The Sevan Podcast - #712 Nick Gullo | Really, Really, Really Ridiculously Good Looking

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

Welcome to this episode of the Sevan Podcast!Sign up for our email: https://thesevanpodcast.com/-------------------------Partners:https://cahormones.com | CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATIONhttps://www.paperstcoffee.com | THE COFFEE I DRINK!https://www.hybridathletics.com/collections/barbell-brush | THE BARBELL BRUSHhttps://asrx.com/collections/the-real-sevan-podcast-collection | OUR TSHIRTShttps://www.vndk8.com/sevan-podcast | OUR OTHER SHIRThttps://usekilo.com | OUR WEBSITE PROVIDER-------------------------Book Recommendations Into the Cage: The Rise of UFC Nation by Nick Gullo Fit for Life by Harvey Diamond00:00 -  30:00  Learning the Gut Biome Through the World30:00 - 43:00 Developing the Mushin Mind43:00 - 55:30 Where Did You Come From?55:30 - 1:05:00 Media Still Has Zero Integrity1:05:00 -  Dana White, Kelly Slater, and Addiction Support the showPartners:https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATIONhttps://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK!https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Anything over six hours and I wake up stiff as a board. Bam, we're live. Is that all the sleep you get normally?

Yeah, normally I sleep. Yeah, normally. Maybe probably seven hours i normally go to bed exactly like 11 on the dot and get up like at six on the dot i usually get up like at 558 two minutes before my alarm goes off but then so so yesterday i didn't set my alarm at all and i tried to stay in bed as long as i could i tried to stay in bed as long as I could. I tried to stay in bed till eight, which was just crazy. Like for the last hour, I just was just like,

you don't know what to do with yourself. Catch up, catch up on sleep. Well, the cool thing is, is Avi was just there laying next to me the whole time. No, perfect.

Yeah. Kids just wake up and they just, they just turn on. There's no like gradual. Oh, my dog does the same thing. I don't have kids obviously but like as soon as i open the kennel door it's like it's time to go like yeah no time to drink coffee

no time to sit on the couch and just like contemplate my fucking feelings it's like there's no acclimating yeah um one minute after i got out of bed he's like hey come over here and help me build these legos i'm like like, what? Are you kidding me? My eyes don't even work yet. You haven't even got the crusties out yet. Yeah. Jethro, good morning. Eric, good morning.

Jeffrey Birchfield, good morning. David, good morning. Very interesting guests today. There's guests sometimes, well, not sometimes. Half the guests, I just take a stab in the dark, right? I just see their profiles on Instagram. And I'm like i'm like i wonder what this guest would be like oh i better tell this guy so so um i don't know if you guys remember the guest there was a guy named paul we had on the show he was in i don't know i can't remember we had two guys who were in a coma in a coma is it a coma or a coma two guys who were in coma or a coma or in a coma or a coma? Two guys who were in coma or a coma? Were in a coma or were comatose.

Comatose. Two guys that were in medically induced coma, right? It was medically induced for both of them, right? Paul and Phil, Kelly? I think so, yeah. And both of them had some sort of severe case of COVID. And basically, I thinkul was out for like 60 days he was the one who was saying having all the crazy dreams and terrors that his family was dead

when he woke up he thought his family was dead anyway he is a uh a friend of a friend and i've hung out with paul a bunch now and uh have built a friendship with him and he goes to a jiu-jitsu gym in um i think it goes to mesa or newport beach and it's called aoj and if you're a practitioner brazilian jiu-jitsu and you're pretty geeky about it you know that gym it's like the gym and so paul goes to that gym and practices the art of jujitsu. And I believe that's where he ran into Nick. And I started perusing Nick's Instagram account. And I was like, ooh, I got to get this guy on the show.

Good morning, Nick. What's up, brother? What's up, guys? How are you? Thanks for doing this. I'm not getting any audio. Okay. Take your time.

Let me see what I got going. That's how this show works. Guys, this is the shirt for Wadapalooza. The CEO shirt from Wadapalooza. Go over to Vindicate if you want to pick one out. It's funny. He sent this to me a week ago, and I just thought it's not my color. It's not my color.

I'm not going to wear it. I'm not going to wear it. And then I'm like, oh, I should wear it so people can see it and buy it. And then this morning as I was walking into the podcast studio my six-year-old said you look good in pink i was like all right all right there you go matt sousa thinks i look good in pink i got you guys we're good yo what's going on man it's a it's a uh a 54 year old man with a 23 year old man's body What the fuck is going on here? Everything is good, man.

It's coffee time. It's a little early for me. Is that CGI, that body of yours? You eat for your gut bio. Bio. Gut bio. Bio. Biome.

Biome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah i i absolutely love that and more and more i'm starting to really understand i think uh one of the premises of that is regardless of what you're going to eat only eat one or two or three things and know what you're mixing so like if you if you are going to eat a piece of meat you know just eat that piece of meat and give your body body and you avoid meat too, right, anyway? Yeah. For your gut biome.

I mean, it's a long story with the whole gut biome thing. But I would say like 15 years ago, I had a friend who got sick and he took some antibiotics. I think he took it from his mom's cabinet and they were expired. And they only had like half a course and he took them and it created like a gut reaction to where he ended up. His immune system attacked his own colon and he got colitis and he got it so bad they thought he would die. This was ongoing for years. This was ongoing for years. And during that time, you know, my closest friend.

And during that time, I just started researching like gut biome. And what is this? What is I didn't even know what a gut was. What is the gut? What is the gut? I just think it's your stomach and my love handles. No, it's everything that it through your internals that goes from your stomach all the way down to your anus so to my cheerio we call it the cheerio on this show we call it the cheerio so yeah there you go and so it uh the gut biome is all the trillions of bacteria that are inside of there and then you know so the more i learned with him and, and also he ended up long

story short for his saga is he ended up like two years later becoming one of the first people in the United States to get a fecal transplant, which the doctors at UCLA told him was insane. It would never work. And UCLA, one of the top GI, you know, schools in the world. And, and it worked, it saved his life. And they wanted to, the doctor was like, don't do that. Let me remove your colon. So you have a bag and you're going to walk around with a bag. You're 32 years old. You're going to walk around with a bag for the rest of your life. And so the doctor afterwards was like, you know what? I was wrong. You're right. You know, but think about it. Sometimes you have to be on the cutting edge of, of where nutrition is going because doctors, you know, they're not all, they're not all like that. Um, so anyways,

yeah, go ahead. No, no, you go. So then that saved his life. But during that time, during those two years, you know, I really started, I already, I had my podcast modus V where I was already, I've always been into nutrition and, and, and athleticism because I wrestled, you know, and wrestling is unlike, um, unlike, uh, football, you know, I played football. Also, you don't have to lose weight, but wrestling, you have to manage your weight. And so, because I wrestled from eight to 18, there was such a long gap in there of like six years where I had to really manage my weight and learn about that. So through puberty, you're

like not only having to be athletic at the highest level that you can in your training, but you learn discipline and you learn how to manage your weight. So anyways, from that, from him, I learned about the gut biome, you know, back to what we were talking about. And, and I was just shocked to, to, to learn that our, the gut controls everything from our immune system, to our cognitive ability cognitive ability to our sleep to there's just everything. It's almost like the real brain of the body. You know, this is the, this is the brain we think with, but that's the brain that controls everything. So once I learned that, then I, it just kind of sent me down this path where I'm like, okay, I want to learn as much of this as I can.

Around the same time is when I saw a picture of myself surfing. I think I was like 39 and it was at Huntington Beach. And it was one of those really rare warm days we're in surf trunks. And I saw a picture of me on a wave and the wave was amazing. My board looked great, but all I could think about and kept looking at was the freaking fact that I was so overweight. It was insane. So when I wrestled in my senior year, I was 163 pounds and completely ripped. And that's right. So this picture right here is how much I was weighing. I was even heavier when I was at Huntington beach right here. I was probably weighing like 185. If anyone wants to know what my body looks like, it's one of those. I'm not

going to tell you which one, but it is identical to one of those. I swear to God it is. It is. That's and that's what my hair looks like when i don't um shower i mean i don't wash my hair anyway i bet you nick doesn't want to put soap in his hair either but no um no soap's stupid okay sorry so sorry so you couldn't stop staring at your physique i saw this picture of mine i couldn't stop staring at it i'm like what in the world i'm like if i look like this at 39, what am I going to look like at 49? What am I going to look like at 59? I'm going to be that guy. Right. And I don't want to be that guy. Yeah. My titties are starting to even sag a

little bit. Yeah. I was like, that ain't going to happen to me, man. So at 39 is when I really was like, you know what? I need to, I need to pull this together because what's crazy is that, you know, when I posted on that post, you can go, people can go through and read that, put the comments, but quite a few people are like, Oh, you need to do is, you know, do more jujitsu or do this. You don't need to forget diet. Bullshit, man. What works for you at 18 and maybe 28 will not work for you at 35 you know or at 50 or at 50 i'm 50 yeah it doesn't snap back so i wrote a book on the ufc called the end of the cage rise of ufc nation traveled with the ufc collector's item 134 bucks now collector's item god damn it put that thing back in print i need a copy and so um so i've interviewed hundreds of the most elite athletes in the world who are in a sport where they have to lose weight right so i've

been around weight cuts i've been around all of it you know i trained jujitsu as you know i'm a black belt this is what i do i lose weight for tournaments, et cetera, et cetera. And so, um, when during this process, what I would see is that you had guys who at the beginning of their career in the UFC, they, it was very easy for them to lose weight. But then when it came time, when they got older, when they're like 30 years old, 32, 33. And these are professional athletes, Javier Dos Anjos, Johnny Hendricks, their body would not respond and they would miss weight. They had horrible weight cuts that almost killed them, you know? And so it just goes to show that there will be a time for everybody's life where you're no longer going to easily lose weight.

for everybody's life where you're no longer going to easily lose weight um so yeah it's chito vera one of the guys that one of my closest friends man we trained together and you went to ecuador with chito right yeah yeah yeah it was amazing a taught seminar down there it was great uh you are looking at nick uh-oh here we go nick the tooth guyo Did I say it right? Yeah. Gullo. Gullo. Gullo. I pronounce the L. And so, so anyways, during this time at 39, I was like, I got to pull it together.

Exercise is no longer working for me. And so that's when I really hammered home and started researching as much as I could. I'm also about at the same time as gut biome about, uh, about weight loss. And what I learned was that what happens as the body ages is we develop insulin resistance. And so the body kicks out hormones are the most important thing in the body, right? Hormones are what take a child really, right? And change that child into an adult it's a hormone hormone dictates what happens with the body and so we have an increase in testosterone we get more aggressive right we get more shredded we get etc etc um if we but insulin is also a hormone. 100%. And when we eat sugar, it triggers an insulin release. But insulin also tells the body, not only does it counteract sugar, but it tells the body to store fat.

So the more insulin you release, the more hard it's going to be to lose that weight. And so I realized, okay, my problem is not calories. Like I used to think of it. My problem is sugar. It's not fat. I remember back in the day, it used to be known, you got to cut out fats and all that shit that doesn't make you fat. That's nonsense. Nonsense. And so, yeah. So I jumped on a like low insulin, um, diet. And, uh, uh, once I did that, like very, very low sugar diet. Once I did that, I went from one 95 down to one 56 days, 30 days. And one of those days every week was a cheat day where I would eat cake and fucking donuts and the worst shit you could think of, you know, did you stop doing that now?

Yeah. I don't do that anymore because I don't need it. I needed it mentally then, you know, because, you know, it's a, it's, we're such creatures of habit that, uh, that, you know, to try and change everything inside of 30 days that I've been doing for 30 years is impossible, you know? What was the worst thing that you were eating? What was the worst culprit you were eating in terms of sugar? Bread. Back in the day, bread.

Were you a soda pop guy? Oh, I've never drank soda in my life okay so it was bread i would never i will i don't drink i wouldn't put soda or diet soda any of that shit in my body ever i never would do something like that so i as you can tell i i'm relatively healthy i I was a vegetarian, um, occasionally eat fish. I was the biggest problem I had was eating bread or pasta or whatever, you know, some kind of carbs, tortilla, those kinds of things. And so, um, and that's enough, you know, that is enough. And so, um, so anyways, once I went on that diet, I lost so much frigging weight.

It was, it was incredible. And, uh, and then I've kept it off now for 15 years. And so a lot of people, you don't wear glasses or contacts. No. Did you ever? Um, I had lace it back when I was, um, 20 i no it's like 31 are you glad you did that or do you wish you wouldn't have done it oh it's the greatest thing i ever did yeah i loved it why because um let me shut this window it's no problem because what people who eat a lot of sugar one of

the places that sugar gets retained is in your cells and a lot of people who think that they have bad eyesight it's really because they eat too much sugar because when that sugar gets retained in your cells it forces the lens in your eye to start bending and that's one of the fucking interesting things um and but also i've known other people who've gotten lasix and then several years later their vision just it it just got bad again and so they weren't sure if they should have ever have done it. No, my, my vision, it's been, you know, probably 20 years and my vision is still great. So no, I don't, but you know, I, I like people ask me, it's not just about losing weight. People also ask me about, um, people also ask me about, uh, you know, staying young.

How do you look young? How do you, this, I I'm a big proponent in not only with my clients, do I talk about health, but I talk about, you know, optimum health. You're not just trying to lose weight. You're trying to be healthy. You want to, the goal is to live young as long as you can. Right. Because once health starts to deteriorate, you're done.

There's nothing, all the money in the world, it doesn't mean anything. And so I really talk to clients about stress and stress is what ages you without question. And dietary stress is one of the biggest culprits of stress. Do you fast? Every day, yeah. Do you ever not eat for a whole day?

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that also with dietary stress, I just think people eat too much food. You know, when I just spent a year in Europe, and in Europe, I really wanted to study the Mediterranean diet and that's what I did. So I moved to Sicily and I lived in Sicily for a year and it was an incredible experience, but more so I got to go to Sardinia, which is one of the blue zones and see how they eat and see how they live and study Mediterranean diet. Sardinia is right next to Sicily. So they're like sister islands. And so, um, I was there teaching jujitsu and I got to see, I got to live, eat a real Mediterranean diet. And I lost, I came back three weeks ago and, uh, I went from, I left here at like one 65, one 64, which is my normal weight and i came back at 153 wow wow did you roll when you were over there in europe i was teaching jujitsu okay i taught seminars around around europe all around

europe from poland i was teaching in poland spain bilbao france everywhere all throughout italy Everywhere. All throughout Italy. Yeah. Nick, by the way, the gentleman below you is Caleb Beaver. Caleb. And Caleb is deployed in an undisclosed location where there is a lot of sand. Oh, man. Is it hot? Not currently, but it was. It was pretty toasty. Really? Yeah, it was like 120 at one point. Oh, my gosh. It was great. i don't know how you do it he

didn't get any color he stayed the same color he didn't get any color so i was in so so when i was in sicily i was uh you know sicily is like what i'm i'm gonna make a guess but it's almost like you can look from the south of the island and see af. So it's like, you know, 30, 40. Mediterranean is not that big. And so it's the southmost part of Europe. And I was living in a medieval castle, like a palace, an old palace. It wasn't a castle, but it was a palace, an old hunting palace that was built in 1100. Okay.

And the walls were like, they're three feet thick. Yeah. You could see, see how close that is. You're right there. Tunisia is right there. And so if you want to talk about, there's no air conditioning, there's no insulation. It is so effing hot. I just, is so effing hot i just i was right there in palermo in uh the topmost uh the northwest uh region and that's like the main city catania and palermo are the main cities palermo is amazing but i lived in a city called uh mandreale which is where my grandfather was born right there right yep right there that's mandrereal that's right and il duomo are you sure your grandfather wasn't salvador dolly let me tell you something in this little village where i lived in it was beautiful all the most

amazing architecture you've ever seen and uh i was the only person American that had ever lived there. They tripped out on me. They like tattoos. They just couldn't even imagine. And it was great though. It was the greatest experience of my life for sure. I had to learn Italian though. There was no one spoke a word of English, not a fucking word.

And they were, they basically were like, dude, you, you have to learn Italian because we're not learning English. And so I had to learn Italian. Did they call you the tooth or did they call you Nick? No, you know what they called me? When I would ask, when people would ask me when I first got there and they were like, what's your name? And I would say Nicolo. And they were like, what's your name? And I would say, Nicolo. And they were like, no, that's not your name. And so they had to teach me how to say my name, Nicolo. Nicolo. And they're very particular about it, right? Very particular.

They would correct me again and again. So my first order of business there was to learn how to say my name. And the good thing is my last name, because my family is from that, that town in Montreal, my last name is very well known. I would walk around like the village and there would be stores with my last name on it. And in America, I've never met anybody with my last name. And I've certainly never met anybody named Nicolo. But in my gym, there were like three Nicolos. So, yeah, very, very, very, very, very different. But in my gym, there were like three Nicolos. Wow.

Yeah. Very, very, very, very, very different. I had a vintage motorcycle. And every weekend, I would just drive around the island and just go to different. And everywhere you go in Sicily, because it's such an ancient island, you would see like a crumbling castle here, a crumbling castle there. There was a castle del mare on the west coast. There is, it's a castle. And because Sicily had been invaded so many times that they would just put up like castles and walls everywhere. And with the castles and the walls, they would use to put up, put out flares to let people know that there was an invading army coming and also to defend them. And in Castle Delamare, there was a wall that was like eight stories high and it looked like the wall out of the Game of Thrones. It was incredible. Yeah. some of you guys are starting this guy this is a real uh you hear people throw

that term around renaissance man uh uh nicolo nicolo um nicolo is a nicolo nicolo nicolo he is a uh a brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and world champion multiple time world champion um he is a on a podcast he has a podcast a sci-fi podcast he's an author he is a father uh he is a photographer he's a world traveler obviously a writer uh here's his most recent episode published in uh december of, episode 41, Artificial Intelligence. It's on the Infinite Worlds podcast. And he was on a, he's close friends with Mr. Dana White, a hero of mine for what he did with the UFC during the so-called pandemic and uh he also was on a tv show with um dana um what's called looking for a fight right yeah yeah yeah so i mean he's done it all and i'm sure i've missed uh several several things i want to go back to the biome thing real quick

i think by the way the community that i'm really embedded in is the CrossFit community. And we, the prescribed diet is the zone diet. And the reason why they prescribed the zone diet is for one reason and one reason only, to control your hormones. That was a big premise of what Greg Glassman would talk about. You want your hormones to just be just steady. You do not want fluctuations in your hormones. And obviously, a ton of that is around insulin. fluctuations in your hormones and obviously a ton of that is around insulin but when i was i spent a lot of time in india and their diet was basically they knew what to mix and what not to mix and i

remember one guy telling me there hey you should never eat more than three different anything any more than three different ingredients so if you were going to have let's say a meal it should be rice broccoli and uh, and a tomato. You shouldn't be like – and our basic – anything you pick up at the store now has 30 ingredients. And I thought I saw you – That was the premise of the book Fit for Life. I'm sorry? The book Fit for Life back in the 80s. That was a big foundation of that book.

And is that a big premise for you too? I thought I saw that in reading about you. Like, hey, don't wreak havoc in there. Like if you're going to eat something, eat that and, you know, give yourself some time or only mix it with things. Is there an ideal meal for you that you think is just like, Oh my God, I really like, you know, I, I've read fit for life back in the eighties and it was a, it had a big influence on me uh the premise there is that is you're trying to digest you have to each different types of food this is the premise is that requires a different enzyme and sometimes the enzymes cancel each other out and the food goes undigested it's that simple

and so there are some foods that i like you should. They say you should never eat fruit with anything else. Fruit should be eaten alone. Right. But I don't eat fruit because I avoid sugars. And so I eat my ideal meal is a salad. So I love salad. Are you in ketosis? Are you in ketosis at all times?

No, but sometimes it depends because trying to gain weight for the tournament that I just had last week, like I said, my weight, I came back at 153, but my weight class was like 164, I think. pounds but um so i just tried to gain weight and so every day i was eating as much oatmeal and as much rice and as much like really clean carbs as i could and uh so i was able to get back up to like 157 or something 158 i think on the day of the tournament but uh um that's me back in the day that's when i first started jujitsu. I was 43 right there when I started jujitsu. And the Mendez brothers aren't the, how old are the Mendez brothers now? I mean, they were so young then they had to be like 20 years old. They're probably 32 now, you know, somewhere around there.

Crazy. Yeah. They were so young when we first started, I was the crazy uncle in the gym, without question. I still am. But now when I came back, because I've been gone for three years, traveling, traveling the world. When the pandemic first started, I jumped in my Sprinter van and just traveled the United States teaching jujitsu

and surfing up the coast all the way to Canada. And then after a year and a half, then I went to Europe and I spent the rest of the time in Europe. So I just came back two weeks ago. You started jujitsu at 43? Yeah. Yeah. And you got your black belt in seven years?

Yeah. Do you know anyone who's ever gotten it and you got it from AOJ? Yeah. yeah do you know anyone who's ever gotten and you got it from aoj yeah but i don't anyone say anything stupid like he got an easy black belt just stop don't even think about it because if you don't know what aoj is this guy did not get an easy black belt but seven years is do you know anyone who's ever gotten a black belt in seven years besides you i don't know i mean i know guys who have gotten them who are who are professional competitors who have i don't know anybody who's uh you mean like a fighter you mean like a guy i mean i mean someone who starts you know who who becomes starts competing on the like geo martinez under eddie bravo you know but geo

became one of the top level. There's a different path for people who compete versus people who are just hobbyists. And so I treated jujitsu as a competitor immediately within three months, I started competing. And so, and once I started competing, I never stopped. And so I did, uh,. I think I won Nogi Worlds at Purple Boat after four months. Wow. So you fought it as a white belt? Yeah. Wow.

And I won the blue belt division. And so obviously they had to give me my blue belt, right? And so I got my blue belt after four months. And so then I competed at blue belt right and so i got my blue belt after four months and so then i competed at you know blue belt and i won would you do that on purpose just to like so your instructor would see and it was that a way like like skipping a grade okay i'm gonna compete up so i can get the bell no because it for me it was i you know i love to compete i love to challenge myself. But I started studying the Japanese concept, the samurai concept of mushin mind. And mushin mind means mind without mind.

And the term really refers to when you go into battle, the last thing you can do is start thinking because you'll be dead. Think about a samurai fight. You know, one touch and you're dead. You have no room to sit there as you're fighting and start thinking about, man, I got to go to the grocery today. I got to do, you know what I mean? You better be focused right then. And just like you can't be distracted about grocery lists or what your girlfriend's doing or what you're going to do after the fight, about grocery lists or what your girlfriend's doing or what you're going to do after the fight, you can't be distracted by fear or stress or worry. You have to be engaged in the task. And so I really start, I'm very much into meditation. I've been meditating since I was,

I think my mom had me taught when I was like 10 and I've been meditating ever since. And so I'm very much into meditation. I do a lot of yoga. But motion mind was a way I mean, competition was a way for me really to test whether I could go into an ordinarily freaking stressful situation. I remember I was talking with BJ Penn one time, and he was like, I got I used to get more nervous and he if you don't know bj penn was an incredible like uh ufc champion i think at two different weight classes the first the founder of crossfit was friends with him i don't know if you know that he made a workout for bj penn called fight gone bad oh wow and it was made for bj penn it was you know basically to simulate a fight five minutes on, one minute off, five minutes. But anyway, sorry. That's amazing.

Yeah, our paths are crossing. Yes, go on. So BJ said that he was more afraid, and he was the first non-Brazilian to ever win a world championship in jiu-jitsu. And so BJ said, I was more nervous during jujitsu matches than i ever was during the ufc fight wow and did you take this picture yeah i'm a photographer so for people who don't know what you're looking at those are the mendez brothers and then in the blue is ronda rousey and And then taking the shot to the throat is BJ Penn. And Nick is sitting somewhere in that facility snapping.

I'm taking the picture. I'm behind the camera. Crazy. What a crazy. This is, I looked through a bunch of your photos. This is like one of my all time, just favorite. Everyone says that. That is, that was a closed door session.

That was a really big deal in the martial arts world for that to happen so yeah anyways um anyways the uh i loved testing my mind and my motion mind in the tournament because the closer I would get to the tournament the more nervous I would get right my mind would say don't do this don't do this don't do this what are you doing to the point where you know they call you out of the bullpen the freaking lights are you know noise chatter you see all the mats there's 12 mats in front of you your opponents next to you they grab you they're like come on you too Your opponent's next to you. They grab you. They're like, come on, you too, now.

And so they bring you to the mat. You're sitting there. You're like getting ready for the tournament. You're like, fuck, all your coaches, all your teams behind you. And, you know, you're starting to get nervous. I can feel it right now, you know? And so when you get to that- It's the fight or flight, right?

And you're stuck in flight instead of fight, right? That's right. And you really don't want to be stuck in either. You want to have an elevated sense of focus, but you don't want to be in a fight or flight. I don't want to be angry. I don't want to be, you know what I mean? I want to be like, I'm in control of this situation right now. I'm cool. And so I would hear my mind like screaming, get out of here, fake an injury, do what you know, how our minds are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so I, as, as the more I did it, the more I was able to say, just like at this last tournament, same thing I see, I hear my mind like going off and trying to, you know, say just spasming. Right. And I just

would put it, you're right here. And it would be like, I'm scared. Oh, know, saying just spasming. Right. And I just would put it, you're right here. And it would be like, I'm scared. Oh, I don't want to do this. I'm like, that's okay. You just sit right there. I'll handle it. And that's how I view, you know, panic and fear and anxiety is like, of course it's there. I'm a surfer. That's how I lost my tooth. And sometimes in big way, and it was big ways. And sometimes in big ways. I've heard two different stories about your tooth, my friend. There's many different stories. Many stories.

I heard it was bull. I heard the surf story and the bull riding story. And I actually thought, oh, this guy's a writer. He'll tell whatever story he wants to tell. But the surf story is true. Or at least today it is. Okay. Back to the mind.

By the way, very Eckhart Tolle. Very Eckhart Tolle. I love that. Or at least today it is. Okay. Back to the mind. By the way, very Eckhart Tolle. Very Eckhart Tolle. I love that. I love Power of Now. It's amazing. Yeah, yeah. So Bruce Irons one time, you know, one of the greatest big wave servers that ever lived. One of the greatest servers that ever lived.

And he was talking about fear and how afraid. I mean, this guy surf everything, you know? And so, um, he won the Eddie, which is the big wave contest in Hawaii. And he was talking about being afraid, you know, in big waves. And he's like, of course I'm afraid. What do you mean? Am I, am I afraid? I'm always afraid. It's terrifying, but you just got to have the fear sit next to you and just do it. And so, you know, it's the same thing with anything. It's the same thing you just got to have the fear sit next to you and just do it. And so, you know, it's the same thing with anything. It's the same thing with, you know, but if you can put yourself in the most extreme circumstances in which you're going to be afraid and then analyze

that fear and then work through it and get used to it, that's the key. You have to get used to it. And so, and the only way I know to do that is to put myself in extreme circumstances. And so a jujitsu tournament functions like that. And so after a while, I would just be like, yeah, you're scared. Go ahead. But you have trained so much. It's all going to work out, you know, and it always does. And so the, you know, when I walk my boy started competing, when I walk my boy onto the mat the entire time we're walking there he's saying i'm not gonna do it i'm not gonna do it i'm not gonna do it and i refuse to engage with that that because i know that's not him i know that's his mind he's still attached

to his mind because he's so young and he and then and then i just walk up there with him i don't engage him i just may put my hand on his shoulder and then they call him out onto the mat and then that's it it goes away i i want to show you this you should i hope you have a chance to cross paths with this guy someday this is a guest we had on the show he's only one of five um urban solo climbers in the world his name is alexis uh a landot and all he just he climbs skyscrapers and he's a young and he's a young french kid and he's uh i want to say 22 23 years old and he said the exact same thing you did when i asked him this question i said when you're up there i asked him it in five or six different ways i said when you're up there and you're climbing um if if someone what are you thinking? He goes, if you're thinking, you're dead.

And I go, what do you mean? He goes, you cannot, there can be no thinking. There can be no emotion. I go, well, what if someone from the bottom yells at you, you have a little dick? He goes, I won't even hear it. I go, what do you mean? He goes, you don't understand. If there's anything I'm doing besides this, I'm dead.

He's like, there is. And he does it for the same reason he has this enormous fear of death and so he wants to silence that and he silences it by climbing skyscrapers that's crazy with just his bare feet and hands nuts right what a what a stud that's insane yeah anyway so i don't want to be his mom and dad though i don't want to be his mom and dad, though. I don't want to be his mom and dad. So circling back, you're like, you got your jiu-jitsu black belt in seven years. At every belt, I competed. And I never got competed until I won Pan Americans or Worlds.

And so it was always – You never got what? You said you never got – I'm sorry. I never got promoted to the next belt because I was treated as a competitor because they knew I competed. I was like in the master's category. I was like one of the top competitors as far as, you know, and there are many of us, it's not just me. And so there are many of us at that, you know, in the master's division, it's a big gym.

You got a thousand people there. Um, but I was competing from the beginning. So there are many of us in the Masters division. It's a big gym. You've got 1,000 people there. Wow. But I was competing from the beginning. I always tell the brothers this all the time, is that I am the first AOJ world champion ever. Not you. Is that true? It is true. Wow.

It is true. Because after AOJ opened, I was the first one to win a world title they didn't until the next year so technically it's me and i remind them of that all the time and it was really important to you to um represent your gym well too they must have really appreciated that like you took that you took the fact that if you were going to be wearing their shirt you let that be added you threw that onto the added pressure. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, that's, you know, you do represent the gym. I represent the gym in everything I do. Well, now when I travel the world, the first thing people say is you're from

AOJ, you know, amazing. Like when I, when gym owners bring me in to teach, there are two things that they're, there are three things that they're there are three things really they cite to their students is this is one of the first white to black belts at aoj he started jiu-jitsu at 43 so all of you people who say you're too old to start when you're 30 right here you know and the fact you know from um that i compete and i've won at worlds at every belt so what's the oldest person you've seen get a black belt or you've even heard about i don't even know older than you oh yeah i would think so you've seen like i mean i just don't know what's that you've seen a 60 year old maybe get a black belt yeah for sure oh for sure i'm i'm

thinking like 90 95 you know wow i don't know i just saw there's i've seen people at tournaments that are competing that are 70 75 years old you know who get who gave you your black belt hafa mendez wow did you remember that day well so when the gym first opened it was hafa it was only few very few of us were doing nogi and hafa was very into nogi at the time because he was preparing for adcc and because i wrestled i was able to we would just wrestle and do jujitsu so i was able to really learn one-on-one with michael jackson i mean, Michael Jordan. You don't want to say Michael Jackson. But for Michael Jordan. Yeah, C-74 right there.

Wow. For those of you who don't know, when he refers to ADCC, we've had Nicky Rod on a bunch of times and his brother Jacob. And if you don't remember, ADCC is the Abu Dhabi Combat Championships. Is it fair to say it's the premier event in the world? I don't know about that because it's the is it fair to say it's the premier event in the world i don't know about that because there's it's the premier nogi event in the world i don't know it's the premier you know i mean world championships in the gi are you know are also they're all grappling and they're both are jujitsu but uh it's definitely for nogi but you know for those who train in the gi there's a lot of people who don't train nogi so i've done both since the beginning i didn't want

to get in the gi but now i love the gi do you recommend that everyone do both i do yeah if you're going to do one you might as well do the other is it just obvious that nogi is just more practical in real life or no i don't know what real life is what do you mean like you're going to do one, you might as well do the other. Is it just obvious that no gi is just more practical in real life or no? I don't know what real life is. What do you mean? Like getting in a street fight at 7-Eleven? Sure. Yeah, right.

Well, yeah, yeah. You know, a drunk guy costs your family on the street. Krav Maga is pretty good. Yeah. Okay. You know? Fair. I mean, picking up a rock and hitting someone in the head is pretty good

right i mean it's it's good if you're gonna get in a street fight one-on-one with somebody which is pretty stupid thing to do then inevitably it's gonna go to the ground right and so i because i wrestled for 10 years i've never had a problem getting something to the ground if it went to that when I was younger and stupid, you know, but, uh, you know, as far as practical, if I was, if I was concerned with self-defense, I would train, you know, a year of Krav Maga and I would train a year of, uh, jujitsu or two, three, or it really takes like three years to where it's like, did you train Krav Magguffin no no because i don't fight right i don't want to get in a fight i have no interest in getting up i used to do that shit all the time when i was younger where were you born anymore uh new orleans and were you raised

there no i was raised in vegas oh wow i'd spend summers back there but yeah that's how dana and i uh are friends we've known each other when i grew up in vegas it was very very small very small how um and how old were you when you moved to vegas from new orleans oh like two and uh you moved there with your mom and your dad yeah are they are your mom and dad still around? My dad passed a few years ago. My mom's around. She's still in Vegas. And, and, and what, what was growing up for you? Like, I, I, I know your junior year, you departed from high school to go to a, um, bad kid school.

What are they called? They have a nice name for it. Reform school. It was called opportunity. It was called opportunity school. Yeah. Um, tell me about, uh, first, second,

third, fourth, fifth grade, normal kid, um, you know, learning how to write cursive math, enjoyed school.

I mean, you know, I grew up in Vegas, right? Las Vegas. My family's Sicilian. Do the math, you know,

upbringing is, is, uh, English. Are your parents immigrants? Emily Sicilian. Do the math. You know, did you do an upbringing? Is, is, uh, English. Are your parents immigrants? No, no.

My grand, my grandfather was born in Sicily. So my, both sides of my family are for, from Sicily. My mom's family, but Russo and Gulo, my side,

they come through Ellis Island. You know? Yeah. Wow. I had to research all that so I'm a lawyer I went Ellis Island's that Statue of Liberty right yeah I think yeah yeah yeah that's where my that's where that's where I think my grandparents came through too go on sorry so you researched it yeah so I I'm a lawyer I got my uh when I went back to after, graduating at UNLV, I, uh, went back to new Orleans and I was living there

and, um, ended up getting married. And when my wife got pregnant and then I was like, I'm going to have to do something to raise this family. So I went to law school and I also got my MBA from Tulane. And so, you know, being a lawyer, my daughter, uh, like five years ago, met a Brit and married a Brit and moved to London. And I was like, man, I want to be closer to her, but I can't stay in Europe. You know, Americans can't stay in Europe, stay in Europe for three months. I think it is out of every, uh, 90 or something, whatever it is three months out of every six. And so I started researching it. Like, how can I stay in Europe? How can I stay in Europe? And I was talking to Chido's sister when we were down in Ecuador. And she told me, yeah, I think they were making travel plans for

Chido or something. And they, she showed me his Italian passport. He has an Italian passport and a Ecuadorian passport. And so I was like, how'd you get that? Because I knew how valuable a European passport was because the EU is like America. If you have an EU passport from one of those countries, then you can live, have free health care, travel, work, whatever you want to do anywhere in the eu right from switzerland to portugal to italy to you know poland wherever you want to live amsterdam france and you have health care you have everything taken care of and so i was like damn um no i'm not married i was married i'm not married heidi does jujitsu. Heidi does jujitsu. Oh, awesome. Heidi in Wisconsin and what's the, how's Wisconsin? You like Wisconsin? She's single.

All right. All right. Sorry. Very cold. I don't like the cold. So anyways, I started researching, I started researching, uh, um, this passport and, and I, oh, so I asked her, how did you guys get this passport? Because they all had it. And they're like, well, our grandfather was born in Italy. And so under Italian law, we were entitled to it. So I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. My grandfather was born in Italy. And so she's like, maybe. So I came back to America and I started researching, researching, researching the law, Italian law, started learning some Italian, figuring it all out, mapped it out and went back through the records of people. My grandfather coming into Ellis Island, found out when he came, found out when he my father was born, when he naturalized. naturalized. And long story short, the way it works is if it's just like, if you go to another country and have a kid, if you still have your American passport, if you're still an American

and you have citizenship, that kid's American, right? Now, if you stay in that country, you might need to do certain things to prove that when the kid was born, you still had your passport if you gave it up. Same thing happened with my father. So because when my father was born, my grandfather was still an Italian citizen, my father was born an Italian citizen, even though he didn't have a passport. And when I was born to an Italian citizen, I was born in, you know. So I just had to get all these documents together. Going back 100 years, his naturalization papers. That's when I went to Sicily.

I brought all the documents. I got them translated. It took a year and a half to get all these documents and get them all that. And went to the comuna in sicily and they're like what's the comuna comuna is like a town hall think of it as like a commune it's spelled like commune so comuna okay and um and so yeah so i went well actually that's not the way it works because Italian bureaucracy is staggering. The first thing they tell you, no matter what you want to do in Italy, especially Sicily, is ask for something.

You apply for something. The first thing they say is they look at it. They go, no. You're like, what? That's the default? Yeah. No. No. Every step of the way was no. No. No. You're like, what? That's the default? Yeah. No. Every step of the way was no, no, no. I had to get like a social security number in Italy, a codus fiscale. No, that took three fricking

weeks to get that. So every step of the way I had to register, I had to rent an apartment. No, you can't rent an apartment. I want to do this. I want to do that. No, no, no. And every step that I had to go through to finally submit my paperwork took months, three months. Then I went to the Camuna and I have my buddy who owns a gym there in Palermo, Vanguard. And so he's my translator. And we go in with the packet and I'm so happy. I'm like,

I got this thing. Here it is right here. This is it. I had this thing. It's full of all my documents. I'm like, man, this is my Willy Wonka golden ticket. I am so happy. I put it on the desk and I'm like, I did all this work. You know, I'm so happy. I slid it over to the lady. She looked at it all and she goes, no, you will never get Italian citizenship. We will not give it to you. You're not eligible. This is after a year and a half. I am moved to Sicily. I've got a motorcycle, which took forever. I've rented an apartment. I've got, I'm set up. Right. And she says, no. And I'm like, so I'm talking to my translator. I'm getting pissed off. He's like, calm down. This is Italy. Calm down. So she says, no.

So I went home and I was like, what, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? So I haven't, my aunt, I have family in Mondavale. That's one of the reasons I went there. I wanted to experience like where my ancestral family is from. And so I call my aunt who's from this little town, right? And her, her husband, my uncle, my Zio, Mia Zia and Zio, that's how you say it in Italian. So they're like residents there. And in the town hall, in the comuna, there's only four or five people that work there. And so she meets me down in the town center, right? And she's smoking a cigarette and she's loud. She doesn't speak a word of English, right? And at this point, I don't really speak a whole lot of Italian. So my buddy's

translating. But the moment she sees me, she grabs me, she hugs me, she starts crying. She's like, you look just like my father. I knew after he died that there would be a sign from heaven that he was still watching over me. And you're it. That's what she said. It was so cool. So emotional. And so she walked me into the Camuna, smoking her cigarette up the stairs of this freaking old ass building.

Looked like a communist building. And we go into the community. It was a fascist building. Very close. the stairs of this freaking old ass building looked like a communist building and uh and we go into the crash it was it was a fascist building very close yeah yeah mussolini at some point you know there's a lot of fascist buildings in uh in italy so um so she goes in there man and she starts fucking laying into everybody because all those people who worked there were students in grade school of her husband. And so she knew every one of them. That was it. I got my citizenship in seven weeks.

That is how Italy really works. Had you given up at that point? Did you think you were screwed? No, because I knew that there was a way. My philosophy in life is, okay, roadblock. I don't care. life is okay roadblock i don't care i don't care i don't care that is literally my philosophy with everything is that i can figure it out there's always a way so you have two passports now yeah that's awesome congratulations yeah so now yeah now when i like when i travel through europe I don't use my American passport ever.

And, uh, and your, and your daughter's still over there in the UK. She lives in London. Do you have any grandkids? I spend, you know, a good portion of every year, like three or four months of every year training over there. Jiu Jitsu is huge there, especially Nogi and, uh, in London. I love London. I just couldn't live there.

Do you have grandkids? It's too cold. No, not yet. Hopefully soon. And does her husband like you? Oh, we love each other. Yeah. He thinks I'm a psychopath.

He's very buttoned up, English, you know what I mean, into football. But he's a great guy. Yeah. You know what I mean? Into football. But he's a great guy. Yeah. I took him to a UFC fight in London.

I think it was last year. We had a great time. That's on my Instagram from last year. It was amazing. And that was his first UFC fight. And he was like, what the fuck? So everything's good between you and Dana? Everything's good. Yeah, it's always been good

we talk all the time you know people it's nice having a friend like that yeah people think that we had a rift and it's like the the thing was neither of us said that but media media says one thing the the shitty thing right now in the world is that there's no money for media anymore. There's too much media. And so everyone, every site, you know, considers themselves to be a news outlet when the reality is no one's really getting paid there. So all they turn out is clickbait. All it is clickbait, clickbait, clickbait. It's nonsense.

And so, you know... And they can say whatever they want, and they can have the FBI... They say whatever they want, and they can have the FBI come in and interfere too. But they have no journalistic standards in which they never contact you and say what's going on. They just put shit

out there. And it's like, it's not media. You're not even... If you're a media outlet, in the smallest bit you would fucking contact someone and say what's going on and ask for a quote the new york times bashed me did a nice little hit piece on me and they never contacted me once that's the new york times is one of the most highly regarded news sources in the world was them not to contact you yeah scumb insane yeah they're scumbags it's just it just doesn't make any sense it's just anyways let me ask you this then go ahead six

years ago you did an interview with shale uh son and uh ufc fighting legend and you talked about you did back then you guys were talking about how fucked up the media was and you're talking about how your experience with the media and the stuff people were writing. You're like, oh, I used to think that when I read something on the media, and maybe you didn't say this, but I'll say if it came from NPR, National Public Radio, okay, that's a non-biased, legit. And then you started realizing through this experience, holy shit, people will just say anything. Did you see that right away when the whole covid talk started coming out were you like you know i i what what's crazy is did you get tricked into that what here's what's crazy is that when i said that it was almost it was six years ago you were ahead of your time

it's very eerie because it it after that then trump got elected and all of this fucking false craziness that people started believing. It was almost like people were talking about flat earth. I'm going to go to the extreme. But this crazy fucking nonsense, I never thought in my life. Being a lawyer and going to an elite law school, you really are studying history, right? It's this history of power in a country. So you're studying important cases where power is transformed and transferred and shifts and morphs. And so, you know, studying so much constitutional law, I never thought I would see a day where one of the most important institutions

of a democracy is just absolutely laid to waste. And so, you know, when you had, we would bemoan the fact that there were three news channels on television, but the reality of it was at least they were, even at the local level, they were sourcing information and they were contacting people. They had money because there was money to go around to only three outlets. And so once we got to the point where anybody could just believe whatever it is they wanted to believe, it was the fucking, it's going to be the end of our democracy. I truly believe that. And it's, once I started to see again on Facebook with all these flat or I'm going to use that as an example, this flat earth nonsense. It just put it sent a shiver up my spine because the implications for that are just terrifying.

I mean, you have to have an educated electorate or else democracy doesn't work. terrifying i mean you have to have an educated electorate or else democracy doesn't work and people you know our media is owned by is owned by pharma i mean it's it's it's not it's not a conspiracy theory it you can just follow the money but i mean now it is but but the the real problem is people don't know how to think critically right right i agree if someone if someone if someone comes to me and starts saying something you know know, I'm a lawyer, I'm a trained lawyer. And so if someone comes to me and they start talking about X, Y, and Z, you know, I'm thinking like a judge. Okay, calm down. Tell me exactly what you mean. Now tell me your sources. Let's look at the sources. Let's see if the sources are credible. I don't want to hear about conspiracy theory.

I don't want to hear about how it could be. I only want to care about how it is. And if you don't have something to prove how it is, it's nonsense. The whole COVID laboratory leak thing. Yeah, it might be true, but we don't have proof. Where's the smoking gun? but we don't have proof where's the smoking gun i don't it's it to me it's irrelevant it's a theory right yes no i'm not saying it couldn't be and no i'm not saying it could be it's irrelevant until we get a smoking gun i don't want to hear that's the way i am with everything ufos same shit i love ufo theory i love it but let's see a smoking gun. OK, until then, we're having a debate. Right. It goes back to what you were saying about that mindset. So I give you the example. The first data that we had coming out of China for covid was that the was that the deaths were 65 and older men smoking for 30 years or more.

That was the highest demographic of deaths. And the second highest demographic deaths were the women who lived with those men. And then so really bad thinkers started thinking, oh, this thing killed old people. Well, age is just a correlate. It's not a cause. If you're 70 years old, you've had 30 more years to do bad shit than someone who's 40 years. And so you can't blame age. You can hold it out there and be like, okay, it's a a cause if you're 70 years old you've had 30 more years to do bad shit than someone who's 40 years and so you can't blame age you can hold it out there and be like okay it's a strong correlate but you still have no proof to this day there's never been a study about covid around age can you fucking believe that and and and and i just was like holy shit no one wants

to think critically about this i would post over over, show me one healthy person who's died. Over and over and over until I lost my account. I just wanted to see one. Just show me one. Yeah. And I was just – I was flabbergasted. I think the fear behind – But the Mushu mind, right, the fear.

The fear got in. No, but I think the fear i think the fear but the mushu mind right the fear the fear got in no but i think the fear i was training in seaside oregon and one of the uh one of my students there was a brown belt and he was a surgeon he was an er surgeon and he said you know the what people fail to remember is we are trying to we're not trying to protect them right we're not trying to protect them. We're not trying to protect people. We're trying to protect our emergency rooms. If our hospital beds get fucking overcrowded, then if you get in a car wreck, we can't take you. If you have a heart attack, we can't take you.

So that's what we're trying to prevent. I hear you. They needed you as president, though, to tell everyone how to eat. There was going to be the quarantine and the forced injection for kids is, in my opinion, absolutely the wrong way to do it. We needed Niccolo up there, Niccolo, to say, hey, motherfucker, stop eating sugar and control. I never thought I listen, man. I never thought that I would want to be president or could be president. And I still don't think that.

But compared to what Trump, the way he handled it. Yeah. I think it was a fucking disaster. We lost what? 1.2 million already people, whatever. I don't want to talk about COVID or politics because you know what, when I, let me tell you something. When I was over in, when I was over in Sicily, one of the greatest things was I didn't hear, have to hear about people's politics for a year. I didn't have to hear it because if they were talking politics in Italy, I didn't understand it. Right. And there was no one over there talking about, uh, about American politics. The only thing they got a good president over there, a prime minister, that woman's good. Yeah. I don't know anything about it. And I don't know. And so, so the, the, the one thing they would ask me that they could not believe was that we actually have to pay for healthcare. They would say, isn't America the richest country in the, not only in the world, but the history of the world? How is it that you pay for healthcare? And they were like, well, how much do you pay for healthcare? I'm like, I don't know, 600. They're like, what if you have a family? I'm like, I have some families that I know that pay 1500 a month. And they just could not imagine. And it was like that every single country I went to in the EU, I would have the same conversation. That's the first thing they ask. And then they would just laugh and shake their heads. They're like, man, you guys got a raw deal.

And so everyone that I know, knowing so many athletes, you know, who train jujitsu and have injuries and different need different surgeries. I have a friend in London. She just got a complete knee reconstruction, got it immediately. Top of the line healthcare, didn't pay a dime, no deductible, no prescriptions, no nothing. And they pay the same tax rates that we pay. So that whole nonsense, what you learn is that whole nonsense about socialized medicine being bad. That's because like what you said, pharma and insurance companies own the media. They own, they don't own the media they own the narrative

and that's pretty clear from this like disinformation campaign against nationalized health care that we've had in this country for the last 30 years i think that's starting to slip a little bit with the with information finally getting out there but you know i i have a i have a different perspective on it but but i but i don't want to lose you because i um uh we're an hour and a half living in a having lived in a country where i have to pay for health care here and i lived in a country where i have socialized medicine there i can tell you right now my experience is socialized medicine is 10 times better it's not even comparable.

Coming from one of the healthiest guys walking the planet today. Yeah, but there were times I had to get things done. I mean, you still have to get it done, you know? And I saw around me people that needed healthcare. Right. And so having lived, until I lived there, I don't feel like I really had an educated opinion. Fair.

You know, it was like, yeah, I'm just hearing things. How can I speculate about whether the food is actually better in Italy if all I'm eating is Italian food and American Italian restaurants? Until I go there and I eat the food and I live there, then I can say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's the reality. So when you were, I'm going gonna take us back to uh las vegas um how how old were you when um you and dana ran into each other do you remember

you know the first time i was 14 14 years old 15 years old something like that you guys were in just a class together no we just met each other i think we had i think our girlfriends were uh my girlfriend and his girlfriend were best friends and that's how we ended up meeting and uh and lorenzo fratita and i used to work out he's the the the backer and the owner of the previous owner of the uoc um and we used to work out in the same gym since we were like 12 12 13 so very small town we happened to live on like the west side of town and there were like two gyms you know two three gyms and we were both athletes and so you know so i would see him all the time and and was it just you guys just hit it off right away you just did typical stuff that 14

and 15 year old boys do went and snuck out of the house, met up with girls, went to parties. Someone got a driver's license. Got in fights. Complete idiots. Yeah. Same shit. Same shit. And how long did that – since then, you guys just stayed in contact? It's just been just one of those friends you kept?

Yeah, but – Do you keep a lot of your friends? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, a lot of my – in regards regards to Dana for a while, because I was in the South, you know, I, um, I was in Florida and so, and I was a, I was a general contractor after I got out of school. I wanted this to get into construction. So I did that. And, um, and so I was out there in like a luxury, like resort town, but it's still rural, rural, rural Florida, very difficult to travel in and out.

Um, and so he would tell me, come on, come to a fight, come to a fight. And I was like, man, I don't like fighting. That's like pit fighting. It's the most idiotic thing. I have no interest in that shit. And I even remember back in 1999 when he was training Lorenzo, um, with in boxing. And, um, after he had come back from Boston and, um, we were on Lorenzo's private jet and, uh, they, Lorenzo showed me a picture or he and Dana were there and they showed me a magazine and it had MMA in there. And they're

like, yeah, we're thinking about getting into this. And I was like, that is the stupidest idea I have ever fucking heard in my life. And so I should be on Shark Tank because I can advise people on good ideas with my track record. And so, uh, I was like, man man that is the dumbest thing i've ever heard of and uh and after that i had my first i've trained with uh with dana he's like come on over to the gym like another day and uh at ufc gym or what is nat what became ufc gym uh where the headquarters were um and that was about the same time and i did my first jiu-jitsu lesson and uh with dana and so yeah with john lewis who was a black belt under bj penn and so i did the classes at the at ufc at that time john lewis yeah yeah that was like back in the day there were no classes and

there was no ufc that was before they bought it that was when they're that was like an exploratory phase 1998 i think that was yeah i think that was even before dana was even managing tito it was and so he was really in the boxing world and i think the idea that they had was let's get into uh boxing promotion that'll be cool because you know we were all into boxing we love mike tyson this thing with ufc was so weird i mean ufc one was a was a freak show wasn't a sports competition i mean it was of course it was but it was it was more spectacle than sport and so um so my thinking was i don't have any interest in that i don't want to watch a fight it's just drunken guy you know my that was my conception and so then when i did jujitsu with him um i mean look at that oh i remember that's from ufc one that's when the guy kicked

that dude's tooth out or something right Right. Dude. How awesome is that? I mean, as you know, I'm not dogging it for entertainment value. I think the entertainment value is, was greater at this point than what it became in the 1990s before they, they turned it around. I think at this point in the mid nineties,

I, I, I don't, I never watched one and I don't want to. And, and, but so when I remember Jane remember Dana and I did jujitsu for the first time, and I was like, I'm not interested in that, man, no way, I wrestled, I'm not interested in getting back into that world, and jujitsu was very different then, it was very basic, it was, you know, it's so advanced right now, It was so advanced when I started, I, you

know, joining and learning under the Mendez brothers, you know, they advanced jujitsu. They were at a time when the sport became so technical, it became so technical, so fast that at that point I was talking to, uh, to, uh, Guy Mendez about that a couple of days ago. And I was like, do you remember when the gym, our gym first opened when AOJ first opened at that was a point when there was a tremendous amount of debate within the jujitsu community of what is real sport jujitsu? What's real jujitsu? What can you use on a street? What's more practical versus sport jujitsu. And, uh, that debate doesn't happen anymore. Everyone knows that debate more practical versus sport jujitsu. And that debate doesn't happen anymore.

Everyone knows that debate is nonsense within the jujitsu world, you know, within the jujitsu world. And why is it nonsense? Because what you've, what you've realized is those guys who only train sport jujitsu or, or self-defense jujitsu can't even go in a tournament like ADCC, which is more wrestling and grappling and everything except hitting, but more geared towards that kind of a thing. They can't compete in that either. They get smoked.

A guy from, you don't learn proper things in jujitsu. I go into self-defense gyms. Even as a blue belt from Mendez Brothers, I've gone into self-defense gyms, even as a blue belt from Mendez brothers, I would go into, I've gone into self-defense gyms and choked out black belts like this. That should never happen. You know, and not from someone who at that time was 45 years old, you know, shouldn't be able to go in there and smoke a cup and not, not easily, not like smoke them. I mean, like going, dude, what are you doing? so for these self-defense gyms they just don't learn anything it's it's just nonsense hey is that weird when that happens

is that embarrassing is that like i got on the back of a i got on the back of a of a of a instructor at a gym it was his gym and i looked up and all his students were watching and I just let him go. I was like, I'm not, I'm not interested in, in embarrassing anybody in life. That's not my thing. Right. You're a good dude. You are a good dude. Well, how did Lorenzo make his money? You said you were on his jet. His family owned a station casinos oh his father started

uh like station casinos and he and his brother um were just geniuses behind it and they didn't screw they didn't screw it up like a lot of kids could have they took it and and made it no because they became very very it was important to their father that they become very educated i think frank the older brother went to usc and uh you know lorenzo went to nyu business school and got his mba so no i want to show go ahead no you go ahead sorry there's a picture of um you in a private plane going to Alaska, and I wanted to ask you – this has got to be one of the biggest private planes I've ever seen. Is this someone – did you know someone had a private 737? I mean that was UFC. Will you – it's down at the bottom of the last page, Caleb. It says private 737.

page uh caleb it says private 737 this is a this is um this is a crazy plane isn't it hard once you fly private to ever go back um you know the size of that fucking plane it's amazing it's amazing yeah it's it's not it's not something um i think the thing that i miss like this is a private plane right yeah private jet i mean i've been in a lot of private jets i've never been on one that has artwork on the wall i mean it's like and a bathroom and a shower and everything else so you know the thing about i don't i don't care i'm part of my, of, of stress and not having a lot of stress and reducing stress in my life is I love to live a, it's important to me to live a very minimalist life. And so at this point, I haven't had a place that's like really my own that outside of Sicily for, uh, um, I don't know, three years. And so I, I travel with very little, I like the Steve jobs philosophy of, you know, you only need

a couple of shirts, a couple of pairs, the same pair of pants, whatever it is. Henry Rollins was like that too. And, um, so, you know, as far as luxuries and traveling and I value instead of things, I value experiences, you know, and I value freedom. And so I don't want any, I don't have any debt. I don't have any bills. I don't have, you know, I don't want any of that shit. And so there's this temptation to say, I need this, I need this. And private jet is, is no different. You know, I have a friend, I have many friends, many, being an attorney, you know, in consulting and, and, and working with wealthy people a lot in my career. Um, I know many people who have private jets. It doesn't make you happy. You know, it is a

convenience. What I enjoyed most about it is I don't have to wait in line. I can't make you happy. You know, it is a convenience. What I enjoyed most about it is I don't have to wait in line. I can get to the plane. No TSA. Yeah. The plane takes off when we take, when we're ready to take off, you know, obviously they got a wheels up time, but still there's some flexibility there. You know, you're not waiting in line. You're getting offline. Customs is quicker. It's all that. But you know what? Internet's better. Yeah. But I travel, I travel the world, man. It's that's the, that's the, the best part, you know, a hundred years ago, my, my grandfather could never travel anywhere. I don't even think from Palermo or from Monreale, which is like eight miles to, you know, I thought about this

a lot when I was in Sicily, I would go look and stand out on my balcony and look at the sea and look at the city of Palermo from the mountain. And it was gorgeous and beautiful. And I'm like, my grandfather had this very view, but it's doubtful that he ever, before he immigrated at 10, ever even saw the, the, the sea. He probably never saw it. He never was there. He only saw it from that mountaintop. So, you know, we live in an age of, of luxury and we have so much at our fingertips. And so I, you know, I'm just grateful. I try and be grateful. I have a great gratitude practice where I'm every day. I'm like, what am I grateful for today? You know, what do I have my health? Number one, you know what I mean? I have a lot of friends I have, you know, when I go through this list every single day, you know, let's look at this other, uh, right above the private jet, uh, post there's this post on your

Instagram, which is just so awesome. Um went to kelly slater's wave pool yeah i was one of the first people to surf it man i had a friend who just went there and it was cost him a fucking small fortune it's expensive 50 000 if not more yeah yeah they basically did that basically did that. A buddy of mine went there. Girl I know went there and she surfed the pool. And I think that's what she said. It was like $50,000. And she said it was amazing. And she says, you basically get like, I forget what it is, three waves an hour. And if you fall off, that's your wave. She says, but you can wait. If you fall off, you can wait for the next one to come. And if the guy's falling off of it, you can get

on it. When I went, it was, it was a private group. So we had more waves than that. Okay. So yeah. How incredible was that experience? It was, especially because the pool had just really open. And so, uh, you know, there hadn't been a lot of people that surfed it. So I was, again, I'm grateful. I mean, for me, the universe, if I, if I can leave myself, if I can be clear in my head with my intentions and try and live a motion mind, to me, the universe just provides opportunities. And I don't question them. I just go with it. Shit doesn't work out on one path, I go down another.

Hey, is there anything scary about being in that pool? I know I saw from the images and videos I've seen, there's basically something that looks like a train that travels along and pulls all that water. Is there anything in there where they're like, hey, don't touch the bottom? Are there any rules in there where you're like, dude, better be careful if you touch the bottom, you're dead? No, but it's just a different experience because usually a wave is pushing you from behind, you know, where you're, it's pushing towards the shore. That train is on your left hand or right hand side, and you're paddling in right next to it. So the wave is coming from that side. And so it's really kind of a sideways current and it's just very, it's very different and so it takes you're gonna fall a couple for me you're gonna fall a couple ways see how weird it is kind of a weird

wave right there um but it's amazing it was one of the coolest experiences of my life yeah very very cool yeah that's absolutely i could watch that all day man that is beautiful so i was uh what's really cool is after um i was in sicily for what was it like eight nine months and then i was like all right i want to travel and so i just traveled i got a backpack and i just traveled europe man i had one backpack i had one pair of jeans. I had three pairs of underwear, three pairs of socks, and I would just hit the road. And I just was teaching seminars. I'd go to country on my, luckily for me, people, enough people know me in the jujitsu community to where I would just put out there. I'm con I want to come here. Does anybody want to do a seminar? And so I would go there. They'd put me up. I would, you know,

I'd stay there. I would try and stay there for a few weeks so I could experience what it was like in this country to be a local. And, um, and I, luckily I was able to go, I went to Rome. I was there for a while with my, uh, with a friend there. And then I went to Portugal and I was in Portugal for a while and I got to surf again. I had not surfed, although I could go to the beach and, uh, which I did often in Sicily, but to go to Portugal and start surfing again. So I got to surf, uh, Portugal. I got to surf Spain and I got to surf beer. It's France. It was incredible. Incredible, man.

There's a picture of you with an IV bag uh backstage at um ufc is this is this real and what happened what caused that because dana and i got really drunk oh we were drinking tequila that night and we went shot for shot like i think that was last time i really drank and and and did that and that sobered you up didn't sober me up it was the next day i was completely sober i was just hung over and does that work yes it brought me back to life i honestly felt like i was gonna die back then look at that 2013 holy shit crazy yeah that's probably the last time i really put one on i was like no, no, I am done with that, man. Do you drink at all now?

Yeah. I try and drink every single day. Okay, good. But I have, but for me, I say that in jest. For me, drinking is, I have like a glass of red wine. I enjoy a glass of red wine when I'm cooking. I love the cook. You don't feel committed to finishing the bottle just because you opened it.

See, you know what, man, there, I have so many friends that are sober and the sad fact of it is, I think there's such a huge genetic component to it that I've never, I heard flea talking about this from the chili peppers and you know, Anthony is sober and for Shanti is sober. And those guys, you know, I've, I've, I've read, uh, Anthony's, um, biography and, and it's horrifying what that addiction did to him and the pain that it caused him, you know, and trying to wrestle with that and get that under control. And I, Flea was asked, I think by Rick Rubin, or maybe it was on Mark Maron. I don't remember which one it was, but it was, he was like, you know, because Mark, it was on Mark Maron and he's like, Mark's sober, you know?

And so Mark was like, well, you know, you did heroin and you did this. Did you ever feel compelled to do it again? And he's like, no, I didn't. He said, I would do it. I've never done it two days in a row. And I've never, I was more enticed by the feeling that I got from playing basketball. And if I got, if I was high, then I couldn't play basketball. And that's the way life has been for me. Yeah. I've done drugs. I've smoked crack. I've done cocaine. I've done every single drug there is heroin. You name it. I want, I'd like to experience things, but luckily for me, like flea, there were, I think it was a genetic component to where I just didn't have that bug.

He didn't have that bug, you know? And, uh, but it's, I, I, I have empathy for people that have it. And those people that have it have got to manage it. Like it's like it's cancer that could come back at any moment. And it's very like our mutual friend, Paul. I mean, he came back from the dead. Yeah. And it's not fair for us who don't have it to sit there and say, why don't you just quit? Right. What a fucking asshole thing to say. Right. I want you to quit. You think food's the same way? Cancer. You think food falls into the same category? Like, do you want to think about obesity? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if food does. I think that, you know, we all, food is very different and people have food addictions. I think the difficulty with food and sex is that those are things that we need to do to have a

healthy life. We don't need to do to have a healthy life we don't need to do drugs or alcohol yeah you can't you can't quit food you have to dance if food's your devil you still have to dance your whole life with the devil so you know i think that that that there's a it's a much more difficult road to because i deal with that with people and if when you're triggered and we go into fight or flight, right, we all do every day through little things, road rage, whatever it is, things that scare us. I think that at some point we need to start understanding our trauma and dealing with and getting down inside of our heads and saying, why? Recognizing first that I'm triggered,

understanding what happens when we get triggered. And once we get triggered, there's like a 20, 30 minute window of time in which the front of the brain stops pretty much working, right? And so we almost lose our free will. And so what is it, right? It's what happens. That's the way we survived in the wild. Our brains evolved. There were millions of years. We are prisoners of our brains, right? I always tell people, your brain is not your friend, right? Your brain pumps out 40 to 60,000 thoughts a day. Did you think of all those on purpose? Right. So what is thought, you know? And so I think at some point we have to become like a master of who we are and start digging into our brains and saying, you know, why first I'm triggered, what's happening when

I'm triggered and then start learning coping mechanisms to bring us out of, once we're in a state of discomfort, we will relieve that discomfort. It will fucking happen. We have to. And so, you know, some people, they go to alcohol or drugs or whatever it is. For me, I like to work out. I work out. That's what I do. That's what I've always done. I like to work out. I work out. That's what I do. That's what I've always done. Like Flea plays basketball. That's what he does. He's always done. So with food- And some people eat. That's right. Circling back to it. So I think, you know, when I'm dealing with clients who want to lose weight, you know, we have to get into that. We have to be like, dude, what is it that's

triggering you when you're feeling these feelings? Like I have to eat this. What happened? I work with them on journaling. What happened before then? What happened before then? And when you feel this, you know, we need to take some steps to bring you out of the fight or flight, because if this is neutral on an RPM meter, which is our stress level, and it goes just this much, you're still in fight or flight to a degree. You're still starting to lose your ability to think. And so it's a spectrum. It's not on or off. Oh, I'm all fight or flight.

I'm about ready to kill someone. That's not it. Once you're a little bit triggered, you have that discomfort and you're going to relieve it. you have that discomfort and you're going to relieve it. So, um, yeah, it's, it's food is tough because we learn, all of us learn to cope with food, you know, the Rotola brothers, were they students of yours? No, I was students of them. I was just with Ty like two days ago. There's a picture of you and your grown-ass man and their little kids oh yeah yeah training with them i think ty was the speaking of ty was the uh the first one to ever toehold me when he was like eight years old or nine years old

yeah look at those kids man in case no one knows i took that. In case no one knows, I took that picture. In case no one knows, these are now regarded as, and they always were, regarded as two of the greats of jiu-jitsu. Really remarkable what's happened in the last year with them. I mean, they're- They're coming into their own in a big way. Yeah, I love those kids, man. No, I was students of them. They always were. yeah i love those kids man no i was students of them they always were since i met them they were at eight years old they were black belts in their understanding of jujitsu you know and their

techniques and it's unparalleled uh products of aoj also yeah and then they they left and they trained started training with uh andre galvao which was our sister school down in san diego nuts look look at these lunatics yeah i've never even seen a skateboard like that it looks like a circle that thing's crazy that thing is crazy psychopaths man they're so crazy yeah they've never been to school all they've done is homeschooled you know and been professional jiu-jitsu athletes since they were three. So, yeah, it's amazing. Absolutely nuts. What happened to – I saw you post that Orlando passed away.

What happened to Orlando? I don't know. We don't know. I have no idea. I'm so sorry. It's crazy. I know he battled with with you know addiction issues also man i don't know if that was if that was it or not paul would probably know i don't know

i saw he was introduced to me via you know the internet i never met him in person but um i think i saw him uh wrestling with luke rockhold once and i'll never forget that. I just remember, wow, this guy Orlando is gnarly. I would grapple with him and I'm like, Orlando, I fucking could be your dad. Calm down. You're too big and I'm older than you.

He would go knee on belly and one time I was like, that's enough. That's enough. Stop. You're fucking 400 pounds, man. And that's okay. That's okay to do that. That just requires humility on your part. Like that's an important part of the, uh, of the training. Like, Hey, I tell everybody my body, my rules, right? I'm going to take that me too. Shit. My body, my rules. I decide what, who I roll with, when I roll, no one tells me who to roll with and they never have. I'm like, man, my rules, I decide who I roll with, when I roll. No one tells me who to roll with, and they never have.

I'm like, man, I don't roll with Paul. Our friend Paul, who was on this podcast, he's on the banned list forever. Oh, yeah, he's really aggressive, right? I'm a gorilla. I don't know what he is, man. Oh, we call him Rhino, so he's a Rhino. A Rhino is, yeah, dude, you're going to get that horn at some point very quickly. So no, I, I, I've always treated, you know, being older, I've, you know,

I really stress for myself longevity. And so I don't roll with anybody. I don't feel comfortable. I don't like rolling with lower belts. I don't like rolling with anybody who's even, you know, 15 pounds more than me. I don't care. And if people don't like it, fuck you, you know? Right, right. I appreciate that. Someone told me when I said that I was talking about that on a podcast and someone responded back.

He was like a gym owner and he was like, yeah, but you know, jujitsu is supposed to work against all these different weight classes and blah, blah, blah. And I said, listen, man, I only spar for one reason. One reason do I spar and that's to get ready for ready for a competition. Because from my, at my gym with the competitors, sparring is irrelevant. You're supposed to lose when you spar, right? You're supposed to, you don't prove anything by winning during sparring if you want to prove something go compete there's for everyone in the world there is a weight class a belt division and an age division perfect for you so if you're not competing and you have something to prove go do it one of the and that and that shut him up he's like oh okay okay yeah

well it's so true and it's it's i think it's um it's it's probably it's funny it's probably true on both ends of the spectrum as you get older and really young but one of the first tournaments i ever took my kid to i think he was five and you know i mean it's jujitsu he'd been doing it for a couple years but it's just five-year-olds right and he won his no gi and he won his gi class and he was so excited because he was so scared he won all his matches and he won his gi class. And he was so excited because he was so scared. He won all his matches. And then at the end of the tournament,

they had a kid who there wasn't someone in his age or his weight. And I had never been to a tournament. I didn't know shit. And they had walked up to my wife when I was doing something else. And they said, hey, there's a kid who doesn't have a match. Can your kid go against him? And it was a six-year-old who was 10 pounds more. And he just smashed my kid and made him cry in the first five seconds

and ruined the whole fucking tournament for him. And I wish i just would have been there and been like hey uh no no yeah like i know i don't do i did open division one time and uh that's where all the weight classes combine and to see who can win right obviously favors whoever's the fucking biggest it's ridiculous and so um so i did it one time and i my won my first match someone like 30 pounds heavier my next opponent came up like to the mat and he was like 320 pounds and i was like nope and they were like you don't want to wrestle you're not gonna you're in the tournament i'm like i don't care i'm not fighting that dude. There's no fucking way. Right. There's no way.

So, yeah, I really stress. And with children, you know, I teach a lot of kids jujitsu. Jujitsu is like surfing. The worst thing you can do with a kid is take them into the ocean and let them experience a wave that is too big. Hold on. Sorry. And ruin the whole and ruin it all for them. and let them experience a wave that is too big. Hold on, sorry. And ruin it all for them. You don't just ruin that day. Now you've given them a trauma in their brain where they go into fight or flight

and they associate the ocean with being terrible. And it could take years to get over that, if ever. Hey, I saw the movie Jaws. That movie Jaws, i've never got over it right i don't think anyone does you see that movie once and you're fucked right it's crazy so yeah i mean it's the same thing with jujitsu or anything with your children our job as parents you know being a parent myself is you know we have to shield our kids from trauma. I mean, that's our job and it's hard. It's fucking insanely hard, but we have, that's, that's our goal, you know, in jujitsu is the same

and coaches should know that they should know that, you know, Nick, um, the, the first book you finished isn't in print anymore. Is there, is it ever going to come back in print? I think so. I, I'm, I want to bring, it's like a hard, it's like a coffee table book, but I think what I'll do next is work with a publisher and bring it out in like a really pristine, I don't know how it works because publishing like I did with the first book, you know, when there was, when it was new and there was a greater demand, you know, publishing only works at scale. So if a publisher, they only have so many slots that they can sell a book. And so if they can't sell, you know,

like 100,000 copies, whatever it is, a certain number of books, it's not worth it to them. They're too big. Their supply chain only works, you know, when they get this kind of an order. chain only works, you know, when they get this kind of an order. And so with most of the time, that's not an issue because there's Kindle now and you have print on demand. The difficulty with my book is because there's photographs and there's, and writing, you need to have it printed really nice. And so, um, I don't know how likedemand printing for a coffee table book would work so i'll start um start researching that and put it together because a lot of people are asking me maybe i'll update a chapter or two i don't know i i bought the um digital version it doesn't do it justice but i'm still glad i got it it's called into the cage rise of ufc nation what about um

arc zone did arc zone ever get published i was looking at arc zero arc zero sorry arc zero yeah so zero arc zero is a sci-fi series and novel and i got a publishing uh offer in september and to be honest i told them i have to get that was at a point where i was so i was traveling so much in europe i was like i cannot make a momentous decision like this right now i need to get back in the united states is it done is the series done is it complete no no the book is the first two books are done okay and so um so i that'll be my first order of business i'm still everything still chaotic. I'm still just staying with a friend right now. Look at my shit behind me. I know, I love it.

People see that and they're envious of it. People who know what you're doing, like I'm 53 and I have young kids. I'm on the other end of the spectrum as you, but I lived that life and that's a good ass life you're living, man. Yeah, I like it because being older now, I can appreciate it even more where I'm like, I was caught in the matrix for so fucking long, you know, having to raise a

kid, financial responsibilities that now I don't have any of that, you know, and I just, luckily, I can consult with people and consult with clients and, um, that I don't have to really worry about, you know, being tied down and I'm not, and I'm no longer thinking I'm no longer of the mindset, which we all go through when we're younger of, I would be, I'd be, I'd be so much happier if I had a Range Rover. I'd be so much happier, you know what I mean? If I had a boat, if I had this, man. I used to live in a house, you know, that was like, I don't even know how many bedrooms it had. I don't know.

On a lake, two blocks from the ocean, ocean views. I had five cars, boat. I'm never more miserable in my life. You know, meet a man with a boat, meet a man with a boat, just a man with shit. Right.

You know, because everything it's, I love the, the saying that, you know, you don't own your things, your things on you. And for me,

that was very true. Yes. I agree. So when is that? When, when is, when are we going to see, when is your next project coming out

is it going to be arc zero and where can uh yeah yeah i mean that that's already done so that'll just be me getting situated with wherever i'm going to live i don't you know being in europe i had the idea it was really an exploratory thing for me. And so when I was in Europe, I was thinking, okay, I'm going to live in Europe full time. I want to get my citizenship. I want to do that. When I was over there, I realized, cause I, that's why I went to all these different countries. Cause I was like, where will I want to live? Where will I want to live? And a few people said to me, you know what, when you find it, you'll know it. And I didn't find it, frankly. And so everywhere I went, I was like, this is really cool. Could I live here full

time? No way. And so I wanted to come back here for, cause winter in Europe is rainy and cold anywhere you are, even Portugal is rainy and cold. And I don't do well with that. And so I was like, I'm going to come back to California. I haven't been in California for three years. And so I wanted to come back to California, train at AOJ for the first time in three years, getting ready for Nogi Worlds. I wanted to try and win Nogi Worlds again. And so I came back and the feeling of, oh, this feels so good. This feels so good. I wanted to leave California because I wanted adventure, but I've always loved it here.

And so being back in- You live in a good-ass spot too. It's clean. It's clean. Great weather. Ambitious people. Perfect weather. Perfect weather.

So I just don't know if I'm going to. I'm going to spend some time. I have a friend with a guest house up in Brentwood going to i'm going to spend some time i have a friend with a guest house up in brentwood oh i'm going to spend some time up in brentwood i know it's hard to complain right yeah yeah i know where brentwood is yeah cool yeah and so um i'll be decide i'm going to decide over the next few months if i want to stay when you're in brentwood will you go to um uh team alpha male I'll go to Team Alpha Males in Sacramento right but I mean kind of kind of close right I mean 30 minute drive too far Sacramento

yeah from Brentwood oh which Brentwood are you talking about Brentwood oh I was thinking of Brentwood sorry I was thinking about Brentwood up in the Bay Area you're talking about Brentwood like Bel Air Brentwood right yeah okay okay okay okay i thought you're talking about like out in the country out there by okay okay no i don't do rural and so so no um so no i'll be up in brentwood i'll be training at maraqui which is my uh kenny florian used to own that gym okay jason hunt has it and so i'll be training there and training people there and i'll be i got a vintage motorcycle as soon as I got back and a triumph. And, uh, so I'll just be kind of cruising, but I'm going to decide between, I think Newport, which I love because

my friends are here and the gyms here and Carlsbad somewhere like that. I love it. Yeah. I'm a surfer, you know, I want to surf. I want to hang out. I want, I want to enjoy life, you know? And so I think what I'll end up doing is, um, spending, you know, like four or five months, six months of the year here, and then traveling the rest, go to London for summers and spend fall, maybe somewhere, I don't know, maybe spring I'll send spend in Europe. You know, I'll probably spend a month every year in Sicily still on my, I got a lot of friends there. And, uh, and, um, and then after, but after I make that decision circling back, that's when I'll decide on what my next project is going to be. I anticipate before COVID happened.

Um, I was starting to write a fitness book and put all this together. COVID happened and exploded all of our lives, right? For me, I exploded all of our plans. For me, it gave me a better plan because the plan was just travel. And I, it's been incredible. I'm a different person. Um, so I'll probably, I anticipate that I'm going to do a fitness book and just talk about, you know, that really addresses all of the things that we've gone over. I want to leave with this and let everyone know, and everyone knows I detest this word influencer or like YouTuber or these types of words, because I think that they should be a byproduct of who you are and not aspirational goals. byproduct of who you are and not aspirational goals. But this guy that you're looking at here, Nick, the tooth is really truly an influencer and you'll go to his Instagram account. And he's an influencer because there's things that you're going to see that he posts there. It's just his

life. You're going to see him getting in an ice bath and you're going to hear him talking about how he thinks it increased his testosterone levels. He's going to talk to you about the way he eats, the way he experiments with his body, the way how he stays healthy. But he's not doing any of it. He's not trying to peddle you anything. He's just, it's part of his craft. It's what artists do.

He uses the platform as just a way to express himself. There's no fancy post with like branded shit. It's, man, you're the real deal and i and i really appreciate you coming on and i look forward to our paths crossing again you're a wealth of information i feel like we got a good i feel like we got a good uh kind of a painting here swath of of what it's what what uh healthy successful uh well-balanced um man but who still can live life on the edges and the fringes, uh, at 53 years old. I bet you 99% of, go ahead. I do want to say something that I don't know if

comes across is that the reality is if you want to, like for me, the greatest goal, the greatest success that we can have is achieving and realizing the life that we envision for ourselves, right? I do want to really emphasize that if you want to, for me, in the people that I am around who have achieved that, is that it takes a tremendous amount of dedication and focus and work. It doesn't take hard work. It just takes setting forth your goals, setting forth the small goals that are the small stones that are leading there and going through it. You don't have to do it with stress. You don't have to be sweating. You don't have to be, you just go there. You do it mindfully. You do it with emotion mind. You don't think about it. You just go through it. It's like when people are like, what if I don't

have motivation to go to the gym? I'm what's motivation the fuck is motivation you walk through the door just go walk through the door who cares what happens afterwards you know and so i really i can't emphasize that enough getting all like for us getting i think even watching the way you work out shows that i couldn't believe like when you show your weight training, it's the most peaceful weight training I've ever seen. Lightweights, mellow, but it's a practice for you, and yet no one can say it's not working because look at your body and look at your success in your discipline with jiu-jitsu. Your weight training is just a classic example of that.

That's how I try and treat my whole life. And it's, it takes work. It takes it, you know, to, to, to try and be Zen in every situation is not easy, but if you, if you, you know, it's taken me a long time. And so, um, if you can start to adopt those principles in your life, before you know it, your world is calm. Your world is what you wanted it to be. You know what I mean? So I really want to emphasize that you do have to do the work. It's not, I went to law school. I got my MBA. I, you know what I mean? It's none of it is just handed to you. Right. Yeah. Fuck you on the world. It's insane. Starting at 43. Brother, thank you so much for your time.

I know your time is very valuable. I know that you are a high demand guy. I appreciate it. I'm so glad I met Paul and that Paul pointed me in your direction. And thanks for responding to my DMs and all that and trusting your being to come on my show. I appreciate it. Oh, man. Thanks for having me. We'll have to do this again after I get situated.

I would love that. After I get situated, I'm about to start up my podcast again i'll have you on and we'll get it going bitching brother thank you so much and uh we'll be in touch okay take care ciao make the tooth gulo gulo okay i saw what you said rent went in the uh in the bay would still be 1.5 hours drive to uh sacramento okay fine i was just trying to show off a little bit fine busted busted i don't think it's you drive slow how about that i'll meet you in the middle 45 minutes max um oh cool Oh, cool. All right.

Sevan didn't want to break it to him that he won't go on. Go on where? This guy was Sevan when he was woke. Be nice. Be nice. Be nice. I'll have you on. No, you won't. I'm going to send him a book.

I'm going to send him a book. The book. I'm going to tell you guys the name of the book, too. You guys should all listen to the audio version or read this book. This is it. It's fucking. It's the it's the unfuck you book uh uh libertarianism

libertarianism libertarianism libertarianism I need to recommend this book more it's by uh who wrote it you guys it's David Boaz is that the guys is it's david boaz is that the guy's name i'm glad to have read it uh here we go here we go this uh here it is here

it is just get this book and listen to it just chill so chill i'm gonna i'm gonna um i'm gonna send it to him he doesn't know'm going to ask him for his address. Here it is. Libertarianism, a primer. What was I supposed to say? No, healthcare isn't free. I mean, I can't make a whole show. I don't want to fight with him.

I don't want to talk to him about it. But here's the thing. It's his experience. He had that experience, and it was good. So, you know, he had that experience, and it was good so you know he had that experience and it was good uh libertarianism by david boaz i promise you if you listen to this audiobook it will change your life you will be so so happy from the knowledge that you gain from the perspective you gain 100 uh great guy

that is a good ass life he's living he's doing that is he's freed himself he's freeing himself from the bondage of the world and when you do that you have endless energy and just happiness get your pink shirt

it's a little big on me normally a large fits me this is a large fits me. This is a large. Get it over at Vindicate. And, uh... Uh... Okay, that's it. I can't even think straight.

There's a game called K.Ll-a-s-k uh the creator of that game is coming on the show tomorrow it's a it's a it's a wooden game where you use magnets and hit balls around it's the most popular game in all of denmark it's taking over europe and the creator of it and the innovator of it is coming on the show tomorrow and i will see you then at 7 a.m pacific standard time okay bye