Escaping the "Prisoner of Success": The Midlife Reckoning with John Garvin

0:00November 1st, I had about 800 followers. I said, I'm feeling so great. Let me just tell my story of transformation. What happened was immediate and astounding, and I could not have anticipated it. One of the first posts I did was 100 days of being sober, and that went to about 450 ,000.

0:15Gary Lipovetsky: Most creators get that wrong as they're creating for something that's not real. You're prioritizing creating and not consuming. These are guys that are successful on the outside, but they're probably overstimulated, under fulfilled. They tell themselves that I'm too tired, too busy, too late, too old to hit my peak again. They feel that gap between who they are and who they could be. There's something missing. And, you know, a lot of the times I feel almost like a prisoner of my own success. About a month ago, Instagram served me a guy I had never met before. No mutual agenda, no business relationship, no networking strategy.

0:52Gary Lipovetsky: Just a man in his 50s talking honestly about discipline, standards, reinvention, health, purpose, and building a new life. And for whatever reason, I immediately resonated with him. I messaged him and said, quote, Hey John, hope you're well. I just discovered your content and was compelled to reach out. Seems like we both live in Miami and have a lot in common. You're an inspiration and I'll be following along. We grabbed a coffee that same day. And what fascinated me wasn't just the physical transformation. It was that this guy completely changed almost every major category of his life at the same time.

1:23Gary Lipovetsky: New city, new body, new career path, new identity, new standards. All that after 27 years in corporate America. And in less than a year, he built an audience of over 70 ,000 people by simply telling the truth about what he was learning through the process. So today, I'm sitting down with my friend, John Garvin, and we're unpacking what happens when a man decides to completely reinvent himself at midlife. Johnny, welcome. Gary, thanks for having me, brother. Appreciate you. It's such a pleasure. Run through a brick wall after that. I know, right? That inspired me. Thank you so much. I really enjoy reading what I call a cold open.

1:54Gary Lipovetsky: And usually, you know, other podcast hosts, they will pre-record that and the guest never hears it. I want you to hear it because I want you to know, first of all, what the hell we're going to be talking about. Exactly. And I want you to know kind of what I've dug up on you. Yeah. Listen, man, like you and I met exactly the way I described. I literally just saw your content. And obviously like your aesthetic resonated with me because we have a similar, we have a similar beard. Yeah. Yeah. You know, all natural, by the way, not colored. And so, you know, you really resonated with me and, you know, I had made a point and I had understood, and we'll talk about it a little later, that it is so important as men to have relationships with other men.

2:33Gary Lipovetsky: Like we have to have male friendships. And a lot of the times that falls to the, you know, the bottom of the priority list when we have our careers and our families and all of the things that we're responsible for. But before we get into that, I want to understand who was Johnny before Instagram? Before Instagram. Well, yeah, he was a very happy guy. Had a lot of friends, living a great life, world traveler, happily married, had a corporate career, 27 years, as you mentioned. Worked out, did a lot of Peloton. I didn't hit rock bottom. I was not struggling. I thought my life was fantastic. And by all accounts, it really was.

3:04We had a condo in downtown Charlotte coming up on my 50th birthday. And then I just started asking myself hard questions right because you get comfortable and I would say I was living at 70 % of my potential right and so that's a dangerous place to be because it's comfortable it's safe you don't have to work too hard and it looks successful from the outside from the outside yeah so I started asking myself tough questions I said what if I touched 100 what would it feel like if I just went all in on my life because I think what does that mean tell me well because you you talk about find your 100 I'm excited to dive into that yeah and I think it's a lot of guys sort of like again they settle for what looks like a good life.

3:40They're overstimulated, under fulfilled. And so for me, I knew, I think a lot of guys know when you put your head on the pillow at night, there's something I'm leaving on the table. And as you hit 50 or 60, that clock in your chest starts to pound a little louder. And you say, if I don't go for it now, I'm not going to get this opportunity again. So I said, when I turned 50 and at that point, this is last June. So it was like maybe seven months. I said, I'm going to go all in and touch 100 just one time to say I did it. For me, that meant giving up alcohol. Again, I enjoyed whiskey, scotch, mezcal, hanging out with the boys, concerts.

4:14Well, I saw that.

4:15Gary Lipovetsky: That's what I did. I saw you recently. You did a post like celebrating 10 months of not having a drink at all. Not even, we're not talking about sobriety. We're talking about not having a drink, not a drop, not a drop. And I actually woke up the other day, strange at three in the morning, had a nightmare that I was foggy headed and I had had a drink. And I said, oh no, you know, I've ruined my streak. And why did I do that? And then I said, oh it was just a bad dream that's how important it is to me and it's not a challenge I do I walk right by bottles all the time but it's one of those things where I just feel so great and I never knew what a hundred felt like because I was settling for 70 so what else did I have to get rid of I get rid of a corporate career that had provided I'm very grateful for the corporate career but it really wasn't my passion I don't want to sit under fluorescent lights beyond back-to-back teams meetings I want to go out there and inspire and talk to people and I just couldn't do that in my corporate career So alcohol corporate America.

5:03I worked out a lot. I was 197 pounds I was eating whole foods, but I was eating chaotically. I said I got to get this under wraps So I lost 30 pounds got in the best shape of my life

5:12Gary Lipovetsky: You make it sound so simple by the way Like I just want to say like I've been struggling on and off to lose weight I lose you work out hard. I know you post a lot. I do I I do I have the working out down Yeah, but I don't have the food discipline like yeah, look bro. Even like yesterday Valeria's out of town. She left me with the kids. What am I doing? I ordered pizza. Yeah, and I said to my I'm not eating the pizza. I went in the fridge beforehand. I grabbed some lean slices of turkey. Good for you I had a little cheese and I had some pickles and I said that's it I'm not eating anymore But I sit down with the boys and it just becomes a social thing.

5:45Gary Lipovetsky: Yeah, our three boys They're all eating pizza and you've got kids and that's that's really tough, right? They don't want to be on this strict intermittent fasting They don't want to have this lean protein heavy diet. Yeah, they want to have comfort food Absolutely, but I will say I'm really proud of our kids because they're in it's interesting because because they have exposure to social media and they're kind of seeing some of the conversations that are happening globally around health. And they're even saying, oh, like, I don't wanna go for ice cream. I don't need those calories right now. Like, that's literally what they're saying.

6:13Yeah, and that wouldn't have happened before social media. Absolutely not. I don't think.

6:16Gary Lipovetsky: I'm the one saying, do you wanna go for ice cream? The seven year old will say yes to ice cream at all times. But our two older boys, 13 and 11, they're just like, nah, or like hold the bread. Okay, so they're starting early. Bun-less burgers, like, yeah. I think I do maybe make it sound easier than it is. And so the way I break it down is to build that discipline brick by brick. So it's what I would say is daily promises kept to yourself. So I'm not going to have the I'm not going to hit the snooze button. I'm going to go to the gym. Right. It's what I call it is we'll get into this. Find your 100.

6:45It's the lens through which I see the world. What gets me closer to that 60 or 70 percent? What gets me closer to 100? And so maybe the cupcake is 70. Maybe the apple is 100. So you start putting your 100 glasses on and then you start feeling so good. You don't want to deviate from that. So small habits compound if they're made daily and then all of a sudden before you know it your life has changed

7:06Gary Lipovetsky: You know what's intriguing Johnny about you is that you you weren't the rock bottom. You're exactly right It's not like you had this like I saw your transformation Like photos. I saw what you were before. It's like a happy guy. You were a happy guy. You weren't out of shape, but jolly No, but you know I wouldn't even say jolly you won't you won't like old st. No, no, it wasn't It wasn't you were morbidly obese and I wasn't a drunk stumbling around and that's kind of the danger of it right is because you're just sitting in that sweet spot of comfort but also indulgence and that's where a lot of men sit and so when I started making these changes to myself I said at 50 I'm going to touch 100 and so five months into that effort I started feeling great and I didn't plan on 10 months today actually I said I didn't say I'm going to quit drink I just said give it 100 days and see how I feel and I felt so good on doing some of these things I didn't want to go back to what 70 % lifestyle felt like.

7:55And so I started sharing that on social media. Now at November 1st, I had about 800 followers. I typically periodically or here and there, I would post stories about our travels. When my wife and I would travel, that's what I would post about, or maybe an event, a concert, a game, but not consistently. So November 1st, I said, I'm feeling so great. Let me just tell my story of transformation. And so what happened was immediate and astounding and I could not have anticipated it. I think one of the first posts I did was a hundred days of being sober and that went to about 450 ,000. My first talking head, right?

8:29Talking to the camera, which is super awkward. The first 50 times you do it.

8:33Gary Lipovetsky: The first time I did it, yeah, I know, right? It never gets comfortable, but the first time I did it, it went through the roof and I said, what's going on here? And people started responding and men from around the world. And I say men, cause I'm 85 % of my audience is men, but a lot of women out there as well. But men from Mexico, from Brazil, Australia, India, and they just started reaching out using my language back at me saying, I'm at 60. I want to find my hundred. I thought I was done. I don't want to accept decline. I see your before I see your after. I want that. Now I know I can do that.

9:06In my head, as you could, I just got chills. The chemical reaction in my brain of that surprise reaction was just something I could have never anticipated. So I want to back up a little because I think this is going to be a multifaceted conversation.

9:19Gary Lipovetsky: I want to hear more of your story and I want to extract as much knowledge for my own selfish reasons. But I also want to talk about the content creation side. So you've done something that really intrigued me. And it was one of the, when you and I first had coffee that day, literally the day that I DM'd. Yeah, you DM'd me at 7.30 in the morning on a Saturday. I rolled out of bed. There you were. And I was like, Gary, who's Gary? And you know, your inbox, as you know, probably looks crazy and hectic. You don't know who's coming and who's going, but you're like, I live in Miami. And I I said, seems like a cool guy.

9:46And then, yeah, just something, the universe was just like, this is cool. Lean into this.

9:51Gary Lipovetsky: You would have had to have been looking at your requests folder because you didn't follow me. That's right. So you happen to be looking at your request. Usually all the shit gets buried there. Not the shit, but like unsolicited. Yeah. And I found you and then we said, well, I'm free today. I said, I'm free today. And then sure enough, like three blocks, two blocks from my house. Two blocks I live from here. Yeah, hung out for like three hours. We've been old friends. And I pulled up on my brand new bike that I had just gotten. And then you and I, you brought out your bike. And then we rode... Super 73 e-bikes.

10:18Gary Lipovetsky: Yes. Not compared to a Ducati. Well, I took it easy. I took it easy. You want to go for a ride? I was like, yeah, if you can stay slow. Our top speeds are a little different, but that's okay. That's okay. So we went to my office. We hung out there. And, you know, kind of the rest is history. But I want to go back to your kind of transformation career-wise. You know, among everything else. You had so much. So here's my kind of, I'm trying to understand. So you're in corporate America, super stable. It's great. You're entering now a kind of stage in your life where you've got another 15, maybe 20 years of solid work.

10:54Gary Lipovetsky: You're working in corporate, so you probably have some form of a pension plan, some security. You've got your medical coverage. Everything's cool. Everything's cool. It's safe. It's safe. You're good. And then you're like, fuck this. I'm going to start over at 50 years old. I'm going to become a content creator. But hold on a second. I want to provide this context. Because this is number one. I would say there are far more women doing this than men. I don't know the exact stat on it. But from my vantage point. Because I work with mostly women. It's mostly women. But in addition to that. It's mostly younger people as well.

11:27Gary Lipovetsky: So you kind of have two strikes against you. And you're like fuck corporate America. I'm doing this. Were you already creating content. While you still had the security of your job? Yes. So and I just want to give props to my wife, Sarah, who is absolutely incredible. I'm yet to meet. Yes, we're going to make that happen. Can't wait. Can't wait because she is one of these people who who has just inspired me from day one. She's an interior designer, runs her own company in Charlotte. She's expanding into Miami. And so my thought was when I quit corporate America, A, is that OK? She'd been asking me to quit for years.

11:58This isn't you. You're just so different than this environment that you've been kind of putting up with. And again, corporate's great. It served a lot of purposes. but she's like, there's more to you than this. You have more value and you can be of more service. So she always encouraged that. I finally listened. So I was going to work with her to expand her design brand down in Miami, which I still might do. And I said, well, thank you for supporting me. I feel like I've been married to 10 different women. I don't know if you feel like that with Valeria, but you know, my wife, yeah, she evolves sometimes monthly or yearly.

12:27And so, you know, I think how long you've been married, uh, it'll be 13 years on Friday.

12:31Gary Lipovetsky: So we're going to be 14 years on july 1st so same and yeah absolutely it's a tricky thing right because who you fall in love with and who you are actually they change and you can't try to keep them in that box right you have to allow them space to explore and stumble but also stay close enough to not feel you know the relationships at risk right and that's a tricky balance so you you said something that was interesting to me you said that you know in 13 years it's like you've been with 10 different women. Some I've loved more than others. Some of them I'm like, oh, this one, hopefully she doesn't stick around.

13:04Then I'm like, oh, I hope this one lasts. I like her.

13:06Gary Lipovetsky: So I agree with you. I agree with you that, you know, once you've been married for over 10 years, as a man, you've probably been with 10 different, you know, 10 different versions of your wife. Absolutely. But let me ask you this, in that same period of time, how many versions of you did she have to look through? Good question. Probably. Okay. There was, when Yellowstone came out in COVID, there was the cowboy version. So So it was cowboy boots and cowboy hats. That was a big one. And then I was big into the Charlotte sports scene. So I was wearing the flat build caps and the Panthers jerseys, the Hornets jersey at 35 years old.

13:35And she's like, what is this? So probably about five versions. But this one that she got at 49 and a half and at 50 is like nothing else. I mean, this one I've completely changed. Dropped the alcohol, the corporate career. Everything is different. So she's really, I'm pushing the boundaries of what's exciting. But again, using my own language, I feel like I was showing up at 60 or 70 for her for over a decade. And now it's one of the great honors of my life to show up as 100 for her, the man she married. She married me for the 100 version of me, not for the 70. So I feel like, although it took me 13 years, I'm finally fulfilling on a promise that she has deserved all along.

14:11And so that, to me, is very powerful to honor her.

14:14Gary Lipovetsky: That's so motivating as a man because like we as men who are really committed to our wives. Yes. You know, it's it's and I'll just not to get too personal, but yeah, it's difficult to find the motivation. Yeah. It's difficult. But the way you just framed it. And then for me, I got to throw in my kids, too, because, yeah, I'm always trying to be the best example for them as well. Yeah. But and that's and you said it earlier. a lot of guys when stress comes in or work or kids or whatever, they sort of abandon themselves. Yeah. Right. They say, I was eating well, but then stress crept in. Well, pressure is going to come regardless.

14:50That's when discipline and standards matter the most. And so if you just abandon yourself and these habits, well, what is that showing your wife? So you kind of almost got to put the mask on yourself first, like the old airplane analogy, to show up as 100 for her. Yeah. So it's actually in service of her, not selfish.

15:06Gary Lipovetsky: You know what? I also I also strongly believe that it's probably like your best kind of divorce insurance Like it's the best preventative measure because I gotta tell you like at now at our age I don't know if you're experiencing this but people who we know either directly or indirectly It feels like every week there's a new announcement of people splitting up. Yeah, that's right And it's just and it you know what it truly bothers me like when I hear it It affects me deeply like it really does because I really do believe in the in the institution of marriage Absolutely. And it's this midlife crisis, but I call it a midlife reckoning, midlife transformation.

15:40It's not being someone else. It's revealing who you were always meant to be in the way I see it. And so again, that is fulfilling a promise and a destiny that I made to her. And so she, to get back to your question, she supported me in a way to say, I am willing to, you know, from a design business perspective, like I got you, I support you emotionally and this way to make this leap of faith. but I did not intend on becoming a content creator. I started November 1st after I put in my notice and then all of a sudden when it took off, I said, wait, there's something to this. I can't deny that. And so she really gave me the space and the patience to find a new path with which content creation.

16:17Gary Lipovetsky: But Johnny, why? I'm trying to understand. I'm trying to get really to the, like kind of the heart of this decision. And I'm asking you this because there are a lot of people who are sitting, whether it's a corporate job or whatever it is that they're up to. And they know that there's something more at any age. And crossing, like, to me, you're just such a good example of someone who was so stable in their career, had, you know, a bright, you know, couple of decades, you know, ahead of you before retirement. Sure. And said, you know, screw it, I'm out, and I'm doing this thing. I mean, I guess I understand the mentality of it, but how difficult is that transition?

16:55Gary Lipovetsky: You make it look easy. Yeah, yeah, and it is a leap of faith, And it's a trust in, you know, I call it the universe. You can call it God, whatever, that getting your body right, getting your mind right, building the discipline to keep promises to yourself and showing up that that in and of itself, the process of doing that, you become someone who the universe wants to provide for. And I know that might sound a little hoity-toity, but it's kind of, it's a trust in that if you do those things and show up, you're going to change your chemistry, your charisma, your outlook. I wake up with optimism and gratitude.

17:27And so when you wake up because you're clear headed and you feel great and you're doing the right things, the universe says, all right, I will provide. And it's that notion of abundance that you believe in and wonderful people come into your life. And that wouldn't have happened if I was foggy headed, if I was, you know, like what happened last night, who I have to apologize for. That person doesn't meet serendipity, doesn't meet people just out of the blue. And so I think you have to trust in doing those things. You're setting something in motion that's bigger than you can understand.

17:56Gary Lipovetsky: So it does start with the physical. Yeah. Like it really does. Yeah, I think so. I think if you get your body right, it's almost like working out and training, you get your body right, but it's more about how it impacts your mind. And then once you get your mind right, people start to notice something. What does that guy know? What is he doing? Why is he carrying himself like that? He looks happy. What's going on? I want to talk to him. So body, mind, and then the world treats you differently in that order. And it's fascinating because you're kind of like, what does it matter if I get my body right?

18:25But that is the start of that chain reaction.

18:27Gary Lipovetsky: Right. From what you're seeing, I mean, we've talked about it, but you mentioned that 85 % of your audience is men. Yep. The real essence of it, why do men follow you outside of the aesthetic of your physique? I mean, obviously, you look great. You're obviously very fit. Why are men following you? I think they really resonate with the before and after. And again, I wasn't morbidly obese. I was living a jolly, happy life. But I think they see sort of that guy that was living at 60 or 70. they see themselves in their current state as me eight months ago. And they say, if he can go from that to that, they often ask me like, how many years was that different?

19:01That was six months, which is crazy. Oh my gosh. Like, wait, what? And you were at 49. How many peptides are you on? None. Okay. Wait, how did you TRT? No. Okay. So they're always looking for what, what is the shortcut? How did you, you just did it naturally and you just put in the effort and things started changing. That means I can do it. And I think that's why they resonate. They see themselves in this midlife transformation. To your point, people have content. Content creators just go in about leaving corporate America. That's their entire content pillar. They also go in about sobriety. That's it.

19:30That's everything. Or moving to a new city. That's everything. Or getting it. I did four of those things. And so a lot of guys are like, what? Now, I'm not suggesting everyone needs to transform their life in that way. But it is an exponential kind of experience to do multiple changes at 50 years old. It's just you don't see it very often. And I hope we do see it more often because you only live once. I hope so too.

19:52Gary Lipovetsky: Go all in on your life. Did you? Look, I agree. Did you choose this transformation or were you kind of forced into the situation? I chose it. I chose it. And, you know, interesting. So a little bit of a back story. And this is, again, we had a wonderful life. We have a rescue dog. We have no kids. So, again, we have just a wonderful sort of fulfilling life. We traveled a lot. And about six months before my transformation, we were looking internationally. for a place to start over. We wanted a new chapter. So we looked at Buenos Aires. We looked at Paris. Of course, my wife loves Paris. We looked at Malta.

20:26We looked at Turkey, where we got married and spent our 10-year anniversary. Nothing checked all the boxes. And then in March of 25, we were walking around South Beach and we said, you know, we're just not going to find our spot. And we sort of looked around and said, God, Miami is gorgeous. And it definitely feels international. It's chic and the weather and it's been inspiring. Hang on, hang on. What if Miami is our place. And so we did a three week trial run in Brickell. And within 24 hours, we said, this is our spot. And so that's sort of, there's this Miami effect that I'm sure you felt since you've been here.

20:57After 24 hours, I knew two things. This was in May of 25. I said, Miami is our spot. And if I'm, if we're moving here, I'm just going to go for it because it's sort of that Miami activation in my head. I said, let's, let's just go for it. And so I wasn't forced into it, but Miami drew me into my best self. And then Miami is a big character in my transformation. I don't know that my transformation could have happened anywhere else. I wouldn't have been out of my comfort zone. If you think about it, you're making a lot of changes to sit in the same city, in the same friend group, the same job. You just can't do that.

21:29You have to start with a clean slate. Nobody's calling you to go to a happy hour. Nobody, you don't have any of those sort of old patterns to fall back into. It's a clean canvas. So Miami is definitely part of my growth.

21:42Gary Lipovetsky: So I'll, so I agree with you, but I'm going to, I'm going to challenge you by calling Miami a clean canvas. Miami is a canvas. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Miami is a canvas. So good point. So what I've, what I've noticed. So look, I know that there's like a big party scene here. Yeah. I don't experience it. Yeah. I don't experience it at all. Exactly. Late nights, party. Yeah. I think one of the great things about Miami is that you can move here and it actually amplifies what you're already into. There's just so much available here. That's a really good way to say it. And so for me, I came in with a mindset like I want to, you know, I want to achieve things on a business perspective.

22:14Gary Lipovetsky: I want to develop personally. I want our kids to have a place to grow up. You know, my wife is much younger than me. So I want, I want to give her a runway of opportunities that quite frankly, in Canada, we didn't have the same level of opportunities as we do here. And Miami just, it just delivers and I'd like to hear your take on how long have you been here again uh we started going so in July 1st we got our place so move move probably about two or three months so we've been going back and forth between Charlotte and Miami so a month here a month there two weeks so you're in a really interesting spot right um just kind of in terms of your development of you know from being here one of the things that I noticed from being here especially with a social media footprint where you where you do have you know people can find you and they have access to just like you do is that everyone here is so down for collaboration yeah and I'm not talking like like specific collaboration on on content which they are as well that too but they're just so down to have a value exchange like to meet and unlike kind of where I think other parts of the world where people they'll meet you and they're thinking how do I benefit from this yeah people here they're automatically thinking how do we work together to achieve something that's right that's what I'm seeing here and I've never experienced it you said a lot of great things there.

23:28And it's so interesting because part of my call it sobriety or alcohol-free lifestyle is like Miami helped with that. There's so much vice and temptation and all this kind of thing. It's like, but it actually, I don't live that way. I think what you said is it amplifies whatever sort of, uh, gurgling up inside you just, it'll help expand on that idea. And so you and I, we don't go late nights, we don't party, but we get up early, we get our rides in our workouts and get the sun and just meet people and, and collaborate. I equate, I can't remember if we were talking about this. So Finding Nemo, I'm sure you've watched that.

23:57So there's this river under the ocean, right? That just has this momentum. And for me, Miami is momentum. There are collaborators and creators and visionaries. And yes, there's scammers like any city, but it's almost like if you can just access that river underneath everything else and you're just right, you get swept away in it. There's so many people that I meet, including yourself, where you're just like, I can't believe he came into my life and I want to collaborate. Let's go talk. Let's do coffee there's just so many opportunities so in that sense Miami drew that out of me and it didn't sort of pull me into the vice or I don't since I've been here I haven't had a drink obviously so Miami is a place people come to party I don't know that's not anymore not anymore I think like what's

24:36Gary Lipovetsky: happening now in Miami it's like I I believe it's unlike anywhere else in the world except maybe Dubai I was gonna say the same and I think something similar is happening we were in Dubai years ago like Larry and I went like three and a half years ago and we were just in a hotel the whole time we didn't really We see much of it. We saw a little bit of it. I've never been. I really want to go, but what did you think? I mean, it feels artificial. I mean, it is artificial, right? It's in the middle of a desert, so there's a lot of, like, you know, kind of. Opulence. Yeah, there's a lot of opulence.

25:05Gary Lipovetsky: Probably the hotel we stayed at there, we stayed at the Atlantis, which was the new, like, we actually were there a couple of weeks before it opened. They had, like, a seven-star hotel there, six-star. It's one of those crazy ones. Yeah, we were part of a cohort of creators that were invited to help promote, you know, organically to help promote it. Yeah, no, and it's crazy. It's a really good place. But I feel that what happened, I feel, during COVID is the same thing that happened in Miami, where places like specifically Miami and Dubai, Miami and Dubai used to be the respective kind of resort towns or beach towns for their country.

25:38Gary Lipovetsky: So for UAE, people would go to Dubai to vacation. In Miami, Miami was like is America's playground at some point. You know, that here in Vegas. Yep. Right. And so during COVID, the viability of being in a place like this, it really amplified everything. And obviously the real estate values went up. You have billionaires coming in. All of the billionaires are here now. They've all set up shop here for tax purposes and lifestyle purposes. Yeah, they're coming. And so Miami is in this unique position right now where it's not only about the culture that's already here. It's about the culture of newness.

26:12Gary Lipovetsky: It's the excitement of all of these people from different walks of life. Opportunity, potential, collaboration, visionaries. And so you feel that, whether that's wellness, whether that's business. I mean, you just walk around. You can't help but be inspired. And every time I go to bed, it's just like, that was such a fulfilling day, but there's so many more things I want to get done. I know you feel the same way. Like your calendar's jam-packed. And you're just pushing things to the next day because there's simply not enough hours in the day. That's not the life I experienced when I was in Charlotte or with all of those other habits.

26:41It was just sort of like, all right, but now I have so many things I want to sink my teeth into living this way.

26:48Gary Lipovetsky: I want to shift gears and I want to talk a little bit about men. Kind of, you know, the premise as to how you and I met. And as I said before, I was and continued to prioritize male friendships. Because I think, and it's interesting because women, they do this effectively. Like my wife will multiple times a week have scheduled time with her friends. Yeah. Me, I'm just trying to, you know, just if I have time, I'll just try to unwind and just go for a sauna or a cold plunge by myself. Yep. Right. But now I'm trying to I'm starting to switch gears. Yep. And it's interesting because I think that you and I are probably very similar.

27:23Gary Lipovetsky: And we're I'm a couple of years older than you, but we're probably similar that like when I was in my teens and early 20s, I was very social. Yeah. I was out. I had multiple different groups of friends. You almost pride yourself on these pictures of here's 20 of us doing this or guys trip here and there's 25 people. right and then as you get older it's sort of like dwindles down smaller and smaller until you're hanging out by yourself exactly right well when i was like in my teens and 20s like my flex because i didn't have any money but my flex was like look how connected i am to so many good people and it wasn't connection like i know this wealthy person no no it was look how many group guys yeah look how many does that say about me yeah yeah and so that was kind of my that was it but i just feel like there's a lot of men that are lonely now why are so many men lonely right now Because, sorry, you have, before you answer that, the question is why are so many men lonely right now?

28:10Gary Lipovetsky: Because you have an interesting cross-section. Because of the amount of reach that you have, you're talking to a lot of men through your content, through the program that you have. What are you hearing from men? Yeah, I think they have a lot of stress and they have a lot of pressure in their lives. Men that are midlife, they're married, they have kids, they have a lot of obligations, their work. and I think a lot of times they put themselves last in that scenario. And so that means either time by yourself and sort of just decompressing or out with the guys doing high-frequency activity, right?

28:42There's so much cheap dopamine out there. There's scrolling, there's porn, there's any number of things. And if you have an indulgence, you can have a cookie, you can have scrolling, you can do whatever. And so they're relying on cheap dopamine and it's not fulfilling and it costs you more, right? So I think that they're losing those habits of the reminders that they had. It's like having a core group of guys of doing something, building something, working out, training, doing something that helps you and your mind and your body and collaborating with another guy. Even the mere fact of like sitting next to a guy and spotting him as he's grunting and you're sweating, right?

29:16It sounds silly, but it's like just that little mechanism there of helping another guy. Like that's activating something primal that we've really forgotten about. And so I think a lot of guys, once they start working out with other men and they start putting themselves first, they start to, something clicks. Chemically, biologically, something's happening in their mind that is coming back that we've forgotten. And I think a lot of times they say, like I said, things go sideways. When pressure comes into the equation, they abandon themselves. And that's unfortunate.

29:46Gary Lipovetsky: They do abandon themselves. They do. But in addition to working out together, what are other things that you believe that men can do together to, you know, like outside of, let's say, playing paddle? I know you play paddle. Yeah, play paddle. Stand up paddle board. Yeah, jet ski. There's so much to do down here. Absolutely. But outside of like physical. Because you know what I noticed? Like here's something that I feel like women do often and men never do. And I'm trying to change that, but it feels weird to me. Women will call each other and say, hey, how's it going? Yeah, that's right. Women are checking in.

30:18Gary Lipovetsky: Whereas with men, we're so, I feel, purpose-driven. If I'm calling you, if I reach out to you, it's like, it's not, hey, Johnny, what's going on? It's like, hey, Johnny, do you want to get together? Do you want to go for a ride? Do you want to come and do a cold plunge? Do you want to go work out? But women are checking in with each other. So do you feel that this is inherently male? And if so, should we be changing this? Yeah, I think so. And I think the type of conversations is not only the activity and being with a guy and talking, but what are you building? What are you talking about? Are you talking about the game last night?

30:49Are you talking about something trivial? Are you talking about building something, expanding your mind? Let's collaborate on something. So I think that notion of like what you're talking, how you're spending your time is very important because then you anticipate looking forward to using your skills and you're spending time with people in a bigger service than just sort of last night's game. This is a little bit side story here, but a lot of my time with my guys, who I still love very much, but it's like what we would do. Your buddies, your like friends.

31:14Gary Lipovetsky: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we would spend time, but we would go to a game, we would go to a concert, we would watch a game. And as I put it now, in hindsight, you're watching other men in tights or on stages, you know, chase their dreams while you're at a bar inside and you're drinking. And so now with the clarity of hindsight, it's like, I want to build my dreams. I want to collaborate with other men and have expansive conversations about what we can create and who we can help. That's so much more rewarding versus a cheap dopamine. And has your friend group, I mean, you've only been here for a few months.

31:44Gary Lipovetsky: Yeah. But is your friend group expanding? Like, is it evolving? Yeah. Do you find yourself having to, how do I say this politely, like leaving people behind? Yeah. And unfortunately, yeah, because your mindset, your tactics, your habits, everything about the way you spend time and the way your brain operates, unfortunately, there are casualties. Your circle gets smaller and then it gets bigger. But it's hard to not take that personal or them take it personal, right? Because that's a lot of investment in time and memories and those kinds of things. But you have to allow yourself that those that are meant for you will stay.

32:18And you've got to obviously reach out to those guys as well. But you've almost got to close down, close up shop, clear your head, figure out who you are and where you're going, and then start to expand. It's kind of that process that's a little difficult to do.

32:30Gary Lipovetsky: You're absolutely right. And I think that a lot of men will take the comfort of these older relationships and kind of disguise it as doing the right thing. Like I'm a good and moral person by keeping men in my orbit who aren't putting in the work, who aren't expansive to themselves or to me. It's so true. And so you will disguise that as being a good and moral human being rather than take the discomfort of, and I hate to say it, even I feel guilty saying it, phasing certain people out. I just got chills because this is something that impacts guys a lot and it is that obligation of time, of tenure, of whatever great experiences you've had that are meaningful.

33:15But it's a shit excuse. It is a shit excuse. And the opportunity cost that you're not meeting other people that can meet you where you are or where you're going. So there's an opportunity cost to keeping that circle, I guess, misaligned, right? They're great people. It doesn't mean they're bad and you're good. It's just misaligned.

33:29Gary Lipovetsky: People change, people evolve, right? And so you have to give space to say, all right, let me close down and sort myself out and then see who comes in this new version of myself. You know what? Yes. I also think there's a certain value in trying to take people with you. So if you have a buddy who you've been buddies with since you were a teen or in your 20s, and you'd be like, listen, bro, this is what I've got going on. How do we do this together? But I find that by doing that, that takes care of that moral kind of obligation that I feel I have by wanting to be a good and moral person and bring my friends with me.

34:01Gary Lipovetsky: That's right. And if they're in, they're in. And if they're out, it's like, hey, you know, we can touch base from time to time. And it's not about like chasing money or opportunities to other people. It's about like I got to chase the best version of myself. And if you're not down to do that for you, then. I couldn't have said it better. And the thing about finding your 100, again, my language is you start to do your habits, your sleep, your inputs, podcasts that you listen to. This is a great one, right? So what are you listening to? Are you listening to the news first thing in the morning? Are you getting activated and enraged by something that doesn't really impact your life?

34:36Are you getting, you know, so what are you putting into your brain and your body? And so you elevate that. You feel the difference. You feel what 100 feels like. And then you say, well, where else? My circle of friends, my environment. What's my commute like? What's my job like? It's almost contagious. You start activating brick by brick the body, the mind, the environment, the circle, how you spend your time. And so then you want to elevate everything else. And that's those standards. Raise your standards. And all of a sudden, before you know it, six months later, your life looks totally different.

35:04Totally different. And it starts as something small or inconspicuous as, you know, just call it intermittent fasting or going to the gym or 10 ,000 steps or not drinking alcohol. Like any number of those things. Just start that every day. Show up with that one thing and then add something else. And again, those building blocks will take you to a completely different life.

35:21Gary Lipovetsky: Johnny, I'm assuming that you have like your platform does this, right? Yeah. If we're going to get into the nuts and bolts of it, this is something that men can subscribe to. Well, this is very interesting. And I'd love to get your thoughts on this. So this is something I did not anticipate. And so just hit 72 ,000 or will today or tomorrow. And so not having a job and now being a content creator for the last few months, I said, well, how do I monetize this? Well, the number one thing you do when you work out and you show this transformation is to become a fitness coach. Now, I love fitness coaches.

35:50There are a lot of strong, very talented fitness coaches out there. but that's just a fraction of what you do okay okay yes that's just a fraction right so there's more to me so do i want to be a fitness coach and i've started i work with a small number of men but that's not where i want to put all my eggs in the basket i do that on a very small basis but there's a lot more out there that i want to do but then so that's the path to monetization clearly and expeditiously what's the other path well it looks a little bit unclear right you've got a car that So I don't actually have a subscription model or a product at this point because I've got to figure out how I can be of service and monetize that.

36:27Right. So how can I do everything right now? So I haven't really monetized it, which is crazy. Right. So, OK. And again, my wife is a gem because she's like, take the time to do it right. What you don't want to do is create a monetization path to something that you don't truly love because that's what you just left in corporate. So figure this out. So that's kind of where I am now. Seven months into this journey. what is what is the path what does that look like in terms of where i can be of service to people and do what i love and also make some money yeah and that's the that's the inflection point i'm at now so serendipitous that i met you because this is your wheelhouse well now you know what now now

37:02Gary Lipovetsky: things are different because you've got me as a buddy but i mean the first thing i'll tell you is that it's common right having the scale that you have and being it's not only a matter of the scale it's a matter how long you've been in the game yeah right you're saying this has all happened in in the last three months, approximately. Okay, so let's say for example, I mean there's multiple ways to monetize. One of them is brand partnerships. You haven't been around long enough, regardless of the size of your audience and your reach, that brands have seen you yet. So you're essentially marketing yourself to the brands.

37:30Gary Lipovetsky: And that's why you and I talked about before, is like the fashion content that you create, the fitness content, anything and everything, you have to be tagging the brands, as A, a discovery tool for your audience, because then, or your community, because then you become more valuable to them. But in addition to that, you're kind of putting your hand up every time because the social media managers of the brands are seeing that. And a lot of the times, depending on the size of the company, the owners of the brands are seeing it because they're monitoring it. Yeah. Because they're interested to see who's talking like the chatter that's going on on social media.

37:59Gary Lipovetsky: And so when they eventually see you and they see your body of work, irregardless of the amount of followers you have. Right. Because you have a strong aesthetic contextual body of work that you continue to develop. And you're doing it well. Right. Thank you. Of course, they're eventually going to catch on. So that's going to come eventually. What I would do for short-term monetization, which I believe also has a long-term potential, I'm going to give you the exact same advice that I do, which is like the creator method model. So I believe that communities are kind of like the next iteration. It's like courses 2.0.

38:35Gary Lipovetsky: Because courses, you have a one-way flow of information. So you have your prerecorded videos, let's say, or PDFs or whatever it is, whatever, you know, choose your medium. Exactly. You have that that you can then put behind a paywall and you can release when someone pays you. And it's a one-time fee. However, you and I just talked about it. The power truly is in community. The power isn't just the one kind of the unidirectional flow of paid content to someone. Right. Because quite frankly, they can get a lot of that for free. Yep. Yeah, that's right. So that's one. But then when you are also getting it back, so now you have a two-way line of communication between you and the people behind your paywall, basically your paid audience, who pay for the community.

39:17Gary Lipovetsky: And then the other key is creating communication on that level between them. And so to your point, things like male friendship, right? So right now, what you talk about is you talk a lot about, obviously about the fitness, about the reinvention. You do a lot of fashion work. but I think what you're not talking enough about is potentially that, like what we just touched on now is the relationship between men. And the value that we get as men by having that relationship. What I'm doing, where I'm trying to promote the value of the relationship between content creators for collaboration, for inspiration, for to be in the same room with other people who are trying to achieve the same goal you are.

39:53It's so true.

39:54Gary Lipovetsky: For you, if you had a paid community right now and you could show me, hey, like there's X amount of guys either in your local area or we get together every now and then and we have retreats or we go to wherever. Exactly. Do you know what I mean? Yes. And if you showed me that and I could see that I could plug myself into a community and there are people who do this for business communities. A very good friend of mine, his name is Aaron Spivak, he has one for founders. It's called the Founders Club and he now has thousands of members. He's doing great with it. And by the way, his personal brand, he has lower distribution than you.

40:25Gary Lipovetsky: He has lower reach than you. He doesn't have as many followers but he's still built this amazing, there's thousands of people in it and I'm a member too and it's great. Amazing. but with you men would be would be connecting not around the goal of you know business which aaron's right i'll introduce you to aaron yeah yeah great but it's around the goal of achieving what you've achieved yeah showing up at 100 and that means body that means mind that means for your wife that means style ultimately you build the body you want to look good right so it has this sort of evolution right that starts to go into all different aspects so imagine hosting dinners yeah you to host a dinner let's say you have a member base whatever the annual or monthly feels whatever you decide what you know that's going to be sure and imagine you have even six guys yeah and you go to dinner do you know what i would give to go to dinner with like you and like four or five or six other like-minded guys or just like hey how do we get motivated yeah how do we get motivated how do i come how do i leave that dinner yeah and then the next day not have that slice of pizza with my kids yeah because i believe that going to that dinner just like even this you and I talk changes the trajectory of your path.

41:29Gary Lipovetsky: Right. Because for the rest of the day, I'm not, I'm probably going to be healthier than I would be otherwise. Exactly. It's that accountability. Yeah. Because when you do something together as a tribe, you're going to, you're like, you're more likely to accomplish it and you're more likely to enjoy it. Yeah. Somebody who to check in with. And you're accountable. Yeah. You're accountable, but you check in with people when you, when you mess up. Yeah. You know, and you're, and you're told it's okay, let's continue. And then you check in with people when you win. Yeah. And so that's really important.

41:54Gary Lipovetsky: So it's a long-winded answer to your question but if I were you it's it's one of those I've been struggling with it's a great problem to have right I've got this community I've got this message I'm starting again content creation I learn every day how what my audience wants from me what I'm good at what I'm not good at you get to test two or three times a day right so it's fascinating but then in terms of monetization which at some point my wife's gonna tap me on the shoulder and say hey wrap it up that's what I would do I would choose I would if I were you I would have I would start creating content around this notion of, you know, you and I just talked about it as like male, male friendships.

42:27Gary Lipovetsky: Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Having male friendships, I think that there's a big need today in this and I think no one's addressing it, but that could be you. So I think talking about male friendships and within male friendships, talking about the things that we want to achieve, you know, in terms of like your fitness. I think that's powerful. Yeah. And that has, it's a rich kind of area to dive into because it starts with daily tactics and nutrition and mindset and then clothing and then showing up and these consistent habits that end up changing your life. And you look and you with what you've accomplished with your just your overall the way you communicate your demeanor obviously your appearance your style everything you are the person to lead that so if what I would do if I were you if I had to guess right now you're trailing 30 day reach probably a couple of million two three million just approaching four million four million okay wonderful so you you have you've reached four million people like four million people have seen your content.

43:20Gary Lipovetsky: It's either four million or more than likely it's some of the same people, but it doesn't matter because an impression is an impression. Meaning if you reach one person 10 times, it's just as good as if you reach 10 people one time. Exactly. Right. So let's call it equivalent for now, but reaching four million people trailing 30 days and that number continues to grow as you continue to iterate on content and get better at content creation. Well, what's going to happen is for you to create a community where you're charging X amount of dollars per year and people come in annually. And then it's around programming around that.

43:51Gary Lipovetsky: And then the hope is, and the goal is, is that it becomes reoccurring. So that after a year, and then there's potential revenue opportunities within. So let's say, for example, I don't know if there's a dinner and there's a cost on the dinner. Exactly. For access to you, you can charge a little bit like above that dinner. So you can have a little bit of margin on an event. This is, thank you universe for putting Gary in my path because here we are. So yeah, this is, it's so great. You can do this now. It's so helpful. You have enough scale to do this now. Thank you. Thank you. This is news. Yeah, you can do this now.

44:21Gary Lipovetsky: And you create a... There's platforms that you can use. We use a platform called Kajabi. There's different ones that you can use. And what I would do is I would have a series of instructional... Again, I'm just telling you how we do it. Yeah, yeah, sure. I would have a series of instructional videos that you start off with, like maybe 20 or 30 or 40, and have exercise and diet. That's kind of like the... you know, like the, that's, that's foundational. Well, that's standard, right? That's, you know, but if you, if you're, if you're branding this as a tool for really helping with creating male friendships for the purpose of reaching your 100, to tie it into your existing messaging, if that's the tools, then you're giving them the initial tool chest, right?

45:06Gary Lipovetsky: And that'll be the physical, that'll be the diet. But I would even create, I would even create some videos about how to network with like-minded men. Yeah. And how to bring, you know what I mean? Yes. And like, so how to do all that. And so then I would put them all on a WhatsApp group together so they can talk to each other. I would have announcements. And I would start with programming. Yeah. You know, depending where they come in, like, and I would also do like weekly Zoom calls. Again, I'm just telling you what we do. Yeah. I would do weekly Zoom calls when you're bringing them all in. You put each guy in a hot seat.

45:34Gary Lipovetsky: Okay, what are you struggling with? Yeah. And then have everybody else here. And if you want to make it really, you know, more compelling, and again, this is what we're doing, make it like a forum where they all sign NDAs. And when they all sign NDAs, we're like, okay, guys, we're entering into this group. This is a brotherhood of men. And, you know, here are our goals. But when you're in, like when you're in the Zoom calls, you're all under NDA. Yeah. And so we're all committing to each other to keep it private so that people can feel okay to open up. That's powerful. And I would also make it mandatory attendance.

46:03Gary Lipovetsky: Yeah. And if you don't attend, you're going to think I'm crazy. I would charge maybe a couple hundred dollars as a penalty. Yeah. And then I would say, that's not me, Johnny, taking that and buying myself new stuff. I'm putting that in a fund for like active dinners and events that we're all going to use. So it's not like I'm profiting off of it. We need to be able to count on you and each other to show up. You need to show up to this. And then once it gets too big, then you create separate forums. So you can create a forum for, you know, like these 20 guys are in this one. Exactly. Next 20. That's how I would start building it now if I were in it.

46:37Yeah, because I think, yeah, starting with the building blocks of the habits and then kind of building and then getting some traction there, finding a group. I think that's brilliant. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's one of the things, obviously, I've been I didn't foresee any of this happening. So I'm like, OK, so now how do I build? How do I build? Well, that's my dream. Yeah. And how can I again? I worked in corporate America for 27 years. Never have I had the sense of purpose and being of service. Again, I used to wake up and listen to podcasts, read books, voracious reader, two or three books at a time.

47:03I haven't read. This is bad. I haven't read in several months because as you know when you're creating content you wake up in the middle of night You got an idea you're writing your story. Oh, this guy's got this story or you're just you're constantly right here You're not consuming your prioritizing creating and not consuming Yeah, and that's a whole different outlet and you learn how to tell your story and what your audience wants from you and what? Moves them I did this one This one that that moved pretty well is like charismatic men have all have all have one thing in common which is they ask good questions, right?

47:34The most charismatic people don't boast about whatever, climbing Kilimanjaro. They, hey, tell me about yourself. And you ask inquisitive, genuine questions where you want to learn. People feel seen. They want that, right?

47:46Gary Lipovetsky: Johnny, what I'm describing, I think people need. Yeah, yeah. Like, I'll be a member. Yeah, it's powerful. No, thank you for this. But get that, and it's okay, even if it's small in the beginning. And by the way, what I'm describing to you doesn't require any investment on your part. Like setting up these accounts, There's no like it might be minor. Yeah. Creating the content behind the paywall, it might be minor. Yeah. It's not like a huge investment. You're not going to be spending more than you're spending now. That's right. Anyway, so. No, that's good. That's super helpful. Wow. A couple of things.

48:12Gary Lipovetsky: Let's I want to I want to get into some more stuff. I want to get into some more stuff. Yes, yes, yes. What do you actually want this audience to become over the next three years? Your audience. So now we're still on the topic of of of this. Maybe you want it now to become this community that I'm describing. Yeah, that definitely is a goal of mine now. So I would say I'd like to hit 75 ,000. And again, it's not about the numbers. You can probably tell me more about the richness of the audience. You don't care about the followers as much, although that does matter. It's not that I don't care. It's that it's not a metric you can control.

48:43Gary Lipovetsky: Yeah. So fussing over that metric, I think, is futile. Yeah. You can control the amount of content you put out. You can control the quality of that content. Yeah. You can control your ability to show up. You can control your quality of communication, becoming a better communicator. And so I see that progress in your content. And I see you, I really do. So to me, chasing a follower count is just futile. Yeah, you're just going to get frustrated. Yeah, you're going to get frustrated. Do the things you can control and that'll come sooner or later. But the thing is, is that when you do the things that you can control, that's when the number you can't control starts to scale.

49:21Gary Lipovetsky: Exactly. And that's what you're going to experience. And this may show, if you've gone on page John J. Garvin, you'll see a lot of shirtless pictures. The audience or the algorithm is telling me that's what they want. And I've done some get ready with me. And here's a suit. Here's a custom suit. Once you build the body and the mind. Johnny, I apologize for interrupting you. It's not the algorithm. That's the other thing that you need to show. Oh, yeah. Okay. Those are human beings. Yeah. The algorithm is simply a tool that connects people to the content they want. Yeah. So when your content resonates or when you get distribution and get a high number of views on a piece of content, it's not because the algorithm.

49:55Gary Lipovetsky: It's not pushing it. It's not. But no, it is pushing it because people want it. Yeah. OK. That's what it is. Yeah. There's nothing. It's and that's the thing is most creators get that wrong is they're creating for something that's not real. Right. They're creating for an algorithm. That's like creating for like a screwdriver. Yeah. In order to get a screw into a wall. That's right. Or like, you know what I mean? Right. And I think you asked me kind of what I want this audience to be. I would love it to be a one-stop shop for, and I keep saying midlife men, and that can be 35 to 65. One-stop shop in the sense of build the body, build the mind, build the style.

50:27Where do you travel? How do you show up for your woman? So those sorts of things, and it's a breeding ground for great ideas and elevation and expansion of mindset. That's what I want my page to be. And so it starts, again, it may be what tactic has been working, which is shirtless, maybe gym, maybe beach, aspirational location in Miami. but then it pivots and expands into style, it expands into travel. So we kind of bring you in with the first step of the process, but then we move you through these other things. And then down to jewelry. I mean, it's interesting as you know, some guys are like, what ring is that?

51:01Or where'd you get this? And it's interesting what they find the details, because there is a curiosity. So maybe they built the body, but they wanna know, hey, I'm curious, where you got that? Or where's that shirt from? And so there is that interest from my audience. And so I want it to be a one-stop shop for men who are looking to elevate their life.

51:16Gary Lipovetsky: You know, I believe that there's a trend that I'm, like, there's a trend that I'm definitely seeing in social media right now. And I don't like to even call it social media. There's just a trend I'm seeing in human communication. And the superficial things that we as human beings believe are going to make us happy, I believe human beings are understanding that those are veneers. And then you can have all of those things. So you can have the fit body. You can have the car and the watch and you can have all these things. You can have like the smoking hot wife. You can have all of these things. But that doesn't necessarily lead to this place where you're going to be truly fulfilled and happy.

51:49Gary Lipovetsky: And so then there's this like enigmatic layer of realness that I believe we are now all starting to understand exists. And now we're asking, how do we get there? Yes. So how do we get past these? Like these veneers are going to become almost commoditized to achieve. But then how do we get this other, you know, how do we get this enigmatic happiness? And I really do feel that you're so well positioned to do that because you and I have known each other now for about a month. And we've had, you know, great exchanges. And here's the thing is like, I look forward to spending time with you. And it's...

52:22I want everybody to know that you send calendar invites for just hanging out. If we're going to get coffee, this is not like a text and I'll remember. It's like, no, here is the invite in the calendar. I love it. But I love having that on there because to your point, it's like there's anticipation of, hey, we're going to do a cold plunger. Hey, we're going to get coffee. And I see it on my calendar. I'm like, hey, yeah.

52:39Gary Lipovetsky: Well, we made plans. We made plans. Last night, we made plans for Wednesday. Exactly. for tomorrow, which was today's Tuesday. And we made plans and I sent you a calendar invite. That's right. But I did it to keep us both on track because if I don't send that calendar invite, there's no way I'm going to remember it. If you saw my calendar, you'd understand. It's bonkers. It's bonkers, yeah. Sorry to throw you off there. No, look, I just think you're well positioned for it. And what I'm saying about this is that in now knowing you for the brief amount of time that we have, this enigmatic layer that leads to real fulfillment and happiness for men, I'm not going to talk about for women, But for the community that you serve, I believe you have that.

53:17Gary Lipovetsky: I think that there is literally millions of dudes that I can go out and find who have amazing physiques as well. Also at your age. And that's not me. But they don't have, well, no, no, but it is you. You do have that physique. Yeah, it's an element of it. But it's an element of it. I can be of more service. But there's more. And that's why I really do believe that this is the opportunity and this is the white space that needs filled. Yeah. Is, you know, is more of this. And people are doing it. There are people doing it, but there's a lot less because it's easier to, you know, what's the analogy?

53:44Gary Lipovetsky: It's easier to treat the symptom than the disease, right? Yes, right. And so you are not treating symptoms. You are treating the core of the problem. Oh, I just got chills right there. That's really well said. And that hit me deep. So my suggestion to you is create a personal brand Bible. And this is something that we just did for Valeria. And I'm really excited about it because before when people asked me, like I would tell people what I do for a living. At first, they think it's a little funny because I work with my wife in this capacity and I work exclusively with women. That's why I value these male friendships and meeting people such as yourself.

54:16Gary Lipovetsky: And when they asked me before, I'd be like, well, it's this content for women. It's what women are talking about now. And I would fumble with it because I couldn't really define it. And so Larry and I sat down. We were on our way back from Hungary about a month ago. Yeah, that was just recent. Yeah, that was recent. And we sat down and I had her locked in a plane with me for 12 hours. Let's get to work. Well, because there's the distractions of our kids, of business, of friends. There's constant distractions. So being able to get a meeting with my wife for a couple of hours without either my phone or her phone going off and constant distractions is impossible to do.

54:49Gary Lipovetsky: So we sat down for approximately eight hours and we created a brand Bible. And then I created all these prompts to be able to. So that's what you need to do. And how long is the perfect brand Bible? It's five pages, not 20. No, not even. It's like maybe three pages. Okay. But it really defines. So we came up after everything. We put it through the meat grinder and it sounds simple, what you get at the end, but it's modern womanhood. Yeah. Right. So now when I meet someone and they go, what do you do? And I say, this is what I do. And like, well, what's the content about modern womanhood? But to get to that point, you know, and then if they ask me to elaborate, I have other talking points.

55:22Gary Lipovetsky: We also define who the audience is. So I think this is a this is this is an activity that you need to do. Yes. Because the when we talk about niche, this to me is like the evolution of niche is having a brand Bible. the connective tissue that niche allows between each piece of content that you create that connective tissue will get you maybe short-term distribution right but it won't build a long-term personal brand because you're tied to this niche like i can only do fitness i can only do shirtless content exactly and if i right whereas when you have personal brand that niche becomes a pillar in a larger larger ecosystem of of of the definition of your personal brand and the connective tissue that a brand Bible, a personal brand Bible provides, um, that has just a lot more long-term staying power.

56:08Gary Lipovetsky: And I think that's what you need. So I think in the short term, I would have that, that I would create that brand Bible. Um, and then in the longterm or in the medium term, I would create this community and come up with like, you know, your annual price point. Um, it has to be, you know, it has to be, it has to be meaningful because men need to commit. And that price point will also dictate the demographic of the men that you're appealing to. And I got to tell you, I think that price point, I don't want you looking at your current audience size and pricing it based on the audience size. I think that would be wrong.

56:40Gary Lipovetsky: I believe that you need to look at it and price it based on the size of the problem you're solving. And quite frankly, for men in their 40s and 50s and beyond, you're solving a very big problem. Yeah, this is the, if you're talking about ideal customer profile or avatar, these are guys that are successful on the outside, but they're probably overstimulated, under fulfilled. And then I think a lot of the things that they tell themselves are that I'm too tired, too busy, too late, too old, too kind of hit my peak again. Those days are behind me. And so if I can sort of elevate and show a pathway towards building blocks into daily habits, into style, into evolution, into mindset, into environment and circle, that's very valuable.

57:22For successful men, but they feel that gap between who they are and who they could be. They feel that gap vividly. Yes, you're absolutely right. So I'm going to get a little personal with you.

57:31Gary Lipovetsky: Okay. If you look at me, and this isn't something I've talked about, but if you look at me and you're like, beautiful wife, you know, three beautiful kids, three beautiful sons. Doing fantastic. living in Miami, has a bunch of motorcycles, has a bunch of cars, looks like he's financially successful. And these are all wonderful things. But to your point, when I look at you and I see this physique that you've achieved, I see the mental clarity that you have, I want that. And so I believe that there's a big demand for it. And you're successful by most any metric you can come up with. But there's something missing.

58:10Yeah, and you feel that. And again, I can't articulate what it is for you, but you feel it. You put your head on your pillow at night. You said, I had a great day, but there's just still, there's still a gap. There's something missing. There's something missing and there's something missing.

58:21Gary Lipovetsky: And, you know, a lot of the times I feel almost like a prisoner of my own success. When what I mean by that is that I am so busy. I can't like even take that extra bike ride or I can't, you know, when I'm looking to hang out with you, like the fact that Valeria is out of town and the fact that, you know, I was able to say, oh, Wednesday, I have Wednesday. but then I still have this guilt as like maybe I should be having dinner with the kids because Malaria is out of town and maybe our seven five or six things trying to get into that jockeying for that one position and you're like oh shit all the time so then I'm thinking to myself okay Johnny's gonna come over I'm gonna have as many of our boys who will want to join us so that's two things yes and we can hang out have guy time the kids are there time with them we'll introduce and there's more then I start and this is how I think then I think to myself okay Johnny's gonna be there he's gonna come over he obviously is super fit, he looks great, we're going to be in the sauna, we're going to be in the cold plunge, the boys will come out and they will see what, like, you know, a good example of someone who's fit, of a man who's fit.

59:19Gary Lipovetsky: Now that might turn, that might, you know, turn something for them. They're going to hear our conversation. So I'm in one, you know, in one, like, activity. It's a powerful bundle. I'm hanging with my buddy. Yeah. I'm spending time with our kids. Cold plunge, sauna. Health benefit, like, and this is my life, right? So where I feel like I need help is that, you know, finding that motivation to continue functioning through the amount of work that I have to do. And one of the things that's very powerful and there's a lot to unpack there. One of the things for me that I can relate to, not nearly at the scale that you just articulated, is my wife calls me Johnny Rocket.

59:54So I get so excited, especially with this amount of energy and optimism and gratitude I have. I wake up, pop out of bed, watch the sunrise. I have 30 things I want to do. I want to go for a walk and all these things. and she's just like, slow down, just take it easy. And so I think you're sort of not rushing, but you have so many things to do and so many boxes to check every day. And so recovery becomes one of those things that seems like, duh, everyone, but to recover either your mind or your body for eight hours of sleep or silence, one of those things that men, you don't get enough rest or recovery.

1:00:24It's one of the things that actually I need to get better at. And so getting eight hours of sleep because that impacts everything, your metabolism, your energy, your mindset, everything. So if you're not taking care of that, you're doing yourself a disservice.

1:00:36Gary Lipovetsky: It's interesting because I agree with you on the sleep. And I'm better now. I'm nowhere near where I need to be. But there was a period of time where I was just always tired. And I asked my doctor. I have a preventative medicine doctor, right? And I asked him and he said, Gary, you need to turn off all screens 90 minutes before you go to bed. I did it one time. I just felt like a different human the next day. I felt like Superman the next day. but I can't sustain it. It's hard to sustain. So now I have like the yellow light filter thing. So you're still doing it but it's not as bad for you. It's not as bad but you know if we think about one of the benefits that you would offer inside of this community regardless of how many people are in it is to send everybody a thing on WhatsApp.

1:01:18Gary Lipovetsky: Guys turn off your screen. Yeah stop looking at this. Like looking at time zones and be like hey. If you're reading this turn off your phone. It's 8 o 'clock. It's 8 o 'clock. It's 8.30. Turn off your shit. Turn everything off right now. It's so true. And then having everybody chime in okay mine's off. mine's off mine's off mine's right the next morning how does everybody feel so let me ask you this so as you're looking at yourself and you don't have to give a number but like where I was I was and I did a poll actually so I was I was thinking I was living at 70 % yeah and I put a poll up there am I right or men living at 70 % or maybe 50 I think half the audience said they were living at 50 % of their potential which is staggering right for guys to be just walking around and whether they knew it or not the way they answered the question was I'm living in half my full my full potential yeah that's yeah so So when you walk around, do you?

1:02:01Gary Lipovetsky: Half. Yeah, yeah, 50. You're at 50? Yeah, I'm at 50. Your 50 is pretty damn good. Well, listen, me at 50, for me, it's the physical. Yeah. You know, and it's specifically the food. Yeah. It's specifically the food because, you know, I do weight training with a trainer three times a week. Yeah, you're working your ass off. But it's the food. And I keep giving myself the excuse, it's because of the kids. You know, it's because I'm hanging with them, so I'll have that piece of pizza. Or I have, like, we're traveling a lot. Yeah. And like a 12-hour flight knocks me out. So it's these things that I have trouble with.

1:02:35Gary Lipovetsky: So I feel like if I got my food in order and I was able to continue being consistent with nutrition during travel, during time with kids, during – look, we're all going to go for dinner. Like me and Valeria, you and Sarah, we're all going to go for dinner. And I don't know. We're not going to like a place that doesn't – We're going to have some pasta. We're likely going to have some pasta. Or I'm going to Italy with Valeria in a couple of weeks and we're going to be on a cruise. Like how do I, so that's why I'm at 50. So I feel if I could take control of myself and get my kind of my, my body just aesthetically in order and just my health overall, then I feel like that would lead me to my hundred.

1:03:11And a big part of that is not, not seeking perfection, right? That's, you're always going to fall short of that. So just knowing you're going to have some hundred days, you're going to have some 50 days, some 70 days, and you stack up five days a week of a hundred, well, you're going to get a hundred, you're going to get a hundred results. But if you're having five days a year week or at 60, well, that's what you're gonna you know

1:03:28Gary Lipovetsky: I find the most like the the thing that kind of knocks me out is like I'll be okay for let's say Like I push through and I get seven good days Right, and then something happens. I'm at a kid's birthday party and I have a cupcake and that's it Everything gets destroyed and then after that it's hard to get back to that baseline of like being good But you were obviously able to do it for a six-month period and completely transformed your body and even still and again And I can walk by alcohol or bars or anything like that and not be tempted in the slightest. My wife will bring over. We'll have a dinner party or something and she'll have some desserts or chocolates.

1:03:57And I'm like, get that out of the house. I'll have a bite or two. And I'm like, so your environment is stronger than your willpower often. So you just got to make sure that you're designing it in a way for success.

1:04:07Gary Lipovetsky: Now that I'm thinking about it, I think that I'm probably missing something else. So when I go to that like piece of chocolate, which I love or like some kind of sweet treat or ice cream, that must mean there's something else that I'm not indulging in that is much better for me and so I thought maybe it's motorcycles but the unfortunate truth is I can only do that about once a week yeah and I love doing it well yeah yeah and you know what the video is amazing down the marathon yeah it's great it's interesting because now I'm making a connection here is that when I take my bike into the Keys or wherever it is I get so much pleasure and fulfillment yeah from being on the bike for a couple of hours that when I sit down to them because I always have a meal like I'll ride somewhere for breakfast so in the morning I'll have cottage cheese and maybe a coffee and then that'll hold me over for two hours until I arrive wherever I'm having breakfast and then I'm able to be so disciplined that that breakfast is like eggs maybe steak maybe a piece of fish vegetables no dessert drinking water no sodas bam bam bam bam because I just got off of such a fulfilling earned earned dopamine you've done something high frequency you've been totally dialed in good for your mind good for your body right and so then you're like I'm gonna continue on that trajectory but how do you think how do you find that on your day-to-day that's the question that's what I want your community to answer that's the support that I would need prompting me during the day along with other people in this community to be like hey find your like good dopamine so yeah you don't you don't consume the cheap customized toolkit of things that you can rely on that are reliable there in close proximity easy access to when you get that indulgence or your wife brings home cheesecake or something he said nope no cheesecake yes this yes and i want to mention to you specifically that you also have the benefit of these 27 years in corporate because being in corporate for as long as you were you have administrative and organizational skills quite frankly that most people don't yeah they don't they just don't and so to be a creator to have the artistic side of what you do okay and then in addition to in addition to that to have the organizational side of what you what you that's right you've been trained to do and your experience for 27 years, that's where the magic is.

1:06:13Gary Lipovetsky: There's a couple of rapid fire questions I want to get to and we will conclude. So rapid fire, are you ready? I think so. Just don't even think, blurt it out. Biggest surprise about Miami? Oh gosh, it's expensive. You know what, it is damn expensive. I don't know if that's a surprise, but holy cow. And I'm not even drinking alcohol, holy cow. Well, you also live in an area, like I know where you live. You live 10 minutes from me, so I get it, I get it. It blows me away every time we go to dinner. I say, holy cow. Well, imagine me. I took about a 34 % hit when I moved here from a currency exchange perspective.

1:06:47Gary Lipovetsky: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I get it. Okay, next. Corporate America or content creation? Which is tougher? Ooh, content creation. Okay. Most overrated health advice online right now? Oh, gosh. Do more cardio. Fair. What's something 25-year-olds get completely wrong about aging? That it goes downhill after 50. You can be stronger, leaner, better looking in your 50s. And in fact, you should be. Hallelujah. Yeah. Okay. What's one thing men should stop tolerating immediately? I'd say just low frequency kind of people in their environment, just like people that are dragging them down. It just changes your trajectory.

1:07:24Just you got it. You got to wean those guys out. Love it. Love it. Okay. What's more important at our age, ambition or peace? I think what's more important. I think still ambition is still, I've got to drive every day I wake up. I know you do. The pace that you keep, the schedule you keep, I think ambition is super important. It pops you up and it keeps you driven.

1:07:43Gary Lipovetsky: Fair. I think it's a little bit of a balance. I need more peace. It's a trick question. Well, I know you do. Okay. At what age does sleep become more exciting than nightlife? Oh my gosh. I would say 49 or 50. I'm so excited. My wife will get in bed and she'll get in bed at like eight o 'clock. I'm going to say, no, let's just sit on the sofa or sit on the patio. And she's like, no. So she's very excited about sleep. but it's so it is really the the keystone to everything else you get the sleep your mood's going to be better your body's going to be better you're going to eat better relationships everything absolutely you know valerio's out of town so a seven-year-old crawled into bed with me last night and it's hard for me to sleep when he's there because he's tossing and turning he's grinding his teeth can i tell you a quick story real quick so my birthday february 14th so a buddy of mine is february 16th oh that's oh wow okay we got a double birthday next year so a friend of mine said february 13th is a friday let's bring in your birthday we'll go to 11 and what's the other and Gold Rush, which these are big clubs in Miami.

1:08:35They're strip clubs. Let's call them what they are. Yes, I know the owners. We can go out there. Anyway, we'll leave the house at 11 p.m. and ring in your birthday on Friday night. And I said, you want to leave the house at 11? No.

1:08:49Gary Lipovetsky: How is that possible if you're sleeping? Exactly. I was like, I go to bed like 10 o 'clock. So we did not go to 11. But anyway, sleep is very important, my favorite thing. I hate the term midlife. I just absolutely hate it. Yeah, I know. Every time I type, I'm just like, this is... It just sounds terrible. Yeah. Right. Okay. But I have to ask this question. Okay. What's something about midlife that actually gets better? I think everything gets better. That's a, that's a, I really just your appreciation, your gratitude, your friendships, your energy. I mean, it really, I think we have this notion that it's all downhill or you're managing decline.

1:09:21You're embracing the dad bod, all of these things that kind of social media has told us are normal. Like it's not true and don't buy into it. I think everything is better at 50. This is so far my best decade yet. And I've had some good ones.

1:09:32Gary Lipovetsky: So the 50s are awesome. Fucking so motivating. Okay. Okay. Final question. If your 35 year old self saw your life today, what would shock him most? That I even allowed myself in my forties to kind of gain that weight and to, cause I actually did this. Um, I was actually married before and at 32, 33, I went through P90X and I lost actually like 25 pounds and I did this similar kind of a thing and where I was slipping. And so I came out of that divorce, a much better version of myself. I met my current wife. And then in my 40s, I started slipping and sliding and coasting. And my 35-year-old, so I was like, you work so hard.

1:10:10Why are you going to go ahead and just throw it all away on scotch and whiskey and chaotic eating and just comfort and complacency? So my 35-year-old self, just stay the course. So this is something that once you get this transformation, just maintain it. Just maintenance is a lot easier than having to lose the 30 pounds. So just maintain it. This is a lifestyle. This is not a fad diet. It's not crazy. It's not white knuckling life. This is just a lifestyle that you love.

1:10:36Gary Lipovetsky: Johnny, I want to I want us. I think we're both going to walk away from some with something from this from walking away with a lot. Yeah, but I think that you're walking away with, I think, a robust monetization plan. Yeah, I'm walking away getting motivated to get my health in order. Fantastic. So how about we do this? Let's motivate each other. OK, so that's the deal. Let's do it. So I'll help you along the way, and I'll offer you as much advice as I can, and you kick my ass and remind me, hey, don't eat that shit or get into the gym. It would be my pleasure. Brother, appreciate you so much.

1:11:06Such a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you.