Take it off! See. Love. Grow.
An unfulfilled life has less to do with what it is - and more with how you see it. Your fulfillment is often on the other side of a tough decision or conversation. It is in the resolving of conflict and the releasing of self-judgment that we grow the most. So, if you feel stuck in your career, relationships, or how you think about yourself, it’s time to “TAKE IT OFF” and show up as your authentic self. Joshua A. Fields and Jeremy Rubin co-host the “Take it Off” Podcast. As a master practitioner of the Energy Leadership Index with 15 years of executive leadership experience at a Fortune 10 company, Certified Executive Coach Joshua Fields has a proven track record of creating high-performing teams and environments for personal transformation. Renowned author, speaker, and founder of FACE Consulting, Jeremy Rubin, immediately impacts groups large and small using humor, personal stories, and practical, result-driven applications. These two have brought unique life experiences, skill sets, and energy to create an experience like no other. The mission is simple but not easy. It is to empower people with the skills to see and accept themselves and others clearly and without judgment to live a more authentic life. So, if you’re ready to live with purpose and curiosity and to get clear on what you want for your life, join us weekly at the “Take it Off” Podcast. Some concepts are based on and inspired by the coach training program Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC).
Take it off! See. Love. Grow.
Discipline, Growth, and Authenticity: The Power of Fitness with Luka Hocevar
In this episode of Take It Off! See. Love. Grow., we sit down with Luka Hocevar, founder of Vigor Ground Fitness and Performance, to explore how fitness can unlock your true self and lead to personal transformation. Luka shares his journey from a troubled youth to a fitness industry leader, discussing the deep connection between physical training, emotional resilience, and personal growth. We dive into the role of community, mentorship, and accountability in fostering discipline and self-improvement.
Luka highlights the power of small wins, understanding human behavior, and the parallels between physical and emotional fitness. He shares personal insights from navigating life challenges, including marriage and divorce, while emphasizing the importance of surrounding yourself with supportive environments and role models.
This conversation is a deep dive into the transformative journey of self-awareness, vulnerability, and embracing personal growth through fitness. Luka encourages listeners to take control of their narratives and invest in themselves.
Books and Concepts Referenced:
•So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
•Speed Trap by Charlie Francis
•Atomic Habits by James Clear
•Tribe by Sebastian Junger
•The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell
•Why Good People Do Bad Things by Debbie Ford
•Stoicism (concepts like The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday)
•“Leaders are Readers” (concept)
Connect with Luka Hocevar:
•Instagram: @lukahocevar
•YouTube: Luka Hocevar
•Website: lukahocevar.com
•Vigor Ground Fitness: vigorgroundfitness.com
Connect with Joshua Fields:
•Co-Host: Joshua Fields, ACC, CPC, & Master ELI Practitioner
•Website: joshuafields.coach
•Instagram: @joshuafields
•Join the Email List: Subscribe Here
Hey everyone, welcome to the Take it Off podcast. See Love Grow, the podcast where we strip away the layers and dive into real conversations about being authentically human. I'm your co-host, joshua Fields, and today's episode is titled Discipline, growth and Authenticity the Power of Fitness. With Luca Hosover, we're talking about how fitness can do more than just shape your body, and I'm not talking about that LSG song. You know what I mean my body all over your body, babe. Your body all over my body, babe. My body all over your body. It's your body, babe, all over your body. We're not talking about that. We're talking about how fitness can do more than just shape your body. It can unlock a deeper connection to your true self. So let's jump in and unpack this great conversation with an incredible guest, luca Hosover, who's known for transforming not only how people look but how they live. So let's dive into this great conversation and explore how disciplining the body can help you live a life more authentically.
Speaker 1:Hey y'all, today we have an incredible, inspiring guest on the show. Luca Holsifer is not only a highly accomplished fitness trainer, but also the founder and owner of Vigor Ground Fitness and Performance in Washington. Luca has dedicated his career to helping people unlock their physical and mental potential through the power of fitness. With over two decades of experience, he has built a reputation for combining science-based training with real-world strategies to transform lives both inside and outside the gym. Luca's work goes far beyond physical training. He focuses on building strong mindsets, resilience and discipline that empower his clients to live more authentically and purposefully. From coaching elite athletes to helping everyday people become the best versions of themselves, luca's passion for fitness is rooted in a commitment to personal growth and authentic living. Not only does he lead by example with his training, but Luca also regularly speaks on topics related to fitness, personal development and entrepreneurship. His approach has changed lives globally, and he's here today to share his wisdom on how disciplining the body can lead to greater access to who you truly are.
Speaker 1:Now, before I let my brother speak and jump in here, I got to give it up because, if there was a movie about Joshua Fields and his fitness journey, many of you have listened to the podcast. You know I've lost over 80 pounds and I've kept the weight off, and Luca was one of the early, instrumental folks that helped inspire this journey. Being part of a community, I remember when he started out in his raggedy garage gym in Renton, washington, and I was right there, and it wasn't about what the gym looked like, it was about what was going on inside the gym, and many of us have that story. There's something going on inside of us that we need access to, and this is what this episode is going to allow us to do so, and without further ado, man Luca, come on and jump into this conversation. Man, welcome to the Take it Off podcast.
Speaker 2:Man, my pleasure, dude. You got me fired up. Put me in a game coach, I'll go on it. Let's talk about it, man?
Speaker 1:What's going on, man, how you doing, before we get into all the weeds of our conversation today, what's going on in your world, brother?
Speaker 2:I mean I'd have to probably do a bullet point list because it's very long, but yeah, but this week is every. I don't do this every year, honestly, it's just so much to to work to put on and I put on a big summit. It's called the vigor ground, fitness and business summit. We have, man, I'll be like 16 speakers, including myself from, I mean, best of the best. I don't want to. You know I'm kind of biased here, but but if you looked up who it is, most people probably be like damn, okay, you know, coming to Renton Washington, we have about 240, 250 coaches, gym owners from all around the world come in. So that starts really on Wednesday evening with a VIP, but Thursday, friday, saturday, it's all day. So you, so that intertwined with all my other work and businesses, because I still coach a lot, because I love coaching, it's just a lot. So it's kind of like a whirlwind week. But I also love it because it's very, very fulfilling. It's all the stress and sometimes the overwhelm of putting it on is overshadowed once it's happening and done because of, you know, the meaningful impact that it makes on people. You know, I mean it really really does.
Speaker 2:This is the 10-year anniversary of when I did the first big event. So we've done seven in 10 years. I do it every two years now. You know kind of I skip a year to take a break, but it's been thousands of people at these events. And you know kind of I skip a year to to take a break, but it's been thousands of people at these events and you know the amount of people that have started businesses, collaborated. It's wild. I mean, you know it's some people that have met at the events and created these huge businesses to impact millions of people. So I'm very proud of it, it's like it, but it's definitely a a game time week, though it's a game time week for sure. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's it, man. Congratulations. And one thing about what I know about you even if I'm I'm viewing, you know, looking through the window. You are committed to community. You find great power in bringing people together and creating a synergy that amplifies what you authentically want to see happen in the world. And I don't know if it's that clear for you. It probably is because you've been committed to it, and I know our conversation would help allow that to just unfold. But admirable to be able to see someone in the community. That's really about it. That's about the community and doing it through this lens of fitness as a jumping off point. It that's about the community and doing it through this lens of fitness as a jumping off point.
Speaker 1:With that said, our topic today is really simple. It's the power of your authentic self by using fitness as a way to tap into that power. One of my first questions for you, luke, is when did you realize that fitness was about more than just your physical strength? How did it change your own life when you think about all you've been able to accomplish as a result of what you're passionate about?
Speaker 2:I think that it goes. I have to probably go back to about 13 years old, and here's why. So basketball is a big part of my I would. Basketball saved my life.
Speaker 2:I was a very, very knucklehead kid in my teenage years, involved in a lot of organized crime and but I was, but I was hooping, so you know, but I was, and you know me. I'm six foot. You know what I mean. These days maybe it's five and eleven and a half these days, you know a little bit of compression, that's fine, but but I, you know, when I grew up, people are man, so you were passionate about basketball and and really I, I wasn't. You know I wouldn't get picked. You know the scrawny kid, I wouldn't get picked. I was shorter, you know. I come from a place in the Balkans, like people pretty tall, so I actually got it had a chip on my shoulder, you know, because it was like when you're not seen, you know, when you're the kid that's bullied or you know like, ah man, we're not gonna pick this dude, you know I would, I would bust my butt to like be better to prove myself. But then you can, you can curse. You can curse on your two. Oh, excellent, all right, cool. I feel some tension leaving my body, good, and you know. But that that made me work really, really, really hard to prove myself. And the harder I worked, the more passionate I became about the sport and I always share.
Speaker 2:There's a great book it's called so good, they can't ignore you by cal newport. Oh, it's actually a steve martin saying right, steve martin was basically like well, how did you make it be so good, they can't ignore you. But in that book it talks about the passion hypotheses, which I think is a lot of people and I think the younger generation now is like, you know, I'm going to keep trying different stuff and then something's going to hit me. You know like I'm going to be passionate about it. And then when I'm passionate about it, then I'm going to like really get into it. But it's not what actually happens. It's like when you develop, you know, when you put in deliberate practice into a skill and you get better at the skill, you actually become more passionate about it. And so that's what ball was for me, and I'll get to the story of how you know, because obviously training basketball hard is physical, right. So that started changing me.
Speaker 2:But then, when I was 13, my mom had a full-time job at the bank and she decided to open up a gym with her friends. So basically my mom would work at the bank half the day and then she'd go and work the gym and it was like this little gym in a physical education building, probably like 2,000 square feet, and I started going there to hang out because obviously it's like my parents were working a lot. So I'd go there and train and start training and I was very fortunate because in that gym one of the top powerlifters in the country trained there, just because of proximity. And even more crazy, was at the bottom of this physical education building were two guys, gymnasts. One was it's going to be a hard name to say, but Elias Pagan. At that point in time the guy was like a five-time world champion, this best of best in the world on a straddle. So I had a little gym at the bottom, gymnastics and they'd come up and train so these guys would actually show me stuff.
Speaker 2:So I'm a 13-year-old kid, I'm scrawny, I'm like man, I want it to be better at performance of basketball, right, but they're teaching me how to deadlift and squat and do this and do that and that was kind of mentorship. I didn't even look at it that way back then, but I was fortunate. So I started lifting and within you know, the first probably you know year, I put on a significant amount of muscle, my athleticism improved and so that gave me. So, first of all, you know, on a basketball court it was like hey, like this little guard is just starting to bully people, right, because I was stronger. And back then it's like you know, ballplayers didn't really lift. They still like. It was like you'd believe that if you lift your weights your shot would get messed up and stuff. That was still that era.
Speaker 2:But what lifting gave me was it just didn't. It didn't give me just the physicality, gave me the confidence, because I was not a confident kid. You know. It's like again, when you constantly don't get picked or people are like man, we got to pick this kid. It's like I was the youngest of three brothers, so the weight room gave me that and that's when I think I got hooked hooked onto training and performance. Now, at that age, if you ask me anything, the only answer I'd give you is like I want to play an NBA, and that would be my answer all the way till you know age 24, when I actually did play an NBA summer pro league.
Speaker 2:But the you know, underlyingly what I was developing is this, this love for performance training, and that's, I think, where it really really began, that like I attached, you know, cause we ain't like human beings, anchor feelings and emotions to things Right. So to me it was like work hard in a weight room and just work hard on your performance equals confidence and progress. You know, and I started, you know I was a weird kid because, like, I'm like 14 years old and I'm reading, like Verhoshansky's it's your ski the Russian manuals of strength and performance. You know, I'm 15, 16 years old, I'm reading Charlie Francis speed trap. You know, I'm geeking out because I was just like I want to dunk, I want to be faster than you, I want to.
Speaker 2:You know, I was obsessed with this, with this like improvement, and it was, yes, it was all for basketball, but if, if you read that book so good, they can't ignore you. You also understand I was building deliberate practice and career capital in the field of strength and conditioning, right. So, and again, I couldn't tell you that back then, I can tell you that now, you know, when I look back of how it all began and so I think that was a big big thing for me, man, because you know, we talk about everybody can understand, like physical weightlifting, which I mean we can dive into how you know, I mean the science just shows what it does for us and we can dig into it. But I also think, you know, I think there's kind of three aspects right, you got physical weightlifting, and then I think you got mental weightlifting right, which is you're building your mindset, and then you have emotional weightlifting right, being able to handle, I would say, your own emotions. Because, let's be real, most bad decisions that we make in our lives you know I got plenty that I've made is when we can't control our emotions, right. And so I think that you have to kind of, you know, be in the weight room for all three of those, because I was a guy that was in the weight room a lot.
Speaker 2:For the physical one, I messed up a lot of things in my life because I didn't work on other two and I had to, you know, learn the hard way and go through pain and go into therapy and do a lot of things to to kind of work those two weight rooms as well to become who I am today. You know, and and I'm like, look, I try to stay a pretty open book and transparent, cause I think I think it's bullshit when people tell the good stuff and it's like they't tell you the the. You know the shitty things they've done and how they overcome them, where a lot of times, I'm actually interested in. You know, resilience is like how you come back from the mistakes you made or the hard lessons right, versus just like hey, give me the feel-good story. It's like let's talk about some hard shit, yeah, yeah well, let.
Speaker 1:Well, let me, let's. I'm gonna, let's pause and I going to see the willingness around what's comfortable for you to double click on that statement. What I love about what you just said is I knew that I wanted to be bigger, faster, stronger. I saw a way to level the playing field by focusing on my physical strength, on my physical strength. And then there's the mental weight room and there's the emotional weight room. That was underserved just through ignorance is what I heard. I didn't even know that was a place to put time and effort in, although life shows up and it's like yeah, actually we got three weight rooms and you're doing amazing here, but don't forget about these other two. And I think that that's really how people fall into fitness. And I want to look from an exterior standpoint. I want to look better, I want to be attractive. I want to walk in a room and be like damn, I saw something about. It is more of a flex, especially in your 40s. You're 40s yet, lucas 43.
Speaker 1:43. We're the same age, same age. To be in physically great shape at 40 plus years old is much more of a flex than owning some super expensive car man I get listen.
Speaker 2:You can take the stats on this one I'm gonna, I'm gonna be a little. I'm gonna be a little off on here, but but I think it's like eight, seven or eight percent of Americans are millionaires, but 0.3 percent of Americans have a six pack something like that.
Speaker 2:This might actually be a stat for a man, but you know again, which means that it's significantly harder to have a six pack than it is to be a billionaire, right, have a six pack, then it hits. To be a billionaire, right and I'm not the person that would say that to be healthy, you got to have a six pack. But there's also I think we can't hide from the fact that health in this country is the worst it's been. And if you have it and I think there's levels to this right, there's just like, hey, baseline health. And what about, you know, once you start kind of pushing to, I think you know elite performance.
Speaker 2:I've been in, I was a professional athlete for three plus years playing professional basketball, you know, and if you look at and I train a lot of elite, elite, you know athletes we're talking about Super Bowl champions, cy Young award winners. I've trained a lot of them and like I mean that elite performance is also not healthy, right, I think people need to understand that as well. And again, you give up, you know, and you, when you're a pro athlete, you're like, hey, that's, I'm chasing this, this thing, and I'm giving up some health. It's a small window within that you use and you kind of get it.
Speaker 2:But you know, you know, and again, my kind of mentality over the years is is obviously changed, depending on how down 43, I'm still a little kind of like crazy, so I'm pushing the boundaries of athleticism, 43 because I like that. But you know, if, if put it this way, I I wish that this, this is kind of like me, kind of veering off of my belief, right, I would love to give people contrast. I think contrast is so powerful, right, that if you, you know there's a lot of pills now that can help you lose weight, do this, that, the other. Some of it I agree with, some of it I don't. But I wish there was a pill that, for 24 hours, boom, you take it and it takes you to optimal health for whatever that is for you. That could be different things, right, so you could live that for 24 hours and go back to where you are. Right, because then you have contrast and then it's like, oh shit, that's what my energy would be like, that's how well I'd move, that's how, oh, I didn't have that nagging pain, I'd be able to work a 10 hour, 12 hour day, no problem. Go home, play with my kids do, dude, my mind's still clear. I'm on fire, right. And then you're like I want that back, right.
Speaker 2:And because things are usually slow, you know we use things. If you look at the statistics, right, it's not like in a course of a year you lose your health and put on, you know, tons of weight. Apart from that mean, the covid era did kind of do that and sped everything up, but in general it takes, you know it's slow. You gain a half a pound a month. You know three, four, five months in two and a half pounds. It's not that much, right like it just kind of compounds little by little, just like good things compound bad things compounds, like that famous saying right, right, how did it happen? Slowly, then suddenly right. And so because we're hedonic creatures, because it happens slowly, it's like the bull, the frog analogy, right, like if you slowly turn up the heat on a frog it doesn't jump out the water. So we slowly kind of disrupt our health, right. But then so we forget how it is to feel phenomenal, you know, be full of energy, be fast, not have nagging pain, because you're so used to it, because it kind of just crept up on you, right.
Speaker 2:And, and that's why I say that contrast is such a it's such a powerful thing, right, because if you can see, you know it's the same thing somebody's had. You know, I used to have really bad back pain. I had a horrible back injury 15 years ago and it's like when you know what it's like and then somebody take you know, you do something to take it away. You're like, oh man, like all right, like I just want this, I just want this, right. The contrast is powerful and I think that it's helpful to you. Know.
Speaker 2:I think that environments that we create again bias here, but like Vigor or any other, I say gym, that's coaching and helping people transform you kind of get that a little bit. You know what I'm saying. Like, right from the get-go, the community that's uplifting people supporting you, somebody helps you do something a little different. You're like whoa, man, that doesn't hurt me. Wow, that drill made me whoa. My upper back, my neck, doesn't feel cranky anymore, right, and hopefully what happens is that you're like, yeah, I want more of that. I'm going to keep coming back because I want a little more of that. And then you start compounding in a different direction and changing your life again, brick by brick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, switching gears slightly around this journey around your physical well-being, and I love just the yeah. How did it happen? Well, slowly, and then suddenly. Around this journey around your physical wellbeing, and I love just the yeah. How did it happen? Well, slowly, and then suddenly. When you think about your emotional weight room and your mental weight room, what story can you share that would give the audience a deeper perspective on how your fitness lifestyle allowed you to maybe make mistakes, rebound, try again, fuck up and come back full circle, where you have this deeper perspective that honors this mental weight room and this emotional weight room that you were speaking of.
Speaker 2:Sure, and I think too, there's nature and nurture right. So I look back and when I made the mistakes that I made in my life, you sometimes go like, how did that happen? Where did that come from? So on and so forth. But I got married young. I was like 24 years old. It's part of the reason why I moved to the States and I've always had this chip on my shoulder that I talked about earlier as a kid, and there was a lot of other things that led to there, from trauma to things like that, and it's like so I'm like I got to make it. My internal compass was like, if I make it, I'll be seen, status money, then I'll be seen and accepted Again. I didn't know that consciously. I went through a lot of therapy to figure that stuff out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally understand. So even when I'm married, I'm like I'm hustling all the time and that led to my emotional weight room was very underdeveloped, because part of it is like understanding the needs of your partner, being better at listening, active listening, questioning, awareness, right, tons of tons of studies show that we are not. Our social intelligence doesn't develop to at least 28, if not 30, years old. So you, you know, when you're younger that was me too Like I'm thinking, you know, and I had been through, I grew up in Yugoslavia and socialism we had, you know, yugoslavia had a war in 91.
Speaker 2:Like I've been through a lot of stuff and you know, you start thinking like, oh yeah, like I really know life, you know, I know myself, but you don't, you know, your social intelligence isn't developed. So in my mind I'm like man, everything will be fine as long as I hustle, make money and that right, but I'm not thinking about needs that other person not again, it's just awareness isn't even there. So I make mistakes in my relationship, I cheated, I got divorced and I mean those were honestly. And I share this because I think it can be helpful for people, because it was actually some of the most, I would probably say hardest parts of my life, harder than what some other people would say, like man that looked, that was hard the way you grew up, this, that the other, and because it was just emotionally tethering, right, because I was just like.
Speaker 2:I was like man, why do you know, why do people do stupid things in, in this case, myself, right, but that made me raise my hand and where I come from, asking for help is not a thing that most men do, but I did. I went into a Wake Up Warrior program, I got therapy, and so that for me, those two decisions were like, let me enter the emotional weight room, right, because I was willing to even face my like, why did I do that? Like, why am I doing this? Like what you know. And I had to like untangle the onion of myself, right. And man, that was the hard. I mean, I could train all day long and it wouldn't have been as hard at that point in time as like facing some of those things, yeah, talking about it, you know, going through it, and then like feeling the emotions of, like, how I made somebody else feel like, why did I make that decision? And that was man, I did that for years. Right, I was doubling down on the emotional weight room for that.
Speaker 2:And I would say this once you create awareness, because there's a great saying, right Awareness precedes change, assessment precedes awareness. Like assessment for me was some of these groups in therapy because it was like they would put up a mirror right, like the right questions, and so I would be like, oh man, like I'm capturing myself, being like aware of what I'm doing and how I'm doing it and why I'm doing it. So now I got awareness, you know. Now I can change, because I think the most powerful question that a human being can ask himself is like who do I want to become? Right? And that was that was like I started going like well, who do I want to become Not just, you know, mr Fitness and you know, successful in a fitness space and I can perform, my body can perform but like who do I want to become? Like as a, you know, when I do have another relationship, partnership, who do I want to be as a, as a again, a brother, a son, a friend, you know, and I started kind of rebuilding that and it wasn't like, you know, my whole life I was a complete shithead, but I did do certain things that I was not proud of and I was like I don't want that to, like be me. I don't want to. I want that to ever happen again. So who do I need to become, you know, to be that person that I'm proud of, like that future me and that's that part of the journey.
Speaker 2:But again, you know, I think it's important for people to hear that because, yes, you know physicality is extremely important, but you know, I was extremely physically fit but emotionally I wasn't the fittest at all, right, and so you got to kind of look at those pockets and I think, who you surround yourself with, I mean, look, I have this idea of collecting role models. I think it's a very, very powerful concept, right, like collect role models, hunt for skill sets. So I started being around when I joined one of these programs, I started seeing like great fathers and again, I'm not a father yet, I was not a father then and great husbands, right. Then it's like, oh, and this guy's a great philanthropist and this guy, so that was like, oh, like Mike Simmons, okay, cool, that guy is becoming a role model for me in how to operate. And I spent a lot of time with him and talked to him, right, and I would even be asking him I mean, this is many years ago I'd be like, hey, what'd you do with your kids? I saw that you do like the core four with your kids and he'd send it to me and I'd start jotting all this. I got journals full of this stuff, right, like, because I was like, hey, I want to actually know this ahead of time.
Speaker 2:But if you look at models, you have to ask yourself who was your model right? So I look, I go back and I go okay, you know, I had some of the wrong models in my teenage years too. So subconsciously, now, all of a sudden, I'm doing the behaviors of those models right. So I got to change that and so I started finding different role models. And remember, you don't have to.
Speaker 2:I think people make a mistake when they go well, that guy, yeah, he does that thing well, but the other thing he doesn't right. You see this all the time on social media now, whether it's we're not going to get into politics, but it's like oh, this person, but I'm like. But you know what? I can choose one characteristic of a person that they do phenomenally well, and that's going to be my role model for that. But I can choose a different one. I can basically piece together this Megatron role model of who I want to become and go like how do they operate in that space? And then I started attaching those behaviors and building myself to that person. And so that was like very, very, very helpful for me, because I do think that you kind of need mental models and constructs of how you operate and it gave me that right.
Speaker 2:I didn't really have that before when I was younger, for especially not the emotional space and even in my mental space, because I was one of those like very, very hardheaded people. But just going through walls and not listening to anybody is also not the strongest mindset or something pisses you off and you just pop off. That means you're not mentally strong, right, because you can't be stoic in situations that are challenging. And again, those are all. If I zoom out and I go like, all right, like here's my physical weight room, you know I'm putting time in my calendar for that. Here's my mental weight room. You know I've been a voracious reader, like this is, you know one, probably 20th of my books. But I've, you know, reading is is is mental training If you're reading the right stuff, right, I would say even emotional training can be reading because it creates awareness. So for me it was like I'm putting in my calendar, you know, because it matters, cause if it's not in your calendar it don't matter.
Speaker 2:People always it's like, oh, you can tell me that it's important to you, but if I don't see it in your calendar it means it doesn't really matter to you. So I started. You know my calendar was like man training's here, mental training's here, my therapy's here, my group, you know I go to quarterly but then also I have a weekly call, right, boom, boom, boom, and it's like I'm rebuilding aspects of myself. You know what I mean. Just like if you get injured physically and you got to rebuild and rebuild that connective tissue and the muscle and your mental aspect of it, that emotional side and mental side same thing.
Speaker 1:It's like almost I got injured and I had with luca but luca, luca, luca, man, what you're talking about sounds super overwhelming. How, how am I as someone that's like I got, I got, I'm. I'm in my forties, I'm a late thirties, I'm working this job. You are a full-time fitness guy. All you do is work out. You get paid to work out. You got to look the part your whole lifestyle around self growth and self-development. That sounds cool, but I got to go to this job that I don't really want to go to. I sit down all day. I'm heavier than I want to be. I got to answer to somebody I don't want to answer to at the house. And what do I do? Because I really feel stuck. You're inspiring, but what the fuck are you supposed to tell me? You're the fitness guy, bro.
Speaker 2:I love that you brought this up. I love that you brought this up for a number of reasons. Okay, a number of reasons. Number one and it's like, if you follow me for the day man, I work really long days a lot of times. I still have a lot of 14, 15 hours. So when people are like you got a lot of time, I'm like I probably have less time than most people do. That would be number one, but that's not the important part.
Speaker 2:The more important part is this you know stories. You mentioned something and you're like oh man, well, you know you got this time and this, that. So you're telling people get stuck because of stories they have in their heads, right, oh my God, I don't have time for this and this is hard. So you're telling yourself a story. Remember a story is a belief system, right. A story Remember a story is a belief system, right, and it's like belief system. Say that again Belief system Got you Right. It's a belief system and it's like that belief dictates our behaviors. And you can look at the studies left and right, like if a kid doesn't believe they're good at math, what do they do? They don't study because they don't think they're good, they don't think it matters Because they don't study, they don't do well, so it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? So, hey, man, I don't have any time. We know the average American watches about five hours of TV a day. You know what I mean. I start deconstructing people's day. When I coach people in business and in fitness and in life, I'm like cool, let's look at your calendar. And the thing is some people do really have like very little time. You know a mom with kids, right, like craziness. But then it becomes about like what you can do. And there's an excellent book by james clear called atomic habits beautiful book, amazing book, right.
Speaker 2:And and it the whole idea of like casting votes for the identity of who you want to becomes right, right. So it's like if I, you know and I give the ping pong example the reason why because most people don't play ping pong. But I'm like, hey, are you good at ping pong? Like no, okay, cool. So if you play ping pong twice a week for eight weeks, would you consider yourself a ping pong player? Most people would be like not really. But if you play three times a week for two years, you'd probably be like, yeah, I'm a ping pong player. Right. You've cast enough votes for that identity, right? So again, am I a fit person? Am I a person that eats healthy? If you do it for four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, it's not enough. You do it for a year or two. Now you start. That's your identity, right? And your identity dictates your behaviors too. So that's why I think it's more important to choose identity than anything else.
Speaker 2:And here's the deal. This is where truth has to come into play, right? That assessment to me, I call it the truth, right? Let's look at the truth of what your day is like. Oh, man, you stay busy here for two hours, but what are you really doing? Oh, you watch three shows in a row. Man, what if you just watch two? You get an hour back. You think you could do a 30-minute bodyweight workout at home. Bro, you don't even need an app. Go on my YouTube channel, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So it might not even be, it's not even a financial thing. But then also, it's like hey, let's look at where you're spending your money. Because people are like Like, hey, let's look at where you're spending your money. Because people are like man, I don't have the money. I'm like you do, but your money might be going into a different direction. I call it the watch and the wallet, right, like you're watching your wallet dictate what you're committed to. Your watch is your calendar, your time. Your wallet is where your money goes. So if you looked at it like, oh man, you're going out three times a week, man, ooh, ooh, that's $1,000 a month is going to drinks. Man, you could spend 400 on fitness.
Speaker 2:So now here's the thing. Once you get the truth because I'm telling you truth is like point A on a GPS. Point B is who you say you want to become, but point A let's figure out what the reality is. And once the reality is there, now you can go like you know what, luca, you're right, I don't give a shit about fitness, I'll watch TV. I'll be like cool, all right, you made that choice. Just don't say that you want this. But if you truly want this, you can start by working out 10 minutes a day.
Speaker 2:Now, again, that's another thing from Atomic Habits we know, from behavior change. Right, do an actionable step. That feels easy. Man, that's easy. I'm just going to walk for 10 minutes, cool, then go do it. You go walk for 10 minutes and you're like I'm walking for 10 minutes, fuck it, I'll do 30. Or like, I'll do a 10-minute workout. Man, I'm already sweating. I'm kind of feeling good, I'll do a 25-minute workout. So you got to start and gain that momentum and start casting those votes. And I think that's such an important factor because, look, there's a analogy of a mentor of mine a long time ago, dax Moy shared with me and he was talking to me about how we build self-esteem and self-confidence right. And when you say you're going to do something and you don't do it, right, man, that's like a you know debit in your self-esteem bank account. Right, but if I do it, that's like a credit. You feel me.
Speaker 2:And what happens is that people you know like oh man, tomorrow I'm going to get up and get my workout in Snooze debit, right, shit, okay. Well, you know what. I'll go on this diet though this hardcore diet Okay, cool, okay. Well, you know what I'll go on this diet though this hardcore diet Okay, cool. Too hard to stick to debit. And so now you know, you become, when you keep saying things and not doing them, your self-esteem goes down. You become bankrupt in self-esteem, right. And so the question becomes well, how do you? Well, luca, how do you? You know, how do I change that? How do I turn that around?
Speaker 2:And the mistake people make is that it was difficult for you to commit to like four days a week of training. So then New Year's resolution happened. You're like I'm going to do seven and I'm going to go on this low carb diet, and you know so it was hard for you to do four. And now you're committing to something even harder. Of course you're going to like, fall off, right. So you got to start with something that's doable. And the thing is, because you have to rebuild that self-esteem bank account, right, and you got to keep stacking those credits, credits, credits, until you get to a point where you're like man, I believe in myself. I'm going to take on more. You know, fuck two times a week, like I'm going to do four. Actually, forget about that, I'm going to do this. We have to get that snowball rolling and keep stacking those self-esteem credits to where your self-esteem is unshakable. Right, If you came to me and said Luca man, you suck at coaching, you can't chip away at me because I've put so many credits in that bank account that you can't On social media, because the bigger you become on social people are going to talk shit.
Speaker 2:You go to YouTube every day. There's probably somebody talking smack, but it doesn't faze me because I've built enough credits in that bank account that I'm like man. I have belief. You know what I mean, and anybody can do that. It's just going to look different For me or for you or for Jack or Jenny. It might be for Jenny, it might be for jenny. It might be like hey, go to sleep in your shorts and your shirt and put the shoes in front of your bed in like 10 minutes, man, 10 minute work, 10 minute walk, and you get the 10 minute walk like all right, I got this. All right, I can do 10 minutes tomorrow too. You know what I'm feeling kind of good turning into 20 in three weeks. Now you're running. Now you maybe join a you know a group training program at the gym and it's boom, it just like steam rolls you know, I'm saying like that's, that's the game.
Speaker 2:But to say the moment, think about this. If I say I don't have time, that's that, that's that's decisive, that's like, oh well, if I don't have time, then why am I even looking into things? Why am I even assessing my schedule? You see what I'm saying. So it starts with stories, it starts with belief systems, it starts with truth, which is one of the hardest things to do is just like let me, let me assess my life and see, like, where I'm actually at. You know, and again, a lot of times I think people can help you with that.
Speaker 1:Holler at me. Yeah, what's powerful about what you're saying is, on this particular show, the whole meaning of take it off is removing the judgment, the assumptions, interpretations and limiting beliefs that tell you that you're not. Literally, those are all debits from your authentic self, and oftentimes we're in relationship with people's trauma. We're relationship with all the stories that you just mentioned about what they've told themselves, and so we meet that person first, and it could be a lot of projections. It could be a lot of like.
Speaker 1:You know, they look so put together, but underneath there they're struggling to maintain this image, and what I'm hearing you speak on is accessing that part of you that you deeply want to show up as. But when there's lack of accountability and discipline and really a community to help allow you to mirror back, what do you want to be, who do you want to be? And now let's take some steps in that direction. Even in our fear to be that person anyway, you're literally destroying all the excuses and putting that back on the person to decide when it's all said and done. This is your choice, it's correct.
Speaker 2:And there's two things here that I think are powerful, like one community. Two is power. So let's talk about those two things, right, because remember, like, what's the greatest way to give my power away completely? Oh man, it's, it's john. You know, josh made that decision the economy. The economy this person that's in power is affecting. Now, listen, does that mean that there's no truth to that? Sure, but, but I am pointing, like, who has the power right, like whether that my boss right Versus like I can do stuff, and again and again, not to get like, cause people will go like, so you're saying that doesn't matter. It's like no, no, no, no, I'm saying that you have the most agency out of everything. Right, like tomorrow, like, no matter who's president, no matter who's your boss, no matter, you have the agency to show up to do your best work to live. You know, let's call it authentically, which can sometimes be overplayed, but I'm like no, no, no, listen, man, I got a story where I've worked for companies before I started my own companies.
Speaker 2:Right, and some people would be like, did you align with the values of the company? I'm like, bro, honestly, I didn't even know what the values of the company were. You know what I mean. Like they didn't give a shit, they were just like produce. But I was like but here's the thing, it was about me. How am I showing up for these people? Oh, like, that guy's not treating me great. But you know what I'm going to like, I'm going to be a monster, I'm going to produce and I'm going to treat people great.
Speaker 2:So I go home, I look at myself in the mirror and I'm like man, I'm doing it. And the thing is, is that, like, I am building skill sets, right? But if I go like man, fuck that guy, I'm not going to work hard for that guy. Who not going to work hard for that guy? Who are you hurting? You're practicing to be mediocre or shitty. Oh, so I'm at this job. Man, I don't care about that, I'm going to wait to get the job I want. Okay, cool. So you're going to be here for a year and a half. Every day you're going to show up and be mediocre at best. And then when you go where you want to go, you're just going to all of a sudden turn it on, bro, no, we fall to the lowest level of our training. That's what we fall to. So now you've practiced a year and a half how to be shitty, you're going to go there and other people are going to crush you.
Speaker 2:So that's the thing, that's agency. Agency is like I'm going to show up in a specific way, regardless of what's going on around me, because if you start doing that, you're just giving away power. You're just giving away power left and right. So that's number one. And I don't care what situation you're in, because I, you know, I grew up in socialism. There's people that had it, you know had it and have it way worse than that. Like I've traveled the world and seen, you know, incredibly challenging things, right and, to be honest, like certain places where people are born, where man, even if you have agency, a lot of times I would say life can be extremely hard. But I will speak, for if you live in this country, man, you can turn a lot of stuff around with agency and, by the way, living life this other thing too I think that matters. How you live your life determines how you feel. Because, put it this way, if I go in and I bust my ass and I work hard at my workout and then I open the door for the lady and I do a charity event for the community, whether somebody rewards me for that or not, I feel good. You know what I'm saying? I think that a lot of the community and charity work that I do I'll be straight up is selfish because it fills me up with joy, regardless of if somebody signs up or you know. It's like, hey, luca, you got this award and no man, I just feel good doing that. So I think there's a reward in that of itself.
Speaker 2:Hard work, reward being good to people, reward learning Sebastian Junger talks about in the book Tribes. What are the three things that human beings get intrinsically motivated from? It's the three Cs. Number one is competence. So if you get better at something, you feel good. No reward needed.
Speaker 2:By the way, oh, I make two out of 10 shots playing basketball. Practice, practice, practice, practice. I make eight, I feel better. Compet make eight, I feel better. Right, competence, same thing with fitness, same thing with nutrition, same thing with emotional stuff that we talked about and mental stuff right.
Speaker 2:Second is contribution.
Speaker 2:So if I give, like I'm like you know what, josh dude, I love you bro. I know that you fucking love boys to men, so I got you a ticket for the concert and it's like you know, you're excited, I feel good. Contribution I do something for the community, I raise money for the community, I help somebody in need. I feel good. You know I'm part of something bigger, I feel good. So that's the second C. Number three is connection, which may be possibly the most important thing, right Like. Human connection, which may be possibly the most important thing, right like.
Speaker 2:Human beings have developed because of working together, understanding each other. That's how our brains develop, right like, and it's so, if you and you know, we saw this through covid right like you disconnect people, man depression, anxiety, stress, health, everything goes to shit. And because because that leads us to what you said earlier community, right, connection and community. So if you can be part of communities that basically have the standards that you want to achieve, it's probably the fastest way to change yourself, right? There's a saying environments trigger behaviors.
Speaker 2:So if I put and again, I'll be biased here because, like I know that you know, your transformation has been crazy and even when you you moved, you joined the gym, yeah, where it's like you had accountability, the standards of that gym adhered to who you wanted to become. Right, because now my tribe like we're social creatures, right, like we, we, we want to do what the tribe is doing. So, because one of the most painful aspects of humanity is like being expelled from a group like a tribe. Right, it's painful. So, so why wouldn't you put yourself in an environment where the tribe does the behaviors that will get you to where you want to go?
Speaker 2:So take it like a gym, like a figure gym, right, where, hey, everybody's working to be healthier, fitter, look better, be a better human, improve their blood work, improve their health. Right, so now you feel awkward not adhering to those standards. Now, if I go and join the tribe of, hey, we go out Thursday, friday, saturday every night drinking, partying. Now, if I go and join the tribe of hey, we go out Thursday, friday, saturday every night drinking, partying. Now, if you become the person that's like, hey, guys, I'm going to go to yoga tonight, you know, and tomorrow I'm going to do, and everybody's like man, you're that guy Like, oh, you're getting healthy.
Speaker 2:Now, right, they expel you from that group and it feels bad. So you're like, oh shit, actually you know what, right, they expel you from that group and it feels bad. So you're like, oh shit, actually, you know what, let me, let me stay in that, so that that's why you have to like it's so important which tribes you decide to be a part of, because the behaviors are gonna, it's gonna pull you along. And again, this is behavior change, this is change psychology. This is, yeah, not my opinion.
Speaker 1:This is yeah, more study than what you can you know?
Speaker 2:yeah, and in fitness, I think you know, about 10 plus years ago. Honestly, it's like when the story that I shared about my own divorce and the dumb things that I did, that was what led me to trying to understand people at a really, really deep level, trying to understand myself why do people do what they do right? Why do they make the like bad decisions right, like, and I mean I read hundreds of books, horses, certification, I mean you name it. I just went on this journey of curiosity and it made me a better coach because it was like, okay, like I need to understand human beings, psychology, neurology, behavior change and not just the X's and O's you, you know and training aspects of things. Right, so, because those two molded together, that's what coaching really is and and that's why, like, I'm obsessed with this stuff right, like, I mean because, not only because it changed me, but the better I got at it like, the better I got at like actually helping people truly change man, there's so much dense content here that you could take.
Speaker 1:You could just take just what you mentioned around. The environment that you plant yourself in is who you are. What is it? Show me your friends, I'll show you your future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the thing is people discount it because that quote has been said so much and it's corny per se. So think about this pretty much every successful person in almost any sector meaning you go to this real estate, to this, to that, and almost everybody repeats it, right, and success leaves clues. So you have to these corny taglines. They're pretty stereotypical, they have a weight to them because they've stood the test of time, right, like whether you, you know, you study certain things from the bible or still. I'm like I, I love reading stoicism and it's like you know, you don't. By the way, you see a quote from epictetus right from 4 000 years ago. Like, do people just go like, ah, here's this guy's quote again from 4 000 years ago. You know, no, it's to the test of time. You read it and you're like man, that's still relevant, it's still relevant, right? So I think there's power to that. So if you, if you start connecting the dots and you go like man I've talked to three or four people that I admire and maybe you know you're collecting role models and they say specific things and they're like whoa, they agree on like 80% of the stuff. Maybe they disagree on 20, but the 80 that they agree on. I should probably start doing that For me.
Speaker 2:A long time ago, somebody that I really really looked up to said hey, luca, if you can read, you can learn anything that anybody's ever learned that they've wrote. And I was like huh, and he was explaining to me. He's like, if you can read, somebody has been doing something for 30 years writes books, writes a manual, writes something and gives it for you to read Like, you can learn everything that they've learned, but just faster. And it was like that was an aha moment. And he was like hey, leaders are readers, right, like. And I really trusted that person and I started reading and I, you know, as anything in my life, I became obsessive about it.
Speaker 2:But you'd hear that same thing from a lot of folks that I was looking up to, right? Same thing. When you talk to folks, they're like hey, like, I know a lot of people that are financially successful, that are in horrible health and you know they're now trying to turn it around. You know the famous saying right, if like, hey, you know when you're, when you're healthy, you got a thousand wishes, man, man, I wish I could do this. Did it like when you're unhealthy? You got, but one got one you got one, got one wish, yeah and yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and hopefully, part of my mission is to, you know, hopefully, not have to get people back to health, but help them so that they continue to build their health over time and over their life, so they don't have to experience that. I think there's so much power to that. Another person I've actually been fortunate enough to speak on stages with was Ed Milet, who talks about hey, there's two kinds of parts of looking at this. Do you want to be a thermostat or do you want to be a thermometer? A thermometer just measures temperature. Man, wherever you're at, whatever the temperature is, that's what you're going to be. You're just measuring that. A thermostat changes it.
Speaker 2:I chose I want to be a thermostat. When I go places, I'm going to adjust the temp to what I want it to be. I'm going to bring the temperature up. But right now, if you have a tough time doing that, I would say why don't you go into rooms, into places, into environments where the temperature is higher Temperature higher meaning people on fire man, they're fit, they're healthy. They're, you know, they're great humans. They're giving back to communities, they're building businesses. They're, you know, creating an impact in the world, like they're doing all the stuff that you want to do, well, cool. If you can't be a thermostat yet, man, raise the temperature of yourself by getting into rooms that are hotter Right, and hotter again can be equivalent to whatever it is that you want to achieve in life. Yeah it's relative?
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. I don't know you could have different goals, but I think most people certainly on Some people split into four Fs, right. There's fitness, there's finances, there's faith, there's family. Those are the four Fs for a lot of folks right and again and fun and fun, luke.
Speaker 1:You hear me talking about fun, bro, and fun Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you can't Listen, because you can't be, too you stuck up. I'm too serious most of the time, I agree, I agree. But here's the thing right, you create yours. I don't think anybody should be like you should do it this way. But you do have to look at, hey, how am I putting myself? What am I putting in my brain? Who am I surrounding myself with? How am I using my time? That's one thing I've realized. Over time, I've become 10 times more productive than I've been, and I can be another 10 times more productive as you grow. You start looking at stuff and going, man, I'm wasting time here. Whoa, I'm inefficient here, and I've been doing this for 20 years and I'm now just realizing certain things where I'm like man, I could be more efficient.
Speaker 2:So when folks go like I have no time, that's far from true and there has to be a thing said about. Because, again, going back to those mental models, like, do you, do you know what? The definition of mindset, at least one that I've heard, that I really kind of bought into. So, scary brother, yeah, mindset is a collection of belief systems, right, when you, but basically when you put all your belief systems together, it's like that's your mindset, but how many people go and explore their beliefs because your beliefs aren't true? A lot of them, right. It's just they were either planted by again nature, nurture, family, growing up, environment, shit today, social media right inherited yeah, inherited, absolutely so, if you just go like, hey, like, is this true?
Speaker 2:number one, number two, maybe even more powerful question is does this serve me? Does this belief serve me? Right, because people say some shit like I have no time, oh, does that belief serve you? No, because it means that.
Speaker 1:Come on, brother, come on, come on with it.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir you know I mean. So it's like, yeah, so why? And the thing is, oh, I think it was derrick sivers that said I was listening to podcasts and I was like, oh, he's like. Sometimes he's like I pick a belief that may not even be true, but it's useful, you know, I mean it's like saying, like you feel me, should marketing be compassionate? It's like that might not even be true, bro, and it might be useful to me because that that belief serves me. You know, I'm saying like hey, are people, is everybody in the world gonna be like nice to you? No, but it's like, hey, I'm still gonna be nice back because that's gonna serve me. Or you know, I could go down a list of shit, but the point of it being is like it. It's like, hey, I'm still going to be nice back because that's going to serve me.
Speaker 2:Or you know, I could go down a list of shit, but the point of it being is like it's like people, like man, if you go I don't know if you go on social media and divide and spew hate, like how is that useful? Like, what have you achieved? Like, if you change somebody's mind? Like, probably not. You know what I mean. So there's just all these different things that subconsciously you do that's coming from a belief, that's basically creating your mindset and you just have to stop and be like man, like is that useful to my life, to my family, to my business, and is it serving me? And if the answer is no, like you should consider changing your belief system, because otherwise, like, why are you holding on to it? If it's not useful, if it's not serving you, if it's not leading you to where you want to go, why keep it? Yeah, give me a good argument.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean that so aligns with the conversation. And when you highlight, what story are you telling yourself? My co-host, who's not here yet, jeremy Rubin? He always says he would tell me he's like man tell yourself the best story. It doesn't need to be true, because the power of belief is so powerful. It's more important than the fact when you start talking about being who you need to be for the life that you've been sent here to live. Yeah, we can get into the facts and all that, but if I tell myself the best story and it's serving me on my pursuit to be more of who I've been, who I decide I'm going to be through choice, conscious choice, really, which is what I'm hearing you speak more.
Speaker 1:Once I was aware of my blind spots. I made decisions that served me and then I got there, I leveled up, and then I'm like I'm walking around. I'm like, okay, I like the way this feels and that journey around identifying your blind spots does not end. But it's your commitment to the process, it's your commitment to self-awareness and being in these spaces that are uncomfortable, where the fire might be a bit, that I need to sit in and be uncomfortable by. So I get, I start to feel, I get to embrace this environment that I said at one point was too scary for me to even walk into, and what you're really doing. There's just like there's such a deep commitment to motivating, inspiring, but it doesn't stop there, because that is that's fleeting. There's a commitment to behaviors. There's discipline and accountability for who you are designed to be, and the power of using fitness, the power of you know, spending some time in a mental gym reading, and this emotional work that you've done. And what I and one thing I'll say about you, lucas, is I don't know how often you judge yourself or think about if that was a mistake. I did that.
Speaker 1:I said this at my father's funeral. He grew up, they called him Jimmy Diamond. He was a street guy, he did all that, but we wanted to celebrate Elder James Steele's, the redeemed man of God that was a minister and raised his family and looked all pretty. And I said said one thing that we cannot strip away from my father is his life as jimmy diamonds. We do not get elder james field without the life of jimmy diamonds and him coming to his own realization that that doesn't serve me. Jimmy diamonds don't serve me anymore. See, this is these behaviors are going to serve me in the future. But go ahead, my brother, yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir. No, because I'm so glad that you shared that about your father, because you know, I think, look today, what do people do, right, they go and find out about who you were, right, hey, back in the, you know, by the way, I've had that happen, right, I've had that happen where I've been, like you, that happened where I've been, like you know, called out. But you, I know, like I heard you sold drugs and you did this and you did that, right, like, and I was like I did, I did all those things and then I changed. So the thing is, shouldn't the change be celebrated? Like? You know what I mean Like so we're, isn't?
Speaker 2:I'm almost like, thank you for calling it out, because look at who I am today, because I chose and leaned into very difficult things to become somebody else and that should be celebrated. Show me a person that's like, oh, this person started great, ended great, everything was great. No, we all have our hero's journey. If you haven't read the book, and just the hero's journey in general, it great, everything was great. No, we all have our hero's journey and I like, if you haven't read, you know the book and just the hero's journey in general right.
Speaker 2:It's called the Monument. I just did a retreat. I just did a retreat called the Hero's Journey. Fuck, yes, you know, because like hell, yeah, universe, yes, sir, that.
Speaker 2:But like superhero movies, because they're all based in a hero's journey. Right, like a common person to a degree. Right Faces a challenge and goes on this adventure and he has a Yoda essentially right, like a guy. It's like you know, I know what's going to happen, but yet we still are drawn to it because we, in our own lives, are drawn to our own hero's journey, absolutely Right. And there, our own hero's journey, absolutely right. And there is no hero's journey without conflict. There's no hero's journey without challenge none of it.
Speaker 2:So you know, I'm always like dude, you just gotta, you know you have to be, but fuck, like I don't want anybody else directing my life. You know I'm saying like I want to direct my life. That's it like, and I think that's what happens. Is that people, the agency that we talked about before because they give it away? Well, shit, like you know my family and the genetics of my family and how we were raised, and again, you know, imagine jimmy diamond and going like nah, man, like this is this is the way that my life is gonna be. No, he chose to direct it differently, absolutely right, you know, I'm saying like always with, by the way, we're not self-made men right, we always have support, whether it's again, our communities, the people around us, a higher power.
Speaker 2:The point of it being is that, like you shouldn't be, you know, like afraid to tell, like that's why I shared a story. I do it for the longest time and, like you've known me for a long time, I didn't want to share any of that stuff, the bad stuff, you know what I mean the crime, the cheating and stuff. And like I had to go through revelation when I went to wake up warrior, I went to therapy and it was just like man, like I think you should, you should share the story. And I remember writing emails and I remember like, ah, you know, and it's like I had to lean into that uncomfortable and going like man, like I know why I'm sharing it, because I mean, one of the thing is it was it was cleansing for me, right Cause I didn't want to hold onto it. It was like I did these things and like now I'm working to be a better man, right Like. So it's like I want to let it go. I don't want to keep that stuff in.
Speaker 2:But also, you know what started happening For every you know one bad thing that I heard 10, 15, 20 people would be like got permission to share theirs. It's like, dude, you know I started getting. It was crazy for like a long time, people that you know had been in jail and were like man, like you. You know you gave me permission to like. You know I'm a trainer now, but, like man, I've been like afraid to share this and like my past and I've constantly feel like I'm a bad person. And it's like man. I feel like it's freeing to know it's freeing.
Speaker 1:It's freeing.
Speaker 2:It's freeing Absolutely and I'm like absolutely, that's. You know, that's your hero's journey journey you feel me like in or or redemption, or whatever else it may be, but remember, like we, we are, we like that. That's why that question, dude, I got on my phone, I got on my who do you want to become? You know, there's, there's days where, like, I don't feel like man, I don't feel like training bro, I don't feel like you know, oh, man, I, it's probably a good idea. Like my girl's tired that I should cook for her. I don't really cook like that, but I'm exhausted. But I'm going to go do that. Why? Because that's who I want to become, that's who I want to be. You know what I'm saying. Like, and you make those decisions based on that identity and like, to me it's always a visual.
Speaker 2:Am I casting votes? You know, people, how did you get a good at podcasting votes? For, like, I'm good on video. By the way, I suck. You go back on my YouTube 16 years ago. It's like I'm scared to talk too much, so I'm just like all right, luca, I lift weight, I'm strong. Look at this fucking crazy workout. And then now people are like man, you're such a natural at this. I'm like I've shot 2000 YouTube videos, 10,000 other videos. I've spoke on stage 250, 60 times now.
Speaker 2:I practiced, I did a Roger Love mastermind, I did Toastmasters, I did you name it. I've been in 15, 20 different coaching programs. It was hard. I invested a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of pain, a lot of shitty reps to get here and it's like, guess what? You can too. I'm fucking less talented than a lot of people that I know.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. Like my genetics are shittier than most people that I do. It doesn't matter. None of that stuff defines you. You feel me Like, and so that's what's so powerful. Is that like you truly can change anything, anything right? You start doing the reps and it's like I don't care where you are, I don't care if you're at the bottom of the bottom. I've been there a number of times, man, and it's like you got to put one foot in front of the other. But look, this site, like you know, cause I can tell it to you in a motivational way but I can be like, look, this is the science of change. You know what I mean. But I will tell you this you want to speed shit up. Get around the right people, man. Get around the right people, like that's the game changer right there, yeah.
Speaker 1:There's something I call in my own practice that I learned through my executive days at AT&T is you deserve your own personal board of directors. Every major company that's a Fortune 500 or whatever Fortune that whatever there is a group of people that they are accountable to for the direction of the betterment of the company, just like in your own life. You deserve this. It serves you. You deserve people that surround you that hold you accountable to your higher, better, more authentic self, whatever you want to call it. But you need help with that, because physiologically, we can't see ourselves without the aid of a what A mirror. I have to look into something. I have to look in a tool to see what. Oh damn, I didn't even know I had that. Oh shit, here come the grays. I didn't, oh, okay, well, then I got somebody watching my back. But you have to be in a community so we can spot out the things in each other that we can't see just on ourselves, because we haven't been physically designed to see that. To your point earlier, we desperately need community, and what I'm hearing from you which is so powerful for my listeners you want to speed up your progress, go find out where you need to be with other people that are doing what you want to do at a high level to help amplify who you are. You're not doing this by yourself.
Speaker 1:What is the saying I mean again, these sayings that stand the test of time yeah, I can go fast by myself, but I can go farther together, right? The simple words, the simple phrases that carried so much powerful weight and insight. And man, you know what, before we depart my brother, any words of encouragement, because you've been dropping dimes, gems, nickels, whatever. You've been dropping weight on this show, brother, I really appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Anything that you could for somebody that's lost man, and you're helping me. I'm listening to you, just absorbing the game too. So no one's above the curriculum, no one's so made it that they don't need to hear it anymore. But just for the regular person that shows up at your gym that needs to hear something, that is, whether we don't have to do it all. But what's the step in that direction? How would you encourage them to make that choice that benefits them and no longer the blame and the victim mentality that stops them from making action? What would you say to that person that might be listening in and looking for just something that is simple. That moves them that direction.
Speaker 2:Well, I think, first things first is that most people, what I've recognized is that they don't talk to themselves in a positive manner. They don't, they shine a light on the things they've not done well, and I remember a time in my life, you know, when you're like, man, I fucked this up. Man, oh, dude, I didn't do that, right. Like what are you? You know, what are you doing? In your brain it's just like repetition of, like a job not well done, right. So I start with this thing called the three wins and it's like, hey, every day, every day I'm seven days a week every day, you know what are three things that you did well today. What were three good things that you know you can shine and, by the way, it could be small. Like man, you know, I went and grabbed coffee with Josh for like 10 minutes, ready to catch up. You know, hey, josh, for like 10 minutes, ready to catch up. Hey, I walked. You know what? Usually I walk 3,000 steps. I got 8,000 just walking around, awesome, right.
Speaker 2:What else? I read 10 pages of a book, right. But what you did is you shone a light on you doing something good. So that's, you stacked the wins. We talked about that self-esteem bank account, right? Like cool. Well, what if you stack 21 wins per week, do you? Are you gonna feel more confident? Fuck yeah, you're gonna feel more confident, right, because, believe me, like if I, if I would coach people like a boot camp instructor, if I felt that, like if I, if I recognized the science, would show me that that works, fuck me, you ain't doing that shit, right? People are coming in here already having that negative stuff in their head.
Speaker 1:I think it's their head.
Speaker 2:I think it's like we have 50,000 thoughts per day and it's like 88% of them are negative, right, so?
Speaker 1:95% of those thoughts are repeating negative thoughts.
Speaker 2:Yes, correct, exactly so you're training your brain and we talk about the mental weight room.
Speaker 2:Well, boom, here it is. Right, that's one, three wins. And then the second thing is like, look, if you have no path or no plan, the default is struggle. Remember that this could be a fitness nutrition, whatever thing, right? Like hey man, what are you going to do tomorrow? I'm going to try to get it in. What does that mean? Well, after the day? No, you plan it. What are you going to eat for breakfast? What you're going to eat for lunch? I plan it. You need a plan now.
Speaker 2:The plan may not go according to you know, 100 on point to plan, right, correct? Yeah, I always say like it's good to have a plan b2, but, but really, it's like we know that people that plan are more successful, right, and people that report are very successful. What does that mean? Having somebody to be accountable to, by the way, it doesn't even need to be somebody that you're paying. By the way, like coach, right, you could be accountable to a friend every night. You call them like hey, did you do those things? And if you didn't, people that report like hey, man, I didn't stick to this, that the other. But you're being honest and reporting show long-term success, right? Because guess what? It's somebody to be accountable to. Man, I didn't do that.
Speaker 2:But you know what? Tomorrow I'm planning again. I saw what went wrong, so I'm going to do a little better. Right? It's the Socratic method. You ask yourself what did I do well, right, what didn't I do well and what could I do better tomorrow? And you do that every day and it's little, right. It's like, well, shit, man, like I snoozed, I'm going to put my shorts and shirt on and like, legitimately, instead of trying to go to the gym, I'm going to work out at home. I found this, like you know this little YouTube 15, 20 minute workout. I'm just going to go through that. Boom, boom. You do it right. Like, oh, that went well, I'm going to do that three days a week. So, stack your wins, plan for the day, right, have a path and a plan, because that is like, extremely, extremely powerful and it gets, and the thing is, it just gets you moving. Just know that.
Speaker 2:Like, look, tony roberts, right, motion creates emotion, right, I always say action alleviates anxiety, but only 100 of the time. You know, I mean like it, whoever you know, if you've ever been like we had this client came in yesterday, karen, and she's just like it whoever you know if you've ever been like. We had this client came in yesterday, karen, and she's just like man, like I've been, because she's been in a rush, she's got to get knee surgery. He's like worn down knee and whatnot, but she's just like every like when I'm here I just feel better, I'm doing something for myself. I'm like man. I said, karen, you're moving. Like you're moving. Like when you start you could be in a bad mood and go for a walk and you're not aligned. Norepinephrine, dopamine, everything we know this right.
Speaker 2:So movement is a solution to so much and I think that's part of the reason why I think that fitness is this vehicle to a better life, because we get this one flesh vehicle we go through life with. You know what I'm saying. And it's like, how do you? I know people have heard this, but like we, we actually talked about this before we we, we got on the show but I could not do. And seriously, like I'm a very ambitious person, like I, you know I'm a missionary, not a mercenary. Let me explain that Right. Like I'm on a mission, like don't get me wrong I want to be successful in money, this, this thing. Okay, cool, I'm on a mercenary job but I'm a missionary. I've been in this thing for 20 years. Fitness saved my life, changed my life and I want a fucking mission. And sometimes I work like crazy, right.
Speaker 2:But people like, how did you're 43? How are you doing this? I'm like because I have the energy, because I have the fitness, my, my vehicle is highly tuned. You know, I mean that shit's part gas guzzler, because I like the sound, but it's part electrical too. So it's part electric too, brother, you know what I'm saying. And it keeps regenerating itself and I'm like that shit don't stop. But because, because of what I feed myself, fuel myself, because I treat my body and it allows me to express, like, everything that you want in your life right To be a great parent, to express that, to be great at your job, your work, to express that, to be a great partner in your life. The fun part, right, hey, I want to go for a 10 mile hike two, three days in a row. The vehicle that helps you express all those things is this body. You and most people like shit. So it's like, hey, yeah, you can't turn that around and it's gonna elevate every part of your life, yeah yeah, yeah, man, such a powerful episode, man you got me.
Speaker 1:I don't even know if I need to. I need to get out of here and just go move somewhere, because you got me on a, you just got me energized. I hopefully those that are tapping in and listening are encouraged. I know it can feel overwhelming. There's a lot to do, but sometimes it's just the simple thing is to do go get that friend. Hey, I'm just going to text you that I got my 10 minute walk in today and that's it, that's. We're just going to start. Start there because that's going to compound. Walk in today and that's it, that's. We're just going to start. Start there because that's going to compound.
Speaker 1:Great quote from the book that you mentioned earlier atomic habit we do not rise to our goals, we fall to the level of our system. Yep, you get to choose who is a part of your system as a foundation to help level you up to achieve those goals. And everything you're saying about the purpose of fitness, the purpose of having an emotional weight room and a mental weight room, those three things combined really help amplify who you want to be, if you care for it. I think you said you just hit it on the head. We do not treat this vessel as if it's our only one. I mean, we act like we got backup bodies for ages. You know what I'm saying, and that's just not true. And so anyway, brother, I think there's a lot, I know there's a lot to reflect on. And before we get out of here, man, how can people find you? Where are you at? Where can you be found that someone that needs you in their life in a way that you're speaking to could benefit?
Speaker 2:Man, I like the main I say the main channels because I'm all in a lot of places, but on Instagram I kind of share a lot of everything. So if you go at Luca Josevar, l-u-k-a-h-o-c-e-v-a-r, find me there. Youtube YouTube's just got. I mean, there's a lot of fitness content, a lot. You know what I'm saying. If you got 10 years, you can watch. There's like 1,900 videos on there.
Speaker 2:Same thing just tap in, put Luka Hosovar in there, and then I have a podcast called Vigor Life Podcast. That it's very tuned to coaches, like fitness enthusiasts and coaches. Same thing known that for six, seven years, like a ton of incredible people on there talking about how to get healthier, get your mind right, all those good things. And then, if you're in the Seattle area, the gym, biggergroundfitnesscom right down in smack in downtown Renton. Yeah, and also I got an online coaching. It actually is just an app like a training app, because kind of my brand is athlete for life. That's how I train. I want to stay athletic forever. So if you tap in and put it athlete for life, train heroic, I got like a monthly subscription that you can train on if that's your spiel. I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff that I missed, but I probably do too much. I mean, that's my issue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, All good, all good. We'll throw that in the show notes and I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for taking off the facade and sometimes the things that are barriers that people have about who you are, what you've been through, what you're willing to talk about, what you're not, and you really showed up to just be you and allow people to see yeah, I'm me because I have this wound, but I also have this ointment that I went to go get to help serve the wound so I could heal, because I didn't want to bleed on anybody else. I didn't want to impact anybody else. And guess what? There are times where I may still impact and hurt others, but I'm conscious of what I'm doing so I can minimize that impact.
Speaker 1:And I heard through your story just this powerful commitment to being the best you you can be. And again, these simple sayings that have stood the test of time. I like how we say that, yes, they're corny, but there is so much truth if we slow down and pay attention to the simple message there. And, brother, I love what you're about, I love your journey, I love how you just show up and just let people just adjust. I'm here to turn the temperature up? Yeah, and so get ready. If you can't handle the heat, I would suggest you move somewhere cooler.
Speaker 2:Take the hoodie off, man.
Speaker 1:Take the hoodie off but inspiring nonetheless, man, and you continue to be an inspiration and a motivator for us that are all trying to find that better version of ourselves that we can tap into so we can do this thing as best we can before we have no more days to make a decision about that, so that athlete for life mentality is very resonant and very powerful for my listeners to be inspired by and hear. So, brother, thank you for you know, in no ditty ways, taking it off with me.
Speaker 2:Hey, I appreciate you, my brother. This was a lot of man, a lot of fun, but like, straight up, I felt like we weren't even on show, which is, I feel like how it could, you know, should be where? I just get, I just get excited, man, I get, I get passionate. I hope that I'll leave with this last day. You know, you mentioned, you know, shareholders and company. I was like, you know, think of yourself as you Inc and invest in S and P and me. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Like a lot of people put money in a lot of different places, but in time and energy. But like, build, you know, build your stock up, cause you're worth it, and you know, and listening to this show is part of that right, because time and energy is probably your biggest investment but then keep investing in yourself. Like Josh said, it's overwhelming. How do I start? Well, if you take time to build you up the S&P and me up and you ink up every day, I promise you, months from now, your self-esteem bank account will be stacking, you'll be feeling better, you'll be in a snowball effect to a better place, and so I hope that take something from today and do it. Don't just be inspired, go do something. And if this show got one person to make one change, man it's, it'll be, it'll be worth it. And then, something you know absolutely bro, absolutely man.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate you, man, and uh, man, we'll catch up when we can, brother yes sir, right back brother, yes sir all right go.
