The School of Greatness - 724 Do What You Love with Mike Holston: The Real Tarzann

Episode Date: November 26, 2018

DO THE UNEXPECTED. Do you go the easy route? The expected route? Or do you find your own path that compliments your unique passions? Finding your own way takes inner strength. You won’t be able to do it without believing in yourself. It takes a special person to defy expectations and break into a new field. People will doubt you when you do something unexpected. That’s a given. It’s how you respond when people try to dissuade you will determine if you’re successful or not. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I talk with an unlikely zookeeper who is known online as The Real Tarzann: Mike Holston. Mike Holsten is a 24 year-old zookeeper at Mario Tabrue’s Zoological Wildlife Foundation. He recently did a collaboration with Will Smith and has over four million followers on Instagram. Mike says that working hard, believing in yourself, and prayer will help you be successful against any odds. So get ready to learn how The Real Tarzann came to be on Episode 724. Some Questions I Ask: How many animals do you have right now? (16:00) How many times have you been bitten or stung? (22:30) Why is important to see someone who looks like you doing what you do? (28:30) What was the first job you had that paid you to work with animals? (33:00) What’s the most endangered animal? (38:00) What has being around animals taught you about humans? (39:00) What has changed since Will Smith posted about you? (51:00) What has kept you motivated to pursue this dream? (53:00) Do you eat meat? (1:03:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: The biggest thing Cesar Millan taught Mike (14:00) Why some species get along with each other (19:00) The best pet Mike has (20:00) About the time Mike swam with sharks (24:00) If Mike thinks that wild animals should be left in the wild (35:30) The story of how Will Smith found Mike (47:00) What Mike did to get out of his depression (49:00)

This is episode number 724 with the real Tarzan, Mike Holston. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a 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. Harriet Tubman said, Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

And today we've got a young man who is reaching for the stars and changing the world literally through the use of all of his education and his massive social media following. The King of the Jungle and the Real Tarzan, those are the names that this exotic animal specialist, teacher, and zookeeper, Mike Holston from Miami, calls himself. He's got over 4 million followers on Instagram and a massive following on YouTube, and he's used his huge social media following to teach others about exotic animals and wildlife and our part in conserving this wildlife and maintaining this wildlife.

He's inspired by Steve Irwin, who he calls his idol and the best man to stroll this earth. The real Tarzan uses visibility that he gets for the good causes that he's a part of. He loves to educate people about animals, and he often visits schools to teach kids. And now he uses his platform to teach people all over the world. And I've become obsessed with watching him on Instagram. He's literally grown, I think, 3 million followers on Instagram in the last six to eight weeks alone. It's amazing what this guy is doing and educating us. And I realized how uneducated I am about animals until I watched some of his videos. And this is really inspiring stuff. And I think sometimes we lose perspective of wildlife and animals in our own backyard or around the world, what's actually happening.

And we talk about this today on some of these things. We also talk about his background, growing up in a rough neighborhood and how his family made it out of that background. He talks about how the love of animals saved him from depression, the power of what one Will Smith share did for him on social media and reaching out to work with him and how that impacted people seeing his social media videos and actually being a part of this moving forward. We discussed the differences between animals in captivity and in the wild and how Mike would like to help save animals everywhere. We also talk about how following any dream, even if everyone

says it's the craziest thing to do, Mike has built this incredible life for himself by talking about wildlife animals and by showcasing animals, playing with animals, connecting with animals. He has built a life for himself, a business for himself, a brand around something that most people said to him, this would never work. And so if you ever have had a dream, maybe you've got something crazy in mind right now where everyone is telling you it's not possible. Don't do this. You're wasting your time. Go get a steady job. Here is a great case study and example. And he's going to talk about how he's been building this and how it keeps growing. The more he dives into the dream, he attracts even bigger people to support him manifest it. So this is a fun one, guys, a powerful one. Again, lewishouse.com slash 724. Post that link out to your friends. Text your friends who have crazy dreams to listen to this.

Share this on your Instagram story and follow at the real Tarzan, Mike Holston. This is a powerful one, guys. So without further ado, let me introduce to you to the one, the only Mike Holston. All right. Welcome back to one of the School of Greatness podcasts. We've got the real Tarzan in the house. Mike Holston. Good to see you, man.

Yes, sir, brother. Thank you for having me. Appreciate you being here, man. So much fun. You've been taken off of last month. I found out about you from Will Smith, and then it seems like everyone's been talking about you. Thank you, Will. There you go.

You are just like taking over the world with educating us about animals, all types of animals. Yeah, man. From domestic animals to the wildest exotic animals to reptiles to snakes, spiders, elephants, anything in between. If it's an animal and breathing and walking and moving, you love it. Absolutely. When did you get into this passion for just all types of animals? Honestly, I was born with animals, not born with animals. There was already two dogs in my family, born in my family.

So I grew up with two dogs. You know, I had no siblings. So those were like my best friends. Really? Only child? I was at the time. You were at the time. You know, but I'm the oldest of 10.

Wow. Yeah. 10? Big family. Brothers and sisters? Brothers and sisters. I was going to say like nine animals or something. No.

Animals is way deeper than that. You're the oldest of 10? Oldest of 10. Wow. What is that like? It's just the best feeling, man. Me and my siblings were real close growing up. So it's just like, I always had that brotherhood, that sisterhood, and I had a bunch of cousins, but there's nothing like having your

brothers and sisters, you know? I love them tremendously. And you grew up in Rhode Island? Yep. Well, I bounced back from Rhode Island and Atlanta for most of my life because my dad lived in Rhode Island, my mom lived in Atlanta. So holidays, my birthday, I was over there. Then I would go, you know, I would be in school in Atlanta living my life with my mom and my two brothers. And the rest of my family was up north. So every holiday, any break we had, we was home. Four, five, six times a year, you know.

And you had a couple dogs growing up. When did you really start to explore out? I got my first snake at four. Four turned to five. What kind of snake? I had a burl constrictor. Oh, really? Yeah.

I mean, I've caught snakes, you know, like garter snakes and, you know, decay snakes and rough green snakes, you know, growing up. But I never actually had one as a pet. So you would catch them? Yeah, and I would bring them home. My mom was like, what the you doing? My mom was like, dude, you can't have any. And it was in my freaking house. So I just kept begging and begging and begging.

And then a four got a boa constrictor. Yep. Was it like a yellow one? It was a regular Colombian red tail, had like a tannish, brownish body with a red tail, you know, with dark brown straddle on top of him but he's evil bro really he's mean bite you a lot yeah he bit me a lot really i didn't know a lot you know all i saw was tv stuff you know i had you saw steve irwin yeah you know when did you

first see him or see well i actually first saw the old school tarzan movies first my my grandma is an older lady she passed away a couple years ago, but, you know, 70-year-old lady was sitting in her big, huge chair every day and watched this black and white TV. And I love my grandma. Every time I came, we lived in the same house. So my dad lived on the first floor, and then my great-grandma lived on the second floor, and then my grandma lived on the third floor. You know, so I was always up and down, hanging out with my family every day. So when I would go see my grandma, she would watch these stupid old movies with black and white. And I'm like, dude, this is so boring.

I don't want to watch this. And then one day, she had an old school, like 1950s Tarzan movie on, black and white, horrible. I look at it now, I'm like, dude, this is so bad. But back in the day, as a kid, I was like yo this is amazing yeah you know and swinging a little rope yeah yeah you know fighting cheetahs and lions in the jungle with a you know tilt on us like dude this guy's amazing and then um i got a lot of stuffed animals after that and then i thought but i knew it was off you know i knew tarzan was a fake movie and my my stuff, animals, weren't real. So when I finally got my snake, I thought it was going to be a walk in the park. And it wasn't.

Because he was mean. But then I started watching Steve Irwin. And then I went from looking at something that was fake to looking at a real person. Who was really working with animals. Who was really doing this stuff. Exactly. It wasn't a cartoon. I had to be anywhere mean anywhere from five six seven

years old yeah you know probably probably younger or older i can't remember from watching pbs kids and zabuma fool and national geographic channel and david adamborough and animal planet you know you name it dude i was engulfed in animals every day of my life you know from a kid up until this day you know and it's just, it stuck with me. Really? Yeah. Like once I love something or like something, I don't, I'm all in. Like I eat the same food over and over. Me too, man. I eat the same restaurant like every three days. Dude, it's like, how can you get bored of something you love? It's like clockwork, you know? So you had the snake at four, four or five. How long did you

have this mean snake for? And did you ever get a place where you were able to tame it? Yeah. Well, I think he bit me, my brother, my mom, and my uncle. And they were literally days away from getting rid of him. I kept going there. I was nervous as a little kid. I don't mean to be a big curse. But I was like, this is my snake.

I had to conquer this fear. Every time we go to handle this snake, everybody's walking away with tears or blood. And I'm just like, dude, this is just horrible. And one day I picked him up and he didn't bite me. I was like, we're best friends. Really? And then.

But isn't it scary to like have something that's biting you to like put it up next to your face? Yeah, it takes time to do that, you know? Right in your eyeballs. Yeah. Like. It takes time, man. You know, like. If you don't want to just pick it up and be like, oh, hey, snake. Oh that. Right in your eyeballs. Yeah. You're like. It takes time, man. You know, like.

You don't want to just pick it up and be like, oh, hey, snake. Oh, yeah. No, not at the beginning. You got to basically make him trust him. You know, trust him. You got to trust him. You have to trust the snake. Exactly.

How crazy is that? How do you trust the snake when it's biting you? Exactly. When you're nervous, you're scared, you can't trust them. They have like a defense the same way with you. If you're walking down the street and some guy came to and he's like, hey, what's up, buddy? You're going to be like, yo, bro, I'm going to knock you out. I'm going to run away or call the cops.

But if someone approaches you and says, hey, how you doing? Shakes your hand and keeps it moving. It's a harmless. It's more calm. It's more calm. So when you walk up, you know, with a snake, you're like, oh, man, am I going to grab it? He's like, yo, bro, are you trying to eat me? Are you trying to fight me?

Like, I'm going to bite you just to get away from me. Because they're more scared of us than, you know, we are them. But if you walk up to a snake, you're like, hey, buddy, what's up? How's it going? He's like, oh, all right, cool. We're just chilling. Versus, you know, you're going here and you're like, oh, you know, you're trying to grab him. The snake's looking at you.

You're looking at him. You know, it's just. But versus, if you literally do this, that's it. Calm. Calm. You become a tree branch versus something trying to eat you. You know, you're just a harmless figure. Wouldn't Steve Irwin be like that?

Of course. There's different snakes. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. You know, you got to bring the viewers in. You know what I'm saying? But like, it's just everything's like ballet. You ballet with the snake, and then if you got to breakdance,

you got to breakdance, of course, you know. But it's all just simple, slow motions of trust. And if he's moving, you move with him. If he moves this way, you move that way. It's the same thing with, like, a dog, you know. I feel like I do really well around dogs. Like, a lot of people who are dog owners are like, yeah, they don't really like big guys, right? Yeah, they get like skittish around big guys, but I'll just like kneel. Mm-hmm

And like I just put my hand on calm it down to your level I'm gonna come to me and then they like start sniffing me and like start like putting their head on me and it's just Like I start best friends just like that. Yeah, and these people are like they never do that with strangers or whatever I'm like, well, I'm just trying to be calm and relaxed. Yeah, everybody's so nervous and scared of people's dogs, that's why they freak out when they get to their houses. See if it was a 30-foot boa constrictor, I might be like, hey, little snake,

like, maybe like, touch the tail first. Yeah, for sure. That's crazy, man. Okay, so you conquered the fear of your first snake that bit you. Did the snake bite you again after this? I'm pretty sure he did. I was so happy that I finally got to even interact with this animal.

I didn't even care after that. I just kept duplicating the same thing and doing more research. Less and less, probably, whatever. Really? You started researching about snakes in general or about all snakes? About both constrictors. At first, I started doing, I just wanted a snake, you know, because I was just so young. And I eat about it, but I finally realized there's thousands and thousands of different species of snakes that get bigger and smaller and different colors and different places.

They live in trees, live on the ground, live underwater. It's just like when I figured that out that there was so many more than just, you know, pythons and boas, I was literally like, oh, my God. You freaked out. Freaked out, bro. Imagine having your favorite food, right? And you ate it your whole life. And then one day you found out that food had millions of options that tasted just like that but better. You know, you're like, dude.

Sounds amazing. It's like an endless buffet of greatness. Oh, my gosh. amazing. It's like an endless buffet of greatness. Oh my gosh. You know, so when I finally figured out at a young age that there was like thousands of different species of snakes, even the same species, you know, like a boa constrictor has seven or eight or nine or ten different species inside just a boa constrictor of that country. And then you go to another country, they got different ones. Then another country got a different one. But they're still boas. They look different. They have different patterns. Some get bigger, have different head shapes.

different one but they're still boas they look different they have different patterns some get bigger have different head shapes it's literally so interesting you know some are more aggressive than others some are calmer than others and that's what really you know intrigues me and i'm like dude if i could learn this about snakes how many other animals and it's like that with every single species that's why i'm addicted to all animals i love to learn and you can you can never stop i mean there's so many things you learn learn. Yeah, bro. Like, literally. You probably know, like, 20% of. Bro, 20? No, I don't even know, like, 4%. No.

I don't even know if I know 1%. That's just my opinion. Yeah, yeah. To the outside world, I'm a genius. You know a little bit about a lot of things. Yeah, you know, but to me, I'm a student to the game always. Yeah. I love to learn.

I'm an open book. So when I get around different people like you know i was at caesar milan a few days ago he's been on the show yeah he's an awesome guy you know i looked up to caesar milan for a long like a long time you know you went to his dog psychology yeah i went to dog psychology center and i again i told you i was raised with dogs you know so i trained dogs and worked with dogs my whole life but the moment i got with caesar i have no fucking clue what I'm doing. Teach me.

That's how I am. I'm like, give me all you got. What was the greatest thing he taught you the other day? How to sit. How to make a dog sit. I've been doing the wrongest. I've been doing a great job for myself, you know, but like he explained stuff to me.

I'm like, holy shit, dude, that's real. How do you do it? So when you tell a dog to sit, what do you do? so we do we do we tell a dog I said what do you do sit there but it's more about the energy right it's more not even bro he explained this to me so freaking cool it makes total sense because it's applied in other animals too when a dog is born and with the nose their eyes and they're hearing so they're born blind they're born death but they can smell so the first thing born deaf, but they can smell. So the first thing they can do is they can smell first.

That's your first natural instinct is to smell. And then like a few weeks later, they open their eyes. They can see. Yeah, start hearing. And then they can start hearing. So when you go to teach them, you don't teach them through here. You teach them through here and then here and then there. Because once this goes, everything else goes.

Because this is instinct number one. How do you teach them through the nose? Treat, smell, attention, stuff like that. I'm still learning because I just learned a few days ago. So I'm going over the process of watching all this new stuff. And like, okay, this is how it does it. So when I go home, I can train my dogs totally different now. Because now, again, I'm a new book.

Everything I did know about that I thought I knew, it's now an old book, and I have a new book. So one day when I get around another dog guru from another country or from somewhere else, I can completely erase, put that book on the shelf, and they'll go learn something new again. So one day when I can give out information, I say, oh, here's three books. I learned this, and I learned that, and I say, oh, here's three books. I learned this and I learned that. So here's your methods. That's how I like to reiterate things. I basically become a sponge.

Yeah, of course. How many animals do you have right now personally? 41. What are they? I have three dogs. Is this in Miami? It's in Miami, yeah. Okay, three dogs.

I have a fox. A fox? American red fox. Like a wild Miami? It's in Miami, yeah. Okay, three dogs. I have a fox. A fox? American red fox. Like a wild fox? Like a fox, you know. Like it's tame now? A lot of animals I have, like 95% of animals I have are like rescues. Besides my dogs.

The dogs gave it to me for free from people from Instagram. It's like, I worked at a reptile store back in the day. And then they sold animals, of course, to the public. And I'm into the animal education and conservation space. I really don't care so much for selling animals. I don't have a problem with people having animals as pets as long as they have the proper education and stuff and captivity to duplicate their enrichment and natural environments. Yeah. But my fox was a rescue, and I raised him with my pit bull.

No way. Yeah. It was like a baby fox? Yeah, both the same age. I think the fox was like eight weeks old, and my dog was like seven and a half weeks old. You raised it together. So I have a 100-pound pit bull that looks vicious.

He's sweet as sweet. You're like the calmest. And I have this fox and they're best friends. Shut up. And then now a fox like the fox is completely like tame even though never bit me ever never bit anybody what even though it's like that socialization is like the more aggressive you not even more aggressive you gotta think you know in the wild they're like at the bottom not the bottom of the food chain but they're like they get killed by cars right hawks you know, in the wild, they're like at the bottom, not the bottom of the food chain, but they're like, they get killed by cars, hawks, you know, if they're small enough, snakes eat them in

different places, cougars, you know, I mean, not jaguars, but coyotes, bobcats, they battle with all these animals' territory, you know, so in the wild, people are like, oh, a fox is aggressive. It's like, no, he's just defending himself, you know, he has a lot of problems out here, you know what I'm saying? So, but the cool thing is he was so young, and my dog was so young, they bonded together. So my dog loves me. The fox is like, okay, I can trust this guy. I love him too. Wow.

So my dog was—that's why I love pit bulls so much. I love pit bulls too. People just—they're so underrated. You know, people think they're so vicious, but they actually are the best dog. You know what I'm saying? Like, they live to please you. Gosh, I love it. People think they're so vicious, but they actually are the best dog. You know what I'm saying? They live to please you. Gosh, I love this. And whatever you do and whatever you tell them to do, whatever you teach them, they're going to do it. Wow. You know what I'm saying? So I just teach love, kindness, happiness, patience with this giant dog. He has love,

kindness, and patience with everything and everybody, even a fox and a lizard and a baby monkey that he can easily eat in one bite. He just he loves it No way. Yeah, I got you know, he's a hundred. He's I brought him to the vet He was like 88 and like 90 pounds. He's only like eight months old. Oh my gosh So I got puppies like 15 pound Puppy pit bulls, you know, I got his heart. I'm like this is gonna be I gotta watch him, you know Is he calling? He's just the best big brother ever. Wow.

See how monkeys, the monkey play with the dog and the fox? Fox doesn't eat the monkey? No. Well, the fox doesn't go next to the monkey. There's just certain things you can put together. And if I grew them up from babies, of course, but I can't. Otherwise, that would kill them probably. Yeah, you know?

And then you don't want to stress the animals out by trying to, they're not supposed to be together anyway. Sometimes it happens just naturally. I know I have a friend that has, the dog just passed away like a couple months ago. But for 10 years, this guy raised a St. Bernard with an adult male lion. No.

I got video and picture. It started as a baby lion? They both started together. And then they would just like lay with each other and hang out? Best of friends. This 600-pound adult lion has a little 60-pound St. Bernard. That's a best friend. And actually, the St. Bernard was older, like by a few weeks,

so he was more dominant than the lion. No way. I swear. They would get in fights, and the St. Bernard would win every time. What? He would back down. You know, it was his brother. Oh, my gosh.

Even though he was bigger? That's crazy, man. Yep. And I remember my friend was telling me, because they were so close for 10 years together, you know, that's like literally every single day of his life, he had this dog. Sad. You know, so. How long does a lion live for?

A lion can live like 20, 30 years, you know, so, I mean, in a while they don't last long, but it's been lions in captivity that's lasted about 20 years, and of course more. So what other animals do you have? You got fox, you got dogs. I got an Arabian dwarf mountain goat that just rescued from like a little cattle farm where they're going to eat them, so I got him, and he's like actually the best pet I have. gonna eat him. So I got him and he's like actually the best pet I have. He's the best. Why? He's recently, he's new to the family. He's just so, you never think a goat would be just so loving and you'd think dogs were affectionate. This goat wasn't leaving my side. No way, dude. Dude, he's the cutest. He's like this big. What? Yeah. Baby goat? Baby goat. You know, he drinks whole

milk. I'm feeding him, giving him some milk because he's still a baby. He's only four weeks old. Oh, wow. You know, and he has just the best personality ever, dude. He has, like, these little horns that are growing in it because he's a baby. You know, he just headbutts you a little bit. He's just the cutest thing. He's going to grow big, though, huh? No, he'll be small.

He'll be, like, 15 inches high. Okay, so you get goat. What else you got? I got a slew of snakes and lizards. I just had a bunch of spiders in recently and scorpions. Tarantulas. Yeah. I saw a video of you holding a bunch of scorpions and letting them pinch you or something.

It's like, aren't they venomous or what? Some people don't know, man. I feel like I want to hold those snakes. Yeah, they're homeless. What? Not all scorpions, but that species. And that's where I go back to with the snake stuff. They're just all, they're like, they're harmless. What? Not all scorpions, but that species. That species. And that's where I go back to with the snake stuff, you know.

When I finally figured out that there were so many different species of snakes. Some had different characteristics and personalities. Some were super aggressive. Some were super chill. Same with scorpions, you know. You think of scorpion like, oh man, this thing's going to pinch me and kill me with venom. But there's like thousands of scorpions and every one is different.

Different. So the ones you have aren't venomous or what? They have small venom, but it's like a bee sting to you. So a human. It still hurts. It's pulled into like a cricket or a, you know. It still hurts. It still hurts for sure, yeah.

But versus something that can sting you and kill you and be dead in an hour versus something that's like, oh, that just hurt a little bit, you know. So that's the gradual scale. How many times have you been, like, bitten or stung or? I'll show you. My scars have scars and scars. Oh, my gosh, man. This is one of my favorite things to do.

People always ask me, so I take my scars of pride. So you see those scars there? Yeah. There. What are those from? of pride so you see those scars there yeah there what are those from just random bites and scratches scratch there all up on my wrist up here oh my gosh there here probably your fingers fingers a little anything that's like discoloration oh my god it's just like old scars scratch there yeah up there so what are the types of animals that have bit you or scratched

you or everything you? Everything. Really? Yeah. But it's like, I don't talk about it on a show because it's not like, it's everyday life. It happens. You know, it's like 95% of the time it's just an accident. Have you ever been like scared for your life? Like, oh, I'm in a bad situation.

This is not. Plenty of times. Give me a couple moments. Like when? I don't like sharing those moments with people. I guess animals are bad. Yeah, sure. There's enough. But you're also doing way more than most people would do.

Yeah. And putting yourself out there. I think one day I have a lot of stuff documented. I'll go through and share some cool near-death experiences. Really? Or accidents. Can you share one? What was, like, one incident that you were like, oh, this was, maybe nothing happened bad, but it was like, oh, this could have been a bad situation.

I went to the Bahamas. I swam with sharks for the first time. Oh, my gosh. And I'm the type of guy, I'm like, literally, I'm either all in or I should have been there in the first place. And if I'm there, it's happening. So I went on this boat in the Bahamas about a year ago. And I never swam with my sharks before my first time so you know of course you see the shark week on tv you see jaws

and you see all this crazy stuff but i know like i'm an animal guy so i have to accept you've got to do it everything yeah you know what i'm saying even if i'm not educated on i have to educate myself on it wow you know and learn and embrace it. Even if I don't like it or want to do it, I have to do it because it's my job. I can swim like a fish. I love marine. I have sharks and turtles tattooed on my leg. Wow.

But, dude, I got underwater, and I never had a scuba tank before. So the dude was like, you can't come. You can only free dive. And I'm like, dude, I want to go deep, and I want to see these sharks bro like stop playing with me so he went underwater with the tank and he uh he had this bigger nurse shark and he went under there and then um i think some black tip reef sharks were swimming by which are a little more aggressive shark the nurse sharks are like kind of like, pussies. So I wasn't worried at all.

He said, there's reef sharks coming. I'm like, yeah, it's going to be gangster. So I wasn't worried about the sharks. It was more so of the breathing apparatus. I'm on a scuba tank. So you go 15, 20 feet underwater, and I'm walking on the ocean floor. And there's sharks swimming, there's stingrays, and there's fish. And I'm having a lucid experience, you know, walking on the ocean floor.

You have to take a class to get certified to do stuff like this. I never did it. So I was breathing, but I got kind of a little excited. Yeah, yeah. I breathe in water, you know, and I'm underwater with a scuba tank that I have no clue about what to do. You know, do I swim to the top and catch my breath? Do I? So I swallowed the water and started trying to breathe in the water.

No. It was the freakiest thing, bro. Like. Salt water. Yeah. You know, and the sharks were around, so I can't like panic and like, you know, I don't want to freak out. So it's literally like I could feel my eyes tightening up and just weird experience, bro.

So not from an animal. You got almost near death. It was from just like not being educated enough. I think a situation like that is where accidents happen with the animals, you know. Because they can feel the fear more than anything. They can feel the fear. After I start freaking out, the sharks are like, okay, is this something hurt? Is it time to eat?

You know what I'm saying? So I start freaking out, someone's at the top. I'm bringing attention to myself rather than being something that's just natural. Moments like those, you got to compose yourself. Who could fucking compose themselves underwater when you're swallowing water 15, 20 feet on the ocean floor with someone holding on to you with a tube in your mouth that you have no clue about just telling you to breathe? These guys are licensed divers, and I'me schnoe that made him bring me down right you know so you have a split second you're like dude this is a bad idea and then you're like all right fuck it i'm here all right you talk about fear you say that fear is a generational

habit that can be broken how'd you decide that it's more so of like uh i've seen it with animals people were oh my, snakes are horrible. My grandma says, not my grandma, but people say, you see a snake, a good snake's a dead snake. You know, so you have all these people that are for years and years and years just passed down fear, passed down fear. Spiders, snakes, whatever. Spiders, snakes. My grandma's the same way. She doesn't like to drive on the highway. And I'm just like, dude, you drive on the street, you're just going 10 miles an hour faster.

Yeah. You know, what are you scared of? It's a psychological thing. But her mother didn't drive that much, you know. And then her sister didn't drive that much. So they passed down the fear of driving on the highway. And it's like, dude, you're not giving me that shit. I don't want no fear that you guys got over there.

Yeah. But it's like once you get past a fear, it's such a great feeling. It's like the best thing you've never had. Freedom. Freedom. And that's what I apply to everything. A podcast, you're scared to talk in front of the camera. Never did it before, but fuck it, we're here. Make it magic, baby. Make it magic. Why do you think it's important for people to see someone who looks like you doing something that's unexpected? Because most of the Steve Irwins of the world, the zookeepers of the world are all white. All white people, yeah. You never see a black person.

Exactly. Like wrangling animals and hanging out with snakes. I got more so the confidence from my family, my white side of my family. I have a Cape Verdean background, so Portuguese and black. And then my grandma is like Russian and Polish and some other crazy stuff. So you see this black family, and then my great-grandmother, there's like blonde hair and blue eyes. Really? Yeah, like the soul of my family. You know what I'm saying? So when I saw those growing up, I'd never seen like black and white. Of course, I knew the difference between people, but my family, just as much as my mom and dad, because I grew up with them,

they were the same bloodline as me. So when I saw that animal space and I noticed it when I was like 14 or 15, there was not a single black person that ever did anything that I wanted to do. I'm like, dude, I can use that as my advantage. Wow. You know? And it's also an inspiration because I inspire everybody. I don't care if you're

black, white, Spanish, Asian. I got literally love for everybody, every religion. You know, I don't care what you believe in. I still love you. You know, we're just, I just spread nothing but love and positivity and peace to everybody, you know, and I feel like that's what wins. You know, I feel like people like, oh, I can't hang out with this person because they're Jewish or they're Muslim. Dude, I don't care, bro. I want to learn. Teach me your language, you know. Teach me your culture. I want to.

Let's be friends. I hate barriers with anything, you know. I just love to be free. Like animals, you know. Just be free. Did you play sports growing up, too? Yeah. It was like an athlete.

Yeah. Played football. I actually hated sports my entire life. But my whole family's full of athletes and i was the only weird one because i liked animals you know so you got my brothers and cousins that's my dad was a mcdonald's all-american in high school wow and my older stepbrother went to the league nba played for the mavericks i got a slew of like athletes and then you just got old animal boy over here. Yeah.

You know, so they're like, dude, why are you not playing this? Why are you not playing that? Why are you not doing this? I'm like, bro, leave me alone. So after years of saying no, I finally said yeah. I started playing football, started wrestling, playing basketball. Really? Yeah, and I got pretty good at it. Because I got addicted to the progress and the process.

Yeah. You played high school? Did you go to college, too? Yeah, I played one year of college. Where'd you go? I played slot receiver at Georgia Military College and Atlanta Sports Academy. All right. Pretty cool.

Nice, man. I played wide receiver, too. Nice. I played in the Arena League for about a year and a half. How was it? It was tough, man. Arena's different, though. It's different, man.

It's indoors. You know, you got walls. Yeah. So I broke my wrist diving into a wall trying to catch a football. It's just like the roughest sport. I mean, it's the guys who are pissed that they didn't make the NFL or they dropped from the NFL and they're trying to get back up

and it's just like, I'm going to kill you. And I'm going to work my way back up there. It's crazy. It's a crazy thing like that. It's so tough, man. It's like wild football. I love competition, though. I love it, man. On an athletic level man it's like wow i love competition though i love it on an athletic level yeah it's like something that i crave like i crave it man dude i can't miss it i can't lose you know like yeah i can't i hate losing too dude i i hate losing more than i love winning

yeah i was the worst loser for many years i would like been so upset for hours days that i lost even like the simplest little competition, ping pong, basketball, didn't matter what it was. But now I've learned like that anger,

if I hold on to it, or frustration doesn't serve humanity. Nope. It doesn't lift people up. It doesn't support me or the people around me. So I've learned

how to take a loss as a learning experience quickly and just reapply the education from that loss into, okay, how can I be better? Exactly. And people should think like that, man, you know. You win and you learn.

You don't win and lose. That's it. You learn how to win. That's it. You know, you figure out what you messed up. Learn how to get better, yeah. Tweak down my stick and you go at it again. You keep going at it until you win.

That's the way of life. That's what people need to understand. Yeah. You don't lose. And when people lose and they say, okay, I lost, I'm done. And then you go, you're losing something else and you're done with that. And then you lose something else. You create a cycle of yourself of just fucking quitting, you know? And when you finally figure out why you want to win and where you're winning at, you can apply that in your spiritual life, your mental life, your finance

life, you know, your relationship, everything. It's just straight winning. Yeah. So did you start working? When was the first job that you had where you got paid working with animals? First job. How old were you? I was 17 years old.

Was it a store? Is that what you were working at there? Not this one, but in Atlanta, I got a job at this place called Petland. It's a regular mom and pop shop that sold dog food and dogs and cats and birds. Little mice. Little mice with snakes and goldfish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like three or four snakes and just a regular pet store. Dude,

I got in there and I felt like a million bucks. Really? They actually didn't hire me at first. You're just working for free? Yeah. They were like, why is this kid here every day? You know, like, I want a job. But, you know, at the time I had long dreadlocks, I had tattoos. It was the first time out of college. Well, going into college and stuff.

Yeah. So, you know, I was like, what is this black guy with tattoos and dreadlocks? It's not my animals. And I'm like. You probably taught them a lot, didn't you? Dude, I learned a lot. You did, didn't you? Yeah.

I thought, you know, that's when I became a real open book. You know, I started helping customers and, you customers and just seeing the joy in people's faces. And I'm like, man, I want to be able to give them so much more. But I can't give anything more if I don't know more. So I would start, every time we would have animals come in, I would pick certain animals I never had before and I would study the fuck out of them. I would order stuff for their stuff in captivity, like their habitats and stuff. And then when someone came in and they were interested in that animal, I'm like, you want this?

Okay. You know everything about it now. Here's what you do. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And they're like, wow. But you can't get that service at Petco or PetSmart. They're like, go to aisle three. Or, yo, Billy, go back to fish farm.

If you get four drops of fish food, change the water once a week. Boom. Right, right. Unless they had someone who was there that was like you. I'm here giving you when they breed, how they breed, what they eat, why they eat, why you got to turn the light off, how many times you got to spray them. Wow. You know, like climate, hibernation, like everything. And they're just like, wow, that's so awesome.

And then that person goes home with this animal. They come back for a checkup. They come back. They get crickets. They buy new light bulbs. You ask them, how's your animal doing? that's so awesome. And then that person goes home with this animal. They come back for a check-in. They come back. They get crickets. They buy new light bulbs. You ask them, how's your animal doing? He's doing great. And then seven months later, oh, I got another one.

And then you talk to him. You don't talk to him for three years. And then you find out on Facebook that they have the biggest reptile collection in Wisconsin or some shit. You're like, holy shit, dude. It's awesome to be able to give something that I love to someone else and they love it too. It's just a beautiful thing.

It's amazing. What about the people who say, well, we shouldn't be buying animals or having animals in our home or in our backyard. We should let them be wild. They're wild animals. Why do we have them in captive? What do you say to people like that?

I agree to a certain extent. Animals, of course, should be in the wild. But you say to people like that? I agree to a certain extent. Animals, of course, should be in the wild, but you got to think sometimes in the wild, they don't have homes because of us. And a lot of people forget that concept. And then another thing is if people don't have animals here, you lose touch with them. You lose touch with nature. You become oblivious to the problems that's happening in the wild. You kind of don't care. You know, versus if dogs are being slaughtered in China. You know what I'm saying?

If you've never had a dog in your life, if the whole United States never had a dog, you're like, who cares? Yeah. You know? Because you're not connected to it. Exactly. But being a dog lover, you know, like, oh, man, that hurts. Yeah.

It's home. What can I do to help? You just connected to it. Exactly. But being a dog lover, you know, like, oh, man, that hurts. Yeah. It's home. What can I do to help? You just think about it. You know, even if you're not doing something actively or physically, it puts that thought in your mind. So if I can put that thought in that mind of everybody, I'm not saying I encourage people to have animals in captivity. But in all reality, the reality of it is people will always have animals in captivity. You know, it's not a what if or why can't they. It's just they are. Humans are will always have animals in captivity you know it's not a what if or why can't they it's just they are humans are going to have animals in captivity so if they are going to have them it's the reality of it it's the realness of it we need to be able

to educate these people on why they have these animals and what can we do to better their lives in captivity because some people have animals in captivity that they breed them they help them and then they're released into the wild to help populations go. And then they're screwed because it's not set up the right way or they weren't educated. Exactly. Wow. What's the most endangered species right now in the world?

Do you know? The most endangered species? I know the most trafficked animals are pangolins. Rhinos are critically endangered. Elephants are hitting a rapid decrease. A lot of animals, especially in the African area, is getting hit hard. A lot of people are hunting, right? Hunting, you know, they're banned hunting.

So illegal poaching went up, and, you know, it's just horrible. And that goes back to having that heart for these animals. Connecting to it, yeah. So some people see these things like, it's been happening for like six years. Hey, wake up, guys. These animals are rapidly dying by the thousands. Like, you guys don't care? You're not seeing it?

What can I do to say, hey, yo, look at this. This is not right. This is happening. We got to fix it. So I like being that voice for the voiceless. That's good. You know, because these animals can't tell you, hey, man. I need help.

I need help. You know what I'm saying? Their numbers just keep decreasing and decreasing and decreasing. And by the time it hits the global news, when they want to pick it up, when there's 10 rhinos left, it's too late. You know? It's like where were you guys at four or five years ago when we had 10,000 left. From 100,000, that's even a drastic difference. But don't make f***ing headlines when there's 10 left.

It's too late. You don't want to wait until that brink of extinction to make a change. What has working with animals taught you about connecting with humans? Humans are crazy. I look at humans and like man you guys are dangerous me being around animals so much and seeing how they live and adapt you know and uh survive and eat and breed and just everything about animals i'm so obsessed with it then i look at the human species and i'm like we are fucking dangerous we are animals bro

whether people want to believe it or not we are animals yeah there's a lot of good people out there a lot of good people but you know you look at the globe and i remember i think it was in fourth or fifth grade i remember looking at the world population it's like three billion or something like that you know now i'm 20 25 it's like seven billion it's like man billion or something like that. You know, now I'm 25. It's like 7 billion. It's like, man, we're growing. Fast. Fast. Like a lot.

Imagine another 25 years from now, there's 14 billion people. Where are we going to go? Yeah. We go in this animal's land. You know, we go up, you know? Frick. So I just, I don't like humans. Not like humans, but you know, like. In general.

I'm an animal guy, so I spend my whole life with animals. I've been kind of anti-social my whole life, you know, so social media has bought out the social side of me, you know. To connect with people. Yeah, exactly. And it's cool. It's definitely like. You started to like humans more, a little bit? Yeah, a little bit. Certain humans? Yeah, I little bit. Certain humans? Yeah, I started off with children first.

I worked in the school district for about six years in Miami and Broward. So I got to educate the children on animals and the relationship with the kids and the animals. It was such a dope feeling and experience, you know. Where were you working at the time? Yeah. Where was that you were working? South Florida. So I had a job at a reptile store called Underground Reptiles.

I worked at a zoo called Zoological Wildlife Foundation. In Miami? Yep, in Miami. So you worked at a zoo for how long? About a year. About a year and a half. You were working with the kids at the zoo? Yeah, well, I was working with the kids on like every aspect.

I had my own small iguana business. I was rescuing iguanas. Yeah, I did educational shows and events. I did my regular management workuana business. I was rescuing iguanas. Really? Yeah. I did educational shows and events. I did my regular management work at the reptile store, building cages, helping customers, picking up shipments, the whole shebang. I worked seven days a week for like three years straight, not a day off. Of course, when I went on vacation or something, but dude, I'm so involved in my niche of work, from children to rescuing

iguanas to working with monkeys at a zoo and learning as a young zookeeper, working at my old job, answering the phone, going out feeding 700 lizards outside in the hot blazing sun and coming inside and pulling eggs and checking incubator temperatures and dotting down data. and checking incubator temperatures and dotting down data. Wow. Just all stuff that I love to do. So when I can generate 100 hours a week, seven days a week, working for somebody else,

and when I finally birthed my whole Tarzan project, I was able to put all those hours for somebody else into my own craft. And it's just been an amazing thing. So the Tarzan project, is that what you're working on now? Yeah. Is that the brand, the business? When did you start that? We started Tar thing. So the Tarzan project, is that what you're working on now? Yeah. Is that the brand, the business? When did you start that? We started Tarzan. The real Tarzan?

Ten months ago. And so you just started it. This is your brand, your company. What is it? What's the mission? So Tarzan. Besides all the crazy videos that I see. It's more so of me being a mirror.

I'm a walking mirror. This is my motto to the world. People want to ask me what I do, why I do what I do. My business, whether it's Tarzan or King of the Jungle or just my cousin, the name doesn't matter. I want people to see me and my brand and whatever I do as themselves. I want them to look at me and look directly back at themselves. Because I come from nothing. I'm just a regular street hood kid from the smallest state in the United States. If I can do it, you can do it. That's my motto. So people see Tarzan and I want people to see themselves

in their arts and crafts or they want to open up a wine business or they want to be a chiropractor. I want you guys to put that same effort that you see me do into your stuff because I believe in you because I come from nothing and I want to see you make it. So that's what my Tarzan project is. Of course, educating people with animals, et cetera, et cetera. But the whole project's way bigger than just myself. It's about the people, you know, and inspired, encouraging people to be bold. It was first, I am Tarzan. And then because I was wanting to be Tarzan as a kid, so I never stopped thinking about being Tarzan.

Now that I'm Tarzan, it's like, okay. Everybody's like, oh, Tarzan's so cool. It's like, no, you're cool. Go do your own shit. That's just, I want to be able to inspire these people from a real level. And I feel like I can touch people because I'm young, 24-year-old millennial kid that lived in South Beach that still parties, listens to rap music,

does all this stuff, but I'm just so focused on my dreams and goals that can't shit break me. So I want to be able to reiterate that to the younger people, the younger generation, the people in middle school, people in high school now, and college now, people that are struggling now already have degrees. I want to be able to get them that motivation,

like look bro, bro, go out there and get that shit. Don't take no for an answer. Don't take no L's. You just win and you learn. That's what Tarzan's about. That's Tarzan as a project. It's just basically being a giant mirror of yourself. I like that, man.

What's the business model for you? Is it events? Is it curating? I want to educate on the highest platform. Of course, Instagram has gave me such an exposure, and I'm very grateful for it. Was Will Smith the one who kind of launched it into more heights? Were you building it on your own? Yeah. I still, to this day, I'm hustling hard on it.

It feels good to be able to work and work and work and work, and then one day you get an email from Will Smith's company and I thought it was spam. What did it say? It just said, hey, we're from Will Smith's team. We love what you do. Will's a big fan of your work and we want to do a collaboration. And then I'm like,

yeah, right. Okay. So of course I replied to the email and I said, absolutely, I would love to work with you guys. But I had to thought, you know, that thought in the back of my head, like, it's never going to happen. It's Will Smith, bro. You know, like, who has just Will Smith emailing them? Yeah, exactly.

It just doesn't make sense, you know. So I had that hope. But then again, I was like, this is not real. A few weeks passed. And actually, I didn't forget about it. But I kind of, like like just kept moving you know and I ended up coming out here with one of my friends Austin and I was I got on a plane at like one o'clock from Miami east coast time I had 1.2 million followers when I got on the plane pretty

big on your own in like 10 months yeah it was insane dude so I got on a plane. Pretty big on your own in like 10 months doing that on your own, right? It was insane, dude. So I got on the plane. I remember making a post on Instagram saying, thank you all for supporting me. We just hit 1.2 million followers. I love you all. I can't wait to continue to see what's next. So I get on the plane. I take off.

And I usually always buy Wi-Fi when I'm on the plane so I can keep working, answer emails, reply to text messages and DMs. I'm like, you knowFi when I'm on the planes. I can keep working, answer emails, reply to text messages and DMs. I'm like, you know what? If I'm working hard, I'm just going to rest on this flight. A few hours of chill. I'm going to take a few hours of chill, go to sleep, and then I'll start fresh when I land. Because when I land, I'm back working again. And dude, I land it.

And I turn my phone on. I'm like, yo, why is my phone like blowing up? It's not even blowing up yet. It's like freezing., why is my phone like blowing out? It's not even blowing up yet. It's like freezing, you know? So I open my phone and it's just, uh, so I pick my phone up and like, you're at 1.2 million when you took off. I'm like, dude, why is my phone not working? You know? And then I put it in my pocket. I go get my luggage. I feel my phone go like, so I open my phone, bro. I have like 200 text messages. Like, yo, we'll just post you. Like, literally everybody I ever had, like, in my contacts texted me. Like, oh, my God.

I haven't talked to you for years yet. I got a text message. You know what I'm saying? So I was like, no way. So I go to my Instagram. I got 1.8 million followers. Oh, my gosh. Within like three, four, five, an L.A. flight from the East Coast to the West coast. I went from 1.2 to 1.8, just like that. One post. One post. And it kept going. And

you never met him. You never met him yet. I didn't meet him yet. No, I never talked to him on the phone. You didn't know that he was going to post you? No, they didn't see the video or anything. Because he just reshared a video, right? No, no, no. He made his own like compilation, like highlight reel of me. Of you. Yeah. and then he was like, this is Mike Holston, the real Tarzan. He's incredibly, like Will Smith talking, saying this stuff. In my mind, I started crying when it happened. I didn't tell no one that before. It was the first time people were hearing that. I cried too.

Dude, I sat there and I literally started crying. How did it make you feel to know that you really cared about your mission, your message, your. For so long, bro, you know, I've been working on my Tarzan since a little kid. You know, I had this vision of being Tarzan. And I got plenty of doubts from my family, from friends. Everybody like, yo, don't do that. Don't work animals. There's no money in it.

There's no this. There's no that. I've heard it all. It was cool to be able to have someone that I looked up to, like Will Smith, like, yo, I support you. I love what you're doing. And that meant a lot to me because I put so much blood, sweat, and tears into my little small craft to have someone at such a high level. And not even from being Will Smith, I was at a dark place, not a dark place, but I was depressed and lonely for a long time in my life. And Eric Thomas and Will Smith, I was at a dark place. Not a dark place, but I was depressed and lonely for a certain, like a long time in my life. And Eric Thomas and Will Smith, I watched their videos

on YouTube. I cut all music out of my life for like two years. And I listened to straight motivational podcasts and speeches. And it basically cleansed me. And Will Smith, Eric Thomas, CT Fletcher, this guy named Bradley Martin, I went through this whole fitness phase and working hard on my craft. That's when I developed working 100 hours a week. That's when I birthed all that stuff. So to stay focused, I didn't go out to the club. I didn't hang out with chicks.

I didn't do nothing but work out, go to the gym, listen to those guys, Will Smith. So when that time hit, it brought back everything. As soon as I heard his voice, like, this is Mike Holston, the real Tarzan, dude, it's just like, came like a ton of bricks, you know, of happiness. Yeah. And I'm like, holy shit, dude, like, this is really happening. Because, you know, seeing these followers, it's cool, you know, they're just numbers,

you're people that are interested in what you do, but it goes to a whole other stratosphere when you have people of that caliber, like, okay, this guy's dope. And they publicly go do that. You know, these guys are busy. They don't have to do that. They don't have to do that. They have millions of dollars.

You know, they have so many projects at work. They have families. What are you worried about a little Tarzan for? The same thing with Pete Diddy. You know, Diddy's a big part of my life. You know, and it's like, it's so cool. Diddy, you know, did he's a big part of my life, you know, and it's like it's so cool Did he find you after Will Smith that he reached out and all these people start reaching out after that? I'm not sure the process of how he found out about me

But I remember seeing them and he's like we got to connect I was hanging out with his children already You were his kids. Yeah for Will Smith was yeah Yeah, I would see his kids every now and then when I went out to go network and stuff. And show them animals and snakes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I saw him here in L.A. at the same exact time that Will Smith posted me. I was in L.A. I went to a day party.

Had no clue Diddy was going to be there. Diddy's there. You know, he's like, hey, what's up, Tarzan? I'm like, how the fuck does P. Diddy know who I am? You know? He's like, hey, we got to talk some business, man. I love what you do. We'll chop it up one day.

Wow. P. Diddy. Billionaire. Ciroc. Bad boy. Sean John. You're just hanging out with snakes. Just crazy.

You know? And it's all history from there. This was what? Like a couple months ago or something? Dude, like two months ago, three months ago. So what has happened in your life since then? Like what are the business opportunities? Post Will Smith. Yeah. Everything like. Ch yeah everything like changed changed what's been happening nothing changed for

me as far as like you're still doing the same thing with stuff behind the scenes that i'm working on it's just what can you share what's changed who are the people that have reached out to you since then that you've connected i had a tv show come in 2019 that's all i'm gonna say all right my man you know like. So I can't say where. I can't say when. Just know you're going to see this pretty good bright smile with a bunch of animals. I like it, man. Coming soon.

And I guess going back to saying, you know, once you get here, you got to keep going. You know, of course, I can say, oh, I got a TV show. I made it. Fuck everybody. I'm done. You know, but the real me is like, dude, this is it. This is where you really go hard. This is where you really go hard. This is where you really block everything out.

And you really focus. You really start studying. You really learn different languages. You really start mastering your physical aspects of just everything. So this is scary. Scary, but also good. People think like, yo, this guy, you have no clue what I'm about to tap into. They thought Eric Thomas and Will Smith did something to me years ago that made this.

Wait till now. You know, like. I like it, man. It's fun, man. What has kept you motivated to pursue this dream even when the money hasn't been there or it's not this profitable? I've been broke this whole year. Until now? A rich at heart. Rich Until now. Rich at heart.

Rich at heart. Rich at heart. There's nothing. I've been homeless. I've struggled. I've lost everything. I've lost animals. I've lost people.

Yeah. You know, so when little stuff happens in my life, little problems, it doesn't bother me. Because I know I can overcome it. It's more so a mental thing. And I lost my dad when I was 14. So that's probably my main focal point of why I drive hard every day because me and my dad was real close. So when I lost my dad, I lost love. I didn't love nobody. I didn't love anything. That's when I told you I was in that dark place from 14 to about a few years ago. And dude, it's just, I had to transition that anger and that hurt and that pain into something positive. So once I made that, it took a while. It's still hard for me to

this day, you know, but I made that small turn and dude, it just like, I don't know where it comes from. It's like, you know, I pray a lot. I ask God for strength and guidance and motivation, you know, and open doors and close doors, give me signs. So whatever happens in my life, I just flow with it, you know. I'm always, always working. Wow. And I made a promise to myself and God after I was homeless before. I said I would never go hungry again.

I would never go homeless again. And I heard something inside of me. It's as long as you work hard, you'll never go without food, and you'll never go without shelter. So I've spent that day busting my fucking ass every day. And I've never been homeless. And I've been hungry sometimes, but it ain't to the point where like, you know. Intermittent fasting.

Yeah. Just call it that. It's okay. I can take a day off. It's all right. Exactly. What's the greatest lesson your dad taught you? If you're going to do it, do it. Yeah, yeah. It's okay. I can take a day off. Sorry.

Yeah, exactly. What's the greatest lesson your dad taught you? If you're going to do it, do it. And what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. That's one thing he always told me growing up. And I didn't know what it meant until I needed to know what it meant. And that was actually one of the first tattoos I got across my chest. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

So when he was killed it broke me but it made me unbreakable in the same sense because i loved him so much you know he was a hero you have a dad right you know so your dad's like bro it's like dad what kid what does he want his dad love your dad so when i was taken away from me, everything was gone. My love for animals, my love for people. I didn't love my own family. Really? So what brought me back to reality was the animals, which just saved me because I was depressed.

I was lonely. I didn't have anybody to come to. So once I got back with these animals, I started praying a lot. Dude, I felt love again. I felt myself come back. And that's why I go so hard for the animals, because animals is what saved my life. Wow. Without even knowing.

I knew they'd bring me happiness my whole life. But when I was in my darkest place in my life, I didn't care I loved myself or anybody. They loved me. Wow. They brung it out of me. And I'm like, dude. And they needed you. Yeah.

You know, just as much as I needed them. Yeah. You know, so, like, it's cool to be able to, people don't know the real story of my life because nobody knows me. They just know Tarzan and cool videos and apes and lions and snakes and stuff. But this whole animal stuff is what keeps me going every day. It keeps me happy. I don't know anything else to do. what keeps me going every day. It's what keeps me happy. I don't know anything else to do.

You know, I have small hobbies, but every day, every second of my day, every thought is around animals because that's what keeps Mike happy. That's what changed my life. So when I get to this point in life where these animals have brung me, it's like I got to do everything in my power for them. So that's why I go so hard on the education. It's not even from a vast aspect of education. It's understanding. People just want to be understood. So do animals. They just want to be understood.

I don't care to be understood because I let the work speak for itself, you know. I don't like talking much. That's why I've never done, like, any podcasts or interviews. It's just I've always had dreams my whole life to do stuff. And every time I told people, it was like, oh, dude, that doesn't sound good. So I was like, okay, how about I f***ing show you? And then you give me your answer afterwards.

That's good. It's cool to be able to just do it. I love it, man. I love it. What about the biggest lesson your mom taught you? Biggest lesson my mom taught me. My mom is a hell of a woman. Strong.

Strong as shit. And my mom taught me without knowing she taught me was it's okay to leave and do your own thing. My mom comes from the same hood my family comes from, but she was the first one to leave. When everything was bad in my neighborhood, my family, she was the first one to leave Rhode Island to Atlanta to give us a new life. She had nothing. She just went with her gut feeling. She knew an opportunity was going to make something out of it. She brung two of her kids and herself with like 100 bucks in her pocket and we drove 18 hours from Rhode Island, packed all our stuff up and went down to Atlanta. Never looked back, but it was the best thing she could have did for us. Because if we stayed home, we wouldn't have made it. I'd have been dead

easily. All the kids I grew up with, all my friends, went to the Boys and Girls Club, played football with, went to elementary and middle school with, they're all dead. Every last one of them. That's why I take this stuff so serious, because like, I ain't supposed to be here. You know?

And it kind of makes me emotional now. But it's a good thing, because I like to inspire people to show them the realness of it. Like, I lost a lot, but I gained a lot because I get to show them there's life outside of whatever you go through. You can always make it. So I like to show people that strength you can have without knowing you have it. I was seeing my mom. She had the strength to leave, but she my mom, she had the strength to leave,

but she didn't know she gave me strength to leave. So when I left Atlanta to go to Miami to live with my dreams, it made it. It gave me that strength to go. I was like, okay, if mom can do it, I can do it. Wow. And the same thing with that fear. It's so generational. It just keeps going.

But then you look at it. My grandmother, my mama's mom, back in the day, left from Rhode Island and moved to California. No friends, no family, no nothing. With all her kids, my aunts and my mom. And so my mom got that from her. Then I got that from my mom. Wow. You look at that effect in life and it's like,

holy shit. It's crazy. I take all this shit real deep and serious. You know, I get, I have a lot of fun on social media, but there's like, there's so much behind it that there's so much in the, in the gas tank and the engine that keeps this going. And it's lovely. Yeah, man. Thanks for sharing that. Definitely. Sorry for getting all choked up. It's all good, man. That's what we do here. We get real here. Real time, Zan. Real life, you know.

What message would you have to young kids who grew up like you, who maybe are afraid to adventure out and try new things, whether it's being with animals or just trying new things in general? Pray. Pray for strength. Pray for guidance. And believe in yourself. Everybody doubted me. I never doubted myself. How did you believe in yourself when everyone doubted you? How do you believe when you don't have that belief? It's hard to explain. It's more so of, that's where I feel like praying comes into play at. And again, this is going to, I don't care

what religion you are. I love everybody. So I give this advice to people. If you believe in Buddha or you're a Christian, you're whatever you are, I don't care. I still love you. So what I'm going to say is to apply to your life is pure faith. You believe in the higher power,

you should believe in yourself. If you can pray and see stuff and want to achieve stuff and you're going to work hard towards it, whoever you pray to is going to help you. You're going to help yourself. You're going to have enough strength and motivation to keep going. So when the world tells you no, whatever you read in the Bible, whatever you're doing in your life, God is going to give you signs that you're going to see. And only things you're going to see is what you prayed about. So when I pray and ask God for signs and he puts signs in my life, I'm like, okay. Here we go.

Here we go. I always ask him to open and close doors in my life. So when he closes doors, sometimes I'm like, fuck, I wanted that door to be open. Then it's like I prayed for it. And a year later, I realize I'm like, oh. That's why. That's why. Totally get it.

It hurts sometimes to close doors. Yeah, bro, it does. But God always got a better door open for you. So just have faith in yourself. Work hard. And I'm telling you, you can become a very scary individual. In a good way. In a good way. In a good way.

I like that. You love animals so much. Do you eat meat? Yeah. This is a great conversation. I've been dying to have this conversation. So my mom's a vegan. I have lots of vegan friends.

I eat meat, but I also believe in being more plant-based. Yeah. The more conscious-minded I become, it's like thinking about where the meat comes from and everything like that. So why do you eat meat if you love animals that much? Well, I grew up on meat. And, of course, now, like I say, I get educated in things. Of course, with all the great publicity I'm getting with animals, people are asking, why do you eat meat still? But then again, I'm real about it.

So, of course, you have—and again, I don't mean to offend anybody what i'm going to say but i got these vegans and not all vegans they kind of attack oh yeah certain people you know like you need to do this and this you know it's like that's not how you approach situations for one so the main come from a loving place yeah the main reason I'm not a vegan is because of the people. I've been bullied a lot my whole life. I got kind of like PTSD on that shit. I don't know if that's the right terminology for it. But like when I feel like people are-

Attacking. Attacking me, I get on a kind of a whole different person. It's just naturally how I am. Like a snake. Yeah. Takes you to the side, it's going to bite you. You want to fucking fight? Let's fight.

You know? person it's just naturally like a snake yeah it's gonna bite you you want to fucking fight let's fight you know so it's wrong for me to do i'm learning to have educational conversations without being on the defense you know i have this cool conversation with a lot of vegans it's been working pretty cool what is it you know and it's like they asked me about you know the animals why you meet i'm like you, you can't really. I don't waste food. Every time I eat food, I have food in front of me and I eat it. That's how I was raised. I don't waste anything. I'm going to try to go vegan next year.

Really? I'm going to still eat meat, but I'm going to hunt for it myself. Really? So I'm going to work for my food. That's what Zuckerberg did. Yeah. I think it's awesome. But for the vegan community, you have to be a little less harsh at your words and try to educate a little more in maybe a different way. The same route I took with animal education.

So much you can do for so long until you're going to switch shit up. You can't shove it down people's throats. Exactly. You've got to entertain and educate and make it fun and do it a different way. Yes, of course, I don't agree with animals that's killed or slaughtered inhumanely

for, you know, food consumption. But we are all animals. We're on the food chain. We have canines in our teeth. That's not for eating plants. Of course, you can eat meat.

What do they say about, like, well, a gorilla eats vegetables, right? Just like... Yeah, a lion just eats meat. You know, it's the same thing. It goes hand in hand. We, a gorilla eats vegetables, right? Yeah, a lion just eats meat. It's the same thing. It goes hand in hand.

Gorillas got canines, right? Yeah, gorillas got canines. But it doesn't eat meat, right? But they have more so of where they come from, too. Their DNA, how they're wired, is just different, some different animals. Of course, you couldn't switch and eat for a gorilla to eat meat 24-7. He'd die. Why is that?

He can't get the proper nutrients. His stomach can't hold it. He doesn't have certain acids to digest certain things. Versus a lion, I can't just feed lion kale and lettuce and plants all day. He'd die. He'd die. Really? He wouldn't get the proper nutrition.

Really? You know what I'm saying? Of course, you could probably blend up proteins and stuff like that and syringe feed them, but naturally, he just can't do it. But humans can't. Huh? We can survive on just plants. We can.

We can bounce back and forth. Going back to my original statement, they're like, oh, these animals, this and that. And I'm like, okay, you can't sit there and say that you're 100% for these animals because where do you live? We live in a house. Yeah. What are you wearing? What are you wearing?

You know, like. Makeup, the shoes. All that stuff plays into, you know, there's leather on your car. You know, like all that stuff plays into back into your vegan stuff. You know what I'm saying? until you're a vegan and stuff, you know what I'm saying? So you can't sit there and say, hey you, hey you, hey you, when you have a bunch of hey you's behind you in your life. In order for us to be one, be able to spread your message,

because it's not just for me, a lot of people don't like the way they approach people. And I'm pretty sure there's tons of people that can have educational, fun conversations about their way of life, and it needs to be done in a better way, of course. But just for me, it's like I'm going to try it for my own benefits, you know, of hunting for my own food. I like challenges, you know.

If I want to buy food, I'm going to buy only fruits and veggies. But I'm going to go fishing. I like to fish, you know, so I'm going to go fishing. I'll go hunt. If I want to eat, I'm going to go hunt. All next year, that's my motto. Just a lot of time and energy. Hey, if I want to, I got to do it. That's true. If you want to eat, I'm going to go hunt it. All next year, that's my motto. Just a lot of time and energy. Hey, if I want it, I got to do it.

That's true. You know? If you want to, at least to try it for a year. Yeah, I always take the approach of like, no matter what stance you have or what you're trying to like come at someone with, whether it's veganism or whatever, just how you show up in general. If you are trying to attack other people on one topic, you better have your whole life figured out on every other topic. You better be in integrity all the time, a good person. You better be in shape, all these other things.

Because then they can just come and attack you on something else. Exactly. Learn to educate and connect with people on something you're passionate about, but don't make them wrong. Yeah. So when they come at me, I just say, I love you. Yeah. I don't want to argue. I love you.

We're on the same team. Have a good day. That's day that's a good response is it yeah it's a good response you know people always want to fight but why would you fight your teammate if you love animals and i love animals i'm not educating and you're out here educating leave me alone yeah we can have educational conversations but it's negative i love you have a good day what's a couple questions left for you i'm curious what's the best animal to rescue or have that is not like the normal domestic animals the cats the dogs the i don't know what to rescue rabbits i don't know if there was like an exotic animal that you wanted to have whether it's a fox or monkey or you know iguanas why is that the best iguanas are so such dope creatures dude oh man like so you catch a lot

of them too i saw a video of you catching like 30 in a night or something i was like this guy's crazy it's like 300 in the night crazy man yeah it's like nuts they're all over miami yeah it's like it's they're invasive species in miami i've had i haven't i've had iguanas my whole life growing up so i've already had a natural love for them you know so but then moving to florida when i was 17 and seeing everywhere more iguanas than there were people, it's like... They're all over the place. Buildings, trees.

They're everywhere, bro. Trees, they're in the city, they're at the beach, they're at restaurants, they're on the highway. Bro, they're everywhere. So why are they a good animal to have? I mean, I wouldn't say a good animal, I was just saying a rescue animal. Gotcha, gotcha.

That's exotic, but they're real personal. Really? Yeah, they have such personalities, you know. I was just saying a rescue animal. Gotcha, gotcha. Because it's exotic. But they're real personal. Really? Yeah, they have such personalities. You know, and like, I'm not saying a wild iguana, but like, once you have an iguana in captivity, they're just so smart and intelligent. They understand you. You pet them, they raise up, they want you to pet them. Really?

You scratch them on the head, they're like, oh, yeah, that's just like a dog. They're affectionate. You know, they go through their mood swings, you know. They're just awesome creatures. And when it's your friend, you have a lizard that's in your living room and you're sitting on the couch

and he walks across the whole house and crawls up your leg and falls asleep in your lap. No way. Dude, how? A lizard does that?

Yeah, bro. I gotta come see your animals. It's sick, bro. Literally sick. I gotta come see them. My lizards, I have two rhino iguanas. They're like almost 30 years old. I rescued them from this guy. When I say rescue, like sometimes

people, they don't want animals anymore. So I'm like, okay, I'll take them in and I build them like these giant, huge enclosures and feed them tons of fruits and veggies of all different kinds. And just, I have so much fun with it. I don't read anything. I don't have anything like to resell. Animals I get are like, I think out of all my animals, I think maybe four of them are nice. Really? Yeah. Four.

What are the four? My dogs. Two dogs. And your fox. Yeah, I got a chameleon. That's pretty cool. But everything else is like just evil. They're not nice. Just rejects for people I didn't want.

And I love the challenge of taking on the challenge. None of them are nice. None of them. Are they nice to you or no? Over time. Certain animals take a few weeks, a few days, a few months. I have an iguana at home. And I've caught almost 50,000 iguanas in the past couple of years easily.

In the wild. In the wild. So I have one in captivity that you would think that I've had so much experience with iguanas. I would know. I got one iguana, bro. He's just a dick. Won't let you pick him up.

Won't let you. Just recently, the weather's changing. They're going into hibernation and brumation. So he's starting to eat a lot more to fatten himself up. Slow it down. So I used to put food in his cage. He would run to the back and just look at me. And now I'm going to his cage, and he's sitting there staring at me.

He's not moving. And then he's walking close and licking the fruit. I had my hand still in there, so I grabbed some banana. He's still smacking me and biting me. Really? But just that little bit of him not running away, the same way how I had my snicker as a kid. There's that one day I went and picked him up.

He didn't bite me. So I kept duplicating that and building that trust. Same thing with this iguana. Even until today, he's still mean. But a couple days ago, I got this. And I've had this thing for almost a year now. Oh, my gosh. You got a lick.

You know, I built him this huge cage that cost me like, you know, and a lot of my animals have cages that cost way more than them. I have a monkey, a rescue monkey that's evil. I can't touch him or anything. Really? And the thing cost me $300 a rescue just to give the family a feed to cover some expenses. But his cage cost like $4,000. That's just the type of— You can't even touch it.

You can't touch it. How long have you had it? I've had it for like three months now. We're getting closer. Wow, man. Animals go through psychological and tragic experiences from other homes, you know but animals go through psychological and tragic experiences from other homes

you know and they don't like humans and you gotta rebuild that trust again you know that could have been a good monkey for seven years

and then it took one bad instance you know you broke the monkey's trust and he's just freaked out by you and you gotta start from day one

and so people are like man fuck that process I'm not going back to that again. I want to get big again. You know, I don't want to keep cleaning up his shit. I don't want to keep buying fruit. No affection back, no love back. Exactly, you know.

So that's where I pride in my at-home collection because I have animals that just don't like me. But I gave them the best life possible and ended up loving me. And I showed that on social media. If you scroll back, I got this giant six-foot lizard from New Hampshire. And when I got him in, his mouth's open. He's smacking his tail. And it's literally telling me he's at a hospital.

Literally, like, the smallest bite possible. Took you to the hospital? No, I'm saying he can. Oh, wow. One bite? One bite. I'll go straight to that. I can rip ligaments in my hand.

Really? It's a big, strong. Oh, yeah. It's a six-foot water monitor from Asia, like a Komodo dragon. Oh, my gosh. But it's not a Komodo dragon, but it's a close relative of it. So I got this thing in. He's just evil.

And then feeding him, taking a couple smacks, and huffing and puffing, and then you just start petting him and hanging. Now I can go in there. I can pick him up. No. I can kiss him on the face. Shut up. I can pull his tongue out. I can be in front of him. I have videos. I go on live all the time.

And I chop up raw chicken, right? With my hands. And I take the chicken and I'm like, here you go, buddy. And he grabs it and doesn't touch my finger. No way. Swear. And then my hands are covered in juice and chicken. He won't bite it. And I'm putting my hand in front of his face. He's looking at it like, do you want to pick a chicken up? He grabs it. So that's how intelligent these animals are. You know, he knows, even though he smells my hand full of chicken, he knows that I'm not food.

Wow. Mm-hmm. It's sick, dude. I got these giant lizards from Dominican Republic, five foot, called rhinoceros iguanas. They have rhino horns, like a rhino, but on an iguana. And it got these big, huge face, these teeth that turn back. Scary looking, right? If you grab a little blueberry and you give this blueberry to this fucking lizard, his head's this big, he reaches out with his little tongue, grabs the blueberry, and chews it.

It's literally insane, bro. Dude, I want to watch some of this. It's insane, bro. I come to Miami, and you're there. Can I come check it out? We're going to have stuff here. I'm moving here. Okay, great.

So I'm going to go home, pack up, and I'm going to road trip all the way over here. No way. With all the animals? Not all of them. I'm going to. I got a couple friends. You got other stuff here, too, yeah. Yeah, I'm going to say, hey, you know, here you go.

Dude, I want to come experience this. It's going to be sick. It's right here in your backyard. This is amazing, go. Dude, I want to come experience this. It's going to be sick. It's right here in the backyard. This is amazing, man. Sick, bro. I can't wait. And see stuff like this. It's exciting me.

We can set your podcast up in a monkey cage and have a podcast in there for one day. It would be crazy. For real. It would be sick. Monkeys are amazing, I feel like. I haven't had much experience with them. They're so intelligent. Yeah.

I helped raise a chimp, chimpanzee. Probably one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. Like a little baby? Like a baby chimp. Like a baby. What was that like? Like an ape. Bro, it's insane.

They're just hanging on you and playing on you. This is so intelligent. It's like a human. He's literally a human with extra hair. And he can't talk. But everything that we do. Can he sign? Can he like?

Dude, he's just. You show him how to blow a candle out in a couple of minutes. Like it's hot. Don't touch it. He's like, oh yeah, that's hot. It's like, it's like you're brushing your teeth. You could turn the water on and you turn it off. He's like, turns the water on, drinks it and turns it off.

You're like, this is crazy, man. Insane, bro. You put an iPad and is crazy, man. It's insane, bro. You put an iPad and you show him how to swipe and hit apps. No. Swear. It's literally mind-blowing how smart these animals are. Wow. I think they share like 98% of our shareable DNA.

You know, so... Wow, man. It's just having a... Knowing it's an ape, but it's like a human. If you could only have one animal that wasn't a dog, let's say for five years, you couldn't keep any other animals, hypothetically, right? It's like you could only choose one. This was going to be the one that you were going to be with and train with and hang out with.

Any type of pet, what would it be? Black jaguar. Why is that? It's my spirit animal. Okay. Do you have one now? No. I've raised some before.

Wow. I helped adopt some and gave some money towards their food and cage builds, but I've never personally owned one. You've been around them, though? Yeah. What's it like? It's just, dude. Those things are powerful.

I've been around jaguars before, but I've always loved, you know, from the movie Black Panther. I've always had an obsession with black panthers, even though it's not such a thing as really a black panther. But black jaguars, it's just been my spirit animal since a kid. Actually, I'll show you a funny clip. This is where it gets funny for me. This is how I know these are my spirit animals. I started working with this little jaguar. He was confiscated from smugglers, and he was freaked out.

It's a jaguar. It's an apex predator in the jungles of Central and South America. These are big, man, right? Yeah, bro. They're just muscular, strong. Muscular, strong. Muscular, strong. I was down in, you know, working with this jaguar,

and he was just not having a good day. And which is understandable with the situation. And this is after my... This photo is the first time me interacting with him. I got videos. I'll show you.

He was just totally freaked out. How big was it? He's only probably about this big. Baby or now? Yeah, his baby. Like six months or four? No, I'd say like three months. Oh, young.

Yeah. Man, he is not. Freaked out. Humans, horrible people. Yeah. You know, but that's how he's supposed to act. You go in a cage and he's in the back of the cage showing his teeth, hissing, growling, which is, you know, what he's supposed to do. But you took him in the water took him in the water calm him down

Fed him gave him some space did it again fed him give him space so after He's swimming and swimming and swimming and He's but I had enough of me Is he biting you or no claw? Yeah, he is please baby doesn't hurt. That's him After four days look at his claws. Oh, yeah He is. But his baby doesn't hurt? That's him. After four days. Look at his claws. Oh yeah, like they have full teeth, full claws and everything. Is he scratching you a lot or no? The first day? Oh yeah, they just tracked you on accident. Yeah it just wasn't breaking the skin.

Oh yeah. So that was my first time working with a black jaguar was that one. I've worked with jaguars as far as standard color jaguars, but I just feel like my spirit animal was that. Do you think if you raised it as a baby, would it be tame around you as an adult? It's more so trusting. Of course you can't. You can't be like playing, rolling around. Yeah, you never encourage playing with any wild animal in captivity. What about that guy who's like always with the lions?

Which one? There's a few of them, but there's a guy who did like a bunch of GoPro stuff that was like. Oh, Kevin Richardson. The guy in South Africa. Yeah, he's a badass, dude. He's like just walking out with the lions, like, and then playing with them and growing lions. He spends hours and hours and hours. It doesn't matter.

Every single day. Yeah, in one instance, you're done. but that's the we probably raised a bunch of awareness he's raised in our line of work we have to make that sacrifice you know i'm saying it's your life it's your life you know but i do it any day but you do it in a safe way you're not like yeah you know the safest way possible i look at it as if we can, if I can make a sacrifice for myself and I can work for 10 years and say, God forbid something happens to me, but I can inspire 100 million people to love animals and only 10 people are going to fully chase that dream hard like I did. Just imagine what 10 Tarzans can do in 10 years from now, you know? So that's the sacrifice we make to inspire and encourage and sometimes you get caught

in a fire and stuff, you know, but it's okay because that's what we do. It's like playing NFL, you're going to get a concussion, you're going to break a leg, you know, if you're a race car driver, you're going to get in an accident, shit happens. Of course, you don't want it to happen, you're going to get in an accident. Shit happens. Of course, you don't want it to happen, but that's just life. That's why the bites and scratches don't bother me

because it's every day. It's like getting fouled in basketball. Right. It happens. It's a hard hit. It's a hard hit. It's a bruise.

This is your contact sport. Exactly. Getting a little nipped by the water or something. Okay, final couple questions for you. This one is called The Three Truths. I ask this to everyone at the end.

So imagine it's your last day on earth. You choose the day as many years out as you want it to be. You've done everything you want to do. You've accomplished all your dreams. It's all happened. But for whatever reason, you've got to take all the information with you. All the videos and content and work you've done, TV shows, it goes with you when you pass.

So no one has access to your information anymore. But you could write down the three things you know to be true about your life, your experiences, the lessons. And there's only three things you can share with the world. What would you say are your three truths? That's cool. I like that question. The three things that would be the truth,

if I could take everything away. Love always wins. That's the truth of my life. I could easily hate a lot of people for a lot of things, but if I love you, what happens after that? You got nothing. If I go negative about it, we can go on for years of negativity, fighting back and forth, you know, all types of crazy stuff. But at the end of the day in my life, what's been making everything happen, it's love. You know? That's great. Love always wins.

God is good all the time. Second truth. Third truth. The truth I would love to leave is we need animals more than they need us. Because if they go, we go. That's the reality of it. That's the truth. So if I were able to leave this earth and not have anything I've ever done be shown

but leave three truths behind, love always wins. God is good all the time no matter who you believe in. And animals. If there's no animals, there's no us. Wow. That's the truth. Wow. Those are powerful, man. Well, what can we do to support you?

What's a project that you want us to follow? Where can we follow you online? At The Real Tarzan on Instagram. You guys got to check this stuff out. If you guys aren't following, make sure you follow and just see the videos. They're inspiring. So what else is going on for you? A lot of charitable work.

videos. They're inspiring. So what else is going on for you? A lot of charitable work. We're going to be giving a lot of money and a lot of, we're going to do stuff different. I feel like a lot of companies, organizations have billions of dollars from charity and give back, but they only pinch out a couple hundred thousand dollars, maybe a couple thousand dollars. I want to be known as the dude who will not die. Like, yo, that motherfucker Tarzan was giving away big checks and doing big work and just doing real humanitarian and loving work. Like going to Africa, really rebuilding shit, documenting it, showing people where their money's going, where my money's going, where my time's going. I feel like we're missing that aspect of reality. I feel like us as Americans, we're so comfortable and cool here. You know, but there's a whole nother world out there that needs us.

And at the end of the day, we can be Americans, we can be Africans, we can be Europeans or Australians. But at the end of the day, we're all brothers and sisters and we're all people. And that's where the love comes at. Where can we go out and help these people? And that's where I feel like the love is going to be just so real that we're going to be able to show it, help build on it. We're starting our own nonprofit in 2019. So I've been using a lot of my own money to go out and do this work and bringing people along with me, whoever wants to tag along. That's why I feel like I've been building these relationships.

Will Smith, Diddy, giving all these eyes, these people. Once we start hitting these real projects and showing real progress, it's going to be a beautiful thing. It's cool, man. And start a trend of just helping and showing love.

That's great, man. So just, I can't tell you what to do now. Just follow you on social media right now. Yeah. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Stay tuned, man. You know, there's a whole lot of stuff coming.

A whole lot of gangster shit coming your way in a fun way. I like it, man. You know? Yeah. That's cool. Well, I got to acknowledge you for a moment, Mike, for being authentically you because you grew up in a place that wasn't supportive of your dream, but you did it anyways. You did something that most kids that look like you don't do. Exactly. And you're doing it anyways with a

lot of passion and love and generosity. You give back constantly, which is really inspiring. So I acknowledge you for your efforts, your work, your care for animals that don't have care. And you constantly show up in a big way, man. And your heart is infectious, so I acknowledge all that you do. Thank you, brother. I really appreciate that, man. It's really powerful, man.

Give me some. Yeah, man, of course, man. My final question is, what is your definition of greatness? Definition of greatness. Definition of greatness. I love this. So, this is the best way I can explain it.

I look at Mike Tyson. I look at Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, Michael Jackson, Michelangelo. And you get these people that share a name, Michael. This is just me. This could be anybody. Greatness is when you look at these people's lives and you parallel them, and they never cross paths in their actual line of work,

and they all have one thing in common, relentless hard work. Look at Michael Phelps. What does he do every day? He swims. He masters his craft. He doesn't worry about anybody else. He worries about himself. He masters his fucking craft. And that's why he's the best Olympic gold medalist swimmer for whatever swim thing he does. I don't know exactly what he swims with, but I know he puts the work in. You know what I'm saying? Look at Michael Jordan. Sickening work ethic. He's great.

So true greatness lies in hard work. No matter how talented you are, if you work your ass off every day, nonstop, you become great. But you just got to believe that shit. If you don't believe me, look into these great people's lives, the real greats, the real goats. And you see what they, look at the documentaries, look at their work, look at their passion, how they move. They have relentless hard work. I was working hard all year, what I thought I was.

I met Will Smith, and I think I met him a month and a half ago. After the video came out and you met. So I've been traveling the world and doing my Tarzan stuff. And I talked to Will Smith. And he's like, yeah, what's up? Hasn't been home since Christmas. Working. Working. Just out there getting it.

Another country, another this, another project. And it's just like music video, TV show, YouTube, jump on a helicopter, get your helicopter, you get boys doing it. And it's like, that's the hard work. What do you think Tom Brady does in his off time? Studies, trains, game film. What do you think Michael Jackson did with his music? Mastering his craft.

Mastering his craft. You know what I'm saying? Just these people, greatness lies in hard work. He'd be talented all day. Tell my little brother. My little brother is a talented young man. His name is Randy, my favorite little brother. And he's so talented, man, just naturally talented.

But it can be a blessing and a curse. Because you may not work as hard when you're talented. So I tell him, I'm like, look, kid, you're very talented. But that doesn't mean shit. I say, you're already ahead of everybody, just by talent-wise. I said, eventually they're going to catch you, just by talent-wise. I said, imagine when you put relentless hard work on top of your already God-given talent. No one will ever be able to catch you.

You'll be far ahead of everybody for a long time, for forever. And I tell him that at six years old. And we win five state championships in football. And then he leaves football and goes and wins another four state championships in basketball and wins a state championship in baseball. And it's just like, that's my boy. What's he doing now? He's playing basketball.

He's 13 years old. Just turned 13 on October 12th. He's 6'1", with a size 13 shoe. He's a monster. So if you think I'm talking already, damn near. I haven't seen him in like a couple months, but every time I come home and see him, he's like, yeah. It's amazing, man. I love it. Good stuff. Make sure you guys follow this guy, and see him, he's like, yeah. So it's amazing, man.

I love it. Good stuff. Make sure you guys follow this guy, the real Tarzan. Appreciate you, Mike. Thank you for having me, brother. There you have it, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this one. lewishouse.com slash 724 mike holston in the house super pumped about this because he's doing incredible work again make sure to check him out tag him on your instagram stories at mike holston the real tarzan powerful stuff and his videos have been crazy the last couple weeks so check out his videos his photos they're going to inspire you to want to be more part of this conversation and engaging in wildlife as well yourself. So check it out.

Tag him as well and share this with your friends. lewishouse.com slash 724. And again, if you have a dream, if you have a passion burning inside of you, this is another example that you can pursue that thing and make a full-time living doing what you love. That's what this life is about. It's not about doing something you hate for That's what this life is about. It's not about doing something you hate for your whole life. Listen, I get it. For years, I had to do

things I didn't love in order to gain the experience, the skill set, earn the money, to have the freedom to then pursue things that I did love. But don't ever let someone hold you back from saying your idea is too crazy because there are examples every single day of people doing things they love. They're making big impact in the world like Mike Holston and making a full-time income doing it. So again, use this as an example. Share this with your friends. Let me know what you thought of this over on Instagram, lewishouse.com slash 724 for the full video interview. Check out Mike Holston at The Real Tarzan. And Harriet Tubman said, every great dream begins with a dreamer.

Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. I love you so very much. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you.