Episode 103: How to Dominate 2023

0:00:11.8 Mike Vacanti: Hello, Jordan.

0:00:12.9 Jordan Syatt: What’s up, Mike? You sound a little muffled.

0:00:17.6 Mike Vacanti: Sorry. Is that better?

0:00:19.6 Jordan Syatt: There we go. Oh yeah. And the people who are on the video pods they’ll understand what just happened. Not why, but they’ll understand.

0:00:24.2 Mike Vacanti: Video pods?

0:00:25.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. You freezing right now?

0:00:29.3 Mike Vacanti: No. Just got done shoveling.

[laughter]

0:00:31.8 Mike Vacanti: And rushed down here to pod, you know?

0:00:39.7 Jordan Syatt: I love it. How you doing, man?

0:00:42.8 Mike Vacanti: How are you?

0:00:44.7 Jordan Syatt: Man, that was a hell of an entrance to this podcast.

[laughter]

0:00:49.3 Mike Vacanti: Bro, 2023. When this drops, it’s gonna be the new year.

0:00:54.0 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I’m so excited.

[laughter]

0:00:56.8 Mike Vacanti: How are you?

0:01:00.5 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I’m good, man. Nothing crazy going on.

0:01:03.3 Mike Vacanti: Okay. Okay. What do you think about… You live in a warm climate. Do you feel like, as someone from the Boston area and hard-nosed, hard-wintered, real like some grit to you, not like a Phoenix kid, for example, no offense there please. What do you think winters do to someone’s soul, especially from zero to 18, but just in general?

0:01:27.6 Jordan Syatt: You mean like, if they’re exposed to it for year after year after year, what happens?

0:01:33.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:01:35.2 Jordan Syatt: I mean, it sucks. It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t wanna live in a cold environment anymore. Especially after moving to a warm environment, like living in Israel for a number of years, I was like, “I’m never going back to live in a cold environment again.”

0:01:51.6 Mike Vacanti: Interesting.

0:01:51.8 Jordan Syatt: You know what, it’s not just the cold though, it’s the cold and the gray. The gray is really what gets you.

0:02:00.3 Mike Vacanti: Do you think this is ethnically driven perhaps, like your DNA wants to be somewhere warmer?

0:02:08.6 Jordan Syatt: Real possibility. That being said, I know my DNA is like a hundred percent Ashkenaz Eastern Europe.

0:02:16.7 Mike Vacanti: Like Russia? [chuckle]

0:02:16.8 Jordan Syatt: So like, my DNA should really love these cold, harsh winter. It’s from like Russia and Poland and all of that. So maybe.

0:02:25.7 Mike Vacanti: You know what, you know where we should take this? By the way, we’re gonna talk about a lot of things 2023 here in this episode.

0:02:32.3 Jordan Syatt: Clips Nation. Let’s go.

0:02:33.7 Mike Vacanti: [chuckle] Or not. We’ll see. [chuckle] No Clips Nation. Probably. [chuckle] Sometimes you just gotta have fun with an episode, Jordan. You gotta keep it light. It’s the first episode of 2023 weekly uploads. I’m gonna go somewhere…

0:02:46.0 Jordan Syatt: I let you decide if it’s Clips Nation or not. You’re the one who’ll decide. [chuckle]

0:02:51.7 Mike Vacanti: This might get cut out based on… ‘Cause I don’t know if it’s actually appropriate. And I also don’t know if you don’t know the actual answer, but are the different types of Jewish people in part different due to ethnicity? For example, like an Orthodox Jew versus a Hasidic Jew, do they have different 23andMe results, for example?

0:03:19.0 Jordan Syatt: You mean like an Orthodox versus like a Reformed Jew?

0:03:22.1 Mike Vacanti: Sure.

0:03:23.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I don’t know. There might be, but frankly, I doubt it, in terms of like if they’re both, like their bloodline is Jewish and they… I don’t think you would find much of a difference. Especially because I know many people, they grow up more Hasidic or more Orthodox and then they change. And they’re like, “You know what, this isn’t for me anymore.” And then they marry someone who isn’t… You know what I mean? So I would imagine it’s still the same ethnicity.

0:03:52.1 Mike Vacanti: What is a Jewish person who isn’t Ashkenazi?

0:03:56.5 Jordan Syatt: Sephardic.

0:03:57.6 Mike Vacanti: Sephardic? Is there like a…

0:04:00.9 Jordan Syatt: There are other ones as well. There are others. But those are the two main ones.

0:04:03.9 Mike Vacanti: A place of origin difference, or are Sephardics also from Eastern Europe?

0:04:09.6 Jordan Syatt: No, no, no. So that’s… It’s different.

0:04:11.3 Mike Vacanti: Okay. That’s where I was…

0:04:13.8 Jordan Syatt: Sephardic Jews are from the Middle East. So they’re from, often Iran, they’re from Israel, all those places. Sephardic Jews are from the Middle East. And there are yet very different ethnicities, for sure.

0:04:29.6 Mike Vacanti: Sephardic Jews might genetically want to be in warmer climate, whereas my…

0:04:34.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, 100%. Yeah.

0:04:35.9 Mike Vacanti: Northern Europe DNA wants me somewhere cold where I can, like, learn mental toughness.

0:04:41.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Well, I mean, you’ve got that… Where’s your family from again? I feel like you’re a Viking.

0:04:49.1 Mike Vacanti: Scandinavian, British, Irish.

0:04:52.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I mean, you’re built for coal. You’re built to last.

0:04:55.2 Mike Vacanti: A little bit of Swedish, Finland. Yeah. Tell me your thoughts on New Year’s Resolutions.

0:05:03.5 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I love New Year’s Resolutions.

0:05:05.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:05:05.8 Jordan Syatt: I absolutely love them. It’s so funny, every time I talk about it on my own social media and I say how great it is, and basically the example I use is this. And this is math that I’ve already done previously, so I just have it memorized. This is not impressive math.

0:05:22.6 Mike Vacanti: Okay.

0:05:22.8 Jordan Syatt: But the figure that everyone throws out is like 95% of people who set New Year’s Resolutions will not actually achieve them, basically saying, “Well, it’s just not worth trying at all.” Like, “Why would you even do that?” And I’m like, “Man, that’s so crazy, because out of a million people, 50,000 of them will now achieve their goals. Like, 50,000 people will now achieve their goals. Imagine if someone who’s like, “Hey, I wanna start a business.” It’s like you had all these people who are building their successful businesses that are now helping society. You have people who are like, “You know what, maybe my New Year’s Resolution is like… ” Whatever it is. Like, “I’m gonna try and go to school,” or, “I’m gonna take the exams to be a doctor,” or whatever it is. Like, you have all these people who could be changing lives, and it’s incredible. And that’s only 1 million. And out of 10 million, that’s 500,000 people. Like 500,000 people are achieving their goals. I would say it’s a very defeatist mentality to say, “Well, it’s just not worth it.” And it’s funny because a lot of people will also say 95% of diets fail, which is an inaccurate statistic. But people who would say, “Well, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try,” are also the same people saying New Year’s Resolutions are a waste of time. There’s no logical consistency there.

0:06:43.9 Mike Vacanti: I’m with you, man. I love New Year’s Resolutions.

0:06:46.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. You like ’em?

0:06:47.6 Mike Vacanti: Huge fan. To make any lasting change, there’s a lot that goes into it, right? And there’s a lot of habits that need to be changed to create lasting change. But the times when I’ve made the biggest changes, layered underneath those habits and those behaviors, was some kind of catalyst. And that catalyst can be like a big life event, it can be a breakup, it can be walking away from an esteemed position to go do something else, it can be a New Year’s Resolution, it can be the death of a loved one, heaven forbid. There can be things that jolt you into action. And then obviously like behavior changes, behavior change, but the spark underneath it helps. And so when people are like, “Start on December 23rd,” or, “Start on January 1st,” it’s like, I like the magic of January 1st. I like New Year’s Resolutions. And I also give myself permission to go back on this, because sometimes it’s December 7th and I’m just feeling a real rant and I just wanna go in. And it’s like, “Who don’t wait until the new year?” I also like that.

0:07:52.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:07:52.6 Mike Vacanti: I like both. Start December 7th or start January 1st.

0:07:55.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Well, it’s funny. Chip and Dan Heath talk about this in the book, The Power of Moments, which is like just such an incredible book and very science-based and research driven about how there’s real power in like, all the events that you were just talking about, whether it was a breakup, whether it’s a birthday, whether it’s New Year’s Resolutions, whether it’s a death in the family. Like, there’s big moments that can serve as a real catalyst for change. But it’s also… It’s funny, we’ve assigned moments to numbers as well. So for example, like Peloton is a genius in terms of like you get a hundred rides in your Peloton and you get a prize, right? Like, “Oh, Hey. Well, congrats. You just did your hundredth ride.” Why is it 100? Why not like 102 or 97? It’s like, ’cause these round numbers, these like… Whether it’s a date, like an important date, an important number, they mean something to us. Why is 102 not as exciting as 100, or like 100 rides or 1000 rides or whatever it is. We assign importance to these things, and it would be very short-sighted not to recognize that and not to at least appreciate it and understand that in behavior change, these can serve as a huge, huge, huge moment to really drive people to make a change.

0:09:09.4 Jordan Syatt: I know for me personally, one of my biggest ones was flossing in 2020. I decided I was gonna floss every day, and I’ve only missed like four or five days since 2020, since January 1, 2020.

0:09:21.8 Mike Vacanti: Nice.

0:09:22.5 Jordan Syatt: And some of those, like I was traveling and I forgot my floss or something like that, you know?

0:09:26.4 Mike Vacanti: That was a New Year’s Resolution?

0:09:28.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that was a New Year’s Resolution, starting on January 1.

0:09:29.8 Mike Vacanti: Good for you.

0:09:31.2 Jordan Syatt: And I was tired of going to the dentist, and as soon as they put floss in my mouth, my gums would bleed. I’d be like, “Ah, this sucks.” And then also learned a little bit about just how much oral health impacts your overall health. And also I remember reading Dan John’s book. I think I was in high school when I read this book. It was called Never Let Go. I think I was a senior in high school. I remember sitting at Dunkin’ Donuts reading in an off period or something, reading this at Dunkin’ Donuts. And he had a whole bit about… He was like, “If you can’t even floss, you don’t deserve to own a business.” He’s like, “If you can’t even spend fucking two minutes a day flossing, what is wrong with you?” And I remember when I was a senior in high school, I was like, “Oh man, that’s so true. Dah dah dah.” And I started flossing for like a week and then I fell off. [laughter] But finally I was like… Once I learned about how much oral health impacts regular health or overall health and all of that, I made that in January, 2020 and fucking ever since, bro, no more gums bleeding at the dentist. They’re always very impressed.

0:10:37.8 Mike Vacanti: That’s a great microcosm of the concept of doing the right thing, even when you don’t feel like doing it.

0:10:44.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:10:45.4 Mike Vacanti: If you’re not committed to flossing… To continue with this example, but it can apply to so many profound things. If you’re not committed to flossing, like you might have one night where you just ate so much crap and sugar and you feel like you have sweaters on your teeth, maybe a drink, a regular Coca-Cola, for old time’s sake, 46 grams of sugar and you’re just like, feel gross and you want to floss, great. But to actually do it when you don’t feel like it, same with a workout, same with making content, same with any of these things that lead to outcomes that we want, but don’t feel like doing the thing in the moment. Who cares? Eat the cardboard. Do it anyway.

0:11:23.3 Jordan Syatt: I was just about to say, “Eat the paper,” [laughter] bro. And I didn’t know if you’re gonna be mad about it.

0:11:27.6 Mike Vacanti: No, no, no, no.

0:11:27.7 Jordan Syatt: I was literally just about to say, “Eat the paper. Eat the paper.”

0:11:30.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, literally. That’s the analogy. I actually… It’d be funny to talk about 2023 business stuff. I actually do want to here, but that’s the… I mean, you can give the background if you want of the video that I made.

0:11:41.5 Jordan Syatt: No, you tell the story. You tell it.

0:11:43.0 Mike Vacanti: The thing is, you understand the concept. I just acted it out in real time because that’s what I really was…

0:11:47.8 Jordan Syatt: All right, I’ll tell the story.

0:11:48.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, go ahead.

0:11:48.9 Jordan Syatt: It’s hard to tell a story about yourself too. I’ll tell the story ’cause I love this. I remember watching this for the first time and being like, “Man, this is just genius. I love it.” So when Mike was just pumping out long-form content, SEOable content on YouTube, he was doing these YouTube challenges, these were not SEO based, these were just like daily vlog based. But Mike was pumping ’em out. YouTube video after YouTube video after YouTube video, day after day after day. And in one of the videos, he’s in a hotel room, I’m imagining ’cause you were coaching Gary and you were traveling with him. So you were in a hotel room, and you were sitting at a desk in the hotel room.

0:12:25.0 Mike Vacanti: That’s actually not why.

0:12:27.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, why? What?

0:12:27.8 Mike Vacanti: This isn’t relevant to the story at all. I was living in the Chinatown grind house, and it was like 15 below in New York City, and the heater didn’t work in the grind house. And so I was so cold that I had to get a hotel down the street.

0:12:43.0 Jordan Syatt: Oh wait. So this was after you were… This is when I was coaching Gary?

0:12:47.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, this was 2017, I believe. This was January, 2017.

0:12:50.9 Jordan Syatt: Okay. So Mike is making this video and he’s basically just talking about being an adult and just like, “Eat your vegetables.” Like, “Eat your vegetables, be an adult about it. You’re not going to like everything you do, but it’s good for you. So you should do it.” And then you can see sort of this light bulb go off in Mike’s head during this video being like, “Listen, I all eat things I don’t like.” And he looks around on the desk and he finds this piece of cardboard. He’s like, “I’ll eat this piece of cardboard.” [laughter] I can’t say it without losing it. He just like, “I’ll eat this piece of cardboard.” And he rips off this chunk of cardboard and he puts it in his mouth and he just starts chewing it. He’s like, “I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all, but I’m going to eat it.” [laughter] And you’re chewing it. And I think you took a swig of water so you could actually get it down your throat. You’re like, “Listen, I didn’t like that, but I just ate a piece of cardboard. Eat your damn vegetables.” [laughter] And so yeah, that’s the background of this story.

0:13:49.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. It’s, taste is irrelevant to me if you want the outcome. And obviously, it’d be better if you can season your vegetables, put a little olive oil, whatever. But even if you don’t, doing things that you don’t like that aren’t enjoyable because you say you want a certain outcome, want to lose weight, want to be healthier, want to grow your business, want to have a bigger audience, want to… Whatever. Like things that we don’t enjoy doing, suck it up and do it. That might be the theme of 2023 actually here.

0:14:18.9 Jordan Syatt: Just eat the paper.

0:14:20.7 Mike Vacanti: Eat that cardboard, Jordan. Do you have any resolutions for 2023 that are brewing? And if not, we can just kind of kick things around.

0:14:27.2 Jordan Syatt: Well, so I’m also going to add one more thing on top of this that I just think about the resolutions. So earlier spoke about how a lot of people who say… There’s this statistic that 95% of diets fail, and a lot of people say just… They use that as a justification saying, “Well, don’t try it all.” And all these coaches are like, “No, no.” Number one, that statistic is wrong. But number two is even if that’s true, 5% of people are exceeding. It’s 50,000 people per million, 500,000 per 10 million. I think one of the reason… Like, let’s just say that statistic is true. 95% of diets might fail because the diets are shitty, because it’s like a super restrictive diet. It’s a cleanse, it’s a detox. It’s like all you can have is slim, fast bars, whatever it is. Stupid bullshit. That’s why so many of them fail. Not because they were actually trying a good protocol that was tailored to them, it was just shitty. I think one of the main reasons New Year’s Resolutions will fail is not because they didn’t want to achieve it or just because of anything else other than it was a shitty resolution that wasn’t specific.

0:15:35.2 Jordan Syatt: Like it’s one thing to say, “I wanna lose weight.” It’s another thing to say, “I want to lose 30 pounds, and here’s what I’m going to do to make it happen. I’m gonna count my calories. I’m gonna get my protein and get my fiber. I’m gonna work out this many days a week. I’m gonna get this many steps a day.” It’s one thing just to have this resolution of, “I’m gonna exercise more.” It’s another thing to say, “Hey, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I’m gonna strength-train. On Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, I’m gonna do cardio.” It’s like, you can have this ambiguous resolution, but you can’t expect to succeed if it’s very ambiguous. It has to be specific. And I would love to see the percentage of people who succeed in their resolutions based off of a very specific resolution and an action-based goal that they have. It’s not just the objective, it’s also the action-based goals that you have on top of it. And I would bet an unbelievable amount of money that out of the people who set very specific, clear action plan resolutions, way higher percentage actually succeed. I would rate probably closer to 50%, maybe 40 to 50% are actually succeeding in those when they take the time to really sit down and focus on what they wanna accomplish.

0:16:42.3 Mike Vacanti: Definitely more than 5.

0:16:44.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:16:44.7 Mike Vacanti: When we weed out all of the people who are trying to not eat a single carbohydrate for all of 2023, where that success rate is less than 1%, then you have people with more reasonable protocols doing much better.

0:16:57.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:16:57.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, that’s great. Make it specific, have some action-based goals to go along with the result-based goal.

0:17:05.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, man. So I don’t… In terms of my resolutions, some big ones actually, another one that I made in 2020 was I wanted to get my blood pressure in a healthy range ’cause it was consistently like 145, 150 over like 80 to 90.

0:17:18.7 Mike Vacanti: Was it that high?

0:17:19.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, dude, consistently. And now it’s consistently between like 112/123 over 60/70 every time. And that was a January 2020 resolution as well.

0:17:33.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, you’re the pinnacle of health right now.

0:17:36.8 Jordan Syatt: No, I’m not the pinnacle of health. But for some things, I’ve definitely improved dramatically. Resting heart rate is at like 42. But for this year, I haven’t sat down. Every year, I sit down and make some new ones. So I’m not sure what they’re gonna be. Obviously, there will be some jujitsu related ones and some father and husband related ones. I don’t even know if I’m gonna have business ones. We’ll see. What about you?

0:18:03.0 Mike Vacanti: Let’s keep going on you for a little bit here.

0:18:04.8 Jordan Syatt: Okay. All right. What do you wanna know?

0:18:07.7 Mike Vacanti: When you make a carousel tweet post about losing weight without counting calories, is that something that you feel like doing?

0:18:18.2 Jordan Syatt: No.

0:18:18.8 Mike Vacanti: Okay. On a scale of like, “I really want to do this,” to like… Where are you at one to 10?

0:18:27.0 Jordan Syatt: Here’s the thing, it’s actually funny. So I heard a quote, I think it was actually Sal from Mind Pump, who said this, it was to the effect of, “The person who loves walking will walk longer than the person who loves the destination.” And I don’t know if I fully agree with that. Because in this instance, like we’re going to say making the post and actually posting it is walking, in this instance, right? Like actually sitting down making the post. I did not want to do that at all. Like at all. But the destination being people getting it, getting help, the positive feedback I would get from it, the potential signups from the inner circle I would get from it. That’s why I had the motivation to do it. Like, it was like, Hey, I need to do this in order to help my business, which is the end result. So, well, yes, actually, I very much believe that the person who loves it will actually walk further. I do think it’s important to understand even if you don’t love it, it’s better to do something than nothing at all.

0:19:33.5 Jordan Syatt: So it’s like, even though I didn’t love the process of making that post, the thought of the end result of it was enough just to get me to do it. And maybe it wasn’t done as well as if I had really loved the process and enjoyed every moment, but at least I got it done.

0:19:49.6 Mike Vacanti: Absolutely.

0:19:51.7 Jordan Syatt: So that for me is that… It was not because I enjoy it at all, but out of the entire process, the part that I enjoy the most is the end result of it. So that justified doing it at all.

0:20:04.2 Mike Vacanti: Okay.

0:20:04.7 Jordan Syatt: Does that make sense?

0:20:05.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah it makes complete sense. And I agree with that quote. When you compare making a post like that to doing a Friday vlog with Mitch, I would imagine the Friday vlog with Mitch is more enjoyable while you are doing it than making the Instagram post. Is that right?

0:20:25.3 Jordan Syatt: The Friday vlog is infinitely more enjoyable. I get to hang out with somebody. Like Mitch and I get to hang out and talk and relax and we have a really good time. So like that’s fun. And then I also get to just do my daily thing and have him basically capture everything and then he can create that content for me and make it more usable and digestible and have like very fun, fun aspects to it without me having to put in the work. But you know, me writing out the post… Another thing about Mitch that’s helpful is Mitch will often come up with the content ideas. Before we meet, he’ll come up with four to six different ideas and say, “What do you think about these?” Then I can choose. When it’s me making the content. I have to decide and then I have to figure out how I’m going to… Like the tweet carousels are relatively easy for me now ’cause I’ve been making content for 11 years or something.

0:21:19.7 Mike Vacanti: You’ve made that same piece of content, not in the exact same way, but you’ve made it 150 times.

0:21:24.1 Jordan Syatt: I’ve made it. So I know how I’m going to structure it. I know what I’m going to say, but even then it still takes time and effort and then I have to put it into InShot and format it so that the tweets like will fit properly into Instagram and then I’ve got to like, it’s a whole fucking process. And the funny part is this is a relatively easy style post. If I was going to make my own video, it would take way longer, be way more difficult. And yeah, but I still do it. For me right now though, it’s just like which type of post is the path of least resistance, between having a daughter and a wife and everything else going on it’s just far… Like other things are more important. So I want to spend as little time as possible.

0:22:01.4 Mike Vacanti: You’re not going to add a second day of vlogging when instead you could do that post in a shorter amount of time and instead of spend eight hours away from the, or whatever, you’re spending a half hour, you know.

0:22:12.3 Jordan Syatt: Correct. Exactly.

0:22:13.9 Mike Vacanti: I’m with you. Did you ever take the Big 5 personality test?

0:22:19.5 Jordan Syatt: No, but didn’t you say I’m an obliger?

0:22:20.4 Mike Vacanti: No, that’s a whole ‘nother thing. The person who said like, personality tests are horoscopes for boys. I think that was very accurate.

[laughter]

0:22:32.9 Mike Vacanti: There’s just so many of them. Supposedly the Big 5 is the most… Well not supposedly, the Big 5 is the most scientifically reliable compared to like Myers-Briggs or some of these other ones. But I wasn’t sure if you took it. It had like… It had extra version on it. Yeah. Yep.

0:22:49.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I never took it.

0:22:49.5 Mike Vacanti: You didn’t? Okay. Openness to experience was one on there that basically like indicates… To paraphrase my understanding of it, indicates your interest. It’s like a metric of creativity and also of how interested you are in new ideas compared to being interested in the same ideas. And I say this because the thought of making… That was a… For everything you know, and like where your interests are, the thought of making that piece of content is pretty basic.

0:23:27.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. It sucks.

0:23:27.5 Mike Vacanti: The thought… [chuckle] That’s the answer right there. I feel like, if you were like, “Hey Mike, here’s $10,000, make a tweet carousel post about how much protein someone needs during a fat loss phase.” I think I’d be like, “Have a good day, Jord. See you at the next pod.”

[laughter]

0:23:50.2 Mike Vacanti: Like, yeah. And I guess that’s just like a suck it up and do it thing. The other interesting thing is what is the outcome you want to achieve? And there’s, this is a very meaningful job that we work. So we get to help way more people than we could in so many other professions, which I think is the core foundation of a lot of the motivation. But then it’s a job. So it’s to put food on the table for our families. I don’t know if we’ve talked about this on the pod or just off and maybe we don’t go deep on here, but is there a net worth number where you would… Like you’d still be making stuff and helping people, but you would only be making the stuff that you really wanted to make and helping people in a way that you like really wanted to where money isn’t an issue?

0:24:36.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, probably. I mean, if… Listen, there is definitely a point at which if I had a certain amount of savings that I would be more than happy to basically just hang it up and… But if I was only going to talk about things that I really, really was passionate about right now, like in this moment, I would not be running a fitness page. Like I would not be running… Like, I would never say calorie deficit ever again. It’s just not something I’m passionate about right in this moment.

0:25:14.6 Mike Vacanti: You were kind of passionate about your own document in your mini cut over the last couple of months.

0:25:21.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Yeah.

0:25:21.5 Mike Vacanti: Like you would have done that even if there wasn’t content tied to it, right?

0:25:25.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I would have done it…

0:25:26.9 Mike Vacanti: Differently…

0:25:27.0 Jordan Syatt: Myself without actually sharing it publicly. Sharing it publicly is, it just, it takes work now. It takes time waking up in the morning, making sure that like I’m wearing the exact same things, and I have to wear clothes when I weigh in to make sure that my balls don’t show off the reflection on the scale. [laughter] And I’ve got, okay, I got to do this. Then I’ve got to make sure I’m getting my phone involved and I’m getting the right a video of the scale and uploading that. And it’s like, I’m not as passionate about sharing that. I would talk way more about probably like jiu-jitsu and I would still talk about… I would talk about health, jiu-jitsu, being a dad, health, blood pressure, strength training for sure. But a lot of the mindset stuff that I’ve just spoken about so much… Literally just before we got on, I made a post about motivation, a carousel post on motivation.

0:26:27.4 Mike Vacanti: Is that three posts in three days?

0:26:29.4 Jordan Syatt: Is it three posts in three days? Oh yeah. But one of the posts was a massive repost. But yeah, yeah. It’s just like, I’m not interested right now. And I mean, maybe one day I’ll get interested in it again and I’ll post about it. But honestly, man, I think if I hit a certain point where I had enough savings and I was comfortable, a huge part of me would just get a flip phone and never go on social media again. I would just love to do that. I think that would be the best for me mentally. And for my own health, I think getting a flip phone and never going on social media would be a really, really, really good tool.

0:27:08.0 Mike Vacanti: My 86 year old grandpa has a flip phone.

0:27:11.6 Jordan Syatt: Oh really?

0:27:11.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. He just rocks it like a G.

0:27:14.5 Jordan Syatt: I love that.

0:27:16.8 Mike Vacanti: Okay. But that’s a fictitious world where you don’t have that amount of savings. So you are still working and… Cool.

0:27:22.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I mean, and I think I would honestly probably go… I would like to do some in-person coaching a couple hours a day just for free.

0:27:29.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. When I was thinking of, if you don’t need money but still wanted to help people, the thing that you’ve talked about so much was opening a gym and not charging any membership fees. And just being in there like interacting with the people working out, maybe doing some one-on-ones in that setting, whatever it is. But that versus something more monetizable if money wasn’t an issue.

0:27:54.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, exactly. What about you?

0:27:58.2 Mike Vacanti: I don’t know Jordan. I’m more interested in you today. I’m in more of a curious question, kind of… Look, here’s one thing I know. If I make a grand New Year’s resolution off the cuff right here right now.

0:28:10.6 Jordan Syatt: It’s not going to happen.

0:28:11.1 Mike Vacanti: It ain’t happening. [chuckle] That’s for sure. No, you know what? You know what? We can set the bar super low. We can set the bar super low. I think we’re going to do a lot of these pods in 2023.

0:28:29.1 Jordan Syatt: Are you deliberately phrasing it, I think, so that like it doesn’t…

[laughter]

0:28:33.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. I’m just trying to… I’m just moving closer to a potential resolution. I don’t know that we need it. Look, we made a pretty decent commitment, a financial commitment, a time commitment doing more micro content, Clips Nation. Yeah, I think we’re moving in the right direction here.

0:28:49.2 Jordan Syatt: Dude, agree. A hundred percent.

0:28:50.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know.

0:28:55.6 Jordan Syatt: Okay. Eat the paper.

0:29:00.8 Mike Vacanti: I think I’d rather… Okay, this is a real… If we’re going to ride with this analogy, I would rather be more out of shape than eat the paper.

[laughter]

0:29:15.0 Jordan Syatt: Well, what is it? By eat the paper, you mean posting content?

0:29:19.7 Mike Vacanti: I mean, making a tweet carousel saying that you should eat 0.7 to one gram per pound and then citing PubMed multiple times in the description and then like having a back and forth with someone who says that it’s like 0.5 or it’s actually 1.7 or whatever. Yeah, yeah. That’s what I mean.

0:29:36.7 Jordan Syatt: So you’d rather be out of shape. And by out of shape, we’re talking about your business being hurt.

0:29:43.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, but the thing is, is I’ve been rolling like four or five years like this in my business isn’t that hurt.

0:29:51.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, exactly.

0:29:53.5 Mike Vacanti: That’s the weird… Like how much is… There’s this old saying, if you’re not growing, you’re dying, which I believe in a lot of respects. And I think that the creator economy, not just in fitness, but everywhere is getting more competitive with continued technological improvements. There’s going to be more… What’s the right word for it? More asymmetry. There’s going to be more 80-20. There’s going to be fewer people pulling in more money, hiring more underneath and it’s going to get more competitive. I don’t know how steep that curve is or how quickly that happens. I don’t really want to be the… There’s a famous Wait But Why article. The URL is wait, W-A-I-T But W-H-Y, why on procrastination. And I’m kind of, there’s this like fictitious character in that article called the panic monster. And the example he… One of the examples I think he used in that article was if you’re writing a term paper and you have weeks to write it, college student writing a big paper and they don’t do anything, they don’t do anything, they don’t do anything.

0:31:00.0 Mike Vacanti: And once like 2 AM the night before it’s due hits and you haven’t written anything and then the panic monster goes off, which is like, okay, now you actually have to do this and then you do it. The result isn’t as good as it would have been, but that is what prompts action. There’s no panic monster for me to go from working the amount that I’m working to putting in 60s or something insane to really try to grow. And I don’t know if that ever comes, right? ‘Cause it’s like how big a business do you want? How big a business do you need? And like what is the current state of the economy? Look, I’m not optimistic, macroecon wise. So I don’t think 2023 is going to be a great year. I don’t know if 2024 is going to be a great year either for markets and stocks and everything and that bleeds into labor markets, it bleeds into our businesses, it bleeds into demand for health and fitness services and products. And so maybe I should get ahead of the panic monster, but I just haven’t. And I think I probably should, but I’m more trying to convince myself that there needs to be a way for me to make content in a way that I enjoy it.

0:32:16.8 Mike Vacanti: Like this podcast, for example, something mirroring this podcast in a way that I enjoy it compared to just eating the paper and making the post about how much protein you need.

0:32:32.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I don’t know what to say ’cause if I say something, I feel like it’s going to…

0:32:36.1 Mike Vacanti: I’m going to do the opposite, so be smart. Be smart about it. Use your…

0:32:41.3 Jordan Syatt: I’m just gonna be like dude I get it. I feel you, bro. Is there something you want that you don’t have?

0:32:49.2 Mike Vacanti: No, which is such a like a champagne problem.

0:32:53.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s it.

0:32:54.7 Mike Vacanti: Dude, this is actually what led to the big discussion of, that ended up not being a podcast episode when I said, can someone who’s content and happy push themselves? It’s that famous boxer who was like, it’s hard for a man sleeping in silk sheets to get up at 4 AM and go for a run. So there are no New Year’s resolutions here promised by Jordan or Mike.

0:33:23.5 Jordan Syatt: ‘Cause you’re sleeping in silk sheets. Mike is just sleeping in silk sheets.

0:33:27.4 Mike Vacanti: Or my bar for… I just don’t need a lot. I feel like I don’t need a lot to be happy. But then there’s the element of getting ahead, meaning sacrifice hard work today creates freedom for yourself in the future. And so…

0:33:43.1 Jordan Syatt: But you’ve already done that. Like you’ve already… That’s why you are where you are.

0:33:46.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I’ve done a lot of that. But then there’s always part of me that’s like, you could do more, you could work harder now create more freedom in the future. Do I need it? I don’t know. I don’t know. So we’re just brainstorming and spitballing. If you want to take this in any particular direction, if you’re bored with this, feel free to.

0:34:05.1 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I’m rolling with the punches. Whatever you say, I’ll just roll with it. Shoulder roll it. Mayweather.

0:34:10.8 Mike Vacanti: Sometimes I feel like I want to do something more deliberately value add for the listener rather than just ramble about what I just did or ask you questions about you. Do you have any 2023 insights for…

0:34:27.2 Jordan Syatt: For social media?

0:34:28.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, or anything. For coaches in general?

0:34:35.0 Jordan Syatt: I think every coach should be doing Jiu-Jitsu.

0:34:37.9 Mike Vacanti: Cool. No, say more. Say more.

0:34:42.1 Jordan Syatt: Why did your face light up when I said that? I literally just said that to see your reaction.

0:34:48.8 Mike Vacanti: I think it was honest though.

0:34:50.9 Jordan Syatt: I think everybody in the world should do Jiu-Jitsu or at least try it for at least three months.

0:34:56.4 Mike Vacanti: Say more. I put in three months with Cerrone. I’m a beast.

[laughter]

0:35:04.4 Jordan Syatt: No man, it’s just something I very strongly believe that I think… I think one of the most unique things about going into a real mixed martial arts academy or somewhere where people really know how to fight, not like some of these bullshit ones, but for people who are really actual killers, people are so respectful in those… Like they’re so respectful. They’re so nice. I’ve met some of the best fighters in the world, like one championship fighters, UFC fighters. I’ve met some of them in the world and they don’t know who I am. They don’t think I’m anybody. And they’re so nice and they’re so kind. I think a lot of it stems from you never know who you’re talking to in terms of their skills, how dangerous they are. So the default is always, well, let’s just be nice. Let’s just be kind. Whereas, I feel like a lot of the people who have all this fake bravado and get out and like start yelling at people and try and start random fights with people is almost never someone who actually knows how to fight. It’s always someone who just like they want to intimidate other people and they think that they’re awesome. I very much believe if more people knew how to fight and knew how to protect themselves, aside from the confidence that it would give them, I think that confidence also leads to just being a kinder person.

0:36:28.8 Jordan Syatt: When you are not on the defensive and in fight or flight mode all the time and you can just be confident in who you are, I think it’s far more likely to lead to a healthier society and to a group of people who are kinder to one another because you’re confident in your ability but you’re also like, “Hey, I don’t know what that person knows,” so I’d really rather not try and fuck with them.

0:36:51.1 Mike Vacanti: So you started this by… It was a recommendation for coaches in 2023 what they should do. Everyone should start Jiu Jitsu. If you were… And I think you laid out a couple of the many benefits very well, if you were a father with two kids at home, young kids and you’re spending a lot of time with them, business isn’t going incredible, you’re a little tight with money, you feel like you’re either working or you’re trying to take care of your own health, you got your kids, do you still think carve out the time to go do Jiu Jitsu for that person or is that like a year 2017 to 2019 complete grind mode and then it’s something to add when you’re in a more comfortable place?

0:37:39.2 Jordan Syatt: You got to attack the most dangerous threat first. That’s obviously a fight analogy but…

0:37:47.1 Mike Vacanti: I love it.

0:37:47.4 Jordan Syatt: Did you say single dad, single dad at home with two kids?

0:37:52.5 Mike Vacanti: I didn’t say that, no.

0:37:54.1 Jordan Syatt: Cool, but let’s say that the biggest threat right now is putting food on the table or keeping a roof over your head, then you go full fucking grind mode and you make sure that you build up enough savings and money to make sure that putting food on the table and keeping a roof over your head is never an issue again.

0:38:12.7 Jordan Syatt: That’s priority number one, that’s the most dangerous threat, most imminent threat right now. Then from there, maybe there are other dangerous, permanent threats like you worked so hard that you actually estranged yourself a bit from your family. It’s cool. Now that next imminent threat is losing your family, it’s cool. So now you got to go full on that, going over the top to be there for your family, to show them that you’re present, all of that stuff. And then as time goes on and as you have more systems in place for your business, have more systems in place for your family and you’ve built up all this, then if the most imminent threat is being able to actually protect your family, God forbid something like that happens, which is a hypothetical situation, but you just never know when it’s gonna happen. And I would say you should be, maybe even before Jiu-Jitsu, you should be taking a CPR class. Say, that’s a more imminent threat, like the potential of someone choking is probably more realistic than someone actually attacking you, but you should take a CPR class. You should learn basic first aid. So attack the most imminent threat first and work your way from there.

0:39:21.4 Mike Vacanti: I love that fight analogy. We might need to use more fight analogies on the podcast and you being… Or us being you. That was great. Attack the most imminent threat first.

0:39:34.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Just made it up right now.

0:39:34.4 Mike Vacanti: No, you didn’t.

0:39:37.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I did. [chuckle]

0:39:38.1 Mike Vacanti: Really?

0:39:39.5 Jordan Syatt: I didn’t prepare that.

0:39:41.4 Mike Vacanti: I don’t know. I imagine like every day you guys sit down at the beginning of class and Alex is like, “All right, we attack the most imminent threat first.” Like, “Let’s roll.”

0:39:47.1 Jordan Syatt: No.

0:39:49.5 Mike Vacanti: Oh, okay.

0:39:50.2 Jordan Syatt: No. I just made it up.

0:39:52.4 Mike Vacanti: Man, analogy king. Cool. That makes complete sense. I’m trying to think of what my most imminent threat is.

0:40:00.3 Jordan Syatt: I was thinking about asking, but I didn’t wanna…

0:40:00.5 Mike Vacanti: No. You know what I did? I did a really good job with… I mean, there was no like estrangement, but just living in a different city from my family for many years when I was in New York they were in Minnesota and like getting back here, making this home base, end of 2020? End of 2021, a little over a year ago, like move back here, settle down. And that’s something I feel good about and the amount of time I’ve been spending with them. So now it feels like a shift back towards something else. And that’s picking up this, like, did I tell you that I’m gonna be traveling more with Gary in 2023? Yeah. Which is…

0:40:43.5 Jordan Syatt: I don’t know how much more, but…

0:40:46.3 Mike Vacanti: Not… Nothing like the old days of, I don’t know if we have…

0:40:51.6 Jordan Syatt: Like once a month type thing?

0:40:52.2 Mike Vacanti: Kind of trip dependent. I’m sure there’ll be some times where there isn’t, it’s virtual for an entire month and then there’ll be other times where maybe more than once in a month, but certain times of the year where it makes sense when he’s away on business, probably very little international, but yeah.

0:41:10.1 Jordan Syatt: Are you excited about that?

0:41:12.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I am. I’m excited for a change of pace and just that energy.

0:41:21.9 Jordan Syatt: So what’s the most imminent threat?

0:41:23.3 Mike Vacanti: I don’t know. I’m still thinking about that. It’s such an absolute privilege, and I mean that in the best sense of a word, of that word, to not have anything like immediate, right? If you think of all of human history, to be sitting here and not really know what the most imminent threat is or to not see any, which could just be ignorance or willful blindness, but seems to me like we live in a really, really, really good time.

0:42:00.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. And I mean all the work that you’ve put in prior has gotten you to a point where it’s like, yeah, I’ve staved off many potential threats that would have hurt you if you had not saved for a couple of years before you quit your job and all that. Yeah.

0:42:14.3 Mike Vacanti: Financially, health and finances, yes. I’m not giving away all credit, but I’m saying the fact, more from the safety perspective.

0:42:27.1 Jordan Syatt: And that we live in a time and a place in which you can actually do that. You can put in a certain amount of work that will allow you to, “Hey, I will be able to save this money and then be able to buy land and be able to support my family and climb the ranks.” I think Dave Ramsey was talking about this. I think he said, I forget which percentage the actual number was, but he was talking about the percentage of millionaires who were not like inherited. They didn’t inherit any significant amount of money is massive. It’s like 80 plus percent or 85% of millionaires did not inherit any money from their parents, any meaningful money. It was like, they’re all self-made, like a tremendous percentage.

0:43:08.4 Jordan Syatt: It was like, it might’ve even been higher than 85%, but it’s like, what a great blessing to live in a place and a time in which you can actually do that. This is so, so rare in human history, so new in human history to find this and then to live on one of the few places in the world that it’s actually a real possibility in this time is insane.

0:43:33.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. A real blessing. And it’s also an argument against all of the… And I, yeah, I guess it’s still there. I’m just not seeing it in my feeds, but this hating of the rich kind of bubbling up over the last decade.

0:43:53.6 Jordan Syatt: Oh, it’s there. And you’re just not seeing it on your feed. It’s there.

0:43:57.8 Mike Vacanti: And specifically because so many people feel that the rich are undeserving of it and there’s a stigma or like a generalization of inheritance of it was given by mommy and daddy. It was, and so the fact that, yeah, it’s somewhere between 80 and 90% of millionaires are, their parents weren’t essentially is a, yeah, it’s a crazy stat. And most importantly, a great opportunity.

0:44:29.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. A hundred percent.

0:44:29.5 Mike Vacanti: But when I say imminent danger too, I mean like getting eaten by a tiger. I mean like our amazing healthcare system that… Like modern medicine and the number of times I probably whatever could have died up to this point in my life from something basic that we have now figured out.

0:44:49.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. But there’s like… So then like you go through the stages. All right. Well, what’s the… That’s why I said like CPR. Like, and you’re a fucking savages CPR. You’ve saved the lives of CPR. You were that, I forget the name of the pool, but you were a lifeguard.

0:45:01.5 Mike Vacanti: Edina Aquatic Center.

0:45:02.0 Jordan Syatt: Edina Aquatic Center. You’ve saved multiple… How many saves do you have? Lifetime saves?

0:45:09.9 Mike Vacanti: 24.

0:45:10.0 Jordan Syatt: Does that include the choking incident over the summer with your father?

0:45:13.7 Mike Vacanti: Oh, no. 25, no.

0:45:13.9 Jordan Syatt: 25 lifetime saves?

0:45:14.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:45:18.9 Jordan Syatt: And that was a real one with your dad. He was choking on steak, right? And he walked away from the table and you were like, “All right, this is something’s not right.” And you followed him. You just fucking Heinleck him. Heinleck that steak, right? Steak right out?

0:45:31.4 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm.

0:45:31.4 Jordan Syatt: And that’s fucking impressive. That’s like a real imminent threat that people face every day.

0:45:38.1 Mike Vacanti: That was really scary. Yeah, I think knowing CPR is a really good addition for people who don’t.

0:45:48.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. But then it’s like… Then I think about weather threats, for example… And this is such a weird thing to talk about on the personal trainer podcast, but this whole thing… In Buffalo, they had the huge storm in Buffalo just hit and I think 28 people died or something in this weather storm.

0:46:07.7 Mike Vacanti: Really?

0:46:07.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. And so it’s like, an imminent threat might not even be like over the long term. It could be like, “Okay, cool, I know there’s a storm coming,” and I’m not saying this could have prevented their deaths. I’m just saying at any point in time, what’s the most imminent threat? “Okay. Make sure I’m at home, make sure I’ve got food here. If I’ve made enough money, then now it’s not an issue. Cool.” And then you can make a safe room in your house where it’s like, Hey… I think about people here in Texas, they get hit by fucking tornadoes and I’m like, when I build a house, I want to make sure that I have enough money to make a safe room that is like resistant against… Make sure we’re safe against a tornado or whatever the fuck comes through here. It’s like figure out what the most imminent threat is and then go, go off on that one thing and make sure it’s taken care of.

0:46:54.7 Mike Vacanti: This is actually very interesting because is there a point where you draw the line and you stop putting time, effort, energy, resources into defending against the most imminent threat once you’re like defended to a certain degree. And I brought this up before there was Tim Ferriss was on the Joe Rogan podcast probably at more than a decade ago at this point. Like, ah, was it on YouTube? I don’t remember. And now I don’t know if some of those got pulled, but they were like probably in the 8 to 11 years ago timeframe. And they were talking… No more than that. It wasn’t 2015. 10 plus years ago. They were talking very loosely about these like things that I feel like neither of them would say publicly today, where they were talking about potential terror threats, potential… Like basically the moves that they were making as very wealthy individuals to maximally protect themselves against future potential danger. But it was going for like… I don’t remember if it was land or safe rooms or properties. And I don’t remember all the things they were discussing. I just remember that discussion. And then the thought of, we’re all gonna die.

0:48:11.5 Mike Vacanti: So there’s no like 100% guarantee of safety in life. And so at what point do you draw the line and you’re like, “Okay, I feel protected enough that I’m not gonna invest my next marginal dollar into like creating even more security.”

0:48:28.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. There’s definitely a line. It also depends on what it is for you. So for example, I mean like the most imminent threat being estrangement from your family is an example of like, Listen, this isn’t like a threat towards my survival. This is more just like the life I want to live includes being very close with my family and, that the idea of my kids not wanting to see me anymore is a real imminent threat to what I have deemed a meaningful life. So I would say like that would be more important than getting a fucking tornado shelter in my house. So it’s like that would be priority number one. So the imminent threat might not be actual life threatening.

0:49:11.3 Mike Vacanti: Great point. And to take that even further, you could talk about imminent threat to your soul depending on what you believe about afterlife, what you believe about materialism, what you believe about living righteously or living properly or living in a way that is good for you.

0:49:35.7 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. But we’re not gonna talk about religion on this podcast ’cause last time I did.

0:49:39.8 Mike Vacanti: I didn’t say anything…

0:49:40.4 Jordan Syatt: We canceled that pod.

[laughter]

0:49:42.1 Mike Vacanti: You canceled. I was fine uploading it. I’m still fine uploading it.

0:49:45.4 Jordan Syatt: That’s true. Yeah, that’s true. I did. No, no, I did. That was my fault. I did cancel it.

0:49:48.2 Mike Vacanti: No, it’s not your fault. I actually think it’s smart because I think you have a much better understanding on… And I’m just like I thought that was a good, like healthy spirited debate and you’re like, “We’re not gonna publish it.”

0:50:00.4 Jordan Syatt: You hated that conversation. You were like, “I’m furious right now.”

[laughter]

0:50:02.1 Mike Vacanti: I know. I hated it while I was in it, but I thought, you know like, one take show, like document don’t create just like up, that I’ve never… I think you’re better at understanding what people would like or not like or not even what they’d like or not like, but like what would be good or bad to be uploading. It probably wasn’t. But it was very spirited.

[laughter]

0:50:27.1 Jordan Syatt: Anyway, let’s not get into that again. Get me down tht rabbit hole, it’s gonna be hard to come out.

0:50:33.6 Mike Vacanti: Okay. All right. Imminent threat 2023. I don’t have anything else planned. Clips Nation was potentially weak in this episode.

0:50:45.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, definitely weak in this episode, but like…

0:50:47.5 Mike Vacanti: Hang on. You know what? I actually, I think Clips Nation was great in this episode.

[laughter]

0:50:52.4 Mike Vacanti: Let me tell you why. I don’t think all of our short form clips need to be education. Like I know that that is the best way to grow business wise, but I think I’ve done very little education over the course of my entire career.

0:51:10.3 Jordan Syatt: No, that’s ridiculous. The vast majority of what you’ve done is education. And your heaviest hitting SEO articles are definitely education.

0:51:17.2 Mike Vacanti: That’s true. That’s true. That’s true. But… That’s true. People can learn things through non intentional education and through just documentation. And because this is more of a broad podcast and we cover business and fitness and just life, I think that some of the clips can be not specifically education about business or education about fitness. They can be great moments on the podcast. And I think that will be well received and take a little pressure off of feeling like we need to jam 60 minutes every week of like, “All right, is this gonna hit? Is this gonna go? Is this educational?” And it brings a little levity to the pod.

0:52:04.6 Jordan Syatt: No, dude, 100% agree. I would say like a 80-20, 75-15 split is a really good split to have for like education to non formal education.

0:52:18.2 Mike Vacanti: What are we gonna do with the last 10?

0:52:21.2 Jordan Syatt: Dude, it’s your… You lead the way.

0:52:23.1 Mike Vacanti: No, no, no. If it’s 75-15.

0:52:25.4 Jordan Syatt: No, no, no. Just overall by the end of the year, it doesn’t have to be like a… Oh wait, did I say the wrong math? 75-25. I’m an idiot.

0:52:33.5 Mike Vacanti: I thought you might’ve meant 85-15 and I was gonna put…

0:52:35.5 Jordan Syatt: I meant 85-15.

0:52:37.3 Mike Vacanti: Oh, okay. All right.

0:52:37.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what I did mean. Yeah. I did mean 85-15.

0:52:40.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:52:41.2 Jordan Syatt: What do you do with the last 10. [laughter] Oh man. I… Yeah. You what? I what? Yeah. I don’t know.

0:52:57.2 Mike Vacanti: This is fun. This is a good conversation about life in 2023.

0:53:00.8 Jordan Syatt: Dude, imminent threats, one by one.

0:53:02.7 Mike Vacanti: That don’t need to be physical.

0:53:06.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:53:07.5 Mike Vacanti: Doesn’t need to be physically life threatening.

0:53:09.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. It could be spiritual. It could be emotional. It could be familial, physical. It could be… Yeah, but everyone should be doing jiu-jitsu. Everybody. Everybody should be doing jiu-jitsu.

0:53:22.1 Mike Vacanti: Yep. Yep. That’s the last jiu-jitsu I signed up for. Actually not even gonna go into this.

[laughter]

0:53:33.1 Jordan Syatt: Would you do another martial art outside? Would you do kickboxing or Muay Thai or boxing?

0:53:39.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I would.

0:53:41.8 Jordan Syatt: Would you do that in 2023?

0:53:43.7 Mike Vacanti: No, I’m not gonna do it. I’d make Instagram content before I do that in 2023.

0:53:49.1 Jordan Syatt: Really?

0:53:50.2 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm.

0:53:50.3 Jordan Syatt: Making Instagram content is more…

0:53:52.8 Mike Vacanti: Well they’d be… I wouldn’t be making tweet carousels about… It’d be more enjoyable for me to make.

0:54:00.4 Jordan Syatt: What would be enjoyable content for you to make outside of this pod?

0:54:03.9 Mike Vacanti: I would like… Tell me and I would love to make it.

0:54:07.7 Jordan Syatt: I think that your workout vlogs would be amazing.

0:54:14.9 Mike Vacanti: Thing is, is my… Yes. Yeah. It’s all a sacrifice, right? It’s all sacrifice. Like my therapy, which is working out, which is a form of therapy. It’s not talk therapy, like talk therapy is really important, but there are physical aspects of therapy as well. That is my therapy imaging.

0:54:33.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. There’s a big push of people saying working out isn’t therapy.

0:54:36.1 Mike Vacanti: That was like a 2020 thing though. Did you see a…

0:54:38.4 Jordan Syatt: No.

0:54:39.0 Mike Vacanti: People are still saying that?

0:54:41.9 Jordan Syatt: Oh yeah.

0:54:43.0 Mike Vacanti: They should go… What’s Bane’s real name again? Tom Hardy. They should go to his jiu-jitsu Instagram caption and read that.

0:54:51.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:54:52.4 Mike Vacanti: The idea of the hour of solitude of lifting of like, music going of being in like a form of a flow state and the positive physical and mental effects that has on me to then having a videographer there getting shots and like communicating with another individual during that hour. And like, it’s not worth the sacrifice of the upside that that solitude brings me, which… And people who get the same mental health benefits from talking to a licensed professional. I love that. I’m such a huge fan of that, and so happy for the benefits that that brings to their life as well. Just many forms of therapy.

0:55:34.4 Jordan Syatt: Dude, what if you hire a videographer and you say, hey…

0:55:38.5 Mike Vacanti: I’m gonna know he’s there. I’m gonna be thinking about it. I’m gonna…

0:55:41.1 Jordan Syatt: No, but like what if you have your headphones on, you know he’s there, but you say, “Hey, I’m not talking to you once during the workout. Your job is to get shots of me. I will not adjust anything I do to make it easier for you. I’m gonna do my workout and your job is purely getting these shots specifically for Instagram, TikTok, short style content,” and then later once it’s over, you’ll do a voiceover or something on top of it or like filmed at, sit down and like a little brief synopsis. You’re already, I can tell from your, the way you look this is a no.

0:56:13.3 Mike Vacanti: No, no. You’ve actually brought me over the course of your three sentences. You brought me from like 99%, no to like 84% no.

0:56:21.1 Jordan Syatt: Okay. So completely un-meaningful. [laughter]

0:56:25.1 Mike Vacanti: That’s big.

0:56:29.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. I’m just thinking of like… Well, so what other kind of content then? That I feel like was the lowest hanging fruit that I feel was like, okay.

0:56:37.7 Mike Vacanti: The lowest hanging fruit is just another podcast.

0:56:41.7 Jordan Syatt: What if you do, get like… Is there anything in fitness that you’d wanna talk about?

0:56:50.3 Mike Vacanti: Everything.

0:56:51.0 Jordan Syatt: Okay.

0:56:51.4 Mike Vacanti: I just don’t want to make a carousel about protein. By the way, no disrespect. I’m not picking on anyone specifically ’cause I love protein.

0:57:02.8 Jordan Syatt: I love protein. What if you just take like… What if you do old school Instagram where you just get professional pictures taken of you, and you get a photoshoot done and then like every day you just post a different picture of yourself with a caption on your thoughts. Like old school Instagram fitness influencer.

0:57:24.2 Mike Vacanti: I’d be more likely to do that than a lot of stuff. Yeah.

0:57:27.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Yeah.

0:57:28.8 Mike Vacanti: I mean, that’s basically what I did on Instagram. Except not photoshoot, just me taking random pictures and videos. We’ll see. It’s an interesting content landscape out there with the shorts and the reels and the Toks and the dwindling attention span. Oh, have you heard of the show White Lotus?

0:57:51.4 Jordan Syatt: I have not.

0:57:52.4 Mike Vacanti: Is that the name of it? It’s on HBO. Watch the first couple episodes.

0:57:57.2 Jordan Syatt: Is it good?

0:57:58.5 Mike Vacanti: I don’t know yet. I don’t think it’s amazing. It’s HBO. It’s… But their portrayal of these Gen Z… Of basically Gen Z through the Gen Z characters in the show is really, it’s interesting.

0:58:17.1 Jordan Syatt: Like accurate? Funny?

0:58:17.2 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Accurate in like the worst way, right? So it’s like…

0:58:23.5 Jordan Syatt: Okay. The most comical way?

0:58:24.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. In the most comical way, right? Not accurate portrayal of the entire generation, but of like the things that the older generation doesn’t like about them kind of thing. But yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know what 2022… More of this podcast. That’s what 2023 is gonna bring, Jordan. That’s for certain.

0:58:44.8 Jordan Syatt: Oh yeah. Clips Nation.

0:58:45.9 Mike Vacanti: Clips Nation. We got anything else?

0:58:54.9 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I think that’s it. Go on a long form content 2023, really go in on a long form content.

0:59:03.8 Mike Vacanti: That’s where my mind was going and then it just went to like, who’s reading that? I actually, honestly, I think writing a weekly email newsletter and putting a lot of focus into that is something that interests me.

0:59:11.5 Jordan Syatt: That would be good for you because you already have such a huge email list. I think that’d be great. For anyone else who’s thinking about that huge email list.

0:59:24.7 Mike Vacanti: Terrible idea. Terrible idea.

0:59:26.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Do you just do that, but for your website articles.

0:59:28.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:59:28.9 Jordan Syatt: But for you, yeah, I think that would be great. What would you write about? Whatever you want?

0:59:33.0 Mike Vacanti: Whatever I’m interested in. Yeah. We’ll see. 2023. Let’s go, baby. Thank you for listening. We appreciate you. Let’s get it.

0:59:50.1 Jordan Syatt: Happy new year.

0:59:50.5 Mike Vacanti: Happy new year. See you.