The Anthony Vazquez Show

Lena Martin is one of New York City’s top personal trainers and nutrition coaches. She offers programs and packages that unite physical fitness, nutrition, and mindset. With her own brand Fit Bride by Lee; she specializes in working with brides. Competitive by nature, Coach Lee qualified nationally in three NPC Bikini competitions earning recognition in the world of competitive body building. She’s also been blessed to have the opportunity to work at Equinox, Crunch,Orange Theory Fitness and most recently, Ripped Fitness. If you caught her on Bravo’s “Workout

This episode of the Anthony Vazquez Workshop combines all things FITNESS & BRIDAL. Lena Marti shares how she created her successful company FitBride, and how she transitioned from bellydancing to personal training. Anthony and Lena talk about how she found her niche in training brides, and how it was the best thing for her career. They talk about instagram and its negative impact on our body image. Lena discusses where her passion comes from, and how you have to love what you do to keep going.

Lena also discusses how mindfulness and accountability take part in her current practices with clients, and talks about moving forward with a new online platform. Lena & Anthony touch upon the language of dieting/fitness and the importance of focusing on the good things and not just the bad. There are no such thing as "cheat meals" with Lena—she believes you should enjoy your food if you're going to eat outside your regimen.

You can find out more about Lena's work on her Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/coachleenyc) or her website (http://www.coachleenyc.com/). 

This special edition of the Anthony Vazquez Workshops show was recorded in Element Music's studio and features Marianne Bennett: Founder & CEO of Element, New York City's top live music production and entertainment company. Stealing the show and winning over any crowd, Element Music has shot to stardom since Marianne Bennett opened her Manhattan based company 10 years ago. One of the country’s only live-mixing producers, Element has embraced the unpredictable nature of performing and used it to their advantage. Element Music is a community of artists and professionals with a decade of experience providing live entertainment on an internationally recognized level.

Marianne opens up about her beginnings as a singer, and her journey towards becoming a producer and a director. She discusses how her love of classical music drives her and talks about the unique way in which she uses music to shape an event and cater each event to her clients' needs. Anthony and Marianne discuss the business side of the music/creative industry, specifically from the perspective of failure, and how nothing is truly a 'failure' if you learned/grew from it. Marianne also discusses how the creative side comes easily to her, and how the business mindset came later, as a mode to get the music across better.

Tinsel started eight years ago, on a kitchen table in Brooklyn and since then has grown to a multimillion-dollar company. Tinsel is committed to redefining luxury events through the execution of imaginative, immersive experiences for private clients and for brands like Mercedes-Benz, Spotify, L'Oreal, and Condé Nast. Tinsel has proudly produced events at iconic institutions like The New York Public Library, The Guggenheim Museum, The Rainbow Room, and One World Observatory. The team’s work has been featured in Vogue, WWD, Forbes, and Town & Country, with the company named recently as one of the Top 50 Event Designers in North America.

Anthony sits down with Erica to chat about Tinsel's beginnings, experiential marketing, and unconventional approaches to event planning. Erica talks about the importance of pushing through, growing pains, and 'The Process' that goes into building a multimillion-dollar company. Eric and Anthony also discuss the importance of playing to your strengths and building a team around that, the exponential growth of responsibility, how social media has shaped the event landscape, and much more. 

You can find out more about Tinsel on their Website (http://tinseldesign.com) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/tinseldesignnyc).

With 15 years of experience, Michael Russo is a full-service event planning company with branches in New York, California and Florida. With Michael's inimitable sense of style and a flair for orchestrating unforgettable events, it comes as no surprise that he is in increasingly high demand among Hollywood’s brightest stars and some of the nation’s most influential people. E!, “Access Hollywood,” “Entertainment Tonight,” “The View,” “The Wendy Williams Show,” InStyle, The Knot, Modern Bride, People Magazine, Us Weekly, Hamptons, OK!, InTouch, Distinction Magazine, and Newsday are among the various outlets where you can read about, hear about and see Michael’s impressive oeuvre. 

The two wedding industry veterans and long-term friends, Michael and Anthony, sit down to chat about building long lasting client relationships, as well as how to build a celebrity clientele. Michael describes the process behind planning and personalizing an event for each client, including how to thrive in the chaos of event planning. They touch upon what true success is and how to define it in terms of personal happiness rather than anything else. 

You can find out more about Michael via his Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mikierusso/) or his Website (https://www.michaelrussoevents.com/).  

Anée Atelier is a New York City photography boutique led by best friend duo, Gina Esposito and Sheena Meekins. While, Gina is an accomplished photographer with more than 16 years experience capturing weddings throughout Manhattan, the Hamptons and destinations as far as Dubai; Sheena is a seasoned creative who co-founded Anée Atelier following an esteemed, eight-year career in publishing, with magazines including Teen Vogue, People, StyleWatch and Essence. 

Gina and Sheena open up about the creation of their business after Gina was feeling worn out from too many years on her own, and Sheena was growing tired of an industry that was so corporate and had wanted to embark on something more meaningful. 

They both discuss things they’ve overcome and what it took for them to get to where they are now. 

Gina talks about her struggle with anxiety and Sheena talks about how her family life inspires her. Sheena explains how her obstacles pale in comparison to her father's who has worked so hard to provide for her and her family despite having lived through segregation, oppression, and marginalization. 

You can find out more about Anée Atelier via their website (https://www.aneeatelier.com) or Instagram(https://www.instagram.com/aneeatelier/). 

Brittany Lo is Manhattan's go-to bridal beauty expert, Founder and CEO of Beautini. Beautini, is one of the top bridal beauty companies in NYC that has been featured in People Magazine, New York Times, The Knot, BRIDES and many more. Brittany with her combined 40K+ following is a regularly tapped expert by beauty brands including La Mer & Bare Minerals and enjoys shedding light on life as an entrepreneur and the beauty behind the wedding industry!

Brittany tells her journey of graduating from Babson, a top entrepreneurial school, to becoming a beauty expert, finding a need for a service like hers in NYC and starting Beautini. Anthony and Brittany discuss how to grow a business in today's social media economy, the concept of "makeup on demand", how to turn your passion into a working business, the fiscal and financial nuances of starting a business (including how to secure investors), building and maintaining a brand, scalability in businesses, making lasting business connections and much more!

You can find out more about Brittany on her website (https://www.brittanylo.com) and her Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/brittany.lo). 

Josh Spiegel is the President & Creative Director of Birch Event Design. Birch Event Design is a high-end décor, floral and production company that has produced hundreds of bespoke events to date—weddings, bar mitzvahs, corporate affairs, soirées—transforming New York City’s most iconic and eclectic venues for private and corporate clients. Birch Events has been featured in Wedding Style and New York Magazine, and multiple times in Grace Ormonde. 

Anthony & Josh sit down to talk all things high end wedding market—starting form the bottom, taking on too much and learning from your mistakes and the necessity of committing those mistakes. They discuss what it takes to make it in the NYC luxury market and how Josh has expanded beyond the Jewish Orthodox Market into the secular market. They discuss social media and how it has shaped the wedding industry and touch upon the importance of authenticity and having a real connection with your clients and your audience. Anthony & Josh give tips on how to get started in the wedding industry and talk about work ethics, building a great team, and much more. 

You can find out more about Birch Event Design on their website (https://birchevents.com) or follow them on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/bircheventdesign/).

Kristie Alicea is a personal trainer in NYC who specializes in pre and postnatal market. Kristie was always passionate about fitness and began whole-heartedly pursuing her passion after she left her corporate job. Since then, she's gained expertise in personal and group training at large wellness brands such as Gold’s Gym, New York Sports Club, Equinox and Barre3. Most recently she created a new HIIT fitness concept called BEAST Fitness Evolved in Brooklyn where she manages and oversees operations. 

On this episode of the podcast, Anthony's guest opens up about taking the plunge and leaving her corporate job to pursue her dreams, and talks about a big fitness project and an online platform she's been working on. Kristie discusses what it's like starting a company with a partner—the challenges and the advantages—and how to balance personal life with your work. Kristie expands on to how to weave training into your daily life as well as in preparation for a big day such as a wedding, how to schedule work-outs into your schedule, and how to stay motivated and focused. Anthony and Kristie also touch upon the importance of following your intuition, staying authentic to yourself and your clients, and much more. 

Follow Kristie on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kristie_fitness/?hl=en. 

José Rolón has been a nuptial maestro for almost a decade, and launched José Rolón events in 2013 the same year his son was born and his husband had passed away. With José Rolón Events, he quickly made a name for himself, and his planning and design aesthetic has made him one of the top rising wedding planners in NYC.  His work has been celebrated with the Best of The Knot, Essence Magazine, Sophisticated Weddings Magazine, New York Weddings and Brides. He's the host of his own wedding video series, The Wedding Buzz. 

Anthony sits down with José to discuss José's inspiring journey from interning for free at The Foundry to rising to the top of NYC's wedding industry. José talks at length about being a single dad, the work ethic and the hustle, and the mindset of turning hardships into blessings. 

You can discover more of his work on his Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/joserolonevents) and find out about The Wedding Buzz here - http://www.joserolonevents.com/theweddingbuzz. 

Part Two of the bonus series featuring Professor Janet Farrell Leontiou. 

This episode focuses on the concept of The Resistance as it pertains to The Process. Anthony & his guest speaker explore The Resistance through two perspectives: Steven Pressfield's idea of overcoming the work to achieve your goals and Ryan Holiday's view of resistance as your ego talking you out of accomplishing what you want. Additionally, Janet & Anthony touch upon how language shapes our inner resistance and in what ways we employ defense mechanisms and old scripts to our own detriment.