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May 1, 2026

Doctors Said He’d Never Walk Again, He Refused with Trent Brock - 104

Imagine facing cancer not once, but three times, and still emerging stronger than ever. Trent's journey is a testament to resilience and determination.

From battling terminal cancer for years to enduring surgeries that left him on crutches for over five years,

Trent's story is one of unwavering strength. Despite the odds, he rode an exercise bike for over 1,500 miles, proving that no challenge is too great.

With the most complex hip implant ever, he continues to defy expectations, inspiring everyone around him.

His story is not just about survival but about finding purpose and strength in adversity. We explore his unique approach to wellness, combining practical tactics with deep mindset work, helping others find hope and a renewed sense of purpose.

Join us as we delve into the five pillars of transformation: identity, movement, nutrition, mindset, and community. Discover strategies for handling setbacks, rewiring your brain after trauma, and breaking free from instant gratification culture. Hear real stories of triumph, proving that greatness lies within everyone willing to put in the work.

This episode is about becoming the leader of your own life amid chaos and uncertainty. Whether you're facing health issues, business challenges, or personal doubts, Trent’s insights will inspire you to take action today. Tune in for a dose of motivation, practical wisdom, and the mindset to conquer your goals.

Want help applying this to your own health, weight, energy, or lab numbers?

Coach Brian Parana offers Health Hot Seat coaching segments for men who want a clear next step with nutrition, fitness, weight loss, blood pressure, cholesterol, A1C, or daily consistency.

Learn more about The Call To Rise, a 100-day coaching program for driven men over 40 who want to lose weight, improve their health, and rebuild confidence:

www.thecalltorise.com

To connect with Coach Brian:
brian@brianparana.com

Disclaimer: This podcast is for education and coaching support only. It is not medical advice. Always work with your physician before changing medication, treatment, or medical care.

Imagine facing cancer, not once, not twice, but three times and still emerging stronger than ever. Trent's journey is a testament to resilience and his determination to live life. And he's battled terminal cancer for years. He's emerged through some challenging surgeries that left him on crutches for over 5 years.
Trent's story is one of unwavering strength and despite the odds, he's even ridden over 1,500 miles to prove that he can overcome the challenges that he faces. From major complex hip implant surgeries to just make sure he stays on top of it and inspires others around him.
That's his story about survival and finding purpose and strength while dealing with the adversity. And that's why I love sharing our conversation. I was actually a guest on his show, The Conquerors Crew. And we went through five pillars of transformation: identity, movement, nutrition, mindset, and community. And we're going to go through all of that.
So, buckle up because this is a really in-depth long conversation that we had and we could have kept going, as you can tell when we talk. So, this is episode 104 of Driven for Health Podcast and I am a guest on Trent's podcast, Conquerors Crew. Here we go. for you tonight, man. This guy, Brian Ferana, 23-year health fitness expert coach, he's had thousands of clients and customers.
I cannot wait to talk to this guy and get into it. But, you know, before we get into it, I always got to tell everybody a little bit about what The Conquerors Crew is. So, you know, I had cancer three times and that's kind of how this whole thing started and we've got three principles that we that we that we have with The Conquerors Crew and they are hope, grit, and no quit.
And uh for us, hope stands for helping other people excel. And uh you know, there's this funny kind of universal law that if there's something you need or something that you want, and if you give that away, somehow it comes back to you. And uh I feel like that's that way with hope.
You know, and and there was I was at terminal cancer for a couple years. So, it was really hard some days to try to muster some hope up and and and say something positive to somebody. But, you know what? That's kind of that's kind of what hope is for us. And then grit grit is grace, resiliency, integrity, and teachable. For me, grace and integrity, they kind of go together a little bit because it's a lot easier to give other people some grace, right? Or or to or to kind of hold them accountable, you know, about their integrity.
But, it's more about like, "Hey, man, you know, like don't be too hard on yourself. Give yourself some grace, you know, like you know, like we all need a little bit of grace and you know, the thing is like with integrity, we look in the mirror at 3:00 in the morning. Are you really being honest with yourself when you when you're talking to yourself? Like are you really having integrity? And um so, you know, I kind of you know, mix those together, but they kind of go together for me in that kind of that kind of path. And then resiliency, well,
you know, a lot of people think you're either born with it or you're not, but I think that that you know, a lot of people are born with some of it, but you learn it and it's little by little and it's step by step, man. And uh and being teachable, right? You get knocked off that high horse. And uh it usually happens right when right when you've gotten just arrogant enough to be that guy, right? And uh and then and then the no quit, I mean, you know, that that's just what it is.
If you quit, it wins, right? And um I'm about taking a timeout, man. I'm about like stepping back and reviewing and you know, like gathering the truths and gathering the the faculties, but uh never out of the game, right? Never out of the game. So, um those are kind of our three principles.
I always just kind of remind people of those. And uh this is a safe place, man. This is a place of kindness and respect and we don't care about your political opinions or or um you know, religious or any of that. We respect them, right? And we're not trying to convince you of any of that. And you're free to say um you know, anything that you want to on your mind, but we ask people to be kind and respectful and um and and and be safe, you know, cuz sometimes um people come on and they and they do they have some comments or they have some questions and
they just want to curse be vulnerable. You know, let's res- cuz we're we're all we're all going through the peaks and the valleys. And so, um man, that's what Conquerors Crew's about, man. It's just you know, I love to have guest on that have a story and they give us some credibility about who they are and what they do and then they leave us with some advice and some tools and some tips and some things like that.
So, the listener when they get off listening, you know, they can get up and they can they can go they can go act on it right then, right? And so, I was a little worried that you might like try to break out in the middle of this thing and and like try to get me to do a CrossFit set or something. You know, So, hey, man. Thank you so much for listening to my intro and and and you know, we have we have some thankful listeners and we always have some new people and I always like to just kind of lay that groundwork and set the stage and all that. So, hey, welcome, Brian.
Thank you for being here, man. Tell us, you know, tell us what's going on with you, man. Just How's your week going? Let's just ease into this a little bit cuz I mean, it's going to get meaty. I know it's going to get meaty soon. >> Oh, yeah. I'm going to bring the heat. >> [laughter] >> That's your share. Lots about your year.
Love it. Thanks for having me, Trent. One of the things you said earlier just is is excellent. That resilience. Some people say they were born with it, but it is a muscle. It is a skill set. It's something that you can grow by doing the work, by putting in the reps, by being in the situations and getting to the other side of it.
And you have experienced that in multiple different times with cancer and other things like business and different things in your life where you've had to become resilient in the situation that you face to overcome it and then ideally come out better. You've learned and you've grown and you've changed for the better at the other side of this and that's resilience.
And and you have to have that in today's world. The life is changing. Everyone wants it to stay the same and today is not like yesterday and tomorrow won't be like today. It will always change and you have to be resilient, agile, lean, and and be bendable in a sense to go with the flow of what's happening. And your attitude and energy, that in and of itself already puts you a cut above, right? Cuz you can come at things with a more joy, more happiness, more hope in a sense than being a curmudgeon in a sense, right? A bum bug. So, I really
appreciate this our our engagement already. And yeah, yeah, that in and of itself. I I I appreciate it, you know. When you have terminal cancer for 2 years, okay, and the first surgery that you had is hip cancer and they cut your your entire pelvis out of your left side and they tell you you're never going to walk again.
You'll be on crutches for the rest of your life. Your leg's shorter than the other. Um it was not going to work. Um it's going to be a stump. Um we we want to cut it off. Um and you know, our our recommenda- 99% of people cut the leg off. And and we want we're we're want to cut the leg off. But, my dad, thank God, you know, he jumped in cuz I had a I had a mental breakdown over it, you know? Oh, yeah, sure.
It's a huge change in identity. >> [laughter] >> Right? You have to walk in something or a wheelchair the rest of your life. Yeah, you know, I was on crutches 5 and 1/2 years. It it took me a 5 and 1/2 year fight to get off crutches and um you know, this this is this this this show's not about me. Um but, you know, I had um at at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, man, I I I trained.
I I I I really I rode the exercise bike 1,500 miles plus to to be ready because, man, this leg had shriveled up, man. It had actually It was just like a little piece of spaghetti, you know? And I knew if I got my chance that they were going to do these tests and they're going to go, "Well, you we can't the leg the leg won't handle it. It you know, we're not we can't.
" So, I knew I didn't want to be the one that was going to exclude me from the only opportunity and I found the only guy in the entire world that would take the chance and do it, man. And uh I have the I have the largest, most complex hip implant that's ever been put in a human being. And it works pretty dang good, man.
Uh you know, my leg my You're not running marathons, but You're up Not running anymore. Not running anymore, but you know what, man? I hobble around on a cane and uh I got one hand back and God bless, man. You know what? This takes it back to just like, you know, I'm so thankful. I mean, you don't know what I would give just to walk again, man.
You know? And people take that for granted and I find myself people out there. I have to check myself, you know? And we just do that, man, but God, man, it gets real simple, right? You're just thankful for you know, a warm place to sleep, a bed, you know, I mean, breathing and I mean, it gets real simple, right? So, um you know, tell tell us tell us about, you know, your what do you do for for a career, man? I mean, 23 years of this and tell us a little bit about how you got into that and and what it is.
Goodness. You know that song. You'd have these training montages coming on and I'm glued in. Not that I wouldn't necessarily box anything, but man, the the hype, the energy and and all the training. I just fell in love with training and I ran in high school, I ran in college, I then turned into running marathons and triathlons and CrossFit gyms and my whole life has been centered around taking care of myself as to be a leader to be able to help other people take care of themselves.
And I that's that's been a the process the the whole way through. I found early on that I'm personable, I can talk to people, I I give really good energy. It's like, oh, maybe I can make a living out of this and and I have and I've been blessed with countless stories of people overcoming challenges, whether it's body weight, whether it's a chronic illness, diseases, diabetes, heart attack, cholesterol, all sorts of different I had a lady sign on just a little while ago, she has one kidney.
She lost her husband and she's in a challenging place. I had another guy that that signed up recently and he's 34. He's got four kids, eight two twins at eight and a two and a one-year-old. Yeah, be with him, right? But he's got some fatty liver disease. He's got a spleen, a pancreas issue. He's got cardiovascular disease in his family. And he needs to change, but he doesn't know what to do.
And and oftentimes he said it and I always say is, "I understand what eating healthy is, but I don't know how to actually do it in the craziness of my day-to-day life." And that's where I come in is to help simplify, educate, inform and get people to take action because that's the only way things change.
You have to take action like you getting on a bike if you want your leg to do the thing, right? You got to you got to move it, you got to do something and not just sit there on the couch and and wallowing over the situation that you're in. You took action. Miracles don't happen sitting in the lazy boy waiting for it to fall out of the sky.
You got to get out of the house and and and and get yourself in a position that it can fall out of the sky from somewhere. You know, that's what that's that's what I think, you know? Pray for miracles, man, but like I think I think you got to meet God or the universe or whatever you want to call it halfway, man.
Right? You got to do some work with it. If you're going to do some You got to speak it and then you can then receive it, but you have to be open to that whole process anyways. And you do have to take the first step in a sense. You're not just going to win the the the lottery and you're a millionaire in a sense because that doesn't work. We've seen it time and again for however long lotteries been around, right? People who win the lottery don't stay they don't get the money, right? They end up bankrupt. Yeah, exactly.
So It's crazy like what happened to them. Cuz they don't know what to do. >> Yeah. You got to move toward what it is that you want and create opportunities along the way for yourself to to shine, to to to receive. Can can I ask you a little bit, you know, um Totally. Yeah, just you know, paint us a little bit of picture like where you you know, where you grew up, you know, brothers and sisters, you know, I you sounded like an athlete kind of in high school and that.
What part of the country you're from and I know you have a you have a you have a family and an awesome wife and give us a little bit of that that whole like who who Brian Perroni is outside of being a you know, a health fitness guy, right? Give us a little bit of that, man. Um Brian, he was born in '82, December 28th.
He's a Christmas baby, right? I don't know if I got if I got ripped off by Christmas or not. Here we All of us Christmas babies, we lament like, oh yeah, we probably got and didn't get what we we could have. We should all agree. Yeah, we all agree we should have the July half birthday to celebrate. >> [laughter] >> It's hard to to share a birthday around Jesus.
Yeah, right. Exactly, man. Exactly. So so there I grew up. I have a brother, Jeff, he's 3 years younger. Okay. And we we grew up with mother, father. They ended up divorcing around 10, 12 years of age and then I lived with my mom, saw my dad every other weekend. They were they loving, they cared for me. I I don't necessarily feel that I had gotten worse as a result of the the divorce in a sense.
Obviously, love was different from from that split and how I experienced it, but they they showed up, they did the things. I was a good student, I got I was like 10th in my class and I was in a lot of extracurriculars. I played band from fourth fifth grade. I played cello in fourth and in fifth grade I took over the clarinet.
And that's how I met my wife. Yeah, I met her at in sixth grade Friday morning band practice before school started at Ellet High School. Every all the the the middle schools and all would come up and play with the band on the Friday mornings and that was our first connection and then seventh grade I sat next to her and then eighth and ninth all these awesome And well, we both played the clarinets.
Yeah, right. >> [snorts] >> We both played clarinet and she has obviously been a huge part of my life, right? Obviously. She's literally I've known her since I was 11. I'm 43 now. So and and we started dating at senior year high school and she gave me the note. She gave me the note. I didn't give her a note, but she gave me the note.
It was like, "Do you want to check the box if you want to like be boyfriend, girlfriend or check this box for the friend zone?" She did she she put that on you, huh? She just did it. She did. Dude, you better you know, like you don't miss out cuz uh Uh-huh. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I almost did cuz I checked the friend box.
It was like I don't want to our friendship. So but she was always there. She was fun, she was engaging, she was just my person to share a lot with and since I sat next to her every single day is is just easy to get along. I'd I'd get I'd bring little treats and Werther's Originals like the caramel hard candies and bring them to band concerts and I would always annoyingly pick on her, right? As an obnoxious middle high schooler.
You got that you like your you had a crush on her. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh, that that was all of that. So just really many fun memories of of of her. I I ran in high school and I really fun memories of two running buddies, Leo and Dan. I actually see Dan. I saw him yesterday. I almost saw him today, but he had work.
He's got four kids, I've got four kids and he lives about 10 minutes from me and and we've kept we we've definitely kept in touch all these years and I I say right now I'm seeing him about one, two, three times a week and we work out together and spend time that way and just taking care of ourselves and and fellowship and and things, but some really good long-term friendship relationships there.
And then I got into where where else are we? We get into marriage and college and then marriage and then the first son comes 26 and then Levi and Everett was 15 months later. Like, whoops. Everett comes and Maxwell comes 2 and 1/2 years later and Emily comes two more years later.
So we had an what? A 6-year stint of babies and a 10-year stint of diapers. Yeah, do you you change diapers? Oh, I change a lot of diapers. I I am roll up the sleeves, let's put in the work, let's do the things. I may be doing this tonight. Yeah, I will wash clothes, I will I'll hang them on the line, I sweep, I clean, I We have four cats and a dog.
I'm I'm scooping and cleaning and I'm I'm all in to help support my family and I think that's the biggest key of Brian definitely a strong identity being a family man and taking care of his family as much as he can. And I really identify with that provider role. Yeah, and I do my best. Man, that's that's wonderful to hear man. What where where are you from? Like what state are you from? >> Akron, Ohio.
Oh, LeBron James. He's in my hometown. Please don't tell me Ohio State. As much as I'm in the sport I don't have time for professional sports. I don't I don't really watch football or You don't even you don't even watch college football. No, I don't watch college football. With four kids you don't really have time for anything.
They are fools the man. Yeah, oh my god. You get an hour to sleep, right? I mean you get a couple of hours of sleep. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, my my wife is a night owl and then my kids have to get up for school. I'm the one stuck in between there. But yeah, if I were to root for a team sure Ohio State they've been proven for decades to be very successful.
So why not? But here's who I'm not rooting for the Cleveland Browns. I can't do that. That's That's cool. Hey man, I grew up in Louisiana Saints fan. Okay. So >> Right. You know, I worked in IT for for 10 years you know, when when I first graduated from college and that was my thing and I did a lot of projects and I actually drove my car my base was Dallas and every week I'd fly right I'd fly you know, you know, Monday Sunday or Monday and then back you know, you know, and I was like you know, what I'm just so tired of flying and it was the spring
and I drove my car from Dallas all the way to Cleveland and I stayed for the whole project which was like four or five months or something. Okay. And man, you know what? I had so much fun. It was 10 bucks it was 10 bucks to play the the city courses and they were so nice man. And I love and I loved going to the Great Lakes like brewery restaurant grill and brewery anything.
I used to be big into micro breweries and I used to brew my own beer a little bit. Yeah. You know, and you know what man? I'll tell you what. I don't know I don't know if it was just me or if I was lucky and and I'm not I I truly mean this. People from Cleveland, Ohio area were just some of the nicest people that I've ever met and um Of all the I mean I've been to almost every every big city in the country.
You know, I travel for work. I've been to a lot. I would go back to Cleveland. Yeah, that's nice. It's weird to hear. Most people are like Cleveland's a dump. I would what? I don't know I I have something in my heart about Cleveland. I don't know. Yeah. There's a lot of fun things to do. It's the there's a lot of culture.
There's a lot of good food and you can have a lot of fun in in the city. I know a lot of people stay in Cleveland cuz they enjoy Cleveland for for what it is. Yeah, yeah. And they they redid redid the whole waterfront thing, right? Down there. >> Yes, yeah, they're trying to make it real nice pretty so that you come down and hang out, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cuz there for a while right? I mean you know, like the industry kind of kind of you know, dumped up the lake a bit and you know, that stuff just happens, right? Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah. The burning river is is a real thing. Wow, I I actually don't know too much about that. Yeah. Yeah, the Cuyahoga River did catch on fire at one point.
>> [laughter] >> The Great Lakes Brewery has a beer named after it. It has okay. Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay, I'll I'll have to look that up man. Yeah, I I don't know too much about that story but I have a good idea of what it's about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So did you did you get your degree in stuff like college in in like you know, sports kinesiology, you know, like biology, that kind of thing? Is that Is that Yeah, okay.
I actually use my degree every day. >> [laughter] >> That's awesome man. Yep. The story was I signed up for college. My grandmother lived in Firestone Park which is about maybe 10 minute drive. It's a couple miles. It was really easy to just get there. I lived with her. She paid she actually fortunately thank God she paid for my college and then she paid for groceries. So I got so I got fed well.
Um but I was at I lived with her and I would just do chores and stuff around the house and mow the grass and all this. Yeah. I would drive down and the story goes is I I just started doing general classes. I was going to do business or engineer or whatever. I walked into the building Memorial Hall. It's not there anymore.
They they made a a baseball field out of it or something. But they inside it there's a sliding glass display. Inside there I walk in I'm looking and I see this catch my eye stop off and look. There's eight different exercise related type jobs. I can do any of those. Sign me up. Literally the next day I signed up for the college of education and and shifted into exercise science, nutrition, kinesiology, biology, anatomy, all those things, physiology, all those things.
And that's what I studied. And then I started practicing at the rec center the first year that the the student rec center opened. They had a wellness suite. Inside that I was doing skin calipers. I was doing exercise prescriptions, giving people workouts to do, bone density tests, all sorts of VO2 max tests, all sorts of cool stuff.
And that that got me into to to the industry. Okay, okay man. And are you are you still in the Ohio area the did Yeah, yeah, I still live in Akron. Okay, okay. Wow, okay. I haven't gone too far. Although this is home base for now and then we travel a crazy amount. My wife is a travel advisor and she has her own business and she she creates bucket list style trips for people.
You want to go do something fun, wild, crazy and it's one of those I guess I got to wait till I'm 60 to do it. Nah, she she she expedites that and and makes it happen for for people and she's got someone going Oh yeah, right now literally she's sending someone on an African safari. There's someone going on a Croatia river cruise. A grandmother is is doing a a off what 20 plus person family Alaskan cruise.
She's sending later in the year someone to Egypt to go tour the pyramids and the temples. Go up and down the cities of Italy and Venice and Milan and Rome and Sicily and all this and it's it's pretty wild to see the the cool adventures that she creates for people and even for me. Hey, just just one is it How's the connection on your end? Is it okay? I'm good.
Yeah, I haven't seen this issue. >> Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, it's it's lagging a little bit on my end but I think that that that's because the way that the stream yard set up that it that it carries a lot of the grunt the you know, the a lot. If you're if you're okay man, okay, okay. I just want to make sure you know, like if it gets you know, really miserable like it's my end. Yeah, I'll let you know.
I haven't had any issues since we started. Before in our pre-call a little bit. It was a little bit slow on your end but I haven't noticed since we started. Okay man. All good all good you know, it'll it'll actually pick this up and it'll it'll it'll be fine. Yeah, pretty So Yep. Well gosh man and so um Okay, yeah and so you know, you kind of got your degree and and you're going to go and you know, you're going to do So did you start out like being a personal trainer and >> Almost.
Yeah, tell tell take us from you know, like from that point you know, to what you do now man cuz I mean it's it it's it's it's evolved so much into something that like transformative You mean yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not it's not just going going to hang out with the meat you know, at the gym with the meathead guy and and and learn and learn how to lift weights heavy, right? I mean this is this is a different thing. Yeah. Yeah man.
This is cool. The biggest the the first time I got paid to do exercise was teaching group exercise classes at the local YMCA and this was in 2002 or something like that. The the exercise director said you are young able-bodied male. I need someone to sub my class tonight. You're it. You're getting in there and doing the thing, all [laughter] right? Okay, what are we doing? Well, the my first class was it called phenomenal abdominal.
It was a 30-minute ab class Mondays 5:00 to 5:30. People packed the room. 5:15 mats start lining up in the room to people to claim their spots and and it was bumping. We'd put the music on and we'd do all these different ab things. People loved it. And and that carried on for a number of years. That was like my iconic class was the phenomenal abdominal.
Taught in group settings. And then still out they're terrible. They're terrible. You know what, man? I I I actually I I have a personal training certification from the Cooper Institute. >> From Cooper Institute of Dallas. I mean, I used to I used to be big into, you know, into live I was a I powerlifted in college a bit.
>> Okay. You know, so so biology and chemistry degree, blah blah, whatever. Right. >> Um That says a lot to a guy that was a gym rat. That you have people coming to your class and it's a 30-minute ab buster class, dude. Yeah. >> Um I mean, I Guys guys guys that guys that you know, have been working out as long as is you know, we have since since what? Middle school, high school kind of thing, right? Basically, yep.
>> Yeah, dude. That's that's a lot of credit, bro. That's a lot of street cred. >> Yeah. They start doing that, spinning, or substituting yoga. I I only did step class a couple times. I actually, silly enough, you know this, I got Zumba certified. >> [laughter] >> Ooh. Good for you. Yeah, I never ended up teaching it cuz the choreography was a bit too much for me.
I said, this is this is a part-time job to learn all these dance moves and stuff to make it good in class, but that's a silly fun fact that not too many people know. So yeah, I'm a Zumba certified, but Did you did you Did your wife practice that with you and then you could like take her to the local like salsa thing and you got Yeah.
Ours or what? That would be a lot of fun to go dance with her. That would be a blast. Yeah. >> Yeah, man. >> I think it'd be worth our time. But from there, I ended up getting out of the degree and ended up doing fitness staff in a gym. So I was just doing exercise prescriptions and cleaning treadmills. And I'm I get in there in about a weekend, I'm looking around and say, "Hey, wait a minute.
Personal trainers are standing next to clients just talking to them. They don't have to clean equipment and they make twice as much as I do. Sign me up." Within 6 months, I had a full roster and I was into personal training mode for about 4 years until I transitioned out of there. I became the weird guy that was in the back of the the the weight room hogging the squat rack, not letting anyone go in there and doing it all this boot camp.
I called it shake and bake boot camp. I had this this class shake and bake or we'd do CrossFit style boot camp style type workouts and such. And I ultimately outgrew the space and I ended up opening up gyms. I ended up opening up two in about 5 years. And that was a that was a quite a a roller coaster ride in and of itself there, too.
Yeah. Yeah. Because it it dude, it is a totally different ball game when you work in a gym to versus owning the gym, right? You make all the decisions and every It's all yours. Class starts Monday through Friday. All right, I'm there. Was that CrossFit stuff that you were doing was it like the CrossFit gym thing? Okay.
Yeah, yeah. 2010, we opened up in October. And we got market started happening. So we timed it really well. We had a very productive 2 years doing it. Um Ultimately, I partnered wrong. I ended up leaving. In about 2 years, the the partnership of the the the owner relationship was just not as great as it could have been.
Uh I had tons of fun in there. I actually took my personal training client, Betsy Finley. We went to the CrossFit Games three times. We got first, second, and eighth place. Pretty wild. She's 60 at the time when we went. She could deadlift 250 lb, lift 100 lb overhead, rope climb, pull-ups, handstand push-ups, all sorts of crazy stuff.
But the cool part, I always have to quantify. That's really cool, right? Most people under the 60, they can't even think of doing that. But what was really cool was how functional she became in her everyday life. She could go on a 3-mile hike and get lost in the woods and not have a care in the world taking pictures of flowers and wildlife and that was her home.
She'd go kayak out on the lake and not have a worry because she was functionally fit. And most 60-year-olds, they will walk around the block and I checked off the exercise block for the day. I got to get back to my regularly scheduled programs. And so that was the joy that Betsy was able to receive through being strong, physically physical, and capable.
And it was very very cool. Yeah, man. That's awesome, man. That's that's so cool. It really is. It really is. Um the partnership, I mean, I don't want to go into much detail, you know, about it, but was it like a friend or >> No. No, I was that home and Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah, he he just leveraged me for and I I just let it happen.
I didn't It was my first business. He he was a a serial entrepreneur. Uh I I thought it was all good, but as it went on, it was just there was just a lot of behind the scenes was just not great. He just didn't treat me very well. Uh especially for all the work and effort that I put in. I mean, I was literally getting up at 4:00 in the morning to open the gym up at 5:00, stay there till 11:00-ish, come back at 3:00-ish, teach evening classes, leave there at 9:00, get home at 10:00, try and spend a little bit of time with my
wife before I fell asleep, and then get bed to bed at midnight and wake up at 4:00. I did that for basically 2 years. He just didn't treat me very well. >> [snorts] >> Uh and and the same equal partnership type thing. I'm That that was That was ultimately it. I mean, you you own a business and and you understand people >> partner sometimes. Yeah.
I had a business partner and and I know I know that feeling. Yeah, yeah. It could have been different. And when I left, the gym closed within 6 months. And we were when I left, we were pulling 50K in a month with our membership. We had 300 members. That's when I left and then it just it crashed 6 months later. Yeah.
>> So it's just a a what was just a display of some of you know, I got out of the way and people saw him for who he was, unfortunately. It's not like you did all the work and and you know, that was kind of what the business was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, "Oh, I got this guy that's a coach and he loves CrossFit and he's just going to put up with all the things and do all the things.
Okay, cool." And it just I learned a lot. I learned a lot from that season of life. Then I went into another partnership hoping it'd be better and it wasn't, unfortunately. There was In this second business, we did significantly less income and revenue and there's too many cooks in the kitchen in a sense. I had three other people that were already There's There's three people were doing their thing, personal training in a in a space and then I showed up and I can do CrossFit.
And so we turned into a CrossFit space and it just 2 years later just fizzled out. It just that one wasn't as still learning, but it wasn't as uh a bad situation in a sense of of feeling like you're getting taken advantage of. Can you can you give me an idea kind of like, you know, what what year, you know, the the the years or >> Yeah, 2010 to 2015. Okay.
Okay. That was about when it happened. Uh after that, then I I left on my own. I moved into this house where I'm at and I've been here for 10 years. The last 10 years have been uh pretty miraculous, pretty inspiring. So I took all this knowledge, the personability, the enthusiasm, the excitement, the energy and turned it into an online coaching service.
And I've been helping people all over the world. I I We're some guys. I had someone sign up with me today as a client in Connecticut, in California. I talked to another guy that was in Pennsylvania. And yesterday I talked to a guy that was in Ohio that lives kind of close to me. And another person that's in Philadelphia.
Uh and one of the coolest things I would say right now, if I were to put another feather in my cap, but working with my second Olympian. So this is I'm working now with Kendra Harrison. She is a silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics with the 100-meter hurdles. And which is really cool, unique experience to have someone literally as a world record holder and Olympic silver medalist.
And she wants to go for gold in LA and I'm helping her understand nutrition and how to put it where that rubber meets her the the feet. Good. You know, if I can just that you know, for for taking a step back for for a minute, you know, I really appreciate that you were open that you were open and honest and say, you know what? I mean, I mean I had you know, a couple of partnerships and they weren't that good.
No, they weren't really bad actually. The The first one was risking bankruptcy, risking a divorce with three kids. Right? I mean, that's the reality. That's brass tacks. Right. Yeah. >> in the situation cuz I really leveraged my K. I cleared it out for the the gym. My wife, she we had our first Levi and then the second one.
So, we opened in October 2010. Yeah. The second one came in December 14th, 2010. So, we were open for about 5 6 weeks and then the second son came and my wife had to carry a quite a load in that first year of the the gym being open and me being gone. Yeah. Yeah. There is a lot a lot of learning. Yeah. >> of learning. She's like trying to handle two two babies, right? >> Yeah.
And you're and you're trying to run two two two businesses. Uh-huh. Exactly. >> I know, man. And it's just about trying to grow and establish yourself in a career and a profession and and make good money so that you can have you can enjoy things and not have to worry about, you know, oh, my car broke down and what credit card do we put it on? Like nobody wants that, right? If I'm worried about that, then I can't actually give to people cuz I can't pay my bills and I'm worried about where's the next client coming so I can pay off my uh you know, tire change, rotation,
whatever because my car needs some I don't want that. Yeah. But yeah, it was it was challenging and and everyone has challenges, right? You faced physical challenges. You faced business challenges. This is just the beginning of the conversation about the resiliency and being able to put in the reps and understand life is going to throw different seasons at you.
I even the season that we're I'm in right now. I have all these accolades and all this experience, but if no one knows who I am, I can't share my gifts with the world and then I can't make a living and an income to support my family of four kids and how busy it is and and all these things.
And so, that ends up being you know, right now I'm spending a significant amount of time marketing myself and and putting myself out there on this podcast. I have my own podcast called Driven for Health. I've I just released my 78th podcast in 155 days or something. So, to do some math, that's one every other day and and you know what putting a podcast out looks like.
It's it's work. Every episode's, you know, the the talk time itself, but then the extra hour to two hours on the back and front end to have it prepared and all that stuff. So, I appreciate being a guest here. I know the work and the energy that goes in to it all. So, I So, this season of life is right now is putting myself back out there and finding alternate ways to to find people that resonate with my message and how I help them and and can help them and and with my gifts.
Yeah. Yeah. So, is the online thing kind of your your primary >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tell us Can you tell us how that works? Do you do online classes like with people that are kind of all over and you do them at the same time or to to Yeah. For the people that are curious, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. especially me.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's figure out how how how does he actually do this? Yeah. Yeah. >> Well, we'll use you as an example. Perfect. >> Trent raises his hand. Somehow he comes across Brian. There's a number of different ways. I'm running paid ads. I have a podcast. I'm very open and and promote a lot on social medias.
I'm doing emails. I'm doing all the things. So, somehow you come across me and you have a goal. Hey Brian, I want to run again. That could be your goal, right? Okay. Cool. Where you at now? And okay, this is this is where you are and this is where you want to go. And my job is to break this down into smallest easiest next best step for you to be able to get toward that goal.
So, if you did want to run, okay, then we need to start working on making sure that we have leg strength, that we have we have to take into all considerations of Trent's past, his hip replacement, his ability physical abilities to do that, what's the likelihood and the timeline and all these things because it's just me and you trying to work together for the desired outcome. Yeah.
And that's the part that I have to always get clear on with people and I talked to them in the beginning. I've had six conversations in the last yesterday and today that about people. One just wanted to lose weight. Super motivated, just needed to lose weight. He's in his 50s. His kids are graduated and moving on.
He's empty nesting. Another person is is 34. He's got four kids. He's got uh fatty liver. He's got spleen, pancreas issues and cardiovascular disease in his family. Uh and he's overweight. He needs to lose about 30 lbs. I had someone else is 68. I had two people that were in their late 60s. The one guy, he's got high cholesterol.
He's got blood pressure. He doesn't even know how long he's had type two diabetes. And he needs to lose about 25 lbs. We got another person that's got hurt. She lost her husband 6 months ago in June or 8 months ago. And she's sad and she's depressed, right? That's a big change for for someone that's like when I depending on whoever goes first in in my relationship, it's going to be a really hard season of life because I've literally experienced so much with my wife.
So, either way, it's going to be hard, Yeah. And so, like all these these people have these goals, right? They want to look better. They want to feel better and they have some obstacles that they need to calm based on whatever their prior history has been, whether it's with exercise or with their nutrition or with their lifestyle or their stress management or their time management, their social support.
I could keep going on, but everyone is a whole person and we have to look 360 at all the areas of who this person is and how they interact and engage in their life and with those that surround them in their in their bubble of influence and in sphere of of family and and friends and relationships and such. And then we start getting to work.
And yes, we spend a lot of time on nutrition. Spend some time with exercise. Got to get them moving and active cuz you feel better when you move. Then we start figuring out the lifestyle stuff. And so, we started here and we want to get here. I just need to get them to get here. And then I need to get them to here.
And I need to get them to here. And then you get And and it's just one step at a time that we go. And people want to jump to the end, right? Because we're in this instant gratification >> Yeah. society and I love that you just you you talked earlier about how things could be just joyful and just you can take so much gratitude for basic things like I'm in a heated house right now that keeps me at a nice even temperature because if I was born 100 years ago, I'd have wood in a fire and I'd probably be bundled up freezing. And and then if I
was born a thousand years ago, I'd be like living in a teepee or living in a igloo or living in a hole in the ground hiding from the 10° 20° weather outside with the snow. I mean, that's what I'd be doing and I'm trying to figure out how am I going to eat tomorrow? Exactly. It's just the gratitude piece can be crazy.
So, we're living in this instant gratification society because everything's on demand and and it's so convenient and all of a sudden that's causing our demise because heart attacks, obesity, disease, diabetes, all these things are on the rise. They are not going down. They're going up quickly and I am just one person of many.
There are a lot of Brians out there, but I my job is to the people that I come across and influence and and I just help them make the next best step in their day to make sure that they are moving toward their health goals, whatever we decided are cuz some people are different. Some might want to lose 20 lbs.
Some might just want to look better. Someone might want to be able to get up off the ground with and play with their grandkids. One might want to look great for a cruise. One might just want to stop going on a work trip and gaining 5 lbs every time because he can't control himself when he goes to the work conference and he eats too much and the socializing and all of a sudden he comes back, he feels horrible.
All these things. So, I mean, do you know, all these different different, you know, kind of kind of people, do you [clears throat] do you have group classes that people do together that are actually in different locations, but you guys work out No. No. No. I don't work out with anyone. I talk to people. I talk to people.
So, in the last 10 years, 12 years, I have developed this here. This thing right here, it's called an ear and you listen. Yes, you listen. I always joke about this. My clients Brian listens amazing. He's just always there. He's super helpful and he's kind and generous and energetic and all these things. And my wife Brian Brian could turn that hearing aid up a little bit to listen.
I think I felt that one coming. Right. Right. Man, you're just never going to do good enough man for her. You know, well being in proximity to people you show your strengths, your weaknesses, your positives, your negatives. It doesn't matter who I'm around. If if I'm around someone too long, they're going to see the the the the imperfections, right? I'm a human being.
I have imperfections just like anyone else. My kids won't do their chores when they come home and I have to yell at them at some point because I asked them nicely. And then the fifth time later clean up the cat litter. Right there, literally right there is a is a plate Here it is. Here it is. Here's a plate that's got crumbs on it that my third son left in the basement where I'm at right now.
I've asked him to take it upstairs multiple days now cuz his mom isn't home, but she's coming home tonight and he hasn't taken it upstairs because of who knows why because he's 12 and he thinks it's silly that I should have I should have taken it upstairs. So This is Brian's imperfections coming out. Pick up the plate. Why is it down here? Why is it still down here? Oh my god. I digress.
But when they when we we when I'm engaging with people there's there's a state of empathy, sympathy grace gratitude uh optimism opportunistic opportunity seeking you know, whatever it is. We are looking for the success and the the fruits that come of thy labor of the change and transformation and everyone's journey is a little bit different.
Some people it's like oh, I stopped doing this thing and I did this other thing and I lost 30 lb. And the others it's a little bit a lot more toil and effort and things and unfortunately that's based on their past life like what happened in the last 5, 10, 20 years. Their ability or skill sets around nutrition, around exercise, around gaining muscle, around all these things how they treated their body, the different types of social situations they're in their behaviors around food all these things start showing up and they might have to struggle a little bit more to
push through to get their body to change because they've been sold the lose 30 lb in 30 days thing and that's what they think that should happen and that's just Right. Right. Yeah. So this I I I don't want you to think that I'm being rude. I'm I'm just kind of checking through Oh, you're good.
you know, all the comments and everything Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. if there's anything. So you know, one-man band you know I know. I'm a solopreneur over here, too. Yeah, man. So you know, it's fully a thing that you know, I'm not I'm not you know, engaging in it. I just don't want somebody to you know, ask a question and and you know, we we don't get it answered and then you know what if we if we miss it, we just circle back.
You know, it's it's not a major, right? It's not a major, but I I do like to try to catch it if Right. if I can. So yeah, I'm just don't worry. Um So do you do you do um like we So you said that you you know, it sound it sounds like you kind of go through a bit of an evaluation with with people. Yeah. And you know, and and it's in these in these areas.
And you and you get a picture yeah, what it is and you put a plan together for them. Yep. And then they check in with you as accountability to make sure that they're on track. Exactly. Exactly. So we come together create a plan educate them on the key pieces that they need to know and understand to then be able to make better choices and decisions than they had for the last weeks, months, or years and then get them moving in the direction where they want to go.
And as a result then I have to keep them on track and that's where humans do human things. And they get off track. Squirrel. Brian, a literally someone sent me a screenshot of a mushroom coffee and it had the mushroom coffee in the bottom. It was $59 / $27 now and above it it had three pictures of a woman's silhouette. One had belly fat.
The second one had less belly fat and the third one had abs. And she said is this a fad or is this real? I said hey what do you think first? >> [laughter] >> Right. Because mushroom coffee isn't going to magically ignite your metabolism to burn off 20 lb of belly fat. It's not going to work. That's not how it works. It's a calorie deficit over an extended amount of time making good food choices and balanced meals and having enough calories and protein and drinking your water and getting your activity in primarily steps and doing some basic strength training.
Those are the basics of what it is and most of the time I'm constantly reminding people of those basic things. Can you do these basic things on repeat or an indefinite amount of time like as long as you are alive? That's that's the the thing because we get bored get tired, we get distracted, we stop caring, we're motivated, there's no willpower.
Uh the list goes on. It's cold outside. It's rainy outside. It's too hot outside. Uh the gym closed. The gym's open. No one will go with me. I by myself. Whatever. There's a million of ways that humans human in this situation. Right. I guess that's where the magic of the coach comes into play.
Those are the the in the trench moments that I've had for so long Yeah. that I just understand what these people are dealing with and I all I have to do is make sure I give them the next best step Right. for that situation so that they always say oh Brian's walking right beside me. And he's supporting me. He answers my questions.
He keeps things moving forward and then we see progress. We see progress happening and unfolding and then I always have to make sure that they understand why. I ask them. I'll say tell me why this is working. Why is this not working? What's going on in the last week or two that you have experienced this outcome? Let's assess it, talk about, and communicate so that you understand and then you have actionable real solutions that you can then go take the next best step for you.
Yeah. That's it. How [clears throat] how you know, like how long do you have an average client for? I mean, you know, it's like Here's what a week or an eight week or a three month. I got I've got a men's group right now. We're getting generally 40 plus men. I call it the call to rise. It's a 100-day fat loss challenge. Right.
The goal is to lose 20 plus pounds if we need to lose weight. Some people don't need to lose weight and there's other reasons that they need with nutrition. Right. There's five pillars. Pillar number one is Right. the call. It's your identity. It's who you are. You do that. yourself is Sorry.
Sorry. I didn't mean to talk over you. Oh yeah, and and you got to you got to ex ex Brian is this energetic athletic motivated leader type father figure, husband figure. That's who I identify with. And that's how I want to be seen in the world as that. Right. So we need to but if if I was 30 lb overweight there's a disconnection there.
Right? There's friction in that that situation. Right. I would need to then figure out how to get out of this. So that's the first pillar. Right. Yeah. Second pillar is the forge. It's the exercise. It's the movement. It's the physical body burning calories, building muscle, transforming. We got the third pillar is the fuel. It's the nutrition.
The easiest way to explain it is eating the right foods at the right times in the right amounts. And it's individual to every single person. It's not this like meal thing or whatever. Meal plans or something. Meal plans have kept me busy for decades cuz they don't work. The fourth one is the code. It's the mindset piece.
It's how you perceive and understand and think about things. I have to change your thought patterns and behaviors as a result of the things that we work on. And when we change what you think because it's all up here no matter what anyways Right. then we get different outcomes. And the fifth one is what I call the brotherhood.
Brotherhood is group of like-minded men. I'm the ringleader. I'm I'm the the one up front leading the charge. But then the other guys are like-minded individuals. They're they're successful. They see themselves as a successful person in many areas of their life, but their physical health is in disconnect to that.
And that's we get together and they motivate, they inspire, they connect because men especially in their 40s I'm not going to lie, they're they're lonely. They're disconnected. They feel they're stuck in this rut of I got to work and I got to provide and I I I can't do things and all these things start happening The midlife crisis. Yeah, exactly.
And we need to avoid that because a midlife crisis can burn your life down from just flipping it upside down to changing your careers in a negative way to relationship problems with your spouse or your kids or something or other friends and stuff and we don't need We need a a midlife uh uh process that allows us to be better when we're 50 than when we're 45 or 42 or 40 or whatever.
And that's that's the call to rise. So So we we I I connect with each of them individually. We connect together as well in an online meeting. Uh it's actually tonight at 9:00 p.m. And I make sure that I keep them moving and keep them motivating and keep checking in with them and and and just moving them through that process so that they get results.
And they're excited. How often do you do the call to rise? It's 100 days. So do you do them a couple times a year or three times? I do it's ongoing. It's ongoing. Okay. Okay. Okay. There there's usually a capacity at which I create a a wait list in a sense. But it it is ongoing and it's just just not certain times.
Like this is what Brian does. Right. So you you you do work with men too. I'll throw that out there too. I do work with women and I Yeah, cool. Yeah, yeah. So that that's subtly different. It's more of an individual thing. But with guys that's that I found that so many men I had three testimonies through the holidays.
Lucas lost 30 lb. Mike lost 30 lb. Andy lost 38 lb. I talk about it on my Driven for Health podcast in episode 34, 43, and 53. Uh those guys share their stories and the impact that doing the basics and helping them figure out how to make them sustainable has made a significant impact in their life. So and it's it's rewarding. That's my why.
It's the transformation of someone who comes to me and not feeling great about themselves and the confidence and the energy and the outcomes that they can then create because they're not worried about the way they look or feel. That's behind them now. Yeah, man. It it you know, um guys just just so you know, I mean the website is like the call to rise.
com, okay? And um there are legit testimonials on here that I'm looking at. And um you you wouldn't you wouldn't believe you wouldn't believe I mean 80 85 lb this one fellow. Um I mean and another guy 90 lb. Another guy lost 38 men. Yeah, they're they're not doing it in 100 days. Just going to throw that out there. >> [laughter] >> Fair enough.
Fair enough. We we lose 20 to 30 lb usually in 100 days and then they continue on and and they say phase two and they will continue with the next part of the rest of the year, the 265 other days and that's where we can start seeing those massive wins and transformation because if someone loses basically a person, they are light years ahead of not dying so soon, right? More confidence wanting to show for those most important people and do bigger things, better things.
Like they they We are here to provide and to interact and engage and add value to the world and you can't do that if you look in the mirror and you don't think good of yourself. Yeah, man. Yeah. I I lost I lost 50 lb um in the middle of my cancer journey. I just uh I was you know, I was in the hospital. I had a I had a you know, a lung surgery and then I had a surprise another hip surgery during COVID.
I was in the hospital by myself 2 and 1/2 months. Parents can't visit. No one can even visit. >> Wow, that is so hard. It was rough and um I was walking around you know, like I would you know, part of my exercise was to just do the lap around the ward, you know? And I saw this scale. And um I gotten big. I mean I knew, you know, I mean I I you know, I was eating I was eating bad.
I was drinking a lot, you know, I was Right. really really >> yeah, some clothing and stuff, right? You're in a hard spot, a big challenge. Well, it was the you know, it was work and health and business partner and and oh gosh, man, you know, like the whole big sad list of everything, you know? Mhm. And uh and I was like me And I would have learned I got on the thing and I was 205, man.
And uh I I'm I'm I'm I'm about a 160 guy, okay? Okay. 160 160 155 165, okay? You know, I mean if I'm bulking up, you know, I'm a little bigger than that if I'm really, you know. But I was like, you know what? And it hit me. I'm like I cannot carry around a pack of a sack of concrete if I'm going to do something with this leg.
Right. Yeah. You're you're wearing your your hip down real quick. >> [laughter] >> This weight. I mean I mean man, it's like literally, you know, and you know, like a sack of a sack of like sugar that we were used to you know, like we bought things by the ton, right? So there's a 50 lb 50 lb bag of sugar or 50 lb bag of popcorn seeds.
And you know, you throw you throw you throw one of pallet of those around. You're like and I'm like, dude, I'm carrying one of those around. All this little freaking toothpick? This ain't This ain't going to work out, man. And um I just man, I just I lost the weight, you know? You have to. Yeah, I mean, you know, that I I had a lot I had a lot of help with like I just wanted to eat when I wasn't hungry, you know? And and you know, I have a lot of acts I couldn't exercise really.
I mean I was just you know, I was in bad shape and you know, when you're sick you you kind of will have a you'll lose a lot you can lose weight frequently. You know, um you know, kind of just random random question. That I read in an Arnold Schwarzenegger encyclopedia thing, you know, back a long time ago. Um 3600 calories is a pound.
And it doesn't matter which way you cut it or whatever you do, if you want to lose a pound, you have to burn 3600 more calories than you take in to lose a pound. Is that is that true? Is that That's the theoretical weight. It's uh yep, right? 35 3600 calories that is the theoretical weight and something as simple as okay, through diet and exercise, you cut 500 calories out a day and of course over a week, you lose a pound.
And the opportunity for that to be mostly body fat is significantly greater than just losing weight of water weight or even risking muscle. And if you lose weight too fast, you lose water weight and you lose muscle as a larger percentage of that weight, which is what you don't want. Your body will hold on to body fat. So you can't lose weight.
It's 1 2 lb a week is sustainable. Three is amazing. Four or more, you're overreaching. That's what I tell people all the time. That that's really that's a really good measurement kind of thing for people to just know as a common sense kind of measurement. Um I I really I really appreciate that.
Um and I know that if you're saying, hey, you know, 100 days, the guys are losing 20 to 30 lb. Yeah. They're doing they're doing it in a healthy way, man. Exactly. Exactly. And then you have someone come in, I want to lose 20 lb real fast or 40 lb real fast. I'm sorry. It's just not the way humans work. Sure, you can do it, but the bounce back is there and the initial question that I'd have to say is that why did you allow yourself to gain it in the first place? Because no matter how much strain or stress or challenge or trouble, you
still didn't have to put the food in your mouth to gain the weight regardless of how you felt. It's just the way it is. It's a it can be a brass tacks. Gentleman I was talking with yesterday, he's 68, diabetic, cholesterol, already had a heart attack, has stents, his knee's swelling. My goal you're in a bad spot.
You're you're in a bad spot, man. You you do need to do something. Whether you're doing it with me or someone else, you have to do something different because you're 25 lb or more overweight and you have all these other things going on, the writing is on the wall, man. And sometimes you have to be up front with people for them to shake out of this complacency that they're going to be okay.
Like dude, the average male is 76 years old and you have a lot of health issues working against you right now. Do the math. It's it's not looking good. I bet Do a lot of people get pretty you know, frustrated with you because basically you're the you're you're probably one of the people that has the courage to tell them like what you're doing isn't good for you.
It's not going to work. And people don't want to hear that. They don't want to hear they're wrong. Well, usually if someone comes and lands on my doorstep, they've already made decisions that they're going to change. Okay. I got you. So so we're already we've already met halfway and they're not in denial.
I can't say, "Hey, Trent, you need to come work with me cuz I can help you run a marathon or something." You're like, "Dude, I don't want to run." Like I got I get like it's it's a no win here, right? Then I will be this like, "Well, you need to run because you need your leg to get strong." You're like, "Brian, there's other ways to get my leg strong without running.
" Like I don't want to compromise my my bionic hip here. >> [laughter] >> Right? I had one guy take a chance on me and we did it and I'm I'm I'm I can walk. I don't want to compromise, right? So like say for your situation, so uh so that's the thing is that people are appreciate the open honesty, but they're already decided that they need to change, which is hard because you can you can tell people till they're blue in the face you need to make better choices until they're actually ready to do it it doesn't matter.
And and you know, it sounds like I mean um are the people are people kind of filtered, you know, in your process by the time you talk to them they're they're there because like you you you you work this thing to the point where it's like you know like I bet you when you sit down and you talk with somebody within 5 minutes, you already know Oh, yeah.
like this person's going to be able to do this or they're not or in 3 weeks they're going to give me this problem or or whatever, right? Yeah. 15 15 years in the popcorn business like you you know that I that I did I could run it in my sleep. I ran it from my hospital bed dying of pancreatic cancer. People like, "How do you do that?" I'm like cuz it's on autopilot, baby. Right.
I every problem I've already fixed it Yes. >> five different ways. Which way do you want to fix it today? Cuz >> Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. >> I say, "Hey, you're a unique person and I appreciate you, but your your problems are not unique to me. I experience them every single day with other people. Yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's it.
That's awesome. You know, we're we're at we're at like, you know, an hour an hour and 10. 10. You know, and and hey, man, I I don't ever want to cut anybody off. And and I'm good. I'm good, so you know, like I don't I don't mind continuing. I just wanted you to you know Oh, yeah. I know what's up. We we got a little bit more time.
Yeah, I mean if you if you you know Yeah, yeah. I just, you know, I just did taking a time checkpoint and you know It's all good. I never want to cut anybody off and you know, hey, man, I I don't I don't have I don't have a segment on a radio show, okay? So you know We we do what we want to do. >> cut to ads. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, man.
I mean, you know, I'm the boss of this. We made man, baby. Yep. Yep. Well, um Yeah. Do you want to talk about um you know, the three there was three to five key topics that you had listed um and you know that that were points that you may want to cover. And and and you've kind of partially covered some of those.
I didn't know if you wanted to touch on those a little more or Sure, yeah. Ask me the question and we'll fire away. Rapid fire. Yeah, um you know, health health is a leadership tool. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. If you wake up Say go ahead. I I can tell I can tell that you you know, you you you got this, man. You you you've molded this into in in in into what what exactly what it is.
It's it's really it's it's fascinating to me, right? Um yeah, tell me just tell me about it. Yeah. Yeah. And the the interesting thing that comes to mind is that if you wake up and you look in the mirror and there is dissonance, there's friction, there's you don't see what you need to see to be able to overcome the challenges of today then you're not leading from the front.
You're not being the example for the people closest to you, your spouse, your kids, your friends, other extended family. And then you go into the work situation. Literally, you're going to make less money because you aren't confident in yourself and it's subtle. It's so subtle. Even just like right now I'm sitting here and if I want to appear more confident, more energetic, more that I have it together I need to get bigger.
So watch this and just go whoop. Just instantly I lift up I might shoulders up and back. I'm taller. I'm more present. I can project better. And in that situation when you're trying to make deals, when you're trying to form relationships, when you're trying to network, when you're trying to do business then you can do business in a way.
But you can't if you're Literally, I'll see people I remember this one guy he had an online video of himself on a stage and he kept touching his belly. He's like brushing or pulling on his shirt or whatever. It's just subtle. >> Oh, like I try to like Yeah, he's just trying to make sure his belly wasn't hanging out or something.
And or they pull at the clothes or they just keep fidgeting with themselves and it's subconscious cuz they're not comfortable. And people pick up on that whether it's they they recognize it or it's subconscious. This person is uncomfortable. I can't quite trust them like I thought I could. It's it could be that subtle.
And then you lose business in a sense. So yes, health is a leadership tool. Health is a confidence tool. Health is a business strategy that you can leverage to do better. You know, I've never thought about it like the way that you put it, but but it is so true, right? That when I when I was going to the gym and you know, I felt like I looked good and I was happy with the you know, the the goals and the progress that I had made and I had set for myself in the gym that gave me more confidence in in in my in my business in my job,
right? >> Exactly. And and and um you know >> hard things. You go lift that heavy thing. It's hard. Yeah. >> And then you're okay to accept that there's going to be other hard things to do. And even like with your cancer recovery, you did hard things. You did an extra lap. You might not have thought you could, but you did and therefore you built more resilience and more capacity, more grit to be able to deal with the the challenges that that cancer brings.
I haven't had cancer. I know that it's hard. I've seen personal family members deal with it and it's a challenge. And it's Yeah. But your mindset makes the difference between you living and thriving or dying ultimately. And it's a mindset thing. Yeah. Yeah. You know, with your with your um you know, health and and wellness kind of protocol that you do I feel like it it's it's similar to the framework that I have because mine is about mind, will, emotions, body and spirit, right? The whole encompassing thing that makes a person, right? And
and you know, I I I I kind of go through a bit of, you know, an evaluation in each one of those areas to try to figure out, okay, where where is our problem because really you know cancer cancer is the issue because right the the body but but but that's really a symptom of a problem. And you know what? Most of the problems almost they're here.
Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah, I would totally say if someone's 30 lb overweight, they're wearing the problems. Right. Yeah. They're wearing them. They they they don't have good coping mechanisms or skill sets or abilities to be able to work through whatever challenges those are. And if they got equipped with the skills cuz everything is a skill that you can learn and be able to apply in this world in this life. Yeah.
And if you learn those then you could improve upon them. Yeah. Yeah, it was um it was tough on me um in you know, in the position I was in because I didn't have any escapes left, right? >> Right. Yeah, right. You have to You you know, like you you you you you run you run out of ways to like, you know occupy yourself or fool yourself, you know, and Right. It's simple.
You you kind of, you know, you you kind of you get down to like I got to deal with this. Like it was like that weight. It was like the 50 lb. It was like there's really nothing else to say, brother. You got to freaking lose this or you're never going to get a chance to get a hip surgery. And you're going to be in you're going to be resentful and hate and angry for the rest of your life because you screwed up your chance.
You know what? I decided that day. Right? And then I was like, I'm changing this today. Yeah. And and it took me it took me it took me 9 months, man. To lose that weight. >> Yeah, but the decision was made. Yeah. Yeah. And you know what? I thought I find a lot times, you know, you set a goal and and and it's good, but when the days get hard and they get tough and you have a no matter what, the reason that you're doing that goal, to me has to be even stronger than the goal.
Because to me >> or why? That's what that's what keeps you going, right? For for me for me it for me it was um I had had I had a um a friend that my brother's best friend had passed away from cancer about 6 months before I got it. It was really sad. And then I had had a a really good friend in New Zealand have a got have a bad business deal and he he took his life.
And to watch his parents, you know, have to deal with that. And you know what? I was just like, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but um I can't dial my parents. I I just can't I they'll never recover. They'll never be the same. You know, this isn't the natural order of life. >> Right. And things just >> challenging.
And and I got it I got to figure this out, man. You know, and uh Yeah. Man alive or there would be a a very big shift in our family dynamics if if I had lost a child at some point in this journey. It's going to be pretty challenging. Yeah. Yeah, I just um I I was like, you know, I mean my heart to to my to my friend's parents.
And I'm just like, I owe it to them fight to my last breath, man. Yeah. You know, and and and and I and I was my thing was like, you know what? I'm not going out I'm on my tombstone is going to be he fought till his last breath, man. Cuz dude, we we I mean Yeah. with those are conversations, man. Those are conversations being had like they were, you know, But hey, you know what? >> [snorts] >> We all have things in life.
We all have stuff that happens. And you know what? You know, people say, "Man, I could never do what you did. I could never be that tough. I could never rise to that occasion." But you know what? You can when you need to, man. Yeah. Human beings are unbelievable. And um I know that there have been challenges and things in your life that you have overcome that have been tough and and impossible and and and things.
And I know that you've had a lot of clients that have done that, too, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. Um if you want to share one or two of uh like our your clients maybe, you know, that have just done something that that people think's impossible, right? And they're just a regular guy. They just had a bit of resilience and a bit of just wave host, man, you know, a little bit of grit.
Yeah. You want to do this. You know some days you're going to cry about it. You're going to cuss about it. You're going to whine like a little You know, >> [laughter] >> and you know what? You know what? And then you know you're going to do and they say you're going to get back on your tricycle and you're going to keep riding. Yep. Uh-huh. Mhm.
And exactly First one that comes to mind is Drake. And Drake's the first guy that comes to mind in that situation. Yeah. Guy came to me about 30 270 280 in that range. Raging high blood pressure. Doctor's going to put him on meds. He said, "Hold up. Let me do something." So he finds me. We have a conversation.
All right, let's go. And in that change it was a grand slam client. He is episode 50 on Driven for Health. He shares his story there. Wow. And in that he quit a K a year job because of his immense pressure. Uh he worked for a architect an architecture firm that he had managed over billion dollars worth of assets.
And in that situation, you have to sign your life away if there's money missing that you're going to jail. Right? A hundred thousand dollars in a billion is like a penny and you know, like a hundred is like a you don't even miss it, but when it all comes due, you're like, "Wait, this is $999.99. Where's that penny?" Right? That's a problem.
So there's there's that. There's other pressures of that he put on himself. The guy was driving around in a Shelby GT Mustang. And he but he was eating spine steak dinners by himself. And we we had a conversations about his his the stress, about his lifestyle, about all that. And I called him out on his car.
We we're talking about it. Said, "So what's up with the car, man? It's pretty fun car." He's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know, the gas or the gas is a bit more and if I if I need to to do an oil change or tire rotation or change your tires, it's a lot of zeros all of a sudden, right? It don't matter how much you making, but when you when you just like, "Oh, each each tire on my car is 300 bucks.
" Uh this is this is a lot if I need to change this thing. Yeah. >> And and he said, "It's just not me." Said, "Why do you have it?" Said, "I don't know." And from that conversation, within 3 days he sold it and bought an F-150 cuz he's an F-150 guy. And man, the next week the joy that came out of this guy, oh my gosh. All right.
So he ended up losing the weight. He lost about 80 lbs 90 lbs when it was all said and done. And then he ended up changing careers. He worked into himself into a business that he could do and enjoy and and thrive and even do more money and make more money and drive his truck and then he got into a real relationship that was fruitful that was his soulmate in a sense.
They moved into a house. They got married together. And if he texted me today, I'd jump on a phone call with him and say, "Drake, how you doing, man?" And it was just a life-changing transformation of him [snorts] deciding that enough was enough and I need to do something. And then we were able to work together. Brought his weight up and overcome the challenges and all that that he faced throughout that journey. Yeah.
But it was it was amazing. Yeah. Do Do you have any psychology degree or sociology or any any of that because Uh a lot of us that you're dealing with is is is mindset, right? >> Uh totally. Yep. Yep. Yep. I do not. But I have I have a a the experience to be a psychology PhD because I've literally talked to people in all these situations.
I've had I had a lady today literally today. She had esophageal cancer a couple years ago. Lost 2 3 years and going through the challenges of that. The chemotherapy, the radiation, the immunotherapy. She lost 60 70 lbs. It's And but she's still got fight in her. She's 70 70 71. She's still got fight in her. She's got grandkids. She's got she travels.
She's going to Florida here next week. She's she's a spitfire. And we [clears throat] were able to love it. She there would be days she wouldn't eat for days. Like 2 3 days. I was like, "Helen, you need to eat some food." She's like, "I know, but I'm not hungry." I was like, "Well, you still need to eat food.
" But then we'd have complications of eating with the the radiation and all that stuff that that does as well to the stomach and just just throwing it up and all this. So it was a big challenge for her to manage. Uh but she's overcoming it and she's been in remission and she's living her best life as a result of fighting and and standing up for herself.
Yeah. Dealing with it head-on because she would have she didn't know that she had or needed or had that strength in her to fight cancer. But she pulled it out. She made it happen. And do I mean do you Do you read book you know, do you read books or you know, do you do you have a favorite author or you know, do you listen to podcasts or you know, that kind of thing, you know? Um I'm just curious cuz, man, you know, like I had 9 month 9 months I had to rewire my brain. Yes.
To to convince myself that I could be one of the 5% that could beat pancreatic cancer cuz I I didn't I didn't believe it. Yeah. Pancreatic cancer is is unfortunately a death sentence almost, right? In your situation it would have But that's the one that's the one you don't want. It's just like when you're 75 and you fall and break your hip.
You you don't want that because that is a sure shot that something's going to get you. Whether it's a broken hip it's not going to be a broken hip, but it's going to be pneumonia. It's the beginning of the downhill usually. >> Exactly. Exactly. And then yeah, you're in trouble then. So Uh it's a lot of self-development.
Uh personal development, and Tony Robbins, uh I love Joe Dispenza. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, sure. >> Awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's so many um those type of people that I've listened to over the years and and Yeah. uh the experiences of of that, and I I leverage that in my subconscious when I interact with people. Yeah.
Um I don't have a lot of time to read books. I listen to a lot of things. Uh I I do read I read all of it all day long. I'm reading text messages. I'm reading Yeah. all sorts of different things. My email, whatever. I'm I'm reading, assessing, and and trying to figure out and understand all the things that are going on for people to to to be able to leverage getting them in a better spot. Yeah.
Yeah. Um hypothetically, right? I found you. I found you on the internet and I contacted you, right? You know, and I and I contact you or you know, somebody heard the program. >> out to you. >> [laughter] >> Yep. Yeah. Yeah, it'd be awesome, you know. Um and and um like how long does it take for them to kind of have a you know, get a meeting with you and try to get a plan together and get started? You know, can you just kind of give me a give us a rough timeline, you know? >> Uh I've had I've talked with Chris Brandon Irene,
talking to a gentleman and his wife tonight. So, those are five and then Michael and Wanda, seven people I've spoken with in the last uh 24 hours. You know, in the last day or two, since yesterday and today. If I have an open spot we're going to find a time and we're going to connect and we're going to see if it works.
If it does we're a great fit for each other, then we move on to the next step. We'll book our intake and then start the process. And then it it's a buckle up, zoom zoom, off we go. Right on. Right. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. I'm with you. Yeah, it's yeah, it sounds like you know >> Don't wait.
We can't wait because you know, that's the waiting game is is you're you're wasting time in a sense. You're you're losing. It's the law It's like the law of diminishing opportunity because the further the longer you wait, the further you get I don't care anymore. Yeah, I see it all the time. Yeah. >> Someone doesn't make a decisive action within say 12 hours or less Yeah.
of them having conversation with me, they don't we don't work together and oftentimes they don't take any action at all. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. >> It's unfortunate, but true. It happened. It happens with me, too, you know. Yep. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Yeah. I just say you know, it's like oh, I got to think about it.
You know, think about this. If you don't sign up or or make intent to sign up with someone else, you're not going to change. 6 months are going to come and go and you're going to stay in the same spot, probably worse. And you're losing the opportunity. There's no time to wait in this life. You have to advance. Change is happening.
I always like to reference this. You and I have sat in the same position. We've been what? An hour and 32 minutes and plus our pre- call, right? We haven't moved. But that's not true. The earth has been spinning real fast around the sun and we have moved hundreds or even thousands of miles from that initial point of contact that we had.
So, it might feel like we haven't moved and nothing's changed, but that literally by the laws of physics is is untrue. Every day changes and tomorrow is always tomorrow. Today is always today and this is the opportunity that you have in being present and understanding of the presence and being here, checked in and not checked out on the phone, not checked out of life, not not coping with bad behaviors, then you can actually make something and experience life so much further than you than you could.
Uh one of my mottos with the with with cancer just got to be just just just win today, man. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. >> Just just just just try to win today. I can't even I can't even think about tomorrow. Heck, I can't even think about this afternoon. Right. I'm just trying to get my I'm just trying to get my sick ass through the lunch, you know.
If I can get through the get through this meeting that I go to for work. Thank Thank God I still have that. You know, my team would call me and just like call me and call me and call me and be like you have to come up here. We can't fix this without you and I'd be so angry. And I had to get out of bed, man. I'm dragging this infected leg around this too short and everything and you know what? It was the best thing for me.
Because that had to get out of the house. And I had to go do something and I had to go be a person. And I had to do what men have to do. Live life men. Right. Yeah. Man, um what wonderful conversation, man. Golly. I can I can tell you, Brian, man. I mean I've had some great guests, man. I I I really have.
I've been so fortunate and blessed to have such wonderful people. But I would I promise you you will be in the top the top one hand this year. I I I already know. >> Thank you. I really appreciate that. I dude, I just know, man. I mean I didn't you know, intuition, right? Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Man, God bless you so much, man, you know, and and thank you for your time and and your patience and your sharing and your openness and and all that.
You're the exact kind of guest that we look for that will will share and pour in to the to the listener, right? And you're probably not going to get anybody calling you going thanks, Brian. You know, you were great, you know. But you know what? You know what, man? I don't I don't need that because I know that they're there, right? And I just I don't feel like for every one one [clears throat] contact or one thank you that I get there's a hundred people that were thinking you know. Yeah. So.
Hey, would you like to you know, round it out or anything? Do you want to Tell us about any websites or any any thing? You want to promote anything? I mean, yeah, just Yeah, sure. I have my men's program, The Call to Rise is a 100-day fat loss challenge and so much more. But we have these five pillars of identity, of nutrition, of fitness, of your changing your mindset, and doing it in a a group of like-minded men.
And that's something that guys in their 40s and 50s don't have. And the the changes that transpire in 100 days are transformational beyond just the physical body. And that's the best part about my journey and why I even started this thing in the first place. So, there's that. I've got Driven for Health is my podcast. I've been on a tear as we talked about of sending a podcast.
I'm going to keep doing those because they are speaking truth. They are educating. They're adding value into this space. So, there's that. I would probably send people Drake's stories episode 50. Go listen to him tell his story about he how he changed. He dropped the weight and transformed his life cuz we talk about it. From there, I I do work with women and it's more of a you know, private personal one-on-one basis as well.
But that's Brian in a nutshell. I'm here to serve. I'm here to help people with their health, their fitness, their nutrition, and their lifestyle ultimately so that they don't have to Google what diet should I be on, worry about how their weight is interfering with their confidence, their energy, and they can get back to being themselves.
And that's what the world needs. They need you to be yourself, to be put yourself out there, and do what you need to to show up in your best energy and attitude because if we all do that, then the world is a much better place. And and my general model is leave the person on the other end in a better spot than when you found them.
And if you can do that for yourself first and foremost from listening to this conversation and then you can do that for someone close to you, I would encourage you to do that today. Reach out to somebody. Send a text. Make a phone call. Do a goodwill. Do a good deed for the day so that they can feel valued. They can feel appreciated.
They can be feel thankful that someone did something for them. And you can be the the action taker of that. There you go. And you know what? When I started when we kind of started out with the hope things and it'll come back to you, right? You initiate that and it's going to come back to you, man. What's the easiest best way for people to get in touch with you? thecalltorise.
com uh for the men's group or brian@brianprana.com is my email. I will I literally checking that all time. Okay. That would be the easiest way. Just email me. Okay. Just making sure. Hey man, you know, I want to definitely give you, you know, give you your your end game. >> Yeah, thank you. I love all that. I yeah, I I love it, man.
I mean, I, you know, it's a it's a team thing for me, right? Cuz if you do well, I do well. >> If you do well, yeah, I do well, and we do well, and they do well, right? And >> Yes. Yes. >> That's what the crew is about, man. Yeah. The whole crew rises, so uh Man, if you're good, I'm going to take us out. >> And and uh if you don't mind sticking around for a minute after uh >> Yeah, sure.
when we uh you know, we we cut the uh cut the line. Yeah. So, um man, what an awesome episode, guys. I mean, really and truly, I I would personally be really appreciative and anybody that hears the episode could just give a shout-out to Brian and just tell him how appreciative you are and how awesome uh that his openness and willingness and and and even vulnerable and and everything, man. So cool.
So, guys, as we always do, God bless you all. God speed to you this week, and never forget that Grant don't quit. We're out. I I hope you enjoyed our conversation Trent and I had for what? An hour and 40 minutes. It was crazy, uh but it was crazy good. And I really appreciate the time, the energy, and the conversation that we were able to dive into the depths of with challenges of cancer, overcoming it, and I hope that you leave inspired.
If you want, definitely check out Trent's Conquerors Crew web uh podcast. That's going to be a great place to hear more powerful stories of how he helps people push through challenging situations, especially around cancer. So, that's Trent Brocks Conquerors Crew, and that's it for this episode of Driven for Health, and we'll catch you in episode 105.