Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #6 - 40th Birthday Edition! How I Got Into The Best Shape Of My Life, Best/Worst Guests Ever, The Undertaker

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

Welcome to a very special 40th birthday edition of #AskCVV! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions that were submitted on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from Insight listeners just like you and you sent in some GREAT ones this time around. This is a monthly tradition so if you have a question that you'd like answered in the next edition, just send it with the hashtag #AskCVV. Here is a look at some of the questions from this month: What does your workout split look like? Which interview changed the game for you? What is your favorite version of The Undertaker? And your favorite Undertaker match? What's the greatest lesson you learned in each decade of your life? What is an interview you would like to redo? Who is on your Mount Rushmore of guests you've interviewed? What is your advice for someone who wants to work in wrestling media? When are we getting the full circle Bobby Lashley interview? Do you have advice for someone who wants to be a pro wrestler? What's your favorite steak? What are FOUR things you're grateful for? Quote of the day: "Do not complain about getting old. It is a privilege denied to many" - Mark Twain For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! Oh, baby! Welcome to a very special edition of Insight with Chris Van Fleet. Yeah, that's me. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet. This is AskCV number six,

and it's a very special 40th birthday edition of the show. And I'm honored that you decided to spend a little bit of your day here with me on my very special day. You know, it's funny. One of my memories growing up was my dad's 40th birthday. I was eight years old. We threw a surprise 40th birthday party for him

and all of his friends, all of our family were there. And I remember they had this cake for him. And the cake was in the shape of a hill and there was this little figurine on it. He was just past the top of the hill. And the quote on the cake said, you're over the hill.

And then he was getting all these gifts that were referencing how old he was. I remember he had this shirt, this light, like, powder blue shirt that he would wear for years. And it said, 40 isn't old if you're a tree. And I remember, like, looking at that and thinking, like, my dad's not old. Like, what's with all these jokes about 40 years old being old? Even though I was eight, I was, like, very aware that my dad at 40 didn't feel old, especially when my grandparents at that time were, like, well into their 60s. And that's kind of how I'm.

feel right now. Like, I've got a lot of friends, relatives, colleagues, family members that are in their 40s and like, you know, joking and making, you know, complaining all the time about like, oh, is it you just wait till you get to 40. This happens, that happens, and this other thing happens. You just, you just wait. And sure, I know I've been 40 for a few hours at this point. But honestly, guys, I've never felt better in my life. there's nothing that I can't do at 40 that I couldn't do at 30 or 20. Like, there's nothing that I can't do.

And I know you've heard this before. And it's like this quote that is always around, but I feel it's so true. You're only as old as you feel. And if you approach every day of like, oh, man, I'm getting up there in age. Boy, I'm about to turn 33. I'm getting so old.

if you start to say those things, your mind is always listening to what you're saying. Your mind's always listening to that negative self-talk. So if you're always saying these things about how old you are and how old you feel, well, guess what? That's how you're going to feel. So here I am at 40.

If you've been following my journey on Instagram, I wanted to get into the best shape of my life at 40 years old. And there was someone that commented and they were like, you're getting into the best shape of your life at 40. Like, come on, dude. Like, what have you been doing the rest of your life? And it's like, no, you're missing the point here. You're missing the point.

Like, I'm raising the bar. I feel like I've always been pretty health conscious. I've been working out since I was 15. I feel like I'm in decent shape. Pretty good shape, right? I've always eaten like fairly well, although I've, you know, I've got a real soft spot for pizza and chicken wings. But the idea here was like,

to step that up. And someone's like, so this guy was saying, well, how are you possibly in better shape at 40 than any other like year? What have you been doing? And the answer is simple. Like, I've been prioritizing sleep, which I certainly didn't do in my 20s in college in the years that, you know, came after that. I have been prioritizing eating better. And that's not to say that I don't enjoy a bag of salt and vinegar chips because I love salt and vinegar chips. It's not to say that I don't enjoy a pound of chicken wings because I love hot wings. It's not to say I don't enjoy a few slices of pizza because, you know me. And by a few slices, I mean an entire large pizza. But it's to say that I'm prioritizing the quality of food that I'm putting in when I'm not having a

cheat meal. And during this whole process, if you've seen the photos, I posted the before and after photos of what I looked like 13 weeks ago when I began this journey and what I look like now, I've been eating six meals a day, seven days a week. That is 42 meals in a week. I will say that I was pretty good on almost all of those. I did this for 13 weeks. It's like 540-something meals. I probably strayed, you know, five-ish, ten-ish times.

So, like, that means that in the last 13 weeks, I ate 530, like, very clean meals that were given to me directly from my amazing coach, A.J. Sims at Cement Factory on Instagram. He is so, so good. If you've seen the shape that Johnny Gargano or Tomaso Chompah or Apollo Cruz or Moose, just to name a few, the type of shape that they got into, Drake Maverick, that was all because of the help and the guidance that came from AJ. So he's so, so good. So check him out at Cement Factory on Instagram. But the point here is there's a lot of things I'm consciously intentionally doing now that I was not doing in the years before this. It's waking up every day and walking, moving my body. I've been on the treadmill for 25 to 35 minutes every morning. Boom. Second, I wake up. That's what I do. Well, actually, I hydrate first.

Boom, then cardio. Then it's the cold plunge. Then it's some red light therapy. And then it's some Wim Hof breathing or something like that. Like consciously, intentionally making the decisions to do this, consciously, intentionally setting my alarm to wake up at 5.30 or 6 o'clock, which means consciously, intentionally going to bed at 9 or 930 or even earlier, if that happens to be the case. All of this is to say that your decisions shape your destiny. I'll say that again. Your decisions shape your destiny. So if you want to be the type of person who feels better, we'll start doing the type of things that a person who would be healthier would be doing in their life. Make those decisions and then you're controlling your destiny.

So we got a ton of questions here for the 40th birthday edition of Ask CVV. So we're going to get to as many of these as we can. And if you want to jump in on the next version, on the next edition of Ask CVV when we do it in June, just send me a message using the hashtag at CVV. on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram. We're pulling questions from all of these. So let's dive right into this. Well, this one seems actually pretty fitting

based on everything I was just talking about here. This is from Sam at SMDWSN on Twitter. What is your current workout split? And more importantly, do you have any advice on how to keep yourself motivated in the gym, from your personal experience, at least? Also, wishing you a very happy 40th birthday. Well, thank you so much, Sam.

I appreciate that. The workout split, been, it's pretty basic. So I'm either doing one of two things here. It's either the push pull type of workout. So push would be like chest and triceps, pull would be back and biceps, and then shoulders and legs. That's been a really big part of what I've been doing in the gym. Although recently, especially over these last few months, I've been bringing this up like a bodybuilder style of workouts. So chest, one day, boom, that's it. Heavy chest, lots of reps. very heavy weight chest back been another day you know you you pound that all out back that's done

arms and shoulders were one day quads were one day so i split up legs quads were one day hamstrings were also one day so it was five days a week in the gym i did cardio six days a week and then i had one full day of rest where i just really didn't do anything and a really big thing that i did and was really conscious and intentional about, especially over the last three months, over these last 13 weeks, was seeing how many steps that I took in a day. And I've never been a step counter at all. I don't, I used to wear a whoop. You might have seen that in some previous interviews that I did. I wore a whoop for almost two years. And I liked it, but I just didn't feel like I was getting the most out of it. And I didn't feel like it was worth the subscription fee. So I don't wear a whoop anymore. But as you know, if you have an

iPhone and tracks your steps pretty accurately, if you open up the health app, and I don't a lot of people don't know this. I didn't know this for years, but if you open up the health app, it's the heart, I guess image, like the heart little thumbnail there. I don't know what I'm trying to say, but you know what I mean? It's the heart app icon. That's what I mean. And you go in there, you can see how many steps you've taken. So I thought I was pretty active. I'd go to the gym. I would, you know, walk here and there. I would walk in the treadmill. And I thought, oh, I'm pretty active. And I was walking like maybe seven, eight thousand steps a day. Then I started like being in intentional about it. And that was what really changed things for me. I was doing probably 12 to 15,000

steps a day. So that's walking on, you know, doing cardio, some hikes. And look, there's nothing better than moving your body. There's no better feeling than moving your body and the residual effects, all of the positive residual effects that you get from that. So that's been part of my workout split, but I will say that more importantly, it's about what you're eating. It's about eating real foods and not processed foods, that's been the biggest part of this whole thing. So thank you for the question, Sam. Thank you for the birthday wishes. Steve NPA says, in this crazy rocketing interview career,

what was the discussion or the contact that changed the game? Also, what part of your life forces you to stay humble? I will say that there's been a lot of big interviews. There's been a lot of interviews where I'm like, oh my gosh, that person actually said yes. I can't believe it. But there was one, I've been doing interviews. in my career, like I started my television career in 2005, started the YouTube channel in 2011,

just kind of posting interviews here and there of just like celebrities that I was so fortunate to be able to spend some time with. But the interview that I think really changed it, at least in the perception of YouTube, was the interview I did with Chris Jericho in 2019. And it was right after the big announcement that Chris Jericho was going to be part of AEW. and you might not remember how big of a deal that was. Chris Jericho was tried and true a WWE guy for the previous 20 years before that. Whether he was signed with the company or not, he was actively always like a WWE guy. You thought of Chris Jericho as being one of the biggest names in WWE in the last 20 years.

And then for that announcement to come out and for him to be the big name that Tony Khan had signed for this new wrestling company called All Elite Wrestling, that was a big deal. And I had a mutual friend of Chris Jericho's who had connected us together. And I reached down to Jericho and I said, would you want to do this interview? He was doing a live podcast, about almost four hours away from where I was doing it, where I lived in Florida. And he was like, sure, if you want to come up here, we can definitely do the interview. So I went up, I drove up.

And this is a big thing I was talking about. If someone says yes, that's all you should need. Someone says, yes, find your way to make this thing happen. So he said yes, and I said, good enough. Drove up four hours. We did the interview, the infamous interview in the back of his car. And that interview very quickly got like a million views. And it was the first real time that he had opened up about why he was not signing with WWE

and why he was signing with this new company. And that interview, even though my YouTube channel at that point was like, how would we have been? I think I just hit 100,000 subscribers. the podcast, the YouTube channel, the podcast hadn't started yet. The YouTube channel was like, seven years old.

Yeah, YouTube channel was seven years old. But that was the interview that got on so many people's homepage, and my subscribers from there just like skyrocketed. So I'd say that that's a really big one that changed the game for me, at least in terms of people perceiving me as someone who interviewed wrestlers. Because up to that point, the only interviews I had really done were,

when people happened to be in town and they were promoting raw or smackdown or impact, or when there was an indie show, and I was able to go to an indie show and, like, interview one of the big names that was there. So, like, I'd done lots of other wrestling interviews, but that was a wrestling interview that I think got on a lot of people's radar. So that would be the one that I go with. Also, I think just personally, like, the first interview I did with The Rock was really cool. It's like, oh, my gosh.

Not only am I talking to The Rock, the person who I've always wanted to, talk to the number one person on my bucket list for interviews, but I'm talking to The Rock backstage at Raw. That was so cool. So that interviews on my YouTube channel if you want to check that out back in 2012. Man. The second part of your question, what part of my life forces me to stay humble? I would just think that that's like, anybody who owns a dog can relate to this. There's something about picking up your dog's shit where you're just like, uh-huh, yep. That's so humbling no matter who you are. And I think that, you know, I'm a few days away here or maybe a week away from our daughter coming. The due date, by the way, is May 21st. But here I am May 19th,

and the baby's not here yet. So I think that when the baby comes and you're wiping up and cleaning up and changing diapers, that will be very, very humbling, I think. So thank you for the question, Steve and PA. Okay. Adam Wilson, 82. with a few Canadian flags. Here, I like that. Yeah, Adam says, first of all, happy birthday, dude.

My question is, what is your favorite iteration of The Undertaker and favorite Undertaker match? This is my favorite version of Taker and my favorite match is the first Hell in a Cell with,

is the first Hell on a Cell with HBK. Okay. I think that for a lot of people, the Undertaker match that comes to mind is Mankind and the Hellen of Cell, but I think that the best Undertaker match is,

Sean Michaels, WrestleMania, like that the match is just so, so good. I don't know how Dave Meltzer didn't give that five stars. That's something I'd scratch my head about all the time, but that I digress that as a conversation for another time.

My favorite iteration of The Undertaker is like that late 90s, right before the corporate ministry. I liked that, like, dark version of The Undertaker. Corporate ministry got, like, really dark. Like, certain, like, It was like sacrificing people like, crucifying them.

Like that wouldn't fly in 2023 television. But right before the corporate ministry, Undertaker, I liked that. And this is going to be a maybe controversial opinion, but I was not really a fan of the American badass. I was not a fan of the biker taker. It just didn't seem like Undertaker to me. I don't know.

Maybe you share that same opinion. Maybe not, but it just wasn't, it wasn't my favorite. And when he finally did come back as a dead man, I was like, yes, that's the undertaker that we know and love. Jay Cravalho. Thank you so much. At Viper, Assassin, Y.T.

Happy birthday, Chris. By the time that you read this, it'll be your birthday. It is my birthday. Thank you so much, Jay. How do I get into journalism and do interviews that you do, like podcasting and interviewing, crow wrestlers, celebrities, etc.? The only obstacle I have is that I have a speech impediment. So do you have any tips or advice

for an aspiring journalist like myself. I say this frequently, and I know that it sounds so simple and basic, but you really just have to start. And if you want to interview pro-wrestlers, I'm sure that there's a pro-wrestling school or indie federations that run in your area. Go to them if you haven't yet.

Go to a local indie show. Tell the promoter, here's who I am. I'm passionate about, journalism, and passionate about broadcasting, interviewing, whatever it is, a passion about content creation, would it be okay with you? If I interviewed two or three of your top wrestlers and I put them on my YouTube channel, no promoter is going to say, oh, no, no, thank you. No, I'm good. So I would say take the opportunities that are in front of you and build on those. Take the, anybody who will say yes, take those opportunities and do with them what you can and continue.

to build on those. And if you have a speech impediment, I don't think that that should be something that stands in the way at all. It's probably something that over time you can continue to work on, but I wouldn't let that stand in the way. The world has all different shapes and sizes and types of people that I think that if you were putting your stuff out there, I think it would inspire other people who may have a similar thing that they're dealing with. But the biggest thing is take the opportunities that are in front of you. Whatever town or city you live in, whatever country it is that you live in, there are opportunities all around us all the time. So go out there and start telling some stories because that's what content creation is really about. It's about telling

stories. So thank you for the question, Jay. Joey Carney from the Angle podcast at the Angle Radio says, what's the greatest life lesson you learned in each decade of your life? Oh my gosh. That I should have prepared. I should have read this before and figured out like a super insightful, pun intended, answer to this. But I'll give my best shot here. So I would say for the first decade in my life, like, I mean, you're really just doing what you can, right? I would say for the first decade of my life, it was trying new things, right? Trying new things.

Started out playing T-ball. I then started playing hockey when I was six years old. I played like every sport possible in elementary school from basketball to volleyball. Pretty good dodgeball player. I don't say so myself. Kickball, which in Canada we call soccer baseball. I want to move to the U.S.

and people started talking about kickball. I'm like, what are you talking about soccer? Like, no, they're like, no, you bowl the soccer ball, but you kick it and then you run the bases. I'm like, oh, soccer baseball. They're like, no, it's called kickball. But trying new things, I think, was that first decade. the second decade, which would be 10 to 19, was finding your passion.

Because I think for me, that was the biggest thing. It was like leaning into the things that I really enjoyed. That was, yeah, that was so much of that time. That's when I even discovered that my high school had a communication studies class. That's when I was like, yeah, it would be really cool. I know it seems like a huge, massive goal that I might not be able to attain, but I had this dream and this goal of like, I want to work on TV or on the radio one day. And I'm going to chase after that, which I think then, as I'm saying it out loud, leads to the next lesson, which was between my 20s and 30s, which was take chances. And the only reason that I am talking to this microphone right now and that were communicating at all, that I even have a podcast, that I've been fortunate at all to do

anything that I've done on television or radio or any of the interviews that I've done is because I took chances. And throughout my 20s, I was like, what's the worst that can happen? If I email the station manager or if I email the news director at a TV station or the general manager at a radio station and they don't respond or they say no, that's a okay. Move on to the next one and just like search for my next yes. And I think there's a lot of people that get so freaked out by the idea that someone might say no, that they don't even bother asking the question. So ask the question is another lesson I think I learned in my 20s. It's just like, go for it. Because the worst thing that can happen is no. So that was a big lesson. And a lot happened

to my 20s. Like I graduated from college in my 20s. I got my first internship, which turned into a job in Peterborough, Ontario, driving 100 kilometers each way, which is 60 miles, an hour each way. And to pay for the gas for that internship, I was working my old high school job in the fish department of a pet store at the mall, PJ's Pet Center, Pickering Town Center. So good. And then that job got me enough experience that I got a job on MTV to Canada, picked up my entire life, drove it 47 hours across the country, started a brand new life in Vancouver, British Columbia. That show got canceled. This is all in a nutshell here. After a year, that show got canceled. So I'm interviewing celebrities as a musician, playing video games at work and reviewing them. And then one day, boom, the show just gets canceled because one big media company bought another media company and they had to get rid of some budget. They had to free up some budget.

drove 47 hours back, moved back in with my parents after being on TV for two and a half years, unemployed for seven months, find a job in Toronto eventually, get hired hosting a show called Inside Jam on Sun TV. I get to, at that show interview, Oprah, cover the Toronto Film Festival, like all this amazing stuff. I do that job until I'm 26, finally get a job from that in the U.S. I get a job in Cleveland as an entertainment reporter for the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, do that job into my late 20s. And then I'm ending this decade here. I get a job in Miami at the Fox affiliate there.

And that was my 20s. It was like the highest of the highs and the very lowest of the lows. So the next decade, 30s to 40s, that's a tough one because I'm just ending that one now. I feel like there were so many lessons learned. earlier on. But I think one of the biggest lessons learned was a lesson that John Sina told me. Three words, I repeat them frequently. It's control the controllable. I think I had a real habit earlier on in my life about getting mad about things that I had zero control over, getting mad about people doing things that I took personally. And I realized that's another, I guess,

another lesson in my 30s is not to take things personally. The four agreements is such a powerful book. If you've never heard of it, spend a little bit of time just, even if you just read the like the Cliff Note version of this, it's so powerful. It's four agreements that if you can make these with yourself every single day, I've talked about the book before, but if you can make these agreements with yourself every single day and everything that you're doing, it makes life just so much easier. So the four agreements are never take anything personally. Always do your best. Be impeccable with your word. And I'm always, always forget the fourth one. Hold on. The impeccable with your word. Don't take anything personally. Don't make assumptions. Always do your

best. So there we go. Great question there. Appreciate all these are great questions. Appreciate you sending that in. Daniel Donovan at Lonewolf DD01. What's an interview you would like to redo? Not necessarily saying it's bad, but like what would you do differently? I mentioned that first interview with The Rock. And I'm so fortunate to say that I've interviewed The Rock 10 times now. Not that I'm counting or anything.

I always say that. But when I think back to the first interview, it was 2012, and I feel like he was just on the... husp of becoming the Dwayne Johnson powerhouse that we know him as now. Because, yeah, sure, he had the game plan, Race to Witch Mountain and the Tooth Fairy and be cool. But it wasn't really till 2012 when he kind of came out and became like the rock that we know now, which was G.I. Joe 2, Fast and Furious 5, pain and gain, like that really set him on the path that

he's on now. So when I interviewed him, I was very much expecting, like, The Rock. Like, I was expecting him to, like, have, like, fun with me. Like, I guess, like, what he's done in the last few interviews we've done together. But I, like, if you watch it back, I tried to have, like, a stare down with him. I'm like, oh, yeah, like, what's a tip for, like, having a great stare down? You're so good at these in the ring stair downs. And he's like, oh, just like intensity, you know, you like, look at the guy, you know, look him straight in the eye. And I was, I was expecting and hoping for him to like be like, oh, here, let me show you. Yeah, look, look at me right in the aisle.

Let's do this right now. And I think I was trying way too hard to look for those moments and trying to create those moments that maybe weren't necessarily there. So that's one I'm, I'm grateful for how that interview happened and came together. That was so, so cool. But if I could go back, I probably wouldn't have tried so hard to make that interview about about a moment. That's really it.

But I really have no regrets. in life. Like, you can't go back and change anything. So what's the point of even, like, thinking about it and talking about it. Like, it's happened. It's in the past. Control the controllable, right? Does move on and just do with it what you can. So that would be one that I would just change. But more for personal reasons than anything else. Rees Hollian says, if you could have a Mount Rush more of guests that you've had on your channel, what would it be? Oh, man, this is another one where I wish I had like gone in had an answer ready for you and it was like super insightful again pun intended let me think here and this is going to be all guests okay across like all different you know

sources of entertainment so the rock is for sure on there that's you've been my number one favorite person to talk to so the rock the rock's up there definitely um Mount Rushmore my goodness The Undertaker, and that's like a pretty recent one, that one's one of my favorites. And the way that that just kind of came together, they were like, hey, there's a possibility to interview the Undertaker next week. Like, stay tuned. And I was like, okay. And then they were like, all right, the Undertaker interview is happening tomorrow morning.

And I was like, oh, okay. Oh, my gosh, this thing's happening. I better like, put some questions together and figure this out. But Mark Calloway is so awesome and so humble. in that conversation, even though it was only like 20 minutes, was one of those that's meant so much to me in my career. And if you remember at the end of that career, he's like, hey, let's do this again sometime.

I mean it. I'm a man of my word. And then after that interview, I saw that he followed me back on Twitter. And I was like, oh, my gosh, the Undertaker is following me on Twitter. That's pretty cool. And I shot him a quick message. And I just said, hey, thank you so much. It was such a great conversation.

I really appreciate you. and he wrote me back and said thank you that was that was a really great interview and i mean what i said about doing another one and i was just like wow that is so cool so that that was one that's definitely on that mount rushmore so there's two wrestlers tom cruise was definitely one of them then i got to interview him on the red carpet for mission impossible six in paris the eiffel towers right behind us I mean, Tom Cruise is the last remaining movie star, in my opinion. And, I mean, just look what he's doing in Mission Impossible 7. Dead Racketing Part 1 with that motorcycle off the cliff that turns into a base jump.

Oh, my gosh. Unbelievable. So, I mean, Tom Cruise, would be able to spend a few minutes with him. That was a really, really big one. So we've got the Rock. We've got The Undertaker. We've got Tom Cruise. And I'm going to go with Oprah.

It was a quick interview. It was over 10 years ago. But there's something so inspiring about what Oprah has done and what she's built, considering especially where she came from. And Oprah is just such a great communicator. And the way she looks you in the eye when she's talking to you, the way she, like, grabs your arm or puts her hand on your shoulder, it's very inviting. and it's very intimate.

And that's something that I will never forget. So there you go. There's my four big guests that I've done interviews with and super grateful to even be able to list those names off. That was, thank you. Thank you for that question. Omer Haggomer. Did I say that right?

What's your advice for someone who wants to work in the wrestling media scene? I think kind of like what I was saying. saying before is like take the opportunities that are in front of you. Take the opportunities that you have, whether that's, if you want to do interviews, interview literally anybody who will say yes, whether that's at a local independent wrestling show, whether that's you sending out DMs or emails to independent wrestlers or wrestlers that are currently working. Take all those opportunities. I would also say write an article or two, write a review of a show or two or three. Send them off to some of your favorite wrestling websites and just say, hey, I love doing this. This is my work.

Could I just get a little bit of feedback from you if you have a few minutes? And you'd be surprised at how many writers or maybe it's someone who's like an editor for one of these websites. You'd be surprised at how many of these people will get back to you. So I would say that that's a great piece of advice there. It's just like, do the work and then try to bounce this off of people who are actually in the industry that are doing it right now. And I think there's too many people that are going, I won't do the work until I earn X amount of dollars here. No, no, that's not how this works.

Do the work first. Show what you're capable of doing. Show your value. Always lead with value. Show your value first. And then that can lead to other things after that. Mike Lewis official. When are we getting the full circle?

Bobby Lashley interview. Oh, man. I think soon. I think we can make this happen soon. So for those of you who don't know what we're talking about here, my very first wrestling interview ever was 2007. Bobby Lashley, he was the ECW champion of the time. I was living in Vancouver. I was working at MTV to Canada, the story I was just telling you about. And I did that interview with him. It's online if you want to check it out. It's not great. It's okay. but it's not great. I will say Bobby Lashley looks like he hasn't aged like a minute since that interview 15 years, 16 years ago. But he commented on something that I did. Bobby Lashley commented on Instagram and I saw like that he's following me on Instagram. So I shot him a little message and I said, hey man, it's been a long time. We should do another interview. And he's like, yeah, man, anytime, any place. And I'm like, oh, like, really? He's like, sure. So there's a few avenues where this may happen. And this is also something, some insight you might get here if you're looking to do more interviews

or be a content creator. But I was like, well, I'll be at SummerSlam. Maybe we could do it in person at SummerSlam. So maybe that's a possibility. Also, he had some stem cell work done with Bioaccelerator. And I've done a little bit of work with Bioaccelerator. I interviewed their CEO on the show. You might remember that from last year.

I interviewed Frank Meir, who had a lot of stem cell work done with Bioaccelerator. So he talked about that. Kurt Engel talked about that when I had him on the show. So Bio Accelerator actually may connect us together. So we can talk about his journey with Bio Accelerator and stem cells and how he's still capable of doing what he's doing well into his 40s now, which is amazing. It looks like a million bucks. So let's just say that may happen, hopefully sometimes soon. Legendary John T.

How you doing, man? Not a question, but just wanted to say that you inspired me to get in the best shape of my life. Dude. Wow. That is so cool. I'm really proud of you, man. And it was so good to see you the other day at Vaughn's. Look, I think that everybody, maybe not, you know, maybe don't try to get in the best shape of your life.

It's a big, big goal. But I think that everybody should be doing something every single day to try to get just a little bit better. Just a little bit better. Because if you can be a little bit better today and then a little bit better tomorrow, and then a little bit better the day after that, it just keeps building on itself. So, man, I'm proud of you. That's amazing. And I feel so good right now.

I feel like I look like a million bucks too. Woo! If you haven't checked out these photos that I'm talking about, please go peep them and you'll see what I'm talking about but man that's awesome Wes de giraffe 69 what a name Wes de giraffe 69 do you have any advice for someone who wants to be a wrestler well I used to want to be a wrestler and I trained to be a wrestler so I will say that the first thing you should do is find a wrestling school in your area find a reputable wrestling school in your area that has a reputable trainer. It's someone who has actually maybe done

some things that you've heard of. Someone's going to train you the right way. If that's not the case, I would say find a school that you could go to and maybe even live at if you have the means to do that. Like, obviously can't recommend flatbacks enough, Sean Spears and Tyler Breezes School in Central Florida. They will let you live there, like live in the area and then go to their school. Lance Storm School also does the same thing. Before you get in there, I would say, if you're not already, start working out. Like, this is one of the biggest things. I'm not a current wrestler, right?

I'm not a wrestler at all. But this is one of the things that blows my mind is how many people just kind of skip that step of like getting into shape. And I'm not talking about like you're going to look like Brock Lesnar or Hulk Hogan. Like, you're not going to have muscles upon muscles. but I'm just saying like get your cardio up. If you're not already, start doing some sort of workouts. Start running.

Start doing burpees. If you can't afford a gym membership, start doing body weight exercises, air squats and pushups and pull-ups. And it just blows my mind how many people just skip right past that and think like, oh, I can just lift up 200 or 250 pound men without ever having to, you know, lift the weight in my life. And it's just like, I don't get that. you've watched wrestling your whole life,

which is why you want to be a pro wrestler. You know what wrestlers look like, so do the work. So that's the advice that I would have. Beast Kevin, what did you do throughout the years to look young? I'm sure you kept stress levels to a minimum. That is, that's very kind.

Thank you. I mean, I think I owe the majority of however I look right now to my parents and just good genetics. but I guess something I said at the start of this episode was I've been really good at least recently of prioritizing sleep. I've also been drinking less now than I've ever drank in my life. Look, I had fun. I had fun in college.

I've always enjoyed a good Moscow mule. Always enjoyed a good old fashion. I have always enjoyed a nice spicy margarita. And I've always had a great time at a brewery. So I have not been, I still enjoy going to all these places and I still enjoy a drink here and there. But I used to have, for me, it was like it was zero or a hundred. I was either having zero drinks or I was having like nine drinks and just, you know, having fun with my friends and enjoying a night out. And so I think that that's been a big part of it.

But like a sleep schedule, I think, really helped too. Like going to bed at a time that begins with a 10-ish and waking up. a time that begins at a six-ish for me has been really helpful. It depends on, you know, the type of job that you have and, you know, how many kids you have and all, you know, so many different factors here. But I don't think that going home and staring at blue lights for hours and hours after you get home from work is a super smart thing to do. And that's something that I've been taking out of my life a lot. And I drink a ton of water. I was here Tom Brady talking about, He's like gallons and gallons and gallons of water that he drinks all the time.

And I think that that plays a huge factor here. And I'm actually drinking, I've taken a few breaks. I'm taking a drinking some water right now. Like right here. There's another gulp of water as we keep going here. So I would say, first of all, just thank you. And I also, yeah, try to keep stress levels to a minimum by, you know, remembering that John's seen advice of like control the control. controllable. Like, why am I going to, like, get so upset and freak out about something I

have no control over? Easier said than done. I get that. But, like, I'm not going to bother myself with somebody else's problems. I think that that's been a big part of it for me, too. Matt Forbes, 57, do you have any advice or recommendations for how I could lose some weight at home? I think a lot of it comes down to diet. I listen to you. it off some things you could do at home like body weight exercises. There are so many good body weight exercises that you can do at home that are on YouTube. And I think we all learned that during 2020 and 2021 when we couldn't go to a gym. There's a lot of great workouts, which I think help and move your body. I think just walking or running, that helps a lot. But I think the biggest

thing that you can do at home is don't keep snacks around. Like if you do, if you do, you don't don't, if you don't want to eat ice cream, maybe don't have ice cream in your house. If you don't want to eat potato chips, don't have potato chips in your house. If you don't want to eat processed foods, just don't have processed foods in your house. And like, I know there's this weird stereotype, this weird misnomer that, like, eating healthy is expensive. And I can tell you from the 540 meals that I ate over the last 13 weeks, that breakfast for me was like, egg whites and toast, like egg whites and Ezekiel bread. I don't know. What's that cost? Like a $1.40? That doesn't sound expensive. My next meal was like rice and ground turkey. Oh boy, what do you think

that costs? Maybe a $1.60? The meal after that was like ground beef and rice with maybe a little bit of vegetables in there. Well, that meal might have been close to $1.80 or $1.90. Like this whole idea of like, oh man, you ate six meals a day? That's crazy. What are you rich or something? Uh, no. Far from it. But this idea that eating healthy is expensive needs to go away. There are so many ways that you can eat healthy on the cheap. And eggs are a great one. Ground turkey, lean ground turkey, rice, vegetables, fruits, drink water instead of pop. That's probably the biggest one. Yeah, Matt, that's a great one. Yeah, Matt, that's a great one. probably the biggest one is if you drink soda or if you drink juices replace those with water

and you'll see a huge huge difference at least from my experience and good luck with with your journey there i know it's not easy but again just like things that you do today are going to help you tomorrow and then you know that just kind of compounds on itself yeah frankie boy squirt any interviews that went awry but you just kept going with it to witness the chaos yes go check out my interview with Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal. And they were just kind of like very playful that day. But I went in there and I don't even think I was able to really get a question off. They were just joking with each other and having all kinds of fun.

And yeah, it just went completely off the rails like immediately. So go check that one out. I just kind of sat there as a spectator and just watched. just watch to kill off the rails. So that's one to go check out for sure. Rich Graham. Oh man, Rich, it makes me so happy to see that you're asking these questions for these Ask CVV episodes. Rich is one of my college buddies.

We lived on the same floor together in residence when we were together at first year university. At Wilford-Lorea University, in Waterloo, Ontario. he lived in Willison 2A North. Willison's name of the building. Two way north was our floor. Rich, love you, ma'am. You asked, favorite steak. And Rich, you would know you worked for a barbecue company for 20 years.

You'd know a thing or two about steak. Bone and ribby is my go-to. And I like it a little more cooked than I think you're supposed to. I like it medium. And I know that some people are like, oh, man, it has to be medium, rare or just rare. I like a medium. I like a little bit of pink in there. But, yeah, bone and ribby, and you know better than anybody, rich.

That bone, the way that the juices flow out of that bone into the steak. So good. So good. And I'm saying this now, knowing that my wife, Rachel and I are going out for my birthday in like half an hour. We're going to Orange Hill restaurant here. It's a beautiful steakhouse. Look it up if you have a second. I know I'm going to eat a bone and rib eye.

So I'm like kind of salivating as I'm saying this here. Man. A crow, 09-51. If doing this for your career didn't work out, what was your fallback option? Boy, that is a, that's a great question. All of these have been great questions. But I don't really think I had a fallback option. And I think that that's one of the reasons that I was able to just kind of keep going.

because there were a lot of setbacks. A lot of setbacks. When I first graduated from Wilford-Lorea University with my communication studies degree, no one wanted to give me an internship. No one certainly wanted to give me a job. And it would have been so easy for me to be like, well, I sent out 20 resumes and nobody got back to me.

So anyway, I'm going to go do this other thing. But I was just so passionate about broadcasting and telling stories and the idea of possibly working on radio or TV, whether that was on camera or on the air or behind the scenes. And I've talked about it before, but like when I first got into the industry, I did every job behind the scenes. One of my first jobs while I was still in school was a board operator at an AM radio station in Kitchener, Ontario.

I also volunteered at Rogers Community Television where I was doing everything behind the scenes. I ran cameras there. I was a floor director, VTR operator. I did audio. I did everything. And I just loved being there. I loved the idea that like, this is the cool thing about TV

and certainly crosses over to content creation too. There's nothing better than like doing the thing, which means like actually being on camera or like hitting record. And then later on that day or sometimes live, seeing it actually play out. Like it's so rewarding to see your work like on display. And that was one of the things I loved so much about Broadway. podcasting. So I think that if it didn't work out for me in one aspect of this, I was just going to find

another path to make this work. And that was just something I was so driven by. So it was like if this TV station said no, I would try with this other one. And if this other one said no, I would try with this other one. And if that one said no, you get the point. So I just honestly can't see myself wanting to do anything else. I've been so fortunate to do this. Although I will say that now, now that I've been, you know, an entrepreneur for the last seven years,

I have a fishing company. Woo! Tungsten. We sell tungsten fishing weights. I've definitely got a taste of like, I love business and I love creating a business and growing a business. That will definitely be an aspect that I will continue to build on. And I've got some things kind of in the world.

which we'll be diving into soon. And also like also sidebar off of that. I get a lot of messages about people who want to start a YouTube channel, who want to become better interviewers, who want to start a podcast. And I'm building something out so that we can work together so that you can build your podcast with me, build your YouTube channel with me. So hang tight. I'll have some more info on that in the next hopefully few, I'd say months, a few months.

a few months, but thank you for that one. This is wrestling film. T-I-W film says, as it's your 40th birthday, a huge, huge, happy birthday. What are four things you are most grateful for? Cheers, Martin. And then there's a cake emoji and a balloon emoji. Martin, thank you for the big birthday wishes.

I love this question. Four things that I'm grateful for. As you know, I wake up every day and I say three things. that I'm grateful for out loud. So you're adding on an extra one here for my 40th birthday. Okay. I'm grateful for my health. Health is first.

Number two, so grateful for family. And that's everybody. Mom, dad, my sister Kimberly, her family. Obviously, my beautiful, amazing wife, Rachel, and her family, my in-laws, so grateful for my family. And I just have the best partner in Rachel, like the best partner. Rachel Van Fleet, 10-10. Incredible. I love her so much and so, so grateful that she's in my life.

Number three, I'm grateful for our little girl, and she's not here yet, but we just had a doctor's appointment. She's very big. She's very healthy, and she'll be here. Man, she might be here by the time the next podcast episode comes out. Wow, and I'll start crying if I think about this. So grateful for her, and I'm grateful for all of you guys. like so grateful that we live in a time right now

where all of this is possible. The fact that, you know, you can get a microphone and can hit record and you can put it out there for literally the whole world to see. There is endless potential on the other side of this microphone and on the other side of a camera if you're filming something. And I love that that exists right now. You're no longer held back by like,

well, this TV show goes out, but it's only seen by, this amount of people in this market or this TV show goes out and it's only seen by this many households in the country or whatever. That doesn't exist anymore. Like, I know that people are listening to this all over the world. That is so, so cool. And a great way to wrap this up, too. Super grateful for all of you. Thank you for the amazing questions. We went quite a bit longer on this Ask CVVV than we have with any other one. And there were still like 20 other questions that we didn't have time to get to on this one. But just thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for always being

on this journey with me and for trusting me with your time. I think that time is the most valuable resource that we have. Once you spend it, you can't ever get it back. And I appreciate you choosing to spend your time with me on Insight. And I'll leave you with this quote here for Mark Twain, which I think is so fitting for my birthday or for anybody's birthday. do not complain about growing old is a privilege denied to many. Be great, be grateful. I am so grateful for you.

We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about.

You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.