Transcript of 1034. REAL AF LIVE | CTI + Q&AF (Summer Smash '26)

Gino, let the band play. Come on, let's bring Andy and DJ. Yeah, what is up, motherfuckers? I'm Andy Fasella and you are listening to The Show for the real Let's say goodbye to the lies and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking reality. Let's fucking go. Let's fucking go. All right, guys, what are we thinking? Are we having a good time? Yeah. All right, you guys ready for a show? All right, don't fuck it up.

That's right, that's right, that's right.

All right guys, thank you guys so much for coming out. I know you guys, uh, a lot of you guys took off work, you know, you spent a lot of money to come out here and be with us, and we don't take that for granted. So before we get started, I just want to take a minute and just say I really appreciate you guys. DJ and I appreciate you guys supporting the show, um, sharing the show, and, uh, not being motherfucking hoes.

That's right, that's right, that's right. All right, hello children, greetings, salutations. Hell yeah, this is a good crowd.

Yeah, this is a good crowd.

Yeah, hell yeah, this is the no-ho zone.

That's right, that's right, that's right. Let's go. All right.

All right, so, uh, what we got?

I think we should cruise the fucking internet. Yeah, I think that'd be fucking sick, right?

Yeah.

Oh yeah, I heard too we got an ASL interpreter here, right?

Yes, right here.

I would like to learn some words in ASL. The, uh, what about the— no, I'm playing. I ain't gonna go there. Yeah, dude, let's cruise the internet, bro. All right, yeah, let's do it, guys.

You know how this works. I got my bougie water, dude. You got some bougie water today?

Give me some too.

It's a special occasion. I got my, uh, I don't even want to open it. I got my white privilege card.

There you go, there you go.

That means I get to tell the right kind of jokes.

That's right, that's right. And I'm black, so there's that.

All right, man.

Hell yeah, man. Guys, you know how this works. Um, if you guys would like to see any of these articles, pictures, links, videos, go to andyfresella.com. You guys can check them all out there. Um, and you do got a fee.

We do got a fee. Uh, as you guys know, we are the largest show in the world that does not run ads. The reason we don't run ads is because I cannot be told what to say or do. It's just not in my DNA. So I ask very simply that if the show makes you laugh, it makes you think, it gives you new perspective, if you enjoy the show, don't be a hoe.

Share the show! Yeah, yeah, all right. Yeah, dude, I see we got some kids in the crowd too. I don't know whose idea that was. This is— that was not a good idea. Yeah, how old is he right there? How old are you?

8.

All right, all right.

Now you're gonna learn some stuff today. I, uh, I probably wouldn't repeat it at school.

That's right, that's right, that's right. I'm gonna learn some ASL and you're gonna learn some, uh, no-no words. Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. Hell yeah. Let's get into it. Uh, I got something before we get to our headlines. Um, I saw this I thought this was, uh, really crazy. So there was a guy that crashed his Tesla. Anybody, uh, drive Teslas here? I would not raise my hand. This dude crashed his Tesla, dude, and, uh, they, they took a picture of, of what was on the screen when he, when he crashed, and, uh So on the screen, uh, that it says, bro crashed his Tesla in front of our house, probably speeding. Uh, and then a reply said, nah, more like gooning. First word for you, Latina live cam girls, bro, on the, on the Tesla screen.

Yeah, they're just not cutting you anymore, they're making you crash your car, dude.

I didn't even know though, Z, is that possible? You can like watch stuff like that on Teslas? I didn't even know that was possible. Yeah, but, uh, bro's the first person to get a driving while gooning violation. There's that. Yeah, man. Hell yeah. Let's get into some topics. We got some stuff to talk about. Uh, there's a lot happening out there in the world, so as always, let's try to, uh, connect some dots, shall we? Guys, Andy, headline number 1. So, uh, the Senate— not sure if you guys saw this, uh, headline reads Senate votes 48 to 50 to reject Save America Act. Four Republicans join the Democrats. Um, so the Senate, uh, yesterday evening rejected the SAVE Act as part of, uh, the reconciliation package. Four Republicans voted to reject the Graham Amendment Um, that's Murkowski, McConnell, Tillis, and Collins. So this was all about the voter ID stuff, right? I'm implementing that throughout the elections across the country. Um, and the Senate just shot it down. So you got that happening, right? And then at the same time, that's in the Senate, you got the House just sent another $9 billion to Ukraine.

Right, and so you got that. I'm like, okay, there's always 3, right? What's next? Um, and then you get this, all right? America created 172,000 jobs in May, nearly twice as many as expected, right? And I'm like, all right, cool, sounds good, sounds like a good thing, right? Now, Andy, you're an entrepreneur, you've hired a lot of people, all right? Um, and so all of this comes out, and then another very interesting report comes out that 9 out of 10 American jobs pre-COVID went to someone born outside of the country, to foreign-born workers. And, uh, you know, I did my, my fact-checking here, right? Went to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and I saw this. And this is for even the most recent American-born citizens have a higher unemployment rate than non-American-born citizens. And so as an entrepreneur, as workers, other entrepreneurs in the crowd, is this like a— what is this?

It's bullshit. Yeah, I mean, look, dude, uh, I think we can all agree that America is for fucking Americans, okay? And I'm all about people coming here legally, becoming part of the culture, contributing. We have a lot of great cultures here in America, but the reality is, is that our focus should be on creating jobs for natural-born American citizens as the priority. And to try and lie to people and make these creative remarks is the exact reason why people are becoming disenfranchised with Trump. Besides the fact that he's decided that, uh, you know, we belong in cahoots with Israel, uh, to the point of where they're trying to merge our militaries.

Dude, I saw that. I didn't know what the fuck that was about.

I thought it was fake at first, but apparently it's not.

Yeah, apparently some real stuff, and it's coming out of the Senate. But yeah, I mean, so is this I don't know, because I mean, I see people talk about it too. It's like, oh man, like it's hard to find, you know, good employees, good workers out there. Like, is that, is that really the truth? Like, is that really what's going on? Like, are we as Americans too lazy right now?

Yeah, yeah, I think there's something to be said for that. Yeah, I think— look, I saw a tweet today that this woman had bought her daughter a brand new Honda Accord I saw that for you. Any of you guys see that? Yeah. Okay, for her graduation. Okay. All right. And the daughter said, I don't want it. It's not— it's not my style. That's what she— that's what she told her mom.

That's fucked up.

And she's like, I expected a Benz or a Mercedes. And, uh, you know, the level of entitlement that we have amongst the young people because they're brought up in a situation where they're getting rewarded for participation or not even being held accountable with their participation has created a situation where people don't believe that they have to work in order to have the lifestyle that they desire. And I think that's a big problem in the culture of America. You know, that's what we're trying to fix. That's what all of you guys are all about. That's why you're here. Um, you know, that, that it's going to be a tough reality for those people because it doesn't matter if it's your style or fucking not. Like, No, the fact that someone's even buying you anything for your graduation like that, um, is incredibly generous. And to have someone's own daughter spit in their eye for that, I think, is, is a, is a good indication of where our, our youth is in terms of entitlement. And I think that comes from, you know, Instagram hustle culture. I think it comes from, uh, the fake flexing. I think it comes from, you know, all of these younger people trying to pretend like you know, oh, I was in business for 3 weeks and I'm worth $10 billion.

And all these kids see this shit.

Same, bro. Same.

Yeah. You know, all these kids see this shit and, and that creates this level of entitlement that is, uh, it's just not reality. So it makes sense that, that those people don't feel like that they want to work. And then when you have people that come from, and this has always been the case, this is nothing new, but when you have people that come from situations where, you know, it's, it's a harder life, they appreciate the opportunities that are given to them. And I think that's, you know, it's not just— I don't think the solution is, hey, let's make a government program to prioritize American jobs. I think the reality is, is that the culture has to change where people understand that what they give is what they're going to get.

Yeah. Another thing on that I've always Like, I didn't understand it, I would say legitimately, until like the last 3 years or so. But when people would say like, we have it, we've just had it too good for too long.

Yeah.

I never really understood like what, like, what do you mean? You know what I'm saying? What do you mean we've had it too good? And then it's like, you see what's going on now. It's like, oh yeah, we've had it way too good.

Well, look, dude, from the years of 2008 to 2020, that was an 8-year span. An entire generation grew up where we had no hardships. And the internet came around and created a lot of fast money. Social media came around and created a lot of fast money. And those things are the exception, not the norm. Yeah. And it creates, you know, and then you have the school system not even teaching these kids what it means to actually achieve and get better and improve. And all of those things converge and create the situation that we have now.

Yeah. They're not even teaching cursive in school anymore. Well, that's so crazy. Yeah, that's so crazy.

I don't think they're teaching English either.

That wasn't a joke at me, guys. I mean, relax. All right, y'all laughing a little too fucking hard at that one. Uh, dude, so I mean, you know, I know we talk about this all the time, and it's really refreshing to see, you know, when we do these Summer Smashes, bro, like, we're surrounded by people— like, these people are here to win. Yeah, right. And it's refreshing. It's refreshing. 100%. It's refreshing because you don't get to see that every single day, right? And I know we talk about it on the show how important it is to really just get your shit in order. You know what I'm saying? So it's like with all this job stuff, you know, you talk about this idea of becoming undeniable and undeniably great at what it is you're doing. Yeah. Can we give some people some tools of the trade to take home back with them?

Well, I mean, dude, clearly these people understand it. That's why they're here.

Yeah.

You know, I could tell you just from looking at the crowd this year, You know, a lot of you guys have shown up. You're more fit, you're more in shape, you made progress. You know, I would be willing to bet that you're probably in a better financial position than you were a year ago. You know, these things matter. And that's the— those are the examples that set for culture. And when we get enough people that are living that and doing that, people start— it starts to become the way that things are. And so we have to understand that, you know, If we really want things to change, we have to understand who the tip of the spear is. And I don't see anybody else fucking doing it. I don't see anybody else out there talking about the solution being this. I see a lot of people saying, oh, we got to vote for this or vote for that. Nobody's going to vote their way into, into a better life. Nobody's going to vote their way into a better body. Nobody's going to vote their way into a better career. And people have to take that responsibility on their own shoulders to become that., and then that spreads and that's how things improve.

And, and, you know, you could tell that a lot of the people on the internet that continue to beat on the, on the, on the voting and the political drum don't understand how things work. No, they just don't. Like, you could fucking elect anybody, bro. You could elect the most qualified, best leader. You could put me in office, bro. I'm not going to be able to change motherfuckers' personal lives. They have to do it on their own. And, and I think for some reason we've gotten to the state where, you know, people would rather defer that responsibility because it's hard to take responsibility for your own shit to other people and then point the blame as to why nothing changes. Yeah. And nothing's changing because America's people are not changing. Now, I think culture has made a lot of improvement over the last 3 or 4 years. Yeah. You know, uh, the, the sense of humor is coming back. People are getting along. There's more unity than there has been. Everybody's realizing that both sides of the government are a bunch of fucking idiots. Okay. Woodchipper. Yeah. I mean, everybody's getting it. So, so those are good signs.

I don't think it's— I don't think it's like it was 7 years ago where people are oblivious. Yeah. You know, awareness comes before change. And I think people are very aware right now.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Can we do a little quick crowd survey real quick? Who's, who's happy with like the current state of affairs? Just in general, by show of hands, let me do this way. Who's, who's not happy with the current state of affairs? Yeah, dude, it can get like— we also talk about like demoralization, right? I think this is probably the most demoralized I've been with just the state of affairs.

Well, I mean, look, dude, I think like all of us, you know, we, we really did think there was going to be some major disruption in the government system and some cleaning up. And when we see, you know, that these people are still voting against things like voter ID and making sure that our elections are secure, I mean, that is demoralizing, you know. But the reality is, is fucking, dude, who knows if they're real or not anyway? Like, we don't know. And apparently, even if they are real, uh, any kind of PAC that res— uh, represents a foreign government, foreign interest, could come in and dump unlimited money into it and fucking win the election. So like, do we really have the power that we— they say we have? You see what I'm saying? And for us to get it back, dude, it's gonna— we're gonna have to put so much pressure on these people, uh, that they are literally afraid to not do these things.

Undeniable pressure. Yeah, that's what's needed right now.

Yeah. So now is not the time to be demoralized. Now is the time to like make these people afraid of us. Hell yeah, that's the time.

You guys agree with that? Hell yeah, man. Hell yeah, I love it, dude. Uh, guys, jump down in the comments, let us know what you guys think about that situation. With that being said, headline 2. Uh, so one of the other things we like to talk about is accountability. People going to fucking jail, that'd be great. Yeah, and not just my people, right?

What are you talking about, bro? None of your people are going to jail, it's all my people.

Oh, ASL, how do you say my people? Let me see. That's a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot. All right. People going to jail, dude. This was actually interesting. I know we covered this a few years ago, bro. And it's finally showing some action. Headline 2 reads, John Bolton agrees to guilty plea to felony mishandling classified docs. So this, I mean, it's actually shocking to see. The dude's like 77 years old. So like, I mean, I don't know how that's going to work out in there. Uh, but, but yeah, let's dive into this. You got insufferable never-Trumper John Bolton has worked out a plea deal and will plead guilty to a single count of illegal retention of sensitive national security documents, reports far-left CNN. Bolton was originally charged with 8 counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information. Um, a conviction on any of those counts, uh, would have meant serious jail time. On this one count, although the penalty is up to 5 years, the deal apparently comes with Bolton agreeing to plead guilty and pay a fine of $2.25 million without jail time. Um, however, a judge could still sentence the 77-year-old to prison regardless of the plea deal.

Now I have a quick question. You've been working in the government for probably, you know, 100 years. Oh, maybe that— I'm probably about to answer my question. How in the fuck would you have $2.25 million to pay that fine? Like, how does that make sense?

Defense contractors, man.

You know what I'm saying?

Look, dude, all this is is a fucking bone, right? Like, this is tossing the people a bone. This dude is old. He's fucking done. They've been knowing about what he's been doing for fucking ever. And now it's like, okay, well, now you got to take a slap on the wrist for everybody. And the people will say that there's some accountability.

The people will cheer and clap.

Oh, motherfucker. We want to see people in handcuffs. That's right. I want to see people being walked out into fucking police cars. We want to see people behind bars. We want to see big names behind bars. We want to see people who have been fucking fleecing America for the last fucking two decades. The people who have been causing division, the people who have been propagating the lies. We want to see some real accountability, not some no-name fuck from, you know, who gets on TV with the sourpuss face every week and fucking cries about Trump. Now you know why he hated Trump so bad.

Yeah, yeah. No, he definitely did. That's your second word of the day, young man. Uh, the, uh, yeah, dude. And it's interesting too, man, because like all of the people who have done really bad things that we've talked about over the last 6 years, they're still out there just living the life.

Yeah, man. Now, not only living a life, living a great life.

Living great.

Living. They don't seem to be worried, bro, because they know that everybody's taking care. This is a fucking club, dude. It's like, it's like George Carlin said, this is a club and you ain't fucking in it. Yeah, you're not in it. I'm not in it. They're in it. We're not. And that's that. And like, dude, these people look after each other. They're all lawyers. Any of you guys who are lawyers, you understand how the fuck it works. Okay, y'all know each other. You go out and play golf, you have dinner, your wives are friends, and then you say, hey, uh, Frisella's got a lawsuit against DJ, and I think we can make it go on this long because we can get paid this much, so let's just play her law. And that's how it works, dude. It's all fucking corrupt, all of it, from top to bottom. Like, when you guys go hire an attorney and you're like, you need them to do some shit for you, Do you not understand that that other attorney they've worked with 100 times— oh, hey, do you know that guy? Oh, I know him a little. No, motherfucker, that guy comes to your house for Christmas.

Okay, these people all know each other, and that's the thing. Okay, when these guys go to government, you all think that like the senators, the Republican senators and, and, you know, the Democrat senators, they don't like each other. That's not fucking true.

That's not true.

That's not true. They all hang out, dude. This is all— it's all corrupt, all of it, both sides.

Yeah. And so it's interesting to see people just still out there living great lives. Uh, somebody, one person in particular who's actually kind of making a comeback into the public spotlight is, uh, good old Hunter Biden. And, uh, I— listen, I thought I was a troll online. I like to think I do pretty decent. My wife hates it. Uh, he's a fucking troll. Like, he's a pretty— I gotta give him credit on it. He's been responding to people, uh, on Twitter is where he's getting this like resurgence of activity. I got some of the tweets here. Uh, somebody said, uh, bullshit, uh, that was your bag of coke in the White House. He said, it most definitely was not. I would never have fucked my drugs.

I mean, what's he got to be afraid of, dude? He already got pardoned for everything.

Well, yeah, to that point, right? So, uh, another one he posted, he said, uh, this guy said, you sound bitter for someone who benefited from a stolen erection. To which he responded, I've never stolen an erection in my life. All right, that's decent. Um, somebody else said, your paintings, who give a fuck? I want to know how much coke you snorted before posting this tweet. To which he replied, man, if you're going to be mean, at least get it right. I smoked crack. I would never have wasted coke on snorting it. And, uh, that was pretty good. And but to your point, you know, I bet you're grateful for that pardon. I sure am. Yeah, I'd be pretty grateful too.

That sounds like an admission of guilt.

Well, and they can't get them, you know what I'm saying? And so, well, maybe, I mean, it might have been auto pen. Um, but his most recent thing that I did think was really interesting, uh, he just posted this tweet out today, um, and it's a pretty long one, but he's basically going through, uh, the state of the world, state of the country. And he's like, things most Americans agree on: groceries cost too much, tariffs suck and make no sense, Congress and presidents shouldn't trade stocks, the debt is a mess, the border should be secure but legal immigration is good, Endless wars are stupid, especially ones that nobody wants and have never been explained. Americans are exhausted. I mean, he ends it, uh, saying the things we're told to fight about instead of ignoring all the issues, um, are me, laptop, vaccines, transgenders in sports. That's word number 3 for you, little guy. And, uh, and he says that's the joke right now. I'm not a big fan of Hunter personally, right? But I was reading through this tweet, dude, and like, I'm not gonna lie, like, a lot of that kind of made sense.

Well, dude, he's not an idiot. Yeah, like, he's not a total moron, okay? Like, where was that when your dad was in office?

That's right.

Where was that shit when, you know, when you were, uh, not pardoned? You know what I mean? Like, yeah, it makes sense, and that's just proof that these motherfuckers up there in Washington know exactly what's going on. Yeah, they know what's wrong. They know what people are pissed about, and everything else is a distraction that is caused for division. It's all about, uh, you know, how do we keep these people distracted so that they won't come together and literally, uh, put us in the fucking, you know, wood chipper. Yeah, legit. Yeah. So I mean, yeah, man, he's not wrong.

He's not.

Now I think those— I think some of the issues he he mentioned are relevant to argue about, you know. You mean the vaccines and the transgender in sports and pronouns and shit that matters to culture?

It does.

Okay. Like, that's— that is designed to destroy basic common knowledge in culture. And it's like I've said a million times, if they can convince you that a man is a woman and a woman is a man, then how— what is it that they couldn't convince you of? And they have convinced a lot of people that that's true. So if they could convince them that that's true, can't they convince them of anything else? I mean, isn't that the most fundamental basic reality of human existence? Like, 3-year-old kids know that shit.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah. Good is bad. Bad is good, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's evident, dude. It's evident. What's your thoughts?

Yeah, I've never liked this guy.

I mean, I feel like I've seen him before.

I just have— he's on TV all the time. He's always—

no, no, I mean like, like in real life. I just don't know from where.

He looks like that crabby neighbor, you know? Get off my lawn!

Yeah, he's saying that to me for sure. Yeah, for sure he's saying that to me.

No, that's not what he's saying.

What's he saying?

They're looking— they're invading the neighborhood. Fucking property's coming down now. We got to fucking move. That's what he's saying.

There they go.

I'm here to get away from them. That's what the fuck he's saying. I'm just letting you in on the white people shit.

What kind of dog does he have?

He looks like he fucking hates dogs.

He does. Yeah.

He's a cat man. Yeah. No, that guy. That guy likes little kids. Yeah. That's his, that's his choice.

Hell yeah, bear. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting. Like I said, he also— Hunter went on, uh, Candace Owens. Did you guys see the Candace Owens-Hunter Biden collab? Yeah? No? Yeah? Um, but yeah, I mean, he's basically like lying it out. He's been getting slammed too in the comments because people are like, oh, you know, I'm really supposed to listen to an ex-crack addict and stuff like that. I was like, I mean, he is 7 years sober, allegedly. I mean, I can't confirm that. If that is true, that's awesome. You know, that takes a lot of strength.

That's cool. Look, what he said was true, dude. Everybody fucks up, okay? Everybody makes poor life decisions. Every single one of us here has done shit that we would rather not the public know, okay? And if you say you didn't, you're full of shit, all right? There's been one perfect person that ever existed on the planet, and you ain't him, you know? So, yeah, so the reality— and one of the things that bothers me so much is that we are willing to destroy each other's lives over the skeletons in the closet, but yet we give grace to these politicians to destroy our lives every single day. And then we'll fight over which one's better, bro. It's not which one's better. They all, they all fucking suck.

Yeah, right.

Yeah. So like, why are we giving grace to them but not giving grace to them, to our neighbors?

You know, it's even worse than grace. It's almost like they can't do anything wrong. You know what I'm saying?

Like, they're just perfect.

Like, oh no.

I mean, you want to get away with your skeletons, dude, just run for office. That's right.

Yeah, that's right.

It's kind of like part of the deal.

Yeah.

So, you know, I just think, you know, I agree with him and not everybody's skeletons make it in the public eye. So, you know, I can't, you know, do I think he's a delinquent? Yeah, for sure. But I fucking know a lot of delinquents too, bro.

That's right.

You know what I'm saying? Like I've been one at points in my life. So have you. So some of you guys, probably most of you.

I still am.

Yeah. But the reality is, is like, you know, I— yeah, fine, cool, man. But, you know, where was the shit when, when it was all going on with your dad?

Right. Burisma. Yeah. Well, nobody even talks about that shit no more. Like, like how—

yeah, he conveniently left all that out, dude. You know, he talks about the debt being out of control, but then doesn't acknowledge the fact that, you know, how much his own family has benefited from the fleecing of America, from that debt.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, do we really think Joe Biden could be effective at anything? Like, what would he do in real life? Yeah. I mean, like, even when he was in his prime, even when he was in his prime, which is giving him some credit.

That's right.

Okay. What could he have done?

Yeah.

Right. So they've all benefited from us and they leave those things out when they talk about what's wrong.

It's convenient.

Yeah. And that's the worst thing that's wrong.

Yeah, that's real, man. Guys, jump in this conversation. Let us know down in the comments what you guys think. Uh, third and final headline. Yeah, yeah, headline number 3. All right, now this is, uh, oh, you guys like that picture? Yeah, that's a real picture. That's no Photoshop. We took that.

Yeah. I'm bringing back the, uh, the short sleeve, uh, sport coat.

Yeah, dude, it's a good look, bro. It's a good look. I'm not gonna lie, it's a good look.

Um, has anybody ever seen a short sleeve sport coat? How many of you guys have one? I'm sure a couple of you guys have one.

Zeeshan's got one for sure. Yeah, yeah, man. Uh, now this is an interesting topic, you know. You guys know how I roll. I like to— every now and then it's good to, you know, get in tune with your true self, right? And, um, yeah, headline number 3: What is a Kool-Aid pineapple? The viral and controversial food trend taking over social media.

Explain.

Have you seen these? No. Oh, okay. Yeah, all right.

I have no idea what that means.

Who in here knows what that is?

I know out there—

don't raise your hand, bro. Hey, you can't raise it. Come on, man.

I know, I know out there in Newtown they put pineapples out on their, uh, on their porch.

That's diff—

that's it.

Yeah, that's different. That's a different hood. Yeah, yeah, this is, uh, this is actually like, dude, it's a big, big thing, uh, moving around. Um, there has been a lot of controversial food trends over the past few years. There was that NyQuil chicken that came out.

Yeah, there was that canceling of the Choco Taco. That's right. Fucking abomination.

That's right. But there's Kool-Aid pineapples. They're proving to be one of the most shocking, not only for their concept, but for their sugar content. The trend essentially involves soaking pineapple spears in Kool-Aid drink mix. And people are going viral for selling them out of the back of their cars.

Or, well, they did say that, you know, it's— there's a lot of illegals.

Hellcats. Yeah. Uh, so, so this has been going crazy. I got a couple of clips here. Let's, uh, let's check this out. Oh man, that's chicken. That, that's chicken.

We know, we know.

What the fuck is that?

That's a waffle.

A blue waffle. That's number 4, little guy.

So I thought this was about pineapples.

Yeah, I mean, it was further in the video with the with the stuff. This— they got a true— was it a trooper? Yeah, they got, they got him trying it. See what he thinks.

That's it, man. That's good. Well, we appreciate you. Thank y'all. He just throws it right back in there, huh?

And it's gotten so crazy that people are going to Costco and buying the entire pallet of Pineapple Spears.

I'mma bet on me. I said, but I really came from Fort Myers then. I said, I'mma bet on me. I'm gonna believe in me because I know what I got inside me. I'm gonna bet on me regardless of what you think. I'm gonna be there for me regardless if you there or not. I'm gonna bet on me every darn time. That's your problem, bro.

So, um, so I got something for you.

I'm not trying that shit, dude.

So I went to Wally's and I got some pineapple spears. Now it's Summer Smash, we gotta be healthy, right? So I put grape— Grape Smash energy drinks in there.

Yeah, you go ahead. You don't want to try? I want 75 Hard, man.

Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, who wants to try one with me?

Last day, right? Yes, day 75.

Yes sir, yes sir. Yeah, so I mixed them. I feel like, you know, just to get in tune with the culture. Yeah, you know what I'm saying?

Huh?

I don't know, just pass it out. I don't know who's gonna try one with me.

Oh, you made one?

Yeah, we use it with SummerSlam with the Grape Smash. Now these have been soaking for a long time. Yeah, yeah, just mix all of that, those sweat fingers in there.

How is it? It's good.

Is it good? Is it good? I know, right? That's actually not fucking bad.

Really?

That's actually not bad, huh? It's actually not bad.

Maybe we're on to something here. Maybe betting on me.

Okay, so, so, so that's the other thing about it. Like, this, this cup from Wally's was like $4. They're selling these things for $30, bro.

I—

how?

See, this is the problem.

That's not— are you the entrepreneur, bro? Let's talk about it.

Yeah, dude, it's not that people don't have money, it's that they're stupid with their fucking money.

That's right. Okay, that's right.

There ain't a pineapple on the fucking planet worth $30, and I'm rich, bro. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm not paying $30 for a fucking pineapple.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're selling them for $30, and the, the— I think the Costco ones are like $5. And I mean, fuck, how much is— I don't know how much a Kool-Aid packet is. It's been a minute.

More now.

Yeah, it's like 10 cents, bro. 10 cents. And all they're doing is pouring—

I mean, maybe it is a good business.

Profit margins are ridiculous.

Maybe that guy's right. Yeah, I'll get that Mountain Berry pineapple slice, bro. I'm saying, I'll steal it.

This actually, this was not bad. This was not bad. Yeah, I didn't mind it. Um, yeah, I mean, is this a venture that like—

hey man, if the margins are good and the market demands it and you're willing to do it, you know, there's, there's a couple things you got to have in business. You got to have the margin, you got to have the market, and you got to be willing to do what they can't, can't do or won't do.

That's right.

And if you can do those things and there's money to be made, why not?

Give some on this side. They want— they want to try the pineapples over there.

We're doing some Q&A after this. Yeah, okay.

You gave it to a Black guy first.

That's— that's not—

come on, Madat. Damn Bosnians. It's not bad. It's not bad, dude. It's not bad. Yeah, and it's healthy, so there you go. Um. Yeah, let's, uh, yeah, guys, jump in the comments. Let us know what you guys think about the viral, uh, Kool-Aid pineapple. Um, let us know. Uh, with that being said, it is time for our final segment for CTI. We have Thumbs Up or Dumb as Fuck, and I've transitioned from talking about my people to talk about you guys as people, uh, because this might be even worse. Uh, our thumbs up— you guys know how this works. We bring a headline in, we talk about it, we vote on it, we give it one of these two options. Um, and our thumbs up or dumb as fuck headline reads, scientists turn yeast found in gut of ancient mummy into very good sourdough bread. That's your people, bro. That's y'all people. It ain't no Black scientists in that fucking room, I'm telling you right now.

It ain't happening. I would agree with that.

It ain't happening. It ain't happening. I'll show you.

They're all Indian.

All of them, dude. This is fucking disgusting.

Wait, they actually are.

Yeah, see? Yep, Zeeshan's uncle right there.

That's some nasty shit. Yeah, so who even thinks of something like that?

I don't know. I don't— yeah, very mummy in my tummy. Uh, scientists used yeast found in an ancient Iceman's gut to bake very good sourdough bread and have beer making next on their list. His body, extremely well preserved from being entombed in glacial conditions, has provided researchers with a window into life during the Copper Age. Uh, these include gut bacteria from his microbiome during his lifetime, cold-adapted microorganisms from his glacial tomb, and modern microbes from his decades of conservation, the findings said. Quote, our study reveals that Otzi is not a static biological inert relic. He is a dynamic ecosystem. Microbiologist and lead author of the study, Mohamed— oh, Mohamed— of URAC Research Institute for Mummy Studies in Bolzano, Italy, told Reuters.

Bro, this feels like another one of those cricket things. Like, hey man, crickets are great. We're going to start eating them, you know. Hey, by the way, you know, you can use Grandma's gut biome for this amazing recipe. She'll live forever inside of you.

You put that shit. Yeah, bro, you put that shit in sourdough. Y'all gonna eat that shit. You'll eat it. Y'all eat it.

I'm not eating it. The fuck you talking about?

Yeah, this is fucking disgusting, dude.

Yeah. So, so what are we giving this? Are we—

is this—

yeah, this is dumb as fuck. This sounds like a— this sounds like a play. You ever notice, man, there's no new cemeteries?

OK. All right. Well, hold on.

Let's talk about that.

You got to have a conversation.

You ever notice that? Why the fuck are there no new cemeteries?

Like, how does that work?

What are they doing with everybody? That's what I'm saying. They're going into McDonald's, bro. Allegedly.

Allegedly.

Don't sue me. It was a joke.

You're about to get McSued. Bro, I've never been to a grand opening for a cemetery.

I haven't either. I haven't even seen one being built.

No, I mean, how do you build a cemetery?

Like, I don't even know, dude. You buy property, start digging holes. But I mean, I've not seen a new one under development.

I've never seen one. Yeah, I've never seen one.

It doesn't make sense.

And people dying every day. Yeah, cremations are not up. It's not like they're getting cremated.

I don't know, man. I don't know.

It's fucking—

yeah, dude, this is something to think about.

That's a dark rabbit hole to get down. Yeah. Um, hell yeah. Well, uh, thumbs down for that. Yeah, you guys can keep your mummies and your sourdough. Uh, for the show, guys, Andy, that's all we got.

That's it. Uh, we're gonna do some Q&A. So you guys are listening, you guys listening on the feed and watching on YouTube, you're gonna get, uh, both shows today.

So a little double dose action.

Yeah, so we're gonna do a few questions. Uh, I guess we're doing them live from the crowd, huh?

Yeah, that's right, that was right. Now, now guys, just a little housekeeping. Uh, so the mics will be up here in the front. All right, uh, don't fight each other over it.

Yeah, and let's get right to the question.

Yep, let's just, uh, let's have some good ones. I can't control the good ones, so have some good ones.

You sign my daughter's book? Yeah, I'll sign it. Yeah, right here. Yeah, somebody grab that book, bring it up here.

Hell yeah. So, so Z, give it up for Z Shine real quick, guys. I actually—

let's give it up for Liberty. Oh hell yeah, that's good.

That's a good name. Let's give a round of applause for the whole podcast team, guys. We, we— so the schedule got moved up. Things had to happen, and the Real AF team's been crushing it. And, uh, really appreciate you guys making us look good.

Now, who has a good question?

Good question for sure. Who's gonna be the judge of that? All right, be close to the mic a little bit.

Uh, how do you know when you're being patient with a goal versus when you're actually just playing too small?

How do you know when you're being too patient with the goal versus playing too small?

Well, are you seeing any feedback with your goal, any indications that it is materializing? Are you doing the things required consistently, honestly, objectively down the path, or are you not? And are you just sitting there waiting for it to happen? You know, there's a big difference between the two. A lot of people think that they can just have a goal and they can sort of go after it and that it's going to materialize, and that's just not how it works. It takes way, way, way, way, way more focus and dedication than what people actually believe to accomplish it, especially in business. You could transform your body in 75 days, okay? If you're completely out of shape, you can do it in 6 months. That's the truth. But what's that take? That takes every single meal. That takes every single workout. That takes every single detail, every single T crossed, every single I dotted. That's the level of focus that it takes to create that change. And for some reason, when it comes to people's goals and their careers, they think that that's not what's required. In fact, it even requires more than that. So are you actually giving that kind of effort or are you not?

And a lot of the reason that people get frustrated with the time it takes to, to, to achieve something is because they can't honestly look themselves in the mirror and tell themselves that they're doing everything that they can. So there's that. There's also the lack of perspective. If you've never really achieved a goal like that, you don't know how long it takes. And I'm here to tell you that typically it takes longer than you think it's going to take. One of the things that my team knows about me, they know two things. One, every fucking thing I tell them we will do and will come true. Every single thing. If you've been around me long enough, there is not a single thing that I've ever said that we are going to achieve that we don't achieve. They also know this: I say we're going to do it in 30 days.

That's right.

And then I get mad when it doesn't happen in 30 days, but I continue to press and we continue to work. And because of that intensity and because of that urgency, it comes as fast as possible. So, you know, we all want things to happen now, uh, But objectively, you know, the thing that you really have to pay attention to is what's the evidence that you're seeing along the way? Are there signs that things are happening? And if you're not seeing signs that things are happening, are you doing everything that you can? And if you are doing everything you can, are you doing the right things? And these are the questions that you have to evaluate down the way. Um, so, you know, there's always risk to the plan being the right plan. But if you're doing everything that you can and you're evaluating the feedback as it comes, you're able to pivot along the way. You know, a lot of people think that when they start, they start here at point A and let's say, uh, point Z is their end goal. And they have this plan to get there. Well, sometimes that plan is not the exact plan that's going to get there.

You're going to go down, you're going to go down the path and you're going to see, uh, you know, there's going to be a wall or there's going to be a tree that you can't get around or whatever. And you're going to have to make a left turn or a right turn, and then you're going to have to go around that and come right back to it. Some of those walls you can break down, some of those walls you're going to have to figure out a way over or around. And it's all about keeping the end goal in mind and evaluating the data that shows up along the way.

Yeah, dude. You know, so when I got with, with Andy, one of the first things that he taught me, uh, and kind of instilled was, was the fact of like how important it was to set bigger goals.

Right?

And you told me, he's like, dude, you're thinking too small. And I think, like, you know, if I look back, I, like most people, we're told all of our lives to be realistic.

Yeah.

How do you snap out of that? How do you—

how do you— well, I mean, look at people's lives who say that.

Yeah.

I mean, everybody who says set realistic goals lives a life that they're not happy with. That's the truth. Okay. Uh, big goals create big action. Which creates big results. Oh yeah, small goals that say create realistic actions, which create small results. Yeah. Okay, that's the reality of the difference. If you know that you've got to climb, uh, you know, this hill at the park and it's not that big of a deal, you're not really thinking about it. It's not that urgent. You don't train for it. It's no big deal. If you know that you're going to go climb Mount Everest, you're going to take it a lot more fucking serious. You're going to be out training, you're going to be out working, you're going to be out making sure that you have the capacity physically and mentally to do that. And when it comes to our lives, we're on a timeline and that timeline eventually ends. And the bigger the goal, the bigger the action, the bigger the results. And that is the way it works. And people will say, well, you know, you know, no, dude, that's just the way it works.

Okay.

And so this whole thing about being realistic. If you listen to people like that, you end up like people like that. And I don't know a single person that says set a realistic goal that has any kind of life that I would want.

That's unrealistic.

I've never seen it, right? So like, if you have big dreams and you have big outcomes in mind, good. You should probably try to make it bigger because even if you don't hit that end result of the Z, uh, you might get to the Y, you know what I'm saying? And that's a hell of a lot better than just getting to the C. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. So when we think about it like that, that's, that's, that's how it really works.

Yeah. Yeah. I love it, dude. What we got next, Z?

Somebody from here?

I got one. All right.

Go for it. Thanks, Andy and DJ. Um, yeah, I own a business with my brother and another partner. We started from the same place and built it together, but over time I felt like our visions have started to divide. On top of that, my brother and I have been struggling to communicate productively, and sometimes it feels like it's holding the business back. Um, how do you handle business partnerships when everyone started with the same vision, but over the time, the vision, communication, and worth— work ethic seems to drift apart? At what point do you decide to work through it versus moving on and building your own? Well, lack of communication is the number one killer of all businesses, all partnerships, of any kind— friendships, relationships, business— if people aren't aligned, then they drift apart naturally. And so this takes constant communication, not just communication when, uh, you know, things have drifted so far apart that you've got to like wrangle it back in. That's not saying that you can't get it back, but what it is saying is that you should learn this as a lesson. So there's two things that you need to do.

One, you need to sit down with your brother and you need to say— and you look him right in the fucking eye and you say, hey, bro, I love you, you're my brother, I fucking do anything for you. We got to go bury a body. Fucking call me. I'll show up with a shovel and a lime. I don't give a fuck. But here's the thing. We can't win if we're both looking at different outcomes when it comes to business. If you're looking over here and I'm looking over there and you think we're trying to go to this place and I think we're going to this place, how the fuck are we going to get anywhere? And you got to have an honest conversation. And if he has common sense and intelligence, which I'm assuming he does, He's going to understand that. And then you're going to have a conversation. He's going to say, well, I think we should do this. And you're going to say, well, I think we should do that. And you're going to have to sit there in a room until you come to a place where you both agree that you need to be.

And that's the corrective conversation. And then along the way, so that's the first part. Okay. You got to correct what's happening. The second part is you have to have a regular cadence of communication and outcomes that are unified. Okay, so like how it works in bigger business, um, like we have a board meeting every quarter. Okay, now you may be a small operation, it's just you two, you guys can have a quote-unquote board meeting literally every day, right? Um, but we come in every quarter. In fact, I'm leaving straight from here to go to a board meeting. Um, and we sit down every quarter and we say, okay, here's the outcomes for the next 90 days. This is what we're trying to do. Is everybody aligned? And we have that conversation on a consistent basis, which keeps the drift from happening. Okay. So what you're going through is a natural thing. It's not something that is, oh, we got to toss the business in the trash, or, you know, my brother sucks and we're not going to talk anymore. A lot of people ruin their lives, ruin their business, ruin their, their family relationships. Because they're afraid to have simple conversations.

And dude, one thing I learned from my dad, which has been very, very helpful in my life, is that you should never be afraid to have conversations specifically about money or outcomes in business because everybody benefits from those things. So we're taught as we grow up that it's kind of rude to talk about money or it's weird to talk about money. And we get this hesitation that leaks over into other things. Like business, especially where we hesitate to have those conversations because it feels awkward. But dude, it's like anything else. Once you start to have those conversations on a consistent basis, there's no awkwardness to it. You know, me and my brother can sit down and Chris and Ryan and all my business partners, we can sit down and be like, at this point in time, like, hey, motherfucker, like, this is what the fuck is going on. And there's— it's not personal. Like, We all know that we all have our best interests in mind. We all trust that we have our best interests in mind. Nothing's personal. Even if the tone is frustrating, nobody takes it personally. And, and then we walk out of the room with the stated outcome and, uh, and then we all go do our parts.

And so you got to do two things. One, you got to wrangle in the distance that you've created. And then two, you've got to set a cadence for regular communication so that that sort of divide doesn't happen again.

Andy, you, you've talked about in the past too, like early on in business with you and Chris, how important is the divide and conquer mentality, right? Like, you've— I think you've described it, you and Chris, as being like yin and yang.

Yeah, well, I mean, look, dude, um, there's another thing that destroys most businesses is that everybody's trying to do the same role. Yeah. Okay, early in the business You know, everybody wants to be the CEO because they think that that's like a fucking cool title to have. Yeah, but if everybody's trying to be the CEO, then who's being the COO? Who's operating the backside? Who's handling this? And what we have to come to is an understanding that no one position is more important than the other. Okay. Like my— like Chris and I had an active conversation in the early days of business. Okay. I remember I was driving down Highway 55 here I said, look, man, one of us has to be the face and one of us has to run the back end, and that's what it has to be. And I told him straight up, I said, I'll do whichever one you want. And he's like, well, I don't want to be the face. I'm like, well, then I'll fucking do it. You do that. And that was that. And, you know, you guys always ask, you're like, well, where's Chris? Why doesn't he?

Well, that's not his role. And I don't walk into his office and, you know, uh, think that my role is more important than his role, right? Or that my role is more important than Sal's role. All of these things have to come together in unison in order to function properly, which takes humility on everybody's part. And you know, the megalomania of CEO, you know, the ego that people derive— let me tell you something, dude, if you've never actually been a CEO of a company, like a real company, it, it's, it's fucking not what you think it is, okay? You're— you are the fucking You are, you are carrying the burden of the entire fucking operation. And more importantly, you are answering publicly for all the fucking fuck-ups that you're going to make. And that, that's hard, dude. Some that you don't make, dude. No, all the ones that you don't make. Like, you know, like when something happens at First Form, uh, it's attached to my name. You know what I'm saying? It's attached to Sal's name. He has to fucking own that. Like, he has to answer for that. There's a lot of things that come with it that aren't that cool.

And there's a lot of benefits to being the other guy too. And I think, you know, honestly, dude, like, it— if I'm being like completely candid, like, it would be a lot more fun to be the other guy. It just would be. So, but, but people got to play the role. Yeah, you know what I mean?

Yeah, love it, man.

All the rules. Yeah, brother. Yeah, brother. All the roles are important. Look, man, one of the things that makes First Form, First Form, or any of the companies that I've involved in run is that we understand a very basic thing. It doesn't matter what your title is. You're— you have a job to do. And if you're in the back packing boxes, that is just as critical of a job as the CEO making decisions for the rest of the team. They both are required to be done at a high level, and one cannot be treated less important than the other. And I know people say that shit, but do they actually mean it? And that's the difference. Okay, I can tell you this. When I say that shit, I mean it. And I believe that my, my guys that work in the back, I believe that they would tell you that I mean that. And if you have that genuine attitude and that genuine intent and there's no ego involved— and of course there's going to be times where ego comes into play, okay, because everybody wants to brag about the shit that they contributed. Especially when they're not getting recognition.

But you have to learn to squash that and minimize that and catch yourself when you find yourself in those positions and remember what the goal is. And the bigger the company, the easier it gets to remember that, because it's not just you and your brother anymore. Now it's you and your brother and 400 other fucking people that have families and lives. And guess what? They're betting on you. So you don't have time to fucking ego it out. We got a mission. We got to achieve it. People's families and livelihoods depend on it. And that shit, if you keep that at the top of your mind, it will keep you humble enough to make the right decisions and understand that all the roles are important.

Hell yeah, man. Thank you. Before— hell yeah.

Before we get into the next question, how awesome was that?

Where do you get such free game like that? I'm just enunciating it is because we make the podcast in a room, we don't hear from people enough. But for the past hour before we started the podcast, every single person that I talked to was thanking you guys and the team for putting the stuff that you put out. And I just wanted them to tell you how grateful they are for the free game that you give.

Hey man, it's— yeah! Oh, that, that, you know, I appreciate that. Uh, it's never something I take for granted, but it's also not something that I require ever. I don't require recognition like that. Uh, I, we, we totally appreciate it. 100%. The reason we do this is because I need you guys to go out and win, man. If we're gonna, if we're gonna save this country and we're gonna fix what's going on, it's gonna require you guys to win. And I feel obligated to do what I do and share what I share Um, and what makes— honestly, like, I'm gonna be real with you guys. I know you're listening because I already said this earlier in the show, but I see a lot of the same faces. I have a photographic memory, so like, I see a lot of the same faces that were here last year, and I, I could see that a lot of these people have made massive— the crowd in general is much more physically fit than it was a year ago, and that tells me that, that tells me that you guys are taking it serious and doing shit. So thank you for doing that.

Yeah, we appreciate you guys. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Thank you, brother.

Hi, Andy and DJ. It's nice to see you guys again. I've been listening to the show for a while and you guys talk a lot about accountability and discipline. Looking back, what belief about yourself did you have to completely destroy in order to be the most successful person that you are today?

The victim in my own mind. Okay. All the reasons why I couldn't. All the reasons, the thing, the bad things that happened to me, the perspective change that went from, you know, why did this happen to me? Or I came from this or this happened or that happened or I don't have this or I don't have that into those are the things that make me capable of beating the fuck out of anybody that stands in my way. Okay. Including the old version of myself. All right. Yeah. Our biggest enemy is the bitch version that lives inside of us. And you can never kill it. That's the thing. It never goes away. Okay. Fat Andy is fucking alive and well inside of me, bro. I've just learned how to squash him down to where, you know, I don't hear it all the time. All right. But if I give in to that 3 or 4 days in a row, that motherfucker's back to full strength.

That's right.

So I got told by a friend of mine the other day Uh, he was telling me, he's like, dude, I just like to— I'm an indulgent person and I like to enjoy my life. And, and I said, yeah, me too. That's why I keep my shit in check. Right. You know, that's why I have to be aware of that. Like, bro, you get me partying for 2 or 3 days, that'll last 6 months. Okay. Uh, and I'm talking about with food or with alcohol. Um, I like to have a good time. It's not because I'm addicted to that shit. It's because I enjoy having a good time and letting loose. And when I have a good day, I want to have another fun day and I want to have another fun day. But I'll tell you this, you know, today's day 75, dude. I went and took my picture in the mirror.

Yeah.

And, uh, yeah, you know, uh, this is real shit. Being able to look at myself in the mirror and be at— I'll be 47 years old in July. And to know, to know that I'm in better shape than fucking 99.9% of men, not just men my age, but men. Uh, that's a lot more fun than drinking beer for me. Okay. Like, you know, I feel good about that. And, uh, I earned that. And, and, um, I just feel like, you know, from my experiences with, with living the old way that I used to live, it's a trade. It's a trade for one kind of fun for another kind of fun, or one kind of life for another kind of life. And Uh, the cool thing about when you handle your shit is it's— you could still have fun, you could still have a good time. You just gotta do it when it's appropriate, which actually makes it more fun. Okay. When you do anything too much, it loses its fun, right? Like when I used to go out drinking and eating Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Yeah, it was fun. But now I might do that twice a year.

And it's a lot more fun. And not only that, I remember it. I'm like, oh yeah, we celebrated this, right? Like the last time I really, really kind of partied was when we went to UFC with Dana. Yeah. Okay. But see, I'll remember that the whole time. I'll remember that the rest of my life because that was a special occasion. So I actually, I know it's a better way to live because I've lived both ways. So, um, when it comes to like, you know, killing that version of yourself. It's just about removing all the things that you tell yourself about why you can't and realize that those things that have happened to you and those things you've been through, they've equipped you to handle those things again in the future. You know, we see this a lot, okay? Like, we see this a lot with people, all right? Think about the cool people in high school, all right? Think about the, the guys and the girls who looked great in high school. They were popular, they were cool, the girls were fit, the guys were fit, they had abs, they were just kind of coming up and they, they look that way and that was the way they look.

And then you get to be 40 years old and you see them again and what the fuck do they look like? You can't recognize them because they look so fucking shitty. The reason that those people look that way is because they never had to learn how to build that. Okay. Whereas you take someone who grew up chubby and who grew up not popular, who grew up— that person then develops the skill set of good habits, understanding how to build confidence. And then you see that person in their 40s and they've got their shit together. But the reason they've got their shit together is because they had to go through all the other shit. So it's about recognizing that all these things that we go through are the things that equip us for the life that we actually want. And it's really not about killing anything. It's about switching your perspective to, you know, this happened to me, to this happened for me so that I can achieve what I'm trying to do now.

Yeah, I think a lot of people get hung up too with the idea that like, well, my situation is just so—

everybody thinks that that's ego.

Like, it's so different.

You think you're the only motherfucker ever that had a fucking hard situation, bro, right? The people with the hardest situations don't talk about them because they were so bad that they're fucking embarrassing. Okay, so Everything's hard. And what's hard to me and what's hard to you is still equally as hard, okay? It's just your hard may have looked different than my hard, right? Okay, you grew up in the fucking hood. You grew up, you saw dead bodies every fucking week. You saw drug dealers. You had to protect yourself. You grew up in it. And I grew up in a different kind of hard, all right? But that doesn't mean that that hard was worse than my hard. It might sound worse if we're like trying to like roll our dicks out and say, oh, who had it harder? But that's the fuck— that's not the fucking point.

That was pretty loud.

Hey, is it fucking hot out there? Hot as fuck. It's hot up here too.

That's right. That's right.

That's right. Right. It's probably a little less hot here because I'm in the shade, but I'm fucking sweating my ass off. Are you sweating?

Yes.

Okay. That's the point. Yeah, that's the point. It's all relative. Okay. And what we discern as hard is relative. It's just relative, dude. So we can't get into this comparison game about who the fuck had it harder and where I came from and this and that. The hardest thing is the hardest thing. That's it. And so a lot of people do that because they want to feel special or feel— get, get an excuse for why they can't overcome it. But the truth of the matter is, dude, is that there's millions and millions and millions and millions of people who have come from way, way objectively worse situations than you, who have achieved what you want to achieve and much more. And that is just the fucking fact. So you could sit there and wallow in it, or you can realize that you're just being a fucking pussy and you can fucking handle your shit. I mean, that's the two choices.

It's real, bro. It's fucking real. Thank you. It's real. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, how are you? Shout out to Kelsey, isn't she doing amazing?

That's my client there.

Oh, she's still around? Yeah.

Uh, so my name's Sammy. It's so funny we're talking about hardships because I've been dealing with some back injuries the past 8 months. I had a car accident about 2 months ago. I have 6 herniations and a concussion. I'm in like so much pain even here. And you talk all the time on the podcast about how you are bedridden And I'm just so curious. I have my own business. I've been really focused on being a leader, but now I have to really focus on like preparing for competition and healing my body. I would love to know like what mantra, what mindset you use, because I have all the support, but I want my mental to be the strongest thing I fucking have. So what did you tell yourself like when you were going through injury and a hard time to overcome it?

That I am fucking unbreakable. Like, like there's nothing that can fucking stop me. There's not. It doesn't matter. Look, dude, I mean this shit, okay? I don't give a fuck what happens to me. I don't care if my company's burned to the fucking ground, if I get both my arms and legs fucking chopped off, okay? If I'm breathing and I'm alive, I will fucking continue to fight. That I know that about myself, okay? And it might be harder It might be more difficult. I might not feel like it, but I'm going to get the fuck up and you're going to have to kill me to fucking stop me. That is the mentality that I have on the inside. And I truly, truly believe that. All right. Now, you may hear that and think that that's like ego posturing.

Yeah.

No, I'm telling you what I actually believe. I believe that about myself.

I can't tell a story real quick. Yeah, because we have not talked about this on the show. So a couple of years ago when Andy, uh, tore his, uh, shoulder, right, because he's, you know, he's a little bit, you know, seasoned. And, uh, but I was— so I was there when he tore his shoulder. It was 3 months after the tear before he ended up getting surgery, right?

Yeah, because I wouldn't wear a mask.

That's right. He's a very— he's a little stubborn sometimes.

Yeah.

Uh, but, but so, so the day of surgery, he goes, gets the surgery done. It's total reconstruction on the surgery. Um, surgery's over, he comes back. I'm like, all right, let's go home. He's like, no. Like, fuck you mean, bro? He's like, I gotta go do my cardio. I said, bro, listen, hey, I think everybody would understand if you just didn't. Like, it'd be like, nobody's even out here, bro. Like, nobody's— no, I, I have to do it for me. And so like, when he, when he's saying that, I know it's fucking— like, I know that's truly how you fucking feeling, like, believe it. Yeah. Surgery wasn't even 30 minutes over. No, I just ended.

No. And you're out. Listen, dude, you're not going to fucking break me. It's not going to fucking happen, dude. And I did that for two reasons. One, I needed to do it because I needed to do it.

Yeah.

Okay. Two, I wanted every motherfucker here in this building to see me do it. I wanted every single person to know that I literally just got off the operating table and I showed the fuck up and did my shit. I wanted them to see it, and, and that's that.

So I thought you were fucking crazy, but I mean, I guess—

yeah, I remember you, you, you, you and Emily both thought I was crazy. You guys like, go to bed. And I'm like, I'm not fucking going to bed now. I did come up to you right afterwards and say, fucking take me home.

All right, now we can go. I'm like, all right, let's roll, dog. All right, hell yeah, hell yeah. What we got?

Hi, Andy. Hi, DJ. How are you? So I run a dog training business in Florida, and 2 years ago I met my friend Brittany. She's over there. You guys can't see her, but she introduced me to, like, the First Form community. I didn't, like, wasn't really entertaining the idea, but 6 months later I, like, hit my version of rock bottom. And so I found my coach, Sarah. She's one of the, like, I believe it's called Legionnaire through your business. And fast forward to now, I'm 120 pounds down.

Hell yeah! Hell yeah!

That's what's up.

Thank you. But through that, my perspective has changed with my business. I work with a lot of disabled individuals. I train service dogs and pet dogs. And a lot of them, you know, they have a lot of, you know, they have a lot of different complications. And some of them, they really struggle to overcome those challenges that come with being disabled. You know, some of it's not within their control, But I also have a— because I've been on a health and fitness journey, uh, passively I've been attracting clients who are disabled, and even just like, you know, my normal pet dog clients that, you know, are choosing an active lifestyle. And I'm trying to find a way to create my business to be like a brand that would, uh, kind of like this. You guys like want to see other people be successful, you want to see them be healthy, you want to see them go out there and do the things they need to do. And I want that for my team. I have since It went from a one-woman show to 4 people, and we're starting to scale. Next week I'm moving to Tampa and we're getting a bigger acreage, like we're going to have more acreage facility and all the things.

So we're in this like middle ground of transitioning into this new phase. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I have invested so much time into my health. Am I as consistent as I want to be? No, but I'm working on it every day. Is my discipline as great as I want it to be? No, but once again, I'm working on it every day. And I'm trying just to do the best that I can. But through my success, I think it has to do with the fact that I have been way more disciplined in the way I, you know, clean up my house, the way I wake up in the morning, the way I take care of myself, the way I go to the gym consistently, the foods I put in my body, all that stuff. So my question for you is, is I have a team and the culture within my business starts with me and my team. So I need to do the best that I can and show up for them how I want them to show up for me and my clients. Right. And I'm having a hard time right now.

I have two ladies that work for me and they're incredible, but I find that I don't want to shove this culture that I'm within down their throats because I think sometimes people don't want to hear that. But I do think they already adopt some of those minds, like that mindset, and they— one of them already actively works on that. And I want to continue to hire people who adopt that same mindset. So my hiring process kind of aligns with like the questions we asked and all of that. So what are some— what's some feedback that you guys, you might have somebody who is in a very small business, right, comparatively to this, that eventually I want to scale and I want to have that culture. But obviously hiring people can diminish the culture if you hire the wrong person. So you got to like hire well, fire fast, so to speak. Yeah. So I just don't know. I guess I'm sure you understand kind of where I'm getting at with this. What is some feedback you might have for me on how I can translate this journey that I've been on into a journey that I can push my trainers and my staff to be successful and healthy?

And then as well, motivate my clients to do the same too and show them that there is hope for them and that, you know, no matter what that looks like, you can make accommodations to live a good life.

Yeah. So first thing is you got— you got to lead by example, which you're already doing. Okay. Nobody will do the things that you want them to do if you're not willing to do them yourself. It's not going to happen. It's never happened in history and you're not going to be the first one to do it. So that's the first thing. The second thing is, is that you mentioned about shoving the culture down their throat. That's not— you're not shoving the culture down your throat. These are— you have to think of it like this: these are the standards of our brand. This is what we do. This is what we stand for. And you either fit that or you don't, okay? And that is a very real thing. And when you combine that with leading by example and setting the standards, there will be people that will fall in line and there will be people that will leave. Once the bad people leave and you start to bring in new people and the good people have stayed, it's much easier to have good hires. Because think about every job everybody here has had. When you show up to the job the first day, you don't know shit.

And so what you do is you end up talking to the other people that are there and they give you the inside game about what it's really like. Okay. Hey, I know they say this, but this is actually how we do it. When you have bad apples in your culture, they do that in a negative way. When you've, when you've set the culture right and you've weeded out the bad apples, they do that in the positive way. They will say, hey, you know, when they see the new person slip in, they'll say, hey, that's not how we do things here. We do things like this. So just as if— as every other job that you guys have had where you've walked into it and someone's been like, hey man, you know, you don't really got to do that. That happens on the flip side when you have a strong culture. So this starts with you, and then it starts with setting standards and allowing the people to either adopt them or remove themselves, or you remove them, and then adding people in. And then the last thing is You're not going to quote unquote find good employees.

That's not how it works. You're going to have to build them. Okay. One of the things that I get questions about all the time, and it almost, it sort of insults me a little bit because it insinuates that I'm like just the luckiest motherfucker on the planet. They say shit like this. How did you fucking hire all these great people? What do you think? I fucking went out to the employee tree in my backyard and picked them off the fucking trees, right? Like, That's not how it works, bro. You set standards, you hold them accountable. They either fit in or they don't. And then those become the standards of operation for your company. So those are the things that, that I would leave you with in terms of how you're going to build it. Start with yourself, set the standards, define those standards officially, communicate in those standards. When I say that, I mean if there's a correction to be made, you're not living by this core value. You know, hire and fire by those core values and then allow the culture to do its work. And eventually the culture becomes a self-sustaining mechanism and organism that will weed out all the bad apples for you.

Thank you.

And do you talk about a lot?

I mean, everybody's like, at this point in time, our culture is so strong that people will move across the country to be a part of it.

100%.

That wasn't how it used to be. Yeah, okay, that took a lot of time and a lot of investment and a lot of difficult conversations with people that didn't really understand why we did things the way that we do. Yeah, but now it, it regulates itself.

Well, and to that point too, the flip side of that though, it's like for a lot of people that don't understand the culture, they think it's Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Of course, you know what I'm saying?

They're thinking that's how it should look, it should look easy from the outside.

Yeah, but like, you know, I know this worth like People in that building, and you guys will see, like, dude, the employees, they work their fucking asses off. Work their fucking asses.

Yeah, yeah, right. It takes a lot of work.

A lot of work. Yeah, a lot of work. And so I, you know, am I looking at this wrong? Because I mean, I guess my question is this, like, it's like with all the shit that's going on in the world and all the other companies that are out there, she mentioned, you know, she doesn't want to shove this culture down their throat. Well, I mean, everybody else is shoving all this other bullshit down their employees' throat. Yeah. Wouldn't you like, you know, would it be nice to at least have a good value?

Here's another, here's another another really strong tip for you, okay? When you can make them understand that it's in their best interest to be this way, that's where the switch flips. You said it yourself, she said, how I clean my house, how I do this, the little things. Every time you straighten your house, every time you do things the right way, every time you do something that, that is a little bit harder but you know it's right, you're making an investment into that discipline bank account that makes your discipline muscle stronger. Yeah. Okay, when you go into the weight room here and you see all the logos aligned and everything's perfect and the floor back there is spotless, that's not because it's just the rules. Now it is the rules. I wouldn't even say it's the rules, it's the standard. But the reason that it's become the standard is because we've done a good job at making everybody understand how it actually benefits them in all areas of their life. So we spent a lot of time talking about this and this deposits and withdrawals into your discipline. All right. And if you can convince them and make them understand that that's how that works, it becomes a lot easier to get people to do the right things.

100%, dude. I think we got one more. Yeah, we got one more.

How's it going, guys?

You're here. No pressure.

I love the pressure. I'm good with the pressure. Good afternoon, guys. Good here? Okay, cool. Uh, I'm Blake Black from Connecticut. So over the last decade or so, I've learned all my leadership topics and tips and tricks from you, from the free game on MFCEO, and all the podcasts, the content you put out, as well as ROT and a couple other groups that I've joined with you. Yeah. Being a leader and becoming a leader, we all screw up, and that's the best way to learn, right? Yeah. As good as I can take things away from what you said recently, my struggle has been with emotional intelligence and communicating effectively between using your heart less and being more direct and then knowing when to add empathy. So my question directly is, how do you bridge the gap between emotional intelligence and being direct without hurting people's feelings and doing all the important things? I don't think— I think you're thinking about it wrong. Okay. When people talk about— we're going to talk about kindness for a minute. Okay. Like when people think about kindness, they think about being polite and they think about, you know, pleasantries, okay?

Things that make people feel nice in the moment. But if we really think about what's kind, what's kind is having that person's best interests in mind and telling them what they need to understand so that they can become the kind of person that they want to be. So leadership is exactly the same, all right? It's not when do I interject empathy It's not when do I interject directness, it's do I care about this person enough to tell them the truth and help them become what they could become? And when you have the proper intent in mind and your intent isn't I need them to perform because the— I need to sell more shit, but I need them to perform because I want them to be better. And then you understand the business, you understand in the back of your head that if they're better, the business will be better. They feel that intent. They understand that you care about them. And so I personally feel like most of the people that know me, they understand that while I may be very direct, the reason that I'm being direct is because I want the best outcome for them.

And so that's the actual question you're asking. You're asking an intent question. And what you need to do is just make sure that you understand that they're understanding that the outcome of this direct conversation is to make you better. And that could sound something like empathy, but it's really not. All right. It sounds like this. Hey, Brad, look, dude, I fucking love you, man. You're fucking great, dude. I like you personally. I think you have all the tools to win, but right now, dude, you're just not fucking cutting it, man. Here's what you're doing wrong, and I know you know you're doing that wrong, don't you think? And he's gonna say, well, I don't know. And you're gonna say, you are, okay? That's right. And, and you've just got to stand firm on that standard with the intent. And by the way, this intent this comes from a lot of the other conversations that you have with them. All right. Like when things go bad and then you try to sit down with someone and you've never talked to them and you've never been interested in them, you never ask them how their day was.

You've never, you know, dabbed them up when you're going through the office or talk to them or anything. And then you try to be like, oh, Brad, I really care about you. They don't fucking hear that shit. Yeah. Okay. So if you want to come across, if your leadership style, which I think is the best leadership style, to be direct, and cut through the shit, you have to build that credibility with them throughout the rest of the times, okay? And that takes effort, all right? You can't just sit in your office or sit in your truck and, and think that they're gonna know that you care. You might really care about them, but if you're not making that investment to, you know, get to know their names and, and, you know, hey man, how's this going? Or how's that going? Or talk about mutual interests and build some sort of rapport with them, then when it comes time to have the conversation, you sit down and say, oh man, I really care about you. You're like, this guy's full of shit. All right. So the answer to your question is, one, you have to be— you have to have the right intent.

You can't fake intent. They can feel it. Okay. Do you care about them or do you not? If you're smart, you do, because you can't do anything by yourself. Two, are you making the investment for them to know that in the times when the hard conversations aren't required? Those two things will make up for what you're, what you're asking. Okay. So don't think of it as in terms of like injecting empathy. Oh man, you know, I really understand. That doesn't mean shit if you haven't built the rapport with them outside of that. Does it make sense? Makes a lot of sense. Okay. So just try, you know, don't buffer your directness. That's a, that's an asset. Most people lack the ability to be direct. Understand that your directness is in their best interest because you want them to win. And when you've built that rapport outside of that, they're going to understand that, which makes the direct conversations respected. Yeah. Makes sense. That's extremely helpful and exactly what I needed. So, okay, cool, man.

All right.

Thanks, brother.

Oh yeah, man.

Hey, we can do, we can do one more.

One more.

Yeah.

One more.

Uh, this is my first introduction with you. I got a buddy who works at S2, so you just made a great Great first introduction. Thank you for that. My question for you is you've built businesses where people and culture seems like the real equity. What have you learned about developing high-performing people and keeping them loyal long-term? And then with that, what do you do about killers with bad habits? So I run a sales team. It's important that my guys are killing it. My top guy probably does, you know, maybe 30% of all of our sales for like 11 people. He fucking kills it. But We live in like employee housing together when we go out. And this guy has, I mean, some of the worst habits that you could live with, right? But I'm not in a position to, to let this guy go with how much money we would, we would lose with that right now. It's just something that's been on my mind. When you say bad habits, what do you mean? I mean, like, like every night going out, right? And like, so rookie reps will go out with him and it fucks up their shit the next day.

Does he, does he follow the plan for the Does he follow, does he follow the plan while he's at work in the way, or does he sell shit his own way? He follows it to a T when he's at work. It's just a problem that we all live together. Okay. Well, first of all, when you think about your culture as a sales team, typically they're gonna follow the highest performer. Okay? Now, the question that you ask is that it's actually not as bad as I thought it was, because typically what happens is the highest performer gets filled with ego. And what happens a lot of times, because they're good schmoozers and they're good with people, they, they develop bad habits in the sales process that then the other salespeople cannot get away with. And then those people sell less and that person sells more. And what you end up with is a disproportionate amount of sales, AKA being bent over a barrel like you are right now with one guy. If that was the case, you're going to have to take a step backwards to take a step forward, meaning you're going to have to remove that guy and train the other guys up, which means some of your sales are going to retract and you're going to have to pick it back up.

That's not the case. You have a case with a guy who has not recognized that he's a leader yet. And so the conversation with this guy needs to go something like— what's his name? Jacob. Okay. Hey, Jacob, look, dude, you're crushing it, bro. You know the numbers. You're kicking everybody's ass. You're a big deal here. You got to understand. How old is he? He's 20. Okay. This is why he's immature. All right? He does not understand that it's hard for people at 20 years old or even 30 years old because we're all out here doing the best we can, and it's hard to, to, to understand that there are other people that are looking at us and picking up our habits. All right, that comes with maturity, and at 20 years old, the guy's not going to have it. All right, so you're going to have to have a good leadership conversation and say, hey Jacob, look bro, we got a great thing going. Here's the vision, here's where we're going, we got good momentum. But we got to pull these other guys up. And because you're doing this on the outside of the business, it's hurting their ability to develop.

And that's a mature conversation, and, and you got to treat him as like a grown man. And I would even give him the recognition of it. Like, a lot of times people won't step into leadership until they're acknowledged as like a grown man. Okay, hey Jacob, I know you're only 20 years old, bro, but listen, man, You gotta understand, you're a fucking leader now. And our ability, our ability to get where we're trying to go is going to not just require my leadership, it's going to require yours as well. And what's happening here is we've got Steve and Lucy and Mary that are developing this habit of going out, and they're not as, they're not as skilled as you are, which is keeping them back, which is holding us back. So what can we do to fix this? And then let him come to you and say, well, you know, I need to adjust this and that and this. And so this is, this is about just having a really strong leadership conversation with them. How do you train good employees and then keep them loyal to what you're doing? Uh, by, well, first of all, great culture.

Okay. Do they like it? Do they enjoy it? Is it fun? Are they, are, is it their community? Is it this, is this their friends? That's very important. More importantly, because ultimately everybody is selfish, as they should be. Everybody should be looking out for their own family and their own self-interest. And so your job, if you want to keep those kind of people, is to create a vision. This goes back to the realistic goals that we were talking about earlier, is to create a vision that is so massive, that is so fucking huge, that Jacob can see his ideal life materializing within that vision. Okay. And then what happens is you'll have one guy start to rise and the evidence will show in his life. He'll get a new car, he'll get a new house, he'll be, you know, and then the other people start to see that and then they start to follow along. And then before you know it, you've got 6 Jacobs and then the vision has to expand even bigger. But here's the thing, when you expand the vision for people to create underneath of it, It has to be real.

You as the owner or the leader cannot say all of this shit and then it never happens. That's where— that's why killers leave. They know that they have a skill set. They understand that they can do better somewhere else. They, they see the cap because they have the vision ahead, the foresight to see, I'm going to get here and I'm not going to be able to get above it. Your job is to keep that rising to where everything that they could ever possibly want is achievable within that. That makes sense. Yes, sir. If you do that, a couple with good culture and good leadership— and who doesn't want to be a part of a winning team, right? Nobody wants to leave the team that wins fucking Super Bowl every motherfucking year, right? So, um, that's, that's, that's the plan. Thank you, boss. You're welcome, bro. All right, guys, listen, that's all we're gonna have time for. I gotta go down and do a board meeting, so, uh, I appreciate you guys. Like Like I said when I came out, I love you guys, but more importantly, remember this, okay? Our mission is a collective mission.

This is going to take all of us. This is not something that a few people can do and a few people can't, and we can passively get where we want to go. Just like I said individually, where you have to put in dedicated effort day after day after day after day as individuals If we do that as individuals, collectively the needle moves. Okay, so I want you to understand this. You, with the days you don't feel like doing it, the days when you're tired, the days when you're like, fuck this, you have to understand that other people, other people will win or lose in their lives based upon what you do with yours. And that is a massive obligation that we all need to be aware of. And I know you guys all understand that or you wouldn't be here, but I just want to take the opportunity while we're standing face to face and remind you and also say thank you for accepting that challenge and thank you for living that standard. I love you guys.

Got her on bankroll, can't fold. That's a no, headshot, case closed.