right? And that's not a knock on those guys or those stories or taking
anything away from me like a very impressive, but yeah, again,
oversaturated, right?
And so when people would reach out to ask me about it, I mean,
I'm not a fan of his message, but I guess I'm impressed by his
feats and got a great story, whatever, but that's not enough for
me to want them on the show.
When I found out that my castle was the person
who broke David Goggins's record in pull-ups,
and I looked into my castle and that his trainer background,
the way he goes about training for these type of feats,
the reason why he does these feats,
the motivation behind it is a lot different than Goggins,
and I liked that.
And I wanted him to come on and present that message.
If you wanna do some crazy fucking thing,
the way that Mike presents that I think is different
and I liked him because of that.
And so that's what pursuant.
And then he ended up being a great guest.
He did, he was.
He was surprised.
Incredible smart trainer, very good, very underrated too.
I don't think he has much of a, he's not a big name in the space. It's so surprising, yeah, because I mean he's just doing the most
impressive things that anybody can even think of. Well too busy doing it in real life. Yeah, he's
an action guy. He's less of a talking guy. He's all business. Yeah, anyway, excellent year,
guys. It's been a great year with you boys and I look forward to another phenomenal year in 2020.
With that, go to mindpumpfree.com
and download all of our free guides and resources.
You can also find all of us on Instagram.
You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin.
You can find me at Mind Pump Sal
and Adam at Mind Pump Adam.
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