Episode 240: Jordan’s Sperm Count, Phishing Scams, Getting New Online Coaching Clients, and More…

0:00:00.2 Mike Vacanti: Hello Jordan.

0:00:12.3 Jordan Syatt: What’s up, Michael?

0:00:13.2 Mike Vacanti: Fear, anger, and stress, one to 100. Go.

0:00:16.5 Jordan Syatt: Fear. Oh, man, it would have been so different if this was yesterday.

0:00:23.0 Mike Vacanti: It’s today.

0:00:25.7 Jordan Syatt: Today fear is… I’d say it’s all pretty low. Fear is the lowest. Anger is the middle, and stress is probably the highest. But all relative. It’s not all like… I’m in a good spot. That’s just like if I’m ranking those three from best to worst, that’s where I’m at right now.

0:00:52.9 Mike Vacanti: They’re all better than your average right now.

0:00:55.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. And I always forget… I know we do the numbers, but I always forget which numbers I chose previously. So I don’t really know where I am on that scale, but it’s relatively low for me.

0:01:07.5 Mike Vacanti: Good.

0:01:08.0 Jordan Syatt: What about you?

0:01:08.8 Mike Vacanti: I’m good. All is well. What are you sipping on?

0:01:12.4 Jordan Syatt: Beet, carrot, and mint.

0:01:14.7 Mike Vacanti: Mmm. Mint.

0:01:16.5 Jordan Syatt: And ginger. Beet, carrot, mint, and ginger.

0:01:18.6 Mike Vacanti: I love ginger.

0:01:19.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I love ginger, too. My wife isn’t the biggest fan. I’ll make juice for her without ginger because she doesn’t like the ginger. She didn’t think she was gonna like the juice at all. When I was saying, I want to get juice, her brain went to kale and celery, and I was like, “No, that’s just poop water. That’s not good at all.” But, carrot juice, beet juice, and then you could put whatever you want in there, but with little mint and ginger in there. Oh, man, it’s amazing.

0:01:49.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. You can overdo the ginger. It gets pretty spicy. But I both enjoy the taste and the placebo that I get from consuming ginger. It just feels like my immune system is…

0:02:03.3 Jordan Syatt: Boosted.

0:02:04.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, that’s right.

0:02:05.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. And I like the kick. I like that spicy kick, too. I like the little throat burn. I like it.

0:02:12.2 Mike Vacanti: Okay, that’s good to know.

0:02:13.8 Jordan Syatt: I put a lot of ginger in.

0:02:15.3 Mike Vacanti: Attababy. What else?

0:02:18.0 Jordan Syatt: Man, that’s it. Oh, wait, hold on. I’m trying to remember if I added anything to my notes, because I didn’t do it before this. Let me see. One sec.

0:02:27.3 Mike Vacanti: Oh, don’t you worry. Yeah, I got a real list.

0:02:29.6 Jordan Syatt: Oh, there’s one thing, and we spoke about it. We spoke about it last time about how you have a juicer, but you buy juice. Like, you buy…

0:02:42.4 Mike Vacanti: No.

0:02:44.0 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, you have a juicer, but sometimes you’ll buy beet juice or stuff like that.

0:02:49.2 Mike Vacanti: Oh, yes, I see.

0:02:50.8 Jordan Syatt: But then last time you were talking about how insane it is the Mini Oreos, like the cost per calorie is just ridiculous. Meanwhile, you buy these more expensive juices when you could just juice it yourself. Cost per calorie is so low.

0:03:06.3 Mike Vacanti: Here’s Jordan out here looking for hypocrisy in the nooks and crannies of my life. Let me remind you that my point on the Mini Oreos was that they actually are a better play because even though they’re more expensive, they portion control for you and prevent you from standing there and eating an entire sleeve of Oreos.

0:03:28.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, no, it was overruled. I get it. I was just talking about the juicer because I didn’t even know you had a juicer until last week when you told me you had one.

0:03:37.3 Mike Vacanti: I would be curious on the price difference because a 32 ounce bottle of beet juice is $8.99. And I wonder what the cost in beets to produce 32 ounces of beet juice would be. It has to be reasonably close. And our juicer is not easy to clean.

0:04:00.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, yeah.

0:04:01.3 Mike Vacanti: And so it’s put away. So take it out, use it, clean it.

0:04:06.2 Jordan Syatt: How long do you think, from initiating the first juice to ending finishing cleaning the juicer, how long do you think that process takes?

0:04:15.9 Mike Vacanti: I haven’t even used our current juicer.

0:04:18.5 Jordan Syatt: Oh, really?

0:04:19.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I had a juicer when I was living in New York and I don’t know, at least 10 minutes, right?

0:04:27.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I thought you were gonna say like an hour. Yeah, no, it’s… From when I initiate… From when I start taking the stuff out of the fridge to when I’m done cleaning it. And I’m just enjoying the juice. It’s about 20 minutes. It’s like cooking a meal.

0:04:45.2 Mike Vacanti: So this is… I have a great transition here because what we’re talking about is how you value your time and then potentially spending money to save time or enjoying what you’re doing. If you’re like into the process of juicing and combining different ingredients, it’s almost like the hobby of cooking in a way. What I did yesterday was one of the dumber things that I’ve ever done.

0:05:06.8 Jordan Syatt: Really? Did you tell me or no?

0:05:08.1 Mike Vacanti: No. I save for the pod. I spent at least four hours, maybe five, but it was definitely four hours building a dresser.

0:05:20.8 Jordan Syatt: No way. For your daughter?

0:05:22.9 Mike Vacanti: No, for our guest room.

0:05:28.4 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. You should have hired that out.

0:05:30.3 Mike Vacanti: Absolutely. There were actually about 400 screws.

0:05:36.8 Jordan Syatt: Oh my gosh.

0:05:38.2 Mike Vacanti: There had to be 100 pieces of wood in this thing, because you build every single drawer, you build the whole thing.

0:05:47.4 Jordan Syatt: Did you get it from Ikea?

0:05:48.9 Mike Vacanti: No, TikTok shop apparently. It’s a nice dresser, I got to say. I’m pretty happy with the result, but unbelievably time-consuming and so boneheaded of me because the way that I think about things is you have a life hourly, there’s an opportunity cost. If I can pay someone $30 or $40 or $50 an hour to do work for me and then I can earn at a greater rate than that, then I should be doing that. But for some reason, the weirdly competitive side about stupid things part of me was like I’m going to build…

0:06:30.1 Jordan Syatt: That’s why you did it?

0:06:31.1 Mike Vacanti: That’s why I did it.

0:06:32.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, interesting. You were like, I could do it. I’m a man.

0:06:34.8 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, that’s exactly why I did it.

0:06:37.6 Jordan Syatt: Really? That’s so funny.

0:06:39.3 Mike Vacanti: Not I’m a man, but just I can build a dresser.

0:06:42.7 Jordan Syatt: At what point in the process did you realize?

0:06:47.5 Mike Vacanti: Immediately. Once I took everything out and I opened the instructions, I was like, “This is going to be a big task.”

0:06:53.1 Jordan Syatt: You were like… Was any part of you like, “You know what? We’ll hire someone.”

0:06:57.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, 20%. I walked downstairs, took a few deep breaths, went outside, let the sun hit my face, and then I was like, it’s go time. I’m building this dresser. Never again.

0:07:07.6 Jordan Syatt: Did you have caffeine?

0:07:10.6 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, but not an excessive amount.

0:07:12.4 Jordan Syatt: Man, that’s impressive.

0:07:14.0 Mike Vacanti: I don’t think it is. I think it’s stupid. I think what it is is stupid.

0:07:19.4 Jordan Syatt: Did it come out good? You did a good job putting it together?

0:07:22.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I did a good job, but it was still dumb. It was not the right decision.

0:07:28.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. What would you have done? Let’s say alternate reality, you hire someone else to do it. What do you do, answer emails?

0:07:36.1 Mike Vacanti: Well, that’s the thing. I’m not really in growth mode, and I had completed my work. So that’s actually the paradox. What would I have done? I definitely would have got some steps in. I would have hung out with my daughter.

0:07:50.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that would have been worth the daughter time.

0:07:52.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Which, by the way…

0:07:53.9 Jordan Syatt: You have a lot of.

0:07:56.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I work from home, and I’m not in growth mode.

0:07:58.2 Jordan Syatt: You’re a very present father, yeah.

0:08:00.0 Mike Vacanti: As are you.

0:08:01.1 Jordan Syatt: It’s not a competition.

0:08:02.3 Mike Vacanti: Everything’s a competition. I don’t actually believe that, but some people do.

0:08:08.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Man, I was going to say something else about it. But anyway.

0:08:12.4 Mike Vacanti: I got something for you.

0:08:14.9 Jordan Syatt: Okay.

0:08:16.0 Mike Vacanti: So we’re sitting right here. Let’s pretend I door dash McDonald’s french fries to you. They just magically show up, and you want to eat one with ketchup right now. How are you going to do it?

0:08:28.3 Jordan Syatt: How am I going to eat my McDonald’s french fries?

0:08:31.9 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm. With ketchup.

0:08:33.0 Jordan Syatt: So I don’t use ketchup.

0:08:34.3 Mike Vacanti: That’s too bad. This is an alternate universe where you’re going to use ketchup. How would you use ketchup?

0:08:39.0 Jordan Syatt: I hate ketchup. I would put it on… If I was going to, and historically when I was younger and I did use ketchup, I would put it on a plate or whatever right next to me.

0:08:55.5 Mike Vacanti: No plate.

0:08:56.0 Jordan Syatt: What do you mean no plate?

0:08:57.0 Mike Vacanti: Door dash doesn’t come with a plate. It just comes straight to your office…

0:08:58.8 Jordan Syatt: I can’t use a plate in my kitchen?

0:09:00.5 Mike Vacanti: You’re not in your kitchen. You’re in your office, and the fries come straight to your office. There’s no plate. You have a McDonald’s bag, one flimsy little napkin, and a small french fries.

0:09:09.7 Jordan Syatt: I’d put it on the bag.

0:09:11.1 Mike Vacanti: Disgusting. The bag that the door dash employee was just carrying?

0:09:14.3 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, trying to build up my immune system.

0:09:16.5 Mike Vacanti: Okay, good. That makes me feel better. So me and everyone who agrees that the single fry application is the correct play from the Instagram reel you uploaded are correct.

0:09:26.2 Jordan Syatt: I had some people message me saying they do the same thing. Shout out Mindy Tunnel.

0:09:29.8 Mike Vacanti: Let’s go, Mindy.

0:09:31.3 Jordan Syatt: Mindy says, she does the exact same thing.

0:09:33.0 Mike Vacanti: If I had a plate, you put it on the plate. A rookie move, which is where I thought you were going to go with this, was going to be to put it on the napkin because ketchup seeps through the napkin, and then you have ketchup residue on your desk, and it’s disgusting.

0:09:44.4 Jordan Syatt: That’s why I chose the bag.

0:09:46.3 Mike Vacanti: Honestly, I think eating off of the, bless their heart, the door dash employees like cans.

0:09:52.0 Jordan Syatt: You put it on the inside of the bag.

0:09:54.2 Mike Vacanti: Who knows where that’s been? It’s been sitting in McDonald’s in the back room.

0:10:00.1 Jordan Syatt: I’m going to go back on that. I’ll put it on the outside of the bag. I want all of their germs. I’m trying to build up my immune system. That’s why I’m having this ginger, dude.

0:10:07.1 Mike Vacanti: I’m going on three and a half years of not getting sick.

0:10:09.5 Jordan Syatt: That’s true. Maybe it is that single fry methodology. That’s the play. Maybe that’s why you haven’t gotten sick.

0:10:16.7 Mike Vacanti: But the thing is, I don’t actually do that. But in that circumstance…

0:10:21.6 Jordan Syatt: I don’t actually do that.

0:10:22.5 Mike Vacanti: You know why I was annoyed? Because the point I was making in the reel is so much better than where you took it.

0:10:28.7 Jordan Syatt: The caption.

0:10:30.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:10:33.0 Jordan Syatt: That’s why you’re upset?

0:10:34.6 Mike Vacanti: No. Hey, I’ll blame David too. I’ll blame David on the editing. He cut it off after you said that. Just kidding, David. We love you, David. In a situation like that, there’s no other way to apply ketchup to a french fry. The outside of the McDonald’s bag is not an option. It’s just not a realistic option.

0:10:57.6 Jordan Syatt: 100%. Listen, we’re not going to harp on this, but I would do it. I would squirt it in my mouth before I put it on the single fry.

0:11:08.1 Mike Vacanti: Squirting it in your mouth is actually a close two. Not even two. I would say 1A, 1B. Single fry application and put a little in your mouth and then eat a fry that might be a, hey, Jordan and I compromising. This is what we need more in America. We need people who can compromise.

0:11:24.9 Jordan Syatt: We need more difficult discussions like this, man.

0:11:27.0 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, yes.

0:11:28.9 Jordan Syatt: You’d be willing to disagree.

0:11:31.4 Mike Vacanti: Yes.

0:11:34.4 Jordan Syatt: Oh, dude, I got something.

0:11:35.8 Mike Vacanti: Please.

0:11:36.4 Jordan Syatt: I made a post about this last night because it was crazy. And the reason I made this post is because I saw someone make a post about it a year ago and it might have saved me tremendously. So we ordered from Amazon, got some Amazon packages, and my wife ordered, we needed a water filter for our freezer. And she ordered an off-brand one off of Amazon that was cheaper and whatever. So she orders the off-brand one. It comes in and inside the package was something that we didn’t order. And it looked like, I have a picture of it. It looked these little… There were eight little dots almost in the shape of your thumbprint. And they were just little yellow dots. And then there was a card that came with it. And the card said, let me just, I want to get exactly right. The card said, “This product is transparency enabled. Transparency enables you to verify authenticity and learn more about this product.” And on the other side, there’s a QR code. “Scan the QR code to learn how to use this product.”

0:12:55.1 Jordan Syatt: Now, I don’t understand what this product is. I don’t know what it is. I asked my wife, I’m like, “What’s this?” And she’s like, “I have no idea.” And I’m about to scan the QR code to learn how to use this product. And then something goes off in my brain from a year ago where it was like, “Don’t do this. Don’t scan the QR code because this is a scam that people can run. It’s a phishing scam.” So I took a picture of the card and the little dots. I uploaded it to Grok. And I was like, “Is this a scam?” And Grok was like… Asked me some questions. But I was like, “I didn’t order this. It’s not part of this thing.” And Grok analyzed what it said. It was like, based on what it says, based on the email it provided, based on the website, this is almost certainly a phishing scam where they want you to scan the QR code. Because in the same way, they have phishing scams via text message where they want you to tap the link and then they can get access to stuff. If you scan the QR code, I will say… Grok said, it’s usually not once you scan the QR code. Once they scan the QR code, then they’ll say like, “Hey, put in your username and password or something. Fill this out.”

0:14:01.4 Jordan Syatt: But Grok said they are getting better. And I posted about this yesterday. I had a number of people who work in cyber intelligence and fraud schemes and blah, blah, blah. And they were like, they’re getting better and better and better. So there might be ways for just you scan the QR code and they get access to your shit. But Grok was like, “Yeah, that’s a scam. Do not scan the QR code. Do not give them any information.” And it literally came in my Amazon package. And Grok was saying it’s most likely because you bought an off-brand one that probably shipped from overseas. And it was a cheaper air filter or cheaper water filter. So they probably do that. They put these things in there. It’s little plastic dots, little dots. It must cost them nothing to make them. And then they can slip that into a package and then hope that they can get a better ROI by people who are going to be putting in their information.

0:14:58.4 Mike Vacanti: That’s dirty. They are getting better and better. Because you’re not suspecting it when it comes in something that you ordered.

0:15:06.9 Jordan Syatt: At all.

0:15:08.4 Mike Vacanti: Like I ordered this. It’s got to be legit.

0:15:09.3 Jordan Syatt: I got a bunch of stories from either people who work in these fraud departments or cybersecurity. And some people were saying that they’ve seen where instead of putting in something like that, they’ve put in a USB, a stick, and people put it in their computer. Like, “Oh, what’s on this?” They put it in their computer, boom, immediately have access to that stuff. One woman who works in cybersecurity was saying they’ve been doing these things where they have AI deepfakes, where they will call… For example, you could get a phone call and it will literally say it’s coming from your wife.

0:15:46.0 Mike Vacanti: Dude, I was going to tell you they almost got my family with this.

0:15:52.3 Jordan Syatt: Really?

0:15:53.3 Mike Vacanti: My dad got a phone call in the middle of the night from my sister.

0:15:58.1 Jordan Syatt: No way.

0:15:58.7 Mike Vacanti: On his phone, it was my sister. And it was a man who said that they had kidnapped my sister.

0:16:06.7 Jordan Syatt: Are you serious? You didn’t tell me this. When was this?

0:16:11.3 Mike Vacanti: This was probably, maybe a year ago.

0:16:12.8 Jordan Syatt: Holy shit.

0:16:13.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, it was unbelievably intense. But basically the guy on the phone said some horrific things of what he was going to do and wire me the money and da-da-da-da-da. And my mom was… Like something felt off and she just kept calling my sister and then calling my sister’s fiance and calling, calling. And I’m like… Because it’s two o’clock in the morning. And then finally my sister’s fiance woke up and he’s like she’s laying right here next to me. She’s fine. She’s in bed.

0:16:42.6 Jordan Syatt: Holy shit. Did the guy have her voice? Was your dad like, “Let me talk to her.” Or like.

0:16:51.5 Mike Vacanti: No.

0:16:52.3 Jordan Syatt: Okay, because what I heard is that they have these AI deepfakes where they can make it sound exactly like, your sister or whomever.

0:17:01.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, that makes sense.

0:17:02.3 Jordan Syatt: Which would be even crazier. That’s horrifying.

0:17:03.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, I would imagine they could only make it sound like her if she had put a decent amount of content publicly on the Internet.

0:17:15.1 Jordan Syatt: Correct. Yeah.

0:17:15.8 Mike Vacanti: If I didn’t have a business, first of all, I don’t think I’d have any social media, but if I did, it would absolutely be private.

0:17:21.8 Jordan Syatt: Agreed.

0:17:22.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, the scams are getting…

0:17:24.1 Jordan Syatt: So good.

0:17:26.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, scary too.

0:17:27.1 Jordan Syatt: Yeah.

0:17:28.4 Mike Vacanti: I saw a tweet that might be slightly beneficial to people who are like me, and is going to be unbelievably obvious to a lot of people, including you. You ready for this?

0:17:45.3 Jordan Syatt: Oh, I’m ready.

0:17:46.2 Mike Vacanti: It was along the lines of conversation isn’t for exchanging information, it’s about relationship. So when you’re in any conversation, don’t think about the information that you’re exchanging, think about the relationship you’re building with the person who you’re talking to.

0:18:06.8 Jordan Syatt: What did this make you think of when you read this? Where did your brain go?

0:18:13.8 Mike Vacanti: The number of times where someone says something that I know to be factually incorrect, and it’s like, I would want to be told like, “Hey, this is actually like this.” And I would do that to not everyone, but in certain contexts, I would. And thinking about conversations as building relationships and just with certain people, letting them be incorrect, it almost makes me steer, want to have more conversations that are seeking honesty rather than just…

0:18:57.9 Jordan Syatt: Relationships. Yeah. Because if the relationship is built on a foundation of I can’t say the truth, then what kind of a relationship is it really? So there is definitely a balance there. It really depends what your goal is with the relationship. It sort of goes to the phrase like, you know the phrase the customer is always right, which I think is horseshit. The customer is obviously not always right. But then what I saw that phrase turn into was, the customer is always right… The customer is only right if you care about that customer’s business. And I used to think that and I was like, “Well, that’s not even true either.” Because a great customer will want you to tell them when they’re wrong. I think it’s less about what you say and more about how it’s said. So it can be a good balance of both where it’s like, “Hey, we want to have a truthful, honest relationship that we’re building, and I’m going to say it in a way that doesn’t make you feel like a piece of shit and doesn’t prop me up to put me on a pedestal to make it seem like I’m better than you.”

0:20:00.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, especially in a fitness coaching relationship, because that’s a different dynamic than selling, an Xbox to somebody. There are different levels of customer/client. And the importance of honesty is obviously paramount in a coaching relationship.

0:20:22.2 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. Here’s what I think. Truth is among the most important. And the reason I use the word among, it’s deliberate trying to channel my inner JP with the very deliberate word choice here, because if truth was the most important and the only thing that mattered, then it wouldn’t matter how you delivered the truth. But the delivery method will influence whether or not they accept it. It will influence their reaction to it. And so if you don’t just want them to hear the truth, but you want them to believe the truth and understand the truth and be willing to accept the truth, well, now your delivery method is equally important because if you deliver the truth in a shitty delivery method, then oftentimes they’ll go the exact opposite way. So it doesn’t even matter that you deliver the truth because they’re not going to change anyway. If you actually want them to change as a result of the truth, the delivery method becomes equally important.

0:21:25.7 Mike Vacanti: Reminds me of… This was a public conversation on a podcast you had with Mike Matthews about the flag football thing.

0:21:35.5 Jordan Syatt: Oh, yeah. I don’t know if that was… Was that public? I know we spoke about it.

0:21:38.8 Mike Vacanti: It may not have been.

0:21:40.8 Jordan Syatt: We recorded for 30 minutes before we started, but we spoke for 30 minutes before we started recording. I don’t remember. I think that part was recorded, though.

0:21:47.2 Mike Vacanti: I thought I remembered listening to it on the podcast. And he was just like, disagree, which I can relate to because it’s like, I’m telling you the truth. It’s not my job to persuade you other random parent, I’m giving you the answer right here. If you don’t want to take it, don’t take it, which is the default of many, myself included.

0:22:07.1 Jordan Syatt: He was just in this text thread with a group of parents. It was related to their kids’ sports teams and what they were doing. And one of the parents was like, “We shouldn’t do this X, Y, and Z.” And he just goes, “Disagree.” Rather than doing a little compliment sandwich being like, “Totally see where you’re coming from. Make total sense. Here’s my perspective. I appreciate you.” And he just he just jade so hard, “Disagree.”

0:22:35.8 Mike Vacanti: Which which makes total sense because in many conversations that I’ve had with him over the years, they are very grounded in what is true. He doesn’t have a problem making me feel uncomfortable by poking or digging deeper or asking questions, which I appreciate. But the tweet made me realize like, ah, most people don’t want to be corrected.

0:23:03.6 Jordan Syatt: Definitely not. Definitely. I don’t know why this keeps coming up in my head and this might be completely irrelevant, but it makes me think about if you have something in your teeth and you’re out and you’re with someone you you really…

0:23:21.3 Mike Vacanti: I tell anyone.

0:23:22.1 Jordan Syatt: You tell anybody?

0:23:23.8 Mike Vacanti: Mm-hmm.

0:23:24.9 Jordan Syatt: No matter how close you are with them. Like you could have just met, “Hey buddy, you got some shit in your teeth.”

0:23:29.2 Mike Vacanti: I would… The delivery method matters.

0:23:31.2 Jordan Syatt: The delivery method. What would you say? Someone you just met, you’re at an event.

0:23:36.4 Mike Vacanti: Is it big and obvious?

0:23:38.4 Jordan Syatt: It’s a little green… They got a little green…

0:23:42.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, but is it little? Is it back here and just barely?

0:23:44.3 Jordan Syatt: No. It’s in the teeth. [0:23:45.1] ____.

0:23:46.1 Mike Vacanti: It’s front teeth like right there. Yeah. “Hey man, you got some spinach right here. There you go. Got it out.”

0:23:50.0 Jordan Syatt: So the last part was a big part of it. Oh, there you go. Pat him on the back, pat him on the shoulder. Got it out. Good job.

0:23:57.8 Mike Vacanti: I care. I actually don’t know where exactly it comes from, but it’s a fundamental like… I think it’s actually a feeling more than logical or reasoned out that that is the right thing to do. I don’t care if he kills the messenger and then we have an awkward… He views me awkwardly because I called him out on this. I’m not going to let some guy go through this whole event with spinach between his teeth and have no one tell him. And then he gets back to his hotel room three hours later and he’s like, “What is this?” I would want to be told.

0:24:32.4 Jordan Syatt: Because you’d want to be told. You would want to be told that.

0:24:34.0 Mike Vacanti: Everyone would want to be told that.

0:24:35.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, exactly. That’s how I think I would approach. I’d be like, “Hey, listen, I’m only saying this because I know if it was me, I’d want someone to tell me, you’ve got something in your teeth. You might want to go take it out.”

0:24:45.7 Mike Vacanti: You focus on the delivery method. I can’t be bothered.

0:24:50.8 Jordan Syatt: “Hey, fix your teeth.”

0:24:53.3 Mike Vacanti: And there’s economy of words and time and introversion. I don’t want to spend three paragraphs making him feel good about the tooth thing.

0:25:01.0 Jordan Syatt: Would you ever just not say a word? Would you just do this and like, hey, point to your teeth as…

0:25:07.6 Mike Vacanti: It’s not really my style.

0:25:08.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. You’d say, “Hey, you got something in your teeth.”

0:25:10.7 Mike Vacanti: I think so. Where are you at in terms of…

0:25:15.2 Jordan Syatt: Leaving social media.

0:25:16.5 Mike Vacanti: Over under on how much time you have left on social media?

0:25:18.3 Jordan Syatt: Dude, I’m so close to just piecing out.

0:25:27.5 Mike Vacanti: Have you tried…

0:25:28.3 Jordan Syatt: Not my podcast. This podcast, my podcast, I love them and I will do them. You know what the biggest issue is, is that the Instagram is still a huge driver to the podcast.

0:25:41.3 Mike Vacanti: Have you gone in and thought, okay, if I stop doing X and reduce that driving to the podcast, and let’s say it still can grow just more slowly, and maybe that means growth slows or revenue starts to decline. Have you tried to work out? Can that work?

0:26:03.6 Jordan Syatt: Are you asking if I’m making a budget perspective?

0:26:06.3 Mike Vacanti: Not even a budget, but just, I know you had said last week that you asked James if he still gets signups for stuff even though he’s not posting as frequently. And he said yes, but it’s slower than it was.

0:26:19.7 Jordan Syatt: He says it’s way down. Yeah, he said it’s way down.

0:26:22.2 Mike Vacanti: All right.

0:26:22.6 Jordan Syatt: And he’s focusing on other… He has other businesses now. So he has his energy drink, Neutonic… Or drink with Chris Williamson, Neutonic, and he has his business stuff, which he’s running ads towards, I get his ads for his business thing all the time. So he’s just focusing on other things. And he’s more relying on ads rather than organic content.

0:26:44.3 Mike Vacanti: So realistically, you are not close to stopping social media.

0:26:49.3 Jordan Syatt: I’m definitely not as close as I would like, because if it was as close as I would like, I would leave today, yesterday. I would have been gone. Gone. Out.

0:27:01.3 Mike Vacanti: Done. It might ebb and flow. It might become enjoyable.

0:27:04.7 Jordan Syatt: Doubt it. I have to say, I love and enjoy speaking with people who are kind and we have wonderful conversations. I like that. I love being able to help people. It’s a lot of the dumb drama and a lot of the just the… Dude, I had someone yesterday, I can’t make this up, I took a screenshot of it. I had some… So I reposted a video of mine that did really well about all the different waters. Like, don’t drink tap water, don’t drink cold water, don’t drink plastic water.

0:27:41.0 Mike Vacanti: I remember that.

0:27:41.7 Jordan Syatt: So I reposted it. Because it did really well, people thought it was funny. So I reposted it and I had someone who left a comment. And this isn’t a random person. This is a person who I’ve interacted with a lot. Who left a comment saying to the effect of… And I have a screenshot of it, to the effect of, I always… Someone else left a comment being like, “The plastic bottles are bad, they reduce sperm count or something, as you’re drinking from a plastic bottle.” I love it. They reduce sperm count. And then this woman goes in and she says, “I really hope that’s true because I cringe every time he talks about having more kids.” Basically saying she hopes that I drink from plastic bottles and that it reduces my sperm count so I can’t continue to have more kids. And I screenshotted it.

0:28:38.9 Mike Vacanti: That’s a wild thing to say to anyone.

0:28:40.7 Jordan Syatt: I screenshotted it. I sent it to her. And I was like, I get a lot of crazy, weird messages. This is without question one of the most gross things I’ve ever seen someone say online. And then she unfollowed me. And we’ve had a lot of… All positive interaction for that. She’s even commented on videos of my kids being like, “Oh, they’re so adorable.” And then to say… I was like, this is absolutely disgusting for you to think that this would be something. The fact that you even have that thought is worrisome, period. The fact that that went into your brain as a thought, but then to post it publicly is so wild. So it’s not the content creation. It’s not the being able to help people. I love all that stuff. It’s the shit like that where I’m like, what the fuck?

0:29:37.6 Mike Vacanti: And I think most people understand that. Like, the crazy, drama weirdness, hate.

0:29:42.6 Jordan Syatt: But I don’t think most people know that stuff happens. I don’t think most people comprehend because especially if someone who loves and supports your work follows you, I don’t think they’re a normal person. They’re not thinking. Who would say… No one would say something like that. That’s crazy. But then when you’re getting these messages on a daily basis, you’re like, “Oh, my gosh, dude. People out of their fucking minds.”

0:30:04.1 Mike Vacanti: I think a lot of people might not, but people spend a lot of time on the internet and know that if you have a big audience, you’re getting a lot of weird, unhinged stuff. What do you think caused that person to do a 180?

0:30:21.4 Jordan Syatt: So we were talking, or she was messaging me back. She was like, “Well, I meant it from an environmental perspective, having kids is horrible for the environment.” And I was like, that’s…

0:30:33.3 Mike Vacanti: Got it. And now I know exactly… So her cringing at you having more kids wasn’t necessarily a direct attack on you. It’s that we are overpopulating the earth. It’s bad for the environment.

0:30:44.2 Jordan Syatt: She said that. She’s like, “We have to fight overpopulation.”

0:30:46.4 Mike Vacanti: Oh my gosh. I almost wish she just…

0:30:49.7 Jordan Syatt: That’s what she said.

0:30:50.4 Mike Vacanti: I almost wish she just like… I’m not even gonna say it, but that’s an unhinged reason to say something like that.

0:30:57.4 Jordan Syatt: Isn’t that crazy?

0:30:58.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:31:00.5 Jordan Syatt: It was one of the most gross things someone could have said. But then it’s one thing to say we need to fight overpopulation. It’s another thing to say, I hope his sperm count is… I hope you have physical negative side effects from this. To wish that on someone is psychotic.

0:31:16.6 Mike Vacanti: The internet is definitely… This word is overused, but radicalizing/polarizing people in a real way.

0:31:28.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, agreed. In a bad way.

0:31:31.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah.

0:31:32.1 Jordan Syatt: So ideally, I’d be gone immediately.

0:31:35.3 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, we have a population decline problem, by the way. We don’t have an overpopulation problem.

0:31:39.5 Jordan Syatt: That’s what I’m saying. We have a population, yes, especially here in the United States.

0:31:45.9 Mike Vacanti: In a ton of Western countries… Immigration, obviously, you can’t just look at population…

0:31:55.1 Jordan Syatt: No, birth rate.

0:31:57.4 Mike Vacanti: Right. But how do you break birth rate? Yeah. And some Eastern countries. I’m pretty sure China and Japan have real birth rate issues.

0:32:05.6 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, because they were trying to stop it for a while.

0:32:08.0 Mike Vacanti: China was, yeah.

0:32:08.9 Jordan Syatt: And now they’re trying to incentivize it, where I’m pretty sure the government is sending text messages being like, “Hey, make sure you’re having more kids.”

0:32:18.7 Mike Vacanti: Are they?

0:32:19.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, that’s what I heard. Maybe I’ve been misled. I saw some news stories about it.

0:32:26.9 Mike Vacanti: I’ve seen people float ideas for government incentives for having more kids.

0:32:36.3 Jordan Syatt: I just Googled, is China trying to incentivize having kids? AI overview. Yes, China is actively trying to incentivize having more children by implementing nationwide financial subsidies such as 3,600 yuan, $500 annual payment per child until age three and has experimented with local cash bonuses, tax breaks, and extended leave policies. They’re trying to pay people to have more kids.

0:33:03.9 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, and look, by the way, we don’t need to debate the overpopulation, underpopulation as two personal trainers sitting here, but what I will say with certainty is even if your position is that having more kids is bad for the environment, et cetera, we’re fighting overpopulation, to phrase it like that and to direct it at you in a comment is wild, or to direct it at any individual in a comment, yeah.

0:33:30.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I think it even hit… If it was someone who didn’t follow me or someone who I’ve had really negative experiences with, it would matter less, because I’m like, oh, that’s just a…

0:33:41.4 Mike Vacanti: It’s way harder.

0:33:42.7 Jordan Syatt: But for someone who’s replied to stories of my kids, “Oh, they’re so beautiful, da, da, da, da.” And who’s been otherwise very kind in every interaction, that hit in a way I was like, oh man, even the people who supposedly are kind and supportive, you don’t know what they’re fucking thinking or doing.

0:34:04.2 Mike Vacanti: That’s interesting, that’s where your mind goes, because I just assumed that that person’s perspective and beliefs changed since they were saying the nice things to you over the years.

0:34:13.3 Jordan Syatt: Even recently, though, recently as within the last couple of weeks.

0:34:17.2 Mike Vacanti: Oh, wow. Yeah. I’m with you. If you see someone who you helped in the DMs going back nearly a decade, and then they do something like that or unfollow, it’s like, yeah. Look, there’s pros and cons.

0:34:30.9 Jordan Syatt: Pros and cons, and I think the pros outweigh the cons, and historically for me, the pros have massively outweighed the cons. Now it’s just getting to the point where it’s like, maybe I don’t need the pros that I’ve historically needed before as much, but I still do. But hopefully one day soon.

0:34:50.4 Mike Vacanti: We actually have an audience question that follows up nicely here.

0:34:57.7 Jordan Syatt: Wow.

0:34:58.4 Mike Vacanti: “Hi, Mike and Jordan, look forward to listening to your podcast every Tuesday.” I’m gonna paraphrase a little bit. “Only found your podcast a year ago, I wish I found it sooner. I’m hoping to join the mentorship soon. I’ve been an in-person trainer for 10 years, started dabbling online training in 2021. I enjoy in-person coaching. Most of my clients been working with me for three to seven years. I like having the in-person interactions, develop good relationships with them. I do 10 to 15 hours a week in person. My online business has always been slow. My retention rate is very high. Most clients stay with me for one to two years online at least. I know I have a good system in place, but I struggle to get new clients in. I do not post consistently on social media. I go through phases of posting, but I can never keep consistent. I do know the only way to grow my online business is be more present online/post more. My struggle is I do have a good base and make decently consistent money, but have never been able to push past my current stage.

0:35:56.6 Mike Vacanti: So number one, can you guys see other ways to grow an online business without posting consistently on social media? And number two, I will admit I could be doing more and working harder to bring more business in. I find a lot of the advice… ” You know what? Let’s answer the first one first. Ways to grow an online business without posting consistently on social media.

0:36:26.1 Jordan Syatt: In other words, so first I’ll say thank you for your support. Really glad you love the podcast. Super excited to have you in the mentorship. We’re gonna rephrase the question, which is, are there ways to grow online without posting online? Is essentially what the question is. Now there are, there are ways to do it. But if we outline the main benefits of posting online is that you have the ability and the opportunity to reach significantly more people with significantly less effort. And what I mean by effort, effort needs to be quantified here because a great video on Instagram could take many, many hours. So it’s still a lot of effort, but that one video could reach tens, hundreds, thousands of people, which could then lead to, could completely change your business. Whereas you could build an amazing online business from in-person coaching. You can do that, but that takes a lot longer and it’s a one by one person game. You could do gorilla, you could go door to door. You could literally go door to door in the city, the neighborhood, and door to door marketing is arguably the most difficult.

0:37:57.3 Jordan Syatt: Door to door sales, it’s arguably the most difficult form of sales ever because people… The only thing that would be more difficult would probably be cold calling people because it’s a little bit more challenging for people to slam the door in your face. Cold calling people, it’s just, “Why are you calling my house? Do I call you at this time?” So I think that’s probably more difficult. But you could do that. You could cold call, you could go door to door, you could go… Another great way to build an online business would be, I used to do this pretty frequently, is I would go to a gym, not one that I worked at, but I would go to a public gym, and I would work out at a public gym. And I knew that based on my strength levels and how I was perceived in the gym, people would come up to me and ask, how am I doing what I’m doing? And then I’d be like, “I do online coaching.” And I would get clients from that. But also, it wouldn’t happen every time I go to the gym, and sometimes I’d be there and no one would say anything, but after going to that gym seven to 12 times and they saw me deadlift, they saw me squat, and then eventually making eye contact, they would eventually come up to me and be like, “I’ve seen you lift a bunch of times, how do you do that?” So think about total time and effort and energy to get that one client is significantly more than fucking posting on social media.

0:39:24.7 Mike Vacanti: The internet is a lever. You, in that situation, are being seen doing something impressive by 17 people. If you do something impressive in a video, thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people can see that one video. The advantage of the in-person approach is, one, you don’t have to have the cons of social media that we’ve been talking about for a lot of this episode. The other one is you can build more depth. You’re face to face, you’re having a conversation with someone, so you have that opportunity, but like you said, it takes a lot more time to build online without being present online.

0:40:05.8 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, and even to the point of online, you were saying thousands and tens of thousands, even if you get 50 people to watch a video of you, 50, people are like, “Oh, I’ve only got 50 views.” Could you imagine 50 people standing around watching you lift? You’d shit yourself. You’d be like, this is really awkward. This is really difficult. And you feel you have to perform. You have 50 people who consistently are impressed by what you’re posting online and then eventually want to work with you. You’ve got a great online business. That’s a six-figure online business, 50 clients.

0:40:41.9 Jordan Syatt: Now the cool part is you don’t have to be posting every day, multiple times a day, spending eight hours a day on social media in order to make this work, but you’ve got to have some level of consistency. It’s the exact same thing with fitness. It’s like you don’t have to track every single calorie. You don’t have to get 15,000 steps every day. You don’t have to be taking all the supplements. You don’t have to be at 6% body fat. You don’t have to do that. But if you want to be relatively athletic and relatively strong and relatively healthy, you’ve got to at least pay a little bit of attention to your nutrition. You’ve got to go to the gym a few times a week. You’ve got to progressively overload a little bit. You’ve got to put in some effort. And so that’s the exact same thing with social media. If you could show up three days a week of really good effort. Not like just if someone goes to the gym and they just treat it like, I’m checking the box. Yes, it’s better than nothing. We all agree that’s better than nothing. Congratulations you’re going to the gym.

0:41:45.7 Jordan Syatt: But if you want to actually make legitimate progress, you have to work hard. So if you did three days a week of a really high-quality posts where you spent several hours putting it together, and by the way, it doesn’t have to be done in one day. Three days a week, you could make a really good video over the course of a couple days. But three days a week of a really high-quality video would absolutely, over the long term, help grow your online business.

0:42:13.1 Mike Vacanti: I’m going to read the second one here. “I will admit I could be doing more and working harder to bring in more business. I find a lot of the advice online is typically geared towards men and saying they should work hard to provide for their families, etc. I am a woman, no kids, but I am engaged, and my fiancé is extremely successful. So money is not a huge factor for me. I still want to grow my business and make it successful because I enjoy it, and making my own money is a good feeling. What tips would you give someone like me? Thank you both for all you do. Kirstie.”

0:42:47.7 Jordan Syatt: Thank you, Kirstie. I also love how objective she is and like, yeah, I could be working harder. And you and I have spoken about this a lot, and we spoke about this in the last Q&A we did in the mentorship last week. If money’s not a real issue and you don’t got that fire under your ass, it’s much easier to be like, “No.” Listen, think of it this way. If money wasn’t an issue and finances were not a problem for me in any way, shape, or form, I wouldn’t be on social media. If my finances were set, if I was at my financial goals, gone. I wouldn’t be on Instagram. I would still do my podcast because I love it. I would still be in the inner circle. I would still be in the mentorship. Gone off social media. Deleted. Erased. Sayonara. See you later. Never. I’d be out. So if money isn’t an issue, it’s a gift and a curse because money’s not an issue. What an incredible blessing. And also the curse is now you’ve got to find something else to light that fire if you can. The people that I’ve found who tend, not always, but tend to be the most savages in really finding that motivation with whatever it is, whether it’s business, with fitness, whatever, there’s a level of fear.

0:44:11.9 Jordan Syatt: They’ve got this fire under them that’s pushing them to keep doing this. There’s something there and you need to find what that is. And maybe it’s just I want to help as many people as possible. Great. But if that’s not enough for you, then you’ve got to find another… This is why I think fear is such a great motivator because fear will often push people to do this stuff.

0:44:32.6 Mike Vacanti: I’m with you operating from the perspective of how do I get myself to make a big business, to build this online business, to make more money. I would ask yourself why you want to have an online business that makes a lot of money given the fact that you don’t like being online and you don’t need money.

0:44:55.9 Jordan Syatt: That’s a great question.

0:44:57.6 Mike Vacanti: And by the way, I can completely relate because every which way we turn our heads in person and online, it’s keeping up with the Joneses. It’s this house. It’s this car. It’s this Gucci bag. It’s this brand. It’s eat at this restaurant. It’s go on this vacation. It’s do this. We have a very high spend materialistic world of consumption beyond what we need, like our basic needs, and that drives people to want to have more money and people who don’t need more. That’s worth analyzing. Yeah, I don’t have a great answer. Or maybe I do and it’s just not the answer you want to hear, Kirstie. If I was in your position, I would continue to coach people in person. You enjoy it and you like the relationships you’re building. I would continue to coach people online. It’s going really well in terms of retention.

0:46:03.4 Jordan Syatt: Your retention is amazing.

0:46:05.7 Mike Vacanti: And slowly build without being on social media because it’s either that or it’s create a fake fire. It’s either that or you’re Michael Jordan. After a game, you pretend that the opponent said something he didn’t to put yourself in this angry mindset so you can perform the next game. Why do you do that? There’s a reason people who played against Jordan say he was unhinged and a maniac and a psychopath.

0:46:31.7 Jordan Syatt: I love those stories.

0:46:33.5 Mike Vacanti: [0:46:34.1] ____ They’re incredible. They’re very entertaining. However, I don’t think I would have wanted to be him.

0:46:38.9 Jordan Syatt: Oh, yeah, no.

0:46:40.7 Mike Vacanti: And for basically all of my life, I wouldn’t have said that.

0:46:54.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah. You’re a dad now. You don’t want to be that as a dad.

0:46:56.0 Mike Vacanti: Even prior to that, though, like…

0:47:00.0 Jordan Syatt: Oh, really?

0:47:01.4 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, the last… Dude, I haven’t posted consistently in years.

0:47:05.5 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, but you’re also… You’re so family-focused. You live where you live because your family is there. So maybe it’s not even just the dad. It’s maybe just your family, man.

0:47:15.8 Mike Vacanti: It’s that I had a taste of it. It’s that I lived in an unnecessarily nice apartment. It’s that I got recognized walking down the streets of Manhattan. It’s that like… And what? 1% of it? Half a percent of it? Just a taste of it? But it was like, okay, I thought this was going to make me feel some type of way. And it doesn’t. And so more and more and more isn’t going to make me feel that or fill that. Yeah. It’s a really good question.

0:47:54.8 Jordan Syatt: It’s a really… Yeah.

0:47:56.1 Mike Vacanti: But I would start with why do I want a bigger online business? And maybe it does justify it. I don’t… Because that might have been a little too judgy. Maybe expensive dinners and some nice clothes is something that justifies that you do value and does justify spending time making content even though you don’t want to so you can have more disposable income so you can have those nice things. I’m not going to make a value judgment on it. But if the outcome of having the bigger business is worth the downside of doing the things to create the bigger business, then go for it. But if the outcome isn’t worth it, then don’t spend your time doing something you don’t want to be doing. And continue to help the people who are in front of you. Continue to help the people who have their 10 to 15 hours of in-person sessions every single week and the ones who are working with you online right now.

0:48:51.3 Jordan Syatt: Clip that.

0:48:52.3 Mike Vacanti: I got one you might like.

0:48:53.9 Jordan Syatt: Okay. I can’t wait to hear which one you think I’m going to like.

0:48:57.0 Mike Vacanti: “Hey, Mike and Jordan. I got a question for the pod. Really enjoy your content, by the way. Awesome stuff. Has gym culture changed or have I? I’m a 33-year-old normal guy. I strength train three times a week. We’ll add some running, long walks, basketball or tennis just because I enjoy those things. But don’t call me a hybrid athlete. I’m just a normal guy. I’ve been working out at commercial gyms for 14 years. Back in the day, I would watch the latest Steve Cook Soldier Nation video and hit it hard for 90 minutes and keep to myself. The more I look around my commercial gym these days, I see tons of high school kids in their pajama pants and swingers making loud obnoxious noises with no respect for those around them. On the other end, it’s almost weekly where I have to step out of my way of a female wearing almost nothing who’s taking a gym selfie in the mirror right by the dumbbells. The more I look around, the more I see that I’m the person who’s not like everyone else. And I kind of love it. Is it me who’s changed or is it the culture? Thanks guys. Hope my question made sense.”

0:50:02.9 Jordan Syatt: I love it. You’re right. I love this one. Dude, yeah, you’re just getting older. We’re changing. We’ve changed.

0:50:10.7 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, and I would have said… Two or three years ago, I would have said the culture’s changing. People are becoming… I don’t even know the word I would have used, but I would have said that the culture is changing. I now disagree. If you rewatch any movies from between 2000 and 2008, they were overtly sexual. They were like, it is you individual who has changed, not the culture who has changed.

0:50:45.3 Jordan Syatt: You’re maturing. You’re like 100%. And I feel the exact same way where I’m like, my wife and I tell… We’re just old. And I know we’re only 34, but we’re old. We’re getting… We’re older curmudgeons now. And we’re like, “Why are you dressed like that?” Men and women, by the way, like why are you wearing that? What are you doing? Stop. Why are you doing that? Yeah, you’re just getting older and more mature.

0:51:09.9 Mike Vacanti: There was a… Yeah, stringers have been around for basically wife beaters. A slightly loose tank like that. Nip comes out on the side. I used to wear those in high school.

0:51:24.0 Jordan Syatt: Did you?

0:51:24.5 Mike Vacanti: Yeah, we’d cut our own stringers. Absolutely. And even I caught a clip on YouTube this morning. It was Ari Gold’s last scene in ‘Entourage’ in season eight, which was very interesting because I forgot the whole his arc in the show, but it was he was in Italy on vacation with his wife and they were having a great time. They’d come back together, after being separated. And he had come to the conclusion that family was more important than his job. And he gets a phone call while he’s in Italy of the studio head who was basically offering him this unbelievable position to run everything. And it was this moment of temptation, where he had put that life behind him and he was with his family now and he’s got his wife back. But now he has this giant opportunity. But in the scene, his wife… And I know it was on HBO, but his wife is in this tiny bikini and then crawls on top of him. And the camera is right behind her butt and she’s arched and this has been… We have changed. Because I would have thought like, oh no, the culture is becoming more this way. I don’t think so.

0:52:44.6 Jordan Syatt: I agree. Yeah, I completely agree. We’re getting older. Our values have changed. What we view as appropriate or inappropriate has changed. It’s 100% on us for sure. And I try and keep that in mind too because I remember, man, I feel I’m going to sound so old, but I remember being a kid and being in those moments and situations just having fun. It’s all from a place of freedom, fun, enjoyment. And so I don’t want to be that older dude who’s like, stop doing this. Listen, enjoy it. Your kid wants… The amount of time that your kid is so small, it’s like enjoy it. But also you can be annoyed about it in your head, but also it’s they’re kids. Let them have some fun.

0:53:33.1 Mike Vacanti: Yeah. Five 16-year-olds in flip-flops standing around a bench maxing out and one of them’s kind of blocking another bench that would be nice to use, but they’re having fun. So I was in one of your books last night, the Tanakh, in the book of Ecclesiastes.

0:53:56.9 Jordan Syatt: Tanakh.

0:53:58.5 Mike Vacanti: Tanakh. I don’t have the…

0:54:01.5 Jordan Syatt: You’ve got it.

0:54:03.7 Mike Vacanti: Otherwise known as the Old Testament. Ecclesiastes 7:10. This was a bit of wisdom that I had not heard or considered before, but it’s real quick. “Do not say why were the old days better than these for it is not wise to ask such questions.” Essentially, and I do this all the time with the ’90s glorifying the ’90s, hating on social media, being like, I just want it to be like it was then. I need to chew on this because the why wasn’t clear as to why this nostalgia is bad. Yes. But it was interesting because I realized I do it and didn’t think there was any harm in it, but I’m going to pay attention to that.

0:54:56.6 Jordan Syatt: Can you read it again?

0:54:57.8 Mike Vacanti: “Do not say why were the old days better than these for it is not wise to ask such questions.”

0:55:04.6 Jordan Syatt: Where does your brain go? What’s your gut instinct as to why this wouldn’t be wise?

0:55:11.8 Mike Vacanti: Glorifying the past leading to not making the most of the present. It’s almost a victim mindset of, well, things weren’t how they used to be and they were so good back then, but now everything stinks. I’m just in here scrolling on my phone. “Hey, guess what, pal? Put your phone down and go outside.” There’s still grass and sun and beauty in the world to be enjoyed. Just because you have the option to use technology more doesn’t mean you have to or whatever you’re glorifying.

0:55:50.9 Jordan Syatt: Yeah, I relate to that not being able to take advantage or appreciate the moment because when I hear this, my immediate gut response was the cliche that every day is a gift. And the fact that you’re here on this day right now is a gift in and of itself. And the fact that you can’t enjoy this gift, this most miraculous present that you’ve been… You woke up this morning. There’s a prayer in Hebrew, it’s called the Modeh Ani. You say it every morning when you wake up, basically thanking God for returning your soul into your body. And it’s like for you not to be appreciative and to enjoy or to take advantage of this gift that is today while looking back on not even necessarily what was but what you perceive it was in that moment is a disservice to not just you and to those close to you but also to those who weren’t able to get to today for whatever reason.

0:57:03.4 Mike Vacanti: Well said.

0:57:04.1 Jordan Syatt: I like that.

0:57:05.0 Mike Vacanti: That’s the episode. We got a mentorship Q&A in 15 minutes. Jordan, do you have anything to say to the people?

0:57:12.8 Jordan Syatt: No, that’s it. This is great. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening. Oh, do we have a sale coming up soon?

0:57:18.9 Mike Vacanti: We do but we’re not going to shout it out just yet. We’re not going to continue to shout it out. We’ll leave this in there, David. That was just the natural soft mention just rolled off Jordan’s tongue. He’s been doing this for years so it just happens. Yeah, Black Friday sale is on the horizon. So just we’ll let you know when it’s coming. Keep listening. If you’re not on our email list, you can do that in the get the 30 Ways to Build Your Online Fitness Business free guide that we put together in the show notes, in the YouTube description. And yeah, have a great week. We’ll see you soon.

0:57:52.1 Jordan Syatt: See ya.