The MENtal Muscle-Up Podcast: The Cure For Mental Masturbation

Send Me A Message! What's the biggest challenge you face when it comes to looking, feeling, and performing your best? Let me know and I'll show you how to MMU in an upcoming epsiode.

EP091 - What does vulnerability have to do with being a 'man's man', and how the hell can a man go about experiencing, embracing, and expressing vulnerability?
 
Today, my guest is Erik DaRosa, who is a former Wall St. investor, fellow podcaster, and trauma survivor advocate who has transformed his life from one of a hollow corporate shell to a man living with and on purpose.

Erik and I share so much in common, not the least of which is taking our passion - in his case skiing - and using it to help others overcome anxiety, and depression, and deal with the struggles of everyday life.

Erik is an amazing example of what can happen when a man is willing to stop fucking lying to himself, take a good look in the mirror, and realize that while he is responsible for his own life and happiness, this is not a journey that can or should be taken alone.
 

Here are just a few of the amazing takeaways Erik and I will be crushing today:
 
👉🏾 How Erik crashing into a condo while skiing turned out to be an amazing wake-up call to drop the Wall Street investor facade once and for all (15:34)

👉🏾 Why both in life and in skiing you can’t just put your head down and expect to move forward, and if you focus on the trees (anxious thoughts) you ARE going to crash (30:03)

👉🏾 What does NOT being vulnerable look like so you can catch it and turn that shit around (101:00)

👉🏾 What to look out for and what to do to recognize pain in the people you love when on the surface they seem okay (114:46)

👉🏾 One of the core vulnerability practices every couple who struggles with communication needs to PRACTICE (134:27)

👉🏾 What Jordan, LeBron, Gretzky, and Brady can teach us about vulnerability (151:15)

👊🏾 GIVE A SPOT. GET A SPOT.

When it comes to the ultimate workout that is everyday life, we all need a spot from time to time to carry the weight of relationships, mental health, work, and living with purpose.

Share this episode with a Brother you sense needs a spot or if you're the one struggling to lift the weight, share it with the one guy you know is always there to give you a spot when you need it.

I'm all about giving a spot when a Brother needs one so feel free to hit me up for a spot on IG @ignitetheimapct so we can train together towards Igniting the Impact you wish to see in your world.

👊🏾 SHOUT-OUT TO

• My Brother Eric DaRosa who you can connect with on
  • His Podcast
  • Instagram

 📖 RESOURCES

• The book Words That Work by Dr. Frank Luntz

 🥰 ENJOY THE SHOW?

• Leave a review with Apple
• Give it a rating on Spotify

👊🏾 We got this!

Support the show

Send Me A Message! What's the biggest challenge you face when it comes to looking, feeling, and performing your best? Let me know and I'll show you how to MMU in an upcoming epsiode.

EP090 - TRAINING DAY! Today's episode is inspired by EP089 of IBI with my Brother J. Stamatelos. Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcast.

Shout-out to my Brother BobbyT (@justbobbyt) for helping me see that I was committing one of the cardinal sins when it comes to training - putting Quantity over Quality. It's time to start focusing on QUALITY once again by making every rep (aka episode) count by pairing each up with a solo episode highlighting the mighty MMU.

Here is our Training Split for today's episode:

💪🏾 Day 1 - Physical + Emotional Health & Fitness: What can you do when you've managed to put your emotions on the back burner so you can still get shit done but you're not enjoying the level of peace, fulfillment, and excitement that you want out of life? (5:50)

Notable Quotable #1 - “I think it starts with not being afraid of your feelings in the first place.”


💪🏾 Day 2 - Relationship Health & Fitness: How do you ensure you're surrounding yourself with Brothers who will honor you for who you are, help you see through your own bullshit, and ultimately help you step into the powerful truth of who you are? (16:35)

Notable Quotable #2 -  “I do really think that what we want most is to be loved for who we really are and if we are always wearing a mask that’s impossible because at no point are we actually getting love.”


💪🏾 Day 3 - Full-Body aka PREP: How do you get over the stress of being a perfectionist who insists on doing it all alone so that you can reduce your levels of stress and get more shit done in less time all while enjoying the process way more than you currently are?

Notable Quotable #3 -  “Living in a hyper-competitive yet isolated world is perfect for cultivating a deep inner critic that generates shame because if I live in a world where I’m dependent only on myself and my success and failure is dependent on me I need to be as close to perfect as possible because any personal flaw can be a disaster. I don’t have a tribe behind me.”


💪🏾 Day 4 - Physical Health & Fitness: How can a man who suffers from poor body image learn to both love and respect his body more and stop shitting all over himself for not being as 'jacked' or as 'ripped' as he believes he should be?

Notable Quotable #4 -  “No one has to try to be this amazing person that’s without flaw. No! That’s not the game we’re playing here. This is not about becoming perfect. This is about healing and improving the relationship with yourself and you do not need to be perfect for that to happen.” 

 👊🏾 GIVE A SPOT. GET A SPOT.

When it comes to the ultimate workout that is everyday life, we all need a spot from time to time to carry the weight of relationships, mental health, work, and living with purpose.

Share this episode with a Brother you sense needs a spot or if you're the one struggling to lift the weight, share it with the one guy you know is always there to give you a spot when you need it.

I'm all about giving a spot when a Brother needs one so feel free to hit me up for a spot on IG @ignitetheimapct so we can train together

Support the show

Send Me A Message! What's the biggest challenge you face when it comes to looking, feeling, and performing your best? Let me know and I'll show you how to MMU in an upcoming epsiode.

EP089 - How do you go about not only learning to love your inner critic but leveraging that piece of shit voice (or voices) in your head in order to make them an ally and not an enemy?
 
Today, my guest is J. Stamatelos (one of the coolest names ever!) who believes the way we've been taught to approach personal change is entirely wrong, so he helps men just like you and me who struggle both internally and externally through a modality known as Internal Family Systems, or IFS.
 
IFS is an evidence-based framework that heals emotional pain by building a positive self-relationship within. It assumes we are made up of “parts” that are often in conflict. 

One part of you may want you to be bold and share your truth with the world…while another wants you to hide and avoid being seen. It remembers how you were hurt before and doesn’t want you to experience this again. 

Instead of picking a side and fighting this out, IFS allows us to heal these old wounds. Healing past pain allows these protective parts to switch roles and become powerful allies toward authentic living. 

IFS excels for those who experience high degrees of shame, self-conflict, self-doubt, fear of external judgment, and similar issues. 
 

Here are just a few of the amazing takeaways Paul and I will be crushing today:
 
 👉🏾 Why seeing ourselves as an ally we want to help as opposed to an enemy we need to defeat is critical to our success

 👉🏾 If self-sabotage is really our inner critics having the best of intentions, how do we develop the awareness to recognize when the inner critic is actually trying to help us?

 👉🏾 When you feel like shit, how do you separate yourself from your emotions in order to effectively deal with the emotions?

👉🏾 If re-framing your emotions in the moment is the key to getting past your negative emotions, what's the step that comes before you can ever re-frame what you are feeling?

👉🏾 Why emotions are guests that visit us every day and in our home we need to have two doors - one that lets things in and one that lets things out -  and how our job is to keep both doors open

👉🏾 Why we wear masks in order to be loved by those around us but by wearing a mask we will never be loved for who we truly are

👉🏾 Why living in a hyper-competitive yet isolated world is the perfect environment for cultivating an inner critic that generates shame

👉🏾 What are the 3 different levels of dealing with the self-critic and what are the tangible action steps you can take for each level to learn to love and leverage your own inner critic?

 💪🏾 HERE'S MY CHALLENGE TO YOU!
 

📲 Download the MMU Blueprint and start Igniting the Impact you wish to see in your
world.
 

 👊🏾 SHOUT-OUT TO

• My Brother J. Stamatelos who you connect with on
  • His Website
  • Schedule a FREE Consultation

 📖 RESOURCES

• Dr. Kristin Neff's Website (Self-Compassion)

 🥰 ENJOY THE SHOW?

• Leave a review with Apple
• Give it a rating on

Support the show

Send Me A Message! What's the biggest challenge you face when it comes to looking, feeling, and performing your best? Let me know and I'll show you how to MMU in an upcoming epsiode.

EP088 - How can a man who is living so far below his potential wake the f*ck up, face the reality that is his mediocre life, and leverage monotony to explode his potential?
 
Today, my guest is Paul Salter, who I would have originally introduced as a sustainable weight-loss coach for women and fellow podcaster, but now I am honored to introduce him as a Brother because as you will hear, we connected on so many things at the deepest of levels that will set an amazing example of how two men who honor and respect each other communicate.
 
Both Paul and I were amazed at how in sync we were with each other, and how many similarities there are in our life paths, and it became clear to me that Paul is one of those men who proved me right when I said if you want to improve the quality of your life you have to start by improving the quality of the men in your life.
 

Here are just a few of the amazing takeaways Paul and I will be crushing today:
 
 👉🏾 Why chasing weight-loss goals is NOT what both Paul and I have our clients focus on and why chasing FEELINGS is what we DO focus on (5:43)

 👉🏾 If feelings are the ultimate goal, how do you measure your PROGRESS when it comes to feelings? (10:36)

 👉🏾 Since silence and stillness are mandatory for reaching your potential, what are the exercises we can engage in that will strengthen both? (13:37)

 👉🏾 The pros and cons of using the scale (aka weight loss) to measure your progress (16:58)

 👉🏾 What has helped Paul increase the ultimate drug we all need to take more of - CONFIDENCE (20:30)

 👉🏾 Why men neglect their physical health using the excuse of 'not having enough time' and how men can begin to prioritize their physical health (28:15)

 👉🏾 Developing the skill of becoming your own Personal Trainer for life and how we'll never be able to do it without having Brothers like Paul (34:51)

 👉🏾 How to use a unique strategy known as the Personal Board of Directors to get the answers to the challenges that are plaguing you the most (36:45)

 👉🏾 How can a man start practicing self-love in order to reach his potential? (50:05)

 👉🏾 Why we need to fall in love with monotony in order to be truly successful in every domain of life (55:55)

 👉🏾 The pivot Paul is making to ignite the impact he wishes to see in his world by helping people UNSTUCK themselves (101:57)

💪🏾 HERE'S MY CHALLENGE TO YOU!
 

📲 Download the MMU Blueprint and start Igniting the Impact you wish to see in your world.
 

 👊🏾 SHOUT-OUT TO

• My Brother Paul who you connect with on
  • Instagram
  • His podcast

 📖 RESOURCES

• The book What Would Napoleon Hill Do?

 🥰 ENJOY THE SHOW?

• Leave a review with Apple
• Give it a rating on Spotify
• Connect with me on IG by posting a screenshot of this episode and tagging me @ignitetheimpact

Support the show

Send Me A Message! What's the biggest challenge you face when it comes to looking, feeling, and performing your best? Let me know and I'll show you how to MMU in an upcoming epsiode.

EP087 - What can you do to finally get your ass into shape, 'look like you lift', and ditch the excuses that are going to end up costing you precious years of life down the road because you're making poor health decisions today?
 
Today, my guest is one of my closest Brothers, the one and only Philip Pape.

Philip has been on the show before and will be on again in a couple of weeks because this man represents what I believe every coach should be - honest, compassionate, and just as importantly result-based.

Philip helped me pack on approximately 10lbs of lean muscle faster than I ever have before by helping me change my limiting beliefs and got me to do some shit I swore I would never do (and actually like it), all while helping me understand that attaining my goals doesn't need to be nearly as hard as I thought.

I cannot speak highly enough about Philip so if you're someone who struggles with your health and fitness and you want to, as Philip would say, 'Look like you lift', stay tuned.
 

Here are just a few of the amazing takeaways Paul and I will be crushing today:
 
 👉🏾  What do you LIFT for? Philip rephrased that with, “What do I NOT lift for? Discover how Philip went from and non-athlete chubby kid to a lifting beast! 

 👉🏾 Philips tipping point that enabled him to add 100lbs to his Squat (and probably ego) in 6 months

 👉🏾 What was the mental MINDSET shift Philip calls the Athlete of Aging that was the perfect medicine that allowed him to ditch the ‘dad bod’ and PRIORITIZE fitness 

 👉🏾 How Philip - a father and full-time engineer with/ a huge side hustle was still able to join the 5% club in terms of physical health and fitness 

 👉🏾 What you should be measuring to increase your strength and level of fitness?

 👉🏾 What rep range and exercises does Philip recommend to improve your strength and performance most efficiently?

 👉🏾 How does Philip recommend you EAT to become as strong and healthy as possible?

 👉🏾 The most important step of the 4-step process: how to make mistakes hard to make and what to do when shit inevitably hits the fan 

💪🏾 HERE'S MY CHALLENGE TO YOU!
 

📲 Download the MMU Blueprint and start Igniting the Impact you wish to see in your
world.
 

 👊🏾 SHOUT-OUT TO

• My Brother Philip who you connect with on
  • His Website
  • His Podcast
  • Instagram

 📖 RESOURCES

• Book a FREE Breakthrough Call w/ Philip (zero selling)

 🥰 ENJOY THE SHOW?

• Leave a review with Apple
• Give it a rating on Spotify
• Connect with me on IG by posting a screenshot of this episode and tagging me @ignitetheimpact

👊🏾 We got this!

Support the show

Send Me A Message! What's the biggest challenge you face when it comes to looking, feeling, and performing your best? Let me know and I'll show you how to MMU in an upcoming epsiode.

EP086 - How can we as individuals save men who are suffering in silence while at the same time tackling the societal war of the sexes?

Today, my guest is Susie Bennett, a PhD researcher from the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory at the University of Glasgow.

Within five minutes of talking with Susie during our pre-recording call, we knew we were destined to put our minds and hearts together on behalf of men suffering all over the world.

(Huge shout out to ma man George @thetinmen for hooking us up!)

Here are just a few of the amazing topics Susie will be training on today:

👉🏾  How Susie's unique position and perspective on the male experience has shaped how she as a woman relates to men (7:28)

👉🏾  What are the warning signs of suicide and depression that we can look out for in not just ourselves but the men we love? (14:23)

👉🏾  What are the pre-hab exercises we can do to limit the depth and frequency of the emotional pain we will inevitably encounter? (24:27)

👉🏾  How important is having PURPOSE in a man's life? (34:04)

👉🏾  How can we make getting to the EMOTIONAL GYM easier for men when it comes to simply opening up and talking about what's going on for us? (49:57)

👉🏾  Is LONELINESS the heartbeat of male suffering and is loneliness what we need to focus on more than anything to help the men we love? (102:12)

👉🏾  What are the metrics men need to be measuring when it comes to being a man in today's world? (111:07)

👉🏾  How can we as individuals impact society when it comes to the societal war of the sexes we are facing today? (135:06)


💪🏾 HERE'S MY CHALLENGE TO YOU!

📲 Download the MMU Blueprint and start Igniting the Impact you wish to see in your world.

👊🏾 SHOUT-OUT TO

• My Sister Susie who is an inspiring voice inside of the men's movement

📖 RESOURCES

• George and Susie's podcast part I
• George and Susie's podcast part II

🥰 ENJOY THE SHOW?

• Leave a review with Apple
• Give it a rating on Spotify
• Connect with me on IG by posting a screenshot of this episode and tagging me @ignitetheimpact

Hope you enjoyed today’s training session, my Brother.

Until next time...we go this!

Support the show

Send Me A Message! What's the biggest challenge you face when it comes to looking, feeling, and performing your best? Let me know and I'll show you how to MMU in an upcoming epsiode.

EP085 - How are mental health and auto-immune disorders really our excuses to escape life and how are women silently emasculating men and playing a huge role in the destruction of masculinity?
 
Today, my guest is Josie Warren, a therapist who helps others overcome the same mental health and autoimmune disorders she suffered with for the majority of her life by ditching the textbooks and going deep within to cure herself.
 
This conversation with Josie was SO powerful that I literally emailed her the minute we were done scheduling part II as we both agreed there was so much more we needed to discuss but just ran out of time.
 

Here are just a few of the amazing topics Josie will be training on today:
 
 👉🏾 How Josie went from incurable to cured with one transformative question that anyone suffering from mental health and auto-immune illnesses (5:36)

 👉🏾 How do you gain clarity on what is causing your anxiety so that you can gain control over it with another amazingly simple yet powerful question? (12:35)

 👉🏾 Why depression and other mental health conditions are the perfect excuse to get out of life (14:15)

👉🏾 How succeeding as a child has led me to fail as an adult and what the fear of success looks like in real life (19:50)

👉🏾 Why true healing will always come down to us helping ourselves and not about relying on others to cure us (23:01)

👉🏾 Why exercise, proper nutrition, yoga, and all the other things we’re supposed to do to manage depression and anxiety will never cure them (25:01)

👉🏾 The epidemic Josie calls the silent emasculation of men at the hands of women and how men aren’t even aware of it (31:34)

👉🏾 Examples of what silent emasculation looks like in action that I know virtually every man in a relationship will be able to relate to (35:30)

👉🏾 Josie’s take on how the nature of happiness in men and women is very different (41:24)

👉🏾 Is your partner’s happiness your responsibility and vice versa? (45:00)

👉🏾 One of the best definitions of happiness I have ever heard (47:50)

👉🏾 The scariest yet most empowering thing a man can do when his woman is attacking him (54:22)

👉🏾 Josie shares why every man is a good man and what she hopes every man will realize (101:57)

💪🏾 HERE'S MY CHALLENGE TO YOU!
 

📲 Download the MMU Blueprint and start Igniting the Impact you wish to see in your world.
 

 👊🏾 SHOUT-OUT TO

• My Sister Josie for her willingness and courage to open a dialogue about two highly controversial subjects and for taking ownership of her part in helping men all over the world

 📖 RESOURCES

• Connect with Josie on her website hashimotofix.com
• David Daeida's book The Way of the Superior Man

 🥰 ENJOY THE SHOW?

• Leave a review with Apple
• Give it a rating on Spotify
• Connect with me on IG by posting a screenshot of this episode and tagging me

Support the show

Send Me A Message! What's the biggest challenge you face when it comes to looking, feeling, and performing your best? Let me know and I'll show you how to MMU in an upcoming epsiode.

EP084 - Is there a blatant double standard in society that is actually putting men and boys at an obvious disadvantage that nobody sees and is willing to talk about?

Today, my guest is George, who is a man taking a massive stand through not just words but hardcore action in the world of male advocacy for both men and boys.

George may refer to himself as a blogger who is widening perspectives around men, sparking and engaging in uncomfortable conversations, putting the spotlight on ugly truths while addressing the unpopular other half of gender equality, and men’s mental health. But let me tell you that he is so much more than that.

With a lot of attention being given to gender politics and gender identities, I think George put it more perfectly than anyone I have ever heard when he said this:

"I try to identify as George, and George is a constantly shifting collection of ideas that I'm able to bring in and take out as I choose."

💪🏾 HERE'S MY CHALLENGE TO YOU!

📲 Download the MMU Blueprint and start Igniting the Impact you wish to see in your world.

 👊🏾 SHOUT-OUT TO

• My Brother George who you can find on
  • Instagram

📖 RESOURCES

• Do yourself a favor and check out George's Instagram Community to find out just how serious the issues facing men and boys are today

🥰 ENJOY THE SHOW?

• Leave a review with Apple
• Give it a rating on Spotify
• Connect with me on IG by posting a screenshot of this episode and tagging me @ignitetheimpact

 Hope you enjoyed today’s training session, my Brother.
 
 Until next time...we go this!

Support the show

Send Me A Message! What's the biggest challenge you face when it comes to looking, feeling, and performing your best? Let me know and I'll show you how to MMU in an upcoming epsiode.

EP083 - How do you close the gap between the man you are and the man you want and need to be?

Today, my guest is Jeff Zacharski, who is on a mission to help men all over the world live an open-hearted life.

Like many of us, Jeff learned to be a chameleon, suppress his thoughts and shut his emotions down, not take risks. He felt alone in determining who he was as a man. He found himself going around in circles in the same unhelpful patterns, lacking any real substance in his relationships, overthinking and being stuck in his head while feeling disconnected from his body, not really understanding himself, believing in himself, or knowing what he even wanted.

He compensated by trying to fix everything or prove his worth by giving up more of himself. By trying harder to please. Doing more. Escaping himself. No matter what he did, it resulted in patterns of chronic self-neglect, overworking, and over-achieving. This almost always led to burnout. He was actually disconnected from his true nature.

In Jeff's words, "I'm still a fixer and creative solution provider and I am also grounded, present, confident, sensual, and a deeply loving leader of men. It was only when I went through my own coaching experience that I was able to identify these unhelpful patterns, unlock who I was, and make lasting changes that impacted every single area of my life."

Here are just a few of the gems we be tackling in this episode:

👉🏾  How can we as men develop more strength, agility, and flexibility when it comes to our emotions so that we don't just end up shutting down and shutting up in the face of adversity? (10:59)

👉🏾  What makes Steve Harvey one of the strongest men alive and what is the one strength he possesses that allows him to push, press, and pull through whatever life throws his way? (24:20)

👉🏾 How can you use the 2% Better Progressive Overload Principle to strengthen the connection you have with your partner? (34:15)

👉🏾 What do good quality reps vs shitty quality reps look like when it comes to developing what I would consider the core muscles of your existence? (45:30)

👉🏾 When it comes to defining strength in a man, what is one thing you can measure on a moment-to-moment basis that will give you instant feedback as to how strong you really are? (56:55)


💪🏾 HERE'S MY CHALLENGE TO YOU!

📲 Download the MMU Blueprint and start Igniting the Impact you wish to see in your world.

 👊🏾 SHOUT-OUT TO

• My Brother Jeff who you can find on
  • Instagram
  • His website
  • His podcast 

📖 RESOURCES

• Jump by Steve Harvey
• The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida

🥰 ENJOY THE SHOW?

• Leave a review with Apple
• Give it a rating on

Support the show

Send Me A Message! What's the biggest challenge you face when it comes to looking, feeling, and performing your best? Let me know and I'll show you how to MMU in an upcoming epsiode.

EP082 - How does a guy go from never wanting to have kids to being an amazing father while juggling multiple businesses and living his best life?

Today, my guest is Vin Infante, who is on a mission to impact 1 BILLION lives.

Vin Infante is a Master Mindset Coach & Psychotherapist with a passion for cultivating lasting change and maximizing results.

Vin is a Master Mindset Coach, licensed psychotherapist & Keynote Speaker. He has spent over a decade learning and working with thousands of people in varying capacities, including hospitals, clinics, in-patient units, homeless shelters, school systems, and private practice. With an extensive background in psychology, mindset, behavior, neurology, and physiology, he uses his knowledge to help individuals unlock and achieve their unique definition of success.

Here are just a few of the gems we be tackling in this episode:


👉🏾  Are problems actually a privilege? Sounds insane because my problems are what piss me off the most until Vin changed my perspective. (8:18)

👉🏾  What is the most important skill a man needs to develop that will allow him to become the best provider, lover, father, and brother he can possibly be? (16:40)

👉🏾 How can we redefine masculinity so that we as men can leverage both the beauty and the beast within us in order to step up as a strong man but also step back and live with more compassion and patience? (32:22)

👉🏾 What is Vin's 3-step success formula when it comes to achieving our goals and why does it go against everything our body and mind want us to do? (50:29)


💪🏾 HERE'S MY CHALLENGE TO YOU!

📲 Download the MMU Blueprint and start Igniting the Impact you wish to see in your world.

 👊🏾 SHOUT-OUT TO

• My Brother Vin who you can find on
  • Instagram
  • His website
  • His podcast 

📖 RESOURCES

• Vin's No-BS Vision Board Creator

🥰 ENJOY THE SHOW?

• Leave a review with Apple
• Give it a rating on Spotify
• Connect with me on IG by posting a screenshot of this episode and tagging me @ignitetheimpact

 Hope you enjoyed today’s training session, my Brother.
 
 Until next time...we go this!

Support the show