Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 605: Vinnie Tortorich- Trainer of Playboy Playmates & Hollywood Stars

Starting point is 00:00:00 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mite, pop, mite, pop with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode of Mind Pump, this guy's, he's a no G man. Yeah, I like this guy. Vinny Tortoric has been doing this for a long time. He was a celebrity trainer in LA back in the day. Got his start from the play, but a mansion.

Starting point is 00:00:29 I God bless that guy. Great story. The guys write along lines with us in terms of- Looking forward to doing some more stuff with this guy, man. Oh, I would love to. I love this guy. Great vibe, great energy. He's one of my people.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Killer stories. Yeah, great stories when something goes. He's got a good podcast. It's actually pretty funny. Kind of my people. Killer stories. He's got great stories when it comes to Italian. He's got a good podcast. It's actually pretty funny kind of our style. It's called Fitness Confidential. So you should check it out. We have some good conversations with him. Also, this is like the last week.

Starting point is 00:00:57 I think this week is it, right, for the promotion. So our promotion is you get one of our maps programs for free. If you enroll in any maps program or bundle, you either get maps prime for free, you either get maps prime pro for free, or maps performance for free. It's a pretty big promotion deal.

Starting point is 00:01:14 That's going on. You can find that all at mineputmedia.com. So without any further ado, here we are talking to Vinny Tortorich, podcast host of Fitness Confidential. So you were telling us a story of how you got on you did your stuff on the internet. You wrote a book and they said that was a good story. I want to continue that. Oh, I know you actually googled how to become a famous person on the internet. Yeah, yeah. I'll go

Starting point is 00:01:39 back a little bit for the audience, but you know, I wrote a book and I didn't want to write a book. I think everybody goes, hey man, I want to write a book. I think everybody goes, hey, man, I want to write a book. Hey, because I live in Hollywood and everybody's got, you know, most of my friends are producers. And back in the day, everyone was producing a sitcom. There was like 48 sitcoms on television. You guys are a lot younger. You don't even know what a sitcom is. You're watching Netflix and stuff.

Starting point is 00:02:05 We had full house. It was that. Yeah, it was like 40 something of those. And literally, I had a friend. She would go to a dentist and she's got a tooth hurting and he's in her mouth and he's going, hey, I have this great idea for a sitcom. It's set in a dentist office.

Starting point is 00:02:22 Everybody thought they were getting ready to write something. And I worked with celebrities and hated the idea of being on television or in television or any part of television. So, this is all going on. And we had a writer strike, and my good friend, Dean Laurie, who is a writer producer, most famously known for arrested development and movies like, I don't know, my wife and kids is one of his TV shows. He kept telling me you have a book in you, and I was like, I don't want to write a book.

Starting point is 00:03:02 And he said, but you're sitting around right now because When the industry goes on strike I go on strike because there's no one to train when you train celebrities all day and they go on strike Oh, wow, you're done. That's right. That's right because that was your thing. That's what you did you train celebrities? I just I've trained I got people ready for red carpets and all, and for TV shows and what had he. And when they stop working, you're fired that day. You walk in the next time and you go, ah, yeah, we won't need you until we go back to work. Oh, it's like that. So were you hired by the production companies then,

Starting point is 00:03:35 or were by the actual celebrities themselves? Very seldom, sometimes by them, sometimes by the management. So in other words, two or three different scenarios. And we'll get back to the other story. But one of the scenarios is we have an actress, and she's got to be in a bikini in this movie. And she's not bikini ready. But we sold this movie based on her star power.

Starting point is 00:03:58 But she just had a kid. You got six weeks. That's your job. And they will pay for that. How do you get into that? How the heck? Because that's how the creators. Yeah, and they will pay for that. How do you get into that? How the heck? Because that's how they get trainers. You had producer friends and things like that.

Starting point is 00:04:09 Yeah, well, I got producer friends after that. Oh. So that's a very good question, because every trainer in the world wants to do that. They come to talent, they go, I want to work with celebrities. And the first thing I tell them is, number one, no, you don't. You have no idea what you're asking. They're not difficult at all, right?

Starting point is 00:04:26 Well, it's not even about that. People think, oh, there's celebrities, they'll pay 20 times as much. Not true. No, yeah. That's our way around. One of the things for free. Every at pro-athlete or celebrity I do. Well, one stuff for free.

Starting point is 00:04:37 Well, because as a trainer, I would assume you train a celebrity, it's going to give you clout, so they probably have that stuff. Wait, it does, but it doesn't. It doesn't literally put money in your pocket the way every trainer, they all want to go to LA and become a celebrity fitness trainer. Good life with that one. Because everybody left their small town with that dream. The fact that I got that was the luckiest move on the planet.

Starting point is 00:05:04 And I wasn't even going after it. It was, I got to town 27 years ago. Nobody would return my phone call. You know, I couldn't get it. I would literally, like, a guy that chops trees, I would take a rock and put it with a note in a simple like bag and toss it over fences to see if I could get business You're kidding me. I'm not making I was so you're here in LA and you're like

Starting point is 00:05:31 Yeah, I'm like putting stuff in people's you know mailboxes every day Yeah, because that was and by the way no one ever called me from that But I was here for two or three months because I was pretty well known for this back in New Orleans for ten years before I came out here. So we're talking 1980 to 90. I was doing 81 to 91. I was doing this. I come out here and it's like crickets and I don't know anyone. And a friend of mine said, I know someone at Playboy that works for Playboy International.

Starting point is 00:06:05 So I went and had lunch with her and she said, yeah, if I can figure out a way to help you out in the whole thing. When I came back from lunch, I met a woman who worked for Playboy. She was a middle management. She was wider than she was tall. And she had her kid in school in the whole holding, she didn't have a lot of money

Starting point is 00:06:26 to spend. I trained her for $25 per time, four days a week, got her eating right, and within a year, I took 165, 180 pounds also this one, it looked like a different human being. Wow. And everyone at Playboy took note. You couldn't have done that. That's the best advertising. Yeah, that's like a billboard on sunset. Right. And she worked in a place, I mean, surrounded by people probably looking for trainers.

Starting point is 00:06:59 And a couple of other VPs started using me and the whole thing. And that led to playmates because the thing that people don't realize about playmates is they have a problem. Once they become a playmate, they're now under contract for two years by playboy. They have to look a certain way. They have to go to all the Cinco Dominoes and Vegas weekend and whole thing. They can't be fat. They have to look like playmates.

Starting point is 00:07:30 Don't they actually measure them and if they get beyond certain measurements and things like that? I don't know anything about that. But I do know that if they want to keep working and making that money, that sideline money from Playboy, they have to look a certain way because Playboy would just kind of go

Starting point is 00:07:46 Ah, you sit this one out. We'll go with you Yeah, Adam you're a lot easier to go with that. Yeah, Sal over here. It's too big His boobs are too small. Yeah, he doesn't have her self So that's natural though. That's how I started working with a few playmates and playmates or somewhat hook to real celebrity That's natural though. That's how I started working with a few playmates and playmates or somewhat hook to real celebrity. If that makes any sense because every hot celebrity in town wants to playboy girls coming out of the playboy. Of course. Yeah. So are they hiring you themselves? I was playing high school. Hiring you.

Starting point is 00:08:21 Interesting. Playboy hired me for some of them some of the other girls went wait You're looking great. How do I get this guy and they would hire me fantastic out of their own book fucking rad job Yeah, yeah kidding me. It was like you struck gold sir Yeah, I just happened to be standing you're married tell you would tell me you were married. I was please please Please tell me you were married when this happened. I'm not to go through war stories. I was not married Yes Tell me you were married. I was pleased, please, please tell me you were married when this happened. I'm not to go through war stories. I was not married. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And God bless you.

Starting point is 00:08:48 And by the way, I started getting invited to the mansion and invited it. It was like, I was telling, I was on, I do Adam Corolla show. We were talking about this a couple of weeks ago. It's like, yeah, I remember the first time I met Stallone. He goes, because they know I know a lot of celebrities

Starting point is 00:09:03 about, never just store. He goes, why did you meet? Because he was bragging about meetings Stallone. I went, yeah, I remember the first time I met Stallone. He goes because they know I know a lot of celebrities about never just store He goes, where did you meet because he was bragging about meetings Stallone? I went yeah, I remember the first time He goes, uh, where did you meet him? I went, I don't know, but it was him and Mick Jagger and and they're like sitting there mind blown Yeah, it's like You just mentioned Mick. Yeah, you just it's like yeah, you're in that world right and these guys are getting these women Right and I'm not saying Stall guys are getting these women. Right? And I'm not saying Stallone was getting those women or anything else.

Starting point is 00:09:28 I'm just saying that these women mingle in that world. And at the time, the Brat Pack was a big thing, you remember St. Almost Fire, not necessarily. And I started getting hired by some of those people. And before you know it, and I talk about this in the book, the book that we started this conversation on, I got called in by this big management agency and I'm on this building on Sunset and they're saying to me, and there's a desk. It's a table like this.

Starting point is 00:10:05 And there's a guy sitting at the head of the table. And there's a couple of guy, a couple of suits from Disney. And there's a couple of managers over here. And I went into this meeting. I was dressed in cargo shorts, flip flops, and a torrenty shirt. And I'm not even sure how I got there. You know, I was just told to go to this meeting that it would be good. And how I got there. You know, I was just told to go to this meeting that it would be good.

Starting point is 00:10:26 And they're sitting there, I'm sitting right about where Justin's sitting right there. And there's some guy speaks up and goes, we understand that you're the go-to guy to get weight off of people in LA. And I'm going, okay. All right, I'll pick it. Yeah, that's me.

Starting point is 00:10:44 Yeah, yeah, that's what they call me. The great, great guy lost the worst of the way. That's the way I'm going, okay. All right, I'll pick it. Yes, me. Yeah, yeah, that's what they call me. The quick, great guy lost the way. That's the way. And they said, we need to get some weight off of an actress. And I'm like, okay. And they said she weighs a certain amount of weight and a whole thing. And we need to get 40 pounds off of her pretty quickly.

Starting point is 00:11:06 And I said, how much time do I have? And they said, six weeks. Oh, geez. So I put my hands on a table and I got up and I go, where are you going? I went, I can't do that. Nobody can do that. What are you talking about?

Starting point is 00:11:16 And they said, and while I'm doing that, the guy, the guy in the big leather chair at the head of the table, writes down a number on a piece of paper. How much is he going to pay? Denset slides it across to me. I opened it up and I went six weeks. Let's re-value this. I'll solve our fucking leg off for that.

Starting point is 00:11:35 Yeah, yeah. You can. I'm going to tie it to my car. And she's just going to run wherever I go. She's going to be running. And I got that client. I took the wait-off offer. They literally called me back in at six weeks and said,

Starting point is 00:11:51 we have a problem. Problem, I took four. They said, she failed her test again, her screen test. Her face is too round. And I literally said, and this is all written in my book Fitness Confidential. I said, face is too round. And I literally said, this is all written in my book, fitness, confidential. I said, faces to round, you realize she's Korean, right? And they literally around the room, all of these suits went, we just wanted known that we didn't say this. These are the words

Starting point is 00:12:19 of Mr. Taughterich. Are we really doing that? She's Korean, she's round. And literally they were doing that game back in the early 90s, and I went, you gotta be kidding me. And they said, we need you to get more weight. So I took more weight off of her. The client was Margaret Cho. I don't know if you guys know. I know, so you can be that. I remember when she lost a lot of weight, too.

Starting point is 00:12:40 And so this ends a very long story of how you become a celebrity trainer. At that point, Margaret is now her show, you know, All American Girl is coming out. Big sitcom. First time an Asian is leading a sitcom. And this is, you know, history and she's on Arsenio. She's on Letterman. She's on Leno. She's everywhere in the name on her lips. Vinny Tauterich, I lost,

Starting point is 00:13:07 how did you lose $55.60? Vinny Tauterich. That was it. Wow. Now, the next day, every agent in town is going, get Vinny Tauterich in here tomorrow. I had nothing to do with any of it, other than getting a fat lady, thin, a Playboy, and then getting a heavy comedian,

Starting point is 00:13:27 thin for a sitcom. Wow. Now, if you ask me how to go get become, I don't know. I got lucky, I walked in to Playboy, I went to the movies. Well, something why, okay, so I had listened to some of your podcasts episodes like over a year ago,

Starting point is 00:13:42 and why I had my assistant reach out and get to you is because there's not a lot of people that are doing fitness podcasts like us that have a similar message and that is that you call the bullshit out which is what we do and there's not a lot of us that I that I feel talk about this. When did that start? Was this something that you started to put together because we share on the show we've got you know 16 years, 15 years, 20 years in the industry and I'll be the first to admit that the first 10 I was terrible I was probably terrible didn't know you know I was getting fed all the bullshit I was regurgitating the information that I'm giving that are

Starting point is 00:14:16 pushed by supplement companies and bias studies and that was what I was delivering down my clients it wasn't until later did I really start to put it together. But what point did you really put that together for you? Was that early on in your career or that happened over time? I'm 55 this month. I walked into a gym when I was eight, 1970. Gems didn't exist a way to exist today. Of course, there's no Google, there's no online.

Starting point is 00:14:44 So, bro science was at a minimum. Literally people would say, oh, take desiccated liver pills in 1970. That was the one supplement. That was what you took. That's an extra protein. But everybody else was eating eggs, somewhere eating raw eggs, someone would tell you to eat liver around the clock. You want it more iron, you want it more protein, more fat in you. And then in the 70s, I started, you know, because I stayed in it, I never got out of it. I walked into a gym as a gym rat, and I had a guy who mentored me all those years. And, you know, at one one time I was 235 pounds with the same amount of body fat I have right now. You know I was bigger than this guy. It's hard to believe you could go from

Starting point is 00:15:31 that to this. But I did. So I've seen it all. I've done it all. I've been a 400 pound bencher. I've been able to, as a matter of fact, they were called a gym in my hometown and asked if I was squatting that day because that meant nobody else was coming in to do bench press. I was using most of the plates. So on leg day, they were in all the weights. Yeah, it's a small town, small gym.

Starting point is 00:15:56 I helped build the gym. So if I, and I was going off to play college football, so if Vinny was squatting that day, nobody else came in to do bench press or anything else because we had three Olympic bars, but we didn't have enough weights to go around. So I've seen it all come and go. And when all the BS supplements started coming in, because I have a degree in physical education and exercise physiology and nutrition, I come from a science background. I went to Tulane and I studied. You know, whenever people say, hey, man, I take the stuff because before it was bros, man, hey, man, you got to take the

Starting point is 00:16:36 stuff. It's going, I would go, you have a double blind study on that and anything. You got anything? And whenever people wouldn't listen to that, I would then go to this. I would say, okay, is it legal in the Olympic competition? And they would say, yes, I would go, okay, it doesn't work. Because anything that works, it's not legal in the Olympic competition.

Starting point is 00:17:00 That's a good point. Very true. That's a good point. You could test positive for Sudaffed and you'll get kicked out. Right. You know what I mean? Right. And you could buy that over the counter.

Starting point is 00:17:10 There's a lot of over-accounted coffee. If you have too much coffee in your system, that's an ego-gente. Coffee actually works better than a lot of this stuff you get from these supplements. So you've seen the fitness industry being in the gyms because I was in the gyms in the late 90s. That's when I got on. I've seen a lot of change since then. But you were in there a lot sooner.

Starting point is 00:17:31 So you saw the transformation from, it was just manlifting weights to then. Women started moving in there to the changes in the diets. I mean, yeah, at first it was only man men as a matter of fact, I remember when women every time there would be one chick and if a chick even had just a little bow on her hamstrings, it was like awesome. It was like, oh my god, you know, oh, she's hot, you know, you never saw women with muscles or, you know, or even in good shape, women looked like women.

Starting point is 00:18:03 They were lean, but they looked like women. Right, the skinny model type is what they were. Right, twiggy, or this kind of thing, or shower teeks and all this, you know. You didn't see, and then Rachel McLeish comes on us. Yeah, and what? She was the first Mr. Olympia, right? Yes, she was, and she was hot.

Starting point is 00:18:20 And, you know, I don't know if she couldn't even win a bikini contest nowadays. They did that muscle, she was not that mommy, and she was I don't think she couldn't even win a bikini contest nowadays. The man muscle, she was not that mommy and she was right. Definitely tone and she wouldn't even win. Yeah, the fit model competition. She could not win, but she was gorgeous and her symmetry was just amazing. And then you know, you had people like Corey Everson who took it to a little different level at some point in the women's category.

Starting point is 00:18:43 But then when the Carla Dunlop's and all that came in, they started looking like men and they started winning so the women started taking more and more hormones. You know? And weren't you impressed at even those something that's done? No, that's great. I'm a big follower of his people. Yeah. But I've always kept my eye on it because I've always loved it and I wised where I went where guys are injecting all this stuff to make muscles look like muscles that weren't there and all this stuff.

Starting point is 00:19:08 And wised to whole steroid thing go from taking dioniball to stacking 30 different things. It all changed over time. And I worry about it sometimes. I worry what it teaches the younger culture of the bro science kids who are coming up in that. Yeah, you see, I remember reading some article with an interview of an old-school bodybuilder in the 70s, 60s and 70s, like five, 10 milligrams

Starting point is 00:19:38 of diandabol a day, that was a dose. That's what they took. And bodybuilders now taking grams. Not milligrams, but grams every single week. It's crazy how much has changed. I found that when I went into, I competed and I went, started on, and the whole purpose for me competing, I had no desire. I didn't follow the industry as far as the body building industry. But I did see that this was who's on the cover of the magazines. This is who everybody's looking to for advice. And I thought it didn't matter if I knew more than all

Starting point is 00:20:10 these people, if I didn't get my name out there, then no one was going to listen to what I had to say. So I went on a journey about three and a half, four years ago of getting in shape. And at that time, I'd actually kind of fallen out of shape. I was 19% body fat. And I took myself all the way into, down to 7% body fat. And I started doing that to build

Starting point is 00:20:29 like a social media presence to build a business. And I saw the traction that I got. And I thought, okay, well, I'll take it to the next level. I'll show you guys that I can go from being this average joke kind of fit guy. And now I'm going to get in shredded shape. Now I'm going to go compete. And I wouldn't compete at the amateur level.

Starting point is 00:20:45 And I'll never forget that day, standing backstage and just totally being like a lost puppy dog. I did it all by myself. I had no coach, no team. And I'm standing around and I'm looking at all these super shredded guys. And I'm talking to them and I'm listening to how they got ready for the show.

Starting point is 00:21:03 And the information that their coach was telling the way they were eating, the way they were training, I thought like, what the fuck are these guys doing? Like, no, it doesn't have to be that crazy. It doesn't have to be that hard. You don't have to take that much drugs to look like this. I'm in Mins, Fizika, not even bodybuilding. I mean, we're just men's health looked.

Starting point is 00:21:19 Like, you don't need to be taking grams of testosterone to look like that. And I'm listening to that, well, maybe because this is the amateur level and these guys don't really understand, but the pros gotta know their shit. Well, long story short, I worked my way up to the professional level and the same thing. I get back there, I've got all these pros back here.

Starting point is 00:21:37 Now my peers, all my buddies are the cover of a magazine guy. And everybody looking up to them and asking them information about nutrition and exercise and I'm listening to the information and they're giving me one. What the fuck are you telling people? Like this is terrible advice. Like this is gonna set these people up

Starting point is 00:21:52 for long term bad relationships with exercise and food. You have no idea what's in it's an epidemic actually right now and it's getting worse. I don't know how many men's physique guys that are 145 to 180 pound guys that I found that were taking grams of testosterone a week to try and obtain this look and tell them people, the, the bouts of cardio and exercise and the starving and the diuretics

Starting point is 00:22:17 that they were taking and the pulling of fruit of their diet and taking the sodium out for weeks. I'm like, what the fuck is going on? So it's, it's bad. And I worry because that sports growing really fast right now when they introduced women's bikini and men's physique, it exploded. I mean, I watched it in the last 10 years every, every year, it's doubling. And so it's growing. And it seems that everybody now wants to be a bikini girl or a men's physique guy And you know, so they get post their pictures on Instagram and say I'm a competitor and an athlete now and The information that's being passed around and circulated right now in that world is really bad

Starting point is 00:22:55 It's a lot of what inspired the show so that was kind of what my story was from that side And I remember getting with these guys. We were all friends before we were for the company I said we got to talk about this because this is growing. It's just getting worse and the people that everybody's looking up to, I mean, we talk about people that have a million plus followers and that are talking to these people and giving information. It's horrible.

Starting point is 00:23:19 So it's scary to think where it's at now and where it's potentially going. And I love talking to someone like you who's actually seen the whole spectrum. I mean, because we talk about this too on the show that some of the advice they were given 20, 30 years ago about nutrition is better than the advice that we're giving. Let's come back. A thousand percent. Right, right.

Starting point is 00:23:37 Yeah, and the fact that people think that they have to live on chemicals, it's a real, real problem. I did something in a microwave that I knew that I could do. I saw one of my nephews, about your guy's age. And he was kind of a roly-poly guy, not really fit guy, but not out of shape. And he got into pumping iron.

Starting point is 00:24:02 And just like most people, when your muscles grow, you almost have the shield around you. And people are now taking notice. Oh my God, you have biceps. And oh my God, look at your chest. And once a girl tells a young guy anything, you're like sitting there going, noted I will be in the fucking gym.

Starting point is 00:24:18 And as soon as I exit this place right now, right? Who ships now? Yeah, it's like, I'm gonna go to bathroom and knock out like three sets of 20 and He kept doing more and more bro sign stuff and the only time I see my nephew is on Facebook So I'll keep up with my family, right? And I noticed that his biceps are not 19 inches, but it's good as out to here and he's getting fat and fatder So his brother his younger brother was coming up for high school graduation.

Starting point is 00:24:46 I told him, I said, they all live in Louisiana. I said, I'm going to take you guys up Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. And you guys have to train for this. And the bro science guy literally took note. And he started hitting the stair machine and hoping he told me he knocked 20 pounds off in a couple of months getting ready for this thing, right? His younger brother, I played basketball this year, I'm graduating high school, I'm good.

Starting point is 00:25:16 He didn't do anything, right? So I meet these guys, they come to LA, this nephew older guy the one I saw pumped up he's pulling out powders and potion ready for me what is this beat juice man powder beat juice man's nitrates in air bro and yeah what's that oh yeah yeah glutamine bro that's got a feed but I got a feed, but I got to feed my liver. I got to get my insulin up to feed and then I'm like, but I'm not saying anything. In my mind, I'm going crazy over this. I'm like, oh my God, we get out, we go to mammoth for a couple of days before we go to Whitney.

Starting point is 00:25:58 And I have my buddy from New York, who climbs all the time, but my buddy is my age. He's a little heavy. He's an overweight guy, but boy, can he climb? You know, he trains all year, he just eats a lot of pasta. Right? So, we get out to mammoth and they notice that my buddy Don is just running up the hills.

Starting point is 00:26:18 And the bro science guy, he can't go a city blog without grabbing a knee. He literally can't get out of town. He's the most amazing thing you've ever seen. He ended up going six miles up Mount Whitney three days later and turning around. His younger brother only went two and a half miles up, turned around and went home.

Starting point is 00:26:39 And driving back to LA, he started asking me about clean eating. How do I get off of this shit? How do I do, and all I could think the whole time was mission accomplished. Right. I made your point. Yeah, that's all I had to do.

Starting point is 00:26:52 And he was looking at a fat guy who summited that day, my buddy Don, and he's going, I'm taking every product on the planet, to the tune of like several hundred dollars of month or more Right, and he goes I can't even keep up with an old dude. That's fat So he's lost in the irony of all this is that a lot of these products actually reduce your performance You know branching amino acids when you take them too high. Yeah, well, I have actually have a depressive effect on the body Make you feel make you feel tired

Starting point is 00:27:22 some of the one of the most mind-blowing things to me was years ago, up until maybe four or five years ago, I ate six, seven small meals a day, I ate all the protein, I did everything I was supposed to. Then I learned about fasting and some of the health benefits, read about some high-level muscular people that were fasting and how great they felt. So I fasteded for the first time ever fully expecting to have a terrible workout, to have low energy, to feel horrible, no supplements, nothing. I had one of the best workouts I had in a long time and I felt incredible energy and it was because I was fasting because I didn't have all this food in me all the time. Not to say that

Starting point is 00:28:02 you should always do that, but my point is when you optimize your body naturally or let it do what it would it what it can do You know the performance is incredible. Well look at look at things like the pre workout You know, that's the the number one supplement right now. That didn't even fucking exist 10 years ago No, the whole set of number one supplement sold everybody's taking it right because they think it's gonna do some shit for them Yeah, but yet that 10 years ago that didn't exist. I'm like, that's what I always, Arnold didn't take it pre-workout. Right, exactly. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm thinking about, do you think

Starting point is 00:28:32 it's that much of a game changer that came out at a nowhere last 10 years? And when you actually flip the bottle around, you start reading it like that, that feeling you get, that sweat, this, I mean, all the chemicals that they put in there to do that, I'm like, go take three or four pills of niacin, sit in your room and watch, you'll start sweating your dick off. It's a B vitamin, we'll make you sweat. It's a vasodilator. I tell people all the time, what is a B3 is niacin?

Starting point is 00:29:00 Take B3 and have a cup of coffee. You're good. You're good to go. You're just. You're good to go. You're just sending dollars. Yeah. Mix up some Hawaiian punch and throw it in there. Now you got yourself a pretty word. Literally, it's sugar drink.

Starting point is 00:29:11 Well, we created a bunch of controversy when we first started because so our first and main sponsor that we took for the show, we turned down every supplement company that came our way. We wanted nothing to do with it. And it was tough because I'm sure you know, those are normal sponsors that come when you first start. You start making a little bit of traction

Starting point is 00:29:29 and every supplement fucking company wants to pay you some money to rep them and say, this is how you get in shape. And that was against all of our message. So for a long time, we didn't have any sponsors. The only sponsor that we did take on was a Chimera Coffee, a coffee company. And we used to tell people that, listen, like if you, I get why you want to have energy

Starting point is 00:29:48 before you go workout, totally fine, but have a fucking cup of coffee. Yeah. You don't have a cup of coffee, and if a cup of coffee doesn't do it for you, and you need two or three, that's probably a sign that you're probably having too much even that. It's probably time to pull off of it for a while, then cycle back on. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:30:04 It's crazy. And I don't know if it's getting better or worse. We talk all the time about how we're making good tracks on the show and we see these things. I'm like, yeah, but that's in our circle. Sometimes I feel like we're losing this battle because more or more. Then you go to a fitness expo and you see what they're like. Right.

Starting point is 00:30:19 If any of you, if you've been to one of those, I refuse to go. I've been to a lot of the last spot. I would love to make you go. I feel like we should all go. I should just go and bring my camera. Yes. Vitya.

Starting point is 00:30:32 Because I was at speaking of coffee. I was at a coffee expo. The big CSA show up in Seattle because we're open. We're starting pure coffee. I have a vitamin company called Pure Vitamin Club. Now we're starting pure coffee club. And so I them up at the big convention and the whole thing, you know, making the rounds. And it's literally football feel after football feel,

Starting point is 00:30:52 size arenas of all the stuff. And I passed by and they got the cute check out there going, hey, you want to try this product? You put it in your coffee. It really gives you energy and it's so good for you. And I went, what is it? And she goes, it's new tropics. And I went, okay, I said, look, I have a meeting right now, but before the weekend's over

Starting point is 00:31:11 with, can I come back? And she goes, absolutely. So I told my partner, Andy, I said, keep an eye on her. I want to come back and shoot a little video with her. And it's up on my website, it's up on my YouTube. I go back and I'm asking this girl about what this new tropics or whatever it's up on my website, it's up on my YouTube. I go back and I'm asking the girl about what this Neutropic Neutropics or whatever is called. It gives you energy and stuff, and I'm like,

Starting point is 00:31:32 okay, doesn't coffee do that? And it, no, it like is good for your brain, and it goes in your brain and it's good and stuff. And I just sat there and goofed on it for like five minutes. You know what that reminds me of is when you go to those, if you go to like political rallies, and you go around and you ask people why they hate the first. Tell me why you hate Trump. Yeah, or tell me why you're in there. He's race. They just blur it out. Just ask the G and C rap,

Starting point is 00:31:57 you know, how to describe this product. That's always entertaining. Yeah. Yeah. The whole thing is just crazy when you think about it. Like, let me ask you guys, let me interview you guys for a second. Sure. The one I keep getting, and I'm sure you guys are getting is, hey, man, I saw this film, what the hell, so what the hell? Oh my god. We tore into that, actually.

Starting point is 00:32:19 I've tore, I've done three episodes on it. It's crazy that we have to keep actually revisiting this topic because I thought we did such a good job of destroying it the first time. But you see, you have a million downloads. I have a million downloads. We're nothing compared to Netflix and what the vegan community does.

Starting point is 00:32:38 Well, the format of documentary. Documentaries. Documentaries. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm sorry, I'm in a hard time with that one. Documentaries. Yeah, it's this format.

Starting point is 00:32:48 It's like people really believe because they dress it up so well and they dramatize it and it's become this sort of authority. Just if you just put it in that format, I feel like people start to like, ooh, they're challenging authority and they're going against the grain. So there's got to be a lot of truth in there and people like get like really sucked into that.

Starting point is 00:33:07 Well, it's, what the health is, it's vegan propaganda. Right. Now there's some, there's some information in there that they're taking, that's true. A lot of it isn't. But if you understand, and we talked about this on our show,

Starting point is 00:33:18 if you understand the motives behind that documentary, then it all makes sense. If you take vegans as a group, and you look at the ones that are vegans for a long periods of time, the ones that tend to stay vegan are vegan for moral reasons, for their own personal moral reasons.

Starting point is 00:33:34 Right, absolutely. They think eating animals is as bad as, you know, hurting people or whatever. So for them, by any means necessary, if they can get more, if they could save more animals, then that's a good thing. They're saving lives.

Starting point is 00:33:47 And so this documentary is vegan propaganda. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to scare the fuck out of everybody to stop eating all animal products. It's the first time in my life I've ever heard a health documentary I'm doing the air quotes, literally say fish is unhealthy. Like they said fish was unhealthy. And chicken is racist.

Starting point is 00:34:05 Oh no, no, no. It was a, it was a, it was a, it was a, no, no, no, no, no. Oh my God. They found the one black vegan doctor. Okay, can you still say black and not be? Yes, I don't care. I think you're okay.

Starting point is 00:34:18 You're on my put rough. So you can say what I know. They found the first African American vegan doctor. I don't think any, I have tons of black friends. I can't find one vegan amongst them. But this guy, he stood there in the film and said, okay, let me explain this to you. 38% Asians can't have dairy.

Starting point is 00:34:41 They like to have, 42% of Mexicans can't have dairy. They like to have $42% of Mexicans can't have dairy, lactose intolerance. 52% African Americans can't have milk. They're lactose intolerant. Therefore, by the government putting dairy on the my plate thing, that is institutional racism. And that's what I just went. That's how that worked out.

Starting point is 00:35:04 It was the bill. You can't fucking be saying that. You can't be saying that I loved. Another one I loved was if you eat an egg it's equivalent to five cigarettes. That's it. That's it. Really?

Starting point is 00:35:18 Because let's say I have four eggs this morning, five, that's 20. You have 20 cigarettes. I have a pack. I have a pack of cigarettes., I had a pack of friends. I literally had a pack of cigarettes, but they didn't even realize it. When you can lie and you have doctor next to your name

Starting point is 00:35:35 and you're allowed to lie that way, it's a problem. So this guy Kip with the man bun, right? With the monotone voice. That's mean. He gets a meeting the man bun, right? With the monotone voice. That's mean. He gets a meeting at the ADA, right? First off, the guy sitting behind a desk in a suit. Kip, you couldn't even dress up a little bit.

Starting point is 00:35:55 Get the stained t-shirt off, something. He goes into the ADA. He's got a piece of paper with him like this. And he goes, Mr. ADA guy, I have a study here that says that if someone eats meat, it'll kill him. It'll kill you. Mr. ADA, why are you killing people? And you guys like, I don't even know a study you're talking about.

Starting point is 00:36:24 Yes, but you're killing people? Yes, you are. And you guys like, I don't even know a study you're talking about. Yes, but you're killing people. What? Is it okay for you guys to kill people? And the 88 guys like, sir, I have no idea what study you have in front of you. He goes, would you like to read it? Would you like to read it? Because I have a study. Now, I took it a step further on my podcast.

Starting point is 00:36:41 We went to check out what study he was talking about. The study was done by Neil Barnard. One of the guys you saw in the movie, the guy that looked like he could use a meal. Did that guy? He was the guy who did the study. The study is an epidemiological study. It never saw a lab and it was never peer reviewed. It's worth this piece of paper I have that's blank right here. The study's worth

Starting point is 00:37:06 absolutely nothing. But this guy is talking to the 88 with a stained t-shirt going, you're killing people. My favorite was when he calls in and he's talking to probably some 17 year old girl who makes minimum wage and is asking her like all these technical questions and why is the why is the world health organization or they hang up and he's like obviously they don't want to talk to you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're about. No, they figured you're a cook. My other friend asked me if you guys noticed this one. They had four, as I like to call them, four identified patients in a movie. Now I can't remember all four. One was a woman who they showed walking with the walker.

Starting point is 00:37:46 She's in a dimly lit room and they're like, this is Katie. And she's on five medications and walking on a walker. And she gets up really slowly like this and she's getting up. And they never tell you what Katie's problem is. Why is she walking with the walker? Why is she can't leave this dimly lit house

Starting point is 00:38:05 But they go we gave her some juice and some vegetables and two weeks later they have a vibrant outside running down the street She's like I just got off on all five of my medications and I haven't used and I'm saying they're going what was wrong with you to begin with And then he went to a heavy set guy. I go to him on five medication. Doctor told me I'd be on a rest of my life. Doctor even told me he might have to cuddle them off. And then all I had to do was stop eating meat. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:38:33 I stopped eating meat and he's like running down the street. Hey, I'm going to do a marathon next month. I'm like, what was wrong with you to begin with? You never told us what was wrong with you. This is what drives me. Well, we looked into it too. Who was, wasn't it produced by Joaquin Phoenix? It was not who produced.

Starting point is 00:38:51 It was a guy who lives in marijuana. Yeah. Yeah. Which is vegan. Which is vegan. I know a little bit. My wife did a movie with the guy while back in. Oh, really?

Starting point is 00:39:01 Yeah, I know a little bit. I don't know Joaquin by any stretch of the imagination. But, you know, I know that he's a nut. Have you ever seen that that that falls off? Yeah, yeah religious group back in 1917. Do you guys know that? Yeah, that's the original part of the audience. Yeah, it was the, it was the seventh day eventist that started this really. Which they still exist in Lohmland,

Starting point is 00:39:34 the California story of the world. They're one of the biggest religions in the world. Right, and if it's got an ism at the end, I tell people right away, that should be your red flag right there. So they started this as an ideal. It only took hold about 60 years ago because what happened was no one can really be a vegan until we came up with an exogenous form of B12 because it doesn't have B12 in the diet. So when you look at the 13 essential vitamins,

Starting point is 00:40:07 there's the term essential. It means if we don't get it, we die. The vegan diet does not, so every vegan will tell me, well, you can take B12, yes, but what did you do before? Right, I mean, you're so good at that. You could be a vegan. It's true, in modern times, a well planned, you know, vegan diet can be fine, but it does take a lot of planning You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy.

Starting point is 00:40:26 You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy.

Starting point is 00:40:34 You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy.

Starting point is 00:40:42 You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. You're crazy. It would be impossible if you just lived on the vegetation that grew around you naturally you would have starved the death besides going having malnutrition. Yeah, because it just doesn't work that way. But again, if you want to do it, you got to plan it out, you can do it. But this documentary in particular, total propaganda. Yeah, because they're lying to people who could use help.

Starting point is 00:41:00 You know, there are people out there and I'm okay with people being vegans. I'm with you, Sal. I'm really okay with this. What I'm not okay with is people just both face lying about this. Right. You know, I go on. I'm with you guys too. We all agree on this. Is that, you know, if you're doing it for moral reasons, then by all means, I respect that. What I always try to make clear to people because there's people think it's a healthier way or a better way of living. That's not true. Oh God no.

Starting point is 00:41:32 That's where I draw the line in the sand. Is that, listen, moral reason, this, more power to you. If you feel good, we do it more power to you, but don't get it twisted. It is not the best and the healthiest way for you to live. Well studies will show in fact that even well planned vegans or vegans who have well planned diets when they are given a substance like creatine which is a very popular fitness bodybuilding supplement. They get a pretty significant measurable boost in IQ. This doesn't happen to omnivores because we get boost in IQ. This doesn't happen to omnivores because we get enough creatine for our resources. So that alone will tell you, even though they've planned everything right or whatever, that they're getting a boost in IQ from

Starting point is 00:42:13 taking a substance that you only get from me. So that tells you that's your clue right there. That's your big clue. You're absolutely right. Like I always say, if you want to be a vegan, fall in love with avocados, fall in love with olives, because it's the only two fruit that will give you any fat. So you fall in love with coconuts because you can get a lot from coconuts. But the bottom line is, you cannot, is very difficult. As I tell Dr. Drew gets a kick out of this every time I bring it up. Veganism is a convenient way to have an eating disorder and not be

Starting point is 00:42:46 joist for it. You know, it's great to put it in. But it's true. I mean, you're literally omitting parts of what you need to eat and you're adding in things that are horrible for you. High grain diets. I mean, think about it. You want to talk about, you cannot eat a grain without processing a grain. I want to talk about, you cannot eat a grain without processing a grain. I want to see anyone walk up to a stalk of corn and eat it without boiling it to death. I want to see anyone just take a stalk of wheat and put it in their mouth. I'll destroy your gut. Oh, it will rip you a new asshole. Literally. You cannot do it. You know, we got to separate the wheat from the shaft and then cook that down and do everything.

Starting point is 00:43:27 Two thousand years ago, we didn't even have wheat. Now we have corn, we have wheat, we have quinoa, we have all this crap and none of it is good for you. It just causes inflammation in your system. It can cause lots of problems. We have to process the heck out of it. And you know, it all goes back to and it sounds like you're talking a lot about just eating the way we out of it. And it all goes back to, and it sounds like you're talking a lot about just eating the way we kind of evolved.

Starting point is 00:43:48 That seems to give us the best answers and variety, periods of fasting, even periods of fasting from things like proteins. This is very controversial that we brought up on the show in the past, is that because we come from the fitness world, the muscle building world, protein has become this magic macro nutrient. You can't get enough of it, eat a ton of it all the time, you need to have

Starting point is 00:44:09 lots of protein all the time. Even that, if you overconsume it can cause problems. And even being exposed to it all the time can cause problems. And sometimes even going low protein for a day or two, number one, makes you more efficient at utilizing the protein when you do eat it, but it also has some health benefits. I think just that well-balanced approach seems to always be the one that seems to be best, regardless of all the facts. So I'm glad you brought that because you know in the broscience community it's a little known even less care for a situation because everybody's talking about the stuff you can buy, the powders and potions and pills. But it's always that bro signs thing. Hey bro, you need to have 1.5 grams of protein and proponents of the body mass, bro. You need to have two, but I tell people all the time, 0.06. You need

Starting point is 00:44:55 the number of zero six. And the reason I say six. That's the upper end too. The reason I tell every one of my clients, I said a reason I say six is because it sounds sexier than saying just take a half a gram. Nobody wants to take a half a gram. But if you say 0.6, they go holy shit. He measured, he knows. He does even the high. A very specific number.

Starting point is 00:45:17 0.657. Yeah, do that. Because people will go holy shit, Sally. Sally, he knows. Well, you know, the shit's solid, it's solid. He knows. Well, you know, we brought up things to be worried about. This was one of the things I was talking about when I was talking all these bodybows. It's actually become almost like a competition

Starting point is 00:45:36 amongst them on who can consume the most protein. Oh, Jesus. You got guys, my size that are eating 350, 400, 500 grams of protein every day. It just blew my mind. I thought, God, this is insane. That much protein is pro-inflammatory. It is pro-aging. They've shown that it will accelerate the aging process and depending on the context, in the right context, is pro-cancer. Too much protein, confuole cancer, just like sugar. Well, it turns to sugar, you know, gluconeogenesis. It just turns anything past anything you can use is just converted.

Starting point is 00:46:09 And it's not good. That's why people, I tell people all the time, when in doubt, eat a lot of fat. So it's obvious, Vinny, that you are on the same page as we are when it comes to nutrition and how we, we talk a lot about, there's so much, there was better advice 20 years ago than there is now when it comes to that. We also talk about that with lifting weights. And programming. We now days, it's so popular, you open up a muscle

Starting point is 00:46:35 in fiction magazine and you see these body parts splits and these guys hammering away at one body part. And what a lot of these young kids that are reading these magazines, I was one of these young kids that are reading these magazines, I was one of these kids that was trying to follow that is, you know, one, I'm not hopped up on that much gear, two, these guys are genetic anomaly. So I'm never gonna look like these guys,

Starting point is 00:46:54 lifting like these guys. And what we have found with training the thousands of clients, we trained that a full body routine tends to be superior for building muscle than these types of splits. Mainly because you get more frequency, more frequency stimulation, you get to focus on the important exercises. There was a period of time there where I was managing gyms in the 90s, early 2000s where

Starting point is 00:47:16 I'd be in a 40,000 square foot facility and there'd be one or two squat racks and nobody would use a machine. Oh right. Everybody was on the leg extension, everybody was on the, you know, maybe the lake press. Which makes no sense whatsoever. That's right. You know, I mentioned that in fitness confidential. You know, people say, oh, you didn't put enough

Starting point is 00:47:32 about exercises that, no, I put everything I had to put about exercise in that book. If you, if you tell people just do the, you know, just the average guy, do the compound movements. Right. Squats, lunges, lake press, debt left for the legs, lower back, upper body, bench press, incline press if you want to, dips if you want to, and then call it a day, if you want to really girl it up, do some

Starting point is 00:47:57 flies, and then for the back, pull down from over your head, and then pull to you and pull up, and're done. You know push pole legs done. It will give you everything you need. Now, if you want to be that bodybuilder type and you got to sit there and sit there, they got them, I can't imagine anyone doing that. I did it for years when I was younger and I'm like, why am I even doing it? It's not doing anything. Well, what I told a lot of people, because I went through the competing thing,

Starting point is 00:48:25 and I was living in the gym. When you're competing at the professional level, it becomes just like a sport, you know, and it is consumed my life. And I said, hey, listen, if you are in there seven days a week, one hour to two hours every day, like a lot of these pros are, then I get it while you're doing all these little tiny movements

Starting point is 00:48:42 and targeting the tiny rear delt and doing all this. But for the average guy or girl who's just getting in the gym and wants to build some muscle and burn some fat, there is a way better approach than fucking around with all these little movements. I mean, like you said, overhead press, squat, that's what we say, the big compound movement, sticking to those.

Starting point is 00:49:01 And then the way you progress is the frequency of it. You know, it's not about going to failure all the time and killing it in beast mode right you know more frequent in fact we also even talked to people about you know again I think there's this huge trend right now with the beast mode the no days off the balls of wall killing all this talk that we keep trying to tell people you know you're probably better off going to reps short of failure. So you don't do so much goddamn damage.

Starting point is 00:49:28 It hinders your workout for the next day. You know, like getting that across versus this hammering the, hammering the hell out of a body part, not touching it for an entire week because you're so damn sore and then try, and then you wonder why you're at this plateau because your body's stuck in this recovery truck. You're absolutely right.

Starting point is 00:49:43 That drives me nuts. The other one that drives me nuts is everybody's, oh, CrossFit and these. I knew I liked you. You know, I look at this CrossFit stuff. Number one, 99.9987. There you go. I love South Stake because I got to use the 8-7 more often.

Starting point is 00:50:07 Don't know. Can I say fuck on this? Oh yeah. Don't know what the fuck they're doing. Yeah, please. Yeah, I was in the gym the other day watching a guy showing a guy how to do CrossFit, the trainer. And I know you guys must argue about this, but the guy is doing a squat and he's all bent over and over and the trainer is on a cell phone. Oh God. I'm doing over and the trainer is on a cell phone. Oh, God.

Starting point is 00:50:25 I'm doing this and the whole thing. And I'm looking at it going, you're going to hurt the guy. The guy's getting hurt. He's not doing the right. And then you see him there with the ropes and beating on a fucking track guitar and flipping the tire over. And I'm sitting there looking at this going, you know, if you lift the tire up and roll it, it rolls a lot easier. You're

Starting point is 00:50:46 the caveman figure that shit out. You're trying to do it end over end. You're taking this backwards. We're not doing anything right here. So I'm looking at this going, number one, you're not doing anything. You're hurting people. But let's assume you're one of the 2.758 guys that didn't get hurt. Then you're not doing anything because if you're constantly taking people where they're burning all of their blood like a gen, then they now have to go and eat something with sugar in it to put it back on. I noticed this for the first time in the 80s when Jane Fondas aerobics came out. Everybody in New Orleans, I was in school and I was just saying all the time. Yeah. CrossFit when Jane Fondre's a Robics came out. Everybody in New Orleans, I was in

Starting point is 00:51:25 school and I was just out all the time. CrossFit and Jane Fondre. Just identical. For the first time. I'm making a t-shirt, by the way. Women were putting on these Leotards and going to these dance studios around New Orleans, and I was still in college and I was still doing all these labs, and my girlfriends would come to me and go, you know, I never used to have a craving for ice cream and cookies, but all I wanted to do is eat ice cream and cookies now.

Starting point is 00:51:49 And I looked around and I went, hmm, and you never exercised before now. That's right. And that's when I came up the theory of, you're burning up all of your blood like it, and your brain's going, feed me bitch. You know, what are you doing? So that's why I tell people, if you do zone two aerobics,

Starting point is 00:52:06 if you don't take it into the red line all the time on aerobics, you can literally burn fat without worrying about burning all you black glycogen. If you go to some morning boot camp with a guy driving a Hummer, I hope none of you guys drive Hummer. Because I'm looking at Justin. I was gonna talk to him.

Starting point is 00:52:24 I'm gonna talk to him. There is a chance he could because he's not he's not I'm talking to old style like you know Shwaznick a Arnold real hungry the hum V And you know these guys show up in a hummer I arrive inside Puzzies and you got these good you're not doing anything you're burning their sugar out You're hurting them you're sending them off worse than when they showed up and that's where I draw a line I have a problem of that. That's an interesting theory right there because I've never thought about And I'm sure you're familiar that there's this donut culture, and I'm sure Dunkin Donuts and every donut company is loving Crossfit for this because I mean I'm ch Chiropractor isn't physical therapy. Oh yeah right. Yeah, I love cross and I and I think that that's the that's the problem is

Starting point is 00:53:09 You've got a lot of these people these come that are making a shit ton of money off this That nobody wants to say that it's a could be bad thing, you know, all these people are getting so fit and they're able to eat I think there's also psychological component. I think when you train When you take the average person you train to that level of fatigue, they now psychologically believe that they earned. It becomes a reward to eat this, you know, whatever I'm going to eat now, because I just beat myself up and they don't realize that the calories in that donut equates to about six of those workouts, not one of them. But you see, you mentioned rewards, Al, and that's one of the things that I always talk about.

Starting point is 00:53:46 I was like, well, what do you want the reward to be? I would like the reward to be when I go on vacation, I can take my shirt off and not feel like a fat slop. The reward shouldn't be, we live in a world now where everybody wants that instantaneous reward. Amazon shows up at people's house every day. They buy shit on the internet just so something will show up.

Starting point is 00:54:07 We live in a society where people want it all right now. No one's willing to wait five minutes for anything. Right? And if that's what you're doing, and I'm hoping someone hears these words coming out of my mouth, because the reward shouldn't be, hey, I did this five minutes ago, give me a doughnut. The reward should be, I did this five minutes ago, give me a donut.

Starting point is 00:54:25 The reward should be, I did this five minutes ago, I'm gonna skip the donut. Next month, I'm going down to Santa Monica, and I'm gonna take my shirt off and maybe get laid. What was the study on the delayed gratification? Yeah, they've actually done the study with children where they'll present them with a treat, and they'll say, you can eat this now, or you can wait, and I don't know what the time

Starting point is 00:54:47 is, and you'll get two of them. And the kids have to wait a decent amount of time to get another one. And they follow these kids afterwards, and 10, 15, 20 years later, and they find that the ones, the kids that can actually delay gratification, far more of them become successful later on as adults. So it's actually a... in other aspects of their life. No, not those journey. But isn't everything in life that way?

Starting point is 00:55:11 Never think about it because anything that's worthwhile, going to college, delayed gratification, I know a lot of guys I went to high school with, they're like, screw that man, I'm going to work, I'm going to job in a plant making at the time, $17 an hour, that's in 1981, that was a lot of money. Screw that, I'm not going to college, what was that? Waste my time, but if you get a degree, you get to get out, now you have a lifetime of doors opening for you.

Starting point is 00:55:37 Sure. And a lot of guys, and they go through life like that. They'll go, I want a motorcycle today, when really what they want is a nice sports car, but they can afford the motorcycle today. It's the same thing as your candy, one piece now or a bigger piece later. Well, you get the motorcycle and chances are

Starting point is 00:55:56 you're gonna get an accident and you're gonna now screw up everything else. Maybe your life, your marriage, your job, everything else, because you can't walk. But nobody thinks about that in the moment. It's like, I can't afford this motorcycle now versus the sports carlet. And you can look at everything in life.

Starting point is 00:56:15 And everything like that works that way. Absolutely. Vinnie, I want to take you back to get your business because you had said how you became a celebrity trainer, you wrote your book, and you were going to tell us how you got online and how you do what you do now. Yeah, thanks for bringing that back because it's kind of a neat story. I wrote this book with Dean Laurie and Dean Laurie's with William Morrison Devert, the biggest agency in the world, right? And we took the book in there and they looked at it and we had a meeting and they said,

Starting point is 00:56:50 look, this book is great. We love this book, but we have a problem. We know who Vinnie is because he's been working with our clients for years. But we Google them, right, before this meeting, he does not exist on Google. Like his name Didn't even come up on LinkedIn or anything and I went yeah, that's by design because I work with celebrities and the last thing You want when you work with celebrities for anybody to know you shit all there, right? Right because Like I'm gonna name a celebrity. I never I've never worked with like if Britney Spears gets in trouble and You read the paper, source is close too.

Starting point is 00:57:28 Those sources are always a masseuse or a trainer. Period. Oh, that's interesting. And so I've always kept my list very quiet. But they said, you need to go online and figure out how to become famous. So I went home that night and I started looking up YouTube videos and stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:57:46 And there was a girl named Jenna Marbles. I don't know if you guys have heard of her. Oh yeah, yeah. She was the most famous, I literally googled, how to become famous online. You know, I put words like that into Google and I found Jenna Marbles and I found, and she was a hot chick sitting on the edge of a bed

Starting point is 00:58:04 in a bikini. And I went, okay, I'm not a hot chick sitting on the edge of a bed in a bikini and I went okay, I'm not a hot chick. I don't have a bikini. I have those skills, you know Sal will tell you as Italians we do have man style bikini Because it comes with he's wearing a pair right now with grapes on them The man and hammock he's all about we have to they're comfortable We feel naked with all huggers is what I call So you know, I'm looking at this and then I go to another video and just like some guys like duct tape the squirrel to a skateboard and pushing them down the street and two million

Starting point is 00:58:36 Like this is what I have to do and like take that PETA Yeah, I'm like I can't duct tape. I don't even have a squirrel Yeah, I'm like I can't duct tape. I don't even have a squirrel Have a squirrel. I'm looking around going I Called Dean and I said Dean. I can't become famous online. I don't have a skill. I don't even have duct tape So he said well, you need to go figure it out. Yeah, I'm busy over here So I was talking to a nephew and he said you should do a podcast and I said great What's that? How do you do that? He goes well you did a radio show back in the 80s before I left New Orleans I had a show called Talking Fitness where I was taking fitness to the airwaves and doing this kind of thing

Starting point is 00:59:18 Before anyone was doing it and it was a pretty popular show It was more than pretty it had really great great ratings. And he said, you could do that online. And I said, well, how much is that cost? And he goes, there's nothing. It's free. It's iTunes. Just, I went, well, how do you give it to iTunes? I didn't know any of this.

Starting point is 00:59:37 And pretty much six years later, I still don't know any of this. I went to a friend who had equipment because she was a voiceover person. I said to Anna Vocchino, I said, Anna, can you help me do a podcast? And she said, well, you can't do one. You have to do several, and you have to keep doing them. And this is the early days of podcasting.

Starting point is 01:00:01 Nobody was really doing it a whole lot. Nobody was taking it seriously. As, you know, so Anna and I did three a week at first and she told me she would help me for five or six, but a month later we're still doing them and we didn't know what our numbers were at first. We had no way because iTunes wouldn't tell you what your numbers are. They're still terrible. They're still terrible giving you a lot of the analytics. It's really, iTunes is crazy. And so finally, someone explained to me hook up to Lipson.

Starting point is 01:00:30 So we went to Lipson. And this was about six months in. And the first time we looked at our numbers, we were getting at the time about 50,000, 55,000 downloads a month. That's a lot for right out the gates. Well, it's supposed to be six years ago. Yeah, this was like six months down the road

Starting point is 01:00:47 And I said to Anna I went holy shit. She goes what? I said people are listening to us And she says yeah, I said yeah, but our last podcast we spent an hour coming up with every name we can think of for vagina We gotta tell him we said to the Sunsets. I want to have one of our first episodes was sparkly taste. Sparkly taste? Really? Hey guys, we were gay. Hey, we had to random topics.

Starting point is 01:01:14 You guys didn't think anyone was listening. No, we just shooted out there. We would have some drinks and just go back and forth and just have fun. We were just having fun. Wait, we could have had drinks in the spot. Oh, you thought she would. Well, now I know I would have done. We have to come fun. Oh, wait, we could have had drinks in this party. Oh, you thought she would, well, now I know I would have done it. We have to come back.

Starting point is 01:01:26 We have to do it again. Let's do this. But no, we were sitting there going gash, hatchet wound. Oh my gosh. We were like sitting there doing shit and, you know, bearded yo-yo. I mean, we will come out with a stuffed fur burger. Yeah, fur burger. And we were just going through the stuff

Starting point is 01:01:44 because we were pretty sure no one was listening, right? And Anna would throw out the seaword because women can say that word right now and We're doing this whole thing and it said Anna We have said some pretty raunchy shit and but we just kept doing it that way and Now Anna still does the Monday show is their original show It gets crazy downloads right out of the gate. I do a Wednesday show Which is by my company pure vitamin club and the Friday show is luminaries is where I bring doctors in and we talk about Real stuff not vegan fake stuff and the Saturdays is a Saturday listener calling show

Starting point is 01:02:24 And every other week I do a children show on Sunday since Vinny Sunday school not vegan fake stuff. And the Saturdays is a Saturday listener call and show. And every other week I do a children show on Sunday, since Vinny Sunday School. And we've sponsored up all the shows and they do well. And here we are six years later. And the book became, when the book came out. Because now you had the internet, Cloud, through the project.

Starting point is 01:02:42 We had some Cloud, yeah. As a matter of fact, my agent for the book from Levine Greenberg, Danielle Svetkov, when we went out and gave the book to all the big book companies, well, most of them turned you down because that's what they do. And two of them, Simon and Houston, Harper Wave, Harper Collins, came back and said, we love the book.

Starting point is 01:03:02 We want to do the book, but they both wanted to give me a two-book deal. They wanted me to split my book in half and flesh out the two halves. And I said, no, I like the book like this. What's the purpose of that? Why would they do that? Because that's a good question. I wrote part fitness book in part biography, and they didn't know which shelf to put it on

Starting point is 01:03:25 in the single bookstore that's left in the world today, Barnes and Noble. So I said, really, you guys that, that, for a side, you can't see what's right in front of you, right? And they said, no, we don't know which shelf it would go on. So I looked around and then they said, they want to give me $60,000 and I said, what am I supposed to do with that? Yeah, I have toilet paper. I can wipe my towel and they said, well, you don't you only have 60,000 followers. I said, 60,000

Starting point is 01:04:00 dollars. I said, yeah, that's probably eight or nine thousand followers. If those people buy that book, I can make more than 60,000 on my own. And then I listened to my words and I went, wait a minute. I just thought, oh, man, I can make all the money. So I self published. And it was the smartest move. And I'm telling all three of you guys, you have an audience, you have something going on. If you do a book, the stupidest thing you can do, even if because now, in my second book,

Starting point is 01:04:31 I've been offered three quarters of a million dollars, I won't take it. If you can self-publish a book, and you have an audience, and it's a good book, that book pays dividends. Month after month after month after month. Nevergreen. And it never stops. It's still on Amazon. The checks come in. It's mailbox money.

Starting point is 01:04:50 We teach, we tell people this all the time, that ask us for advice when getting started with a podcast was, you know, I don't know how many guides that we have. So we sell what we call fitness guides. So we create these online programs and nutrition guides and we've created all ourself and we sell it all ourself. And we tell them if it wasn't for that, if we relied on sponsors, we'd be fucking broke.

Starting point is 01:05:12 I mean, first of all, we didn't take any for the first half of the year, then when we finally did, barely paid for the damn lease for the building that we're in. So, I mean, if you think you're gonna get into podcasting and get rich off of sponsorship, you're in for one. That's right. You're not gonna get rich that way, where you're gonna get into podcasting and get rich off of sponsorship You're in for one right you're not gonna get rich that way where you're gonna make your money is if you actually create something yourself Whether it be programs or guides or a book but make sure you do that shit yourself We tell people that all the time yeah, you know the book is the one thing I sell everything at Vinny Toto Reese.com is free

Starting point is 01:05:40 As a matter of fact, I'm putting out is coming out next week, a 20-page free PDF because I own the term, I own the trademark NSNG, which has become this major brand now. You see all of it in internet, NSNG, NSNG. And I own that, and people are trying to figure out what it is. So I finally wrote the tone, the piece to, and I'm giving it out for free. It will never be sold. It will always be on VinnyTotary.com. So if anyone wants to go there,

Starting point is 01:06:12 it's gonna be free. But when is this coming out next week, a couple of weeks? Yeah, we could probably release in a week or two. Yeah, it will be out there. And finally, people can read exactly what it takes to lose weight, to be healthy, not to have a problem, because up until now, it's been piecemealed. And I feel like I've made enough money on the book.

Starting point is 01:06:35 I do Twitter for free every day. I do consults. I have to charge for that because it takes a lot of time. But between that and Amazon click-throughs, and we have two or three sponsors we have Thrive Market, Villa Capelli Olive Oil has been with us from the beginning. Oh man I want olive oil to sponsor us. Oh yeah. I know it's olive oil I eat it. I drink it. Yeah. I tell you to do that. I tell you to drink it.

Starting point is 01:07:00 Did your grandmother put her in your hair when you were a kid? Yeah. That's why they call us greasy Italian. Yeah. You go to school and you have grease coming out of your head. That's right. Yeah. And we have them. We have a bone broth company.

Starting point is 01:07:15 So the podcast does OK. And the clickthroughs and everything does OK. But if you try to explain that in a business school, they would say, OK, this model just does not work But for certain people it works if you have an audience if you have ears, right? Well, if you've created yourself as an authority too if you've given a good message you've given a lot of good free information And then if you also you can tell by the companies that you chose were sponsored by Thrive awesome company You know when you've done that there's not a lot of people

Starting point is 01:07:42 sponsored by Thrive, awesome company. You know, when you've done that, there's not a lot of people, which is again, what drew me to your podcast that have done that, have stuck with their integrity. It did not sell out to some supplement company that's pushing a bunch of propaganda and bullshit. And you're providing good information for people for free.

Starting point is 01:07:58 I think when you do that, you can make a very good living doing this if you do it well. But you don't need a million followers. You need a, you know, a very good living doing this if you do it well. You don't need a million followers. You need a thousand or a couple thousand of people that you're really impacting and really helping. And then you can do pretty well. Knowing that I think people then don't feel like they need to sell their soul.

Starting point is 01:08:17 You know what I mean? They can remain true to their integrity. So looking ahead in the future, what's in the future for you? I'm hoping to get laid. He's all the time is it? You're not tired from all of them years at Playboy God. I would think they would wear it. Let's just ramp them up. You know, I'm excited about the vitamin company.

Starting point is 01:08:40 We've been doing that for three years now. I literally started the vitamin company off of the book money. I've always wanted to do a pure supplement that didn't have any chemicals, didn't have anything except the pure vitamins in them. And we were able to do that with the multi-cap. We've done it again with the magnesium. We put four different types of magnesium in there. We made the first subling will be 12 on the market.

Starting point is 01:09:09 We cannot find another one, anything close to it. That is not hooked to a sugar cube. It dissolves off of a piece of calcium. Oh, interesting. We're proud of that product. From that money, we are creating pure coffee club, where I'm a big time coffee fan and have been my whole life so we're bringing in coffees from

Starting point is 01:09:30 around the world and just the highest in coffees and we're gonna do the same thing we're gonna sell them to people at the lowest possible price. Excellent, excellent, that's a pleasure man. Yeah, yeah, I have a great time with you Vinnie. 100% we'll do this again for sure. I'm glad we finally got connected, man. If you ever come up in the San Jose area, come hang out with us. We'll do some whiskey. Nice.

Starting point is 01:09:50 Yeah, our scotch. I like scotch, okay? I know that. Yeah, damn, we could have that. We could have that. But it's, it's minute afternoon, we can't drink with me anymore. Just wait till you come up to Mind Pump. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:10:01 I love to, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll have you out there for sure. Thank you, guys. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is I love you, man. I love you out there for sure. Thank you, guys. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes Maths and Abolic, Mathsad, maps performance and maps aesthetic.

Starting point is 01:10:25 Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbumble is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainer, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 605: Vinnie Tortorich- Trainer of Playboy Playmates & Hollywood Stars

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