April 1, 2020
19-year gym business anniversary
Today is my gym’s 19th anniversary. I started X Fitness from scratch in 2001, long before our competition started, before social media, before PMS – Post-Modern Society – replaced #ScoringTime with #ScrollingTime. There is nothing harder to sell than working out. Nothing. No exceptions. I did not inherit my gym. My poor illiterate Italian immigrant parents, Antonio and ...March 30, 2020
Soul-selling—Dual Meaning – free chapter 1 of my new book
Soul-selling—Dual Meaning This book is not the conventional business book. Being a gym owner sounds like fun until it has to be done. This book spills my guts about how I have to spill my guts as a gym owner and strength coach. I wrote this book during the Coronavirus Pandemic as part of the most intense, complicated soul-searching I’ve had to do in my life. Soul-selling has a dual meaning: ...March 27, 2020
Solving Charlie’s biggest problem.
When I was a detective, I arrested one of the most dangerous, violent psychopaths I have even met in my life. I will call him Charlie, not his real name. Charlie had beaten a Good Samaritan almost to death, a Good Samaritan who tried to intervene and help Charlie’s girlfriend from an assault by Charlie. The Good Samaritan simply said, “Hey, what’s going on?” That’s it. Charlie attacked him ...March 26, 2020
#SideEffects – solving one of your biggest problems.
If you don’t self-reflect, you will never see the #SideEffects – dual meaning. That’s Real-Life Lesson #13,465 that I’ve taught football players for 40 years, college law enforcement students for 2 decades, and my #WomensLiftingTeam since 1992. #SideEffects has a dual meaning. The horrible side-effects of having the enemy adversely effect your side when the enemy infiltrates your side, ...March 25, 2020
If you can die, don’t live a lie.
This is for those who asked for it – thank you. If you can die, don’t live a lie. That’s what I taught all my football players and college law enforcement students for 4 decades – if you can get killed in a job or sport, take it seriously with life-and-death urgency. #Complacency kills. #Contentment is an anabolic agent of complacency. This video at the bottom of this ...March 24, 2020
Working out saved my life – part 1
Working out has saved my life more than once during the my 50-year workout streak in-progress, including the past 11 months during recovery of a life-threatening illness. Working out has been and always will be #essential to my life. The word #essential is an abstract concept, open wide-ranging interpretation. What is #essential is dependent on a number of elements including personal ...March 21, 2020
The danger of ignoring the truth.
15 years of #policing taught me the enormity of the #truth and the gravity of #lies. Ignoring the true is dangerous. Believing lies is dangerous. The difference between truth and lies is a matter of life and death. When I got hired as an 18 yr old #policeofficer, I was repeatedly warned about #gullibility and naivete. I was taught about the Value of Evidence and the need to evaluate ...March 19, 2020
#WakeUp every day – part 3
Another meaning of #WakeUp every day – Open your eyes to relevance. I have taught all my football players for 40 years, college law enforcement students for 2 decades, and my #WomensLiftingTeam since 1992 that one of the top 26 reasons why you are stressed, anxious, frustrated, fearful, and chronically losing is Immersion in Poison. That means fully-focusing on toxicity that you will ...March 17, 2020
#WakeUp every day – part 2
3rd meaning of #WakeUp every day is this: Open up or get #shutout. The scoreboard showed we #WonBig. But, my post-game speech suggested otherwise. It sounded like we got mauled, like we got the hell beat out of us. 18 years ago, I repeated #WAKEUP 14 times during a post-game speech, following a victory, not a loss. The scoreboard showed we won 44-14. The conventional definition of that score ...March 15, 2020
#WakeUp every day – multiple meanings
I posted a video today on Instagram that teaches Real-Life Lesson #18,745 that I’ve taught all my football teams for 40 years, college law enforcement students for 2 decades, and #WomensLiftingTeams since 1992 – #WakeUp every day. Multiple meanings. 1st meaning. Open your eyes wider and wider to the world around you. My job as coach and college law enforcement professor was to make ...February 18, 2020
Dear Parents pt 1
Dear #Parents. This video is with the deepest, most profound #love and respect: 1. You have the toughest job in the world. 2. I have seen your kids become #groundbreakers and #superstars academically and athletically after they started from Minus-Zero. 3. Your biggest #fight is with #PeerPressure that constitutes #FearPressure, intended to F’up your #LovedOnes in mind-body-soul. 4. The ...February 9, 2020