5x Mr. Olympia: What People DON’T Realize About SHAME & INSECURITY!

42:31And one day I woke up, I weighed myself and I was just feeling like, and I had lost like 12 pounds and it wasn't good way. I wasn't leaner. I just like lost a bunch of water weight. Cause my body was stressed, something like that. Wasn't feeling good. Went to the gym. I'm working out, feeling tired, but I'm like, whatever. Like normally I'll do like four 85 or something on RDLs. I'll do four or five this time. Cause I'm feeling tired. On like rep nine or something, I should pop and my latch just like kind of pulls and I tore my lat and I was just like, I was like, like what just happened i just tear my lat and i like couldn't move my arm i'm like processing like all this like overwhelming stuff that i've been feeling and i just hit what's the roadblock i'm like you haven't even been focusing on prep you haven't been prioritizing and now you might have just gotten taken away from you because of all that and i remember i was like devastated i was in the middle of the gym i didn't want to tell anyone i just done it because i didn't want anyone to know so i like walk out arm like this and i start crying behind the gym i'm like really I'm just crying I'm like what are you doing man like I feel like I just lost the Olympia you know this is going in for my fifth title and now I'm not gonna be able to compete all this going on I call Courtney and I'm like freaking out she's like she wasn't with me at the time either so she's like oh I'm so sorry do you need to come out there like what's going on I'm like no like just let me handle this you know and then let me take it back on myself I got this I go back in the gym and I'm like looking around like okay I can't tell anyone I just hurt myself so I didn't want to be an asshole so I started taking the weights off the off the bar I'm trying to take four place off just with one arm oh my god move it put it away and then i leave and i drive home and there was this huge just like mental like what's going on and i got back home and i'm talking with courtney and she's like remember what jordan told you about being able to manage everything at once your therapist she's like this is life literally slapping you in the face and being like i told you so and i'm like ah yeah you're right you're right and she i didn't even read the book yet but i listened to a little cliff notes version but she told me to listen this book called the one thing and just talking about if you want to be the the best at something good at something you need to focus on the one thing and I was like all right you know I didn't get into the book but I get the concept just from the title I'm like let's start focusing on one thing you know I'm like I'm not going to go into work from nine to five anymore I'm going to leave at 12 and I'm going to go to the gym at one because that's when I feel the best and I couldn't even train my upper body for a while I could just do legs and a little cardio and stuff so I'm like let me just focus on one thing at a time and get through this I'm going to stay off my phone at night I'm not doing emails nothing so I can actually sleep because I was up all night thinking because my brain was on other things so I allowed myself to sleep better allow myself to rest more allow myself to connect with Courtney more which helped me feel more grounded whereas I'm more all over the place I cut out all travel I'm like I'm not doing any more trips I'm not getting on a plane until the Olympia like don't even ask me so I started actually prioritizing what I needed and saying no to all these things and it was all those things essentially that this year made me turn on that switch and then i think it was about six weeks out the olympia where i had my first it was about four weeks after that incident i had my first back workout and it was okay workout but i did it and i got through it i remember being like you recovered enough like i recovered enough i'm like all right if i can just lock it in right now i can get through this you know you've been stressed worried traveling all these things everything you've learned about being present and enjoying this journey you just forgot about it for the last couple months this is your wake up call to get back together and come back into it and that was like my like hey lock it in be here be grateful that you even have the opportunity now to heal from something so fast that you can actually at least try and compete again and have the opportunity to push through it and then just enjoy this you know and that's when I was like like this could also be my last Olympia you know you never know when it's your last one and I'm not gonna allow all this stress to ruin that me look back and like I didn't even enjoy the last one because I was so worried about all this stuff so I pushed through kind of all that I allowed my mind to come back to center focused on the one thing the Olympia training myself rest all that stuff that I could do and I got through it and I enjoyed that Olympia and it was cool because I've documented all my Olympia preps yeah I have a videographer who follows me around does all great videos man close friend of mine it's great and he got a photographer who's now a close friend of mine too and she started taking pictures and video at the olympia and you compare a lot of my years and i used to come in super like michael jordan and be like you know sit at the press conference just locked in like hardcore this year i'm just i'm just chilling this year i'm laughing i'm smiling and you could just tell there's this lighter energy about me because i allowed myself to truly be like as present as possible in the last five years i've been working towards allowing myself to really just like have fun with it not knowing if it's going to be my last one and just being there and being present and it was really cool to see the physical evidence and pictures of like stoic face to just like a goofy Chris smiling kind of having fun with it all so kind of going back to the beginning of the conversation of being authentically who you are exactly because that's kind of who you are yeah you know it's not about like being this stern like stoic you know focused man it's about being focused knowing that you've done all the prep yeah you've done all the prep so you have the focus to be able to be kind of like Usain Bolt and just like be relaxed and loose and like have fun and then go out and dominate.

47:36Yeah. Which is what he did. I don't know if you ever watched his stuff in the Olympics where he was just like playing with the camera. He's high-fiving people right before the, you know, the Olympic gold race. Yeah. He's relaxed and loose and then just dominating his competition. And I think there's something to that. You know, we are talking about there's a different type of mentality. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but the Michael Jordan or Kobe that was just like focused and didn't show really a lot of that joy, let's say that joyful or relaxed energy. Maybe it was a different type of relax, but it was more of like we're here to work.

48:10And it worked for them. I mean, they dominated. They did. But there's also something when it shifted and you started to be more relaxed, you felt emotionally different as well. It's like you can have fun with it and dominate. Yeah. So what were you thinking about the moment you walk from backstage on stage for the most important part of the Olympia? What are you thinking of knowing that you've spent a year of training and preparation, knowing you've documented daily your lifting, your nutrition, your sleep, knowing that you ripped your lat, you healed, you came back from it, knowing that your fiance is pregnant at the time.

48:50What is going through your mind right before you go on for that main performance on Olympia? this year was an interesting year for that and it was i think i've heard you speak about this too but some of the work i've done in therapy has been in healing my like younger self and like giving that kid what he needed because he didn't get it when he was younger he didn't know what he needed and now i'm smart enough i can give it to him wow because i don't need anyone else to do that let's go and so i was backstage and i actually remember my therapist told me to do this a while I didn't really do it enough but I pulled up a picture of me as a kid come on and I looked at him right before I might even cry right now thinking about this but I remember looking at it backstage like before getting on and looking at it and just looking at that picture and get certain to cry a little bit I mean like if that kid could have imagined being me right now you know wow like how hard I've worked since being that kid to now to be where I am and like how proud he would be of who I am and how proud I am of him and back and forth and just kind of allowing myself to feel proud of myself and all the work I've put in and like what would I if that kid was the one getting on stage right now what would I tell him what would I want him to feel what would I want him to experience you know I wouldn't want him to have any pressure expectation to feel like he has to win or he needs anything to enjoy it I would just want him to go out there understanding he's already done all the work he can to have fun with it to relax just to make the best of it and not be too hard on himself and I really like embodied that and I stepped on stage with a light open heart i remember like standing on there looking up at the lights found my my family in the crowd the picture of me like giving my heart and pointing at them and i just had fun with it and i was up there super present and really enjoyed it wow it was uh it was a pretty like beautiful ending to what was a hell of a journey that year oh my goodness man i'm so happy you're talking about this and i can imagine my 16 year old self if i was watching this video at 16 being like, what a bunch of wusses.

50:49What are these guys talking about, man? Just toughen up and just like... But also I could have been like, wow. If this guy who's won at the highest level, if he is able to enjoy his life in this process and this is what he did, maybe I would have been able to shift it and be like, okay, how can I reflect on my life and not worry about all the material things to impress people or chasing girls or looking flashy so that people like me, but actually figuring out a way to like myself. The younger parts of me that felt neglected or not seen. And I'm just so happy for you that this was the moment before you went on stage.

51:32I had no clue you were going to say that. But I'm so happy for you because I used to have on my phone, I used to have a photo of my younger self at five. Now I've got me and my fiance. But I used to have a photo of little Louis. And I spent for like a year reconnecting with the younger part of me that felt neglected, not seen, abused, abandoned, all these different things. And created that intimacy and relationship with my younger self. And I'm so happy for you that you started this and you did it right before you went on the biggest moment for yourself. What a beautiful moment, man. And I'm just, I'm so happy for you.

52:10And I'm so happy in this moment that this is something you're talking about. Because there are billions of men in the world who will never reconnect with the parts of themselves where they feel the most ashamed, most insecure, least amount of love within themselves. And so I'm so happy that you just said this right now. And that we're having this conversation because I know the pain that men are going through. Yes, women are going through pain as well, but I know men in general don't like to talk about these things. And I'm so happy that you are using your platform. I watch your vlogs, your videos.

52:47I see you talking about this in interviews. And I just want women watching or listening to send this to the men in their life. Even just this clip. You don't have to listen to the whole thing. Just send them a few minutes of this and really take this in. because the man I'm sitting in front of right now is a beautiful man with a big heart. And to watch you pursue your life, not perfect, but pursuing it in progress, pursuing it with reflection in yourself, healing the parts of yourself in a journey of healing while pursuing your external goals as well is so beautiful, man. And I really acknowledge you for this incredible gift that you're giving people right now with this conversation.

53:32I just wanted to put that out there because I'm just so happy that we are speaking about this. Yeah. Because there's so many men that will never take the time to heal. And I hope they do. I hope they realize you speaking about this. Sure, you were successful before externally, but internally you still didn't feel like you loved yourself fully or you weren't able to enjoy the wins. Yeah. So what's the point of winning if you still don't feel enough? I heard you talk about a quote with Jim Carrey one time, which I love this quote as well. We're going to paraphrase this, but Jim Carrey said at one point, I wish everyone could become rich and famous and achieve all their dreams and realize that's not the key to happiness.

54:11Like being rich and famous and successful is not the key. I'm paraphrasing the quote. But it's learning how to be at peace with yourself and the parts of you that you do not love. That is an incredible life. And you're doing it. I mean, I wish at 28, 29, I was able to be where you are. It's inspiring, man. I want to ask you about, is there anything you wanted to add to that right there? Just what we've been talking about here. Is there anything that came up for you during that? No, I mean, like you said, it's a message that I try and share, hoping a lot of people can understand that. Because a lot of what I'm working on right now is I think a lot of people feel X about themselves.

54:49And they're like, well, if I have my own family or my own kid, I'll treat them differently than myself. I'll do it for them. but but like what my therapist always told me she's like it's too late then you know there's a reason that this stuff kind of repeats through generations is because a lot of the love that you give to others does reflect on the love that you give yourself all the time and if you don't learn how to i don't learn how to do this now to give myself i'm gonna struggle to give it to my daughter and if the way you were talking about the way men talk to themselves if they were to really walk through and see their younger self and be like what would you tell that little boy versus what would you tell yourself?

55:24It would be two different things. You would never say these negative things to a little boy. No, definitely. Even if you were saying it to you as a little boy, they wouldn't do it. Never treat yourself that way as a little boy sitting in front of you. Yeah, but what people don't realize is that when you feel that pain, that shame and insecurity, that is that little boy. It's the same person. There's no separation there, you know? Wow, man. This is freaking powerful. I'm so happy that you're having this conversation right now. I heard you talk about your dad one time where you have a great relationship with him and he loves you, but you never saw him model kind of the self-love with himself, I guess, in this way.

56:04He would just kind of take everything on, but he wanted to express like, hey, can you give me a hand? Can I get support? He would just take it on, which is not a bad thing or a wrong thing. It's inspiring, but it's also empowering to allow others to support you, right? It is. And so maybe he wasn't able to even have the tools to model this type of relationship you have with yourself right now, right? No, definitely. I mean, like I was talking about, previous generations had no idea of this stuff. They didn't have these podcasts or therapists or education or studies or anything that would allow them to kind of work through this.

56:37Nor did they really have probably, maybe it would have been honestly a disadvantage for them to feel some of this because they did have to get through a lot of hard work. so you know he wasn't modeled that and he was like the greatest father i could have ever imagined but he wasn't able to model that like requesting of help and showing a vulnerability and he almost created almost like a false expectation of what i was looking for really thinking that's what i wanted i wanted to be the rock that always held the family together that wasn't stressed out that could you know just take everything on by himself and like have it together and i was like i'm not that person like i can't do that you know you're like i need help yeah it was hard for me to kind of realize that because i was like i want to become the man who can't handle that and then i was like i don't think there's a version of me at least not a happy one that exists like that interesting so did you feel like a failure as you were growing up because you didn't think you could be like your father there were times where i felt like i was more angry more sad more upset unable to handle as much stress where i was like like my dad could do this you know and i was like a little kind of hard on myself and it did exist but i i'm sure there's a version of my dad who maybe like wishes at times he didn't he was going through and he didn't feel like he could handle it but it's all he knew he didn't know how to talk about it it's all he knew so it's a lot but he what's what i love about him is he's so like open to this and like i talk to him now we're trying to like work on it now and he's like he's so open to like learning and being there for me and he's so proud of me for like doing this work myself.

58:07He's always like encouraged me to like to to be this best version of myself. So I think that's beautiful because some parents if they didn't have the tools to do these things themselves they may say why are you doing this? Why are you going to coach or therapist? Like just suck it up man. Like I'm able to do this. Your grandfather was able to do this. We went through wars. We went through famine. We didn't have time to express our emotions. We were surviving. We're trying to survive. We didn't have the time or the privilege to talk about the pressures that we have. We just had to step up. So I'm glad that your dad is empowering and encouraging you to be able to process the pressures in the past in a beautiful way and not just saying, ah, what are you doing?

58:49That shows that he's got a growth mindset as well. Oh yeah, absolutely. When did you know that you were in love with Courtney? was there a moment that you were like okay obviously I like this girl and you know we're hanging out or dating but like was there a moment you're like this is the one that I want to be with the one that I want to choose I don't know if there was like a concrete moment you know we went through a rocky start to our relationship really she we were long distance and she had had some like kind of health stuff that was going on with her in the past also something that we were able to relate on and we kind of like long distance is hard we were kind of struggling and i remember there being some times where we were like we weren't doing hot and we were on the edge we weren't super connected and i just like i remember thinking like no matter what all this we're going through right now i just never want to like lose her really no matter what i felt like i just i was like i always want we weren't i didn't see the perfect version of ourself now but i believed in like a better version of ourself and i just i don't know i just remember all that and then we actually took a break at one point really it was during covid she got stuck in america i was stuck in canada borders were closed we were kind of going through our stuff and we were like the stuff wasn't really working out we took a short break kind of took a step back and we're focusing on ourselves and then after a few months i was like i felt nothing for a while that it's done whatever you know you're like i'm done with the relationship like moving on and then all of a sudden i just like i got hit by this overwhelming like fear that like she would be gone forever and i like started to really like process that and i was like i don't know if i can live without this girl like i don't really i don't know if i can like if we bring this back together it's going to be hard we're going to have to not only build what we didn't have but repair what we've now lost and work forward and go through a lot of the stuff that we've now created more pain but i was like i feel like i need to do it because this girl is so special you know really and she really is like a great like yin and yang to me you know like she's very emotional and relational and connected and whereas for me sometimes i can go into like that performance mode and it's hard for me to like come back and connect yeah yeah she's always like ready for an embrace and a hug and to be there and to be present like just get off me i need to focus right now yeah she's just always there you know and i'm not i wasn't always the best at that so she was a great model at me for being able to express your emotions and kind of like be more relational wow okay so you guys got back together and was that the time you said let's do therapy together too yeah i think i guess we had only done solo therapy up until then but we did start doing therapy together after that yeah what was the what has been the greatest lesson that you've learned through couples therapy i can't remember the the exact quote that my it's my therapist quote jordan through name i'm stealing it from her but it's like compa compatibility isn't a precursor it's earned you know like people you we're not just gonna like meet and be compatible and her her aches work with my like positives and all this it's not going to be like that we're going to actually have to like work at understanding each other and giving and taking and being there for each other because it's not always perfect and i think understanding how much really like work goes into a relationship working you know just i don't think you find your soulmate you build your soulmate you know you have to earn it and i think really like understanding that first of all a victim is someone who has no control over anything so if something's out there and you need to find it you have no control if you find the wrong one you can't fix it so i find that gives you a lot more control to be able to empowerment to be able to make your relationship what you want it to be rather than to try and find a relationship that you want so i think that was a huge thing for me and also obviously like we've spoken about women have a lot more like emotional needs that they're vocal about at least and men aren't i think one of the biggest things i've learned is that her needs that she requests aren't just for her but they're actually for me too so when she's like missing connection and i'm like i don't need that but i'll do it for you it's like no i need it just as much as her so i'm not i'm not doing it for her i'm doing it for us and understanding that the relationship is an us thing not a you and me thing is like a huge thing that's a huge mindset shift because in a relationship you feel like you're doing someone think something for someone else sure you love them you'll do it but it's not the same as if you're truly believing it's making both of you better wow what's missing for you right now in your life or in the relationship that you feel like you don't have yet besides a daughter on the way that we don't have yet um is there something missing within you that you feel like you still get to develop to have the best relationship possible yeah i mean i think Thank you.

1:03:37a less of a drastic dial in life what do you make sense so let's say last couple months i've been traveling a lot right so i'm dialed into work and then i come home and i'm trying to dial back into relationship and if i'm all the way 100 to negative 100 back and forth that's a big change to go so it's how i need to learn better at not when i'm gone not disconnecting too much so that when i come home it's not too hard to continue to connect again but i feel a lot more at peace and and just joyful and happy when i'm really connected with her so that's more important to me so i need to put more energy into prioritizing that dial to be over there more often that's interesting so not be a hundred at one thing only be like okay i'm gonna be on the road for three weeks i'm at 80 but i'm gonna give 20 over here as well so it's not completely eliminated exactly yeah interesting what is the thing you love about your wife the most another tough one not tough to find anything but to pick one this isn't what i love the most but something we were kind of joking about is and i kind of touched on the stairs i'm i've been obsessed with efficiency in my life sometimes and efficiency means that you're also missing out a lot of like things that are just joyful to be present you know things that don't really matter you know like if i'm like trying to get up and go go go go go then i'm like gotta wake up get in the shower eat my food get out the house like everything's got to be on like a thing where she can just kind of like get up and be like hmm just kind of sit there for a bit drink her coffee want to just sit with me and just like be there with me and just like and be super present with that and she's i used to be like we gotta go we gotta move we gotta move and she's just like why you know so i think that is something that i really admire about her that it really helps me kind of slow down too and she's also just the most selfless person i've ever met like she truly almost had a fault puts everyone else's needs before hers and so i'm needing to learn and she said no like i don't need this it's like no i know you need it so I'm going to give it to you.

1:05:34But I still love that she's always trying to look out for me, and no matter what we're going through, she really tries to see my side of it. She's able to empathize with how I feel. And a lot of men I know are afraid to show all the emotion, to cry and all these things because they're afraid that their wife's going to be like, oh, you're weak. Why are you crying? I need a tough man. She's never made me feel like that. She's truly made me feel like the more of my insecure parts of myself that I show, that she loves me more, that she accepts me more for who I am, not less not the same but actually like it's we have more love she's more love for me when i show her more things that i'm afraid to show wow man that's beautiful i think every man wants to be able to reveal themselves in front of the woman they're with and feel seen and safe at the same time and secure of all their insecurities shame and past guilt they want to feel seen safe and secure to reveal themselves.

1:06:31And I remember many relationships I was in. I remember a girl, I was crying one time because I was bringing up something that was really emotional for me. Yeah. And I would say I'm a sensitive human being, but it's not like I'm crying every week or something, right? It's like when something feels something, I'll feel it. Yeah. But then I'll move through it and I'm back to my other self. It's not like every day, right? You're human. But when I was going through something that was challenging and I started to tear up and cry and she started to laugh at me. She was like, I know I'm supposed to not think this is funny, but you look weak.

1:07:03Wow. And I remember just feeling like, what are you talking about? Any woman would want their man to be able to show their emotions. Yeah. But some women aren't able to handle those emotions. Some women just don't have the skills or the tools for whatever reason from their parents. Yeah. I'm not making her wrong or bad. It's just it didn't make me feel safe or secure to want to reveal myself like that ever again. And I think all women watching or listening, if you want to have a man that is in his masculine and driven and on his purpose, allow him to be all the parts of himself. Even the insecure, scared little boy parts that he has inside of him.

1:07:42Embrace it because that'll make him feel safe to go bigger on his purpose moving forward. So I'm so happy to hear that Courtney is that for you. and she embraces all the parts of you. And that is a beautiful thing. It sounds like she's still got to do a little work with her and her little Courtney as well. She started it before me. Oh, she did? That's good. We're both working on it. That's beautiful, man. I got a few more questions for you if that's okay. I want to ask you about health and longevity. I want to ask you a little bit about your business and your social media empire. And then I want to wrap things up shortly after that.

1:08:26You know, five-time world champion, Olympia, right? You've mentioned every year you're not sure if you're going to do it again or if you're done or you're thinking about it and you're still in that season. How do you think as you're, you know, we were talking about this beforehand, how do you approach your health? Let alone like pursuing more Olympias and championships, but how do you think about your health with bodybuilding, with training this hard, with the amount of intention you have on building the body? When you've seen, you know, giants of the past go through now, heart attacks and surgeries and back surgeries and all these different things, knee replacements, when you see kind of like the giants before you start to not only fall, stumble, but have health challenges, is how do you think about your approach to health and the world of bodybuilding to live a long, healthy life of harmony, not of, I was a champion for five, 10 years and then suffered the rest of my life.

1:09:34How do you think about that? And is that a fear of yours? It's definitely a fear of mine. And I've always said, if you're a bodybuilder, you don't have that fear, then you're just ignorant because it's a reality of what I do for sure and i do the best that i can within the realm that i'm in to manage it but i know what i'm doing isn't healthy for my body really you know right now it's not healthy for you yeah for sure you know there's bodybuilding that making me healthier absolutely not i know that i know there's a lot of steps i can take to mitigate that as best as possible but it's not healthy and that's why i've always i've never been like i'm one of the younger competitors a lot of the open bodybuilders at least are like 35 years old when they peak a lot of them win around then so i'm like i could go all the way for another six seven years but i've always been like if i'm ever bodybuilding past 30 like you guys just cancel my gym membership it's like just don't let me you know i'm done and i wouldn't i would never go past 30 so i'm coming to the end of my career and i'm i always had the goal of if i start and i'm successfully young and i end young then i'm at least better off than pushing past because obviously the younger we are the better our body that can recover yeah yeah and i also just had the goal of winning olympias that was my only goal so i didn't want to do the arnold which is in march i didn't want to do any other show throughout the year i was always going to do one show so it allowed myself after the olympia to take some time off the gym completely that's smart give my body my organs my digestion everything a break and then a lot of other people compete they want to go get other titles and i'm like well you're actually all falling behind because i'm already preparing for the next olympia and you're preparing for a show in between and then the olympia so it always kind of gives me an opportunity to stay ahead yeah there's no off season for them there's no time to recover they get like a week off and then they're back at it that's tough and that's mentally exhausting it's physically exhausting on your body it's a lot so i think that's a huge benefit that i've tried to give myself is a lot of bodybuilding throughout their career they'll do like 30 to 50 shows and i've only done like 12.

1:11:29wow you know and i've won five olympias already so it only goes up one a year so that's a good batting percentage yeah exactly yeah not too bad that definitely helps me this year i've been like i was talking about i got with a new trainer justin king and he's more of an athletic trainer but he's doing a lot of prehab i guess you could call it like injury prevention style stuff doing more like mobility and stretching mobility isometric holds all these kind of things like hold like concentric negatives and all these different things so help my tissues and ligaments and everything get stronger so i don't hurt myself in the future smart you know i used to squat six seven hundred pounds all the time now i'll like do leg press squat extension all these things first and then squat like 300 pounds really because it's a lot lighter it's a lot easier on my chest and you're not compressing your back also but now 600 pound a bar your back man jeez that compression i was like why do we get headaches every week i wonder i used to tell i used to go to my phys my uh massage therapist i'd be like why do i have such bad like headaches and neck pain and he's like bro you squat and deadlift 600 pounds twice a week what do you expect your body's gonna do i'm like it's a good point yeah you're lifting a small car exactly your shoulders man yeah i mean that's crazy yeah so i pulled away from that you know i do a lot of blood work throughout the year that's good i have a good my business partner in the supplements actually owns the health clinic called relive nice so i can like walk in there to do blood work whenever i want i can get ivs glutathione all these things that i need and keep on track of that so i know my blood markers especially the specific ones that bodybuilders monitor like liver egfr inflammation all these different things that you can monitor that at least are a good show they don't show everything obviously but it's a good test at least to see where you're at so that's helped me a lot my diet has been focused on just health rather than purely like getting calories in it's actually carrying what kind of foods i'm putting in my quality of calories too exactly yeah you know i don't i don't drink i don't party as much anymore i really emphasize I sleep because I think that's the biggest thing.

1:13:25I've been doing the more progressive stuff I've been doing that's not really in reach of everyone. I've been doing a lot of stem cells. Yeah. How has that worked for you, peptides and stem cells? I think they've helped me a lot. I've gotten some stem cells and some injuries, which have healed faster than an injury should heal. Right. I tore my bicep two years ago before the Olympia, got stem cells in that, and it healed in like six weeks or something. So it was pretty crazy. but overall what i've noticed is especially for autoimmune it reduces inflammation and one of the biggest things they've studied around it is mitigating autoimmune diseases so i haven't had any flare-ups or inflammation or anything like that since i started doing that consistently so that's helped a lot and just kind of balancing all these things together to make the best lifestyle i can within what i'm doing every time i try and talk about doing something healthier people like you're taking steroids you're killing yourself i'm like i understand they're not healthy but I'm also everything I'm doing you can do without steroids and be even healthier than me or if you are going to decide to do it you can follow along like this too and at least if you're going to do it you're making the best of what you got sure sure so you know it's not it's like the person who people are like you go to McDonald's and you get a diet coke what's the point of that I was like well you don't need to add all the sugar on top of McDonald's if you're you can do a little bit better you know of course there's ways to do the best you can within what you're doing so yeah the few things I'm trying that's great man uh we're here in Vegas at um our friend Omar's studio.

1:14:48He's a video master and he's been building his social media and really talented as well in this world of social media. But you have built a social media empire. I mean, millions of followers on YouTube, millions of views every video, 20 plus million, I think, on Instagram. And it just exploded around the world. What is your thought around content, and media and building this social media empire? Are you intentional with it? Or is it just, I'm going to throw up a photo of myself jacked and it's going to go viral? Because there's tons of jacked dudes that don't get this big on social media. What is your business philosophy and creative mind around building the brand of you?

1:15:34I mean, obviously winning five Olympias is a bit of a cheat code. You know, you got a good amount of media attention for that. So that's helped a lot. But I also think there's a lot of successful people out there in different fields who haven't been able to grow social media for whatever which reason. And there's NFL champions. There's NBA champions. There's, you know, tennis champions that don't have a fraction of the audience that you have. And they're at a bigger platform. Yeah. Like Tom Brady, I think, has less followers than me. But you did a poll in America of how many people know him. he would beat me a million times over the amount of people know his name but his social media isn't really authentic and vulnerable and like genuine it doesn't look like he's on there thinking how can i put myself out there on social media and get people to know me it looks like he has a pr agent being like you know check this out check that out and all these things kind of like a more of like a highlight reel more professionalism so with that being said my only philosophy i've ever had is just no one logs in to my Instagram no one makes any captions for me no one tells me what to post on my Instagram I'm just going to put out what feels authentic to me and what feels like I'm really showing myself and that's all I'm ever going to do really I've never really chased like the the trends the algorithms or all these things like that and I've just tried to my captions often sometimes are either like a philosophical thought I was thinking one night and I tried to write it out in the caption like a journal and I post it or there's some stupid joke where I'm making like a light-hearted joke about myself trying to be funny and just i never take myself too seriously i try and just be my like authentic self on there and i think especially in a world with a lot of right now and you know people mistrusting politicians and all the fake news out there people appreciate authenticity and i got in at a good time i got lucky i've won some olympias you know and i just tried to stay true to myself and i think people appreciated seeing that authenticity.

1:17:31And they also really appreciated that, yes, I got the immediate attention from winning Olympias and all this stuff, but through all that, anyone who's followed me since the beginning and everyone who knows me personally, all these people, number one thing they say that I'm most proud to hear that I haven't changed. Really? Like I'm still the same kid. I'm still the same person. I've grown a lot. I'm a lot smarter, but to my core, I'm the same person. That's beautiful, man. So I think really people have just appreciated seeing someone make a lot of external growth and internally remain true to themselves.

1:18:00When did you start to make the transition of like, okay, this is actually a business where I can make money and build a business rather than, I'm assuming a lot of guys are just more sponsored athletes and they're getting paid by sponsors or winning competitions. When did you make that shift of like, oh, I'm going to make money as a business, not just as an athlete or a sponsor, influencer and get endorsement deals? When did that shift? um i think 2019 or so was the first year i ever was like trying to make some merch you know i'm like through it i'll make a t-shirt and see how it goes and i was in my sister's living room printing stuff on a piece of paper because i didn't have labels taping it to a bag and i shipped out like 250 t-shirts and i was like that was pretty good money you know that was easy like and i made it all i did some work it was satisfying it was like that was easy i could do that so just post it on social media hey there's a shirt yeah buy it you sold it literally like dm me your address and and paypal or something you know i did each single interact in whatever one at a time wow that's how you all start that's how we all start the address on on uh microsoft word print it out cut it like it was it took me probably like a week to do 250 that's how we all start though you have no clue what you're doing you're like ah who wants this just give me some cash and i'll you know deliver it to you yeah so that's how that all started and i met a a good friend of mine now who's still my business partner who was my athlete manager uh-huh and he quit his job because he didn't like it came over to be helped me on that back-end business side of things and we're still doing stuff now and then as they started to gain a lot more popularity one of my sponsors was like how about we make your own product and i was like yeah let's do let's see how it goes like we'll try it so i got to make the label i got to make the product but it was still under their branding but it was still their brand it was in your business it's like you get more commission exactly it's not yours i got a royalty off of it but i didn't own anything so i did that and it exploded it did super well it was probably one of their best selling products definitely the best drop the company had ever had i made like 80 000 over a weekend and i was like that was 10x the money i've ever made i was like you're like i'm rich i was like wait this much money is out there and i'm other company the company's making this much money and i'm only getting the salary you're getting like two percent of what they're making yeah i'm like all right something's not adding up here so that was when I started to be like all right I need to do this for myself and then I had a bunch of people reach out to me and try to do it with me and then some people tell me I should do it all by myself because I can do it all these things and then I ended up going down to Florida to meet with Matt Jansen and Dom my two partners now just to talk about some things and they had a supplement company for vitamins called Revive and they were starting a different one and they wanted me to come on as a partner and be a we're all going to be equal partners in it and I was like you know some people are telling me I should own my whole thing and do it all myself but I went down there and I spent some time with them and I really connected with them they were good people that a great operation for the previous company I could tell they were smart and they were genuine like good people like that I could be friends with and I was like this just feels right you know in my gut I was like this feels right so I ended up moving down to Florida we started a company called Raw made another product with my name on the side of it by this time i own the company and it's it's just been exploding ever since and what's cool is i'm good at some marketing stuff i'm good at ideas and pushing the brand in the direction i want but i don't really want to run operations and sales calls and manufacturing shipping all the buying raw materials like all that you know i don't want to do that you got to build your body man you don't have time for that i got to check out olympia they got to do all these things so having those partners is the best thing i ever could have done yeah and they're amazing and obviously the company wouldn't be as big as it was without all of us being the system that we are so we've created something really cool and really big now and what the risk that i took within all that is i was making uh being fully transparent i was making probably ten thousand dollar a month salary and then i had gotten that like eighty thousand dollar commission and then i was offered to stay with them a small piece of that company and i think sixty thousand dollars a month so You're like, okay, this is a lot of money.

1:22:08That's like 700 grand. I'm like, are you serious? My whole thing with money in my life was that if I made 100 grand a year, I was rich. I made it. That was the only thing I ever thought about. So I'm like, that's like seven times that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and then with Raw, they were like, there's no salary. There's no commission. Nothing. You're not going to be making any money right now. And they're like, but we'll front the money to start the business. We'll all be equal partners, and it will be like a long-term plan. and I was like, yeah, it just felt right. You know, I'm like, I'm going to take the risk.

1:22:39I'm going to bet on myself. You know, I might be cutting the salary right now. Like I could go buy these cool, like a nice house and a nice car and all these things right now. But how about I wait a little bit? And I mean, I only had to wait like two years and I was able to make good money from it. And now I'm still not making that big of a salary, but the equity that I own in the company is worth infinitely times more than that. What did the total first year, what did you guys do total sales in the new business? Do you know? the new business i think it was just under 10 mil 10 million yeah so you're building you know 10 million of equity which something like that you could potentially sell for you know 30 50 80 million after one year of sales not that company no because it's the company that the company you just built the first year at that first year the way the multiplier works in supplements is more of like a 10 10x off ebita so if we were really only making like one to two mil profit off that maybe 10 to 15 million yeah yeah okay but still but if you build it you know over time yeah and it's it's getting yeah that was your one and it was way more fun like that i was way more passionate about it it felt way more authentic to promote something that i owned and that i got to decide all the products that were coming out how we marketed it how it looked everything i got to be part of it.

1:23:52So it made me a lot more involved in it. And people also felt that authenticity of how much I cared about it. It's not like buy this brand and a year later someone offers me more money. So I'm like, wait, no, buy this brand. Now buy this one. It's like, no, this is it forever. This is like, I'm going to make this the best possible. Wow, man. That's exciting. This is a question I ask everyone towards the end of the interviews. So I've got three final questions for you. But before I ask them, I want to send people to your Instagram. I want them to follow you. I don't think my audience probably follows you yet.

1:24:20Maybe there's some of them, but I don't think my audience fully, most of your audience is men, I'm assuming, right? Yeah. It's like 90 % men. Yeah, where I'm more like 50-50 men than women. Really? But I think the women are really going to love this so much to see someone like you speak in this way and have a beautiful relationship with your wife and building yourself to be a father and all the work you're doing, I think they're going to love this. So I think they're going to share this with all the men in their life and say, you need to watch this. But I want people to check out, like, your vlogs are awesome.

1:24:53I just love how real you are and your content. I just want people to see it, you know, watch it to be entertained and inspired, but also to study the way you do things on social media. I just think you do a great job. So I want to congratulate you there. Where can people check out the supplement business? Where can they go for that? It's called Raw Nutrition. So GetRawNutrition.com is the website. Get Raw Nutrition. And your favorite is what? The pre-workout? The protein? What do you like the most? I mean, cookies and cream protein is my favorite right now. You should have brought me some, man.

1:25:23Let's go. I'll send you some. Let me grab you. I'll send you some more energy. And then, yeah, the pre-workout, too. Those are our best-selling SKUs. Everyone loves those. Okay, cool. Nice pre-workout protein. Get in there. Get Raw Nutrition. That's what the website is. Getrawnutrition.com to check that out. Your YouTube is awesome. What's the name on the YouTube? You can just search Chris Bumset on social. There's a C-bum, though, on the Instagram. Instagram Sebum. Yeah, yeah. So check that out. Watch the journey of you with your daughter coming in a couple of months, man. I'm excited for you, man.

1:25:56What is the thing that you would tell your younger self, your 12, 13 year old self about what is about to happen in your life to become a father? What's that thing that you would say to your younger self if you could go back and tell him something? In regards to becoming a father?

1:26:19I would probably just say, take it a little easy on yourself, you know, to, to understand that it's not as easy, nor is it maybe even possible just to, to give the kind of love you want to others without giving it to yourself. So if you want to show your baby girl and her, for her to feel the love that you want her to feel, then understand that you deserve that same love. Oh my goodness, man. You give me the chills the way you're talking. This is beautiful, man. This is a question I ask everyone at the end. It's called the three truths. So imagine a hypothetical scenario. You get to live as long as you want.

1:26:54You've taken care of your health. So you're living long. Beautiful. But it's the last day on earth for you, many years away. And you get to create everything you want, the family, the relationship, the business, the adventures, everything at all happens the way you envision from this moment until the last day of you for your life. But for whatever reason, you've got to take all of your content, your work, your products, your businesses with you. So no one has access to your information. This interview is gone. Anything you've ever shared is gone. Yeah. Hypothetically. But you get to leave behind one final message.

1:27:31And this is all we would have to remember Chris by. Yeah. And I call it the three truths. So what would be the top truths that you would leave behind or the biggest lessons you would leave behind to the world to your younger self to your friends and family what would those truths be oh man um this is tough you're gonna have to go home and think about this one deeper another answer but i would say understanding utmost importance the value of connection connection with people around you connection with yourself and how important relationships are you I think people really think they understand that, but when you look at their life, they're pouring more energy into work and then coming home too tired to focus on it, or they're harder on themselves rather than showing themselves a little bit more grace.

1:28:22And I think truly being able to prioritize that, and I also think I'm guilty of this too. I'm like, well, I'm busy right now, so in the future I'll focus on that. This is going on right now. I want to be able to retire young so I can do all that. I'll do it later. you know and i think it's often too late when you keep saying that and something will always come up so i guess lesson number two is whatever you want to do do it now because tomorrow never comes you know just get after it connection the most important thing don't wait to focus on that focus on it now and something a little bit more performative i always say this little saying called set the standard and it started off very external like be the best set the standard of the class physique that i was in but it became more so set your own standards to to rely on the standards that you hold true and you hold important to yourself rather than the standards that other people think are important so figure out what you truly feel is important and focus on those and prioritize your life to to set those standards for yourself and maybe your family as well because usually that all ties in but not caring what other people's standards are but focusing on what matters most to you those are great truths man you don't need to reflect on this you got those right there Before I ask the final question, Chris, I want to acknowledge you for, man, the journey, man.

1:29:43Not only the journey physically and performance-wise and athletically in terms of your goals and dreams in the external world, but the journey in your relationships with your wife, your friends, your family, and with yourself now and little Chris. I think the fact that you have gone on a journey and an adventure to heal the parts of you that were hurting is I think the greatest accomplishment you've ever created for yourself, more than any Olympia. And so I want to acknowledge you for that journey, man. It's a beautiful thing that you're doing and a beautiful standard that you're setting for the rest of a young men's generation coming up right now.

1:30:24So thank you for setting that standard for yourself, for your wife, for your daughter and your family, and for the millions of people that watch you, man. it's really beautiful thank you of course my final question what is your definition of greatness my definition of greatness oh man these are tough questions you're throwing at me I should have you didn't let me prep on these um

1:30:53I would say that greatness to me is truly living in alignment with like your authentic self and being the best version of yourself in all aspects of life so like i was saying not just in like the physical but emotional and relationally and being the best version of yourself and in my concept what comes with that greatness of the best version of yourself is also a version that elevates the people around you and makes everyone around you a better version and is caring and loving enough to yourself and to others that as you become better you're making other people around you better so that your family your community your friends are all kind of being elevated alongside you because if you're only up there by up there by yourself then you're by yourself and you feel lonely so yeah i guess something along those lines c-bomb my man thank you brother great times man appreciate you i hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness.

1:31:54Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.

1:32:31And now it's time to go out there and do something great.