Thirty Minute Mentors Podcast Transcript: Interview with P90X Founder Tony Horton

I recently interviewed Tony Horton on my podcast, Thirty Minute Mentors. Here is a transcript of our interview:

Adam: Our guest today is a pioneer in the world of home fitness and one of America's leading fitness experts. Tony Horton is the creator of the mother of all workouts, and perhaps the single most financially successful workout of all time, P90X, and the creator of the new workout program, PowerNation. Tony, thank you for joining us.

Tony: Adam, my pleasure.

Adam: Literally millions of people, myself included, have done P90X and millions more recognize you from the famous P90X infomercials. And you're seen by so many as the face and the voice of extreme fitness. But growing up, you were, in your own words, a 98 pound weakling with, interestingly enough, a speech impediment. So before you started transforming other people's bodies, how did you transform yourself?

Tony: Well, you're absolutely right. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if I was 98 I probably was a buck 35 or something like that. But yeah, pretty scrawny kid. Um, you know, I mean, it started toward the end of high school where I began to get my confidence up and I was dealing with my speech impediment to the point where it wasn't as noticeable as it was when I was a kid. And so that actually helped. And then and then I went off to college, took a weightlifting class, it really changed everything, you know? Just a simple class on hypertrophy and resistance and bodyweight training and stuff like that. And it's the first time I'd ever actually really trained, you know? I mean, I played intramural sports and basketball, and baseball and softball, and you know, sandlot football and whatever. And I wasn't very good at any of those things. I was a skier, but I wasn't very good. I was a golfer, but I was just okay. I love tennis but I didn't make the team. I tried out for the tennis team in high school but didn't make it. And so I was completely unfamiliar with the concept of training certain ways, whether it's, you know, HIIT training or cardio training or hypertrophy training, or whatever it is- hand coordination stuff to improve my athletic abilities. Until I took this class in college at the University of Rhode Island. It really did change my confidence. My GPA went up that month, because of the sort of the mental and emotional thing that was happening, those improvements. You know, when I came out to California in 1980 just as on a whim, you know, on a vacation- I'll come out for the summer and hang out and just do that, you know, and then I thought I'd go back to finish school. I was still six six credits short. But you know, I fell in love with this place. I fell in love with the surf and the sand and the mountains are nearby. You could surf in the morning and ski in the afternoon, and you played volleyball at the beach and they were gyms on every corner, which I was not used to. The gyms were at the high school or the college, they weren't one on the corner. You pay $99 a year and you go there all you want, like holy crap, you know? And that's where a lot of girls worked. And I loved it. At one point, I was a member of four different kinds of gyms, yoga, bodybuilding, cardio. And then when I was just sort of in a general gym with, it was a really pretty social kind of place where you meet people. So I just felt better. You know, I mean, and that was it. And I was trying to be an actor. So at least that summer came and went, and I stayed for fall, and then winter, and then spring and then fall in Verona. And then now here it is, 36 years later, I'm still here, on vacation, sort of, and that that was it. And then a lot of personal development. For me a lot of Tony Robbins and Deepak Chopra and Andrew Weil and Richard Carlson and, and Gary Zukav, and you know, these are all if you know anything about personal development, you know that these are names that ring a bell for you. And so I was just reading and I started going to seminars, you know, I mean, I went to these seminars. I mean, I got Don Miguel Ruiz, his book, The Four Agreements, made a huge impact. I mean, 138 pages, and I read it several times, and I was, you know, grabbing the thing and underlining stuff and highlighting stuff and just sort of like, okay, I wasn't doing this stuff before. This guy wrote a book, he's not an idiot, this resonates with me. And I was practicing a lot. So I would go to, you know, go to events where he would be speaking and stuff. And so, you know, I was just trying to reinvent myself because I was a lazy kid. I was a procrastinator. I really hated physical exercise. You know, I just want to drink beer and smoke weed and meet chicks. You know? When you live in a crappy apartment, and you're living hand to mouth. I was a trained pantomime. The only thing I really did in college that I got pretty good at. And I would do these shows back at the University of Rhode Island, these wild crazy shows where I'd crank up you know, Magical Mystery Tour and acid jazz, and I'd get up there and do these crazy sort of  NC17 mime shows. And then I took that skill, I brought it out here, when I would run out of money completely, I go down to the Santa Monica Pier at the Huntington pier over at UCLA, and Westwood and I’d do you know, enough mime to eat food, you know, and those are the good old days, you know? I mean, just sort of the trials and tribulations of a kid from Connecticut trying to make his way in California. And so it's a big, multi-year learning experience on how to go from being poor and sad and alone, to somebody who is trying to, you know, use the physical, mental and emotional tools that I was learning to just improve myself on every level.

Adam: Tony, I love that. And anyone who has done P90X knows that you are not an overnight success, because you mentioned many times throughout the workout that at the time, you know, you're in your mid 40’s. And I'm curious if you could share the story with listeners as to how P90X came together, and why you believe it ultimately became such a historic success?

Tony: Well, you know, there were three, three or four factors that existed with P90X that didn't exist prior. One was the variety, we call that muscle confusion, which was a kind of a made up term to describe something that Jacqueline was doing back in the 40’s, 50’s, called periodization training. But it was not that. It was similar to that, but it was different. And it was just something that I had learned when I was training people like Tom Petty and Billy Idol, Bruce Springsteen and Sean Connery, and Shirley MacLaine and Stevie Nicks and Stephen Stills, and Allison Janney and Bryce Dallas Howard and all these, you know, running all over town training celebrities. That's another story, how that all got going, but I just knew that and this is based on my own ethical ways, you know, I mean, I got bored with things easily and, and I thought, okay, I'm gonna go jump in a yoga class or take some martial arts, or I'm going to read up on HIIT training or whatever it was, I was just curious. And I noticed that the more variety that I gave myself and my clients, the quicker and faster and better the results were. And I was avoiding the boredom, injuries, and plateaus that come from just doing the same things over and over again, expecting a different result. You know, these guys go to the gym, and they're doing chest and arms. Or if you're just doing yoga, forget doing a pull up, you know what I mean? There are things that I physically wanted to do. So I wanted to add as much variety as possible. So that was one thing that didn't exist, nothing existed like that. Okay. I mean, yoga, shoulders and arms, that AB Ripper x core synergistics. I loved coming up with weird and unusual names for things. I don't want to call it a kneeling, reverse grip, tricep extension- that’s just, you know. So I'm gonna just call those, you know, converged demeanors. You know, let's make this stuff interesting. And then a lot of it had to do with the casting. You know, these are people that I knew. They were friends, my regular pals. I wanted them all mic’d up, they weren't just robots, pretty little fitness models in the background who had nothing to say. We just did everything perfectly. I wanted them to work. I wanted them to struggle, and I wanted them to be able to express themselves to me. So it felt like a community. Like when you're watching it, you feel like oh, I want to hang out with these people because they're cool. And the set was beautiful. I mean, we really, we didn't mess around with a set we wanted to make that really feel like a place where you would go and you'd really train with the lockers and all that. And then last but not least, you know, without patting myself on the back, well, I'll tell you how awesome I am. But I just wanted to do it my way. And the cool thing was that Carl Daikler, the CEO of Beachbody said, dude, go be yourself. Go be the silly, wacky, goofy, dude, do a pterodactyl deal, smash your face in potatoes, whatever, whatever we were doing and we didn't rehearse any of it. I had been to test groups I had, these are friends that I knew. And once it all started, once we said, you know, go, it was just hanging out with friends and working hard. You know, I mean, just following the format and the sequence to the moves we're going to do. And it felt really intense, but it also felt friendly. And there was a lot of humor and the variety. And then the reason why it really sold is because this is the early adversity of the internet. You know, I mean, people went from shooting video from their shoulder to shooting on their phone. And we were getting all this really great, fresh video from people volunteering it. I mean and their photos, before and afters and all that kind of stuff. And so we took the test group before and afters and video out of the infomercial and just put real people's stuff in it. And then when real people are watching other real people, they were like, Hey, man, that feels like me, I can do this thing. So it kind of partnered along for the first year. And then once we integrated, you know, real people's stuff, you know, biggest thing since sliced bread is my father would say

Adam: Tony, so much to unpack there. And one big lesson, among many for listeners, is the importance of authenticity. Be yourself. You obviously had no problem just getting up in front of the camera, being yourself, casting friends of yours and encouraging them to be themselves on screen. Another big takeaway for me is the importance of communication. It's one thing to design a workout program that's unique but it's another thing to be able to clearly communicate how to complete each exercise and ultimately, inspire audiences so that they feel compelled to stay engaged in a pretty challenging workout. And I'm wondering if you can share your best tips for listeners on the topic of communications?

Tony: Well, one of the best compliments I think I've ever gotten is, you know, nobody's better at queueing something than I am. And so it really helps me. Well, let me say this, it really helps the viewer, the participant, the person who's trying to get better at, you know, physically, mentally, emotionally, to be able to hear whatever they're about to do describe in such a way, so they see that light, they get that serotonin as the sudden moment of enlightenment, you know? I mean, the Japanese say that and so cueing is everything. And also giving people options, you know, hey, look, if you need to modify this thing, if you can't do this thing, I want you to march and put it in place, I want you to hit the pause button, I want you to do the best, do your best and forget the rest. You know what I mean? And so what happens is that so often people get into something, and if they can't duplicate what they're seeing, they assume that they're failing, which is not the case at all. But that's how it's been forever. You know, I mean, and a good coach, a good trainer is a therapist, you know? I mean, part drill sergeant, a part therapist, and they're part, you know, somebody who can disseminate what they're doing so that they go, oh, okay, I don't have to be perfect, I don't have to jump that high, I don't need to bench, I don't need to do that many reps. I'm going to do what I can physically do here, even if it's just pausing it and waiting for 45 seconds to go back in. And no one had done that before. So communication is everything, you know, how you let people know something. So I have to encourage them, I have to show them different versions of something. And I have to show them what body parts are being activated here. And I have to kind of help them understand what to focus on while they're doing a particular thing. So, you know, it's like juggling kittens, you know, I mean, there's a lot going on, but when you do something 1000 times, it just becomes easy to do. And so, you know, a lot of it has to do with my persona or personality, you know what I mean? And having been an actor, you know, at the same time, we're working on it, and doing scene study and improv, and I did stand up comedy and all these different things. You know, I wasn't the world's greatest actor, but I had some tools, you know? I mean, so when it came time for me to, you know, hit my mark, and do what I got to do and deal with a cast members and deal with, you know, there's the three people behind me plus the person in front of me, which is the camera, which is really the person at home. Um, it just takes time to figure all that out. You know? I mean, it can be intimidating. So if you're new to the game, and you're a really good trainer in a gym, one on one with your client, add all these variables for cameras. Alright, Tony, you got to go here, then you got to do this, you got to talk about that. And you got to go back to Billy. And then here you go to go to the camera again. And you got to count and do all this stuff. You know, I mean, what happens? Is it what it does to the average person who wants my gig, um, they get overwhelmed, you know? And then they turn into robots because it doesn't feel natural. So, and amongst all that, you got to be authentic, right? You can't- a lot of people, you know, who try to do this, they manufacture this persona, who isn't really them. And, you know, there's a lot of people in my industry that are like that, you know, they're really subdued and quiet and shy normally, and then they have to turn it up to 11 on camera because that's what they think the audience wants. And maybe that's what works. But then you have to go back to yourself to walk through the airport. And when people see you they can't understand why you're such a bonehead. Because who they see on screen is not who they meet at the airport. And with me, you meet me at the airport, because these are the people that pay my mortgages, I mean, so I put as much time and effort into the pharmacy, walking across the street, at the airport or wherever the hell I am. If people come up and say- and usually they come and see me they say hey, I lost 40, 50, 60 pounds. I'm the best shape of my life like you know, it's different than if they see Brad Pitt. They see Brad Pitt in the movie. And things are getting worse instead of better. They see me six days a week for years, right? And they think they know me- they kind of do. So that's why I don't have to exaggerate who I am. Yeah, cause I'm already this guy.

Adam: Tony, one of the really cool things about your journey is that you've been able to develop these really unique relationships. And you mentioned some of the celebrities you trained and you've also trained some very prominent leaders. And I wanted to get your thoughts on what you believe the key characteristics are of great leaders. And what do you think anyone can do to become a better leader?

Tony: You know, you have to have your act together to be a great leader, right? You have to get rid of the chaff in your life, you have to surround yourself with really smart, great, inspiring, authentic, motivated people with a great work ethic. You are the 5, 10, 15, 20 people you hang out with, right. And so, if they have all these qualities that you want, and they can see that in you, then that's a pretty good start, you know? And I think great leaders have a regular exercise regime, you know, because for me to go from a, you know, a C student with a speech impediment who had no ambition whatsoever to the guy that I am now, the foundation of who I am, is stress management, it's mindfulness, it's a healthy diet, right? Because food is chemicals and chemicals go into your brain and helps your brain you know, with cognition, memory, productivity, sex drive, quality of sleep, all these things, really, that's food. And then exercise exaggerates that, right? Norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin brain, you know, all these different things happen as a result of regular workout five to six days a week. So that's kind of the foundation of who we are, because great leaders need to thrive. If you're only sort of doing this stuff once in a while, you're gonna end up with exercise bipolar disorder, you know, I mean, where, yeah, I'm really good for three or four days, and I think three or four days off, and I'm not. I'm a moody son of a bitch. Because on the days off, I'm going to use coffee, and beer, and wine and whatever other kinds of things laying around the house to sort of, you know, upgrade my state of mind and my ability to have the energy to get things done, I need to get done. So if you are exercising regularly, and you are eating really well, and you have a mindfulness practice, and you're taking the right supplements to help with recovery and everything else, well, then yeah, then you have the energy and enthusiasm to get after it and to be this awesome person. It's about consistency in your behavior and consistency with your productivity and consistency with your willingness to get outside of your comfort zone and your consistency in willing to learn and your consistency to understand that oh, this, this doesn't work for me anymore. This doesn't apply to me anymore, and being able to say, okay, thanks a lot, or if people are coming into your life and they're not all they said they were you give them, you know, three strikes, and they're out. I mean, I just had to fire a group of people who were working hard. You know, they were doing the best that they could, but it just didn't mesh with what I needed. And the productivity level wasn't quite where I wanted it and that's hard. If that's your kid or your uncle or somebody who you're related to or your wife or your husband. You know what I mean? So, I mean, I'm working with this actor right now. And, you know, the guy's a stud. I mean, he just works so hard, and he's fearless. And he loves to learn. And it's the reason why he goes from film to film to TV series to film, you know? I mean, he's just really very, very good because he's all in you know? I mean, he's all in all the time and he's fearless. Fearless. You want to be a good leader? Be fearless. There's a lot to unpack but you get where I was going with all that.

Adam: What are your best and most actionable fitness and nutrition tips?

Tony: Oh, purpose. Why are you working out? Like why? Why? If it’s for a six pack or biceps or to look sexy in a T-shirt or look nice in a wedding dress? Well, that's gonna it's very ephemeral. It's not gonna last very long, man. Like younger folks. So yeah, like they want to go to the gym, they want to get jacked up to, you know, attract the opposite sex. Well, you better have a personality and a few bucks in the bank and a decent job. I mean, like, you know, a lot of people were exercising for all the wrong reasons and it's not sustainable. So my purpose is, if I exercise today, I'm better today, you know what I mean? I'm releasing norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, brain derived neurotrophic factor. My neurotransmitters inside my temporal lobe inside my hippocampus are firing. It's like Miracle Gro for your friggin’ brain. And then when you don't work out, it just kind of loops around and all those feel good chemicals go away. All right. And so the cool thing is when your purpose is about productivity, and memory and cognition, and better sleep, and better sex drive, and all these things that you can affect by purely moving physically, mentally, and emotionally, the bonus points that you get there are off the chart, but it requires it requires a plan. Oh, that's number two- write down what you're going to do and when you're going to do it and make an appointment with yourself like you do everything else in your life. You know what time you're going to get up, you know what time you go to work, you know what time you have to have certain meetings, you know what time what phone calls and different kinds of zoom calls you have. These are things that you plan. You got to plan your workout too, and you got to announce it to the world, do not schedule anything within this hour, this timeframe, I'm going to workout  and you do that 30 days in advance, you get your wall calendar, you can do it on your phone, or your laptop or computer. But just make sure that it's scheduled as someplace that you see it. It's always in there and nobody gets in your way. Right. And you always tell your wife, you tell your kids, don't bother me, I'm going to do all this amazing stuff for you. I'm going to be the world's greatest Dad, I'm going to be the world's greatest employee, I'm going to be the world's greatest human being if you let me do this thing. If you don't let me do this thing, I'm going to be a cranky, moody, horrible son of a bitch. So you decide, right? You help me do that planning. And then accountability. You know, I mean, some people live in Minnesota, it's eight degrees outside, they go down to the basement where it's 39 degrees, and they do work for an hour. Like by themselves, in the dark, and then they go upstairs and they clean up and they feed their kids and they go off to school and then they go to work. Like who are you? That ain't me. I need people in the room next to me. There's a pandemic, what do I do? Turn on the fans, open the windows and spray on the alcohol, wash their hands every 10 seconds, we thought we'd build the machines. We're all wearing masks. And so far, so good. You know, I mean, so I had two guys here this morning. If both of them had canceled, touch and go, would I have done it by myself? Probably not. Right. So last night, I didn't have any partners for cardio last night. So I crawl to the gym at 8:15pm which is not an ideal time to go do an hour's worth of cardio, but I did it. So accountability is another thing. If you're self accountable, rock on. But if you need others, call your uncles, your sisters, your brothers, your neighbors, the people at work, do it online, do a Zoom thing, do it, whatever, figure it out, go to park, figure it out. Find your tribe; like minded people who go giddy up, let's go. And then you add a little intensity in there. Right? Always, always kind of checking to see how you're doing. Do you need to go faster? Do you need to go deeper? Do you need to jump higher? Do you need to do more reps? Do you need to add more weight? Check in, right? If you keep doing it the same way, the same reps then, oh, I might not be getting any results here and I'm in here for an hour and a half. Because your body adapted in two or three weeks; it's always time to turn things up. Those four I think will get you what you need.

Adam: Tony, what is your daily routine? And you kind of touched on this a little bit, but how do you motivate yourself on the days that you don't feel motivated to work out, to eat right, to do the things that are so important to staying on board with your daily routine?

Tony: A lot of what I just kind of said helps, you know? I mean, and having done it for years and years and years and knowing what the costs are it's not hard for me to forget what the consequences are if I don't. I mean, I have a career where I have to, as a 62 year old, I still got to keep the guns going. And I’ve still got to, aesthetically, look like something you know? I mean, nobody likes a fat trainer. Maybe you do. I don't know. For me, it's like last night- the reason why I dragged myself in there so late is because I mean, dude, I was sitting there with a bowl of cauliflower pretzel sticks. They were beautiful and healthy. And I'm watching the Lakers game, like you know, and it's seven, eight, not quite. And then I'm like, you know, what caused this dang thing? Get your butt down there because you know what's going to happen up in here, right? Because the physical effects, the mental and emotional and so I got done with that, like I got in there, I started on the bike, it's always a safe place. It puts the tension kind of low and all right, all right, turn it up, turn it up and then up from there I went to the brisk climber, from the brisk climber I went to the treadmill, the treadmill I went to the jump rope, ann back to the bike and I kept doing three minutes each with, you know, 10 seconds in between each one, and I burnt up 530 calories which is pretty good. Decent, you know, I mean, in an hour and man when I got going after the first 10 minutes I was just like okay, this is the feeling that I want. I'm beginning to break a sweat. I'm taking deeper breaths. I know that's what’s helping, how that's helping my brain function better. And I'm staving off cancer and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and all kinds of illnesses and my lung capacity is improving. So if I ever do confront the Coronavirus, then I have my odds improved for not having that knock me on my ass or kill me. You know what I mean? Because the virus lives at the bottom of your lungs. And most people won’t throughout the day, you know, you don't you don't use your entire lung when you breathe just hanging around. You use your lungs when you exercise, especially cardio or HITT training or something like that. That's why I also meditate. I mean, meditation is a big part of my day, I do it twice a day. I never used to tape before, but I got super sick three years ago. And meditation was the only thing that kept me from weeping and vomiting and sleeping. So that stuck with me. And meditation is just, you know, the same thing without the exercise. It's all about lungs and brain function and big, full deep. And there's all kinds of ways I meditate. Sometimes I inhale, exhale one, or inhale and exhale, two, or sometimes I hold my breath at the top of the inhale and the exhalation. Sometimes if I have shoulder or knee or back pain, inhale it with the good, out with the bad kind of thing. There’s different ways to do it. You know, I mean, fast, slow, five minutes, 20 minutes, you know, it just depends on what I think I need in that moment. These are all just tools that I picked up over time. You know, if you look at PowerNation, which is kind of the tribe, the group, the power force, sort of my newest project, and so, you got P90x3 or 4 that taps into the four elements that I think are the most important when it comes to being to living the lifestyle to thriving all the time. Right? It's food, fitness, supplementation and mindfulness. We added a fith. The fifth one is mindset attitude. You know, I mean, so what are the tricks of the trade? What do you need to do? Like, what kind of food do you need to eat? What kind of fitness do you need to do that works for you? You have a regular mindfulness practice, and maybe your mindfulness practice is, you know, when I would take a nap, and go lay in the hammock, I'm gonna go walk my dogs. I'm gonna read a book. I'm gonna play some Carly Simon, you know? Just something that takes you away from the chatter and the noise and the intensity of life, right? Meditation is sort of the- to me, the ultimate. And sometimes for me, it's like, I'm gonna go for a walk in the neighborhood. That's mindful enough. Look at the trees, look at the flowers, take a deep breath, go, you know? So a lot of trails up here, and a lot of woods, a lot of wild animals and stuff. So that that's a mindfulness thing. And people don't do that. I mean, they don't, they just don't do that. And this is something that just took years and years for me to learn.

Adam: Tony, before we go, I want to ask you one last question, which is related to your journey. One of the things that's interesting to me is that before you became a household name, you had so many different professional experiences. And I think back to a story that I tell a lot; when I was a college student, I was taking a class and one of the guest speakers was the president of USC, oh, was a student at USC at the time. And he said that in your lifetimes, you're going to have five to six different careers, not jobs, but careers. And I thought that was a crazy statement. And I probably have five to six different careers now. And in your case, it seems like each of your different jobs or careers was elemental in enabling you to become what you've ultimately been able to become. And I wanted to know if you could share with listeners what you've been able to learn from your journey that might be able to help them in theirs?

Tony: That's a great point and a great question, Adam. I mean, if you look at what I did from when I first came out to California and initially I would paint houses as a side thing, because my buddy that came out here, his sister and brother in law were real estate folks. So they said, hey, we're gonna get this new place, you go paint. That was easy. And then, you know, when I'm really in trouble ever, like put on the mime makeup and go do mime. And I was a waiter, and I'm a bartender, and I was just managing the Old Tree men's clothing store. Yeah, I mean, the carpentry thing was a little thing that I learned back in high school. I love working with wood and stuff. So I did that as well. I mean, every odd job that week. I would have this gig where I used to go to Vegas on a bus with a bunch of others- you know, mimes and performers and jugglers and do these gigs, you know, on the sidewalk or for some big corporation or at one of the casinos. You know, I had a gig that I did several times where we would be a fireman, a policeman, and an Indian. And we would all stand on large buffet tables. Right? Hundreds of people would come by and we would just not move. And then we’d move a little bit just to scare the crap out of folk. I got paid to stand on the buffet table for too long. Whatever man, whatever you had to do to eat and pay your electric bill and pay that rent. And then the whole fitness training thing that was a fluke. I was in a gym and I started training my boss. One of my many jobs was as a runner, a production assistant at 20th Century Fox and I started exercising for the beginning of that job. And within the first three months, I was changing and my boss looked at me and said, you look amazing. I started training him at a buddy's garage gym, and then you know, Tom Petty, you know, like if I hadn't done all these things then I wouldn’t have had these skills and if I hadn't started working out then my boss wouldn't have noticed anything. And then my boss would not have met Tom Petty coming down the hallway. He said go, Hey, Harlan. Holy crap- cause Tom was from Gainesville, and I'm doing my time right now. I appreciate that. And he said, I'm going on tour. I'm gonna get in shape. So Harlan called Tony Horton. So Tom Petty calls me up and the next day I'm at his house. In four months I had him wearing tank tops on tour everyone was like, what the hell happened? Tom Petty looks fantastic. Man, can you help me? Now all of a sudden, I'm a trainer. So I better get me educated about what to do here. So I had to learn about hypertrophy and Kinesiology and all these things. So I went through that process and got certified. But that came in later. I mean, I was just training people based on what I was doing. And it was the sense of humor. And it was the variety. I mean, you know, Tom had a peloton and a heavy bag, stationary bike and dumbbells. And Billy, I helped develop Billy's gym so he had as much ground as possible. I did that for years and years and years while also trying to be an actor. So I'm going on auditions, and I had a job at NordicTrack in Minneapolis that would fly me back and forth to Minneapolis, you know, it was like walking and chewing gum at the same time. It means, all right, so are you going to start a machine, you're going to take the steps to the left, you're gonna turn the teleprompters there, you gotta read, I got to learn how to read a teleprompter now, without doing that 100 times and making everybody in the room nervous, you know? So these are all these skills that in all these gigs and all these jobs that led to my ability to be able to, you know, and then the first thing I ever did with Beachbody, which was Great Body Guaranteed, I was not that good. Hi, everybody, my name is Tony. Today, we're going to work on shoulders. Now our first exercise- like every other

you know, and then you did it a few times. And Carl would go, just be silly. They're like, okay, I can. I mean, Great Body Guaranteed, Power 90, you know, all these different programs point to them. Hardcore, Volcano, Double Time, you know, P90X Plus, you know, it's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of workouts. And then at some point, that's 20 years, that’s one company, and they kind of seemed to be going in one direction that I didn't want to go. And also, we were having some contract negotiation issues. And kind of like Tom Brady it’s like time to go, and they're doing great, the relationship is still great. And I love them to death. And without them, there's no way on God's Earth, I'd be where I am. I mean, it's phenomenal. But now, you know, now I've got my own. I'm working with a company called Total- phenomenal product, it's every piece of fitness equipment in the gym, on your wall with tons of programming and amazing trainers, and I happen to be one of them. And I’m thrilled to do that. I've already shot five workouts with them, and I'm gonna shoot six more in the coming weeks. So that's kind of cool. And then you know, Powerlife, my supplement line. I never could have had a supplement line with Beachbody. You know, we've got nine products, protein powders, foundations for pre workout formulas, and it's going gangbusters. And it's really like finding my power and curiosity and the reason why I created these supplement lines is because what I went through three years ago, when I was deathly ill. I suffer from something called sarcopenia, which happens to everybody in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, and beyond, right? It's just age related muscle loss. It's harder to maintain muscle mass as you get older. I mean, it's very hard to see jacked, huge, muscular 70 year olds, right? And so there's something called HMB. HMB and vitamin D combine with branched chain amino acids. It’s a really unique formula that is helping me, you know, stay strong, because I lost 25 pounds when I was sick. So that's just a great opportunity. And then last but not least, is PowerNation. This community of people, about 2,500 people. And you know, I mean, in the old days, I would have had to have a brick and mortar test group for Power 90, P90X 2 and 3, right? Which would be 30, 35 people in a room. You know, with COVID and our budget, I mean, it's just little old me and my wife and seven employees. Everything's done virtually all on Zoom. It's all video like that. And it's really amazing to connect with these people and work with these people and see their change and The Power of Four is a, you know, like I said, fitness, supplementation and mindfulness, it's all the things I know will help people not only get in shape, but stay that way. To learn to have that lifestyle, as opposed to okay, I'm going to do this thing for 90 days, take a before picture and after picture, oh, what do I do now? You know, I mean, I'll join a gym, I'll do CrossFit, I'll take three months off and gain the weight back again. So the idea here is, if I can do it, you know, I’m the laziest guy in the world. But I figured out the formula. I want to give everybody that magic key so they can just go, oh, I need supplements, because they help a lot with recovery and give me the energy to be able to come back again. Oh, I need mindfulness because, you know me, I'm in sixth gear all the time and I can't figure out why I broke my back and my shoulders, my neck, and I'm exhausted all the time. I mean, so like, once you figure all this stuff out, just do what I did to the power of four. And you know, instead of seeing people lose weight, gain weight, get in shape, get out of shape- to see them- let's see- how many of these 2,500 people are living this way for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years? That is what we're trying to do here with the PowerNation, which is it's been a blast. So yeah, the answer is, you’ve got to reinvent yourself. I mean, you learn what you learn. There's a great story of a guy who's an accountant, love bikes. He was always at the bike shop on Saturdays and Sundays. His wife would go, yeah, you love it so much. Five years later, he owned the bike shop. He wasn't an accountant anymore. Because, you know, he was passionate about it and he put a lot of time and energy into it. He didn't have to just sit in a cubicle anymore crunching numbers. Now he's in the bike shop, doing what he loves, you know? I mean, that's, you know, you always gotta stay curious. You always gotta stay open to other things. And if you have a job that you don't love, right, you just try to pay the bills. What's your hobby? Your hobby might be your career, but you just don't know it yet. So put a lot of energy into that, you know what I mean? And for me, you know, that exercise was kind of a side gig.

Adam: Tony, I love it. Thank you so much for all the great advice. And thank you for joining us.

Tony: Adam, my pleasure.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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