Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - The Dark side of modeling, human interaction and entrepreneurship W/ Gia Macool

Episode Date: April 26, 2022

In this episode Shawn French sits down with the dynamic and kind-hearted Gia Macool. Gia is a model, fitness pro, 1stPhorm Sponsored Athlete but what is most impressive about her is how much she cares about people. This was such an amazing conversation that covered social media, the dark side of modeling, human interaction, adoption and her business ventures. You  can find Gia on: IG  @giamacool Twitter  @GiaMMacool Business  IG @lobosdefense Website https://giamacool.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/shawn-french/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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and take advantage of me. I started to understand it. I'm like, you start to want to get this shield up and kind of protect yourself. But I vowed that I would never allow that because the day that I allow that, I got to get out of the industry. I can't allow it to ruin who I am. What's up, guys, how's it going?

This is Sean French with another episode of the podcast Determined Society. I'm really excited. I have a special guest today. Before I get going on that, though, I'd like to ask you guys, if you guys please, you enjoy the show. If you get something out of what I say or my guest says, please share the show. That's how I'm growing right now. Just like our good friend, Andy Priscilla, I do not run ads. So how I'm growing is how you're sending my message along. But today I have an awesome guest. I like to think all my guests are really awesome because they are. But this woman to me is a true self-made entrepreneur. entrepreneur. She's a, she's a model. She's a fitness pro. She is a first form sponsored athlete. And she also has a sponsorship with our angst at arms. It's a, it's a gun brand. And she actually also has a brand new gun store called Lobos Defense. And that's just launching. And I'm super excited to have my new friend, Gia McCool, on the show. What's going on, Gia? Hey, thank you so much. You're so kind. Although, so,

amazing what you said thank you very much i appreciate it it was distracting because i have you have maryland monroe in your background and uh it's like a life-sized version of her yeah this is a there's a story behind that painting that's uh actually my father and my brothers they had a little bit of a they were you know they love maryland and they passed away recently so it was one of the things i inherited that keep me kind of close to my my dad and my brother that's awesome that's really cool. You know, Marilyn Monroe, big icon. A lot of the dudes loved her back in the day. Beautiful and intelligent woman. But I love the story behind it. It's really cool that you're able to have that piece, that painting in your office to keep your loved ones close to you. It's really awesome.

It is. Cool. A couple fun questions before we start. All right. So since you're a first form sponsored athlete, you obviously love their products as so do I, because you called me out on my hat and my shaker before we started the show. I promise. I promise it wasn't intentional. Guys, if you're listening, I told her, I told, gee, I just had a really shitty haircut. And this was the closest hat to me in the first form shaker. Well, it's sick.

I'm not going to drink water out of anything else. So the viewers, you're going to have to deal with it. But so getting back to it, what is your favorite level one protein flavor? A cinnamon cookie batter. That's a good one. That is a really good one. Yeah, I saw a YouTube video that you did with the Summer Smash strawberry cheesecake or something like that. Yeah, so they're all good. They like every single one of them has a purpose. So like I have to have like at least three three to four flavors just because I use them for different things. But like as a universal flavor, that's the one that will kind of you can do for everything along with the chocolate and also the ice cream sandwich. You can do like for anything. But then all like, like, your. your strawberry. That's like if you want to just make different things. But I love level one. It's

probably one of the best protein that I've ever had. It's really cool because it's so dynamic and flavor that you can make protein French toast with it. You can do a lot of, I saw a post the other day from this dude Ryan. He made this cinnamon roll concoction and it was incredible. So big, I think my favorite is chocolate banana. Oh, I haven't tried that one yet. It's good. good. Yeah. They all are amazing. I mean, out of all the things I've ever tried, what I like about it,

it's just, it's easy to mix. Like, sometimes when I'm traveling, I don't have time to bring everything. So I just put some level one in a Ziploc, and I literally can take a spoon and put it straight into water with a spoon, and it will blend nicely. It's not like anything I've never tried. I've never had any of them clump up or anything like that,

just a normal shaker. It's pretty cool. So there's the plug for level one in first form, guys. to go buy your protein. Fun question now. What? Do you have any hidden talents? Yeah.

So a lot of people don't know that I like to sing. I actually go into, I've been going back and forth to the recording studio and just playing around for years. I'm actually working on a song release soon. I'm just waiting for the, I have a hook in this release. So the main thing,

or I'm waiting for me to come back into town to finish it up. And I also like art. So I used to actually sell my paintings. And I did abstract art and oil paintings. That's awesome. That's really cool. If you were out at a karaoke bar, what would you be singing?

So I love Seven Nation Army. Okay. Share songs. I like acoustic guitar. So Jack Johnson? Yeah. Some of the older songs, I just, I miss the stories that older songs, you know, like our 80s and our 90s to tell stories. I miss that, you know.

My wife's the same way. So when we're going on a road trip, she'll throw in all her 80s music. And if I'm driving, I'm like, listen, this stuff's going to put me to sleep. She goes, no, but the messages are amazing. I'm like, you're right. Because now, like, music isn't the same. And so I can relate to that. I think you and my wife will get along and definitely in your music taste.

so far. So that's cool. So it's funny because last time I asked a guess what they would be singing in karaoke, it was my friend Christy back in the day and she said baby got back. So this one's a little bit of a different. This one's a little bit of a different feel. Yeah, that's a fun vibe. I'm more of like, I like to have like moral to the stories.

I don't know. You know, it's funny because that actually leads into how I kind of found you. to be to be perfectly honest. I came across a podcast that you were on, maybe J.R. Rice or something like that. And you were talking about his question was, what was it or what has been replaced that you wish would come back?

And you talked about kind of just in person and, you know, really dialing into the work and not wanting that instant gratification. And so I came across that. And I thought that was really insightful. And then just all of your messages had so much impact. I'm like, dude, I got to reach out to Gia. Like it just, it was, it was amazing.

So how have you always, what's that? Thank you for having me. Absolutely. I'm jack to have you on. I'm Jack to have you on and to connect with you and to have this cool conversation. So just giving a little bit of the background of how we connected for the audience that obviously doesn't know. but guys, whatever you're putting out there

and the messages that you're sending, people are seeing whether they respond to you or not, whether they message you, but just know that you're only seeing about 10% of the impact that you're making on people. And yeah, so reach out to people, let them know that they're making an impact because I don't care who they are.

We all like to hear it. I think people are so, they pay attention too much to like overall numbers and they need to just concentrate on just getting your message out. And even if that's just one person that your message was received, that's actually what matters because it's not about everybody hearing it, because everybody could hear your message,

but not actually take it to heart or let it really lead them into action. And what is information without it being applied? That's funny because that was the second post. You got hit up on DM and you displayed it on a post about somebody asking you, if you wanted to buy followers. And it was just really cool. So that's the other thing you talk about. People pay attention to total numbers because, you know,

the vanity metrics and things like that. I think, you know, maybe all of us at one point when we first start out, we get caught up in that, but then realize, okay, this is the long play here. You know, how can you build a solid foundation of a community,

not followers, but a community that truly can appreciate what you have to say. And sometimes they may not take action on their page, but they're taking action in their life. You know, and that's even more important. I think what is happening to the industry is that people are monetizing the fact that they can make you famous. I think that that is something that is really disadvantaged because instead of saying,

well, I can help you get famous and I'll help you get known and I'll do this content. And all you to do is pay me a check. That's what people are doing now. So it's giving a really bad false expectation to all these new people who are going about it in the wrong way because now they're letting other people kind of tell them how to brand themselves and they're telling them how to shoot and what content to put out based simply off of getting attention instead of what their actual overall long-term outlook is and goals. That's a great point because if you do that, you're and you, I guess, adhere to what somebody. saying like, hey, this is what your brand should be. Like, hey, Sean or hey, Gia, this is what we should shoot. This is how we should shoot it.

This is what I want you to say. You're not creating an authentic community, right? Because they're following a character, right? And that's why I always try to be, you know, good or bad. Like, this is me. This is my brand. This is how I'm going to show up, right? And I think it's super important to do that.

And I think, like, you know, you turn on social media today and you say, oh my god like that could be like you see the same pose the same look the it's like it's like it's like brownhog day and you're like where is the creativity where is the passion where is the message why is everything getting lost because everybody's just kind of following each other because that's this is what other people are saying i can monetize and i can make money if you do this and this is happening like with photographers with anybody who's trying to make a business by using something somebody else and getting a paycheck. So I get mad sometimes because I'm like, all these girls don't see it, but they're putting out what other people are telling them to put out instead

of really what they want and they don't realize what they actually want until down the road and it's sometimes too late. It's interesting because to piggyback off what you're just saying, everybody's following each other, right? And specifically, they see a trend, right? Like a real trend or a background music trend. Background music trend's fine. But when you're going out there and you're just recreating trends and getting followers, right, your community is growing great. You can have a viral real and you have a bunch of people that came to your community based on a real. That's not even your brand. So now you're going to lose them because once they figure out, that's not who you are. Then you're rebuilding again. Yeah. You know, so I think it's better to not just to grow your community,

but to grow your community with people that know who the what the hell they're going to get when they get there, right? I just think it's super impactful. So wow, yeah, good stuff. So walk us through where you're on today, you know, just kind of share your story, how you got here and all that good stuff. Because you have a lot of amazing things that you've done in the past that are still doing that are shaped who you are today. I started in 2009 professionally. So like I started way before that. I was doing modeling at the age of 13.

But in 2009 was actually the time that I started getting published. And I started actually doing jobs where I was getting like a regular. It made it into a career. So yeah. So since then, you know, got into fitness, got my pro card. And then I just started doing. public speaking, my YouTube channel. At one point I had a school moral line.

And so I just been a very creative. I'm passionate. I like to do what I love and make a living at it. And I truly believe that anybody can do that. They just have to kind of find their anomaly. I agree. I agree. So you started modeling when you were 13?

I started doing classes and go see. and all the stuff that goes along with it. Yeah. So how did that impact what you're doing today? Because you're very out in the open as far as your brand. Do you feel like your modeling days prepared you to who you are as an entrepreneur and influencer? So one of the downsides to being online is you can't be a private person. Even if you're trying to be a private person, you know,

I think that people kind of misunderstand that and they see it like, oh, you know, you're all out there and I couldn't do that. Sometimes you don't even ask for those things. Sometimes you want to be a private person. Maybe you don't want to be, you know, known like that. But once you go online, Google is a monster. And sometimes you, that's just, you know, like everybody says there's positive things and negative things, right? So there's good things and bad things. The bad thing in my case is you can't be, you know, you're out there. I can't control people's perception of me. You know, you just have to continue to go forward with what you're doing. You're going to, you're going to fuck up. That's just part of it. You know, you're a human being. People want to put you on a pedestal. They want to act like you can't make any mistakes. And then if you make a mistake, they want to like bash you for it. It's not fair. We're humans, you know. But you just, you know, you go out there. You do what you love. You put out what you love.

People are either going to hate you or they're going to love you and you can't control that. No, you can't control that. I recently had someone, you know, kind of come at me recently and it shook me. It shook me because that person doesn't know who the fuck I am, right? But it's like people forget that there's human beings on the other side of this Instagram screen or Twitter or YouTube, whatever the fuck it is. And it's like it's a complete dehumanization. Like no one thinks anybody's human.

And what we found is, and I found this in my early journey into, in my venture that I'm going, what I have right now is you see people, right, on Instagram or just they're, they're out there in the world. And everybody knows who the hell they are. All, you know, they're the who's who's of the world. And then when you talk to them, it's like, the guy's an asshole. Like, and then, and what, but what happens is, is you talked about expectations, right? You know, it's like we all expect to see this person that is on a grid. And that's not the way it is.

Like it's a highlight reel. It's like, okay, this is the best version of myself. I'm putting out there right now. Here's my mind. Take a peek behind the curtain a little bit. Here's what I'm really about. But the reality is, is we all have our shit, right? We all have our relationships, our marriages, our friendships.

and we make mistakes, right? No one's perfect. I think that's a funny point because, you know, people don't see it that way. And it's, it's interesting. They're never going to see it. They're never going to understand it. They're not in our shoes.

And to be honest with you, the majority of them want to act like they don't want to be in your shoes. But then, you know, they kind of want to know, well, how come you got this opportunity? or how come you got that opportunity? So they hate on you for the opportunities that came your way for the shit that you had to put up with to get there. You know?

So it's just, it's something like they're never going to understand. They're not in your shoes. They're going to have their viewpoint. That's why you can't really listen to opinions because if you do that, it will literally destroy you. It will take you off your focus.

You have to have tunnel vision. It's so funny because for like a day or two, it just really shook me, right? It shook me a little bit. And I'm just kind of like very introspective. I'm like, and I started questioning. I'm like, no, no, no, no. This is the first of many.

Okay? You cannot, you cannot do this. This is the first of many. Doesn't know who you are. Who gives a shit? Who, who gives a flying fuck what this person thinks? And it's funny because I'm like, well, I told you. Like, who cares?

But it just, sometimes it takes, it sometimes it's for me. Again, I told you she's smarter than me. Like, for me, it takes a couple, you know, maybe like, you know, 18 hours. 24 hours to really kind of let it go in my mind. And then what I do, and this is my trigger, and I don't know how you deal with things, I'm open to hear about it. But when things like that happen to me,

the only way I can really kind of just kind of clear it out is to get hyper-focused on what I know I need to do. You know, dial back in. I study psychology a lot in school. So you have to understand that if somebody truly doesn't like you, if they deep down inside don't like you, they're not going to be visiting your page. They're not going to be checking out what you're putting it.

They're not even going to be listening to what you're doing. They just pass right by you. They're not going to be following you. But if they take the time to really go to your page, check up what you're doing, then write a message to you, then write a message to your other followers. And they're all,

they're confused fans. That's what they are. Confused fans. And they want to be heard. And it has a lot to do with their, upbringing. Their upbringing has always been, you know, they got used to being bullied, you know, as a child. They got used to being put down. So that's all they know how to repeat. They're repeating a toxic cycle. It's funny because like I, you know, my wife and I have this conversation the other

day. And it's something I fully believe. But when you're in the moment, it's really hard to kind of just see what it really is. And it's really about triggers. Right. It's not about me or you. It's something that happened or we might have posted that may have triggered something that for them that was down, you know, but in the past and it just ignites a fire and then we're the receiving end of it. So we have to be super aware of the fact that, you know, someone's reaction to us is not about us. It's 100% them. Yeah. There's three reasons why possibly would follow you. You're relatable. They can use you. Or there's something in you that, they can relate to in the sense of like something you said,

they're projecting it onto themselves. So if you can kind of like see everything that you do like that, it'll help you. No, that's good advice because it was one of those things where it was just like, okay, this is the first one and it was intense. I've always left it in my highlights, like little quotes like that, like people will love and hate you and I'll have nothing to do with you because the truth of the matter is they're not really,

most, the majority of people following you really don't think about you. If once you understand they're not, you're not in their head space, they're not really thinking about you. It's just whatever you're doing for X, Y reason is either relatable or they can use you somehow some way. So once you realize that, you're like, fuck it, I'm going to do what I want to do and I'm enjoy life. Yeah, I think too.

Like I think you just get just a more authentic reach that way. You know, and it's funny because people, a lot of people ask me, well, have you try this because this person's doing this and that person's doing that. I'm like, no, I mean, like, fuck no, because that's not who I am. Like, you know. It doesn't matter what other people are doing. Just understand this. As long as you can build relationships online with people, genuine relationships and, you know, not about, you should never approach any situation with like, what can I get from them? What can I use it for? Because then you're going to end up, you're going to end up

fucking up the relationship. Go into it like, hey, I like this person. Let me work with them. Let me, you know, see how they are. If it's a great relationship, great. If they don't like me, move on. I appreciate you this chance,

giving me the chance and move on, you know? It's like any other relationship. But I feel like what's happened is, and this is going down a completely different road, but hey, like I said, it's a free conversation. Because I think people need to hear this too, right? And I truly feel like conversations go in the direction that they're supposed to go in.

And the biggest thing though, right there is just like you said, people are engaging with people on social media. Not everybody, but a lot of times because as a small of a page as I have, I get people trying to follow and leverage my ass all the time. And it's just like, I read it. I'm like, what the fuck? Like, I'm a person. Like, what do we talk about here? Like, let's have a conversation. but you can, it's really weird because sometimes you can feel like,

you might have felt that way when I messaged you. But you have this immediate, okay, I got this message. It seems cool. It seems like a genuine person. But then like after like two or three exchanges, it goes down like this weird road. Because I think, yeah, I think like it's hard. It's impersonal on a device, right?

Right. And I mean, let's be real. The majority of people that are on social media that are normal, normal people, not crazy, they're there to leverage and use it as a school for their business. There's two times great. There's people who are leveraging it for their business. And then there's some people that are just like sitting around just trying to entertain themselves. The ones who are sitting around trying to entertain themselves, they don't want to learn.

They don't want to be educated. You know, they're there just to like be entertained. Like this is TV. So yeah, it can be tough. Like you have constantly, I used to stay back when I first started. I'd be like, why am I meeting all these models who have such foul personalities? They're not humble. They're not like, why are these people all the same?

But then I started to realize as I got involved with business and I had all the time, somebody trying to use me, take advantage of me. I started to understand it. I'm like, you start to want to get this shield up and kind of protect yourself. But I vowed that I would never allow that because the day that I, allow that I got to get out of the industry. I can't allow it to ruin who I am, you know. And that's the one thing that I enjoyed about you is,

is when I reached out to you, like, I didn't really think that you would even get the message, to be quite honest. You know, because I thought I might have gone into like the request box or whatever. I'm like, she's never going to see this shit.

But like, hey. No, here's a thing. Like, I don't believe that bullshit when they say, I don't read my messages or I have a picture. I don't believe that.

Like, I have had my management help me out sometimes if I'm traveling or I'm not in the States. They've helped me out there. But for the most part, I'm very hands on with everything I do. And so do you have to protect yourself, you know, by screaming and making sure you don't respond to the wrong people? Yes. But do you have to be cold and impersonal to somebody who comes at you in a professional, nice way? No, absolutely not. And anybody who uses as an excuse, sorry. Yeah. I'm with you. I'm with you. And that's just, it's just one of those things. Just so you know, I appreciated that. Right. And because of that, we have a new friendship, right? We have a new connection. Right. And it was, there was no ego involved. And sometimes I feel like there's a lot of ego involved. Right. I've asked people to come on a podcast who I felt who had a really good message and that my audience would really enjoy. Like, sorry, dude, you're not big enough yet. I'm like, All right, motherfucker.

That's cool. That's cool. But when I explode, don't think, don't think for one second. The thing is, is like, at what point are we going to realize

that we are not celebrities? Where is this? Let's talk about the real celebrity. Real celebrities are doing things like we're not, I don't know where these people get because they have 10 million or 12 million. Like, I'm a real celebrity. No, no.

Like even real celebrity. are humble and nice. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Dude. I just, I don't get the mentality. That's the funniest thing, dude, because, like, I always tell the story, and it's so

funny that you said real celebrities are actually nice. Dude, I live in Florida, in southwest Florida, right? And I'm at a older city, like, very populated city, probably about four years ago, three and a half years ago. And I'm on the phone with my buddy, and I'm walking through public. right and I'm in the produce section and I say dude holy shit he's like what's up I go it's fucking Jennifer Gardner over there I was like well it looks like

Jennifer Gardner it could be Jennifer Gardner he's like bro I know where you live that's not Jennifer Gardner I'm like okay you're probably right so I cross her I cross this lady's this girl's path like two or three more times and I go Dan I got to go that's definitely Jennifer Gardner And so I'm texting my wife. I'm like, baby, I think Jennifer Gardner is at public. She goes, you're insane. I'm like, no, I'm not.

I'm telling you right now. So finally I go up to, I actually went up to her. This person that I thought was Jennifer Gardner, I said, excuse me. I was like, I have a question to ask you. You've probably been asked like a thousand times in this store. But are you Jennifer Gardner? She goes, I am. How are you?

What's your name? I'm like, my name is Sean French. So it's so nice to meet you. I'm here with my grandma. Thank you for saying hi. and I'm like, hey, no problem. She goes, do you live around here? I'm like, yeah, down the street.

She was super kind. And she's one of the bigger celebrities on the planet. But yet, you know, somebody with 147,000 Instagram followers can turn into a dick and a heartbeat because the computer screen says he's cool. I don't get it. See, this is what I'm saying. Like, it goes back to the old adage. If you are acting like you have money, you don't have money. If you are acting like you're famous, you're not famous.

You don't need to pretend. You don't need to do this whole, no. Like, if you're secure as a person, you know what you have, there should be no threat to how you. The way you treat people says a lot about you. And I've always, always stead firm to that. And that is one of the reasons why I believe that I have stayed as long as I have in industry because I think people come and go in this industry, you know,

and over a decade, I'm still, if not, I think we're on that right now is at a better point than where I was before. I mean, it's just, it's the personality, right? It's the respect you have for another human being. And like my wife and one of my good friends always says is nobody will ever care how much you know or what you say, but they'll always remember how you made them feel. Absolutely. You know, we, we tell our children that constantly, right, especially our middle child. She can get squirly.

She can get squirley. She's a five-year-old. She's a five-year-old bombshell. And our three-year-olds, no different. That's a fun age. It's a fun age. You know, we have three. We have an eight-year-old boy, five-year-old girl, and a three-year-old girl,

and they're handsome and beautiful, intelligent and talented. And I tell you what, though, the girls stretch me in ways, Gia, that I never thought I'd be stretched. Like. I always said that. I always said, I was like, girls are, they're not going to like, boys will go behind your back. Like, you can tell them something that will be behind your back and they'll do it anyway. girls would be like right in your face. Hell no.

And then they'll like, they'll literally live up to that. So they're harder in the face, but they at least are not afraid to like say it. When boys are like, okay, sure. And then behind your back. It's funny because the three-year-old, Mia, she's in your face, bat shit crazy, right? But I mean, she's so sweet and beautiful.

I just like, like she is. It's so sweet. It's a double-edged sword, right? I mean, she's trying to rip down the Easter basket from the counter at 6 o'clock this morning asking for candy. Like, that's the kind of crazy I deal with after I get back from the gym. It's like, well, I was all zinned out, but now I'm a neurotic mess. That's just kids. I have helped, I literally have helped raise 42 children total.

42 children? How does that work out? I'm an adoptive mother. I adopt. And also, I have helped sorry. several friends and family with their kids. So that's amazing. So you adopt children or is it a foster situation?

I actually adopted my son. He was one and a half when his mom abandoned him. And so, and now he's grown and out of the house. He's, you know. That's amazing. I was staying in college. But yeah, so. I didn't know that.

That's incredible. that is incredible a lot of people don't know a lot of things about me they see this they see my pictures these glamorous pictures and they're kind of like

oh you know she's like all the girls out there you know they have that's a complete that's what the media will do the media you know

they make these beautiful pictures but you don't know the people behind them so never ever judge can I ask you a couple questions about that like how does that make you feel as a person like

because yes, you can go back and look at all these amazing photos of Gia, and, you know, people will look at those photos and they'll comment just on the physical part of you, but there's, that's only like 1% of you, right? There's different layers to you. And so how? They will say a lot of things that they would never say to your face. And if they were in your face, you'd get a chance of punch them.

You're a badass, dude. They probably don't want to say that to you. You probably have one of those straps on your leg. I have a 9 millimeter. I've been dying to try out. So I would love for them for your life. You've wonderful. You heard of guys, Lobo Defense.

Brand new 9, ready to roll. That's funny. Oh, man. Let me ask you a question. What are the top three lessons you've taken from your life experiences and kind of brought them into your entrepreneurship and all your businesses? Elaborate again on that. So what do you mean?

So things that you learn just along the way, whether it's a lesson you learn from a parent or the modeling industry, you know, how is that impacted how you run your business? Okay. So, you know, getting started, you, I didn't necessarily in the beginning take charge and control over my image and my brand. I allowed other people, photographers included, to kind of tell me what I should do. And that was a huge failure on my part, huge mistake. I have to live with those mistakes. You know, I have pictures out there that I am not too proud of because I allow the photographer to direct those pictures. But going forward, when I took complete control over my image and how I did things, I start understanding that it's a business. It's a business in a sense of, you know, everything you do has to be done just like any other business.

I don't care if you're running a gun store or you're running a car lot or you have a gym. It's the same processes. You know, you have to be organized. You have to be on time. You have to be professionally. You have to be courteous. You know, you have to be honest. You have to be trusted by your client.

And the image that goes into that is just as important. You know, how you look online is the type. of people that you're going to bring, you know, the clients that you're going to bring. So, yeah, everything that I do on a daily basis has helped me get up to this point where I've owned, when I can have my own businesses and have investments because it all kind of falls into play. Yeah, I know. That's a great point because, again, we're going with the authenticity, right? In the early stages of your career, you were being swayed by somebody who was supposed to know

and have your best interest in mind. And they put things out there that you weren't necessarily. I'm okay with. And to this day, you're like, hey, there's some pictures out there of me that I really don't like. That's not who I am. And people have casted an opinion probably based on those pictures. You know, in the modeling.

I started out with the bathing suits, for instance. So I actually sewed my suits from scratch. Everything was by hand. So I customized competition, like your IFBB bodybuilding suits. And I also did modeling the tiny, eating, bitty tiny bikinis. So in the beginning, the photographers were like,

yeah, this is great, put this on. But see, if I had known what I know now, I would have realized that that is going to attract a certain type of clientele. Normal girls, mainstream girls, aren't going to wear those things. Yeah. So I did it because, you know,

I was like, oh, you know, I'm promoting my brand. I need photos. I need content. And the photographer's like, yeah, wear that. How little did I know that it was going to attract these type of predatorial people? And then from there, you know, content got stolen and things, you know, my computer was hacked. People stole stuff, start putting it out there. And they make a business off of us.

They literally make a business selling you and that's how they do it. You know, and there's, it's just, it's a real dark, there's a dark side that I didn't know, that I was very naive to knowing and I had to learn. Yeah, that's a really fucked up thing because I saw, I saw you write something or publish something based on the modeling industry and how dark it can be, the dark side of the modeling industry that is stealing pictures and selling them. And all of a sudden,

you're in fucking publications that you didn't even know you're going to be a part of. Right. You know, and that, again, you're not compensated. You didn't, you didn't ask to be branded this way. This is not who you are. This is not, you know, they're making you out to be. something that and they're making money off of that and you didn't get a single penny you know

it's it's it's a really it's sad that these people and they're these people live in their mom's basement they have no lives they're you know it's like it's like a it's like a boat in the middle of the ocean and there's a hole and the whole is them you know leaking your content and you're trying to get rid of it and they just keep you're going to you're going to sink you know so you have to get to a point where you're like, you know what, I'm not going to let these people are going to find a new girl and a new girl. There's a new girl that turns 18 every day and they're just going to keep on doing this to every girl. And until women understand that if you want to have a business and you want to have financial freedom, you got to be really, really careful by your image. I mean,

super hyper paranoid about your image. And you can't let anybody tell you anything. You have to, it's not about, oh, I can post it and just keep it for me. No, you can't even do it. You. it. Just don't do it at all, you know, because there are people out there that will target you. If they see dollar signs on you, they'll target you. That's just wrong, man. It's just wrong. Have you ever thought about being like an image consultant for young models that come into the industry and truly coach them on how to be strong-willed and stick to their guns on how they want to be branded and what type of images they want out there? well if i find the right people to collaborate with so that the message is delivered properly because

here's another issue that we we don't talk about online people don't want to hear the dark side people don't want to hear the truth because a lot of times they've never experienced it themselves so they don't really believe it and the ones that know it exists are the predatoryal people so they'll try to dig and keep it hidden by by my creating a narrative that they can control. And they'll try to discredit you and make you out to be like you're lying because they want to keep the lie alive because why they make money off of that. So, you know, you're dealing with a small percentage of growth who's experienced it.

You're dealing with those who are trying to create a narrative so they can keep monetizing off you. And then the majority of the masses don't even want to hear the truth because it's so dark. It's something they'll never experience and they can, they don't even understand. You hear all these celebrities and models who were targeted and leaked this and leaked that, right? But you also see that the masses of messages all blaming her instead of seeing the predatory behavior. So they'll just continue to do the same thing because no one's, there's no accountability for any action. That's just so interesting.

And I would imagine, too, these young girls getting into the industry, they don't want to know about it, not just because they haven't seen it or never will experience it. they probably don't want to know about it because they don't want to have the idea or know that the industry that they want to be in is is rotten in so many ways. They don't want to believe it's going to happen to them. Right. And I have actually had girls that I have messaged saying, hey, look, you need to be careful. This is happening to your content. And they will be like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And tomorrow they're releasing new content and the same things happen. And I'm like, didn't I just warn you? you, they want to believe in, in that, that this is going to take them somewhere on a golden brick road. And they want to, there's a night and white shining armor on a horse. It's going to, like, give them all their dreams.

And it just, it's this whole unrealistic rose-colored glass. So, yeah, your message falls to Jeff Gears most of the time. Unbelievable. I want to switch gears. I know we don't have all day and we're running up on time. I want you to share a little bit about Lobo's defense. You and your husband started, you know, created a business called Lobo's Defense, gun store.

You know, chat with us about that. So I have a few sponsorships. One of them is angsted arms. I'm going to be actually doing a huge shoot with them this weekend. So we're going out to the range and we're going to be doing some really cool stuff. They have, I love their firearms. They start in 2014, and they are one of the few firearms that take Glock Mags, which is really, really cool. So I'm really looking forward to it because I'm going to be working with them.

We're going to be doing some custom firearms and tactical weapons. And then we have a store as well. So that will be launching as soon as the pictures come back from this shoot, we'll be doing the launch for that. Nice. So when's your store actually open? It's already open. Oh, it is open. Yeah, we've actually been working on.

it for what now over five years. Oh wow. It's something that, you know, it's these things take time. They're not something that, you know, everybody can do. It takes a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of work. But yeah, so it's more of just introducing it into the media now because we've been doing it for small clients here and there. But now we're just going to be letting it, you know, be available for the masses. Well, obviously when you do, please share it with me so I can share it with my people. You know, I want to bring awareness to your brand and your husband's brand. He is a special forces veteran. Yes.

So I think it's important to support veterans and people that are doing good things out in the world. So imagine a year down the road from now, right? We're sitting down again in a year chatting. What are we celebrating? You mean a year ahead? Yeah. Okay. So a year ahead, we be, well, depending on where you're going in a year.

What's your goals? Tell me what you're up to. I just meant specifically for you, but where I'm going, I mean, listen, you know, I'm looking to get a million downloads. You know, I want to be a million strong on my, on my listener base, helping corporate clients achieve success through their sales force by driving accountability and, you know, in sales, tools with high-performing habits. I want to work with athletes all across the world.

I want to be speaking across the world. That's where I'm going, right? That's my goal. I see it very clearly. And, you know, we just got to focus on the process and not look at the scoreboard for right now. So a year from now, we'd be doing a toast, a salute to just following our dreams,

following our goals and actually achieving them because I think that there is no one-end goal, right? It's always like all these little steps that you write out because I journal a lot. And it's like every day I'm doing one of them. And then when you look at the big picture, it's coming alive. I think it's super important for everybody listening that the finish line is never a finish line. It is a checkpoint. And as soon as you get through one wall, you go through another wall and another and another and another.

And the one toxic thing that I want you guys to be very, very aware of is when the people come up to you and ask you, aren't you happy with what you've, accomplished, you should be happy with where you're at because you've done X, Y, and Z. Just because high achieving people continue to push doesn't make us ungrateful, makes us fucking alive. Exactly. Different checkpoint. We are, we're our own worst critics and we have a tendency to not really look back and look at the past.

So that's good because it keeps us moving with new stuff. but then never really sit back and go, wow, we really accomplish all these things, right? So sometimes you do need your wife, for instance, or my husband to go, hey, no, look, you accomplish all of this, you know, because we're always like next, next. Yeah, yeah, the next thing and then you don't focus on the wind long enough and you just, and you bolt off, right? So, no, I fully believe in that as well, you know, really relishing in the win and then moving on, not moving on and forgetting about the wind,

but like, hey, there's more to do. I'm going to make sure I put all your links in the show notes because I want all my listeners to know where to find you, your website, all that kind of stuff. Gia has a lot of great things that she's doing, guys, a great message. So make sure you hit the follow button on all of her platforms that I'm going to post in the show notes and go to her website that I'll also put in the show notes

for her new store, buy some shit, supporter shout her and her husband are doing amazing things and gee if you don't mind to hang out for a little bit here um after i hit stop but listen guys i hope you all got a lot out of this episode um i truly did it was probably one of my more fun episodes to have someone so awesome on and so open and kind so without being said guys please share the show and i'll see you next time