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I want to be a better Mr. Olympia.
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I want to enjoy it more.
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I want to enjoy the journey and be more present.
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And it always almost brings you back to your childhood.
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I pulled up a picture of me as a kid, but I remember looking at it backstage, like before getting on, and just starting to cry a little bit.
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I mean, like, if that kid could imagine being me right now, you know?
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He is your reigning, defending five-time Olympia champion, Chris Bumstead.
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When I won my first Olympia, all I felt was relief that it was over.
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I didn t really feel joy and happiness and all these things because there was a lot of stress around the Olympia that I was just suppressing.
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All these fears are in my brain right now, and I never even let them come up to think about.
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I would just put them down.
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Never spoke about it.
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And just letting that out, I just immediately felt better.
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But what people don t realize is that when you feel that pain, that shame and insecurity, that is that little boy.
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It s the same person.
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There s no separation there, you know?
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Wow, man.
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This is powerful.
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I m so happy that you re having this conversation right now.
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Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness.
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Very excited about our guest, the inspiring Chris Bumstead in the house.
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My man.
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Good to see you, man.
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Happy to be here.
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Very excited about this.
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And the thing that I m excited the most to talk about is the first thing you said when we embraced and hugged each other.
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Within a few moments, you said that you just got off a therapy call with your wife.
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And I was just like, I love this man.
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7 a.m.
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therapy call.
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I was like, what?
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7 a.m.
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therapy call.
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We re here in Vegas.
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And I was just like, I was so happy to hear this.
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One, because I ve been doing therapy for years.
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And when I talk about therapy with people, I really look at it as emotional coaching.
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It s really a coach that supports me in understanding and navigating my emotions, my feelings, my thoughts, and helps me improve who I am.
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And so when you said this, I just thought to myself, this is awesome, because
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you to most people are kind of the epitome of what a masculine man should look like, or that a lot of men are striving to.
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Yeah, Mr. Olympia, five time champion, you know, jacked, chiseled, strong beard, you re like, you re a man, right?
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bald now.
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But
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You talk, the first thing you said is you re going to therapy, which I m just such a big fan of.
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So can you tell me when did you first start going to therapy?
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Did you go alone ever?
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Or did you do it with your wife originally when you re dating?
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Or how did this start for you?
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I mean, I have a bit of a cheat code around the younger, because my mom was a social worker, not exactly a therapist, but she was very encouraging of getting help like that and therapy and all that stuff if you needed it.
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And I never really entertained it when I was younger, but it was more so when I started getting into the competitive bodybuilding world and going through a lot of pressure and stress and managing things.
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And then in 2018, I got kind of sick.
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And then in 2019, I was just kind of scared about being sick, and I was trying to balance competing.
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Should I?
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Should I not?
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My brain was just pulling me in all these different directions where I didn t know where to go.
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My mom always told me that a therapy session can just be like a sounding board sometimes to organize your own thoughts, whether or not the therapist is there to actually give you insight, it helps you find your own insight as well.
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It s almost like a cheat code of journaling, especially the crazier life you live.
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yourself traveling around doing podcasts, me bodybuilding, everything, it s sometimes it s hard to actually sit down and reflect inward about how you re feeling, what s going on, and what s not making you happy with me sad, vice versa, and how to manage your life in the best way.
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And therapy is a great way to just put all that on the table, organize your thoughts, and create a game plan for life to put yourself in the direction you actually want to be going, rather than just running around aimlessly.
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So that s really kind of how it started.
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My wife now, Courtney, was seeing a therapist when we were first dating and she reached out to me and she was like, you know, I can help you with some almost like performance coaching stuff, like you said.
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She got it to the right angle.
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Exactly.
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So like I can help you enjoy your Olympia more and be better at handling that pressure.
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And I m like, all right, that s got me, you know, that s got me hooked.
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I ll try it.
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And it was funny because.
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And I mean, I can give a lot of examples of this and other people I ve spoken to, too, but.
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You often go into therapy because of a problem in front of you or a stress about this or, you know, I want to be a better Mr. Olympia.
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I want to enjoy it more.
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I want to enjoy the journey and be more present and not be so stressed out about it.
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And it always almost brings you back to your childhood.
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And I m sure you ve done therapy.
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I know you ve experienced that.
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Everybody who s done real therapy with a good therapist, you know, it all goes back to your childhood.
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And I did a really cool podcast with some Navy SEALs.
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You talk about masculine, the biggest gangsters on the planet.
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These were tier one Navy SEALs.
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And they were talking about how they ve done some work as well.
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And almost all the Navy SEALs they spoke to, when they re going through their stuff, they expect it to be all their trauma from the war and losing their brothers and all these things like that, which obviously hurt them greatly.
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But a lot of their wounds come from their childhood too.
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and that be able to heal those allows them to move forward through all the other stuff they live through in their life too.
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So I started to notice that as well and it plays into every aspect of your life, your relationship, your relationship with yourself, everything.
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So we started
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performance-based, trying to be better at Olympia, and it slowly went back to my childhood.
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And I was like, I had the perfect childhood.
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My parents were still together.
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I was happy.
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I was good.
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I was good.
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I was great.
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And they were like, all right, sure.
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Let s try and unravel some things.
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And the more I unraveled, I was like, I still didn t have anything horrible happen to me, which I think a lot of people
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think you didn t have a big tea.
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Exactly.
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You can get hit in the face with a bat doesn t mean your head doesn t hurt.
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You know, like, it s hard to kind of tell people that because they think nothing ever happened to me, which is exactly how I felt.
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Yeah, you had loving parents.
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Yeah.
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You know, a good home and a safe environment and encouragement and all those things, right?
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Yeah.
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But what was the big wound, or a little wound that became big over time that you never addressed?
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A big one for me was feeling
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I guess not seen and not truly, like not fully like important and valued.
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And I kind of felt like a little bit on the back burner because my parents tried their best and they did amazing, but there was a lot going on in life sometimes.
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And, you know, my sister was going through a lot, who was older than me.
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And then I was the kid who was like, good at sports doing this and that.
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So I was all good.
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Like, don t worry about Chris.
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He s got it all together.
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He s got it figured out.
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He s good.
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You know, attention on, on your sister.
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Yeah, or the sister on this, on that, on everything else, because he s got it together.
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And I saw that.
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So I was like, okay, well, I m good at all this stuff.
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And I don t want to add stress to my family.
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So I m just going to hold it and handle it all myself, and kind of bottle it all down, compartmentalize and do my own thing.
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And, you know, I wasn t thinking that clearly like that when I was younger, but it s just naturally how you cope.
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You know, you build defense mechanisms, depending on your environment when you re young.
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So that was one of the ones I kind of did when I was younger.
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And to me, it was just normal.
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You know, I handle myself on my own.
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I don t really need a lot of connection.
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I don t really need a lot of intimacy.
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I m just very independent and I can do things by myself.
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And then older and older I got, I started to realize.
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partly in the Olympia, I bring a lot of stuff back because the Olympia has taught me so many things.
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But when I won my first Olympia, all I felt was relief that it was over.
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I didn t really feel joy and happiness and all these things because there was a lot of stress around the Olympia that I was just suppressing.
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And then my big story or lesson that I tried to share with people this year was that if you numb the bad, you numb the good.
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So as you numb your emotions, everything kind of gets dulled down.
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So I ve tried to process all that, move through it, and I d realize that as I compartmentalize everything in my life, I compartmentalize all the good too.
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Now it s kind of just suppressing all these feelings.
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And then you get older and stuff just starts to feel dim and sad and alone and all these things and you don t understand why.
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And it s because I ve created this environment where I don t let people help me or I don t ask for anything I need.
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I m just like, I ll help everyone before myself and then I m good on the side.
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And it leaves you kind of alone because everybody needs connection.
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So what was life like for you in your teens, early 20s and mid 20s until you started to dive into therapy?
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Was it always lonely and sad and depressing?
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Or were there good moments too?
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There were definitely
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good moments and it s almost hard for me to like communicate this sometimes but i really try to because i know i m not the only one who didn t have like this depressing childhood but i also expect a lot of like myself i don t want to just be like well i m good you know i want to be great i want to feel love and connection out and
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closeness and everything.
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I don t want to like drift apart from my wife in difficult times and all these things.
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I want to like understand and grasp and be the best relational person that I can be.
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So while I didn t really feel depressed or anything when I was young, I also didn t really feel like I had anyone that I could go out to and reach out to in hard times.
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And if I was scared or sad about something, there was someone who I could lean on or talk to.
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I just felt like it was normal for me to hold that in myself.
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And the reason it was tricky for me is because I knew that my parents did love me so much.
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And I did have people who loved me.
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And if I were to share with them, they would be there for me.
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But I just felt like it d be better to just hold it on myself.
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Because that s just the way I operate.
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Isn t that interesting?
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So you knew your parents loved you.
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You knew they would show up for you if you needed something.
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Yeah.
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But you didn t want to be a burden.
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Exactly.
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You didn t want to stress them out.
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So you didn t want to show them that you needed support or help, right?
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Yeah, exactly.
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Isn t that interesting?
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You know, it s funny.
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up about a 12 year age gap, I think.
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And so I grew up in the 80s and 90s.
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And I was never allowed to show emotion, cry, say that I was having a hard day without being made fun of or picked on or bullied or, you know, what other guys kind of just like picking on you and making fun of you.
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I was never really allowed to do that.
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So it took me until I was 30 years old until I started to do
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more emotional healing and reflecting on kind of these traumas, little traumas, big traumas, everything.
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And started to really release my emotions and heal them.
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And it s been a journey.
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But I love that you openly cry, you openly talk about your feelings, your emotions, and conversations like therapy, because we just didn t have that.
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10, 12 years before you, that wasn t available.
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Now it s becoming more available, and I m just so happy that guys like you are using your platform to express this.
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Yes, you re showing that you re like the most jacked human in the world, but you re also saying, hey, listen,
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I m willing to continue to improve on all areas of my life.
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And I really think of the ultimate man being someone who is emotionally evolved, not just holding their feelings in constantly and saying, I ve got to figure it out, mentally, constantly growing, spiritually growing, and relationally growing.
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And it sounds to me like you re making an importance
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to value all of those things, and financially as well.
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You re building your business, but you re telling me, like, I wanna make my wife and my relationship a high priority.
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So I m gonna go to coaching, you know, once a month or whatever, and work on this.
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I m gonna take care of my health, my nutrition, my mindset, my business, all these different things to become the most well-rounded man that I can be, not just strong,
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physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well.
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And I just think that s beautiful, man.
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Yeah, for sure.
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And I mean, as you grew up, you know, obviously, it s, it s so easy to have empathy for our past generations of why they had to be like that, you know, like, going through a lot harder times than we have right now.
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You know, we re lucky we re even on an opportunity to like, be able to like, search for our emotions and relationships, because there was a lot of going on.
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When our parents were coming up, they didn t have that opportunity.
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They had to kind of like get through some hard times.
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So obviously they were like that.
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And now for each generation to kind of like move through those pains and kind of beat the previous generation s trauma, it s difficult.
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But my parents, I think they still did a great job.
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Their parents were, I m sure, a lot more shut off than they ever were.
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And my parents did a really good job at trying to do the best that they could with me.
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And while I still left with a little bit of irks and pains,
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I also came with the strength and the knowledge to work on the myself and yes, enough belief in myself to do the work and understanding that I was worth doing that kind of work.
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So it was that you were worth doing the work.
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Did you not think you were valuable or worthy of doing that work beforehand?
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I don t think I ever really processed it that much.
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I think there were times where I didn t think I was worth putting stress on others by sharing how I was feeling.
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Like burdening them with your emotions.
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Exactly, yeah.
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But obviously,
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as you start to unravel relationships especially you learn it s not only is it not a burden but it s actually a privilege for the other person to receive that and it s very like hypocritical sometimes especially as a man you know you re like you want your wife to come to you in hard times and lean on you because you can support them but you don t want to do the same to them.
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It makes you feel special when they come when they need something and they re sad and they come to you for protection but you don t go to them so they re not going to feel as important either so
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It s a very much a give and take thing.
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And like you said, it s, I think it s very difficult in the masculine, in the way things are now.
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And I ve always, not always, I ve recently been trying to incorporate a lot better the masculine and the feminine energy within myself and just be better at that because it s, it s really easy for a man to just like focus, like
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I have a lot of bodybuilding going on, I have a lot of travel, I have business, I have all these things going on, a lot of things that s required of me.
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Sometimes it s easier to just shove everything down and go into work mode and be like, I m gonna provide for my family.
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Let s dominate.
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Yeah, let s fuck everything up.
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Let s fuck everyone up on stage.
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Let s win and dominate.
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Make some money, my family s never gonna need to work again, let s take care of them.
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But if they re missing me at home emotionally and through connection, then what s the point of doing all this work on the other side?
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You have to be able to balance both worlds together.
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Yeah, and this idea of balance, I think I even heard you talk about balance at one point where I look at balance more as alignment.
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I think people try to balance and navigate everything where it s more aligning your values, your vision, and your lifestyle in harmony with the people in your life, your health, your businesses.
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And sometimes you ll be out of balance of what the rest of the world looks like is balanced, but you ll be in harmony because you re communicating and you re working on those things in seasonal times.
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And so, man, that s so cool.
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Now, did you, did Courtney, your wife, did she inspire you to open up more about your feelings and kind of tap into the feminine side when you met her?
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Or was that before you met her?
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I think I ve always been a little bit of a softer male.
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I ve always been a little bit more emotional.
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I ve never been the intense, gritty, fuck everyone up kind of thing.
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I m at the Olympia, I m making friends with people, I m chill, I m here to win, but I m not gonna step on your throat.
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And I think, well, it s also cool with her, and she definitely inspired me way more.
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And a lot of men don t think women even want that.
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They think they want that tough man on a horse who doesn t cry kind of thing.
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But what actually attracted Courtney to me, which was really cool, talk about law of attraction and people trying to find the right woman, trying to find someone who loves them for who they are, all this, you have to actually show yourself to be loved for who you are.
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And I put out a video in 2018.
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Just being like, I was expected to win the Olympia that year.
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You know, I was a young guy coming up, all this stuff going on.
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And that s when I got sick, didn t win, came second, still did really good.
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But I went through, I was in the hospital four weeks out.
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I was really scared.
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I didn t think I d be able to compete again.
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And I just had a lot of emotions going through me.
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And I put out a video talking about all that.
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And I cried in the video and I was super vulnerable and I just shared how I was feeling and what I went through in that journey.
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And that was the video that she saw.
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She kind of heard of me, didn t know what, but then she saw this video and she s like, okay, this is that guy who s like, like you said, the big strong.
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Bodybuilding guy and now he s on YouTube crying like there s a mismatch or something s different about him And she watched and she s like this guy s this guy s got to be different and she actually flooded my DM No way message me hit me up and I already had a crush on her from before cuz she was Miss Olympia in 2016 I was going after in 2018 and I already had a crush on her.
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I m like, damn this girl s in my my
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And then we just kind of hit it off.
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But if I hadn t put that video up and decided to be vulnerable... You wouldn t have attracted her.
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I wouldn t have attracted her.
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We wouldn t be together.
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We wouldn t have our baby girl on the way now.
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Everything would be different.
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One piece of content changed your life.
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Isn t that interesting?
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Crazy.
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But it was you being willing and having the courage to say, this is who I am and being willing to share and reveal this with others.
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Exactly.
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Why do you think most people hold back their emotions and their true authentic self in life?
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That s a good question.
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I definitely don t have all the answers to that, but I think part of it is it hurts a lot more to be rejected for who you really are, because then it s a real rejection.
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If you put your real self out there and it gets rejected, it means you re really not good enough.
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But if you put a fake self out there and people are like, I don t like that, you re like, it s not really me anyway.
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So it s a layer of protection.
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You re kind of protecting yourself from a real stab in the heart.
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How have you learned to trust yourself by revealing who you are and being fully authentic, both privately and publicly, and also be okay if people don t like you, leave nasty comments, think you re a failure and reject you?
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How have you been able to handle those emotions and still be you?
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I mean, it s been a long journey, and I think I owe the beginning part to my parents.
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They always just told me just to be myself.
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And since then, it s kind of hard for me to, that s why I couldn t put a camera on after the Olympia and just give some hardcore thing.
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It was like, I m sad and I m gonna cry cuz I can t really put on a fake show right now.
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And I m not a good, I m not a good liar.
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So I think I just did it.
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And-.
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Why are you sad?
1
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from that one time.
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Yeah.
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Why were you sad afterwards?
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I was scared.
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You know, I was in the, I was in the hospital truly and they didn t know what was wrong with me.
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I didn t know if I was going to be able to compete, if I was going to be sick for the rest of my life, if I was going to have to be on meds for the rest of my life.
1
SPEAKER_01
I didn t know what was wrong with me.
1
SPEAKER_01
It was, I d put on like 20 pounds of water weight overnight and I was just, shins were inflamed.
1
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I was super inflamed.
1
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I m like in the hospital alone, just like scared, not knowing what s happening.
1
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And I just, again, I didn t know how to process all that, so I just bottled it all down, compartmentalized.
1
SPEAKER_01
They let me out of the hospital like three weeks out of the Olympia.
1
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I m like, I don t know what to do right now, so I m gonna go back into prep, and I m gonna do the Olympia.
1
SPEAKER_01
I probably should have dropped out, but as my way of numbing my emotion, I m like, if I put all my focus over here, I don t have to think about that.
1
SPEAKER_01
And then afterwards, all that emotion just started pouring out of me, and all that fear, and the unknown of what the future held, and what was going on with me, and just all that kind of, anything around your health can be really scary, so.
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SPEAKER_00
What has been your biggest fear most of your life?
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SPEAKER_00
My biggest fear.
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SPEAKER_00
That s a good one.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like what was it personally for you that was either the insecurity or the fear that you think was underneath everything you were doing?
2
SPEAKER_00
Because it sounds like you have a better handle now on those fears and you re processing a lot more, but before you started processing, before you won and started to figure it out, what was that big weight and fear you were carrying?
2
SPEAKER_01
I think there was a fear that if I
2
SPEAKER_01
If I tried to lean on someone and rely on someone to hold me while I was falling or whatever, or when I needed someone to lean on, that they might not be there for me.
2
SPEAKER_01
So instead of ever leaning on anyone, I just didn t.
2
SPEAKER_01
And it was easier to protect myself like that and just create this facade that I can handle all on my own, because it s a lot scarier.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like I said, the same concept of putting your true self out there to be rejected.
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If I try and lean on someone who I need and they re not there for me, that s really going to hurt.
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SPEAKER_01
So I was just like, no, I m not gonna do that.
2
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
2
SPEAKER_00
What is the greatest rejection you ever had?
2
SPEAKER_00
Greatest rejection I ever had?
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SPEAKER_00
The one that like really hurt you.
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SPEAKER_00
And maybe it was like, you know, maybe it was a small thing, but it really hurt you in a big way for whatever reason.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t know if I can pinpoint one, honestly.
2
SPEAKER_00
Was it like a girlfriend that rejected you or was it like you went after something you cared about and you didn t get the part or you didn t win the competition?
2
SPEAKER_00
Was there something you were like, I feel like a loser and rejected?
2
SPEAKER_01
I m sure there were some more, there s a lot of my trials that I don t really remember.
2
SPEAKER_01
I don t have the- You blocked it out?
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SPEAKER_01
I didn t block it out because it was bad.
2
SPEAKER_01
I just, I think maybe as I was kind of pushing aside some emotions, I pushed aside some memories too.
2
SPEAKER_01
But I do have like some memories of
2
SPEAKER_01
After there was already been some of this pain in me and when I was really young giving like talks and speeches and stuff or like something in class Right to get up in front of people and like make getting made fun of for my list something like that and just feeling like really small and like Really there isn t just like I don t want to ever talk in front of people again Oh, man, like that created some stage fright in me and like public speaking anxiety and all that stuff which I think most people have but it was pretty extreme for me and
2
SPEAKER_01
But I can t remember an exact giant rejection at any point really.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I have a similar, you know, my childhood was very similar in the fact that I would get made fun of when I would, they would ask, the teacher would ask us to read aloud, you know, open up chapter one and read aloud and each kid would go around and I couldn t read the words.
2
SPEAKER_00
I had dyslexia and I had a second grade reading level in eighth grade.
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SPEAKER_00
I just couldn t comprehend and understand what I was reading.
2
SPEAKER_00
So it was very intimidating for me to stand in front of my peers and read or speak at all Yeah, and I think I channeled a lot of that anger into sports to say let me prove people wrong who are making fun of me Let me find somewhere where I do have abilities and skills.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I don t feel like a loser and rejected is that what you started to do with with bodybuilding and lifting kind of like I
2
SPEAKER_00
make yourself be seen and bigger and stronger so that no one can hurt you that way?
2
SPEAKER_01
I think in a way, it was never, I was never anger for me or anything like that, but I did, I did start to see when I started working out at a young age, put on muscle very easily, obviously I have good genetics, started to get some attention for that.
2
SPEAKER_01
It felt good.
2
SPEAKER_01
And there was a way to be like seen and important in some way.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I was like, let s keep doing this.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then in forms of,
2
SPEAKER_01
When it s hard to feel a lot, you see people like the crazy free climbers who climb whatever, Yosemite with no ropes or anything.
2
SPEAKER_01
Those guys are probably numb as hell just trying to feel something, just to get that rush out of it.
2
SPEAKER_01
And when I would compete, it was something that really scared me to be on stage in front of all those people.
2
SPEAKER_01
And it was a lot of...
2
SPEAKER_01
suppression and pushing things aside and just working really hard and focusing on one thing.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then at the end, it s this big feeling at the end.
2
SPEAKER_01
So like, all right, if I work really hard for this one day, there s a big feeling at the end.
2
SPEAKER_00
If I work for a year, every day and bust my butt, I ll have like two minutes of release.
2
SPEAKER_00
Isn t that crazy?
2
SPEAKER_00
It s kind of like Olympians.
2
SPEAKER_00
They train for 10, 12, 15 years for one minute.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah for a minute race or a minute swim or a one game or whatever it might be For the chance of gold every four years.
2
SPEAKER_00
Isn t that crazy?
2
SPEAKER_00
At least I get it every year.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s true Have you seen the documentary weight of gold?
2
SPEAKER_00
No, it s an incredible documentary where it s interviewing a lot of olympic gold medalists or olympic medalists
2
SPEAKER_00
talking about the depression, the anxiety, the stress, the overwhelm, the loss of identity after winning the Olympic gold medal.
2
SPEAKER_00
Because they go for their whole lives for something and they think it s supposed to feel like euphoric.
2
SPEAKER_00
And like they re gonna have joy and happiness now.
2
SPEAKER_00
But they still have to face the stuff within them.
2
SPEAKER_00
So the documentary covers a lot of
2
SPEAKER_00
athletes that committed suicide and their friends and family members that within a year who committed suicide or just who never returned back to themselves because of the weight and the pressure.
2
SPEAKER_00
So you were training for years for this one moment on stage.
2
SPEAKER_00
And when you got it, it wasn t what you wanted, right?
2
SPEAKER_00
The feeling.
2
SPEAKER_00
What was the feeling you thought you were gonna get and what was the feeling you received?
2
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I guess the first year I won, like I kind of mentioned before, I thought I was going to just have like,
2
SPEAKER_01
this overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment and joy, just like, I did it.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m accomplished, I ve got it all, I did it.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m the man.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m the man, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
And what I felt, I just remember feeling relief.
2
SPEAKER_01
I just relieved it was over.
2
SPEAKER_01
Relieved I didn t have to do it anymore, relieved it was done, relieved I made it there.
2
SPEAKER_01
It was just like, thank God.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like on stage, you re thinking that.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, literally.
2
SPEAKER_01
It was like, you kind of relax your shoulders, like, fuck.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know, which is which is crazy.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I remember going out and you have this 10 layers of spray tan just like brown paint all over you sweating.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I remember you always love going to take a shower to get that off.
2
SPEAKER_01
You remember going in the shower and like crying because I was expecting to feel all that joy and I didn t get it.
2
SPEAKER_01
And it was almost like this disappointment afterwards where I was like,
2
SPEAKER_01
What am I missing right now?
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, why am I feeling all this?
2
SPEAKER_01
And that was a huge pivotal moment in my life where I was like, this isn t right.
2
SPEAKER_01
There s no way I m going to dedicate this much of my life sacrifice this much to feel like this.
2
SPEAKER_01
There should be a payoff at the end.
2
SPEAKER_00
There should be something better than this.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I believed.
2
SPEAKER_01
I didn t think that the journey I was on was wrong.
2
SPEAKER_01
I just think of the way I was approaching it was wrong.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I was like, there s got to be a way where I can change other aspects of my life and manage my mind and other things better so that when I get to there next year and I do this again, I m able to enjoy it and have a lot more fun.
2
SPEAKER_00
So the journey you were on wasn t wrong, but it was the process that you were implementing, which was off.
2
SPEAKER_00
So the process before, it sounds like, I m gonna work as hard and do whatever it takes to win, to prove myself that I can do it, or whatever it might be, get this monkey off my back, whatever it is.
2
SPEAKER_00
And at the end, you didn t get the feeling you wanted, which was, I guess, a better sense of peace, or freedom, or love, or self-acceptance, or whatever you wanted.
2
SPEAKER_00
So how did the process change mentally, spiritually, and emotionally to enjoy life every single day as opposed to wait for the result to feel better?
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
Good question.
2
SPEAKER_01
So a lot of what translated, and again, I relate almost everything to the Olympic, because it s been such a bulk of my life.
2
SPEAKER_01
But a lot of what translated into that feeling was the fact that I got so sick in 2018 that I spent 2019 afraid I was going to get sick again.
2
SPEAKER_01
And instead of really processing the amount of fear I had in the past, and truly, at one point, I thought I was gonna die in the hospital.
2
SPEAKER_01
It wasn t that bad.
2
SPEAKER_01
I was creating that kind of fear and anxiety in my mind.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I never really accepted that I felt that and allowed myself to process through that and move on from it.
2
SPEAKER_01
I just was kind of like, don t feel like that, push it down.
2
SPEAKER_01
So it was still in there.
2
SPEAKER_01
So all of 2019, I m like, I don t wanna be back in the hospital.
2
SPEAKER_01
I don t wanna be back in the hospital.
2
SPEAKER_01
I was just living like that instead of being in the moment.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I wasn t gonna allow myself to really allow those emotions to come up.
2
SPEAKER_01
So in 2020, the next year, I remember my life always goes on like this, depending on prep.
2
SPEAKER_01
But after Olympia, it s like this kind of low.
2
SPEAKER_01
I didn t really feel great.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I m kind of working myself back up.
2
SPEAKER_01
So doing a little bit of therapy then.
2
SPEAKER_01
I didn t have the therapist I had now, which I wish I had because she s a beast.
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SPEAKER_00
But 2020 is when you kind of started therapy a little bit.
2
2019.
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And so started doing that.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then I felt a little bit better because I wasn t in prep, wasn t Olympian mode.
2
SPEAKER_01
You get a little bit busy with business starts picking up travel for sponsors, all this stuff.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I m like, ah, push that stuff aside.
2
SPEAKER_01
I feel okay right now.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then all of a sudden prep starts again.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I m like,
2
SPEAKER_01
There s that fear again, that feeling, that pressure, that fear of getting sick again, this expectation now, you know, I won last year, but people were like, did you really deserve to win?
2
SPEAKER_01
It was pretty close, you shouldn t have won.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I m like, well, I have to dominate this year so they don t question me this time.
2
SPEAKER_01
And all these things going on.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I remember sitting on my stairs with Courtney and her, and just like kind of sitting there, I think we were going to the gym or something.
2
SPEAKER_01
And she just noticed something was up with me.
2
SPEAKER_01
And she s like, what s going on?
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SPEAKER_01
I m like, nothing, I m fine.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then she s like, what s going on?
2
SPEAKER_01
She just kind of pride me enough.
2
SPEAKER_01
And this is like, she s helped me so much with this, because if you were to ask me how I feel, I m fine.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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And I would believe it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then you ask me 10 more times and I m crying on the stairs.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I m like, damn, what s in this right now?
3
SPEAKER_00
And she s like, what are you feeling?
3
SPEAKER_00
I m like, I m scared.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m scared I m going to lose again.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then they re going to prove that I shouldn t have won last year.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m scared I m going to get sick.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then I m going to make it on stage.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m scared I shouldn t be competing.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I m putting my health at risk.
3
SPEAKER_00
And this is so stupid.
3
SPEAKER_00
Bodybuilding is not healthy.
3
SPEAKER_00
I have an autoimmune disease.
3
SPEAKER_00
Why am I doing this?
3
SPEAKER_00
This is dumb.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m going to hurt myself.
3
SPEAKER_00
All these fears are in my brain right now.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I never even let them come up to think about them.
3
SPEAKER_00
put them down.
3
SPEAKER_00
You never spoke about it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Never spoke about it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And just letting that out and like crying with her and like talking about it.
3
SPEAKER_00
I just like immediately felt better.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s a release.
3
SPEAKER_00
It was just release.
3
SPEAKER_00
And she was just like, she just listened.
3
SPEAKER_00
She just heard me and with like a sounding board.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I just felt this pressure off of me.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was like,
3
SPEAKER_00
Wow, I feel better now.
3
SPEAKER_00
Let s go to the gym.
3
SPEAKER_00
I actually feel better now.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s not like it s pushed out and I can go perform.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s like, no, I m really here right now and I feel better.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I think that s a huge thing that a lesson that I love to share, especially to men is that, you know, because we
3
SPEAKER_00
There s always that joke with your wife.
3
SPEAKER_00
She tells you a problem, you re like, all right, how do I fix it?
3
SPEAKER_00
What s the solution?
3
SPEAKER_00
And it s like, no, she s just trying to release it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And if men were better at understanding that there doesn t need to be a solution.
3
SPEAKER_00
Sometimes you just need to let that energy out to speak about it, to allow it to exist, to accept it s there, sit with it for a minute, and then just see how you feel.
3
SPEAKER_00
And usually you feel a little bit better and then you move forward in it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then by embracing those things and allowing those kind of fears to come up and mean to talk about it, it allowed me to be a lot more present because I wasn t fighting those down.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I allowed that fear to come up.
3
SPEAKER_00
I had a moment of it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then I went to the gym and I was like, I feel really good here.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m excited.
3
SPEAKER_00
I can do this.
3
SPEAKER_00
You ve got more energy.
3
SPEAKER_00
I had more energy.
3
SPEAKER_00
I just had it pouring out of me, just a larger sense of belief, some more pride, just more emotion, period, more feeling, because I hadn t been suppressing all of it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then that whole Olympia prep was kind of a back and forth of that.
3
SPEAKER_00
I wasn t perfect, but I was learning how to bring things up.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it was also COVID.
3
SPEAKER_00
So, I mean, horrible things happened during COVID, but it was a blessing in disguise for me because I had no distractions.
3
SPEAKER_00
I couldn t travel.
3
SPEAKER_00
I couldn t do anything else.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was at home all day, just bodybuilding, sleeping.
3
SPEAKER_00
Connecting with my web, just chilling, therapy, just cycling that in.
3
SPEAKER_00
And that was it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then that year on stage was completely different.
3
SPEAKER_00
The whole peak week, I was like present, I was enjoying it, I was having fun.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, I won that Olympia and the people were shocked at how much better I looked.
3
SPEAKER_00
My whole body looked
3
SPEAKER_00
younger, bigger, leaner, healthier, like everything was just more vibrant.
3
SPEAKER_00
My confidence on stage was different, like everything about me was like a different bodybuilder on there, and I got a perfect score, I won, and there was no question if I deserved to win that one or not.
3
SPEAKER_00
They were like, forget about the last guy, Chris is the champ.
3
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
3
SPEAKER_01
It wasn t even like close, it was an undeniable year of success.
3
SPEAKER_00
That transformation is one of my most proudest physical transformations.
3
SPEAKER_00
Year one to two.
3
SPEAKER_00
19 to 20, because it was such a big change.
3
SPEAKER_01
Now, what I m hearing you say, correct me if I m wrong, that you did a lot of the same things physically.
3
SPEAKER_01
You ate a lot of the same food, you trained in a similar way, you slept in the same bed.
3
SPEAKER_01
You were in the same relationship.
3
SPEAKER_01
You didn t change anything, really, maybe minor tweaks, except your thoughts and your emotions.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s all that changed.
3
SPEAKER_01
And what I m hearing you say is by changing your thoughts and emotions within a year period, consistently, healing, processing, improving, and growing, and transforming them,
3
SPEAKER_01
You looked and became a completely different human being on stage in one year, to the point your success was undeniable.
3
SPEAKER_01
Is that what I m hearing you say?
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Correct me if I m wrong.
3
SPEAKER_01
I just want to make sure we got this right.
3
SPEAKER_00
No, you re putting in nice words, but yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
3
SPEAKER_01
OK.
3
SPEAKER_01
So thoughts and emotions started to shift and transform.
3
SPEAKER_01
And physically, you became and looked different.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Isn t that interesting?
3
SPEAKER_00
It s crazy.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I wish I wait, there was no like different supplements you took or like you didn t eat like, no, some steroid chicken or you know, something different, probably less supplements that year, because I was like, I m caring more about my health.
3
SPEAKER_00
Now I m gonna like, see what I can get away with.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it was it was that whether
3
SPEAKER_00
And I think it s a combination of, like you said, the energy I released and brought into my body, allowing it to circulate, allowed me to also probably sleep better, therefore recover better, therefore train harder, and all these things.
3
SPEAKER_00
But also, I think there s something, I don t know how to explain, I m sure people are better than me, but I think there s some misunderstood thing within ourselves of how much our emotion affects our physical body.
3
SPEAKER_00
The biggest translation, and I hear a lot of stuff about this now, because I ve done a lot of research into autoimmune stuff, which is based off stress, inflammation, disorder within the body.
3
SPEAKER_00
In 2019, I won and I got through it, but I still had some physical inflammation.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was holding some water in my shins.
3
SPEAKER_00
I wasn t fully healthy.
3
SPEAKER_00
In 2020, I was reversing my autoimmune disease.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was getting healthier through PrEP, which was like,
3
SPEAKER_00
Inexplicably, you know, like I really don t think I should be able to still compete given what happened to me in the past, but my body s gotten healthier every year.
3
SPEAKER_01
What did you do besides the, you know, the emotional and mental?
3
SPEAKER_01
release and healing, what did you do physically that allowed for that, you think?
3
SPEAKER_01
Was there a different style of eating, supplements, nutrition that you incorporated?
3
SPEAKER_00
Not since the year before, no.
3
SPEAKER_00
Because in 2018, I changed a lot.
3
SPEAKER_00
I got a lot healthier, started eating organic foods and eat fast food.
3
SPEAKER_00
I started to treat my body more like
3
SPEAKER_00
the fuel that went in matter rather than just like get protein in, even if it s from McDonald s, you know, I gave that up.
3
SPEAKER_01
Is that what you re doing before?
3
SPEAKER_00
When I was young?
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, for sure.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s a lot of fast food, just as much as you can.
3
SPEAKER_00
If I needed to get calories in, I d go get a burger.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right.
3
SPEAKER_00
But I changed all that years before, but in 2020 with all that, I didn t.
3
SPEAKER_00
really changed much.
3
SPEAKER_00
I maybe was allowed to rest more because of COVID, like I said, and stuff, but there wasn t a lot of change.
3
SPEAKER_00
And since then, I ve added more physical things, like I do a lot of stem cells and peptides and a lot of different types of therapies now.
3
SPEAKER_00
But back then, I didn t have the knowledge or the means to afford that stuff anyways.
3
SPEAKER_01
What would you say is kind of the optimal diet for you right now to keep you healthy, but also building mass and allowing you to compete?
3
SPEAKER_01
What is that ultimate diet for you?
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean, really just whole foods.
3
SPEAKER_00
I keep it super simple.
3
SPEAKER_00
I think if when I m done competing, and it s not about that, I ll eat a lot less, a lot less carbs, higher fat, because I just personally feel better.
3
SPEAKER_00
Then I think everyone has to experiment of what feels best for them.
3
SPEAKER_00
But the number one diet that anyone asks me, like, what s the best diet?
3
SPEAKER_00
I just say whole foods.
3
SPEAKER_01
What does that look like for you?
3
SPEAKER_01
What do you eat on a typical day when you re training to stay healthy, but also to build mass and stay lean?
3
SPEAKER_00
It s usually five or six meals a day.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s been five recently because I ve been traveling so much.
3
SPEAKER_00
But I try and lighten it up and make it a little bit more fun.
3
SPEAKER_00
But I ll have bison, eggs, and avocado in the morning with some ghee butter and coffee with MCT.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s a really high fat.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then I have some basic chicken and rice, chicken and turkey after that.
3
SPEAKER_00
maybe like a wrap at night, some kind of homemade burrito.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, Courtney s super into like organic, healthy food.
3
SPEAKER_00
So she gets all these like organic minimal ingredient, like almond flour wraps and all this stuff.
3
SPEAKER_00
And she makes stuff for me and just super simple stuff.
3
SPEAKER_01
Are you trying to do mostly protein and some fiber and vegetables or what s kind of like the, and fats?
3
SPEAKER_01
What s the ratio would you say is there?
3
SPEAKER_00
I ve never done the whole macro thing, but I don t have a concrete ratio on it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Really?
3
SPEAKER_01
So are you weighing your foods daily or are you just,
3
SPEAKER_00
I haven t been recently, but when I m like seriously into stuff, I do.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I mainly in my off season, I just, I m very like knowing of my body, my body weight right now.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I eat so similar all the time.
3
SPEAKER_00
I ll just like start with something, eat it the same.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m like, Oh, I need to put on way more weight.
3
SPEAKER_00
I ll add more to it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Interesting.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I, cause I m just very consistent with it, but I really just try and hit like about 300 grams of protein.
3
SPEAKER_00
300 a day.
3
SPEAKER_00
300 a day.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s a lot of food.
3
SPEAKER_00
It is a lot of food.
3
SPEAKER_01
300 grams of protein.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Just give me a calculation.
3
SPEAKER_01
What is 300 grams of protein in the foods that you re eating?
3
SPEAKER_01
What does that look like?
3
SPEAKER_00
Approximately.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
What is that?
3
SPEAKER_01
It s like five chicken breasts and 20 eggs.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like what is that?
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I don t know based off chicken breast size, but it s probably like in the morning, the 180 grams of bison with three whole eggs.
3
SPEAKER_00
What is 180 grams of like a half a pound of meat or something?
3
SPEAKER_00
Or like?
3
SPEAKER_00
425 grams, I think is a pound.
3
SPEAKER_00
Okay, so a little under a half a pound a quarter pound or something Yeah about that and then I ll have like 220 grams of chicken probably two times and then like 220 grams of turkey ones and then I ll have like a protein shake with like 50 grams of protein in it and
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh my gosh.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, there.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s a good amount.
3
SPEAKER_01
Now, what is the key to burning fat and building muscle at the same time?
3
SPEAKER_01
Is that even possible?
3
SPEAKER_01
I always hear people say you ve got to put on like the bulk first, the bulk phase, then you can slim down.
3
SPEAKER_01
Is it possible to burn fat and build muscle and stay lean at the same time?
3
SPEAKER_00
It s very dependent on where your body is.
3
SPEAKER_00
If you re someone who has never worked out and you re like 300 pounds overweight, then of course it is.
3
SPEAKER_00
Your body can change with some very minimal work.
3
SPEAKER_00
But if you re like me in prep already, then it s very hard.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m just trying to maintain as much muscle as possible because I m already at a very elite level of muscle and a low level of body fat.
3
SPEAKER_00
So it s harder to make those changes.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I really can t answer.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s very dependent on the person.
4
SPEAKER_01
The least trained you are, the easier it is to put on muscle and lose fat.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then the more regimented and strict you are, the harder it is.
4
SPEAKER_01
Really?
4
SPEAKER_00
Man.
4
SPEAKER_00
But you re really intentional about your nutrition right now, what you consume, right?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, how important is it to take like, you know, over the counter supplements, like protein powders, protein bars, you know, vitamins, like, is that important?
4
SPEAKER_00
Or do you put more the importance on getting it within the whole foods?
4
SPEAKER_01
I m all about whole foods.
4
SPEAKER_01
Hopefully, I always say that I own a supplement company.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I still tell people, people, what s the best supplement?
4
SPEAKER_01
I m like, whole food.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, if you can get it from food, it s always better.
4
SPEAKER_01
And obviously there s like this kind of crisis going on right now of a lack of nutrients in our foods based off farming and pesticides and mass produced everything and all that stuff.
4
SPEAKER_01
So it s kind of hard to manage.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I think a lot of people therefore need to supplement a lot.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I take some supplements, but I think the healthier you eat, the less you need.
4
SPEAKER_01
And if I wasn t trying to get 300 grams of protein in a day, I probably would only have a shake when I feel like when I want one.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wouldn t need to add that extra protein.
4
SPEAKER_00
Really?
4
SPEAKER_00
But you need to get a certain amount, so you re going to supplement it with water and protein.
4
SPEAKER_01
Exactly.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s a lot easier than eating another 300 grams of chicken breast.
4
SPEAKER_00
After a while, it gets hard to put that down.
4
SPEAKER_00
Gosh, man.
4
SPEAKER_00
And you can t really put sauces or anything on it.
4
SPEAKER_00
You ve got to like, really keep it.
4
SPEAKER_01
As long as I m not in prep, I can.
4
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
4
SPEAKER_01
But when I m like deep into prep that I m allowed like some hot sauces kind of, but then they mess up my digestion.
4
SPEAKER_01
So my coach tells me I m not.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then I m just allowed like yellow mustard.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s it.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
Now when you re getting into prep mode,
4
SPEAKER_00
What is that, three months out, where you re like, I m really dialing it in and taking this serious, or?
4
SPEAKER_00
It s about 16 weeks.
4
SPEAKER_00
Four months out.
4
SPEAKER_00
Can you walk me through your mindset, four months out, when you re about to get started, where you re like, okay, this is day one, we re four months away from Olympia.
4
SPEAKER_00
What are you thinking day one of prep after obviously six months of maintaining and training, but not, okay, we re in camp.
4
SPEAKER_00
What is that mindset during that moment?
4
SPEAKER_00
Is there a switch or is it just elevated emotions and energy a little bit?
4
SPEAKER_00
And how does that build all the way up to the moment before onstage at Olympia?
4
SPEAKER_00
Where does the mindset evolve before that moment of onstage?
4
SPEAKER_01
So it s been different every year.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it s been, this past year was the hardest to, it s never like a switch is on.
4
SPEAKER_01
For me, it s, I probably need a 12 week prep, but I do 16 because it takes a rolling start for me.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, I gotta push the car first to get that clutch going, you know.
4
SPEAKER_01
But in the past, when I didn t have anything else going on like the bodybuilding, it was a little bit easier.
4
SPEAKER_01
But now, like, for example, since December, I ve been home for like seven days, I think for the last two and a half months, because it s just go, go, go travel, there s lots going on with business and work.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I m pulled in a lot more different directions right now, because I have a lot more going on.
4
SPEAKER_01
So me being able to manage that is a little bit harder.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I learned quickly this year that while I thought I could manage it all together, I can t.
4
SPEAKER_01
And my therapist had a great line to me.
4
SPEAKER_01
She s like, Chris, you love being the 1% of everything.
4
SPEAKER_01
She s like, you want to have the biggest, best business.
4
SPEAKER_01
You want to be the biggest, best bodybuilder.
4
SPEAKER_01
You want to have the most beautiful, loving, connected relationship.
4
SPEAKER_01
But you can t.
4
SPEAKER_01
You can t have it all.
4
SPEAKER_01
She s like, I hate to tell you, but the more you pour into perfection into one, you re pulling energy away from another.
4
SPEAKER_01
And you can t do it all.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, really?
4
SPEAKER_01
Are you sure I think I can?
4
SPEAKER_01
And I tried for a while, and it started to beat me down.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was traveling all weekends, coming back, trying to connect with Courtney, trying to get to the gym at the right time, trying to get all my meals in, trying to manage it all.
4
SPEAKER_01
And my body started to get just tired.
4
SPEAKER_01
My mind was stressed.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wasn t taking those times to really reflect on myself and check in where I was at.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I wasn t even really enjoying it either, because there was just too much that I wasn t allowing myself to slow down and enjoy and be in the process.
4
SPEAKER_01
So in August, I think I was about 10 weeks out.
4
SPEAKER_01
All this is going on.
4
SPEAKER_01
Boom.
4
SPEAKER_01
I find out Courtney s pregnant now.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m like, Oh, here we go.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was so excited.
4
SPEAKER_01
We weren t planning it, but I was so excited.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was like, I didn t, you know, bodybuilders don t even think that s possible during prep.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I was like, all right, this is a miracle.
4
SPEAKER_01
Like, wow.
4
SPEAKER_00
You may not possible to get pregnant with like, when you re taking these and stuff.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s harder.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s harder to get pregnant because you re less fertile, but.
4
SPEAKER_01
super excited, but still a huge shift in my mind.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, there s a lot more responsibilities, a lot more changing my life right now.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, like this is a lot more coming.
4
SPEAKER_01
So even more on my mind now and stopping me from slowing down.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then I remember I went on one trip and I was doing some work in Canada and went back to see my family.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then I was just feeling kind of strung out or something.
4
SPEAKER_01
I didn t know what was going on.
4
SPEAKER_01
I didn t really realize I wasn t in tune with myself.
4
SPEAKER_01
And one day I woke up, I weighed myself, and I was just feeling like ****.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I had lost like 12 pounds.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it wasn t good weight.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wasn t leaner.
4
SPEAKER_01
I just like lost a bunch of water weight because my body was stressed.
4
SPEAKER_01
Something like that.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wasn t feeling good.
4
SPEAKER_01
Went to the gym.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m working out, feeling tired, but whatever.
4
SPEAKER_01
Normally, I ll do 485 or something on RDLs.
4
SPEAKER_01
I ll do 405 this time because I m feeling tired.
4
SPEAKER_01
On rep nine or something, I should pop, and my lat just kind of pulls, and I tore my lat.
4
SPEAKER_01
No way.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was like, what just happened?
4
SPEAKER_01
I just tear my lat, and I couldn t move my arm.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m processing all this overwhelming stuff that I ve been feeling, and I just hit with the roadblock.
4
SPEAKER_01
You haven t even been focusing on prep, you haven t been prioritizing, and now you might have just gotten taken away from you because of all that.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I remember I was devastated.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was in the middle of the gym.
4
SPEAKER_01
I didn t want to tell anyone.
4
SPEAKER_01
I had just done it because I didn t want anyone to know.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I walk out, arm like this, and I start crying behind the gym.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m like, really?
4
SPEAKER_01
I m just crying.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m like, what are you doing, man?
4
SPEAKER_01
I feel like I just lost the Olympia.
4
SPEAKER_01
This is going in for my fifth title, and now I m not going to be able to compete.
4
SPEAKER_01
All this going on.
4
SPEAKER_01
I call Courtney, and I m freaking out.
4
SPEAKER_01
She wasn t with me at the time either.
4
SPEAKER_01
So she s like, Oh, I m so sorry.
4
SPEAKER_01
Do you mean come out there?
4
SPEAKER_01
Like what s going on?
4
SPEAKER_01
Like, no, like just let me handle this, you know, and then let me take it back on myself.
4
SPEAKER_00
I got this.
4
SPEAKER_01
I go back in the gym and I m like looking around.
4
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
4
SPEAKER_01
I can t tell anyone.
4
SPEAKER_01
I just hurt myself.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I didn t want to be an asshole.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I started taking the weights off the, off the bar.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m trying to take four plates off just with one arm, put it away.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then I leave and I drive home.
4
SPEAKER_01
And there was this huge just like mental, like what s going on?
4
SPEAKER_01
And I got back home and I m talking with Courtney and she s like, remember what Jordan told you about being able to manage everything at once?
4
SPEAKER_01
She s like, this is life literally slapping you in the face and being like, I told you so.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I m like, ah, yeah, you re right, you re right.
4
SPEAKER_01
And she, I didn t even read the book yet, but I listened to a little Cliff Notes version, but she told me to listen to the book called The One Thing.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it s just talking about if you wanna be the best at something, good at something, you need to focus on the one thing.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, all right, you know, I didn t get into the book, but I get the concept just from the title.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m like, let s start focusing on one thing.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, I m like, I m not gonna go into work from nine to five anymore.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m gonna leave at 12 and I m gonna go to the gym at one, because that s when I feel the best.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I couldn t even train my upper body for a while.
4
SPEAKER_01
I could just do legs and a little cardio and stuff.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I m like, let me just focus on one thing at a time and get through this.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m going to stay off my phone at night.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m not going to do any emails, nothing.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I can actually sleep because I was up all night thinking because my brain was on other things.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I allow myself to sleep better, allow myself to rest more, allow myself to connect with Courtney more, which helps me feel more grounded.
4
SPEAKER_01
or I was in more all over the place.
4
SPEAKER_01
I cut out all travel.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m like, I m not doing any more trips.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m not getting on a plane until the Olympia.
4
SPEAKER_01
Like, don t even ask me.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I started actually prioritizing what I needed and saying no to all these things.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it was all those things, essentially, that this year made me turn on that switch.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then I think it was about six weeks out of the Olympia where I had my first, it was about four weeks after that incident, I had my first back workout.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it was an OK workout, but I did it.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I got through it.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I remember being like,
4
SPEAKER_00
You recovered enough?
4
SPEAKER_00
I recovered enough.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m like, all right, if I can just lock it in right now, I can get through this.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, you ve been stressed, worried, traveling, all these things, everything you ve learned about being present and enjoying this journey, you just forgot about it for the last couple of months.
4
SPEAKER_01
This is your wake up call to get back together and come back into it.
4
SPEAKER_01
And that was like my like, hey, lock it in, be here, be grateful that you even have the opportunity now to heal from something so fast that you can actually
4
SPEAKER_01
at least try and compete again and have the opportunity to push through it and then just enjoy this.
4
SPEAKER_01
And that s when I was like, this could also be my last Olympia.
4
SPEAKER_01
You never know when it s your last one.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I m not gonna allow all this stress to ruin that.
4
SPEAKER_01
And you look back and like, I didn t even enjoy the last one because I was so worried about all this stuff.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I pushed through kind of all that.
4
SPEAKER_01
I allowed my mind to come back to center, focused on the one thing, the Olympia training, myself, rest, all that stuff that I could do.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I got through it and I enjoyed that Olympia and it was cool because I ve documented all my Olympia preps.
4
SPEAKER_01
I have a videographer who follows me around, does all the stuff.
4
SPEAKER_01
Close friend of mine.
4
SPEAKER_01
And he got a photographer who s now a close friend of mine too and she started taking pictures and video at the Olympia.
4
SPEAKER_01
And you compare a lot of my years and I used to come in super like Michael Jordan and be like,
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, sit at the press conference just locked in like hardcore.
4
SPEAKER_01
This year, I m just, I m just chilling this year.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m laughing, I m smiling.
4
SPEAKER_01
And you can just tell there s this lighter energy about me because I allowed myself to truly be like as present as possible.
4
SPEAKER_01
In the last five years, I ve been working towards allowing myself to really just like have fun with it and not knowing if it s going to be my last one and just being there and being present.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it was really cool to see the physical evidence and pictures of like that stoic face to just like a goofy Chris smiling, kind of having fun with it also.
4
SPEAKER_00
Kind of going back to the beginning of the conversation.
5
SPEAKER_01
of being authentically who you are.
5
SPEAKER_00
Because that s kind of who you are.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s not about being this stern, stoic, focused man.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s about being focused, knowing that you ve done all the prep.
5
SPEAKER_01
You ve done all the prep so you have the focus to be able to be kind of like Usain Bolt and just be relaxed and loose and have fun and then go out and dominate.
5
SPEAKER_01
which is what he did.
5
SPEAKER_01
I don t know if you ever watched his stuff in the Olympics, where he was just like playing with the camera.
5
SPEAKER_01
He s high-fiving people right before the Olympic gold race.
5
SPEAKER_01
He s relaxed and loose, and then just dominating his competition.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I think there s something to that.
5
SPEAKER_01
You know, we were talking about
5
SPEAKER_01
There s a different type of mentality.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m not saying one is better than the other, but the Michael Jordan or Kobe that was just like focused and didn t show really a lot of that joy, let s say that joyful or relaxed energy.
5
SPEAKER_01
It was a different type of relax, but it was more of like, we re here to work.
5
SPEAKER_01
And it worked for them.
5
SPEAKER_01
I mean, they dominated.
5
SPEAKER_01
But there s also something when it shifted and you started to be more relaxed, you felt emotionally different as well.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s like you can have fun with it and dominate.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
So what were you thinking about the moment you walk from backstage on stage for the most important part of the Olympia?
5
SPEAKER_01
What are you thinking of knowing that you spent a year of training and preparation, knowing you ve
5
SPEAKER_01
documented daily your lifting, your nutrition, your sleep, knowing that you ripped your lat, you healed, you came back from it, knowing that your fiance is pregnant at the time.
5
SPEAKER_01
Like what is going through your mind right before you go on for that main performance on Olympia?
5
SPEAKER_00
This year was an interesting year for that.
5
SPEAKER_00
And it was, I think I ve heard you speak about this too, but some of the work I ve done in therapy has been in healing my younger self and giving that kid what he needed.
5
SPEAKER_00
Because he didn t get it when he was younger, he didn t know what he needed.
5
SPEAKER_00
And now I m smart enough, I can give it to him.
5
SPEAKER_00
Because I don t need anyone else to do that.
5
SPEAKER_00
Let s go.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so I was backstage and I actually remember my therapist told me to do this a while ago and I didn t really do it enough, but I pulled up a picture of me as a kid.
5
SPEAKER_00
Come on.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I looked at him right before, and I might even cry right now thinking about this, but I remember looking at it backstage, like before getting on and looking at it and just looking at that picture and get starting to cry a little bit.
5
SPEAKER_00
I mean, like if that kid could imagine being me right now, you know?
5
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
5
SPEAKER_00
Like how hard I ve worked since being that kid to now to be where I am.
5
SPEAKER_00
And like how proud he would be of who I am and how proud I am of him and back and forth.
5
SPEAKER_00
And just kind of allowing myself to feel proud of myself and all the work I ve put in.
5
SPEAKER_00
And if that kid was the one getting on stage right now, what would I tell him?
5
SPEAKER_00
What would I want him to feel?
5
SPEAKER_00
What would I want him to experience?
5
SPEAKER_00
I wouldn t want him to have any pressure or expectation to feel like he has to win or he needs anything to enjoy it.
5
SPEAKER_00
I would just want him to go out there.
5
SPEAKER_00
Understanding he s already done all the work he can, to have fun with it, to relax, just to make the best of it, and to not be too hard on himself.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I really embodied that.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I stepped on stage with a light, open heart.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I remember standing on there, looking up at the lights, my family in the crowd, the picture of me giving them a heart and pointing at them.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I just had fun with it.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I was up there, super present.
5
SPEAKER_00
and really enjoyed it.
5
SPEAKER_00
And it was a pretty beautiful ending to what was a hell of a journey that year.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh my goodness, man.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m so happy you re talking about this.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I can imagine my 16-year-old self, if I was watching this video at 16, being like, what a bunch of wusses.
5
SPEAKER_01
What are these guys talking about, man?
5
SPEAKER_01
Just toughen up and just like... But also I could have been like, wow.
5
SPEAKER_01
If this guy who s won at the highest level, if he is able to enjoy his life in this process and this is what he did, maybe I would have been able to shift it and be like, okay, how can I reflect on my life and not worry about all the material things to impress people or chasing girls or looking flashy so that people like me, but actually figuring out a way to like myself.
5
SPEAKER_01
The the younger parts of me that felt neglected or not seen.
5
SPEAKER_01
Mm-hmm, and I m just so Happy for you that this was the moment before you went on stage.
5
SPEAKER_01
I had no clue you re gonna say that Yeah, but I m so happy for you because I used to have on my phone I used to have a photo of my younger self at five now got me and my fiance but I
5
SPEAKER_01
I used to have a photo of my little Louis, you know, and I would spent for like a year Reconnecting with the younger part of me that felt neglected not seen abused abandoned all these different things and created that intimacy and relationship with my younger self and
5
SPEAKER_01
and I m so happy for you that you started this and you did it right before you went on the biggest moment for yourself.
5
SPEAKER_01
What a beautiful moment, man.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m just, I m so happy for you and I m so happy in this moment that this is something you re talking about because there are billions of men in the world who will never reconnect with the parts of themselves where they feel the most ashamed, most insecure, least amount of love within themselves.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so I m so happy that you just said this right now
5
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and that we re having this conversation because I know the pain that men are going through.
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Yes, women are going through pain as well, but I know men in general don t like to talk about these things.
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And I m so happy that you are using your platform.
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I watch your vlogs, your videos.
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I see you talking about this in interviews.
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And I just want women watching or listening to send this to the men in their life.
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Even just this clip.
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You don t have to listen to the whole thing.
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Just send them a few minutes of this and really take this in.
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Because the man I m sitting in front of right now is a beautiful man with a big heart.
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And to watch you pursue your life, not perfect, but pursuing it in progress, pursuing it with reflection in yourself, healing the parts of yourself in a journey of healing while pursuing your external goals as well is so beautiful, man.
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And I really acknowledge you for this incredible gift that you re giving people right now with this conversation.
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I just wanted to put that out there because I m just so happy that we are speaking about this.
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Because there s so many men that will never take the time to heal.
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And I hope they do.
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I hope they realize you speaking about this, sure you were successful before externally.
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but internally you still didn t feel like you loved yourself fully or you weren t able to enjoy the wins.
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So what s the point of winning if you still don t feel enough?
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I heard you talk about a quote with Jim Carrey one time, which I love this quote as well.
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We re gonna paraphrase this, but Jim Carrey said at one point, I wish everyone could become rich and famous and achieve all their dreams and realize that s not the key to happiness.
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Like being rich and famous and successful is not the key.
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I m paraphrasing the quote.
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But it s learning how to be at peace with yourself and the parts of you that you do not love.
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That is an incredible life.
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And you re doing it, man.
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I wish at 28, 29, I was able to be where you are.
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It s inspiring, man.
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I want to ask you about, is there anything you wanted to add to that right there?
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Just what we ve been talking about here.
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Is there anything that came up for you during that?
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No, I mean, like you said, it s a message that I try and share, hoping a lot of people can understand that.
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Because a lot of what I m working on right now is I think a lot of people feel X about themselves.
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And they re like, well, if I have my own family or my own kid, I ll treat them differently than myself.
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I ll do it for them.
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But what my therapist has always told me, she s like, it s too late then.
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The reason that this stuff kind of repeats through generations is because
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A lot of the love that you give to others does reflect on the love that you give yourself all the time.
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And if you don t learn how to, I don t learn how to do this now to give myself, I m going to struggle to give it to my daughter.
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And if the way you were talking about the way men talk to themselves, if they were to really walk through and see their younger self and be like, what would you tell that little boy versus how, what would you tell yourself?
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They would, it would be two different things.
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You would never say these negative things to a little boy.
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No, no, definitely.
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Even if you were saying it to you as a little boy, they wouldn t, they would never treat yourself that way as a little boy sitting in front of you.
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Yeah.
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But what people don t realize is that like.
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When you feel that pain, that shame and insecurity, that is that little boy.
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It s the same person.
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There s no separation there, you know?
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So... Wow, man.
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This is freaking powerful.
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I m so happy that you re having this conversation right now.
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I heard you talk about your dad one time where you have a great relationship with him and he loves you.
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But you never saw him model kind of the self-love with himself, I guess, in this way.
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He would just kind of take everything on, but he wanted to express like, hey, can you give me a hand?
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Can I get support?
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Like he would just take it on, which is not a bad thing or wrong thing.
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It s inspiring.
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But it s also empowering to allow others to support you, right?
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It is.
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And so maybe he wasn t able to even have the tools to model this type of relationship you have with yourself right now, right?
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I mean, like I was talking about, previous generations had no idea of this stuff.
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They didn t have these podcasts or therapists or education or studies or anything that would allow them to kind of work through this, nor did they really have probably, maybe it would have been honestly a disadvantage for them
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to feel some of this, cause they did have to get through a lot of hard.
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So, you know, he wasn t modeled that and he was like the greatest father I could have ever imagined, but he wasn t able to model that like requesting of help and showing a vulnerability.
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And he almost created almost like a false expectation of what I was looking for.
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I mean, thinking that s what I wanted.
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I wanted to be the rock that always held the family together.
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That wasn t stressed out.
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That could, you know, just take everything on by himself and like have it together.
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And I was like, I m not that person.
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Like, I can t do that, you know?
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You re like, I need help.
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Yeah.
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It was hard for me to kind of realize that because I was like, I want to become the man who can handle that.
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And then I was like, I don t think there s a version of me, at least not a happy one that exists like that.
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Interesting.
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So did you feel like a failure as you were growing up because you didn t think you could be like your father?
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There were times where I felt like I was more angry, more sad, more upset, unable to handle as much stress, where I was like, my dad could do this.
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And I was a little kind of hard on myself.
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And it did exist.
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But I m sure there s a version of my dad who maybe wishes
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At times, he was going through it and he didn t feel like he could handle it.
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But it s all he knew.
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He didn t know how to talk about it.
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It s all he knew.
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So it s a lot.
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But what I love about him is he s so open to this.
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And I talk to him now.
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We re trying to work on it now.
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And he s so open to learning and being there for me.
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And he s so proud of me for doing this work myself.
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He s always encouraged me to be this best version of myself.
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I think that s beautiful because some parents, if they didn t have the tools to do these things themselves, they may say, why are you doing this?
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Why are you going to coach or therapist?
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Just suck it up, man.
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I m able to do this.
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Your grandfather was able to do this.
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We went through wars.
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We went through famine.
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We didn t have time to express our emotions.
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We were surviving.
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We were trying to survive.
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We didn t have the time or the privilege
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to talk about the pressures that we have.
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We just had to step up.
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So I m glad that your dad is empowering and encouraging you to be able to process the pressures in the past in a beautiful way, and not just saying, ah, what are you doing?
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That shows that he s got a growth mindset as well.
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Oh, yeah, absolutely.
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When did you know that you were in love with Courtney?
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Was there a moment that you were like, okay, obviously I like this girl and we re hanging out or dating, but was there a moment where you re like, this is the one that I want to be with, the one that I want to choose?
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I don t know if there was like a concrete moment.
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You know, we went through a rocky start to our relationship.
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Really?
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We were long distance and she had had some like kind of health stuff that was going on with her in the past.
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Also something that we were able to relate on.
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And we kind of like, long distance is hard and we were kind of struggling.
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And I remember there being some times where we were like, we weren t doing hot and we were on the edge.
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We weren t super connected.
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And I just like,
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I remember thinking like, no matter all this we re going through right now, I just never want to like lose hair.
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No matter what, I felt like I just, I was like, I always want, I didn t see the perfect version of ourself now, but I believed in like a better version of ourself.
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And I just, I don t know.
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I just remember all that.
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And then we actually took a break at one point.
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It was during COVID.
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She got stuck in America, I was stuck in Canada, the borders were closed.
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We were kind of going through our stuff and we were like, stuff wasn t really working out.
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We took a short break, kind of took a step back and we re focusing on ourselves.
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And then after a few months, I was like, I felt nothing for a while.
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It s done, whatever, you know?
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You re like, I m done with the relationship, moving on.
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And then all of a sudden, I just like,
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I got hit by this overwhelming fear that she would be gone forever.
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And I started to really process that.
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And I was like, I don t know if I can live without this girl.
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I don t know if I can.
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If we bring this back together, it s going to be hard.
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We re going to have to not only build what we didn t have, but repair what we ve now lost and work forward and go through a lot of this stuff that we ve now created more pain.
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But I was like, I feel like I need to do it because this girl is so special.
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And she really is a great,
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like yin and yang to me, you know?
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Like she s very emotional and relational and connected.
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And whereas for me, sometimes I can go into like that performance mode and it s hard for me to like come back and connect.
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She s always like ready for an embrace and a hug and to be there and to be present.
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She s just always there, you know, and I m not, I wasn t always the best at that.
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So she was a great model at me for being able to express your emotions and kind of like be more relational.
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Wow.
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Okay.
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So you guys got back together and was that the time where you said, let s do therapy together too?
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Yeah.
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I think, I guess we had only done solo therapy up until then, but we did start doing therapy together after that.
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Yeah.
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What has been the greatest lesson that you ve learned through couples therapy?
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I can t remember the exact quote.
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It s my therapist quote.
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Jordan, through name, I m stealing it from her.
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But it s like, compatibility isn t a precursor, it s earned.
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We re not just gonna meet and be compatible and her eggs work with my positives and all this.
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It s not gonna be like that.
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We re gonna actually have to work at understanding each other and giving and taking and being there for each other, because it s not always perfect.
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And I think understanding how much really work goes into a relationship working, I don t think you find your soulmate, you build your soulmate, you have to earn it.
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And I think really understanding that, first of all,
6
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A victim is someone who has no control over anything.
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So if something s out there and you need to find it, you have no control.
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If you find the wrong one, you can t fix it.
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So I find that gives you a lot more control to be able to empowerment, to be able to make your relationship what you want it to be, rather than to try and find a relationship that you want.
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So I think that was a huge thing for me.
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And also,
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Obviously, like we ve spoken about, women have a lot more emotional needs that they re vocal about, at least, than men aren t.
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I think one of the biggest things I ve learned is that her needs that she requests aren t just for her, but they re actually for me too.
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So when she s like missing connection and I m like, I don t need that, but I ll do it for you.
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It s like, no, I need it just as much as her.
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So I m not, I m not doing it for her.
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I m doing it for us.
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And understanding that the relationship is an us thing, not a you and me thing is like a huge thing.
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That s a huge mindset shift.
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Cause in a relationship, you feel like you re doing someone, something for someone else.
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Sure.
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You love them.
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You ll do it, but it s not the same as if you re truly believing it s making both of you better.
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Wow.
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What s missing for you right now in your life or in the relationship that you feel like you don t have yet besides a daughter on the way?
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That we don t have yet?
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Is there something missing within you that you feel like you still get to develop to have the best relationship possible?
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Yeah.
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I mean, I think.
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a less of a drastic dial in life.
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So let s say last couple of months I ve been traveling a lot, right?
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So I m dialed into work.
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And then I come home and I m trying to dial back into relationship.
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And if I m all the way 100 to negative 100 back and forth, that s a big change to go.
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So I need to learn
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better at not, when I m gone, not disconnecting too much so that when I come home, it s not too hard to continue to connect again.
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But I feel a lot more at peace and just joyful and happy when I m really connected with her.
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So that s more important to me.
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So I need to put more energy into prioritizing that dial to be over there more often.
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That s interesting.
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So not be 100 at one thing only.
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Be like, okay, I m gonna be on the road for three weeks.
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I m at 80%, but I m gonna give 20% over here as well.
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So it s not completely eliminated.
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Exactly, yeah.
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Interesting.
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What is the thing you love about your wife the most?
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Another tough one.
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Not tough to find anything, but to pick one.
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This isn t what I love the most, but something we were kind of joking about is, and I kind of touched on this there, is I ve been obsessed with efficiency in my life sometimes.
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And efficiency means that you re also missing out on a lot of, like,
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things that are just joyful to be present, you know, things that don t really matter.
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You know, like if I m like trying to get up and go, go, go, go, go, then I m like, I gotta wake up, get in the shower, eat my food, get out the house.
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Like everything s gotta be on like a thing where she can just kind of like get up and be like, hmm, just kind of sit there for a bit, drink her coffee, want to just sit with me and just like be there with me and just like, and be super present with that.
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And she s, I used to be like, we got to go, we got to move, we got to move.
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And she s just like, why?
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You know?
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So I think,
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That is something that I really admire about her that it really helps me kind of slow down too.
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And she s also just
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the most selfless person I ve ever met.
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Like she truly almost had a fault, puts everyone else s needs before hers.
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And so I m needing to learn.
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And she said, no, like, I don t need this.
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That s like, no, I know you need it.
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So I m going to give it to you.
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But I still love that.
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She s always trying to like, look out for me.
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And no matter what we re going through, she really tries to see my side of it.
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She s just, she s able to empathize with how I feel.
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And a lot of men I know are afraid to show all the emotion, to cry and all these things.
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Cause they re afraid that they re going to be like, their wife s going to be like, Oh, you re weak.
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Why are you crying?
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I need a tough man.
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She s never made me feel like that Wow she s truly made me feel like the more of my like Insecure parts of myself that I show that she loves me more that she accepts me more for who I am not less Not the same but actually like if we have more love she s more love for me when I
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I show her more things that I m afraid to show.
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Wow, man, that s beautiful.
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I think every man wants to be able to reveal themselves in front of the woman they re with and feel seen and safe at the same time and secure of all their insecurities, shame and past guilt.
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They want to feel seen, safe and secure to reveal themselves.
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And I remember many relationships I was in.
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I remember a girl was I was crying one time because I was bringing up something that was really emotional for me.
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And I would say I m a sensitive human being, but it s not like I m crying every week or something, right?
7
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It s like when something feels something, I ll feel it.
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But then I ll move through it and I m back to my other self.
7
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It s not like every day, right?
7
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You re human.
7
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But when I was going through something that was challenging and I started to tear up and cry, and she started to laugh at me.
7
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She was like, I know I m supposed to not think this is funny, but you look weak.
7
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And I remember just feeling like, what are you talking about?
7
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Any woman would want their man to be able to show their emotions.
7
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But some women aren t able to handle those emotions.
7
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Some women just don t have the skills or the tools for whatever reason from their parents.
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I m not making her wrong or bad.
7
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It s just...
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It didn t make me feel safe or secure to want to reveal myself like that ever again.
7
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And I think all women watching or listening, if you want to have a man that is in his masculine and driven and on his purpose,
7
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Allow him to be all the parts of himself.
7
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Even the insecure, scared little boy parts that he has inside of him.
7
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Embrace it because that ll make him feel safe to go bigger on his purpose moving forward.
7
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So I m so happy to hear that Courtney is that for you.
7
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And she embraces all the parts of you.
7
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And that is a beautiful thing.
7
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It sounds like she s still got to do a little work with her and her Courtney, her little Courtney as well.
7
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But she started it before me, but she did.
7
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That s good.
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Yeah.
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Both working on it.
7
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That s beautiful, man.
7
SPEAKER_01
I got a few, a few more questions for you.
7
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That s okay.
7
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I want to ask you about health and longevity.
7
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I want to ask you about a little bit about your business and your social media empire.
7
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And then I want to wrap things up shortly after that.
7
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You know, five time world champion, Olympia, right?
7
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You ve mentioned every year, you re not sure if you re going to do it again or if you re done or you re thinking about it and you re still in that season.
7
SPEAKER_01
How do you think as you re, you know, we were talking about this beforehand, how do you approach your health?
7
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let alone pursuing more Olympias and championships, but how do you think about your health with bodybuilding, with training this hard, with the amount of intention you have on building the body?
7
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When you ve seen giants of the past go through now, heart attacks and surgeries and back, surgeries and all these different knee replacements, when you see the giants before you,
7
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Start to not only fall stumble, but have heart health challenges.
7
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How do you think about your approach to health and the world of bodybuilding To live a long healthy life of harmony not of I was a champion for you know Five ten years and then suffered the rest of my life Yeah, how do you think about that?
7
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And is that a fear of yours?
7
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I
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It s definitely a fear of mine.
7
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And I ve always said, if you re a bodybuilder and you don t have that fear, then you re just ignorant because it s a reality of what I do for sure.
7
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And I do the best that I can within the realm that I m in to manage it.
7
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But I know what I m doing isn t healthy for my body.
7
SPEAKER_00
Really?
7
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You know, right now it s not healthy for you.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, for sure.
7
SPEAKER_00
You know, the bodybuilding, they re making me healthier.
7
SPEAKER_00
Absolutely not.
7
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I know that.
7
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I know there s a lot of steps I can take to mitigate that as best as possible, but it s not healthy.
7
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And that s why I ve always, I ve never been like, I m one of the younger competitors.
7
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A lot of the open bodybuilders at least are like 35 years old when they peak, a lot of them win around then.
7
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So I m like, I could go all the way for another,
7
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six, seven years, but I ve always been like, if I m ever bodybuilding past 30, like you guys just canceled my gym membership.
7
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It s like, just don t let me, you know, I m done.
7
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And I wouldn t, I would never go past 30.
7
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So I m coming to the end of my career.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I m, I always had the goal of if I start and I m successful young and I end young, then I m at least better off than pushing past.
7
SPEAKER_00
Cause obviously the younger we are, the better our body can recover and heal.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I also just had the goal of winning Olympias.
7
SPEAKER_00
That was my only goal.
7
SPEAKER_00
So I didn t want to do the Arnold, which is in March.
7
SPEAKER_00
I didn t want to do any other show throughout the year.
7
SPEAKER_00
I was always going to do one show.
7
SPEAKER_00
So it allowed myself after the Olympia to take some time off the gym completely.
7
SPEAKER_00
Give my body, my organs, my digestion, everything a break.
7
SPEAKER_00
And then a lot of other people that compete, they want to go get other titles.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I m like, well, you re actually all falling behind because I m already preparing for the next Olympia and you re preparing for a show in between and then the Olympia.
7
SPEAKER_00
So it always kind of gives me an opportunity to stay ahead.
7
SPEAKER_01
There s no off season for them.
7
SPEAKER_01
There s no time to recover.
7
SPEAKER_00
They get like a week off and then they re back at it.
7
SPEAKER_00
That s tough.
7
SPEAKER_00
And that s that s mentally exhausting.
7
SPEAKER_00
It s physically exhausting on your body.
7
SPEAKER_00
It s a lot.
7
SPEAKER_00
So I think that s a huge benefit that I ve tried to give myself is.
7
SPEAKER_00
A lot of bodybuilders throughout their career, they ll do like 30 to 50 shows.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I ve only done like 12.
7
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
7
SPEAKER_00
You know, and I ve won five Olympias already.
7
SPEAKER_00
So it only goes up one a year.
7
SPEAKER_00
So that s a good batting percentage.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, exactly.
7
SPEAKER_00
Not too bad.
7
SPEAKER_00
That definitely helps me.
7
SPEAKER_00
This year, I ve been, like I was talking about, I got with a new trainer, Justin King.
7
SPEAKER_00
And he s more of an athletic trainer.
7
SPEAKER_00
But he s doing a lot of prehab, I guess you could call it, like injury prevention style stuff, doing more like
7
SPEAKER_00
Mobility and stretching.
7
SPEAKER_00
Mobility, isometric holds, all these kind of things like concentric negatives and all these different things.
7
SPEAKER_00
Smart.
7
SPEAKER_00
Help my tissues and ligaments and everything get stronger so I don t hurt myself in the future.
7
SPEAKER_00
Smart.
7
SPEAKER_00
You know, I used to squat six, 700 pounds all the time.
7
SPEAKER_00
Now I ll like do leg press, squat extension, all these things first and then squat like 300 pounds.
7
SPEAKER_00
Really?
7
SPEAKER_00
It gets a lot lighter.
7
SPEAKER_00
It s a lot easier on my joints.
7
SPEAKER_01
pressing your back also.
7
SPEAKER_01
And that 600 pound of bar on your back, man, jeez, that compression.
7
SPEAKER_00
I was like, why do I get headaches every week?
7
SPEAKER_00
I used to go to my massage therapist.
7
SPEAKER_00
I d be like, why do I have such bad headaches and neck pain?
7
SPEAKER_00
He s like, bro, you squat and deadlift 600 pounds twice a week.
7
SPEAKER_00
What do you expect your body s going to do?
7
SPEAKER_00
I m like,
7
SPEAKER_00
That s a good point.
7
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, you re lifting a small car on your shoulders, man.
7
SPEAKER_01
I mean, that s crazy.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, so I pulled away from that.
7
SPEAKER_00
You know, I do a lot of blood work throughout the year.
7
SPEAKER_00
I have a good, my business partner in the supplements actually owns a health clinic called Relive.
7
SPEAKER_00
So I can like walk in there and just do blood work whenever I want.
7
SPEAKER_00
I can get IVs, glutathione, all these things that I need and keep on track of that.
7
SPEAKER_00
So I know my blood markers, especially the specific ones that bodybuilders monitor, like liver, EGFR, inflammation, all these different things that you can monitor.
7
SPEAKER_00
At least are a good show.
7
SPEAKER_00
They don t show everything obviously, but it s a good test at least to see where you re at.
7
SPEAKER_00
So that s helped me a lot.
7
SPEAKER_00
My diet has been focused on just health rather than purely like getting calories in.
7
SPEAKER_00
It s actually caring what kind of foods I m putting in my body.
7
SPEAKER_00
Quality of calories too.
7
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
7
SPEAKER_00
You know, I don t drink.
7
SPEAKER_00
I don t party as much anymore.
7
SPEAKER_00
I really emphasize sleep because I think that s the biggest thing.
7
SPEAKER_00
I ve been doing the more progressive stuff I ve been doing that s not really in reach of everyone.
7
SPEAKER_00
I ve been doing a lot of stem cells.
7
SPEAKER_01
How has that worked for you, peptides and stem cells?
7
SPEAKER_00
I think they ve helped me a lot.
7
SPEAKER_00
I ve gotten some stem cells and some injuries, which have healed faster than an injury should heal.
7
SPEAKER_00
I tore my bicep two years ago before the Olympia.
7
SPEAKER_00
got stem cells in that and it healed in like six weeks or something.
7
SPEAKER_00
So it was pretty crazy.
7
SPEAKER_00
But overall what I ve noticed is, especially for autoimmune, it reduces inflammation.
7
SPEAKER_00
And one of the biggest things they ve studied around it is mitigating autoimmune diseases.
7
SPEAKER_00
So I haven t had any flare-ups or inflammation or anything like that since I started doing that consistently.
7
SPEAKER_00
So that s helped a lot.
7
SPEAKER_00
And just kind of balancing all these things together to make the best lifestyle I can within what I m doing.
7
SPEAKER_00
Because every time I try and talk about doing something healthier, people are like, you re taking steroids, you re killing yourself.
7
SPEAKER_00
I m like, I understand they re not healthy, but I m also, everything I m doing, you can do without steroids and be even healthier than me.
7
SPEAKER_00
Or if you are going to decide to do it, you can follow along like this too.
7
SPEAKER_00
And at least if you re going to do it, you re making the best of what you got with it.
7
SPEAKER_00
So, you know, it s not, it s like the person who people are like, you go to McDonald s and you get a diet Coke.
7
SPEAKER_00
What s the point of that?
7
SPEAKER_00
I was like, well, you don t need to add all the sugar on top of McDonald s.
7
SPEAKER_00
If you re going to have, you can do a little bit better.
7
SPEAKER_00
There s ways to do the best you can within what you re doing.
7
SPEAKER_01
So the few things I m trying, that s great, man.
7
SPEAKER_01
Uh, we re here in Vegas at, um, our friend Omar s studio.
7
SPEAKER_01
He s a, he s a video master and he s been building his social media and really talented as well.
7
SPEAKER_01
in this world of social media, but you have built a social media empire.
7
SPEAKER_01
I mean, millions of followers on YouTube, millions of views every video, 20 plus million, I think, on Instagram, and it just exploded around the world.
7
SPEAKER_01
What is your thought around content, media, and building this social media empire?
7
SPEAKER_01
Are you intentional with it?
7
SPEAKER_01
Or is it just, I m gonna throw up a photo of myself jacked, and it s gonna go viral?
7
SPEAKER_01
Because there s tons of jacked dudes that don t get this big on social media.
7
SPEAKER_01
What is your business philosophy and creative mind around building the brand of you?
7
SPEAKER_01
I mean, obviously,
8
SPEAKER_01
winning five Olympians is a bit of a cheat code, you know, you got a good amount of media attention for that.
8
SPEAKER_01
So that s helped a lot.
8
SPEAKER_01
But I also think there s a lot of successful people out there in different fields who haven t been able to grow a social media for whatever, which reason.
8
SPEAKER_00
And there s, there s NFL champions, there s NBA champions, there s, you know, tennis champions that don t have a fraction of the audience that you have.
8
SPEAKER_00
And they re at a bigger platform.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, like Tom Brady, I think has less followers than me, but you did a poll on America of how many people know him.
8
SPEAKER_01
He would beat me a million times over the amount of people know his name, but his social media isn t really.
8
SPEAKER_01
authentic and vulnerable and like genuine.
8
SPEAKER_01
It doesn t look like he s on there thinking, how can I put myself out there on social media and get people to know me?
8
SPEAKER_01
It looks like he has a PR agent being like, you know, check this out, check that out.
8
SPEAKER_01
And all these things kind of like a more of like a highlight reel, more professionalism.
8
SPEAKER_01
So with that being said, my only philosophy that I ve ever had is just no one logs in to my Instagram.
8
SPEAKER_01
No one makes any captions for me.
8
SPEAKER_01
No one tells me what to post on my Instagram.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m just going to put out what feels authentic to me and what feels like I m really showing myself.
8
SPEAKER_01
And that s all I m ever going to do.
8
SPEAKER_01
Really?
8
SPEAKER_01
I ve never really chased like the trends, the algorithms or all these things like that.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I ve just tried to, my captions often, sometimes are either like a philosophical thought I was thinking one night and I tried to write it out in the caption, like a journal and I post it.
8
SPEAKER_01
Or there s some stupid joke where I m making like a lighthearted joke about myself trying to be funny.
8
SPEAKER_01
And just, I never take myself too seriously.
8
SPEAKER_01
I try and just be like authentic self on there.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I think, especially in a world with a lot of right now and you know, people mistrusting politicians and all the fake news out there, people appreciate authenticity.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I got in at a good time.
8
SPEAKER_01
I got lucky.
8
SPEAKER_01
I ve won some Olympias, you know, and I just tried to stay true to myself.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I think people appreciated seeing that authenticity.
8
SPEAKER_01
And they also really appreciated that, yes, I got the immediate attention from winning Olympias and all this stuff.
8
SPEAKER_01
But through all that, anyone who s followed me since the beginning and everyone who knows me personally, all these people, number one thing they say that I m most proud to hear that I haven t changed.
8
SPEAKER_01
Like I m still the same kid.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m still the same person.
8
SPEAKER_01
I ve grown a lot.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m a lot smarter, but to my core, I m the same person.
8
SPEAKER_01
That s beautiful, man.
8
SPEAKER_01
So I think really people have just appreciated seeing someone make a lot of external growth and internally remain true to themselves.
8
SPEAKER_00
When did you start to make the transition of like, OK, this is actually a business where I can make money and build a business rather than I m assuming a lot of guys are just more sponsored athletes and they re getting paid by sponsors or winning competitions.
8
SPEAKER_00
When did you make that shift of like, oh, I m gonna make money as a business, not just as an athlete or a sponsor, influencer, and get endorsement deals.
8
SPEAKER_00
When did that shift?
8
SPEAKER_01
I think 2019 or so was the first year I ever was like trying to make some merch.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m like, screw it, I ll make a t-shirt and see how it goes.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I was in my sister s living room printing stuff on a piece of paper, cause I didn t have labels, taping it to a bag.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I shipped out like 250 t-shirts and I was like,
8
SPEAKER_01
That was pretty good money, you know?
8
SPEAKER_01
That was easy.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I made it all.
8
SPEAKER_01
I did some work.
8
SPEAKER_01
It was satisfying.
8
SPEAKER_01
It was like, that was easy.
8
SPEAKER_01
I could do that.
8
SPEAKER_00
She s posted on social media.
8
SPEAKER_00
Hey, there s a shirt.
8
SPEAKER_00
Buy it.
8
SPEAKER_00
You sold out.
8
SPEAKER_01
I was literally like, DM me your address and PayPal or Zelle me or something, you know?
8
SPEAKER_01
I did each single interaction, whatever, one at a time.
8
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
8
SPEAKER_00
That s how you all started.
8
SPEAKER_00
That s how we all started, man.
8
SPEAKER_01
I typed out the address on Microsoft Word, printed it out, cut it.
8
SPEAKER_01
It took me probably like a week to do 250.
8
SPEAKER_00
That s how we all start though.
8
SPEAKER_00
You have no clue what you re doing.
8
SPEAKER_00
You re like, ah, who wants this?
8
SPEAKER_00
Just give me some cash and I ll deliver it to you.
8
SPEAKER_01
So that s how that all started.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I met a good friend of mine now who s still my business partner, who was my athlete manager.
8
SPEAKER_01
And he quit his job because he didn t like it.
8
SPEAKER_01
Came over to help me on that back end business side of things.
8
SPEAKER_01
And we re still doing stuff now.
8
SPEAKER_01
And then,
8
SPEAKER_01
As I started to gain a lot more popularity, one of my sponsors was like, how about we make your own product?
8
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, yeah, let s do it.
8
SPEAKER_01
Let s see how it goes.
8
SPEAKER_01
Like, we ll try it.
8
SPEAKER_01
So I got to make the label.
8
SPEAKER_01
I got to make the product.
8
SPEAKER_01
But it was still under their brand.
8
SPEAKER_01
But it was still their brand.
8
SPEAKER_00
It was in your business.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s like you get more commission.
8
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s not yours.
8
SPEAKER_01
I got a royalty off of it, but I didn t own anything.
8
SPEAKER_01
So I did that, and it exploded.
8
SPEAKER_01
It did super well.
8
SPEAKER_01
It was probably one of their best-selling products, definitely the best drop the company had ever had.
8
SPEAKER_01
I made like $80,000 over a weekend, and I was like, that was 10x the money I ve ever made.
8
SPEAKER_01
I was like... You re like, I m rich.
8
SPEAKER_01
I was like, wait, this much money is out there?
8
SPEAKER_01
The company s making this much money, and I m only getting this salary?
8
SPEAKER_00
You re getting like 2% of what they re making?
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m like, all right, something s not adding up here.
8
SPEAKER_01
So that was when I started to be like, all right, I need to do this for myself.
8
SPEAKER_01
And then I had a bunch of people reach out to me and try and do it with me.
8
SPEAKER_01
And then some people tell me I should do it all by myself because I can do it, all these things.
8
SPEAKER_01
And then I ended up going down to Florida to meet with Matt Jansen and Dom, my two partners now, just to talk about some things.
8
SPEAKER_01
And they had a supplement company for vitamins called Revive and they were starting a different one and they wanted me to come on as a partner and be a, we re all going to be equal partners in it.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I was like,
8
SPEAKER_01
You know, some people are telling me I should own my whole thing and do it all myself, but I went down there and I spent some time with them and I really connected with them.
8
SPEAKER_01
They were good people.
8
SPEAKER_01
They had a great operation for their previous company.
8
SPEAKER_01
I could tell they were smart and they were genuine, like, good people, like, that I could be friends with.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, this just feels right.
8
SPEAKER_01
You know, in my gut, I was like, this feels right.
8
SPEAKER_01
So I ended up moving down to Florida.
8
SPEAKER_01
We started a company called Raw.
8
SPEAKER_01
Made another product with my name on the side of it, but this time I own the company and it s just been exploding ever since.
8
SPEAKER_01
And what s cool is I m good at some marketing stuff.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m good at ideas and pushing the brand in the direction I want, but I don t really want to run operations and sales calls and manufacturing, shipping, all the buying raw materials, like all that.
8
SPEAKER_01
I don t want to do that.
8
SPEAKER_00
You got to build your body, man.
8
SPEAKER_00
You don t have time for that.
8
SPEAKER_01
I got to check out Olympia.
8
SPEAKER_01
I got to do all these things.
8
SPEAKER_01
So having those partners is the best thing I ever could have done.
8
SPEAKER_01
And they re amazing.
8
SPEAKER_01
And obviously, the company wouldn t be as big as it was without all of us being the system that we are.
8
SPEAKER_01
So we ve created something really cool and really big now.
8
SPEAKER_01
And what the risk that I took within all that is I was making
8
SPEAKER_01
I was being fully transparent, I was making probably $10,000 a month salary and then I had gotten that $80,000 commission and then I was offered to stay with them a small piece of that company and I think $60,000 a month.
8
SPEAKER_01
So you re like, okay, this is a lot of money.
8
SPEAKER_01
That s like 700 grand.
8
SPEAKER_01
Are you serious?
8
SPEAKER_01
Like this is, you know, my whole thing with money in my life was that if I made a hundred grand a year, I was rich.
8
SPEAKER_01
I made it.
8
SPEAKER_01
That was the only thing I ever thought about.
8
SPEAKER_01
So I m like, that s like 60 grand a month.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
And then with raw, they were like, there s no salary.
8
SPEAKER_01
There s no commission.
8
SPEAKER_01
You re not going to be making any money right now.
8
SPEAKER_01
You know?
8
SPEAKER_01
And I m like,
8
SPEAKER_01
And they re like, but we ll front the money to start the business.
8
SPEAKER_01
We ll all be equal partners and it will be like a long-term plan.
8
SPEAKER_01
I was like, yeah, it just felt right.
8
SPEAKER_01
You know, I m like, I m good.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m going to take the risk.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m going to bet on myself.
8
SPEAKER_01
You know, I might be cutting the salary right now.
8
SPEAKER_01
Like I could go buy these cool, like a nice house and a nice car and all these things right now.
8
SPEAKER_01
But how about I wait a little bit?
8
SPEAKER_01
And I mean, I only had to wait like two years and I was able to make good money from it.
8
SPEAKER_01
And now I still not making that big of a salary, but the equity that I own in the company is worth infinitely times more than that.
8
SPEAKER_00
What did the total first year, what did you guys do total sales in the new business?
8
SPEAKER_00
Do you know?
8
SPEAKER_00
In the new business?
8
SPEAKER_00
I think it was just under 10 mil.
8
SPEAKER_00
10 million.
8
SPEAKER_00
So you re building 10 million of equity, which something like that you could potentially sell for 30, 50, 80 million after one year of sales.
8
SPEAKER_00
Not that company, no.
8
SPEAKER_00
The company you just built, the first year?
8
SPEAKER_01
That first year, the way the multiplier works in supplements is more of like a 10x off EBITDA.
8
SPEAKER_01
So if we were really only making like 1 to 2 mil profit off that, we maybe would have been worth 10 mil.
8
SPEAKER_00
But if you build it over time, then it s getting up there.
8
SPEAKER_01
And it was way more fun like that.
8
SPEAKER_01
I was way more passionate about it.
8
SPEAKER_01
It felt way more authentic to promote something that I owned and that I got to decide all the products that were coming out, how we marketed it, how it looked, everything.
8
SPEAKER_01
I got to be a part of it, so it made me a lot more involved in it.
8
SPEAKER_01
people also felt that authenticity of how much I cared about it.
8
SPEAKER_01
It s not like, buy this brand and a year later someone offers me more money.
8
SPEAKER_01
So I m like, wait, no, buy this brand, no, buy this one.
8
SPEAKER_01
It s like, no, this is it forever.
8
SPEAKER_01
This is like, I m gonna make this as best as possible.
8
SPEAKER_00
That s exciting.
8
SPEAKER_00
This is a question I ask everyone towards the end of the interviews.
8
SPEAKER_00
So I ve got three final questions for you.
8
SPEAKER_00
But before I ask them, I wanna send people to your Instagram.
8
SPEAKER_00
I want them to follow you.
8
SPEAKER_00
I don t think my audience probably follows you yet.
8
SPEAKER_00
Maybe there s some of them, but I don t think my audience,
8
SPEAKER_00
Most of your audience is men, I m assuming, right?
8
SPEAKER_00
It s like 90% men.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, well, I m more like 50-50 men and women.
8
SPEAKER_00
But I think the women are really going to love this so much to see someone like you speak in this way and have a beautiful relationship with your wife and building yourself to be a father and all the work you re doing, I think they re going to love this.
8
SPEAKER_00
So I think they re going to share this with all the men in their life and say, you need to watch this.
8
SPEAKER_00
But I want people to check out like your vlogs are awesome.
8
SPEAKER_00
I just love how real you are and your content.
8
SPEAKER_00
I just want people to see it, you know, watch it to be entertained and inspired, but also to study the way you do things on social media.
8
SPEAKER_00
I just think you do a great job.
9
SPEAKER_00
So I want to congratulate you there.
9
SPEAKER_00
Where can people check out the supplement business?
9
SPEAKER_00
Where can they go for that?
9
SPEAKER_01
It s called Raw Nutrition, so GetRawNutrition.com is the website.
9
SPEAKER_00
Get Raw Nutrition.
9
SPEAKER_00
And your favorite is what, the pre-workout, the protein?
9
SPEAKER_00
What do you like the most?
9
SPEAKER_01
I mean, cookies and cream protein is my favorite right now.
9
SPEAKER_00
You should have brought me some, man.
9
SPEAKER_00
Let s go.
9
SPEAKER_00
I ll send you some.
9
SPEAKER_00
Let me guide you.
9
SPEAKER_01
I ll send you more energy.
9
SPEAKER_01
And then, yeah, the pre-workout, too.
9
SPEAKER_01
Those are our best-selling SKUs.
9
SPEAKER_01
Everyone loves those.
9
SPEAKER_00
Okay, cool.
9
SPEAKER_01
Nice pre-workout protein.
9
SPEAKER_00
get in there, get raw nutrition or the website, get raw nutrition.com to check that out.
9
SPEAKER_00
Your YouTube is awesome.
9
SPEAKER_00
What s the name on the YouTube?
9
SPEAKER_01
You just search Chris Bumstead on social.
9
SPEAKER_00
There s a C bum though on the on the Instagram C bum.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
So check that out.
9
SPEAKER_00
Watch the journey of you with your you know, your daughter coming in a couple of months, man.
9
SPEAKER_00
I m excited for you, man.
9
SPEAKER_00
What is the thing that
9
SPEAKER_00
you would tell your younger self, your 12, 13 year old self about what is about to happen in your life to become a father?
9
SPEAKER_00
What s that thing that you would say to your younger self if you could go back and tell him something?
9
SPEAKER_01
In regards to becoming a father?
9
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Yeah.
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I would probably just say, take it a little easy on yourself, you know, to understand that it s,
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It s not as easy, nor is it maybe even possible, just to give the kind of love you want to others without giving it to yourself.
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So if you want to show your baby girl and for her to feel the love that you want her to feel, then understand that you deserve that same love.
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Oh my goodness, man.
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Give me the chills the way you re talking.
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This is beautiful, man.
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This is a question I ask everyone at the end.
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It s called the three truths.
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So imagine a hypothetical scenario.
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You get to live as long as you want.
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You ve taken care of your health, so you re living long.
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Beautiful.
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But it s the last day on earth for you, many years away.
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And you get to create everything you want.
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The family, the relationship, the business.
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the adventures, everything at all happens the way you envision it from this moment until the last day of you, for your life.
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But for whatever reason, you ve got to take all of your content, your work, your products, your businesses with you.
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So no one has access to your information.
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This interview is gone.
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Anything you ve ever shared is gone, hypothetically.
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But you get to leave behind one final message.
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And this is all we would have to remember Chris by.
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And I call it the three truths.
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So what would be the top truths that you would leave behind or the biggest lessons you would leave behind?
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To the world, to your younger self, to your friends and family, what would those truths be?
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Oh, man.
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This is tough.
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You re gonna have to go home and think about this one deeper and come back with another answer.
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But I would say,
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understanding utmost importance, the value of connection, connection with people around you, connection with yourself and how important relationships are.
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You know, I think people really, they think they understand that, but when you look at their life, they re pouring more energy into work and then coming home too tired to focus on it, or they re harder on themselves rather than like showing themselves a little bit more grace.
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And I think
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Truly being able to prioritize that, you know, and I also think even my I m guilty of this too.
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I m like, well, I m busy right now.
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So in the future, I ll focus on that.
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This is going on right now.
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You know, I want to be able to retire young so I can do all that.
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I ll do it later, you know, and I think it s often too late when you keep saying that and something will always come up.
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So I guess lesson number two is whatever you want to do, do it now because tomorrow never comes, you know, just get after it.
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Connection is the most important thing.
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Don t wait to focus on that.
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Focus on it now.
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And something a little bit more performative, I always say this little saying called set the standard.
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And it started off very external, like be the best, set the standard of the classic physique that I was in, but it became more so set your own standards to rely on the standards that you hold true and you hold important to yourself rather than the standards that other people think are important.
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So figure out what you truly feel is important and focus on those and prioritize your life to set those standards for yourself and maybe your family as well, because usually that all ties in, but not caring what other people s standards are, but focusing on what matters most to you.
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Great truths, man.
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You don t need to reflect on this.
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You got those right there.
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Before I ask the final question, Chris, I want to acknowledge you for, man, the journey, man.
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Not only the journey physically and performance-wise and athletically in terms of your goals and dreams in the external world, but the journey in your relationships with your wife, your friends, your family, and with yourself now and little Chris.
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I think the fact that you have gone on a journey and an adventure to heal the parts of you that were hurting is, I think, the greatest accomplishment you ve ever created for yourself, more than any Olympia.
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And so I want to acknowledge you for that journey, man.
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It s a beautiful thing that you re doing and a beautiful standard that you re setting for the rest of
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a young men s generation coming up right now.
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So thank you for setting that standard for yourself, for your wife, for your daughter and your family, and for the millions of people that that watch you, man.
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It s really beautiful.
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Thank you.
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Of course.
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My final question.
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What is your definition of greatness?
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My definition of greatness.
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Oh, man.
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They re tough questions.
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I mean, you didn t let me prep on these.
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I would say that greatness to me is
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truly living in alignment with like your authentic self and being the best version of yourself in all aspects of life.
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So like I was saying, not just in like the physical, but emotional and relationally and being the best version of yourself.
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And in my concept, what comes with that greatness of the best version of yourself is also a version that elevates the people around you and makes everyone around you a better version and is
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caring and loving enough to yourself and to others that as you become better, you re making other people around you better so that your family, your community, your friends are all kind of being elevated alongside you.
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Because if you re only up there by up there by yourself, then you re by yourself and it feels lonely.
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So yeah, I guess something along those lines.
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C bomb, my man.
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Thank you, brother.
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Great times, man.
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I hope you enjoyed today s episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness.
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Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today s episode with all the important links.
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If you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel
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exclusively on Apple Podcasts.
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Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well.
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Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review.
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I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward.
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And I want to remind you if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.
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And now it s time to go out there and do something great.