The School of Greatness - 359 Beyond the Body: What Makes a Real Man with Fitness Icon Steve Cook

Episode Date: July 27, 2016

"Your body is an instrument, not an ornament." - Steve Cook If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/359

This is episode number 359 with Steve Cook. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. What's up, everyone?

Thanks so much for tuning in today. And did you guys see the big announcement? That's right. The big announcement. We released half of the speakers' names on Summit of Greatness. That's right. We've got a ton of people already signed up from all over the world who are going to be flying into the heart of it all, Columbus, Ohio, to attend the first annual Summit of Greatness event. This is for people that want to reach their ultimate human potential.

This is for people that want to connect with other like-minded individuals and that want to build lifelong relationships. This is for those that want to connect with some of the most inspiring speakers and influencers in the world. Summitofgreatness.com. Do you guys have your tickets yet? If not, the ticket price is going up this weekend. So make sure to sign up right now. Go to summitofgreatness.com and check out all of the incredible speakers. I think four

of the five are New York Times bestselling authors. We've got TV personalities. We've got billionaires. We've got world-class individuals in business, relationships, lifestyle, spirituality. Go check out who the speakers are, summitofgreatness.com. I don't want to spoil it for you right now, but go to summitofgreatness.com, don't want to spoil it for you right now but go to summit of greatness.com check out the speakers and get your ticket today now just recently i met this guy steve cook and let me tell you something steve is an incredible human being steve is one of the most recognizable faces in the fitness industry today he is best noted for being an IFBB pro men's physique competitor, optimum nutrition and

bodybuilding.com spokesmodel, an international fitness personality as well as the founder of Swolder Nation. That's right. Let's get swole. He is also the third person ever to obtain his men's physique pro card, first ever men's physique competitor to

qualify for the Mr. Olympia, and so much more. The guy is also a super positive individual. He's got over a million people that follow him on Instagram, over half a million on YouTube, almost a million on Facebook, and he has just built an amazing empire online. And that's some of the things that we're going to talk about today is really how he built such a huge social media following that doesn't also control and consume his entire life so he can still have a life. We dive into masculinity and talk about his definition of masculinity. And it was, in my opinion, the most beautiful way I've ever heard someone define masculinity. I really loved it. So make sure to listen to that and share

that tweet that part out. We also dive into how to course correct when you feel anxiety or overwhelmed in your personal life, in your business life, when you're building something. Steve talks about why he's looking for a girlfriend and also why he won't go on The Bachelor show. Also the importance of balancing multiple different platforms when building your following and growing your business, why that's so important. We talk about that and so much more

on today's episode 359. Make sure to follow along and share this with your friends right now, lewishouse.com slash 359. Watch the full video interview also over there. All the show notes you can connect with Steve and check out all the clickable tweets to share out with your friends all the great quotes that steve talks about in this interview without further ado let me introduce to you the one the only steve cook welcome back everyone to the school greatest podcast. We've got the legendary Steve Cook in the house.

Good to see you, man. Good to be here. Legendary. That's an amazing intro. It's good, right? Yeah. We just met recently through Steve Weatherford, who we just had on recently as well. And I think I'd heard about you maybe a year or something ago, seeing you on bodybuilding.com or some fitness thing.

I was like, this guy kind of looks like a douche. But I don't like to judge people until I actually meet them. So I was like, let me meet this guy someday and see what he's really like. And then Steve told me to connect and come out and have lunch with you. And I kind of forgot that I thought about that a year ago, whatever. But then I met you, I was like, I mean, this guy's a really good dude. And don't get me wrong. We still do douchey things because I like to say, you know, there's that certain there's, there's feeding like to, I like to say, you know, there's that certain there's,

there's feeding apple. I always like to say like the people that follow me, um, you know, we hide the peas and the carrots in the apple. Right. Exactly. So in this day and age, there is a certain level of doucheyness.

I think that people, but you know, and we, we make fun of it. We have a good time with it, but, um, that's funny.

That's cool. Well, you've got like shirts that say that too, right? Yeah. Jim douche, Snapchat. You talk. That's cool. Well, you've got like shirts that say that too, right? Yeah, Jim Douche. Snapchat. We talk about Jim Douche. I get a really awesome voice and we start talking like this.

Like pretty much a dodgeball Dwight Goodman. I like it, man. How did you get started in the whole fitness world? You know, you've got this huge audience. You've got millions of followers all over the world. Faceofbodybuilding.com. You've got huge supplement deals, sponsorship deals, blown up on YouTube. How did this all begin? Were you always like a fit dude or did you start off skinny and say, I need to get big?

Yeah. I don't have a cool transformation story like a lot of people do. I was one of seven kids in Idaho growing up and my dad was a high school athletic director and basketball coach. So I was kind of in the middle of those seven kids, and I had a lot of energy. I was a troublemaker. So my dad, from the very get-go, instead of maybe other parents don't know how to discipline, is like, you know, I'm going to work them today. So we would go to the track. Yep, we'd go to the track. If I wanted to watch TV, 50 push-ups every commercial from the time I was like 8, 9, 10.

Yeah. That's a nice dad to put you through that. Yeah. At the time, I didn't think it was nice. But now, I'm very grateful for that. And I think for me, it was one of those things that I naturally had a capacity for that kind of stuff as well. And I took to it really well. I remember my older brother working out. I was in eighth grade. He was a senior. And I benched more than him because I liked doing the push-ups. I didn't mind it. My dad saw that, and I binged more than him because I liked doing the push-ups. I didn't mind it. My dad saw that, so I think he kind of pushed me into that.

But there was some natural love of it too. Sure. Okay. When did you start really lifting? Really lifting? Probably I can remember being sixth grade. No, fifth. 10, 11 years old?

Yeah. That's pretty young. It was young, and everyone used to always say it would stunt your growth and this and that. But I started off doing the body weight stuff. So push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups. Yeah. And I think, you know, the next step was just evolving into machines. Right.

And then the bar or whatever. Yep. That's cool, man. And what sports were your main sports in middle school, high school? Football was always my best sport. I was a football, baseball, basketball guy. And then in high school, I dropped baseball and did track for football. But I always wanted – my dad was a basketball coach.

Brother, sister, good basketball players. I always wanted to be a better basketball player. I just – I was the guy who came in and I fouled people and rebounds. It was what it was. I like it. You're just the intimid was. I like it. You're just the intimidator. Yeah. I like it.

And one of the fun facts that we found out about you, you have to tell me if this is a myth, that you eat Chipotle four times a week. What are these? I'm sure there are weeks. I definitely don't. These days, Chipotle four times a week would not be. Right now, it's Chick-fil-A, actually.

Really? I just love Chick-fil-A. There's one close to my place, and I probably stop there. I know the macros and the meal that I get, and it's part of my daily diet pretty much. Dude, Chick-fil-A, I haven't had in probably six years. I would eat that every week when I was playing arena football in Huntsville, Alabama. We would get essentially food stamps to play. Really?

Yeah, they would give us free meals. They'd pay us in Chick-fil-A and this barbecue joint we'd eat and then Firehouse Subs, I remember. Really? Chick-fil-A, we'd be like trading the food stamps for the other, like, give me your Chick-fil-A for the barbecue. That is awesome. But we would get that,

put the little hot sauce on it. Man, it was so good. I love me some Chick-fil-A. I haven't had it in a long time. It's hard to think about that. it's actually healthy for a good figure. I stick with the grilled chicken sandwich. I do a side of grilled nuggets. And I don't, you know, I know it's. It's not organic. Yeah, no, it's not.

But, you know, again, it's quick. It's easy. And my lifestyle right now, as much as I'm traveling, it kind of fits. Yeah. But, yeah, definitely I always, you know, if it was organic, maybe that's one thing we tell Chick-fil-A. Get some organic chicken. I think they're supposed to do something. I think Bonnie Harrier, a friend of mine, is a food activist.

And she got Chick-fil-A to change something. Maybe it's no hormones or something in like the next few years they're changing out of it. It sounds like I've heard something about that. Yeah. So we'll see. So when did you realize? So you played football at Dixie State, is that right? Dixie State College in southern Utah.

All four years you finished or did you stop after? So no, I played – so I started off at Boise State. It was a gray shirt there. I didn't go to class. A gray shirt. What is that? A gray shirt. They don't even gray shirt people anymore.

What is that? So you're not actually – your clock hasn't started with the NCAA yet. I was a walk-on, preferred walk-on. I was a running back in high school and I just – I didn't have the quicks for running back in college. So I was going to try to play linebacker. They wanted me to grace, or it came on. And, you know, as a freshman, you don't have anyone really caring about you. You're a walk-on.

And I stopped going to class, ended up transferring to a place called Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. Like, my cell phone didn't work there. Turkeys. They had turkey farms. And it was an interesting place. I actually cried the first night I moved into my place there. I'd never been before. And I saw it.

My cell phone wasn't working. You're like, I – Just wearing my – Wrong decision. Yeah. How long did you stay there? So I was there for a year and a half and then ended up transferring to Dixie State Division II school. They were a junior college.

When I went there, the first year being Division II, and we were awful. But I played all three years. Yeah, I started all three years. I was able to make captain my senior year, but I think we probably won four games over the course of three years. Right, right. That's the worst when you just lose every game.

It's the worst feeling. I don't think I'd ever had a losing record in any of the sports teams until I got there. I learned a lot, but it was also definitely hard. It's hard to break out of that. I've been on championship teams and then teams that just sucked as well. It's hard to change the momentum

to defeat it every week to being inspired and excited and motivated to train harder to win. If you're not winning, it's really hard to just change that mindset that you can win. Both are habits, I think. When you win, it's a habit. You expect it. And when you lose, it's the same.

The challenging thing is with a team sport, you can't really control everyone else's mindset. You can, for moments, inspire and lead by example and rally people around you. But it's got to be a collective team that has the mindset and the coaches. And the coach. It starts with the coach. I agree with that. I think that we had some good guys on the team. It was just – there was no real unity.

Yeah. And I think it starts with the coach. Challenging. Okay. So after school, what happened after school? Did you like – Yeah. It's like this heartthrob, whipped dude that just said,

I'm going to be a fitness professional? Or what was the vision after that? I was married in college. Shut up. Yeah. That's some Idaho stuff right there. Idaho and Utah. That's it, man.

I know a lot of people. A lot of my friends married and have kids. No way. I was married at 21. At Dixie State. At Dixie State. So I went through college. Two of the four years married.

Girl, I dated in high school, and we kind of dated on and off for the first two years of college, and then got married. And then we moved back to Boise together. And then what happened is she was a nurse. I didn't graduate at the time when I moved back. So still a few credits short Working at Texas Roadhouse I was a waiter there And kind of trying to figure out

Thinking about going to chiropractic school I had a little school tryout with the Titans That didn't pan out and then I fractured my ankle And just kind of gave up on that It was tough because that's your identity It's your life You don't think about anything else After football it's like oh let's your life. And you know that. You don't think about anything else after football.

It's like, oh, let's just keep going. See how far we can go. You're going to school and you're not really thinking about what you want to do because you're hoping this football thing pans out. You're not studying. No. You don't care about class. Yeah. And you just do it for football.

That's it, man. That's the only reason I went to school. 100%. And then so I get back. We get back to Boise. I'm working as a waiter. I'm about 12 credits short. She's a nurse.

Relationship, it was tough. She was the breadwinner and ended up stepping out on our marriage. And we ended up getting divorced. But it was probably a big wake-up call for me as well. I went back down to Dixie State, finished my degree, did it for me. Didn't have to do it for football or anything else, you know, and got for the first time, I think, you know, really felt good about where I was at. And at the time I was going to school, taking 16 credits, working at Texas Roadhouse back down in St. George, prepped for my, one of my very first bodybuilding

competitions. Like it was a, there was a spokesmodel search for muscle and fitness. No way. At the Mr. Olympia contest in Vegas. And you heard about it online or you read in the magazine or magazine and online. It was a big one, you know, like 250 guys entered it in. And, you know, I, I never worked that, that semester. I lived in my grandparents' house cause they didn't, they didn't live there. You know, this was before iPhones and I didn't have the internet at their house and I'd go to work, I'd go to school and then I'd prep. My whole life was structured.

I never worked so hard and I never learned so much about myself in that short four or five month period of time. I ended up winning that muscle and fitness male model search and got in. And from there on, I was like running in the fitness industry. And just kind of, there's this men's physique category that was then created after that, that I participated in, get my pro card in the IFBB. And all along, I was working with Bodybuilding.com because they're from Boise, Idaho, and then Optimal Nutrition, one of the world's largest supplement companies. And I just was given some amazing opportunities to travel around the world and meet people at expos, started a YouTube channel, and just kind of just been running ever since with it.

What year was this? How old were you? This would have been 2010, 2009, 2010. When you won the fitness search. I was probably 24, 25. Gotcha. Yeah, 24, 25. You've just been kind of trying to figure it out ever since then.

How do I maximize this opportunity and maximize the next one and build it? 100%. Wow. It wasn't always something. maximize the next one and build it. 100%. Wow. And it wasn't always something – I was always told there's no money in the fitness industry, which is true in a lot of ways.

The big bodybuilders make a lot of money. But now when Men's Physique was created a couple years ago, supplement companies started realizing that people love that attainable look. As opposed to the bodybuilding look. The massive, massive muscles, yeah. And that was kind of where I started off. But me growing up as an athletic family wanting to be an athlete, my training has kind of gotten back to that. And now I'm trying anything and everything and really focusing in more on the YouTube.

Competing is no longer something I really focus in because it's selfish at the end of the day. It served its purpose for me. For the longest time, my goal was to be men's physique Mr. Olympia. How many categories are there in the Olympia? For men's, there's two right now. There's bodybuilding and men's physique. When did this physique thing come out? It came out about 2011.

So after you did the search. The search actually was kind of the launch pad for this category, men's physique, that's now taken off in the bodybuilding world. At the same time, social media came about. And we all know Instagram and Facebook. Everyone loves posting meals and their fitness. Nobody goes to the gym anymore without taking a selfie at the gym. So it kind of was a perfect storm. And I felt like that's the only reason I really have a good social media

following is because people liked that process. The daily story. The journey. How long have you been competing for? A number of years? Would it be twice a year you compete in a competition type of thing? What was this? I didn't compete as much as a lot of the other guys

because I knew that I wanted to win Mr. Olympia, but I knew that was only a stepping stone. There's other things I wanted to do. Part of that included LA. Part of that included clothing, supplements, and maybe even one day acting. But I think that at the heart of it is I like being at expos. I like meeting people.

I like doing YouTube. Connecting with people, yeah. Yeah. And that to me goes so much further than anything else. And I come from, like I said, seven kids. None of them really are in the fitness world. So it's not something that I get so caught up in. I know there's a lot of people that compete that really get caught up in it, but I have a really great family that I feel like has always kind of kept me grounded and seeing a bigger picture with everything. And so that's kind of where I'm at now. That's cool, man. How many events are you doing a year right now? Expos?

Yeah, that's a lot. Probably 12 to 14. So this year, yeah, just about. This year we've done places like India, we started off with in January, Obviously, LA, the Arnolds in Spain, Ohio, China, Sweden, Australia. So it's a trip seeing the world. You know, a lot of the expo halls look the same. So it doesn't matter where I'm at. But the people, the people that come up and say, Steve, I watched your YouTube. I lost 30 pounds doing this program on bodybuilding.com. Or, you know, that's, to me, I'm like,

you know what, this is, this is really what it's about. And I don't know. I just, I love, it gives me tingles when I, when people start telling me stories like that. And now being in LA, I want to just, I want to grow that to a bigger platform and try to really take that to, to a bigger audience. Sure. Sure. I want to transition into a topic about masculinity because a lot of men, most, I'm assuming mostly men that follow you. 78%. 78%. Roughly.

On the Instagram. Now that you can see the stats. On the Instagram. That was one of the best things. So about 80%. And they all, what do they want? They want to look like you. They want to be more manly.

Do they want to have bigger muscles? Like what is their goals? You know, and I think it really depends on i think age too but i think everyone starts off wanting to be bigger and stronger that follows me and i was that same kid at 18 19 years old i wanted to be big and strong and and again that's where we get back to the applesauce and the the peas and the carrots so you give them that and it's again it can be a little bit douche you're in the gym doing bicep curls and things like that. Then you lead them into more health and you start talking about why we're doing these types of things, being functional, nutrition, and what being in the gym – what it really should be about.

And how you can pretty much take that struggle in the gym and apply it to other areas of your life, which is kind of what I did with the whole divorce in my life. But that's where – that's my demographic. And I think they want – yes, they want to look better. They want to be bigger. which is kind of what I did with the whole divorce in my life. But that's where, you know, that's my demographic. And I think they want, yes, they want to look better. They want to be bigger. I think also they want acceptance. At the end of the day, they want people to look at them and really, it's like nothing, you know, I want to create a community where, you know, because really people go to the gym a lot of the time for insecurities.

That was myself, you know, at the time of my divorce, I didn't really have a lot going for me. I knew I could control what happened in the gym and it made me feel good to exercise, release endorphins. I didn't have a lot of other things feeling good in my life at the time. So I think, you know, the gym is, I've seen a lot of great things that it can come from in just leading to health. Now there's a point where you care about yourself too much. You care about your appearance too much. It's you, you,

you, you, you, and you stop worrying about everyone else in your life. That is that, you know, there's that balance. And I've also been that person. How do you handle that?

Yeah. You know, cause you've got to post constantly to stay engaged with your audience, to build your following. You can't just post once every two weeks. You've got to post daily all over the place. How do you stay grounded and not selfish looking or whatever but also come from a giving place? That is a great question because it seems like the more selfish you are sometimes in our day and age on social media, like look at me, shirtless selfies, this and that, more people are going to follow you and things like that.

Yeah, it's going to get you more engagement. Right. Right. So I think that there is a, getting back to that certain amount of, you can call it douchiness or whatnot, that is, you know, you bring people in, you kind of, and then it's like, why are they going to stay following? Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, there's people I'll follow, I kind of see what they're about.

If they're great, I keep following. If not, if I don't like the message that they're portraying, I unfollow them. And for me, that's what it's always been about. And it's rotating things on the scheduling of posts where you're talking more, you get deeper in some posts. You talk about other people that are doing great things in other areas, books that I like. And you try to make it... And some people will appreciate that, others won't. Some people just always want to see fitness stuff. But I can't do that because I'm not being true to myself then. But I think people respect that in the long run. And then they're a following that's really engaged and care about you rather than just how you're looking and things

like that. What was your biggest insecurity after the divorce? After the divorce, my biggest insecurity is that I wasn't working hard enough. Like that, you know, I got, I, I couldn't succeed because I would, I was no longer a football player. I didn't know how to be successful in anything else. I kind of felt like I, you know, I didn't really have a lot of, you know, I never took school super serious. I never, there was never nothing besides sports that I was ever successful in. And it was my biggest insecurity that there was something wrong with me that I was going to be that way forever, that I didn't have any other talents to give to people other than playing sports.

But again, that's just – that's something that I think a lot of people go through in their early 20s, figuring out who they are. But it was a big part of my life and going through that then, I think really now that I'm in my 30s, now that I'm 31, it's hard to say that, kind of went through those things to figure out and be more secure now. What do you say is your biggest security right now then? Insecurity right now? Or do you have any? Oh no, I definitely got insecurities. Biggest insecurity right now, I would say just there's times that I feel like I could lose.

And again, you have that fear of failing in life still, but that everything you've built up could be taken away or all of a sudden you wake up tomorrow and Instagram's not around or something and all of a sudden you don't have this following. And again, it's like the same thing with football. What do you have left? So I'm trying to make sure that there's balance in life and there's something more that you can attach your name to other than just social media accounts. Right. Okay. What do you think is missing in your life? Missing? Probably right now, 100% I can say this, and I think you know what I'm going to say, is a relationship with a girl.

I'm not currently dating anyone, and I think for me, it's good to kind of take a step back and focus in on what I'm doing, but also what do I want to see in myself to then be a better partner for somebody in the future? Because I'm not getting any younger. What's the ultimate dream girl? Who is she? You know, that has evolved over the years. It's funny because when I was 22, 23, the girls that I was like, I think I would like to date her, it's changed now.

And I immediately think about, about you know is this person potentially a good mom you know does she have her own things that she likes and has going for her you know when before you know i would have been fine with a girl that just you know yeah look good and wanted just to go work out with me at the gym you know now it's i you know i want her to be somebody who's educated has has views on other things politically in the world today that mean something, also has a spiritual side to her as well that has something that has a moral compass. Sure, sure. Interesting. Why is it hard for you to find that?

Time. I feel like girls would be all over you right now. It's time right now. Just on the road constantly. And again, there's that – when you're concentrating on trying to build a business like I am. That's your girlfriend, man. Yeah. That's your baby.

It really is. There's not really any place – I don't go out and drink at clubs in LA. I'm living here. But when I'm here, it's work. When I want to relax between trips or LA, I go back and I spend it with family because family is huge to me. Family and really good friends. So unless they're like, Hey, I have this great girl. I want to set you up with, you know, there's not, there's not many Snapchats I'm opening or, you know, the girls that are super forward. I tend to, I tend to kind of shy away from, yeah.

Yeah. So the girls at the expo is probably aren't the ideal. Yeah. I, I think again, the, the expo scene is very competition related. And I want to find a girl who loves fitness, maybe even into yoga, holistic nutrition, things like that. Somebody that has that aspect to them maybe doesn't necessarily work for a supplement company as a living, just to kind of offset some of what I do. Yeah. that's cool, man. Okay. What do you think it's going to take from you to create that in your life? Dedicate time and resources to, and again, that comes back to sitting down and actively trying to find whether it's going to a church group that has young people there or even, I have not, and I refuse to create an online

dating account. I'm not on Tinder. Right, right. I think there's one called Bumble. Yeah, there is. I'm not on any of these. That's right. I hear Bumble's good because the girl says that they're interested. I just found out about this. Get on that one. Bumble.

Check it out. I might have to check it out. Check it out and then we know in two weeks what happens. Also, friends that are plugged into the social scene that might have... Come do acroyoga with me and my ladies someday and we'll introduce you to some people.

Nice. I got you now looking out for me. Sean Lowe, a guy that was on The Bachelor a couple years ago that ended up marrying the one that he picked. Go on The Bachelor. You know, him and I were talking about that. The problem is- It's not worth it, man.

No, and I'd have to go to The Bachelorette first. Oh, I can, yeah. A few years ago, they asked me to be The Bachelor. Really? And it was like- You turned it down. Twice they asked me. Woo!

Turned it down both times. One, I just think it's like not good for your brand long term. Yeah. To do a show like that. You get pegged as that. Think of it. Is there one guy who's been to Bachelor who has created something that actually matters in the world after that? The only name I can think of is Sean Lowe.

Again, he wrote a book about it. But again, I think he and his wife now are exploring other areas. But I can't tell. Besides Sean, I don't know a single bachelor's name. Jesse, the guy who's the ESPN analyst. Yeah, Jesse. The quarterback dude or whatever. Right.

But he, you know, I don't know. I forgot he was even the bachelor. Yeah, exactly. So it's 10 years ago or something. You know what I mean? So anyways, I remember I asked. I was like, let me ask my sisters about this and see what they think. And I called them on the phone.

And I was like like i just got asked to do this i was just casting this should i go do it and they were like absolutely not like really don't be a tool like i love that like no chance like if you do we'll just own you type of thing so that do they watch the show probably i mean for pure entertainment they don't want to see their brother on it they're like no way i got four sisters so maybe i should i should probably get an idea. They probably wouldn't. I mean, they definitely want to give it their stamp of approval.

I'm sure it'd be great. It'd be fun. But then you're the bachelor dude all the time. Yeah. No. You want to be known for something bigger. Yeah. And I don't know if I want to say this, but I feel like because it's a TV show, it's a reality TV show.

It's so staged, everything. Staged, and they're finding people that are certifiable. It's crazy, man. Certifiable, I like it. Okay, I want to go back to masculinity because I'm doing research for a sports that, you know, teammates, coaches, society tells us certain things on how to be a man. Tells us to be big and strong, not to cry, not to show emotions, don't be a wuss, don't be all these other names that we use. And I think it affects us. At least it affected me.

I'll speak for myself. It affected me and a lot of the teammates that I know in this projection of what it means to be masculine in today's world. And I love your video for your trailer for your new program that you had that's closed down right now. The video, it's like warriors fighting or something. What was this? Oh, that's the modern physique on bodybuilding.com. Amazing. This trailer is unbelievable. We're going to link it up here because I was watching it. I was like, this is unbelievable. This speaks to me.

I want to be a warrior. I want to be all these things. But what does masculinity mean to you? And do you feel like this industry or your experience has shaped you or hurt you in relationships by living a certain way that's held you back emotionally or something in relationships. I definitely think the industry, fitness industry I'm talking about, and even being in LA, everyone here is very, as a man, you need to make a certain amount of money. And this is-

Drive a certain car. Exactly. And I think that as a man, it's something that I've learned and being from Idaho and having a really, really strong male figures in my life, seeing that, you know, you can be masculine without having to bark orders at people and be this alpha male all the time. I did grow up, my dad's definitely a type A personality. So I have some of that, I think in me, but I also, I think that there's that spot for, you know, really leading by example

and being compassionate. And I think that in today's society, I think the biggest thing, especially on my YouTube channel that we kind of talk about, was we try to get real with people. I did a series called The 22 Things Happy People Do Differently. And I didn't come up with these. They're out there already. But I talked about what they meant for me. And it was trying to get real with people about breaking down some of these things that you can't really talk about. You're not supposed to talk about as a guy. And I think that really, so many guys come up to me and be like, hey, out of all the videos, the workout videos that I've done, it's like that 22 things that happy people do differently really affected me in my life. And it's about being positive and it's about surrounding yourself with good people. And That 22 things happy people do differently really affected me in my life.

And it's about being positive. And it's about surrounding yourself with good people. And it's about, it's a different way of looking at things. And I think that there's more. It's good because there's more and more, I think, now that is coming about that guys can be. There's just a lot more acceptance about whoever you are out there. So I think that there's a lot of good things going on. But for me, I have great people in my life that aren't. It's the exact opposite of the fitness industry. So I feel like I'm not really inundated with that. And I have these people in my life when the doors are closed that I really

value what they say. And I watch them with their families. You know, a good friend of mine, Dr. Tracy Orr is his name. He definitely is a guy that I look up to kind of, you know, with his whole family, along with my dad sets the stage that, you know, he leads by example. He's not quick to yell and very, very easygoing. And that's kind of what, how I, how I want to be lead, lead by example. Do you feel like as a role model and someone who has a big audience, you have a responsibility to, you know, be your true authentic self, or do you feel like you have to live up to what they want you to be? Maybe this, I don't know, buff dude. It's just like, there's, there's, there's, it's, you know what I mean? Yeah. Cause there's two sides of it. I know you're trolling the horse, man, but. There is two sides of it.

You want to be this version of yourself that is the best, and that involves, you know, I want my grandma, my aunts, my mom and dad to look what I'm doing and be proud. That being said, you know, you also have this very worldly vision of what people want you to be. You also have this very worldly vision of what people want you to be. And I feel like if you can have the balance and do both, then – and that's the constant struggle is that balance, is striving for that balance in life. And it's not really listening to the world. It's not really getting caught up on social media. There's going to be times that all of us fall into that. But it's listening to those who really truly care about you and have your best interests at heart.

And when they say that they've been watching and they like this or that, that's what really makes me feel good. Do you think you need to be big and strong and have a certain physique in order to be masculine? That's a good question. I grew up watching Bloodsport, John Van Dam, Arnold, Stallone, all those guys. So I definitely think that when I think masculine, I think a cowboy. Being from Idaho, I think those guys that I just mentioned. But I think it's more than that. I think that being masculine is really putting others putting others first that's to me putting others first like that's the ultimate sacrifice it's a great example that's a great definition yeah and that that really like as a role it doesn't matter about

physique necessarily no that's where you grew up thinking and right seeing like these big masculine men and it's a stereotype that we think of and but digging deeper into all those things when when you watch – even when you take those characters, what happened in most of these movies? They were serving. They were serving others. They were serving others and ultimately their needs came second. And I think that that's ultimately in my career what I want to do is serve others because that A is really at the core of happiness, I think. And that's at the core of all these guys in my life that I look up to. That's what they're doing, actually.

They're putting their family's needs first. And again, they're not sacrificing. They'll say no to things. It's not like you have to be this pushover that says yes to everything. And you're giving your time out to everybody else. And you don't have any time for the things you love in life. And that's what I'm learning. That's what I'm going through right now.

That you have to say no to some things. Say yes to yourself. Exactly. And then you're better for everyone in your life that really matters. Then when you do give your time to, it's truly coming from your heart in a place of you wanting to do it rather than just you feel obligated. I want to dive a little deeper into this. I had a good question, but then I was just so focused on what you were saying. I'll take that as a compliment.

I'm thinking, do you feel like most of the guys that follow you, the young 20s guys, do you feel like most of them feel like they're not a man or masculine unless they have a body type that's certain of size. Yeah. I feel like they're less masculine. I would say they do feel like that. And I'm not going to lie, too. There's times that I feel like that. The reason for me, I look at it as more of it's something that I enjoy.

I say your body is an instrument, not an ornament. For the longest time in my career, it was all about how I looked. And I can tell you that shit got so old because you're expecting. It's exhausting too, right? It is exhausting. And the darkest times in my life is when I was unhappy with the fact that I couldn't eat perfectly. I was working in Santa Monica at a place called True Food. Oh, it's a good spot.

It is a great spot. And I was prepping for it. It's great food. And I was prepping for a show, working out twice a day at Gold's Gym in the Mecca. This was about four years ago. And I remember working there. As a waiter? As a waiter, yeah. I didn't have great relationships with people. I was in LA, didn't know really what I was doing here. I just knew this was the place to make things happen. But I was working there. And I just remember I was so upset with myself because if i had one bite of something that wasn't on my diet because i wanted this perfect physique i wanted to be perfect and that

was just that's our biggest enemy in life is just trying to be perfect so now it's about like you know looking looking at real health getting into real health and how when you focus on health function yeah functional when you focus on that, the look aspect kind of takes care of itself. Like, yeah, I might not be 4% body fat, but that's not healthy. What's healthy is I can be 6%, 7%, 8% body fat, be healthy, look phenomenal, and really at the end of the day, be so much happier. And you've got to have endurance too.

4% body fat, you can't run a mile probably. You're dead. Yeah. And it's miserable. You're a miserable person to be around because you're tracking every macro. And all of a sudden, the things that matter most in life start mattering the least. And all of a sudden, you're so caught up in yourself and being perfect that like… For what?

Yeah. And what are we trying to be perfect for? You get so burnt out. What's the point of being perfect? like – For what? Yeah. And what are we trying to be perfect for? You get so burnt out. What's the point of being perfect? Like why do people strive – why do you feel like you were striving to be this perfect body? I think because it's natural to want more and more and more. So I think for people, anybody really – To get better.

Yeah, to be better. As an athlete, you know that. Like you're always improving. Yeah, you can always improve. You know that. Like you're always improving. Yeah, you can always improve. And I think that all of a sudden like you've gotten to maybe you've won competitions.

You know, you're competing in the Mr. Olympia contest. The only way really to get better and better and better is now you almost have to be perfect in everything that you do. You have to be – Exhausting. It is. And I think about, you know, the people even in the sports world who are almost perfect. And it's crazy how much time and effort goes into that. And those people are obviously God-gifted in a lot of ways. And I think that they struggle with the balance too.

So many ex-athletes, they get done and they just have nothing because they've been trying to be perfect and not taking care of any other areas of their life. They just have nothing because they've been trying to be perfect and not taking care of any other areas of their life. So what advice would you give someone in their 20s or 30s and 40s, a man who is trying to be a better man, and they have this image of masculinity that's focused around their body? What would you say that they should think about or focus on moving forward. And I definitely think so. I think the question being where is the balance in that – because you do need to, I think, as a man, be physically fit and healthy. Because I think anyone, man, woman, whoever. Do you think you need to be big to be masculine or can you be lean and healthy?

You can definitely, I think, be lean and healthy. And I think definitely lean and healthy. And again, everyone's body type is – there's so many different body types out there. Ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph. Those are the body types we look at in the fitness world and about how easy you are to gain muscle and things like that. But being a triathlon, that's also masculine. You're able to run and I was watching – and I constantly am judging, looking at people's body being like, Oh, that, that person would probably be good for endurance or this person would be a great power lifter or, or, you know, and I think

so for, for men, there's definitely a physical aspect that I think that, but you don't necessarily, I don't think that it's should matter as much as it does in a lot of cases you know masculinity is it's so it's judged so outwardly these days where again if you could get back to what's on the inside that'll that'll definitely i think um and it's a society problem too yes it's something that i think society ultimately again the the epidemic i say epidemic right now of Instagram is everyone. And that's where people get this idea is I have to be better than this person. I have to be perfect. And it's one of those things that, you know, geez, that's, that's, it's a struggle of mine,

but also something that I try to preach to. What's your biggest fear right now? Sure. What's your biggest fear right now? My biggest fear right now is that I'm getting older. I'm 31 years old. Dude, you look young as heck. You're young, good looking.

Right, but I'm never – I guess right now if I had a biggest fear, it fear is that I'm going to – I'm not going to find somebody that – to share all these things. Really? That's your biggest fear? Yeah, that. And I think ultimately burning out too is a fear of mine. How do you maintain this pedal to the metal, traveling the world? For how long are you doing it? Yeah, and what happens when I stop? What happens when you stop going?

Are you irrelevant now? Are you less wanted? Right. 110% all the time, and all of a sudden you stop. Do people still care type of thing. What's your vision? What do you want to create in this world? I would love, so my vision for being in LA

is creating a platform that allows people to really experience all different types of fitness. That being on the fitness level, I want to give as much information about fitness and health to as many people out there as possible. And that doesn't just necessarily mean in the gym. I want to better myself whether it's yoga, surfing. I say surfing because that's something flexibility goes into that, endurance. say surfing because that's something flexibility goes into that endurance. And then what I want to do with that is my goal with everything is generally making people's lives better by just giving people tidbits on how to improve health, whether it's nutrition. And again, it comes back because it's all tied together, physical, spiritual, mental, it's all tied

together. And I think ultimately, my goal is to help people be more well balanced in life starting with, and usually in our day and age, I think with, with so much out there that the easiest place to start is with, with your physical, physical health thing we can control or we can focus on every day. We have the power over our bodies. What's the greatest gift that you haven't discovered yet that you think is going to come out soon? Oh, wow. That's a good, the greatest gift that I haven't discovered.

The greatest gift inside of you you haven't yet fully used that you think is inside of you. I think it's going to probably get back to when I, when I really give in to, to not worrying about failure. to really give in to, to not worrying about failure. So the, and that, that will involve doing things that scare me and really just, if I fail, I fail, I guess the people in my life that love me. But if I don't do those things, if I don't try to, to, um, to do what I'm really, truly passionate about, then I'm going to always regret that. So I think, I think my biggest gift would be to really, I think there's a lot I can give people, um, whether it's YouTube or, or, or, you know, on a larger platform that involves

health and wellness, but also that turns back into more of a spiritual side, figuring out, you know, like why like why why why do we care about these things like what what is the purpose we live in a crazy world right now and there's definitely i think a a spiritual side that is missing in people like why what is the purpose of you know why why shouldn't we we do some of the things that we're seeing in this world like where is where is your moral compass coming from? And getting back to, you know, generally, why are you wanting to be a good human being?

And I think that ultimately, that's where I want to go with things, whether it's politics. I don't, you know, politics to me right now is such a scary... Crazy, right? Yeah, such a scary thing. So I think that ultimately,

that's where I wanted to look at something. And that would be a gift that I think that you do it through love and you do it through trying to be compassionate and help people understand. There's a lot of hurt in the world right now. There's a lot of people that feel like there's so much mistreatment going on. It can be a scary place. At the root of it is just love, I think. I think loving on a broader scale

it's good man let's get what are you most grateful for in your life recently oh definitely most most grateful for the ability to for me and family to connect in a way like my so good friends father now growing up i didn't understand didn't understand why people did a lot of the things they did, whether it was my dad. I was a stubborn individual, stubborn kid. And I think now that I'm most grateful for the people in my life that are close, that I know that no matter what, I can call up any time of the day. And no matter how much money or how many Instagram followers, they don't even care. My family doesn't really – none of them are on social media. And that's what I'm most grateful for right now.

That's nice. Yeah. That doesn't matter. Yeah. And I'm also grateful right now for the new relationships I think I'm starting to develop in places in LA because LA is a scary place. Yeah, man. Especially coming from the Midwest. You never know what you're going to get here.

Yeah. Yeah. LA is – so I think Yeah, man. Especially coming from the Midwest. You never know what you're going to get here. Yeah. LA is – so I think that I've definitely been surrounded. It's just – it's crazy how the world works and that like when you think a certain way, you attract other people that think that way too. Absolutely. What's your daily routine that is a non-negotiable for you every single day that sets you up to become a better man? That's a great question. And I'm going to say that as I'm inherently, I'm a people pleaser. So my day, the reason when I start

getting unorganized and feel anxiety in my life, it's because I'm sacrificing things that really matter to me and, and, and, and that other people need my time. So I'm going to sacrifice something I really want and need to do, whether it's meditating, working out, preparing meals, getting enough sleep, going to church, traveling less, whatever it is. And I say church, a spiritual side. I haven't actually been to a church in a while because I've been traveling so much. But I think that one thing that I don't want to be negotiable is on the days is wake up, meditate, put the phone away, only answer emails from a certain time.

And that organization is ongoing for me right now, finding out. Because it's hard. When I'm in LA and I'm not traveling, I want to get so much work done. But it's so easy to get burnt out because I'm giving away all this time, phone calls, emails. And at the end of the day, it's like, how do I better myself and in turn better my brand and grow? And that usually happens when you're in your creative mindset early on in the morning. So meditating right now, making sure I'm working out because that's such a large part of my brand. So the minute I'm no longer physically healthy because of all this traveling and poor eating, then I feel like a fraud on social media, on YouTube.

I feel like I'm 100% not living what I'm preaching. And that's hard for me. So starting to say no to things, making sure that I feel good about my life so that I portray. I feel like I'm being an asset to people and I'm able to practice what I preach. That's cool. Okay. So if it could be a perfect day for you, what would be the four or five things you'd do every morning before you do anything else? Yeah.

So I've recently started meditating before I try to leave the phone, wake up, meditate, stretch. Being somebody who's always been in the gym, playing sports, I never stretched enough. I wish I was Jean-Claude Van Damme. Right? The splits? Yeah, man. It's amazing. See, Weatherford can do the splits.

Can he really? Full splits. That doesn't surprise me. Weatherford's an animal. He's like so jacked and just can punch it and split it. It's crazy. What a beast. Okay, so meditate, work out.

Yep, definitely. And then it would be set up my day to where I have at least an hour blocked off for creative, whether it's reading, whether it's setting up things that I want to come to fruition, how I'm going to do that. And then there's the execution part of the day. and then there's the execution part of the day but also I think that for me there's a

strategy that goes into content in what I want to push out and what is it honing in on really what the message is I want that to be and all of my content being that I want to have fun with things I want to have fun in fitness

I want to find new opportunities to give people out there to be successful in their lives with health and fitness. And then, again, coming back to probably dating and probably having the time to shut things off because you need that. It's tough, man. You do. It is tough. When it's our brand,

it's our business. When you work from home, it's full time. It is. I forget what date is a it's full time. It is. It's hard to not. There's no. I forget what day it is a lot of the time. I forget like if it's the weekend or a Tuesday. Like none of the days matter.

Right. You're doing the same thing. I'm just focused on the vision, you know. There's no turn off. There's no happy hour. There's no weekends. Right. And so how do you.

How do you. I mean, I look up to you with that kind of. With a lot of stuff. But as a guy who's being successful with your own brand, how do you do that? Well, what – I mean, being in a relationship actually helps because whenever she's around, I put the phone to the side. Like the phone is not in the conversation except for maybe if we're like talking about something, we look something up together. But otherwise, the phone will be in the other room or it will be off. That's huge.

Like I won't be – I'll give her the time to just be present because we only hang out a few days a week because she's busy with her career and everything. That time is meaningful. That allows me to shut off and connect. And it doesn't mean I'm – my mind is still racing sometimes. I'm thinking about things. I'm still like – I'm like, ugh, I'll get antsy and I want to go create right then because I got an idea. But that helps. Also scheduling my day, you know, scheduling my day and make sure in the mornings I schedule time to work out.

That's in the calendar. I think if it's not in the calendar, that time, that free time, you'll book it with something else for a meeting or business or whatever. And how do you say no to like, I mean, are you good at that? I'd like to say yes to a lot of things but i'm getting pretty good i'm getting better at saying no i i say no a lot more now than i than i did and the way i say no is by putting my vision first and saying okay every three months we've got a big product launch we've got something so i know that I don't have much downtime. I've got to put my energy into my vision and our team vision of what we're creating. So I'm just like, hey, I'm sorry I can't do the interview right now

because this is what I'm focusing on. And my team said no interviews. You can put it on my team sometimes if I need to. And then if people want something bad enough, I'm like, come back to me in six months. Like ask me again in six months. And if they really want it and they're persistent and they follow up on that day or whatever, and I'm like, you know what? It's still not a good time.

Follow up in six months. Like I'll do it after a few times. So if they show that they really care and they're thoughtful and they're patient, then I'm like, this is a good, you know. Those are the people you want to be associated with. I'm happy to give them 30 minutes to interview. I'm happy to whatever, jump on the phone, whatever it may be, you know, are the people you want to be associated i'm happy to give them 30 minutes to interview i'm happy to whatever jump on the phone whatever it may be you know take a meeting something like that but i usually say no to everything up front unless it's serving my

vision gotcha so that's how i do it plus my assistant is good at like saying no to a lot of stuff for me i'll just ask her should i do this yes or no she's like no that that's a voice that's the person in my life i want to say yes i want to please everyone too. I'm a people. I want to be accepted. I want to be liked, you know, all these things. So it's an art, you know, it's a dance, but that's where it's at right now. And for your schedule, do you, do you, is everything like, you know, for me, I'm learning different ways to keep calendar.

You guys do like in your phone? It's all on my phone. And my assistant will also just text me when things are coming up. And I'll look the night before what's happening tomorrow and kind of get an idea of what's going on. These are all things I'm interested in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. The ways people are doing things. I want to ask a few questions before I wrap it up.

I want to talk about branding first and how you built this following. Cause I think people would be interested. There's a lot of coaches who listen, entrepreneurs who are launching businesses, but they don't have an audience and you've built, what do you have over a million on Instagram, a half a million on YouTube, Facebook, what's Facebook out for you?

About 800,000. Okay. So you got a few million all over the place, right? Snapchat, you get a hundred thousand view. Well, you haven't broken it yet. I haven't.

One of these days. 99,000 Snapchat views a video. So you've built this incredible loyal following on this audience all around the world. What would you say are some three to five things that help you build your following, keep your following engaged, but also so it doesn't run your life? Right. I think in order to get into how to build your following, it's, I think being something, obviously you have to be something different.

You have to have your niche. What is it? Why are people going to follow you? And a lot of times it's going to be the way you look. Unfortunately, in this world, it is oftentimes initially the reason why people follow you is just judging the book by its cover. Or the design of your site following your design. Yep.

The design of, yeah. Just how aesthetically pleasing is your brand. And then I also think that from that. So you think design is important, investing in design, quality design. Definitely. Yeah. And also your message. What is your message? That's going to turn some

people off maybe, but I think that as long as it's really what you're about, then you have passion for it. If your message is really something that you believe in and you have passion, when you have that excitement for something that you're doing, whatever it is that you're doing, if you're ridiculously excited about it, like willing to wake up super freaking early, that's contagious. And that's one thing that I've learned that whenever, you know, when I was excited to step on stage, the audience, the crowd, people, that's a contagious thing. It's like it's tangible when it's there. And you'll naturally attract other people that are passionate for that.

Or who want that. Right. A mentor, early mentor of mine said that the world makes room for passionate people 100 it's so true when you are passionate show up that way people want to be around it they're attracted to a magnet you know what i mean so and when you're passionate you don't feel you don't you don't notice the hours you don't notice that you know all of a sudden you know you've been doing it for four years time's gone by like 12 hours a day yeah time's gone by and and you're just like i'm here because i love it even if i didn't get paid or

even if i wasn't you know i can't imagine doing anything else i think that's a big time it's you know for me it was it was scary i instead of going doing chiropractic stuff i i took a job the secure way yeah i took a job as a waiter still because I wanted to travel around the world with Optum because I saw an opportunity there. They weren't paying me much, $500 a month. That's not enough to live on. But I said, I had my college degree and instead of trying to go to the corporate world or going back to school, I said, I think this is what I'm passionate about.

I'm going to invest my time and I'm not going to get paid for it. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to shake every person's hand in line at an expo. I'm going to give each person a hug. I'm going to introduce myself. I'm going to make that person remember me by the way I treated them. And that passion then grew, and I think that people felt that energy. Again, it's tangible when you're there at an expo and you can sit down and look somebody in the eyes and truly care about them,

what they're doing. And you can't fake that. You either have that or you don't. And there's been times in my life that I haven't had passion for it. And I feel like that's, that's when I have to come back and am I giving away too much of my time or I burnt out? But definitely when you have that passion for something. I think that's a great thing that you just said about for five years you went to expos once a month at least, sometimes more for five years. Saw hundreds if not thousands of people that you shook hands at every event. Built a relationship with. Connected with them one-on-one.

Gave them 10 seconds of eye contact. Goes a long way. Taking a photo, whatever it may be. You showed up every year for five, six-plus years doing this. And I think people don't realize how powerful that is. When I first started out, I went to trade shows every month as well in the marketing business world, entrepreneurial world, and did the same thing. Found mentors, found influencers, connected with them, gave them value. And I started hosting events all around the country, networking events.

And I shook everyone's hand and showed up, always followed up via email. I was just like in service. And I didn't have a following then. But that level of dedication and consistency over five plus years is what kickstarts your brand following. I think people want it quicker. They don't want to do the work of connecting with people. They want to be behind the screen.

They want to be just on Instagram and Facebook and hack the system. Right. But if you really want to build a loyal following based on this. And a brand that's long-lasting. You've got to connect with people in person. I believe, too. I agree 100%. And, again, you can't do an expo for 8 to ten hours a day on your feet and not truly love people.

You've got to love people. You do. Like you can't fake that. And again, you're going to be exhausted after it. And there's sacrifices that you have to be made. But again, at the end of the day, you feel like you're doing what you want to do. You feel like you're giving value to people around you. And that's a huge – like for me, I'm like, oh, this feels good. So I was doing it, you know, for myself as well.

And maybe for some people who are very introverted, that's not going to work for them, but you've got to develop, you've got to offer something of so much value that you're able to reach people, whether it's an app or a tool or a website that's just so valuable for people that you don't have to meet them in person, but you can get it in front of them somehow. And I think even introverts, you know introverts, there's something that comes from, you could be introverted, but you can generally care. And the way you show that you care might be different from introvert to extrovert. You might not be this loud, boisterous YouTube character, but you can put your time in someplace else that makes you super valuable. Yeah.

This question is called the three truths. It's one of the questions. Steve mentioned this one. Okay. So this is the last day for you many years from now. Yeah. This question is called The Three Truths. It's one of the questions. Steve mentioned this one. Okay. So this is the last day for you many years from now. Okay. And all your videos and content

has been erased from time. There's no Instagram photos of you left. There's no comments of anything. And you get to write it down on a piece of paper the three things that you know to be true about everything

you've learned in life that you would pass on to everyone else. Yes. This is the only message they'll ever see from you ever again. Gotcha. What are your three truths? I definitely think the first one and most important for me is be happy today.

So the thing in our society, I'll be happy when I make a million dollars. I'll be happy when I have a million Instagram followers. I'll be happy when, when, when, when. If you're not happy now, you'll never be happy. And again, there's a difference between being content. be happy when, when, when, when. If you're not happy now, you'll never be happy. If you're not, you know, and again, there's a difference between being content. Like, you know, I'm not going to just sit back, kick my feet up and all of a sudden think, you know, I've made it. Like that's, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about enjoying that daily struggle. If you don't find things in your life to be positive about today, then you will never find those things. And that

to me is, is, is the first and foremost and foremost every time i check every time i feel myself starting to think you know i start thinking crappy in in la you know this happens because there's always somebody who's better better looking you know more money or has a better you know this or that yeah there's there's that it's just and it's so it's human nature and it's the world that we live in today to teach you you know you you you don't have enough um and not having enough starts making people feel like they're not good enough and then not being good enough starts creating the sense of unhappiness. So I think it's about finding something every day to be grateful for and to be happy for. And then all of a sudden you're already living that you're already,

you've already made it, but you know, you, you wanting, you want to give that, you want to continue that. So you keep made it. But you want to give that. You want to continue that. So you keep on pushing. Sure. Okay, that's number one. That's number one. Number two, I would say human beings are not designed to be alone. So whether it's family, friends, I think the longest living – there was an area.

I think I heard this, and I might be wrong with some of the details. But I want to say it was Italy. And they noticed the people in this village were living extremely long. I think it was Asia. I think it was a documentary called Happy or something. Yeah, and it could be Japan. But it was – Different areas.

What it was is these people were living extremely long lives, and they looked at it as to why. And diet, everything being equal to some of these other communities, it was is these people were living extremely long lives and they looked at it as to why. And diet, everything being equal to some of these other communities, it was they had core family and they stayed together. Sometimes they even lived together as family. They lived in the city. Yes. So your tight-knit community, the people that truly loved and cared about you were in your life every day, supporting. And you gave that support. That, I think, creates a sense of love, secure, and

ultimately happiness and health. And again, there's times in your life that you're not going to be comfortable and you shouldn't be comfortable. But knowing that you have people that love and accept you, that acceptance I think is huge. So you're not designed to, you know, us as humans are not designed to be. Isolated. Yeah.

And I think that for me, in my life, I've felt like I could do things on my own. And looking back now, I know that that is not the case. It's exhausting too. It is exhausting. Okay. So humans are meant to be connected. And then I think. And then number three.

The last one is just serve as much as you can. Serve other people as much as you can if you want to grow something. If you want to be successful and be content in life, you know, and I know that sounds cliche to serve people. But I really do think that the times that, you know, I start feeling bad about myself is when i'm thinking about myself like you know you get caught up in your own thoughts and you get caught up in your own like you know what you do and don't have it but when you all of a sudden turn that off and try to make someone else's life genuinely better there's there's something that happens when you work your butt off and it's for a bigger cause or for someone someone else and it might not you might not even know that person but but giving them and genuinely liking doing it. Like you're not doing it because you have to,

you're doing it because, because you see somebody out there needing help. And it's really a, it makes you feel good. So maybe it's a selfish thing ultimately, because it's still making you feel good, but you're, you're serving other people. And, and the times that, you know, and that's, that's why competition stuff was hard for me because it was all about me. Those are my three fears. I like them, man. They're great. Before I ask the final question, where should we connect with you?

What is your favorite place to connect online? What's your website? Give it to us. Yeah. So my favorite place to connect with people, interacting with people right now, it's Instagram and Snapchat. Yeah. Those are just the easiest place. Very user-friendly.

And what's your Instagram? My Instagram is just Steve Cook. And then Snapchat? Snapchat is Steve Cook Health. Okay. You know, Instagram is great. I'm finding I feel less engaged with Instagram because it's so picture. engaged with Instagram because it's so picture.

So it's like I'm trying to, I don't know. Instagram is fun, but there's a point to where I hate Instagram. You post a picture on Instagram, and you might go back and check how many likes. When was the last time? I think about as a million, with a million followers, I'm thinking about more what I'm posting rather than I post what I want. I want people to like it, so I check the likes and things like that. So Instagram, you get this like immediate feedback if people like your shit or they don't.

And sometimes you're like, like, I'm not going to post this picture even though I really like this and it's meaningful. It's not going to get a lot of likes. Yeah. And I don't like that aspect of Instagram. Whereas Twitter,

you know, you're just interacting with people and there is a lot of great interaction that goes on there. My website is stevecookhealth.com. You know, you're just interacting with people. There's a lot of great interaction that goes on there. My website is stevecookhealth.com. Recently, we've been doing this big program. Big as a program. I came up with two exercise

physiology guys. They're both one I grew up knowing, played football against in high school. He played at Utah State. Did I read he had 48 reps in the 225 bench press? Strongest. 48 reps? I hit 36. press? Strongest. 48 reps? I hit 36, and I thought I was – That's insane, dude.

I've done like 16 in my time. So this Jake is insanely, insanely strong. Strongest natural person I've ever met in my life. And I can say that with 100% certainty that he's just freaky. Yeah. So he's got his master's degree in exercise physiology messes around with crosses just because he's stupid strong and he's good at it but he's like he looks like a bodybuilder out there he's as strong as a power lifter and he's

just he's an amazing guy um the other one is mike casio he's a guy that is um from louisiana has a really cool story um was into drugs as a kid kind kind of came about that, you know, he, he got through that through, you know, he, he, he actually lived in Utah for a while doing this, you know, they ship kids off to Utah and he's doing these outdoor camps. He got through that, went to college, you know, strained out his life. Amazing story. Again, exercise physiology, master's degree, and did this program with him with Big. So I do the bodybuilding side of things, the aesthetic side of things. They bring their expertise on how to get stronger, bigger, and faster. So it's a program that's

really designed to kind of come at it from all areas. So that's been really fun to do, seeing people just doing amazing changes. People can find that on the website there. What's this other physique thing, the video that I saw? The Modern Physique. Now, that's a program that I did for bodybuilding.com. And it's kind of like a mini big program. It's kind of more cookie cutter. It's one size fits all because we can't change things up because once it goes on bodybuilding.com, it lives there. But that was a cool thing. Bodybuilding.com, they have a great production team. It's always fun working with them because they just get lots of young kids trafficking to their site to buy supplements and that free content. It's nice because it's free.

That's cool. But, yeah, so that's my social media. I like engaging with people on there. And then, of course, expos, lots of expos. Lots of expos. So if you're at the next expo, come give you a hug. Yeah. Next expo, Olympia, Las Vegas, Nevada.

There you go. The Olympia. There you go. So steia. There you go. So stevecookhealth.com is the main site to go follow everything. Awesome. I want to take a moment to acknowledge you, Steve, for not being a douche. Oh, pretty much. No, seriously.

I want to acknowledge you for, man, you went through a lot of challenges. You went through a lot of challenges of losing your identity in sports, which I can relate to, to jumping to a marriage early on. And then I can only imagine the uncomfortableness, the guilt, the shame, the uncertainty, the unworthiness, or whatever feelings you had going through that. I can only imagine how challenging at a young age to experience that. And then to come out and better yourself and say, how can I be a better man? How can I serve? How can I give? And, um, you know, to connect with you more, it's, it's been a pleasure, man. I really want to acknowledge you for your gift of sincerity and being an authentic, real man in this world. I appreciate that. That was, that was, you know, Steve Weatherford mentioned you, you,

you build people up and I gotta say that was, I feel, I don't know, I feel extremely grateful for you having me on the show, but also I definitely appreciate what you're doing. And yeah, thank you for having me on this. Of course, man. It was a good time, good opportunity. Of course. One final question. Okay.

What's your definition of greatness? My definition of greatness, I think my definition of greatness would be doing something that other people might not agree with all the time, but believing in it and then ultimately succeeding at it. And, and that, that to me is true greatness. Like something you shouldn't necessarily succeed at,

but through perseverance, through just hard work and believing in passion, you do that and overcome those trials. That is, that is true greatness. So I feel like, you know, there's,

and there's, there's so many people out there that are doing that and not greatness. So I feel like, you know, and there's so many people out there that are doing that and not getting recognition for it. In our day and age, you know, the people that are doing really true greatness might not be the people that have the most followers on Instagram. They might be the quiet, humble leaders that are doing it in the communities and things like that. So I think, you know, for people out there listening, you know, try to attach yourself with things that matter and aren't just getting a lot of play.

Because our media especially, social media and media especially, tends to focus on the bad in this life. But there's so much good out there. And celebrate that. The legend of Steve Cook. Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it. I appreciate you.

All right. We bro'd out. We talked about vulnerability. We talked about masculinity. We talked about how to get big. We talked about building a bigger business. We talked about so much. If you enjoyed this episode,

make sure to share it with your friends. lewishouse.com slash 359. Make sure to tweet Steve and connect with him on Facebook and Instagram and tag me and Steve on Twitter and Facebook to let us know what you thought of this. Share your thoughts, connect,

and follow along the journey. We do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so if this is your first time on the School of Greatness podcast, then make sure to click the subscribe button over on iTunes or the podcast app on your phone. And stay tuned because each week we've got inspiring guests, interviews, and insights. And coming up next week, we've got the legendary Larry King. That's right.

Larry King is live in my studio. And we're going to reveal some of his incredible stories, insights, and lessons from interviewing over 60,000 people. I am pumped to share with you this interview, so stay tuned for that. It's been awesome spending some time with you today. It means the world to me, and I will never take it for granted. I'm constantly doing my best to become a better host and to continue to produce this podcast at a higher level so that it brings you a wealth of information and you keep coming back. And with that, let me leave you with this. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music