Episode 50: Our Last Episode… In NYC

0:00:11.7 Mike Vacanti: Hello Jordan.

 

0:00:12.5 Jordan Syatt: What’s going on Michael?

 

0:00:13.7 Mike Vacanti: Bro, tell me. Five years in New York City, and tomorrow, you leave.

 

0:00:21.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, crazy.

 

0:00:23.0 Mike Vacanti: Nuts.

 

0:00:23.4 Jordan Syatt: Crazy.

 

0:00:24.0 Mike Vacanti: Five years, right?

 

0:00:25.7 Jordan Syatt: I arrived… All that beeping, they’ve gotta be able to hear the beeping in the background. Hopefully, our audio engineer, Dave, is gonna be able to take that out.

 

0:00:34.2 Mike Vacanti: Jordan’s moving tomorrow. So this is the last episode in which you’re going to hear the beeping, if you can.

 

[laughter]

 

0:00:40.2 Jordan Syatt: What… I got here, I started coaching Gary on June 1st, 2016.

 

0:00:45.1 Mike Vacanti: Hey, and let’s dive into that. Because do you remember the first… Do you remember where we were for his first workout?

 

0:00:54.9 Jordan Syatt: For Gary’s… I thought… You mean for the interview?

 

0:01:00.5 Mike Vacanti: Nope. For his first workout on June 1st of 2016.

 

0:01:02.7 Jordan Syatt: Were we at his house? Were we at his vacation house?

 

0:01:04.9 Mike Vacanti: Yes. And do you remember how we got there?

 

0:01:09.5 Jordan Syatt: The bus?

 

0:01:10.0 Mike Vacanti: Nope.

 

0:01:11.8 Jordan Syatt: Wait. Was that his first workout?

 

0:01:13.8 Mike Vacanti: Yes.

 

0:01:13.8 Jordan Syatt: That car ride? That was really his first one?

 

0:01:17.3 Mike Vacanti: Yup.

 

0:01:18.3 Jordan Syatt: Wow, I didn’t realize that.

 

0:01:20.2 Mike Vacanti: Yup, it was… I think it was on the back end of Memorial Day weekend, and you rented a car…

 

0:01:28.7 Jordan Syatt: With an expired license.

 

[laughter]

 

0:01:31.6 Mike Vacanti: Because I said you had to rent a car.

 

0:01:33.2 Jordan Syatt: So I used my buddy David’s license, he actually rented the car for me.

 

0:01:37.0 Mike Vacanti: Really?

 

0:01:37.6 Jordan Syatt: Yup.

 

0:01:37.9 Mike Vacanti: I didn’t know that aspect of it.

 

0:01:38.9 Jordan Syatt: I didn’t have an active license at that time, and I was too nervous to tell Gary that I didn’t have a license, and I wasn’t friends with you yet, I was friendly with you, but not friends, I was like, “They told me to do this.” I still didn’t think I had the job, so I wasn’t gonna come up an excuse, so I got my buddy David that lived in the city, I was like, “Can you rent the car and then I’m gonna drive it.” He was like, “If you crash, I’m screwed.”

 

[laughter]

 

0:02:02.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I remember that. Wow.

 

0:02:03.9 Mike Vacanti: And you picked me up on a Saturday morning, at 6:00 o’clock in the morning, at my Midtown apartment.

 

0:02:11.6 Jordan Syatt: You came out with a white monster, and a blanket, and a pillow.

 

[laughter]

 

0:02:17.7 Jordan Syatt: And you were like, “Put the address in the GPS. I’m going to sleep.” [laughter]

 

0:02:22.1 Mike Vacanti: I was literally on the tail end of basically an all-nighter, of doing programs, that was one of the heaviest program nights of my life.

 

[laughter]

 

0:02:32.6 Mike Vacanti: And I remember getting in that car and, didn’t I do something with Snapchat or…

 

0:02:39.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, you… Yeah, yeah. ‘Cause what happened is, you got in the car, and I remember looking out the window with you with the blanket and the pillow, and my mind being like, “Oh, he’s gonna go to sleep.”

 

[laughter]

 

0:02:50.1 Jordan Syatt: Just being like, “Really?” So blown away. And then you got in the car, and you were super amped up. And you were being like, “What’s up guys? I just got in the car with Jordan, we’re gonna drive to Gary’s, I’m gonna take a nap, ’cause I was up all night doing programs.” And then you put it up. And then there was a slight delay, and then you went back on again, and you were like, “And by the way, ’cause I know a bunch of people are gonna be like, Mike, you can’t live like this for the rest of your life.” You were like, “I’m not gonna do this for the rest of my life. I’m doing this right now ’cause I’m young. And eventually I’m not gonna do this.”

 

0:03:21.4 Mike Vacanti: And I was right.

 

0:03:22.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

0:03:22.3 Mike Vacanti: I predicted the future.

 

0:03:23.1 Jordan Syatt: You told the truth. And I remember just being like, “Man… “

 

[laughter]

 

0:03:28.0 Mike Vacanti: What is with this guy?

 

0:03:28.8 Jordan Syatt: “What is happening right now?” [laughter]

 

0:03:29.8 Mike Vacanti: Is this what it’s like coaching Gary? And then we picked up someone else who… One of his friends and took the two-hour ride out, and that was the beginning of…

 

0:03:41.6 Jordan Syatt: I did not remember that that was the first workout. That’s so funny.

 

0:03:47.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, man.

 

[laughter]

 

0:03:51.4 Mike Vacanti: And five years since.

 

0:03:53.3 Jordan Syatt: That’s crazy. That’s so crazy.

 

0:03:55.9 Mike Vacanti: I have nothing planned for this episode other than talk about your move and reflect on New York City, and just tell stories that people are gonna love…

 

0:04:02.1 Jordan Syatt: I love that. I love that.

 

0:04:03.5 Mike Vacanti: Maybe slip in a little… Slip in a little good stuff here and there.

 

[laughter]

 

0:04:10.5 Jordan Syatt: Oh man, that’s so… ‘Cause… It so… I remember the first workout that I had for the interview, when I came in… I’ll never forget this.

 

0:04:18.2 Mike Vacanti: The watch?

 

0:04:18.9 Jordan Syatt: The watch.

 

[laughter]

 

0:04:20.2 Jordan Syatt: This was so funny. And I don’t even wear watches. I… It’s so funny. My ex-girlfriend… Weird to think about how I was, that many years ago in my life. My ex-girlfriend who, from like six or seven years ago, she was like, “You need to get a watch.” And I was like, “Why?” And she was like, “Watches are really important.” She just convinced me that watches were super important. So I got a watch, I don’t know for like 60 bucks, it wasn’t like a fancy watch, a $60 watch, but she was like, “Yeah, that’s a good watch.” And even though I had broken up with that girl for about eight months, at that time, I still wore the watch ’cause she’d convinced me that they were really important.

 

0:05:03.2 Mike Vacanti: This… Not to interrupt, but this is the same girlfriend who didn’t like it when you introduced yourself as a personal trainer because it made you seem less important?

 

[laughter]

 

0:05:10.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Yes. She was not a fan when I would tell her family that I was just a personal trainer. She’d be like… She’d always correct me. “No, he owns his own business… “

 

0:05:18.7 Mike Vacanti: He owns an online business.

 

[laughter]

 

0:05:20.7 Mike Vacanti: But then you went the other way and worked harder, and you were like, “Always introduce yourself as a personal trainer.”

 

0:05:23.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah, I was like, “No, I’m just a personal trainer.”

 

[laughter]

 

0:05:28.4 Jordan Syatt: Just coach people. I really love it.

 

0:05:29.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

0:05:30.1 Jordan Syatt: And… So I remember I got here and I was like, “What am I gonna wear to this interview to coach him?” I didn’t know how it was gonna go either, and I just… I had that Kale shirt, I wore that Kale shirt, and I wore shorts, and I had the watch on, and as we were walking out the door…

 

0:05:47.4 Mike Vacanti: ‘Cause you stayed with me.

 

0:05:48.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I stayed… Yeah.

 

0:05:49.5 Mike Vacanti: Basically it was my responsibility to narrow the field to five to 10 people, and present them to Gary, which I did, and then basically narrow it down to two people for Gary, is what ended up happening and let him make the choice. But… Yeah, and you came from Israel for this workout interview…

 

0:06:09.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, sorry, I flew from Israel… I was in Israel… We should back up a little bit.

 

0:06:15.4 Mike Vacanti: Okay.

 

0:06:15.8 Jordan Syatt: So… You told me I had the interview, this is in February of 2016. You say, “Hey, you’ve got the interview.” I was like, “Cool, can we do it in June?”

 

[chuckle]

 

0:06:27.7 Jordan Syatt: And you were like, “No, it’s gotta be this week.”

 

[chuckle]

 

0:06:32.8 Jordan Syatt: And I was like…

 

0:06:33.7 Mike Vacanti: And you had no context for how Gary really operated, and so yeah.

 

0:06:37.6 Jordan Syatt: No idea, and nobody does. And it’s like I try and remind myself of that when I get upset with people, and like, “Could you ask Gary to do this for me? Could you ask Gary to… ” They don’t understand, they have no context, but it still pisses me off. Either way, I had no context for how it worked, I had no context for anything, but you were like, “No, it’s gotta be this week.” I was like, “I can’t do it this week, because my mom… I got my mom a trip to Israel for her the first time in her life, she’s coming in a month, and if I leave… ” Israel’s very serious with their borders and security control, and I was very worried that if I had left Israel and then tried to come back very quickly, it would look weird, there’d be a red flag, and I wouldn’t be able to get back in. And you were like, “Well, if you want it, you gotta come this week.” And I was like, “Oh… “

 

0:07:22.3 Mike Vacanti: Were we on Facebook Messenger? Is that where we were going back and forth at that point.

 

0:07:26.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, we were having these calls on Facebook Messenger. We were on a live call with this.

 

0:07:30.5 Mike Vacanti: Okay.

 

0:07:30.7 Jordan Syatt: We were on a live call with this, face-to-face. And I was like, “Oh, man, okay, I’ll be there.” And so I booked a flight, and I didn’t tell anybody. I didn’t tell anybody, I didn’t tell my mom, I didn’t tell my friends, I didn’t tell my roommate, I told nobody what I was doing. And then when I was at the airport, about to board the flight, I called my brother in Israel, ’cause I had this… It’s so funny thinking about… I’m such a catastrophizer, in my brain I was like, “If the plane crashes and I die… “

 

0:08:00.7 Mike Vacanti: Someone needs to know.

 

0:08:00.7 Jordan Syatt: “Someone needs to know.” So I called him, I was like, “Hey, just so you know, I’m going to New York for a day.” He was like, “For a day?” I was like, “Yeah, I’ll literally be back tomorrow, but I’m gonna… [chuckle] There’s some important business I have to take care of.” He was like, “Okay.” So I leave, fly to New York, flew into JFK, which if you ever fly to New York, don’t ever fly into JFK, it’s like an hour away, terrible traffic.

 

0:08:23.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

0:08:24.8 Jordan Syatt: And I went right to your apartment. I arrived at like 5:00 in the morning, went right to your apartment, and you were coaching Gary when I arrived, and you were like, “Just walk in, the door is unlocked.” So I went in, and I was hanging out, and then you came back, and then we hung out for that day or whatever, and then went through that whole day, blah, blah, blah, blah, next morning, I’m coaching Gary, and I’m getting dressed, and we’re about to walk out the door, and you look at me… I think I asked. So I was like, “Is this okay to wear?” And you were like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s good, but take the watch off.” [chuckle]

 

[laughter]

 

0:08:58.1 Jordan Syatt: I was like, “Why?” And you’re like, “Gary’s not gonna like that. Gary doesn’t want his trainer wearing a watch.” [laughter]

 

0:09:04.0 Mike Vacanti: And you know where that came from?

 

0:09:06.1 Jordan Syatt: I forget, but I remember you told me, but I forget.

 

0:09:08.3 Mike Vacanti: There was a coach in his apartment building, because there were other coaches working with other residents of the building one-on-one, and there was someone who always wore street clothes, jeans, and he had a watch, and sometimes he wore a fedora, and just all this jewelry, and I remember Gary being like… First of all, he wasn’t a good coach either, so he was doing risky, and weird things with his clients.

 

0:09:35.2 Jordan Syatt: Stupid stuff, yeah.

 

0:09:35.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, but he also just didn’t look like a coach. And I remember Gary commenting on not liking when coaches wore street clothes.

 

[laughter]

 

0:09:44.6 Mike Vacanti: And so when I saw the watch, I was like, “Ehh,”

 

0:09:46.0 Jordan Syatt: Take that off. [laughter]

 

0:09:47.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, lose the… “You might wanna lose the watch.”

 

0:09:49.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. That’s what you said. You said, “Lose the watch.”

 

[laughter]

 

0:09:54.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, man.

 

0:09:56.0 Mike Vacanti: And then you coached him, and it went really well.

 

0:09:58.1 Jordan Syatt: Well, yeah, and then I coached him, but it was… I had a whole workout planned. I spent a long time on the flight, like, “Okay, I’m gonna write this workout”, da da da da. And then on the way there, you texted me the workout that I was gonna do with him. You were like, “Yeah, you’re gonna do this workout with him.” I was like, “Oh, I’m doing your workout?” You were like, “Yeah.” And I’ll never forget. I think this is why… And I think, I know why this is Gary chose me, is because when we got there, I saw the workout, I was like, “Hey, so Mike gave me the workout… ” And you left, ’cause you were sick. You were super sick, you left as soon as we went in. And I think you were supposed to stay, but you were like, “Gary, I don’t feel good, I’m gonna go home.” So you just left. So it was just Gary and I, and I was like, “Mike gave me the workout which we’re gonna do, but I wanna take you through a warm-up.”

 

0:10:43.6 Jordan Syatt: And I was super nervous, and I was like, “Is that okay?” He was like, “Yeah, you’re the boss. What are we gonna do?” I was like, “Yeah, my warm-up’s just some stretching and some yoga-based movements,” and immediately, he got super excited. He was like, “Oh, great.” I was like, “Yeah, just help with your mobility,” and he’s like, “I really need that.”

 

0:11:00.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

0:11:00.4 Jordan Syatt: And I took him through a couple of warm-up exercises just for mobility, and I remember I did the Yoga-Plex with him, where I didn’t even do the world’s greatest stretch, and like the Walking Spiderman Overhead Reach, I just did the Yoga-Plex, where basically you step back and you bring the arm over head and around, and as he was bringing his arm up and around and moving his T-spine, he was like, “Oh, this is exactly what I need.” He just got so excited, and I was like…

 

0:11:25.0 Mike Vacanti: And you were pumped?

 

0:11:25.7 Jordan Syatt: I was pumped.

 

0:11:26.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

0:11:26.3 Jordan Syatt: I was like, “Yeah, this is great.” [chuckle]

 

0:11:28.0 Mike Vacanti: I remember him talking to me after that about you talking about how the research hadn’t caught up to what the bodybuilders thought on mind-muscle activation, and talking about his chest, and he was pumped about that.

 

0:11:41.5 Jordan Syatt: Oh, yeah, ’cause he really wanted to build his chest, which he’s done at this point now, his chest is thick.

 

0:11:46.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, it is.

 

0:11:46.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s so… Yeah, it’s funny. And then at the end of it, the end of the workout, the big… There was one set left, and he was doing overhead tricep extensions, and I was like, “Alright, Gary last set, best set.” And he looked in the mirror, and he said, “Last set, best set. I like that.” [laughter] And I was like, “Yes.” [laughter]

 

0:12:09.7 Mike Vacanti: That’s amazing. I also remember him after, being like, “Yeah, we went deep. We had some good deep conversation.”

 

0:12:18.8 Jordan Syatt: Did he tell you what we spoke about?

 

0:12:21.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. [chuckle]

 

0:12:21.3 Jordan Syatt: We ended up talking about…

 

0:12:22.5 Mike Vacanti: I don’t know if you told me right then, but later on, or yeah.

 

0:12:25.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, ’cause at that point in my life, my brother and I weren’t really talking, and my dad and I hadn’t spoken for years at that point, and I never talk about that in general, really, but definitely not with someone I’m interviewing for a job, someone who I’m really… And definitely not on the first day that I meet them, in the first hour. And I don’t know how we got on that.

 

0:12:48.7 Mike Vacanti: He must have… He’d gone in deep to…

 

0:12:51.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, he pressed.

 

0:12:52.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

0:12:52.4 Jordan Syatt: And I’ll never forget this, ’cause I got pissed. I got pissed. It was when we were walking out of the workout, I got pissed, and I remember being like, “I don’t even know if I wanna work with this.” ‘Cause I got really angry. Gary loves when I say this. ‘Cause right before we finished, I told him, and I was like, “Yeah, I don’t really have a relationship with my dad,” and just told him different reasons, and, you know, we don’t talk, and he goes, “You should reach out.” And I was like…

 

0:13:17.5 Mike Vacanti: You don’t have context.

 

0:13:18.8 Jordan Syatt: I was like, “How dare you say something? You don’t know the situation, you don’t know anything.” Which funnily enough, several years later, two years later, working with Gary, I reached out to my dad because of Gary, and as I got older and had more context, it made more sense, and I’m very glad I did at that time. But yeah, I remember being super mad that he did that, but it actually… It makes sense, now that I know Gary and where he’s coming from and why he would say that, and I’m actually… Now, I’ll never regret it, because I did, but for him to say that so early on, I was like, “What the hell? This guy is crazy.” And Gary is the one person, I’d never met someone who could read me before, until Gary, and he could read me, he knew what I was gonna do before I knew what I was gonna do, and I’ve never met someone like that, ever.

 

0:14:13.8 Mike Vacanti: Man. And then when did you officially find out that you got it? I feel like it was at least a month, if not…

 

0:14:20.2 Jordan Syatt: Oh, are you kidding me?

 

0:14:22.4 Mike Vacanti: I really don’t remember.

 

0:14:23.4 Jordan Syatt: This was awful. You really strung me along. This was terrible.

 

0:14:26.8 Mike Vacanti: Hang on, hang on. I didnt string anyone, because I… Once…

 

0:14:32.4 Jordan Syatt: I still harbor those negative emotions…

 

0:14:35.5 Mike Vacanti: Towards me. It’s like, “I’m not the one giving the… ” Once he tells me who his new coach is, I’ll communicate it, but it’s not like I wasn’t… I was just holding this information.

 

0:14:44.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, man, it’s so funny. Alright, so I left, I was literally there for a day, flew back…

 

0:14:51.9 Mike Vacanti: Got back into the country fine.

 

0:14:53.2 Jordan Syatt: Got back into the country, so nervous, ’cause again, my mom’s first ever trip to Israel that I was funding, I was like, “If I don’t get let back in and she’s there by herself, I’m screwed, I’m screwed.” So I get back in, I didn’t tell her, I didn’t tell anybody what I did, where I was. I remember getting back to my apartment, which essentially was an Airbnb, I was Airbnb-ing while I was there, and my roommate was like… He just thought that I was at a girl’s place for that night, which like, “Cool.” And I didn’t tell anyone, ’cause didn’t wanna jinx it. It was purely just completely… Yeah, didn’t wanna jinx it.

 

0:15:29.1 Jordan Syatt: And so, I had asked you when I was gonna hear, and you were like, “Yeah, within a few weeks.” So this was in February. My mom came in mid-March, so it goes about two weeks, I hear nothing, another two weeks, I hear nothing. So now it’s a month and my mom was coming, and my mom was getting there and I was like, “Cool, I’m not… With my mom there, I wasn’t thinking about it as much, and for that first month, I really wasn’t thinking about it too much, ’cause I was like, “I’m not gonna hear for a while.” By the time my mom left, and I still hadn’t heard it, it had been about five weeks, it was almost April, and now it was all I could think about. It was all I could think about, the only thing on my mind and I was just like, “What is going on?”

 

0:16:15.8 Mike Vacanti: Well, then it was for June 1st, so it was…

 

0:16:18.4 Jordan Syatt: I was surprised that I was so nervous though, because I was trying to… I was just… Listen, worse comes to worse, I don’t get it, and my life is still great, that’s where my mind was. But then I think I started to think about all the great things that could happen if I did get it, and then it was like, “Man, I don’t wanna lose this opportunity.” So it’s all I was thinking about. I was always checking your Instagram to see if you were posting, to see if another coach had gotten it, I was constantly checking and seeing what was going on, and then I was like, “I’m not gonna say anything until April. If it gets to April, that’s when I’ll message.” So I messaged you on April 1st, and I was like, “Hey man, I’m super sorry to bother you. Just wondering, have you heard what’s going on? Did he pick somebody?” And it took you at least a day to reply. Yeah, I think it was a full day to reply and you’re like, “Oh, hey, sorry, man. No, still don’t have the answer yet. I’ll get back to you in a week.” And then a week goes by, and it’s your birthday.

 

0:17:20.2 Jordan Syatt: And I was like, I didn’t hear in a week and I wasn’t gonna message you on your birthday, saying, “Hey, what’s going on?” so I messaged you happy birthday. I was like, “Hey, man. Hope you have a great birthday.” You’re like, “Ah, thank you,” didn’t even mention anything about the job. Then two days later, I was like, “Hey, hope you had a great birthday,” and you’re like, “Yeah, I’ll get back to you in a few days.” And three days go by, nothing, get to five days, finally, on the fifth day, I was like, “Hey, man. Have you heard anything?” And you were like, “Yeah, I’m gonna tell you tonight.” And I was seven hours ahead, so that night, it’s now six weeks after the interview plus, but that night, it was about midnight, Israel time, and I got a message from you on Facebook Messenger, being like, “Hey, are you available?” And I was like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Let’s hop on a call.” You’re like, “Cool, I’ll message you in an hour.” [laughter] It was midnight, and I’m like, “Oh, great. Now I have to wait an hour.” 90 minutes later, you messaged me on…

 

0:18:19.1 Mike Vacanti: We might have to dig up receipts of this. I don’t know if this is… This sounds embellished, this sounds like a story you’ve told one too many times and you… Somehow, I became the villain.

 

0:18:29.1 Jordan Syatt: And then… I’ll never forget, because I remember it was midnight when you messaged me and then you said, “Cool. I’ll talk to you in an hour.” I was like, “Why in an hour? Why not just now?” and then it was at least an hour, if not more later, where then we get on the phone and then… And I’ll never forget this. I’m sitting down in my room just petrified, like, “What’s he gonna say?” I had convinced myself that you kept pushing it off ’cause you didn’t wanna be the bearer of bad news, and we get on the call, you’re like, “Hey, man. So just wanted to let you know that Gary, he loved you, he liked you, and I think you’re a great coach, but you’re gonna be Gary’s new coach.”

 

0:19:09.4 Mike Vacanti: I think I saw that in a movie once. That last part of… The whole delay, it was just him.

 

0:19:15.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that makes total sense, thinking back on it, ’cause that’s how he operates. That makes total sense. But at that time, I was like, “Man, this Mike is really just stringing me along.” And then… Do you remember, I cried on that call, I cried. I was like, “Thank you so much, man. Super excited.” I cried… I was crying, I could not believe it.

 

0:19:37.0 Mike Vacanti: I don’t remember that.

 

0:19:38.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah, you were outside. I forget… You were outside, all I remember is, you were outside and your back was against a concrete building. I don’t remember where you were, but I know it was just really windy and you were just standing outside with your back against a building, and I was just super excited and crying. And then from that moment forward, I didn’t think that I actually had the job.

 

0:20:04.5 Mike Vacanti: Which makes so much sense now, because you think worst case scenario…

 

0:20:07.5 Jordan Syatt: All the time. I was like, “This is just a test, this is just like they’re playing a game, this is a reality show.” But then you started to make content about regretting, quitting, and that’s when I was like, “I’m screwed.”

 

0:20:24.1 Mike Vacanti: This guy is just gonna keep coaching him.

 

0:20:27.5 Jordan Syatt: You were making YouTube videos, talking about, “Oh man, now I’m really not sure.” And I was like, “Well, if I was Gary and had my current coach there with me and he decided, no, never mind,” it would make sense just to stay with you, so I was like, “They’re gonna call me any day now and say, hey, sorry, Mike’s gonna stay on.” And then you were like, “Hey, you need to get a… You need to send your certification to Gary’s building.”

 

0:20:53.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, ’cause they’re a huge pain with that.

 

0:20:55.0 Jordan Syatt: Yep, and I didn’t have a certification at that time, and I was just against certifications for everything we’ve ever spoken about on this podcast, and I was freaking out, ’cause I was like, “How am I gonna get a certification so I can get into this building?” And I Google searched online personal trainer certifications, and on page seven, I found this website, which I actually checked with Susan recently, I was showing it… I told her the story and I was showing her the website recently, it looks great.

 

0:21:25.1 Mike Vacanti: Expertrating.com.

 

0:21:27.2 Jordan Syatt: Expertrating.com.

 

0:21:27.3 Mike Vacanti: That’s what I got certified, in either 2018 or 2019, so that I could get into Gary’s building, again.

 

0:21:34.1 Jordan Syatt: If you’re listening right now, go to expertrating.com and look at… They have thousands of things you can be certified in, on this website, thousands. You can be certified as a plumber, you can be certified as anything.

 

0:21:49.2 Mike Vacanti: It’s genius.

 

0:21:50.4 Jordan Syatt: And so, there were 10 questions, I think, it was a 10-question certification. I think I paid 20 bucks and I remember, the questions were so bad and so outdated, that I knew the questions… I knew the answer to the questions and I knew they were wrong, but I knew which ones to give, based on the type of question they were asking.

 

0:22:11.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. You knew which wrong answer they wanted.

 

0:22:13.5 Jordan Syatt: And I did not think that… I didn’t know that it was just the building management that needed it, I thought that it was… I thought they were really gonna look into this certification, I thought they were gonna say, “You need like a NASM or you need a whatever,” and I was like, “There’s no way they’re gonna accept an expertrating.com… “

 

0:22:32.4 Mike Vacanti: No. Purely just logistical paper pushing, check the box, so that we don’t get sued.

 

0:22:40.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. That makes sense.

 

0:22:42.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Alright, so then you got the job.

 

0:22:43.6 Jordan Syatt: Then got the job, and I remember…

 

0:22:51.2 Mike Vacanti: Sorry. Do you think of your time… Your five years in New York, does it break up into Gary and post Gary, as far… ’cause the lifestyle is so different, so…

 

0:23:00.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, it’s basically Gary and post Gary.

 

0:23:03.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

0:23:03.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I remember, when I first moved to New York, I was like, “Oh, New York City, this is gonna be so sick, I’m gonna go to one Broadway show a week,” and I was like… I’m like… I had all of these ideas of what I was gonna do and then I saw Gary’s schedule and I was like, “Oh actually… ” This is a good story. We’re probably gonna disagree on this, but when I first got here, and I’ll never forget this, when I first got here and I was working with you and with Ty, trying to learn Gary’s schedule, you didn’t tell me, and maybe you did, but now I’m thinking maybe I forgot, you didn’t tell me that I had to book my own flights.

 

0:23:46.3 Mike Vacanti: Oh, maybe I didn’t. That may have been something that I just assumed.

 

0:23:51.5 Jordan Syatt: I thought, and I think probably many people will think this, that someone on Gary’s team is booking our flights and hotels. It’s like we book them all ourselves and then get reimbursed on the back end, but I just assumed that my flight was gonna be booked.

 

0:24:08.4 Mike Vacanti: Jordan never submitted his reimbursements, six months at a time, he sent them in.

 

0:24:17.0 Jordan Syatt: She would get so mad at me. I would go six months where I didn’t submit any reimbursements, and then I’d email them all at once, like, “Alright… “

 

0:24:24.6 Mike Vacanti: Here’s the 100 flights I took in the last six months. Jordan, monthly, please.

 

0:24:35.4 Jordan Syatt: And so, Gary’s first trip I was coaching him, he went to Colorado, and I was in my apartment and it was not even furnished yet, and it was 8:00 in the morning, and I remember Gary texted me, he’s like, “Where are you?” And I was like, “I’m at my apartment. It says you’re in Colorado.” And he was like, “Yeah, you’re supposed to be here.” And I was like, “No one booked my flight.” He was like, “You’re supposed to book your flight.” I was like, “Oh man, I’m so… I freaked out. I was like, “I’m fired, I’m done, there’s no way”. And then… And he was like, “Let’s get on FaceTime in 10 minutes.” Oh, no, no, that’s not what happened first. First, I was like, “Okay, no worries. I’ll text you a workout,” and he replies…

 

0:25:19.8 Mike Vacanti: Wait, didn’t you send him the workout? You’re like, “Here, I want you to do this,” and sent it to him.

 

0:25:22.9 Jordan Syatt: Yes, I was like, “I’m gonna text you a workout,” and I texted him just four exercises, it was push up, goblet squat, planks, something else, and I was like, “Just do five rounds of this. Da da da,” and his reply was the longest haha sequence I’ve ever received in my life. It was just, “Hahahahahahahaha,” 20 of them, just completely over the top, and he was like, “There’s no way I’m doing that. That’s why I have you, because I need you to be here with me.” And I was like, “Oh my God,” I was so worried. He’s like, “Let’s get on FaceTime in 10 minutes.”

 

0:25:57.5 Jordan Syatt: So we got on FaceTime and he went down to the gym and went on the treadmill, and we were just face timing for 10 minutes, not even… And he was just like, “Hey, no worries. It’s your first week on the job. No big deal. You book your flights, you do all of this stuff, you send it to so and so for the reimbursements,” and I was like, “Okay, cool, it won’t happen again,” and then he just got off the treadmill and that was the whole workout. I remember, I was like, “Do you wanna work out now?” He’s like, “No, this is it, this is it.”

 

0:26:24.1 Mike Vacanti: Probably a welcome day off.

 

0:26:25.4 Jordan Syatt: Oh yeah, yeah. Do you remember your first day coaching Gary? And I mean like…

 

0:26:34.7 Mike Vacanti: When we were full-time?

 

0:26:36.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah.

 

0:26:37.5 Mike Vacanti: I remember the very first time I ever coached him when it wasn’t like both of us, or when it was… Sorry, when it wasn’t like every single day all and he was just a normal…

 

0:26:48.3 Jordan Syatt: Client.

 

0:26:49.8 Mike Vacanti: Client. Yeah, halfway through, I had him fill out whatever he had to for the first two minutes and then we did an actual workout that day.

 

0:26:58.3 Jordan Syatt: What’d you have him fill out, like a PAR-Q?

 

0:27:00.0 Mike Vacanti: You know what? I think I had a PAR-Q and I had him fill it out in the backroom area.

 

0:27:08.0 Jordan Syatt: He must have hated that. [chuckle]

 

0:27:09.3 Mike Vacanti: He came out like two minutes later, not even, 90 seconds later, and I was like, “Good.” I was like, “You filled it out already?” He was like, “Yeah.” And then I was like, “Alright, cool.” [laughter] And I took him through, not a full assessment, but just a warm-up and some body weight stuff, and I was like, “Wow, this guy moves great.”

 

0:27:27.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

0:27:28.0 Mike Vacanti: And I was like, “We’re gonna do a workout today.” And he’s like, “Okay. Just so you know, I’m in really bad shape.” And I was like, “Okay.” He’s like, “No, no, no. I might not look like it, but I’m in really bad shape.” And I was like, “Okay.” And I had him do like, this is 2014, this is January 2014. I had him do a relatively high volume, like not a lot of rest time, full-body workout, like super setting, upper and lower. And probably 20 minutes in, I’ll never forget, he was just crushing these front squats and I was… These sandbag front squats. I was like these…

 

0:28:03.5 Jordan Syatt: You had a sandbag?

 

0:28:05.0 Mike Vacanti: We were at Structure, on the upper east side.

 

0:28:06.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, god. I got it.

 

0:28:07.8 Mike Vacanti: I brought him there.

 

0:28:09.0 Jordan Syatt: He came to Structure.

 

0:28:09.8 Mike Vacanti: For his first workout.

 

0:28:11.8 Jordan Syatt: Wow, okay.

 

0:28:12.8 Mike Vacanti: And I think his second workout, he’s like, “I have a… I’d rather do my own apartment gym,” or he’s like, “We have that if we need it.” I don’t remember. But I remember he’d dominated these front squats, and it was probably his third set and he just put the sandbag down halfway through and he was like… He’s like, “I’m really tired”, and he was, he’s just gassed… He’s like, “I wasn’t… I thought today was gonna be like a paper work, kind of whatever day, I wasn’t.” He’s like, “This is really good though, this is great, and this has been… “

 

0:28:38.3 Jordan Syatt: That’s it? He just stopped?

 

0:28:39.3 Mike Vacanti: We just stopped. And then he’s like, “We can talk.” And then we talked about stuff and sat in that backroom, and he told me what he wanted, and here’s his strengths and weaknesses and yada, yada. And he said thank you and went home. And I grabbed his assessment and he literally wrote his name, his birthday, and then he signed in the bottom page and there was nothing else on the form. I’ll never forget it. I was like, This guy… But knowing him…

 

0:29:08.8 Jordan Syatt: He just skipped all the questions?

 

0:29:10.0 Mike Vacanti: I mean, in fairness, I think it was like a 45-question assessment, and he’s just never gonna… He’s like, “No, this isn’t my way of giving you this information.”

 

0:29:20.5 Jordan Syatt: That’s the most Gary way to fill out.

 

0:29:22.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

0:29:23.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s amazing.

 

0:29:24.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. But yeah, man. Good, good. What else stands out from your time in New York?

 

0:29:32.3 Jordan Syatt: I mean, every time I think about Gary, I think about the bean story. Oh, I also think about the time that he wasn’t answering my texts, the first week of coaching. There was a month of overlap when I first started coaching, that you were there to transition me into being his coach.

 

0:29:51.3 Mike Vacanti: Yes.

 

0:29:51.5 Jordan Syatt: ‘Cause it’s a big deal, it’s a big responsibility. It’s very different than any coach understands.

 

0:29:56.8 Mike Vacanti: I originally signed on for two years, and Gary and I made the plan for like my last month basically was gonna be overlap with the new coach, and he happened to be at his summer place at that time. And so, we were together for that whole month, literally and…

 

0:30:12.8 Jordan Syatt: Slept in the same bed at his place.

 

0:30:15.0 Mike Vacanti: Slept in the same… The trainer bed and like… Yeah, we were working out together. Remember the… They had the home gym and we were putting it together.

 

0:30:23.8 Jordan Syatt: Oh, man. This was… I had a panic attack.

 

[overlapping conversation]

 

0:30:30.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [laughter] So first and foremost, you ordered the entire gym, stacked. Got a sick Gym, and I think one of the funniest parts about what Mike getting this entire gym is when you ordered the 100-pound plates. [laughter]

 

0:30:45.3 Mike Vacanti: We got this Westside power lifter coming in. I was like… “We’re definitely gonna use these.”

 

0:30:52.0 Jordan Syatt: I couldn’t believe it. And then we had to carry these 100-pound plates which are so thick and so heavy, and super awkward to lift and…

 

0:31:00.8 Mike Vacanti: They’re hard to pick… When they’re laying on the concrete floor. They’re hard to pick up.

 

0:31:03.0 Jordan Syatt: Oh, that was the difficult part. Yeah, yeah. It’s like trying to get your fingernails underneath, but your fingernails don’t support 100-pounds. And then Gary’s wife is like, “Hey, it’s a new house. Please don’t drop anything or chip anything.” So I’m like super nervous carrying everything into the house and we’re both bringing in the squat rack. And I’ll never forget this.

 

0:31:23.2 Jordan Syatt: We’re bringing the squat rack and some, it sort of like dips a little bit too low and it chips the hardwood floor. And I’m freaked out. I’m like, “I’m done, I’m fired. This is it.” Every bad thing that happens, I’m like, “That’s it, I’m gone.” And before there’s any conversation, before there’s any time to discuss, not like anything. Mike set it down, and he’s beelining straight for Gary’s wife. And I was like, “Oh, what are you doing? What are you doing?” He’s like, “I’m gonna tell her.” I was like, “What do you mean you’re gonna tell her?” Mike just walks right up to her and he’s like, “Hey, I just wanna let you know, we chipped the floor,” and walks away. Just like the most honest, straightforward. And I was like, “Why would you do that?”

 

0:32:15.8 Mike Vacanti: Because in your mind, you thought it was a fireable offense.

 

0:32:18.5 Jordan Syatt: Oh, I thought I was done. I thought I was like, “Alright, new trainer’s out.” It was as simple as that. She told us not to chip the floor, not to hit anything, and I was like, “I chipped the floor, I’m done.” And that was it.

 

0:32:30.3 Mike Vacanti: It’s like ripping a band-aid off. It’s like, “Hey, I’m really sorry. We chipped the floor though.”

 

0:32:32.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. And that was it, and then we bring everything in and trying to… Was that the story that I was gonna tell? I think that was the story. We just chipped the floor.

 

0:32:42.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, well, and that story is funny for us in hindsight, because since we’ve gotten to know each other and become such good friends over these five years, and understood not only both of our personalities, but both of our upbringings, the way we were both raised, interactions that we had with each of our parents individually when we were young, and that was like a moment where we didn’t… I mean, I didn’t even know that you thought it was a bad idea to tell her, but we didn’t understand each other’s perspectives there, but with the context, it makes complete sense, that Jordan would have just said, “Hey, did you know about this chipped floor?” “No, I don’t know anything about it.”

 

0:33:22.8 Jordan Syatt: No idea.

 

0:33:24.1 Mike Vacanti: And it makes sense that I was just like, “She said not to do this and we did it. We should let her know.”

 

0:33:33.1 Jordan Syatt: And then I think that was the same weekend as the beans, the bean story. I gotta tell this story. This is one of Gary’s favorite stories too, where… Oh wait, wait, wait. Alright, we’ll start with the beans and then I’ll tell… No, no, we’ll go to the other story first, where we’re in my apartment in New York, my brand new apartment, and Gary was at a baseball game. No, no, Gary was at a basketball… He went to a basketball game, I think.

 

0:34:00.4 Mike Vacanti: We were both at your apartment.

 

0:34:00.8 Jordan Syatt: You and I were both at my apartment, and I think we were just working, I think we were just answering emails, I remember sweating…

 

0:34:07.5 Mike Vacanti: This was probably two months in, because then we were back in the city…

 

0:34:11.1 Jordan Syatt: No, this couldn’t have been that far in, because… Oh, maybe it was that far in. No, I don’t think it was that for in, because I was really nervous. I think this had to be the first week, this had to be the first week. And Gary went to a sports game, and I remember, I had told him what to eat, we had a whole plan for what he was gonna do, in terms of nutrition, and I texted him, I was like, “Hey man, how’s everything going? No reply. And I told you, I was like, “Hey, Gary didn’t reply. What do I do?” And you were like, “Text him again.”

 

0:34:49.0 Mike Vacanti: And Gary, at the time, was different than how he is now, with regard to these types of issues. But his mindset was, “I am hiring you guys as literal babysitters, trainer babysitters. You see me with a donut in my hand, bat it out of my hand. I need you there with me all the time, constant communication. Brute force, just Jay style.”

 

0:35:13.9 Jordan Syatt: A lot of people joke about that, “Oh, I wish I could just have a trainer that would smack the donut out of my hand.” That’s what he did, that’s why he hired us. That was the real life, that’s what you’re there for.

 

0:35:24.0 Mike Vacanti: So he was always impressed and appreciative when I would go over the top to, if I wasn’t getting what I needed from him, I would press, I would press.

 

0:35:33.4 Jordan Syatt: And I was just like, “I don’t wanna annoy this guy, this guy is on business meetings and out. I’m not gonna keep texting him.” In my mind, I’m like, if I text you, then you see it and that’s it, and if you want to reply, you reply. And you’re like, “Text him again.” I was like, “What?” “Just text him again.” And I think I texted him, “Hey man, I’m not trying to bother you, but how’s everything going?” No reply. And then you were like, “Text him again,” and I was like, “You’re out of your mind.”

 

0:36:01.2 Mike Vacanti: Did you think I was messing with you?

 

0:36:02.2 Jordan Syatt: Yes, I thought you were trying to get me fired.

 

[laughter]

 

0:36:06.4 Mike Vacanti: Absolutely not.

 

0:36:07.3 Jordan Syatt: And then… I know now. And then I texted him again and no reply, and then you were like, “Call him.” I was like, “There’s no way that I’m gonna call this guy.” Oh, this is actually… This is the bean story. This is the bean story. And I called him and he didn’t pick up, and then you’re like, “He’s gone.” That was your… You’re like, “He’s gone.”

 

0:36:37.1 Mike Vacanti: In my mind, it was past the point of no return, where he’s already eaten what he’s gonna eat and he doesn’t wanna tell you.

 

0:36:45.6 Jordan Syatt: I forgot, this was the bean story. So then… Oh, yeah, and then after that, we drove down to his house. So then we drove to his house, or we took the bus or whatever, got there super late, slept and we woke up to him knocking on the door. We woke up to… And I just shot out of bed, I was like, “Oh man,” super worried. And he was like, “Hey, what’s up, man?” And I was like, “Hey, what’s going on? What happened last night?” And he just looks at us and he… Imagine if your kid did something that your kid knew they shouldn’t do, and they just look really ashamed by it and just head down, shaking his head. I was like, “How was last night?” He was like, “Not good.” And I was like, “What happened?” He was like…

 

0:37:35.2 Mike Vacanti: Wait, didn’t he first send a picture of his weight, or no?

 

0:37:40.0 Jordan Syatt: No, no he didn’t.

 

0:37:41.9 Mike Vacanti: Okay, okay.

 

0:37:42.4 Jordan Syatt: He didn’t send a picture of his weight yet, and I was like, “What happened?” He was like, “It wasn’t good.” This went on for at least a minute, where I was like, “What happened?” He was just like, “Man, I was real bad last night.” Just building it up, just building it up, and building it up, and I’m expecting the worst of the worst. And I was like, “What’d you eat?” And he waits a few seconds, he’s like, “Beans.” In my mind, I’m going through all of these weird thought processes, like, “Beans? That’s not bad. What’s going on?” And he goes… I was like, “Beans?” He was like, “Beans.” I was like, “That’s good, man. Fiber. Beans aren’t bad at all.” And he goes, “No, I had a lot of beans.”

 

[laughter]

 

0:38:38.4 Jordan Syatt: So I was like, “How many beans did you have?” He was like… He basically had a whole tray at one of the sports games, the entire tin foil tray. He made it seem like he ate the entire tray, and I actually believed that he had almost the whole tray, because he had gained five pounds that night, and I was like, “Man, you ate a lot of beans.” And then it was funny, ’cause at first, I was trying to downplay it like it wasn’t a big deal. I was like, “It’s not that big of a deal.” And he was making out to be a big deal, he was like, “No, it is,” and then afterwards, I was like, “Oh wow, you did have a lot of beans.” And he was like, “But it’s not that bad though. Is it?” He went the complete opposite way. He was like, “Maybe there’s fiber. It’s just beans. It’s better than if I had all that in bread.” I was like, “Well, yeah. That’s… “

 

0:39:23.2 Mike Vacanti: That’s so funny. Man, so many good stories.

 

0:39:28.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, so basically, time here is Gary and post Gary.

 

0:39:31.4 Mike Vacanti: What do you think about in terms of your mindset in the month, two months, three months leading up to coming here, and what your goals were and where you were at in life and what your ambitions were and what your interests, et cetera, compared to now, leading up to this move?

 

0:39:52.8 Jordan Syatt: That’s a good question. So before I moved here, I was living in Israel, and I was being coached by Pat Flynn on my business. And I was very much…

 

0:40:09.0 Mike Vacanti: You were single?

 

0:40:10.1 Jordan Syatt: I was single, I was single, living in Israel, having way too much fun. Basically, this was my schedule. It was like, I would wake up every day at 7 AM to 8 AM in the morning. I would walk to a corner store and get cottage cheese, and it was like… Not like American cottage cheese. All the dairy in Israel is so good. Really, really good. So I get fresh made cottage cheese with a warm pretzel that was made right there, and that was my pre-workout meal. And that corner store had a Vizsla, the Vizsla dog, which is why I’ve always wanted a Vizsla, ’cause that dog was the friendliest nicest dog I’ve ever seen in my life and since that dog, I wanted a Vizsla. So I’d get that, and then my gym was right around the corner, so I’d go work out.

 

0:40:53.9 Jordan Syatt: And I was doing Brian Kranz’ programming. At that point, I had hired Brian Kranz to do my… ‘Cause I wanted to learn more about body building. And then get my workout in, come back, and then I would go to Hebrew class ’cause I was taking intensive Hebrew courses. And then after that, then I would basically go to a coffee shop somewhere, and I’d work for three to six hours. After that, I’d take a call or two for new client calls onboarding or the consult calls. And then that was it, then I’d go out to eat with friends or whatever. It was like, I would work for between three to six hours a day, and that was it. And then on the weekends, I’d go see my family in Haifa, and I would completely not work the whole weekend, and it was great, it was really… And my business model was not social media based, I did not have a large social media audience at all.

 

0:41:48.7 Mike Vacanti: Pat Flynn is your business coach, email guy.

 

0:41:50.5 Jordan Syatt: It was all email marketing. All email. And I remember when I came to see you during my interview, I told you about the email stuff I was doing and how I had things on auto-pilot, I had just launched… I had just launched a new program called Strength Finishers, which was just like a… Just like a manual of workouts for people to buy, and I put it into an automated sequence, so people, any time they came into my email list, they could just buy it whenever they went through that sequence. And that’s how I was running my business and it was doing well. I did not have a large audience, but I was making over six figures, and I was super happy and it was great. But I do remember being like, I want more, I knew that wasn’t what I wanted my business to always be because my entire business, it was email and one-on-one coaching. The vast majority being one-on-one coaching…

 

0:42:41.2 Mike Vacanti: Majority of revenue.

 

0:42:42.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah, the majority was one-on-one. I did have the inner circle at that time, but it was small, it was very, very small, and I wanted to go more the inner circle route, so I really wanted to keep building that. But it was funny, in the mentorship the other day, one of the members was like, “I just don’t see how my email list is ever gonna get as big as yours,” and I told the story about how the same thing happened to me when I started my email list, because I didn’t see how that was possible, but over years and years and years, it just compounds and compounds and compounds, and compounds. And so I was at the stage then in my life of being like, I don’t see how ever the inner circle is ever gonna be able to sustain my business. I never thought… I didn’t fully believe that it was actually gonna happen, so I knew I wanted things to change, but I didn’t know how realistic it was. I was still young, I was like 24, or 25 years old, and that’s where I was, that’s where I… But I loved it, I was very happy, I was very happy living there, but I definitely, I was still in that phase in my life where I was hungry to work and to change, but also I think living in Israel…

 

0:43:55.0 Mike Vacanti: Mellowed you out a little.

 

0:43:55.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, mellowed me out in like I was okay not working 18 hour days. Then I came to New York and my lifestyle changed, dramatically.

 

0:44:07.6 Mike Vacanti: There was no walk by the beach every morning, and cottage cheese and pretzel?

 

0:44:11.6 Jordan Syatt: It was, yeah, dramatic change.

 

0:44:16.1 Mike Vacanti: Which I think everyone here has heard and knows and…

 

0:44:20.6 Jordan Syatt: Part of it was New York… I think there’s something about living in New York that is like, it’s a work culture. But part of it is also, I think the majority was Gary’s ecosystem. Being in the office around Gary and around Ty and around D-Rock, and those guys just work non-stop and harder than anyone I’d ever met before. And I remember being like, “This makes sense.” In terms of like, oh, this success that all these people have make sense because they’re literally working quadruple the hours in a day that most people are. And it’s not an exaggeration I was like, “This makes sense now.” And so now I’m in a very different place. It’s like now I’m…

 

0:45:09.8 Jordan Syatt: I remember Pat Flynn said something to me when we first started working together, I was 24, and I remember… ‘Cause I was interested in Pat, Pat was crushing it, and he still is, with his email marketing, he’s been doing email marketing all these years, and I asked him something to the effect of, I was like… I was curious when to know, when is enough money enough?

 

0:45:36.8 Jordan Syatt: And I was like, “When is… When do you reach that point?” And Pat said something to me that I’ll never forget. He was like, “Money solves problems until it doesn’t, and then at that point, it creates more problems.” He’s like, there’s a certain point, and it’s different for everyone, where money will make your life easier until a certain point… Bless you.

 

0:46:00.7 Mike Vacanti: Thank you.

 

0:46:00.8 Jordan Syatt: In which money is gonna create more problems. And I think for… I think I’ve been at a point in my life for a little bit now, where I’ve been toeing that line, where I haven’t had any problems created because of it, but I think if my… I think I’m at a point in my life where if I put as much effort into my business and by growing my business not like maintaining it, but if I keep putting more and more effort like I have into growing it and getting more people and getting more clients and making more money, then I’m gonna have a problem. Because I won’t have as much balance. I won’t have as much life enjoyment, I won’t be getting as much sleep, I won’t be able to hang out with my fiance or my friends. And I think I’ve reached a point now where I could literally make less money and be more happy. And that’s it, that’s the point I’m at in my life. It’s part of the reason…

 

0:47:03.3 Mike Vacanti: That’s awesome.

 

0:47:03.4 Jordan Syatt: It’s driving the move where it’s like I could see a reduction in money in my bank or in annual earnings and be more happy. And I’m like, “Cool, that’s the point.”

 

0:47:15.8 Mike Vacanti: Isn’t that somewhat crazy?

 

0:47:18.0 Jordan Syatt: Yes.

 

0:47:18.6 Mike Vacanti: Because that… I mean, I… That’s something that I struggled with for a long time, is de-prioritizing money on the hierarchy of goals to pursue…

 

0:47:29.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

0:47:31.4 Mike Vacanti: And being okay with that, for two reasons. One is like, okay, money provides security, provides future freedom, but it provides a level of security. And so to consciously step down the effort so that you can allocate that effort to other areas of your life seems like a potential step down in future security.

 

0:47:51.2 Jordan Syatt: Yes.

 

0:47:51.6 Mike Vacanti: And there’s also an ego component, not even like a comparing to others, because neither of us are flashy whatsoever. But in the same way, you compete with yourself on a fitness goal, competing with yourself on year over year progress. Like, it just… It seems on the surface, like why would you ever stop earning more if you could keep earning more.

 

0:48:17.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

0:48:17.6 Mike Vacanti: But yeah, I think it adding more problems and just the incremental happiness does not equal the incremental dollar, meaning going from 20k a year in income to 100k a year is gonna add a solid amount of happiness all else equal, because it reduces so much stress and worry and allows you more freedom and flexibility.

 

0:48:46.5 Jordan Syatt: Yes.

 

0:48:46.8 Mike Vacanti: And then maybe going from 100k to 200k does the same thing, but to a lesser extent. Like going from barely making anything to making enough, you feel much… It brings more happiness or I guess less negative emotion.

 

0:49:00.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. More security and comfort.

 

0:49:00.8 Mike Vacanti: And then the next step is less.

 

0:49:01.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

0:49:03.4 Mike Vacanti: And then a step above that, a step above that, a step… Each time, each step you’re taking there is giving you less…

 

0:49:11.1 Jordan Syatt: Correct. Yeah.

 

0:49:12.9 Mike Vacanti: That you need. And so being able to consciously recognize that and say, “Hey, I’m in a place now where I’m cool maintaining and re-allocating hours towards other things… “

 

0:49:25.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

0:49:26.7 Mike Vacanti: It’s a samurai lifestyle.

 

0:49:28.5 Jordan Syatt: It’s funny you said… My first salary was 20 a year. That was my first personal training job. At a terrible gym. We were salaried and it was 20 a year.

 

0:49:37.9 Mike Vacanti: And with no opportunity to make more than that.

 

0:49:40.2 Jordan Syatt: Correct. It was just 20 a year, that was it.

 

0:49:43.7 Mike Vacanti: Wow, what is that even on a… ‘Cause is 2000 hours, like what they call a work week? 40 hours and say you work 50 weeks. Yeah, 2000 hours… That’s 10 bucks an hour.

 

0:49:57.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. It was crazy.

 

0:50:00.8 Mike Vacanti: I guess it was also eight years ago, or was that when you were at the… In high school?

 

0:50:05.7 Jordan Syatt: No, no. This was out of college.

 

0:50:08.0 Mike Vacanti: Wow.

 

0:50:08.4 Jordan Syatt: This was my first gym out of college, terrible, like 20k a year. And part of it… The good part was, I remember getting my first paycheck and being stoked, being like, “Oh, this is great. I’m getting paid for the… ” And I had a little bit of online business at that time, but I still loved coaching in person. And I still do, but I still loved coaching in person. I was competitively power lifting. This was like a power lifting gym. And I was like, “I can’t believe I’m getting paid just… ‘Cause I’m having so much fun.” And I wasn’t even upset about… I wasn’t mad about 20k. Like, when I got it, I was like, “This is great. 20k, that’s awesome.” And then I was also making a little bit of money from online.

 

0:50:55.4 Jordan Syatt: And I remember… I have it written, I still have it saved. I write my goals every year. My goal that year was to make as much from Syatt Fitness as I did from that gym. And then I had realized that I was gonna surpass that gym in Syatt Fitness, and I was like, “Oh my God, that’s crazy.” And the best part for me as an employee that year was… About being on salary was no matter what I do, I’m getting paid. So I… And my buddy Adam will tell you, I coached with my buddy Adam that you know, I spent all my time writing articles at that gym. So like the gym was terrible…

 

0:51:32.4 Mike Vacanti: Ah, the 20 was a safety net.

 

0:51:33.2 Jordan Syatt: At allocating, and I was like… And I told the owner, I was like, “You are not incentivizing any of us to work.”

 

0:51:38.9 Mike Vacanti: If I coach eight clients a day or I coach one client a day.

 

0:51:41.3 Jordan Syatt: I’m getting paid the same amount.

 

0:51:42.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

0:51:42.4 Jordan Syatt: I was like, “You’re… ” And we had two or three classes a day that we were required to teach, but that’s all I would do. I was like, I’m not gonna go out on the floor and try and get people for the same amount of money.

 

0:51:53.0 Mike Vacanti: No incentive. Yeah.

 

0:51:53.6 Jordan Syatt: There’s zero incentive. So literally, I would coach a couple of classes and I’d write articles, but that was it. And then I got Adam, getting his website, and I was like, “You gotta do this.” And then, I grew Syatt Fitness from college, and then through that coaching in that gym, ’cause I spent all my time just writing long form website articles, and that was it.

 

0:52:12.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

0:52:12.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. And going back to your point, going from literally 20k to 100 was a big difference, a lot of security, gave me the ability to support my family do a lot of… Significantly more comfort, less fee paying off college debt, student loans, all of that.

 

0:52:31.6 Mike Vacanti: You’re not thinking like… When you’re food shopping, you’re not necessarily having to go for something on sale, instead you can like, “Oh, I want the fresh fruit,” it’s not in season, it’s an extra dollar or two, that isn’t a thought in your mind, those are the little stress alleviators.

 

0:52:48.5 Jordan Syatt: Paying for my mom’s trip to Israel, it was an expensive trip, and there was no part of me that was worried about the repercussions of spending that money, which is… And I don’t go off and spend willy-nilly at all, but for that amount of money, at 24 years old, I was like… That’s when I knew I was gonna be okay, and I was like, “I made it.”

 

0:53:17.2 Mike Vacanti: Confident.

 

0:53:17.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. When I could pay for her that trip. But that was a big… That was like the 20 to 100 jump, where I was like, cool. But now it’s at a point where it’s like…

 

0:53:28.7 Mike Vacanti: You’re comfortable, it’s… This is sustaining you, you’re enjoying the work.

 

0:53:32.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

0:53:32.9 Mike Vacanti: Here’s a question, what… Let’s say, you can… If you compare your New York City workload to what it will be going forward, and it’s going to come down, where will those hours get re-allocated to or some of them? What’s interesting you outside of business?

 

0:53:51.7 Jordan Syatt: So I think I’m finally caught up on sleep. You and I spoke about this, the amount of sleep that we got coaching when we were with Gary in person, was just terrible. And I think there was a few months after I stopped coaching Gary, where I was sleeping for like 14 hours.

 

0:54:08.8 Mike Vacanti: You had a real… You’re… I maintained more of a schedule with him than you because I am too vain, and so I work out to prioritize more on my end, but…

 

0:54:19.9 Jordan Syatt: I also went hard on our bet, we had a bet who would get to a million on Instagram first, and I was like, “Okay.”

 

0:54:24.2 Mike Vacanti: And it’s still up in the air.

 

0:54:27.4 Jordan Syatt: It’s still up in the air.

 

0:54:29.5 Mike Vacanti: Who knows? Some money still been coming in on me, I think.

 

0:54:32.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah.

 

0:54:33.7 Mike Vacanti: No.

 

0:54:36.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

0:54:37.0 Mike Vacanti: But where do you think those hours… I know that jiu-jitsu has been huge for you and incredibly important and meaningful and beneficial.

 

0:54:46.9 Jordan Syatt: Jiu-jitsu is gonna be big, I’m gonna train jiu-jitsu at least as much as I am now, which is six times a week, so at least that. For the first time since I was 25, I wanna start powerlifting again.

 

0:54:57.9 Mike Vacanti: Nice.

 

0:55:00.0 Jordan Syatt: But only deadlift, I don’t wanna squat or bench press, I only want to deadlift.

 

0:55:03.3 Mike Vacanti: Why?

 

0:55:03.5 Jordan Syatt: Bench press, I just don’t care about… It’s just like… Partly…

 

0:55:08.4 Mike Vacanti: You’re a lower body strength guy.

 

0:55:09.8 Jordan Syatt: I’m a lower body strength guy, and bench press isn’t my best lift. It was okay, but it doesn’t help as much. I care more about weighted chin-ups than I do about bench press. So I’d love to work on my weighted chin-ups for sure, just… Especially for jiu-jitsu and wrestling, you don’t need much pushing strength, it’s much more pulling and grip strength, but squatting also just can wreak havoc on my hips, after those years of wide stance squatting just destroyed my hips.

 

0:55:35.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

0:55:35.3 Jordan Syatt: So deadlifting, I just wanna see if I can beat my all-time deadlift personal record.

 

0:55:38.5 Mike Vacanti: Wow.

 

0:55:40.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, so I wanna do that.

 

0:55:40.7 Mike Vacanti: You’re gonna try and get down 132 to do it?

 

0:55:43.1 Jordan Syatt: Probably. Well, no…

 

0:55:44.2 Mike Vacanti: Really?

 

0:55:44.4 Jordan Syatt: No, no, all I care about… I don’t care about the percentage of body weight, I just care about the total.

 

0:55:48.3 Mike Vacanti: Got it, got it, got it.

 

0:55:49.1 Jordan Syatt: So I’ve gotta deadlift 540, ’cause my best is 535. So we’ll see if I can do that. So definitely gonna be doing more strength training than I am now and heavier, which is gonna take up more time.

 

0:56:00.1 Mike Vacanti: You’ve… You haven’t had a barbell for over a year with COVID and home gym situation, which you’ve made the most of, but I feel like you’ve stepped up your training year over year…

 

0:56:10.1 Jordan Syatt: Since I stopped coaching Gary. Yeah.

 

0:56:13.0 Mike Vacanti: And we have talked about just the benefits of consistent lifting as “Wow, what a novel idea”.

 

[laughter]

 

0:56:22.9 Jordan Syatt: That’s great. But no. It’s funny ’cause it’s like, “Wow, what a novel idea?” But I think a lot of coaches… I know I’m not alone in how many coaches let their own training go to shit, because sometimes after writing however many programs and coaching however many people, the last thing you wanna do is work out. And it’s one of the reasons why I tell people, I’m like, “Don’t become a coach because you like working out, ’cause it’s soon enough, you’re not gonna like working out anymore.” When it’s all you do and all you talk about, you’re gonna burn out. Only be a coach if you actually like coaching, it’s two different things. But I think that was actually one of the best benefits for me of starting jiu-jitsu was I finally had a reason to work out again. Being a certain body fat percentage or building a certain amount of muscle does not…

 

0:57:13.0 Mike Vacanti: Doesn’t excite you.

 

0:57:13.8 Jordan Syatt: Motivate me.

 

0:57:13.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

0:57:14.0 Jordan Syatt: It doesn’t motivate. What motivates me is winning something. I’m super competitive as you know, and the idea of being able to go out and win a jiu-jitsu competition or beat the people at my gym, whatever it is, that is motivating to me, far more than aesthetics. If fitness was purely aesthetics, I wouldn’t be in fitness ’cause I just don’t care at all. So yeah, definitely gonna be doing jiu-jitsu, definitely gonna be doing strength training. I’m caught up on sleep, so I don’t really have to worry about that. I do want to read more.

 

0:57:46.5 Mike Vacanti: Let’s back up. So if you could… I’m gonna go to the zero care about aesthetics thing.

 

0:57:51.0 Jordan Syatt: Well, I won’t say zero, but minimal.

 

0:57:53.7 Mike Vacanti: But if you could be… If you could have… No, actually we’ll do this. If you could have a 0.5% improvement in your jiu-jitsu…

 

0:58:04.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

0:58:05.2 Mike Vacanti: And all you had to do is go from your current physique to be 50% body fat, and have no lean mass.

 

0:58:13.5 Jordan Syatt: No, I wouldn’t do that. If you… No, I obviously wouldn’t do that.

 

0:58:17.9 Mike Vacanti: When you say, I don’t care about aesthetics…

 

0:58:19.2 Jordan Syatt: Well, you mean like a literal 50% increase?

 

0:58:21.8 Mike Vacanti: No, I mean you’d be 50% body fat.

 

0:58:23.7 Jordan Syatt: No, but a 50% increase in jiu-jitsu.

 

0:58:25.5 Mike Vacanti: No, no, a 1/200th increase.

 

0:58:29.8 Jordan Syatt: No, then I wouldn’t do that, no, of course not.

 

0:58:32.2 Mike Vacanti: When you say you don’t care about aesthetics, you mean you don’t care about being 7% body fat as opposed to 12% body fat?

 

0:58:39.3 Jordan Syatt: Correct, I don’t concern myself over the fitness industry, standards of aesthetic.

 

0:58:48.9 Mike Vacanti: Got it. And even fitness industry is like… Yeah, okay, we’ll call it fitness industry, but really like Instagram, body building super peeled, tons of muscle.

 

0:59:03.1 Jordan Syatt: I don’t care about posting pictures of myself shirtless enough.

 

0:59:07.1 Mike Vacanti: But you do. And you look great. You look amazing.

 

0:59:13.2 Jordan Syatt: Correct, that’s exactly my point. Where it’s like, I think many people, especially in the fitness industry, wouldn’t post pictures of themselves if they looked like me, because they’d be too scared, they were too high body fat percentage, not to say that I’m too high body fat. I’m very confident with how I look, but I think…

 

0:59:30.7 Mike Vacanti: I agree two and a half years ago with the middle physique of the three physiques.

 

0:59:35.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, oh yeah.

 

0:59:37.5 Mike Vacanti: If there are people who look like…

 

0:59:39.0 Jordan Syatt: Well think of physique competitors who they only post pictures themselves on stage and stuff.

 

0:59:43.2 Mike Vacanti: And maybe I’m just so far removed from that world that it just seems like such a small percentage of the population to me, whereas with what you’re seeing on a day-to-day basis is probably a much higher percentage of the population to you, anyone who isn’t happy with your physique right now has something like…

 

1:00:04.3 Jordan Syatt: Correct. They’re warped.

 

1:00:05.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, yeah. There’s a significant amount of body dysmorphia going on.

 

1:00:09.9 Jordan Syatt: Oh, huge. Yeah.

 

1:00:11.3 Mike Vacanti: Because you’re like, if we run a BMI, if we run body fat percentage, if we just look like proportionally, like abs showing through… You look great.

 

1:00:20.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, feel great.

 

1:00:22.8 Mike Vacanti: Alright, so you don’t care about having… About optimizing aesthetics, about being…

 

1:00:28.1 Jordan Syatt: Correct.

 

1:00:28.1 Mike Vacanti: The most quote unquote “aesthetics”. The golden ratio of whatever.

 

1:00:33.3 Jordan Syatt: Shoulders, and like…

 

1:00:33.9 Mike Vacanti: That used to be a selling point for programs like maybe 1.67 from your shoulders to your waist. Okay.

 

1:00:41.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, no, I don’t care and I don’t like the training for it, I don’t have fun with the training for it, compared to…

 

1:00:48.4 Mike Vacanti: They’re so overlapped though, for a traditional body building to add muscle, like when you were doing body building stuff.

 

1:00:57.8 Jordan Syatt: With Paul Carter and stuff.

 

1:01:00.0 Mike Vacanti: But you don’t like that, but even like we’ll call it a natural. Like Training for aesthetics is really just training is just progressive overload.

 

1:01:10.2 Jordan Syatt: Correct.

 

1:01:10.2 Mike Vacanti: And managing body fat percentage, and then sure, pick exercises to target areas of the body, but I think it’s pretty functional unless I just haven’t veered out into these crazy high volume or I think of Mike Matthews, bigger, leaner, stronger. And it’s just like, okay, it is. I know you like more athleticism and historically have, but it’s training to get stronger on six movements.

 

1:01:41.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I just think there’s for me, when I’m training for performance in something specific, the law of specificity really applies, so every part of my training, is specific to how long I’ll need in a certain duration for that competition. Or like for example, I have an example when I gave you that circuit on the bike, and then the med balls and you stopped after one or two sets youre like, I’m done… You’re like, This isn’t fun.

 

1:02:10.7 Mike Vacanti: I ain’t fucking doing that. Yeah.

 

1:02:13.2 Jordan Syatt: That’s how I feel about body building training.

 

1:02:14.3 Mike Vacanti: And here’s my point. You’re about to get a 540-pound deadlift.

 

1:02:17.9 Jordan Syatt: We’ll see.

 

1:02:19.0 Mike Vacanti: I think you are, but I think that your training for that is going to optimize the aesthetics of your glutes and hamstrings.

 

1:02:26.6 Jordan Syatt: Agree, it will for sure.

 

1:02:27.8 Mike Vacanti: And it’s a performance-based goal that also comes like… I would do very little different in what you’re about to do to get quote unquote “better aesthetics” in your glutes and hamstrings.

 

1:02:37.4 Jordan Syatt: I agree, with that.

 

1:02:37.9 Mike Vacanti: Than get a 540 pound deadlift.

 

1:02:39.1 Jordan Syatt: I agree with that, I guess it’s the end goal that changes it like if my goal…

 

1:02:43.1 Mike Vacanti: If it’s more or less interesting.

 

1:02:44.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah, if my goal was just to get more muscular glutes and hamstrings I would be like, This sucks.

 

1:02:49.7 Mike Vacanti: This is not fun, but you’re chasing something.

 

1:02:51.1 Jordan Syatt: But because there’s the end goal of 540 pound dead lift now it makes my training exciting and fun and worth it.

 

1:02:57.9 Mike Vacanti: Got it.

 

1:02:58.0 Jordan Syatt: And it makes doing the exact same movements at the exact same intensity, more fun.

 

1:03:03.0 Mike Vacanti: Dude then we’re the exact same… Because the most I’ve ever enjoyed training was when I was trying to bench to 225 20 times…

 

1:03:10.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

1:03:11.3 Mike Vacanti: And I don’t care about chest size, like I feel like my chest might be a little too big, [laughter] but that the progress towards that goal is what was fun, now.

 

1:03:24.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that was great.

 

1:03:26.1 Mike Vacanti: But we can put a goal and take the bike out of it because the bike just sucks. I don’t know you couldn’t talk for four hours after your first time on this bike, you had a lung issue, but…

 

1:03:37.3 Jordan Syatt: I was like… I felt wheezed… You’re like did you smoke a pack of cigarettes?

 

1:03:43.2 Mike Vacanti: Literally, yeah I was like what’s wrong with you? But if the end goal is performance-based, you’re still not always gonna like it, what if I said, Hey, you gotta run 100 miles in less than 12 hours.

 

1:03:56.2 Jordan Syatt: Well, of course, that’s not a goal of mine.

 

1:03:58.2 Mike Vacanti: But it’s performance-based.

 

1:04:00.7 Jordan Syatt: I’m not gonna… I don’t wanna do every performance though.

 

1:04:02.7 Mike Vacanti: Right, me neither.

 

1:04:07.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, you don’t wanna do Jiu Jitsu, this…

 

1:04:09.8 Mike Vacanti: Correct? Maybe actually.

 

1:04:13.4 Jordan Syatt: No you didn’t wanna do Jiu Jitsu.

 

1:04:13.5 Mike Vacanti: Jordan and I… He’s doing a little reverse psychology.

 

1:04:15.1 Jordan Syatt: We had one bad experience with Jiu Jitsu when we went shooting.

 

1:04:17.4 Mike Vacanti: I didnt have any bad experiences.

 

1:04:18.5 Jordan Syatt: Yes, you did. You hurt your neck.

 

1:04:19.7 Mike Vacanti: No no no no. We were going to a very not cheap…

 

1:04:29.0 Jordan Syatt: Very expensive.

 

1:04:30.3 Mike Vacanti: Personalized experience for self-defense and a significant component of it was Jiu Jitsu and hand to hand combat, and we said before, we’re like, Hey, we don’t have access to this area of self-defense, but we do have access to… So let’s just not do the Jiu Jitsu and he goes.

 

1:04:47.5 Jordan Syatt: We are not learned in shooting guns, we wanna learn how to shoot guns and how to handle them and how to be safe with them, neither of us have guns yet and…

 

1:04:56.7 Mike Vacanti: But we have access to Hanzo and so we don’t need to do the day of Jiu Jitsu, we’ll just do more shooting…

 

1:05:01.6 Jordan Syatt: Correct.

 

1:05:01.9 Mike Vacanti: And he said, Great, amazing, let’s do that. You’re paying for a private lesson, this is your weekend, and then he switched us and we got there and we did four hours, we did a 45-minute lift before, and then we had three hours and 15 minutes of rolling, and that was.

 

1:05:18.0 Jordan Syatt: And your neck…

 

1:05:20.0 Mike Vacanti: Well, yeah, the black belt got the best of me, like what do you…

 

1:05:25.3 Jordan Syatt: You were pulling your neck in general though, like the neck that day of shooting was ruined because your neck was like really wrecked.

 

1:05:32.6 Mike Vacanti: It was wrecked from I did 10 rounds of the black belt.

 

1:05:34.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, agreed.

 

1:05:35.7 Mike Vacanti: He said he was going as hard.

 

[laughter]

 

1:05:38.7 Mike Vacanti: No, I’m just kidding. Very much kidding, but no, I think there is a real world in the near, not so distant future where I am taking a, maybe not Jiu Jitsu out the gate, but I’m taking a martial art seriously because… Now I am saying it on the podcast, I’m definitely not. [laughter] But where we talked before about shifting goals from business and finance growth to maintenance while improving other areas of your life, rounding things out you could say.

 

1:06:06.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

1:06:07.1 Mike Vacanti: I can see myself taking a similar route with regard to some kind of combat sport.

 

1:06:14.2 Jordan Syatt: So anyone who paid attention to Mike’s content, and I don’t know what year it was, but the year of the micros.

 

1:06:20.0 Mike Vacanti: Uh-huh.

 

1:06:20.6 Jordan Syatt: That’s like that became a theme that you’d use the year of the micro, the year of the robot. So now, this has to do with the year of the samurai, since we saw The Last Samurai.

 

1:06:29.9 Mike Vacanti: This isn’t because that… I would do the year of and then I’d… The year of the robot lasted four days.

 

[laughter]

 

1:06:35.7 Mike Vacanti: I was not living that robot life. Year of the micro was the one strong year of like I really pounded micronutrients, and that has stuck with me since.

 

1:06:44.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

1:06:46.1 Mike Vacanti: No, this is Samurai life. This is since we watched The Last Samurai, we’ve adapted it to some kind of Mike and Jordan version of it, but just the some of the principles from that culture in that movie that I think will make sense for us in our future and our future family and lineage and potentially the future of the world, we’ll see.

 

1:07:09.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, Muay Thai kickboxing.

 

1:07:13.4 Mike Vacanti: We’ll see, we’ll see where things go. I’m really enjoying my training right now.

 

1:07:17.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, you’re crushing your training right now.

 

1:07:19.2 Mike Vacanti: Because I have strength goals.

 

1:07:21.1 Jordan Syatt: What are your strength goals? Or not, if you don’t wanna share them.

 

1:07:24.8 Mike Vacanti: No, more than last week.

 

1:07:25.1 Jordan Syatt: Oh, there you go.

 

1:07:26.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

1:07:26.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, you’re getting those like week over week hand over fist gains.

 

1:07:29.9 Mike Vacanti: I’m sleeping nine hours a night and I’m not missing workouts. Gosh, I hate that I’m jinxing myself so much, but I love everyone listening, so I’m okay with it, but yeah, hand over fist gains week over week, like you’re adding reps and weight every week, and kind of add re-comp-ish macros.

 

1:07:46.7 Jordan Syatt: Oh yes, so it is the suit incident of 2021.

 

[laughter]

 

1:07:52.7 Mike Vacanti: Although the way that I think I might not actually lose any weight, I might just re-comp in which case the suit is still not gonna fit, which is okay. I’ll have a lean with a little less lean mass suit or two and I’ll have a 211% suit.

 

1:08:13.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

 

1:08:16.9 Mike Vacanti: Where you moving Jordan? You don’t have to say, you don’t have to say.

 

1:08:20.9 Jordan Syatt: Put it up on my YouTube video. Not the first one. First one, it’s not gonna be in there. It’s gonna be in the second YouTube video.

 

1:08:26.9 Mike Vacanti: Okay, and the first one is maybe up, if it’s not up now, it’ll be up quite soon.

 

1:08:32.2 Jordan Syatt: Hopefully it’ll be up on Wednesday, Thursday, the latest, hopefully.

 

1:08:36.4 Mike Vacanti: Okay. So we’re talking like April 29th?

 

1:08:39.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah.

 

1:08:40.9 Mike Vacanti: Cool, and then in the video…

 

1:08:44.2 Jordan Syatt: I almost just said where I was gonna move. I literally almost said it, ’cause like “And you’re coming too.”

 

1:08:48.6 Mike Vacanti: I’m so glad I have that book otherwise I think I would be much sadder than I am. I am sad.

 

1:08:54.0 Jordan Syatt: Are you sad?

 

1:08:55.7 Mike Vacanti: ‘Cause it’s the end of an era. I get sad at end of eras.

 

1:08:57.7 Jordan Syatt: Really?

 

1:08:58.6 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm.

 

1:08:58.7 Jordan Syatt: Like emotionally sad?

 

1:09:00.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, man I cry a lot.

 

[laughter]

 

1:09:04.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, yeah. It’s the end of an era. It was a five-year era. But yeah, I’m excited because more trips, more business trips. I’m excited to visit you.

 

1:09:16.1 Jordan Syatt: Now everyone knows it’s not Israel. ‘Cause you’re not gonna be doing a consistent trip.

 

[laughter]

 

1:09:21.9 Mike Vacanti: Every other week… Every other week I’m going to Israel. But no, we’re still gonna be, you know. The podcast will continue as strong as ever.

 

1:09:33.9 Jordan Syatt: The mentorship.

 

1:09:34.6 Mike Vacanti: Maybe stronger. The mentorship is… Did you see the email from Eric Roberts?

 

1:09:39.8 Jordan Syatt: No.

 

1:09:40.1 Mike Vacanti: Eric Roberts emailed us both the other day, just like a nice “Thank you.” Like he listed some metrics and absolutely crushing, but…

 

1:09:48.2 Jordan Syatt: Dominating.

 

1:09:48.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, yeah.

 

1:09:49.7 Jordan Syatt: He’s insane in the best way, just like dominating everything.

 

1:09:55.3 Mike Vacanti: But yeah, this…

 

1:09:56.5 Jordan Syatt: Did you see Rachael sold out her program?

 

1:10:00.7 Mike Vacanti: I did not see that, that’s incredible.

 

1:10:00.9 Jordan Syatt: She just put and announced it on Instagram today that her program sold out, which is just unbelievable.

 

1:10:05.3 Mike Vacanti: Shout out, Rachael Schwartz, congratulations. That’s incredible.

 

1:10:09.2 Jordan Syatt: Crazy.

 

1:10:09.9 Mike Vacanti: Let’s go. So in the second video, you’ll announce.

 

1:10:15.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Second video I’ll announce which is gonna be weird ’cause…

 

1:10:18.9 Mike Vacanti: You’ll be there.

 

1:10:19.7 Jordan Syatt: I’ll be there, and I’m gonna… You know, when you used to do snaps on the toilet, but you’d hold it really close to your face so no one would know that you’re on the toilet?

 

1:10:28.0 Mike Vacanti: I don’t think I’ve ever said that publicly, but yeah, I used do that.

 

1:10:30.8 Jordan Syatt: You did. You made an announcement. I think we announced it on this podcast or another podcast, you told everybody.

 

1:10:35.3 Mike Vacanti: It’s okay, I don’t mind. Leave it in, David.

 

1:10:37.7 Jordan Syatt: I think that’s…

 

[laughter]

 

1:10:39.1 Jordan Syatt: That’s what I’m gonna be doing. I think that’s how I’m gonna have to do like stories and everything just really close to my face.

 

1:10:45.2 Mike Vacanti: So you can’t give up your location.

 

1:10:46.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just building it up.

 

1:10:49.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, that’s smart.

 

1:10:50.7 Jordan Syatt: I had one woman get really pissed at me on Instagram yesterday, she was like, “I don’t understand why you’re not telling us where you’re moving,” all exclamation points, “I don’t even care anymore. This is just stupid.”

 

[laughter]

 

1:11:00.5 Mike Vacanti: You were like, “Clearly it’s working. Clearly you care. I have you roped in with this story.” Got anything else? I can’t see the…

 

1:11:13.4 Jordan Syatt: The time?

 

1:11:14.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

 

1:11:14.2 Jordan Syatt: I don’t know you made me put my phone away so I don’t have it near me.

 

[laughter]

 

1:11:20.2 Mike Vacanti: That was smart. I think we’re over an hour.

 

1:11:24.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that was a good one. It was fun.

 

1:11:26.0 Mike Vacanti: Great episode. Thank you for listening.

 

1:11:29.8 Jordan Syatt: Last episode in New York, at least with me as a resident of New York, I’ll be back, but…

 

1:11:34.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah you’ll be back and visit, and then we can in the downtown podcast studio, we can do some episodes there, but… Yeah, man.

 

1:11:43.2 Jordan Syatt: Love it. Love you bro.

 

1:11:44.6 Mike Vacanti: Love you bro.

 

1:11:45.6 Jordan Syatt: Great era.

 

1:11:46.2 Mike Vacanti: The end of an era. The beginning of a new… The beginning of The Samurai era.

 

1:11:49.9 Jordan Syatt: Oh, I like that. Yeah, the era of the samurai.

 

1:11:53.4 Mike Vacanti: Love you bro.

 

1:11:54.0 Jordan Syatt: Love you man.

1:11:54.6 Mike Vacanti: Goodbye everyone.