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AskCVV #6 - 40th Birthday Edition! How I Got Into The Best Shape Of My Life, Best/Worst Guests Ever, The Undertaker
Welcome to a very special 40th birthday edition of #AskCVV! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet answers questions that were submitted on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from Insight listeners just like you and you sent in some GREAT ones this time around. This is a monthly tradition so if you have a question that you'd like answered in the next edition, just send it with the hashtag #AskCVV. Here is a look at some of the questions from this month:
Quote of the day: "Do not complain about getting old. It is a privilege denied to many" - Mark Twain
For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com
"The workout split has been, it's pretty basic. So I'm either doing one of two things here. It's either the push pull type of workouts, so push would be like chest and triceps. Pull would be back and biceps, and then shoulders and legs. That's been a really big part of what I've been doing in the gym. Although recently, especially over these last few months, I've been breaking this up like a bodybuilder style of workouts. So chest one day, boom, that's it, heavy chest, lots of reps, very heavyweight, chest. Back, then another day, you pound that all out back, that’s done. Arms and shoulders were one day, quads were one day. So I split up legs, quads were one day, hamstrings were also one day. So it was five days a week in the gym. I did cardio six days a week. And then I had one full day of rest where I just really didn't do anything. And a really big thing that I did and was really conscious and intentional about, especially over the last three months over these last 13 weeks, was seeing how many steps that I took in a day. And I've never been a step counter at all. I used to wear a Woop. You might have seen that in some previous interviews that I did. I wore a Woop for almost two years. And I liked it. But I just didn't feel like I was getting the most out of it. I didn't feel like it was worth the subscription fee. So I don't wear Woop anymore. But as you know, if you have an iPhone and tracks your steps pretty accurately. If you open up the health app, and a lot of people don't know this. I didn't know this for years. But if you open up the health app, it's the heart. I guess, image, like the heart little thumbnail there. I don’t know what I’m trying to say but you know what I mean? It's the heart app icon. That's what I mean. And you go in there you can see how many steps you've taken. So I thought I was pretty active. I'd go to the gym, I would, you know, walk here and there or walk on the treadmill and I thought I'm pretty active. And I was walking like maybe 7-8,000 steps a day. Then I started like being intentional about it. And that was what really changed things for me. I was doing probably 12 to 15,000 steps a day. So that's walking on doing cardio, some hikes, just and look, there's nothing better than moving your body. There's no better feeling than moving your body and the residual effects, all of the positive residual effects that you get from that. So that's been part of my workout split. But I will say that more importantly, it's about what you're eating. It's about eating real foods and not processed foods. That's been the biggest part of this whole thing. So thank you for the question."
“I will say that there's been a lot of big interviews, there's been a lot of interviews where I'm like, Oh, my gosh, that person actually said yes, I can't believe it. But there was one. I've been doing interviews in my career. Like I started my television career in 2005, started the YouTube channel in 2011 just kind of posting, you know, interviews here and there, just like celebrities that I was so fortunate to be able to spend some time with. But the interview that I think really changed it, at least in the perception of YouTube, was the interview I did with Chris Jericho in 2019. And it was right after the big announcement that Chris Jericho was gonna be a part of AEW. And you might not remember how big of a deal that was, like Chris Jericho was tried and true a WWE guy for you know, the previous 20 years before that. Whether he was signed with the company or not, he was actively always like a WWE guy, you thought of Chris Jericho as being, you know, one of the biggest names in WWE in the last 20 years. And then for that announcement to come out, and for him to be the big name that Tony Khan had signed for this new wrestling company called All Elite Wrestling. That was a big deal. And I had a mutual friend of Chris Jericho who had connected us together. And I reached out to Jericho and I said, What do you want to do this interview? He was doing a live podcast, almost four hours away from where I was doing it, where I lived in Florida. He was like, Sure, if you want to come up here, we can definitely do the interview. So I went up, I drove up. And this is a big thing I was talking about. If someone says yes, that's all you should need. Someone says yes, find your way to make this thing happen. So he said yes and I said, good enough. Drove up for hours, we did the interview, the infamous interview in the back of his car. And that interview, like very quickly got like a million views. And it was the first real time that he had opened up about why he was not signing with WWE and why he was signing with this new company. And that interview, even though my YouTube channel at that point was like, I think I just hit 100,000 subscribers. And the pod, the podcast hadn't started yet. The YouTube channel was like, seven years old. Yeah, YouTube channel was seven years old. But that was the interview that got on so many people's homepage, and my subscribers from there just like, skyrocketed. So I'd say that that's a really big one that changed the game, for me, at least in terms of people perceiving me as someone who interviewed wrestlers. Because up to that point, the only interviews I had really done were when people happen to be in town, and they were promoting Raw or SmackDown, or IMPACT, or when there was an indie show, and I was able to go to an indie show and like interview one of the big names that was there. So like, I've done lots of other wrestling interviews, but that was a wrestling interview that I think, got on a lot of people's radar. So that's, that'd be the one that I go with. Also, I think, just personally, like the first interview I did with The Rock was really cool. It's like, oh, my gosh, not only am I talking to tThe Rock, the person who I've always wanted to talk to the number one person on my bucket list for interviews, but I'm talking to The Rock backstage at Raw, that was so cool. So that interview is on my YouTube channel, if you want to check that out, back in 2012. Then the second part of your question, what part of my life forces me to stay humble? I would just think that that's like, anybody who owns a dog can relate to this. There's something about picking up your dog's sh*t, where you are like, Ah, yep. That's so humbling, no matter who you are. And I think that, you know, a few days away here or maybe a week away from our daughter coming. The due date by the way is May 21st. But here I am, May 19th. And the baby's not here yet. So I think that when the baby comes and you're wiping up and cleaning up and changing diapers that will be very humbling. I think so.”
“I think that for a lot of people The Undertaker match that comes to mind is Mankind and Hell in a Cell. But I think that the best Undertaker match is Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania like that match is just so so good. I don't know how Dave Meltzer didn't give that five stars that's something I'd scratch my head about all the time, but I digress that is a conversation for another time. My favorite iteration of The Undertaker is like that late 90s Right before the Corporate Ministry. I liked that dark version of The Undertaker, and Corporate Ministry got like really dark. Like certainly, it was like sacrificing people, like crucifying them like that wouldn't fly on 2023 television. But right before The Corporate Ministry, Undertaker, I liked that. And this is gonna be maybe a controversial opinion. But I was not really a fan of the American Badass. I was not a fan of the Biker Taker, that just didn't seem like Undertaker to me. I don't know. Maybe you share that same opinion? Maybe not. But it just wasn't, it wasn't my favorite. And when he finally did come back as The Deadman, I was like, Yes, that's The Undertaker that we know and love.”
“I say this frequently. And I know that it sounds so simple and basic, but you really just have to start. And if you want to interview pro-wrestlers, I'm sure that there is a pro-wrestling school or indie federation that runs in your area. Go to them if you haven't yet, go to a local indie show. Tell the promoter, here's who I am. I'm passionate about journalism. I'm passionate about broadcasting, interviewing, whatever it is, I’m passionate about content creation. Would it be okay with you If I interviewed two or three of your top wrestlers, and I put them on my YouTube channel? No promoter is gonna say, oh, no, no, thank you. No, I'm good. So I would say take the opportunities that are in front of you, and build on those. Take anybody who will say yes, take those opportunities, and do with them what you can and continue to build on those. And if you have a speech impediment, I don't think that that should be something that stands in the way at all, it's probably something that over time, you can continue to work on. But I wouldn't let that stand in the way. Like, the world has all different shapes and sizes and types of people. I think that if you were putting your stuff out there, I think it would inspire other people who may have a similar thing that they're dealing with. But the biggest thing is take the opportunities that are in front of you, whatever town or city you live in, whatever country it is that you live in. There are opportunities all around us all the time. So go out there and start telling some stories because that's what content creation is really about. It's about telling stories.”
“Oh, my gosh. I should have prepared, I should have read this before and figured out like a super insightful, pun intended, answer to this. But I'll give my best shot here. So I would say for the first decade of my life, like I mean, you're really just doing what you can, right. I would say for the first decade of my life, it was trying new things, right, trying new things. I started out playing T ball. I then started playing hockey when I was six years old. I played like every sport possible in elementary school, from basketball to volleyball. Pretty good dodgeball player, I don't say so myself. Kickball, which in Canada we call soccer baseball. You want to move to the US and people started talking about kickball. I'm like, What are you talking about soccer like? No, they're like, No, you bowl the soccer ball, but you kick it in, then you run the bases. I’m like, oh, soccer baseball. They’re like, no, it's called kickball. But trying new things, I think was that first decade. The second decade, which would be 10 to 19 was finding your passion. Because I think for me, that was the biggest thing. I was like, leaning into the things that I really enjoyed. That was, yeah, that was so much of that time. That's when I even discovered that my high school had a communications studies class. That's when I was like, Yeah, it'd be really cool, I know, it seems like a huge massive goal that I might not be able to attain. But I had this dream and this goal of like, I want to work on TV or on the radio one day. And I'm going to chase after that, which I think then, as I'm saying it out loud, leads to the next lesson, which was between my 20s and 30s, which was to take chances. And the only reason that I am talking into this microphone right now. And that we're communicating at all, that I even have a podcast, that I've been fortunate at all to do anything that I've done on television, or radio, or any of the interviews that I've done, is because I took chances, and throughout my 20s I was like, What's the worst that can happen? If I email the station manager, or if I email the news director at a TV station, or the general manager at a radio station, and they don't respond, or they say no, that's okay. And move on to the next one. And just like, search for my next Yes. And I think there's a lot of people that get so freaked out by the idea that someone might say no, that they don't even bother asking the question. So ask the question, is another lesson I think I learned in my 20s is just like go for it. Because the worst thing that can happen is no. So that was a big lesson and a lot happened in my 20s, like I graduated from college in my 20s and got my first internship which turned into a job in Peterborough, Ontario driving 100 kilometres each way, which is 60 miles an hour each way. And to pay for the gas for that internship, I was working my old high school job in the fish department of a pet store at the mall PJ's pet centre, Pickering town centre. So, so good. And then that job got me enough experience that I got a job on MTV2 Canada picked up my entire life. Drove it 47 hours across the country started a brand new life in Vancouver, British Columbia. That show got cancelled. This is all in a nutshell here. After a year that show got cancelled. So I'm interviewing celebrities and musicians and playing video games at work and reviewing them. And then one day, boom, the show just gets cancelled because one big media company bought another media company and they had to get rid of some budget and to free up some budget. Drove 47 hours back, moved back in with my parents after being on TV for two and a half years, unemployed for seven months, find a job in Toronto and eventually, got hired hosting a show called Inside Jam on Sun TV. I get to at that show interview Oprah, cover the Toronto Film Festival, like all this amazing stuff. I do that job until I'm 26 and finally got a job. From that in the US. I got a job in Cleveland, as an entertainment reporter for the CBS affiliate in Cleveland. Do that job into my late 20s and then I'm ending this decade here I got a job in Miami at the FOX affiliate there. And that was my 20s. It's like the highest of the highs and the very lowest of the lows. So the next decade, 30s to 40s, that's a tough one because I'm just ending that one now. I feel like there was so many lessons learned earlier on. But I think one of the biggest lessons learned was a lesson that John Cena told me. Three words, I repeat them frequently. It's control the controllable. I think I had a real habit earlier on in my life about getting mad about things that I had zero control over, getting mad about people doing things that I took personally. And I realised that's another, I guess another lesson in my 30s is not to take things personally. The Four Agreements is such a powerful book, if you've never heard of it, spend a little bit of time, even if you just read the like the cliff note version of this. It's so powerful. It's four agreements, if you can and make these with yourself every single day. I've talked about the book before, but if you can make these agreements with yourself every single day in everything that you're doing, it makes life just so much easier. So the Four Agreements are, never take anything personally, always do your best, be impeccable with your word. And I always forget the fourth one! Oh, hold on. Be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, always do your best. So there we go.”
“I mentioned that first interview with The Rock. And I'm so fortunate to say that I've interviewed The Rock 10 times now, not that I'm counting or anything, and I always say that. But when I think back to the first interview, it was 2012, and I feel like he was just on the cusp of becoming the Dwayne Johnson powerhouse that we know him as now. Because, yeah, sure, he had The Game Plan, Race to Witch Mountain and the Tooth Fairy and Be Cool. But it wasn't really till 2012 When he kind of came out and became like, The Rock that we know now. Which was GI Joe 2 Fast and Furious 5, Pain and Gain like that really set him on the path that he's on now. So when I interviewed him, I was very much expecting like The Rock like I was expecting him to, like, have like fun with me. Like, I guess like what he's done in the last few interviews that we've done together. But like if you watch it back, I tried to have like a stare down with him. I'm like, oh, yeah, like, what's a tip for like, having a great stare down, you're so good at these in the ring stare downs. And he's like, Oh, just like intensity. Yeah. Like, look at the guy and you know, look up straight in the eye. And I was expecting and hoping for him to like, be like, oh, here, let me show you. Look, look, look at me in the eye right now. Let's do this right now. And I think I was trying way too hard to look for those moments and trying to create those moments that maybe weren't necessarily there. So that's what I'm, I'm grateful for how that interview happened and came together. That was so cool. But if I could go back, I probably wouldn't have tried so hard to make that interview about a moment. That's really it, but I really have no regrets in life. Like, you can't go back and change anything. So what's the point of even thinking about and talking about? Like, it's happened, it's in past, control the controllable, right? Just move on and do with it what you can, so that would be one that I would just change. But more for personal reasons than anything else.”
“Oh, this is another one where I wish I had like gone in, had an answer ready for you and it was like super insightful. Again, pun intended. Let me think here. And this is gonna be all guests. Okay, across like, all different, you know, sources of entertainment. So The Rock is for sure on there. That has been my number one favourite person to talk to. So The Rock, The Rock’s up there definitely. Mount Rushmore, oh, my goodness, The Undertaker. And that's like a pretty recent one. That one's one of my favourites and the way that that just kind of came together. They were like, Hey, there's a possibility to interview The Undertaker next week. Like, stay tuned. And I was like, okay, and then they were like, alright, The Undertaker interview is happening tomorrow morning. And I was like, Oh, okay. Oh my gosh, this thing is happening. I better like put some questions together and figure this out. But Mark Callaway is so awesome. And so humble in that conversation, even though it was only like 20 minutes was one of those that has meant so much to me in my career. And if you remember at the end of that career, he's like, Hey, let's do this again, sometime. I mean it, I'm a man of my word. And then after that interview, I saw that he followed me back on Twitter, and I was like, Oh my gosh, The Undertaker is following me on Twitter is very cool. And I shot him a quick message I just said, Hey, thank you so much. It was such a great conversation. I really appreciate you. And he wrote me back and said, Thank you. That was a really great interview. And I mean what I said about doing another one, and I was just like, wow, that is so cool. So that was one that's definitely on that Mount Rushmore, so there's two wrestlers. Tom Cruise was definitely one of them, and I got to interview him on the red carpet for Mission Impossible six in Paris, the Eiffel Tower is right behind us. I mean, Tom Cruise is the last remaining movie star, in my opinion. And I mean, just look what he's doing and Mission Impossible 7 Dead Reckoning Part One, with that motorcycle off the cliff that turns into a base jump. Oh my gosh. Unbelievable. So I mean, Tom Cruise would be able to spend a few minutes with him. That was a really, really big one. So we've got The Rock, we've got the Undertaker, we've got Tom Cruise. And I'm gonna go with Oprah. It was a quick interview, it was over 10 years ago. But there's something so inspiring about what Oprah has done and what she's built, considering, especially where she came from. And Oprah is just such a great communicator. And the way she looks you in the eye, when she's talking to you the way she like, grabs your arm or puts her hand on your shoulder. It's very inviting, and it's very intimate. And that's something that I will never forget. So there we go. There's, there's my four big guests that I've done interviews with, and super grateful to even be able to list those names off. That was. Thank you. Thank you for that question.”
“I think kind of like what I was saying before is like, take the opportunities that are in front of you. Take the opportunities that you have, whether that's if you want to do interviews, interview, literally anybody who will say yes, whether that's at a local independent wrestling show, whether that's you sending out DM’s or emails to independent wrestlers, or wrestlers that are currently working, take all those opportunities. I would also say write an article or two, write a review of a show or two or three, send them off to some of your favourite wrestling websites and just say, Hey, I love doing this. And this is this is my work, can I just get a little bit of feedback from you if you have a few minutes, and you'd be surprised at how many writers or maybe it's someone who, like an editor for one of these websites, you'd be surprised at how many people will get back to you. So I would say that that's a great piece of advice there. It's just like, do the work, and then try to bounce this off of people who are actually in the industry that are doing it right now. And I think there's too many people that are going, I won't do the work until I earn X amount of dollars here. No, that's not how this works. Do the work. First show what you're capable of doing. Show your value, always lead with value and show your value first. And then that can lead to other things after that.”
“Oh, man. I think soon, I think we can make this happen soon. So for those of you who don't know what we're talking about here, my very first wrestling interview ever was 2007. Bobby Lashley, he was the ECW champion at the time, I was living in Vancouver. I was working at MTV2 Canada, the story I was just telling you about. And I did that interview with him. It's online, if you want to check it out. It's not great. It's okay, but it's not great. I will say Bobby Lashley looks like he hasn't aged like a minute since that interview 15 years 16 years ago. But he commented on something that I did. Bobby Lashley commented on Instagram. And I saw like that He's following me on Instagram. So I shot him a little message and I said, Hey, man, it's been a long time, we should do another interview. And he's like, yeah, man, anytime, anyplace. And I'm like, oh, like, really? He's like, Sure. So there's a few avenues where this may happen. And this is also something, some insight you might get here if you're looking to do more interviews or be a content creator, but I was like, well, I'll be at SummerSlam. Maybe we could do an in person at SummerSlam. So maybe that's a possibility. Also, he had some stem cell work done with Bio Accelerator, and I've done a little bit of work with Bio Accelerator. I interviewed their CEO on the show, you might remember that from last year. I interviewed Frank Mir, who had a lot of stem cell work done with Bio Accelerator. So he talked about that, Kurt Angle talked about that when I had him on the show. So Bio Accelerator actually may connect us together so we can talk about his journey with Bio Accelerator and stem cells and how he's still capable of doing what he's doing well into his 40s Now, which is amazing. He looks like a million bucks. So, let's just say that may happen hopefully sometime soon.”
“Wow, that is so cool. I'm really proud of you, man. And it was so good to see you the other day at Vons. Look, I think that everybody, maybe, maybe not, you know, maybe don't try to get in the best shape of your life, it’s big, big goal. But I think that everybody should be doing something every single day to try to get just a little bit better, just a little bit better. Because if you can be a little bit better today, and then a little bit better tomorrow, and then a little bit better the day after that. It just keeps building on itself. So man, I'm proud of you. That's amazing. And I feel so good right now. I feel like I look like a million bucks too woo!”
“Well, I used to want to be a wrestler, and I trained to be a wrestler. So I will say that the first thing you should do is find a wrestling school in your area. Find a reputable wrestling school in your area that has a reputable trainer, someone who has actually maybe done some things that you've heard of, someone's going to train you the right way. If that's not the case, I would say find a school that you could go to and maybe even live at if you have the means to do that. Like, obviously can't recommend flatbacks enough, Shawn Spears and Tyler Breeze’s School in Central Florida. They will let you live there like live in the area and then go to their school. Lance Storm’s school also does the same thing. Before you get in there. I would say if you're not already, start working out. Like this is one of the biggest things, I'm not I'm not a current wrestler, right. I'm not a wrestler at all. But this is one of the things that blows my mind is how many people just kind of skip that step of like getting into shape. And I'm not talking about like, you're gonna look like Brock Lesnar or Hulk Hogan, like you're not gonna have muscles upon muscles, but I'm just saying, like, get your cardio up. If you're not already, start doing some sort of workouts, start running, start doing burpees. If you can't afford a gym membership, start doing bodyweight exercises, air squats and push ups and pull ups. And it just blows my mind how many people just skip right past that and think like, oh, I can just lift up 200 or 250 pound men without ever having to lift a weight in my life. And it's just like, I don't get that. You've watched wrestling your whole life, which is why you want to be a pro-wrestler. You know what wrestlers look like, so do the work. So that's the advice that I would have.”
“That's very kind. Thank you. I mean, I think I owe the majority of however I look right now to my parents and just good genetics. But I guess something I said at the start of this episode was I've been really good at least recently of prioritising sleep. I've also been drinking less now than I've ever drank in my life. Look, I had fun. I had fun in college, I've always enjoyed a good Moscow Mule. always enjoyed a good Old Fashioned, I have always enjoyed a nice spicy Margarita. And I've always had a great time at a brewery. So I have not been, but I still enjoyed going to all these places. I still enjoy a drink here and there. But I used to have. For me, it was like it was zero or 100. I was either having zero drinks, or I was having like nine drinks and just having fun with my friends and enjoying a night out. So I think that that's been a big part of it. But like a sleep schedule I think has really helped too. Llike going to bed at a time that begins with a 10 ish and waking up at a time that begins at a six ish for me, has been really helpful. It depends on you know, the type of job that you have. And you know how many kids you have, and you know, so many different factors here. But I don't think that going home and staring at blue lights for hours and hours after you get home from work is a super smart thing to do. And that's something that I've been taking out of my life a lot, and I drink a tonne of water. That was your Tom Brady talking about just like gallons and gallons and gallons of water that he drinks all the time. And I think that that plays a huge factor here and I'm actually drinking, I've taken a few breaks and, I’m drinking some water right now like right here. There's another gulp of water as we keep going here. So I would say, first of all, just thank you. And I also try to keep stress levels to a minimum, by you know, remembering that John Cena advice of like control the controllable like, why am I going to like get so upset and freak out about something I have no control over? Easier said than done, I get that. But like I'm not going to bother myself with somebody else's problems. If it. I think that that's been a big part of it for me too.”
“I think a lot of it comes down to diet. I listed off some things you could do at home like bodyweight exercises, there are so many good bodyweight exercises that you can do at home that are on YouTube. And I think we all learned that during 2020 and 2021, when we couldn't go to a gym. There's a lot of great workouts, which I think help, and move your body just I think just walking or running. That helps a lot. But I think the biggest thing that you can do at home is don't keep snacks around. Like if you don't, if you don't want to eat ice cream, maybe don't have ice cream in your house. If you don't want to eat potato chips, don't have potato chips in your house. If you don't want to eat processed foods, don't have processed foods in your house. And like I know there's this weird stereotype, this weird misnomer that like eating healthy is expensive. And I can tell you from the 540 meals that I ate over the last 13 weeks, that breakfast for me was like egg whites and toast like egg whites and Ezekiel bread. I don't know what's that cost like $1.40? That doesn't sound expensive. My next meal was like rice and ground turkey. Oh boy, what do you think that costs, maybe $1.60? The meal after that was like ground beef and rice with maybe a little bit of vegetables in there, that meal might have been close to $1.80 or $1.90. Like this whole idea of like, oh, man, you ate six meals a day. That's crazy. What are you rich or something? No, that's far from it. But this idea that eating healthy is expensive needs to go away. There are so many ways that you can eat healthy, on the cheap, and eggs are a great one. Ground turkey lean ground turkey, rice, vegetables, fruits, drink water instead of pop, that's probably the biggest one. Yeah, Matt, that's probably the biggest one is if you drink soda, or if you drink juices, replace those with water and you'll see a huge, huge difference, at least from my experience. And good luck with with your journey there. I know it's not easy. But again, just like things that you do today are going to help you tomorrow and then that just kind of compounds on itself.”
“Yes. Go check out my interview with Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal. It's like, they were just kind of like very playful that day. But I went in there and I don't even think I was able to really get a question off. They were just joking with each other and having all kinds of fun and yeah, it just went completely off the rails like immediately. So go check that one out. I just kind of sat there as a spectator and just just watched, just watched him go off the rails. So that's one to go check out for sure.”
“Bone in ribeye is my go to and I like it a little more cooked than I think you're supposed I like it medium and I know that some people are like oh man has to be medium rare or just rare. I like a medium. I like a little bit of pink in there. But yeah bone in ribeye. And that bone. The way that the juices flow out of that bone into the steak. So good. So good. And I'm saying this now knowing that my wife Rachel and I are going out for my birthday in like half an hour. We're going to Orange Hill restaurant here. It's a beautiful Steakhouse. Look it up if you have a second. And I know I'm going to eat a bone in ribeye, so I'm like, kind of salivating as I'm saying this."
"Well, that is a great question. All of these had been great questions. But I don't really think I had a fall back option. And I think that that's one of the reasons that I was able to just kind of keep going, because there were a lot of setbacks, a lot of setbacks. When I first graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University with my communication studies degree, no one wanted to give me an internship, no one certainly wanted to give me a job. But it would have been so easy for me to be like, well, I sent out 20 resumes, and nobody got back to me. So anyway, I'm gonna go do this other thing. But I was just so passionate about broadcasting and telling stories and the idea of possibly working on radio or TV, whether that was on camera, or on the air, or behind the scenes. And I've talked about it before, but like when I first got into the industry, I did every job behind the scenes. One of my first jobs while I was still in school, it was a board operator at an AM radio station in Kitchener, Ontario. I also volunteered at Rogers community television where I was doing everything behind the scenes, I ran cameras, I was a floor director, VTR operator, I did audio, I did everything. And I just loved being there. I love the idea that like, this is the cool thing about TV and certainly crosses over into content creation, too. There's nothing better than like, doing the thing, which means like actually being on camera, or like hitting record, and then later on that day, or sometimes live seeing it actually play out. Like it's so rewarding to see your work like on display. And that was one of the things I loved so much about broadcasting. So I think that if it didn't work out for me, in one aspect of this, I was just gonna find another path to make this work. And that was just something I was so driven by. So it was like if this TV station said no, we'd try with this other one. And if this other one said no, I would try with this other one, then if that one said no, you get the point. So I, I just honestly can't see myself wanting to do anything else. I have been so fortunate to do this, although I will say that now. Now that I've been, you know, an entrepreneur for the last seven years, I have a fishing company, Woo Tungsten, we sell tungsten fishing weights, I've definitely got a taste of like, I love business and I love creating a business and growing a business that will definitely be an aspect that I will continue to build on. And I've got some things kind of in the works, which we'll be diving into soon. And, and also like also sidebar off of that I get a lot of messages about people who want to start a YouTube channel, who want to become better interviewers who want to start a podcast and I'm building something out so that we can work together so that you can build your podcast with me build your YouTube channel with me. So hang tight. I'll have some more info on that in the next hopefully few, I'd say months, few months. But thank you for that one.
“I love this question for things that I'm grateful for. As you know, I wake up every day and I say three things that I'm grateful for out loud. So you're adding on an extra one here for my 40th birthday. Okay, I'm grateful for my health. Health is first. Number two so grateful for family. And that's everybody. Mom, dad, my sister Kimberly, her family. Obviously my beautiful amazing wife Rachel and her family, my in-laws. So grateful for my family, and I just have the best partner in Rachel like the best partner, Rachel Van Vliet 10 out of 10. Incredible, love her so much and so, so grateful that she's in my life. Number three, I'm grateful for our little girl, and she's not here yet. But we just had a doctor's appointment. She's very big, she's very healthy and she'll be here man, she’ll be here by the time the next podcast episode comes out. I’m gonna start crying if I think about this, so grateful for her. And I'm grateful for all of you guys, like so grateful that we live in a time right now where all of this is possible. The fact that you can get a microphone, you can hit record, and you can put it out there for literally the whole world to see. There is endless potential on the other side of this microphone, and on the other side of a camera, if you're filming something. And I love that that exists right now, you're no longer held back by like, well, this TV show goes out, but it's only seen by this amount of people in this market, or this TV show goes out. And it's only seen by this many households in the country or whatever, that doesn't exist anymore. Like, I know that people are listening to this all over the world. That is so cool. And a great way to wrap this up too, super grateful for all of you.”
