The School of Greatness - 380 From Coal Miner to Fitness Cover Millionaire with Cory Gregory

Episode Date: September 14, 2016

"Confidence is everything." - Cory Gregory If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/380

This is episode number 380 with Corey Gregory. 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. Welcome, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast.

Super pumped that you're here. This is all about how to take your business, your relationships, your health, your wealth to a whole new level and how to unlock your business, your relationships, your health, your wealth to a whole new level and how to unlock your inner greatness. Thank you so much for being here. Our guest today is Corey Gregory. Now for those that don't know who Corey is, this guy is like a man of steel. He's a serial fitness entrepreneur, leader in the nutrition industry and top training

expert. He opened his first gym at the age of 20, and quickly he earned a reputation as an industry expert in both personal training and nutrition, and now owns the famous Old School Gym just outside of Columbus, Ohio. Now, Corey also co-founded one of the fastest-growing sports nutrition brands ever created, MusclePharm, which sold over half a billion dollars worth of products in the seven years he was with the company. He has competed in more than 20 powerlifting competitions, and he was recently added to

Arnold Schwarzenegger's fitness advisory board. He's also the author of the Mindset Manual. He's got a great podcast. The guy's a machine. He wakes up at like 3 o'clock every single morning, squats heavy, lifts every single day, and is on a roll with his mission to inspire the world through fitness. Some of the things we talk about today are what Corey learned early on by working in a coal mine that served him later in his life. Yes, he worked in a coal mine for six months. Also, the story of how he co-founded MusclePharm,

again, one of the fastest-growing sport nutrition programs ever, when he was previously working as a personal trainer and owning a gym as a personal trainer. We also talk about the key things to take a brand from $1 million to hundreds of millions quickly, how he worked out huge deals with top names like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tiger Woods and the UFC branding, and also what Corey's daily routine looks like. Again, this guy wakes up at 3 a.m.,

one of the most dedicated fitness professionals that I know and human beings, alongside Steve Weatherford, who is a previous guest as well. Very excited about this one. I know you're going to get a lot of valuable information out of this. If you enjoyed it, make sure to go back to lewishouse.com slash 380. Share this with your friends right now or click the share button on the podcast app and let people know over on Twitter and Facebook about this interview. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only, Corey Gregory. Welcome, everyone, to the School of Graders podcast.

Our guest today is Corey Gregory. He's the host of a podcast and author of a book called The Mindset Manual. Make sure you guys check this thing out. We'll be talking about this today. But, Corey, thanks for coming on, man. O-H, baby. What's up, Lewis? I know, man.

Ohio in the house, Columbus, Ohio specifically. You've got a gym in Columbus, Ohio called the Old School Gym, right? Correct. Joinarealgym.com. There you go. I swear to you. It's like the most real, raw, old school type of gym you can ever work out in. You're also one of the co-founders, former president of MusclePharm, which sold a half

a billion dollars in supplements, correct? Yep, absolutely. And fun fact about you is you were a coal miner at one point. Yeah, coal miner for six months. That's how I saved my money for my first gym that I started in 1999. Okay. Coal miner, was this in college or was high school? What was this? Yeah, so right out of high school, I was really kind of like, what am I going to do

with my life? Because at the end of the day, I was like, well, I really like to lift weights. Right. And no one really had a path for me. I don't want to make money. Yeah, exactly. Right. My parents thought I was in trouble. I'm graduating to 2.1 and I'm like, I really just like to lift weights. And so my stepdad got me a job. He said, look, I was working at a sawmill and going to like community college, like right out of school. And it was like, it just didn't feel good at all. And he was like, look, I know you want to leave here. I'll get you a job as a coal miner, $14, $14 an hour. And then it's not bad. No. And you can work as much overtime as you want. So overtime was like about 21 bucks. Well, I literally would work 90 hours per pay, which is a week. So not like, you know how you get like your paycheck every two weeks.

Mine was per week. So I'd work between a day or something. Yeah. Easily doubles all kinds of stuff. And so I would work my biggest paycheck. I think it was like 92 and a half hours for the week. I literally just lifted weights, got the paychecks and put them on my desk. When I quit there six months later, I had like four or five paychecks stacked up on it. Like I didn't even have time to go to the bank. Like I just was so focused on working and moving to Columbus so I could start to live my dream of being a fitness guy. And were you in West Virginia then? Is that where I was? No, still in Ohio. Just east? You were in Ohio. Yeah, like Southeast Ohio. I'm from the Steubenville, Cadiz, like Ohio Valley area. Gotcha. So mine's everywhere.

Close to West Virginia. Yeah. Right across the panel. Yeah. Gotcha. So coal mines everywhere. Close to West Virginia. Yeah, right across the panel. Yeah, gotcha. Right on the river. And so when was this? How many years ago? This is in, so I graduated high school in 97. So this is like 98, 99, yeah. Okay.

It's crazy. 17, 18 years ago. And why did you want to move to Columbus to start this fitness gym? Yeah, so there was really no reason except for all my friends that did go to college. A group of them, probably six or seven, was migrating to Columbus. Right. To go to Ohio State. Yeah. Ohio State. And I looked up that the Columbus State Community College had a one-year exercise specialist program. So I was like, okay, I can go there, one-year pay, $2,500 for community college and then become a trainer.

And so what was funny is as I got there and I was in class and I was still not really super engaged. I liked it, but not, I'm just not a school dude. It's just as what it is. And I started working under a trainer that was really doing well. Like he was probably making six figures on the East side of Columbus, which is pretty good for a personal trainer at that time. I started learning from him and six months into it, he started getting a little bit busy. So he was like, man, here's a client. And then I'd meet somebody else, another client. Before you know it, like six months in, I'm already working as a trainer. When I so-called graduated with my one-year degree, I didn't even show up.

I just said, send in the mail. Right. Because I was already – You're already making money. I'm already making money. You don't need the proof of a certificate. So at 20 years old, I'm in my profession. Now, do I know a ton at that point?

No. I'm learning on the fly. I'm in my profession. Now, do I know a ton at that point? No, I'm learning on the fly, but it's like fast forward. Like the, the club started getting like a little bit antsy on trying to take a little bit more of my money. Cause I was doing okay. And I literally like had kind of an argument with the manager and said, you know what? I think it's time for me to open my own place. And so dude, I'm 20 years old. I walk out that day and start driving around looking for storefronts. I have no clue what I'm getting myself into. Right. Right. A lot of overhead, a lot of expense. Oh, you don't know. So I find literally, Lewis, you'd crack up. It was a ladder closet on the inside of a mini mall in Columbus,

in Reynoldsburg. You're familiar with Columbus. This guy rented it to me for 600 bucks a month. And plus with utilities and everything, I was paying it for like 12, 1300. I took a $4,000 credit card loan out. A bunch of my clients who were with me, there's like 12 or 15 people gave me stuff. And the first personal training studio opened literally when I was 20 and a half. So I literally celebrated my 21st birthday a couple months later as a entrepreneur in my own gym, essentially. But when I say gym, that's loose. It's like dumbbells, one mirror and like a treadmill from a yardstick. Oh yeah. It's like, yeah, it was small, but everybody supported me. And that started like the dream right there. And I walked in every day and I was like, man, this is, I just got to grind it out. And this is,

this is the beginning. And even at that point I felt somewhat successful. Cause I mean, I was a coal miner two years before that. No one had any clue how to make money lifting weights. And here I am, barely 21, and somebody's paying me $20 an hour to tell them how to do bicep curls. So I'm thinking, I'm winning already. Yeah, of course. So it was exciting, man. It's crazy. What did you think about when you were in the coal mine?

What was your thought process every day? I'm sure that was monotonous. I mean, it was probably a lot like lifting, a lot of hard work. You're just doing the same thing over and over. Sure. Were you dreaming a lot? Yes. Were you like –

Absolutely. I was super focused. So what's interesting about coal mining, a lot of people don't know, it's obviously super dangerous. But like, you know, I was called a red hat, so I was like college help. So they're like giving me the crappiest jobs ever. Right, right. So they're like literally – it'd be like working under this kitchen table but shoveling for 13 hours. You know what I mean? Under the desk. it'd be like working under this kitchen table but shoveling for 13 hours you know i mean under the

desk so like i'd be in this 42 inches atop which is mean the ceiling and i'd be shoveling under this belt line as the as the coal's going out of the and there's like miles of this belt line and what happened is coal would fall off of it and there'd just be like tons of it laying they'd be like they drop you off and say okay see you in 15 hours just pick it up put it on the belt yeah just all day long you have knee pads and you're like you know, there's water dripping on me and it's in, and I'm thinking to myself, and here's, what's funny. Cause my friends used to call me the real Zoolander all the time. Cause the coal miner model thing. Sure. Sure. And I, but I literally thought to myself, okay, if I can just make it through this, no, one's going to have this story.

Literally. If I believe in myself enough to save this money, grind this out. I mean, obviously it made me strong too. There's no doubt for my lifting career, but like no one in the city will have this story. You also knew that you had a defined ending. You had a definite ending. You weren't like, I don't know what I'm gonna do next. Yeah.

Like. No, I knew no doubt I was saving money. Six months, this was it. Like I'm done. I will tell you that at points, because I'm a fourth generation coal miner, I'm a fourth generation coal miner and lifter both. And so like, it was actually very natural to me.

So, and I'm strong already from all the lifting. So I was a coal miner, dad, my grandfather, my great grandfather, my great grandfather died in a coal mine explosion, 1936. When my grandfather who taught me how to lift weights was nine years old, he's 90 today, still active. And so it's like, it's literally the family tree. And so I talk about this on every podcast I've been on. It was like, it was time for somebody to like put the grill on their back and say like, it stops here. Like it's not going to keep going. And so I think that part of like,

we talk about purpose and passion. Like I embodied that to a high level. I was like, I'm going to do this so I can experience it. because that's my way out. But like my kids aren't going to do it, you know, and, and, and the way they see me operates completely different than my parents. And so like somebody has to break that family kind of tree in a good way. And so like, I respect the blue collar, like it made me who I am, but I knew it wasn't for me longterm, but I was good. I was good at it when I did it though. Did you learn how to use hard work mentality to multiply it and scale that energy to maximize your results as opposed to just trade for sitting under a desk, shoveling coal all day, 15 bucks an hour. It's one of those things where I'm so glad I went through it

because it made me just completely different. I hate it, man. When I was in between college and trying to go play professional football, I took a three-month truck driving job. Nice. Because the workouts with the arena team were in the morning from like 8 to 10, so I couldn't start at 9 a job. And they would do it at like 6 to 8 as well at night.

So I needed some time in between, like a six-hour window, and I found this truck driving job driving Napa car parts. Okay. Columbus and Cincinnati. I'm back every single day. Wow. And it was the biggest truck. It was like a huge U-Haul before you had to get the truck license.

Sure. So you could just have a normal license. Because you had a CDL. Yeah. Yeah. And it only went 55 miles an hour on, what is it, Highway 70? Yeah. What is the 71?

71. Yeah, that goes down. And, man, it was the most miserable, like six hours a day. Just like pedal to the metal, 55, watching everyone go by me, moving parts and coming back every single day. It just makes you realize you don't want to do that your whole life. I was just like, I'm never, ever going to do this again. I was so glad I did an experience for three months. I was like, I never want to feel this way ever again.

I wanted to feel what my family's felt. I wanted to understand what it is to put in a double, like in some real conditions. And so it was an amazing experience for me. And I mean, once again, no one has that story. Yeah, that's cool. And to me, when I tell people, because always just like kind of prejudge you, right? Oh, you're probably the dude who always had abs or, oh, you probably like maybe had somebody kind of give you a lob pass. When I say I was a coal miner, they go, what? Like people even do that anymore. Like,

you know what I'm saying? Like, it's just, it's just machines for that. Right. Exactly. So yeah, I felt blessed to be able to experience that and not get hurt and be able to move on to live my dream. So you started doing this personal training in a closet in a mall. Basically, yeah. And when did things start to pick up? When did you build into the bigger gym that you have now? Sure. You also were the president of MusclePharm for how many years? Yeah.

When did this all kind of come to you? So the personal training thing lasted about a decade. I basically, I was in that closet, made it a little nicer over the next two and a half three years opened up a next studio like basically upgraded to one that was uh i think about 3 000 square feet about seven trainers working for me so i grinded in that game for like a while and then i bought the original old school with my high school lifting uh partner dustin myers who owns the current old school with me too so we had two gyms for a little while so So this is probably 2006. I'm doing real good in my area. Like I'm easily making six figures. Like I'm, you know, at this point, like if I was done, I'm still

successful for what I tried to accomplish. All this other stuff is just gravy Lewis, really. So it's like, so I'm looking at this and I'm like, I started, I was known in my area for the condition I got into. I did drug-free bodybuilding shows, powerlifting events. People were always coming to me for diet and stuff like that. And I just really like supplements. So, and I would love Bill Phillips as we've talked about. Bill is like the G, right?

So in 2006, I started messing around with some proteins with one of my mentors, Dr. Eric Serrano. Dr. Eric Serrano and Dr. Mario DiPasquale were really known for like high fat dieting for amino acids and all of this kind of like cutting edge stuff. And I was friends with both of them and they helped me. So I learned, so I didn't have like a traditional education, but I got around some like real deal cats and I just searched them out. I mean, Serrano, I read about him and realized his office was in Pickerington. Dude, I showed up to his office six times before you would see me. And so finally he's like on the sixth time, he's like, what do you want?

And I said, dude, I think we should be friends because I want to learn from you. And he was just like, so he was like, well, okay, cool. Like, and so it's like, I created these relationships. So about 2008, I was starting to get tired of personal training and I just felt like I was a baby. No, I was the same. And like I said, like, it just felt like I needed something else. And honestly, I wanted to roll the dice off the wall once and try to be Bill Phillips. Right.

A newer version or whatever I could try to do. That was my idol in that standpoint. Arnold was always my ultimate idol. Bill from a business like supplements. Yeah, absolutely. And I was like, I need to roll the dice once. I met my partner, Brad, who like manufacturing a lot more than I did. And I had the real concept, I think from a customer service, from a content, like what

people wanted. Cause I was that guy for so many years. I always think like, what would I want from a supplement company? And I created it. Brad had a great vision of being with the UFC early. We started sponsoring the UFC fighters like 2008. So when it was on spike, um, we,

uh, we rolled the dice multiple times and, and I'll tell you what muscle muscle form start. So September of 2008 is when we sold our first product. Wow. We did, um, a million dollars in revenue years ago.

Yeah. Eight years. So I did that. So I did personal training for 10 years and muscle farm for about eight years. I've been in the games, you know, about 18 years. I'll be 38,

uh, actually in a couple of days. So, so I've been, you know, full-time entrepreneur fitness 18 years, which is crazy to think about. But so, uh, we went from scratch idea in, uh, August or April, I'd say of 08, first product for sale in September, the first calendar year we were in business, which would have been 2009.

We did a million dollars in sales, then jumped to four, 20, 70, 120, a hundred. So, I mean, it just continued to grow. And what I'll tell you is there's a lot of wins about MusclePharm. It was an awesome experience, build a brand, sold 40,000 doors, a hundred countries. I mean, live some crazy, you know, it was a crazy ride. There's a lot of losses too, because, you know, at certain times the growth is just as bad it's just as bad as not growing. Like if you don't have the right people in the right places and the operations roles or this or that. And so like, I was really in kind of a natural, like marketing role, customer service. So I built the whole social media platform, which in our industry was

definitely cutting edge. And, um, but yeah, I mean, hindsight, 2020, you look back, you wish you could change a few things, but man, I mean, overall, we crushed it. And so moving on from MusclePharm, I'm having a blast right now with all these new ventures. What would you say are the key ingredients that took it from $1 million to wherever it was before you left? What were the things that worked really well, like the must-have things? Because of this, it worked. I think it's multiple things. I think timing of the UFC was huge.

Getting a partnership with them. No one else had a partnership with them. No one believed in it. And everybody said it don't work in our industry. And we're like, okay, whatever. At the end of the day, there's a ton of 25-year-old kids watching the UFC, especially when it was on Spike, when it was free. So I think that was one. I think colors.

Were you able to have a direct correlation, like track that? So you couldn't. That was kind of the problem. We put money there, and we built bigger companies. So here's what I would say. And I'd be in multiple Wall Street meetings like this. Yes. They'd say, how do you track that the UFC is working?

I was like, okay. So we spend money in the UFC and then I have a whole social media thing that's free. And we're quadrupling sales every year. So you tell me it doesn't work. And that was the only thing you were spending money on at the time? Yeah. Or were you trying a little other things? We really didn't do that much print advertising.

Social media was mostly organic at the time. Facebook didn't have the ads. Trade shows maybe you were doing. Trade shows were big. So it was really like trade shows, UFC, social media. So when I would sit down with an investor that, I mean, look, Brad was an NFL guy that had some problems with business in the past. I was a personal trainer that barely ran a business over $100,000 in sales. So I'm telling him, like, we need to spend all our money in the UFC and social media.

And at that point, Twitter had been around for like two years. I mean, so people were like, yeah, right. You know, what I will tell you about MusclePharm was great is that we looked like the Nike of the space. No one had seen a true brand. And so I would tell you the big thing was a real brand. Maybe Muscle Milk was doing a good job. They were doing good, but it's- There's less supplements. They're more protein, right?

They're just protein. And so Muscle Farm's brand was so dope. I think honestly, and I'm a real lifter and I'm real. I was on social media answering. I answered every tweet, every Facebook post, everything for years. And I still do because I know the value in, if Bill Phillips would have answered me, I would have always taken his supplements. I did anyway, just because of the stuff he wrote, you know what I mean? And the brand he built. Absolutely. So I really just thought, what would, what would I want Bill to do, do to me if I was

taking his supplements and he was in this age? And so literally if you, you tweeted me and asked me how to take creatine, I tell you same thing to now people tweet me, Hey Corey, how do I, you know, what do I, what's my new stack and your new products? Like what workout should I do? I answer everybody, man. I just think it's really important. So like, and I'm, and I'm a, I'm a grinder dude.

Like I'm still in the gym every day. No one cares that I'm 4am fire. Yeah. 4am crew. I mean at old school, no one cares that I built muscle farm. They're trying to beat me in squats every day. Yeah. They don't care. So my gym is not like that. So, and I think that's what kept

it real. We could be as big as we were, but it really didn't matter to me. I mean, that stuff kept it real for me. So really caring about the customer, answering questions, developing a quality brand. Quality products on top of it. Quality products, quality branding that looked cool. Yeah. And also sponsoring the right platform. Yeah, the right partners. The right platform, which was UFC at the time, which probably may not work for a new company now. Yeah, well, it'd be hard to do it now. I think we might be the last Mohican on that one, buddy, to be honest. And what was that deal like?

Are you allowed to share those numbers? It's a couple million dollars a year to have the official sponsorship. But honestly, we didn't have to have that at first. We just sponsored the fighters. One-on-one. Yeah. UFC 100. This was a big turning point for us.

We had 10 fighters that wore the MusclePharm logo on their butt. So Dana White literally came in. So I was getting both guys. If you were fighting and you're on TV for 15 minutes, it's like a commercial for me. Wow. How much were you paying those guys? Yeah, like $3,000, $4,000 a piece. Per event?

Per event. So I'm going to drop, but I had the whole card. Oh, my gosh. So it's on DVDs. It's on everything. It's probably about $30,000, $40,000 for the whole card. Yeah, for hours of advertising. It was a total sleeper.

And so you got to realize Dana White came in and was like, who the F is Muscle Farm and why aren't they paying us? And then he changed everything around for everyone. And then it became more of like, okay, now you have to pay to play, which is okay because we were building. So it's like, look, the key in that and what I learned by building that brand that way is that now that I'm building my new brand, it was weird at first because it's like, I was so invested in this for eight years and it was so good.

It's really challenging to build something different years and it was so good. Yeah. I had a really challenging to build, to build something different, but it's, it's been just as fun. And so, as you know, like, look,

things happen, you change and you evolve. And it's like, now I'm like, we talked about my grandfather. I'm like, what, what can I build something to kind of commemorate?

Like my great granddad, like he didn't get to see any of this, like, cause he died so young. He even didn't get to see his own son lift weights and prosper and do whatever. So it's like I went to that 1920s, 30s, hard work. How can I create a brand? My new supplement company is called Max Effort Muscle.

How can I create something that's meaningful to me, that represents really any hard work? And so I've got a really cool thing going now, and it's real true to me. That's cool, man. really cool thing going now. And it's, it, it means it's, it's real true to me. That's cool, man. What is it about lifting that you feel has served you? And why should everyone focus on lifting over other types of working out? So I will tell you that my grandfather, um, said something to my, uh, Frank Boone. He's awesome. He said, you need to start lifting weights, Corey. It's going to help you with your sports. It's going to help you with your sports. It's going to help you with confidence.

And he goes, and the plus is the girls like it. So I'm in at 12, right? So my mom, when my dad left when I was about 11 years old, we lived with my grandparents for like a short period of time. And this is the exact time. And this is when he would come home from construction working. He was a coal miner for a long time, but he was also a construction guy. And we'd go right down the basement and lift weights. I fell in love instantly. One, because it was something I could do with him. We golfed and we lift weights. That's what we've done still to this day. And it's like, and I saw some shoulders

popping out, some things, and I just fell in love with it, man, because I just felt it. And that's why I tell people like confidence is everything. It's it. Belief in yourself. It's amazing. So I can't stress enough, like you don't have to go and do what I did. You don't have to diet and do all this. But like taking that time for yourself to building you, man, it's amazing. And so like I fell in love with it and I was just like, I couldn't get enough. And then, you know, the internet really wasn't around for the most part. So I'm just reading everything Arnold wrote. Every magazine I can put my face in, like that's all I was into.

And just the amount that I just, like the confidence of being in front of people or, you know, athletic fields. Like, and he didn't even really know everything, what he was doing. Like he's just, we're doing curls, reverse curls, calf raises, you know. Just lifting weights. Basic stuff. Yeah. But just being able to share that with him. And then like for him to experience what I've accomplished from it, because he's 90, he's seen it all.

Yeah. Like, you know, he's met Arnold several times. And like the second time you met Arnold, he remembered Arnold remember his name. Cause that's, he knows how important he is to me. And so it's like for him to think like, I got this 12 year old kid in my basement and now I'm at this event in Columbus and Arnold still remembers mine. Like he was like mind blown and you'll come to see the gym. It's, it feels real good, man. It's cool. That's cool, man. Why do you think, besides confidence, do you feel like everyone should be lifting or should you feel like they should do any type of movement and working out? I think it's whatever your jam is. So it doesn't have to be lifting. You just feel like this is what helps you with confidence.

That's what you love. I'm a thousand percent a weightlifter. I'm not a runner. Some people get the same thing from running. So I don't care whether it's handball, whether it's lifting, whether it's running. Activity on a day-to-day basis is one of the most therapeutic things ever. And I will tell you about lifting is lifting. Doesn't care who you are, what you've done. It wants the iron doesn't care. So I go in that morning and if I'm not giving it, like it pushes it back against you, you know, it is. And to me, it's like, I'm piling all this, you know, I've been squatting every day for over like a thousand days. I pile that weight on my back every day. And like, you got to get up.

What's the, what's the thing you give up follow. I mean, it's like, to me, it's just, it's a personal battle every day. And we train at 4am like we talked about. And like, I feel like if I can get through that, dude, I'm walking out of the gym at five 30, then I'll go and lunge. Then I go and lunge a half hour and listen to the podcast and do all that. So I lunge 40, you know, 400, 800 meters on about five days a week that's my cardio that's my conditioning just no weights straight walking sometimes i wear a vest it just depends on your lunch just on a field like around

a track no way so i'll do i've done a mile with 80 i did a mile with a 40 pound vest and three quarters of a mile with 80 pound vest why after you lift after i'm alone that's like my cardio so i call it lunge and learn how do you even just my legs are crazy bro he must be so strong what happens is is it creates like really strong connective tissue because i do power lifting too you know my best squat is uh what i did 540 at 181 and a meet and so it that connective tissue gets really strong from all that conditioning and so you know whether you're clean in front squatting whatever or if you're running like i don't run that often what i have to all that stuff's like real secure just because I train it all the time. Your knees aren't loose. Your knees aren't stressed out. No, I feel, yeah.

So that's, so for me, like by seven or six 30, I'm done with all that. I've already, so here's my, my daily strategy is simple, man. I get up at three and as soon as I hit the car, like it was about three 20 to drive to the gym, it was about 30, 40 minutes from my house. I'm listening to you or ET or my podcast, whatever. I'm doing personal development. I hit the gym, hour and a half in it, out, more podcasts, more audio books. While you're doing cardio. Yeah.

And then driving. So I'm about an hour and a half in working out. Wow. And an hour and a half in development. And it ain't even seven. So I tell people like, me and you're in the same business, you better be real efficient. Yeah. Because I'm-

You're down with the day when people are waking up. Got it. Wow, man. So what time do you go to bed? Nine, 10? Like 10.30. Yeah. Try to operate on about five.

How do you do that, man? Here's what I think. I think it's because honestly my supplements my diet and everything's so dialed in i don't want to say again i'm not breaking world records right so maybe if i was trying to or trying to make an olympic team or something i would need a little bit more yeah but i think i can cheat the system a little wow i'm still competing multiple times a year so i mean still doing shoots still doing multiple powerlifting meets and used to be i think i saw photos in here where you were pretty overweight at one point, right? Yeah, so one time

like 2010, I made it up to 240. Wow, man. Just because I was all west side barbell, straight up powerlifting and I bought in, right? The funny thing is I did bigger weights at 181 once I actually realized what I was doing. Really? It's way stronger now, yeah. Than at 240? Than at 240. Why is that? I think

that I just, you know, I don't know. I think that I just learned more. I mean, I thought the weight would move the weight. And in some cases it does. Now, if I weigh 240 right now with what I know, I'd probably be way stronger. Yeah. But like, I know that it's more optimal for me to be under 200 pounds marketing wise and just for me. And like, one of the coolest things I've tried to do performance wise, I just did in April.

I did an Olympic lifting meet on Friday, a bodybuilding show on Saturday, and a powerlifting meet on Sunday in the same weekend. I call it the muscle trifecta. And I don't know anybody's ever done it before. Right. So in my industry, to find something no one's done is pretty tricky. And it was hard, but it was like, it was really cool. And I was the most nervous for Olympic lifting because I had never landed a snatch really on a platform in front of anybody before. I was the most surprised when I woke up the next day.

I looked pretty good. I got second in the bodybuilding show, which I was happy about. I almost won the overall. It was a drug-free show, tested. And then the next day, I woke up for powerlifting, and I squatted five bills at 178, deadlifted 500, still benched 315 on a pause. So I was like 80 pounds within my total if I just did it by itself. So it was a really neat weekend.

I'm always trying to push myself. I hear you, man. Tell me about the deals you've done with MusclePharm, with Arnold, with Tiger, with everyone else. You've had some of the biggest athletes who came on. This was the first supplement brand that Arnold ever associated his name with. Is that correct? Absolutely. Yep. Besides Joe Weider in the early days. Sure, sure, sure. And then Tiger, I don't know if he'd done a supplement brand before then. We were talking before the show about some of these stories. You just hung out with Arnold this morning and walked out with him and had breakfast. That was awesome. But how

do these deals go down and why did they work with you and why did they work with MusclePharm and how did you get ahold of them? Sure. So the Arnold story is great. So I definitely want to share that. So we were literally, I believe in Arizona golfing with one of our investors at Muscle Farming. He says, hey, you guys know my sister's married to Tom Arnold, the actor. He goes, would you be interested in working with Arnold? We're all like, yeah. He's like, well, let me call Tom real quick.

So he calls Tom Arnold and I've helped Tom with some weight loss and stuff since then. Like he's awesome. And so he calls Tom and he's like, yeah, let me call Tom real quick. So he calls Tom Arnold. And I've helped Tom with some weight loss and stuff since then. He's awesome. And so he calls Tom. And he's like, yeah, I'll talk to Arnold. We'll see. Let him do some research and we'll see. Literally, it was just Tom Arnold knew Arnold Schwarzenegger. Because they did like True Lies and all that stuff.

They've been homies forever. Yeah. And so Tom Arnold connected us with Arnold. And Arnold's team did some research. And they said it. They're like, go to Cali, Santa Monica, right down the road. Do a meeting. There's your shot.

Wow. So I'll be honest with you. I've been waiting for this my whole life, dude. Yeah. I mean, I was ready. Now, what I had done- 29, 30 years. Or how old are you at this time?

35? Yeah. So this is about four years ago, maybe? About 35. So about 35. So I'm like, and what I had done anyway- And you've been to the Arnold Classic probably 20 years. I sold programs at the Arnold Classic when I was 20.

You've seen him there all the time. A million times, you know, and ever always wanted to be in this position. And not only that, I had about a year earlier started really working on trying to write for his website. And so this actually, I'll backtrack a second because, so I started, so Arnold had featured one of my articles the year previous to that. And this is what gets kind of interesting. Like I was banging on Daniel Ketchel. He's the one who runs everything like catch, put me on the site, put me on the site. He's like, all right, right. Yeah. Dan's awesome. So what up catch? So I would say, I said, he said, send me an article. Finally, he was like, I barraged him, send me an article. And I wrote an article called Golden Era Intensity that talks about how intense they were compared to now and why people can learn from it.

So it was a really like, you have to know what you're talking about to write an article, I guess. You got to understand the era of training. So I knew article. I didn't know Arnold read every article on his website, but he does. And so basically read my article. And at the Arnold classic, um, I was at my booth and Patrick shows up. Now I had never met Patrick, his son, but he had a security guard with him. I had no clue who he was. Muscle farm booth, muscle farm booth. And

so this is a, about two, about a year and a half previous to the meeting. And then I'll, I'll fast forward there. And so he comes over and he says, Hey, um, is Corey here? I'm like, yeah, it's me. I'm like, like, what do you need? Yeah. And he goes, my dad told me to come over. He read your article. He really liked it. And I go, who's your dad?

He goes, Arnold. I'm like, oh, shit. Okay. I had no clue. So we started talking. He goes, yeah, he read it on the plane. He's like, he said he'll come over tomorrow. He wants to talk to you about it. No way.

So I'm like looking at my home. He's like. All right, sweet. Yeah. And so that kind of set the groundwork for when I did walk in his office. He already knew I knew what was going on. He came over and said hi for like 20 seconds. We took a picture.

We talked a little bit. And it was just like, he knows who I am now. And that's not easy to get done. That's big. That's big. For a guy that has one word name. You know, there's Madonna. There's Arnold.

There's a certain people. Yeah. There's only certain people like this. Right. And so, you know, fast forward when I'm walking in the office, I already know Ketchel. Well, not well, but well enough. Arnold already knows I understand him. And then now it's like the business is already doing 70 million that those guys can do all the numbers. But I knew like, and the same with you, I'm sure, like emotionally, he needed to connect with somebody to feel good about, dude, it's his likeness. Yeah, yeah. It's Arnold. He's the goat of the industry.

So I walked in there and it was so funny because his office is super intimidating. Every bodybuilding trophy he's ever won. All these movie posters. Oh, it's unbelievable, right? So we're there and he walks in and, you know, it's just craziness that it's even happening. And he sits down and he goes, okay, guys, I got, you know, I got this movie. I'm going to pop 20 million on. I've got this going on.

He's like, so why do I want to do this? And then he just shuts up and sits back. No one says anything. I'm thinking, this is my shot. Like, I'm going to get it, right? So I said, Arnold, here's the deal. Kids don't know how to superset. I'll go right to the training because that's what I know he likes.

Kids don't know how to superset. And I'll go right to the training. Cause that's what I know. He likes kids. Don't know how to superset anymore. Their intensity sucks. Like I need you to help me bring that back. I'm going to come in here. I want to pull all the old footage from the seventies. I want to get you on interview. I want to write plans. I want to do all these things. And we're going to tell people how to train their ass off and then how to eat. And then they food supplement. I don't always call it food supplement because that's what they called it back in the day. Like, then it's like, you're not going to take this pill and become a champion. I'm going to teach you the intensity that you're missing. That has been just, people are just curling and working on their cell phone. He hates it too.

And so he was like in, and what's interesting is at that time I was on bodybuilding.com with a really popular training program called get swole, which I just saw the numbers the other day. It's on about 24 million views at this point. It's like about four years old. And so I was like, hey, here's a, here's an intro video of what I just did. And he took my laptop and he watched the whole, I like went to grab it after like 30 seconds and he like gave me the hand, like sit down. So I sat down, he watched it and he was like, all right, like I could tell he's like working in his head. Right. down, he watched it and he was like, all right, like I could tell he's like working in his head, right? But this was the turning point. What I thought there was an investor that had bought, I was on the cover of fitness RX that month with my kids had never been done before that I'm aware of. And it was at the airport. So the guy buys the cover and I didn't, I've, I don't know why I didn't think to bring it Lewis, but this guy did luckily, luckily he throws it to Arnold at the exact point. So it comes across Arnold's desk and he, and he goes, he looks at it and he goes, well, this is really cool.

Like, yeah, man, that's my three kids, you know, Alex, Madeline and Andan. And he's like, instantly throws his glasses on. He starts looking through it. And then it's at my gym, which looks like the gym he trained at. Dude, it's 12 page spread pullout ad poster. I mean, it's, it's decked out. It's perfect timing. Unbelievable timing. And I remember, it's, it's decked out. It's every timing, unbelievable timing. And I remember, and this is kind of like a takeaway. I think I remember how

hard that prep was and I don't know why, but that specific shoot was really hard for me. And I remember every day I got through it. It's like getting through it, getting through it. And I killed it, Louis. I mean, I killed the shoot. And how did I know that Arnold Schwarzenegger sitting as far away from me would be looking at it going, and he goes, yeah, man, your abs kind of remind me of Frank Zanes and this and that. And like, where's this gym at? I need to come visit it sometime. And I'm like, mind blown at this point. Like, but I knew he knew that I would know what to do with him and that I would keep care of it. You could trust your brand. Yes. And so I really believe that the numbers made sense. The distribution was there. But, I mean, I think I was his guy. And I still am, I think. He kind of reconfirmed that this morning at breakfast.

Like, it was really cool. Why had he never done a supplement deal before? Never felt that way about anybody. Yeah. I really believe that. I think that, look, they always say that, what, real recognizes real. Like, I'm not no movie star, dude, but I'm a lifter. I'm not, um, look, they always say that what record real recognizes real. Like I'm not no movie star dude, but I'm a lifter. I'm not even that big of a guy. I was a six guy on my basketball team, but I'm a grinder. I'm a lifter and I love it. And I think that, and I

know it, I mean, it's what I do. It's what I've done my whole life. And I was waiting for that moment. And, and I always tell people when I speak in public, there's no way I would walk out of the meeting and not have him be my business partner. If I would lose that, I would regret it the rest of my life. There was not another option. I walk in there. When I walk out, Arnold's going to sign the dotted line because of me, whoever. But I'm going to make it happen. I don't want to get it twisted.

The other guys did their role on we're selling this much. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't just me. The numbers made it make sense. Absolutely. And they did. But I know the personal touch I feel like made a huge difference.

Man, it was awesome. What if you would have said no? I don't think you would have. I had my mind. It was an eerie calm for me. You just had a feeling it's going to work. Timing, everything. I just knew, and so many

times I thought about it, if I got a chance to tell Arnold what I could tell him, I think he'd be my homie. That's cool. And he became my homie. I saw him in the gym today. He's like, oh, let's go do breakfast. Let's catch up. Let's do this. We're pumping out some arms.

And it was just organic. It's just, I mean, we're for real friends. And do you feel like, and then you landed Tiger and a few other people, I think. And do you feel like, you know, and then you landed Tiger and a few other people, I think. Do you feel like having these bigger celebrities as well as the UFC brand helps you sell more products? Yeah. And talk to me about that. So I'll tell you what, no. And should people be looking for celebrity, you know, partners?

No and yes. I think it gives you the awareness. But if you don't have the support, you're not going to sell more product. So what happened was we had this big overwhelming awareness, but then once the people got aware of you, what do you, what do you do with them? It's a, it's a funnel, right? Like they get you to get in your funnel essentially, but it's like, then it was the support of the workout, support of the diet, support of the customer service. Like that's the same thing I do now. Like, you know, we have a couple of celebrities that are working on the new line. They might shed some light on it or essentially essentially, I'm a niche social media guy. So people are like, oh, what's Corey

doing now? Oh, great. Oh, man, there's content daily. He answers how to use the product. It's an experience. And so I think that no matter how big we got, it was still that experience that I think made a difference, man. At least that's what I believe. It doesn't matter how many celebrities you have on there. If the customer experience sucks, the product sucks. It doesn't matter. You'll get short-term sales, but I was building a foundation and still am for long-term growth in a business. That was key. You've got these principles in the Mindset Manual that talk about how to really optimize your life. I love the cover. It's kind of like a magazine cover. Make sure you guys check this out. Where

can they get this book? ActivateMedia.com. ActivateMedia.com. We'll have it all linked up here on the show notes. But why this? Why do you think mindset is so important in achieving results fitness-wise, business-wise? Why these principles? So I think that a lot of people get lost in a couple of things. I think it's, they really don't know what they want to do with themselves. And I think they have no strategy daily. And I think what I wanted to show with this book, especially Lewis was, here's a principle that I've found through business, through reading, through life. Here's how I really applied it to myself.

Here's a personal story of why it worked. Like I talk about the Arnold story in there, like the day, how I did it, standing in line. It's funny because he had a bestselling book. I waited in line for four hours to get it signed. I was doing $70 million in sales, Lewis. There's the photo right there. I had 10 seconds of his time. You know what I said to him right there?

I come up. He's not even looking. He's signing books. I said, Mr. Schwarzenegger, I'll do $70 million in sales this year. I'm a vendor at the Arnold Classic classic i just want to say hello and he goes that was the first then came the article then came so it's like over time i'm like this dude will know me yes like no question and he said like something for a moment then and then yeah and on here and that's on but that was the first point yeah and then it became the next day. And that's on. But that was the first point. Yeah. And then it became the article. Then it became the meeting.

And it's like I was priming myself for that. Years of hard work. Yes. It didn't just happen the first meeting. No. You weren't like, I'm going to pitch him this product. No, you can't.

At a book signing. He'd be like, get out of here. No. So that's part of what I explain in there, right? And then when it is time, you don't pee down your leg. Right. You got to be ready and prepared.

Give me the ball. Yeah, exactly. Here's the thing that I think a lot of people make the mistake of. You got to be ready and prepared. Give me the ball. Yeah, exactly. Here's the thing that I think a lot of people make the mistake of. I mean, I'm sure you get this a lot too. Whenever I'm at an event speaking or signing books or whatever, people try to take me away and say like, oh, can you look at this idea of mine? Can you invest in my idea? And it's like, I literally just met you for a moment.

Yeah, you can. Like, you don't have the respect for the other people online. That's amateur to me. And you just make, you put me in a weird position. Yeah. What am I supposed to say? You got to create a relationship first. You got to add value. And you added value by like, let me write on this site for free. I'm sure you weren't getting paid. No, of course not. Let me promote it as hard as I can. Let me- Anything I could do. Anything you could do. I just needed that little... Here's the thing I love about Arnold. When we launched the line

at Muscle Beach, which I'm doing a shoot there Thursday, I'm pumped about. And he goes, he calls on Tuesday and says, let's launch it Friday. Now there's permits. There's a bunch of stuff to launch. And he's just like, and get it done. Make it happen. That's how he is. This is my time frame.

Make it happen. Well, and he tests you like that. Just like this morning, I ran into him and he's like, be here, here and here. And he just jumps on his bike. And I like had no ride. Like I'm at, I'm, I'm looking for an Uber, a cab. Yeah, exactly. Like, but that's how he does things.

And he's like, if you continue to deliver, I keep giving you more. Yeah, exactly. And that's just how, that's how he is. But I love that about him. And I've learned that with the guys that I, I mentor, I do the same thing. Guys will, you know, tweet me, Hey, cool. I want to work out with you. 4 a.m. You know, the gym address, look it up.

I don't care if you live in Alabama, drive up. I mean, I'm the same way. I learned that from him. Do guys ever show up for you? All the time. Yeah. Like every week. High school, college kids.

All over the place, yeah. But how many stay? I can continue going. So what's interesting about our crew, and shout out to all the guys at old school, 4 a.m., most of them drive more than 45 minutes a day to be there just one way one guy drives an hour and 15 minutes because they know there's something different going on there because you know like we're chatting and stuff about but we're working most of the time but like what i love is a guy will come and show up for six months and then say cory can i get 15 minutes your time to help me with my business of course i'm

going to give you that time because you didn't show me you can be here at 4 a.m. You worked hard the whole time. Absolutely. So, but if you ask me in the first one, like some dude will come in for one workout and ask for my phone number, like I'm a chick or something. I'm like, uh, no. Yeah. Keep tweeting me, homie. Like I'm not going to do that, but you show up for three months.

Yeah. Then yeah, I'll help break down your whole business. We'll have breakfast together after one of these times. Absolutely. And so I'm the same way. Like you got to earn it a little bit. I mean, that's so, I mean, relationship building is what I think I after one of these times. Absolutely. And so I'm the same way. You've got to earn it a little bit. I mean, relationship building is what I think I'm one of the best at. That's why I'm where I'm at.

I mean, look, me and you have known each other for a year. When I first saw you, I didn't go, dude, I've got to be on your podcast. I would love to be on your podcast. Don't get me wrong. But we had lunch. We got to talk. We've texted multiple times. And now it makes sense.

Of course. But if I went in for the kill right out the gate, that doesn't, you're like, this dude just wants to be on my podcast. Like, you know, so whatever. It's just how you got to operate, man.

So if you guys can, that's a big takeaway, I think. Don't be afraid to fail. Why is that so important? So I got a great story for this. I got to tell you. So I came to West Hollywood,

actually. It's 2000, man, I think 2003 or four. I was, once again, all over this magazine to shoot me. All over them.

Finally, they were like, they booked me. You were reaching out to them and saying, you need to have me on the cover. You need to have me on the cover. I mean, every... For how long? A year or something? Probably one to two years. Every Arnold Classic, they had a booth. I'm just all over them.

Here's why. Here's what you're going to get out of it. And I think they were just tired of me. So finally, they did it, right? It was Physical Magazine, which was actually GNC's magazine at the time. So they booked me and it's around like they gave me really short notice and I was actually in kind of powerlifting shape. So I busted my tail to get in shape in like a month and it would have worked if I'd have

known, I think a little bit better. But anyway, so I fly here. I eat the wrong thing. When you get on a plane, a lot of people don't know this, but the cabin pressure can mess with your water retention. It'll take me like, like I just flew here a couple of days ago. It takes me about 48 hours till I look dry again. Cause your body just kind of messed up with that. So I get here and I ate the wrong thing before I got on the plane. I went tanning like a week, like two days before that. So my skin was like red. So it was holding what,

like I got here and like basically looked way different. It was the weirdest thing ever. So I got here and I was like, I'm going was the weirdest thing ever. So I got here and I was like, I'm going to go do some cardio. So I tried to sweat it out like a wrestler. It made me look even worse. By the time I got to the photo shoot, my worst nightmare happened. I had no cuts. Like I was thinking I was living my dream, right? I'm flying to Cali. What do you mean you had no cuts? Like I had no, like everything, I was soft as a marshmallow. Oh, you didn't have, you weren't shredded.

Like when I left, I looked pretty, I looked, I looked okay. Not like I do now, but I looked good enough to probably pull it off. Dude, with three things, variables I did wrong when I got here and then cardio on top of it. So I get to the photo shoot

and Greg Plitt, who had passed away about a year ago, and I have the picture in the book. He's there. He's killing it. 190, shredded.

He's always on. Got this girl on his arm. Because we came in the industry about the same time. We just went kind of different paths. And so I walk in and I'm like, mind blown. This dude's like the best thing I've ever seen on a cover before. And I'm looking down like, what am I doing? And I'm already like a tweener, bro.

I mean, it is what it is. And so 11 covers later, I'm glad I went through this. But the guy shoots me for like 20 minutes. I look at him and go, man, I know. I'm just going to, I'm going to go home with my tail between my legs. I just quit the shoot. I gave, I took his card. I said, I'll come back to LA when I can represent myself properly.

And I said, will you shoot me again? He said, yeah, and I'll submit them for you. So I went home. I worked out for like, I worked my ass off for like six months. I called him on my own dime, flew back out here, shot that. A year later, my first cover came out. Now I could have easily, I mean, Greg played, this is funny. He sat down before I went to shoot and he asked me not being, not being mean. He goes, oh, so what part of like, what part of the crew are you? No way. Cause he just didn't know.

Sure. He didn't know somebody was booked after. And I obviously didn't look like I was ready for a cover shoot. Wow, dude. it was the most humbling thing ever. But I was like, you know what? I know I can do this stuff. I know what I'm capable of. And I wanted, back to like think and grow rich type stuff, like I thought and felt what it would feel like to go to Barnes & Noble's and pick that cover up. I wanted to hand it to my- That was me for years, man.

I wanted to hand it to my grandpa and say, look, this is what you did for me. Like, boom. And I wasn't going to let anything stop me. And so, like I said, it never gets old, man. I wanted to hand it to my grandpa and say, look, this is what you did for me. Like, boom. And I wasn't gonna let anything stop me. And so, like I said, it never gets old, man. 11 covers later. Like I love it. Yeah. And I'm getting the one, I mean, I'm shooting a couple more this year, you know, until they quit calling, I'm gonna keep shooting them. Of course. 38. I'll just keep rolling. It's great, man. And then when you hit 40, there'll be a whole new, like. Yeah. Men's health. Yeah, exactly. I'm starting to do a little work with them too. So it's like, look, new life. Yeah, men's health. Yeah, exactly.

I'm starting to do a little work with them too. So it's like, look, literally, when I was 17 years old, I said I want to lift weights and get paid. At 38, I still want to lift weights and get paid. It just means something different now. Right. And you have different seasons of life. Absolutely. Different experiences. Yeah. And trying to balance, I mean, I haven't talked a lot, but being a dad on top of it and trying to balance that

is not easy. That's part of the reason why I only sleep five hours. You got three kids or four kids? Three. Yeah, it's crazy, man. Yeah, it is. You're a machine. I try, man. You're like Steve Weatherford. You guys are so positive and like train at the same time.

Steve's awesome. You guys are machines, man. Thanks, Lewis. Why do you think so many people, I get this a lot, people that sign up for my programs and listen to the podcast, they're afraid to fail. Yeah. You say don't be afraid to fail. It's not that easy for a lot of people.

Why do you feel like so many people are afraid? And how do you think they can switch a trigger in their mind that says, whatever I'm afraid to fail, that's what I need to do right now? Sure. Teachable moments. I think I've learned so much by messing up. And so I think it was Jordan had that quote that says, I've shot the last shot X amount of times you, I mean, you have to be like, I think Gary Vee says it really well too. Like he learns, he likes to lose sometimes because he learned, he learned so much cause he wins a lot. Right. And I, and I've won a lot in my life. There's no doubt, but like, you know, I look at muscle farm, there's some wins, there's some losses. Well, when I build max effort muscle, I'm taking those losses and I'm fixing them. Yeah. So live and you learn and people are afraid, uh, afraid to be vulnerable because once you put yourself out there and if it doesn't work

and you've told all your friends, like I told everybody I knew I was shooting the cover of that magazine. Yeah. Like I shot four covers that never came out before the first, like every time finally I quit telling people cause I was just like, it just never worked out. So it's like, you start to realize like, if you don't experience that, you can't grow. So yeah, you're going to fail, but it's not a failure. It's only a failure if you quit. Like if I just quit, then that became a failure. It really wasn't. It was just a really a teachable moment that somebody, the universe says you ain't ready yet. And I always say like, I was at the height whenever I was selling muscle farm and still currently, if I would have had those opportunities earlier in my life, I don't, I went on deaf ears.

I think that it all happened in the right time and still happening in the right time because the perception of the way that I operate is true. You follow me, like, you know, I'm up at three, I'm going to bed at 10, I'm competing, I'm doing, I'm building businesses. I'm building these brands. Like, you know, I operate, like I want it to be as real as possible every day. So people think they can do it because I am not gifted. Sure. Like I'm not a gifted athlete. I wasn't even recruited by D3 schools. Nothing like, I mean, I want to play hard. Yeah. I'm a grinder, man. That's what I'm saying. Like you have to be really efficient and you got to work your ass off to roll with me because like, I mean, guys, I mean the volume we do in the workouts, the amount of development I do, like I just know I'm not really that special.

So I'm trying to make an, uh, un-extraordinary essentially, you know, athletic gift. Extraordinary. Sure. Sure. By working hard. Yeah. ET style. Exactly.

When did you get married? Uh, uh, let's see. I've been married 13 years. Okay. So I'll be third. So 23. Exactly. When did you get married? How old were you? Let's see. I've been married 13 years. Okay. So I'll be 13. So 23? 23.

Yeah. That was huge. Rachel, but Rachel's known me the whole time. Yeah. She was literally helping me paint the first walls of the first gym. So Rachel, even though it's so funny because her family was like, her dad was an engineer. She was in school to be a teacher. And I'm in here like, I want to be a model personal trainer. Like she took me home.

They're like, uh, yeah, exactly. Right now, obviously over time I've proved so, so, you know, that I can, I can provide for my family, but Rachel believed every step of the way. And I'll tell you what, because you know, that crazy college life that I lived for maybe six months, once I met her, it all stopped. That's the same time I started really building my business too. And she's been so supportive the whole way. And there's no way I could have done it without her. That's why I write the first passage in the book is all about meeting her and she changed my life for sure. So you don't think you would have been able to build a business or have- No way.

The health that you have without that relationship? No. And especially building a family. She knew what she would... I always say, she helps the balance. You're going to be out of relationship. No, and especially building a family. Like, she knew what she was. I always say, like, she helps the balance. You're going to be out of balance at times when you're building a business. You know that, Lewis. But, like, she helps check me sometimes. Like, it's funny because I'm doing this photo shoot, and I was like, you know, I think I'm going to come home and do a bodybuilding show. She's like, Corey, you already did one bodybuilding show. Like, just come home and, like, let's eat ice cream on Fridays again.

You know what I mean? So, it's like I need that because I always think if I work, I work, I work, then I'm providing better for my kids. Well, they just want my time. You know what I mean? And I can give it to them because I have that ability. I've created that for myself. So it's like that balance.

Like I always think it's not enough. One more tweet, one more thing. And so that's tricky. You got to cut it off. Yeah, you got to. And so she helps me a ton with that. And she's just always believed in me and she's real. Like she'll set, like she's like, Corey, you got all these people online,

hyping your head up. You don't need me to do that too. Right. So she's real. Like, she'll be like, Hey, you didn't bring it today. Like, so it's good. I used to kind of, I don't want to say I disliked it at first because you know, it's fun to have yes people. But when your girl's like, Hey, but she also support, I woke up and said, today's the day I'm done. I'm going to ask for my severance package. Like I'm ready to be done. I'm walking away from the salary.

I don't care. I'll build something else. I'll build coreygfitness.com. I'll build a marketing company with John Fosco, my partner. Like, you know, I was like, I'm done. And she didn't even question it. She goes, man, we've been doing this 18 years. Like if you're done, then you're done.

And it doesn't feel right to you anymore. I would have been, I feel like I would have been living a lie as an entrepreneur if I'm staying for a paycheck. Yeah, of course. That's it. Wow. And so it was, it was powerful though. And very like, just felt like a weight off my shoulders.

How has the relationship evolved, you know, starting from, from scratch with nothing to, okay, building and building to having having children, to all the different avenues you've gone through, starting companies, getting out of companies. How has that evolved, I guess, your relationship? With her? Yeah. And with all the fame or the credibility or the success that comes, has that been challenging in any way?

Here's what I'll tell you. A lot of people are like, oh, you're in a fitness. There's probably so many girls and this and that. And because I've been so happy with her, like really, I've never projected myself as looking for any other partner. Right. Like I don't even, actually she don't even care. I don't even wear a wedding ring just because I don't like jewelry really.

Like in, doesn't matter because I'm not looking for it. But you're always wearing bars too. Yeah, exactly. And that's why I didn't wear it initially is because I was in the gym all the time when I was personal training. But like, I'm not looking for it, man, because I found the person I wanted to be with. And the funny thing is when I met her when I was 20, I thought to myself, like, I knew she was the right one.

So I had to make a decision. All you 20-year-old out there, this could happen to you. Like, okay, do I go be a crazy guy for a little while longer and then come back to her? But she might not be there. I just made a decision. Like, this is my girl. I know it. I just knew it plain and simple.

And dude, she's been amazing. And then she's, I mean, she got her master's in education. So, I mean, she stays at home with the kids now. She helps me with my businesses online to keep track. Because that's the one thing I would tell you. Like, I'm really good at creating. I'm not really good at keeping track of everything. Like she, you know, she's better with the numbers and my partner, John's really good with operations and the other business. So like, I'm good at creating, I'm good at the interaction. I'm good at like the

overall creative part of it. But when it comes to like percentages and numbers and forecasting, that's not really my jam and it never, never has been. So I'm not going to like, at this point, I'm not even trying to get better at it. I just need help. I need help. You got to know what you're good at. Of course, man. So, but she's been, I can't say enough. She's, it's been, it's been amazing. But I think the realness of, it'd been different if she'd have came in when I already was at MusclePharm. Because she believed the whole time, the gym, the personal training vision, like I used to used to practice on her and her roommates, like my first personal training clients. We've literally been there the entire way. That's great.

You know, it's real. She likes me for me and my craziness. Amazing. What's something you're proud of that most people don't know about? That's a good question. Now you're going to come into the really good questions. I would say that most people don't know a lot about me as a dad probably. And so I think it's like as busy as I am, my kids know the narrative that we're changing, like from how I grew up to

how they're growing up. My son's read the book. He's 11. So like that was probably one of the coolest things. Like he was able to ask me questions. Like I could have never like articulated this in just person. Dad, I didn't know that about you. Dad, I didn't know. Oh, that's awesome.

But like it was so cool. It's probably the coolest experience of that him and my mom and my grandpa. Those three reading it was unbelievable. And so I think like every night when they go to bed,

they know I tell them I love them and that I'll do anything for them. And we want to continue to grow, to evolve. So it's what I do now is important for them, but it's about their kids and their kids. Like I'm preaching generation stuff because I want it to be passed down the way that I operate. The principles like, dude, I'm a huge fan of Andrew Carnegie. So I've read Carnegie stuff for years and years. And so I want that like to be what we do. And so I think that they, they know I love them. They know I work hard. I'll do anything for them. I don't miss games. I don't miss like I'm there. Right. And it's like, but also I expect a lot. Like if you

mess up in my house and you're 11, like the other ones haven't got to, cause they're still young. We run sprints and I'm on it like a 1970s football coach. If you don't give it to me, you run another one. Yeah. And I'm out there like, my kid will not be soft. That's real because I didn't do all this to them for the next generation to screw it up. They're not going to be a coal miner. They're going to still train like one.

Here's the thing is, I don't want them to experience that. I'd never change. I tell my mom when I wrote this book, Ma, don't ever be sorry for what happened to us because I wouldn't be me if it wasn't. But I need to instill that next generation that they're not super soft. Now, whether they want to be an entrepreneur, a teacher, whatever, I'm going to support them. But there's a certain thing. Effort is a choice. And so if I see you dogging a ground ball or doing this and i

tell you once and you don't do it again we're running yeah and i'm real about that i like it because effort is a choice that's true dude that's true man it doesn't matter how old you are i'll always pick the guy who gives more effort than anyone else every time i don't care if they're at least talented they got a little bit of talent yeah and they will they effort is more than anyone else like i'll have them on the show so So, so I'm preaching that. Cause I think that can, that can, that can help a lot of things. If you understand that at a young age. And so like Alex plays soccer, baseball, Madeline's awesome at gymnastics. She's, we're doing handstand contests after dinner. And then my youngest and, and he's a, he's a fireball. He's just getting into sports. He's five. So it's like

we, we got a real good thing is it's healthy. It's active. It's really cool, man. I feel super blessed. Congrats, man. Thanks. What are you most grateful for in your life recently? Recently, I would say what's been interesting, like so Andan is back in school, is in school for the first time. So he's five.

So now there's actually during the day, like I can have coffee and I could have done this before, but I'm like the way I operate. I try to be really like when work starts, like I'm in it, like I can have coffee with my wife at 9am and she doesn't have anywhere to be. Like I can be wherever I want to be there in school and we can just have time to us again. And so that's just happened recently because school just started. I'm really grateful for that that honestly my grandparents are still alive like they're both 90 they've been able to see all this stuff and lastly that my mom is my customer service lady like she runs the website coreygfitness.com she's my customer service this is the highest like like i said she grinded for years she makes more at coreygfitness.com that she did in all the jobs that she had done before. Now she had remarried

and my stepdad, the one that got me the job, they do very well. So it's not like she's still struggling, but to be able to be like, mom, I'm about to hire somebody to take care of customer service. If you can learn how to do these little programs, like just answer people, you know, change their debit cards, whatever. And just, I know that you'll have my best interests. I would rather pay you. And she was like, well, I'll come up and you teach me and do, she's killing it. Wow. Like 11 o'clock on Sunday cares. Cause she got my back.

She has to be in there on my accounts and you only have somebody I can trust. And like giving her a raise, giving her a bonus. Like it's awesome. And the other day I asked her, I'm like, ma, when you worked at the furniture store or like, how much did you make a week? And she told him like, is this the highest paying job? Like, I didn't even know. She's like, yeah, it's pretty awesome. And I work at home and I work with you. I can talk to you

more. And I'm real thankful for all three of those things. That's cool. My mom works with me as well. So cool. Right. It's pretty fun. It's, it's amazing. It's actually the, it's been really rewarding, man. So, so I think time with Rachel, my mom, and then my grandparents still being alive are both things I'm, I'm, I'm grateful for every day. That's cool. This is called the three truths question. Uh-oh. So it's your last day. Sure.

And everything's been erased. Your books are deleted and programs and it's all gone for some reason. Sure. But everyone's there. It's a celebration and they ask you to write down your three truths. The three things you know to be true about life or your experiences that you would pass on to everyone else. And it's the only thing they would have to live by. To remember me by or to live by.

Like your principles, your three truths that you know to be true. They can't read the book anymore. I'm nervous. I've been trying to get ready for this one. What would you say are your three truths? I think I thought about this a little bit because obviously I listen to your podcast, getting ready. Don't settle. Because I think regret is probably one of the worst things that you can die with.

And so for me, I could have stayed in that coal mine. I could have, by my standards of what I wanted for myself, lived a mediocre life to some degree in a bunch of different dead-end jobs and never lived my passion. I refused to settle. Even when I was at MusclePharm, it had changed and I was not going to settle. It doesn't matter how big it was. So I think if you're somebody right now that's doing something you don't want to do, don't give in. So I would tell my family, if they're reading these, do not settle just for that. Cause what do you do? You do it for 30 years and then you retire. I mean, it's just to me, like it, and it's going to be scary. I get it. And it takes time. I always say my rap album

didn't go platinum overnight. I've been doing this 18 years, but at some points it doesn't even feel like work at all because I love what I do. And it's, it's changed a little bit over time, but man, the not settling has driven me forever. And I think that's extremely important. I think second would be have a true daily strategy. Because if you aimlessly just wander through life and you don't have a passion or purpose locked in, like I realized early that my passion was fitness. That was my way out, you know, and the purpose was to change

generations. So it's way bigger than me. And so I think when things become way bigger than you, you, they don't get old because it was about, it wasn't about me. It's about my kids. It's about their kids. And so if I get up at three, 4am and like, I'm tired, like I'm trying to change like family history. It's not just about me. And so like the second one and like, I'm tired. Like I'm trying to change like family history. It's not just about me. And so like the second one was like, I need a real strategy that's dialed in with those things on my heart every day.

And so like, that's like means so much. Like get up at this time, do this, do that. And like, I just knew if I did that for a long period of time and I was locked into when I was tired, I'm doing this for them. I always say I wanted my grandkids to say, grandpa was a G. I mean, that's, and that's exactly what I wanted

to say. Like he set us up. He taught us these principles. He, he changed the generations tree of blue collar and work 30 years. And it was more like, Hey, we can go live our dream of what we want to do. There's always a solution. You know what I mean? And so I would say those are the two top ones. Thirdly, like I would say, um, one thing I got to do better at is, um, really take a deep breath and live in the moment. I think I'm so focused on what's next all the time. Like just to sit here on this podcast and go, wow, I'm on Lewis house podcast right now. Like, this is really cool to capture it. Right. And so I think that we have documentation with Instagram and Twitter and, and you can go back through your feeds and see what

you did. And I think it's, it's like scrapbooking used to be right or whatever. So I would say like those three things, um, I would want my kids if they, if they never knew me that, that they would. And that's one thing I love about content. You know, we had a friend on barbell shrug, Chris Moore just passed away, right? So sad, man. So sad. And I knew him from two episodes and multiple texts, but an amazing guy. So nice.

Unbelievable, right? How old is he? Like 30 or something? 30 years. Yeah. 30, 33. So what I learned from that, there's always a takeaway for me on everything, right? It's really sad. So is his kids will know him from content.

And it honestly lit a fire under me. That's why I started talking to you again. I need to do as much as I can because you're not guaranteed tomorrow, dude. No way. So it's like the more that I can do this, if something does happen to me, my kids, they're going to continue to learn from me. Because at the end of the day, I want to teach them so they can do what they want to do. And so if I feel like if those three truths were on that piece of paper, that they would be able to have a good start in life.

I like those, man. Thanks, man. Make sure you guys get the mindset manual. I've got one question left for Corey, but you can check them out. CoreyGFitness.com. At CoreyGFitness. I got to tell you about the new book real quick. Yeah, go ahead.

Entrepreneur or Wantrepreneur. We'll drop on iTunes and Amazon here in about a week. There you go. And it's a true crash course of whether you want this life. We talked about this off air. Yeah. Like it looks great, but do you want to go through what it takes? And each chapter I ask you at the end, okay, now you understand what I just taught you.

You still want to keep going? Right. So it's going to be like a nine book book on audiobook. It'll be good for everybody. Corgyfitness.com, to get that one too? I think we're going to have iTunes.

It's going to be audio mostly only. But where can they get it? Can they learn more out of Corgy Fitness? Yeah, Corgy Fitness, Activate Media, both places. And social handles.

Here's the thing. One of the things was don't settle, but it's a challenging life if you want to really go after it sometimes. And it takes a certain type of individual who is committed to the pain and the challenges that come for many, many years. So you get to make a decision. So it's Entrepreneur or Entrepreneur. Is that what it's called? That's the new book, yep.

Okay, cool. We'll have this all linked to the show notes as well, so everyone can go there and check it out. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Corey, for your incredible persistency, for your commitment, your dedication. I don't know anyone else who's so dedicated to their routine than you. Thanks, man. I know Steve is pretty dedicated. Steve's on there, too. He's pretty dedicated, but you were like an army sergeant or something. Every morning, there's always a video of you

at a certain time doing heavyweights, not just talking about it, doing it. And you live by the routine and the principles. You don't just think it's good to talk about. I mean, it's such an inspiration to see someone living it to the T the way you do with the kids, with the healthy lifestyle, with the wife, with the businesses. Like everything that you're doing and you're uplifting people, it's really inspiring to see that you're making a difference in the world. So I appreciate and acknowledge that. Love it.

Yeah, man. Final question. What's your definition of greatness? So it's funny because it's changed over time. I always say like when I was at the personal training studio making six figures, driving a late 90s Mercedes, I thought to me that was like success. And I knew that I was like, if I would have stopped there, I don't think anybody would have said I was great, but I kind of won in my mind. Right. So greatness to me is leaving your mark to such a degree that when I'm well, like, that's why I love writing books and doing these things is that like you have a mark on the industry that you were there, whatever that is for you.

And so like Arnold is obviously ultimate greatness is the way I look at him. And I'm trying to think like, can I impact enough people? Cause when I quit chasing money and started developing people, my life changed completely. And can I impact enough people in my niche and go beyond that niche too, to where people are like, I want to be like Corey when I get in. Bill Phillips was great. Like I wanted to be like Bill Phillips. I want to be that next generational guy that the kid that's 20 years old wants to be like me and that I've displayed, like what you just said, what it really took. It's not a phantom. I got the Bentley with the bottle of shit. No, I'm dead lifting 500 pounds at 3.30 in the morning. That's what got me there.

I want them to know that you don't have to be the biggest, the fastest, the strongest, that I didn't have a silver spoon in my mouth that I didn't do like, but I wanted it more than everybody else. And when there was a roadblock, I either climbed under the, I dug a hole under the wall. I went over it. I went sideways. I went through it. There's always a solution. So greatness to me is that I can leave my mark here when I'm really, truly retired, which is probably never, but that, you know, the next generation, literally it started from my hometown. I wanted Ohio Valley kids. Cause right now when we, when I grew up, it was Dean Martin, Phil Necro, and some guys like, you know,

there were so much older than us. There was no one to look up to right now. There's a kid in Ohio Valley that's lifting weights in a high school gym that could go, I could be like him. And that is how it started. And that to me was the initial greatness. Like from my, just from your hood, from your place where you're from, like everybody's like, I want to be known by the guy that stands by Arnold and Tiger. And that I climbed up with really no one giving me no love, man. There's no lob passes here. This is all work. And that's what it takes. And so that to me is great. Like in your industry, you're a G.

I like it. You're a G, the legend. What's going on, man? Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. No wage. I owe. There you have it.

And thank you so much for listening and tuning in to episode 380. Man, we are getting close to 400. I am amazed at how big this has grown and how much impact we've had on the world as a community. I mean, so many people listen and share these episodes, and it means the world to me. So if this is your first time here, make sure to subscribe over on itunes.com slash school of greatness and click that subscribe button right there and get this podcast to the top of your list. Share this with your friends,

lewishouse.com slash 380. And again, thank you guys so much for being a part of this. Make sure to check out all of Corey's information. You can check out all his social media handles again at lewishouse.com slash 380. I love you guys so very much. Pumped about all of the guests we have coming up here in the future. They just keep getting bigger and better and so inspiring. I'm just blown away by the people we continue to attract to this incredible podcast. And it's all because of you.

The more people that listen, the more people that share, we are able to attract some of the most inspiring people in the world. So continue to listen, guys. Continue to share and spread the word of greatness because I need it. That's why I do it myself. I want to learn more. That's why I continue to interview. And I know you guys could use the information and the education as well to serve you along your journey in this incredible life. I love you. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. ស្រូវតែរសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសារសា� Outro Music