Do It For Yourself Podcast

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

My guest this week is Marc Andre.  Marc has been blogging and running a website since 2008.  He was an early adopter of this business and he has certainly benefitted from it.  Marc went on to see his websites for well over six figures.  

 

Vital Dollar Website

Do It For Yourself Instagram

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

This week my guest is George Bryant.  George is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, father, and much more.  I am really excited to bring you this week's episode as I have been a follower of George's for a long time now.

When George was a child, he struggled with abuse.  George was bullied as a child in school and this followed him throughout his life.  By the time George got to high school, he could see the writing on the wall.  He knew he needed to make a change, he knew if he stayed where he was, he wasn't going to go anywhere.  The thought of running away popped into his head, but he realized quickly that he would need money to do that.  Option two would be the military.  He could "run away" but get paid while doing it.

George made up his mind to enlist in the military, went to the recruiter's office ready to join but was turned away.  The reason....he was told he was "too fat" and would never make it.  George left the office that day, returned six months later, no longer "too fat" and he enlisted in the military.  Just days after graduating from high school George was on a plane to begin his new journey.  George didn't join the military because it was something he was really passionate about, it was more that he could get out of the situation that he was in, AND get paid for it.

George lost the weight to get into the military but this was not the first instance he had an issue with eating.  George had an experience when he was 15 when he went to rent a suit for a dance.  Due to George's size, he needed a different size jacket and pants and he was ok with that, but what George couldn't handle was the comments from his mother.  This made him so upset, that he got sick to his stomach and in some way this made him feel better.  George began to realize that when he was upset, mad, didn't matter if he made himself sick, he felt better.  This began a VERY long journey with bulimia.  George went on to struggle with these habits through the military and it compounded with the working out.

While George was in the military he realized that he didn't have the privacy to purge that he had before enlisting in the military and it put him into a cold-turkey stop.  That was up until he began to find himself in extremely stressful situations.  George had a situation that forced him into emergency surgery and put him into a wheelchair for 12 months.  This brought back all of his bad habits with eating a purging.  While going through his recovery, George attempted suicide one night and he realized that he needed to make a change, if he didn't get things together he wasn't going to be able to go back into the military, he didn't save any money and he had no skills.  George made a full recovery and returned to the military from 2006 until 2013.

In 2013 George had suffered from over seven concussions and had brain injuries.  It was going to take six months for recovery but George had used all of his allotted time already.  George was so worried to leave the military because he didn't know what he was going to transition to but the doctor who he was seeing had to recommend he be medically discharged.  

Prior to being discharged, George discovered Tim Ferris's book the 4 Hour Body, and also found the paleo diet.  In the original book, Tim Ferris says to eat clean for one week, and then you were allowed to binge.  As hard as he tried, George couldn't binge and this helped him control something that was controlling him for so long.  Through this process, George began to cook and post these things on Facebook.  George had no idea what he was doing but he knew that people were looking and so he just kept going.  Because George was gaining some traction on Facebook someone suggests that he start posting things on a blog instead of a website.  After months of posting on his blog, someone suggested he take these recipes and put them in an ebook.  George had no idea what he was doing 

Even though he was so clueless about what he was doing, George just kept moving forward, posting, selling ebooks and it was working.  There were some hard lessons that George had to learn, such as paying taxes, but it all worked out. 

George began building relationships, his website, and his business.  He was all consumed in this and he was loving it.  Given George’s personality, as you maybe can imagine, this relationship with Civilized Caveman and the internet became very unhealthy.  George was living his life for other people and he was now addicted to social media and this company.  It became too much and he knew that it was time to move on.  George felt wrong selling this because he felt like he would be selling an addiction.  George found a friend and told him that he was giving him to the company and that was it. 

After deleting his social media for over a year George went through a long period of healing.  George listened to the people around him in order to improve who he was.  He really took a lot of time to work on himself which has in turn helped him build a successful business of helping others. 

George has an amazing story and I am so happy to have the opportunity to share it here on the podcast.

 

George on Facebook

George's Website

George's Instagram

 

Do It For Yourself Instagram

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

This week I have the chance to sit down with Nick Keller.  Nick is from Texas, where football is everything and it was just that for him.  From a young age, everything that Nick did had to do with football.  He ate, slept, and breathed football day in and day out.  Nick discovered from a young age also that if you put in the work, you can get the results that you want.  One particular instance of this was when Nick wanted to be the quarterback for his team but he was not selected.  He began working every day to achieve this dream, hitting the weights, throwing, and constantly working to become that quarterback.

As you can imagine, not playing football was not an option for Nick, that is until it was his only option.  Nick had taken some hits, some pretty hard ones at that.  He had multiple concussions and after speaking with doctors and his parents, Nick made the extremely difficult decision to walk away from football.  This was a very hard decision for Nick but one that he knew he needed to make.

In an effort to stay connected to the game, Nick began training younger athletes to help them reach their goals.  Nick was no longer able to play but this helped him stay in the game in some way and also provided him with a little extra money.  When you are Doing It For Yourself though, it isn't about the money and Nick has said that time and time again.  Nick could very easily take this opportunity and transform it into a very successful business, but he has decided to keep it as a side hustle and pursue his degree in engineering.  

Nick has the opportunity to taste different things and try different jobs to see what he likes right now.  He is Doing It For Himself by staying connected to the game of football but exploring other options as well.  This was a great conversation and I am looking forward to sharing it with you.

 

Nick's Instagram

Do It For Yourself Instagram

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

My guest this week is Nick Mattia, the founder of Ready Strong Meals.  Nick started his journey when he was working in a job that was not fulfilling him.  He decided to start working in the restaurant industry for FREE after he had spent some time prepping his meals for the week.  This began a journey for Nick of starting from the bottom and having to work his way through the ranks.  Nick went into this humble and that is something that served him very well in the long run.  Nick now owns Ready Strong Meals which is a meal prep company that serves the New York and New Jersey area.

I hope you enjoy this episode.

 

Ready Strong Meals Instagram

Ready Strong Meals Website

Nick's Personal Instagram

 

Do It For Yourself Instagram

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

This week my guest is TJ The Quad City Magician.  TJ is a magician performing his tricks throughout the Quad Cities for many different groups of people.  He got his start with magic a bit later in life after he needed to find a creative way to keep the residents in a group home entertained.  TJ learned a few tricks from his brother and when he performed them for his residents they absolutely loved them and thus his passion for magic was born.  TJ is a student of his craft and always learning as we hear in his story.  Join us as we take a journey through how this passion transformed into his now full-time career.

 

TJ Instagram

TJ Website

TJ YouTube

 

Do It For Yourself Instagram

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

Listen, we all know times are crazy right now.  This is something that most of us have never been through before and it can be really hard on all of us.  A few weeks back I listened to Adam Jaber's show on The Out Of Bounds Podcast recapping the ski season and I loved the vibe and all of the positivity so I decided to do my own.

This week I sat down with a bunch of previous podcast guests to jam about what they are excited about, how they are keeping the stoke going and I wanted to share some laughs.  This is just a fun episode to hopefully lighten the mood and talk about things that are keeping people going.  My goal is to share positive stories that motivate people and I thought what better time to bring a bunch of people together to share that.

I hope you enjoy, next week we are back to our regular program.

 

Do It For Yourself 

Brandon Krout

Ginny Cataldi

Kristen Smith

Amanda Piccirilli-Hall

Justin Mendoza

Justin Lippert

Conor Bollinger

Jeff Fairbanks

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

This week my guest on the show is professional skier Chris Benchetler.  Chris is much more than a professional skier though, he is an artist, a director, filmmaker, dad, surfer, and the list goes on.  Through all of this though, Chris is ALWAYS doing it for himself.  This started from one of the first deals that Chris made with Atomic skis.  Christ wanted to create a new ski for Atomic that would highlight features necessary for backcountry skiing.  Along with being part of the design of the construction, Chris wanted to have design control for the ski graphics because of his passion for art.  

This was the start of 10 years worth of ski graphics and design coming from Chris and Atomic.  Along the way, Chris was able to convince his sponsors to come on board for a Sprinter van conversion used in his film project Chasing AdVANture.  Chris took the shell of a Sprinter can and completely outfitted it to travel up and down the west coast, surfing, skiing, and climbing at some VERY iconic spots.

Following this project, Chris was connected with the Grateful Dead because they were interested in doing a ski graphic.  Along with convincing Atomic to allow Chris to create this graphic he convinced both sponsors and friends to create his latest project call Fire On The Mountain.  This is a ski and surf film with the entire soundtrack being Grateful Dead music.  This project was completely passion-based and a lot of the initial funding came out of Chris's personal pocket.   Chris has never faltered from doing things purely out of passion.  

It was such an honor to sit down with Chris and I am very happy to share his story of how he is doing it for himself.

I hope you enjoy this weeks episode!

 

Chris's Website

Chris's Instagram

Do It For Yourself Instagram

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

This week I have a chance to sit down with Brian Smuda, the man behind Season Pass Sales and The Haircut Book.  Brian was a sufferer of Tourette's Syndrome.  When Brian was getting ready to graduate college and head into the real world he realized that he did not want to be in the workforce and have these ticks anymore so he began medication that would hopefully help with them.  Unfortunately, these medications did not help and they only made matters worse for him.  This sent Brian on a dark path which eventually led to him being admitted to a psych ward.  Brian tried just about everything he could to get back to normal and he eventually found a medication that worked wonders for him.  Until that medication was pulled off of the market and he was not allowed to use it anymore.  

Brian was always a fighter though and determined to figure out a solution to his situation.  Brian learned of a surgery that would potentially help him.  This included having a battery pack implanted in his chest that would be connected to electrodes implanted in his brain.  Brian knew, even given the risk, that this was his only choice.  

Brian went through with the surgery and has now regained his life.  He is back on the mountain ski and enjoying the freedom that he was once longing for.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Brian!

 

Season Pass Sales

Season Pass Sales Insta

The Haircut Book Insta

Brian's Website

Do It For Yourself Instagram

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

This week my guest is Tommy Breedlove.  Tommy is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author for his book Legendary.  Tommy's story started when he found himself in a very tough situation at a young age.  He always had a dream to do to college but instead he spent his 19th birthday in prision.  After getting out he began his career working for one of the largest financial firms in the world.  This wasn't Tommy's calling though and he began to see this after a 20-year long career.  

Sit down with us as we get a chance to dive deep into his story and find out how inspirational this story is.

 

Tommy's book

Tommy's Instagram

Tommy's Website

 

Do It For Yourself Instagram

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

My Guest this week is Conor Bollinger.  Conor is a competitive triathlete racing at a very high level.  Conor has competed in the world championships for the Half Ironman distance and also as part of Team USA in the Olympic Distance.  Conor was playing sports as a kid but it wasn't until young adulthood after making some decisions as a college student that he really began to take a step back and become selfish.  Conor became selfish in a way to take care of himself, making changes that he knew he needed to make to get better.  Through these changes, Conor found triathlon and a love was born.

This is a great insight into the guy we see on Instagram, giving tips of the day, buying massive tubs of almond butter and block updates.  I really enjoyed this conversation with Conor and I hope you do too.  

 

Conor's Instagram

Do It For Yourself Instagram