Don Saladino, Fitness Legend and Celebrity Trainer

This week on the show we are getting SERIOUS about discipline. Don Saladino has trained some of the highest profile people on the PLANET. Now we talk about that, but the the life lessons from our conversation goes well beyond the gym and goes far deeper than status.

We became fast friends at Dr. Gabrielle Lyon's Forever Strong Summit and I knew we had to talk about his BURN. 

Don has coached actors, athletes, & musicians for 25+ years. He opened his first NYC Gym in 2005. After operating brick & mortar gyms for 15 years, Don expanded to a global online fitness business. He has developed a reputation for training some of the biggest names in Hollywood for the big screen. Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Liev Schreiber, Sebastian Stan, Anne Hathaway, Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, & David Harbour are among his roster of clients.

He has been tapped as a fitness expert in publications such as Muscle & Fitness, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, & Men’s Fitness. He has also been featured in People, US Weekly, Origins, In Touch, Cosmo, & Shape; and has made appearances doing live fitness demos on The Today Show, Page Six TV, People NOW, E News, Fox News, & WebMD. He sits on the advisory board of Men’s Health Magazine.

Check out the MANY ways to work with Don 
https://donsaladino.com

https://www.bennewmancoaching.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the stuff that like people need to hear, because people lose sight of the importance of being the example.

Speaker 2: 0:06

Connage shut off my power and members are like where's the power? I'm like windows up, shades up, do I have to start singing? Let's get some energy up in here. People would just start laughing and we move and like my heart would be racing because I'd be like, oh my God, I gotta keep my game face on right now. And then I got to go find money and I got to be able to make this happen.

Speaker 1: 0:37

Welcome back to another episode of the Burn. I am Ben Newman and you know how we do this. Every single week we're going to bring you a story of an athlete, an entertainer, a celebrity, somebody from the business world, an entrepreneur, a coach that has found out in their life that why and purpose is not enough. It's this underlying burn that ignites your why and purpose and causes you to be disciplined on the days you don't want to do it and especially after you win. Today is a very, very special guest. He's a very, very new friend, but it feels like we've known each other for 30 years. I haven't had a connection like this that hit this hard literally in years, and I attribute it to our mutual friend and our dear friend giving Don Saladino and I the opportunity to meet at the Forever Strong Summit.

Speaker 1: 1:29

Dr Gabrielle Lyon. Free shout out for Dr Lyon, even though, don, I think we know Dr Lyon needs no shout outs these days. None, none. But free shout out to Dr Lyon for bringing us together at the Forever Strong Summit. I am so fired up to have you on the show. Thanks, brian. Wait, we just met, damn man Like we're going on 20 years at least.

Speaker 2: 1:55

I'm telling you Scary Scary, scary Scary.

Speaker 1: 1:58

Scary. When people literally get done here in this, they're going to be like no, no, no, that that was a joke. Like this is like an inside joke. They've known each other for a long time, so everybody I know that you know Don Saladino. He's going to try to play humble, not the case? You've probably seen him on the cover of fitness magazines. You have probably seen him on the Today Show. You've seen him on plenty of TV shows, in articles, magazines. It's unbelievable what he has done. The trainer to the stars Ryan Reynolds, blake Lively, you name it. He's preparing them for movies. He's helping them understand how to elevate mentally and physically. His resume is absolutely incredible.

Speaker 1: 2:38

But where we're going to go today is not the stuff that you want to hear about the actors and the celebrities, just like you always want to ask me about the athletes that I work with. We're going to get real today about how do you get to where you are. When you started 25 years ago and it took a lot of courage hey, what kind of a dad are you? You know? Is everything just sunshine and rainbows in your life, or is there actually challenges in your home? Because that's where Don and I connected. I don't know what it was.

Speaker 1: 3:05

But when we met it was like we just started having fun, we just started having these real conversations. So we decided we want to get real with you today, because that's how we can connect you to your burn and move the needle and also, from an ego standpoint, it protects me, because look at this guy, like go and look up pictures of this guy, like I mean I feel like I'm weak, I feel like I don't have any muscle, I feel like I haven't done anything in my life. So I would much rather have no conversations about anything that has to do with your physical appearance, so that it doesn't have to be compared to my physical appearance. So Don Saladino, the question is are you ready to roll, brother?

Speaker 2: 3:45

I'm ready to roll. Man, love you. This is fantastic. Again, I'm grateful to be on man. It really is an honor. And just so we are very clear here, dr Gabrielle Alain was telling me about you well before that we met and she just if you heard the things she was saying you would be. You'd have a big smile on your face right now.

Speaker 1: 4:04

I appreciate it and she said those things about you on stage and I think she just has a way to connect people. But the thing that I found about her connections, it's amazing, the relationships and the network she's established. I just I can't wait to continue to grow and attack together. Here's where I do want to start, because it is important. I can joke and say I don't want to talk about these things, but you don't get to where you are on your journey and the depth and the height of what you've done without having a burn, a fire, a passion that causes you to push and strain. Where does that come from for you?

Speaker 2: 4:42

You know it's got to be from when I was a kid. You know I had some things I was dealing with when I was younger. I'll back it up to second grade. I had a bad hearing problem, a bad stuttering problem. I didn't have being made fun of by kids and wasn't feeling significant and really feel like I was going to be good in anything. And then I found some things I was good at and had some good parents that always just kind of supported me and they enforced hard work and they just said you know, don't worry about money, be just follow your passion and purpose. And I got to be honest with you. Looking back on it now, it's probably one of the things I'm most grateful for.

Speaker 2: 5:16

It's like when I got involved in my profession I wasn't thinking about a five year plan, a 10 year plan, a 20 year plan. There was no business plan. The business plan was simple, was to help change the life of that person. Like I wanted to go from being, or being considered to be a luxury as a trainer when, as I started as a trainer to necessity, I didn't want, I wanted it. I knew the power I had in that hour. I knew if I was going to be in front of someone for an hour, I had the power to send them off, feeling a certain way. So when I used to hear strength coaches say, you know, you've got to keep the goal of a goal, like when college baseball ended, for me there was the goal was to go into a session and and and and feel a certain way when I was leaving that session.

Speaker 2: 5:56

Now my training was always organized and I pride myself on the programs I write in the templates and periodizing things over time and laying out blocks of training. But like I would go into a program and I would commit to it, like I was committed to the Olympics, right, and I was just, I was all in and I didn't do that because I was one of my body try to 5% or I wanted my bench to be X or my squat to be Y. I did it because I just loved it. I was passionate about going in and working. There was like this it was this tug of war every time I got underweight or every time I had some type of an obstacle in front of me. It really was a tug of war. It's like how am I going to come out on the other side of this and that happened in business and happened in training and happened with my nutrition and I was really able to channel that energy and carry that to different walks of life.

Speaker 1: 6:45

The level of discipline to do what you do and to sustain it over this long period of time is truly, truly incredible. Thank you, let's go deep here. I think a lot of people they see your resume, they see who you work with. I am going to bring myself into this because this is where we started talking before we hit record and you know, people will see the things that I've done and they don't realize the sacrifice that you made or I've made to get to where we are.

Speaker 1: 7:14

And you said something that was really, really profound and I'd love for you to dive deep on this, talking about, over time, figuring out people who are willing to make deposits and then the people who are really takers in life, and I really love that conversation and I want to bring it to recording here because I think it's important, because some of the stories that you shared you know me at North Dakota State, when there's no budget, essentially I'm working for free and like you're coming home after a game on the sidelines, like I hope Amy doesn't ask what kind of check I got this weekend Right, and I'm like, hey, by the end of the year, like hey, how did that work out for us financially?

Speaker 1: 7:51

And you're like, yeah, what's the next question? Right, because I would always give the honest answer and thankfully she never asked the question. She just trusted that I had the judgment that working for free was a good thing that first year. But how have you found that to be so important? To take your time, do things for the right way, not to do it for money, but because of your real heart and passion.

Speaker 2: 8:12

You know, I've never done it for the money. I've never, because the money piece wears off right. Like you got to have passion and purpose in what you do. I think a lot of coaches will even reach out to me and they want to raise their session rate. And I'm like, all right, this is how you can go about doing it, this is how you can talk to your clients. But I'm warning you right now, in a year it's going to wear off. Like what do you mean? I'm like you're going to want another session rate. You're not the money, like you're just getting bored in what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 8:34

And I would even say this to my wife recently we could have our best month ever. And if I don't, if I'm not creating opportunity or if I feel like I'm not creating this path to be able to move forward and put ourselves into a better situation, I get really nervous. I'm like, all right, we're not doing what we need to be doing. My wife's looking at numbers. She's very type A. She's like this is our best January in the last four years. And I'm like, yeah, but we're not. You know, and I'm so, I'm always. And why is that? Because I, because I love growth. I do. I just love moving in a good direction and I love what I'm receiving out of doing all this and the money piece of it's great.

Speaker 2: 9:10

We need to make a living, let's be very clear, and I would like to make a lot of money, just like the next person, but for me, it's never been about that focus. It's just been about, you know, when I worked at a catering hall growing up I want I was sweeping floors. I wanted to be noticed as the best sweeper. I remember my dad was working in there. We had tuxes on.

Speaker 2: 9:28

I was 12 years old and I'm trying to sweep the fastest and move around from table to table and I'm trying to run the hardest to help move chairs. And you know, whatever it was like they used to, they used to put me up on chandeliers with. I was so little that they would tie napkins around my knees and elbows Because when I was crawling around the chandeliers to adjust the lights on the tables, there was so much dust and soot up there that you know they didn't want it to ruin my pants. I remember doing these things as a kid and I really, I really attribute my work ethic and my communication with people down to the fact that I grew up working in that place.

Speaker 3: 10:02

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Speaker 1: 10:45

You know it's interesting hearing you talk about this because there's so much we could unpack from work ethic and desire and those types of things. But let's go to something that you mentioned back to the business and doing things the right way, because almost what I'm hearing you say is a belief that we both carry, which is you have to attack the process and if you stop attacking the process, you get seduced by success. And if you got seduced by success, you would weigh 400 pounds or maybe 350 pounds, right? I mean, you would just eat what you wanted to eat and you would live to your feelings. And so it's interesting seeing this level of discipline that you carry.

Speaker 1: 11:22

How do you teach that to other people, right? So this because I always talk about the seduction of success Like, if you win a football game, if you ever want to win another football game, you have to repeat the disciplines that caused you to finish and win the first one, and then you have to break down the pieces. That game film that your opportunity to improve, right? So how are you teaching and coaching those methodologies to keep people from being seduced by success? Like you're not seduced?

Speaker 2: 11:47

It's got to be practiced right and I think it's understanding. One of the reasons why I love this industry that I jumped into is I really felt like most of it was in our control. Where I could play college baseball, I was a really good player. I played in division one school I was a three hitter, started myself more year through my senior year, so two year captain Like I had a good career, right, but you could still go into a game and strike out twice, so you could hit the ball hard four times and line out.

Speaker 2: 12:11

It's like it doesn't reflect the work that you did and I think one of the reasons why I fell in love with this was I was like, oh my God, I can change my physiology in that period of time. I can just go in and I can eat right, I can train, I can get my steps in, I can put work into this, into recovery and all these things, and I just feel better from it. And to have that type of power over yourself, over your mood, and be able to no matter what kind of change it, that, to me, was really powerful and that was practiced. And, to be honest, most people look at what I do and they're like oh my God, it's got to be so hard. Like it's actually I'm sorry to say this it's incredibly easy, because this is just what I've been doing. And if I wasn't like, don't you want to have a piece of pizza? I'm like, well, when I want to have a piece of pizza, I do. Sunday I was watching football. I had four slices of pizza, like loved it, delicious. The next day it was to business. Like I don't, I don't. Like I had my fun, I was done. And it's time to move on off of that. And I become like this robot where it's time to train. It doesn't matter what time it is. Like you said, like you worked out 2.33 in the morning. Like it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I have, it doesn't matter. And people, you're tired. Shouldn't you be sleeping? It's not about the muscle, it's not about my abs, it's about my mind, it's about going in. And if I wake up and I feel crappy, being able to change that mood instantaneously. And when you rinse and repeat, and rinse and repeat, and rinse and repeat for 20, 25, 30 years, like it just it becomes really easy. It's like anything else. It has to be practice.

Speaker 2: 13:39

Someone comes to me and they're like I'm not hungry in the morning, I don't eat breakfast. And I'm like well, when's the last time you had breakfast? Five years ago? I'm like, well, of course you're not hungry. Your body's learned to adapt to not eating breakfast. Like, if you want to start incorporating breakfast, then well, I feel like my energy's dropping. I feel like it would help me. All right, let's start building on this slowly.

Speaker 2: 13:57

And that's the problem is we just we might look at you know, ben Newman speaking and just say, well, you know I could be motivated, like, no, you don't you've got to go through 25, 30, 35 years of just excuse my language, shit Like just working for free. You know, meet, how many free training sessions did I do? Or how many moments have I bent over backwards for people that I just never saw again? And you know, was that wasted time? No, that allowed me to develop character. That allowed me to develop work ethic. I don't regret one of those free sessions. Even if I never saw those people again, or even if I, you know if they burned me, I'm still happy. I did it because it allowed me to be able to tell the story and it shows that level of resiliency. And coming back at it and coming back at it and coming.

Speaker 2: 14:40

I told you I miss almost 37 consecutive payrolls at my club. Like the American Express shut off my card Connage shut off my power and the next, you know, power goes off and I'm walking out and I remember it's like where's the power? I'm like freaking Verizon just hit a pipe outside, like the freaking, you know. I'm chasing them out Like windows up, shades up. Do I have to start singing? Let's get some energy up in here. And people would just start laughing and we'd move and like my heart would be racing because I'd be like, oh my God, I got to keep my game face on right now and then I got to go find money and I got to be able to make this happen. It's just part of my path, man. I'm not telling you I'd wish it on anyone. It was just part of my path and I made best use of it.

Speaker 1: 15:18

Yeah, it's incredible the adversity and challenge that you've shared and alluded to. But there's one thing that you said when we were together down in Austin for the event and it wasn't just to me, I mean, it was to everybody Sure, and you said this, and when I heard it I maybe heard it differently than everybody else. I really like to pay attention to the details. You said you haven't missed a workout since 1996. Yeah, and so when everybody hears, wait a second, he missed 37 payrolls, he did that. Wait a second, how did this guy keep it together? I say standard over feelings all the time. I mean for most people that breaks you, destroys you and you never come back again. But what I hear is he still worked out every day, he still did the little things every day. He still trained the people that were counting on him to. You still showed up. How important is it for people to continue to show up when you get your teeth kicked in in life?

Speaker 2: 16:16

You know it's, some people will go to the bottle, like I. Just I would go to training it. Just. I remember the day my wife you know my wife had our first kid and you know I'm literally running out of the hospital the next morning at you know five AM to go to the gym. It just it was a conversation I had with her early on and I'm like, listen, I don't know if you're ever gonna understand how I take her. You know there's certain things that you got to accept. This is who I am and this is and I need this and I'll run through walls if I can get this in.

Speaker 2: 16:44

But if you're sitting here trying to put shackles on me or keep me from doing these things that I need to do to focus on myself, people think of that as selfish. I think it's selfish to let yourself go. I think when you let yourself go, suddenly you're not leading by example for your children. Suddenly you're not able to be there and have that mood that you need to have for your partner and be able to deliver. You know, in life and in business, so if I didn't have that stuff, I'm not gonna be the dad I am, I'm not gonna be the person that I am. So I think I recognize at a really early age that it's gonna sound really terrible right now. I'm putting it this way, I'm keeping it real with you, like I was my most important client.

Speaker 2: 17:21

I would never, ever, ever book anyone over me. If I had 10 sessions booked out during the day and I had an hour and a half blocked the train, it could have been the most famous person on the planet. I would not take them on. I didn't care. I knew the. But I knew the importance. I knew if I let myself down like that, I would never be able to lead by example. It would never be believable. People would just look at me and I suddenly I'm just some other guy. Like part of what put me on the platform that I was put on was my discipline and, yeah, the type of person that I am. They realized that I wasn't in it for the social media. I wasn't in it for the press. I was really in it to help them improve. But it's gotta start with me. If I wanna be one of the best in the world at what I do, it's gotta start with me. I gotta lead by example on my own business card, you know so might be a reason.

Speaker 1: 18:09

I mean, this is the stuff that people need to hear, because whether you're a CEO and you're running a company, whether you're a head coach of a team, people lose sight of the importance of being the example. And that's not you being selfish. That's you saying if I don't honor that workout, I break the string. That goes back to 1996. I become a fraud and I will not stand in front of you and be a fraud when I'm supposed to be your coach and hold you disciplined and accountable. It's the same thing I always say.

Speaker 1: 18:42

There's all these people they get into speaking and coaching and work with sports teams. It's like, yeah, but you walk into the room, you look like you eat a fricking bag of donuts every day for breakfast, Like at the end of the day. Stop talking about the athlete that you once were. These kids are not gonna listen to you. If you're not disciplined yourself, Nobody's gonna be moved to take action by the guy who tells the story about what he used to do 20 years ago. It's we have to continue to do the work. We have to continue to do the work. It's the parent.

Speaker 2: 19:13

But think about it. It's the parent that contacts you and they're like what do my kids need to be? Even? What should they be doing? What workout plan should they be on? And I might, how old's your kid? Eight years old, 10 years old, 11. I'm like, why are you some of them? These are my friends and I'm like you're talking to me about your kids. You gotta get yourself straight first. You're gonna watch what you do. I've never forced food down my kids' throat. I have never talked to them about a diet. I have never forced them to. To be honest with you, I don't even like writing them programs. They've asked me my son, I was dying. Actually.

Speaker 2: 19:50

My son comes to me one day and it was at a time where he was like just starting to work out and I'd see him do it. I wouldn't open my mouth and he came in. How old is junior Junior's? 15 now, but this was probably around when he was 11, 12. Or he might've been 12, 13. And he comes to me and he goes hey, dad, can I show you something? And he goes yeah, he pulls out a program. So now I'm looking at him like my heart's racing. I'm like where the hell did he get this from? He goes yeah, I found some Brazilian guy in TikTok. He shredded and I'm just, I'm literally biting my head and he's like, what are you thinking? And I'm like, uh-huh, it's good. And I'm like, was it what I wanted? It was fine. But like, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna turn around and be like you just got crunches in there? I don't want you to flex your spine and that's stupid. You're an athlete and you're not a bodybuilder. Like my son wants to do something good for himself, as long as he's not getting under a squat bar where he's gonna crush his spine or do something completely asinine. You know what I said to him it's a nice job, but remember, keep it fun. And that started at a young age.

Speaker 2: 20:48

Great story my training partner, one of my training partners, one of my best friends, 61 years old, the guy's probably the most phenomenal shape. His name's Tone. We would go train out in my jungle gym and I think my son was seven years old one day and he comes running out, six or seven comes running out and he's like dad, dad, uncle Tone, I wanna train with you. And Tone kind of looks at me and smiles. He already knows what I'm up to. And I look at him, I go no man. He goes what? Like no man, this is big boy stuff. And you know, we're gonna go do big boy stuff. We're working right now. He looks at me and goes dad, I can do it. And I go all right, man. I said, listen, this is the deal. You can come with us, you can follow us around. The second you wanna be done, get inside, go do what you have to do. I'm not forcing you to do this stuff. I have enjoyment out of this. I love this. I'm here doing it because I wanna do it. And the second you don't wanna do it, I want you to leave. And he would come out and he would follow us around and he would move with us and he wouldn't stop, not like where most parents would be, like the kid would be like all right, I wanna go inside and I wanna, you know, to popcorn or do something. Let them be kids.

Speaker 2: 21:52

My kids one day turned to me and they said we wanna go for a hike. My wife and I are like great, well, and we promised you ice cream, we'll take you for ice cream that night right after they said great, so we go for a hike right after. We're like are you ready for ice cream? Like we're sweating. We walked like five or six miles Like they were young.

Speaker 2: 22:06

My wife and I are looking at each other impressed. And we look at them after and we're like you guys wanna go for ice cream down. I'm like, no, we wanna eat healthy, we want fruit smoothies. So we're like, okay, so we take them, we get them, fruit smoothies. Then three, four hours later they looked at us and they go can we get ice cream now? And you know what I said? Sure, but like the point was that most parents are gonna be like, no, no, no. Like let them be children. Like they're already doing things that are good, that are in a good direction. Where parents grew up is that kids get to a certain level of attention and then the parent wants to push them beyond it and then they end up hating you for it, or they end up hating the activity, or they have a bad affiliation with food or movement let's not even call it a workout plan. Movement, getting out and playing, like these are things that we need to be promoting, but the parent keep going, keep going, keep going, and I completely disagree with that.

Speaker 1: 22:55

You know, here's the way I have to go. I'm going to the part of our conversation that I love, because you and I talked about getting real as parents and I think a lot of times people hear this and what you're saying right now is probably not what people would expect. They would think that you hold workout classes in your facility at home and the kids come in the morning and then you've got a chef that's preparing these meals. I always tell people what do you think I do? Do you think I give motivational speeches at dinner at the house? I stand on the table and give a talk and then everybody goes all right, let's eat. That's not what happens. My kids don't want to hear that from me. My wife doesn't want to hear those things from me. That's not what happens in the house.

Speaker 1: 23:35

And you and I got real. It was like I don't remember who said it first, but it was like do you ever get angry with your kids? And then you looked at me and you were like yeah, I get angry with my kids. And we were like what? Do people think that we're not human? Like, guess what? I screw up as a dad all the time. I get angry as a dad.

Speaker 1: 23:56

There's things that, yeah, I could coach somebody on staying and having a neutral mindset. Guess what? I get angry sometimes, I get upset with my boy and I got to go to him and say buddy man, I'm sorry man, and I think that's one of the things people think is that this frickin' world that we're in is you have to be perfect and everything's fine. And I give motivational speeches on the dining room table and my children are perfect and I'm perfect. Like that's not the world that we live in. And I think that was the moment where you and I clicked. It was like man, it's refreshing to just talk to somebody who's like cutting it real, like we're just, we're human beings. I get upset with my kids, I mess up things with my wife, I forget stuff at the grocery store, I screw stuff up all the time and I pick up dog shit in the backyard. It just, it is what it is.

Speaker 2: 24:40

You know amen on that. Even like when I talk about with nutrition, people discuss with 80, 20 rule. If you focus on the good stuff, the majority of the time it's going to pay dividends. Like as parents, we're not going to be perfect and we're going to screw up. And I've looked at my kids and I've apologized or maybe yelling or doing something. It's like all right, guys, that was not and I'll tell my son that wasn't the best way to handle it. Listen, I'm emotional, I get scared. He's done some things that are reckless and I'm like listen, I yelled at you because I'm scared. I just, I know what can happen. I want you to understand what can happen.

Speaker 2: 25:13

That's not the best way to handle it on me, because we have this thing now where when he screws up, I'm in the beginning of the excuse, excuse, I'm like dude, just look at me and tell me you f-ed up, honestly, just, just. You can use the word I don't care Like, use it, dad, I f-ed up and at least, and just say I own it, like when you own something and you know you own something. That is going to make me less pissed off than if you're trying to talk your way out of it when I know you were wrong, it's like it's not so again. It's like you learn a lot from your children, but the crazy thing about parenting and you forget it. It's like, yeah, I'm a parent for 16 years now. You think I'm experienced, like my first year, parenting a 16 year old and now has a boyfriend for a year. No, seriously, she's a boyfriend for a year. He's a great guy. We love him. But like they're going on their year anniversary. Like they're new things with travel. Like okay, like they have to stay in separate rooms but they're. But they're waking up together sometimes.

Speaker 2: 26:04

Like all these things that like little kids, like young kids do I mean? Like, as a parent, you got to accept that. Like my son's a 15 year old, he's becoming a grown man. Like there's things now that as a parent, you have to understand how to deal with that. You know if he's, whether you know you see him bringing a girl over to the house and you're like listen, keep the door open. Right now, that's someone's daughter. Like you're just things that my mom used to say to me that now you're incorporating as a parent and like, are you handling it right or are you wrong? Like you got to trust that what you're doing overall is right, but it's not going to be right 100% of the time.

Speaker 1: 26:37

And I think that's so important Cause I think, at the end of the day, you want to, you know, raise children that are good people and the people that you work with in business. You want to help them be the best that they can be. That's why you fight, to want to be the best example you can be, and I think that's our responsibility. And everything that we do I always share with people. You know, my veins starts popping out of my neck. I get excited, I get fired up. Sometimes you know the intensity is too much and I say to people like, do you need me to apologize for asking you to be the best in your life? Like, so, you know, I try to bring that out in our kids, I try to bring that out in the people that we coach. I try to bring that out in the best of myself and I don't ever think we should apologize for those things. But I think it's important and I think what you're saying, what I'm saying, like we're not perfect and we don't have to be perfect.

Speaker 2: 27:23

No, also, I mean, god I was getting. I got asked this question recently there Someone asked me about my children and I think it was being interviewed and they said what is the? What's the one word that you really kind of value with your children? And you know I used the word that I didn't think they expected It'd be really like sure, love. Okay, come on, man, you'll. You don't know what love is until you have children. Right, it's just like you, you understand what it's like. Would you take a bullet for a kid? Would you stand in front of a bus? Yes, yes, yes, we don't have to have this conversation, but I didn't use the word love. I use the word accountability Because, as a parent, as someone who works, it could become really easy to be off Working or going through those problems that I said I had in business years ago, and Coming home at night and guess what?

Speaker 2: 28:13

You got your most important job kicking it now because you got two hours with your kids and you gotta. You know, mom dad, can I go out right now? No, it's a school night. Mom dad, I want to plan some Friday. No, you're grounded. Come on Please. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and as a parent who's tired.

Speaker 2: 28:28

Sometimes you just give in, you're like, all right, okay, just did you learn your lesson. Okay, I'm letting you off the hook and there's there's no accountability there. So that is a parent I find to be is like that's the challenge like you've got this love for them. But then you also have to understand that, like by giving it all the time, you're setting them up for failure in the future. This is my opinion. I might say that and someone might scream at me, they might yell at me. You know, my opinion is this raise your kids away. You want to raise it. This is how I'm raising them and I just but I believe that word accountability is very important, not only with your kids, but in your life in general. Take ownership over your actions.

Speaker 1: 29:04

It's one of the most critical lessons and it starts once again the accountability to yourself. You know you can't be an example for others unless you're accountable to yourself. You can't expect your kids to be accountable if you're not accountable. I mean, I grew up in a house with a father that was such a narcissist he could literally scream and yell in my face.

Speaker 1: 29:22

And then you know, once you build up the courage as you get a little older, like hey, like why are you screaming and yelling at me? What do you mean? Like I, I wasn't screaming and yelling and it's like Wait a second. Like do I have like some sort of a disorder? Cuz like you literally just had vein popping out of everywhere and you were screaming in my face and you can't even admit. And so one of the things that I loved about our conversation you just said it was I'm gonna make a mistake, but I'm gonna let my son know what it sounds like for dad to say I'm sorry, I own it, I shouldn't have done that. And I think that that's that accountability piece where I think we get real with our kids and those are life lessons for everybody. Listening. You might be wondering like gosh, these guys really are just like two buddies cutting up having a conversation, but this is what I love, because this is the real stuff in life.

Speaker 1: 30:08

This is how you get through and this is how you're a great leader like go, be accountable, don't don't act fake, don't, don't say that you don't make mistakes. Don't be this perfect leader. You're gonna make mistakes, but be accountable, take ownership, and that's how you, that's how you create change and how you can build and grow people 100%.

Speaker 2: 30:28

You can't say it any better than that perfect.

Speaker 1: 30:31

Well, I I know I could go on and on and on and on. What I, what I, would love Would be, would be this you being knocked down in 2020, covid, hitting your industry, most specifically hitting your business. There are so many people that are still living in Covid. It's like that's now four years ago, brother, what do you, what message do you have for that person who's Holding on to the childhood trauma? They're still holding on you being outside of New York. They're still holding on to 2008 and the collapse on Wall Street. They're still holding on to Covid. What's the message that you have? That real message to give people courage and hope to stop holding on to the past, getting to the half. I'm not saying that they need to work out like I do, or get on a streak like you've done since 1996, but what words do you have for those people who just that they're lacking the courage, they're lacking the hope and they're holding on too tightly to the bad things rather than recognizing the great things that lie ahead?

Speaker 2: 31:42

Well, first of all, I want to say, you know, I do recognize that this is at different levels for different people, right, and there's some trauma that allows you to know me you've talked about this that people Will hold on to and sometimes it becomes fuel To propel themselves into a good place. Like I'm convinced, and I'm sorry to say this before I know, like, terrible as it was With your father and the things that you admitted, like that really made you into the person you are today. And I have some clients of mine that were Around some pretty abusive parents and you know they turned around and they said you know, I promised I wouldn't be like my dad or my mom and that's the reason why I'm the parent I am today. So, like, I think sometimes it takes a unique person, it takes a special person to be able to take that Fuel right, or it takes to take that obstacle and turn that into fuel and Utilize it for something positive. I think, like with anything else, I'm really like, personally I'm an all-in type person, but I realize, I recognize that with clients, you, you got to take a minimalistic approach. With people, you got to take a minimalistic approach. Not everyone's gonna be the way that I am. I might be great in one area. There might be other areas that I really struggle with, like I struggle with With my attention. At times I get too much going on, and for me to be able to sit there and focus On one thing becomes a real challenge. It's why I write a lot of my programs. I fly a lot. I write a lot of my programs on planes because I don't have a lot to do, right? But what I would say people to do is, you know, just start trying to move in that right direction.

Speaker 2: 33:15

If there's something that you want to correct, I think, just recognizing what it is and also understanding that maybe you know the approach you've taken to that over the last five, ten, fifteen, twenty years just hasn't worked, and that's okay, you know. Maybe if like it, maybe if the New Year's resolution of someone wanting to change something entirely and do a whole 180, no, why don't we just take one thing this month rather than 12, and let's just focus on that? Right? That could be hydration. It could be getting your steps in. That's it. That's so easy, though, so you don't be great at it. Make it happen month to know. Let's mix something else in. Let's just focus on maybe minimizing process foods you know, highly processed foods and in month three, let's start focusing on maybe movement and just.

Speaker 2: 33:57

And what I'm trying to say is, over time, three, four, five, six months, which isn't a lot of time, if you can change three, four, five, six things in your life from negative to positive, I don't you think that's exceptional. But what what happens is is that we start comparing ourselves to other people. Well, don does this, or he eats like this, or he measures macros. And I'm like, why are you trying to do what I do when you're just struggling to get one workout in a week? Like, like, you just told me that you, anytime you hit 25 minutes in the gym, you lose interest. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna create the 24 minute workout for you, like it's just no, it's here, but but that's what I'm gonna do, like that's where I'm the master of yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:34

I'm gonna turn around and I'm gonna find that sweet spot for you. I'm gonna keep your attention high and then I'm gonna, you know, give you a day off and make you come back, and then I'm gonna turn around and I'm gonna Make you have that cheat meal. Oh, no, it's. It's about I gotta go nonstop for a month. Go have the cheat meal, like you're eating cheat meals every day. Do it once a week. Allow yourself a Reward and then it's part of the plan then get back on at the next day.

Speaker 2: 35:00

I'm no amusing fitness and nutrition, but the reality is is I would do that with everything in life. Like, surround yourself with exceptional people, learn from people, set up a little team. If it's a mentor, if it's a coach you like listening to, if it's someone online that you really respect, and just try and absorb. You like absorb nuggets. I've listened you. I listened you.

Speaker 2: 35:21

It was funny because you gave Two talks and you came up the second time and you're like you know what I? I gave similar stuff as yesterday. It didn't matter, it didn't matter. I'm sitting there and I'm like I'm drinking it in and there's things I'm picking up and then there's things that, honestly, I'm using in my own life and I think that's that's what it's about. When you start getting yourself around people that you look up to or people that you feel like you can absorb information from and I call it your team, and I don't mean they're working for you, I just mean, like that's my team, these are the people I then you start elevating your game and you start doing a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better than that's. That's my advice to people.

Speaker 1: 36:02

I love it. That is the mic drought. Now you guys can see why I said new friends, but old friends, because you guys are probably sitting there going. These guys are cut from the same cloth. They literally both bounce off the walls with energy. Here's what I want to share, because I held back from doing it earlier because I didn't want to highlight his physique and all these things, but I want to give credit where credit is due.

Speaker 1: 36:25

Don Saladino is one of the most disciplined individuals walking the face of the earth. When you talk about being a coach and a health entrepreneur, he does it at the highest possible level. I love everything that he just said. I just want to add something because I think it's important. We are going to, in the show notes, give you all of the ways that you can learn more about Don and stay connected with Don. When it comes to the ability to build design and help people get to the next level in the online space, nobody does it better than Don Saladino.

Speaker 1: 36:59

And if there's one thing that I've learned, confidence comes from discipline, not from talent, and if he can help you design, live with great confidence. Have confidence. Come from you being an example. Don't compare your day one of a new plan that maybe Don creates online to his day from 1996. However many damn days, that is right. Don't compare. Go be your best. And if you listen to the authenticity in his message, this is why we get along, because I don't demand perfection of the athletes and business professionals I work with. I just ask people at the end of the day, go look yourself in the mirror and say, did I give it my very best today and be honest with yourself. And if you can stack days of doing that, the byproduct is winning at very high levels.

Speaker 1: 37:49

That's why Don and I get along, because we're realists. We're going to do our best to be a great dad. We're going to do our best to be a great husband. We're going to do our best to be great friends and we're going to do our best to serve all of you. But he is one of the best in the world. That's doing it. That's why I couldn't wait. I'm so excited to introduce him to our burn community, our burn family. Don, I cannot thank you enough. Thank you for coming on. The burn brother.

Speaker 2: 38:12

Brother, I need you on my Me and Derek Hansen's podcast man. You got to come on and we got to hear you preach a bit. It really is inspiring and thank you for including me on your platform.

Speaker 1: 38:22

Well, I can't wait to make that happen. And to everybody who follows us every single week, please will you share this. This episode needs to be shared with somebody who just needs to keep it real. They've literally started their year. They're so intense for the wrong reasons, they're so tightly wound about the results Like just live to the process, Be your best one day at a time. There's so many valuable lessons here about not being perfect but attacking your best with great discipline. I love and appreciate every single one of you that makes this burn community possible. Remember, every week we're going to bring you these stories of the Don Saladinos who have recognized why and purpose is not enough. You better have that burn lit to ignite that why and purpose, so that you show up on the days you don't want to do it and especially after you win. Thanks for joining us for the burn.