Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 295 - Adam Von Rothfelder Founder of Strong Coffee Company

Episode Date: December 13, 2019

Adam Von Rothfelder is a former pro-MMA fighter and pro-kickboxer. He currently is an author for the Onnit Academy, and works with some of the top CEO’s in the country, helping them get fit through movement training. He is a creator and founder of STRONG Coffee Company. He was also featured as a competitor on the reality series STRONG where personal trainers team up with their clients in an all-encompassing fitness competition. Adam is generously offering you a special discount on Strong Coffee in celebration of today’s episode. Head over to https://strongcoffeecompany.com/ and use code “powerproject” for 30% off some incredible coffee! Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/shop.aspx?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Power%20Project for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 15% off your order! ➢Quest Nutrition: https://www.questnutrition.com/ Use code "MARKSQUEST" at checkout for 20% of your order! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

yeah um anyway um it's that time of year it's that time of year when everybody gets fat right it's that time of year when everyone goes off their diet everyone goes off plan but if you have food to taste good you don't have to go off plan if you got some piedmontese steaks uh you don't need you don't need to uh worry about you know what's being cooked up for thanksgiving or what's being cooked up for Thanksgiving or what's being cooked up for Christmas or you don't have to involve yourself with what everybody else is doing. You can keep it keto or keep that protein up nice and high with some Piedmontese steaks. I cooked up a big old ribeye. Did you let it sit?

I did. That's always tough. I was successful letting it sit. And I did a reverse sear, which I've never done before. I couldn't figure out how to do it either because like the ribeye was gigantic. And so I was just like, I don't know what to put it in or put it on. So I put it on like an iron, what the hell are those called? A cast iron pan. And I threw that in the oven, cooked it like that for probably like 20 minutes because it was massive. Somebody just told me like, oh, you only need to do like 10 minutes, but this thing was huge. So I did 20 minutes and then when I took it out, I cooked it for about another five on each side

and it was just absolutely ridiculous. It was so good. I ate the whole thing. Well, I had a little help from Daisy. Oh, really? You gave her some? My little dogggy she she helped me with some of it yeah one bite for her like one bite for us would be like half her body weight so i know and i saved the dog bone i put the dog bone uh in the freezer because her birthday's

coming up oh that'll be cool you gotta take a bunch of pictures for us hell yeah yeah so um if you guys want to check this stuff out, like, um, Piedmontese beef has been huge, huge for me with this whole shred down thing. And when I noticed, uh, the biggest like eye opener was when I calculated Piedmontese macros and then I had, you know, just like, uh, I had ground beef and I'm like, Oh, I definitely don't want that. I'd rather have this because I could have way better stuff here yeah yeah but anyway um during this month we're actually not running a promo code with them they are just giving everybody 25 off damn yeah so if you guys want to they're getting serious yeah yeah so if you guys want to check

this stuff out head over to piedmontese.com that's p-i-e-d-m-o-n-t-e-s-e dot com everything's already 25 off but if you guys want to support the show, use the link in the show notes right now. You want to try to keep yourself away from some treats, then the best way to do it is to give yourself a treat that's a better option. Go with a Quest bar, the Quest donut bar, or go in with a Quest cookie. I have where, where we go for Thanksgiving every year. I have that house stocked up, uh, full of quest bars and quest

cookies. And that way, when I've seen somebody else, uh, you know, diving into cookies and whipping out the ice cream and desserts and stuff, uh, I get to enjoy something too, but it's just something a little different. Yeah. We talk a lot about like habits and stuff on this show. And it's a really cool thing. andrew i think you just said this when you're potentially dieting and you're craving something and the first thing that comes to mind is a quest hero bar instead of a cookie or something else like that's what you want to you know that's what you want to have a lot of okay go for it and it's more uh it's not even like half and half at this point like it's it's not because like, oh, I want a healthier, you know, option.

Like, no, I literally just want a hero bar because they taste that good. Like, that's, again, I'm probably like, I'm really focused on stuff right now with my body and my physique. But I truly do just want like a hero bar. That's, it's, it sounds silly, silly but yes it is that damn good yeah and you're just trying to have habits that are a little bit better than what you had before that's where you're going to make progress yeah yeah you guys seriously do need to try out these hero bars the chips everything is incredible head over to quest nutrition.com right now and at checkout enter promo code mark's quest for 20 off your entire order and our boys over at Perfect Keto, I'm still mixing up that MCT powder oil.

Probably about every other day because I don't do a regular fast all the time. Sometimes I'll do a regular fast and not have the MCT oil powder. Sometimes I'll just have coffee. But I've been mixing in the MCT oil powder. It I just have coffee. I've been mixing in the MCT oil powder. It gives me a little extra burst. I also mess around with the instant coffee that they have that has MCT oil powder in it as well.

I also mess with the ketones that they have. I like that product as well. That MCT oil powder is really good. If you can, just when you go home, grab a small little plastic bag. If you can just go into the salted caramel, put the scoop in the bag, and the next time we podcast, I'll think about it. It might be just half a scoop at this point.

It's probably gone. Yeah. Yeah, days like today where I'm feeling a little bit more hungry because I've been fasting every single day. Days like today where I need a little extra something, I reach for the MCT oil powder and I'm a fan of vanilla. So after this podcast, I'm actually going to mix coffee with the vanilla MCT oil powder. I don't understand it. These two guys over here understand it.

But like for me, it just helps. The hunger goes away. I get a little boost of energy. I think that's probably because of the caffeine combination. But everything all about it, it's so damn good. And nobody really likes black coffee. I think everyone just kind of thinks they do. Throw a little flavor in there.

Throw a little something in there. That's true, actually. It's better with black coffee. Yeah. It is better. Yeah, it is better. Makes it better. Yeah.

If you guys want to get better, head over to perfectketo.com slash powerproject at checkout, enter promo code powerproject for 15% off your order. You guys will not regret it. That'll be our holiday episode. We'll just play video games. Was it Mario Party? Is that the one you're talking about? Mario what?

So there's Mario Party, but the one I was talking to you about today was actually called Celeste. Oh. Would he be into platformers like that, though? I don't think so. Let me send this email out real quick. By the way, I don't know if I've asked you this. Why do you say Mario? I don't know.

I probably, just because of my accent, probably. Okay. It's a New York thing, I guess. Mario, Mario. Definitely. Mario. Every once in a while, his New York accent sneaks out. It's pretty funny.

When you catch it, but you don't want to say anything. I'm just a dick. Hey, why do you say this like that? Well, I say some stuff weird on purpose sometimes, and other times it could just be the accent coming out here and there. That's ugly head. We definitely should have a mario party or some kind of if i can figure out how to stream it from here that'd be dope that'd be so dope i'd wreck

everyone not in worms not in worms yeah i don't have any experience with that game is great not in smash bros you'd be addicted yeah not in smash bros either i can't play enough okay so that's two oh for two. Okay, well, you know what? I'll figure something out. We'll do this later. Don't get me mad. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. How was training this morning, Mark? It was great. Yeah. Got in some back training, trained some lats. I like doing a body you know, doing like a bodybuilding style workout. You can kind of get into some of those

exercises and you can kind of wake up halfway through the workout. You don't need to be as up for it as you do for a powerlifting workout. Do you find these workouts harder or no? Sometimes. Sometimes. I mean i mean yeah just like you know getting through the whole thing sometimes it's harder okay there we go we got adam we got

adam over there what's up buddy yo how you guys doing we're doing great great to have you on the show today yeah man really stoked i uh i'm uh I'm fanning right now. I'm like, Oh shit. Cool. Where are you? Uh, where are you out of? Where are you living at? Austin, Texas. Oh, awesome. Yeah. A lot of cool things down there in Austin, Texas. Our, our friends over at, uh, on it. There's also a, what do you got? There's, um, there's a bulletproof coffee shop that I've been to down there before and all kinds of shit down there. Tim Ferriss is down there. Yeah. Yeah.

Power athlete as well. I was actually just working out with John Wellborn a week ago at his power athlete HQ. It's all like Sorenix. I mean, it's the nicest gym in Austin and it's sitting on private land. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. He had a gym when he was out here in California and then, uh, and then he moved and I didn't know he had a gym out there. I'll

have to go check it out sometime. Yeah. It's a private gym, but I'm sure you won't have a problem. Yeah. Good guy, man. That guy knows a lot of, uh, a lot of great information. Uh, yeah. Wealth of knowledge. Uh, he put on, he puts on what's called the Power Athlete Symposium. And it's a two, three-day event that's bringing in some incredible speakers, putting people through practical application of their block one methodology. I was really fortunate to get to serve strong coffee at his event and all the proceeds go to neuroblastoma. So it's, it's a pretty big deal to him and his family as they know some kids affected by that disease. Yeah.

He was a 10 year NFL pro. And then he also did, he also competed in the CrossFit games, like weighing like 300 pounds or something crazy that's what i heard but i mean when you see him like i mean the dude's pretty shredded i mean yeah he's in good shape yeah he's in good shape the other day he was like wiping his brow and i was like i'm like damn john's got a six-pack dude's ripped i'm like who knew he had all that under his because he's always wearing long shirts long sleeves he always is uh he's draped have you always been into training have you always been

into trying to uh like because john wellborn and some of these other people um that we know that you're interlinked with um they have kind of untraditional methods have you always been kind of maybe in search of uh unconventional training methods or you've been in search of the truth or, you know, what is it that attracts you to some of these things? Yeah, both. I mean, it really started all when I was younger. You know, I was 12 years old and a lot shifted in my family at the age of 12. You know, I had a mom who was a nurse and she just had this bleeding heart and ultimately so did my dad because he supported all these decisions that she made.

And one of them was to adopt a child from the hospital that was a paraplegic. And when that happened, when this boy was brought into our house, so were strangers, uh, meaning, uh, you know, his help like nurses and, and, uh, and what it also created is it created a huge dynamic shift in family. I went from being the baby of the family to, um, to kind of almost being like a standby because, you know, my little brother needed so much medical care, so much personal care. much medical care, so much personal care. And I, you know, found, I was, I didn't find it, it found me. I inherited this rusty barbell, one of those like old school thin ones with like the metal cast iron plates that are, you know, like thicker, they don't actually get bigger. They just kind of get, you know, and it was, I was given to me by my, my uncle when he, my great uncle, when he passed and it all

kind of happened at the age of 12. And I started isolating myself in my, in my bedroom. Cause I had a very, you know, for as loving as my dad was, I had a very physical father too. So I just, you know, started isolating myself. And one of the nurses of my little brother saw me working out and I had a Reebok stair stepper like propped up against my bed. I was doing like some incline presses, you know, just trying to figure it out. And he like drops off this large stack of Ironman magazines. flexion and all these different like small uh manuals on that you would order from the magazine to try to understand um you know get a greater understanding of of fitness so that really sparked it for me when i was 12 i didn't want to be skinny i i didn't want my dad to be physical and for me not to be able to have a way to defend myself. And I was hyper as fuck and I knew it.

And I knew how I could be overwhelming to people. And if I worked out, I found that I was calmer. You know, and this was all at, you know, all at the age of 12. Ever since then, I've been training. My first personal trainer I hired at the age of 14 when I had a paper route. And his name was Dan McTorrick, and he was the strength coach for Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen, the gold medal Olympic speed skaters. As I grew up in Milwaukee, only blocks away from the Pettit National Ice Center, that was, you know, one of the first places that I trained out of regularly. So you got with somebody that had a real wealth of knowledge right off the bat. It wasn't just some bro at the gym who was juiced up. I mean, believe me, there were plenty of those.

There were plenty of those along the way. And, you know, there was a lot of experimenting, you know, throughout the search of strength and self. And, but yeah, I mean, it really kicked off at a young age. And, and I mean, to answer the question, you know, unconventional, what is conventional anymore? And, you know, to truly understand unconventional, you have to understand it's all, it's all intertwined. And I think there is no difference between strength training and mobility and, you know, a lot of these things, because without one, you can't really even have the other. I love some of the way you're framing some of these words. I find that fascinating about a lot of people. What do you mean by bleeding heart? You mentioned that your mom had a bleeding heart. What do you mean by that? I know that you're not saying literally.

Yeah, yeah, not literally. Yeah. So everybody used to always say my mom was like Mother Teresa complex. Throughout my life, I have had four foster siblings, one adopted sibling seven random pets that my mom nursed back to health four four foreign exchange students that weren't even our foreign exchange students they were landed in bad positions and had to find emergency homes because they were put in like abusive homes you know some kid comes from spain and he's like being put in a basement without like a bed you know just because they get a check or something, you know, like whatever the fuck was going on. I was kind of too young to

remember it, but you know, my mom really, she constantly was pouring herself out there and, you know, and in some ways, you know, sadly not in full, uh, she wasn't fully present with her own family because she was always constantly seeking to help others. So a true bleeding heart. Yeah. Did your mom maybe come from a broken home? She came from a really interesting home. She had a lot of medical issues when she was younger.

She was flown out to California because of her medical issues. There was a special doctor out in California and she was living in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, this very rural area of Wisconsin. You know, her neighbor had dirt floors. My parent, my mom was born in 1942. And so it was definitely a weird family. Her, her, her dad was an alcoholic um died uh you know before i was born and uh so i mean died before she was 38 something like that so i mean there was definitely uh there were definitely some interesting things happening there what have you personally learned from that? Have you learned that maybe like,

well, I'll just throw it out there. Yeah. What have you, what have you learned from that, seeing that firsthand and then, you know, having to deal with that? Yeah. You know, I think what's interesting is I think it's growing up in that and being on the outside are two totally different things, right? Like to everybody else, it was amazing. You know, she, she constantly was doing unthinkable things, you know, in the sense of like, how'd you get that animal back to health? You know, like, how'd you do this? Like, why'd you do this? And the whole time I'm just like hoping she comes to a soccer game. Right. Like that's all I wanted, you know? And so when, when I, when I see it from like the inside as a father myself, I know that it's

how important it is to, to help others. But at the same time, somebody once said like, keep your pie small. Right. And like, there's a, there's only? And there's a finite amount of time, there's a finite amount of resources. And if I continuously pour myself out to others haphazardly, am I going to be able to have the ability to care for my two daughters and my wife in the same way that I expect myself to or that they expect, or that I, that they expect me to, or whatever expectations are placed in that situation of being a father. And I don't want to just be a father. I want to be a great father. So when I look at, when I look at the mistakes that, you know, my mom and dad made, they weren't intentional. They weren't, you know, malicious. You know, weren't, you know, malicious. You know, history has a way of repeating itself. You know, so my grandpa died, my mom's dad of being an alcoholic. Well, so did my brother. So my brother died when I was 22 years old and of a drug overdose in my bed. And it was all alcohol and shit that led them to that point. And, you know, I look at my mom and I'm like, you had six sisters, like all this going on, your parents owned a business.

Like there's a reason why your, your, your dad wasn't able to take care of himself or people weren't able to like take care of him. and then so on to my brother's health and my brother's life. So I have a lot of mixed emotions about it. It's like, sometimes I just, you know, I'm mad at my mom. Sometimes I'm fully understanding, but you know, it's as you know, family can be challenging. Yeah. It can be really frustrating frustrating um and then also you know you i think the main thing as a as an individual like you don't want to bring that out into the world have everybody else have to deal with it especially every day you know like no one really deserves the that burden like you you uh had to take on that burden you were born with it um you were born with some

advantages and some disadvantages and you're born with some shitty stuff and some uh good stuff i'm sure you can see the silver lining in some things and then also too you can't really go back and change anything and makes and shapes who you are um if you didn't have if you didn't have some of those things maybe you wouldn't have found lifting and maybe you wouldn't found the passion that there's a lot of people that go through life, never finding like a real passion, you know, it's like pick your poison. Like you rather get, you know, abused as a, as a child, or you'd rather not fulfill your hopes and dreams of who you can become. I mean, like they both sound a little bit like a tortured, uh, tortured life and, uh, you know, nobody, nobody gets out of life alive. You know, we all, we all

have scars and we all have, uh, things. Do you think, um, do you think that lifting was like a pivotal thing that you had to hang on to? Do you feel like, uh, that's, that's something that, uh, has just always been there for you? 100%. Yeah. So, I mean, it, like I said, it started so young. Um, you know, I, I, I had very early aspirations. I mean, like I said, it started so young. You know, I had very early aspirations. I mean, like at the age of 13, 14 years old, I said I was going to be on the cover of, you know, muscle and fitness, right? Like I was going to be one of the best trainers in the world. That was what I said growing up. And as I went through high school, they'd be like, oh, what kind of college you want to go to this and that?

And, you know, I mean, really the only reason I wanted to go to college is because I was a collegiate level soccer player, you know, like, like in that fact. So I'm like, well, if I'm going to keep playing soccer, like I got to go to college. So I went to school for nursing because that made sense to me based on like how I grew up and helping people. And I quickly saw the medical system and I was like, get me out of here. And I went and worked at Bally's Total Fitness. So I dropped out of college at 19 after one year and worked at Bally Total Fitness. And that's where I started my fitness career. And I mean, coincidentally, my fitness career ended while living, you know, in the sense of being a trainer full time.

Ended while I was living in California and I had a chance to meet and become friends with Don Wildman, who was the founder of Valley total fitness. And his son even remembered, uh, me from Cudahy Valley total fitness from like 20 years earlier from like some like routine visit when he met me. And it was this kind of mind blowing, like full circle type shit as like, I reached that pinnacle and Bali was the starting point. And I was there, like I was, I was, I was the, I was the co-coach to, you know, Laird Hamilton and Gabrielle Reese and Brian McKenzie, as I was the, I was the fourth coach in XPT, you know, and that was, uh, I was with the program for the first year. Um, and Brian and I both, you know, are no longer involved, but that was that, that pinnacle point. And I mean, fitness has given me everything. Um,

I mean, when I'll tell you when fitness, you know, really came in is at the age of 22, when my brother passed away, I heard an ad on a radio on the way to go see my brother's body. And the ad was like, I mean, it's clear as day. It's the Milwaukee Rumble, blah, blah, blah. And it's just like, and it's in my head. And I turn off the radio, but it's like subconsciously my brain grabbed that. subconsciously my brain like grabbed that. And when I left my brother's, my, my bedroom, I drove straight for Hal's Harley Davidson. And I signed up for that fight tournament and I was in incredible physical shape. Like I was 206 pounds, six, 7% body fat,

and six pounds, six, 7% body fat, you know, deadlifting 500 squatting for 50. I was, you know, I was fresh off some cycle of like testosterone and, and some trend that I tried. And I was like, you know, it was the first time I'm fucking with something and some guy, you know, and, and I went in there and the physical shape I was in, I was able to emotionally express myself in a way that I needed to. I needed to cause someone physical pain and I needed to feel physical pain because for some reason I wasn't feeling this emotional pain that I felt like I should have been. And I think that, you know, is something to say about our society and how a 22 year old boy can't feel like he can cry, you know, when his brother dies and where that kind of, you know, things have changed a lot, obviously in the, in the 15 years that this has happened,

but physical fitness gave me the ability to express myself when I needed it the most. And two years of fighting amateur, I won that tournament. I, two years later, I won the North American grappling association tournament having only done jujitsu for three months. I did my first MMA fight three months later, a guy that was seven and one, I beat the shit out of him. I was so tired though. He ended up getting me in a choke and he was like, at the end of the fight, he was just like, dude, I've never been hit so fucking hard in my life. And I'm like, that's a 450 pound fat squat. You know, like I'm just like thinking to myself,

like no diminished returns. I'm going to keep going. And, uh, yeah. And I, I just kept going. So I, uh, I fought for seven years professionally all while I worked my way through an electrical apprenticeship. And, uh, you know, the electrical apprenticeship all kind of started because my brother was a, a construction worker. And we had this idea that he would be the contractor and I'd be the electrician and we would start building houses and, you know, all this and that, but I didn't know he had another plan so some of your story sounds like a odd combination of in sema's story and my story together yeah with the nursing and the soccer and the brother's death and stuff like that my minus uh you know fortunately

for us we've never had to deal with abuse but a lot of the other things sound very common and then having lifting you know be that uh common, you know, that, that kept us, kept us going. You know, I mean, I've, I've, you know, kind of, you know, bigger, stronger, faster was for me, like a, a film that motivated me to keep going and like understanding, like I was doing the right thing. And I thought you were going to say it motivated you, motivated you to do steroids. Cause it's done that for a lot of people. No, you know, I mean, I always knew it existed. I mean, I was the kid that got in trouble when I was 17, when the internet was like so early on and I was searching steroids on Ulta Vista because I was interested in the anabolic side of it, like how

we're synthesizing more proteins. And I was like nerding out as a very young kid. And I was like, oh shit, like this compound derived from testosterone, whether it's Winstrel or, you know, it's derived from DHA or whatever it is, you know, is some substrate can do this for you. I'm like, that's incredible. Right. And like the human body is incredible because we can process it and we can listen to the drug. and you know i'm i'm i'm now on testosterone uh trt and you know it's medically you know watched and i i had to do it you know after all the weight cutting the the head trauma um you know low testosterone is directly they they've done a lot of science how it directly affects the gut function and gut function can affect testosterone levels. There's like all these.

Depression and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And going through what I've been through. And losing my brother like that, fighting the physical things that I had to do because of the emotional expression I needed. And in so many ways, my body is now dealing with my brain's decisions. I have bone spurs on my neck. I have a L3, L5 that's slightly shifted with a slightly externally rotated left hip socket you know from

throwing kicks for you know i was a soccer player went to being a fighter who is known for kicking so fucking hard i would take people's legs out from under them you know i'm swinging a 500 pound deadlift bad as a leg you know like you know and people would just be like falling over yeah and now my hip you know but it got me through what i needed to get through and and now it's like i feel like i have a new uh thing to get through which is you know fixing myself and maintaining my strength you know to as you said the silver lining be resilient you know adam when you were talking about when your brother died and you had to go fight well i was wondering where was like where were all your other siblings?

Cause you mentioned like you had a lot, you know, so was there a family that was helping each other through this or was everyone just doing their own thing? Um, you know, since me and my dad, it didn't have, since we didn't have the best relationship, um, do you, do you have sisters? I have one. Yeah. Okay. if you do you have sisters i have one yeah okay well if you have more you you create like there's like a there's like a factor right so it's like my sisters and my mom like did very well for each other and it was like the boys were the ones in the garage crying by themselves when no one knew. Right. And I

have been someone who has never stood still, you know, like literally in the sense of like being attention deficit disorder, you know, and hyperactive to the idea that like, I need to move beyond this. Like, I don't need to be in this, like I need to move beyond this. Like, I don't need to be in this. Like I need to move beyond this. Right. And I feel like that's what weightlifting has given me a lot of is this, like when life is really fucking heavy, you pick it up, like you move the weight, like you just keep going. And, and that's what I was doing, you know? And I, I think to myself, like, you know, I'm not trying to dog my mom or my sisters or anybody, but like, nobody ever asked me how I was doing, you know? Like, I mean, my brother died in my bed. My brother called me

the night before at 10 o'clock and he just wanted to talk. And I was too fucking busy, you know? Like I, he literally just got out of rehab and like to this day, I think like, what if I would have picked up the phone? Like, would that have fucking happened? You know? And I mean, you know, the thing is, is it like, if it wouldn't have happened, would I be here? Would I have had the juice to get me here? Right? Because I've, like, everything I've accomplished from that point on, his death was the catalyst that made me never stop.

Because the minute that he died, there was this shot clock that was in the corner of my eye and that shot clock just kept going, but I couldn't ever make out the time, but I knew that the time wasn't infinite. It was finite. And I knew that every single chance that I had the ball, I had to take the shot. Adam, do you want to do Naga? Yep. Adam, I think you should do an MMA fight. I've only been training for three months. Yep. Heyaga yep Adam I think you should do an MMA fight I've only been training for three months yep hey Adam I think you're ready to go pro okay you know like what's next you know hey Adam I think you should model great bought a ticket to New York shot for Versace two years later right like I have a I have a ten thousand dollar suit sitting upstairs given to me by donatella

versace that's like this thing i hold on to to like remind me of like that i just kept saying yes i just kept moving beyond this thing the suit doesn't fit me i wish it does i'm like it's like a 42 or some shit like uh fits me if i'm like standing like this. But yeah, I mean, it was, it was, yeah, to answer your question. Does that answer your question, man? Yeah. Yeah. So it was, it was, it was a lot of me. And, you know, my,

years later, you know, my dad was diagnosed with cancer and I lost my dad six years ago now. And that was just a little different. You know, it was my dad, like we all kind of pulled in, you know, and because I think we all been through it before. And we thought we I think we all maybe quietly knew how we should have handled it differently. maybe quietly knew how we should have handled it differently. Are you kind of a believer that, you know, maybe people are here just,

maybe people are designed to be here for a certain length of time? Yeah, man. I, a reason, a season, or life, you know, I've, I've said that, I've said that about everything. I, you know, I mean, you know, losing your brother, the only way you can accept something like that is to accept something like that. Right. Right. So it's like, it's unfair. It's this, it's that, you know, but the reality of it is, is if you think that way, you're going to get stuck in this loop. And the only way you can bust through that loop is, is to imagine the fact that it was done for you. And it was like nothing because nothing put before you, you can't overcome.

And when you on something, losing a family member, the situation, although it's painful and seems unique, it's really not. There's nothing unique about it. In fact, this happens to millions of Americans. This happens to many, many people. This destroys many, many families. There's a lot of mental illness that people may have that they just never had treated. There could be things in the family that kind of sparked the person to reach out on those drugs, but maybe your brother did. Maybe my brother did. Maybe other people would write in those situations. after a situation occurs, it'd be fucking a lot better and a lot smarter to attack what's going on. What's the story?

What's the dialogue? Why is somebody in this position? Why are they struggling so much? Why are they having such a hard time? Because normally a drug overdose, I guess occasionally it happens with some younger people, but normally a drug overdose doesn't happen out of nowhere. You know, like I'm sure that you you probably were like i'm gonna hear about my brother being in jail or something worse probably at some

point because something's gonna something stupid's gonna happen because something always stupid happens to him because he's always in these weird shitty situations and predicaments that he just shouldn't be in and uh i think we think we feel like it's unique because we don't talk about it we don't really hear people. I love the fact that there's like podcasts now. I love the fact that there are people communicating about it more now today than ever before because it is something that should be talked about. And this is really common. today listening to this podcast right now to go to their brother go to their sister go to their uncle whoever it is that's struggling whoever it is where you're like yeah man that is weird like i haven't seen him in two or three thanksgivings in a row and like that you know he's always late

he's always this he's always that just because someone's late doesn't mean they're a drug addict but uh if they if they kind of don't care if they want to hide and they're just acting suspicious, what would be the problem in telling that person, hey, you know what? I really care about you. I want to know like how are you doing? Because a lot of times you say, hey, man, how's it going? They're like, I'm good. Like, no, no, no. I'm serious.

Like I want – like look me in the eye. I want to know how are you doing? Is there something I can help you with? Are you doing okay? It would be great to have that conversation now. And maybe you could help somebody. Maybe you could still, there's still room. For my brother, I don't feel like there ever really was. I think my brother was, you know, he came and went, you know, pretty fast. And he, you know, almost seemed like he lived three or four different lives within the

36 or 37 years that he was here. He, he, and your, your brothers, I imagine is, is probably pretty similar, but what we didn't know about my brother, which is something that breaks my heart to this day is the fact we didn't know he was bipolar until he was, until he's much older. We didn't know that. We didn't know he had, we didn't know he was struggling with a mental disease and we didn't understand the fact that that mental disease amplifies and grows stronger and stronger. And there's so many people that are in the same boat. If some people could make it until they're about 40 or 42, you can still kill yourself at any age. kill yourself at any age. But if you look at, if you look at the statistics of people that are bipolar, they kill themselves a lot of times between like 33 and 43, you know, but right

between those ages, a lot of times is where you see that happen. And it's like, man, if we could figure out, you know, something to learn about this earlier, you know, how, how could we have diagnosed this earlier? How could we have found out earlier we just didn't know we thought we just thought like oh this is a drug addiction and then you've probably been down this road too you know how complicated this gets because they won't treat you for drug addiction unless you get treated for a mental disorder and vice versa they won't treat you for a mental disorder unless you get clean and you're like no one will fucking help me. I'm sick.

Like people can tell you flat out. They can say, hey, see that building over there? I'm going to take a rocket launcher and I'm going to fucking blow it to pieces. And no one will do shit about it because they don't consider it legitimate, like a legitimate thing. There's people that have done this before. There's people that have – I watched one thing on 60 Minutes one time where this guy was talking about like bombing this medical center that his brother worked for. And his brother was in charge of like some department for mental health. But nobody would administer this guy.

No one would help this guy because he was on drugs. They're like, we can't help you with that. We're sorry to have those thoughts, but we can't – you can't be administered into our program. And he went through with it and he killed himself. And it's like, wow, I don't know what the, you know, I don't want to be the person to bitch about something and not have a solution. I think the solutions are probably pretty complicated. I don't really know what they are, but I do feel that if people, if we all took responsibility, I think things would be better. I mean, I think we're doing it right here. You know, we're talking about it. I think the biggest thing is the biggest problems in America today, things like depression,

things like whether it's, you know, sexually transmitted diseases, early on pregnancy. There's like an array of topics in which we just avoid, right? So we avoid talking about death, discontentment, discontentment, discontentment, discontentment, discontentment, discontentment. They're, they're, they're, we are the only people because we're constantly trying to create this face of perfection where it's like, oh, the white picket fence. You got this, you got that. Like, there's nothing going on. I mean, shit. When I was six years old, seven years old, my brother had a seizure on top of me. Right. We're like sitting there watching TV as a seizure.

He falls on top of me. I have no idea what's going on. He was drinking milk. So I thought he was, I thought, I thought falls on top of me. I have no idea what's going on. He was drinking milk. So I thought he was, I thought, I thought he was allergic to me. So I like stopped drinking milk for like six months after that, thinking like you could get seizures from milk or some shit. Cause my parents weren't being clear to me. They weren't telling me like, no, Andy, you know, Andy did some things wrong. They lied to me. You know, they said he went on vacation. He went to

prison. You know, like there were these things like they, like I almost died from drugs, right? Like fucking nine new years ago, you know, I took some ecstasy and drank a glass of orange juice that I didn't know was laced. And I fucking fell over, hit my head on the toilet so hard. I cracked the toilet and I was foaming from the mouth. Like if, you know, if I would have had an earlier understanding of how damaging drugs were, I would never even have like walked through that door, you know, had like, or I would at least have a greater understanding. It's like in Germany, a kid can drink at 16 and the rate of alcoholism there is fucking, it's nothing.

It's because they respect it. You know, know they like they know how to handle themselves accordingly right and i think like i'm only saying that stuff because people look at me and they're like adam you have your shit together like you're a perfect dad you're this you're that it's like yo i almost died once and i lost my brother to drugs and it still didn't change the exact course of my actions like to be like on the other end of the spectrum you know i was still walking that line you know you know and it's like so it's like anybody who's listening it's like yeah like care you know you see that scene in patch adams you ever seen that movie when he like drops down, he starts saying hi to people and doing like random funny things to see how people react. And like so many people just react, you

know, and they just like, like, they don't know how to react to something that is genuine, you know, like a real conversation. And I mean, we had, we had a friend that, you know, we had a, we had a scare with and, you scare with just last night that somebody threatening to take their lives, take their own life. And I'm on the phone calling five, six people that he knows, telling somebody to stop by his house because I live an hour away from there. And if he can't do it, I'm hopping in the car. away from there. And if he can't do it, I'm hopping in the car. Here's a person who has all the friends in the world, all the outlets he needs, and he doesn't feel like he can talk

about it to people and he thinks he's alone. I mean, man, you're not alone. Anybody who's out there, you are not alone. Believe me, there's somebody who cares. I want to reiterate the fact that what both of you guys are talking about right now, because like my cousin and this was about a week, two weeks ago now, he's just a little bit older than me. And I remember talking to him at his at his sister's wedding and like, oh, yeah, man, we're going to talk more. We're going to talk more. He had issues and he legit just died two weeks ago in his garage because he had drugs and alcohol in his system he was like 29 years old like this like this is the first time that something like this has happened in this situation it's just crazy that we're talking about this right now because a lot of us in the family like we just weren't in contact with them like everyone was

doing their own thing and we all knew that there were issues, but like, yeah, I mean, this, this conversation is happening for you like right now, you know, like, that's like, that's the crazy thing. I mean, like being able to take that and like somebody else, like they're like, like Mark said, there's so many people going with this. It's crazy. I'm sorry that you went through that, man. Like that you guys, that you and your family have to go through that because it's not easy. You know, it's, there's losing my dad to cancer was such a better way, right? Like it softened him. It let us reconstruct our relationship built off of his weakness and his loss of like superiority. Cause he knew like, like, I don't know. I mean, you're still my dad. Like you were still,

but like, you could see that because he was physically weak inside, he was like willing to like, listen to me now, you know, and he was willing to hear me. And I had four years to get our relate three years to get our relationship back. And, you know, my brother is gone. I mean, the last conversation me and my brother had was he was mad at me for telling my parents about his drug abuse. And he went to rehab and, you know, like, I mean, like that was like, that was really like the last conversation. Cause I, you know, he didn't want to see me in rehab. And, you know, I mean, basically, yeah. wait and and you guys didn't reach out to your cousin either for a certain reason because you're like that's just all so heavy you know we all have we all have we all have that friend right that

that calls us that means well that's that's fun and and loving and caring and and they call you once a year and they want to talk to you for 45 minutes and you're like i just don't have time to talk for that long now that's a happier situation, right? But even in this case, you're like, oh, I just, this is just ugly. Like, this is just nasty. Like, I don't want to be dragged into this. And we're also taught like in today's world, like don't let negativity drag you down. Like, why don't I want to fucking talk to him right now? Because I don't want to be in like that dark place. Like, I feel really good. My day's going really good. My life's really good. Things are really clean and clear for me and I feel great. And so it's, it's easy to get, it's easy to get that way. I mean, I've had so many phone calls from both of my brothers that I,

I, you know, didn't pick up because I'm just like, I do not want to hear anything from either one of them. I don't want to hear their excuses. I don't want to hear why life's not going their way. I just want them to fucking stop doing the drugs that they're on. And I want them to wake up and I want them to look in the mirror and say, I am the problem. I need to fix this. And I would love for them to just call me once that's fucking figured out, you know, don't call me with your problems or how you need money or need whatever it is that you need. Yeah. I mean, I mean, honestly, I thought my brother was going to ask me to get him a Coke. you need yeah i mean i mean honestly i thought my brother was gonna ask me to get him coke yeah yeah you know he like he knew i worked at a nightclub on on the weekends and you know like

he once asked me before after a stint in rehab and i remember just like getting very mad i'm like mom and dad just spent 40 grand on you going to fucking rehab like and you're asking me for coke you're one day out like no, no, you know, I mean, come on, man. He's like, ah, it's in and out of my system. Don't worry. I just want a little bit, you know, I'm like, I'm like, what? You know, I mean, yeah, it was, it was, uh, but you know, a reason or season or life. And, you know, he really gave me, he gave me greater reason for my life. So. What would you tell to somebody who maybe does have the opportunity to answer the phone? What do you think is, is there, is there a, a,

a first step, you know, since you have overdosed on something as well, like, is there a first step? Have you learned something from that situation that maybe can be useful for some people listening? You know, I think that ultimately, it's hard for me to say this, but if somebody has their mind made up, they got their mind made up, you know, and I think that any help you give them is comfort for yourself to say that you did everything you could. Right. And, uh, that sounds a little me, you know, a little dark, but I don't know how many more things we could have tried with my brother.

You know, I mean, it was everything. Like I quit when I said I dropped out of college, I dropped out of college to go work as a construction worker alongside of him to literally keep an eye on him. I had a 3.8 in college. You know, I was a captain of my soccer team and I didn't come back my sophomore year because of my brother. You know, I let, I let a lot of shit go because of him, but I also gained a lot because of losing him. So I would say that do what you can, but you can't do it all. Yeah. And I think, you know, just, you know, stating that you're available, just telling someone flat out, man, look, whenever you're serious about, you know serious about turning your life around because I personally feel that that's what you need to do.

I feel like you need to get a lot of help. I can help you get help. I'm here for you for that. I'm not going to assist you in getting drugs. I'm not going to assist you. I'm not going to enable anything in that regard. But I do love you. I do care about you. And if you need something that's

within reason, I can help with that. Because I was fortunate enough to do that with my brother, and he knew that. He knew that I cared about him. He knew that I loved him. But it's something that now he's been gone for 11 years or 12 years or however long it's been now. It's gotten easier every year. We've gotten a little further away from his death, but I can feel okay about it for two reasons. One is I felt like that I did show him love and support. I never – I don't feel like I ever turned my back on him. I felt that I was available.

I don't feel like I ever turned my back on him. I felt that I was available. And then the second thing is I do believe that, you know, he didn't want to be here. Like when I – it's easy to think like, oh, man, he's dead. You know, that sucks that he's dead. But like he was hard to deal with. He was really – I mean his name is Mad Dog for a reason. He'll turn around and fucking bite you the second that he gets the opportunity to um he he was very very volatile he's very hard to deal with he was violent

he was uh angry he was the greatest person to be around when he was in a good mood when he was happy when he was up but man if you got the other side of it you got chewed up and spit out the other end like you wouldn't believe so you know my brother, you know, my brother was the same way. My brother was the same way, but like I'd borrow something from my brother and I wouldn't have it back, you know, the, the day it was. And he would, he would toss my room. He would go in my room, flip the mattress, flip the bed, like, like pull everything out of my, my shit. And just like, you know, to like make me have to go clean like everything and fix my whole room he'd like toss it like the dea is searching for drugs you know because i like didn't bring back like a screw like a phillips head screwdriver you know something crazy like that you know i mean he

yeah he was very irrational and uh it was he was hard to deal with but you know i i showed him as much as i could you know that I cared. And I mean, shit, I was 22 years old. Your frontal cortex isn't even developed. Your emotional capacity isn't even there to truly empathize what's actually happening. I mean, since that day, I had helped so many people. I smacked the shit out of somebody and took their drugs out of their closet because they were on a four-day binger. A client of mine showed up to his house, literally broke into his house and took his drugs, smacked the shit out of him and said, it's time to wake the

fuck up. You make a half a million dollars a year. You're some big wig at Wells Fargo. What the fuck are you doing? Like, you don't like your life. Go get a new one. Don't kill yourself. You know what I mean? That was the type of shit that like, I, you know, it empowered me. And I, I started finding those types of clients. I mean, that was literally like people who had problems started becoming my specialty, you know? And that was, that was like how I felt like I was repaying, you know, this kind of like karmic debt, you know, like to like help another person, you know? And, uh, because I couldn't help my brother, I could help these people. So, you know, how many of them I helped, I don't know where they're at now, but,

you know, I put a, I slowed it down. Do you continue to work with people like that right now? Is that any part of what you do? You know, I, I never, uh, I never don't answer a DM or an email. Um, so I'm, I'm always, I'm always willing to like, let, you know, lend my ear or, you know, give some small bit of advice, you know, when asked. A lot of my focus on mental health, because, you know, as I view a lot of these problems to be mental health, I shifted into the company I started as, you know, the product that we focus on is focused on emotional health and, you know, reducing anxiety, depression, and giving you proper nutrients you need. So it's kind of my roundabout way that I continue to help.

My last couple of clients were recovered meth addicts that were like some kid of some movie star type shit when I was living out in LA. And it felt amazing. I'd buy them breakfast and I'd communicate with their sponsor after each session. Like, hey, I just got done training. X, I made sure that they had a protein shake after. So they actually ate because they were underweight or, you know, whatever it was, I was just, you know, I, I, I, I switched from this. I'm a, I'm a personal trainer to, I'm a performance life coach. Like I'm helping people perform in their life, like on a higher level. Do you think, uh, your brother could have been, uh, your brother could

have possibly been saved through, uh, like food and, and, uh saved through food and proper nutrition and exercise and things like that? 100%. Yeah, 100%. I look at how we grew up eating. There was apple pie and bread with every dinner. I mean mashed potatoes and gravy and soda. You know, I mean, mashed potatoes and gravy and soda, you know, so it's like we, I mean, I remember 12 years old, like when it hit me, when I looked around the table and everybody was fat, except for my brother who just smoked a shitload of cigarettes. And, you know, I mean, the vassal constriction of the cigarettes over the course of time, the alcohol abuse and what that can actually start doing to the brain. Yeah. At a young age. Yeah. Yeah. At a young age. I mean, so it's, uh, I, I, I certainly believe that nutrition would have helped them. I mean, I believe like working out would

have helped them. I mean, if I, if I knew what I knew, you know, and I was older, I would have been like, you're going to the gym with me. Whoops. Too fired up. You're going to the gym with me. You're not eating that. You're eating this. Right. Those are the, that's, you know, that's what I would have laid down and he would have been my little brother and he would have fucking listened, you know?

And I, I think I possibly could have changed the outcome. Yeah. I do think I changed the outcome for me. Right. Yeah. Right. Like I was in that same situation. I mean, my dad beat the shit out of me because my brother was an asshole. Like my brother didn't even have it. Like I did. Like my dad would like fucking choke slam me. I mean, you know, like I, I mean, there was crazy shit that my dad did. My brother pulled a knife on my dad one time for, for when he chokeslammed me, I was like eight years old, you know?

And my brother pulled a, like a 10 inch fucking like cutting knife out. It was like, you ever lay your hands on him again, I'll kill you. You know, like, that's like, you know, and so, you know, my brother, a lot of times, like, I mean, it was my savior. Like when I was younger, like if I wasn't, if it wasn't for my brother, I wouldn't be alive today. When I was, when I was somewhere between the age of 10 and 12, we had this, we had this tree house. And we had this great idea to hang jump ropes across the monkey bars to create an obstacle course. across the monkey bars to create an obstacle course. And when I went from one ring to the next,

I lost grip and my neck got caught on the jump rope. I flailed like you would. I spun and the jump rope wrapped around my neck. I was literally hanging there. My brother is in the kitchen doing dishes, comes running out with a paring knife to cut the jump rope. You know what I mean? Like I would have been just a dead kid. Like I was by myself, you know what I mean? Like I think about that and like, thank God I had a brother, you know, on, on, on, in life and in death, you know what I mean? Everything I do, like, you know, I, I, I constantly, I constantly think about him. You know, we were both a names, Andy and Adam. My daughters are both arrow and Azalea.

You know, it's like, I'm trying to bind them, you know? Right. So that, so they don't separate. And, you know, me and my brother, we were 13 years apart. You know, my daughters, they're 16 months apart and I'm like, I want to keep the family close. I want to, you know, it's like keep it tight knit, you know, so we can all take care of one another. There's so many things that happen, you know, in a family that has to go through something like that. You know, I just wish more people were open to, you know, trying to get some therapy and I

wish more people were open to just like, hey, man, we don't really know what we're up against. I think our son's on drugs, or I think our daughter's on drugs, and I'm not an expert. I don't know the stuff that you need to do to come off of drugs. All I can do is recommend some diet and exercise,

and I do believe that those things are powerful. I can do is recommend some diet and exercise. And I do believe that those things are powerful. I do think that those things can really help. But like, I don't really know how to, you know, balance out all the different thoughts that people might have. And within a family, it's really, can be really crazy the way that, you know, one kid gets treated versus another, you know, the, the kid that the kid that has the drug problem uh normally feels like the world is against them and then the kid that doesn't have the drug problem kind of feels like well why are my parents so into what he's doing all the time but they're not paying attention to what i'm doing because he just gets in trouble all the time he fucks up all

the time why would they even care like he he clearly doesn't care about his life so why do they care so much about his that kind of stuff happens a lot and things get really twisted. And I do think that I really wish that people would just be a little bit more open to like, hey, we should maybe even just even if you thought to yourself, if I bring this up, everybody in the house can think I'm a crazy person. going to think I'm a crazy person. But if you were just like, you know what, I'm just going to go get help for myself just to see what it's like. And then maybe I'll report back to everybody else. Like that would be a great place to start. 100%. I mean, you know, we, I think what's interesting is, is the conversation isn't, um, you know, it's, it's, it's far more on the men's side than it is on the female side, right? Like women have a much easier time talking about their feelings, what they're going through. You know, I see my wife and she's got three friends that, you know, she can,

the minute we get in a fight or something like random is happening, it's like those three people are on the phone in seconds, you know? And it's like, this is what I'm dealing with. This is how I feel. You know, you don't have to feel that way. This is how you, you know, like, so her friends are, you know, they're therapy in each other where it's like, you asked me how I'm doing. I'm like, good bro. How you doing? Good bro. Ready to work out. Cool. Me too. You know what I mean? And it's so, you know know we all do need to talk about it more but like really like men we need to talk about it more like there are way more of us killing ourselves right there are way more of us dying from drug overdoses right i mean there are there is a there

is a there is a male epidemic of death due to the lack of being comfortable just talking about it. Yeah, I think that women maybe have a built-in sense of purpose. Not all of them, but many of them may have a built-in sense of purpose just in the fact that they could give birth. They can have a – I mean you can raise a kid together, but it's different for the female I think. And I think that's part of the reason and I think also men maybe take a little bit greater risks from time to time. Again, not all, but you just see that with a lot of – a lot of men are like on this mission to like be great or be better than like, you know, to try to be better every single day. And maybe, uh, in our efforts to try to be like, awesome, we're missing the fact that you don't really need to be extraordinary. You just need to figure out a way to be consistent.

If you can consistently be good over a long period of time, you'll be great. Uh, even if with, with your kids, if you, uh, cook for them, take them to school and do that for the next 30 years, then you're a fucking amazing dad, you know, like, you know kids if you uh cook for them take them to school and do that for the next 30 years and you're a fucking amazing dad you know like you know if you or however many years you know they're they're in your household or whatever you know i hope 30 yeah yeah keep them close by right but like exactly i think that uh we think we need to do crazy extraordinary things like i need to take them to a play in new York city or I need to, you know, take them on these crazy vacations or need to spend money on them or they

don't really, like you said, you just wanted your mom to be at your soccer practice and that doesn't cost anything. Totally. Yeah. I mean, we, my wife and I, uh, Otis Ellie is her name. We have been, we've, we're like flipping the script on, on like parenting and the sense of like doing Christmas completely differently, birthdays completely differently, trying to change the paradigm of gift giving, right? Where it's not, where Christmas and birthdays aren't directly associated to gifts, right?

And getting things, you know, we try to not even, you know, we, we don't let them watch like regular TV. So they're not being influenced by these external things, right. You know, all this and that. So I think that when, when I think about how I care for my kids, I changed my life from training these high level clients and being gone all the time and making a really great living to starting a startup company and working out of my house so I can drive my daughter to school and take her

and get donuts every Tuesday morning after my deadlifts, after my deadlifts. So, but you know, the, you know, daddy daughter donut date every Tuesday, you know, and it's, I, you know, every Tuesday, you know, and it's, I, you know, purposely got a house in Austin that is five blocks away from the school and five blocks away from my, the gym I work out at. So it's like, there's less wasted time and there's more time to actually do the things with them. You know, we got them in soccer, we got them in martial arts, we got them in swimming and I'm at every single practice, you know, and sometimes I'm on a phone, but, you know, it's like, I'm still there, you know, I'm still looking up when they're about to go score a goal and, you know, celebrate. And then they know I'm there, you know, with my parents, I didn't have

that. You know, I just knew that they love me because that's what parents do, but like, they didn't necessarily show it right. And the ways that I would want them to, you know, we all have different like love languages, right? Like we've, you guys have heard that, you know, and I, you know, my love languages, you know, I just give me a little bit of attention. You know, some people want gifts, you know, like I don't like, don't buy me shit. I'm not good at getting gifts. Like if I want something, I'll go buy it myself. You know, like that's kind of how I am. Like somebody gives me a gift. I'm like, Oh, awesome. You know, like I almost feel weird. Like I should like run out and go buy them something. Cause like, I don't know how to

handle this exchange. Cause that's just not the way I talk. Yeah. It was it ever a, I guess, was it ever a struggle for you to learn how to do that with your daughters or because you didn't have that, that just was something you made sure you absolutely did? Yeah, I think that, you know, they say successful people have to-do lists. I think that really successful people have not to-do lists as well. And there's a lot of things on my not to-do list. And then there is to be on my to-do list. It's a lot of things on my not to do list. And then there is to be on my to do list. It's a lot easier that way. Like, there are so many things I can do to be a better father to, you know, complete this conversation between, you know, daughter and dad kind of thing and,

and make it, you know, make it great. There are so many things that it's far easier just to focus on the things that I don't want to do, which are the things that I learned from my brother, my dad, my mom, other people around me. I've been really blessed to see really good parents too, like really good parents. Some of the clients that I've had that are super rich and uber successful and ultra busy, yet they maintain this great cohesiveness at their house and they're with their kid, you know, whenever they can and they give them the highest quality time, you know, like kid comes into an hour on a $220 section and it's like hour stops. Now we're just boxing with the kid and having a good time,

you know, and then we figure out the workout later. Like, that's like an awesome parent. Like, yeah, like this is your only hour, your kid interrupts it. You're paying me 220 bucks and you're like, Hey, can we use box? You know, you know, like, yeah, that's an amazing parent. So I've, I've learned a lot from some great people. And you parents, they had their glimmers of – they had their really high points. My mom was just really caring. She's like one of these people. You could like shit on her kitchen floor and be like – she'll be like, oh, I'll clean it up. Don't worry about it.

That happens. It's like I just shit on your – I don't know. Would you like some pineapple upside down cake? You know what I mean? I'm going to give you diabetes before you leave for sure. Don't worry. What's going on with the strong coffee. We've been sipping on it over here. Mine's a, mine's empty. I drank it all. Yeah. I drank it all. That's a problem in strong coffee town. Yeah, man. A strong coffee has been strong, yeah, man, uh, strong coffee, uh, has been strong coffee company has been, um, you know, going backwards in time a little bit. I, I originally actually started it

in 2015. So in 2015, I was actually the first person to take collagen and MCT oil powder and L-theanine. And I created the first non-dairy creamer and it was called strong cream and we had strong sugar and we had uh and we had these strong you know our coffee beans and strong cream right i'm a kid bro i'm so sorry it was very short-lived it was very short-lived well i didn't help because I'm back here laughing behind the camera. I see these motherfuckers snickering and I'm like, oh, I get it. So we needed a name change. But the reality of it is, you know, we had a really cool idea and I had no capital.

I was running a gym that I had for seven and a half years. My dad was like inches from death. My wife was pregnant and I got casted on a TV show on NBC and I got casted by Versace to shoot. And it was all within like time, like very truncated time. And two months into running strong coffee, I'm like, I got to shut it down. And when I got on NBC, the TV show was called strong and they made a sign in agreement that we could not use the name strong in anything we did for the course of the next three years. So when that contract was over, I relaunched the company on the day of and strong coffee company. You know, my goal is to create nutritionally forward

coffee products that give us, uh, you know, a handle on our, on, on very, you know, mainline needs, uh, anxiety, depression, dehydration. Um, you know, 80% of America is dehydrated. 30% of us every year get diagnosed with anxiety or depression. Um, you know, the numbers are, the statistics are staggering. And if you look at like one of the highest consumed, you know, items across that, across that, you know, pure that, that, that piece of pie while coffee is a great shuttle to do that. And, you know, obviously, you know, Bulletproof realized that, you know, really early on. Um, I mean, we, we, I launched my original strong coffee, like only a year after Bulletproof was launched. And I was actually a Bulletproof sponsored athlete. So that was a, so I mean, I had some understanding, but I'm like,

why is this so complex? Right? Like, I'm not going to get my mom or dad to be able to like, do this in the morning, like this tablespoon of this, this teaspoon of that, like put this in the coffee and I'll fucking blend it. Now you have a mess that's going to take you 20 minutes to clean up and you're late for your job. Right? Like I don't got time for that shit. And my wife was getting mad at me for the blender, you know, all the things. That Ninja blender is pretty loud. Oh dude, it sounds like a helicopter is taking off in your house. You don't have five in the morning. You just say, what? So we, uh, so when I shut strong coffee down in 2015, I'm like,

how would I do it differently if I ever did it again? And I'm like, I would make it all instant. And I literally sat on that idea and I didn't tell anybody that idea for years, you know, four years go by. And I didn't, didn't tell anybody four years go by and nobody did it. Nobody created an instant nutritional coffee that was complete proteins, right? I even complete the amino acid profile in collagen, which nobody does, right? I put the missing L-tryptophan in it, right? Just to give it the amino acid profile of, you know, that a full, full complex of aminos. I looked at the fact that coffee is dehydrating. Nobody's ever looked at that. Nobody's ever said like, we could put potassium, magnesium, and sodium in the coffee and make it taste amazing and give you the minerals

and electrolytes you still need so you do do not dehydrate, right? Have you heard of something called cascara fruit? No, right. Not many people have, it's where the coffee bean comes from, right? So the coffee bean comes from a piece of fruit and that piece of fruit is loaded with phytonutrient, with, with polyphenols that have a direct effect on your brain-derived neurotrophic factors, your BDNF. And BDNF is probably one of the highest talked about pieces right now in our brain health when it is directly associated to anxiety and depression and neurodegenerative diseases. So it would make sense that like this bean that has all this incredible energy that we've relied on since the 1400s was like, was chosen because when you have the cascara fruit, it tastes awful, right? It's super bitter yet, yet it's way more intelligent

than coffee itself, right? So it's way better energy, way better mental clarity, all those things. So we combined the cascara fruit extract and a high quality instant coffee, along with the collagen and the MCT oil, the electrolytes and minerals to create, you know, a very incredible tasting coffee product. We have two flavors, Morning Fix and Daybreaker. Daybreaker is our keto-approved one. I actually got Ketocon to reverse their ruling, though, on three grams of coconut palm sugar. So they actually considered Morning Fix a keto product and let me sell it and show it at Ketocon, my whole point was the fact that it's the only sugar with functionality.

So its coconut palm sugar actually has electrolytes. So it's like if we're electrolyte and mineral deficient, I think our food is somewhere around 96.2% of our soil is 96.2% deficient in minerals and electrolytes right for like growing plants um and that happened through like basically like post-world war one or two we poured tons of fertilizer that was extremely damaging to the soil and so when when you look at, if we're eating fruits and vegetables to get our minerals, they're extremely deficient in minerals. And our water is completely deficient in minerals as well. So it's like we're drinking water. It's just wet stuff.

There's nothing in there that's actually hydrating. In some way, we're kind of almost diluting ourselves by just pouring more water into it because there's, there's less electrical light and mineral, you know, abundance. So, um, so I, I started with these two instant coffee products and, you know, it's been going amazing. It's, uh, you know, it's me. I hired my first time in my first full-time employee about four months ago. Um, you know, I operated all out of my house. You know, we have a warehouse with extra products, but, you know, we basically, we ship everything from here and, you know, employees show up and, you know, employee. And we have, you know, it's a great

family-like atmosphere. You know, all of our ambassadors or our affiliates are, you know, doing it out of the love of like meeting me throughout the years and just believing in the product. Very excitingly, like we were, we were just featured in outside magazine as the number one functional coffee in the world. We were put against, you know, Laird superfood, four sigmatic, Strava, like all these like incredible coffee companies that have been around for years and we were reviewed as number one you know and i've only been at it for like 16 months so um i'm just getting warmed up we got some really cool shit

that's really cool do you um try to share with customers in any way whether it's like through email or through maybe following your instagram or something like that do you try to share with customers in any way, whether it's like through email or through maybe following your Instagram or something like that. Do you try to share with them to embrace a healthy lifestyle kind of all around? Is there a way that you're able to – because I'm sure that sounds like you're very passionate about this side of things. We know that you can't really just drink a cup of coffee. Like there has to be more to it. You got to be paying attention to what you're eating and you got to be, uh, you know, paying attention to your fitness. So how are you, um, trying to maybe hit the customers with that sort of stuff? If you are

trying to hit them with that sort of stuff? Great question. Uh, yeah, we totally are. Um, I knew that I was not going to let all the knowledge go, right? Like all these years of training. And I'm not just going to let that slide by the side, by the wayside. So we, uh, about, about a year ago, nine months ago, somewhere around there, we launched what was called the strong start. And it's a 30 day nutritional guide. Well, I mean, it's a 30 day workout and then a full nutritional guide. And it shows you how to swap out certain foods for other foods, talks about parameter shopping. I have a map on like the PDF that shows you how to like focus on parameter shopping,

a quick calculator configuration on how to like break down macros so you can understand your macros. Not because I want you to like strictly follow a macro, but just so you can kind of understand like around how much protein you should have or whatever it is. Um, so you can start getting, you know, for us, it's like second nature. We're like, well, I'm going to eat that and that, and you know, that, and I'm, I still need this, you know, for somebody else, they don't know what they need. Right. Cause they're so new to this.

Um, and that, so it comes with a 30 day workout program, 30 days of coffee, uh, a coffee mug, and then this nutritional guide. So that was kind of like the, that was like me testing the waters on like, are people following strong coffee company because they want a coffee company that believes in what they believe in, in the sense of like fitness and health, or are people following it because they want coffee with their protein and healthy fats, right? Like what is it? And so it, we had a huge buy-in on this strong start challenge. And I was like, all right. So we developed a program called S90 that launches January 1st

on train heroic. And S90 is a 90 day program. Andday program. And we're working with IN3, Jason Phillips, the nutritional company. And they created a bundle packet of information that gives people the ability to educate themselves. I wrote 12 emails that breaks down over the course of the 12 weeks what to expect of the program. And then I recorded these little 20 minute podcasts that break down each week as well verbally. And like, hey, like today, we're going to be walking into single leg deadlift progressions. This is, you know, similar to a classic deadlift. We're going to continue to keep both feet on the ground. However, this is difference. And, you know, just giving people the insight that people like seek from me on Instagram, but I've just never felt like I could, I don't know. I've just never been able to deliver across Instagram with my own personal brand, what I know and believe in like a way that I felt like it was like being done. Awesome. Like I see your content and I'm like, fuck, this is great videography and like editing. And, and he's like saying all these things that are extremely meaningful and, and have great, great queuing and insight. And it's like in my brain, I have that

same thing when I'm talking to a client, I have that same thing. Somebody puts a camera on me and I'm like, what if we don't do this right? So, you know, like, what, like, what, you know, whenever I'm on TV, it's somebody else that's producing it. Right. Or like, you know, when I was a model, I didn't have to worry about the final project. They just said, do your thing. And I did my thing where it's like now trying to finish the final product for me has been a little bit of a challenge, but for some reason with strong coffee, it's not, it's like, I don't have this like barrier, this like, uh, like this wall about my own personal brand that can be complex at times, you know, cause I'm not really a trainer anymore. It's almost like an identity crisis that I've gone through. Like, you know,

people don't give a fuck about my kids on Instagram. Like, you know, you know, like this, they don't give a fuck about this. Like the minute though, I show some weird, like I've been working on something called band foo. And so band foo is a mobility, um, movements using Tai Chi and Kung Fu moves with, uh, mobility bands on certain levers of your body. So like I put a band around my elbow. If you would look at my Instagram, you'll see it. I put a band on my elbow and then I attach that to the squat rack and I do these teacup movements and I try to keep my elbow really tight into the body so I can work the shoulder girdle. And while like I'm not in a hyper extension of any sort. So I'm actually gaining like true shoulder mobility under variable resistance. So it's like, I show something like that and it's like,

people are like, fuck yeah. You know? And then I, I show a photo of my kids and they're like, you know, it's just, so it's been hard to get, get across what I want to get across on my own, but strong coffee is going to deliver because that's what we do. Is the Strong Coffee available on Amazon? And if not, why? No, I am not on Amazon. I think Amazon is, you know, this is my personal belief, right? Fuck Jeff Bezos.

That's what you're thinking? Fuck Jeff Bezos. He doesn't even pay taxes so why the fuck should i if i'm selling my shit on his site right one two why the fuck do i not why the fuck do i not get customer customer information right right how am i going to educate a customer about not only why they should take it but why they continue to take it and getting them to do the other things in their life to fill the holes. Cause you're right. It's not just about coffee. Coffee is just like, for me, strong coffee was just like coffee is conversation. That's what

we're having right here. So if I pour this cup for you, let's talk like, these are the words I'm saying now, this is what I want you to know. This is what I want you to do. I want you to be fit. I want you to do deadlifts, right? I want you to, I want you to eat better, right? I want you to wake up and look forward to doing something. Folger said the best part of waking up. I'm saying we just made waking up better again. But yeah, Amazon's a tricky bitch. I think, uh, you know, Ray Dahl, Ray Dalio, uh, if you read the book, Ray Dalio, the 10 principles, 10 principles, right? Principles. Huh?

I think it's just principles, right? Is it just called principles? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Principles. He basically talks about his time when everybody was in the very heavy into the stocks and he was focused on the commodities. And when the New York and when the stock market crashed, the commodities drove up.

And if everybody's doing something, then you should be doing the other thing, right? So if everybody's going on Amazon, then I should be looking in the other direction. And that's just kind of how I see it. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. Well, look at what Amazon did this year. So they stopped buying product from brands under a certain revenue value. So if you were a mom and pop shop that was making $500,000 off of Amazon for the last three years, you're now making nothing and you have zero customer information. And they probably make your, make your product, right? And now they're making your product.

Right? Exactly. Because they have all the metrics, they have all the consumer information, and they know exactly. We have strong coffee on Amazon, but we took it down. Because every time I would look up my product, I would get hit with a four-sigmatic ad. And I was like, fuck that. I'm like, I'm not on this site to promote other people. Like, you know, I, they, they could do their own thing. Like, why, why is that happening? Like, I didn't pay for that to happen. Like I'm giving you X dollars and you're trying to take my money from me by giving it to somebody else who has a, a higher volume of selling their

product so you can make more money off of them. Dude.'m complicated yeah uh i'm pretty excited now that i'm kind of understanding a little bit more about the strong coffee um specifically because i've been kind of a dork for nootropics like since as since since i discovered them um i've been mixing L-theanine and caffeine for years, and this is the first that I've ever heard it being in one package of coffee. I mean, it's been packaged together before. You hear of smart caffeine, but as far as in a coffee, and it doesn't taste like it. By natural stacks?

Yeah. It was just like a bulk supplement store type of thing yeah yeah but um can you explain for people that might not be as knowledgeable about why combining l-theanine with caffeine is so beneficial yeah for sure. I mean, awesome, awesome question. So, matcha has become widely popular recently because it has a lower amount of caffeine and it has naturally occurring L-theanine. L-theanine is a precursor to serotonin. So your neurotransmitters and your overall neurohealth is based off of like dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, like these four chemicals that are fluctuating based off of like happiness, fatigue, sadness, like all these

different things. Serotonin gives you a great mood elevator and focus potentiator. So when you combine caffeine with L-theanine and your serotonin goes up based off of that L-theanine, it will reduce the sympathetic breathing response. So caffeine elevates our heart rate and changes us from diaphragmatic breathing to upper respiratory breathing and it alters our performance in that way so like coffee i i jokingly say if you know if it's not strong coffee it's weak coffee because it's not actually it's not actually making you strong like we don't make strong coffee we make coffee that makes you strong our company is strong coffee company right it's not's not strong coffee. So it's like when we think, so when I look at L-theanine, it regulates the breathing response by managing that neurochemistry and not

allowing that caffeine to throw you out of whack. And especially for people who are fasting in the morning and drinking coffee. Because they're going to have a higher cortisol response. Which is going to cause even more of a sympathetic breathing response. So that anxiety is robbing you of energy. Right? Because you have like a small tremor in your muscle. Right? Like a small shake in your face.

You know, where you're like looking around a little bit more, you're, you're burning energy up and you only have so much of it. So when, when I think about L-theanine being in coffee, it's like, why wouldn't it be? It's, you know, coffee today is like your flip phone of like 1990 where it's like, how have we not gotten the iPhonehone of coffee yet right you know like somebody says like coffee is more expensive so it makes it better fuck that it still has the same problem yeah and then right like and then if anybody's listening and they're like well i i don't

get like weird tremors in my body like that i don't experience that what he's talking about is like you hear people talk about oh i can't drink coffee because i get the jitters or i can't have too much caffeine because it makes me all shaky that's what he's talking about and so without the l-theanine which again when i started uh messing with everything like i couldn't have too much caffeine because i have a real sensitive stomach but adding l-theanine to caffeine actually kind of mellowed me out but still gave me the awesome positive benefits of the caffeine so the fact that it's all in one thing this is this is freaking awesome man kind of mellowed me out, but still gave me the awesome positive benefits of the caffeine. So the fact that it's all in one thing, this is freaking awesome, man. Thanks, man. And it didn't stop at L-theanine. So when we did the original formula, L-theanine,

it wasn't enough. And we did neural mapping studies because I really wanted to make sure this stuff worked. I was giving samples to people who are on Adderall on a very regular basis, people who are drinking like five energy drinks a day, you know, things like that. And I'm like, switch to this, see what happens. And they're like, yo, I don't drink coffee, right? And I'm like, well, now you do, just try it. And it shifted everything because the neuro factor in there, the clinical data and what it shows for anxiety is absolutely incredible. So when you pair that with the L-theanine and the L-tryptophan, the L-tryptophan, it completes the amino acid profile of the collagen, yes. But L-tryptophan in itself also is extremely great for dopamine. Yeah. I was actually going to just totally clap you up on that one because when I seen the L-tryptophan, I was actually just going to ask you like, okay, can you tell me the side effect of L-tryptophan?

But yeah, you're right there because when you're talking about like, I was just reading on your website, if you want like a cup of coffee that feels like a warm hug but still slaps you on the ass that was great that was great by the way but that's exactly what the l-tryptophan is going to do because isn't it just a precursor to like to just more serotonin well yeah yeah well the l-theanine is the precursor to more serotonin. Um, the, where, where tryptophan, um, works with, uh, dopamine receptors. Um, but they, they synergistically work together because, you know, serotonin and dopamine when managed properly, you know, at like the, at the right ratio, um, that's like fucking happiness. Yeah. That's like elation. That's like willpower, right? Like some people will literally say, I feel like doing things after I drink strong coffee. Right. And like a friend of mine is addicted to Adderall and you would go to his house and if he was vacuuming, you knew he was

on Adderall, right? He like, he had this like nervous thing that he would take an Adderall and about 40 minutes later, he would just start cleaning the fuck out of his house. And I was like, interesting. Matt would be a great person to test this on. So I was like, give me your Adderall, you know, here's some strong coffee. And he was like, this shit ain't working. And he calls me like 20 minutes later and the vacuum was running. He's like, he's like, Oh, I gotta get some, I was trying to buy some weed for him from him. And he was like, he's like, Oh, I gotta finish cleaning my house.

I gotta finish cleaning my house. And I was like, I was like, Oh yeah, what are you doing? It's like drinking that strong coffee. So, um, you know, my wife has been like the greatest advocate of like how it makes her feel. And she's like, you know, South side, Milwaukee, Latin girl. She would tell me if it sucked, if it did. Um, but, but, you know, I, I nerd, I nerd out on this stuff. Like I really, I've always loved like, you know, the idea of bettering yourself, right? Like the idea of like the steroids to the nootropics, it wasn't about like doing steroids. It was about becoming a better version of yourself

and nootropics have like really done that. And, but I think there's so much bullshit out there. Like you see people putting like phosphatidylserine in a thing and they're like, oh, this is a nootropic, yada, yada, yada. And you look at like the ethical numbers and they're so far off any type of ethical dose that it's just like, this isn't doing anything. Like how much of this is a placebo, right? And like phosphatidylserine is like a 50% supplement. So it's like 50% of it is filler, 50% of it is actually phosphatidylserine.

So if it says it has 100 milligrams of phosphatidylserine, most likely it actually has 50 milligrams. Right? So you're like looking at a product and you're buying it based off the value. And that's why we do full transparency labeling. So our labeling is the yield amount, not the full powder weight amount, which is what most companies do. We do the yield. So it's like we put eight grams of MCT oil in it to get five grams of actual MCT oil. Yeah. And then how about companies that are telling you to mix, whether it be a powder

or even a capsule and just taking it with water like and not even addressing the fact that hey this is a fat soluble nootropic but go ahead and take it with water you'll be fine so the fact that you know that it's it's so silly to me because it's you know kind of like how you were looking at coffee like this is simple like why can't why isn't doesn't this exist um why doesn't that say it right on the label like hey drink this with some type of fat or something. Whereas your coffee already has MCT oil. So it's already taken care of, which is freaking awesome. Thanks man. Yeah. And, and, you know, to toot our horn one last time,

it's you also don't have to blend it. You literally pour hot water over it, stir it for less than two seconds and it's, it's done. Like if you pour the hot water on top of the powder, you don't just put the powder on top of the hot water. It is like, it dissolves so quickly. So it really is. It's really great for just making on the go, you know, and it mixes cold too, which is really important. We use a special type of coffee that is created a certain way so that it mixes and suspends in cold water the same way like a cold brew would. We actually have a really exciting new product coming out today. It arrives. I was hoping it would arrive and I could send you guys some out today. It's called Midnight Oil. And it's an instant espresso roast with 10 milligrams of CBD,

one gram of macadamia nut oil, and two grams of pure C8, C10, MCT oil, and 150 milligrams of L-theanine. Yeah, so we got some CBD coffee. First instant CBD coffee. Cool. Right? Dropping that into the mainstream. What's this, you know,

we got like a little report on you. We got like a little rap sheet here. One of the things that sticks out like a sore thumb here is that you went to Minnesota and trained with Brock Lesnar. Like what's the deal with that? Trained with him in what way? For MMA type stuff?

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. I was one of his sparring partners. Ouch. Chris. Yeah. Ouch.

sparring partners. Oh, Chris. Yeah. Ouch. So, uh, so my fighting career, um, it was kind of, I had like random injuries, had some like kind of performance anxiety that I didn't fight as often as I should have. But, you know, nickname was Jim hero fight zero, you know, even though I, even though I was 13 and two, it was like, they kind of, I would get poked a lot. Cause I only would fight like twice a year. Um, you know, and a lot of these guys are like fighting five or six times. So I wasn't allowed to spar with the other middleweights cause I hit so hard for a one 85 or I would cut down from two 10 to one 85. And I was like, I would, you know, I wasn't even trying to hit as hard, but like, it just happens. You don't want to pull a punch in sparring. Cause that's how you get hurt, you know? And that's how you get clipped by somebody. So I was training at the Minnesota

martial arts Academy and originally Sean Shirk, um, kind of like took me in and made me part of like the cool kids. Um, I was an electrician, so I had something to offer. Uh, he needed his house worked on. And so it was just like a, an entry to, you know, being in that group. And through that, um, I proved myself to be a, you know, a challenging sparring partner. And, uh, they asked me to help out with Brock Lesnar when he fought Randy Couture and Chris Tauscher and I was Randy Couture. So I was the 210, 200, I bulked up to like 220, you know, just ate pizza every fucking night after practice and, you know, and, uh, pizza and foe. It was like, it was like on the way home. It was like pizza foe home.

Sometimes Culver's would get in the way. Um, but yeah, I bulked up to like two 20 and I was just working single legs and, you know, heel heel hooks and, you know, just constantly trying to like get Brock and I clipped him once I clipped him once. And it was, it was pretty amazing watching that dude. And then he like came after me like a fucking bear and mauled my ass. And Chris Tauscher had to pull him off me. I mean, I thought he was going to kill me like straight up. Like I, I noticed that he kept closing his right eye when he threw his cross and I stepped off to the right side and I threw a,

I threw a quick hook and I just clipped his chin. And I pulled back a little bit cause it was such a clean shot. It was just like, and he just wobbled, grabbed me. Cause I was almost like, I stopped. I was like, and he just, yeah, it was, it was, you know, and, and, uh uh so i went from his camp um that's what you know i went from his camp to working with uh brett rogers who was the number five heavyweight fighter in the world at the time who uh since then has gotten in a lot of fucking trouble so i was like looking him up i was like oh shit i was like brett what happened man i think it might be you know mma it's hard on the brain so who knows so i mean do you do any other martial arts training now i know you mentioned

the band foo stuff so i'm guessing you've done some of that type of training but do you do any jujitsu or boxing or anything like that anymore you know i i don't do jujitsu anymore um um that's a quick when somebody sees my ears and they instantly want to like prove something to me and i've had a lot of like random injuries through jujitsu over the years that post my career yeah where like somebody just like they didn't even go the they didn't even go to the the safe zone and say good. They just went, I'm going to get this motherfucker, you know?

And it's like, like every place I went, you know, like they would always introduce, Hey, this is Adam, my friend, you know,

he fought blah, blah, blah. Like, you know, watch it, watch it. This dude's a beast,

you know? And then I'm like, and then I got like a fucking bullseye on my chest, you know? And, and everybody's just going after me. So I kind of, I say, I kind of stopped trusting people with my body. Right. And that fact, I was like, so I started doing rock climbing as I feel it's like jujitsu by yourself. as I feel it's like jujitsu by yourself. And it gives you the ability to solve problems and move through physical space.

And it's also very like humbling because you find out like, I'm really strong here, but I can't fucking do this to save my life. And that's kind of jujitsu. I have my daughter signed up for what's called Tukong, which Tukong is the South Korean Special Forces Martial Arts System. And it's combining Kung Fu with, I think, Hapkido.

And one other, so it's like a traditional karate with Kung Fu and like elements of Taekwondo mixed in as Taekwondo is Korean. Yes. So it's also Korean. So Korean Hapkido and, uh, and, and Kung Fu. And I'm actually going to start taking it, uh, January 1st, um, with this hip issue I got, I feel that if I could kick more with my left leg, I might be able to kind of like get this hip to kind of like internally rotate. I don't know that I'm just going to fucking break it. But I do miss martial arts because it, it gave a lot to me between martial arts and, and gymnastics. I was a, I was a gymnast when I was younger until I started getting a little too tall. And it's not like I got really tall, but I was on a good trajectory of growth.

And they're like, your son's going to be pretty big. I don't know if gymnastics is going to be a thing for him. And I focused on martial arts then and soccer. And martial arts has always been amazing because in, you know, in, in, in two con they call it June B, right. But like your focus, you know, like folk breaking a, breaking a board or boards, um, is like going up to a deadlift, you know, it's like you have to be fully committed or you're fucking yourself up.

Right. So, uh, so yeah, martial arts is pretty dope. You guys do, you guys do anything? I see the snickering in the back. Does he climb instead of doing jujitsu now? No, it's just, you said the climbing thing and there's a guy here. Um, he's a camera guy, right? And he's like, I want to do jujitsu, but he's gotten to rock climbing. So it's just funny that you said you went from jujitsu to rock climbing. I don't want them to hear this. They're both like dirt ball sports. You know, like, like you go to like any jujitsu guy and like climber, they almost kind of

look the same. You're right. You're right. You know, like they're a little like stringy, slightly dirty. Their clothes always kind of like being like a grungy hippie is cool when you're like in jujitsu and climbing. People just buy expensive clothes that look like shit. Are those pants supposed to be tan on purpose?

Yeah. We can have as much fun with this as we want, or you can tell us what it was really like. But was it part of your agenda to just piss off literally everybody on NBC's show Strong? Because I was actually just looking back and I did check out the whole show. And I was like, he looks like he was the bad guy. So, I mean, looking at you now and kind of like getting to know you, obviously, you probably were kind of fucking around.

But did they make it obviously seem much worse probably were kind of fucking around but like did they make it uh obviously seem much worse than it actually was no no actually it was way worse than they made it seem oh wow that's even better you know yeah man i mean yeah i i have no problem um the the easiest way for me to explain the way it was is there were a bunch of people there trying to be somebody. And then there was me being myself. Right. So it's like, I literally had people tell me like, Hey, you know, just so you know, I'm going to like every once in a while, maybe I'll like say something to you like advice wise. Cause I'm like trying to like get myself out there as like, you know,

some kind of like special coach for motivation or, you know, whatever the fuck it was like, this kind of shit was happening when the camera's off. We were, we were sequestered in a hotel room for a week and a half and we had nothing or almost two weeks and we couldn't do anything. We only could leave our room for one hour workout. And nobody knew that I was like what I did. Everybody was very transparent and what their specialty was.

And everybody just thought I was this fighter guy. Nobody knew anything about me. And the whole time I was like literally training in my room. And when we would go to the gym, I would just ride the bike for one hour at like a super slow pace, like watch TV and just like ride the bike. And it wasn't that I was like trying to mentally fuck with them. It's just that I wasn't, I wasn't trying to like show them my cards. Right. It's like no poker player says, Hey, this is what I got. You know, like, okay, let's go.

Right. So it's a TV show still. Like I'm trying to be my real self, but I also know it's a TV show. So these guys didn't know how physically capable I was. You know, they didn't know I could hang with the guy that could squat the heaviest and squat with them and then climb a wall faster than a climber. I've been climbing on and off for years, so it's not like climbing is super new to me. But I've always enjoyed it. So I got on the show.

The show starts. We're all not sequestered anymore. So now we're actually forced into the moment. And literally the first day I am getting in a fight with three of the cast members over the fact that I'm being obnoxious. And the whole reason I'm being obnoxious is because I was, I was basically like, this is a fitness show and you guys haven't let us eat in 12 hours. And I'm like, you expect me to go out there and perform. And for these people to perform, I'm like, how about some fucking food? And I,

and I wouldn't let it go. I just get like, they literally ran a Jack in the box at like two in the morning in Malibu to go get us food. Because I was like, they literally ran a jack in the box at like two in the morning in Malibu to go get us food. Because I was like, I'm like, I'm not fucking letting this go. I'm like, where's my food? Like you, like it's two in the morning and we're doing this workout at two in the morning after you took us to a mall at 1 PM to buy time. Then you drove us out in the middle of nowhere. We stood in a van for three hours, no food. And then we go and perform at two in the morning. Haven't eaten since one. You know, I remember like one guy had like a bag of candy at one o'clock when we were watching the movie, like that was the last thing he ate. And so that kind of like kicked it off. So the show, then I start beating

the piss out of everybody, like every competition I'm winning. And they're just like, the show is literally like, there are clips of people saying, God, I just hope anybody wins, but Adam, you know? And it's like, well, of course you're going to have a problem with the guy that's winning and that's getting people kicked off the show. What you didn't see is that it got racial at one point, you know, like I picked Leon to go. I picked Leon and Benny, the two African-American dudes to go in the tower together. Cause it was my choice. They were the two most physically gifted ones. They were jacked. They were super fast, super strong. Leon played as he was a captain of fucking Maryland as a defensive end. Benny

was a running back for Texas, you know, long horns. He's a strength coach for, uh, back for Texas, you know, Longhorns, he's a strength coach for, uh, uh, Oklahoma, you know, Oklahoma, like this is a legit athlete. And I'm like, if there's any way I'm going to win this show, I got to get one of these guys off the show right now. And like, they like pulled the race card. I'm like, my brother is black. I'm the furthest from being racist, man. My wife is Mexican. I'm like, how can you sit? I like, I almost cried from like being like yelled at that. Like I was racist and that like, I'm only sending them, you know, I was just like, I was like, Oh, it's a brother thing. And I'm like, what? I was like, what is going on here? I'm like,

you guys don't even know each other. He's like, man, we've been, we've been this, you know, I'm like, I'm like, Oh my God. I'm like, you guys don't even know each other. He's like, man, we've been this. I'm like, oh my God. I'm like, what's happening here? I'm like, all I wanted to send this person to the tower with this person. I thought we were just here to work out, train some fucking girls, get them in shape, maybe make some money. It was a good tactic, man. What was that? That was a good tactic.

It was a good tactic. Take out the competition early. Yeah, and you're actually the second person we've had on the show from that show. We had Drew Logan a couple years or a year ago or so now. So that's our boy. He's the one that had the dog that can smell his cortisol levels. Oh, I know Drew. Me and him had the biggest beef.

Oh, really? Oh, please do tell oh you know it's funny because leon who i got kicked off the show in the first like three days like the guy he was like i mean he's like they want he wanted to kill me i mean like but him and i became really good friends like he let me train out of his gym in santa monica for 18 months rent free wow you know like he never never asked me for any money. Like didn't care about it. He just wanted to make sure I was okay. When I moved to LA, uh, drew Logan and I we've, we've, we've, uh, we've like cleared things up a little bit. You know, he was kind of,

he was kind of a prick. He like, he called, he called his girl a cunt, like in like the first like couple of days of like knowing each other. And I'm like, dude, I don't give a fuck who she is or what you're doing. Like, don't be calling some girl a cunt. Like, you know, I mean, like it kind of blew my mind. And Drew, Drew basically told me that he wished I died of ass cancer. Like my, like my dad. Oh, oh, Drew. Goodness.

He like said that shit. He like said that shit. like my dad. Oh, Drew. Goodness, man. He said that shit. He said that shit. And I'm like, you literally are referencing my dad's death and you hope I die like him? Fuck. I'm like,

are you fucking mental? He's pretty hardcore. I'm like, what is this? I'm like, this is a TV show, Holmes. I'm like, you're lucky the producers are here because I would beat your ass. Damn. There wasn't one person on the show that could have stopped me from thumping them

so it's like i know for a fact that drew would never have said that shit to me back then we're good now he definitely crossed the line you know and like that's like i didn't know i was getting into that when i when i went you know i mean i grew up in the midwest and like tv was like it was always a dream for me but i never imagined like how it would be and i didn't imagine and when i got there i didn't ever think it was going to be like that and it got dark real fast i tried leaving the show they're like you're the star of the show you can't leave i'm like what what do you're the star of the show. You can't leave. I'm like, what? What do you mean the star? They're like, we're putting you on the billboards.

Like you can't leave. I was like packing my bags. I'm like, fuck this. I'm out of here. I don't care how much money you're paying me. This ain't worth it. You guys. They had an NBC executive flying from a helicopter to talk me off of leaving. Wow. My absolute favorite part of that show is

you have the trainers and you know they're they're coaching up their trainees and it's like hey man like you know the workout's only half the battle nutrition is so important we really got to track your macros you really gotta you know follow a strict diet if you really want you know some progress blah blah we got to go to subway because this is the perfect way this is the perfect way he sold his soul they asked me to do that and i refuse yes they literally said do you understand this is in your contract i'm like i refuse and they were like what do you mean like they like show me the contract they were like, what do you mean? Like, they like showed me the contract. They're like, you're penalized by a $250,000 fine. If you don't do this, like we're asking you to, I'm like, I don't have $250,000. I'm like, so you guys can do whatever the fuck you want. But like,

I'm not talking about subway positively. It was, but what's funny is Benny, I will give him a lot of credit. He was the most attentive trainer outside of me to his, his, his client on that show. He cooked every meal for her. He taught her the things he like taught her how to recover. Like some of the guys on the show, they didn't even know how to cook. Like they didn't even like, they had no idea what they were doing. You know, I remember Matt Miller, who is like the trainer for Cirque du Soleil. I showed him how to make like meatloaf muffins to like track your macros easier. So like each muffin is two, is two grand is two ounces. So you need to eat four of these.

She needs to eat two of these you know and just make these two ounce meatloaf muffins you know and ground chicken muffins and different things so like compartmentalize your macros easier because we were in a hurry too like we could have bulk cooking time so i'd like prep things but then like when it was time to eat we had like 30 minutes and then we had a mic up and like go do shit how'd you even get called in for that job because i don't even know if we got that info like yeah yeah yeah yeah so i used to date a girl uh who is on tv and uh so that's when it started like 10 years ago before i met my wife and we both auditioned for the biggest loser and x years years later, uh, like we didn't get it.

They kept calling every once in a while. They call me and asked me to re audition and it just didn't happen. One year they call me and they're like, we have a show for you. I'm like, I'm not interested. And they're like, no, we want you on the show. Like this isn't a no formalities like you've been casted like we want you on the show and so i went through the small amount of formalities and did the whole psychological exam that was pretty gnarly being you know i had uh suffered a major concussion after doing some cliff diving and it straight from Washington where I was doing this,

um, outdoorsman retreat. And we had to jump off a 60 foot cliff and I thought I'd do a flip and I over, I over rotated and I smacked my head into the water and whited it out. And 36 hours later, I had to be in California for psychological exams and, uh, like last questions and stuff. And they put us in a hotel and man, I had to answer, I, we had to, I had to do like a three tests that combined were over a thousand questions, two hours of psychological, uh, value, uh, valuations. Um, they needed to make sure that we were like the perfect kind of crazy. Right. Like that's literally how they do it. They like, they find one sociopath, one, this, one, this, one, this. And they kind of like, and then they find one person who was me. They called

that's the psych. So when I got off the show, I had a hard time kind of dealing with like what these people said to me. And he's like, Adam, that's how we built it. He's like, you were the catalyst. He's like, we knew that if we dropped you in there, that you would disrupt the illusion. And that's like, there always has to be one of those on the show. And that's like what makes the show poof, you know, like fire. And they're like, we just didn't think it was going to happen as fast as it did with you. I'm like, apparently you don't know me.

Do you still keep in touch with your client by any chance? I do, man. She's in incredible shape. Look her ass up. She is, uh, she competes in figure shows. So this is what I was told by the show doctor. This girl then cried to me and was like, I have to, I have to make a change. 43 years old, went fibromyalgia, went through menopause when she was 33. Wow. Her hormone panel was so fucked up that the minute we walked out of the doctor's appointment, when he said that she would most likely not lose weight nor gain muscle. And this is a very credited doctor that, you know, deals with this. He's been dealing with biggest loser in these shows. Like that's like the doctor for it. Dr. Hazinga. Um, you might've known him from Charlie Sheen's

doctor, the guy that was defending the whole like HIV AIDS thing. Um, when he went on the news. But anyways, we, I hopped on Amazon. I ordered her progesterone DHEA, got her on some high amount of omegas. I switched her entire diet to keto, you know, and, and boom, rest is fucking history. She had the best transformation on the show. She walks around with a six pack today. She got a divorce, moved down to Miami, her and her daughter to start in the last Drake video. And it's, yeah, I mean, it's all because they, she walked on that show. She had me as a coach and I changed her in a way that no other person would have because I made her

like understand the principles. She would be asking me all the time, like, why aren't we working out as hard as the other people? And I'm like, cause you're not like the other people. Like sometimes we literally go into an aerobics room and just salsa dance for an hour, you know? And then like, I would hand her a 30 pound medicine ball and I'd say, go walk for 45 minutes holding this medicine ball. Like, I don't care where you're holding it, hold it here, hold it on your shoulder, hold it over your head, hold it here, carry it behind you. Like you got

a big ass. Like, I don't care what it is. Just don't set it down for 45 minutes. And then I would have her like hit like a heavy set of five on deadlifts and do some crawling. And that would be it for her workouts. And it was just like the slow and steady pace. Cause she had fibromyalgia. Like if i push her too hard she would have collapsed she wouldn't have been able to compete she was in pain all the time she was only sleeping like we had uh fitbits she was only sleeping four hours a night you know and it's like you can't treat everybody like everybody man yeah she's she's, she's in great shape and her name is, uh, uh, Claudia CC, uh, Colasso or Cagazzo. Yeah. She looks jacked and she's in amazing shape. Yeah. Yeah. She's, you know,

now because her body is adapted, she can train hard, you know, like, like, like everybody else could, but you know, when she first started, you can't, you can't do that. You know, I used to deadlift 500. I know today I deadlifted my max set of five and it was under 400. You know, it's like, well, I'm not who I used to be. Right. So it's like, I got to reset that mindset and that's what she had to do too. You know, I was curious about this real quick because you mentioned that as a kid, you had a paper route and you paid for your own trainer. Um, and like when you were talking about all the work you did, it seems that you really didn't have bosses or you just like did everything on your own. So has that like, has that always been something you've had since you were a kid? Cause I'm like,

why I would have just, when I was a kid, I would ask my mom if I wanted a trainer to pay for the trainer if I could. So why, what, what's that from? Um, you know, I never knew where I got my entrepreneurial spirit until one day I was doing some medicinal medicine and I was reminded of the fact that my brother, we were all eating dinner at some like Mexican restaurant somewhere and he excitedly walked in and he was like 20, you know, 22, maybe something right around there. He's 13 years older than me. So I was, you know, 10, 11, somewhere around there. And he was really proud that he bought this pickup truck and the back of the pickup truck were a shitload of tools. My brother was an incredible, he was a construction worker. He started his own contract, his own construction business when he was 22. And I didn't realize it, but I just, I wasn't meant to have a boss. I'm just, I'm too, I'm too wild, you know, in certain ways. And when I saw my dad working so hard, you know, third shift, like seeing him come home and, you know, busting his ass and then seeing him getting laid off, um, nine 11, you know, like literally got a call like hours after the planes crashed in the building and he was laid off because what he did was dependent on the airline's industry success.

So I was like, I'm never going to get fucking laid off by somebody, you know, and I had, I had jobs, but let's put it this way. Like the minute I proved that I was like one of the best, you know, like working at Best Buy, the minute I owned the Best Buy company record and the most product service plans sold in 30 days. Like I turned into like the guy who didn't even fucking show up to work when he was supposed to. And I was just like, peace out, you know, until they like, you know, clean up your act. We're going to fire you. I fucking quit, you know, and then just go back, you know, to go to a different job and get really good at something and then leave there. I just felt like I was just kind of collecting,

you know, at the time when I look back, I was just collecting skills in some way. Yeah. You know, but working for myself is, is important because I'm creative. And that's like my true drive is like creativity. Like if you look at Strong Coffee, like the branding, you know, like everything I do, it's like, it's me. Like I do that stuff. Like that's like, I love art and creating something, innovating things. And you can't innovate and create if you're working for somebody

because they're the ones that are innovating and creating and you're just implementing their thoughts. And so it's like reading somebody else's book. So I wanted to write my own book. Cool. Where can people find you? Where can they buy some of that strong coffee? you can find me at Von Rothfelder. That is my last name. Check me out on Instagram, strong coffee company. I care far more about that than I do my own Ig.

And if you are interested in picking up some strong coffee, check out strong coffee company.com. Awesome, man. Great having you on the show today. Appreciate it. Appreciate you opening up so much to us and talking about a lot of stuff that's not easy to talk about. Much appreciated. Thank you for allowing me to be open. You know, it's, I, like, as I said, we don't,

men don't talk much. So this communication right here was cathartic in its own. So I really appreciate you guys for having me on and for giving me this moment have a great rest of your day thank you guys you too man but that coffee is really fucking good i liked it it was really good yeah i mean it was different like it's got a different flavor to it it tastes like uh it doesn't taste like a regular black coffee like there's it tastes like there's something in it yeah it's good it has good undertones it's creamy i don't know what that is but it has like a cool like i don't say aftertaste but like like when you when you drink straight

black coffee like it kind of leaves almost like a bittery like acidic if it's too strong yeah there's like this didn't know it had a smooth finish surprising that was instant too i didn't know that that's probably why when he sent some to the gym why we messed it up because somebody put it in the coffee maker and it just like it ruined everything yeah yeah yeah i thought it was good man and it was good uh you know good to hear from him you know talking about his experiences i think a lot of people deal with that you know that kind of stuff a lot of people deal with drug addiction and uh family issues and no one wants to talk about it nobody wants to get help everyone just kind of sweeps under the rug and it's not a

problem until it's a problem and then it's like already kind of too late. Unfortunately. Yeah. Happens a lot. One thing, one thing he said that I, I think I was just kind of fighting with it in my mind a little bit was he was like, sometimes the individual just makes up their mind. What was the question you asked him that got that answer? Yeah. I asked him like got that answer yeah i asked him like if he could you know say something to someone that was still here you know if if he like

would have picked up that phone from his brother almost like what would he say yeah and i know it's tough to talk about but like i don't necessarily agree with that like with that individual okay well they they've just made up their mind and sometimes need to be okay with that. I think that's kind of what he said. Because I have a sibling that has issues in that realm. And if we were to have had that thought up, she's made up her mind, she'd be dead right now. Yeah, if left unattended. If left unattended and we were just like okay that that she made up her mind

there have been instances where she would have been dead if we just didn't keep digging and pushing i know that not everyone has the energy or the ability everyone has their life to do that for one individual and that sacrifice sometimes has to be made but like that i don't know that's it's too complicated of a situation well i think it's best to live your life to think that you can save everybody. Right? Why not? Because it doesn't cost you any extra. Maybe it would hurt.

Maybe it might hurt more like thinking – like it might hurt me more looking back and thinking about how I could have saved my brother. saved my brother. But whenever I think about that, I always just think it's kind of selfish because, you know, and he, he was mentally ill, but he said over and over again that he didn't want to be here. Like he said it routinely. So I'm thinking to myself, like, if, you know, if I look back and say like, oh man, I'd love to have helped him every day was really hard for him. Every day was really tough struggle. And I don't have any, I don't have any comparison at all to, I don't have any reference to compare that to anything because I, I feel really good every day. Like every day, you know, every day feels great. So I don't know, I don't know what he felt, but he certainly didn't feel the way that I feel. Yeah. And I have friends and some other people that, you know, deal with similar things.

And some of them figure out a way to manage it. You know, they figure out a way to manage it. And then they find stuff to look forward to as often as they can so they can be excited and be happy. can so they can be excited and be happy. I do think, you know, for some people like being happy is a hard thing to like figure out. I mean, I think it's hard for everybody. And then I also think maybe there's some weird interpretations of being happy. I think maybe people have unrealistic views of being happy. Like they think they're going to be happier like when something big happens. Like I'm going to be happier like when something big happens like i'm gonna be happier when i go on that trip to hawaii or i'm gonna be happier when i have abs

or i'm gonna be happier when i bench press this weight or whatever and if you're not happy right now then you're probably not going to be any happier once you get to that goal and then a lot of what he talked about today about some of those people on the TV show. And then he also talked about working next to some high level people and some people that were very successful. And he mentioned working with people that are really successful, that make a lot of money, that still have time for their family. Those are people that have deep roots and a good understanding of what the most important things are to them and how they can stay happy because they recognize that, yes, they could probably get any woman that they want, but they recognize that's not smart because they're married. These other obligations, these other things that they agreed to that they're being faithful towards and they're recognizing like, well, I might as well just stay right here and build on this vertical because this makes me really happy. I love hanging out with my daughter.

I love hanging out with my kids or I love going to this kid's birthday party or whatever it is. And yes, maybe there are some other things that you'd like to do. But I think that a lot of times we're just thinking that like that other, that next thing is going to bring us so much happiness. And it's a little bit of a trick. You can even just look as a, you know, you don't have to look any further than in your food. That's the ultimate trick, right? That's like, man, that ice cream or that pizza or that burrito. Um, wow. It, it looks, uh, it looks awesome, but maybe it's not everything that you really want. You only feel good for a few moments. It goes away real quick. Anyway, that's all the time we got. Andrew, where can people find you?

At IamAndrewZ on Instagram. How about you, Ancima? At AncimaEang on Instagram and YouTube. At Mark Smellybell on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you all later.